Bria Lou Reviews

Hey Guys x I've finally finished watching the 'Best Picture' Oscar nominees, and I ended with this movie, which I'd probably heard the most about. It's about a 17-year-old boy called Elio who is living with his family in Italy. One day during the summer, a man comes to stay, called Oliver. He's a doctoral student who is working as an intern for Elio's father. As the men spend more time together, they discover an attraction that changes their summer, and their lives, forever. I tried not to have any expectations of this film when I was watching it, but I couldn't ignore all the praise that it was getting, so I did assume that I'd like the movie. And I hate to say this, but I didn't. I liked the idea of the story that it was telling, and I feel like I'd probably enjoy the book because I was really interested in the story itself - a young boy discovering himself and having some kind of sexual awakening. But I didn't like the fi...

Hey Guys x Up next is 'The Shape Of Water'. I literally just got back from seeing this at the cinema and it's still heavily on my mind for a number of reasons. It is about a woman called Elisa. She is mute, and as a result only has two people that she really communicates with, leaving her isolated and lonely. She works in some form of government facility, where she comes across something in a tank. Upon closer inspection, she finds that it is a creature that lives in the water, taking on the appearance of a human-type amphibian thing. As it can't speak, and neither can she, she forms a bond with the creature, and becomes completely attached to it. However, when she finds out what the government plan to do with her new friend, she sets out to make sure that this creature gets the life, and freedom, he deserves. Wow. I can't even describe my thoughts and feelings about this film, it's just 'wow'. Visually, this film is the most stunning piece o...

Hey Guys x As you can tell, up next we have 'Lady Bird'! I'm writing this the day after I saw it so it's still really fresh in my mind. Lady Bird is about a girl, in high school, who calls herself Lady Bird. She's from Sacramento, California and will do anything to go to college in New York... or anywhere out of her State. But, like all coming-of-age tales, life doesn't run smoothly. Whether it's an overbearing mother, the mystery that is boys, or falling in with the wrong crowd, will Lady Bird get to live the life that she's always wanted? Or will she be stuck in her small town, on the wrong side of the tracks? I really really enjoyed this movie. I love coming-of-age stories, and this is definitely one of the best that I've seen. There were so many things about this to love, but my favourite has to be the character of Lady Bird (or Christine, as her birth certificate suggests). She is feisty and strong af and passionate and she's a g...

Hey Guys x This is the next Oscar nominated film that I saw, and in terms of the 'Best Picture' nominees, I haven't got a lot left! Which is good because the Oscars are coming around so quickly! This film is about a dressmaker called Reynolds Woodcock who falls in love with a waitress called Alma. Quickly, they become a couple, she moves in with him and becomes a permanent fixture in the lives of Reynolds and his sister Cyril.  However, the relationship between the couple doesn't run smoothly. As Alma begins to disrupt Reynold's life, he begins to wonder why he brought her into it in the first place. And as the story begins to take a dark turn, it seems like this love story is set to end in disaster. This film didn't get a lot of publicity. In fact, before the Oscar nominees came out I hadn't heard of it at all. And to be honest, that sucks, because this film should be getting a lot more people taking about it than it currently is. I really enjoyed...

Hey Guys x Oscar season = reviewing Oscar nominated movies, including this one! This movie is about Britain during World War II. Winston Churchill has just been made prime minister and he has the face the problem of whether or not he should sign a peace treaty with Nazi Germany. But with the rest of the politicians sceptical about him, the threat of invasion imminent and the world watching, can he make the right decisions and continue to secure his term as PM? Let me be honest, I didn't expect to like this movie at all. Just like with 'Dunkirk', it wasn't a subject matter that I knew too much about, so I didn't think I'd have any interest in the movie. However, I liked this film so much! I don't know what it was, whether it was the story itself that was compelling, the characters or whatever, but I found myself so invested in what was happening and I wasn't bored for a moment, which is what I was expecting. Speaking of 'Dunkirk', th...

Hey Guys x Over the last six months or so, I've been working on some short films (most that will probably never see the light of day!), but one of them kept going and I got to the stage where I was auditioning people and actually choosing actors to play certain parts, which was great. However, there were some things that I noticed during this time that I thought would be interesting to share, particularly with budding actors. But I should point out, this is my second time auditioning people for a role. I am not a casting director in any way and my advice might be completely useless. These are just really personal things that I have found while auditioning people for this one project. Also, this is more about those sending in audition tapes than going to actual auditions. 1. Know What Role You're Auditioning For This has only happened once or twice to me, but it's just quite a weird thing. I had one or two people who wanted to audition for a less popular part (i....

Hey Guys x In keeping with Oscar season, Dunkirk is the next film that I'm reviewing! The film takes place in May 1940, and is about troops from Britain and France that were trapped by Germany on the beaches of Dunkirk, and if/how they managed to be evacuated. I didn't really have any idea of this story before I started watching this film. The only thing I knew was from the brief descriptions of the film that I'd already read, but nothing about how accurate it is to the true story, so I didn't know what to expect. The biggest theme of this film was definitely the sense of heroism, of what these men managed to accomplish and the sense of relief and freedom that came from them finally making their way back home (which is a spoiler but to be honest, this came out AGES ago and it's a true story, so if you haven't seen it, you probably know how it ends anyway). However, the other theme for me was the human basic instinct of survival. Even as a viewer safe...

Hey Guys x This is something that I've been thinking a bit about lately. I've never been the person to put my blog into a category, or to limit myself into only posting about a specific thing. When I started blogging, there were lots of directions that I wanted my blog to take, so I posted about anything I wanted to. And this isn't something that I've consciously decided to stop doing. It's just that, as things get busier (I have only a month and a bit left until I technically finish third year of uni, in terms of lessons. Then in May, everything is over) I find less stuff that I want to post about. In a way, it's like I only want to spend time posting if I can justify writing that post over reading a book for uni. But movies are my biggest passion. And so, movie reviews are the one thing that I make time to write no matter what. So if you look at my most recent posts (including my 'Blogmas' posts), you'll see that most of them have been...

Hey Guys x Today's post might come out as more of a rant, which I'm OK with because I haven't ranted about something in a while! Last year, I started watching the show '8 Simple Rules' when it started playing on Comedy Central. It originally came on between 2002 and 2005 but I didn't watch it when it was first on. Anyway, I really got into it. There were only three seasons, so it was over before I wanted it to be. And I loved this show, and I still love it. Comedy Central doesn't play it anymore but if it did I would dive right back into it because I love a good sitcom. However, I have a major gripe with a plotline of the show, that got more prominent in season 2/3. Let me just explain the characters a bit, so you know who I'm taking about in case you never watched it. The show revolves around a family, Paul and Cate Hennessy, and their children Bridget, Kerry and Rory. In the second season, the father in the show died (due...

Hey Guys x There are so many films in the X-Men series that I know there would be no point in reviewing them all in separate posts, especially because I don't have much to say about some of them. So I thought that I'd just review them all in one post. And then I thought, why don't I rank them too? So that's what I'm doing! (If you're here from my 'Oscars 2018' tag/label, that's because Logan has been nominated for an Oscar!) Although I have to say, I've only seen each movie once, so the rankings are definitely on first impression, and will probably change if I ever go back and watch them all again. And there will definitely be spoilers, because they all (with the exception of Logan) came out so long ago that I assume that whoever wanted to see them already has. Also, I'm not including Deadpool, because I watched it ages ago and my mind kind of keeps them separate. But let's be honest, it would probably be at the top of the list. ...

Hey Guys x As you may or may not know, we're now into Oscar season, which is one of my favourite times of year. I'm hoping to see as many nominated films as possible, more than I did last year. But in the UK the films come out so late that I might not get a chance, which would be a shame. However, every nominated film that I see, I will review. I've already reviewed 'Three Billboards...' 'Get Out' and 'The Big Sick', and they're all under the tag 'Oscars 2018', so feel free to view them here ! But anyway, let me get on with this review! This film is about a woman called Katharine Graham (played by Meryl Streep) who is the first female publisher of a newspaper, The Washington Post. When she and her team get a hold of a story that exposes government secrets regarding the Vietnam war, Katharine, her editor Ben Bradlee (played by Tom Hanks) and everyone else involved in her paper have to decide what's more important - their jo...