Movie Review - I Want You Back

Director: Jason Orley
Genre: Comedy/ Romance
Runtime: 116 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Jenny Slate, Charlie Day, Scott Eastwood, Gina Rodriguez, Clark Backo, Manny Jacinto
 
Description: Newly dumped thirty-somethings Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) team up to sabotage their exes new relationships and win them back for good.

Review: Director Jason Orley focuses on thirty-somethings, but it feels like a coming-of-age film. After Emma and Peter are both dumped by their partners, they hatch a plan to get their lovers back. While Emma will seduce Peter’s ex Anne’s new boyfriend, Peter becomes friends with Emma’s ex Noah and persuade him to break up his new relationship. A recipe for funny moments about people who have to learn to let go and look for what really suits them.

The casting of the characters is perfect. Emma is a funny, chaotic person who does not yet have her life in order, or in other words not someone you can build on according to ex-boyfriend Noah. Jenny Slate throws herself confidently into her role and despite her over-the-top moments, where she dramatically burst into tears, for example, she still feels very human.

Peter, on the other hand, is dumped by Anne because he is too lacking in spontaneity and she feels she cannot move forwards. Charlie Day fits right into the more passive role in which he is not so much funny himself as the situations he repeatedly finds himself in. His naïve, adorable appearance further enhances the humor.

Not only Emma and Peter come off well. Certainly Noah in some ways conforms to the stereotypes of the typical handsome man, but at the same time the film plays with expectations and manages to surprise. This does not mean that everyone gets a distinct personality. Noah and Anne’s new partners have little to do, and Emma’s roommates are there purely for comic relief. But the relationship between the characters work.

The pace is nice and the dialogues and awkward situations manage to make you laugh. It is also nice that the characters’ behavior does not simply lead to a happy ending. For however understandable, Emma and Peter’s plan is obviously dubious.

Without getting preachy, “I Want You Back” manages to convey well the life lesson the characters learn. And while the film never makes the characters unsympathetic, it is certainly aware of their lesser sides. That the film never goes over the top is due to the enjoyable cast, but also by never letting the exes become simple stereotypes. This gives the film just that little bit more.   

I’m not the world’s biggest romcom fan, but there is always at least one every year that pleasantly surprises me and I actually like. “I Want You Back” is the one this year.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

Movie Reviews - Annihilation

Director: Alex Garland
Genre: Adventure/ Drama/ Thriller/ Science Fiction
Runtime: 125 minutes
Year: 2018
Starring: Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Benedict Wong, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez

Description: A biologist (Natalie Portman) signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.

Review: It’s a new development for Netflix. It doesn’t only create its own films and TV shows, but also buys international distribution rights from the US. “The Cloverfield Paradox” was one that many viewers questioned. But “Annihilation” is different; Netflix bought a quality film.
“Annihilation” is the second film for director Alex Garland, who also made “Ex Machina” in 2014. This movie took a look at artificial intelligence and the place of humans on the evolutionary ladder. This second film also does that. “Annihilation” is based on the book with the same title, by Jeff Vandermeer. But Garland was mostly inspired by it and didn’t create an adaptation.
The film follows a strange phenomenon. Nearby a lighthouse, a meteor has hit the earth and it causes a bizarre happening, called the Shimmer. The area expands and knows a lot of mysteries. No answers, just questions. Expeditions send into the shimmer never return.
Lena is one of the people risking her life going into the shimmer, together with four other women. As soon as they reach the zone, everything goes wrong. Not only have they forgotten entering it and setting up camp, but they also start questioning each other. And what about the mutated creatures inside the Shimmer? “Annihilation” doesn’t give us a lot of answers, but raises mainly questions.
“Annihilation” feels uneasy. Just like the characters, you realize something is wrong inside the Shimmer. And any moment could be your last.
Visually it’s a beautiful film. And the cast is strong, especially Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh. But it’s also an intelligent film, which makes it a film not suitable for a broad audience. But hopefully the Netflix platform will reach a more mainstream audience, because it’s worth watching. Because quality deserves a big audience.

Rating: 4,5 / 5

100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 129: Deepwater Horizon

Director: Peter Berg
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Thriller
Runtime: 107 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, Gina Rodriguez, John Malkovich, Dylan O’Brien, Kate Hudson

Description: A dramatization of the disaster back in April 2010, when the offshore drilling rig called the Deepwater Horizon created a giant explosion, which created the worst oil spill in American history.

Review: In April of 2010, the biggest oil spill in American history took place in the Gulf of Mexico. Because of a massive leak, oil seeped into the water for almost three months. This oil disaster also had some explosions and heavy fires. This is perfect material for Hollywood. And normally these kind of stories turn into sappy films about heroic people who are praised. That’s at least what I was expecting. But “Deepwater Horizon” is a lot better than I expected it to be and it’s not a sentimental disaster film at all.
Director Peter Berg used the book “Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours” as his inspiration. It’s basic facts and not a bunch of heroic characters and sentiment. The characters in this film are based on actual people that survived this disaster. And Berg doesn’t try to make anything look better or more beautiful than it is. The central character is technician Mike Williams, who leaves a wife and daughter at home and travel to the platform for three weeks. Williams is accompanied by Andrea Fleytas, a tough young lady working in a men’s world. On board of the Deepwater Horizon, that functions as an explorer to find new oil sources, the team leader is determined to get everything check on safety. The big shots don’t think this is necessary and feel like everything is safe enough, they need to drill. Off course, things go wrong.
Hectic and chaos, not very surprising in a disaster movie. Berg didn’t take the time to be all technical about the cause of the disaster, thank goodness. And the connection between Wahlberg’s character and his wife at home is not turning into a tear jerking and is kept to a minimal. It’s just enough to know that something is terribly wrong and that Williams is a family man.
Berg excels in great shots of impressive explosions and the immense sea of fire. The film keeps you on the edge of your seat. It’s a surprising film, because I expected just another over-sentimental disaster film. I was wrong, and I love that actually! “Deepwater Horizon” is a surprisingly great film.

Rating: 4,5/ 5