wricketts

This is truly a crappy film - slow and dull and faux thoughtful. I won't be surprised if it wins some Oscars, though. The H'wood rich love films that make them feel guilty even if the films are uninteresting and banal (Parasite, Roma). They get to feel virtuous when they vote for them. This "message" film is about as subtle as a heart attack, meanwhile, and the ultimate takeaway - that the underclass will murder you if it gets a taste of power (in other words, that it will be precisely as ruthless and venal as the "upper class") - is deeply conservative and patently retrograde. Ruben Östlund deserves no praise for this pretentious, soulless film.

Someone is going to have to explain to me why this film is on so many "Best of 2015" lists (assuming of course that putting it on those lists wasn't just some sort of misguided feint at artistic affirmative action -- and, yes, I realize I speak blasphemy). One of the most ham-handed and poorly realized films I've seen in years. The acting is amateurish, but not in the way that is charming. Rather, it's amateurish in that way that makes you cringe. The dialogue is dreadful, and the plot is essentially non-existent. Many, many issues are depicted, but none of them is explored because, in fact, this is a film entirely without insight. I know Tangerine is a first of sorts: a film about a certain kind of trans life and with trans actors, but I cannot for the life of me understand what makes it a good movie, never mind one of the best. It took us two nights to finish watching this film (and it only lasts 88 minutes), and we only persisted because of all the rave reviews. You could save yourself the trouble and not miss much.

You've seen this film. Believe me, you have. There is almost no way to spoil it because you'll know exactly how it's going to go after the first 15 minutes. An embarrassment for Viola Davis, and increased nudity would have been the only thing that could have rendered Chris Hemsworth's presence minimally tolerable. (In this film, he is doing his best to channel every ounce of talent and screen presence that, say, Brian Bosworth brought to his roles.) Slow, relentlessly predictable, trite, and just plain silly (the way security and encryption systems work is completely invented). Delirious, blurry chase scenes and shoot-em-ups that have essentially nothing to do with anything. Random explosions. Something about nuclear power plants. Big, dramatic revelations that you saw coming an hour before. Perhaps there was more nuance in Morgan Davis Foehl's original script, but they must have had difficulty deciphering the parts written in crayon. Go out of your way to avoid this groaner.