briancham1994
Joined Jun 2005
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The Marvels is full of silly little moments that are fun on their own but don't mesh together into one story. Clueless heroines who swap positions across the universe, bringing alien soldiers with them? Fun. An equally clueless suburban family fighting off said alien soldiers with toilet paper? Fun. A starstruck teenage Ms. Marvel gushing over her idols while being teleported into space? Fun. "Flerken" cat aliens swallowing astronauts with tentacles to evacuate them? Fun. Yet in the end, what does it all amount to? A very messy and plotless story that pits an underdeveloped villain against superhero characters who are just stumbling from one planet to another with barely any motivation. Despite the lead actresses giving it their best shot to portray their characters as a loving trio, their performances can't make up for the dud of a film. Disappointingly, neither can the space CGI or the cats, sorry to say!. To cap it all off, the resolution of the film to fix Hala's sun is something that Captain Marvel could have done thirty years ago with ease, making one wonder why any of this was necessary.
Conclave is a political character drama with dressings of a sombre religious story. The ideological, ambitious cardinals would not be out of place in any other kind of election setting, giving the story a very human feel to counteract the gravitas of the ancient surroundings. The actors effectively portray the strain of the high-stakes election, especially the conflicted Ralph Fiennes who has to carefully navigate the conclave without wanting the papal position himself. The lingering shots on ornate architecture and rituals forms a contradiction with the backbiting and machinations of the candidates, highlighting the inner tension of Fiennes' Cardinal Lawrence. However, the overall plot relies on sudden swerves and revelations about the past that are sometimes grounded but sometimes come across as completely out of left field. This especially applies the last one, making the story feel like drama for drama's sake at times.
I'm Still Here is a haunting film about the spectre of authoritarianism, set in Brazil in the 1970s but still resonant today. It starts as a sunny family drama with a familiar yet nostalgic setting, but with dark hints that not all is well in the surrounding political atmosophere. The most chilling scene is a home invasion by armed men whose prolonged presence is unexplained, upsetting the domestic balance of the family. There's no overt threat or shrieking fear, just a palpable sense of unease as the family tries to continue their lives without their missing father. Things escalate as other family members are calmly captured for interrogation, and the following sequences show the political and legal situation dominating the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, while the second half shows the impact of a single event, it also drags on as there's only so much you can portray of literally nothing happening. The ending is cathartic but horrifying in its timeline, requiring decades for a single resolution.