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Reviews
Blindspotting (2018)
Powerful
Blindspotting is a film about Collin (Daveed Diggs) as he spends his last 3 days of probation trying to stay out of trouble. Once completed, he can move out of the halfway house he's living in and move on with his life. He works at a moving company with his best friend Miles (Rafael Casal).
The film is fantastic. The direction, writing (written by both Diggs and Casal), and acting are all incredible. Themes of loyalty, race, class, perception, gentrification, and violence are all intertwined without feeling forced, and there's amazing beauty to it all. At times its funny, at times its hard to watch, but its always gripping.
Just as real world issues have always inspired art, this film is very topical. Many of the current issues America is facing are addressed, and its powerful.
Keep an eye on Diggs and Casal. I wouldn't be surprised if they get an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay. And even if not, they did an absolutely brilliant job writing this film, and I hope for more from them like this.
Go watch this film. You won't regret it.
Sideways (2004)
You don't understand my plight..... Sideways
Miles (Paul Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) through a week long tour of California's wine country, just before Jack is about to get married. Miles just wants to drink wine, play golf, and just have a relaxing time on the trip, while Jack just wants to get laid. Miles meets Maya (Virginia Madsen) and Jack meets Stephanie (Sandra Oh) and all four end up spending the week together.
Sideways is a fantastic film for many reasons, especially the writing, directing, and acting.
The screenplay: absolutely amazing. This is one of the best screenplays I've ever read. The adventure Miles and Jack go on is so well written, with every scene being hysterical or meaningful, or both. You immediately fall in love with these characters and want to find out where they're going to end up.
The acting: Paul Giamatti give the performance of his career and one of the best I've seen. He completely embodies the character of Miles and is both funny and touching. Thomas Haden Church also gives the performance of his career and nearly steals the film. Virginia Madsen is truly elegant, giving an amazing performance as well.
The directing: Alexander Payne is phenomenal. He truly understands human emotion and knows how to get the very best from his performers. Every scene is directed with incredible skill and poise.
Bottom line: This film is a masterpiece. Its absolutely hilarious from beginning to end, truly moving, and masterfully told. The screenplay, directing, and acting combines to make one of the best movies I've ever seen. If you have not seen Sideways, I strongly recommend it.
10/10
On a side note, Paul Giamatti was definitely snubbed for an Oscar nod.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Just like the rest of the Harry Potter films...
Every time a Harry Potter movie opens, it seems the same thing happens: the movie makes a ton of money and gets great reviews. However, I disagree with all of that completely. If these movies were original ideas, based on original screenplays, then yes, they'd be pretty good movies. However, they are NOT. They're based on a series of books that are incredibly well written.
It seems every movie is rushing to the end, taking out huge chunks of the actual story. And the further the series goes, the more they take out. The completely drop all sub plots and focus only on the main plot. And then they don't even do the main plot justice and switch around all of it.
I understand when making a movie based on a book, you need to lose some things. Really, I do. That's why i enjoyed the first two movies, when Chris Columbus was directing. He knew what he was doing. He kept the story together and only took out small things that weren't too big a deal. But after he left, they movies went downhill. For example, since the third movie, why don't they ever wear they're robes? They suppose to be ALWAYS wearing them when at Hogwarts, yet they never wear them after the second movie.
The movies just focus on visual and what makes it look the best but completely forgets what the movie is based off of, which are the books! For example, the opening bridge sequence. That is literally only mentioned in the book, yet they spent who knows how much on that one unimportant detail because it looked good.
I do not like the movies and this one wasn't any different. They take out so much and put in so much that's either not in the book, or not important from the book or change around completely what was the original that its not even based off of Harry Potter anymore.
Overall great visuals, as usual. Acting was OK by most, with a special mention for Tom Felton, who really brought it in this one. Do yourself a favor, read the book series. They're SO much more in them and they surpass the movies by so much i cant even come up with an analogy that works.
3/10