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The Zone of Interest (2023)
The Banality of The Zone of Interest
In trying to do something different and show his virtuosity as a filmmaker, the director sacrifices storytelling and viewer engagement for mundanity.
Mr Glazer's three previous films were excellent and conjured remarkable performances from their actors; Ben Kingsley and Ian McShane in Sexy Beast, Nicole Kidman and Danny Huston in Birth and Scarlett Johansson (and ordinary Scottish blokes) in Under the Skin. But here the actors aren't given an opportunity to shine because of the distance of the filmmaker's treatment.
Sandra Hüller, got to show her acting chops in Anatomy of a Fall, but here she shows none of that range, and Christian Friedel is memorable only for his bizarre Peaky Blinders' haircut.
The Holocaust is a topic that too easily invokes horror, but with the Zone of Interest I simply did not feel the same horror created by previous films dealing with the subject.
An Cailín Ciúin (2022)
Underwhelmed
I read the rave reviews on IMDB and other places, however I wish I would have been more impressed.
The story seemed far from remarkable and the pace is terribly slow, in fact there is really not much to comment on of any note.
All of the actors did their bit and yes, there was a subtlety in exploring developing relationships. The photography was lovely and the sense of period was well done, but basically nothing much happens throughout. I wish I could be more enthusiastic, but it was dull.
Calvary (2014)
Funny, poignant and beautiful
Beautifully shot, superbly written, expertly acted. A great movie. Dylan Moran is extraordinarily good. Brendan Gleeson is superb.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
What a disappointment
You are kidding me that this movie was made in the same year as Pulp fiction, 1994.
It looks like 1978 and is a pantomime. Totally dated and Sam Neil hopefully has realised that winemaking is his true destiny.
Beoning (2018)
What am I Missing?
Saw this at 2018 NZ Intl Film Festival unfortunately. I'm used to being disappointed on occasions by Festival movies, but I can usually at least see some positives, however not in this case.
The pace of the "story" is glacial and the actors aren't challenged at all. It's as though the director just turned the camera on and kinda filmed what happened. In short, it's plain dull for a full 148 minutes.
I'm aware that many critics don't agree with me - at all.
Justin Chang of the LA Times gave it 100, "Burning is a character study that morphs, with masterly patience, subtlety and nary a single wasted minute, into a teasing mystery and eventually a full-blown thriller." While - bizarrely - Emily Yoshida of the New York Magazine observed: "There is so much fascinating, underplayed tension running through Burning - oddly, I found myself put in mind of Elon Musk stepping out with art-pop singer-songwriter Grimes at the Met Ball last week. I don't claim to know anything about the inner life of that relationship, but the perception of the rich vampirizing youth is incredibly compelling."
I'll have whatever these guys are on before I see another Chang-dong Lee movie.