Change Your Image
biddulphmj-139-858962
Reviews
The Mandalorian (2019)
Cowboys and spaceships
I suppose if you've never seen a classic western this might be interesting. Sadly I have.
Van der Valk (2020)
Detective finds clue in a Vermeer painting
....well not quite, but in the "let's get in stuff from Amsterdam..." glimpses of paintings in the first episode did annoy me, but then the detective did find a clue in the victim's mother's "obsession" with a work momentarily observed. Oh dear. An interest in art? I doubt it. Oh and let's take over a cafe for our team meetings about a murder. Or, let's be seduced by someone who has just been told her friend is, well dead. There's not much real life and therefore interest here. I look at Amsterdam and wonder why it sounds like London. So much better stuff out there.
The Bookshop (2017)
Our paint dried watching this.
Really? Did the makers of this film think it worthy of the effort. Slow and completely implausible. Dull script. Over stylised sets and clothed. Poor lighting.
Bait (2019)
Narrowly scoped, but sharp satire of some notion of Cornwall
I enjoyed this film. It is original and creative. It wears it's influences well, paying good homage to older films which I enjoyed earlier in life. The narrative, sound and image; ultimately the story, emerge from the masterful use of limited technology that is wonderfully mastered. I didn't mind that I found the story, and the idea of life in Cornwall, somewhat rooted in a romantic view of fishing as a heroic labour which is here seen as almost the peak profession. As if only it is an authentic job, and others are somewhat less for not being fishing people. I don't even mind the anti big city narrative, or the view that locals can park anywhere because they are locals. The story rattles along. The characters are flawed. It's great to see a different idea for what a film might be.