The new movie "Conclave" is about the aftermath of the Pope's death and what happens when the conclave at the Vatican goes through the extensive process of electing a new Pope. As a screenwriter, I have always known that for movies "show rather than tell", but with a film that is all dialogue, it still works as an impressive production because the acting is so well done.
Conclave stars Ralph Fiennes as the main character Lawrence who is in the middle of all the politics and backstabbing as 5 other Cardinals all maneuver to be the new Pope. Even though Lawrence does not want to be the new pope, he is still being voted for by the members of the conclave even while he tries to deflect their votes to another Cardinal, Bellini played by Stanley Tucci.
John Lithgow plays Cardinal Tremblay, who is the leading candidate for the new Pope, but Lawrence finds out that Tremblay would do anything to be the next pope including trying to ruin the reputation of his main contenders. Other candidates include Cardinal Adeyemi from Nigeria who wants to be elected the first black pope and finally Cardian Tedesco, a hardline conservative who wants to undo 50 years of progress the Catholic Church has made. Cardinal Bellini is the liberal in the group who wants to prevent Cardinal Tedesco from having a chance of being elected. This story creates scene after scene of intense dialogue as new information unfolds as the conclave votes several times to elect a new Pope.
This entire story is another example that blind ambition is greater than even the most devout believers of God and religion. Some people will do anything to get what they want, even at the expense of others, forgetting that what good is succeeding when you ruin the life and career of someone else?
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Conclave are a very high 92% with my rating at 85% for the excellent acting and a solid recommendation.
Saturday, October 26, 2024
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Movie Review: We Live in Time
The new movie "We Live in Time" can be seen as a tearjerker from a mile away. Like almost all movie tearjerkers, the story once again involves Cancer - in this case, stage 3 Ovarian Cancer. The difference with this film is how the story is told, through a series of "revolving flashbacks" in one of the most unusual ways I have ever seen a story unfold.
We Live in Time stars Andrew Garfield as Tobias and Florence Pugh as Almut, a married couple dealing with trying to have a child and Almut's diagnosis of Cancer. They meet after Almut accidentally hits Tobias with her car while he is retrieving a pen so he can sign his divorce papers, definitely a new idea where two people meet for the first time. This story also includes Almut and Tobias' attempts to conceive a child, which include trying IVF and their arguments that include Tobias wanting a child and Almut's doubts that she ever wants to be a parent. The decision about Almut's treatment is made by the couple early on to choose to live with quality rather than quantity to prolong Almut's life despite her terminal Cancer diagnosis and months of chemotherapy treatment.
The secondary story involves Almut, who is a professional Chef, entering a Chef competition with her work partner which seemed to have more to do with making this film lasting a full two hours than any other reason.
The world is sick of hearing about Cancer, the scourge of humanity for many decades, and the only solutions being chemo therapy and removing body parts. Considering the money generated from Cancer treatment in the world, the odds are high that the medical profession does not want to cure cancer, for fear of losing trillions of dollars of revenue. This movie is another tear-jerker, but it was produced well enough to recommend.
I mostly agree with the 79% ratings for this film on Rotten Tomatoes and do recommend this movie due to the well told story and solid acting performances from Garfield and Pugh.
We Live in Time stars Andrew Garfield as Tobias and Florence Pugh as Almut, a married couple dealing with trying to have a child and Almut's diagnosis of Cancer. They meet after Almut accidentally hits Tobias with her car while he is retrieving a pen so he can sign his divorce papers, definitely a new idea where two people meet for the first time. This story also includes Almut and Tobias' attempts to conceive a child, which include trying IVF and their arguments that include Tobias wanting a child and Almut's doubts that she ever wants to be a parent. The decision about Almut's treatment is made by the couple early on to choose to live with quality rather than quantity to prolong Almut's life despite her terminal Cancer diagnosis and months of chemotherapy treatment.
The secondary story involves Almut, who is a professional Chef, entering a Chef competition with her work partner which seemed to have more to do with making this film lasting a full two hours than any other reason.
The world is sick of hearing about Cancer, the scourge of humanity for many decades, and the only solutions being chemo therapy and removing body parts. Considering the money generated from Cancer treatment in the world, the odds are high that the medical profession does not want to cure cancer, for fear of losing trillions of dollars of revenue. This movie is another tear-jerker, but it was produced well enough to recommend.
I mostly agree with the 79% ratings for this film on Rotten Tomatoes and do recommend this movie due to the well told story and solid acting performances from Garfield and Pugh.
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Movie Review: Smile 2
Someone who is a fan of horror movies and wrote the screenplays for "Smile" and the sequel "Smile 2" decided that a person who just stares at you with an evil grin is horrifying. The problem is that a person standing with a strange wide grin gets old after a certain number of similar scenes. Smile 2 is the sequel to the movie Smile, released in 2022 about an evil spirit floating around the world who invects a victim, over time forcing them to kill themselves in front of a witness. Then once the person is dead, the spirit infects the witness creating a chain of people who are killed.
This time around the main character is a Taylor Swift-like famous singer who is the newest part of the chain of victims of the evil spirit who infects a person's body. Naomi Scott plays a famous singer Skye Riley with the most memorable part of her performance - her constant high-pitched screaming throughout these 2 hours. This is another part of this sequel that gets old after the third or fourth loud scream.
There are several disturbing scenes of smile victims killing themselves, by either trying to cut off their face or in one instance, a man taking a large weight plate and repeatedly smashing it into his own face. At times it is hard to believe that movies like this are considered horror entertainment because this level of over-the-top gore is never necessary to scare any audience.
The ending, which comes out of nowhere is another insane bloody ending that even includes a giant bloody alien that comes out of the body of Skye Riley. At this point. I had more than enough already and could not wait for this film to come to an end.
The film critic Sean Collier summarizes the problems with this film the best: "Our movie would lose all of its terror by turning the lights on and avoiding staccato bursts of unmotivated sound design, it’s not scary — it’s just irritating".
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Smile 2 are way too high 83% with my rating at 50% and a big thumbs down. Lets all hope that this is the last Smile movie - but there will probably be a Smile 3 in another 2 years, unfortunately.
This time around the main character is a Taylor Swift-like famous singer who is the newest part of the chain of victims of the evil spirit who infects a person's body. Naomi Scott plays a famous singer Skye Riley with the most memorable part of her performance - her constant high-pitched screaming throughout these 2 hours. This is another part of this sequel that gets old after the third or fourth loud scream.
There are several disturbing scenes of smile victims killing themselves, by either trying to cut off their face or in one instance, a man taking a large weight plate and repeatedly smashing it into his own face. At times it is hard to believe that movies like this are considered horror entertainment because this level of over-the-top gore is never necessary to scare any audience.
The ending, which comes out of nowhere is another insane bloody ending that even includes a giant bloody alien that comes out of the body of Skye Riley. At this point. I had more than enough already and could not wait for this film to come to an end.
The film critic Sean Collier summarizes the problems with this film the best: "Our movie would lose all of its terror by turning the lights on and avoiding staccato bursts of unmotivated sound design, it’s not scary — it’s just irritating".
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Smile 2 are way too high 83% with my rating at 50% and a big thumbs down. Lets all hope that this is the last Smile movie - but there will probably be a Smile 3 in another 2 years, unfortunately.
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