wooozie

If hockey has its Miracle, football’s hot candidate for that is American Samoa. Next Goal Wins is the best sports documentary since the unrivaled Senna and the best underdog’s rise to fame story since Forrest Gump. Incredibly inspiring with a guaranteed feel-good atmosphere.

I had been thinking for a long time about how exactly to describe or evaluate this masterpiece, but in certain cases, words just won’t do justice. At first, I was suspecting Cuarón of setting up an artsy trap for me with some would-be deeper level of meaning, but over time it became more than clear to me that Netflix had sent out another extraordinary work into the world. Every detail of the film, although seemingly commonplace, is absolutely flawless and technically refined, and even if I had any doubts left about the uniqueness of this film, the scene in the maternity hospital will probably be etched in my memory forever, emotionally taking this film to a whole new level. Masterful direction, a masterpiece of a film, what more could I ask for?

If I were to find a category for this movie, then "falling apart in your hands" would be a fitting one. But seriously, the beginning is excellent, the concert and small dramatic scenes work wonderfully, but then comes the turning point. A turning point not only in the story but mainly in terms of direction. It felt like Bradley Cooper had no idea which way to go next. Putting aside the development of the supporting characters, who were mostly irrelevant to the story, ever since the start of Ally's solo career, it isn’t clear where the protagonist couple's story is going, and there are more questions than answers. Towards the end, it really starts falling apart like a house of cards, and the musically romantic and dramatic flow of the movie turns into fading chaos (for example, did Ally know about her husband's going deaf? etc.). At the end of the day, however, I must admit that despite the bitter taste left by the ending, the positives slightly outweigh the negatives. Lady Gaga isn’t a brilliant actress and probably never will be, but she sure is an excellent singer/songwriter.

This is exactly the kind of movie I usually go for – a feel-good movie and a classic indie drama. So, based on the reception of The Florida Project, my expectations were high. Unfortunately, this just wasn’t my thing. Although I agree with the high number of positive reviews, watching it was mind-numbing for me. As a de facto documentary about stereotypical white trash, it works perfectly, but apart from the character of Willem Dafoe, there is not a single at least partially likable character that I could relate to, quite the contrary. The behavior of the central group of three screaming kids was driving me nuts, and the main character of the mother - a typical representative of the American white trash mentality "I am a total wreck, an incompetent loser, absolutely useless to society and it’s somebody else’s fault, not mine" – just plain irritated me. There might have been those who experienced some sort of a powerful catharsis after the ending, but personally, I only experienced the feeling of being pissed off. I rarely look at my watch to see how much time is left until the end - in this case, after a while, it was every 5 minutes.

Spike Lee seems like the type of person who tells you a great joke only to kill it immediately by explaining it to you, thinking you didn't get it. It’s barely tolerable the first time someone does it. If it’s the twentieth time, it gets downright annoying, and you feel like telling that person to give it a rest. The same could be said of BlacKkKlansman. It is relaxing and even funny, but it completely underestimates the viewers' intelligence. As if strongly pointing to the clash of different viewpoints wasn’t enough, it was necessary to use the actual footage from recent events. It would have worked somewhere else, but here it seemed completely redundant given the whole plot - not because it didn’t have anything to say, but because anyone who can put two and two together would have already picked up on those parallels while watching the movie.

I completely understand that for Asians in North America, Crazy Rich Asians have acquired a practically cult status, and even the romance plot works quite well, but the comedy aspect is just as insanely idiotic as you would expect of an Asian comedy. Far-fetched, often loud, far too colorful and sometimes downright bizarre. Granted, the romance plot can be enjoyable for some, it's a classic cliché in all respects, but actual humor is nowhere to be found. Apart from a few exceptions, it’s totally mediocre.

Practically the same in all respects as A Quiet Place, both in terms of positives and negatives. This means a great idea, editing and acting, but full of striking logical nonsense. I get it that authors need to simplify things in order to make their work easier, but here there were complete leaps of logic once every ten minutes or so. It's a shame since the film had great potential, but the only possible reason to watch this again could be John Malkovich’s brilliant performance.

Nothing about this movie works. Either an extreme amount of material got left in the editing room or it’s much simpler than that and Sony just came out with another below-average nonsense. The opening is something so terrible that I’m actually surprised by my patience to watch it all the way through. Riz Ahmed is absolutely unconvincing in the role of a "terrible, crazy visionary" and his being cast in this role is something I cannot fathom, just like the choice of Michelle Williams. You can clearly tell she is not enjoying this in the least and her performance is really pathetic. Tom Hardy may be an excellent actor, but I don’t think anybody can save this mess. The plot makes hardly any sense, and most twists and story shifts have very little to do with logic. While it had amazing potential, the result is pathetic and I don't intend to watch it again.

I was really looking forward to the new Predator, but the result is absolutely worthless. None of the story makes any sense. Apart from a few exceptions, the vast majority of jokes don’t land, there are about a million characters none of whom are interesting, the special effects are at the level of a B-movie from 15 years ago and the action is simply pathetic. The endurance and near-invincibility of the characters is almost ridiculous given the context of the original movie. It lacks atmosphere. As time goes on, it just keeps on falling apart, and when you think it can't possibly get any dumber, there are some truly absurd deaths in anticipation of the final showdown. The scene on the flying ship is like icing on a botched cake. A nominee for a flop of the year.

The first half is excellent, but, for reasons that escape me, the second half gets transformed into a B-movie with an absence of logic, where the scary scenes don’t work even once and the whole survival mode kills the previously excellently built-up atmosphere. Great concept and execution, brilliant direction, superb acting performances, but the nonsense in the story is just too much to take.