Change Your Image
brightsidereviews
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Death Note (2017)
A fantastically put-together dark comedy.
I did not watch this movie with any pre-conceived notions of what Death Note has to be. I saw a clip with Willem Defoe as Ryuk and was sold. Having just rewatched the movie, I enjoyed it even more. The performances are great, it's filled to the brim with interesting and cool shots and great background details, the OST is full of 80s synthy goodness, and the whole movie is so much fun. Lakeith Stanfield gives the best performance of the movie, which made me pay attention to him before he showed up in Get Out and Atlanta, but Nat Wolff, much reviled I've seen for his portrayal of Light, is equally if not more deserving of praise for his hilarious line deliveries and for throwing himself full-force into this role. This role which isn't the same Light as in the manga or anime, but is the right character for this movie. This is a funny movie, and doesn't take itself too seriously, but is also very professionally and carefully put together on a technical level. Particularly at the beginning it struck me as being quite similar to Donnie Darko, but becomes its own twisted self as it goes on. I have heard the complaints, the angry fans, but as a movie, not as a Death Note adaptation but purely as its own film, I can find very little wrong with it, and countless reasons to enjoy it.