Fast Charlie (2023)

If I should make a top for the discrepancy between the feel a trailer leaves you with and a movie, for what I've watched in the last two-three years, "Fast Charlie" would probably come up somewhere among the top positions. Now well... the impression is subjective after all, both concerning the trailer, and the movie.

At least the subject you can get partially from the two minutes attached at the end of this entry. Charlie Swift (Pierce Brosnan) is a "fixer" for a criminal outfit from.. Biloxi, Mississippi (fact: the city has less than 50k inhabitants). Which organization, after 30 years of dominating the territory under the rule of the "godfather" Stan Mullen (James Caan in his last part), becomes the target of a "hostile takeover" by a young gangster who decides to eliminate everybody close to the leader. The story is predictable if you look at the trailer, Charlie escapes and seeks revenge. What's not that predictable is that this action thread is less major than it looks to be, and the movie is actually quite far from the typical standard B-series payback action thriller. First, we have plenty of nuances of black comedy. Second, we also have another set of more fine nuances of slow drama with insertions related to the late midlife chrisis of the main character. In some way, it feels a bit like the movies of Martin McDonagh ("In Bruges", "Seven Psychopats", etc.), but it's not really on par with these. However, you can feel there's a novel behind it = the story is not as thin as it mai seem at a first sight. We also have romance insertions and others, leaving the main thread somehow in background as I said.

It's not a movie that I could recommend besides the reasons written above. The actors do their job fine. The director (Phillip Noyce) does his job fine - the movie progression keeps you there, you don't feel any unnecessary length. Still, especially from a technical point of view, there's nothing remarkable about it. Maybe just the final minutes when you get a visual/audio arrangement meant to get a final thumbs up from you. Otherwise, it feels more like a made for tv movie, from which you expected a bit more. In the end it probably depends a lot of your mood. And in my case it came up in a moment when what I can do is to say again :) the impression is subjective.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Uncut Gems (2019)

 

A while ago I've seen "Good Time", written and directed by the same Safdie brothers as "Uncut Gems" is. It seemed terribly overrated and so fit to a narrow niche, that I was convinced another movie by the same guys can't be much different.

I wasn't wrong. "Uncut Gems" is likewise annoyingly hysterical from beginning to its end, featuring the same type of a main character - an unscrupulous guy struggling to solve a problem by creating another one. The character in "Uncut Gems" is a loud jeweler from New York, addicted to gambling, probably the role of a lifetime made by Adam Sandler, way above any acting he did in the usual light comedies he played in. The movie is tracking some days of his unhappy life, being constantly chased by loan sharks, and trying to get back on his feet by auctioning an uncut gemstone, all these while he can't withold from placing more bets. The action is quite dense, catching also a glimpse of his family issues, the unorthodox collaboration with a forger, and other stuff. Unfortunately the movie is also too dense in screaming, almost any dialog ending in some conflict. At some point, as I was saying, it gets annoying and also tiring at the same time. 

It's not a spoiler to say that the story doesn't end well. It becomes so obvious that the guy gets from worse to much worse that the only unknown is how much worse it will get. And here, the ending is clearly better than "Good Time". In all this descending spiral, you feel at some time that there are exits, but each one is missed. The final one is the cherry on top. I think I had like three possible versions, none good, which crossed my mind during the last 15 minutes, which again try to deceive you with some glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel. But I had the surprise of a different closure. I guess the only possible one able to save the movie, which I can't say I liked. However, the ending is forcing me to be objective and I also can't say it's a bad film. Now... I really shouldn't spoil more of this part. It's just something like probably would be the feeling when a neighbor drilled holes in the walls for an entire day and he gets a power cut. It's a sudden "silence", a short lived one that doesn't give much time to reflect on it. But you get a "L'Amour Toujours" on the end credits to complete it in case you need anything else. It never crossed my mind to listen carefully to the lyrics of this song until watching "Uncut Gems".

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Oscar 2015 - Production Design

Production Design + Set Decoration to capture everything that gets nominated here, is this year a very easy category to predict. That's why I won't spend too much time with this entry, and I'll start with the winner: "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (well, if it won't be that one ...). The production design has a major impact in this movie's "economy". Basically, almost everything you see on screen was specifically designed to fit the movie tone, and also the locations were picked to comply with that too. The clip below is not complete enough from that perspective, the focus being only on the main location = the hotel, but even so I think it's quite eloquent ... Probably one of the best movies nominated here since "Sweeney Todd".
In "The Imitation Game" we have a re-creation of the Bletchley Park environment during WW2. Looks good, but as a I was saying, all nominees present here seem to be in a different league compared to the above one, so let's cut this short ...
"Interstellar" is a bit atypical for this section considering the percentage of SciFi nominations compared to time pieces. Well, in this case I assume the diversity of the locations did matter enough ...
"Into the Woods" is probably the only other nomination that gets a bit closer to "Grand Budapest". Unfortunately ... it sort of left me with a monotony feeling for the production design part. Maybe because most of the action takes place ... well .. into the woods ...
The reason why "Mr. Turner" shows up here is (as said before) mainly because is a time piece. And also maybe as a more peculiar aspect that it "features" lots of Turner's reproductions in the set decoration. But, that's pretty much everything about it ...

Life After Beth (2014)

I've been waiting for "Life After Beth" since quite a while. I've managed watching this last week, in two shots, late at night when I couldn't sleep. I've been a bit afraid at the moment that it will amplify the not that good mood I had. No worries though ... The movie was so bad, that the only thing it amplified was the frequency of my yawns.

Beth dies somewhere in the beginning (big surprise) bitten by a venomous snake. Zach, her boyfriend, gets into a bitter depression until he figures out that ... Beth has still a pulse, and she's walking. Resurrected, and after she crawled out from her grave, the girl simply returned home, where her parents decide to hide the miracle. Until when the nosy boyfriend, intrigued by the isolation of his former "parents-in-law" finds out about the new zombie in town. And that's what starts the problems, but I'll leave these for who has enough patience to discover what happens next ...

I have to admit that the main reason for waiting this movie was Aubrey Plaza. Probably the name sounds totally unknown, but well ... I have my "crush" moments :P, and this one followed "Safety not Guaranteed" + one .. two ... three interviews I've seen with her (don't ask :P just youtube search - funny, weird & maybe hiding some heart deep under the outer layer .. maybe). Anyway, after "Life After Beth" I'm cured. The acting was pathetic. The directing sucked. The script ... no comment - how and why we get from Beth to a (spoiler) "Night of the Living Dead" I have no clue. Or .. it might be some hidden plot of the vipers in the surroundings to wake up the whole cemetery. Anyway ...

Rating: 2 out of 5