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Transformers (2007)
Transformers (2007)
2007 | Action, Sci-Fi
In retrospect - this essentially becoming the template for the modern blockbuster and all - it's crazy to me how bonkers this was considered back in the day despite being almost entirely held back by its simplicity and formality. You've got almost two and a half hours to make a movie about alien robot vehicles who come to Earth and fuck shit up... and you decided to go with making most of it a rigorously exhausting expository bore? Yes it's racist and sexist and jingoistic and all that too, but that's a given with Bay. What isn't - however - is how much the action lacks any pop or clarity. There's a ton of impressive (for the time) CGI and no shortage of practical effects either but it's too shaky and overcut to really enjoy any of it. The first hour where this is a weird sci-fi/action comedy about a car that really wants to help Shia LaBeouf (who is excellent in this, btw) fuck Mega Fox is no joke worlds better than the flat action - which is tepidly amusing at best. And it's of course shameful how obviously oversexualized Fox's character is, but that's only made like 100 times worse by the fact that she's supposed to be like 16/17 in this. Not to mention the robot designs - and I realize I'm in the minority here - are ass ugly imo. Yes they're 'realistic' but they don't lend themselves to being very watchable especially during the fights. As a Bay defender, this was hugely disappointing. At least a lot of the jokes land?
  
Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)
Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Drama
Contains spoilers, click to show
Judging by the size of the auditorium and the number of people who went to my screening, this film did not have a successful marketing campaign. Maybe people do not care about Antarctica or artists or perhaps the people who read the book are not habitual moviegoers (that is very likely). More probably Annapurna is struggling and couldn't market the movie. The film is tough to pigeonhole into a blurb. Bernadette Fox was a visionary architect who suffered a major setback when her dream project was bought and destroyed by a financial giant, a metaphor for the way the moneyed crush the dreams of artists and creators. For the past few years, she has turned into an anxiety-ridden wife and mother. When she gets swindled by a Russian identity thief ring, she decides to take that trip to Antarctica the family has been planning but she was anxious about. Basically, a case of when her imost recent dentity gets taken, Bernadette is given an opportunity to reinvent herself as the person she was always meant to be. Directed by master experimental filmmaker Richard Linklater, the film is a tale of turning your worst into your best. He makes a great back and forth between husband and wife as each tells a story from different viewpoints at a dining table. Cate Blanchett has a blast playing an anti-social artistic. It is too bad that there could not be more scenes between Kristen Wiig and Cate Blanchett as they bond over their ineffectual parenting.