Winona

"Winona" (2019) is one of those films that you have a strong suspicion they will be really bad right from the first few minutes....and they don't let you down. Loaded with cacophonous music and nonsensical dialogue, the film plays like a bad imitation of Lanthimos, or maybe a failed experimental work of the 1960s. And at the end it tries to wring genuine emotion, which is very hard to do out of something so - deliberately - stilted and posè. At least the four women range from attractive (the redhead) to gorgeous (the one in the red bikini top), which, along with the secluded-beach setting, are the only things keeping you watching, really. 0.5 out of 4.

Fought to stay awake through it.

Seemed like mediocre writers generated large volumes of inane, vapid dialogue hoping that some it would be good enough for the final script and all of it got used, even though almost none of it was any good.

Well if you want to call it that. Maybe I should have gone with "the sisters with the traveling beach" - but then again I don't think the movie needs a pun or a (misguided) reference to the travelling pants sage - which I am probably the least qualified person to make anyway.

Long introduction and not actually saying much - well that is sort of a great description of what you can expect from this movie. A movie that was apparently shot on 16mm (something that is either very important to you or you are just going to find the "video quality" to be of a lesser quality) ... and a movie that some might want to compare to earlier works of Lanthimos. If you are one of those, I hope you don't have fallen over yourself in praise of the other director and categorizing this as a bad movie.

Whatever you may think of the slow plot and really snail pace this has, the dialogs that seem to lead nowhere and without aim ... it is a day at the beach. Not any day and we can feel there is something dark and sinister those girls try to repress ... not sure if will be entirely clear in the end for most ... and no it has nothing to do with tourism, although I acknowledge and applaud that small commentary the movie makes.

Other than what I already have mentioned, the four women are really good. Something I for once did not feel with the earlier work of Lanthimos - it seemed he was happy with non actors. This on the other hand has some strong contenders. So even if you are not into the movie itself, you can't deny how good the acting is. Even more so, considering it feels like there was no actual dialog script - or they made most of it up. Which may be true or not - have not checked, but it feels improvised for sure. Not trying to diss the director - he may have given them a safe space to create on their own. Of course some may feel that this can be a reason why this feels aimless sometimes.

Still looking forward to what the director and the cast is coming up in the future. They deserve to make more stuff and we deserve to get to see more of their stuff.

Nonsensical dialogues, unbelievably slow and almost like watching a (bad) Lanthimos film. The acting was decent - maybe even it was quite limited due to weak plot.

Then you have the fact that the movie feels EXTREMELY pretentious. What I mean by that is at first that it's filmed in 2019, on 16mm film. Well ok, it's possible but to prove what?

Also it's completely unclear when does the film take place. Is it the 80's, the 90's or in 2019? We see an analog camera, a very old radio/cassette player, but at the same time a modern house on the hill. If it's set in 2019, what's with all this hipster aesthetic with the retro glasses and the retro tech?

To sum up the steps: Step 1: Get some young pretty actresses Step 3: Make them memorise all Woody Allen movies (insert Allen tribute here) Step 2: Let them (mainly) improvise Step 4: Add a few almost sexual and other provocative scenes Step 5: ???

Step 6: Profit

Clearly a film made on a budget - nothing wrong with that - but it just feels that it doesn't have what it takes to make you get absorbed.

Having a recognised director father does not mean that anyone can also become a director as well - it doesn't work like any other family business.

Pretentious lines, soulless recital of dialogue (which may perhaps work in Giorgos Lanthimos' films but in this case it just feels cheap), pop-culture references and name-dropping just for the sake of it. Just because the colours look pretty it doesn't necessarily mean that this films conveys the atmosphere and spirit of a lazy summer day. Just because something is shot on 16mm film, it doesn't equal great filmmaking. Definitely not worth sitting through this so you can get a semblance of plot for the last 15 or so minutes.