telllaura Reviews

Poor Things (2023)

Poor copy cat

[5/10 · 24 March 2024]

Mark ruffalo was the highlight as William Defoe as usual. Emma Stone shined because of her supporting cast. For the most part Emma walks through the movie with a blank stare. I guess keeping that up for how ever many months the movie took to make is is Oscar worthy these days.

The movie felt a mix of Wes Anderson meets Quinton Tarantino...and if they imagined what it was like to a 13 year old girl. Saying 13 is generous.

I was almost embarrassed for the film makers how they portrayed what little girls do in their free time. I raised two girls and a boy- obviously the creators of this movie have not. Kids aren't only obsessed with what's hidden under the pants.

Set design was beautiful and a character all on to itself which perpetuated keeping the audience engaged when, at times, the movie felt repetitive. Camera work and special effects were also a delight.

However the plot was thin and the ending was no surprise. I found myself pausing to see how much time was left because of it.

I'm just I glad I didn't pay for it at the movies. I did rent to stream it. I'd wait until you can stream it for free.

The Sinner (2017–2021)

One trick ponies

[5/10 · 25 January 2021]

I've only seen the 1st and 2nd season. From the reviews- no much reason to see the others. I thought the 1st season's acting was terribly flat. I thought this may be the vehicle for Jessica Biel to make a comeback from what was little to start with in acting experience. She was lacked any real appeal though. Her facial expressions never changed throughout the season - even the flashbacks. The kids portraying her in the flashbacks had more range than she did. Pullman does his whole aww shucks, broken down man- inexplicably smiling through each scene. The whole story felt wildly unbelievably even omitting the zombie like performances of the two leads. The second season had a bit more interesting story line with the supporting cast doing the heavy lifting. After all the big reveals though- everything tied up a bit too neatly. Both seasons really always felt like USAcable network programing being careful to be not too edgy. This caution never let the actors spread their wings but with Pullman and Biel anyway - I didn't feel like they would actually know how anyway. Not worth the time to watch.

Archive (2020)

Another Sci-FI Stepford wives

[6/10 · 14 October 2020]

Why don't women create menbotts? Even if it's their lost love? I was really their would be some twist to this tired Dr. Frankenstein creates a simple young female/Stepford wife. I loved the beta/analog future past meets future future feel of it all and I really hoped that it would prove me wrong. The end had a twist but it wasn't what I had hoped. It's like it ran out of steam (or budget) and wrapped up the last 5 minutes nearly in a twist that also felt tired. Minimalist dialogue didn't help the story as is but it could have been a great commentary had they chose a different direction. There were some creative ideas for the tech though that made it more believable- sorta. Not a bad movie just a tired story even with the lazy twist.

We Are What We Are (2013)

Overrated here

[3/10 · 23 July 2020]

Overacted on imbued. Lot's of buildup for an unremarkable campy ending. I did wretch once and that's never happened. Could have been a more interesting ending if more care was given.. if the ending wasn't such a joke. Why go through all the trouble to give up at the end. Some tweaks and you could have still had "the big moment". For example, if "that" was the only way they could have gotten out of the house that would have been an ironic without being campy. Waste of time.

Lenox Hill (2020)

More about patients needed, less about the docs

[6/10 · 2 July 2020]

It's obvious from the start that the Doctors are supremely talented at Lennox Hill that care deeply about their patients medical health. However, the drawl should be about the patients- especially undergoing life and death via risky with some surgeries -almost guaranteeing a quality of life change in return.

After three episodes, I have yet to see anything more than a brief next day check-in from the doctors before they head on to the next thing. What happens to these patients next, how are they holding up when returning back home? Drug addicts get no counseling and the Doctors barely look at them. What happens to the homeless that come in.

Doctors aren't that fascinating often completely unaware of that the viewers can handle the diagnosis and would like to hear more about the diseases. That's interesting! The patients and their family dynamic is far more interesting than watching doctors and staff briskly th Rey Pugh halls, eating snacks and talking on the phone. Trade that for the real stories and more follow up and you have a great binge worthy series.

(Typos :/ )

Seberg (2019)

A missed opportunity

[5/10 · 25 June 2020]

It would have been far more interesting to go into more depth about the COINTELPRO and the governments fears against the anti racism movement. Especially to see, sadly, not much has been done by our government today about institutional racism 50 years later. Really you could watch the closing writing right before the credits to get to any the meat of the movie and the doom of Seberg's life. There is definitely a lot of crying coming from Kristen Stewart throughout. She handles what little the script gives her like a champ. All the lead actors are great with the thin script.

At the end of the day, Seberg reads like a People magazine story about a very sad ending to a promising young actress but it misses the big picture of all the other lives that were affected by the government and Hoover's secret program targeting activism in our country. Someone should do a movie on that true injustice worthy of these actors...and our time.