Bria Lou Reviews

 Hey Guys x This film only came out on Amazon Prime Video this month, right when I was looking for some Blogmas additions. So of course I had to review it. Jules (Olivia-Mai Barrett) tries to find her widowed father (Jeremy Piven) a date for Christmas. This film was average. It definitely isn't a bad movie, but it's also nothing to write home about. The premise of the film was interesting, and if done well, could have been really poignant. For example, there are the beginnings of a really interesting portrayal of grief that could have been explored more.  The lack of dialogue at the beginning of the film is really effective in terms of allowing the audience to understand the relationship between these two characters. Speaking of characters, all of the characters are really likeable, and it's nice to watch them. It's also really nice to see the intricacies of these relationships. Even though the relationship between Jules and her father is strained, you can always see th...

Hey Guys x I knew practically nothing about this film before watching it, other than the fact that it was an Amazon Prime Video original, and it was a romance. But because it looked interesting, I decided to see what it was about. Two high school students meet and fall in love, but one of them is hiding a secret that could end their relationship before it even begins. I wasn't particularly enjoying this film as I was watching it, but it took me until the end to be able to actually pinpoint the reasons that I didn't like it. At the start, it feels like the same generic coming-of-age story that we've seen 100 times, but this wasn't what I disliked. The only thing wrong with this, for me, is that the film didn't give us enough. It took a little while for us to know these characters. My problem kicked in with the character of Henry (Austin Abrams), our main male character. The film tries to portray Henry as a nice, sweet, sympathetic character that we should fall in lov...

Hey Guys x I remember a commotion being made over this film when it first came out - I think people walked out of the screening at the Cannes premiere because it was so disturbing. So of course, that made me excited to watch it. Thankfully it was (and is) on Amazon Prime Video, so I could watch it easily. Jack (Matt Dillon) is a failed architect who tells the audience the story of five murders that he committed, comparing each one to a work of art. I wasn't sure what to make of this film after first watching it, but after sitting on it for a day or so, I think I liked it more than I thought I did at the time. The first thing that struck me about this film was the unique way that it compares the horrific act of murder to the beauty of art and/or architecture. It does this so early on that it sets up what the film will become. The moments of voice over which are so infused within the film are very original, but they also break you away from the main story rather than pushi...

Hey Guys x I was supposed to watch and review this film so long ago that it's embarrassing. I kept planning to watch it, but then something else always took precedence. And then I think that, because I assumed that the film would be really emotional, I wanted to mentally prepare for it - and apparently that took about a year to do! Nic Sheff (Timothée Chalamet) has a whole life in front of him when he becomes addicted to meth. An addiction that quickly spirals out of control and leads Nic into the repetitive cycle of rehab, recovery and relapse. David Sheff (Steve Carell) does everything he can to bring his son back from the edge, but David soon realises that if he wants to save Nic, he has to let Nic save himself. I thought this was a great movie. By the way it's filmed, from the first moments on screen you know that what's coming is about to break your heart, and it absolutely does. There's so much power in the way the story is being told - we get to know s...

Hey Guys x This film has been talked about a lot since it first came out, but I never had a particularly strong desire to see it. All I'd heard about it was people saying it was either really great, really disturbing, or both. However, it is now on Amazon Prime, so I thought I'd give it a try to see if it was as good as so many people think it is. Dani (Florence Pugh) and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) travel with Christian's friends to Sweden for a Midsummer festival that takes place every 90 years. But when the group arrive, they discover the violent, horrifying truth behind the festival. I'm in two minds about this film. On the one hand, the way it was spoken about led me to believe that it would be amazing, which it wasn't to me. But on the other hand, it definitely wasn't bad either. The beginning of the film is completely separate from everything that happens after the group get to Sweden. For a long time at the beginning, you have no idea...

Hey Guys x Happy Christmas Eve! So this is the film that's ending Blogmas. To be honest, I ended up watching so many Christmas films that I didn't realise that this would be the last one until I actually checked the amount of reviews I'd written against the dates. So this may not be the best film to end on, but I'm really glad that I didn't dislike it as much as some of the others I've written! Mary (Erin Karpluk) decides to restore the lodge that she and her family spent a lot of time in growing up. But along the way, she discovers a love that she never expected to find. I'm kind of glad that I'm ending Blogmas on this one. While it isn't the most original Christmas film, it has a really nice feel that a lot of the others didn't have. Yes she found love, but to this girl the most important thing was her family, and they all helped her to restore this lodge. For some reason, her family being so involved made the film feel really sweet a...

Hey Guys x This is another movie that's on Amazon Prime and again, it stars Lacey Chabert, who now seems to be proficient in making Christmas Hallmark movies! When Darcy (Lacey Chabert) goes home for Christmas, she reconnects with her family and her old rival Luke (Brendan Penny). When they decide to plan a charity event together, Darcy discovers the true meaning of Christmas, and exactly why this town is still so important to her. I didn't really like this movie at all. For a start, the name of the movie is instantly cheesy, which isn't that unusual for a Christmas movie from the Hallmark channel, but it has absolutely nothing to do with what the movie is about. This isn't a story that instantly grabs you. But what's good about it is that it's vaguely interesting enough to keep you watching - or more likely, to keep on in the background without missing what's going on. Darcy and Luke are the obvious couple of the movie, but that doesn't me...

Hey Guys x It's Blogmas Day 19 - how quickly has that gone?! This film comes courtesy of Amazon Prime. I mainly chose it because I recognised the main actress in it (from Two and a Half Men, where she played Kate) and, though it seemed generic and plain, I thought it would be a nice simple movie to watch while doing other things. Ellie (Brooke D'Orsay) works in her local bakery, and loves her job. But when she meets businessman Nick Carlingson (Daniel Lissing), who wants to replace the humans in the bakery with machines, can she convince Nick to see the heart in the bakery, and in her small town? It was exactly what I expected it to be, and it'll be exactly what you expect, too. The beginning of the film is so cliche that you actually feel like you've seen it before, because you've seen the same situations happen in 90% of Hallmark movies. It actually feels like the film throws desserts and men at the audience to distract us from how cliche and bad the...

Hey Guys x It's Blogmas day 16! I've seen this movie before, but I decided to include it in this list because I remember really liking it when I first saw it, but hadn't seen it since that first time. And if you also want to watch it, it's on Amazon Prime! Best friends Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) have decided to conclude their tradition of spending Christmas Eve together - but not before one last blowout, which becomes a night that none of them will ever forget. As I said, I really liked this movie when I first saw it, and I really liked it the second time. It wasn't a perfect Christmas movie, but compared to everything else I've seen so far this month, it does a really good job. There's really great chemistry between the three leads - it seems like they've actually known each other for as long as their characters have. This could be due to the fact that Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have ...

Hey Guys x Another non-Blogmas review for you, this time in the form of 'The Report', which is an Amazon Prime movie that came out a few days ago. I heard about it quite a while ago and couldn't wait to see it - I finally watched it yesterday. Daniel Jones (Adam Driver) is an FBI agent tasked with creating a Report based on the CIA's extreme new interrogation techniques used in the aftermath of 9/11 - aptly nicknamed 'The Torture Report'. I loved this film, and it feels really weird to say that because of the subject matter - the word 'loved' feels too trivial. But nevertheless, I have a lot of positive feelings towards the way that the film handled this subject matter. I was actually really surprised that this film hadn't been made before now - it seems like an amazing piece of source material that directors were probably clambering to tackle. Not only is it a true story, but it's a story that is so important to history. Whether you kn...