ethanbresnett

After watching Red Rocket and loving it I dived into Sean Baker's past films. The Florida Project was amazing and I'm glad to say Tangerine ticks lots of the right boxes too.

As always with Baker, there's a grittiness and realism to this film that just feels so engaging and interesting. The way he creates characters and interactions to make everything feel so authentic, yet also somehow so brilliantly engrossing is a singular talent. The slightly rough around the edges way this film was shot, being done on iPhones, gives it a certain charm that just adds to the tone of the film.

Baker always manages to get the best out of his performers and this film is no exception. Kitana Kiki Rodriguez is stellar in the leading role with a chaotic and high energy performance. The whole ensemble is great, but Mya Taylor is another standout.

In terms of the story it feels really unique and fresh. It zips along at a frantic pace and has a good balance of chaos and more intimate moments. He never stretches too far with his stories which allows Baker to really dive into the characters.

Overall an absolute treat of a film. If you have enjoyed any of Sean Baker's other films or if you love a good dive into some interesting characters then Tangerine will give you a great time.

Moana 2 is a perfectly decent Disney film and a fair follow up to Moana, but it doesn't really do anything particularly exciting or inventive compared to that first film.

The story is fun and zips along at a decent pace so there isn't too much to grumble about there. It has a good adventure element to it and throws a few extra characters into the mix which does liven things up. However the story beats and the way it flows does just feel a bit too similar to the first film. I think there was a chance to do something a bit more creative here.

Another element that is lacking is the musical side of things. Moana had a couple of really great songs, but unfortunately not a single bar from a Moana 2 song is stuck in my head. I'd have expected there to have been at least one rousing song.

Still, like I say the story is enjoyable enough and the film does look really nice. The animation is really well done and it remains an enjoyable enough film.

I hate to say it and it sounds a bit harsh but this film (and the Venom trilogy in general) is just a bit lame.

The plot is kind of non-existent and is very underwhelming. Perhaps its biggest sin is that the villain doesn't really have any presence, which throws the film out of balance a bit. Without a clearly defined and impactful antagonist for Venom to face off against, the whole thing just falls flat. The Venom character and how it interacts with Eddie is all a bit tired now after two films and just didn't really work for me. Outside of Eddie and Venom, the characters are poorly developed and utterly uninteresting.

It's actually quite hard to review this film now that I think about it because on reflection very little happens. There really just isn't much substance to it at all. When there is substance it felt cringe or very sticky and unnatural (such as the incredibly clunky opening exposition scene).

One thing I will say, and the reason I'm giving this 4 stars, is that the final act is decently entertaining and Tom Hardy does a decent enough job in the lead role to keep things vaguely interesting. Aside from that there is very little to redeem this film.