[contentsdisabled]
Louis Wain’s Electric Life
It’s no stranger to playing characters who work at a higher frequency, Benedict Cumberbatch is an astute choice to play the prolific cat painter Louis Wain in this wonderfully unbalanced period biopic. Director Will Sharpe takes a witty and playful take on Wain’s eccentric life as a 19th-century artist known primarily for his anthropomorphized feline themes. But this is also a tender story about mental health that is portrayed imaginatively and empathically. Cumberbatch delivers a vibrant performance as Wain, whose skill with a pencil landed him a full-time job as an illustrator for the Illustrated London News, with a little help from parent editor Sir William Ingram (Toby Jones). The death of his own father left him in charge of a noisy but penniless household of five sisters and a mother.
Annette
If you know one thing about Annette, it’s probably that Adam Driver sings a beautiful, tender love song (‘We Love Each Other So Much’) to Marion Cotillard’s foo-foo. Happens twice, but still doesn’t break the top five weird shit moments that happen in Leos Carax’s madness.shitty ghost heart opera at the top. While referring to the ill-fated romanticism of early works like Boy Meets Girl and Les Amants Du Pont-Neuf – some filmmakers have embraced the pain of lost love as a theme as exaggeratedly as Carax – Annette is truly a film about what true love can be. undone by unbridled selfishness. The effects of Henry’s self-absorption, both as fuel for his art and as an Achilles heel in his relationships, are profound.
no remorse
This is one of those super complicated conspiracy theory movies where nothing makes sense and you just stop caring. Rescuers inexplicably show up on the right time. People look bad just because they want to deceive us. There’s no character development, too much patriotic posturing, and the villain makes a speech that needs to be written before casting a black actor as a receiver. Despite endless gunfire and lots of shit blowing up, most action sequences fail to get the pulse racing.
coming 2 america
There’s a scene in Coming 2 America where a character derides Hollywood as an industry that spews little more than superhero movies, remakes, and most importantly here, sequels to classic movies to cash in on the nostalgia factor. In this scene, the film seems to be berating itself for existing. Sadly, Coming 2 America is a bland film with paper-thin characters, a ridiculously predictable script that seemingly hasn’t progressed beyond the first draft, and totally, totally lacking in the charm of the original. What saves it from becoming a chore are the performances, particularly that of Eddie Murphy.
Metal sound
The fragility of everyday existence is captured with empathy and compassion in Darius Marder’s excellent Sound of Metal, a film that should catapult Riz Ahmed to the top of any producer’s casting list. Her work here is a model of restraint, a performance that always goes for effective and discreet choices rather than emotional broads and is all the more powerful for feeling more genuine. The “Night of” star plays Ruben, a heavy metal drummer who accompanies his girlfriend and singer Lou (Olivia Cooke). Marder and his co-writer/brother Abraham (the screenplay also has a story credit for Derek Cianfrance, who worked with Marder on “The Place Beyond the Pines”) waste no time getting to the heart of their story.
Love and friendship
“Love & Friendship” seems like it was inevitable. Director Whit Stillman adapting Jane Austen is one of those ideas that seems made up because it’s so perfect, like Wes Anderson announcing he’s going to make an animated movie about foxes based on a book by Roald Dahl. Stillman pushes comedy to the right up to the edge of the screw. He’s exceptionally good at this sort of thing and he’s at the top of his game here, positioning characters in the frame so you can see their faces while someone else says or does something so stupid they can’t believe it, or that’s so obviously with the intention to deceive that they seem to be wondering if this is really happening or if it is a dream.
Subsequent Borat film film
An unusual feminist sequel to the comedy Borat, this is a biting satire and brutal social commentary that gives the middle finger to political correctness while making a strong case against misogyny and patriarchy. The story follows Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen), a TV reporter from Kazakhstan who is sent to America to bribe powerful men in order to win favors in return. Problems arise when his teenage daughter (the fantastic Maria Bakalova) smuggles into the United States to be with her father. Maria Bakalova is as uninhibited and fantastical as Sacha. As the emotional angle between father and daughter takes center stage, the film loses steam and becomes generic. However, he does provide enough and more awkward laughs that also make him introspective. Ridiculous and brainless, but insightful and hilarious… this isn’t a perfect movie, but it’s boldly different and edgy.
the great sick
The Big Sick is inspired by the real-life story of the American Pakistani-American.up comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his American wife Emily Gordon. Emily wrote this film, and the two main characters, a Pakistani-American and an American, are named Kumail and Emily. And yet, even if East and West seem further apart than ever, real life has rarely been so bland. Interestingly yes, pleasantly definitely, but bland. There are plenty of moments where Kumail and Emily’s sharp writing comes through, indicating why this was a story asking to be told, perhaps now more than ever. It’s especially true in the effortless way their courtship and courtship are handled, without playing on any of the clichés of an immigrant’s embarrassment.
knives
The twists are twisted and fun, though far less impressive than the obvious pleasure he got from making this precisely machined puzzle box. Filled with famous and vaguely familiar faces, the film takes the form of an old-fashioned cop – the kind with mystery, suspense, entertainment, a corpse on an heirloom sofa and half a dozen cunning suspects hanging around. The house itself looks like a mousetrap, which works like a narrative puzzle in which the pieces keep changing as the wood-paneled walls get closer. The overall sense of confinement is perfect for the purposes of a private investigator, Benoit Blanc, roast ham played by Daniel Craig with a lofty self-esteem and a Southern drawl that seems to borrow from Kevin Spacey.
