Random Thoughts

Dead Kids. Mikhail Red. 2019. ☆☆★★★★★

Huh. A Filipino movie? That’s definitely a first in this year of Netflix Originals.

It’s… a bit amateurish. The actors are pretty likeable, but take that scene in the bar where they’re arguing about going to a night club: There wasn’t anything much wrong about any single line, but it just didn’t seem to have much rhythm. As if they were desperately trying to remember what the next line was instead of reacting to what’s happening.

It’s interesting, though. It’s not immediately obvious what it’s going to be about, and it’s got intriguingly vague divisions between fantasy and reality. And it’s shot really well.

But it’s just boring. And it’s hard to sympathise that much with the heist itself. I have to admit that I lost track of the plot halfway through because I lost interest in the movie.

This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.

The App. Elisa Fuksas. 2019. ☆☆☆★★★

Hey! It’s Italian! I think this is the first Italian Netflix Original I’ve seen in this blog series?

Perhaps it’ll be wonderful!

Hm… that’s a lot of mobile phone screen caps… In portrait mode…

Well, that’s harsh…

But what does he really mean?

Well, I can see why people hate the movie. It’s (partially) about every filmmaker’s favourite subject: Making movies. People hate watching movies about making movies. But so far (I’m just fifteen minutes in when pausing to type this), it looks pretty good to me. It’s got that empty hotel feeling going, and the actors seem genuinely fantastic, and I’m intrigued by the seemingly-nonsensical “experiment” (which I assume must result in a reveal at some point).

The shots of people typing on laptops is a harsh indictment of Apple screens, though:

Look at how much reflection there is on Apple laptops! It’s a disgrace!

What I’m trying to say is that the movie loses tension and cohesion as it goes on. It’s a bit frustrating: They’ve almost god a pretty good movie here, but it’s just slightly off. I mean, I’m totally there for the mysterious plot and the great sets and pretty perfect cinematography, but it somehow seems clunky. I’m not sure why. Perhaps the nondescript music “bed” under most of the scenes punctuates the tension?

Good use of that er Neil Halsted? Mojave 3? Or whatever the band was called at the time? music, though.

This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.

Como Caído del Cielo. José Pepe Bojórquez. 2019. ☆☆★★★★

A Mexican movie? I think this is the first one I’ve seen in this blog series?

So the plot is that a dead guy’s er spirit gets to take over a dying guy’s body. Hilarity should ensue, but doesn’t really. Instead they go right to the new guy trying to fuck the dead guy’s wife (without her knowing, of course), and it all starts seeming kinda rapey and creepy.

But then… it kinda swerves around that point and becomes kinda sweet. It’s wildly uneven, though.

The performances are fine, and it’s well-made, but it just kinda… just keeps rolling along without finding purchase.

OK, it’s pretty bad.

This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.