Dan Gilroy, the director of my favourite Jake Gyllenhaal movie Nightcrawler (2014), is back with new crime/fantasy film, Velvet Buzzsaw.
Starring Gyllenhaal, John Malkovich, Toni Collette, Billy Magnussen and set in Miami Beach, Florida, it all begins after a number of art lovers help themselves to a series of paintings by an unknown artist. Soon enough, a supernatural force begins to enact revenge to punish all those involved for their greed.
I’m in for Gyllenhaal’s performance, and who knows, maybe I’ll love what he does in this movie as much as I appreciate his great work in Nightcrawler.
At the time of writing, Velvet Buzzsaw isn’t categorised as horror. As such, my fingers are crossed that the whole experience isn’t nightmare-inducing.
Zawe Ashton, Natalia Dyer, Rene Russo, Daveed Diggs, Peter Gadiot and Tom Sturridge also star.
Knowing my history with Netflix movies and how I’ve found the vast majority to be quite disappointing, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel after Bird Box. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed director Susan Bier’s post apocalyptic sci-fi thriller more than I expected to.
Intrigued by the story of how a woman and two children were going to escape the mysterious force that compels all who see it to kill themselves right away, I couldn’t wait to see how the characters would survive. Especially since they have to be blindfolded when outside.
As soon as the opening scene in Bird Box started to play, I had a good feeling because of how the scene immediately held my undivided attention. Even though en route to the final scenes of Bird Box, there were some very engaging, ‘edge of your seat,’ suspenseful moments, my favourite part of Bird Box is without a doubt the last thirty minutes. For it is the scenes when the key characters are truly most vulnerable, and endless near-disasters are happening one after the other.
Similar to 2017’s A Quiet Place, Bird Box will likely have you thinking about parenthood and the gargantuan undertaking that it truly is. I enjoyed leading actor Sandra Bullock’s performance, plus the moments in the story that moved, thrilled and surprised me.
As for the parts of Bird Box I wish weren’t quite so, those would include approximately thirty minutes into the film when, instead of being fully engaged, I found myself distracted by the fact that I hadn’t seen the ‘monster’ yet and I really wanted to. Secondly, I think there were too many characters ‘in the house;’ one or two of whom proved quite annoying. There were also others that seemed like props who were just there to play their relatively small parts just to move the story along and sometimes provide a fast thrilling moment.
Thirdly, I understand the reason for the ‘flashback and back to present day’ editing choice. However, it hurt the flow of the story and subsequently had me wondering how different it could all have been if everything had played out in regular order.
Overall, I say give Bird Box a chance because it has some great moments, and for me personally, it’s an improvement on the last few Netflix movies I saw, and some I tried to watch but had to abandon.
The Wilde Wedding, the Damian Harris-written/directed movie about a retired actress who remarries for the fourth time, had me feeling a tad disinterested immediately. Reason being, I found that I didn’t connect with the narrator at the beginning. I also felt there were too many characters, none of whom proved particularly interesting.
For me, this film just plodded along, and I continued watching in hopes that things would improve. Especially considering the talented main cast – John Malkovich, Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close.
I’m glad to say that things did get interesting and more dramatic somewhere past the halfway point. And I certainly didn’t anticipate the way it ended. However, is it all enough for The Wilde Wedding to be a movie worth recommending? Not really. In my humble opinion, It’s Complicated (2009) is more fun.
The thing that stood out most for me overall about this film actually has nothing to do with the story, but rather the truth about one of the actors. I’m speaking of Australian actor Yael Stone, a.k.a. Lorna Morello from Orange Is The New Black. The lady is a wonderful performer, especially in Orange Is The New Black, and she’s clearly gifted with accents, for, in this movie, her character is very convincingly British.
I Love You, Daddy (2017), John Malkovich, Chloe Grace Moretz
In I Love you Daddy, stand up comic Louis C.K. is a successful television writer whose daughter becomes the interest of an ageing filmmaker with an appalling past.
Written and directed by C.K.; Helen Hunt, John Malkovich, Chloe Grace Moretz and Rose Byrne star.
I can try and imagine the various ways Louis C.K.’s character is going to try and deal with the situation, but I’m sure the way he executes will turn out better than what I picture.
As a big fan of his stand-up comedy and television show, Louie2010-2015, before even reading the synopsis, I’d already decided to watch. Louis C.K. is one of my favourite comics, after all.
From writer/director Damian Harris, The Wilde Wedding is a new comedy about a retired actress who gets married for the fourth time, to a renowned English writer.
Glenn Close, Patrick Stewart, John Malkovich and Minnie Driver are among the key cast.
I’ll be watching because the cast is great. There’s also the fact that this trailer looks good and reminds me so much of one of my favourites, It’s Complicated (2009).
Also, tell me you recognised Sir Patrick Stewart (a.k.a Professor X from the X-Men movies), but with hair in this trailer. Otherwise, what kind of movie fan are you, really?
Yael Stone, Peter Facinelli, Grace Van Patten and Noah Emmerich also make an appearance.
