This British black and white movie set in a claustrophobic Cornish fishing village
is a pleasing antidote to the Hollywood blitz of late. Bait itself has won various prizes for its distinctive grainy style, unusual editing which blends several scenes at the same time or foreshadows or flashes back. Mark Jenkin does most of the work: direction, screenplay, camera and music producing a unique work.
There is not so much dialogue in the film and the story is conveyed just as much by visual images (draining dishes, boots, window frames, nets and pots) as it is by any conventional narrative. What dialogue there is fits the Cornish cadences perfectly.
The film is about the clash between locals, losing their fishing industry
and obliged to sell their houses to gentrifying Londoners
who turn them into airbnbs.
It is a portrait of moment of transition and perhaps the loss of old traditions. The locals led by fisherman Martin (Edward Rowe) are pretty angry
about this and by the arrogant acts of the outsiders. Eventually this leads to a tragedy which provides the dramatic climax to this small but very distinct film. Good acting but most of all great vision for seeing how to make this film, a throwback to Eisenstein that seems both vintage and highly contemporary at the same time.
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While there is nothing especially new in the plot and the film dwells quite a lot on the role of lawyers in exacerbating these processes in the US, the real value is the way the characters start to wake up to all sorts of features about themselves or their marriage as things emerge.
Driver and Johansson have several moments when they suddenly start to realise things in a situation that seems to have a life of its own.
The intelligent screenplay and the command both actors have of their craft heightens this and one particular scene two thirds of the way through is quite electrifying
in this sense. Laura Dern
has been justifiedly honoured for her role as the feisty lawyer and appearances by Ray Liotta and Alan Alda
as other lawyers and Julie Hagerty as the mother-in-law
add substance to the movie.
instead of protecting the human side. Despite what the courts and lawyers might say. Not a film to enjoy but would definitely stand up to more than one viewing given its rich detail.
and ends up having his concepts of the world turned upside down. Vogel has issues with the world, especially his father (Chris Cooper)
and little by little Rogers helps him unwrap his feelings despite much resistance.
and the puppets who often voiced what adults couldn’t.
In Tom Hanks she has an intelligent actor who manages to convey the special qualities of Rogers without making him seem like a saint or a goody two shoes.
It is one of his most polished performances given the character he had to portray.
I found it particularly uplifting after the noise barrage of Uncut Gems.
says “you are the most annoying person I know!” My immediate thought was that this is one of the most annoying films I have ever seen. 
Go to Rotten Tomatoes and the film has a 96% approval rating from critics and only 54% from the public. Enough said. I cannot understand why so much fanfare for this shit! Sure, Adam Sandler gives a very convincing performance against type as the jeweler conman/gambling addict 
but sitting through his relentlessly noisy story of all his mistakes and bad deeds, all the while hearing him constantly shouting at everyone or being roughed up is no thrill.
I started feeling sick within a few minutes and the negative energy just goes on and on. Did someone think it would be fun/funny/entertaining/morally instructive to make a film like this? I just think that we have been immersed in a massive exercise of bad vibes, which shows how dark and sordid human greed can get.
Given the “in your face” style it just ends up being stressful and unpleasant.
Which a few critics did admit (some still giving it a thumbs up!). I could comment on technical issues that I also think failed the film but I really can’t be bothered wasting any more time on this.
It is probably a two star something as a work of celluloid but I’m lopping off stars because it is really quite obnoxious. A mystery but then again this is the shadow side of the US in full bloom.
so much so that he has Hitler as his imaginary friend.
Trouble is that he is pretty hopeless as a potential soldier and he has a mother who is harbouring a Jewish girl in the attic. This creates a big inner conflict in Jojo with hilarious results as he unwittingly both tries to keep the Hitler youth people happy and befriends the girl.
Waititi misses few opportunities at making fun at the era (witness the Heil Hitler salutes) and gives us both wisdom and laughs intertwined.
Thomasin Mackenzie
from the Harcourt dynasty of Kiwi actors convinces as Elsa, the hidden girl and Taika himself creates a unique gloss of a character in the imaginary Hitler.
Sam Rockwell and Rebel Wilson have fun as Nazis
and Scarlett Johansson anchors the film as Rosie, Jojo’s free-spirited mother.
Filming in the Czech Republic gives us Third Reich style settings which Waititi contrasts with both classical and modern music. Versions in German of the Beatles I wanna hold your hand and Bowie’s Heroes are particular masterstrokes. An enjoyable and sobering fantasy all wrapped up in one.
Tremendous screenplay well deserving of the Oscar.
as revenge, she heads out into the streets of Paris with no home, no tertiary education and not much clue about how to treat people. She bluffs her way into jobs
and accommodation, breaks the rules constantly and lies a fair bit.
She doesn’t seem to care about whether she tells the truth or if her comments hurt people; she somehow thinks that people have to accept her frankness for what it is.
As many reviewers said, she is annoying and you wouldn’t want her around for too long. Not to mention her lack of thought towards the cat! We see several scenes where she lets people down and her mother has clearly had enough of her.
In some ways she represents an age group (millennials) and in some ways not. But towards the end we start to see how her past relationships have probably accentuated certain characteristics in her like her overwhelmingly self-centredness and lack of humility. If you have been put down for years, it is one possible defence.
working in precarious jobs, trying to inch ahead and spending plenty of time partying.
Bong Joon Ho achieves a seldom-seen amalgam of all of this, carefully and creatively constructed.
ingratiates its way into the life of a rich family
who live in an imposing architecturally designed house on the edge of town.
Without divulging their family connection, they pose as the English tutor, art therapist, driver
and housekeeper of the family, assuming these roles as the original people leave or are fired.
The ingenuity with which they manage it is one thing. But it also highlights the gap between rich and poor. Mrs Park (the rich mother) is gullible
and naïve and yet has money to burn, Mrs Kim (the poor mother) is a smart cookie but can barely scrape two pennies together. Other class differences and unfairness springs to light in the course of the movie. All this is settled into place by mid-film when a plot development
takes everything to another level and eventually leads to a pretty dynamic denouement. Kang-ho Song as the poor father
, Yeo-Jeong Jo as the rich mother and So-dam Park as the poor daughter
are among the stars in a uniformly good cast. Photography by Kyung-Ppo Hong and Jaeil Jung’s music also add appreciably to this very complete engaging film.
Word gets out that Gran has little time to live so the family which includes another uncle and family living in Japan all descend on Changchun to see Granny. The catch is that said grandmother mustn’t know about her health status and the family invent a wedding
(of Japanese dwelling grandson to a Japanese girl) as an excuse for all coming together. No one is the least excited about the wedding and wander around grumpy and forlorn about Gran’s imminent demise.
and some nice little observations about modern life (the new hotel with the lifts that don’t work) and cultural norms (Granny trying to match Billi with a young British educated doctor) and a lot of gloom and fear about the matriarch and what life will be like from now on. For the most part director Lulu Wang handles these extremes well, sometimes the gloom
seems all pervasive. Shuzhen Zhao as the grandmother is a chipper soul, probably wiser than the others give her credit for. I was less convinced by Awkwafina,
hailed in reviews and awards ceremonies. She is perfectly OK in her role of fearful granddaughter but it is what you would expect of any actress. I guess being a departure from her comic and rapping roles, people think she is really showing her versatility. To me it was less impactful.
The problem is that she is already shattered emotionally, reliant on drugs and alcohol and “difficult” when it comes to performing.
We see some of these scenes, a whirlwind late marriage
and some of the showstopping musical numbers. It is all rather predictable and has quite a number of scenes of Judy sighing, squinting and pouting.
The dialogue is also quite trite as befits perhaps a stage show. There are some creepy references to Louis B Mayer, the studio head who apparently exploited her as a child.
More could have been seen of that and also her string of short-lived marriages to the “wrong” guys.
She manages to capture the personality and the behaviour of the star perfectly and is totally charismatic.
Her dancing and singing are also up to the mark and represents her talent and hard work.
A masterclass in representing a real person.
between Ferrari and Ford. Viewed from the US side, we meet Carroll Shelby (correct Matt Damon)
a car racer and designer and his partner Ken Miles, a rookie mechanic and driver
with a superb sense of what makes a racing car works. This pair
get hired by the Ford corporation to get them that win over Ferrari
but it is a difficult relationship as pompous Henry Ford (grandson of the original) and his suits
do not trust the outsiders even though they need them.
and the performance of Christian Bale,
unrecognizable here from Vice a year ago and giving us a quirky but unsung genius. Caitriona Balfe
does good service as his wife. The recreation of the period is well done and to see what Formula One was like before its current incarnation is indeed a treat.
passionfilm 