Excellent and rich character study of several people with some severe issues they need to work through. The way Julianne Moore plays Gracie as someone so morally dissociated from her actions and how she affects others is incredible. The small jabs and gaslighting moments she throws out feel so routine and off-handed that you really get a strong sense of the character.
But I like that it's not just focused on her and how the character is viewed by both…
There are some wonderful sequences of military strategy and combat in Napoleon. And I enjoyed the way the movie addresses and positions Napoleon's deep insecurities into the story. Despite that, however, I felt like the overall experience was a little unfocused. Napoleon's desires and thirst for power are (I guess) tied mostly to his relationship with Josephine. But the script gives us a minimal amount of context as to why that's the case and leaves Josephine in the wind as far as character development is concerned.
Reviewed in The Obsessive Viewer Podcast episode 404: obsessiveviewer.com/ov404
Moving and heartbreaking family drama. The complexity not only in the premise of a woman kidnapping her son from foster care but in the arcs of each character is handled really well. The way the story is told through the years with the various setbacks and parenting struggles helps create a really complete and complex story of family and social commentary.
Teyana Taylor and Josiah Cross give amazing performances.
This is really lazy and feels just slapped together. The kills and chase sequences are uninspired throughout. The characters aren't very interesting because the movie doesn't give any of them time to develop outside of whatever 1 or 2 sentence description was written for them in the outlining stage of the writing process.
Justin Long is pretty fun in a really over the top way. Joel McHale is enjoyable too but in a more grounded way.
Not good at all.
More thoughts to come in this week's episode of The Obsessive Viewer Podcast.
James Cameron has never been a good storyteller and it was unlikely that the 13 years he spent making Avatar: The Way of Water was going to change that.
But when your eyes aren't assaulted by scenes switching to high frame rate in parts, The Way of Water is a good demonstration of why Cameron wants to make Pandora his sandbox and keep making movies in it forever.
The narrative is a big improvement over the first movie, but that's…
Not the worst MCU movie. It's not even the worst Thor movie. But it's far from the best of either.
The more I think about this movie, the more annoyed I am by it. It's incredibly sloppy and has some of the worst character development (or lack thereof) in the MCU. We don't get to see Jane go from scientist to Thor, but we do get an extended preview of Guardians 3. Gorr the God Butcher's god butchering is mostly…
