"Have you ever reckoned the Earth much?"
Rewatched Edson Oda's Nine Days again for the first time in 18 months since Sundance 2020 and... you know this is an absolute *masterpiece*, right? It's everything magical about cinema and the spectacular existence of life and beyond. Pure bliss. Astonishing and awe-inspiring in every possible way, from the score to the set design to the performances to the story itself about life and what it means to be alive. This is an…
Some people have been complaining that this film isn't actually about Mr. Rogers. That's right. It isn't. It's about YOU. Yes, you, the viewer. It's about the way you giggle and smirk whenever Fred Rogers talks about something as simple as being kind to one another. Perhaps you think, that's for kids, that's not for me, we have real issues, and there are bigger problems in this world than just being kind. Maybe there are. But solving many of those…
Jaafar Jackson is terrific as MJ in this. But the rest of it is just fine. Not bad, not very good either - an impressively surface level examination focused entirely on the theme of escaping the strict control of his abusive dad. Plenty of energy and dancing and performances - but no real depth to any of it.
It's not as bad as it could be, but it's very far from being a really great music biopic. It's entertaining enough…
Good film. Although not one of my favorite new Soderbergh flicks. The script is good but his filmmaking still feels a bit lackluster - almost paint by numbers (no pun intended).
I really like what it's saying about art and artwork and self expression. Sadly ironic that Soderbergh makes this seemingly anti-AI film about being honest and pure in creating art and then decides to use AI on his next film (a doc about Lennon & Ono). Mostly I appreciate how this film shows how artists can inspire and encourage each other to be more pure and honest and free in their creativity and creation.
I love the way Sorrentino shoots Italy, just gorgeous, but does he really have anything else to say anymore? Is that it? This is one of those hilariously vane films where they talk about anthropology as this important (academic) subject throughout yet never show a single scene of actual anthropology work or study in it once. Yes yes, I get that the whole point is that all of the scenes in the film are anthropology but this doesn't make it…
Huh. At least after my first viewing, this is one of my least favorite Wes Anderson films. And considering I love sci-fi and love Wes Anderson, I should've loved this?! But nope. It's an extremely strange, oddly low-key, super nerdy alien encounter parable about... I don't know what? What was that? The most confounding Wes Anderson film yet. So many characters stuffed into a film-within-a-play meta story that only makes it more confusing. That narrative structure really took me out…
