No Second Draft – ramblings about film and TV

Continuing from the previous post with numbers 25 – 1, along with five quick honourable mentions. 25. Two Days, One Night (2014) For four decades, the Dardenne brothers have been a constant in European art-house cinema, thanks to their lauded neo-realist films. A Dardennes’ film tends to follow a similar setup (a protagonist living on…

Here are my favourite films of the 2010s, starting with number 50 to 26. A few notes before we begin: For the sake of diversity, I have only included one film per filmmaker on this list. This means that films that might have made the list like Phantom Thread, Silence, Gone Girl, and Dunkirk were automatically ruled out by…

[Major spoilers abound. They are necessary because imma do a full dissection of this coprolite up in here.] Part I – JJ Abrams killed Star Wars 1. The Rise of Skywalker (henceforth abbreviated to RoS) is awfully generous. I was planning to start this review by saying that RoS‘s villain being a zombie version of the original trilogy’s villain…

Synopsis: As the marriage between theatre director Charlie (Adam Driver) and actress Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) heads towards its inevitable end, all that both parties can agree on is that the parting should be amicable and mutually beneficial. That, however, is much easier said than done, especially once the lawyers get involved. 1. Marriage Story begins…

Synopsis: When wealthy crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) turns up dead with his throat slit, private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) arrives on the scene to figure out who might have done the foul deed. Trouble is everyone in the house, even Harlan’s saintly nurse Marta (Ana de Armas), seems to have motive and…

Synopsis: After the events of Frozen, Elsa (the wickedly talented Adele Dazeem) and Anna (Eleanor Shellstrop) lead a happy existence in Arendelle, until a literal voice from the past draws the former to a mysterious mist-covered forest that seems to hold the answer to her powers. 1. Frozen, obviously, was a big deal. Not only did…

Synopsis: Spare a thought for poor Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix). Disrespected, bullied, and riddled with psychological problems, Arthur scrapes a meagre existence working as a clown for hire, while dreaming of becoming a stand-up comedian performing on the show of his hero Murray Franklin (Robert de Niro). One might even say that Arthur’s entire existence…

Synopsis: In the wake of a horrific tragedy, college student Dani Ardor (Florence Pugh) accompanies her good-for-nothing boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and his friends to visit a midsummer celebration at their Swedish friend’s commune. Bad things happen. 1. Uh … 2. Ok let’s start that again. With his previous film, Hereditary, writer-director Ari Aster proved himself…

Synopsis: In the near future, emotionally closed-off astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), journeys into the furthest reaches of known space in search of a lost mission tasked with finding extraterrestrial life. The catch? Said mission is commanded by his father (Tommy Lee Jones), who might have gone rogue and now threatens the fate of the…

Synopsis: On the eve of graduation, high school seniors / BFFs / chronic overachievers Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) discover, to their horror, that the supposed jocks and slackers they looked down on have been accepted to the same elite colleges as them. In a desperate bid to salvage a high school experience…