Just a quick post here to wrap up and review my first month's free trial with Netflix; now given that I'm very aware and afraid of my limited amount of free time and the trials and failures of my past efforts to get the blog up and running, this first in my 'A Week in Netflix' series of posts shall be kept pretty short and sweet and just sharing the key thought points and opinions of my watch-list during this period - I'm hoping that with the weekly blog posts in this series will eventually become a bit more involved and delve deeper and contain a stronger body of text to review each item whether it's a film, TV show or anime, but just to ease us all into the CursedFilm's weekly blog here's just some quick thoughts on my Netflix experience to date.
Film
Dallas Buyers Club
There's always a worry that with films that seem to come out of nowhere and are tracking some serious hype both critically and on Social Media, the hype machine can and has done on many occasions raise the expectations so high that if you're late to the party you end up being a little let down when a film can't meet those hefty heights. Although Dallas Buyers Club does have some issues with pacing and an overall feeling of being a bloated dramatic piece, the film has two outstanding central performances from Matthew McCounaghey and Jared Leto that has taken their careers to a new high, the handling and depiction of the fear of AIDS in 80's America feels fresh; a film that left a very strong impression and while it might not be a film that a revisit many times - it's certainly a well crafted emotional drama that packs a punch.
8/10
The Tall Man
The director of Martyrs takes aim at American Hollywood film-making and despite Hollywood Horror tropes, of which there are plenty to be seen in The Tall Man; there are enough fresh ideas here to make the film stand out from the crowd, which is helped further by a really strong central performance from Jessica Biel who really won me over here. A film that might just have one twist too many and a film that arguably asks you a difficult moral question that really does strike a chord against your moral compass. Its certainly not to same standard level of Martyrs. Not something that I'd recommend to everyone, but if you're a horror fan then this is certainly a film worth checking out; though if you've not seen the director's previous film Martyrs, you should seek that out immediately.
7/10
Filth
Thank god that I had subtitles on here as the Scottish accents are thick and frequently expressions that didn't quite click with me were easily understood with the help of the subtitles; as for the film itself; Filth is excessive absurd and crude and flirts with the borders of going just too far, but it never really seemed to go past the point of no return; at times the film had me in stitches of laugh out loud crass humour that made the film such a joy ride and the film delivers a fitting ending that I thought really justified the antics portrayed earlier in the film. There's also a stand out relationship/friendship within the film that we can all relate to in years gone past, though it's depicted in the extreme here, but boy is it the highlight of the entire film.
8/10
Network
A TV network that cynically exploits a quite clearly troubled employee for ratings that evolve the rantings and ravings of media consumption of the population of America for their own profit; why oh' why has it taken me so long to see this highly regarded 70's Sidney Lumet film - a wonderful cast with flawless performances across the board. All I'll say here is that it's known as a 'classic' for a reason and if you've not seen this film yet, do yourself a favour and seek it out immediately, a great example of the master-class of 70's America Cinema that holds up even today almost 40 years later.
9/10
Safety Not Guaranteed
A romantic comedy that blends in with the science fiction genre; quite simply put I adore this film, I love this film; it's the complete package with a heart felt story. A wonderfully crafted script with characters that you really care for, for it's genre this feels like a modern day masterpiece that has given me new hope for the upcoming Jurassic World film. Flat out I recommend this film to everyone, the less you know the better, don't even bother with the trailer just jump in and enjoy its beautiful nature and excellent storytelling, not a bad reaction for someone who categorically hate romantic comedies.
10/10
Fruitvale Station
A true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who was shot dead unlawfully at Fruitvale Station in 2008; the film portrays the last day of this young man's life with his family, friends and even his enemies. It kicks off with some real footage captured on the day from bystanders and later the depiction of these scenes looks and feels very close to that footage. Unfortunately the film feels very amateur with generic raw performances that are poorly directed and with an skewed and contrived vision that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It passes the time well enough but it all feels rather cynical and narrow minded - the police are evil view point couldn't be more ham-fisted than it is here.
4/10
Dirty Pretty Things
A thriller starring a pre-12 Years a Slave Chiwetel Ejiofor and a post-Amelie Audrey Tautou; a tale of two immigrants just trying to make a living in London; a 2002 film that feels so very 90's, the two stars give excellent performances but for a film that had such huge potentially thematically and cinematic-ally but the film just ends up being just far too simple for its own good. I kind of get the feeling this would have made a better BBC short series where we could explore this world deeper and get to build up the relationship and characters to a higher standard, raising the stakes of the piece greatly. A film that I could recommend just on the performances alone but not something that will leave a lasting impression or something that I personally will ever feel the need to revisit.
6/10
The Frozen Ground
Nic Cage delivers a surprisingly strong performance here, not in the sense of it's OTT Rage Cage where it's fun to watch because he's going off the deep end, but a genuinely good solid performance - he feels organic to the role of the lead detective in this crime thriller. While the film itself isn't bad, it doesn't do enough to surprise you and the script could have been better developed. Overall it's a good solid thriller, but there's just not enough here to say that the film stands out from the crowd as some either wonderful or unique; but at least its good evidence that Nic Cage does have some genuine acting skills. But if you are looking for a crime thriller starring Nicolas Cage then I'd recommend you seek out Werner Herzog's The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans.
6/10
We Are the Best!
Three Swedish misfit teens form a relationship and bound over punk music to let out their true feelings; We Are the Best seemed to have something of a reputation as being one of the stand out pieces of European Cinema in the last few years; yet I must admit that the film left me very cold and unimpressed. For me it failed as a comedy and it failed at a coming of age story, I was never really sold on the relationship between the 3 girls here and it all fell a little flat, its passable script plods along with no high or low points and drifts towards its finale at a constant steady pace; harmless yet inadequate film that just doesn't offer enough to warrant a reputation.
4/10
Anime
Attack on Titan
For a series that's core story revolves around Titans and the battle for the human race that is on the brink of extinction, I was hoping for something that carried a bit more weight and offered some action set pieces that would blow my socks off. The series seemed to get off to a rather slow pace where I only really got pulled in after 7 or 8 episodes in. I love the art style that's on show here and the characters are well developed as the story progresses but overall I just felt like the show had too many up and down moments that really prevents this series from getting into 5th gear on a regular basis. By the end of the show I did really enjoy the series as a whole and the finale did leave me wanting more and will certainly keep an eye out for the inevitable season 2, I just hope that the show can deliver more 'Wow' moments than it did in this opening season.
7/10
Psycho-Pass (Episodes 1-12)
On my current mission to catch up with all things Anime, I've now worked my way onto Pyscho-Pass as my next little project, initially my reaction to this show was rather cold and mentioned to a friend that I felt that the show was hard to get into, but then episode 4 happened and at which point I said 'I'm all in' with this show now, since that episode though I do feel that it's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs in terms of quality and intrigue. What on the surface seems like Minority Report with a Japanese anime twist, has clearly developed into something far deeper within a wonderfully crafted well thought out world that is always bring up interesting ideas if not always fully exploited to the best of their potential in each episode. In a world where the police are able to take out suspects on their criminal intent levels alone and are helped by enforcers; who themselves carry a latent criminal intent level that they Sybil system deems too high to be acted against, the world has such great potential to grow as does the show itself, at the moment I have mixed feelings at this point, but I still have hopes that I'll be fully on-board come the season finale.
TV
Top of the Lake
Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) stars in this crime drama mini-series that's based in New Zealand and main story centres around the disappearance of a pregnant 12 year old girl named Tui. Detective Robin Griffin who specialises with young people initially finds herself drawn to the case, as she tries to uncover a possible case of rape of this seemingly poor young teenage girl, but she is soon caught up with this small-towns deepest and darkest secrets that she struggles to unravel. Overall I'd highly recommend this show and while it would seem difficult to point out any glaring issues with the show in terms of quality, if you were going to point out any weaknesses on show here, it would be with the main story and the mystery itself, as it does seem to get lost at time amongst all the other secrets that we uncover with Robin. But the series is a fine example of character development and a well crafted script that the issue of the main plot point isn't really an issue, with such fantastically interesting characters and back-stories it's hard to not love this show. The finale takes a dark twist and for me I was left with a few unanswered questions but in the best kind of way where it provides some thought-provoking inner questions rather than frustrations - I highly recommend this show to anyone.
8/10
Daredevil (Episodes 1-2)
Very late to the Daredevil party here, but I was keen to catch up with the Netflix Original show and even more keen to attempt to wash away the memory of the god awful Daredevil film starring BatFleck. While Charlie Cox does kind of look similar to a young Ben Affleck, he instantly takes grab of the role with both hands and makes it his own; it's still very early doors but after two episodes its clear to see that this show feels very grounded in the world that it has created. The much talked about fight scene in episode 2 that is unfairly being compared to the fight scene from Oldboy; it's clearly not a patch on that corridor scene, but in terms of television, it's a stand out moment that gets the blood pumping. I'm keen to catch up with the series as fast as possible now, as already the show has got me caring about a character that I originally didn't particularly care for and hadn't read any of the Daredevil comics and was further more made no interesting following that disaster of a movie, but I'm now fully on-board and would say already a fan of Daredevil.
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