rustin-2 Reviews

Civil War (2024)

Consistently off-key and illogical

[3/10 · 13 April 2024]

Why are the four so-called journalists in this film so utterly stupid and unconvincing? Why do they keep expensive camera gear in hard cases attached to the roof of their car during a civil war when looting and potential car-jacking is rampant? Why don't we ever see them opening one of these cases and using what's inside? Why doesn't the "reporter" ever write a note, type a sentence, or file a story, instead of guzzling vodka and smoking weed? Why don't they have a first-aid kit in their car when driving into a war zone, one they could have used to maybe stop their colleague from bleeding out? Why is the young naive photojournalist shooting film instead of digital yet we never see her reload her camera? Why does the hardbitten award-winning photojournalist suddenly freeze during the money-shot sequence? Why, after she saves the life of the young photojournalist, does she remain standing in the line of fire rather than dive for cover? The answer to all of these questions or more: because without these illogical and wholly misguided sequences Alex Garland, the overrated writer-director, would not be able to push one contrived scene after another at us.

Out of Darkness (2022)

Teasing and forgettable

[3/10 · 2 March 2024]

This movie depends on almost endless scenes of its six stone age characters running through scrubby open terrain and dark forests, with whip pans and intercut close-ups of terrified faces, to create a sense of danger and unseen horror. Trouble is, this obvious packing of the narrative with ginned-up suspense achieves nothing in terms of drama or horror. Added to that are a lot of unanswered questions about character motivation and the plausibility of the so-called demons tracking our hapless sextet. The inevitable "reveal" is both laughable and inexplicable. I truly appreciate the attempt by the filmmakers to create a low-budget feature out of spare elements and a minimalist sensibility, but at times I felt insulted that this movie expected to get away with what was clearly a woefully under-imagined scenario.

God Is a Bullet (2023)

Sorry folks, this is atrocious

[2/10 · 26 February 2024]

I really wanted to like this film. Cassavetes' Alpha Dog is a film I've watched again and again, and it works precisely because the violence is always seething around the edges, and many of the characters are sympathetic. But God is a Bullet is a lurid, ugly, dumb mess, with truly repellent characters that only have ugly, dumb things to say to each other. Every scene begins and ends not with a plausible organic sense of forward movement, but with glib, arch, derivative dialogue from a thousand better movies, and with embarrassing chest-beating attitude and mostly sickening, gratuitous violence. You may hate yourself for sticking with it.

Past Lives (2023)

If Past Lives is a masterpiece, cinema is in trouble.

[3/10 · 21 February 2024]

The year's most overpraised film. Bland, safe, coy, cute. Unremarkable in every department: story, acting, cinematography, editing, music. I am bewildered that this film has been hailed as a masterpiece, or even as very good. There is not a shot or performance or line of dialogue that is memorable, not is there one bit of chemistry between the the two people who were very briefly friends when they were children. What is going on here? A much better indie film that no one is talking about, that had grit and punch and drama and high stakes, was How To Blow Up a Pipeline. Has anybody seen that film?

We (2021)

Scattered, dull, self-important

[4/10 · 1 January 2023]

The film is both observational and metaphorical, the observational bits are dull, and the metaphorical bits are obvious. It is meant as some sort of tapestry stitched out of random unconnected stories of people living in the Paris suburbs, and the disconnect is part of the point. But none of these scenes, nor the home video fragments that reflect Diop's upbringing in these same suburbs, makes much of an impression. I don't know why the rich folks at the beginning and at the very end of the film, in which they engage in a foxhunt, allowed Diop to film them as part of her metaphorical statement. If a white filmmaker used a black subculture to make a negative comparison, they would have been accused of perpetuating a colonial gaze and hounded out of filmmaking by the moral watchdogs of the documentary industry. I think filmmakers of any color, gender, or culture should be able to use their talents to tell stories about any and all people, as long as they show empathy and respect and skill.

Aftersun (II) (2022)

A tsunami of over-praise

[5/10 · 24 December 2022]

Critics who have seen this film at festivals, where the director can reveal details in person about the film and answer questions to clear up misconceptions, can then write their reviews based on information the average viewer does not have. These critics then read other critics' reviews and, not wanting to be seen as churlish or unkind, tend to accentuate the same positive elements and downplay the elements that don't work or are under-developed in a film. This is why some films as mediocre as, say, Cameraperson or Moonlight or Petite Maman, end up on so many 10-best lists. I believe this is what has happened with Aftersun. It is gentle, well-imagined, filmed and edited with invention, and performed with naturalistic touches, but it is also underwhelming, content to suggest portentous events but unwilling to create even a hint of drama surrounding them. I had many questions about the characters and their back stories, and I don't believe that providing just a few answers would have hurt the movie's mood. In fact, they would have enhanced it. Aftersun is a lovely debut for the director, but it is also flawed in many ways, the flaws illustrative of many first-time films that in an effort to avoid being too obvious end up being too reticent.

Touch the Sound: A Sound Journey with Evelyn Glennie (2004)

Contemplative and beautiful.

[9/10 · 6 June 2005]

Thomas Redelsheimer's beautifully crafted documentary is patient, precise, and exquisitely tuned into the subject matter. It's so refreshing to see a masterfully shot and thoughtfully edited documentary, especially after sitting through such overrated, uninspiring, and clumsily shot and edited mediocrities like Control Room and Born into Brothels. Redelsheimer is, like Errol Morris, one of the few documentary filmmakers today who seem to truly care about the art of non-fiction cinema. He also believes an audience can make intuitive leaps, guided by sound and images, that bring them so much closer to the soul of his subject. In this case, Evelyn Glennie, a deaf master percussionist, invites the director and his crew into her meditative world that allows her to literally "hear" with her body. Redelsheimer captures some unbelievably beautiful natural moments of picture and sound, and juxtaposes them with his own soulful artistic skill. A must-see for lovers of documentaries who appreciate the potential of the genre.

Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel (2004)

Grotesquely insensitive and disrespectful documentary about Gram Parsons

[1/10 · 23 May 2005]

This is a slipshod documentary that is about as original and involving as an episode of VH1's Behind the Music. The production values are very poor, with much of the video footage shot erratically out the window of a moving car, and the editing is a clumsy, uninspired pastiche of quick pans and tilts across black and white still photos jarringly inter-cut with a relentless onslaught of meaningless talking heads (do we really need to hear from the girlfriend of Parson's manager or the best friend of Parson's dead stepfather?). We hear very little of Parson's music, most of which plays in the background under the interviews, and no one except Emmylou Harris manages to truly elucidate Parson's gifts as a singer and songwriter. Technically, the film is embarrassing, but it is even worse in its shameful final minutes, when it juxtaposes the bizarre circumstances of Parson's burial with the heartfelt grief of those who loved Parsons, and manipulates the audience into laughter when what we should be feeling is sadness. Fallen Angel is disrespectful of Gram Parsons' groundbreaking music, banal in its storytelling, and grotesquely insensitive to the people who knew and loved him.