avinashb75

I watched this film on a transatlantic flight having never heard of it before and choosing solely based on having heard the director being in charge of the upcoming DCEU venture. Overall, it paints a satirical picture of Chinese society, though you can't help feeling that the generic nature of the stories comments on societal paradigms globally. Certainly, many of the situations, actions and reactions would be quite commonplace in India. The cinematography was so amazing I felt annoyed watching it on a small screen, and the over the top acting was befitting the satirical nature of the piece. The recurring motifs of contamination and destruction really hit home, while carefully not banging you over the head with their message. If you can seek it out, definitely worth a watch

Rafiki, over and above it's central premise of a same sex romance, portrays a slice of working class Kenyan life masterfully. But apart from that, the story and the characters are not given enough time on screen to enable the story to make an impact, and the ending is all too obvious - but maybe that's the point. A good attempt second half failed to hold my attention

It seems like the movie is, through Tolkien's story, trying to tell a larger tale about love, friendship and loss, and how people deal with it. The narrative is surprisingly impersonal at times, purporting to be about JRR but straying through his friends and the impact of WW1. In a similar way that Bohemian Rhapsody was not strictly about Queen or Freddie, this movie is not strictly about Tolkien nor the Middle Earth world he created, but something in the middle. Plot problems aside, the movie does have great a great score and the sets and costumes are fantastic. Hoult does a great job with the little he has to work with, but the 'fantasy' sequences sometimes go over the top and feel a bit on the nose.