Drama

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

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  • Title: The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
  • IMDb: link

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the unusual 19th Century artist Louis Wain who would become famous for his cat illustrations. As the title suggests, the film is more than a little whimsical. It’s notable mainly for the performances of Cumberbatch and Claire Foy as Louis’ wife, the governess of his nieces who he immediately falls for despite the discrepancy in their social standing, and the assortment of Wain’s art on display which won over cat lovers everywhere.

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Flee

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Flee
  • IMDb: link

Flee offers a deeply personal take on the refugee experience in a mostly-animated documentary of a man struggling even decades later to express his emotions and memories from harrowing experiences fleeing Afghanistan to Moscow and eventually to Denmark. Our guide, referred to only as Amin, offers his story which is fleshed-out and explored further in animation by director Jonas Poher Rasmussen and his animation team. 

Given that non-animated segments are also used, such as stock footage of the times, I don’t know that the documentary will get the exposure it deserves for an animated film as well as for a documentary. In a year without a breakout animated film, Flee is a mesmerizing and unique film experience that reminds us how the past can continue to haunt someone long after they have reached the relative safety of a new land.

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The Green Knight

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  • Title: The Green Knight
  • IMDb: link

Writer/director David Lowery‘s adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight casts Dev Patel in the role of King Arthur’s (Sean Harris) nephew and youngest knight Gawain who sees a chance to prove himself when a Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) arrives in Camelot for a game. He offers any knight the opportunity to lay a blow on him that he will return in kind one year later.

The adaptation takes some liberties with the source material, making Gawain a bit more of a coward and whoremonger than in the original chivalric poem. After the Green Knight survives Gawain beheading him, and takes his leave, the story flashes forward a full year, meaning we don’t see the looming threat play on the knight over time.

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Mayday

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  • Title: Mayday
  • IMDb: link

Mayday is a far less creepy and sexually-explorative version of similar themes found in Zack Snyder‘s 2011 travesty Sucker Punch. Grace Van Patten stars as Ana, an abused and unappreciated hotel worker who retreats from her world into a fantasy where she awakes as part of a small all-girl battalion acting as sirens leading soldiers to their death with a series of false mayday messages that steer them into oncoming storms.

The movie is primarily focused on Ana, her introduction and ultimate rebellion against her new life bringing her into conflict with the sirens’ leader Marsha (Mia Goth). Figures from Ana’s real life appear as different characters on the island including her brutal boss and a few of her coworkers. Mayday is an interesting idea on a shoestring budget that doesn’t quite work but does offer a solid message about standing up for yourself, embracing life’s hardships, and not running away from your problems.

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tick, tick… BOOM!

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  • Title: tick, tick… BOOM!
  • IMDb: link

Adapted from Jonathan Larson‘s stage musical, the semi-autobiographical work takes us inside the struggles of aspiring musical theater playwright and composer attempting to complete an 8 year project of a dystopian futuristic musical called Superbia before his thirtieth birthday. Pressured by needing to compose a crucial song to complete the musical as the workshop for its one and only performance begins, his girlfriend (Alexandra Shipp) needing an answer to a crucial relationship question, another of his friends hospitalized after becoming HIV Positive, and the daily struggles of working at the Moondance Diner and finding ways to pay his bills, a constant ticking reminds Jon that he’s running out of time.

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