Clunky fragmented action as a result of Disney's terrible irreality process (The Volume usually a culprit, as are green screens, CG and choppy edits) shackles lovely ideas about an elderly hero in the last days of wonder. There's a magical movie hidden behind the Disney accountant/marketing-driven look, one that would provoke awe if it was more analogical. It is still a good attempt, and you will not feel that your time is lost, but maybe you will sense some sadness instead.
To Catch a Killer (2023), 3/5
Tension at the beggining is great, also in a second act scene. Problem is that it looses steam in every sense, politically and in the criminal investigation. Script needed to be tighter. Szifron is a good director (that scene with the lasers at the start...) but casting and actors' speeches lacked something, more roughness and reality, the actress is too pretty to be a wounded soul doing police work.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), 2/5
Schizophrenic animation interspersed with boring serious telenovela scenes in the ridiculous Marvel multi-verse framework were nothing really important matters. Just more and more vigilantes in different unoriginal "worlds". Not special compared to Satoshi Kon or Maasaki Yuasa. The music is terrible by the way, the incidental crescendo is especially tiring, and the sound mix has technical problems in a few scenes. I'm not trusting reviews anymore.
Pearl (2023), 4/5
If "X" was an homage to 1970s slashers, "Pearl" is a Hitchcock movie from the 1960s filmed like a Douglas Sirk tearjerker from the 1950s. Technicolor palette, situated in 1918s during the Spanish Flu, fully and delightfully musicalized with a classic orchestra and slowly paced with tension and relentless murder scenes. Not because of gore, it's not that kind of story. It's the continuous and unstoppable descent of Mia Goth's Pearl into the inescapable madness of amorality. A great monologue and the final credits puts Goth in the map of new talents. A solid stylistic movie puts West into the list of directors to follow.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), 2/5
Easily the worst of Gunn movies, GotG3 is a mess of screaming, muddled ideology and unearned sentiment that dips heavily into sentimentality. Fluffiness turns into boredom as the heroes traverse the forgiving outer space from one psichodelic CGI background to the next. In the end GotG3 wants just to go back to an American suburbia ideal. That's not where the present and the future lies. Avoid.
Sick of Myself (2022), 4/5
Satire about narcissism and victimisation complex which benefits by being situated in the country with the highest standard of living in the world (Norway). Jealousy of success still has an effect in an "egalitarian" capitalist society, so the plot lingers on symbolic capital, not economic. The protagonist starts acting normally and slowly becomes more and more entrenched into her delusion. It is entertaining and you find yourself rooting for her, hoping that one of her fantasies are actually real.
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