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Reviews
Aftersun (2022)
A melancholy portrait
I don't quite understand the rave reviews. This is a solid movie- evocative and melancholy but also a little boring at times. So many reviews talk about the ease between father and daughter. In many places I saw the exact opposite. A discomfort, an awkwardness. Sometimes the dialogue from Mescal felt exactly like what it was- scripted lines that sounded uncomfortable coming out of his mouth. Sometimes the dialogue was BAD.
This is basically a portrait of a depressed and struggling father on holiday with his daughter. Some of the visuals were lovely, and the daughter was very natural, but overall it didn't leave any lasting impression. Certainly not a masterpiece. Obviously had a lot of money for a film this size.
Master (2022)
Shockingly bad
My original review, made around the time I saw this at Sundance, was deleted. Very strange. Anyway, this is one of the most bafflingly awful movies I have ever seen. How does a script this bad get made? The plot was all over the place. Was it horror? Drama? Social commentary? I just don't know. It failed on every level. It was certainly nasty, but not in a good way. Tedious, messy, confused, bad taste and utterly lacking in tension, the actors deserved far far better. Please, for the love of god, don't let this person near another set anytime soon (or ever again). Genuinely horrific on all counts.
Emergency (2022)
Stunning short did not translate
It's hard when you make an awesome short film. All the imagination-starved execs want the feature version and most of the time it's not possible because the reason the short was so great was an Aristotle-like confluence of elements. This is one such example. The short had almost immediate and highly comedic pay-offs to bad decisions that are understandable. This does not. It's not bad. Good director. Not terrible story. Good actors. It's just hard to tap into the zeitgeist of brilliance once lightning has already struck.
Britney (2021)
Needs some distance from real events
There's a lovely tone here, and Charly Clive is magnetic. But it is perhaps a little bogged down by the proximity to real life events. The central relationship between best friends isn't quite working on-screen. I don't know if it's the casting or the writing- probably a combination. Tiny moments that had such great magnitude in the creator's lives don't translate to a fictional story that is as funny, dramatic, moving or compelling as it needs to be.
For Those in Peril (2013)
Slow, but worth it
Weird and wonderful. It's an experimental film, so don't expect a conventional narrative. Great acting, gorgeous cinematography.