Tag / lily collins

by Jaime Rebanal

To the Bone – Review

✯✯½

To the Bone, another Netflix original film with Lily Collins (after Okja) presents yet another frustrating case on their own behalf. It’s easy enough for me to say that Netflix’s original features never have been particularly great ones at that, and after breaking away through Bong Joon-ho’s Okja, we’re left with Marti Noxon’s To the Bone. This semi-autobiographical portrait of anorexia makes clear its good intentions, but there’s a Hallmark-esque feeling it leaves behind that only leaves me feeling cold. Sure, it’s better made and better written than films that anything from said catalogue but at the same time it was also what I feared it would be, something that has an eating disorder placed in the center only to be sidelined in the name of a story that has already been told several times before. Suddenly, all my interest has faded away.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Okja – Review

✯✯✯✯

Netflix’s feature films have never been particularly great ones at that but the idea that Bong Joon-ho was directing one to be distributed under their name only left me feeling optimistic. Bong Joon-ho only left behind a sign of promise when he transitioned towards directing English-language films with Snowpiercer and with his second Korean-American production, what has come by goes beyond just being exciting. It only wears that on the outside, but then comes by something far more thoughtful almost akin to the early work of Steven Spielberg, drawing upon something far more impactful. And as far as Netflix-distributed original features have gone, Okja is not only the most exciting one of the bunch but it also might very well be the best one by far. And by the standards of their original features, it says a lot for what Bong Joon-ho provided in Okja is a fantastic film as expected of him.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Rules Don’t Apply – Review

✯✯

Warren Beatty’s first onscreen appearance in 15 years and his first directorial effort since Bulworth would be met with fairly lofty expectations but knowing how long he has been gone, there’s a question being raised by what effect has his own absence laid upon what more he could do. Did this story about Howard Hughes come so many years too late? What exactly was he aiming for with Rules Don’t Apply? Was it a romantic comedy, a satire about the Hollywood studio system like how Bulworth (I’m one of the few that considers this to be his best film as a director) was for the political climate at the time? I’m still unsure what it was that Warren Beatty even wanted to tell with Rules Don’t Apply and it’s disappointing when one comes to consider the wonderful talent he has put on display all his career.

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