Land is a 2021 drama film directed by Robin Wright in her directorial debut. It stars Wright, Damian Bichir and Kim Dickens. The film follows the story of a grieving widowed woman who seeks a new life off the grid in the mountains of Wyoming.
After experiencing trauma Edee Holzer (wright) is in the middle of therapy, telling to the therapist that she doesn’t like to be around people because she doesn’t think it’s right that they share her pain. Wanting to escape, she leaves the city where she lives and moves to Wyoming where she purchases a small remote cabin and is determined to live in solitude without any modern conveniences to bring her to outside world, including telephones or cars.
At first, she struggles with the basics of survival like chopping wood and fishing. When a black bear enters her cabin, eats her food and destroys most of the rest of her supplies while she hides from them, she reaches her breaking point. Without fire for food or heat, she tries to hunt but cannot bring herself to shoot a deer. Not knowing what to do next, she tries to take her life by shooting herself with the hunting rifle, stopping short when she remembers her sister Emma (Dickens) pleading not to hurt herself.
During an extreme snowstorm, the metal roof of her cabin becomes dislodged by the wind, making loud noises. She leaves the cabin to try and repair the roof and gets injured. A local hunter, Miguel (Bichir) and his friend and nurse Alawa rescue her and help nurse her back to healthy. While Alawa leaves, Miguel stays to look after Edeeby cooking for her and giving her more supplies. She thanks him but explains that she came to the cabin to be alone and wants it to remain that way. He understands and offers to help give her better survival skills so she can have the solitude she wants. He shows her to trap, fish and hunt. Over time, a friendship develops as Miguel continues to come over to help her hunt, plant and harvest crops and explore the land. Miguel shares that his wife and daughter died in car accident eight years prior, while Edee reveals that she used to have a family.
Land is a very slow, pretty depressing, yet somewhat inspirational film. It makes you appreciate who and what you have in your life. It isn’t exciting at all, but really pretty boring for the most part. There is very little action and dialog. The gorgeous setting doesn’t make up for how dull this movie is. It isn’t a long film, but the mundanity and slowness make it seem much longer. From an award winning actress (Wright), I was expecting an exceptional movie and this one fell flat.
I’m not saying this film was a snooze fest because it is a survival type, because there are great survival films like Cast Away. Had there been more dialog, action and more about her life prior to moving to Wyoming, I would have like this one a lot more. The beautiful background and soundtrack were the best things about this movie. I’m so glad I didn’t waste money seeing this in theater, because I’d be asking for that money back. This movie was missing a great story, because the one that was produced was bland to the max. This could’ve been a wonderful motion picture, instead it was rushed and lackluster all the way around.
This film does teach about forgiveness and the power of family and friendship and that’s pretty much it. Not the worst film I’ve seen this year so far, but far the best. 13+ 1.5/5
Last Night in Soho is a 2021 British psychological horror film directed by Edgar Wright and starring Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Michael Ajao, Diana Rigg and Terrence Stamp. It is the final film appearances of Rigg and Margaret Nolan, who both died in 2020.
The film follows Eloise “Ellie” Turner, who loves the music and fashion of the Swinging Sixties and dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Her mother, who was also a designer, killed herself when Ellie was a child. Ellie occasionally sees her mother’s ghost in mirrors.
Ellie moves from her rural house in Redruth, Cornwall, to London, to study at the London College of Fashion, where she has trouble fitting in with the other students, especially her stuck up roommate Jocasta. Only John, another student, is sympathetic towards her. Unhappy in the dorms of the school, Ellie moves into a bedsit in Goodge Place owned by the elderly Ms. Collins.
That night, Ellie has a vivid dream where she is carried back in time to the 1960s. At the Cafe de Paris, she sees a brave young blonde woman, Sandie, ask about becoming a singer at the club. Sandie begins a relationship with charming teddy boy manager, Jack. The next morning, Ellie designs a dress inspired by Sandie and discovers a love bite on her neck.
Ellie has another dream in which Sandie auditions at a Soho nightclub, arranged by Jack. before returning to the same bedsit that Ellie has rented. Inspired by these dreams, Ellie dyes her hair blonde, changes her clothing style and gets a job at a pub. She is approached by a grey haired man, who recognizes her resemblance to Sandie is not living the life she had wanted and Jack begins to pimp Sandie to his male business partners. Ellie begins an investigation after discovering in a dream that murders have taken place in the bedsit and soon discovers that the owner of the place she is renting from has a dark past and that she may or may not be the real Sandie.
This film is equal parts intense, twisted, bizarre and disturbing. The combination of putting present day London and 1960s London together is ingeniously done, combining the fashion and music of today’s Britain to the fashion and music and to what it was in 60s, along with the two stories clashing together as one and at times separately. The soundtrack is great combining both sixties and 2000s hits, the fashion is fantastic, everything Sandie and Jack (others from the 60s) wear is beautiful and spot on with the time period, making the film both gorgeous and thrilling at the same time.
Thomasin McKenzie does a good, not great job in the film as Ellie Turner, but was not the best fit for the role. Anya Taylor-Joy is outstanding job as Sandie , Matt Smith is equally outstanding as Jack. Terrance Stamp is good as Lindsey, the grey haired older man who stalks Ellie at the pub, I just wish he had had more lines in the movie.
The film seems to jump into the wickedness almost too quickly, not really building up much beforehand. You do learn how Sandie meets Jack, but you learn too fast, so that part is bit rushed, making it seem like she becomes nightclub star and he becomes her boyfriend and pimp overnight, which is impossible. The story is almost all intensity and too much of it takes place in the 60s world and not in the present day. Also, the film towards the end, stretches the horror factor too far, making the landlady into the overdone insane character, which at first you think is Ellie.
If the director would’ve spent equal time in both eras, stopped the overdoing of the weird towards the end and cast a better actress for Ellie, the film would have been fantastic. It is still entertaining, but I don’t see it winning any best picture awards or Palme d’Or at Cannes. But both Taylor-Joy and Smith deserve awards for their performances. 18+ 3.5/5
Vintage footage, archival recordings and “dramatic recreations” aim to give us an intimate and revealing portrait of the Cinema’s First True Superstar. This gets a limited theatrical release and pops up on Showtime Dec. 11.
The Kid is a 1921 American silent comedy-drama film written, produced, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin and co-stars Jackie Coogan. Them film follows the story of Chaplin’s The Little Tramp character who finds an abandoned baby and raises him to boyhood, until authorities try to take him back to his mother.
Very much unhappy, an unwed mother abandons her baby, putting him in an expensive automobile with a handwritten note: “Please take love and care for this orphan child.” Two thieves steal the car and leave the baby in an alley, where he is found by The Tramp. After attempting to to hand off the boy on different people passing by, he finds the note and it melts his heart. He takes the boy home, names him John and rearranges his furniture for him. The mother ends up having a change of heart and goes back for her child, but she learns that the car has been stolen, she faints.
Five years go by. The Kid and the Tramp live in the same quaint room; they have little money but lots of love. They support each other in a little scheme: the Kid throws stones to break windows so that the Tramp, wotking as a glazier, can be paid to repair them. Meanwhile, the mother has become a rich actress and does charity by giving gifts to poor children. By chance, as she is doing so, the mother and the Kid not knowing so, cross paths.
The Kid later gets into a fight with another local boy as people watch the debacle. The Kid wins, making the other boy’s older brother mad, who attacks the Tramp as a result. The mother breaks up the fight, but it starts over once she leaves and the Tramp keeps beating the older brother over the head with a brick tied between strings until he scurries off. Shortly after, the mother coaxes the Tramp to call the doctor after Kid gets sick. The doctor finds out the Kid is not the Tramp’s real son and notifies authorities. Two men come to take the boy to an orphanage, but after a fight and chase, the Tramp and the Kid stay by each others’ sides. When the mother comes back to see how the boy is doing she comes runs into the doctor, who shows her the note (which he had stolen from the Tramp); she recognizes it as the one she left with her baby years ago.
This film is filled with humor and love and teaches about how to over come being poor, falling in love and helping others. Although this film is from the 1920’s, it is still just as effective and touching today, making you cry and warming your heart, as well as making you appreciate what and who you have in your own life. Although the Tramp isn’t the best parent to the Kid, he knows in his heart that he would never ever give him up like his mother did. He tries his very best to give the boy a decent life and the boy is overly grateful.
Charlie Chaplin, who is truly one of the greatest actors and filmmakers of all time, puts so much love, humor and heart into everything he did. In this film, you can feel his love for the boy and can feel his heartbreak when the boy is being taken away, because you actually see Charlie cry and if you look close enough you’ll notice his makeup is streaked. Not many movies today make you feel every emotion the characters feel. This is a true classic and masterpiece that everyone should watch at least once in their life.
There is not much adult stuff in this film. There is nothing sexual, just kisses between the Tramp and the Kid. There is one use of the word “ass” and a middle finger used by a kid but it’s not used as flipping off and seen briefly. The Tramp smokes some, but it was a very common thing then. Slapstick humor is throughout. Also some very emotional scenes, but other than all this, it is great for kids and adults alike. A very powerful, heartfelt film, so funny, yet sweet and yet heartbreaking at times too. A truly wonderful work of art that will bring out every emotion every time. 5+ 5/5
When Disney dropped the first Cruella trailer on us in February they faced some much deserved controversy. The main question everyone was asking was: why Cruella? This is not Disney’s first attempt at creating a new franchise that sympathises with a villain, but it’s the first one that requires you to perform some extreme mental gymnastics in order to find a reason to feel for the villain in question. But Cruella’s irredeemability aside, the real problem that the film presents is highlighted by its cringy quoting of “I am woman; hear me roar.” Said women everywhere: we didn’t ask for this.
In a time when progressive and anti-capitalist feelings are on the rise, particularly among the younger generations who form the primary target audience of popular media, there seems to be a dissonance within the storylines of the 21st century. Curiously, it is the villains…
Free Guy is a 2021 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and stars Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Taika Waititi. The film follows the story a bank teller named Guy who finds out that he is actually a non-player character in an open-world video game and becomes the hero of the story, trying to save his friends from being deleted by the game’s creator.
Free City is an online, open-world video game developed by Soonami Games. Its source code was stolen from an unreleased game called Life Itself, developed by Walter “Keys” McKey (Joe Keery) and Millie Rusk (Jodie Comer), and used by Soonami’s head developer Antwan (Taika Waititi) to create Free City. Keys has taken a job at Soonami, while Millie spends time in the game as her avatar Molotov Girl to find evidence of code that she and Keys had written and to prove that they are the rightful owners of the code.
In the game, Guy, a non-player character (NPC), works as a bank teller and spends time with his best friend and co-worker, bank security guard Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), unaware that his world is a video game. One day, he sees Molotov Girl, who is singing the song that he says his dream girl will like and starts to depart from his programming. He finds a pair of sunglasses from player who tries to rob his bank, through which he sees Free City from the player’s head-up display (HUD). Guy speaks to Millie, who thinks he is another player named “Blue Shirt Guy” and not an NPC. She tells him to level to above 100 before she will speak to him again. Keys and his coworker Mouser believe Guy to be a hacker disguised as an NPC and unsuccessfully try to ban him from the game. Rather than leveling up through catastrophic acts, Guy opts to perform good deeds, completing missions within Free City to reach level 102. Through his good deeds, which stand out from the other players, result in “Blue Shirt Guy” becoming a worldwide sensation.
This is a wildly entertaining film and laugh out loud funny at times. Ryan Reynolds is not always the best actor, but as his character, bringing with it humor, action and romance, he was great. Jodie Comer was equally great as both Millie Rusk and Molotov Girl and Joe Keery did a fine job as Keys McKey. Taikia Waititi’s character was a money hungry head of a ginormous video game company who was extremely irritating, mean and selfish, so it was hard to see much outside of that as far as acting goes, because he was so hard to like, the character. Lil Rel Howery was just mediocre at best as Buddy, because he was super cheesy and annoying, like to the point of wanting to jump in the movie and tell him to shut up or stop it.
Other minor characters were super cheesy and immature as well. Channing Tatum’s character, for example, Benjamin Buttons, Keith’s game character said everything Keith said on his headset, making him look like a super goofball, just like Keith, who is an adult living with his mom and playing video games all the time. There is tons of extreme violence that could’ve been toned down and quite a bit of foul language. The effects are outstanding and there is some great old songs in the film as well. A few characters wear the same thing the whole (or most of) the movie, which gets old, but they are from the video game world.
A fun, humorous and action-packed film that is wildly entertaining and funny. It is a bit long at nearly two hours. This may be an action comedy, but it isn’t quite as adult and well done as Reynolds’s Deadpool films. This is like a Ryan Reynolds version of Ready Player One. But it is an enjoyable movie for the most part, despite being lengthy and some of the humor being so silly. The story can be hard for some to follow, being world within a world theme. But what do expect when you try to take a story that’s been done before and add humor and romance? Something that lacks in greatness, that not even special effects can save despite its entertainment factor. 13+ 3/5
Big is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Penny Marshall, and stars Tom Hanks as adult Josh Baskin, a young boy who makes a wish to be “big” and is then transformed to an adult overnight. The movie also stars Elizabeth Perkins, David Moscow (as young Josh), John Heard and Robert Loggia.
This is a clever, fun-filled, funny and cute film. It has inspired other films with similar plots like 13 Going on 30 and Little, which box office hits, but not nearly as well received as Big. This movie has all the elements that make it such a wonderful film, humor, entertainment, cleverness, romance, drama, emotions and heart. It is one that can be watched over and over without getting old. Tom Hanks is absolutely perfect in this role, as is David Moscow, both adding teenage adorableness, making this movie an enjoyable watch for both teens and adults alike.
Josh discovers as a kid what it’s really like to be an adult, doing it childlike, bringing both advantages and disadvantages. He gets a job as a toy designer, most kid’s dream job, but has trouble with his relationship with Susan Lawrence (Perkins). After telling her that he is really a child, Susan takes it as a fear of commitment and ignores his statement. He lives like the person he really is, a boy in a man’s body, having an apartment filled with kid-like things, from a trampoline, to a pinball machine, to bunk beds. Susan starts to fall for Josh, who shows her how to have more fun in life, when at first she is embarrassed by him and his naivety. He for the first time starts to fall for her too, until he has to go back to being a boy.
This film is laugh out loud funny, heartwarming and heartbreaking. It does have mild sexual innuendos, a few scenes showing drinking, mild violence and quite a bit of harsh language, so not for younger viewers. The storyline of this film is so creative and better than any movie it has inspired, the acting is superb, just overall a wonderful motion picture that lets out your every emotion. Not a dull moment, entertaining for beginning to end. No wonder it was made into a Tony nominated stage musical. A true masterpiece. 13+ 5/5
Chloe the Critic 