Film and television reviews and sometimes a few other things.
The most generous way to describe the historical accuracy of 2019’s The King is “lukewarm at best”. The film, starring current Hollywood Golden Boy Timothée Chalamet as King Henry V, is (very) loosely based on several of the works of Shakespeare that chronicle the same period in Henry’s life.
Outcast, a 2014 Chinese-American-Canadian film directed by Nick Powell, can be succinctly summarized in two words: a mess.
Remember Mad Max? He’s back, in Tom Hardy form.
Thirty years after the events of Beyond Thunderdome, Max returns in Mad Max: Fury Road, another dystopian jaunt through the Wasteland helmed by long-time series director George Miller.
When looking at the preview for Bachelorette on Netflix, I initially assumed it would be the kind of light-hearted film that you watch on a Sunday afternoon when it’s raining and you’re wrapped up on the couch with a cup of tea. An unlucky- in-love career-woman is upset that her friend is getting married before her, but she overcomes her confidence issues to find love for herself, bolstered by the support of her two comic-relief friends (one of them sarcastic, one of them ditzy). A happy ending and a couple of safe laughs, all within the space of ninety minutes.
Boy, was I wrong.
Have you ever had the fear of being watched in your own home? Suppose your wi-fi connection is not as secure as you thought. Maybe that webcam on your laptop is actually recording everything you’re doing. Or perhaps someone has even found a way to access your computer remotely. What would the person on the other end be doing with all of this information? Would they keep it for themselves, or would they share it online, in a place you can’t possibly access, for people you’d never want to meet in your wildest dreams? In the digital age these fears are not completely unfounded, and they are thoughts that have probably passed through everyone with a computer’s head at least once. They are also the central premise of 2018’s Unfriended: Dark Web, a sequel to the 2015 computer-screen horror film Unfriended.
Unfriended, a horror film directed by Levan Gabriadze and released in 2015, is an unfortunate example of a good premise wasted on poor execution. Throughout the first twenty minutes of the film I was actually very impressed with both the story and the way it was portrayed. Unfortunately the hour that followed these initial twenty minutes was a definite case of diminishing returns culminating in all-out stupidity.
Before I begin this review I feel as if I should provide a short disclaimer. As I have mentioned before, the original Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott and released in 1982, is one of my favourite films of all time. When Blade Runner 2049 released, helmed by new director Denis Villeneuve, I was worried that it wouldn’t, couldn’t, live up to the heights set by the original. It had been thirty-five years. Would the aesthetic that made the first film such a cult classic be able to be recaptured with a new director? Surely there was no way Blade Runner 2049 could match its predecessor.
I was wrong.
Marriage Story is, despite the name, a film not actually all that much about marriage. It’s a film about two people who were married, but now very much want that marriage to be over. A more apt title for the film would be Divorce Story, but that doesn’t seem like a very appealing film to watch.
Films based on Stephen King movies are like gemstones. Some of them, like The Shawshank Redemption or The Shining, are diamonds; flawless jewels that stand the test of time and are eternally beautiful. Some of them, like Christine or Secret Window, are flawed gems but nonetheless contain value. And then there’s fare like Maximum Overdrive, which aren’t gems at all – instead, just circular hunks of blue plastic shoddily attached to a child’s costume necklace, masquerading as something of worth. Look, what I’m getting at with this overblown metaphor is that not all King films are equal, and unfortunately 1922 is that middle option, a flawed gem, a film that is middling at best.