Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare
Cinematic Sommelier
6.8
Half hour in, my eye roll was palpable. This was the most predictable popcorn fluff thriller of all time.
Then, it redeemed itself with just enough twists and turns, tight directing, and flat out fantastic acting to bring it home with a bang! Hillary Swank keeps the audience genuinely uncomfortable from her first frame onscreen to the last.
Ignore the Hot/Crazy scale… This is what you get.
6.8
Similar cinematography to “The Revenant.” Just imagine it’s that, but instead of a bear chasing Leo, it’s one of the creepiest characters on the big screen in 2020 chasing this… unwise young woman. Unwise, because she makes literally every wrong move in every situation. It’s a car crash you can’t turn away from. Get ready to scream “No, don’t do that!” and “Look behind you!” for the entire runtime until you lose your voice. In between facepalming.
Definition – existing before a war, especially : existing before the American Civil War.
Now I understand why the band shouldn’t have used it in the first place. Good lord, don’t they hire PR teams to say ”probably not the best idea.”
Back to the movie… Get ready to get uncomfortable, but in a productive way. If this film doesn’t make you uncomfortable, there is another conversation to be had. Janelle Monáe kills it as our two main characters. An absolute powerhouse performance.
The cinematography is downright breathtaking. The score is perfectly complementing the visual elements. The attention to detail, second to none. So many easter eggs to be discovered within almost every frame, driving you to a second viewing to immerse yourself in every nuanced “a-ha” moment fully. Hauntingly beautiful comes to mind.
You won’t expect or believe what you see upon first viewing. The film wasn’t at all what I expected, but it was better than I could have imagined.
7.7
Instead of your typical Victorian/Colonial age film from A24 that makes your skin crawl, this one has robots!
Brilliant performances by all involved precisely weave a cautionary tale of AI gone awry. The age-old scientific inquiry, “we can, but should we?” Michael Crichton would be proud! Get ready to have your mind bent, then blown by this masterpiece of science… Fiction? (only because this feels all too real in the not so distant future)
6.5
Do you want to be really uncomfortable, then really angry, then really sad? Well, do I have the movie for you!
The beautiful backdrop of the Dakota’s serves as the setting for this menacing tale of family dynamics run amuck. Somewhere between “Taken” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” resides this film in Hollywood history. So many warning signs are ignored, and all pay a high price. The title sums it up pretty well. It all boils down to that simple request that turns out to not be so simple.
Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare 