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Film reviews

The Fall Guy Review

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Ryan Gosling is still being praised for his role as Ken in Barbie last year and he deserves even more for The Fall Guy. Gosling is the hero in this film, but his co-star Emily Blunt deserves applause along with Aaron Taylor-Johnson who plays the movie star. The Fall Guy is a comedy-thriller with a clever personalitywhich makes it soar with delight. The film is a blast from director David Leitch. While there are a few moments that drag, the adventure is interesting enough to offset any boredom.

Watching The Fall Guy feels like being an audience member on a movie set during shoots. The film industry is the focus of the film. The lead is Colt Seavers played by Gosling. Colt is astuntman who leaves the film industry, but then finds his way back into the routine of the business. He has his eye on the prize, his ex-girlfriend, Jody Moreno, a movie director, played by Emily Blunt. Colt may have landed his lucky project by finding his way onto Jody’s project. There is a twist, however, when the lead of her project, Tom Ryder, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, goes missing. Suspense is a key part of this film’s creativity.

Of course, the setup relies on lots of action involving Colt. He must put together the pieces to find Tom. He must also get his reputation as a stuntman back. And he must do what he can to attract his ex-girlfriend again. There are plenty of diverse moviesets in The Fall Guy which have different atmospheres with various people and specific dangers.

The thrills are intriguing as Colt faces new and complex risks.Colt is used to doing stunts in movies and must perform some of them which cause him to face actual life-and-death scenarios. While sometimes exciting, the humor is occasionally mediocre. Fortunately, the different movie sets add value and keep things interesting.

The Fall Guy feels two-sided. It feels like it is a film within a film. One side contains the film which is set in the movie industry. The second side contains Gosling as the hero. Which side has the upper hand? The Fall Guy will make audiencesthink twice.

As I mentioned previously, the film is all Gosling. He is the king of continuity and thrives creating stunts with a killer attitude. In one scene, Gosling plays someone escaping in a boat with his hands tied behind him yet is still an unstoppable force. Although it is silly in spots, The Fall Guy still kills. It has laughs, excitement, thrills, and comedic peril. When his character Colt says, “Professional is my middle name,” the element of surprise rises.

My love for The Fall Guy is due to its utilization of movie sets as settings which greatly boosted the entertainment value. These cinematic settings created an enthralling vibe. Gosling jumps through many hurdles in this adventure and does not rely upon his pretty boy persona. This time, he deserves recognition for playing the hero, attracting the girl he loves, and gaining his career back. The Fall Guy is an above-average ride that deserves three out of four stars.

Cinema Femme Shorts Film Festival 2024, Film reviews

Cinema Femme Shorts Film Festival 2024: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood Review

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The Cinema Femme Shorts Film Festival highlights captivating films in independent cinema. The festival provides a mixture of short films, feature films, and workshops. It offers its audience the chance to feel cinematic moments that feel incredibly real. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is a film that made me ask myself why there are more realistic movies like this. Writer and director Anna Hints takes her audience on an audacious journey into the unknown in the mountains of Estonia.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood has a faded form of cinematography that blends well with the winter setting throughout the film. The title is catchy and may leave some to assume that the film is horror themed. The lighting and darkness also make the film feel like it could belong in that genre. However, it is a documentary in which reality and candid discussions occur in a place with no boundaries. As the title indicates, the women are socializing in a sauna. Their deep conversations dive into aspects of life that are mesmerizing thanks to a brilliant director who helps reveals the truth.

The ladies in the film are all real people and play themselves. Their names are Kadil Kivilo, Maria Meresaar, Elsa Saks, Marianne Liiv, and others. They are European women who find their sacred place of peace and meaning in their sauna. In that sauna, all kinds of topics come up ranging from ageism to disconnect to hardship to loneliness. The sauna is their own personal club where they all feel heard with heart.

There are lots of deep emotions and spellbinding factors in the stories that weave together in powerful ways. There is a quote that describes the film’s theme by saying.  “Smoke Sauna is a sacred place where you can cleanse yourself.” There is lots of cleansing in Smoke Sauna Sisterhood. My mind felt “cleansed” after the touching experience I had with this movie. It truly made me think about reality in a new light. Viewers like me may often feel that we cannot share our inner most  thoughts, struggles or challenges with others when in fact, we can. The women in the film have bonds as close as sisters. They all find themselves inspired…in the light and the dark. This documentary is a moving and poetic adventure where self-acceptance is the enduring message.

Women coming out of their shells is the tactic used to create this film’s cinematic beauty. Truth and openness are featured and celebrated in Smoke Sauna Sisterhood. The secluded natural setting is one of divine beauty where the essence of solitude reigns. Deeper stories lead to more topics with no filter. The writing keeps supporting the vibe of connectedness. Their loving environment creates a blissful feeling that is soothing. The bond between the ladies is loyal and loving and the odyssey of thoughts they share makes the audience feel present. Connectivity, sexuality, and personal boundaries are all exploredin Smoke Sauna Sisterhood. Four stars for this glorious, one-of-a-kind film.

Film reviews

Nowhere Special Review

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Fatherhood is one of resemblance with a big heart in Nowhere Special. Written and directed by Uberto Pasolini, this one of the most heartbreaking and thorough depictions of reality hitting a harsh plateau. A film dealing with the issue of how health failures impact others. With an opening shot of a day-to-day setting around Northern Ireland, there is that subtle undertone of sorrowfulness. A father with a health condition that will change his world and daily life forever. Nowhere Special is about finding the right outlet for someone who is impacted after the day he dies.

The father with the fatal health problem is John (played by James Norton), and he is a window cleaner. He is a single father to his son Michael (played by Daniel Lamont). John shows enormous love for Michael, as he reads to him, cleans him up, and plays with him all the time he possibly can. John though, is at a point where he only has a brief time to live. He speaks with other families and uses social services to see what options there are for Michael once he dies. Michael’s mother left them both. With Michael already growing up without a mother, he does not want Michael to know much about the situation. Michael is too young to understand the sense of this unnerving matter.

The emphasis on John spending time with his son Michael exemplifies the fact that there may not be many happy days left—that is why John and Michael are quiet all the time. With John only having so little time to live, he is determined to find a home that is a good fit for Michael. The golden and cheerful moments with John and Michael deliver a sense of their last moments of happiness together.  John finds himself concerned about how Michael will feel mentally once he is able to understand the depressing and uncontrollable scenario. John works with Shona (played by Eileen O’Higgins), a social services worker with a case set up for John regarding what happens to Michael after he passes. The moving parts of the legalities and case structure are what also feeds the emotions in Nowhere Special. 

Each moment John and Michael share is like a chapter in Nowhere Special. A chapter in life of feeling fulfilled before the worst happens. The film is straightforward in forming layers where the present matters. The focus is on empathy and hope that a loved son will have a family once his father is gone. A surreal moment and realistic portrait of this aspect is when John and Michael are in the park. There is a scene where Michael finds a beetle under a tree, but the beetle is dead. The moment of Michael and the beetle is one where John sheds some light their own situation, as he tells him, “It’s just not there”. A moment of truth that Michael will come to understand at one point in his life. The portrayal of optimism is one of a light waiting to be found in the aftermath that will happen one day.

How much does John truly hurt? How will John be ready for the inevitable? Nowhere Special fuels the thinking for its audience audaciously. It leads them down a sad road. The life for Michael after John is gone remaining unclear is where Nowhere Specialhits its breaking point. John cannot die knowing his son does not have a safe and comforting place after his death. The legal status, the considerations, and John’s life having shorter and shorter days throw the film into a spiral. It is invigorating in the curiosity it develops to know what comes next.

Nowhere Special creates the road block of patience in the context of complexity. It is a sensitive portrait of purpose. My empathy for John brought up a lot mixed feelings for me—he has joyful days and sad days with Michael and all of them bring a certain pain with them. There is a box of memories that comes around in Nowhere Special…the symbolism of love and compassion touches hearts deeply.  Nowhere Special delivers a mark of empathy with disconnect, meaning John will always love Michael, but due to the unforeseen circumstances, he must let Michael go knowing someone will love him like his father did. Three-and-a-half out of four stars for Nowhere Special.