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jjensmo
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The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)
Awesome all around...political agenda(s) ruined it...
Almost a 9/10 or 10/10 show, between overall writing, acting, directing, story-telling, cinematography, sound, side-tracks, foreshadowing, call-backs, mystery...pulling in a dozen or more of Poe's works into a brilliant mixture. But, no, whether lefty politics or rights politics...they don't to be blatantly, nor subtly, crammed down people's throat in a shrouded attempt to, pretty much literally, sneak subliminal ideology messages across in the cracks of an others assumed great and enthralling show. Having to give the Usher family the background of how they got so big, by making them the Sacklers...spiraled to big pharma - evil, to free market - evil, having Verna photo with Trump because Trump is a scary orange evil man (she even had to quote his "I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue sociopathic rambling once it was obvious who she was). Agree or disagree with big pharma, or free market, or Trump...or their exact opposites...I could not care less. But - creating work where you purposefully weave subliminal political ideologies to very much try ever so subtly to spread your message...100% makes you as or more evil than those you're trying to prove are worse. Quote the Raven..."hypocrisy". That diatribe aside...and OTHER than the political garbage...I loved it.
Smile (2022)
'It Follows' 2022 version
Cool premise, well made, good acting...but...100% remake of It Follows...and even has some of the same immensly irritating 'music'...meh. There's a handful of jump scares, a handful of 'why don't you just do X', moments, a handful of great cinematography and special effects...but couldn't get past it being a remake nor the fact that in today's world no one would have linked all the cases they discuss together. It keeps your attention and was put together well, and/but if you've never seen It Follows you should certainly watch it before or after this. Worth watching, not worth spending much $ or hope on though.
The Last House on the Street (2021)
couldn't make it through...
I think I've only ever turned off maybe 3-4 movies before finishing...no matter how horrible they have been. Add this one to the list (just under 1/2-way through). The actual cinematography/editing wasn't too bad, but that's about all. Writing, acting, delivery, storyline, humor, horror, suspense, intrigue, likeability, etc...just...no.
I'd agree with another review in pointing out that it seemed like a school film project, but, not too positive it'd get a passing grade...
The Sinner (2017)
Seasons 1/2/3 - good/great/...what?
Bill Pullman's awesome! Season 1 was very good (dark, but great writing/acting/storyline), season 2 got even better overall. Season 3...a few subtle & unnecessary politic/social matters, along with a few subpar & time-filler moments/twists, subtly manage to overshadow what otherwise would have been as good/better than the previous 2 seasons. Looking forward to more seasons, and hopefully sticking with the things (writing/acting/cinematography/twists/etc) that have made the series great.
No Escape Room (2018)
Great premise & twist(s)
The idea is great, caused a handful of tense moments and intriguing steps, honestly great overall cinematography (lighting/angles/scene builds). There were a couple times the writing seemed to have thrown a dart at the dart board (worst example being the premise story of what the 5 in the escape room needs to do and why not really being re-visited/explained), but overall was pretty good. Toward the end took some pretty interesting time-looping turns & twists. Some will be upset about questions not being answered and being wrapped up nice and neat (though, if you think about it enough, it in a way does), but it's nice to see movies that leave things hanging a bit occasionally. This seems to leave things hanging but without leaving you mad about it. Certainly worth watching and will leave you thinking for a while afterward. Well put together.
The Open House (2018)
Much better than reviews give credit for if you think deeper...
I haven't read yet this as a potential theory (though I'm sure it's out there), but here goes...
My thought:is that the killer is neighbor's (Martha) husband, and they're actually working together. She's acting as if she has Alzheimer'st to cause confusion & add to the oddities/terror of the soon-to-be victims. When Logan escapes the house and runs to the woods and hides behind the log, Martha wanders extremely close to him, stares into the sky, then wanders away. I believe she actually saw him, got close enough to (again) add to his terror, walked away w/o interacting...and went straight to her husband to tell him where she saw him so that he could hunt him down to finish it. Add to that, it is possible her husband (and killer) is the plumber...which would additionally tie together some of his comments (being familiar/having been there) and finding Logan's phone, etc.
Or....the actual killer is someone not introduced to the audience and everyone else in the movie is truly 100% innocent. We see stories daily in today's world/news of people being attacked or murdered, but we never actually find out all the details for closure on the vast majority of them. This movie captures that aspect amazingly in either of the above approaches. Look at this movie as if you were reading a news story, or the police involved...you have very little to go off, but at least have a couple additional possible clues that we normally wouldn't in real life.
Kudos to this movie breaking the norm that 99.99% of movies follow to give the audience full closure. This isn't the first, and hopefully is not the last, movie where the ending either isn't fully explained or isn't fully a traditional wrapped up happy ending. We don't always get all the answers, we don't always get our way, life isn't always fair.
ps: this is my very 1st movie review on IMDB, after giving ratings reviews for countless of them. After reading many reviews, just felt strongly enough to put in my perspective and thinking this was a MUCH better movie than most reviews give it credit for.