Disorienting, confounding; RaMell Ross never outruns the idea that he’s directing an important movie, but even so, it’s not like non-important movies have taken that big of a crack at this filmic device. Whereas a gimmick can be a distraction, here it’s a head-scratcher; a wild idea that has to mean something, and once it does, it’s as if a new language had been invented. Something this jarring, and yet constantly dialoguing with the intricacies of the narrative; bringing Whitehead’s…
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I'm Still Here 2024
“Smile, kids!”
The first act moves rather eerily, showing glimpses here and there that something isn’t right, despite the fact that this family seems to have it all, leading their perfect summer lives in Rio. That in itself is already a tremendous tightrope act; but it’s not until darker events start occurring that we become aware of how much Salles is putting on a definitive movie on the horrors of a regime, and how much one act of cruelty can…
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Locked 2025
This is a story ripe for being remade around the world; I’m unfamiliar with the original, but having watched the Brazilian remake, that shares the entire narrative with 4x4, it’s clear enough that the concept travels well, but the context is just too specifically South American to justify a US version. Yarovesky has all the fun he can have with the trap, but sadly, he can’t hold it until the finale — which obviously has to offer something so clean…
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Snow White 2025
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a personal thing to me; it was the first movie I ever watched, the one that started it all. I’ve watched it so many times I’m 100% sure I can recite the entirety of the Portuguese dub, even though people usually beg me to stop before the five-minute mark.
These live-action remakes are unnecessary, but they don’t taint the original in any way; yet, for a Princess Stan, only Cinderella and The Little…
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Wonder Woman 1984 2020
“All you need is to want it.”
A plot built around wishing upon, with no material threat... I get why some would regard Wonder Woman 1984 as lazy. On my end, I just find it to be one rare beautiful tentpole, on how innocence can quickly turn into ignorance, and the price one pays for that.
Patty Jenkins really built something here. Ultra-reminiscent of the blockbusters of the era it’s set in, when some dumb idea could become the most massive of…
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Ambulance 2022
I’m a rare beast, I say Michael Bay’s an auteur all the time, but that I don’t like his art; and then today that shit came out to bite me.
My boys, what a perfect marriage of every high-octane masterpiece set in LA and the dumbest exaggerations a man in love with explosions could ever come up with. I’m awestruck at the audacity. There’s Speed in there, Heat, T2, it has it all; but then as soon as this thing starts,…
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