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Reviews
Saltburn (2023)
Great directing, mediocre writing
The performances in "Saltburn" are commendable, but the film feels like a rip-off of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" novel (not the movie), borrowing heavily from its plot elements and character design. Unfortunately, unlike the novel, "Saltburn" falls short in delivering the psychological depth and occasional sensibility.
E.g.
Oliver, the protagonist, who fails to have even one successful date on campus, suddenly exhibits a sexually charismatic and dominant persona, capable of bringing Farleigh Start, an alpha carefree cool kid, into submission. The scene is well-performed thanks to its superb actors, but it contradicts the core personality of the characters. The director suddenly bestows superpowers upon their underdog character, resulting in an unearned character twist. This instance is just one example of such inconsistencies throughout the film.
Hell or High Water (2016)
Original Storytelling is back
Thanks to Taylor Sheridan we have this engaging story that takes on relatable struggles of characters that you find it so easy to feel empathy for. Then, masterfully paced by David Mackenzie the story knows where to take you in realistically action-pact scenes and when to drop the pace to take a hint and feel what our characters are feeling. It isn't your typical heist film, as it knows how to reach a layer/layers below. Most importantly, the film eschews painting black and white characters. It is becoming a rare commodity in American films, even independent ones to take the flaws and undoing of your protagonists to the point of an unexpected stalemate.
Limbo (2023)
A talented Director without a real screenplay
Aside from the stunning cinematography and some convincing performances, This movie is a recycled crime noir half-baked from the clichés of the genre. The story just ticks off the tropes of a lonesome, emotional wreck sort of cop who gets too personally involved in a case. No real reasons are offered for the detective's emotional involvement nor the way he resolves the mess the victim's family is in. The bleak detective 1. Has a broken marriage, 2. An estranged son, and 3. The guilt of killing someone in the past. He also is a drug addict and his addiction plays no role in his major decision-making moments nor becomes a struggle to prevent him from performing his heroic actions.
--Spoiler Alert---
The story unfolds as the victim's family refuses to talk to the detective because he is a cop and a white one too. Now that the trope is ticked off and we have some conflicts arrayed, the plot jumps over resolving this conflict and simply have the family members, without any change in their external or internal circumstances, to not only cooperate with him but also see him as a dear friend to the point of confiding their utmost feelings or reaching out for help in their very messed up family matters. The story conveniently ignores the fact that such a degree of vulnerability can only be shared with someone who has earned that kind of trust, and it fails even to offer a single trope-driven scene to cover this point.
Moving on to the next trope, when the lonesome detective gets to play a saviour to the victim's brother while drunk driving and a shoulder to cry for the victim's sister when she suddenly confides her twenty-year-old guilt, we are to believe that a cop who himself finds refuge in drugs to run away from his own dark feelings is so adeptly capable of giving generous care and compassion to some strangers. While it is possible for an emotional wreck to empathize with others, in this case, we have a character whose choice for dealing with emotional upheavals is escape. If this approach is to change, we must see him going through a serious struggle to earn that sort of mental strength, but again the story simply lets him without paying any price to switch gear and offer a great deal of openness and courage.
Mentioned above are only a few issues, there are too many complaisant moments in this film that make it barely engaging, yet the overwhelmingly positive feedback given on this website (currently at %95) which I believe is mostly from Australian critics indicates one thing. We set a much lower bar for an Australian film.