I appreciate the novelty and craftmanship of Presence. A haunted house story told through the perspective of the ghost, Presence cleverly uses long takes and a fish eye lens to put the viewer in the ghost's (mostly) ive POV. Unfortunately, the characters and story felt a bit thin. This may be an issue of only interacting with these characters in their home, but at even 85 minutes, Presence felt like it would be better told as a short.

Even at 3+ hours long, I did not feel the length of The Brutalist. Adrien Brody absolutely disappears into the role and gives an incredible performance. Brady Corbet's direction is beautiful and just toes the line of being "artsy" without being pretentious (case in point the poster scene). The Brutalist's final message is "it's not the journey, but the destination", and although the events of the movie come into focus once we reach said destination, the journey to get there felt even more important.

Well that was harrowing.

Stephanie Sigman's performance and some great tracking shots create real tension and unease in this downer of a crime thriller.

Well this was charming. Gave me School of Rock vibes and I loved all the children non-actors. They're presence lent some authenticity to the whole production.

This was a tedious one. Trapped in Paradise is about three hapless and incompetent brothers who rob a small town bank on Christmas Eve, then spend the rest of the movie trying to leave said small town. Hijinks ensue. Aside from Dana Carvey's character, nothing very funny actually occurs, and most of the action is derived from coincidence. There are not one, not two, but three separate dimwitted characters who are constantly berated by their superiors (including Carvey). We couldn't think of another character trope?

The Substance is brutal. The Substance is blunt. The Substance is one of the best films of 2024.

An unflinching yet darkly funny commentary on female aging and beauty standards, The Substance commits to its style and does not let up for over 2 hours. The movie is loud, gross, in your face, and has no problem hammering home its message, but does it with such style. Demi Moore goes all-in too, putting it all on screen (sometimes literally) and delivering one of the best performances of her career.

Discussed in full on episode #656 of the Cinereelists video podcast.

Lacks the fun of the first two movies. Eddie Murphy is trying to play Axel Foley straight and serious and it's not working. The few times he does go for comedy are the only bright spots in this movie (and the reappearance of Serge). Even the gunplay is boring.

Ok, the stunts on the Spider ride were pretty cool, but all the green screen and kid endangerment had me half-expecting that Superman would show up.

I really enjoyed the first movie in this series, D'artagnan. Although Milady carried over the same great filmmaking as the first, I found the story less engaging. Milady lacked the scale and pacing of D'artagnan, and felt like more of a middle chapter then concluding the story set-up from the first (as of right now, there is no official talk of a third movie).

Discussed in full on episode #631 of the Cinereelists video podcast.

Relationships are always more complicated than what they seem. Anatomy of a Fall shows what happens when a marriage is (literally) put on trial and everything is laid bare. Every argument, every action, can be twisted to fit a story.