Movie Review: Bones and All

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

A wonderful film that is equal parts creepy and beautiful. 

Making a love story about two cannibals is something that very few filmmakers would ever try. Luckily Luca Guadagnino is not most filmmakers. What he creates here is a very unique and powerful thing. It is brilliant how this movie turns the characters that in most horror films would be the bad guys into the most sympathetic and relatable people. You truly get to care about our two main characters and see them as human beings rather than monsters. This is done heavily with how the characters don't eat people out of malice but instead because they have an unquenching desire to devour fellow human beings Our heroine desires nothing more than to simply be normal. She constantly feels guilty about this and constantly wonders if she is in fact a good person. Yet in the scenes where we see her feeding are indeed disturbing, making her both frightening and lovable at the same time. To think about whether or not she has a right to be happy and live a normal life is a huge question this movie brings up. As the movie goes on we have many complex emotions about this and the more complex these emotions get the more it leaves us unable to answer this question. Because of this, you leave the movie theater with a lot of food of thought and genuinely both emotionally and intellectually affected by what you just saw. Despite the dark and gruesome nature of such a film, there is a surprisingly sweetness behind the main romance. Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet have wonderful chemistry and the romance between them always feels completely real and believable. Yet this is not to say that the movie does not have any real scares. Some of the scenes in this film are truly scary. Some of the scariest scenes have to do with Mark Rylance's character. Every scene with this character pushes this movie completely into the horror realm. Mark Rylance is one of my favorite current working actors, however I have never seen him play a role like this before. He plays it incredibly well and makes each scene with him simply terrifying. Even in the scenes where he is not eating other people, we feel a sense of uneasy that makes us truly shiver. 

What truly makes this film wonderful is how well it can go from genre to genre. It can go from horror to romance to family drama to art film, while feeling completely natural the whole time. 

A truly great, one of a kind movie. 

Movie Review: Phantom of the Open

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

A completely delightful British comedy-drama. 

This is a movie that does exactly what it sets out to do. It is a feel-good story and it truly makes you feel good. This film is based off a true-life story and it is easy to see why this story had to made into a movie (okay, it was made into a book first). The basic story is irresistible. A man who has never played golf before, decides he wants to play in the British Open and when he gets the chance to, he plays the worst round in the history of the Open. Yet despite this and being labeled "the world's worst golfer" he does not let this stop him from his dream. Too often we don't do things that we know we would truly love, because we also know that we might fail or that the odds are against us. Yet as this film shows us, sometimes it is enough to simply live our lives to the fullest and still "reach for the stars" when we do fail.  In a world that has become so cynical this is a type of movie that we need right now. Because as much as we may laugh at his failed attempts at golf, deep down we truly admire this man and wish that we could be more like him. With this incredibly effective sweetness and optimism it is no shock that the writer, Simon Farnaby, also co-wrote the wonderful Paddington 2. 

Of course, for a film like this much of it relies on its stars. Luckily this movie has a truly fantastic cast. Mark Rylance is always incredible with any role he is given, and I don't think I have ever seen a movie with him, where he didn't give a great performance. However, he is at the top of his game here. No matter how familiar you may be with this actor, he so becomes the character that you forget you are watching an actor play a role. He brings so much warmth and humanity to the role that only makes this already charming movie, more charming. The always great Sally Hawkins is also incredibly charming as his wife, and she brings a sweet charm to this movie that results in some of its finest moments.

This is also a very funny movie. This is not only a film that will make you smile but one that will make you laugh out loud. While I expected the film might give me a few laughs, I did not except to laugh as much or as hard as I did. Yet all of this comedy is at service to the story and adds to the story the film is telling rather than distracting from it. Plus, any modern movie that has a comedy scene referencing the Keystone Kops has easily won my heart.

If you want to leave a movie simply feeling good, this is a must see. 

Movie Review: The Outfit

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An excellent thriller.

There is no doubt that director and co-writer Graham Moore (for whom this is his first time directing a feature film) enjoyed making this movie. It is easy to sense here that feeling of pure passion for making movies. Despite the often darkness of the subject matter and much of what happens, there is a certain playfulness here. This is especially evident in various of the great montages that are seen in this picture and the film's desire to keep its audience constantly guessing. This is truly a movie that will keep one guessing what is going to happen next every step of the way. While not every one of these plot twists work, the majority of them are excellent. You are often left wondering just who these characters really are and what exactly they are not telling us (or any of the other characters for that matter). This movie also is filled with that great dialogue that used to be common in movies but is becoming much rarer today. It is delightful to see a modern movie that is filled with such great dialogue and can easily hold our interest during scenes where it is simply just people talking. This is not to say that this film is not visually effective as well. Though this film is mostly located in one place, that place is filmed and lit in such a way that there is a wonderful, dark and foreboding atmosphere that I simply loved. Because of this unlike similar films this always feels like a movie rather than a filmed stage play. Of course, for a movie like this, one of the most important elements is the cast. Luckily the cast is fantastic here. While the whole cast is great, Mark Rylance and Zoey Deutch are especially fantastic and bring a real magnetism to this film.   

This movie does have some big faults though. While I won't give much away the final scene and the plot twist therein, feel too over the top and at odds with the rest of the film. This movie also does not need the heavy-handed narration from our main character. Still with how fantastic the rest of the movie is these faults are easy to forgive.