Change Your Image
aladar4
Reviews
George Michael: Easy to Pretend (2019)
Film students, watch and learn!
Should be used as a case study on documentary courses.
A film so bland, badly written and badly edited that even those new to being able to 'read' a film will find it obvious this is not the way to tell a story.
To learn about how to make a compelling film, just watch this and do the complete opposite.
The structure of this documentary seemed to be based on mainly showing cheap or free footage because the makers of the documentary were surprised that people with good footage would want to be paid.
Some songs were played for less than two seconds, while we seemed to get more than 10 minutes of a member of the public commenting on a George Michael news story. It seems the longest music clip was included with terrible audio because it was from someone's mobile phone from the back of a large hall.
Inside Man (2022)
Amateurish attempt to combine Silence of the Lambs sleuthing with Fargo-style humour
Writer Moffat seems so very pleased with himself. He seems to think that a single piece of cod-philosophy is enough to carry a four part TV series. The kind of though a first-year university student would come up with on day one of a philosophy degree. Before the actual teaching has started.
As regards tone - it is all over the place. By accident, not design.
The powers of deduction attributed to Stanley Tucci's Hannibal Lector-like character aren't impressive. Is success is due to chance. In each of the cases he addresses, there are many other possible occurrences that might have happened.
At least it really is 'so bad it's good.' Enjoyable for committed performances from the British actors, let down by barely engaged performances from the Americans. Blame timid direction for that. Insecurity about getting good performances led to weak scene blocking and mostly unmotivated shot choices.
So if they do get a second season, I will tune in - if only to enjoy how bad TV can be and despair at how amateurish British productions can be.
House of Gucci (2021)
Terrible structure. Non-existent pace. Mismatched acting.
What a stinker!
Terrible structure. Non-existent pace. Drab colour scheme. Mismatched acting.
Adam Driver's version of Michael Corleone comes across as an entitled idiot. Lady Gaga starts off with a tiny amount of dimensionality and then has to play single note turns for scene after scene.
After the first 15 minutes of mild interest the story devolved into "and then, and then, and then..."
Boring. Boring. Boring.
There a few themes buried in the story they chose to tell, but they were fumbled and not well explored.
They should have seen what a good trailer they had and made a film to match its trashy style. I'm looking forward to the fan edit that delivers what the trailer promised.
Sadly not even 'so bad it's good' - just bad.
Avoid!
Resistance (2011)
One of the most 'cinematic' films of the year
Knowing that the film you are about to see is based on a much-loved historical novel that was partially funded by book groups and fans much lead you to expect a movie made up of long complex conversations in overly art-directed heritage country houses.
Resistance is the opposite of novelistic. It is the embodiment of cinematic. There are as few words as possible in every scene. No voice-overs, people sitting down to write letters, no exposition. Despite it's wartime setting, this film is not made up of daring missions by brave resistance fighters against inhuman Nazis. It is an exploration of whether we can resist the forces that seek to shape our lives.
I see the film as the story of Albrecht, the leader of the small group of war-weary Germans who have been assigned the task of occupying a remote Welsh hamlet in alternative history version of WWII in which the Germans are invading the British Isles. When he first arrives, the women say that their men are up farming the remote fields. He soon realises that the men have vanished in advance of his arrival in a bid to join the British resistance.
As with good movie titles, it means more than one thing: as well as the resistance group that the men have left to join, there are the large and small acts of resistance that are open to the remaining women, and even some of the Germans.
Resistance is a period film, but it has more in common with 2011's 'Drive' and 'Shame' than 'It Happened Here' and 'Saving Private Ryan.'
The Road to Wellville (1994)
I'm amazed that this film was ever released
This film is not bad because it is filled with references to sex and bodily functions. It is bad because it is ineptly written and ineptly produced. There is no recognisable structure. Things happen that make no sense. We have no investment in any of the characters.
People interact with each other - no-one is affected, no-one develops in any way that seems human! I can't imagine how Alan Parker's script was approved. I can't imagine how any of the producers - seeing the amorphous splodge of scenes cut together - thought that this was worth releasing. Angel Heart is a model of consistency and logic compared with this mess! And the producers seemed to want flaunt their budget, 'look at the production design!' 'look at the huge cast' 'look how much money we raised on this director and cast.' This film is so badly made that I would be fascinated to discover how this could have possibly happened!