Bria Lou Reviews

It's been hard to narrow down what to write about when capturing the last three months - there's been so many great things that I've loved! Favourite Movie (1): The Odyssey I'll be uploading a full review of this movie, but as it's here, it's not a surprise to read that I loved it. I'm really glad I got to experience it in IMAX, which was my first ever IMAX experience, and such a fantastic one! This is worth watching in whatever format, but it definitely felt incredibly special on such a huge screen. Favourite Movie (2): The Love Hypothesis This was a late addition to the post - I watched this movie the same day I'm writing this post, but I loved it so much that I had to include it. It'll get a full review but it's worth saying here that it was pretty much everything I wanted from an adaptation of this story! Favourite Show (1): Shameless (US) Pretty much the entirety of my July was dedicated to watching this show. I think it's the quickest I...

  I hadn't heard of this film before seeing it on the bucket list, and the premise was quite vague, so it felt like I was going in blind, which is always fun. The movie was okay, but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. You get into the story right away - not only do you feel sympathy with the family from almost the very beginning, but you're invested in their story even when you don't know what direction the movie is going in. If you go in blind, it takes a long time to really understand what the movie is about or where it's going. After about 15 minutes, the plot seems to slow down, and other than getting to know the characters, not much happens. It's the kind of film that takes you along for the ride. We experience things alongside the characters, we have as much information as they do, and as more unexplainable things happen, we become more and more invested in how everything will end. The characters are great. Even though we don't know much about th...

  After being given the wrong number by a girl on a night out, Owen (Spike Fearn) teams up with a psychology student (Angourie Rice) to find the right Emily. I am here for all of the original rom-coms, so when I first heard about this one, I was really looking forward to seeing it. But I was even more excited when I saw all of the positive reviews. I really really liked this movie. As said, original rom-coms seem to be back in full force and I will always be a fan! The main character, Owen, is really sweet and fun to follow. The story is really grounded. All of the characters feel authentic and the story feels rooted in reality, even when the dialogue feels a bit over-the-top. The main actors, Fearn and Rice, have great chemistry and the relationship that they create with their characters is really sweet, and so much fun to watch. Their development is lovely and it's fun to be able to root for them as their relationship forms. If anything, all I wished was for them to have more tim...

I hadn't heard of this film before seeing it on the bucket list. The premise was an interesting one that could go in a few different directions, so I was interested to see how it would play out. I have mixed feelings about this one. The film moves slowly at first. We spend a lot of time getting to know and understand our main character, Carole, but because it's a psychological horror, with so much of it being centred on Carole's thoughts and emotions, having this time to understand her is beneficial. This is a psychological horror in the truest sense. All of the horror starts from Carole's mind, and for most of the film that's where it stays. And even when this horror becomes real, this happens as a result of Carole's thoughts. It's really interesting watching the character's descent into paranoia and madness. Seeing the way things escalate to mirror her state of mind really allows the audience to see what she's thinking, and it's fascinating to ...

  I hadn't heard of this film before seeing it on the bucket list, but I did like the premise so I was looking forward to seeing it. I liked this film a lot. It's really fun watching older murder mysteries; seeing the way that tropes have grown and changed over the years is fascinating. But it's also equally fascinating to see the way things have stayed the same - the eclectic group of characters is definitely something that has continued to be portrayed in modern murder mysteries. One of the things that this movie explores is violence against women, and in particular, violence against vulnerable women. Looking at this issue through the trope of a murder mystery is very effective at forcing an audience to look at a real issue by packaging it in a fun and somewhat familiar plot. The film is quite slow moving, which always surprises me in films that have such a short runtime. Particularly for a murder mystery. With only 80 minutes to play with you'd expect the action to n...

  When Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogan) invite their upstairs neighbours over for dinner, the night takes an unexpected turn that forces the couple to examine the future of their marriage. I'd heard such great things about this movie when it first came out, including many predictions for Oscar nominations, so of course I had to see it! To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. I liked the movie, but I didn't fully understand all of the exceptional praise it was receiving. The cast is a definite standout though. They're all fantastic and feel authentic in their roles. The dialogue is really fun and quippy, particularly at the beginning when we're getting to know the characters. It gives an interesting insight into who they really are. But with that, the film is very dialogue-heavy, to the point that it definitely feels like it could, or should, be a play. And it stays like this until the end, so if you're not a fan of dialogue-heavy movies, or just don't ...