A young woman is called back home to her farm without reason. Though her raising wasn’t free from tormet, she travels back to help her father and brothers put back the pieces of a broken farm. Is she successful?
The Levelling (2016)
R | 1h 23min | Drama | 24 March 2017 (USA)
Somerset, October 2014. When Clover Catto (Ellie Kendrick) receives a call telling her that her younger brother Harry (Joe Blakemore) is dead, she must return to her family farm and face … See full summary »
Director: Hope Dickson Leach
Writer: Hope Dickson Leach
Stars: Ellie Kendrick, David Troughton, Jack Holden
This is Hope Dickson Leach’s directorial debut. Another director writee 2-in-1. I always have to note that because I think it shows high talent and intelligence. Of course it helps if the story is good and for the most part, this one is.
Clover gets a call from her brother asking her to come home. She was raised on an Irish Dairy/Agricultural farm. When she returns it’s a bit of an episode of “Where are they now.” There are lovely stories that wax nd wane through the middle of the film. It allows the viewer to get an idea of what is happening for oneself not just by getting it thrown at us all at once. I would say the director has a real talent for telling a story on film.
Te final scenes are gripping. To me they represent the new coming n and replacing the old way. This is a very good story that really doesn’t try to be flashy. The Irish countryside, actor dialogue, and the fun of putting it all together are what this film has to offer, a simple pleasure. I give it an 8/10
Sometimes the new apartments get planned without getting everyone out of the old ones. In this case we have Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman) refusing to leave her apartment for sentimetal reasons. I think the director and writer does a great job examining what happens at this rift between people.
Aquarius (2016)
Not Rated | 2h 26min | Drama | 1 September 2016 (Brazil)
Clara, a 65 year old widow and retired music critic, was born into a wealthy and traditional family in Recife, Brazil. She is the last resident of the Aquarius, an original two-story
Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Writer: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Stars: Sonia Braga, Maeve Jinkings, Irandhir Santos
Clara will not leave! Director/Writer Kleber Mendonça Filho starts us off empathizing with her. The corporate greed wants her put to start a money making venture and she is literally in the way. The writer and director light has been triggerred. That winds a lot of points with me. The mind that created the story puts it on the screen as well. A mighty task.
The obnoxious activities that go on all around her apartment will resonate with anyone who has had raucous neighbors. As a cancer survivor, she states she will not be easily moved. This was a giid character study as well and a piece about humanity. I gave it an 8/10
I’ve known women who are batshit crazy and loved them anyway. I’ve known women that are outgoing and ambitious and play by the rules and seem normal despite their inner craziness and loved those too. There’s something lovely about most women in the world but when it comes to mental illness, most people lose the affection. This is true mostly because society as a whole doesn’t understand mental illness, we are an ignorant human race.
Christine
“The story of Christine Chubbuck, a 1970s TV reporter struggling with depression and professional frustrations as she tries to advance her career.” -IMDB
Biography, Drama
R
Fri 14 Oct 2016 UTC
119min
IMDB Rating: 7.0
We understand drive and tenacity but not a twisted version that would take the life of its sufferer. Some people can never be helped to feel good, they are tortured souls plain and simple. Christine is one of those and she fit so well into the background of news reporting that no one ever noticed. Rebecca Hall does a great job portraying this tormented character.
The performances are ok, just enough to get through a very dull yet controversial story. What’s really controversial is the ending, not her life’s work as a reporter.
Christine is a movie based on true events. It’s about the 70’s tv reporter who shot herself in the head on television. There is some
character development to help the viewer me to a conclusion as to why she would do this. The most powerful in my opinion is the stuff about her depression and being hospitalized for it. She shares a couple times that she feels as though she is being baby-sat by her other while at the same time playing the grown-up role by paying the rent and all expenses. This did seem very unfortunate for her.
Meanwhile at work, her boss/tv producer is pushing everyone to get more shocking stories for the show. As she would call it: “blood and guts.” I’m not sure exactly why I wasn’t highly impressed by this film. I am very interested in films presenting mental illness.
Perhaps I don’t understand what would make a person do this. She did have a number of serious life challenges going. I also didn’t like the
side stories about her dating Michael C Hall’s character, which turns out to be a dupe. To me, the choices are thin storytelling. Then again, that’s the story of this depressed woman on a news team. Maybe we’re just meant to watch it and take it in without a thumb up or down, just acknowledge there are people like Christine walking among us,
silently.
Ultimately, what we have here is running time of a woman’s life and death. I think the director means to give us information so we can
assume why she did what she did. It’s not a boring film and it’s not terribly engaging. It is interesting to watch though and even when you
know the end is coming, it’s pieced together with fairly good performances. Again, however, I never really embraced Christine. She was depressed and unable to improve her condition. Perhaps the ending was more her fate than anything that could have been avoided. For
solid performances in this based on true story, I give it a
Orbiting a planet on the brink of war, scientists test a device to solve an energy crisis, and end up face-to-face with a dark alternate reality. An arm getting amputated futuristically with no blood is cool. Even making the setting of the third installment of the Cloverfield franchise in outer space is cool. BUT, If you haven’t got a great story and techniques that keep the viewer’s interest, that stuff is side-stuff. Also, ask yourself this: what is the continuity between these three films? Aliens? Cloverfield as a name? I would say nothing but marketing. Could it be they tried to dupe us?
JJ Abrams has been around the block. Most stuff he directed I like but not “Super 8.” He’s in the the producer seat here and I would rather watch Super 8 than “The Cloverfield Paradox.” The Director is Julius Onah. I can tell you he’s directed at least 4 movies looking at his bio. The only one I have seen is this one.
The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
TV-MA | 1h 42min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi | 4 February 2018 (USA)
Orbiting a planet on the brink of war, scientists test a device to solve an energy crisis, and end up face-to-face with a dark alternate reality.
Director: Julius Onah
Writers: Oren Uziel (story by), Doug Jung (story by) | 1 more credit »
Stars: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Oyelowo, Daniel Brühl
Unfortunately, there is no special identity for these films, apart from having “Cloverfield” in their title. More time should have been spent figuring out that special sauce.
Were there some cool effects? Yep. Did we see actresses cry on cue? Yep. Was it boring? Yep. Did it remind this author of the vanilla and blah film “Life” in almost every visual way? Yep yep. I gave you two yeps there, interpret amongst yourselves. RE: special effects, my favorite one was when the soldier lady broke through the shattering glass of the spaceship and was jettisoned into space. Pure awesomeness. I appreciate the racial leap of victory this director and cast represents. Nothing can take that away. Nonetheless, it’s a bad story here that made everyone look at their watches far too often. Will there be a Cloverfield 4? I sadly have to give this one a 5/10
This is a fun night out at the movies. It’s to be seen once for all fans of the genre. Once. Considering I’ve seen the original Alien from the 70’s probably well over 20 times, I must make the distinction between the two. The original you see 20 + times, this one once.
Alien: Covenant
“The crew of a colony ship, bound for a remote planet, discover an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination, and must attempt a harrowing escape.” -IMDB
Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
R
Fri 19 May 2017 UTC
122min
IMDB Rating: 7.0
Ridley Scott invented the Alien film franchise. He only directed Alien 1 and Prometheus, which is meant to be a prequel to the original Alien. For that reason I was very excited to see what he brought to bear in Covenant. Unfortunately, there isn’t much for true enthusiasts.
What you do get is an action film with some really fake looking creatures you will not think about any longer than the trip walking to your car from the theater.
I don’t think Ridley Scott should have made an action film playing horror meets Spy Kids. That’s what this feels like. The lead role is played by a guy who blew stuff up in Tropic Thunder. Hasn’t Ridley seen that film? There is such a thing as typecasting. I had a hard time believing in the space age story with him at the help. He even plays with a naked girl fidget while deciding things on the ship. It’s lame man, really bad.
The monsters are so poorly done I think film students in University today could have dome better as class projects.
Finally: Hear this makers of Alien: We don’t care about David or the other one. Your storyline there sucks royally. Did you think this was blade Runner? About andriods becoming self-aware? It’s about aliens shitheads.
Let’s try a little harder to be spooky and cgi artists next time guys and gals as I am sure there will be a next time. I recommend it once but if you miss it, you won’t miss anything much really. If anyone out there has comments PLEASE leave me some! I’m starving to death with no comments. Dissenting opinions welcome.
“I can smell it. My God, I can smell my friend being cooked.” -Lars
Some cannibal footage is Nat Geo, other is embarrassingly faked, and yet other footage is so well done it’s scary. “The Green Inferno” is a cannibal movie done so well, Nat Geo may purchase clips for its nature show.
The Green Inferno (2013)
Cast
Lorenza Izzo
as Justine
Ariel Levy
as Alejandro
Daryl Sabara
as Lars
Directed by
Eli Roth
Written by
Guillermo Amoedo, Eli Roth
Other Info
Adventure, Horror
Rated R
1h 40min
We are all such idealists after we graduate from high school. People often enlist in the Peace Corps when they want to make a difference. And there are those “groups” at colleges. Remember those how hand out leaflets and say things like “Don’t think, ACT?” This film starts out on a college campus where a group of activists are recruiting fresh meat.
The leader is intense and so are his followers. They want to stop illegal cutting down of trees in the rainforest. Basically, a group of college kids end up getting on a plane to protest the illegal cutting down of trees. They have an impact but the true plot is what happens when they are captured by a tribe of cannibals.
It’s amazing and scary to watch the scenes at this point. Much attention to detail has gone into making the viewer believe these people are being sauteed and eaten. Justine (Laura Izzo) does a great job as the protagonist. She learns some hard lessons as a result of going on the trip. There are others that didn’t make it who may or may not have learned lessons as well.
This is a graphic, bloody, unapologetic film. There were times I got chills of fear but I never could turn my eyes away. This film took a lot of work to make happen. The cannibals seem like real cannibals. The director did a really good job assembling them and getting them to tell their part of the story through acting. It’s a truly great horror movie. I recommend it!
DAMIEN RILEY | World Music | HQ Blog 
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