Dickinson: Overview

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Hailee Steinfeld stars as famed poet Emily Dickinson. However this is not wholly a period piece.

So as Dickinson draws to a close I am left divided. Torn. There were good elements here and a few episodes where the show really sung however, there was also a myriad of problems some of which only became more apparent and egregious as the series went on. As this is an overview of the show itself and all of its seasons I won’t be talking specifics about any one episode particularly instead I’ll tackle it more broadly.

I think the things Dickinson does right are two fold, firstly it taps into the immense talent of Steinfeld and gives her a lot of room to flex her acting chops and secondly it has a strong visual identity that lends itself quite nicely to the screen and leads to some very memorable moments such as when Emily takes a carriage ride with Death, played by Wiz Khalifa.

However, what Dickinson does wrong is largely down to the writing. Firstly the major issue with the show is that about a third of its episodes could be cut and it would make no real difference to the storyline of the show as there is so much filler that to chop it down would probably make it better, this show had no business being ten episodes a season. Secondly, and this one might be controversial, Dickinson is incredibly preachy, at times it gets to the point where it feels like the show is trying to shove the political agenda of it’s writers down your throat and that can of course be off putting.

Overall, I think this series is watchable but it could have been so much more if the political agenda wasn’t there and if the season were smaller perhaps five or six episodes so the writers don’t have to produce so much filler.

Pros.

Steinfeld

The visual style

It is watchable

Cons.

The preaching

The pacing

The humour never really landed for me

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The Lost Daughter: Olivia Colman’s Unintelligible Trip To Greece

1.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Another actor who has achieved moderate success, this time Maggie Gyllenhaal, turns their hand to directing. The film follows a woman, played by Olivia Colman, who is not a natural mother and whilst on holiday becomes fixated on another woman’s life and family.

Being a well respected actor does not make you a good director, I feel this needs to be underlined. The films of George Clooney come to mind as I write this, with his directing fair ranging from passable to incredibly weak and pretentious. Gyllenhaal airs on the latter side.

The main reason this film has such a low score from me is because for the most part you will be hard pressed to understand what is going on without looking up the plot online. The way the film constructs its narrative is deeply flawed using flashbacks scattered in randomly which seem to contradict each other to try and fill in the back story, but again unless you look it up you are still unlikely to understand what is going on.

Colman is as good as ever, even if her character is immensely dislikeable but hey not every lead needs to be a good person or likeable. Colman seems to be having fun and manages to deliver a few funny lines here and there which help you to get through the rest of the film.

Overall, this is one that the Oscars Crowd and certain online critics will love and say is the best thing ever, but for most everyone else you will be left scratching your head and feeling like your time was wasted. I know I was.

Pros.

Colman

I liked Ed Harris but thought his character was not developed anywhere near enough

Cons.

The flashbacks

It is hard to watch at times

It doesn’t make sense

It drags on

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Wolf: Hungry Like The Wolf

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

George MacKay plays a boy who thinks he is a wolf and becomes committed to a cruel mental institution.

Honestly I was quite looking forward to this film, this was furthered by the trailers that made me feel this would be a very different film to the one we got. The one we got was simply depressing. The performances were good I suppose, though people pretending to be animals or in this case people who think they are animals is hardly the height of acting.

The film feels very much like art house horror, not too interested in scaring us or even giving us something to think about rather instead focusing on being pretentious and trying to deliver on a vague message which only the director really understands. It tries to subvert at the expense of any kind of logic.

Furthermore I would describe the film as quite hard to watch, it is about an hour and a half of watching disabled people being abused, I suppose that is the horror.

Overall, this film is depressing and pretentious in equal measure.

Pros.

MacKay

Lily-Rose Depp

Cons.

It is depressing

Paddy Considine has been better

It is pretentious

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Mass: An Uncomfortable Conversation

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Two pairs of parents gather together to discuss the events of a school shooting and the impact it has had on their lives.

I thought this film did the impossible, it took a very serious issue, that is ever more in need of discussing, and treated it with respect whilst also not making the film emotionally draining, depressing or hard to watch. There certainly were uncomfortable moments as befitted the subject matter, but these did not dominate the film and the wider narrative was one of understanding, grief and the human experience.

At the centre of the film are four very good character actors delivering four very good performances. I would be very hard picked to say who was the best or who stood out the most, Ann Dowd brought a level of devastation to the role that was hard to look away from whilst Jason Isaacs leads some very powerful monologues and rants, everyone was superb.

The thing that held the film back for me was the pacing of it, for the most part the film flows well, however there are a number of scenes that drag on for too long, furthermore towards the end of the film some of the scenes start feeling like filler to pad out the films runtime. This for me really hurt the film, as if it had been about fifteen to twenty minutes shorter it would have gotten much higher.

Overall, a strong film in many respects but one that could have benefited from a tighter pace.

Pros.

The emotion

The performances

The conversation created, had and left open

Maintaining an optimistic ending

Cons.

Pacing issues

Some of the scenes come off as pretentious or worse yet one the nose

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Don’t Look Up: A Gender Swapped Trump

0.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A group of scientists and astronomers must convince the world that a giant asteroid is about to wipe them out.

This was a deeply unlikeable film it seems to be just over two hours of Adam McKay being smug. The runtime in and of itself is excessive and indulgent but that could be remedied if the film had something interesting to say, but it does not. The film makes a lot of rather obvious and on the nose political points about how Hollywood saw America during the Trump presidency, honestly all of these points have been made before and though the film gender swaps the president role it is incredibly obvious what it is trying to say. It is several years out of date.

Moreover, this is the big film that Jennifer Lawrence used as her comeback to acting, after to quote her ‘audiences got sick of her’, well that isn’t about to change anytime soon as her character here is incredibly annoying and is written as a one note flat character. Her character is given nothing to do beyond freak out, and that quickly gets tiresome. Furthermore, the film features Jonah Hill being equally as annoying, only the film doesn’t seem to realise this and instead thinks he is being hilarious and quick witted, not only does this film prove to you that Hill should stay in drama roles it also shows you how desperately this film wants to be something like The Wolf Of Wallstreet.

Overall, a smug film that is too busy giving itself a pat on the back to do anything else.

Pros.

Leonardo DiCaprio is trying his best

A few funny moments

Cons.

It is smug

It is incredibly on the nose

It has pacing issues

Lawrence is awful

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Yes God Yes: Chat Rooms, The Portal To Self Discovery

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A catholic school girl, played by Natalie Dyer, learns the importance of self-love after she gives in to sin.

I thought this film was in many ways genius, I think for a long time the sex comedy genre has been heavily male dominated and in recent years we have seen more sex comedy films told from the female point of view and this is much needed, this is one of those films. I think it is important to do this to demystify ideas around female sex and masturbation and in many ways these have been stigmatised within society.

I would say the film is funny about three quarters of the time, not every joke lands but enough do that it still works as a comedy. In terms of the dramatic elements I think the film does a good job of making us see the repressed world of this catholic school girl just looking to explore her sexuality and shows the adversity she faces.

Dyer does a good job here and does more than enough to distance herself from her other role of Nancy Myers on Stranger Things, I think there is a believable naivety here and a believable innocence that really plays into the performance and makes it seem more genuine.

Overall, an important film for many reasons but one that doesn’t totally stick the landing.

Pros.

The female focus

Demystifying female sexual experiences

The jokes

The ending

Cons.

Not all the jokes land

Pacing issues, it may have worked better as a short

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The Last Train To Christmas: Ruining An Interview By Urinating On The Tape Recorder

4.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Tony Towers, played by Michael Sheen, is a club owner on the verge of bankruptcy, however when he enters a train that allows him to travel to other decades of his life he tries to change things in order to be a success, however, as he does this he realises what really matters to him.

This was a powerful film; I know the above summary might make the plot sound a bit generic but trust me it really isn’t. As Tony begins to learn that his success comes at the cost of his brother’s, played by Cary Elwes, physical and mental health and then tries to save him it hits you like a ton of bricks. The bond between these two characters is incredibly strong and Sheen and Elwes play off each other really well over the course of the film.

I found the morality of the film and the impact of Tony’s choices to be fascinating and not go in a way that I was expecting. I thought the ending of the film felt incredibly well done and earned, the one thing that bothered me about it though was that the two didn’t talk, I felt like this was needed for us to know that Sheen’s Tony had been truly successful.

Overall, potentially a new Christmas classic.

Pros.

Elwes

Sheen

The emotion

The morality

Cons.

The ending

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C’mon C’mon: Joaquin Phoenix Proving Why He Got An Oscar

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Johnny, played by Joaquin Phoenix, must look after his young nephew Jessie, played by Woodie Norman.

For the most part I thought this was a beautiful film about lonely souls finding each other and bonding. I thought Phoenix was at his most paternal here and his relationship with Norman’s Jessie felt very organic, powerful and real. A number of times the scenes between the two as well as some of the scenes where Phoenix’s character is talking into his radio equipment about Jessie were so sweet and wholesome that they almost brought me to tears.

Now this film won’t be for everyone there will be some that view it as boring or as pretentious, especially because it chooses to be entirely in black and white, however I think the intimate focus and this colour choice help the film to stand out and give it personality.

The only thing I don’t like about this film is the long drawn out sequences where the children that Johnny interviews go on about their fears for the future. To me I thought these were dull and took away from a tight and compelling main story about the bond between boy and uncle.

Overall, Phoenix is an incredible talent.

Pros.

Phoenix

Norman

The emotion

The style

Cons.

Some of the sections drag on

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Mother/Android: The YA Genre Just Can’t Seem To Die

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Chloe Grace Moretz tries to break free of the YA market by making a science fiction film that feels remarkably YA. Moretz plays a young woman who must navigate an AI uprising in order to get to safety so she can give birth.

It is a shame this year has been so mixed for Moretz she started off with the underappreciated Shadow In The Cloud, and then went on to make Tom And Jerry, a sequel to the animated Addams family film and then this, further and further from grace. This film is by no means terrible, there are some interesting concepts here, however, it never does much with them. Instead it seems content on making this film a depressing melodrama with a YA dystopian setting and a front and centre romance.

Even when the film gets gritty the violence is either not shown or it is surprisingly bloodless, which I guess makes sense if you are fighting robots. However, it just makes this film feel like yet another poor YA film.

Moretz is trying her best however, she doesn’t really bring enough resonance to the part and as such the big emotional twist at the end doesn’t work as much as the film needs it to.

Overall, yet more weak science fiction.

Pros.

Some interesting ideas

It is relatively well paced

Cons.

Moretz can’t land the emotional delivery

Surprisingly bloodless

It feels like an edgy YA film

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Villain: The Saddest Of The Gangland Films

1/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A recently released convict, played by Craig Fairbrass, must try and save his families pub from gangland threats.

To me this film failed to be in any way fun, yes though it is a different type of fun a lot of the gangland films, particularly those with Danny Dyer, have enough charm or gravitas to keep you around and enjoying yourself until the end of the film, this didn’t have that.

Not only was this film depressing, it was morbidly depressing, and seemed to go out of its way to be grim and off putting, honestly watching it made me sad. I understand the point the film was trying to make by having Fairbrass’ character die at the end, the superfluousness of his life style and how in the end even if you win you die, and it did deliver this message however, it just made the film feel even more of a downer and left a bit of a bad taste as well.

Fairbrass is fine he is playing a slightly toned down version of his Rise Of The Foot Soldier character. He tries hard to try and round the character and to add emotional depth though this ends in a colossal failure.

Overall, who was this made for?

Pros.

It is short

Fairbrass is trying

Cons.

The ending

It is depressing

There is no charm to it

It has pacing issues galore

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