Bria Lou Reviews

  I hadn't heard of this one, so it was fun to go in completely blind. I have mixed feelings about the film. It starts from a confusing place, particularly going in blind. It's fun to try and work out what's going on before things really get going. It took me longer to get into than I would have liked. The story starts slowly, and even when things start happening, they happen slowly. Which isn't to say that I lost interest in the film, but I wasn't as invested in the characters as I would have liked to be. At 30 minutes in it's been drip-feeding the audience ideas without exploring anything too deeply or drawing any conclusions. While this does a good job of sparking intrigue in the rest of the film, it doesn't engage the viewer as much as it needs to. There are a lot of characters that only have a few minutes of screen time each and it can be hard to keep them all straight. The cast is great, particularly Art Hindle, who easily evokes sympathy from the audi...

  In the 1980's, Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) creates his album 'Nebraska' on the cusp of global stardom. This wasn't one I was particularly excited for. I heard a lot about it before it came out, but once it was actually released all the talk died down and no one seemed to have anything to say about it. And as someone who isn't particularly a Springsteen fan, I only really watched it for Jeremy Allen White. I didn't love this film. The first thing I noted was that none of the performances felt particularly authentic. It took me a while to believe that these actors were who they were pretending to be, which started the film on a sour note. The story felt more like a collection of scenes than anything with a coherent plot. There were some aspects of the story that were fun to watch, the beginning of the romance (if you can call it that) for example. But those small moments didn't help with the overall story. None of the characters, including Springs...

  After hiring a car from a mysterious company, strangers David (Colin Farrell) and Sarah (Margot Robbie) relive some of the most important moments of their pasts together. It took me way too long to watch this movie. The premise looked interesting, but it came out quietly and then no one really spoke about it. I think it got lost coming out in a year of so many big amazing movies, but I'm glad I've finally seen it! I liked this film. I like the characters together. Farrell and Robbie work well together and had chemistry, though I don't know if the chemistry they have is particularly romantic. With not much to go on, the audience are also just along for the ride, and I think this works well. I don't think it would have been as interesting if we knew more than they did. That being said, when they started going back in time I was struggling to understand the point of the story, and having seen it and sat with it, I still don't know if it's exactly what the filmmak...

I saw the 2022 remake of this film a couple of years ago. So even though I hadn't seen this film, I didn't go into it blind, which would have been really interesting. I liked this film. I'm actually sad that I saw the remake before seeing this one, not least because it made the plot feel really obvious, almost like I would have guessed it right away if I didn't already know. The actors are great. The boys who play Lukas and Elias (Lukas and Elias Schwarz) are amazing. I have no idea how old they were when they made the film but they did a great job, and Susanne Wuest who played their mother was also brilliant. The audience doesn't really get much to go on while watching this film. We don't know anything about these people, we don't get to understand their lives prior to these events and we don't understand who they are until the end of the film. Ordinarily, this would be a bad thing, but I think it works so well here. We're forced into this strange s...

  In 1943, lyricist Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) spends an evening self-reflecting after his former collaborator Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) opens a hit musical without him. The only reason this was on my radar, other than being a huge Andrew Scott fan, is that Ethan Hawke has been brought up in award conversation multiple times, and has now received an Oscar nomination. This film was okay - the performances were the best thing about it. Hawke completely embodies this character. We really get a true sense of who Hart is, and even when the performance becomes more outlandish, it never feels inauthentic. Though it's a shame that Hawke is the only one being spoken about - all of the cast are amazing in their roles and they all deserve their flowers. Hart is an odd character. Putting us in the bar with him lets us get to know him, but his insufferable nature has the effect of making the film feel like a slog to get through. And this was a note I made at 22 minutes in so you can guess h...

  I had only heard of this movie in passing, but never really looked into what it was about, so I was looking forward to checking it out. I absolutely loved this film! One of the first things I noticed about the film was that it uses, and doesn't use, dialogue in a really effective way. For instance, the art gallery scene is incredible, and I can't remember if there was more than a couple of lines of dialogue spoken by anyone. It highlights how amazing the score is and also forces you to really focus on what's happening. Speaking of the score, it just got better and better. The music used was picked perfectly and really worked well to create the tone of whatever scene it was used in. The characters speak only when they have to, and this is really the mark of great direction that the audience is hanging on to the character's every word even when no words are spoken. The story is really engaging - I found myself way too invested in these characters and what would happen t...