ricky_dry_county Reviews

Poor Things (2023)

The Greatest U Turn in recent history

[4/10 · 1 March 2024]

--The first hour is exceptional. Willem Dafoe is himself as usual, Emma Stone is a relevation & the cinematography coupled with the weird storyline seems like a perfect recipe for an awesome Yorgos Lanthimos rather than the terrible ones.

--Alas, it takes an awful left turn. Extended wh0ring, incessant overplaying of the same premise (we get it, she talks weird) & trendy/bland social commentary takes over.

--The degenerate middle half gives away to a deflated finalé where we get what every feminist fiction craves for: an evil man. Hmph.

I think "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" was his best film & this is definitely his worst.

If you like weird, morally questionable films, the recent sensation "Saltburn" is a far better alternative.

To summarise, everything after hour 1 is so baffling & insane, it even made me miss Mark Ruffalo for a split second (He did a great job, btw)

Killing Them Softly (2012)

Tony Sopranos saved this

[7/10 · 7 October 2023]

On my second watching and the first one after becoming a Sopranos connoisseur, I didn't really change my 6/10 rating. As many have mentioned, the conversational scenes needed to be 20% shorter, especially since there's no movement of camera (zoomed in) or character. Not even a note in the background. Gets annoying really quick. The second thing that hurt this is a lack of finality.

James Gandolfini really saves this by a fantastic middle act, where he's playing a derailed version of Tony Soprano, knee deep in alcoholism & hookers. Brad Pitt is good but doesn't have much to work with.

The line needs to be somewhere between a chaotic Guy Richie film & this one, for this genre.

The Offer (2022)

Entertaining!

[9/10 · 31 March 2023]

Great: -- Mathhew Goode's acting. He was one of the only ones to actually nail down the old timey accent & mannerisms.

-- Godfather Cast: From a frighteningly similar Al Pacino to a wondrous Brando, it was spot on.

-- Giovanni Rivision did fantastic.

-- Pacing: I'm sure it took a helluva lot of liberties with timelines & events, but it kept the pace rolling well.

--Cinematography: A.

-- Plot/Topic: Kudos to whoever thought it'd be a great idea to showcase this. The hustle, passion & struggle depicted here was almost inspiring!

Miss: -- Juno Temple's character's constant need to bring in modernism/gender narratives etc was a bit off putting & served to drag you out of the time period. Her association with Ted Lasso, her poodle like expression & failure to completely drop her thick English accent didn't help.

-- I like Miles Teller but his acting was really wooden here. Maybe the guy he was playing was this way, I doubt it. He almost never showed any extreme emotion even when things seemed to wildly derail, from divorce to mob threats to professional assassination.

-- The guy who played Caesar. Is he related to Bobby Canavale? His acting was terrible.

Severance (2022– )

Sever me

[5/10 · 20 May 2022]

Its probably an Apple TV thing where they take a promising plot & then render it bland by the 5th sluggish hour. By then, no reveals have any significance because your mental faculties have been dulled by insignificant plot points presented with the same urgency as the rest. You've got a great cast, production house & director, so the ratings will come/be bought. They did this to "Servant" & now this incidentally similar sounding title gets knocked out too. This 7-8 hr long first season has barely enough in it for 2-3 hours. Editing, my friend. You gotta leave the audience wanting more, not dozing more. Once you have them locked in, you can play with the prolonged plots and experiment. Even the finale was sluggish! And that when it was barely half an hour long.

The Northman (2022)

Semi- Interesting

[6/10 · 17 May 2022]

And a lot of it has got to do with the sluggish editing job, as is the case with a lot of new films. The enormous Skarsgaard guy does a fantastic job. Infact, every one is on point with their roles. Even our Botox OD queen 👑. Ethan Hawke & Dafoe are in blink or miss parts. The climax is really delayed for no valid reason and that's where the editing comes in. Shave 10 min off this & this should really shine as a competent 7.5/10.

The Night House (2020)

The Not-quite House

[4/10 · 9 October 2021]

--- Rebecca Hall acts well. Did some EPing as well 👍🏻 --- Cinematography is fine, no annoying overuse of colored lights or dim blue-green hues that's all the rage since Netflix became a thing.

--- Was waiting for this for a long time, it started out really well. Then it devolved into an absolute stinker of a reveal/second half. The predictable fit, rich, white husband who apparently gets every woman around in bed on the down low while simultaneously killing them is a bit too overdone at this point. Especially when you've hinted at it from the very beginning. Also, how is this scary or thrilling or remotely interesting? Also features a token, ultra nice black dude.

Avoid!

Old (2021)

It's getting OLD now.

[6/10 · 25 September 2021]

You wanna like Shyamalan. The guy was an unlikely success story when he hit it with Sixth Sense. Even his duds had a certain quality to them although with patchy execution. I felt his last film Split was absolutely terrible, generic & accessible garbage.

I went into this one with some excitement while knowing that it wasn't faring well with either critics or audiences. But Split did, so who knows?

Anyway, immediate comparisons were made to the cringe-worthy TV show The White Lotus, which I quickly got past. I don't see many people point it out but the audio was absolutely pathetic. Constant wall of waves, background score even while characters are speaking softly made this quite a task. Add to the fact that the camera worrk is quite ridiculously overt the top, especially in scenes where it borders on parody. There are some jokes thrown in and everyone acts like they have had a few IQ points shaved off them. This doesn't bode well for a film that wannts you to take it seriously in a premise quite far fetched. There are ways to build an atmosphere of isolation and chaos simultaneously to portray a real and present danger. Lost, which it will be compared to, did that so well. The ending is so rushed and amateurish that the less said the better. Maybe with better/established/credible actors helming some roles would have helped suspend the disbelief: the young, vacationing policeman who gets it all under control swiftly, the creepy resort owner to name a few who conveniently reveals the backstory out of nowhere. All the actors (stuck on the island) do a good job especially the dude from Dark City (Rufus Sewell) playing a whacko cardiothoracic surgeon. If not for poor directorial choices by Mr. Night, this could have a classic.. it had that potential.

The White Lotus (2021–2025)

Yes, let's give screen time to vibe killers

[3/10 · 23 August 2021]

This is totally serviceable, especially coz of the capable cast in Connie Briton, Steve Zahn, D'addaraio & Coolidge. Well, it can't be that we just make an all round likeable show these days! You gotta have nauseatingly woke and annoying teenage parasites constantly chirping with a permafrown every now and then. I guess that's an issue too: Not having a lead even in an ensemble cast and trying to give every stupid character/actor the same screen time. One can't pick and choose a timeline/story arc while watching but you certainly wish you did. Either make an interesting light hearted series or go vent onto Twitter about your hypocrisy, which I'm sure the people who made this do for a living.

John and the Hole (2021)

Quarter baked, but worth it

[8/10 · 16 August 2021]

1) Great cinematography to bring out the bizarre vibes. Borrows a plot from the Greek weird wave.

2) Its a largely subdued plot but since I haven't figured out what the alternate story line meant, Id say I was intrigued throughout.

3) Great cast all around. I don't really care for "its boring/slow...." crowd here because that's highly subjective.

Ride the Eagle (2021)

Oh ya!

[8/10 · 8 August 2021]

1) I've written about the recent "rent an Airbnb and use it as a set for your indie film" phenomenon but this was actually done right. A huge part is because of competent actors and likeable/intriguing characters.

2) Free of the usual unnecessary agenda (except for a global warming vs politicians bit) which is refreshing from an American comedy these days.

3) Not a great deal of twists here but it's a comfy film for a great hang. All the 5 characters (dog included, since it got a lot of screen time) were superb with JK Simmons not having a lot to do and the ex gf's phone quips being my favorite.

No Sudden Move (2021)

No Moves at all!

[4/10 · 6 July 2021]

1) You realise few minutes into it that it's gonna be one of those films where style trounces substance. But even the style is lacking.

2) No interesting female lead, the most annoying adolescent boy in the world is given screen time again and there are way too many insipid characters and names being thrown around every minute.

3) I really don't know what to comment further, it's just so meh. Even seasoned filmmakers like Soderberg seem to give in to the current trend of abandoning the hallmarks of good cinema: Likeable/Intriguing characters & a coherent plot line so the audience gives a damn.

The Unthinkable (2018)

Lmao

[3/10 · 24 May 2021]

1) Watching the lead actor, I was convinced very early that the guy was somehow related to the making of the film. There seemed to be no reason why a sane, unbiased person would cast this leaden, balding Mark Zuckerberg lookalike. Lo and behold, he's a co-writer!

2) The saving grace is just a handful of car crash sequences that seemed to just prevent a jaded viewer from quitting on the film midway. Little did we know. Well played 3) The climactic scenes are full on ridiculous, almost like a cringe grandiose level experienced commonly in South Indian/Korean films.

4) Even tiny plot bits are riddled with wtf moments: Anna handcuffing Alex's Dad and then forgetting it altogether, even while they are evacuating. Same for our wonder boy. I mean, his Dad had sporaddic bouts of unexplained angerr when he was young, so you gotta let that man repent all his life. Our boy doesn't even give a thought to repeated queries by Anna to save her daughter.

5) Usually CGI lets the film done in low budget films, but that's not the case here. I read that there was crowdfunding. I wish some of the funds were diverted towards finer aspects of filmmaking.

What a Trainwreck!

The Overnight (2015)

What's wrong with people?

[9/10 · 21 May 2021]

Well, I guess people didn't know what the general atmosphere would become for comedy movies in years to come, or this would have gotten a higher rating. Some absolutely laugh out loud moments herre, even if aren't easily amused. Dialogue doesn't seem forced or overtly scripted and most importantly is devoid of cringe political preaching, despite playing around with sensitive topics.

In the Earth (2021)

The reviews here are brutal!

[7/10 · 17 May 2021]

1) And the negative reviewers are spot on. I just happened to not mind the artsy vignettes, LSD flashes and the overall vibe. The misty important thing was that unlike current films, the characters weren't annoying or spewing amateur political vitriol. The lead guy was abysmally low on testosterone throughout and the lead lady has to literally carry him around, quite hilarious actually.

2) It's low budget but is trying to reach higher than it is capable of. Certain story structures are lost amidst the obsession with ambience and audio (Did the weird forest couple plan this together? Not much is said about it)

Oxygen (2021)

Sci fi "Buried" is kinda meh

[4/10 · 17 May 2021]

1) Melanie Laurent does a great job. Not a patch on Ryan Reynold's incredible gig with "Buried" though, which shares a somewhat similar theme.

2) The husband montages were so frequent and so devoid of any info that it became the most annoying portion of the film. I don't think he is even shown speaking a word, further distancing us from relating to the plight.

3) The plot drags a bit too, although there's a lot to digest and sift through. The ending is quite terrrible,with an abrupt halt that seemnsd to be borrowed from those montage sequences. You gotta laugh when every now and then you come across these films where they probably exhaust all creativity and will, so the ending is basically a hurried mess.

Could have been better in more competent handds.

Mortal Kombat (2021)

Well, it was better than I expected.

[6/10 · 14 May 2021]

1) I was a child when the original came out but I still remember the awesome soundtrack. Nothing catchy here on that front here. A big trick missed!

2) As anyone with some awareness will point out, the main character (Cole) has an unnerving amateurish vibe about him. That the plot made him look more of an annoying wuss didn't help either.

3) Great support cast. Special mention to the Aussie who had some absolutely hilarious roast.

4) The run time is about 30 min too long, especially apparent since the ending is incomplete and there's no tournament to speak of (that is hyped up in the first half incessantly).

Three Identical Strangers (2018)

How most documentaries are today

[3/10 · 4 May 2021]

1) The crux will be worth 15 minutes.

2) Slow Mo ad nauseam, redramatisation and repetition will waste your time while they try to hammer the same mildly convincing argument down your throat.

Luxor (2020)

Stupor

[8/10 · 27 April 2021]

1) I get that Andrea Riseborough has turned half dead over the past couple of years and gained immense sadness in her eyes. Watch her in "Disconnect" from 2013/14 and then in her recent major roles in "Zerozerozero"/"Possessor" or this one. There is a strong effort to suppress her natural beauty, and it seems more like her own choice. Anyway, she's carrying that depressed torch with a unique lifeless energy.

2) I was compelled to watch this (IMDb 5.3) to see if it really was worthless. My verdict is that it's definitely not. Its not for everyone but shares nothing with a typical Hollywood film set in the Mediterranean. Some of us long for films that have scanty plot twists and since I find the actress worthy her salt and not unlikable (which can be a task these days).

3) This film albeit slowly prodding without any substantial revelation, doesn't attempt any preachy sermons or any life changing epiphanies. The film is flat, just like life may seem when you're in a rut (which our emaciated lead is in).

Pecker (1998)

'90s Overload

[7/10 · 15 March 2021]

Lily Taylor ✅ Check Interesting/fun indie song opening he film ✅ Check Deviant/Controversial topics dealt with in a non polarising way staying true to the mood of the story ✅ Check Not much of a revelation/story arc but you enjoy it nonetheless ✅ Check Likeable characters leaking in from everywhere ✅ Check

I Care a Lot (2020)

Wahmen!

[1/10 · 20 February 2021]

1) Keep your brains safe from this one. 2) Diane W is the best on display here. 3) the reason movies like these don't work is simple and we've been through this many times: there's no rhyme or reason to it all, being drunk on amateurish agenda precedes actual filmmaking etc. 4) I tried, I recommend you don't.

Little Fish (2020)

A LONG POST ROCK MUSIC VIDEO

[3/10 · 15 February 2021]

1) This had immense potential but was hilariously botched. About 80% of the film is drenched in loud ambient post rock noise which is at odds with eeehats actually happening on-screen. Adding soaring violins don't help when there is a remotely dysfunctional couple barely chatting over it. 2) Horrendously lazy editing with no sense of pacing at all. The scenes could be jumbled and it'll still make no difference. 3) This millenial downer probably needed an established older actor/actress to bring in a sense of maturity. 4) If somehow we fixed the above issues, it could have made a mark. The leads are capable (the guy was good in Jungleland & the girl is a cross between Jessica Alba and Rose Byrne) but even then the mumbling, hypometabolic narration is a drag.

Wrong Turn (2021)

Great Bennetton Ad

[1/10 · 12 February 2021]

That's all you need to know. My ironic laughter lasted me 15 minutes into it.

Dogfight (1991)

What A Great Film Really Is Supposed To Be!

[10/10 · 11 February 2021]

1) Blown away by River P's acting chops. What a shame he died so young. He was miles ahead of anyone who came afterwards. The long drawn scenes where he delivers dialogue to perfection is extremely satisfying. 2) Lili Taylor, I've seen her in a bunch of films and TVv shows but this early gig is probably her crowning achievement. 3) You gotta love it when you watch a film that's relatively unheard of, unavailable in full HD anywhere on the internet & realising it's one of the best ever. It's a bittersweet feeling, and I had it few days ago while watching "Happiness". 4) A wild Brendan Fraser appears as Sailor #1 for 3 seconds! The supporting cast is quite phenomenal: likeable even though they're partaking in some prtetty ordinary things.

Blackbird (I) (2019)

The TONE

[7/10 · 7 February 2021]

1) Spectacular cast, which lets you look past the fact that it's a remake (I haven't watched the original) 2) Great acting by Kate Winslet (as a dork) except while delivering one cringy line. Sam Neill obviously nails the crying scenes to perfection. 3) The tone is very off putting at times. I'm not sure but the Americanised crass way of bringing up the topic of death every 5 seconds by the younger cast, felt exhausting (is that in the original too?) 4) The g@y thing is handled very well and doesn't seem forced by today's standards.

Human Capital (2019)

Enjoyed it

[8/10 · 2 February 2021]

1) Marisa Tomei is simply phenomenal. 2) Liev S delivers a good performance too. 3) A bit too much of the younger cast which sort of withdrew from the first half of the film. By the end of it, no one's a lead actor and that's where it's a sort of weird experience. 4) A bit surprised to see the epidemic of negative reviews here. If not for point no. 3 above, I'd have given it a 9/10.