3 posts categorized "Melodrama"

February 02, 2022

NIGHTMARE ALLEY

COLE SMITHEY

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

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ColeSmithey.comInsufferable, poorly paced, sterile melodrama with a double side of gore.

Yawn.

Guillermo del Toro has forgotten how to make movies.

Del Toro's script co-writer Kim Morgan shoulders some of the blame.

Bradley Cooper is awful. Cate Blanchett is awful.

Quel désastre. 

ColeSmithey.com

Richard Jenkins and Rooney Mara fair little better.

ColeSmithey.com

Paint dries faster than this movie gets around to the matter at hand, namely a high-stakes con game run by an overreaching mentalist.

Zzzzzzz.

Rated R. 150 very long mins.

ZERO STARS

Cozy Cole

Cole Smithey on Patreon

January 15, 2022

ANNETTE — CANNES 2021

ColeSmithey.com    Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

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This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

Cole Smithey on Patreon

 

ColeSmithey.comTedious, ill conceived, and pointlessly depressing "Annette" is a prime example of artsy fartsy Cinema gone wrong.

In spite of every other filmmaker's fawning opinion, there are limits to Adam Driver's acting, singing, and comedic abilities.

Cracks in Adam Driver's thresholds of craft appear in stark relief in this musical flop from French auteur Leos Carax, as co-written with Sparks singer Russell Mael.

Screen Shot 2022-01-15 at 12.14.42 PM

Representational and presentational approaches don't mix.

ZERO STARS

Cozy Cole

Cole Smithey on Patreon

January 10, 2022

MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

ColeSmithey.comGroupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

Welcome!

This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

Cole Smithey on Patreon



ColeSmithey.comOpulent religious melodrama. 

Famous as the film that launched Rock Hudson's career, Douglas Sirk's soft soap take on Lloyd C. Douglas's Christianity tilted novel is a mid-century classic for other reasons as well.

Sirk's rich signature color palate is on full display for a winking adventure in high camp, in Technicolor no less.

Agnes Moorhead ("Bewitched") steals every scene.

Criterion collector's essential disc.

ColeSmithey.com

4 StarsModern Cole

Cozy Cole

Cole Smithey on Patreon

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