Tag: drama

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Fanny And Alexander… Could’ve Been An Email

Posted on by jadedsteelereviews

So… I watched Fanny and Alexander. Or rather, I survived Fanny and Alexander.

They tell you this one’s “Bergman’s most accessible”, like it’s some lighthearted Christmas tale with a bit of emotional depth. What they don’t tell you is it starts with baubles and ends with spiritual collapse.

Honestly? It’s like getting invited to a festive buffet and halfway through, someone quietly takes your plate away and starts reading Psalms over your shoulder while your childhood dies in the background.

Act One: Oh this is quite nice?

We open on Christmas. It’s loud, it’s theatrical, it’s vaguely chaotic in a charming old-timey way. People are laughing, drinking, reminiscing… it’s giving A Swedish Muppet Christmas Carol and I was into it.

For about twenty minutes.

Then things took a turn.

Suddenly the fun drains out of the room and we’re locked in the bleakest IKEA catalogue ever printed. And by the time Alexander’s watching ghost children appear in a bishop’s attic, I’m Googling whether Bergman was okay and if I, too, need therapy now.

Act Two: The Film Refuses to End

I don’t mind long films. I’ve watched Yi-Yi, I’ve made it through The Irishman twice I’m no stranger to a slow burn.

But this? This wasn’t a burn. This was emotional waterboarding with candlelight and theatre metaphors. Every time I thought, “Ah, here’s the end,” Bergman whispered “No… no, we’ve still got more emotional suffering to unbox.”

And I still don’t fully understand the puppet stuff. Was it symbolic? Was it haunted? Was it just Sweden being Sweden?

My biggest takeaway?

This entire plot could’ve been resolved in a passive aggressive family WhatsApp thread.

“Hi all, just a quick one, the bishop is emotionally abusing the kids. We’re moving out. Fanny says hi x”

Done. Roll credits.

Final Thoughts:

Do I regret watching it? No. It’s one of those “I watched it so you don’t have to” situations. Did I connect with it? Honestly, not really. Felt like I was intruding on a private therapy session filmed in candlelight.

Could it have been an email? Absolutely.

In Courier font, with no attachments.

If Fanny and Alexander is the festive art-house classic, then I’m the kid in the corner staring into the middle distance wondering when the biscuits arrive.

Now credit where credit is due, this is considered one of Bergman’s best, and I can see why.

It’s layered, it’s theatrical… it’s got a haunted puppet man for some reason.

I just think they cram so much into its three and a half hour runtime… and even more in the five-hour version… if you really hate yourself and have nowhere to be that is!

I’ll give a three out of ten, I can see why people like it and I can see why it’s Bergman’s best but… it’s just not for me, I watched it and I can now say “yeah I’ve seen Fanny and Alexander… didn’t rate it”

Until next time guys… catch ya later 🙂

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Mothers Day (2010) Psychological Home Invasion Thriller Offers Nothing New

Posted on by jadedsteelereviews

Back in 2010 a film came out titled Mothers Day, and I do kind of remember this film, sure it fell under the radar and vanished in to the realm of obscurity but hey what film hasn’t.

The film starred Rebecca De Mornay who I must admit I do love when she plays a villain, if you haven’t seen Hand That Rocks The Cradle stop what you are doing and watch it!

It is without a doubt the most creepiest villains you see, she plays that character so bloody well it’s chilling.

The film also stars Frank Grillo and Jaime King as a couple hosting a party in their home, we see them going through a bit of a rough patch in their life, we don’t fully understand why that is until later on.

De Mornay’s family invade the home thinking it’s still theirs from their childhood, little do they know that they lost the house in a foreclosure.

Beth and Daniel end up becoming hostages as well as the other party guests.

This is where the cliches come in to play, you know the ones.

Villain has hid something around the house and it’s always either a small fortune or stack loads of money, the new owners deny any existence of said item and then end up paying the price.

We see the guests endure various torture methods, one including boiling hot water poured in to the ear, while quite tame in comparison to one poor bastard getting a shotgun pellet to his face the kills in this flick are… meh.

Now don’t get me wrong there are rather painful moments including one guy getting a snooker ball to the hand, compared to the shotgun part they are rather tame.

I must say though however my favourite part was when de mornay taunts Grillo’s character.

Halfway through the film we learn through old photos and newspaper clippings, that the reason their going through a rough patch is because Grillo and Kings characters Daniel and Beth had a little boy named Jake who sadly passed away after being hit by a car.

De Mornay shows the old photos including Jake’s old toys and demands where the money is, taunting him saying if he kept an eye on him instead of letting him run out in to the street he’d be here today, tucked up in bed.

It’s an intense scene and you really feel for poor Daniel here, seeing a psychotic woman burn a photo of your son while your duct taped and tied up must be hard to watch.

The worst part is where she douses the keepsake box with alcohol and burns the rest of Jake’s belongings, it is a rather depressing scene to say the least.

As I said in the title Mother’s Day offers nothing new, it’s cliche ridden but it is decent watch I did have a good time with it but you can tell why it’s underrated, the production value feels cheap.

The acting sometimes is subpar, there were a few scenes where I did roll my eyes and think “oh god really”

De Mornay’s character is brilliant however, like I said she plays a terrific villain.

I give this film a 4.5 out of ten, it’s a decent flick but deep down it is a run of the mill home invasion horror, if you want a good recommendation for this particular sub genre check out Straw Dogs with Dustin Hoffman, now that’s a home invasion thriller worth seeing.

But as always until next time, catch ya later 🙂

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The Trouble With Blumhouse

Posted on by jadedsteelereviews

When does a movie studio come to the realisation that the movies your churning out are not that good? Well if your Blumhouse the answer is… never.

Let me explain.

Back in 2009 we were greeted with one of the most scariest found footage films since the Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity.

Much like Blair Witch it starred complete unknowns, and quickly became the most scariest found footage film ever made, and with good reason, the film followed young couple Katie and Micah as they document demonic hauntings in their California home.

It was of course Blumhouse’s first movie, soon after they quickly became a powerhouse within the horror genre.

Solely relying on low budgets and relatively unknown directors they took the world of horror by storm, and then… something happened.

The quality dipped, the movies were becoming… rubbish, rather than solely focus on what made them big in the first place, they made bog standard run of the mill horror with cheap effects, and over the top jump scares.

They even went down the franchises route and made rather unnecessary sequels to otherwise great films, paranormal activity for instance, the first one was great, it was scary… it did it what set out to do which was to scare the absolute crap out of you.

There is a reason people say it’s the scariest found footage movie ever made, and… they’re not wrong.

But then they bought out the sequel Paranormal Activity 2, it was… okay, the scares were still there but I don’t know I felt like there was something missing, I can’t quite put my finger on what that missing thing is, I just feel like there’s something, maybe it’s just me.

They then released the prequel with the third one, now this was great! We got a flashback to when Katie and Kristie were little, we got the backstory that we all wanted, and it delivered, it was a worthy prequel.

Until!

They made a spin-off, a Mexican family this time, it still had the found footage element but again it fell flat, then they released the fourth one and well… let’s just say the less said about that the better.

Then the dreaded fifth one came out, I went with my younger sister to see it, there was me and her and three other people in the theatre, the scares… well, I can’t remember there being any, and that ending! Good god in heaven it was bad, like I vividly remember when the credits rolled I went “was that it” sure I got a few laughs but I was being serious, was that it?

After the fifth one was released I do think this is where they started dipping in quality.

Remember the film Sinister? Starred Ethan Hawke as a true crime novelist who moves his family in to a murder home so he can write his next book, terrifying, critics loved it as did I.

It was a breath of fresh air, it didn’t just rely on cheap, tacky jump scares no, it relied on tension as well.

Then we got a sequel, we didn’t ask for it, we didn’t need it, but somehow we got one.

It felt flat, it felt… well I can’t even put it into words but it was bad, sure it still had the same formula as the first one but… the first one had great acting, this on good god, my cat could have acted better than those actors, now I rarely speak bad of child actors I really do, I always praise them, it’s just…

Some child actors have it… and others well… they don’t, and the two boys in this sequel didn’t have it, I’m sorry to say but they were bad, I know I know I feel terrible but believe me they were.

Call me harsh, call me mean but that’s what I thought.

Now don’t get me wrong for every bad movie they have released there are some pretty decent ones, as I mentioned sinister, the first Insidious movie, Oculus directed by Hill House and Bly Manor director Mike Flanagan, and of course the Halloween reboot released back in 2018 (we won’t mention the sequels)

Flash forward to today and they haven’t made a decent horror flick in my opinion for a good few years, again they solely rely on sequels and run of the mill scares.

There’s no passion from them anymore.

That’s a bold statement but just look at their recent flicks.

Imaginary, about an imaginary friend that kills people, again the premise is fantastic but the payoff was god awfully cheap.

Night Swim, I reviewed that earlier this year and did not hold back on how bad it was, I mentioned the premise, no one has seen a haunted swimming pool before in films, night swim was supposed to give us that and instead we got… cheap and cheesy scares with god awful character decision making seriously watch the film and get back to me regarding the decisions they make in this film, thank me later.

I used to be a massive fan of Blumhouse, but after a string of crappy films is it time for this distributor to go bye bye?

Believe it or not but the box office numbers tell a completely different story.

People love them, sure they complain that it’s bad but they love it, as strange the human race is we love a good scare.

In my honest opinion I really do think they need to take a step back, take a good look in the mirror and say “here’s where we’re going wrong” and work on that.

Will it work? Will they come back and regain their control as a powerhouse of horror industry?

Time will tell.

Until next time catch ya later 🙂

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Tourette’s And I, Quite Possibly One Of The Most Eye Opening Short Films I Have Seen

Posted on by jadedsteelereviews

I love a good short film, it always astounds me how directors can cram so much story in to a twenty-thirty minute timeframe, you get short comedy films, short documentary films even short horror films (there is a dozen on YouTube that are well worth a look at)

I want to talk about a little film called Tourette’s And I, it’s a film about yes you guessed it Tourette’s syndrome and how it effects one man’s day to day life.

I have known people with this, I went to school with a boy who had Tourette’s, we still talk to this day believe it or not.

Tourette’s and I follows the story of a man who attempts to go for a job interview but is quickly overcome by a bout of tics, he quickly leaves the interview.

It’s possibly one of the most eye opening short films I’ve seen, Children Of Leningradsky was the most hard hitting short film but Tourette’s and I is the most eye opening.

It highlights a disability that people don’t really understand, people who have Tourette’s are constantly bullied and mocked for their tics, it’s sad but it happens.

There is another film that highlights Tourette’s syndrome titled Front Of The Class, again well worth a look as it’s a true story, once again it highlights how one child is bullied because of his tics and how his school principal helps him.

I do think people need to understand a bit more about Tourette’s, at the end of the day they are still people too, they have jobs like what we have, I mean some have families, they are normal people like you and me, but the whole bullying aspect it really needs to stop.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, as I have said countless upon countless of times, it’s eye opening, as it highlights a disability that people need to understand better.

10/10 for this one, the acting is brilliant and the story will indeed make you cry.

As always guys until next time… catch ya later 🙂

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C’mon C’mon, heartfelt, funny and a definite Oscar contender

Posted on by jadedsteelereviews

Two amazing films have come out in the last few months, we’ve had Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical drama Belfast, and we have Mike Mills with C’mon C’mon.

What can I say about this movie that hasn’t already been said by various critics and audiences alike, it’s not only a great film it’s a fantastic one at that, the film stars Joaquin Phoenix as John, a documentary maker travelling various cities such as Detroit, New York City and New Orleans.

Tagging along is John’s nephew Jesse, now I’m going to stop right here and talk about this particular character because critics have been raving about this kid, “future star in the making” “he’s going to be big” “remember this name because he is going to be taking over Hollywood”

Jesse is played by newcomer child actor Woody Norman in quite possibly one of the best acting gigs he’s done (being it’s his debut) his character is played so well that during the 108 minute runtime, you sympathise a lot with this nine year old.

Basically his father is suffering from bipolar disorder and is receiving treatment for it, hence why he’s tagging along with John helping interview kids.

Now these segments involving these children are nothing short of remarkable because these children are not actors… they are real ordinary children which I have not seen done in a movie before… ever. Some of these questions and answers that are given is quite honestly very intriguing, such as “what do you think the future will look like”

It’s a fantastic movie that I predict should do quite well at this years awards season, from BAFTAs to Oscars and SAG Awards, you name it it’ll be a massive awards contender.

10/10 for this one, it’s a great movie, acting is brilliant specially from the young actor, Joaquin Phoenix does a really good job as well here too, cinematography is brilliant I should also mention too.

Until next time catch ya later 🙂

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Fail Safe, If Dr Strangelove Wasn’t A Comedy

Posted on by jadedsteelereviews

Nuclear war is always very frightening to even think about, we’ve seen so many films portray nuclear war, from Threads to the States version The Day After, we’ve seen a made for TV movie called Special Bulletin, but let’s talk about a movie called Fail Safe.

Fail Safe follows several departments, the pilots, the men on the ground in the war room, and the President of the United States, a computer error triggers a fail safe command ordering a group of pilots to bomb Russia.

What follows is arguably the most tense edge of your seat rollercoaster, as not only the men in the war room try to stop the pilots from reaching Moscow but the President as well, directed by Sydney Lumet (who gave us the courtroom drama 12 Angry Men) and starring Henry Fonda as the President and Walter Mathau who plays a political theorist.

The film itself is fantastic, it was a blind buy for me as I saw it in the Criterion Collection, bought it and watched it the minute I got home, let’s just say I was pleasantly surprised by this film.

It’s a stark reminder as to how the Cold War was and just how close we come to nuclear war, but I want to discuss the ending.

Basically everything that can go wrong does go wrong, plans to shoot down the pilots fail as they enter Russian airspace, the President tries his best to talk to said pilots, but turns out the Russians can duplicate the Presidents voice, he then tries to get the main pilots wife to talk him out of it, which is arguably the most tense moment of the film.

The men in the war room then discuss what happens next, the President makes the Russian ambassador an offer, “if the bombers reach Moscow and drop the nuke I will get my pilots to bomb New York”

Not only is that the toughest decision for any President to make it’s a scary one at that, the pilots bomb Moscow in possibly one of the most eeriest scenes in cinema, we hear the Russian ambassador say “the sky, it’s so bright” followed by a a loud shrieking sound, Moscow is now gone.

The President then orders a good friend of his to head up to the skies and head to New York.

The plane flies over New York and uses the Empire State Building as ground zero, we then see the people of New York, men women and children go about their day unaware of what is about to happen.

The eerie part of this is the cinematography that follows, freeze frame and closeups, it’s a great technique especially for the year this film was released, the film then cuts to a title card followed by the end credits.

And that’s Fail Safe, as the title suggests its like if Dr Strangelove wasn’t satire and a comedy, it makes a great companion piece I must admit.

The acting is phenomenal and so is the plot of the film, the pacing is great, at 117 minutes boy does that fly by, trust me you’ll be on the edge of your seat by the half hour mark.

I give this film a ten out of ten, it’s tense and a stark reminder of the Cold War era, as always catch ya later 🙂

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The Children Of Leningradsky, Hard Hitting, Emotional And Boy Does It Pack A Punch

Posted on by jadedsteelereviews

Documentary films, I haven’t seen a lot of them but I do love them, from ones like Bowling For Columbine and An Inconvenient Truth.

Not only do they teach you, but you learn a few things from them. That’s exactly what this short documentary film does.

Released in 2005 by a polish filmmaker The Children Of Leningradsky follows several homeless children… yeah I’m going to stop right here and throw a little disclaimer at ya, the details I’m about to launch in to are not pretty, they are not pleasant nor are they easy for me to type… that being said you’ve been warned.

We follow several homeless children around Leningradsky train station, we hear from four of them as they tell us their story on how they became homeless, one boy stabbed his abusive father while he was in a drunken fit of rage, one boys father at the age of two denied that he was his son, and another child was raped and the mum accepted a wad of cash instead of going to court.

For the winter months the children go underground where the pipes are to keep warm, they laugh, they play with one another, they argue and they fight, they also drink vodka, smoke and sniff glue.

Other times they are fighting with older homeless people (adults rather) but I think the real kicker comes from what the police do to them, I’m talking beating them, pouring glue over one boys head, we hear that a boy was raped and strangled to death and the police beat some kids and held them for as long as 48 hours… even though these kids had nothing to do with said crime.

It really isn’t a pleasant documentary at all and I’m still trying to process it, the final kicker comes at the end of the film as one poor thirteen year old girl sadly overdoses on glue and loses her life, the children hold a funeral for her as well.

Like I said it’s a really hard hitting documentary and one that is very hard to watch at times specially certain scenes involving the children sniffing glue.

I can’t say I enjoyed watching it I found it really hard to watch, but that doesn’t mean to say that it wasn’t interesting no, it was more eye opening, and eye opening thirty minutes to say the least.

10/10 mainly because it was so hard hitting and so gut wrenchingly sad, but again it was eye opening.

As always guys… catch ya later 🙂

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The Squid And The Whale, A Tale Of Divorce, Sea Creatures and Tennis.

Posted on by jadedsteelereviews

I first discovered Noah Baumbach when his Netflix film Marriage Story dropped last year, I immediately fell in love with not only the film but his style of capturing the sad, depressing tale of divorce which as we all know can be heartbreaking whether it’s done amicably or acrimoniously, The Squid And The Whale shows us the rather acrimonious side of divorce.

Released in 2005 and starring Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney as the two divorcing parents, and Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline as the two brothers stuck between which parent to go too, the film wastes no time diving in to the divorce as we hear the plan as to what’s happening to the parents such as where they’re going to live somewhat day’s they’ll have the children.

Firstly I want to mention the acting, not only from the parents but from the two young actors, they deliver a performance so well that you generally feel sorry for what they’re going through, I know many children who have been through a divorce and the toll it has on them, it’s sad to say the least but it does happen and the two brothers put on such a convincing performance it’s incredible really, considering Owen Kline’s character.

Now there was a certain scene that I did not see coming and I mean really didn’t see coming, the young boy is sitting in the school library and proceeds to stand up walk over to the back end of the library and play with himself, not only do you see him pelvic thrust up against the bookshelf but once he’s done he wiped the white liquid on the books on the shelf, I certainly wasn’t expecting that at all.

Second and lastly the cinematography is amazing, all filmed on super 16mm all done on a handheld camera, the finished product here is gorgeous to look at and captures 1980s New York really well, the Criterion blue ray for this film is brilliant and well worth the money for sure.

The film for me gets a well deserved 10/10 the acting is top notch, the plot is brilliant and the cinematography is beautiful to look at, as always catch ya later 🙂

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Paris, Texas. Amazing, Colourful And Very Touching

Posted on by jadedsteelereviews

After dabbling in what is known as the Criterion Collection I suddenly realised how little I knew about movies, I did after all self proclaim myself as a movie buff and after seeing a few closet picks from well known directors/actors it struck me… I have seen absolutely zero of said movies that are mentioned by the actors and directors.

So after extensive googling and searching I came across the BFI Channel on Amazon Prime Video, now immediately I signed up and have since seen an array of movies, most recently I have seen the amazing French movie Tomboy but… One film on that channel has stuck with me, Wim Wender’s Paris, Texas.

Never has a film stayed with me long after the credits have rolled, but Paris, Texas has done exactly that, the film stars the late Harry Dean Stanton as a man called Travis Henderson who is wandering in the desert and eventually stumbled in to a bar and collapses, there in the doctors office he only has on him a phone number which the doctor calls, it’s Travis’ brother Walt, Walt now has to travel to Texas and pick him up.

After a road trip back to Walt’s house we see Travis’ son Hunter (played amazingly by child actor Hunter Carson) Hunter having zero recollection as to who his father is is shown super 8 movies of the times him and Travis were a family with Hunters’ mother.

The second half of the film is Travis taking Hunter to see his mum who works in a peep show establishment, there Travis tells the story of a young couple, the story however is about them and how Travis walked out on his wife and Hunter years ago, Travis tells his wife where Hunter is and she goes and pays him a visit.

What’s touching about this scene in particular is the way Hunter looks up from playing with his toys, gazing up at this stranger, he stands up and slowly approaches her then suddenly he remembers that yes, that is his mum standing there, it’s bittersweet and touching at the same time.

Now, straight away this is a very slow film hence why it’s called a slow burner but it’s worth the 147 minute runtime just to see the amazing cinematography by Robbie Müller and the soundtrack which by the way is outstanding by Ry Cooder, but what struck me was the amazing use of colour used throughout the film, from when Travis is in the peep show having a touching heart to heart with his wife to when Hunter sees his mum in the hotel room at the end of the film.

Paris, Texas has now become my favourite film and it’s certainly one I will be watching again and again, a solid 10/10 for this one

As always catch ya later 🙂

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Joker, Not Your Typical Superhero Movie

Posted on by jadedsteelereviews

Right off the bat this isn’t your typical DC superhero movie, get that out of your head, but like any other DC movie it’s dark and this film pulls no punches in the dark factor, Joaquin Phoenix plays the part of Arthur Fleck really well that you actually start sympathising with the villain rather than the heroes in the Batman franchise.

It starts off dark and gets even darker as we descend in to Arthur’s descent in to madness and in to the villain we all know today, he starts off as a entertainer at a company called Ha Ha’s basically he does odd jobs here and there entertaining as a clown, what I love about this movie is that it not only highlights mental health but it does it in a way that you end feeling sorry for the bloke knowing full well that he turns in to a psychopath later on. It does it in a very very brilliantly executed manner, that you start hating Batman and loving the Joker it’s brilliant because you start to feel less sorry for the rich and more sorry for the poor.

The director Todd Phillips shows this for example Gotham is shown to represent New York in the eighties and then it slowly begins to descend in to gangland wars and riots and uprisings galore, the cinematography is captured amazingly and not to mention the soundtrack is perfection.

Okay yeah there is that song by Gary Glitter but ignore that controversial move and you’ve got these haunting strings such as violins and cellos composed beautifully by (excuse the spelling she’s Icelandic so bare with) Hildur Guonadóttir, she totally deserved that Oscar win because her haunting pieces are fantastic.

Joker was by far the best movie of 2019 and controversial opinion but Phoenix tops Ledger as The Joker by a mile yeah I went there, definitely gets a solid 10/10.

As always guys catch ya later 🙂

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