The Dig- decent...lovely score and gorgeously filmed on real beautiful location but the last half tries to do too much in too little time with its characters that feels so unneeded to the story and themes (particularly the Lily James character), and ends up neglecting the leads in Fiennes and Mulligan...feels rushed and messy and should have been a miniseries. Ralph Fiennes is absolutely great though and he had one piece of dialogue that particularly moved me and will stay with me, Mulligan good too as always.
How did I wait this long to see this...masterpiece. Ive been thinking about it for like 2 days straight. haha. Going to show it to some friends this weekend.
Peeping Tom (1960)
The film wants to have it both ways in terms of making the murderer threatening and pitiful and it mostly works but the final 5 minutes of the film become a bit melodramatic, though no to the extent that it ruins anything.
8/10
The Man Who Would be King (1975)
You know something terrible is going to happen to the two guys played by Michael Caine and Sean Connery from the moment the film starts and though they are terrible scoundrels and awful human beings, their camaraderie pulls you in and you end up caring for them. There comes a point where everything goes south for them and you know it before they know it and from then on you just know they're doomed. Despite this, the film is a fun adventure story, though it might make one uncomfortable to see two Englishmen trying to become kings (and maybe more?) of the region of Kāfiristān using lies and deceit.
Where eagles dare
Still one of my favourite WW2 films, great cast (Burton + Eastwood), great locations, great action sequences, an exhilarating last hour.
Promising Young Woman - I want to love this so much, because it has a lot of things I love going for it, but I just found the very ending to be so frustrating. I can easily forgive slightly nonsensical plot bits, or its generally slightly confusing and unsure of itself thematic vibes, but I thought every time the movie was near making an actually provocative choice, it would chicken out. And the very end is not nearly as cathartic or profound as it tries to sell itself as. By far the best portion of the film is its 3rd act going from
Cassie witnessing the phone video to the very aftermath of her murder
, then it sort of collapses onto itself by giving into that desperate craving of
a revenge fantasy because the movie seems too uncomfortable with itself to be more shockingly accurate and perceptive. It wants, dare I say, a “cheaper” sort of win, something bad enough to anger you, but still justice porn-like enough to feel empowering in that “;))))” way. Idk. I wish it had dared to present itself with more bleak cruelties.
But it has some great genius moments, and those are really helped by the film’s soundtrack. That Toxic cover and the lullaby from Night of the Hunter scenes? Bruh. It also still puts all the “nice guys” on the blast that they deserve, and that’s cool.