Favorite films
Don’t forget to select your favorite films!
Don’t forget to select your favorite films!
Branagh's third time in front of and behind the camera as Poirot hits most of the same notes as the prior two entries. This time, the backdrop is Venice on Halloween where residents are trapped in a palatial palazzo by a storm rather than stuck on a train or barge.
The film throws new elements into the mix: Fey plays a 40s screwball comedy heroine, and the setting feints at supernatural horrors, as the title suggests. However, the film quickly…
Elemental begins with what, I think, was intended to be a meet-cute: our protagonist partially destroys her family's out-of-code building, threatening the safety of her family and nearby residents, then chases and threatens two municipal employees with violence when they uncover the violations. (I think the filmmakers think this is charming; but imagine if the genders were flipped; would it be fun to watch a man chase a woman across a city and stop her from getting into her office?)…
The film pivots from the nadir of 2 Fast 2 Furious and the surprisingly enjoyable Tokyo Drift by attempting a proper sequel to the original film. But the film only feints at the original street racing premise, and finds itself without anything to take its place - the series has not shifted to a proper action series, and outside the opening oil tanker heist, the race scenes pass in a CGI-blur. Nothing matches the extended desert chase from 1, or…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Gerwig follows the twin triumphs of Lady Bird and Little Women with a different kind of coming of age story. In both conception and execution, Barbie is astonishing - rarely are women auteurs given the budget and freedom to take such big swings. And Barbie largely sticks the landing. The film is laugh-out-loud funny, spinning laughs from the doll's existential crisis and a serious attempt to disentangle Barbie's role in the world, viz-a-viz women empowerment.
But the film's interest in…