Letterboxd — Your life in film

Luhrmann’s lack of taste becomes something of an asset, allowing him to create a first act here that's as shallow and misplaced as Gatsby’s delusion. DiCaprio’s is a top-notch performance (it’s a shame that only Elizabeth Debicki also registers). At least Baz is self-conscious... the last hour considerably clamps down on the literal fireworks. "Bad" usually wins out over "Dull" in my book...

66/100

The film seems to be charting out the actual experience of labor, although the fact that it's shot much like a horror film seems to somewhat disconnect our experience of watching from the workers' desensitized experience of doing. Repetition is crucial, as it even threatens to turn the many unprecedented moments of visual wonder on display here into mundane routine. Which way is up again?...

74/100

Much better than I had thought...

77/100

LaGravenese classes up what might have been a cheap Twilight knockoff. The focus here is less the mumbo jumbo than on the beguiling chemistry between Ehrenreich and Englert. There are a few too many cliches in play to allow this to be anything great, especially when it comes to the overcooked Southern atmosphere, but this is a nice little movie. The last few minutes are particularly lovely. The last shot portends a sequel, but thankfully this was a box-office bomb and we're left with open-ended poetry instead.

53/100

Park’s channeling Shadow of a Doubt here, and doing a reasonably good job of it. It doesn’t help matters that that’s not a particular favorite of mine, nor does it help that this film’s script generates suspense largely through pointless obfuscation. Still, as Hitchcock homages go, this is more imaginative than most. Park uses his actors well, as props. Much of the time while watching this I couldn’t tell if Park has terrible taste or if he was intentionally being campy.

56/100

Let's set aside the stolen identities here for a second. The sheer amount of schizophrenia that would be required for me to empathize with McCarthy's remarkably self-centered sociopath is beyond belief. There is a strong central concept here. This film cannot capitalize on it in the least.

28/100

This sequel isn’t terrible by any means, but it’s badly misconceived. It discards not only the mockumentary approach that drove the first film, but also shifts Ashley Bell, the original’s greatest asset by far, into a more conventional victim role. The results are uninspiring and all-too predictable. That being said, hopefully this won’t be the last exorcism. I’d happily watch a third entry in this series, as this film’s cliffhanger suggests it would put Bell back in the scenery-chewing mode she excels at.

47/100

Spielberg's influence is thick here. Although the subject matter suggests we're in Close Encounters territory, don't be fooled. This is a virtual remake of Poltergeist with aliens swapped in for the ghosts, and it's far more effective in aping that classic than it has any right to be. I found stretches of this slow-burner deeply unsettling... far more than I expected for a PG-13-rated horror film. I suspect I'm underrating it.

56/100