Search
Search results
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Clemency (2019) in Movies
Nov 7, 2019
Clemency was high up on my list to see during the festival so I was slightly annoyed to not get the opportunity to see it initially... but it was day one and I was feeling bold with enthusiasm and joine the queue for last minute tickets. It's a great system if it isn't raining, and after some loitering, chatting, and spotting Wendell Pierce on his way to the cinema for the screening I managed to get a spare ticket.
Bernadine has spent years of her life dedicated to giving prisoners the chance to better themselves and live up to their potential, with the death row inmates she tries to give them respect and comfort in their last days. After an execution goes wrong the whole team is affected and with another coming closer Bernadine starts to feel the pressure.
Her life is turned upside down as she starts to interact with Anthony Woods, she can't sleep, she can't be a wife, her only real escape is drink and her colleagues. Where will everything lead her?
My main pull to this was Aldis Hodge, while I tried to avoid seeing who was in each film when I read the synopsis it was difficult on occasion and so this one zipped to my top picks list. He will always be Hardison to me but I've enjoyed seeing him in films recently.
Anthony Woods is obviously on a rollercoaster of emotions and Hodge brings out the sense of desperation his character is feeling. The swing from hope and emptiness to elation gave him several opportunities to surprise and shock us. One of those moments particularly drew a reaction from a lot of people around me and I'll touch on that in a moment.
Alfre Woodard as Warden Bernadine Williams was very powerful, subtle with her emotions when needed but as the film concludes we see an incredibly difficult moment of pain. That moment is ugly and honest, it really hits you.
The film leaves you with a few uncertain points, you can work things out from context but it never says it outright. It also allows you to slowly unfold what's going on and what's still to come.
As you know, I watch a lot (excessive amounts some might say) of movies and it's very rare from something to surprise me. A lot of things are easy to see coming, a characters's actions can show you something violent coming. There are two moments in Clemency that had the audience react much stronger that I expected, I was also surprised by the reaction of the other press delegates who I thought might be in a similar place a me. Both scenes involved blood and when everyone gasped I actually looked around and wondered how it had earned that reaction. Perhaps I wasn't as engaged with it as they were but I didn't find those moments to be gratuitous or all that shocking given the context and the nature of the scenes. It was this point that I had to ponder the thought that seeing too many films and TV shows might have a detrimental effect on my reactions to some sorts of films.
Clemency deals with some fairly heavy topics but it handles them well and in a captivating way, I've glad I managed to get to see this.
What you should do
It's a moving film and I would recommend trying to catch it.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Another film where I probably don't need anything to take home from it.
Bernadine has spent years of her life dedicated to giving prisoners the chance to better themselves and live up to their potential, with the death row inmates she tries to give them respect and comfort in their last days. After an execution goes wrong the whole team is affected and with another coming closer Bernadine starts to feel the pressure.
Her life is turned upside down as she starts to interact with Anthony Woods, she can't sleep, she can't be a wife, her only real escape is drink and her colleagues. Where will everything lead her?
My main pull to this was Aldis Hodge, while I tried to avoid seeing who was in each film when I read the synopsis it was difficult on occasion and so this one zipped to my top picks list. He will always be Hardison to me but I've enjoyed seeing him in films recently.
Anthony Woods is obviously on a rollercoaster of emotions and Hodge brings out the sense of desperation his character is feeling. The swing from hope and emptiness to elation gave him several opportunities to surprise and shock us. One of those moments particularly drew a reaction from a lot of people around me and I'll touch on that in a moment.
Alfre Woodard as Warden Bernadine Williams was very powerful, subtle with her emotions when needed but as the film concludes we see an incredibly difficult moment of pain. That moment is ugly and honest, it really hits you.
The film leaves you with a few uncertain points, you can work things out from context but it never says it outright. It also allows you to slowly unfold what's going on and what's still to come.
As you know, I watch a lot (excessive amounts some might say) of movies and it's very rare from something to surprise me. A lot of things are easy to see coming, a characters's actions can show you something violent coming. There are two moments in Clemency that had the audience react much stronger that I expected, I was also surprised by the reaction of the other press delegates who I thought might be in a similar place a me. Both scenes involved blood and when everyone gasped I actually looked around and wondered how it had earned that reaction. Perhaps I wasn't as engaged with it as they were but I didn't find those moments to be gratuitous or all that shocking given the context and the nature of the scenes. It was this point that I had to ponder the thought that seeing too many films and TV shows might have a detrimental effect on my reactions to some sorts of films.
Clemency deals with some fairly heavy topics but it handles them well and in a captivating way, I've glad I managed to get to see this.
What you should do
It's a moving film and I would recommend trying to catch it.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Another film where I probably don't need anything to take home from it.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Vivarium (2020) in Movies
Mar 8, 2020
I like the idea of these weird and wonderful takes, when I saw the synopsis I knew it needed to make my LFF shortlist.
Tom and Gemma are looking to take the next step in their relationship, getting their very own home. On a whim they visit an oddly minimal estate agents where they meet Martin. Martin is enthusiastic about the chance to show them the perfect home in the perfect community, Yonder.
When they arrive in the deserted town it's instantly strange. Every house looks like the last, every street looks like the next, and Martin's enthusiasm never waivers. They decide to "dine and dash", politely look around and then leave to laugh about the whole experience on the way home, but as they complete their tour they realise that Martin has gone.
As the couple head home in their car they realise they're somehow lost, the simply designed neighbourhood has become a labyrinth that keeps leading them back to that same house. Maybe this is home after all.
Writing that extended synopsis was an exciting reminder of the idea at the core of Vivarium. Its story would definitely fit well into the recent trends of Black Mirror, Dimension 404 and Twilight Zone, and that was something that slightly hindered my enjoyment. Those formats work well in a compact episode size chunk, the film is only 97 minutes long but the content seems to have been stretched out to fit that runtime.
Towards the end of Vivarium we're introduced to a lot of information that you don't really have enough time to process, so much so that it feels like a rather unsatisfying development. That's where the similarities to the TV show idea ends, could it have benefitted from a sharper end? I'm not sure, perhaps that is all just part of the intrigue.
Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots made quite a good match in the leads, from the off you can see their nature coming through, they're in sync and happy. As the situation deepens and they get more confused and frustrated you see them pulling apart while simultaneously clinging to each other because they're all that they have in the world. It's a lot of ups and downs for the characters to go through and yet the pair manage to make it work, with so much of (basically all of) the film relying on this dynamic I'm pleased that there was such a strong performance from them both.
It's difficult to express the way I feel about this film, I love the idea, the acting was great and the design of the town and the sets were picture perfect in that agonising horror kind of way (it reminded me of the fake 1950s towns they'd set up for atomic bomb testing), where I'm on the fence is the ending. Throwing in the scene that was out of tune with the rest of the film didn't add intrigue for me, but that being said, I'm still thinking about the film months after seeing it so... did it?
While my score might not necessarily seem like a recommendation I honestly think that everyone will take something different away from this about a wide range of things. I swing wildly between remembering the film without that ending to with it, and I don't know which version of the town I prefer seeing in my head...
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/03/vivarium-movie-review.html
Tom and Gemma are looking to take the next step in their relationship, getting their very own home. On a whim they visit an oddly minimal estate agents where they meet Martin. Martin is enthusiastic about the chance to show them the perfect home in the perfect community, Yonder.
When they arrive in the deserted town it's instantly strange. Every house looks like the last, every street looks like the next, and Martin's enthusiasm never waivers. They decide to "dine and dash", politely look around and then leave to laugh about the whole experience on the way home, but as they complete their tour they realise that Martin has gone.
As the couple head home in their car they realise they're somehow lost, the simply designed neighbourhood has become a labyrinth that keeps leading them back to that same house. Maybe this is home after all.
Writing that extended synopsis was an exciting reminder of the idea at the core of Vivarium. Its story would definitely fit well into the recent trends of Black Mirror, Dimension 404 and Twilight Zone, and that was something that slightly hindered my enjoyment. Those formats work well in a compact episode size chunk, the film is only 97 minutes long but the content seems to have been stretched out to fit that runtime.
Towards the end of Vivarium we're introduced to a lot of information that you don't really have enough time to process, so much so that it feels like a rather unsatisfying development. That's where the similarities to the TV show idea ends, could it have benefitted from a sharper end? I'm not sure, perhaps that is all just part of the intrigue.
Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots made quite a good match in the leads, from the off you can see their nature coming through, they're in sync and happy. As the situation deepens and they get more confused and frustrated you see them pulling apart while simultaneously clinging to each other because they're all that they have in the world. It's a lot of ups and downs for the characters to go through and yet the pair manage to make it work, with so much of (basically all of) the film relying on this dynamic I'm pleased that there was such a strong performance from them both.
It's difficult to express the way I feel about this film, I love the idea, the acting was great and the design of the town and the sets were picture perfect in that agonising horror kind of way (it reminded me of the fake 1950s towns they'd set up for atomic bomb testing), where I'm on the fence is the ending. Throwing in the scene that was out of tune with the rest of the film didn't add intrigue for me, but that being said, I'm still thinking about the film months after seeing it so... did it?
While my score might not necessarily seem like a recommendation I honestly think that everyone will take something different away from this about a wide range of things. I swing wildly between remembering the film without that ending to with it, and I don't know which version of the town I prefer seeing in my head...
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/03/vivarium-movie-review.html
Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade
Games and Stickers
App
App Store ‘Best of 2015’ Awards Winner TAKE COMMAND OF A WARHAMMER 40,000 IMPERIAL KNIGHT IN...
Drum Beats+ (Rhythm Metronome, Loops & Grooves Machine)
Music and Entertainment
App
You found it! Drum Beats+ is the metronome app that improves your timing using great sounding drum...
Cube World Craft: Build, Mine, Exploration - Lite
Games and Travel
App
Dig, fight, explore & build. Join the miners! Sandbox exploration, survival & creative mode moved to...
Coach's Eye - Video Analysis
Sports and Health & Fitness
App
Video doesn't lie. Get Coach's Eye today and see your performance improve immediately! ...
TechApp for Opel
Catalogs and Reference
App
The application contains technical information that will help you in the repair and maintenance of...
My Talking Hank
Games and Entertainment
App
With over 5 BILLION downloads and worldwide hits like My Talking Tom and My Talking Angela, Talking...