Officer Downe wastes its potential, does nothing of merit with its star and runs in circles searching for a reason to exist for almost every one of its meaningless 88 minutes. It’s just not very good, my disappointment only made palatable due to the fact I’ll likely not have to sit through it a second time at any point in the foreseeable future.
“I have to believe. If I believe, then I know I can make it happen. I can make that world live.”
Pan’s Labyrinth is a dream and a nightmare, both in constant battle for supremacy as Guillermo del Toro’s haunting fairy tale weaves its way towards its shattering conclusion. A decade after its original release, this film has grown to become a bona fide masterpiece, Criterion’s sensational Blu-ray as exquisite a presentation as any it is likely ever going to have.
While the technical aspects of the production are impressive, the psychological ones are anything but. It’s all too tired, too aggressively on point, the entire concept of restraint thrown out with the bathwater just so the director and his screenwriter can make their dryly moralistic points one after the other. It’s all a giant cacophony of artifice masquerading as something important and meaningful, making Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk an annoying bit of social commentary treacle that’s virtually impossible to enjoy and even more difficult to sit through.
The Edge of Seventeen cuts deep, humor and tears bursting forth in equal measure making the movie a singular joy audience of all ages are almost certain to delight in.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them may not offer up the depth and the complexity of Rowling’s other wizarding tales, but that doesn’t make it any less of a good time, and I for one am ready to study these particular magical creatures in greater detail with the release of future adventures.
Time is never what it appears yet always remains of the essence no matter what transpires, Arrival inhabiting that place between the seconds where the future is an imaginative possibility and hope is the improbable foundation greatness is built upon.
As Christine, Rebecca Hall doesn’t just rise to the challenge, to my mind she ends up giving, not just the greatest performance I’ve seen in 2016, but one of the best ones I’ve had the pleasure to witness these past few years.
With all that’s happening in the world right now, Loving could not be coming out at a better time. Its story needs to be shouted from the rooftops and spread to every corner of the globe, the fight Richard and Mildred Loving calmly waged against injustice an important and vital reminder of what can be accomplished when fairness and equality are threatened and good people stand up to do what is right. See it at once.