Simon1970 Reviews

Only the Animals (2019)

Starts well, but falls apart in the second half

[5/10 · 20 December 2020]

This film is well directed and has a great cast, but is let down by the plotting.

At first the film gives the impression that you're going to get a murder mystery set in the wintry Massif Central giving it a familiar Scandi-Noir atmosphere. You slowly get to see the events unravel from different viewpoints, with each subsequent telling explaining one pf the previous mysteries and adding some of its own.

But then, the film lurches off into to contrivance territory. Film is not real life, and you accept that sometimes the incredible needs to happen to move a plot forward. Not everything can be a Ken Loach drama.

But "Only The Animals" has four or five unbelievable coincidences, each of which rely on astronomical odds for them to happen. And with each one, my patience frayed a little further.

Some viewers will be happy to accept these multiple million-to-one flukes, and that's fine - I'm glad they won't have their enjoyment ruined.

For me though, it was weak storytelling and it soured my entire experience. Shame - it started off so well.

Ghost Stories (I) (2017)

Very well made - but ultimately disappointing

[6/10 · 6 April 2018]

It's difficult to review Ghost Stories without giving spoilers away, so I'll be very careful in what I say. If you're after some good jump scares and some nervous laughs, then it executes those beautifully. Also, Alex Lawther should be praised for a performance that knocks it out of the park. It's a good cast, but he outshines them all. However, I do have issues with the story itself. Initially the plotting teases a new post-modern take on portmanteau horror, with the individual cases not resolving in the usual way, but building to something more climatic. But the story constructs its final act by falling back on a trope that we have all seen before and this left me disappointed when the credits rolled. From Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman you might expect something else. Something different. Something new. It's very well-made, but it's not different or new.