Tag / bryan cranston

by Jaime Rebanal

‘Asteroid City’ Review: Wes Anderson’s Sci-Fi Romp is a Triumph

✯✯✯✯½

Few present-day filmmakers quickly make themselves into a household name in the same way that Wes Anderson does. Every new project of his carries the distinct style that we’ve known him for over the years, and sometimes that becomes the very thing that we expect from whatever he comes up with next. Asteroid City feels like the perfect amalgamation of what exactly we hope to see from him as he takes on a more overt genre concept – in this case, a science fiction film – but he goes to show how his idiosyncrasies go far beyond the look. If anything, it’s Wes Anderson making a film in response to people who think his style applies only to the visual approach, and maybe his best in quite some time.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Jaime’s Film Diary: March 15, 2020

As expected, I’ve been keeping my Letterboxd up to date – so here’s yet another update for here in regards to what I have been watching as of late.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Isle of Dogs – Review

✯✯✯✯½

Wes Anderson’s second animated feature film Isle of Dogs (which can be said out loud as “I love dogs”) is delightful in every sense of the word. For as easy as it is to admire the consistency of a filmmaker like Wes Anderson whether it be via his trademark visual style or his distinctively quirky sense of humour, his style will understandably not be for everyone’s tastes. Speaking only for myself, I’ve been a rather dedicated apologist for Wes Anderson’s work for I’ve yet to find myself actively disliking a film under his own name – because the way Wes Anderson allows his own trademarks to adapt so well under different forms of storytelling only goes to show more proof as to why he is truly among the most unique filmmakers of his own generation, for he is truly in a league of his own.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Godzilla (2014) – Review

✯✯✯

Was hoping to enjoy it more on this go after having been disappointed from a theatrical viewing, but on a revisit my opinion nevertheless remained the same. Gareth Edwards, a director only known at the time for a small scale science fiction film, Monsters, started off Legendary Pictures’s MonsterVerse on a more middling note than anything. Being the first American Godzilla film after the atrocity that is Roland Emmerich’s film, Edwards seems to have a grasp on what made a great monster film as a whole at least by remaining within the spirit of the original Japanese films – and yet it’s still somewhat lacking. As a star for the MonsterVerse it was intriguing to see what would have come out as a result from Godzilla but the most it evokes is that it’s just desperate to start up an entire series of films rather than standing out on its own: which I suppose I can get behind with what more it teases.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Power Rangers – Review

✯✯½

I don’t carry any sort of nostalgia for the Power Rangers series since I never watched it much when I was a kid but I always recognized its impact during its run. Initially I was skeptical of a new film because of my lack of connection to the series and the generic approach for the marketing but I was made even more skeptical with the notion that we had a superhero who was on the spectrum alongside one who is a lesbian according to reports which contrast what one would remember of the original series. Coming out of Power Rangers, my thoughts could never have been any more mixed rather than what my low expectations would have foreseen. What’s to be said is that it was far better than what first impression may have presented although I’m still unsure how I really feel in the end.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Get a Job – Review

✯½

If it hadn’t been clear to the studios already, it says a lot when a movie is shelved. Apparently, Get a Job was shelved for a total of five years and after it had just been released, it’s understandable. Get a Job isn’t exactly a film that is worth getting angry at, because even for how much many of the jokes simply don’t land, there’s just nothing even being committed. If I were to think of another film that just practically had no sort of aim, The Do-Over would come to mind but unlike said film, Get a Job doesn’t feature some sort of an offensive excuse to shove in some sort of plot. All we are really being presented is a series of jokes failing to land one after another, somehow managing to sustain a running time of eighty two minutes, which it wastes shamelessly. Continue reading →