jdring2007

I rated every episode, and the exact average of my ratings is 6.7 - so I'm rounding it up. The first episode blew my expectations out of the water and floored me. It was such engaging, immersive, visceral, powerful "filmmaking." The second episode was a little less impactful but still splendid all around (I gave 1 and 2 a 9 and 8, respectively). Ironically they were the only episodes directed by Jason Bateman, which I didn't know until after the fact. They somehow perfectly blended palpable crime, thriller elements, and unnervingly effective drama with a hint of the supernatural, evoking questions you - unless knowledgeable of the source material - wouldn't even know where to begin.

Just amazing.

And then, well. It's a series, so, whereas it would've excelled as a 3hr movie or a 2-parter, instead it gets dragged out ad nauseum, through mud and gravel alike, just an abysmally boring and protracted experience. As a major fan of SOME of King's work, I am in no way saying that the book itself is bad or even mediocre, just that it doesn't fully translate to the screen as effectively as it might in written form.

There were 2 subsequent episodes - 8 and 9 - where immense chunks of runtime were spent dialoguing in the car during road trips. Good Lord. And hey - I love Ben Mendelsohn, him as the lead star was literally the driving force of me giving this a shot. I came to really enjoy most of the other characters, except Holly - the actress is great, I think, but that character is SUCH a Stephen King archetype it isn't even funny.

At any rate, episode 3 was tolerable but 4, 6, and 7 - easily the worst episode in my opinion - tanked the show for me. It didn't face any hint of redemption until the last episode. Somehow, episode 9 was the third highest rated, but frankly it felt among the most dragged out and convoluted, with an especially annoying cliffhanger ending. Thank God I didn't watch this during its initial run. But in the last episode, the first 20min gos hard (that's a good thing), but by 30min all the major events are done, and yet there remains another half hour. Resolutions and conclusions, I get it. But oof.

I may very well revisit the first 2 episodes in the future and just enjoy them as their own strange standalone experience, an unsettling example of great storytelling, acting, and cinematic interpretation.

Movies that intelligently and emotionally blow me away, simultaneously, are very rare. Looper was one, whose climax emotionally chews me up something fierce. But this, this is different. If you're familiar with Inception and/or Tenet, both Christopher Nolan masterpieces, you might be thinking they're the cream of the crop in their genres. And they are (one might argue Memento is up there as well, it's great, but a little overrated in my opinion). But Caddo Lake is an under-the-radar, relatively low-budget, slow-burn magnum opus of storytelling and compassion.

Sadly the movie only has a 6.8 (still considerably high, all things considered), where movies like Inception (8.8), Tenet (7.3), and Looper (7.4) are "much" higher. Unlike those films, Caddo Lake is neither star-studded nor action-packed (despite featuring incredible performances and managing to quicken my heartbeat for the bulk of the film), and likely received a very poor marketing program (I accidentally stumbled across it while scouring Max for something to watch).

DO NOT investigate the movie too much. Read a short synopsis or two, keep it vague and basic. Prepare for a slow start and a dramatic undercurrent. But pay attention. And you'll feel it.

Despite having Tom Hardy and Timothy Olyphant in the same movie, then Forrest Whitaker to boot, this flick struggles - hard - with a lot of things. Right out the gate we get some wonky car driving which was either full CGI or a mix of VFX, for a reason that eludes me, except that they wanted a sort of Sin City / Max Payne vibe. And I got a Max Payne vibe for most of the movie, including the ultra-gritty palette and set designs (assuming none of it was CG, hmm). Whatever the effect was with the cars made that whole opening chase a little underwhelming, and what follows is a decent enough plot that plays by the numbers; it's nothing new, but they do hit us with a curveball about 45min in.

The whole club scene exceeded expectations. It's an extremely loud, chaotic, and very messy action sequence. I wouldn't even compare it to John Wick because it was so turbulent. Gruesome, too; this movie's approach to gore was surprising and in-your-face, which I appreciated. Sometimes it felt excessive, but not frequently enough to detract from my score.

Between the club scene, the car scene (not to be confused with the chase, but when the bad guys retrieve Forrest from his car - brutal, but quick, sequence), and the cabin scene at the end (which is very long and violent), there's a lot of run-of-the-mill dialogue and "tension" that mostly felt cookie-cutter. Non-star acting was fine, nothing extravagant but also neither wooden nor flimsy.

If it weren't for those 3 major action scenes, I'd have likely given this a 6, possibly even a 5, but at just under 2hrs it would've been criminal to deliver a movie of this nature without SOME intense violence. Choreographically I think it was really well done, and apart from the "guns have infinite rounds" trope, they delivered very entertaining action pieces.

Just don't look to this movie for anything more than that.