Film Reviews: Spy and The Room
Mar. 27th, 2016 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatFelt better for a bit, then felt horrid again. Ugh. It's like the weather, overcast this morning, then beautiful, sky is clear blue, sunny, then overcast again. If I didn't know any better I'd say it is the weather causing it. I'm a human weather vane.
Watched too movies today:
1.) Spy via HBO on-demand, which stars Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jude Law, and Jason Stratham...and is basically a parody of the James Bond films, but not quite as broad. It's quite good in places, and way too raunchy in others. There were times I wanted to put it on mute because the insult a-thone was giving me a headache. That said, there were some laugh out loud moments - Jason Stratham and Melissa McCarthy are hilarious at various points. She plays a CIA handler who ends up becoming a field agent. She's supposed to just track the target, but instead goes into the field and makes contact. Like all of Melissa McCarthy's films it pokes fun at how shallow our society has become in regards to looks and body type.
2.) Room -- this is the film that got nominated for multiple awards and won Brie Larson a best actress oscar. (After seeing it and the film 45 Years in which Charlotte Rampling was nominated, I'd have given the oscar to Charlotte Rampling. YMMV.)
In case you don't know the plot -- it's about a woman and her son who are kept prisoner in a man's shed in his back yard. She manages to find a way to help her five year old son escape the shed so that he can inform the world where they are...and in effect rescue them. All her son knows is her, the room, and the man holding them prisoner, who he rarely sees. The point of view is her son's. The DVD cover sort of tells you what happens, ie. the boy escapes and they get rescued. So this isn't really a spoiler - since I was told it up front, but I but it under the cut just in case people disagree. Half the film takes place in the Room, the other half in the world outside it, or in the aftermath of being rescued.
I have mixed feelings about the film. Can't really say I liked it all that much nor do I understand the rave reviews or hype surrounding it.
For one thing, it didn't feel all that new to me. Yes, we get most of this through the child's eyes, but, well I've been watching the Family, which has also has Joan Allen playing the mother of the child who was taken and now returned, shell-shocked. Also, I've seen news reports, read true crime accounts, seen the comedy - the Unbeatable Kimmy Schmidt, and read various fictional novels on the topic. This topic was very popular in the 1990s and popped up in just about every mystery novel or thriller series that I'd read back then. Kidnapped women/children and serial killers. Very popular plot-lines and in my opinion overdone.
It's also really hard to watch. Painful. I found it frustrating at times and cringeworthy at others. Not a nice topic, even if it ends well.
The film is ultimately uplifting, and I'd recommend it for its emphasis on how someone reacts to discovering a huge world outside of their small room. Not knowing there is actually a world outside of it. But again, I've seen it done elsewhere and in some respects far better. So, I felt the film was a tad over-rated in that respect. (Can't help but wonder if the book might have been better - you're more fully in the child's pov in the book apparently, and here...the pov is more split, which of course they had to do, but isn't as innovative or effective.)
The kid is quite good in it. Compelling for the most part and it held my attention. But I wouldn't have given it awards and I'm glad I didn't pay anything to see it.
[Saw if for free via a For Your Consideration DVD.]
Watched too movies today:
1.) Spy via HBO on-demand, which stars Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jude Law, and Jason Stratham...and is basically a parody of the James Bond films, but not quite as broad. It's quite good in places, and way too raunchy in others. There were times I wanted to put it on mute because the insult a-thone was giving me a headache. That said, there were some laugh out loud moments - Jason Stratham and Melissa McCarthy are hilarious at various points. She plays a CIA handler who ends up becoming a field agent. She's supposed to just track the target, but instead goes into the field and makes contact. Like all of Melissa McCarthy's films it pokes fun at how shallow our society has become in regards to looks and body type.
2.) Room -- this is the film that got nominated for multiple awards and won Brie Larson a best actress oscar. (After seeing it and the film 45 Years in which Charlotte Rampling was nominated, I'd have given the oscar to Charlotte Rampling. YMMV.)
In case you don't know the plot -- it's about a woman and her son who are kept prisoner in a man's shed in his back yard. She manages to find a way to help her five year old son escape the shed so that he can inform the world where they are...and in effect rescue them. All her son knows is her, the room, and the man holding them prisoner, who he rarely sees. The point of view is her son's. The DVD cover sort of tells you what happens, ie. the boy escapes and they get rescued. So this isn't really a spoiler - since I was told it up front, but I but it under the cut just in case people disagree. Half the film takes place in the Room, the other half in the world outside it, or in the aftermath of being rescued.
I have mixed feelings about the film. Can't really say I liked it all that much nor do I understand the rave reviews or hype surrounding it.
For one thing, it didn't feel all that new to me. Yes, we get most of this through the child's eyes, but, well I've been watching the Family, which has also has Joan Allen playing the mother of the child who was taken and now returned, shell-shocked. Also, I've seen news reports, read true crime accounts, seen the comedy - the Unbeatable Kimmy Schmidt, and read various fictional novels on the topic. This topic was very popular in the 1990s and popped up in just about every mystery novel or thriller series that I'd read back then. Kidnapped women/children and serial killers. Very popular plot-lines and in my opinion overdone.
It's also really hard to watch. Painful. I found it frustrating at times and cringeworthy at others. Not a nice topic, even if it ends well.
The film is ultimately uplifting, and I'd recommend it for its emphasis on how someone reacts to discovering a huge world outside of their small room. Not knowing there is actually a world outside of it. But again, I've seen it done elsewhere and in some respects far better. So, I felt the film was a tad over-rated in that respect. (Can't help but wonder if the book might have been better - you're more fully in the child's pov in the book apparently, and here...the pov is more split, which of course they had to do, but isn't as innovative or effective.)
The kid is quite good in it. Compelling for the most part and it held my attention. But I wouldn't have given it awards and I'm glad I didn't pay anything to see it.
[Saw if for free via a For Your Consideration DVD.]