Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare
Cinematic Sommelier
8.1
Once you get past Tom Cruise’s goofy ass Irish accent, this actually develops into a really good love story. The chemistry between Cruise and Kidman is palpable as they navigate this “Romeo & Juliet” like tale of forbidden love, danger, and adventure in the wild west. Cheesy? Oh hell yeah… but it’s also incredibly fun and has a lot of heart. Greg from “Dharma & Greg” never stood a chance…
6.4
This one is just as clunky as the trailer… like “what the hell just happened?! How did we get here?!” kind of narrative whiplash. Technical aspects aside, the chemistry between the leads is there in droves… it’s just that they’re abandoned on this island with nothing to help them out. There are certainly moments of brilliance here, they just didn’t string any of them together.
6.9
The audacity… telling her boy toy to break up with his girlfriend… tsk tsk tsk
All of the heat the “Fifty Shades” trilogy was missing? I found it! Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson really have a great camaraderie in this one. When Antonio Banderas is your odd man out… sheesh.
A lot of rules being broken here… most importantly, you NEVER drink water from a stranger at a rave! What is this? Amateur hour?
Definitely not for the faint of heart… or the photosensitive. Said rave scene is a doozy.
7.3
Generational trauma, the musical! Just a heads up, it really hits some things that I did not expect it to and definitely got deeper in the feels than I thought it would.
The framing device and the way this thing is shot/told takes a solid half hour to get used to. At least it did for me. Having the same POV for 99% of the runtime was a huge gamble, but I feel like it paid off in the end. It wasn’t earth-shattering, but it wasn’t as jarring and off-putting as I braced for.
The cast, as expected, were superb and all turn in great performances. It plays like, well, a play… but it works.
7.8
This movie was surprisingly sweet! I knew it would be good with Mika Kunis and Michael Keaton, but not THIS good. It really packed an emotional punch at times, but also had these laugh out loud, gut busting moments mixed it. It effortlessly traveled the full spectrum of emotion and character exploration. I was thoroughly impressed! May we all gain this type of perspective and wisdom with age…
Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare 