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Reviews
Kuolleet lehdet (2023)
I feel like I've seen this movie 100 times already
While the movie does show promise in some aspects, the story presented here is so basic that it makes them hard to appreciate. A basic plot like this should be executed perfectly or at least in an original way to be enjoyable, but it wasn't. Some moments were so cliché I felt like cringing, examples include
"Oh nooo! He dropped the note with her phone number and didn't notice! Look down, main character #2! You're gonna miss your chance!"
"Oh nooo! He waited in front of the cinema all night and when he finally gave up and left, she showed up! I can't believe they missed each other, this is so sad! If only that woman didn't have the brilliant idea to go to the theater after it was closed!"
I could go on.
Anyway, if the story is lackluster, what is left to enjoy in the movie? The cinematography is quite pretty. That's true. The acting is.... I guess it's good? Like, I think the actors performances were perfectly in line with what the director was going for. But the thing is, the exchanges in this movie are so stiff that I felt like I was watching a bunch of robots.
I know this movie takes place in Finland, and I know that the stereotype is that the people there are cold and asocial. But in this movie, I felt like this was taken to the extreme where the interactions between people simply felt unnatural.
If you easily connect with fictional characters, no matter how robotic they are, you may enjoy this movie. Otherwise you may as well skip it.
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)
All form, no substance
I wouldn't describe myself as a Wes Anderson fanboy, but his formula has occasionally worked on me. The Grand Budapest Hotel, for example, was one of my favorite movies of the decade.
Unfortunately, TFD completely missed the mark for me. Visually, it is a feast for the eyes. But in terms of story I was completely unengaged. A new character is introduced in the usual Wes Anderson way every 28 seconds, so much so that I end up not caring or relating to them. And if you thought you could at least relate to the story if not to the characters, well too bad because by the time you get invested in one it's over and goes to the next chapter.
The story takes place in the fictional city of Ennui-sur-Blasé, and was mostly shot in Angoulême, despite being more similar to Paris (as can be seen on the map in the Nescafier act). The choice of the name (literally bored-on-jaded) is perplexing to me, as the city described in the movie seems far from a boring place. But whatever, that's just they way Anderson names his places, one shouldn't put too much thought in it.
The meat of the story is separated in three main acts.
The first one was the best, due in no small part to the amazing performance of Del Toro.
The second one I found pretty bad. Made even worse by the completely random logic behind the characters speaking French of English. It's bad enough when the American journalist and the French activist girl directly speak to each other in different languages. But it's even worse when Timothée Chalamet, who plays a French man, continuously responds in English when spoken to in French by his comrades. This is despite the fact that the actor can speak French in real life (and very well, at that) and could've easily been given a script in French.
This completely took me out of the movie for a bit, thankfully there wasn't much to miss during that act.
The last act was just... average. I thought the whole talk show aspect of it was completely unnecessary, and made the film feel even more bloated. There were a few fun scenes in there, like the shootout and the car chase, as well as Nescafier cooking for the mobsters.
Come to think of it, there were fun scenes a bit everywhere, surrounded by 15 minutes of introductions and uninteresting conversations in the wrong language. There are smart movies I feel compelled to rewatch a second time despite not being a fan of it the first time before judging, but this one I just can't see anything hiding beneath, besides the first act which could be seen as an interesting take on the creative process.
The rest of the movie just felt like an empty shell. A beautifully painted shell on the outside, however.
Game of Thrones: Mother's Mercy (2015)
Way too fast paced.
(No book spoilers, but heavy episode spoilers)
Before you down vote this because you think it's a "the book is not like the show" complaint just know this : I don't mind the show diverging from the books, in fact I'm happy about it. Book 4 and 5 aren't really fit for television and I don't want the show to spoil book 6 and 7.
My problem isn't with the changes, but in how they were executed. This episode went so fast it's almost as if Sonic the Hedgehog had written it. Stannis' storyline that has been built up during 4 seasons is brought to an end in about 7 minutes with hasty writing and skipped scenes. Making one of the most interesting character feel like a second thought is bad pacing. Like "look I know he loses and all but we've got to put 200 pages in the rest of the show so let's get it over with". If you ran out of time then just postpone the battle of Winterfell until the next season, like GRRM did.
Daenerys' storyline gets more time than Stannis even though that one could've been shortened, we get it, her dragon is injured and wants to sleep around like a tired cat. No need to rub it in. Same for her council back in Meereen. And yeah, she finds a Dothraki tribe again, but did we really need to see them circling around her for 3 more minutes ? Wasn't this episode full enough as it is ?
Cersei's storyline was really well done and is the saving grace of this episode. It's that kind of writing that should have prevailed.
Arya's part was also pretty good.
But the worst of all... Jon Snow. My god, when I saw his scene and realized there were only 5 minutes left, I really thought there was no way they were going to put his death in. But they did. Just look at when main characters died in other episodes, look at the crescendo of Ned Stark's death, or how incredible the Red Wedding was. Then why, oh why, did one of the most beloved character in the show only get 4 minutes of screen time for his death ?
Hardhome is an example of how changes from the books to the show can be good, that scene lasted 25 minutes, giving plenty of time to build tension, it's good writing. It felt satisfying and realistic, butchering a character in 2 minutes for the sake of it is not.
I just can't like this episode, they should have delayed some events to the next season or made 2 episodes, but they wanted to fit everything in only one and as a result, it felt rushed and poorly done.
So I give this episode a 6/10, and I'd give it a way lower score if it wasn't part of a show I liked so much and the Cersei part.