dramzi-1 Reviews

Midnight Mass (2021)

Looks good but empty of content

[3/10 · 30 October 2021]

This is a strange movie for me, as I have been reading a lot about the fundamentals of religious beliefs and the patterns that underlie them. The lack of religious literacy, whatever you think of religion, is telling and speaks of the "auteur's" struggle and confusion about his own, presumably Catholic, faith.

First, a Monsignor is a high rank of Bishop, not a priest and has no place in pastoral life. Second... being touched by angels in dark places with beady eyes... usually a tell for a demon. Demons subvert reality and people's ability to discern it. There are many ways this series contradicts basic theological precepts and traditions within that specific faith. Even the church looks more like a stark Protestant frontier outpost. But it seems we are supposed to understand these demon-angels as a metaphor for the Catholic Church itself.

The best way to create a sense of horror and suspense is to set your story at the end of the world, in isolation and subvert the safe spaces. But unrooted from what is known, the story does not make sense.

Oh the other hand, it probably fits in better as a vampire story rather than a religiously rooted horror film. The images are well composed, strangely unsettling. Production value are great. It is well-paced.

But the underlying matrix is confused, tormented and maybe... just plain wrong.

6 Underground (2019)

Miami Vice in Hong Kong

[8/10 · 21 December 2019]

Crazy editing that went the way of the dodo, stylish Miami-vice look, over the top parkour and pulsating music, quick quips and the shallowest characters ever.

Enjoy the action. No allegorical interpretations here.

Into the Forest (2015)

This is not a thriller

[7/10 · 17 November 2019]

This film is not a survival thriller. It is a deep and profound symbological tale that can only be understood allergorically. Except that some of the ideas underlying the film are kind of obscure and confusing (on an allegorical level.) The best stories work by being universally understood on a subconscious level. So the film is really only partially successful as allegory.

IO (2019)

Symbolism happens

[6/10 · 15 April 2019]

... but he question is it worth the effort. Sometimes what sounds profound is simply... not so much.

Last Passenger (2013)

Surprisingly good movie

[8/10 · 31 December 2016]

Absolutely astonishing. There is craft and there is thought behind this movie. Trouble is action viewers will not find it good enough. It is slow and reading other reviews, I get their frustrations about silly inconsistencies that only matter in action films.

There's the rub, it's not an action pic. It is a contemplation on mortality. Serious viewers will pass it over as silly, but any time the critics like an action picture so much more than the ordinary reviewers, you should know to whom it will appeal.

Please see this film if you like to consider weighty subjects like death and the meaning of life after someone you love dies. See it if you have ever felt like your life is metaphorically a speeding train sabotaged by a suicidal driver careening to an immortality of tabloid fame. Hell just see it if you don't mind the silly action bits, explosions and a handful of dead people. And just remember they would have all died anyway and there are no refunds.