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The Woman in the Window (2021)
The Woman in the Window (2021)
2021 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
It is NOT Rear Window
A piece of advice for you when you start to watch the “Alfred Hitchcock-esque” thriller, THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW. If you are at all a Hitchcock fan, you will be spending the first part of this film comparing it to the 1954 classic REAR WINDOW and this would be a disservice to this film.

For…THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW is no Rear Window, nor is it intended to be. It has many, many elements that are the same as Rear Window (most notably, the setup: a housebound person thinks they have witnessed a murder in a neighboring apartment), and THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW is just like Rear Window…until it isn’t.

And that’s when I started to like this film, when I stopped comparing it (in my head) to Rear Window.

Based on the Best Seller by A.J. Finn (adapted for the screen by Tracy Letts who also appears in the film), THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW tells the tale of Anna Fox, an agoraphobic who watches life go on outside her window. When she thinks she has witnessed a murder, she (and the audience) must decide is it real? Did she truly witness a murder? If so, who dunnit? If not, is she just hallucinating things? Is Anna crazy?

The answers to these questions were satisfying enough to me that I ended up enjoying the film experience that I had - but I have to be honest and tell you that, for awhile, my enjoyment of this film was hanging by a thread.

Amy Adams (ENCHANTED) is terrific - if unspectacular - in the title role. Her Anna Fox is murkey (that is meant as a compliment) and struggles through most of the film trying to determine what is real and what is an illusion. Adams does a “journeyman’s” job with this role. She acts her way through it in such a workmanlike fashion that I almost forgot that it is Adams on the screen.

Wyatt Russell (Kurt’s son who is also the new Captain America in THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER) fares the best of the Supporting players for he has the most to do. Unfortunately, Director Joe Wright (ATONEMENT) and Screenwriter Letts wastes such strong actors as Gary Oldman (DARKEST HOUR), Julianne Moore (STILL ALICE), Anthony Mackie (The Falcon in the Marvel Movies), Jennifer Jason Leigh (HATEFUL 8), Brian Tyree Henry (GET OUT) and Letts himself in terribly underwritten roles that serve (mostly) as red herrings - and each of their characters are interchangeable and forgettable.

And that, ultimately, is where this film comes apart. While I cared about Anna and the solution to the mystery - I didn’t care very much about the other characters involved.

Which is why, I think, I’ll pull my DVD of Rear Window out and watch that film for the umpteenth time.

Letter Grade: B

7 Stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
  
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Gaz Coombes recommended Africa Basil by Jorge in Music (curated)

 
Africa Basil by Jorge
Africa Basil by Jorge
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I was reading a David Byrne interview and he was talking about Jorge Ben and this album and he talked about this track, 'Hermes Trismegisto Escreveu', and he loved the groove of it. I think it was about the time he was working with Brian Eno on My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts and there's a track called 'Regiment', for which he admitted he took the groove from that Jorge Ben track. And I loved My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts so I then tracked down África Brasil, explored it and loved it. It's weird - I want to give it more credit than it being just a party album or a dinner party album or a tour bus aftershow album, because it is more than that, but that's how I've always listened to it. It's a real go-to record for any kind of little party that I might have but musically it's not in any kind of box. It makes me feel good and I think that combination of South American and African music makes you realise that there's more to it. It has a real gravitas and weight behind it. There's a real importance about this record. Have I explored these rhythms? It's a tricky one. Supergrass did a few times. Something like 'Kiss Of Life' explored a kind of Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club/Jorge Ben vibe but you have to be careful as well; music shouldn't have any boundaries, but you have to be aware of what school you're from. You know, I don't think I'd make a particularly good rap album but I fucking love listening to it. But it's totally different listening to it. I have this view that, just because it feels great and it's fun to play, it doesn't mean that anybody wants to hear you play that. There has to be a point when you have a look at what you're good at and how the music can speak in the right way. It's a real fine line between being yourself and satisfying your pleasures but being aware that not everybody will want to hear that. But I'll tell you what - while I wasn't necessarily going for those kinds of beats from Jorge Ben and records like that, it was more the sounds and the approach and the rhythmic ideas that I was playing around with in the studio and looping a lot of stuff. I was sampling stuff from around the studio and playing beats on weird objects and then looping it. 'Oscillate' on Matador came from this little loop box that I've got and a lot of that was inspired by the vibe of African percussion and sounds and you can hear the room and the air around it. I can't be proficient in that world but I can take different elements from it that I appreciate sonically."

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Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
2018 | Thriller
What can I say about this one? I left the cinema pondering. I'm still pondering this morning trying to work out what to score it. I wasn't bored, yet I wasn't enthralled. It felt long, but not too long. I could follow the story lines, but some of them didn't quite make sense... It's definitely a contender for Goldilocks of the Year.

I was keen on watching this after seeing the trailer. A star studded cast and an intriguing idea really is all you need to hook people in. I can't decide (I know, it's happening a lot this review) if the trailer gave too much away. Could they have kept more elements back as a surprise? Possibly that wouldn't have left such a sense of anticipation about the film.

Being set in 1969 we're obviously given a lot of classic tunes through the jukebox and singing of Darlene Sweet. The latter is goosebump inducing at times and magical to listen to.

The way this movie is told is very reminiscent of a lot of things to me. I was getting flashes of Kill Bill and Lost, and as Drew Goddard was involved with Lost that's probably not a coincidence. The scenario also made me think of the 2003 film Identity and an episode of Criminal Minds called Paradise.

I enjoyed seeing each person's journey that led them up to the El Royale. You feel much more involved in the story because you switch allegiances between the characters every time you see a new perspective. It also gives you just enough of teaser to something that's going to happen to draw you further in.

The use of intertitle cards felt a little out of place, it's not really a sixties thing and the style of them didn't seem to fit with the film itself. They do their job which is to say "now for a bit of back story on this person" but looking a little less silent movie and a little more El Royale wouldn't have gone amiss.

A whole section of story line seemed to have no conclusion, for reasons that will be partly obvious to you when you see the film. What I can't work out is if I missed something about it that would have left me less confused. This movie could definitely do with a second watch.

What you should do

I'd probably recommend watching this one at home on DVD or streaming with a bunch of movie friends. It feels like it needs discussing more than watching.

You should also probably watch this gif a lot. I'm only sorry that I can't find a longer version without other distractions in it... like the rest of the film.



Movie thing you wish you could take home

I'd quite like the El Royale to live in. Although I think I'd convert the spying corridor into a regular corridor and make the whole place a home rather than a playground for snooping and murder.
  
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
2019 | Action, Crime, Thriller
It started with a dog and a car...
If you are expecting to be wowed by unusual plot twists, stray from the formula or an exceptional screenplay then this isn't the film for you. If you are expecting all the elements that worked in the first two Wick tales, then this one will fill you up with a maelstrom of goodness!

I do enjoy when a sequel picks up right when the other film ends which is the case with Wick 3. John has just defied his superiors by performing his usual routine of dispensing the baddies at the Continental hotel which has caused him to now be considered "excommunicado" or free reign for other villains to find and kill him. After a round or two of assassinations, John tries to get his footing and figure out what to do next.

Simultaneously, a strange woman shows up at the hotel telling the Manager he has 7 days to remove himself from the premises since he had allowed Wick to escape and aided him in doing so. The same ultimatum is given to the Bowery King among his rooftop full of birds.

John makes his way to Morocco and meets up with Sofia and her cool two attack dogs who help him get in front of another man who knows where the head of the High Table can be found. Wick ends up back in the US after wandering through the desert to have a final showdown with yet another mega posse of hooligans.



The "Wick" trilogy certainly is gushing with style, great looking facades and non stop action which lets me forgive the repetitive nature of this film of the trilogy especially. The screenplay won't win any awards especially the way Wick seems to wander through the story talking with random bystanders on his "quest" to fulfill his destiny. The Halle Berry character was not really necessary as I enjoyed seeing her killer attack dogs dive at opponents gonads more than seeing her shooting thugs the same as Wick.

The choreography is the reason we watch as it is like a ballet of bullets and this film does not disappoint there. This time we get an impressive knife throwing barrage as well as a sword fight motorcycle chase (both stunning) which keeps things interesting and moving quickly through the lack of an intricate plot.

There really isn't even an assigned antagonist other than maybe the Adjudicator, but even she has others perform her dirty work for her. I am assuming we will see more of her in John Wick 4 - 10.

No real complaints as the 130 minute run time rushed by and I was enthused the entire time other than when I was yelling at my dog every time she jumped down from sitting on me to watch other canines kicking human asses.

I think this was her favorite film of all time!

  
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