10s Movie Review - High Life

Director: Claire Denis
Genre: Drama/ Horror/ Science Fiction
Runtime: 113 minutes
Year: 2018
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, Andre 3000, Agata Buzek, Lars Eidinger, Claire Tran, Ewan Mitchell, Gloria Obianyo
 
Description: A father (Robert Pattinson) and his daughter struggle to survive in deep space where they live in isolation.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2024 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 28: A FILM FROM THE 2010S
 
Review: Claire Denis’ science fiction film “High Life” is as exciting as a space journey to the nearest black hole. In other words, it sounds more exciting than it actually is and it takes a long time.

Monte and his baby daughter Willows traverse the universe alone. It’s just the two of them. But it hasn’t always been that way. He had fellow passengers and in flashbacks we learn what happened to them and how Willow ended up on the space craft.

Monte was part of a group of criminals who were given the choice between a death sentence and a space experiment. Their mission was to try harness the rotational energy of the nearest black hole for human use. And al sorts of weird experiments are happening on the space ship.

I don’t even know where to begin. The film feels very experimental and not in a good way. It’s weird, in a gross kind of way. And I was so bored. From the synopsis, you expect something completely different. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, either they don’t get fleshed out enough or they are highly unlikeable. I feel like director Claire Denis watched a lot of David Cronenberg films and wanted to do a genre experiment herself. But it didn’t quite work out the same.

Rating: 1,5/ 5

10s Movie Review - A Thousand Times Good Night

Director: Erik Poppe
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 117 minutes
Year: 2013
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Laryn Canny, Larry Mullen Jr., Chloë Annett, Eve Macklin

Description: Rebecca (Juliette Binoche) is one of the world’s top war photographers. She must weather a major emotional storm when her husband refuses to put up with her dangerous life any longer.

I WATCHED THIS FILM FOR MY 2021 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 31: A WAR MOVIE
 
Review: With great passion and dedication Rebecca shows everyone the many untold stories of the world. Because she believes that world is entitled to the truth. Her surrender is accompanied by a businesslike coldness. Emotions need to be turned off and parked untol Rebecca is on safe ground. Her family is somewhat less than enamored with Rebecca’s far-reaching ambitions, especially when she returns from a photo mission in Afghanistan after getting hurt pretty badly. The call from those around her to quit the dangerous job becomes stronger and stronger, but Rebecca struggles between her private life and her work.
Director Eric Poppe’s “A Thousand Times Good Night”,  with its overly sentimental title, begins at once gruesome and powerful. Rebecca attends a funeral, dressed in the local clothes but with a camera in her hand. This turns out to be staged, because the deceased has yet to fall. However, there is no opportunity to say goodbye, because the woman is a suicide bomber. By the other women of her community, she is being groomed for her horrible task. Rebecca wants to come along in the van that will eventually explode. After she gets out of the van, the van explodes and she ends up in the hospital.
As soon as Rebecca is reunited with her family in Ireland, the quality and impact of Poppe’s war drama noticeable deteriorate. The contrast between Rebecca’s tow daughters is striking. The youngest asks id mom hasn’t brought her presents, as if her mother has been on vacation. The eldest better realizes all that her mother has had to endure and even begins to show interest in her work for a school project.
Still, the tension that Rebecca’s work creates in the family have a fairly predictable character. The course of the escalating conflicts is therefore easy to guess. This would not be a problem at all if Pope’s screenplay had been able to accommodate this with strong dialogue and intense interplay from the actors. But alas.
With actors like Juliette Binoche and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau on board, things should be fine, one would think. All their solid efforts notwithstanding, the characters are so headstrong that it’s hard to steer them off course. There is little room for nuance or real character development, no matter how well the performers do their best. A pleasant change occurs when Rebecca travels to Africa with her oldest daughter Steph. This initially creates a change of setting. But after her return, it seems as if Rebecca just doesn’t want to learn from her mistakes, even if this helps her family to gain dramatic momentum. The result is a sudden change of direction at the very last moment. It is then too late for this drama to sink in.
The movie didn’t turn out to be what I expected. In this case, that’s a bad thing.

Rating: 2,5 / 5

100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 114: Ghost in the Shell

Director: Rupert Sanders
Genre: Action/ Crime/ Science Fiction/ Thriller
Runtime: 107 minutes
Year: 2017
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Michael Pitt, Juliette Binoche

Description: In the near future, Major (Scarlett Johansson) is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.

Review: In 1995 director Mamoru Oshii released the anime classic “Ghost in the Shell”. It’s set in a future where body parts can easily be replaced by cybernetic parts. Director Rupert Sanders got the task to turn it into an American live action film.
We meet Major, a young woman who was in a terrible accident. She has been given new life thanks to robotic factory Hanka Robotics. Because she is the first of her kind, Major is used as a super weapon, specialized in tracking and killing hackers and terrorists. When you look at the story, it’s been simplified. Existential problems are a bit watered down, but the question ‘what makes us human’ isn’t completely ignored.
Visually “Ghost in the Shell” looks amazing. It was clearly inspired by “Blade Runner”. And the soundtrack is also really cool. Scarlett Johansson is supposed to carry this film and she is clearly perfect for this role. Johansson is a great action heroin. “Ghost in the Shell” has its flaws, but it’s visually stunning and Scarlett Johansson is really strong.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 151: Cache

Director: Michael Haneke
Genre: Drama/ Thriller
Runtime: 117 minutes
Year: 2005
Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Annie Girardot, Lester Makedonsky, Bernard Le Coq, Walid Afkir, Daniel Duval, Nathalie Richard, Denis Podalydès, Aïssa Maïga, Caroline Baehr, Christian Benedetti, Philippe Besson, Loic Brabant

Description: A married couple (Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche) is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.

Review: We meet George Laurent, a somewhat distant yet likeable man. His marriage to Anne is pretty much in a rut. The two are confronted with a series of videotapes and this brings back a childhood memory for George, that he never shared with Anne.
Director Michael Haneke gets very close to his characters and dissects the relationship between George and Anne. The movie looks very realistic. “Cache” is extremely slow paced, but it has some surprise twists. The actors are very timid and natural, which fits the entire atmosphere of the film.
Although “Cache” is not everyone’s cup of tea, it is an accessible film.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 63: Godzilla

Director: Gareth Edwards

Genre: Action/ Science Fiction/ Adventure

Runtime: 123 minutes

Year: 2014

Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Elisabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, David Straitharn, Richard T. Jones

Description: The world's most famous monster is pitted against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity's scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence.

Review: The Japanese movie monster is already sixty-years old. His debut in 1954 is one of the highlights in cinema history. In 1998 the Americans made a movie about this beast, but it wasn’t very memorable. A reboot was very welcome.

Director Gareth Edwards made such an impression with his low-budget “Monsters”, that they trusted him with this task as well. By adding names like Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston and Juliette Binoche to the castlist, the expectations were high. But in a movie called “Godzilla” there is only one star.

While a gigantic fossil is found in the Philippines, a nuclear reactor in Japan is damaged by unknown causes. This leads to a disaster for scientist Joe Brody and his family. Fifteen years later Joe is still trying to explain the happening and asks his son Ford for help. What they discover next is unexpected.

After an engrossing opening, where Bryan Cranston steals the show, director Gareth Edwards intentionally stalls the big entrance of the main star. It’s a risky strategy, but totally worth the wait. When we finally get to see Godzilla, it’s just jawdropping. This is definitely a movie that you experience better and to the fullest while watching it on the big screen. The climax and final fight scene is the absolute highlight of the film. I almost started clapping, that’s how amazed I was. I also liked the role they gave Godzilla in the film, as the protector of mankind. That’s how you can see Edwards is a fan of the original. He stays very close to that story.

“Godzilla” is a treat and finally gets the movie it deserves. Everything shows that Edwards made this movie with a lot of love for the original. I absolutely loved this movie!

Rating: 4,5 / 5