sharkme94

I was genuinely really excited to see Friendship when it came out earlier this year. Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd are two of the best comedic actors of our time, and seemed like a match made in heaven. Time ended up getting away from me and the movie ended its theatrical run, but I eagerly awaited the opportunity to stream it eventually.

I have to say, in this economy, I'm glad I saved myself the $20 movie ticket.

This was definitely a classic case of all the movie's good scenes being shared in the TV spots. I think this is mostly an issue with the writing; the actors all do great with what they can, but the overarching story felt all over the place and unsure of itself. (As I write this, part of me thinks "Aha, but that's exactly the mindset of the main character!" I really don't think the writing was that deep)

Even though it's literally in the name, the core relationship between Robinson and Rudd is pretty short-lived; the two only have a handful of scenes together. The end of their story was also pretty unsatisfying; I think I get what the director was going for in terms of a "theme", but it just felt very tonally off from what I think the rest of the movie accomplishes.

This movie is extremely cringe, and not in a good way. Robinson does a good job being outrageous, but his character's behavior is so unhinged and self-destructive that he's impossible to root for. Watching him was frustrating, not funny. It's not clear to me that he learned anything as a result of his experiences by the end of the movie, so I'm not sure why I bothered going on this journey with him.

Ultimately I think the movie succeeded simply in creating a portrait of an absolute loser. It's the male loneliness epidemic embodied by someone so desperate for any kind of connection and validation from anyone around him that he'll do ... literally anything. Maybe it's a testament to Robinson and the writer/director that this depiction was so realistic that it made me uncomfortable, to the point where it was not something I could find funny. And funny was the only thing I wanted out of this movie.

It's hard to write a comprehensive review because this really feels like two different movies.

The first half of the move (first 2 hours) is excellent, the second falls apart majorly.

The first part of the movie is slow, no doubt, but it is still very engaging and excellently shot. I was still invested in the buildup to what would happen after intermission, which ultimately turned out to be not much. The pacing suddenly falls apart and the streamlined narrative we've been following stops making any sense as we start jumping all over the place with no grounding.

Adrien Brody is majorly overhyped in this movie. I didn't feel like I was watching a performance as much as he was just doing an accent. His emotional range was super flat considering the weight of the role, and the character felt like he had zero personality.

Felicity Jones was really good; the first scene of her and Adrian in bed after being reunited gave me chills.

Ultimately this movie is all form with no substance. After almost 4 hours of my time, even for all that I was engaged with the story and for all the cinematography I could appreciate, I still left wondering what the point of any of it was.

It's finally here, and now it can be undoubtably declared the finest horror movie of 2024, and possibly even years past. It was everything I hoped it would be.

The movie is terrifying in ways I wasn't expecting, with a level of surrealism that is both titillating and disorienting, removing a sense of time. It really does create an effect of the characters, and thus for the audience, of being trapped in a nightmare.

Nosferatu contains some of the most beautiful imagery to date by Robert Eggers. The production value is incredible, and his cinematography continues to put most other contemporary films to shame.

This film also has the most stacked cast of an Eggers film to date; every single person deserves an award. Nicholas Hoult was phenomenal in his earlier scenes with Orlock, and Lily-Rose Depp deserves all the acclaim she is getting for her emotional turn as Ellen and the extreme physical performance she delivered. To me though, far and away the star was Bill Skarsgard. Having seen other films of his, when you first see Orlock and hear him speak, the famous actor we know is gone and replaced by something monstrous and inhuman. The voice work he did was absolutely incredible.

This was the film I was most excited for in 2024 and it did not disappoint! Robert Eggers has once again proved himself to be one of the most original and powerful voices, not just in horror, but in cinema as an art.