crazybilby

Never have I been so uncomfortable so long a period of time. Normally movies have a scene that shifts into the distressing/uncomfortable and you're like "wow, what a great scene."

That's the whole movie. Except for about 3 light moments scattered throughout the subject matter of conversion therapy and the environment our protagonist Jared is literally TRAPPED in is awful. The homophobia and control that the Love In Action conversion program enforces over the poor souls inducted into this brainwashing camp becomes increasingly extreme. The way it causes distress and breaks people is shown differently through the various side characters and none of it is good. This is a tragic story of the real abuse of LGBT people happening in the US (and gay conversion therapy isn't explicitly banned everywhere in Aus either).

I was on the edge of my seat, deeply breathing, sighing, putting my hands to my face in awe and distress, the whole way through. Just when I thought this movie couldn't get more uncomfortable it finds a new height.

It achieves all this through plot and intimate performances. Everything else is so stripped back and naturalistic. There's barely any music, or at least not very noticeable background music (with the exception of the song Revelation by Troye Sivan/Jonsi, which will likely vie for a nomination for best original song). It looks like they almost didn't have a lighting crew for more of the film, instead relying on house lighting for a dark, moody, or contrasting aesthetic. The whole thing feels not like a stylistic piece of cinema, but a realistic look at a person's life. Which is the point given it is inspired by the real experiences of someone who suffered through the abuse of conversion therapy. This film is so well put together.

I never want to watch it again. Which is weird for a film I love so much. But this movie is harrowing. It haunts me. I don't get very emotional over film but this subject and execution was just so deeply uncomfortable for such a long period of time that I don't feel the need to ever subject myself to that again. Which is a great recommendation if you want something to make you feel sad/distressed for nearly 2 hours straight.

This film is bleak and ultimately pretty boring. Unfortunately. Because I like the premise and the take on the zombie genre.

The premise is simple: Arnie plays Wade, a farmer/father just trying to look after his daughter after she gets bitten by a zombie and begins the multiple week transformation into a zombie. This creates the chance for the nuance of the zombie genre to really flex its metaphorical undertones and really have a slow paced and personal look at the ramifications of dehumanising someone into a monster. I dig the hell out of that. Zombies are more than just flesh eating creatures and this takes a dig at trying to explore how transformations destroy relationships, the community, and even the person dealing with their inevitable loss of personhood. It becomes a story analogous to knowing your loved one will die of a terminal illness in two weeks and the hardship that causes.

Unfortunately this brilliant idea gets bogged down in utterly dull banality. It's. Just. So. Dull. It took me I think 15 minutes before the thought occurred to me: this must be a first time director. And it is! The pacing is so off. I decided to watch it because it was only an hour and a half (and not including credits it's less than that) so figured hey, nice quick movie to enjoy at the end of the day. Nah. What ensues is a director more focused on silent inconsistently shaky shots of characters (mostly Arnie) brooding and having some kind of internal struggle over some super important element of the story but after the hundredth artsy cut away shot or silent 20 second scene it feels like this just didn't have enough content for a full length film. It's soooo sllooowwww. I checked MULTIPLE TIMES to see how much time I had left until the end because I just wanted this to be over but I'd invested too much time to give up on it. I wanted it to redeem itself. I wanted it to lift itself up out of the bland drudge through the slow decay of Abigail Breslin's character (the titular Maggie) into something more poignant, or at least... interesting. But it doesn't. Any tension by the end and replaced with frustration. You know where this is going the moment it starts.

The characters aren't interesting. Arnie plays a father figure. That's... about it. What does he like? He likes keeping his daughter around. There's a scene where they actually seem to bond with each other and are a proper father/daughter duo. The rest I don't care. All the other characters? Well I have the cast list open in a separate tab in case I feel like checking names because I don't know a single one. I can't think of any defining traits about these people besides the archetypes they're meant to fit into for the sake of narrative elements. There's the... (switches tab) step-mother? Oh I thought she was her aunt. Caroline. Who... is just present for someone to be uncomfortable about the whole situation. There's the two cops (who Arnie clumsily reveals he is close friends with through heavy handed expositionary dialogue) who warn Arnie that they'll intervene if Maggie goes too far. They're interchangeable nobodies who exist to serve a single purpose and I feel no reason why who they are affects the plot in any way.

The cinematography, much like my experience for an hour and a half, is bleak. The colour grading is overdone. It doesn't so much set the tone as demand you feel sad. We get it dude, you were a scene kid when a teenager. You're very excited to show us your latest film school project. It genuinely just feels like if someone slowed down a heavy metal music video but then removed all the music, sporadically added dialogue, then slowed it down way too much. It hurts me. It hurts me so bad.

This movie is meant to have a soul. It really should and I know it wants to be a deep examination of a little girl losing her humanity before her eyes and the pain it's causing her father but he just comes off as distant and flat. This was a good draft that just never got rewritten to really hit the nail of all the ideas it was going for on the head.

This movie is fun. It's just ridiculously fun. There are so many jokes crammed in one after the other that people of all ages will enjoy. That's the great things about family movies is their layers of jokes. There are so many moments where it makes fun of the source material throughout the ages and creates this self reflective jaunt through nostalgia and pop culture. The film has taken the increasingly dim, dark, and serious figure of Batman and flipped the gritty in reverse for a chance of some comics related media that children can consume without being horrified at the violence or the boring plot (sorry DC but your movies suuuuuuccckk).

It tackles something other Batman films are Too Serious to tackle and that's Batman's isolationist attitudes, cold heart, and inability to reach out and trust others. It's really refreshing to see someone tackle toxic masculinity and unhealthy coping mechanisms - and even stranger to see it in a light hearted children's movie. Batman spends most of the movie resisting the idea that others are people he can let into his heart instead of obstacles or (at best) tools for his own purposes. His ego prevents him from helping himself. It's a good message and a central flaw of the Batman mythos we've all seemed to embrace (and spun as a heroic feature?).

The movie is both absurd and moving. Two tonally different things that are difficult to mesh together but it manages it. There's so much in it to love and the Lego franchise is an unexpected gem in contemporary cinema. Just like the building blocks the movie takes inspiration from this will capture all the joy and imagination of childhood and creating a magical silly world where silly things happen, the stakes are ridiculous, the characters are all hyper and over saturated, and it's a nonstop rollercoaster of laughter.

Great for all ages, even the bitter old fan boy who has been reading gritty Batman comics for decades.