Tag Archives: Drama

The Color Purple (2024) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it has its powerful moments, you can’t help but sit there and feel that this would have been better not as a musical.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening for this film

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Celie and Nettie play in a tree.

The Color Purple Review –

Today, we are looking at a film that is quite difficult to parse because it is a film of mountains and valleys. When it soars, it soars, and you are captivated by the movie as it sweeps through the sky. But for every peak, we must then wade through a deep valley of missed opportunities. It is such a stark range that it is hard to find your footing at times.

So to set the scene, Celie (Phylicia Pearl Mpasi) and Nettie (Halle Bailey) are grouping up on the Georgia coastline at the start of the 1900s. Things are difficult for the sisters for many reasons, most notably their step-father Alfonso (Deon Cole). His actions have led to Celie being pregnant twice now and both babies being sent away. Life for Celie only becomes worse when she is married off to Ol’ Mister Johnson (Louis Gossett Jr.) and her sister is sent away. But the coming of Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson) might be the chance Celie (Fantasia Barrino) needs to find herself.       

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Maboroshi (Alice and Therese’s Illusory Factory/ Alice to Therese no Maboroshi Kôjô/ アリスとテレスのまぼろし工場) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While there were some good ideas here, an unfortunate narrative focus and other frustrating narrative issues held it back for me.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Steel Factory on fire.

Maboroshi Review –

When something supernatural happens, is that divine retribution or divine protection? In a time of crisis, do people continue to carry on, or do they give up? What happens when you are stuck? Can you go on?

So to set the scene, it is 1991 in a small town in Japan, as Masamune (Junya Enoki) and his friends are all staying up late studying when an explosion rips out into the night. The local steel factory is ablaze, sending flames up into the air. Then, a light flashes through the air, and time becomes a bit funky. Running outside, they see the factory on fire, but cracks appear in the sky, and the smoke from the factory is not as innocent as it first appears. Everyone in the town senses the presence because everyone is trapped, and no one can get out.  

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The Holdovers – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It was a wonderful, moving, sad, delightful, and wild ride, unlike anything I have seen before, and it has been sitting in the back of my mind since I watched it. 

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

A failed exam paper.

The Holdovers Review –

When you are watching a film, there are times when you have an experience where you become completely absorbed into the narrative. Taken back 50 years to a place you have never been before, to a place that you have no connection with, but you are taken there wholly. These cases are where the narrative, the direction, and the acting all come together for a perfect work. Today, we look at just such a film that focuses on three actors who give their all to the proceedings.

So to set the scene, it is coming to the end of the year in 1970 as we come to Barton Academy in New England. The term is coming to an end, and everyone is getting ready to go home to their families for Christmas, well, almost everyone. Every year, there is a handful of students who can’t make it back home for the break and stay over at the school, the titular holdovers. Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) teaches ancient civilizations and is hated by most of the students, does not want to be the one stuck with the holdovers but gets out manoeuvred by another staff member. Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) wants to go home for the holidays, but his mother is spending it with her new husband, and Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) lives on campus but is facing her first Christmas alone. They make an odd bunch as the snow comes in.     

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NCIS: Sydney – Blonde Ambition & Full Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – They may have saved the best for last with a banger of a season finale.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this series.

The surf off Sydney.

Well, we have come to the end of the first season of NCIS: Sydney. It has been an odd season, with moments of highs and also a lot of frustrations. However, things started to coalesce towards the end, and I wondered if the show could stick the landing.   

So to set the scene, we open at a kids birthday party where a deeply bad clown is performing for the kids, but things turn sinister when the clown steals the birthday boy. Meanwhile, they have the secretive woman Anna (Georgina Haig) they captured in Bunker Down, who has been a thorn in everyone’s side since Gone Fission. The team is wondering why Anna feels so secure even though she is in handcuffs and locked to a desk when the call comes in that the child that was stolen was JD’s (Todd Lasance). We will be looking at the episode and season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Tetris – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An absolute fun blast of a film that might not match entirely with history, but it wears all of its influences on its sleeve.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this film.

Soviet Military Parade.

Tetris Review –

I think, like most people, I rolled my eyes when I heard that there was going to be a Tetris film. That is because I thought they were going to try and turn it into some sort of Battleship situation. I am not sure that we were ready for a dramatized retelling of how the worldwide video game rights made it out of the Soviet Union or for how good the story would be.  

So to set the scene, it is 1988, a precarious time in world history. The Cold War was rapidly coming to a peaceful end, and the first big computer boom was in full swing. It is in this world that Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) of Bullet-Proof Software sees someone selling Tetris at the Consumer Electronics Expo in Las Vegas. The problem is that Henk does not have the money to buy the game, let alone license it for Japan, which means that he must sweat-talk his Banker (Rick Yune) into letting him do what he has already done. Because a deal with Nintendo only comes around once in a blue moon, all he must do is bet the house … literally.   

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The Boys in the Boat – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A perfectly okay film that refuses to integrate any of the themes it proports to be exploring.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The boys lined up with their oars.

The Boys in the Boat Review –

Today, we look at an interesting biographical film because, at its core, it is more interesting for what it does not do than what it is that we see in the final product. This creates a film that, by all metrics, is perfectly okay from a technical perspective, but the moment you integrate any of the narrative, you find it to have the solidity of balsa wood.  

So to set the scene, it is 1936 in Washington state, at the height of the Great Depression. Joe Rantz (Callum Turner) has spent most of his life sleeping rough but still managed to get into the University of Washington. But when financing becomes tight, he decides to take up an opportunity with the University rowing team because it comes with a room and a small financial compensation. The Washington University rowing team has not won a race in a long time, and coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) is starting to feel the pressure from above to place or get replaced. But could this new batch of rowers be the best crew he ever taught? And in an Olympic year, no less?

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Leave the World Behind – Movie Review

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TL;DR – What happens when the world slips away from you but only fragments at a time until you don’t even realise you ran off a ledge?

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

An Oil tanker crashes into the beach.

Leave the World Behind Review –

The disaster film is such an intriguing genre, especially when you are not sure what disaster you are in or even if there is one going on. For me, it is not the disasters themselves that bring the core of the work, but how people respond to the crisis. This week, we look at a film that focuses mainly on that, and I found it to be deeply compelling.  

So to set the scene, Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) and her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) have had a long, stressful year, and one morning, as Amanda was up not sleeping, she decided to randomly book the family for a trip away in a hamlet by the beach. The aim is to leave the world behind for a time, and the house absolutely provides all of that. All is going well until an oil tanker crashes into the beach, and the TV and Wi-Fi stops working. Which is when late at night, there is a knock on the door when the purported owners of the house, G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la), arrive and decide to stay.   

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The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, 君たちはどう生きるか) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A heartbreaking and devastating exploration of grief set to a beautiful backdrop and wacky characters.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Mahito walks through grass.

The Boy and the Heron Review –

When you look at the great animation studios of history, one name does tend to stand out, so much so that we wrote a whole article about The Beauty of Ghibli. For a long time, we thought that there would be no more films because creator Hayao Miyazaki had retired. However, it seems like Miyazaki-san does not like to take it easy, and it means that we get another of his movies, and who am I to disagree?

So to set the scene, Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki/ Luca Padovan) is a young boy during WW2 who is haunted by the day he watched as the hospital with his mother inside burned to the ground. He has not really had a chance to process this when his father Shoichi (Takuya Kimura/ Christian Bale) marries his late wife’s younger sister Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura/ Gemma Chan) and moves into her estate in the countryside, where a Grey Heron (Masaki Suda/ Robert Pattinson) pays a particular notice to the new arrival.  

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Doi Boy – Movie Review

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TL;DR –  A difficult but also fascinating look at the pressures of Thai life through those who sit at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Doi Boy Review –

One of my goals this year was to hit one hundred films reviewed and expand the cinematic landscape I have explored. Well, we ticked off the one hundred films goal earlier this week, but the goal of increasing my cinema still marches on. Today, we look at our first film from Thailand that drops us into a world on the cusp of rapid change.

So to set the scene, Sorn (Awat Ratanapintha) is an ethnic Shan man who was a former Monk who was pressganged into the military. They had to escape from Myanmar because of the violence. In Thailand, all he wants is the best for himself and his girlfriend Bee (Panisara Rikulsurakan), but there are few opportunities for someone without the right documentation. One industry that did pay well was adult entertainment; that is how he and Korn (Noomsang) ended up working for Madame M (Teerawat Mulvilai) in Chiang Mai. A world of money but also a world of danger.

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Dome House Six – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An interesting film that packs a bunch at the end but is a bit rough on our journey to get there.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

URSA

Dome House Six Review –

I think one of the reasons I like exploring post-apocalyptic settings is not for the disasters themselves but for the ability to show the best and worst in people. It is the great amplifier of humanity, and good stories focus on this. Today, we look at an entry into the growing genre of the environmental apocalypse, where we have destroyed the Earth and how we go on after that.

So to set the scene, in the not-too-distant future, climate change has wreaked havoc on the Earth’s ecosphere, damaging the atmosphere with pollutants and just generally making it unliveable. Where there is a need, some corporations will fill it, and U.R.S.A. Corporation develops Dome House, a technology to isolate your home from the dangers outside. For those inside the domes, life is safe but also a monotonous routine from one day to the next. But outside, life is barely habitable. It is here where the lives of Sidney (Madyn Rae), Micah (Prem Sagar Krishnan), and Harvey (Jordan Abbey-Young) come crashing together. All while the calm tones of URSA (Charlotte Best) walk them through every aspect of their lives.

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