fourellen Reviews

The Last Duel (2021)

Interesting concept, terrible dialog

[5/10 · 4 March 2023]

Since the movie is based on a real event, I wish the characters had been written as real people. They never seemed to be interacting, but just acting. The "book discussion" scene was particularly painful and reminded me of a high school drama production. All of the cast members have been good on other movies but the terrible dialog was unsalvageable. The minor roles (king and queen, for instance) were barely more than sock puppets. The sets looked pretty good and the duel scene was up to Ridley Scott standards but the hair, makeup and costumes were ridiculous, especially Comer in her peasant outfit while her husband was away and she was running the estate.

Shining Girls (2022– )

I'll never get those hours back

[3/10 · 3 June 2022]

Interesting premise, but wtf? If the writers can't figure out how to get out of this mess they just end it? Should this be called "the Time Traveler 's Victim"? High concept ridiculousness is still ridiculous- I feel like I've been seduced and abandoned.

Midnight Mass (2021– )

Stuck the Landing!

[10/10 · 1 October 2021]

I hope it's not a spoiler to say that "Midnight Mass" has one of the most satisfying endings of all the television I've watched in recent years. It is as rare as a unicorn for a show of this type to come together in a non-silly conclusion-no deus ex machina but no despair, either. Great writing, great cast, beautiful video and achingly lovely soundtrack.

French Exit (2020)

Good movie, one great scene

[7/10 · 8 April 2021]

No spoiler here, but the scene with the Parisian waiter would single-handedly redeem a much weaker movie. For this one it was the cherry on the sundae.

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

Too much time, not enough movie

[6/10 · 27 January 2019]

Heartbreaking, beautiful, moving and too damned long! There is a great 90 minute movie crying to get out of this 2 hour snooze. Several scenes were just excruciatingly slow.

Sharp Objects (2018– )

All Style, Not Much Story

[5/10 · 13 August 2018]

This show has everything except narrative momentum. Th acting is great, the video is beautiful (but the audio is often unintelligible) but the story moves at a glacial pace. Case in point, last night's episode "Cherry" wasted at least 15 minutes on a scene where Amy Adams' character is at a teen party with her little sister. Teen party scenes have become a cliche, and the narrative hit a wall. Maybe this story doesn't need eight episodes to tell, because there seems to be a lot of filler in every episode.

That Summer (2017)

Meta enough?

[3/10 · 18 June 2018]

This is a movie about a movie that was never made, and about another movie that was made, instead. I really don't know what this adds to the story of Big Edie and Little Edie of Grey Gardens, and the film footage of the beautiful people of the 1970s is not interesting. I kept hoping for some insight, some reason to revisit Grey Gardens, but this movie doesn't have it.

Ratatouille (2007)

Clever but Tiresome

[7/10 · 2 July 2007]

This is a clever movie, with lots of entertaining gags that fly by too fast to take them all in, but why must so many of these animated movies have the "roots v. dreams" theme. We saw it in Pinnochio and The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, and too many others to count; a protagonist who dreams of transcending his (or her, occasionally) place in the world, but has so many tiresome conflicted moments along the way.

Also, would it have been so hard to have had a few more female characters? Let's see, we had the batty old lady with the shotgun and the tough but hot chef, and a brief glimpse of a female food critic. Why couldn't there have been some female rats, at least? Couldn't Remy have had a sister and mother instead of a father and brother? I think we need a Title IX for animated feature films!