Film Fight 2019: December

#FF19 Knives out is an excellent, and different, whodunnit. If you're a fan of the genre, you'll easily solve most of the mystery but that's not the point.

Strong, dry, comedic performances from the main cast. Excellent pacing. Some really nice shots, but not overt.
Very good.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) December 7, 2019

#FF19 The Irishman is the story of a mob enforcer, over many decades.

This is classic Scorsese: an epic cast, showy camera work, confessional narration, and a sprawling story.

It's slow, but evenly paced; lengthy but engaging; and ends in the right place. Good stuff.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) December 7, 2019

#FF19 Marriage Story is at times beautiful, bittersweet, infuriating, delightful, difficult; a rollercoaster, evoking the ups and downs of a real breakdown.

Beautifully shot, with fantastic performances by the leads in particular.

Excellent.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) December 14, 2019

#FF19 The Report is a worthy biopic/documentary about attempts to conceal or reclassify torture by the CIA.

It's a solid telling of an interesting story, but most scenes could use a bit more room to breath and a bit more character building.

Decent.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) December 14, 2019

#FF19 Motherless Brooklyn is beautifully done, in terms of its art direction and cinematography.

The performances are excellent, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a stand-out.

There is some dead weight in the plot, and some overly convenient detective work.

Worth seeing.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) December 21, 2019

#FF19 6 Underground has some beautiful 4K HDR moments.

It’s terrible in almost every other regard.

Badly paced, awful musical cues, terrible dialogue, thin characterisation, choppy editing, cheap CG etc

Worst of all: the action is poorly done. All noise, no clarity.

Bad.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) December 16, 2019

#FF19 Star Wars: #riseofskywalker has some solid action sequences and big set pieces.

However, it's full of exposition, painfully crammed in cameos, and plot contrivances that come out of nowhere. It's also visually dull, especially compared to The Last Jedi

Meh. Disappointing

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) December 23, 2019

#FF19 The Two Popes is a surprisingly up-close look at the presumed differences between Popes Francis and Benedict.

Hopkins and Pryce are great as the leads, with their gentle, verbal sparring.

Beautifully shot, lightly funny, dark in places. A little slow, but worth seeing.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) December 29, 2019

#FF19 The App is a dull, mess of a film.

None of the characters are particularly interesting, or well rounded. The big reveal at the end is cliche, and obvious from the start. It's remarkably slow for an 80 minute movie.

Resolutely boring from start to finish.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) December 29, 2019