renskeveldman Reviews

Paris Is Us (2019)

Builds up to what?

[4/10 · 22 February 2019]

For me this movie just didn't work. A whole bunch of narration and random scenes of this ice cold main character talking to her boyfriend or her friend. Don't get me wrong, I love movies like this one that don't really make sense and get you into a trance like expierence, but this one was just not for me. I have no idea what this movie was building up to and I have no idea what all of it meant. There was a lot going on and nothing was explained, wich worked in Mulholland Drive for example, but not here. There was also a LOT of narration (a lot more than actual dialogue) and random shots of surroundings. Just a whole bunch of nothing...

In my opinion this movie is just not as good as it maybe could have been.

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

Disappointed, but not surprised

[5/10 · 2 February 2019]

The previous collaboration between writer and director Dan Gilroy and actor Jake Gyllenhaal Nightcrawler was a succesful one, unfortunatly I can't say the "did it again".

Although the trailer looked very promising and the reviews I read from early attenders at Sundance were both promising, I'm not surprised this movie turned out bad.

I expected a critique of the art world, but we barely got any of that. Yes. it tis what most of the movie is about, but we never get a clear explanation or message besides "Don't be greedy, appreciate real art". There is no depth in the movie and the last 20 minutes felt like they rushed to make an ending. And where I was expecting interesting characters we got barely anything. Most of them are just typical art world people and I felt like some of the actors really missed the line between actual character and boring caricature. But I was most dissapointed with the interesting storylines the movie could have had. Morf's book writing and also his bisexuality, wich felt like it was put there more in a way to score points, and John Malkovich character's career. So much in this movie felt like it was added just to make it seem more interesting.

In the end this movie is almost as pretentious as the artworld it tries to critique.

Annihilation (I) (2018)

Stalker, but worse

[5/10 · 6 January 2019]

Now when I say worse I don't mean bad. And I know that it isn't inspired by the movie Stalker, but I just can't help to see the similarities. Where Stalker is beautiful and mysterious, Annihilation isn't. There's guns, alien stuff, killer animals and moving organs. The beauty in Stalker, I find, is that it doesn't actually show weird stuff you would expect in the zone. It's just the characters and their mental state. Annihilation does this too, but way less deep.

It also botheres me that we also see that whole affair Lena had before she entered the Shimmer. To me it just was pretty irrelevant to the plot. I also wonder why they showed Lena after she got out of the Shimmer so soon and let her spoil everything about who dies. Bit of a bummer. I just didn't like the switching from one storyline to another (I guess the storylines are kinda the same storyline, but you know...). Because the scenes in the Shimmer were pretty intense and intruiging, but then they cut to Lena having an affair I couldn't care less about...

Cold War (2018)

Visually a masterpiece

[8/10 · 18 December 2018]

The most memorable thing from this movie is certainly not the storyline. I personally really missed the development of their relationship. It was more presented like a thing that was just a fact that we, the audience, should just accept. I feel like the movie didn't really put in effort in really trying to project their love to the audience. I felt like a spectator and I wasn't really rooting for them because I loved them so much. It's not like I didn't care either, it's just that I felt really detached from the characters and that's something I don't really like in movies. I wanna feel emotions and with this movie I felt very little.

The visuals however are reason enough to see this movie. I love that it was in black and white and while I didn't like watching for the story I was happy enough to just look at the beauty og the visuals.

And last I wanna say how much I love the music in this. First the Polish traditional movie and later the jazz. Truely loved hearing the same song in those styles. (I secretly having been listening to those songs on repeat for days).

Over all not a very good movie, but wonderful to see.

Everybody Knows (2018)

Worth the long time

[8/10 · 24 October 2018]

It's long, but certainly not boring. Recently before seeing this I saw Prisoners and I was expecting the same kind of movie, but it wasn't. While Prisoners is very intense and really focused on solving the case, Everybody Knows is not that intense and exciting. But it is a really good movie, because you see the effect it has on everyone. And the amazing acting by the cast certainly helps.

Arrival (II) (2016)

Almost a masterpiece

[9/10 · 18 October 2018]

This movie is hands down (one of) the best sci-fi movies out there. And I loved everything about it, but one thing bothered me. So at first they try to communicate the word human, and it's not that easy to discover what the aliens are sending back and then all of a sudden they can send all sorts of words to each other and she can just read whatever they send back? To me that's just a little to easy...

But besides that it was an absolutely amazing movie.

The Girl on the Train (2016)

Could have been better

[6/10 · 11 October 2018]

The first 30-45 minutes were incredibly boring. And after that I was just dissapointed with how much everything was sped up and I kindof missed the whole "finding out what happened" part. Acting, especially Emily Blunt, was really great tho!

The End of the F***ing World (2017–2019)

Nope

[6 October 2018]

I might have just missed something, because after I finished watching it I was schocked to find out how loved this show was. The acting was great, Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden were both really great. But that was about everything I liked about this show. I found the two main characters annoying and cringey and the story just wasn't it for me.