Happy New Year, everyone! I didn’t realize it’s been over a month since I last wrote reviews, so I hope everyone had a safe holiday weekend. Let’s get into some reviews.
The Quiet Girl
The Quiet Girl rounds out what I have officially dubbed “The Celtic Depression Trilogy” including the likes of The Banshees of Inisherin and Aftersun. Yes all three of those may make you very sad, but one thing they have in common is that they are all very, very, very good.
The Quiet Girl reminds me a lot of Paweł Pawlikowski’s films; the aspect ratio, the still shots, the patient pacing are all here. There’s a lot of visual storytelling and emotional subtext here, but you’re never bored because of the beautiful and tender performances from the cast. I was so glad to see this film get an Oscar nomination, because it’s totally well deserved. About halfway through the film, you get an idea as to what the rest of the movie is about. However, it still won’t prepare you for all the feels you’ll get in the ending. I loved this movie, I love the Irish language, I love the Celtic Depression Trilogy. May every year have a CDT, even if my heart can’t handle it.
Grade: B+/85
Argentina, 1985
Courtroom dramas are always a hard sell for me. Essentially, if a courtroom drama film is made for wide audiences to watch, then we most likely know that the case being highlighted goes in favor of the “good guys.” While this may not always be the case, I think they account for most of these movies, otherwise why make them and make everyone depressed about the legal system?
Knowing how a movie ends takes away a lot of the tension and investment for me. However, there are always exceptions. 12 Angry Men is in my top ten favorite films of all time. The script, the direction, and the performances are all perfectly harmonized, resulting in one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces. The film has you rooting for Juror #8 so hard that you’re scared of what’ll happen if he loses. With that being said, one of the secret sauces to a great courtroom drama are the performances, and there are many performers in Argentina, 1985. I think the movie is at its best when it’s involving the entire legal team working together and building the case set up in the film, but unfortunately it doesn’t spend that much time on it. A lot of the time is spent (quite repetitively, I might add) with testimonies that highlight the atrocities of the Argentinian military. I get that it’s important to highlight these real life events, but seeing testimony after testimony felt more like the movie was directly lecturing me as opposed to telling a story.
I really was not feeling this movie for most of it, until the end. I have to give credit where credit is due; Julio César Strassera’s closing statement is one of the best courtroom drama scenes ever.
Grade: B/76
White Noise
I’m just gonna get right into it: I freakin’ HATED this movie. White Noise was known as one of the most unadaptable novels, and after seeing the film I can see why. I hated almost everything about this movie, which is a shame because I’m a big fan of Adam Driver, and especially Greta Gerwig.
Noah Baumbach films are such a mixed bag. I really enjoyed Frances Ha, disliked The Meyerowitz Stories, adored Marriage Story, and hated The Squid and the Whale. I absolutely abhor this movie. Everyone talks like they’re a first year student at a pretentious theater school. The dialogue was aggressively cringe-inducing to my ears. The story goes nowhere. The themes gave me zero insight and I felt that the experience of watching this was as meaningless as the story it was trying to tell. The moment in the beginning where all the members of the family are talking over breakfast, I knew that I was in for a painful ride. The only reason I didn’t grade this lower was because it is a objectively competently directed, edited and shot film. I think I’ll still watch Noah Baumbach movies in the future because I know how he’s capable of making amazing films, but this one definitely gave me trust issues. Easily my least favorite film of the year.
Grade: D+/52
The Pale Blue Eye
I watched this film with expectations that it wasn’t going to be that great, based on the reviews that I saw, so I pretty much got what I wanted out of it. Christian Bale is great here as always, and I think he’s one of the few stars left in Hollywood who can carry a film and make it better than it actually is (see my review for Amsterdam). However, Harry Melling is surprisingly great here as well. His performance as Edgar Allan Poe is very captivating, mostly due to his Benoit Blanc-esque accent that is infinitely fun to imitate. Aside from that, this film has great atmosphere and I would agree with many people who have called this, quite literally, a very cold movie. Definitely had to bundle up watching this one.
I can see why reviews weren’t so hot on this film overall though, because the mystery is intriguing but doesn’t build up to much. On top of that, the finale goes in a very bold direction that I have to admire, even though I didn’t think it worked at all. The more I thought about the ending, the more I felt like it didn’t make sense and was a sort of betrayal of the first 3/4ths of the film. Still, I can’t say I expected it in the slightest. Christian Bale is one of the very few actors I’ll watch mediocre movies for, simply based on his performance and presence. This one was no exception.
Grade: B-/71
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