Tag / chris o’dowd

by Jaime Rebanal

The Cloverfield Paradox – Review

✯½

Plays out more along the lines of a really bad Black Mirror episode than an actual feature film. But given the odd marketing methods that have allowed the Cloverfield films to stand out amidst many, it also makes a case for what’s to be expected of The Cloverfield Paradox. While it’s respectable for someone like J. J. Abrams to allow a person of colour to helm a blockbuster whose diversity will undoubtedly shine, the film itself isn’t quite the game changer we would have wanted it to be since it happens to be the exact opposite. It’s the opposite because the fact it was released on Netflix less than 24 hours after it was announced also gives away the feeling that perhaps the film was never good enough to get a theatrical release and was merely dumped onto the streaming service like a direct-to-video film. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case for The Cloverfield Paradox because it certainly feels as if it was made as such.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Molly’s Game – Review

✯✯✯½

This is the unfiltered version of Aaron Sorkin, now that he finally went behind the camera to direct Molly’s Game. I consider myself a fan of Aaron Sorkin’s quick and witty delivery but there’s also a point to which I felt that a lack of filter for once with Sorkin’s trademarks can become rather excessive and knowing that this is a product that speaks Sorkin through and through, now it’s easier to see where his indulgences end up getting in the way. That said, I don’t want to give away the idea that I didn’t enjoy Molly’s Game, because I don’t see myself ever resisting the sound of Sorkin’s smart-sounding dialogue coming out of Jessica Chastain’s tongue and I got what I expected.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Loving Vincent – Review

✯✯½

Loving Vincent is set to be talked about on the count that it the first animated feature to be fully animated through the usage of oil paintings. But for as interesting an experiment as that may be, I was also surprised to find that it never seemed to present much outside of that worth talking about. This animated biopic about the famed Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh will find its crowd somewhere but I also found it to be empty otherwise. It seems odd enough to me because of how much Loving Vincent has established itself through the art style as an ode to the work of Vincent Van Gogh, but even from looking at a Van Gogh painting there seems to be much more being said rather than what is found in here.

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