Starring Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson in a 2006 western about survival and vengeance, I thought Seraphim Falls was brilliant.
It was actually just before the guy in the top hat at the pond shows up that the thought had crossed my mind that this journey feels like an endless purgatory, so to see first him and then the lady at the end show up certainly fit in with that line of thinking of what this movie was representing. It literally bookends itself with agony, starting in the freezing snow where Brosnan's character is trying to start a fire for warmth, and ending up in the blistering heat of the desert, leaving our characters desperate for water.
I thought it intriguing how both our characters' journeys move forward in opposite parallels. Brosnan's character starts off with a team of soldiers behind him, but after the incident, he finds himself alone and wanting to be left alone. He does some bad things along his journey, but it's all in the name of survival. He kills people to stay alive, he kills his horse out of mercy. Meanwhile, Neeson's character starts off alone and wanting for he and his family to be left alone. But after the incident, he forms a team to go on the hunt, and he does some bad things along his journey, and it's all in the name of his blind vengeance. People die under his watch, he kills people in order to exact his revenge, and he kills his horse out of pettiness after someone abandoned his mission.
But both paths lead these men to the same place in the end, that being an inescapable purgatory where the only way out is to let go. Brosnan finally stops running, and tells Neeson to end it. And Neeson lets go, and instead walks away, lest he lose himself in the process.
I thought this was excellent. And the survival aspect, particularly during the snow scenes, were exhilarating, and often reminded me of The Revenant. I had actually never heard of this movie before now, but seeing how good it is, I'm now a bit curious as to why that might be.
The Banshees of Inisherin is named after a song written in the film that is described as being sad, and I'd say that same description could be used for the film as well. Set on a small island with the fitting backdrop of a civil war brewing within earshot on the mainland, this is perhaps one of the smaller and more personal films that director Martin McDonagh has tackled so far, and it may well be his best yet.
I feel we've all probably experienced the abrupt end of a friendship at some point, whether we're the one suddenly cut off, or we're the one who's grown tired of someone and has as such cut them off. So in that way, I could certainly relate to the story and both characters' perspectives, up to an obvious point at least.
The betrayal that Colin Farrell's character feels is very real, the hurt and confusion and insecurity that comes from such a sudden cut off, questioning what you may have said or done wrong, and how you can possibly get to a place to fix things, even when it's well beyond your control to do so. His performance was phenomenal, and believably sold the range of emotions that one would likely feel in such a situation. And I like how the movie showed how such a breakup in such a small community can have ramifications that shake up the whole town.
And even from Brenden Gleeson's perspective, I can relate in certain regards. He's haunted by his mortality, he sees his life as being wasted, and is striving to leave a lasting impact on the world. I can understand that, and I've certainly reached a point with certain friendships where I've felt they were merely holding me back, at times when I was ready to move on to a new stage in life. But the depths to which he travels in order to cement his place in history turns him into an undeniable villain in the process. His cruelty infests the small island, which in turn transforms otherwise good people towards cruelty as well, which starts a domino effect that leaves behind a legacy of death and malice. He argues that kindness is not enough to leave a lasting impression on the world, and yet his actions take an otherwise beautiful landscape and fill it with darkness, mirroring his song which is both beautiful yet sad.
But despite all of this, he too feels like a real and complex character. He's cruel, yet he has moments where he shows regret for his decisions. He wants to end his friendship with Farrell, yet despite how much he pleads for Farrell to leave him alone, even he can't set aside his own humanity enough to just let Farrell's character be attacked by the police and left a beaten mess. He's a hypocrite, whether he knows it or not, but it all comes across as believable. From his perspective, he's the hero of his own story, until at last he finally sees that he's not.
It's a tragic film for sure, but the movie does a great job balancing just enough humor and lighter moments to keep it from being too bleak, and I loved a lot of the idiosyncrasies spread throughout the film. I always got a chuckle by Farrell always letting the donkey in the house when his sister was away, and got a good laugh when he lets in all the animals after she leaves for the mainland. I liked the simple-mindedness of the barkeep and some of the patrons, how they'd just mindlessly parrot one another, seemingly oblivious that they're even doing it. In fact, I like how real and lived-in this small community feels, and we get to know just enough about the background characters to where we almost get a feel for what it might be like living in such a community where literally everybody knows everybody, too.
(Also, Kerry Condon was quite excellent, and I may have formed a bit of a crush on her over the course of the movie.)
I'd say this was a deep experience worth reflecting on.
There’s a moment in the movie Belle where the background characters in U mention how Belle’s songs feel like they’re written specifically for them, and I definitely got that feeling watching this movie, that it was something almost made for me. A reimagining of sorts of Beauty and the Beast for the social media era, I personally found I was able to connect with the characters and thought they were incredibly compelling, and Suzu in particular was very relatable to me.
I thought a lot of the character interactions and their various arcs played out in a very satisfying manner. For instance, there's Suzu's best friend, who is just pretty loose at the mouth and can be almost rude and inconsiderate at times, yet one of my favorite moments in the film is when they’re having lunch, and she catches herself slipping up and saying something that she knows was super messed up. Suzu isn’t bothered, because she knows her friend enough to know she didn’t mean to offend her, but all the same she assures Suzu that no matter what she’ll always support her, and I don’t know, but I guess moments like that just kind of hit home and struck a certain chord with me. Even the rival singer in U who gets jealous of Belle, when she has a complete 180 after Belle is revealed to be Suzu, and she sees that she’s able to relate to her, her jealousy goes away, and she becomes a very vocal supporter. It's little moments like that throughout that made me find the movie just very charming.
I also liked how the musical aspect played out. For the most part, these are songs that Suzu had written in her past as it relates to her mother, but she’s never been able to express these thoughts and feelings in song until now. I like how we see her in the process of writing the song for the Beast, and I like how the last song she sings to him is actually a repurposing of another song dedicated to her mother, which was the song she was attempting to sing on the bridge earlier on, but was unable to do so at the time. It all ties in together, feels very organic, and shows how the artistic process can work for people, whether they have something happen to them that gives them a mental block from being able to express themselves, or showing how someone might be inspired and put that inspiration towards creating something beautiful with it. And I also liked how it showed that her raw talent alone wasn’t enough, but that she needed the help of her friend to basically act as her producer to really break out and get noticed, which I also thought felt very realistic.
And I love how it played out the story of how much Suzu takes after her mom, even in ways that she wasn’t aware of. She spends most of her adolescence not understanding why her mother did what she did, only for her to discover near the end that she is very much her mother’s daughter, and isn’t one to just stand by and let a bad thing happen. I like how the movie criticizes the mentality of “don’t be a hero”, and argues that you should help people in need, even if there’s risk involved.
Even as it regards U, I just really like the realistic manner in which it interprets the internet. The mob mentality (shown as a literal mob as they storm the Beast’s castle), and how a lot of people don’t really think for themselves online necessarily. I like how it takes a critical stance against the type who would try to dox someone in the name of so called "justice", and come away thinking they’re the hero for their villainous actions. And I like that it does this all in a manner that doesn’t ever put the movie on hold, it plays out organically along with the rest of the story. In a way, it’s almost chaotic, but there’s a calmness to the chaos that makes it so it never feels like it’s just meandering off subject as all these other side notes play out.
This is a movie I haven’t really written about because it’s one of those where I just have so many thoughts on it. After all, there’s so much I feel that’s worth talking about. But for me, I thought this movie was absolutely wonderful, and it’s easily my favorite of the 20s so far.
For a while now, people have been telling me how they miss my movie reviews. Well, don't call this a comeback, but I figured I might share my thoughts on a handful of movies that have stood out to me in recent times, and we'll start things off this week with a movie that I thought was quite excellent, that being the 2011 film Warrior, directed by Gavin O'Connor.
In regards to the family drama, I like the way that it’s played out, where they give you bits and pieces of their history, enough for you to piece it together and see where everyone’s coming from, without straight up spelling the whole thing out for you. This could’ve very easily gone into heavy exposition, if not straight up flashback territory, but they managed to handle this whole aspect in a subtler and more realistic manner, which I found myself appreciating, and I thought was very well executed.
And as it regards to the MMA aspect, the fights in this movie are absolutely exhilarating. I was seriously on the edge of my seat watching these bouts. And the way they tell the story was almost poetic, where the older brother is the underdog fighting for his life, while the younger brother is just effortlessly steamrolling through the competition, all leading up to an emotional climax between the two, where everything comes to a head in an incredibly visceral and satisfying manner. They did an outstanding job telling these characters’ stories and translating their struggles into the MMA portion of the film I thought.
The performances all around are top notch stuff. These are seriously Oscar worthy performances from Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, and Joel Edgerton. Not to mention it was actually brilliant casting getting Hardy and Edgerton to play brothers. I never noticed before this movie just how much those two actually do look alike.
Also, I may have marked out a little when I saw Kurt Angle pop up. I didn’t know he was in this.
We've reached the end of another year, which means that it's time once more to count down my favorite movies that I saw from the past year. But first...
Honorable Mention from 2022 RRR
(S. S. Rajamouli)
Like with Belle last year, I once again find myself in a position where I didn't see my actual favorite movie from the previous year until we had already entered the new year. And this time around, that movie was RRR, which I was finally able to catch after it had gotten rereleased to theaters for a week earlier this year. Had I seen it in time, it would've easily topped out my list from 2022, so it certainly deserves mentioning now. I had heard people raving all last year about this film, and I was thrilled to finally see for myself that this one more than meets the hype. In fact, it shares a commonality with my #1 pick for this year in that it's just such a breathe of fresh air, and a reminder of just how good movies still can be.
Now then, onto this year's list...
#5 Big George Foreman
(George Tillman Jr.)
#4 The Creator
(Gareth Edwards)
#3 Sound of Freedom
(Alejandro Monteverde)
#2 Oppenheimer
(Christopher Nolan)
#1 Godzilla Minus One
(Takashi Yamazaki)
Some pretty decent films round out my Top 5 of 2023, but none of them come anywhere close to the quality of Godzilla Minus One, which stands leaps and bounds above the competition. Honestly, this film feels like an all time classic right on arrival, and as I mentioned above, it serves as a reminder of just how good movies can still be in the modern landscape of the medium. It's not just a great Godzilla film (and the best Godzilla film to date at that), but even beyond the kaiju genre, it's a genuinely outstanding film all around. With a gripping story, relatable characters, jaw dropping effects work, breathtaking action, and a brilliant utilization of the classic Godzilla themes, this is one to definitely check out on the big screen.
So there it is. For now, at least. Because who knows, if the last two years are anything to go by, I very well might still yet stumble upon another movie from this year that happens to best even Godzilla as my favorite from the year. We'll see!
It's been four years since Babymetal last toured the United States. And four years ago, I was lucky enough to catch them three times, including seeing them for my birthday in Orlando on September 4th, 2019. Now, four years later, they've finally made their way back out here again. And, again, they've made it out around my area just in time for my birthday (well, the day before my birthday to be exact, but close enough). This time out they emanated from the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta, GA on September 3rd, 2023 as part of their Babyklok tour, and let's just say that it was well worth the wait. Back in 2019, some members of the fandom dubbed my birthday show as "Legend C", so I suppose this time out we can perhaps refer to it as "Legend 1986"?
I got seats this time around, which meant I didn't have to arrive super early like before, but I did wander around a bit before the show to see if I could find any of my friends from the last time they were here. I did find one of them, and we caught up for a bit before they started letting us into the venue.
Once inside, I was initially put off by my seat, in which my view was partially obstructed by an inexplicably placed huge stanchion.
Thankfully though, a couple who had gotten their seats split up was willing to trade with me, and I wound up getting a much better view.
Much better.
Still though, it's rather baffling that those seats are even available for purchase. The seat directly beside me literally has no view of the stage, and I noticed that a number of people who were seated there eventually moved elsewhere as the show progressed.
Onto the show, first up was Jason Richardson, a lone guitarists who performed on stage to a backing track. I mean, the music itself was fine, highlighted by a genre-hopping track not unlike something we might hear from Babymetal themselves, but the performance did feel kind of awkward just seeing the dude all by himself up there. Could he really not gather together a full band to perform on stage with him?
Next up was the co-headliners of the show, Dethklok, the cartoon band from the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse.
For the first half of their set, I was actually digging them. Again, the music's not bad, even if it isn't necessarily my taste, but the presentation was rather neat, as the cartoon characters were shown performing the songs in the background while the live band performed on stage. At first I thought this was actually a pretty good fit for a co-headliner with Babymetal, who are also quite a visual-heavy band. But then, about halfway into their set, the backing images started to become rather pornographic, which was honestly pretty off-putting.
The show was listed as appropriate for all ages, and Babymetal themselves are a very family friendly band, and I had seen a number of people bringing their kids to this show. So for Dethklok to move forward with this presentation was honestly kind of gross. Perhaps a censored version of the visuals would have been more appropriate, or just rotate in different songs that aren't as explicit. Otherwise, the band played for an hour, and it honestly did start to drag about halfway into the set. I didn't hate them or anything, but I also wasn't super thrilled with them, either.
But anyways, onto better things, my favorite band in the whole world was up next, and as always, they never fail to deliver big. I did take a few photos and video clips, but for the most part, I just wanted to take in the atmosphere and just really be there in the moment. They came out wearing their new outfits, which sort of resemble Power Rangers suits when viewed in person, and kicked things off with a song that, before this year, I was convinced I was never going to be able to see live, that being Babymetal Death.
From there, they moved onto Gimme Chocolate and Pa Pa Ya, and I couldn't wipe the grin off my face as I took in the party-like atmosphere. The Gods of the West performed an extended intro for Distortion, which went long enough to where I thought we might be in for some new solos or something leading into the song (we were not), and during this period, guitarist Chris Kelly was motioning for the crowd to form a circle pit, which sadly didn't gain much traction. Su was able to succeed in getting the pit going later in the song, but from my vantage point, I did notice how the pit seemed a lot less rowdy this time out compared to years past.
BxMxC was a blast to experience live. And on this evening, our rotating song from The Other One album that we were treated to was Mirror Mirror, which I was very happy by. This song is one of my favorites off the new album. It's one that's brought me to tears listening to on occasion, and seeing it live certainly struck an emotional chord with me as well.
Monochrome was next, and I've gotta say, this song hits way different live. Like, I could feel this song in my chest. Very powerful performance, and I loved the moment where Su asked all of us to take out our phones and shine our lights.
While the previous two songs might've brought a string of emotional powerhouses, the next song was likely the highlight of the evening, as they performed their brand new song Metali. And let me tell you, the live version of this song is simply bonkers. Starting off with some sweet new Kami solos, this song truly feels like theater to watch on stage. There's a moment about halfway in where Su asked everyone in the crowd to sit down, and everyone in the pit proceeded to do just that. We then witnessed Momoko's cool solo moment, ending with her growling, "Are you ready?", as the music kicks in and everyone in the crowd hopped back up to their feet. This was just awesome to be a part of live.
We then rounded out the evening with a number of classics, including an especially hard hitting performance of Megitsune...
... and moving on to their appropriately timed performance of Headbanger. They play this song on the band's big birthday celebration shows, and so far, they've played it every time they've come around for my birthday, too. I wonder if Koba's seen my posts on social media?
Headbanger - Legend 1986 Version
They closed out their show with Road of Resistance, though at the very beginning of the song, I noticed that something went awry with Moa's flag. She leaned down to check on one of the security guys in front of the crowd, then laughed it off with Momoko afterwards. Closer fan cams would later confirm that she had indeed accidentally hit the security in the head with her flag pole, and was apologizing for the incident afterward. The song itself was fantastic as always, and brought us home in a big way, after which they had told us, "See you!", to which I gleefully yelled it back in return.
So yeah, another successful Babymetal show, and I honestly think this one may have topped their prior performances I had seen from Orlando and Atlanta in 2019 (not The Forum, though. That one's still the best I've seen live). Even if their show may be relatively short (only an hour, though it went by so quick I'd swear it was half that length), they always deliver, and put on a hell of a spectacle that just demands to be seen in person. I would absolutely see them again whenever they may make their way back around, and if you get a chance to see them near your area, I can't recommend it enough.
Our 10 year celebration of Velcro the Ninja Kat continues with these brand new commemorative Second Editions of the Ninja Kat novels, featuring updated text, and dynamic new cover art capturing key moments from the story. Click the links below for each corresponding book, and order your copies today!
