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VELVET BUZZSAW REVIEW 7.5/10 (Tumblr exclusive!)

This movie is not one for the casual watcher. On the surface, it is a pretentious art film, but with deeper analysis, it is a pretentious art film about pretentious art being pretentious. Capitalizing and abusing art is at the heart of this film, acting as both a parody and a serious critique. This includes the killing of the morally corrupt people--who stole and sold art--that was overly gory and violent to engage audience members who may have otherwise fallen asleep. 

I could see how people might find this movie quite boring, but I am a firm believer that they had a vision and decided to promote their message about artistic integrity in an unusual medium. I didn’t expect to have to think so hard about what it meant that each person was killed by different forms of art and definitely didn’t expect to question the entire commercialization of art. 

Jake Gylenhall really stood out in this film, he was relentlessly in character as an important art critic, and his character arc added an extra layer to the film. Not only was it about the potential dangers of mixing capitalism with art, but it was also about the judgment of others. He judged people and impacted them in ways he had never stopped to consider. With art being an extension of the artist, the play of having a horror-like artist punishing the people who took his art is an interesting way to play the internal moral conflicts these people should have felt, to begin with. 

There was also the message that everyone is complicit in this abandonment of the true meaning of art. No matter what they tried to do to get rid of the paintings or how little they actually knew about them/were involved with the controversy, they were still punished. Every step of the process contributed to the problem. This is an interesting take when you look at the online art community and the issues surrounding the stealing of content and the refusal to give artists credit or payment for their work. This goes just beyond respecting artists, this film is a commentary on the entirety of society and our treatment of art. 

I think this film is quite brilliant, but I will admit it was a bit too long (a trend I have noticed a lot in movies recently). If you want to think and are ready to appreciate a creative approach to tackling an abstract social issue, then this movie is calling your name. 

Image from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7043012/

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Film Review: APOSTLE (2018) 7.5/10

Last night I was bored and decided to check out Apostle on Netflix. I was attracted to Dan Stevens, knowing he is a great actor, and I read a few reviews that seemed promising. 

I did like this movie, but I feel like 30 minutes could have easily been cut to prevent it from feeling a bit drawn out. The plot of the film was solid, yet it kept feeling like the characters were always forgetting the bigger picture. 

Dan Stevens played his semi-insane character masterfully and made the horror and gore feel creepily real. I also loved the small love story between the two younger characters that brought a bit of warmth and light into this otherwise dark and twisted film (until the end, with their grisly demises). 

Biblical allusions and religious symbolism ran rampant in this film --which of course, is to be expected in a film called Apostle-- and managed to be in your face, without being annoying. This is definitely not a film for everyone, it can get quite gory and uses a lot of creepy jump-scares/moments, but if you are into horror movies that delve beyond the superficial, this one is worth the watch.   

First image from https://25yearslatersite.com/2018/10/22/the-myth-and-the-message-behind-apostle-a-netflix-original-horror-film/

Second image from https://www.netflix.com/title/80158148

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Fyre: The greatest party that never happened (8/10)

So I finally got around to watching Fyre: The greatest party that never happened on Netflix, and was pleasantly surprised? This documentary deals with the disaster that was the Fyre musical festival and captures the anxiety-ridden narrative of the festival process perfectly.

I am sure many of you have seen the meme: 

After seeing this documentary, I now know the TRUE emotional weight of this image. This poor man went through hell and back to try and put this festival on and it still went up in flames. He was a true hero. This scene, where he was willing to perform a sexual favour to get water delivered for the festival really seemed to resonate with people, which oddly makes sense in our culture based on relatability. This documentary had tons of stories about how the Fyre crew tried to solve every problem their naïve and fraudulent boss threw at them; this perspective made ‘memeable’ moments that people found hilarious.

The movie had great raw footage from the actual festival that made the reality of the situation really sink in, tons of people actually paid ridiculous amounts of money to have cheese sandwiches and wet hurricane tents. The juxtaposition of lush island shots and the anarchy of the festival really worked to reflect the humor of the situation and to craft a story that transitions from the ideal into the catastrophic.  

I felt awful for those poor people that were screwed over by the greedy and careless organizer (who is now in jail, so justice is at least served there). I think that the documentary showed a deep sense of humanity through these people trying hard and still failing. Seeing these people go through one of the most public failures in recent times is a kind of catharsis that money can’t buy -- besides the millions of dollars that were put into the festival, of course. 

This documentary, overall, was thoroughly entertaining, cringe-worthy, and inspirational (mostly just inspiring nobody to ever want to put on their own music festival ever). I would recommend everyone give it a watch! 

First image from: https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=176720401&page=1

Second image from: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/01/fyre-festival-documentary-netflix-andy-king

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This is my mood for the next 19 years days. 

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SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE REVIEW

If you are staying away from this film because it looks like an animated kid’s movie, I am here to tell you that it is genuinely worth your time to go out and see this movie.

 I was a little skeptical at first, but my love for Spiderman and Chris Pine won out for me to check out this movie. Man oh man, this movie kinda blew my mind. After Incredibles II, I was ready to admit that I am too old for animated movies… but this movie? It genuinely made me feel like a kid again, watching cartoons with my brother on the weekend.

I can not rave about this movie enough. First of all, the soundtrack is phenomenal, there are songs that have been played all over the radio and some that honestly will make you want to whip out Shazam in the theatre. Beyond this, the visuals are amazing. The animation style is trippy; you definitely get the vibe that a comic book just came to life and this is what it would look like - awesome. In. the first couple minutes, I was worried it was a 3D movie and we forgot to get our 3D glasses, but then I remembered the old school comics used to have that kind of style, then I started noticing all of the little details they added to made this movie feel special. Despite other animated films taking longer to make (sorry I keep roasting the Incredibles), you can tell there were passion and love drawn into every second of this movie.

The characters are also absolutely what we needed. Miles Morales is the protagonist, he speaks a bit of Spanish, is a young man of colour and is an amazing superhero. He was incredibly relatable, in that walking-meme sort of way that a Spiderman should be. I also really appreciated that he not only found his confidence, but he also remained true to himself, being a great role model for kids. There is also a lot of funny side characters like the cameo by Nicolas Cage as Spider-Man Noir (which is honestly unexpectedly brilliant). The villain is pretty generic, a big bad guy who is greedy and hates Spider-man, which starts as a yawn-fest, but then you see his tragic backstory and it makes the whole plot mean more than just an excuse for all the Spider-mans to exist at the same time. The story engaged me throughout and there wasn’t a moment that I felt bored or taken out of the story.

This movie hits all of the markers and deserves every ounce of praise it’s been receiving. 

Image from: https://www.bustle.com/p/the-spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-soundtrack-is-exactly-what-miles-morales-would-jam-out-to-13243236

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