Tried
Carnival of Souls, an old horror but the visual and sound quality seems so poor now that it undermined its attempts at horror and seemed to be going at such a low pace. Tried Stephen King's
1922, creepy opening scene but the set up feels like it isn't setting up relations of the James family well particularly given the big decisions about to be made. Thomas Jane's heavy accented performance meant I was straining to understand dialogue at times
Watched coming of age
Kings of Summer. Premise: Joe Toy (Nick Robinson) and best friend Patrick (Gabriel Basso) are on the verge of adulthood but are deeply frustrated by their parents. After a party Joe and the strange Biaggio (Moisés Arias) find a clearing in the wood where Joe decides to build a home for the three of them to spend the summer, living off the land.
This is a film that manages to be better then its individual parts. A "hey I recognise" cast like Joy's family having Nick Offerman (as father) and Alison Brie as sister while Patrick's parents are Megan Mullally and Marc Evan Jackson, they all start ok but grow as the film goes on. Once the three young men get to planning the home, their charm, friendship and sense of teen revolt carries the film. It has a sense of humour, it builds Joe well including his flaws, nice side characters like love interest Erin (Erin Moriarty). It had a bit of fun, it had characters we warmed to, a coming of age atmosphere and foolishness. We left it at the end with "that was fun" and a smile, we had a warm, nice time.
We also left with a "but", that it could have been even better, that there was some "wait, it didn't deal with" dissatisfaction. Cast was good but not great, romances were poor with main one making sense with likeable characters involved but a rushed build up and was never developed fully as a romance, secondary romance just happened involving a girl we barely knew. A lot of characters who turn up but get dropped and you only realize at the end they are not coming back even though it feels like strands unfinished. Even Patrick suffers from this, a likeable figure whose reason for joining the plan is well built up but he himself is a bit underdeveloped and gets dropped. This felt like an ensemble film but it turns out to be very much focused on Joe and his issues, this does lead to a well developed lead with his family issues and his own considerable flaws. However when those flaws combine for a scene that should have ramifications
, it has the immediate impact... then he gets away with it for rest of film, instead of him dealing with the fall out, the others are "wrong." When it is 100% solely his fault.
Two things really lift with their humour. 1) Biaggio's is that of the strange figure whose answers or actions tend to be unexpected and throw both the audience and other characters off. Moisés Arias delivers his lines to perfection and the script provides entertaining baffled replies from those around him. 2) The police. Captain Davies (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is the sanest person in the building, that good sense provides humour in the craziness while Thomas Middleditch as her deputy engages in the crazy. When the police are on screen, the film goes to another level but they are rarely on screen.
Both: 6.5
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Watched western
The Homesman. Premise: 1850's small town of Loup in the Nebraska Territory, three wives deemed to have gone insane. With the local men reluctant to take them back east to be returned to their families, the very capable but unmarried Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) decides to take them. Hiring drifter George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones, also directs), they have a long journey ahead...
Set up sees Cuddy with her desperation and her impressive confidence really laid out, while Swank's excellent performance leaves one wondering why she doesn't get big lead roles. Good scenes with preacher Reverend Dowd (John Lithgow) but one thing that keeps marring the first half is they do a bad job setting up the three wives, at one point I thought Gro Svendsen (Sonja Richter) was two different people. The wives cast (Grace Gummer and Miranda Otto) do a good job and the basic ideas of why things went wrong for them are potentially intresting but they are never developed as characters and the way they are introduced is very confusing.
For the main part, tempted to say western road-trip with beautiful camera work by Rodrigo Prieto and a well made film. The main segment is of the carriage with the non-wives on the outside making the long journey, Brigges and Cuddy feeling their way around each other, dealing with their cargo (as it were), unexpected events either from the wives or from outside factors. The events tend to be intresting, the wives add something as observers and an unstable force, the main pairing have a very good chemistry and build up well with their differing attitudes with Cuddy a driving force.
The end phase does a big twist that doesn't have the impact it should
and the film loses a bit of power. Then it gets to a bit that is meant to be full of lessons but they are coming in very near the end, done in little snippets and not tied together, it is drifting a little rather then ending strongly.
Both: 7.0
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Watched 4th Mythica franchise
Mythica: The Iron Crown. Seems bigger budget then third film while it gets better balance between action and character (still too many action scenes!), introduces some steam punk style things like airships which feels odd given past films were more conventional fantasy with no such machines.
Enjoyable dynamics between the main group, a rival group has fun with mage Caia-Bekk (Ashley Santos) and Thorsten (James Gaisford) providing good sparks and exchanges, some great comedy with Paris Warner's princess. The big bad has his best role in the franchise so far and benefits from that, and a new big bad that came in saw Eve Mauro really really go over the top which didn't work. There is humour, some good surprises, a decent adventure but some of the dramatic moments don't quite work, too much action.
Both: 6.0