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karlconga
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Don't Worry Darling (2022)
Not enough ideas for a Twilight Zone episode and a lot less subtle
The whole movie felt like one mediocre episode of The Twilight Zone, stretched to two hours, without adding any material. It has rather good cinematography and some nice visual ideas. The acting of Florence Pugh is great, as always (and even more so if you consider the material she had to work with). That's pretty much all good I found worth mentioning. Most other actors did not convince me. This might have been due to the rather shallow writing. This is especially apparent in Olivia Wilde's character, that has a strong conflict of interest, yet fails to convey any of that to the viewer (or at least to me).
IMHO the movie is not suspenseful at any point, which is surprising, given the premise. Unfortunately the story is rather predictable. At no point the writing leaves any doubt as to who's good and who's evil. This is especially apparent in how Chris Pine's character ends up and how that needs no justification (according to the writers).
One more good thing: This movie involuntarily exposes the notion of female oppression (in modern western societies!) for what it really is...mostly a conspiracy theory.
The Simpsons: You Won't Believe What This Episode Is About - Act Three Will Shock You! (2022)
Homer as the voice of reason and Lisa as the voice of conformity
...what strange times we live in.
Lisa used to be the rebel of the family, bowing to noone and doing what's right. Now her advice is to admit guilt (she calls it "accepting responsibility"), although Homer did nothing wrong. That felt really off.
The Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 30,000 Feet (2019)
Suspenseful in part, terrible moral ("woke" turns out to just mean "kafkaesque")
It's suspenseful story for most of the episode. I really liked the set and most of the cast. The story is a little predictable, as we have seen this kind of plot many times before, but it's a genre show.
The big issue I have with this episode is the terrible moral, Jordan Peele sums the plot up with in the end. Jordan accuses a certain character of bringing bad things upon themselves, for not "questioning him-/herself", so the person is guilty by default, no matter how hard and honestly they tried. It's a great example of how kafkaesque woke ideology actually is. In woke logic, it seems, the only way to redeem oneself, is to accept guilt, even though you have done nothing wrong.
Knives Out (2019)
Great cinematography, decent acting, great setup, wasted opportunities
This is a short review, because I read other critics make most of my points.
This movie could have been great. Great cast, decent action, nice backdrop, great cinematography. I thought I might give it 8/10 until I saw the last act.
The last act is so flawed, it ruined the movie for me. The biggest problem is that every one of the characters turns out to be just like the prejudices you are supposed to hold against them upon the first glance. People are just good or (most of them) evil. The detective turns out to be a mentalist and just knows things.
The end also makes the victim and the protagonist look like terrible people on closer inspection. This would be OK, if the viewer wasn't supposed to believe them to be the "nice ones".
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Well intended, but ultimately shallow and unengaging
Taika Waititi is no Wes Anderson.
I'm not even a huge fan of Anderson's, but he certainly can make a visually stunning (hence entertaining) movie without much of a story, or rather...with a story that can be summarized in a few sentences. But the result is still lovable for it's quirkiness.
I guess this is what Waititi was shooting for. He missed by a huge margin. It's not the lack of visually interesting scenes (thought still not in the same league with Anderson). It's the general topic, that makes the lack of story feel very off. It's a setting that shouldn't allow for such a void.
Pretty much every of the characters feel unbelievable or at least underdeveloped. I understand this is a comedy, but good comedies required especially good writing.
War is depicted as abstract, with little impact on every day life (in terms of conveniences). Everything is pretty much just talk until the last act and everybody seems well off.
Apart from the last act, not much happens in terms of a plot.
I don't see this movie as potentially offensive in any way, because it doesn't really dare an unpleasant perspective. Nazis are always depicted as idiots or caricatures. Everybody is a victim of the circumstances.
The message seemed especially odd to me. Where you would expect it to take either the road to moralize heavily, or point out that good or bad are hardly ever cut clearly, the movie appears to say: "Good or bad are a part of life anyway. Don't bother."
I beg to differ.
Watchmen (2019)
Good ideas, but as woke as it gets. It won't age well. Unsatisfying ending, if you still care by that time.
The cast is hit or miss. I loved Jeremy Irons, Hong Chau and Jovan Adepo. I really didn't like Regina King. It's party due to how her character is written. She is supposed to be everything: Caring mother, badass vigilante, sensual lover. I found her utterly boring and quite unrelatable. That's of course a matter of personal taste.
The original score is quite good, but the selection of stock music is pretty cliche and rather uninspired.
The story has a lot of flaws and a lot of logic holes. I won't spoil anything, so I won't go into too much detail. The biggest problem to me (at least in the beginning) was the unlikely antagonist threat. It's very 2019 however, which will make the show feel dated soon. It made me cringe often.
I understand that Watchmen is about alternate history, but that still doesn't sell me the idea that some people are just evil. The show introduces the concept of "secret racists" (spelling it even out). These are people who don't act racist, even have close sincere friendships with people of different ethnicities, BUT ARE EVIL because...well...the show doesn't really make that clear. However, it leaves no doubt those evil people deserve no less than death as punishment.
By the end I had stopped caring who makes it, except for one character. That one is then being judged harshly...by today's standards, for something he did 35 years ago in a situation of extreme threat, something that's supposed to be morally highly ambiguous (even in the original comic). The woke squad has no problem with harsh judgement, however.
Neither have I: mediocre at most, where it could have easily been great.
Ingrid Goes West (2017)
Guilty of the same crime it tries to point out
I'm really surprised this movie got rather good reviews. A lot of reviewers point out the movie's important and righteous core message...but is that really the case?
Music and look generally seem very generic, clean and "postable". Ultimately this also lets the movie seem dated and it certainly doesn't provide much contrast to the aesthetics depicted as shallow. I doubt it will age well.
The acting is decent, but is it that hard to portray mostly shallow people? I would expect good writing to let something real below the facade shimmer through, but I didn't notice any of that worth mentioning. All the movie does is point out the obvious, without much subtlety.
The worst part however is, that the movie never believably questions the mechanics of likes and public exposure. It just shows someone who kind of overdoes it. LOL. In the end, "something going viral" is the ultimate reward and the happy ending.
I was really disappointed.
If you want a more subtle take on the issue, watch Black Mirror's "Nosedive".