Movie Review - The Pale Blue Eye

Director: Scott Cooper
Genre: Crime/ Thriller/ Horror
Runtime: 192 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, Toby Jones, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Robert Duvall,
 
Description: A world-weary detective (Christian Bale) is hired to investigate the murder of a West Point cadet. Stymied by the cadets’ code of silence, he enlists one of their own to help unravel the case – a young man the world would come to know as Edgar Allen Poe (Harry Melling).

Review: Augustus Landor arrives anno 1830 at West Point, a remote military academy on the frozen Hudson River. It’s an atmospheric landscape, except that outside the gates a corpse is dangling from a tree. The mystery of “The Pale Blue Eye” loses momentum with each subsequent victim, and the icy setting is especially convincing.

Landor meets Edgar Allen Poe, who in his young adult years spent the winter at West Point. Landor and Poe work together in solving this crime.

Not surprisingly, after the first victim, many follow. During his search for the truth, Landor is tormented by his own demons: he is a widower, and sees before his mind’s eye his disappeared daughter.

The partnership between the elder Landor and the young Poe is by no means trouble-free, especially when Poe becomes obsessed with Lea, a stylish young lady plagued by a rare disease. Seeing Landor and Poe together is and remains somewhat uncomfortable, mainly because the film’s persistently serious tone suites Christian Bale better than his counterpart Harry Melling (best known as cousin Dudley in the Harry Potter-series). His interpretation of Poe’s character feels increasingly forced.

Through its blend of personal drama and occult mystery, “The Pale Blue Eye” ultimately tells two stories. In theory, these stories should complement each other seamlessly, but it eventually breaks up the story and make it overly explanatory. Still the well-kept picture direction and the atmospheric view of a wintry snowy landscape keep the first major film of 2023 engaging for more than two hours.

Rating: 3/ 5

10s Movie Review - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Genre: Comedy/ Drama
Runtime: 133 minutes
Year: 2018
Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, Clancy Brown, Zoe Kazan, Tom Waits, James Franco, Stephen Root, Liam Neeson, Harry Melling

Description: Six tales of life and violence in the Old West.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 25: A MOVIE WITH MULTIPLE STORYLINES
 
Review: A film by Joel and Ethan Coen is always something to look forward to. That Netflix allowed the famous brothers to make a film and gave them a free hand in it makes it even more interesting. The results is an anthology of six stories, all set in the Old West and highlighting an aspect of life in the Wild West.

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” has a book as a window for the narratives. An unknown person opens the book and we dive into the first story. It bears the title of the film and is delightfully ridiculous. Tim Blake Nelson plays the smiley cowboy from the title and comes across as somewhat simple. But he manages to win every fight he gets into. That;s how simple the premise of the first story is.

The other five are more or less the same, but there is enough cleverness in them and references to modern times to keep engaging. Gradually, the tone of the film also changes and the lightheartedness disappears. In ‘Meal Ticket’ Liam Neeson plays the callous impresario of a man without arms and legs. The wretch recites poems, but sees his audience shrinking. This was my favorite story. In ‘The Mortal Remains’ we follow a group of people in a carriage. This is my least favorite of the stories and a bit boring actually. Other stories stand out, like ‘Near Algodones’ where James Franco plays a bank robber, or ‘All the Gold Canyon’ with a starring role for musician Tom Waits as a prospector. The stories are not connected, so it’s sometimes difficult to get into them properly.

It’s not one of the best movies by the Coen Brothers and certainly not one of my favorites, but definitely worth a watch.

Rating: 3/ 5

TV Show Review - The Queen's Gambit (Mini Series)

Season: Mini Series
Genre: Drama
Number of episodes: 7
Year: 2020
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Bill Camp, Marcin Dorocisky, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Marielle Heller, Chloe Pirrie, Harry Melling, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd

Description: Orphaned at the tender age of nine, prodigious introvert Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) discovers and masters the game of chess in 1960s USA.

Review: As a young girl, Beth Harmon is sent to a boarding school to be prepared for adoption. Here she discovers her vocation by playing chess every day with the janitor in the basement. The masterly skills she creates for chess will turn her life upside down. 
A mini-series has more playing time than a movie, so there is more time to develop they story, but fortunately you are not stuck with endless seasons that take up your life. Netflix drama miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit” is about competitive chess. A subject that must scare a lot of people, thinking it might be boring or uninteresting. Well, think again, because it’s a fascinating, captivating and surprisingly mind-blowing series. 
I personally don’t know how to play chess, I don’t understand the game nor have I any connection with it. That’s why the praise is even higher for this series, to make it so accessible and interesting for every viewer through the eyes of Beth Harmon we see how she interprets the chessboard and prepares herself for every possible move. Thanks to the impressive acting, clear editing and well written script, the chess games are portrayed in such a way that the tension can run high. 
An advantage of a mini-series, as mentioned before, is the longer time we can spend with out main characters. In seven episodes we follow Beth Harmon from a young girl with talent for chess to an international celebrity with an addiction to pills and alcohol. The latter is an important point as it helps her to visualize every move in her head and to stay sharp. The chess pieces throw themselves over her like shadows, totally consumed by the game. In terms of content, “The Queen’s Gambit” is about following your passion, and the (mental) costs involved. There is a prize for the talent you have and most of the drama in the series comes from this subject. How far can you go before you reach the limit?
We visit different countries, the era of the 50s and 60s is nicely portrayed and the mini-series gives the feeling that this can be a true story, that’s how credible it is played. The title is also strong: the name of an important opening move with which Beth Harmon regularly claims her victories. 
This series is fantastic. A series about chess that should be boring, but is extremely fascinating and you just can’t stop watching. Now I wish I could play chess like that. Or even at all.