raphaellecat

Robert Pattinson has steered very clear from his Twilight years to give us an impressive resumé of independent films that have scrubbed off his Cullen brand and moulded him into a compelling actor. The Safdie Brother's Good Time is but a testament to his ability, giving us what could be his best performance yet. Two brothers, Connie and Nick Nikas, attempt at a bank robbery but fail and Nick lands in jail. This sets Connie to embark on a desperate and dangerous journey to get his brother out. What seems like a simple premise, quickly descends into a twisted odyssey, offering more than just a casual heist-gone-wrong flick.

Pattinson stuns as Connie Nikas with an approach to the character that will make you ponder on his motivations and lead you to question what he will do next. This is far from anything he has done prior, Connie is unsympathetic, desperate and immoral as he evades the ludicrous situations he finds himself in with but a tinge of luck. The other characters, played splendidly by mostly newcomers, paint a picture of debauchery and excess for New York's underworld, forever maintaining a true level of authenticity that often feels part- 70s arthouse and part- contemporary anthemic.

A large fraction of the success of Good Time is thanks to masterful direction by Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie and a consistently stellar performance from Robert Pattinson. A sleeper hit for 2017, all the more reason to watch it.

What sets Roma apart from Alfonso Cuarón's impeccable library of films is how flawlessly he's mastered his visual craft into telling his most personal story to date.

His career has sailed high and mighty as one of 21st century's most enthralling visual storyteller, giving us defining and revolutionary films such as Children of Men (personal favourite) and Gravity. This time, Alfoson Cuarón grounds himself in a different reality, with a story that embellishes in his signature visual dazzle, rendering an emotional truth to a subject matter that can only feel but personally attached to the filmmaker himself.

Spanning one year, from 1970 to 1971, Roma tells the story of a live-in maid working for a middle-class family in Mexico City. From the very beginning, Alfonso pulls you in, immersing the viewer into a real intimacy with the family that will last till the end credits. Through emotional highs and lows, the narrative takes on different directions as it sweeps, tracks and pans to give visually engrossing sequences and moments that will imprint in your memory.

Roma couldn't have been told if not for a wonderful cast of actors led by the magnificent Yalitza Aparicio, who gives the story its core and melts it with a beautifully heartfelt ending. The ensemble are perfect, showing all colours of life in an array of platitudes old and familiar.

It comes to no surprise that I give Roma the praise it deserves, with 10 Oscar nominations under its belt, it truly is the best picture of the year.

The rarity that Eighth Grade manages to capture is the very time period to which the tittle suggests, conveying how anxious, horrific, wondrous and full of change that particular chapter in our lives can be. The story centers around introvert teenager, Kayla Day, as she struggles to weave through the last week of eighth grade year. A fairly simple yet terrifying premise, depending on what may have triggered you during this relatable time, it achieves an incredible amount of specific and relevant experiences that a teenager goes through in middle school. The harsh, relentless, often times bewildering nature of kids that age is showcased in the most honest way, and much of this is credited to its director/writer Bo Burnham and star Elsie Fisher, who are catapulted into the ranks of up-and-coming faces to watch out for.

Eighth Grade will have you almost share or renew some of the feelings Kayla Day experiences which Elsie Fisher portrays with such attention to detail, whether it's her anxious pacing of excitement from befriending a high schooler for the first time or establishing her first relationship with the potential best friend during dinner, a scene that still rings incredibly true in my mind.

A story that is as tumultuous as it is beautiful, Eighth Grade is a true telling, one that deserves more than one viewing.