This was a strange film, honestly; it feels like a flavourless combination of The Big Short and Miss Marple. If you're going to do that "selfaware thing" where an actor speaks directly to the camera in a snarky tone, you should have extremely smart & interesting writing to back it up. This film didn't and seems completely unaware of it; because not only was it not done well, it was overdone.
The film wants to be clever - wants to make you think & make you angry at the evil practices of businessmen and politicians - but it stays with the intention, I never felt a thing. A white lady can't have the exact apartment she wants? Buhuuu. I'm sorry, but think about it. Of all the scenarios that stem from the 1% "having it all"?
Overall, the film to me feels very "Hollywood patting itself on the back"; Oh, aren't billionaires just the worst, when will us regular people share the wealth, what has soceity come to?! It is a relevant message for sure, but coming from a pack of A-listers (in the style that they chose to do it) feels disingenuous and cringy. It wasn't funny, it wasn't emotional, it wasn't clever. It wasn't good. It didn't tell me anything I didn't know or show me anything that I haven't seen other films do better. The cast is really good and Meryl Streep is amazing as always. Her scenes were what kept me from clicking away.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Wild Witch
(2018)
A beautiful nothingburger
2 September 2019
The production work on this movie is breathtaking, especially for a Danish-language film. You can tell that someone threw a lot of money at it. The film really looks like a proper fantasy epic. Emphasis on 'looks like' because unfortunately, the writing doesn't come close in terms of quality or attention to detail. The plot is cliché and the dialogue is cringeworthy. It is unbelievable that it took 3 people to write this. Sometimes it flat out doesn't even make any sense and the viewer is left with more questions than answers. They use the word "wild" so many times we joked about taking a shot every time.
Anyway, the wild world of wild witches with wild friends has the potential to be interesting but falls dissapointingly flat. The characters are underdeveloped although I think the actors did their best. Perhaps something can be said about three men writing a film targeted to a tween girl audience about a tween witch based on a book by a female author for female audience... Why not bring on a woman to co-write the script? I feel like the film desperately needs it. The relationship between mother and daughter feels disingenuous. The relationship between the two girls Kahla and Clara lacks build-up. The supposed "girl drama" at school lacks logic. Yes, middle school girl drama isn't always rational - especially not to three grown dudes - but really!? I won't spoil specific details, but you will understand what I mean when you see it.
I thought the ending was the lamest ending in the history of endings. The scenery was the only wild thing in this film. I only gave it three stars because of the stunning cinematography.
The Defenders
(2017)
Three Guys, A Girl and A Chinese Restaurant.
23 August 2017
Warning: Spoilers
One sec - Let me just finish this tall glass of disappointment.
I was very excited to finally see these characters meet, but it seems like the producers weren't. The first two episodes seem like cheap reruns of each characters own show. You'd think with just 8 episodes they would tighten it up, make it exciting from the get-go, but no. Seemed like maybe they were trying to build up each character's motivation for them to eventually join the fight but it wasn't very well executed. Actually, character-motivation was generally lacking throughout the show.
One of the biggest problems with the show is the dialogue. Every line is corny and predictable. Except for maybe Jessica and Alexandra, who manage to shine through with a little bit of gritty playfulness and humor. The show could have used more of that playfulness before desperately pushing the superhero "family of destiny" agenda.
They can't expect that sort of emotional engagement from the audience after a bit of punching in an office and boring on-the-nose, whiny dialogue in a Chinese restaurant, sharing Wantons. It falls flat when compared to scenes like the Avengers budding egos and eating shawarma, which is the vibe of "unlikely friendship" I sense they were going for. They also tried to build up a sort of goofy bromance between Luke and Danny - but it just didn't work for me. They were pushing it waaay too hard, too soon and too obviously. It's not a freakin' Pixar movie! - Let the relationships build naturally and believably.
I wouldn't have minded the season being 13 episodes if they'd spent the time on proper bonding between the characters. Jessica doesn't have any martial-arts experience. It would have been incredibly cool to see her train with Daredevil or Danny in Colleen's dojo-- or have Jessica show rich-kid Danny some of her handy street-smart persuasion skills.. Something along those lines. It's like they focused too much on each character on their own, and excuse me, but I thought this was supposed to be an awesome team-up of underground superheroes.
Overall impression: A wasted opportunity.
I was very excited to finally see these characters meet, but it seems like the producers weren't. The first two episodes seem like cheap reruns of each characters own show. You'd think with just 8 episodes they would tighten it up, make it exciting from the get-go, but no. Seemed like maybe they were trying to build up each character's motivation for them to eventually join the fight but it wasn't very well executed. Actually, character-motivation was generally lacking throughout the show.
One of the biggest problems with the show is the dialogue. Every line is corny and predictable. Except for maybe Jessica and Alexandra, who manage to shine through with a little bit of gritty playfulness and humor. The show could have used more of that playfulness before desperately pushing the superhero "family of destiny" agenda.
They can't expect that sort of emotional engagement from the audience after a bit of punching in an office and boring on-the-nose, whiny dialogue in a Chinese restaurant, sharing Wantons. It falls flat when compared to scenes like the Avengers budding egos and eating shawarma, which is the vibe of "unlikely friendship" I sense they were going for. They also tried to build up a sort of goofy bromance between Luke and Danny - but it just didn't work for me. They were pushing it waaay too hard, too soon and too obviously. It's not a freakin' Pixar movie! - Let the relationships build naturally and believably.
I wouldn't have minded the season being 13 episodes if they'd spent the time on proper bonding between the characters. Jessica doesn't have any martial-arts experience. It would have been incredibly cool to see her train with Daredevil or Danny in Colleen's dojo-- or have Jessica show rich-kid Danny some of her handy street-smart persuasion skills.. Something along those lines. It's like they focused too much on each character on their own, and excuse me, but I thought this was supposed to be an awesome team-up of underground superheroes.
Overall impression: A wasted opportunity.
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