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The Batman (2022) - No Spoilers

I finally watched The Batman after many weeks of being pestered by my friends to see it, making the journey through North London was good a way to set the mood for the film, all jokes aside my first impression of the film was that it’s different compared to the other Batman films I’d seen previously. 

Gotham city was a lot more grimy and gritty compared to the other films, you can see that they had taken time to make the film look like it was rough in all aspects, from the the locations all the way down to the way the people dressed and looked, Robert Patterson’s Batman is definitely more focused on the detective aspect which is very different from the older films which are definitely more focused on the action and special effects. 

The film is heavily carried by the acting and it basically means you need to stay focused during this film to really keep up and the fact that it’s three hours long can make it challenging, this is a film for the cinematographers because the aesthetics in this film are absolutely outstanding, even though the film is mainly dark it allows the few bright colours that you do see really punch through the screen and my God it’s satisfying. 

Overall I think it’s a great film but you should be prepared to sit through three hours before hand and you could probably apply for your visa to move to Gotham while your at it, you should also accept the fact that it’s going to be very different watching a previous Batman film will not help you grasp the theme of this film at all believe me I made that mistake.

[jacobisdeadthisishisoul]

The Future - Boiling Point (2021)

Being a film student is something i’m really proud of, getting to this point in uni has really brought some amazing opportunities to my door step, I have had the chance to work with some outstanding individuals that have the same ambitions as me on this course, but this dream of becoming a film maker started off way before I even walked into the doors of my university. 

Before seeing film as an educational route to take I used to make films as a hobby with my mates, it was a time when we didn’t have targets to meet or write self evaluations of our creative process, to put it simply it was bliss. 

Like most students i’m always thinking about the future and where i’m going to end up after I finish my course, I would love to go into the film industry but the amount of challenging obstacles that I personally have to overcome sometimes allows the doubt to creep in. 

One of the few things that gives me a lot of optimism is seeing some of the friends I used to run around with making short films getting their foots into the industry, that not only makes me proud it gives me a bag full of hope and ambition. 

One of the friends that helped me create a film for my University portfolio got the amazing opportunity to work on a film with Stephen Graham in the film Boiling Point (2021) and it’s just come out on Netflix, seeing him work on such a great film with an amazing cast has reintroduced the self belief I had within myself when I first moved to London to study film. 

The Film Boiling Point is shot similarly to the the film 1917 (2019), It is completely one shot which creates the amazing sense of immersion it assist’s the film in building the tense atmosphere that progressively builds from the beginning all the way to the end, If you get the opportunity to watch this film in your spare time I would highly recommend it.

Seeing people I know work on such great films gives young film makers like myself the belief that once this amazing journey through university comes to an end I will have the opportunity the work on great projects that I will be proud to share with my family and friends. 

[jacobisdeadthisishisoul]

Atlanta Season 2 Episode 5 : Teddy Perkins

The tv series Atlanta is a show I have enjoyed watching over the years and the last season is being released this year in March so I think it would be fitting to discuss one of the most interesting episodes from the series. 

The episode Teddy Perkins in season 2 episode 5 is probably one of the most bizarre episodes because so many elements that are usually found in the rest of the series have been removed.

The series usually follows the life of the writer of the show Donald Glover who plays Earnest in the show an Ivy league university graduate that finds himself broke and living in worst part of the city Atlanta, it also happens to be the place where he grew up and now he’s trying his best to provide for his daughter and make a name for himself along the way by becoming his cousins music manager.

The show tends to have dark themes to make a point about the genuine struggles of people that live in some of the most poor parts of Atlanta it also gives the viewers an idea of the mindset of the people that live in that general area. 

Most of the topics have dark undertones but the writer found a way to make it easy to watch by using comedy to dive into the serious discussion focused around racism, jobs, and depression. 

This episode takes a step back from the comedy and practically turns the episode into a psychological horror, Darius who is one of the people in the show that is usually around Earnest and his cousin Paper Boy, in the show he tends to leave and enter episodes to go on his own adventures which always seem to be extremely odd or just mysterious. 

This episode focuses on Darius and follows him on one of his mysterious adventures and as a viewer I was really keen on seeing what actually happens on a Darius adventure. 

The Episode starts with Darius going to Teddy Perkins mansion to see about a grand piano that he found on an internet forum which is already suspicious, the dark setting of the mansion and the combination of the bone chilling character Teddy Perkins make this one of the most rememberable episodes in the tv show even though it completely diverts from it’s normal structure. 

Another reason why I felt the need to talk about this episode is mainly because during one of my lectures based around Hollywood Stardom, Genre, and Authorship a film was screened called Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962). 

As I was rewatching the episode this film came to mind because the themes are very similar and I started to look into the characters that the show Atlanta had and compared them to the film. 

In the film Baby Jane (Betty Davies) an older women who is completely stuck in the past to the point she starts to lose touch with reality because she wants the fame she had when she was a child, another important element of that film is that Baby Jane had a sister Blanch Hudson (Joan Crawford) and she could only move with the use of a wheel chair which left her deranged sister in control of everything as she needed a lot of help and assistance. 

In the Atlanta episode Teddy Perkins would be Baby Jane due to the fact the he constantly talks about his brother and his illness but as the viewer we don’t see him until much later on, Teddy Perkins also brings up his past very often along with the fame that him and his brother used to have but as the episode goes on you can see how obsessed he is with his own past, it gets to the point that you begin to worry about the safety of Darius because honestly Teddy Perkins is an odd character.  

Overall i’m personally amazed at the fact that a show like Atlanta with strong black leads that usually focuses on the struggles of underprivileged black men and women in America took the time to recreate a 1960′s film which had strong white female leads. 

The show completely diverts from the usual themes and topics to highlight a film that I happened to come across in one of my lectures and it’s surprisingly made me enjoy the 1960′s version even more thanI initially did. 

I’ve left a lot of gaps in this review/analysis because i’m trying my absolute best not to spoil both the film and programme, hopefully you watch both and get consumed by the tv show just as much as I have. 

[jacobisdeadthisishisoul]

Casey Neistat A Horrible Situation

I chose to review this video because The YouTuber uses great cinematography with equipment that ranged from a mobile phone, drone, and a DSLR. He incorporates cinematography in a YouTube genre that usually only includes close up's and at most scenic b-roll.

He uses amazing cinematography that captivates and draws his audience into the story, even though the video is fairly short it leaves you wanting more because it's just so easy on the eyes.

l also think it's a more interesting approach compared to the standard vlog video's people are just used to watching, but I also do think some people watch vlogs just for the soul fact that it involves a specific YouTuber or celebrity.

I think Casey does have an interesting approach because he's able to make what could have been a long boring story more interesting, by using the film amazing film making skills he has he's able to make the story so much more enjoyable and easy to listen to, he also adds visual breaks from the story with the incredible drone footage he captures, It makes the story a lot more digestible and it turns the story into almost something like a short film. 

This is a critical analysis so I'm going to speak about some of the negative parts of the video. I think the video does take a lot of pauses and with today's culture of just getting things at a click of a button I do think he would lose a lot of viewers because it's too long. He does this by using the scenery around him and as beautiful as some these shots look I'm positive a lot of people skipped through some of them and even maybe clicked off.

As you could probably tell I think it's an amazing video that shows the power of creativity, he was able to use his environment while he was traveling to create a story that had no correlation with its surroundings and included some archive footage from the incident to help with visualisation, to put it simply I think this is one of my favourite videos from Casey. 

[jacobisdeadthisishisoul]

High Fidelity ( HULU TV Series 2020 )

High Fidelity the tv show is a remake of the original film released in 2001, prior to watching the tv show I was completely unaware of the fact that it was more than just a new tv show for me to binge on Disney+. 

I’ll get around to the tragic end and realisation soon (No spoilers) but I have to say for a tv show that I had no expectations for at all I was completely blown away by the sheer amount of substance within the show. 

I suppose the completely saturated market of new tv shows and films has lead to me having such low expectations for anything new I happen to come across, I genuinely don’t think the average person has time to watch every new release that comes out on one of the many streaming websites. 

Initially I had the impression this is another cliché streaming show that always seems like it was rushed and was something I could just play in the background without actually worrying about missing anything important in the plot, but i was immediately taken back from the first episode and it definitely proved me wrong.  

High Fidelity has a number of reasons for you to become completely consumed within that world, the casual fourth wall breaking was probably one of the aspects of the show that caught my attention, its subtly used to explain the emotions and even the reactions of the main protagonist Robyn . 

The fourth wall breaking is used as an instrument by the writers to guide us through the tv show, it also does a very good job at only showing as the show from the perspective of the protagonist so you never truly understand the entire story which I do believe was done deliberately, the upside is that later on in the series you get to see things from the perspective of the protagonists closest friends and it could solidify your opinions on Robyn or it could completely alter them. 

Another element that is used like a tool in this series is the soundtrack and its just glorious, in the show Robyn owns a record shop and due to some unpleasant circumstances she decides to create her own playlist to express her emotions about he current life situation, the combination of the fourth wall breaking and the construction of the playlist is definitely the reason why I think I enjoyed this show.

 The real heartbreaker about this show is that it’s only one season, the worst part is that the ending is so open ended like a lot of shows that only end up being a season long, it’s absolutely crazy. 

How does a show this good not get a second season, It also seems like some of the cast has already moved onto bigger things, the lead actress Zoe Kravitz has taken the role as cat women in the new Batman (2022) and I honestly don’t see her looking back after playing such a huge role with Robert Pattinson, its just a shame.