leebutler Review

The Stylist (2020) – This Style Is In This Season

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on March 2, 2021

Claire (Najarra Townsend) is a shy young hairstylist who spends her days giving other people a chance to feel good about themselves, something that Claire has seemingly never had about herself. She will often find herself imagining what life must be like as some of her clients who appear to lead such perfect lives… and when imagining doesn’t do the job, she’ll drug them, scalp them, wear the scalp in place of a wig and use that to help her pretend that her life is as glamorous as those she helps.

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leebutler Review

Lucky (2021) – Luck Repeats Itself

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on March 2, 2021

Lucky starts with a premise that’s slowly growing more familiar with every passing usage of it. May (Brea Grant) is a self-help author living with her partner, Ted (Dhruv Uday Singh), and having what could be considered a relatively comfortable life when suddenly a man breaks into their home.

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leebutler Review

Spencer (2022) – Better Than The Musical

Released: 20th January
Seen: 14th February

Spencer Info

Telling the story of the life of Princess Diana is never going to be easy, in part because she was one of the most well documented human beings in history thanks to the paparazzi who were ultimately implicated in her death but also because her story is ultimately one of utter tragedy, she’s a Disney Princess who was overwhelmed by the harsh reality and eventually torn down by the very glamorous lifestyle that nobility promised.

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leebutler Review

Shook (2021) – Much More Interesting Than Its Title

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on February 16, 2021

The world of social media fame is… weird, to say the least. Some people require years of training in a specific skill in order to get fame, other’s can just look pretty and do a good smokey eye and get a million Instagram fans. That second one would describe Mia (Daisye Tutor), a social media ‘celebrity’ with a huge number of followers and a very specific brand that she puts forward to those followers.

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leebutler Review

The Lost Daughter (2021) – Found It

Released: 31st December 2021
Seen: 13th February 2022

The Lost Daughter Info

In 2006, the Italian novel La figlia oscura by Elena Ferrante was released. Eventually translated in 2008, the book got the English title of The Lost Daughter. This year at the Oscars the film adaptation of this would only receive three nominations, two for acting and one for the screenplay which honestly feels like a lot less than it deserves but considering the material, they’re definitely the best categories for a film like this.

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leebutler Review

Belfast (2022) – Bel-slow

Released: 3rd February
Seen: 11th February

Belfast Info

In August of 1969, there was a series of riots in Belfast that started a 30 year conflict colloquially known as “The Troubles” or the Northern Ireland Conflict. Without going into detail (cos I suck at history), the short version is that it was effectively a civil war between Catholics and Protestants that made life hard for those caught in the middle… one of those people was a young Kenneth Branagh who was only 9 when his family left Ireland and moved to England in order to escape from The Troubles.

When you live through something like that and grow up to be an influential filmmaker like Kenneth did, it feels inevitable that you might turn that period of your life into a film at some point and with Belfast, Kenneth did exactly that… so god it’s going to be awkward to say I’m on the fence on this one.

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leebutler Review

Summer of Soul (…or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021) –

Released: 19th November, 2021
Seen: 11th February, 2022

Well, the time has come for one of the more interesting months of the year, that being the month where I desperately try to catch up on all the Oscar-nominated films that I somehow missed because they all seem to be released around the time the nominations come out. No idea how this is going to work for this year, hopefully, we’ll be able to get through everything but that’s why you’re going to see a whole bunch of 2021 films being reviewed fresh in 2022… fortunately, the first cab off the rank is the absolutely brilliant documentary Summer of Soul (…or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised).

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leebutler Review

The Night (2021) – A Blatant ‘The Shining’ Double

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on February 2nd, 2020

Driving home from a night with some friends, Babak (Shahab Hosseini) and Neda (Niousha Noor) become too tired to finish the trip home and so, with their young infant in tow, the couple decides to take a room at the Hotel Normandie for the night so they can sleep off the exhaustion and alcohol. However, the Hotel Normandie is not as peaceful as they would hope and soon their night becomes overrun by assorted strange things that seek to drive them apart and force them to reveal the dark secrets that have caused a rift in their relationship to begin with. 

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leebutler Review

Monster Hunter (2020) – A Failure of Godzilla-Sized Proportions

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on January 5th, 2020

Some video games are simple enough that you would think that they shouldn’t be that hard to adapt into a movie. Monster Hunter might have a lot of lore, but when the core mechanic seems to be “Kill a big monster then use parts of that monster to help you kill an even bigger monster” then that basically demands you make a fun Kaiju movie with lots of discount-Godzillas being poked with large pointy things. This shouldn’t be too hard to make at least mindlessly watchable… unless you hand it to the guy who drove the Resident Evil franchise into the ground, then you might have an early contender for the worst film 2021 has to offer. (Edit note: It wasn’t just a contender, it won one of those spots)

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