rk6314 Reviews

Leave the World Behind (2023)

The movie that finally reminded me to cancel my Netflix subscription!

[6/10 · 10 December 2023]

As I write this, "Leave The World Behind" sits at a 6.7, which is PERFECT because this one was 2/3rd of a very good movie.

Add all the star power Netlfix's data scientists and statisticians mix into movies like this won't save this one. I love slow burn movies like this generally, but this was not a good take. I don't need everything spelled out for me, but I think it's important for the creators to have it figured out themselves.

There's a reason Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, and Kevin Bacon are still around. They and the younger actors in this movie 100% sell it and my suspension of disbelief is fully one. It was really good through and through.

That ending though. It was very cute, but it's basically a joke payoff, not a movie ending. I don't need everything answered, but holy hell, the "disaster/attack" evidence is all over the place and nothing makes any sense. You have two choices. You either need to explain a LITTLE bit, or at least show the people we've been following either coming together to build something (or not build something). What is effectively a comedy callback is NOT an ending. I went from laughing to being angry in the space of 10 seconds. Bathos does not an ending make.

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Not everybody's cuppa

[8/10 · 2 September 2018]

Wow, there are a lot of people who don't like this movie, and moreover, seem to mad that others like it. Some samples:

"I think people who are giving it high praise believe that's just what their supposed to do but the fact is it's just a dumpster fire of a movie."

" I RARELY write movie reviews but had to inform people of the facts on this one."

"The positive reviews are from movie snobs who think they are smarter than everyone else and recognize brilliance in pure garbage."

You get the point. It's almost like we're all supposed to like all the same things now. (In fairness, there were plenty of other reviewers who didn't like it, but said they're glad others enjoyed it.

I'm not a movie snob. I'm not a film executive and I have nothing to do with the film except I paid 6 bucks to see it last Tuesday. This is a very surreal satire. It won't be to everyone's liking, but it seems to me that we are getting more and more confused about the difference between fact and opinion. It's not a fact that this movie sucks, any more than it's a fact that this movie is great. These are classically opinions.

Me, I like movies that start sort of pseudo-normal and go into bizarre. This is right up my alley. It's a Repo Man for our generation. Genetic engineering, dead end call center jobs, megalomaniacal Bay Area billionaires trying to save the world, race relations and post-postmodern art commentary. It's all painted in a crazy, bigger-than-life science fiction brush. Yeah, it's weird as hell, and maybe ends a little weakly (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, anyone?) but has a method in its madness.

If you don't like absurdist humor, or if you don't like movies that are at least semi-overt political statements (especially if the political statement is opposed to yours. Anti-union, pro-business capitalists with short fuses be warned! You should give it a miss and just read the National Review's Ross Douthat's review. He saved you a lot of time worrying your beautiful mind about it.), and if you don't like a dollop of science fiction every now and then, yeah, you're going to probably hate it.

But your opinion is still not fact. I liked it. That's my OPINION. Get over it.

The Shape of Water (2017)

Very good, not great, but not deserving the hate-on I see here.

[8/10 · 11 May 2018]

I was ready to give this movie a 7/10, but after seeing so many triggered, sexually repressed so-called "anti-PC" reviewers, I gave it an extra point because, hey, mission accomplished, it seems. I guess it is art, because a lot of people got challenged.

For those of you crying "bestiality": Did you cry this for Star Trek, because where did Spock come from? What about the Worf and Jadzia Dax relationship? In the reboots, Uhura and Spock? What about Lord of the Rings? Aragorn is human and Arwen is an elf. Is cross-species romance and sex only okay if they look mostly like hot humans with pointy ears or brow ridges? The whole point was conferring personhood on the "Amphibian Man", which is how he's listed in the credits. Maybe think about the second word, rather than the first, eh? The point went so far over your head NORAD is tracking it.

Was the sex necessary? If you're a religious conservative and you harp on this topic for other movies, hey, I disagree with you, but I respect your opinion because at least it's coming from consistent ethos. Otherwise, put your faux morality away, Because I see that PornHub tab you have open in the incognito window (too late to close it now!). But yeah, the sex was kind of necessary, frankly. Steven Spielberg chickened out in "The Color Purple" so my mom could tell me (at the tender age of 18, as if I didn't know lesbianism existed) when Celie and Shug Avery were kissing she could use the insipid line "She's teaching her tenderness." (which makes me wonder if that were some "concerned parent" talking point going around then because over the years I've had two other friends tell me their mom said the EXACT same thing to them about that seen) which gave short shrift to the fact that in the book, Celie and Avery became same-sex lovers. Del Toro gives us NO wiggle room here to spin the story. Love it or hate it, Amphibian Man and Sally totally got it on. Not bagging on Spielberg (too much) here, there's a world of difference in tolerance between 1985 and 2017, and the Color Purple is a great movie overall.

Is this a great movie? In my opinion, no. It does have flaws, but plenty of others will gleefully break them down for you. There are some GOOD critical reviews here too, though it takes a bit of wading through the righteous indignation. But unless you're totally in love with the idea that God made humans in his image, I think you can find a lot to like in this movie.