Original-Cin

The most beautiful thing in this film needs to be felt with the heart through Kore-eda’s augmented visuals, sound, and use of metaphors. It seems like love is the one element that could tie a family together in the director’s films.

As watchable as McCarthy’s performance is — sometimes it’s almost enough just to watch a resourceful actor work hard — the backstory never quite makes sense before the splashy climax leads to the quick resolution.

It’s getting harder by the movie to walk the tightrope (or spider’s web) that is the ever-crowded Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Spider-Man: Brand New Day, fourth in the Tom Holland Spidey-series, manages it. Just.

It’s hard to conceive of a more compelling legacy.

A weak plot coupled with not enough conflict to warrant any sort of tension. This contributes to little character development and in the end, a resolution that hardly justifies the time investment in seeing the film.

A Sad and Beautiful World is an original, deliberately artificial mashup of romantic fantasy and social political drama, signified by the contrasting adjectives of the title.

One of the problems with Brunello: The Gracious Visionary is that it spends the first half of its 127-minute runtime (that’s another problem) on the penurious Italian childhood of future fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli.

It seems Refn is primarily interested in making a film that he is interested in making, and really doesn’t care a whole lot if the audience doesn’t follow. He does have fun with some unexpected martial art fight sequences, some clever comic-book slashes of violence and one or two meltdowns crazier than a Norma Desmond outtake, But it’s never enough to make the film feel like something with which the audience is welcome to play along.

As stated, this sci-fi film is slow-paced but it’s necessary to provide Lars the chance to allow the audience to accompany him on his journey of self-discovery. When we all arrive at the destination together, it’s a journey worthwhile taking.

Driven by powerful performances, particularly from Matt Damon, we see a thinking man in The Odyssey, who is really us, in an adventure bigger than we could imagine. It is both relevant and urgent. It’s bracing, powerful stuff by a master storyteller.