Film Fight 2019: January

#FF19 The Favourite follows a power struggle in the court of Queen Anne.

The three leads are excellent, with Colman in particular delivering a brilliant performance.

The moments that use wide-angle lenses and odd rotations felt a bit off, but that’s the point.

Very good.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) January 2, 2019

#FF19 Stan & Ollie is a sweet, but somewhat lightweight look at professional respect turning to a kind of friendship.

Both lead performances are great, and the film captures the comedy of Laurel & Hardy well.

It does, however, feel fairly sanitised and safe. It has no teeth. Ok

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) January 20, 2019

#FF19 Glass is bad. From the mess of a plot, to the bad dialogue, to the generally terrible delivery, basically nothing works.

Shyamalan’s usual flair for visuals are constrained by an obviously low budget and short shooting time.

Heavy handed, dreary, and unimpressive. Avoid.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) January 20, 2019

#FF19 Fyre is a decent look at hubris. Reasonably put together in a talking-head/oral history format, it tells the story of how a musical festival for the rich turned into an epic meltdown.

As well as insights into fraud, it also tells us about the nature of compliance. Good

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) January 24, 2019

#FF19 Close is a fairly generic action film about a kidnapping, with some dumb thriller beats attached.

Noomi Rapace does her best, but the rest of the cast really don’t do much.

The action is fairly flat, the dialogue trite, and the direction stock. Avoid.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) January 28, 2019

#FF19 Mary, Queen of Scots is the story of how the titular queen became exiled… or not, it’s quite inaccurate. That’d be fine if it made the plot more interesting, but it’s fairly slow.

The two leads are the saving factor: fantastic performances from each.

An average drama.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) January 28, 2019

#FF19 Polar desperately wants to be John Wick, but doesn’t on any front: visuals, action, pacing, or setting.

Polar has long, dull stretches of comic book bright visuals; fairly meh action; and some of the most needlessly gratuitous scenes I’ve seen in years. Avoid.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) February 4, 2019