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Y8 Cayom Film Festival - Audience Reactions Thread

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SLAM! REVIEWS: CFF EDITION

 

We sent our reviewer to the film festival! All of the statements will be presented in spoiler boxes in this one single post!

 

Numbers Theory (@4815162342)

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A somewhat by-the-numbers (no pun intended) white-collar thriller a la Margin Call that sets itself apart with its tense, dedicated build-up and its dedicated performances--Dakota Johnson especially. 3 out of 4

 

Learning to Care (@Blankments)

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While it lacks the urgency, relevancy, or emotional weight of similar dramas like Boyhood and The Florida ProjectLearning to Care is a sublime artistic achievement in that it commits to its realism and displays an earnest heart for the subject at hand. Jimmy Tatro deserves an Oscar nomination. 3 out of 4

 

Holland Hannah (@Alpha)

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A stylish espionage film with fun costume, makeup, and set design and a sumptuous titular femme fatale that doesn't do enough with its plots points and characterizations. A well-rounded plot with more information about the characters would have made the film a type package. 2 out of 4

 

Sandboy (@Blankments)

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A simple family film full of childlike awe that humbly showcases its brimming sense of heart.  Though considering Beasts of the Souther Wild and Wendy, it's apparent that Benh Zeitlin isn't taking this opportunity to gives his whimsical tales a fresh spin. 3.25 out of 4

 

The Space Between Trees (EGK)

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While the ending admittedly peters out with an open-ended climax, Debra Granik instills a brooding dread throughout the piece that enlivens the film despite its lack of consistent plot direction. Olivia DeJonge, Diana Silvers, and Jack Reynor are all giving the performances of their careers--and the score by Hildur Guðnadóttir is great, too. One of the best films of Y8 so far. 3.5 out of 4

 

Dirty Hands ( @4815162342)

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An investing crime thriller that holds the audience's interest for its entire runtime. Great editing and directing. Strong, Coon, and Brown are all great. The film's a bit underwhelming in its familiarity, but it's fantastically executed. 3.5 out of 4

 

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Number Theory 

 

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Number Theory reminds me of Jack Reacher in a lot of ways. It will likley be sold as a typical actioneer for the film's leading man but the final product in reality is more of a slow burn mystery with little bits of that action sprinkled in.  Some of the film's most interesting aspects is that it pays homage to weird interests such as following box office. Neeson is solidly well placed in the leading role. It doesn't stretch new territory for him but he fits it comfortably. Dakota Johnson as a PI is a potentially interesting foil to Nesson, unfortunately I don't feel the role gave much for Johnson

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Especially as it feels she has distinctly little to do towards the end of the film

 Elizabeth Shue as Neeson's wife actually brings most of the films emotional core (unfortunately she's fairly underused)

 

The meta nature the film sometimes takes is also kinda baffling considering that on paper this seems to want to be taken more seriously than just another action romp from Neeson. I'm sure audiences who are just looking for some solid dad movie escapism will be fairly pleased but in my mind the product here is a bit underwhelming to rise above that - 2/5  

 

 

 

Learning To Care

 

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It's always nice and fun to write these reviews from the perspective of this alternate reality. Ethan Hunt could be any old film reviewer who went to a festival and saw some flicks. But I think sometimes to understand why a project really works I need to be Carson Hume.

 

In particular Carson Hume sitting in his room struggling to listen to a 3 hour lecture for his managment class. Carson Hume who had recently been broken up with by his girlfriend of 3 years who he recklessly assumed would be in his life forever. Carson Hume questioning the value of himself. Questioning the plans that he had for his life that seemingly just don't matter anymore.

 

That's where I was when I decided to turn off the lecture and read the film that Blank had just posted for the festival. This is a film feels a lot like a warm hug. A film that speaks to the universality of anxieties for one's future. The film never seeks to provide answers to those anxieties but it lets you know that you're not alone in this big lonely world. This is perhaps the definitive comfort food in CAYOM. 

 

Of course on a more technical level the film has an excellent ensemble with Nick Robinson and Jimmy Tatro in particular giving career best performances. Brett Haley bring a certain levity and charm to the naturalistic tale. This is not a film that is necessarily designed to have an immediate impact but it sits in your mind and overtime is sure to become a hangout movie staple because it simply provides all the comfort in the world 

 

 

It goes without saying that Learning to Care is a .... 5/5  

 

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Learning to Care

 

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I got to say, I always admire the more personal pieces users have put on here, like @Spaghetti’s Notes From The Otherspace and @Blankments/EGK’s By The Balls, mainly because they tend to be develop with aplomb or moving.

 

While Learning to Care doesn’t have the satirical wit of By The Balls (not that it was going to be) nor is it the emotional rollercoaster of Notes from The Otherspace, it’s a delightfully low key film that feels so inviting and human. 
 

There’s no villains or antagonist nor is there conflict but that’s it’s great strength. Learning to Care feels like raw real life, the characters are just people going through life. It make you feel like you’re not alone on the journey called life.
 

Nick Robinson plays Rob in potentially his best role and his own personal journey while not larger than life or learning a grand lesson, seeing him develop is excellent. Tatro also nails it with his best performance in the game. 


In short, I think it’s perhaps @Blankments best film, and Y8 may have a lot of competition of finding a film that can top this.

 

I think we know it’s a Dong.

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A+

 

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Learning to Care

 

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In what is sure to be one of the quieter and more mellow offerings of the Film Festival, Brett Haley provides a window into the year in the life of a directionless college grad who fills out his days watching kids at a pre/post-school child care program as he considers what to do next. And considers. And considers. While the film goes down as smooth as liquid butter, with an easygoing air, naturalistic interactions, and a chill vibe, there just seems to be lacking an inner oomph to kick it into next gear. The film in some aspects goes way too into its own stream of consciousness vibe and the result is that ultimately, we don't really get a sense that we know who these people are beyond what they say in dialogue to each other. Films don't need to have some big earth-shattering revelation for their characters, but here most of the people are kinda just the same at the end as they are the start, and while it is true that in some ways it fits the mode of depicting characters who are to various degrees stuck in a ruts of their own indecision or design, One aspect of the film's structure hurting it is the friction between Rob and Chloe just suddenly disappearing and it being handwaved away when Rob very briefly brings up the fact later on.

 

Rob as the focal character ultimately remains a bit of a cipher since we never get a great sense of who he is when he isn't looking after kids, or talking to his co-workers about looking after kids. No family interactions, no delving into his theater background and what his aspirations are to use that. Even with his interactions with Ash and Robby, the two most fleshed-out characters of the film, there isn't the sense that connecting with them has really changed or had an effect on Rob. Nick Robinson gives a pretty good internalized performance, but the character as written is ultimately too internalized, rendering him as @Spaghetti said somewhat of an audience surrogate as much as a character. Most of the other characters blend together aside from the aforementioned Ash and Robby, and while both characters are well-portrayed and acted as well, we only see them through Rob's eyes, and there remains the sense that a number of things that make them the most compelling characters are actually happening off-camera, which is a bit of a shame.

 

Learning to Care is a good film, with a trio of strong main performances and easygoing and natural dialogue and character interactions in the moment. But ultimately the film ends up being more of a collection of moments than anything else, and never gives us the opportunity to see their lives outside of their jobs, or talking about their jobs, other than a couple isolated occurrences (including an awkward set of cameos/meta references). It's certainly a film that would work better for some people more than others, with its style and subject material, but for this reviewer, it never reaches that second gear of giving us a reason to learn to care, beyond the assumption that we should.

 

 

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Learning to Care

 

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Let me just get my reaction to a few bits out of the way:

 

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(Am I doing this meme right?)

 

I’m not 100% on where I fall on this. so I decided to read the other people’s reviews before I went to write mine, and I think @4815162342's in particular helped clarify a lot of the question marks I had as I walked out of it. I think as far as the “naturalistic” storytelling goes it tries a few too many times to strike a balance between that and a more conventional narrative, but commits to the former way more than the latter — which isn’t a bad thing at all, but it does make the “conventional” aspects stick out more and arrive as half-baked drive-by conflict, dropped almost as soon as it’s introduced, to a story that either should’ve developed on these threads or just not have them there at all.

 

One that comes to mind is the sudden insert of tension between Chloe and Rob which almost immediately doesn’t go anywhere. I actually wish this one actually resulted in something in the long run, having myself been in Rob’s position more than a few times and harbored a subtle resentment that’s difficult to shake off even as you get to know a person better. I’m not asking for it to devolve into melodrama, but Chloe openly dissing him in front of one of the kids only for that tension to get handwaved off in a brief scene later struck me as a bit of a missed opportunity, especially since, like Numbers also pointed out, Rob is a bit too much of a cipher with the film providing little insight into his own background or really how he sees or thinks about things. I think fleshing him out more would’ve held the separate vignettes together a lot more as well.

 

And also because of this, a lot of the more interesting aspects about the other characters are off-screen events that we’re given Rob’s view of and thus feel like reciting bullet points in post-sequence. Robby’s sudden decision towards the end to leave his long-time job for a new one could’ve been a film in and of itself, as with Ash coming out as non-binary (again, I’m not asking for melodrama, but there’s so much at the margins with both characters that I think are just being left at the table).

 

I’m not saying all this because I think the movie is bad — I just find this easier to really delve into than all the good stuff, and there is a lot of good stuff. The very easy, laid-back atmosphere is the film’s strongest point, and there are aspects I can recognize as someone who did study to become a teacher at one point (but dropped out due to failing grades and financial problems). I think all the actors, Lundy-Paine in particular (and I’m not saying this because seeing a Scav stan in a movie made me overly biased towards them, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me at least a bit gleeful), do a very good job and perhaps there’s Oscar potential for some. Some of the older adults kinda blend into the background more than I’d liked, but it’s not a huge issue.

 

And I usually don’t review end credit songs but I’m an easy sucker for the type of song used at the end of this so points for that, I guess.

Might happen that my opinion changes as Y8 proceeds on, but for now it’ll be a 

 

B/B+

 

 

Holland Hannah

 

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I have to be honest by saying that it being as short as it is is actually working against the flow of reading it if you want to listen to the accompanying soundtrack for more than twenty seconds at a time. The fact also that not all song links aren’t described beforehand makes it a bit of a gamble as to what you’re in for, and makes it all the more “wait what” when “What is Love” shows up, as an example.

 

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All that is nitpicking that doesn't affect my overall opinion, but I thought I'd point it out.

 

I feel this film is more interested in the character exchanges and their interactions with the surrounding nightclub scene than an especially involved narrative, and I would be more okay with that if the exchanges felt less rushed in and of themselves and leaving things more underdeveloped than intriguing, especially when there’s the lingering sense that the plot, thin as it is, was a bit made up on the fly. Hannah’s final confrontation with Dominique right before she kills him is at least decently suspenseful and shows how hollow Hannah’s job leaves her inside, although I’m not sure what the ghost of Dominique showing up at the very end is supposed to indicate, if anything at all.

 

I kinda wish there was more to this, to be honest.

 

C/C+

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White Wyvern

 

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The official reviews coming out of the judge's screening set quite the expectation for this movie. Ultimately, the film turned out a bit better than expected, but it still suffers from a multitude of problems, much of them laying at the feet of the characters. Sylvester, MAGA or not, ends up consistently being a moronic dunderhead who in any other movie would get killed by the obvious psycho but here gets off lightly with some "haha trump supporter" jokes and a hug after he makes the minimalist of effort to realize maybe he is an idiot. But of course that's nothing compared to what the film gives us in Daron, who comes in not just from a different movie, but from a different dimension, having more in common with Shia LaBeouf's character in The Tax Collector than anything else. It's a performance for which hammy and campy don't do it justice, he basically eats the movie around him in outlandish gimme all the attention dialogue and posing, and consistently is portrayed as a scumbag of the highest order. And naturally at the end of the film he gets let off with some dispensing of sage advice and an arrest that he'll probably get out of considering how the film seems to depict adult men. Bethany overall is fine, but the film doesn't really give us much insight into who she is other than an abuse victim so she remains a rather two-dimensional.

 

All of which leads us to the title character and the fantasy aura surrounding the creature. Which ultimately kinda just peters out and makes you wonder what the point was. There's a unicorn, and then a herd of unicorns, and then they leave, and that's it. There's no particular reason that the unicorn needed to be a unicorn as opposed to a horse, and the other fantasy imagery ultimately seems like auteur-ish window dressing to try and gloss up a rather mundane Kansas plains setting. It ends up being a plot device that has some nice look to it but otherwise feels pointless.

 

Is White Wyvern terrible? No. But it's still not good, definitely not.

 

 

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Sandboy

 

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On the rating issue, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be an easy PG. The only element I would consider mildly distressing for a younger viewer would be the parents constantly arguing, but that wouldn’t result in a PG-13 in and of itself.

 

On the movie proper, I don’t know if Sandboy is intentionally meant to evoke strong Ghibli vibes, but it did for me (specifically My Neighbour Totoro, Ponyo, and When Marnie Was There came to mind), and it made the film all the more charming and enjoyable for it. I wouldn’t call it groundbreaking, but as a summer distraction for families, it carries a good message with plenty of heart and hijinks without being a downer or being too saccharine. An easy recommendation for young and old alike.

 

B+/A-

 

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Sandboy

 

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To echo what @cookie said, there is no reason why this would not be a middle of the road PG film. For the studio to even consider giving this a PG-13 rating shows just how much of a BLOB that rating has become in our society.

 

On to the actual film. The movie that came to mind first and foremost watching this was Ponyo, though the film is definitely better than Ponyo, because the two children main characters feel like actual characters instead of chaotic energy wearing human skins. The scenes between Bree and Arthur are naturalistic, playful, and with the right degree of phantasmal wonder, and there's the right amount of "is this really real" going on where there's always a glint of maybe it's just Bree's imagination creating her own world in the wake of her being isolated from the real world due to a pandemic (which is barely touched upon in the movie, to some slight detriment) and being isolated from her own family by the slow deterioration of her parents' love and marriage. The film almost finds the right balance in showcasing the breakdown of the marriage breaking Bree's world down around her and breaking her spirit, but at times some of the scenes come off as clumsy, as if the film forces certain fights or arguments to occur for the sake of the story.

 

Of course as it turns out, Arthur is in fact real, as he interacts with the parents later on, and the final section of the film gets a little generic and by the numbers, with the cliche "and they never saw one another again" ending before the final "a ha" moment. I think the film is at its strongest when it's just the two kids and the naturalistic phantasmal mystery, which to no surprise is where Zeitlin was at his best with Beasts of the Southern Wild

 

 

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Holland Hannah

 

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Holland Hannah is, as others have said, more of a 90 minute video concert album than a movie, and for large chunks of the movie IT WORKS. Hannah effortlessly gliding through clubs and dance halls and bathrooms and offices and corridors as the technopop blasts in the background and the strobe light effects cast their devilish visuals is a sumptuous treat. When Hannah is in her element, and moving forward like a shark, the film is on cloud nine. The problem is that the film, instead of being as minimalist as possible to go with the otherwise depiction of Hannah as an ethereal angel of death, bogs down with giving Hannah a backstory love interest and a current story love interest, both of which are undercooked and underdeveloped and which sag things down to a crawl on occasion. For much of the film Hannah is cold, clear-headed, and almost outside of life, and then suddenly she has an emotional breakdown in front of Seth from the OC and it just feels off, like the studio forced Corbijn to give the main character empathy and self-doubt.

 

When Holland Hannah works, it feels like a smooth and sleek and sexy fever dream, but it unfortunately can't resist dumping the audiences head into a bucket of cold water a handful of times to interrupt the flow. There really could have been something here.

 

 

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The World That We Knew

 

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So, I have mentioned before that I was approaching this film with a bit of caution, given certain aspects of In The Aeroplane Over the Sea. I also know that this is based off of a children/young adult novel, so I can't say how much of the finished production is straight adaptation and how much is Slam taking license, so I will bear that in mind.

 

To answer Slam's immediate question of what MPAA rating this should be, I would have to say R. There's sufficient instances of blood and violence scattered throughout, but more than that, I find it hard to believe that the MPAA would give a PG-13 rating to a film that in the first five minutes has an attempted rape of a minor.

 

The film itself is not the mess I feared it could be, and for the most part is competently made and involving for most of the characters and storylines. That said, there are at least several moments through the film where things stumble quite clumsily and awkwardly, to put it mildly. This is probably most keenly felt in Ettie's storyline, where the character does not seem to have any emotional consistency or characterization, rapidly veering from a rabbi's daughter to a declaration of not being a Jew to musing about Jewish figures from the Bible to being resentful of being unable to escape her ethnic and religious background, all of this scattered with a thinly-stitched together subplot of working with a bunch of teenagers in a mini-Resistance, and a very abrupt and cringeworthy interlude with Jean Dujardin, and yeah, everything Ettie related just does not work.

 

The primary storyline with Lea and Ava works much better, though again some of the interludes feel quite thin and in a couple instances characters suddenly disappear from the story after being built up with interactions (the German Girl in the convent is gone in an instant after the film spends multiple scenes developing her and Lea bonding, and then Marianne abruptly vanishes in the final scenes after being shown guiding Lea, Ava, and Julian). It feels like this chunk of the story needed another pass in the editing room to make things line up better. The film's involvement with Jewish mythology and religion definitely is a bit hamfisted and clunky, but aside from the aforementioned issues with Ettie, it ultimately resolves well enough and good-intentioned. It helps that Katherine Waterston gives a good performance as Ava, delicately portraying a character that is only a facisimile of humanity at the start, but slowly grows and evolves beyond her single-minded purpose.

 

The very end though is a little baffling, since Ava is now apparently a flesh and blood living being, but I guess Lea and Julian (and invisible Marianne) did not wait to see? Did they literally leave the second Lea changed the inscription? Because I feel like they'd have noticed Ava turning real as opposed to turning back to clay. It's just a final kinda clumsy resolution to a film that unfortunately has its decent share of stumbles. Luckily enough, there are sufficient powerful emotional moments to help keep this film ultimately a positive experience.

 

 

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The Space Between Trees

 

Spoiler

 

The diverse array of reactions from the judges to this movie definitely perked up my interest, and after witnessing it myself, I'd have to say I fall roughly in the middle of them. Probably the thing that sets The Space Between Trees apart from most CAYOM films is that it is in essence a Shaggy dog story, following Evie as she imitates the plot of Dear Evan Hansen in the opening scenes before being pulled into a series of teenage misadventures with misanthrope Hadley before the two decide they're going to be the ones to catch the killer, evading red herring stalker along the way, before it all spirals into a series of mistakes that accomplishes nothing and harms multiple people along the way.

 

Spaghetti gets it right when he points out that the film is less a murder mystery than an atmospheric mood piece about two outsider teens bonding in messed up ways over the loss of the sole thing they had in common and the tug-of-war between Evie's mentally scrambled ways (seriously the opening of the film made it seem like she had Asperger's or some other social disorder) and Hadley's punk screw-the-world demeanor results in the "friends" skewering one another almost as much as they comfort each other. It's a delicate balance that if handled poorly could result in two hours of dank depressing drudgery, but the character touches are handled well, and the pacing for the most part is good, though it does stall in a couple chunks in the middle. Some of that extraneous middle probably could have been tossed. The rest of the cast does their jobs well enough, but outside of a couple scattered scenes with Reynor and Meloni, it's a two-woman show.

 

I can see some aspects of this film being divisive, especially how the characters' story gets resolved in the closing scenes, and in lesser hands it definitely would have been not just anticlimactic but eyebrow-roll worthy, but Granik for the most part makes it work. So it's a good film to close out the festival audience experience with.

 

 

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White Wyvern

 

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A film paralleling a young woman's recovery from an abusive relationship to a captured unicorn is not exactly a bad idea on paper. And at the start this film shows some promise. The problem is that this film eventually decides that it isn't interested in the quiet moments of recovery and learning to reconnect with the people around you. Instead we get Aaron Taylor- Johnson showing up to play Julia Garner's cartoon of an ex boyfriend. From this point foreword it's nearly impossible to take the movie seriously. ATJ feels so far detached from reality to feel like a real threatening presence. Gary Sinise and Margo Martindale have the marriage conflict and resolution of a bad sitcom. The relationship between the two younger boys and Julia Garner is maybe the one real source of heart in this movie. But even with that aside is that this movie utterly fails as a depiction of recovery from trauma and instead becomes a kooky train wreck that you can't quite look away from - 1/5

 

Holland Hannah 

 

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Holland Hannah as brought to life by Anton Corbijn is a delirious array of music and motion. Elizabeth Debicki shows her chops as an endlessly magnetic presence as the film's mostly stoic leading woman. The thing about this movies propulsive full steam ahead momentum is that it's exhausting. And i think that exhaustion that sets in as an audience member is what makes this film hit on an emotional level. The film's emotional through line may seem somewhat conventional for a film of this sorts but as this film drags you through exhilarating action beats you yearn for a moment of relief in the same way that the film's protagonist seems to. A riveting must see theatrical experience in this viewers mind. - 5/5

 

The Space Between Trees

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Debra Granik returns with her first feature since dominating the Oscars with a strange little "murder mystery." I agree with those that have pointed out that this is less of a murder mystery and more of a tale of unwinding yourself from a tragedy than it is intended to be an engrossing mystery. The two leading women here give solid performances, especially Silvers. Granik is able to hit some emotional impact here especially in some moments of strong imagery and a ending that is actually quite emotionally satisfying (even if the sequence leading into it is quite bizarre.) I just can't help but feel like there is a lot of empty space and treading water in this movie though. I can't help but wish that the two lead characters didn't spend so much of the runtime together. Evie as a character kinda disappears as the film goes on, where some oddities and questions about the character about the film are raised towards the beginning of the film it never really feels like those are paid off in any meaningful way. Ultimately this is an interesting film with impactful moments but too much of the runtime feels stagnant and I fear that it won't have much staying power in the minds of the audience besides curious musings of why this fascinating piece never really quite works - 3/5

 

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Dirty Hands

 

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Dan Gilroy brings forth a confident workman like approach to this legal thriller. For about 80% of the films runtime the film's runtime Dirty Hand works solidly with full awareness of what it is. It solidly moves the dual timeline story in a way that is engaging and draws curiosity. The film's central characters don't really feel like they have much depth beyond being the vessels from which you witness this case and the romance subplot in particularly unaffecting. This is all fine and dandy like i said the case itself draws audience curiosity. Unfortunately the film attempts to pull a whammy on the audience in the final stretch.... and because some of that core wasn't quite built up super effectivly in the first part of the film it kind of whiffs.  The film winds quietly without really rebuilding the momentum.  Dirty Hands is not a bad film. It is very assured in what it's doing. but for this viewer the ending kinda derails the experience  - 2.5/5

 

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Holland Hannah

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As many before me have said, Holland Hannah feels like a 90 minute music video. Not to say that it’s a bad thing of courses, Debincki does a great job as the lead as her romance is believable and the soundtrack is energized but I never found myself truly interested in the story or characters. Holland Hannah is at its strongest in certain pieces but together it is sold but unsatisfying for me.

 

C+/B-

 

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Numbers Theory

 

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While it’s ability to not take itself seriously is both a fun blessing and at times a curse, Numbers Theory is a fun thriller that’s boosted by performances from Nesson and Johnson.

 

B/B+

 

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Numbers Theory

 

 

As a forum in-joke, it elicited a few light chuckles from me, which gives it a slight edge compared to some of the other Neeson fare in recent years (this is of course excluding those wonderful crossovers with a certain 1980s action star). Above all, this is a film that knows its audience. Neeson is always in top action-movie form when he's performing in lead roles that serve as wish-fulfillment for white-collar dads that say they'll do anything to protect their family, and this movie gives him plenty of opportunities to kick ass and take names while trying to keep his perfect home life from collapsing.

Apart from a few plot contrivances where the movie clearly shows its hand, I enjoyed Numbers Theory for the most part. Like Rory said, it doesn't get bogged down in the nitty-gritty details of predicting box office returns, a potentially dry subject, and instead foregrounds the suspense and action that keeps the film light on its feet. It'll fit right into FX's programming block once it leaves theaters.

★★★½

 

Learning to Care

 

 

The question that looms over Nick Robinson's protagonist in Learning to Care is the same question the dad asks his son in the music video for "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister before he's flung out of a bedroom window by the sheer power of a killer guitar chord: "what do you wanna do with your life?" What this film really excels at is capturing that late-millennial sense of drifting through life trying to get by, not really knowing what path forward to take, if there is one, and being confronted by the uneasy feeling that comes with that aimlessness. Yet there's still some time to find connection with other people, and find out why these small roles we play in other people's lives can be so much more significant than they seem.

Ultimately, what kept me from completely loving Learning to Care may be some of the same reasons @4815162342 pointed out. Even amidst a handful of great little character moments, sometimes it's just that, without a sense of momentum driving some of the smaller character arcs that could've made the bigger picture more meaningful. I can see why this heavily naturalistic vibe is appealing to some, especially considering how it stands in stark contrast to some of the bigger CAYOM films. However, even in stories or arcs where not much happens, there's still room for an understated kind of emotional insight, and Learning to Care sometimes feels a bit too lackadaisical. Perhaps some of it will become more meaningful as I grow older.

Still, when its taking full advantage of its form, Learning to Care excels, particularly in how it humanizes these daycare workers and gives what could be an overlooked vocation a profound sense of purpose. The final monologue by Jimmy Tatro's character really brings it home; even though these kids might not remember their names or everything they've done for him, their dedication and their perseverance will have all been for the better, in the short term and in the long term.

★★★½

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Sandboy

Spoiler

First things first. This is an easy PG. I don’t get why a PG-13. Anyways, while the story is predictable, it’s definitely one of those movies that’s so damn whimsical it’s not even a problem. It’s definitely reminiscent of Ghibli films and pulls it off aplomb. Sandboy is a well acted and engrossing family film sure to delight young and old.
 

Dong?!

Spoiler

Yes

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White Wyvern

 

White Wyvern is like seeing the aftermath of a horrible car crash as you pass by it on the highway. It's undeniably cringe-inducing, you can't possibly bear to watch any longer, yet you're almost tempted to keep looking as if you want to know just how worse it could possibly get.

This film possesses the same thing that ruined Yang and Higher Ground for me: everything, from the characters to the dialogue to the storyline has been turned up to a 10. Every emotional moment comes off as so strained and so forced, just begging, begging to register so deeply and profoundly with its audience that it becomes cloying. No one behaves like a normal, rational person in this movie, and we're not in the realm of social satire here (although there are some pitiful attempts at political commentary scattered throughout). The mixture of fantasy and realism here is outright baffling, with an ending that's likely to leave audiences in stitches. Honestly @Rorschach's comparison to M. Night Shyamalan's mid-2000s work is incredibly apt, and I feel like Slam's once-promising filmography of magical realism has gone down the same path as that auteur and we've arrived at Lady in the Water.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson's laughably bad performance has already been discussed by plenty of reviewers, but you could write an essay examining the highly reactionary subtext of his character that drives the film's plot. We're introducing in the beginning to the peaceful domicile of the white, conservative, Evangelical farm family of the Great Plains, and after settling in we're met with this chaotic force of nature, a man with 6ix9ine-esque facial tattoos who uses African-American Vernacular English and is a rap aficionado, that seeks to upend the traditions of this idealized portrait of American life. A big bad wolf that must be swiftly dealt with.

I agree with @Spaghetti: Slam is one of CAYOM's most sincere filmmakers. Unfortunately, the sincere has become the saccharine, and I feel like I'm going to barf.

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