God's Own Country Review

God's Own Country is an interesting film too say the least. Not only is it one of the most refreshing interpretations of a gay relationship, it's also a film with a lot of heart (with an exception of it's first act.) God's Own Country is a film with patience. Each scene flows at a steady pace, transitioning to the next, delivering a moment needed to develop the characters. When it comes to the first act of the film however, I personally the chemistry between Gheorghe and Johnny was mishandled. Not only did each moment in the first act feel forced and superficial, the sexual tension between Gheorghe and Johnny was a much stranger case. At one point Gheorghe exclaims "I Will Fuck With You", as if he knew that Johnny was hitting on him. Gheorghe than replies to his statement afterwords with a firm "I Know What Your Doing." I guess Romania must be one kinky place if Gheorghe is that good at detecting if someone is hitting on him. With said example, we already know that this relationship presented is a fictionalized "cheap" interpretation. With it's rough and overly sexualised under tones, there isn't much room for any romantic interpretation. It's all intercourse, but no heart. However, thankfully, after the morbid first act, things changed for the better. Johnny's relationship with Gheorghe felt real and heart felt. I just felt that the first act both ruined the overall character arks of Johnny and Gheorghe. The first act is meant to establish there relationship, and to see the evolvement of there characters. However, starting off the film with a ghastly heartless feeling between our two protagonists sort of ruined the experience of the final two acts. God's Own Country is a good directorial debut. While it is beautiful and well directed, with some great musical accompaniment here and there, the first act is what brought down the film for me. God's Own Country is definitley worth a shot. Just keep in mind that the first act may or may not ruin the experience of watching the film.

Score:
7/10

My Friend Dahmer (2017) Review

As a High School Junior myself, at this moment in time, there we're several moments in My Friend Dahmer in which they nearly nailed the psychological depth of a anxiety filled teenager. At my school, there is a high ratio of depressed and mentally ill people around. Of course not in the same way as Jeffrey Dahmer, but real enough that I can definitely say that Ross Lynch's performance is one of the most unsettling and well preformed acting roles I have seen all year. However, what My Friend Dahmer does do wrong, is how teens usually speak. There's a certain pattern and coordination that teens speak at. It flows like a dance, in which different lingo's and terminology sink together into a conjoined mess. My Friend Dahmer misses the mark in that regard, with its more stylized pieces of dialogue. Even though, as stated at the start of the film, that the film takes place in the 1970's, the offtrack way each character's line is written makes the experience of witnessing the horrifying experiences less terrifying. This is honestly a shame. There could have been much more too this film if they tweaked that regard. Which is pretty much what My Friend Dahmer is. It's a film with great interesting ideas, with great directing and acting, but misses the mark in a few places when it comes to the common writing and staging of a film. With it's slow pace and sometimes unrealistic dialogue, it's safe to say that those kind of attributes don't belong in a film about the high school experiences of a guy who would later rape, kill, dismember, and eat sixteen different young men. My Friend Dahmer is a film with great ideas, but it's execution is lacking. I appreciate it for what it is, but overall, it's just a decent psychological horror character study.

Score:
6.8/10

Blade of the Immortal Review

Takashi Miike's Blade of the Immortal is Japan's answer too Mad Max Fury Road, only if it was lighter on substance and narrative story telling techniques, and if it was placed during the Edo era. While it isn't as profound or has much too say about revenge, violence, and fear (like what Fury Road did), it's still a fun, gory samurai film with a crap load of entertaining action scenes. Guts, Gore, Limbs, Choreographed like a Dance! What else do you want from a fun midnight movie!? However, unlike most self aware action cult films from recent times, such as Turbo Kid and Wolfcop, Blade of the Immortal is a pretty serious film. And while there is moments of camp and tongue in cheek here and there, it still keeps it's morals and messages at a high regard. The problem is, the messages isn't deep enough to keep a 2 Hour and 20 Minute feature film afloat. Overall, Blade of the Immortal is technically well done with some jaw dropping action scenes and excellent sound design, it's just that  it lacks from an overall good narrative and message within it's guts and gore. It sure is fun and memorable, it's just that it's a journey maybe worth taking when it comes on demand or on DVD.

Score:
7/10

Why Thelma is the Best Superhero Orgin Film of 2017...

2017 has been a year of surprises and disappointments. Several films and projects have either divided us (Mother!, Song to Song) or unified us (Lady Bird, Three Billboards). However, one thing for sure, is that 2017 was a great year for superhero origin stories. Wonder Women was a fun, while at times light on substance. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie was a fun riot for both adults and kids alike. And now Thelma, Joachim Trier's newest Norwegian film. Now you maybe wondering... Thelma, a simple and quaint supernatural story of a girl with weird epileptic seizures? That doesn't sound like a super hero film at all! However, as it may come to a shock, Thelma is indeed an origin story, and a great one at that!

Thelma's opening scene is a great indicator of several scenes that will occur later on in the film, which both foreshadow and contemplate on several Super Hero Film tropes. It's slow moving pace makes each subtle moment feel immense. Each act, taken place by young Thelma on the beach rises tensions between the father and Thelma. This is also a great foreshadowing moment on who is the true antagonist of this superhero film. Thelma's ability is revealed as well, but so ambiguous to the point you may not know what they are. The opening scene in Thelma is both one of the greatest opening scenes ever, but also the greatest super hero film introductions to ever be concieved.

Too add on, Thelma also has a romantic interest, a Mary Jane sort of trope, only if she was a lesbian. Each scene in which Thelma reacts to Anja make each moment feel like it has some sort of erotic sexual tension. This both gives a motivation to the protagonist of the film, Thelma, and the B-Plot love interest (which sparks the main conflict, as in most super hero films.)

Thelma is an interesting case study on Genre swapping. It's pretty much a darker Scandinavian origin story of one of the vast collection of X-Men characters. If you're into slow burn and alternative origin stories such as Split, Blade Runner 2049, and 10 Cloverfield Lane, then definitely give Thelma a shot.