Tag / michael smiley

by Jaime Rebanal

Free Fire – Review

✯✯✯½

Ben Wheatley has always been a complicated case for myself and Free Fire shows another side to him that may prove itself more accessible put next to the rest of his films. I went into Free Fire wondering what this new route would have done for Wheatley then I got a mixed bag of results. On one hand, the idea that is being presented here is something to which I have great admiration for, but on another hand, I’m not exactly sure that I got enough of it presented here and I wonder how much it would benefit either from trimming or extension. This was something that has always run through my head when I watch Wheatley’s films, they have ideas that don’t always come fully realized but he’s a director I admire on the count that he tries to reach out for more through the unorthodox.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Lobster – Review

✯✯½

I think I find myself enjoying Yorgos Lanthimos more in theory rather than in storytelling. The first time I saw Dogtooth I remember having been so shaken by its satire to the point that I ended up feeling guilty about myself for having found it so darkly funny and I found Alps to be one that echoes that same sort of dryness although not with the same impact. Something about The Lobster just hits me in that manner but I can’t put my finger on it, because I just find myself at odds with how I end up feeling about the final effect it leaves behind. At times brilliant and other times maybe a tad too weird for its own sake, it’s easy to see why one would be put off. On first watch I remember having found myself extremely impressed but on a second watch, said effect seems to have faded.

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