4.5
This is at times a thunderously dull film, listlessly limping its way through a leaden script that never quite commits to a reason for its existence.
"Hey Flack, you got a joke for us today?"
… a deeply weird and inconsistent film, veering from genuinely funny to bleak and bloody at a moment’s notice.
There is a general's staff hidden in every soldier's kitbag. The ageless Ridley Scott returns with possibly his most ambitious film to date, a project that started with Stanley Kubrick,
If you are prepared for a big viewer commitment and relish those animated discussions afterwards (everyone will have a different bit to pick apart/comment on), then go. But also, be
The trailer has just dropped for Hereditary helmer Ari Aster’s latest cinematic freakout: Beau is Afraid.
Like his previous two films (Beginners, 20th Century Women), the filmmaker's latest C'mon C'mon about a nice guy (Joaquin Phoenix) and his young nephew, is semi-autobiographical.
...takes the skeleton of an action movie and uses it as a scaffold on which to build a bleak and confronting portrait of trauma and loss.
...while it’s occasionally funny, and even more infrequently poignant, there are too many times when it feels flat and a bit of a hard slog...
...the thesis is murky, the intent obscure, and you can't help but think the most challenging and interesting potential parts of the story didn't make it to the screen...