Drama – Page 20 – Movie Meister Reviews

June 16, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Oxygen (2021) – Breathe In The Goodness

Released: 12th May
Seen: 15th June

Alexandre Aja is a fascinating director. He first really came to prominence with his film Haute Tension, part of an era of horror cinema known as “New French Extremity” which, very basically, means French films that really messed with people in the early 2000’s. He would go on to make the Hills Have Eyes remake (one of the few good 2000’s horror remakes), Piranha 3D (another one of the few good 2010’s horror remakes) and Crawl (2019 Best Film honorable mention). His films have this weird pattern of somehow getting less extreme the longer he works, which is a fascinating projection for one of the founding members of the New French Extremity movement. It fits that pattern then that Oxygen might be his most subdued film yet, but it’s still really damn good.

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June 15, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

In The Heights (2021) – The Highest Heights

Released: 24th June
Seen: 14th June (Advance Screening)

In recent years, musicals have been… well, bad. Music was offensive to many communities, The Prom was brought down by one truly bad performance and a lack of style while Cats… well, I try not to discuss war crimes on this blog so let’s just not talk about Cats anymore. For a while now it’s felt like we might never have another great musical outside of animation, and even those are slowly dying since musical animated films appear to be happening less and less often. Thank goodness we now have In The Heights to remind everyone just how great a musical can be, I hope this is the start of a glorious resurgence for this little genre.

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June 10, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Cherry (2021) – Bowl of Pits

Released: 12th March
Seen: 9th June

I’ll admit, I’ve been pretty neglectful when it comes to my Apple Plus subscription. I’ve had the service now for a while, never paid for it because it came free with my phone, and yet I’ve watched a grand total of about 6 things on it. A few episodes of Defending Jacob (never finished the series, I assume Jacob got defended), The Out on Television docuseries, Disclosure, Greyhound, Wolfwalkers and Palmer.

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May 24, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

A Quiet Place Part 2 (2021) – Sounds Like Fun

Released: 27th May
Seen: 21th May (Advance Screening)

In 2018 the film A Quiet Place came out and was an instant hit, along with just generally being one of the best films of the year. A tense instant horror classic that was nothing short of miraculous in how cleverly it played with the audience, turning every sound into the most terrifying thing imaginable. It was a film that taught me how to eat popcorn by slowly dissolving it between my tongue and the roof of my mouth for fear I would make a sound so when I heard there was a sequel coming out, imaginatively titled A Quiet Place Part 2, on March 20 of 2020 (a day after my birthday) you wouldn’t find anyone more excited than me.

…and then the world decided to end and this film got pushed back by well over a year. Was the wait worth it? Hell yes it was!

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May 23, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

The Woman In The Window (2021) – Put This In My Rear Window

Released: 14th May
Seen: 20th May

Sometimes a film comes out and you can just see its influences before the film even begins. The Woman in the Window as a film is clearly lifting a lot from films like Rear Window and Copycat, which are both fine films to take as influences so you would think that would hopefully lead to an interesting tense movie. Well, apparently this film’s other influence was an overturned trash can that racoons have picked through because this is actual garbage.

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May 22, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Songbird (2021) – Novid-19

Released: 20th May
Seen: 20th May

When a disaster happens, it’s only natural for it to somehow end up being a part of people’s art. People process things in different ways and that includes filmmakers. With this deadly pandemic spreading worldwide it’s only natural that people would work it into the art they were making. TV shows like 9-1-1 have been working covid into the background of their stories, movies like Host have used the lockdown as an element of the story. Key word in that sentence is “ELEMENT”, what would happen if someone made an entire film that was just “What if the current pandemic… but worse?”… that person would be making Songbird and I would not like them very much.

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April 29, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Stowaway (2021) – Smart-ish Sci Fi

Released: 22nd April
Seen: 26th April

Space, the final frontier. A place that very few have ever gone and a perfect location for a film about people stranded in the middle of nowhere. It’s a popular filming location and can be used for high drama (Apollo 11), horror (Alien) or even goofy ass stupidity that is more enjoyable than it has any right to be (Jason X). Of course, sometimes you can go for a high drama and end up somewhere a little closer to stupid but enjoyable… oh, hi Stowaway.

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April 26, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

The White Tiger (2021) – Class War Is Hell!

Released: 22nd January
Seen: 23rd April

One thing I’ve noticed about reviewing is that I don’t tend to do a lot of foreign films. “Foreign” in this context tends to mean “Films that aren’t made in Australia, England or America” because for some reason films from those countries never get considered “foreign films” . I believe the last time I did a film that was not from one of those countries might be when Parasite came out.

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April 24, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

The Father (2021) – Perfect

Released: 1st April
Seen: 22nd April

I genuinely don’t know how to start this. I hate to use the excuse of “I’m too emotional to come up with something witty or clever to open this review” but… it’s the truth. The Father has really emotionally wrecked me, partially because of the content and partly cos it hit me on a personal level. Just warning you that if you have a family member with dementia that this film is going to hit you like a train and probably ruin the rest of your day… but god it’s so good.

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April 23, 2021April 23, 2021 leebutler Review

Pinocchio (2020) – Pinocci-No

Released: 25th December 2020
Seen: 22nd April 2021

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi was printed in 1883 in Italy and quickly became a classic. The story of a little wooden puppet with a nose that grows every time he lies has not only been adapted multiple times but has inspired a multitude of other films. Possibly the most famous adaptation was done by Walt Disney in 1940, a film so popular that the song “When You Wish Upon A Star” would basically become the Disney anthem.

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