Film reviews

Resurrection Review

Leave a comment

From director Andrew Semans comes an invigorating and intense thriller that will have its audience sink in their seats with suspense. That film is Resurrection. Starring Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth, this suspenseful flick challenged me psychologically. The performance of Hall is where I kept being curious to how much darker her attitude can get. Resurrection is a film that challenges one’s behavior and attitude, and how the past can have dark and irreparable consequences.

Hall is Margaret. She is a successful with an outstanding career. She is also a single mom to her daughter Abbie (played by Grace Kaufman). She is always on top of her game with her career and making sure she is a good mom to Abbie. She has her daily routines to benefit her mental health and stability. All of that comes to halt when David (Roth) comes back into her life. This all makes a fuse go off in Margaret’s head and her mindset to be overprotective (of herself and Abbie) and mentally overwhelming. It becomes increasingly concerning. No one plays the part of overprotective mother better than Hall in this spellbinding work of art.

The stress of Hall’s character will grow awareness of the audience. That is because in every corner she is sensitive, and in every scenario with David she is intense. An element from the past that is unexplained is Why David returns. With Roth as David, and the individual trying to remain neutral. Both the performances of Hall and Roth drive personality clashes to have disturbing outcomes which are invigorating in Resurrection. With Semans also being the writer, he knows how to write a script where tension is on par with the correlation of frustration between Margaret and David throughout the film.

With Hall instilling the overwhelming paranoia throughout Resurrection, the film will grasp viewers attention as her paranoia begins to impact others in the film. It impacts Abbie, it impacts her colleagues, and it also impacts David’s attitude. With David already displaying stalkerish behavior, he still finds a way to maintain his attitude where it does not get him in trouble. He does this so Margaret’s resources from the police can be of little to no help. The paranoia of Hall’s performance only keeps worsening as her resources also choose not to help her.

Resurrection is one of those films that is a visually enticing. It is also original with many engrossing elements. Hall and Roth’s performance is superb. Their protagonist vs. antagonist relationship is Resurrection’s central point of creating Resurrection to be a knockout cinematic experience. There may be light for Margaret, but it may require much more than she anticipates finding the light. Three and a half stars.

Film essays, Film reviews

There Will Be Blood 15 Year Anniversary and Still a Masterpiece

Leave a comment

The 2007 classic There Will Be Blood is in its 15-year anniversary, and to this day it remains a masterpiece. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film was nominated for many awards, and took home two for the winner. It was nominated for best Picture, best directing, best adapted screenplay, best film editing, best in art direction, best in art direction, and best achievement in sound editing. Daniel Day-Lewis won for best actor, and it also won for cinematography. The three categories that I believe should have won also is directing, adapted screenplay and film editing. Those three categories with no win are the factors to why There Will Be Blood is still a true cinema triumph. That is because Anderson has an eye for realistic continuity in his directing of There Will Be Blood.

The ambience of There Will Be Blood is setup where the scenery sets the film. With the film opening with a vast landscape of dryland through the California area in the late 19th century, There Will Be Blood grows an invigorating premise. There is no dialogue for the first few minutes of the film. It is the direction within the environment around Daniel Plainview (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) and his early oil operations. The key to the film’s opening is that there is a vibe for economic success with oiling, but there is also tension that is abound.

The plot of the film begins when the dialogue comes along, and when Daniel makes others believe he has a son (but it is not his son). His son is H.W. (played by Dillon Freasier). Daniel takes H.W. under his arms when H.W. becomes an orphan when he is a baby. Daniel uses H.W. to his advantage to present himself as a widower. He does this to gain more profits and more resources with his growing networking and operations of oiling. The cinematic aspect in the eyes of Anderson’s directing is that Daniel’s success is based off dishonesty and deceit. For Daniel, more profit grows with his advantage to H.W., but also more irreparable consequences start to build.

As the success of Daniel continues to grow, the more suspicion comes to the mind of Eli Sunday (played by Paul Dano). More doom and danger gradually grow. With Eli being a healer of a church, he runs, there starts to be disgust between Eli and Daniel. Daniel makes promises to Eli for positive changes, and it does not happen. On top of that, H.W. sustains hearing damage due to an oil catastrophe. All together none of the problems matter to Daniel. The only factor that is important is his profits. Through the method style of acting from Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood is a dangerous journey of his success being more important than others.

There Will Be Blood is a masterpiece by nature. The master directing of Anderson is seen through its award-winning sequences and the title itself. That is because its title has meaning as well. The tone is paced, and its scoring is faded to layout the dark fundamentals for the oil operation and those who are impacted. It has taken me a couple of times to truly see the amazement of There Will Be Blood, but its just requires patience and aptitude. There is no stopping the darkness of what has begun in There Will Be Blood.

Today of oil and gas pricing being on the rise, that was my motivation to revisit There Will Be Blood. The film has grasped my attention more today because of the early days of oiling being the center focus of the film. Especially in an era where there were no technological advancements of networking. The challenging networking and success come from the dark hatred between Eli and Daniel. The tension is still spectacle as it was fifteen years ago. Four stars.

Film reviews

Emily the Criminal Review

Leave a comment

Actress Aubrey Plaza has been an actress that is one of a kind. She has that killer attitude with a dangerous instinct. Plaza also has a daring personality to play roles that are deceiving with irreparable consequences. In her performance in Emily the Criminal, she is spot on with being a risk-taker, and making the big bucks for criminal activity. Emily the Criminal is breathtaking and engrossing, and Plaza is the bad girl that has got a lot of debt to pay. She will do what she can make the big bucks, even if it means jail time. Emily the Criminal is a race for big bucks, but also a race to remaining undercover while doing criminal operations.

Many of these films are ones that audience would expect gun violence and explosions, but it has none of that. It has some violence, but the suspense is tension and realizations. Emily The Criminal is unique in its setup and its motives behind Plaza’s performance. That is because the performance of Plaza is filled with harsh decisions and putting herself in dangerous situations on numerous occasions. Her motivation is money and paying off her debts. The only question it has for its audience is if she can make it out alive? She may be setup with her operations; however, she is unstoppable.

In the film, Plaza is Emily. She is someone working in a catering business in Los Angeles for low pay and trying to find ways to pay off her student debt. The downside is that she has a negative background which causes her to not be eligible for jobs that pay well. With a lack of college education, and many negative background reports, Emily finds herself in constant anger and frustration. All this changes though when she meets Youcef (played by Theo Rossi). Youcef runs a credit card scam operation and shows Emily the ropes for fraud to make bank. From there, Emily becomes hooked on the fraud operations because of how much her pay increases as she keeps doing the risky jobs that Youcef assigns her.

The film had me in excitement and hysterics. That is because Emily finds herself to be harmed by what she is doing for a job. She even risks the chance of being robbed or facing jail time. The crazy part is that still motivates her to keep taking on the dangerous tasks that she has an opportunity for. The film is setup in the con artist sense. The score keeps growing for Emily. The main tactic though Emily is to remain under the radar. Youcef helps her to remain under the radar. Problem though, is one error can lead to prison. Emily and Youcef can even fall into other kinds of trouble with other criminal masterminds. Emily The Criminal builds tension among how Emily keeps moving forward in working with Youcef.

The main scenario of Emily the Criminal (which I love) is taking risks. The fraud operations Emily learns is dazzling. The realizations of what can go wrong is endless, and Emily will only keep going to make bank. Emily the Criminal is spellbinding in the sense of technological schemes with the chance of going awry. The crazy part is the chance of that is high.

Emily the Criminal is vivid. Not exactly a masterpiece, but a thriller that is different with hidden gems. I loved the performance of Plaza along with the direction the film takes as she takes the dangerous jobs. Emily the Criminal is one of those thrillers where I did not want the tense situations to calm down, I wanted them to keep rising. Three stars for Emily the Criminal.

Treating cinema in many forms of art!