Bria Lou Reviews

Hey Guys x This is my fourth year of writing this post, and this is the first time that I feel kind of unprepared for the Oscars tonight. I guess because I've been really busy this year that everything has kind of snuck up on me. Nevertheless, I did manage to see all of the Best Picture nominees, and enough of the other movies that I still wanted to do this post. I mean, I couldn't miss it! So as usual, I'll start by ranking the Best Picture nominees according to which I liked the most. However, as usual, my opinions always seem to be kind of controversial compared to the rest of the internet world! Click on each film to be taken to my review of it! 9. Little Women 8. Ford v Ferrari 7. Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood 6. Jojo Rabbit 5. The Irishman 4. Marriage Story 3. 1917 2. Joker 1. Parasite To be honest, I really struggled between Parasite and Joker, but I eventually went with Parasite as number one because as well as it being amazing, it's also...

Hey Guys x This was the last Best Picture nominee that I had to see (because it's taking such a long time to get a proper release in the UK!), and without giving anything away, I pretty much accidentally saved the best til last. The Kim family are unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. So when they become involved with the Park family, it feels like things are finally starting to look up. But when the Kim family discover something they shouldn't, the course of their lives changes forever. Wow. I had heard good things about this film, but deliberately made sure that I knew absolutely nothing about it so that I could be as surprised as possible when I watched it. But to be honest, surprised is an understatement. And my advice would be to know as little as possible before going in. From the moment the movie starts, the story and characters are so interesting and relatable that you already feel like you know them. And this continues all the way through the film, p...

Hey Guys x I can't believe how long it took me to finally see this film. And I admit that, were it not for the Oscars, I probably wouldn't have seen it for ages because it didn't really appeal to me. But I'm so glad I did! During World War I, two soldiers must take on the harrowing task of crossing enemy lines to deliver a message that would save the lives of over a thousand fellow soldiers. I really liked this film, and that surprised me because I didn't expect to like it that much. For a start, this movie was filmed in one continuous take (or to look like one continuous take anyway), and that was perfect for a film like this. It had the same effect, for me, as watching a foreign film with subtitles - if you look away for a second, you miss a lot! I really liked that it didn't downplay the very real danger of the situation, and nothing is shied away from. Every gory dead body/animal, every ounce of pain is on display. It made me as an audience membe...

Hey Guys x I really wanted to see this when it first started advertising, way before I knew that it would be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Of course, that was mainly because I'm a huge fan of Matt Damon. So I saw it even though I didn't know what the story was about, and don't have a particular interest in cars. When automotive designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) hires race car driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) to race Ford cars against the cars of Ferrari, neither of them could guess how important this race would become. If I hadn't seen any reviews of the film before seeing it, I think I would have been pleasantly surprised. But because it's been getting amazing reviews and people have been saying how great it is, I felt a bit underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, but it wasn't as amazing as a lot of people are saying. The first thing I noticed (and loved) about it was the use of sound. You never really th...

Hey Guys x I remember when this film came out a little while ago, and it was never on my 'to watch' list, especially going to see it at the cinema. It never seemed like my kind of thing. But because it's been nominated for Best Picture, I went to see it last week, hoping to be pleasantly surprised. The March sisters are dealing with a lot during the Civil War. But when they grow up and start to go their separate ways, youngest sister Beth's (Eliza Scanlen) devastating illness forces the three remaining sisters to come back to the place where they grew up. So as I said, I went into this expecting it to not be my cup of tea, and unfortunately that's how I left the cinema. Although I studied English Literature in university, this was one of the books that completely bypassed me, so I went into this knowing practically nothing about the story, other than what Rachel tells Joey in an episode of Friends. For a start, the story is told in a non-linear way. And ...

Hey Guys x I wanted to see this regardless of the Oscars, but the fact that it's been nominated for 6 Academy Awards (including Best Picture!) spurred me on to see it as soon as possible. During World War II, 10 year old Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) regularly pledges his devotion to Hitler - his imaginary friend (Taika Waititi) and the real version. So when he discovers the secrets that his mother (Scarlett Johansson) has been keeping, Jojo begins to question his entire belief system. This film did a complete 180 for me. At the beginning of the film, I was sceptical and really didn't think I'd like it, and by the end I was in tears, which I never expected. The beginning of the film, for me, was a bit weird. I had no idea what the film was about (other than the very basic premise), so going into it was a bit weird. Everything felt a bit over the top and in your face. The humour was too obvious, the colours were too bright, everything was too much. But having said ...

Hey Guys x It's officially Awards season, and this is a film that got nominated for more Academy Awards than I thought it would - which is great because it's an important story. It came out in the UK yesterday, so there's a lot of time to see it before the Oscars! In the world of Fox News, many things are swept under the carpet. But when employee Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) decides to finally speak out about the sexual harassment she had faced at the hands of founder Roger Ailes (John Lithgow), the repercussions affect every woman working under Ailes, including Fox News correspondent Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron). I liked this movie a lot, and I was surprised at how little of the story I'd actually heard before watching it. The film focuses on three extremely important characters that spark conversations that needed to be had at the time that these incidents took place (because, if you couldn't tell, this is a true story), but they are also conversati...

Hey Guys x Welcome to my first post of 2020! I've actually been putting off writing this review. I saw the film ages ago now, and while I was watching it I wrote my notes for my review. But for some reason, I felt like my notes weren't enough, like they didn't truly capture how I felt about the film. And I think this is because I didn't know how I truly felt about the film until I saw it for the second time and could finally pinpoint the things that I did and didn't like. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) are a couple who are on the brink of divorce. As they go through the painful process and see their relationship examined under a microscope, they are both forced to discover that their marriage was never what they thought it was. I loved this film, I really did. But I have to say that there were also some things that I didn't like. The problem with this is that I feel both extremes - the things that I liked, I loved, and the things...

Hey Guys x It's the first day of Blogmas, but as I said in my 'Blogmas 2019' post, I will be putting up non-Blogmas related film reviews during December, and as I saw this yesterday (and had been waiting to see it for ages) it definitely made the cut. When a man dies on his 85th birthday, everyone is a suspect - including his entire family and everyone who worked for him. So when Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) arrives on the scene, he has just one job - find the killer. Weirdly, I loved this film and was disappointed with it, almost in equal measure - though in the end, my love beat out the disappointment. I'll try to go into my disappointment without spoilers, but let's just say that if you're a fan of typical murder mysteries, then this is very different to what you're used to. In a way, I almost don't want it to be labelled in that way - but there's no other way to categorise a film like this, so the 'whodunnit' angle make...

Hey Guys x I have to admit, if I wasn't so obsessed with the Oscars every year, I don't know if I would have seen this film as soon as I did. But last year, I ended up having to play catch-up with a lot of the nominated movies because I didn't bother seeing them when they came out, so this year I'm trying to make some guesses - and this film definitely feels like an Oscar contender. Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran (Robert De Niro) is a truck driver who gets willingly involved with the Bufalino crime family. But as we watch his rise to the top of the food chain, we also see his downfall. I'm in two minds about this movie. One the one hand, I think it's a great movie, for so many reasons that I'll go on to write about for almost the entirety of this review. But on the other hand, I didn't love it, for only one or two reasons. I knew that I didn't love this movie all the way through, but I couldn't work out what it was. Because I know...