Grant's Movie Log

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

(94%)
Director: Spike Lee
Writers: Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee
Stars: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier
Production Companies: 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, Blumhouse Productions

BlacKkKlansman follows an African American man named Ron Stallworth, who decides to join the police force of a city in Colorado. He is their first African American police officer, but the story doesn't focus too much on that. The story really gets going when Stallworth decides to call the local KKK chapter after seeing their advertisement in the local newspaper and acts like a white man who wants to join. From there, he teams up with two other officers from his department to infiltrate the KKK and gather information.

Some sites have labeled this as a comedy. Please don't go into this expecting it to be a full-blown comedy. There are some very funny moments, yes, but this is very much a serious film. There is a lot of cussing, and a lot of derogatory remarks (which shouldn't be that surprising given the time period of the film). But the story here is very good and very timely considering what is going on the world today. This is also pretty much the definition of a "politically charged" film, so be prepared for that. Overall, Spike Lee gets a clear message across while providing the audience with an entertaining film at the same time. I'd definitely recommend it if you go in knowing what to expect. Still a lot of movies to be released this year, but I think this is one of the best so far.

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My Letterboxd

The Meg (2018)

(64%)
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Writers: Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber
Stars: Jason Statham, Bingbing Li, Rainn Wilson
Production Company: Apelles Entertainment

The Meg follows a group of researchers who believe that the Marianas Trench is deeper than what we believe. It turns out that they are correct, but they also accidentally allow a megalodon to get out and into the ocean. The characters then decide they have to kill the shark.

The Good:
- It has a big shark.
- The big shark kills people.
- I actually cared about Jason Statham's character.
- The story is actually interesting past the fact that a big shark is involved. The main group of characters is very likable.
- The CGI is pretty solid.
- The little girl who plays Meiying steals all of the scenes that she's in.

The Bad:
- Some of the dialogue is extremely cheesy.
- Ruby Rose is not very good at acting.
- I wish that the shark got to terrorize more large groups of people.
- The trailers were pretty misleading as to what this movie was going to be like.
- A lot of the humor falls flat.

Overall: A solid movie to watch on a boring summer afternoon.

Blair Witch (2016)

(34%)
Director: Adam Wingard
Writer: Simon Barrett
Stars: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid
Production Company: Lionsgate

This film comes off as a poorly done money grab. I don't expect top notch effects or a top notch story from a found footage film, but for the most part this is nothing but a boring film with bad acting. I never felt an inkling of fear.

Molly's Game (2017)

(83%)
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Writer: Aaron Sorkin
Stars: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner
Production Company: STX Entertainment

All of the Aaron Sorkin main trademarks (snappy dialogue, smart characters) are here and for the most part this is a great directorial debut by him. Jessica Chastain is excellent as always and the story is captivating, with the only issue being that this plays out like your typical "based on a true story" film. It's rather formulaic.

Frank (2014)

(84%)
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Writers: Jon Ronson, Peter Straughan
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Production Company: Element Pictures

Quite possibly the weirdest film I've watched in a LONG time. I was told to watch this by a friend and had no idea what to expect going in. It's an odd story that follows a man who wears a fake head and makes music with his indie band, but I was enthralled the entire time. And even though I don't make music myself, I found the characters to be incredibly relatable. I've been thinking about this one ever since I watched it three days ago and I look forward to watching it again.

When I saw the trailer for Blair Witch, I think it was just titled The Forrest or The Woods, or something along those lines. People were raving about it and I liked the director.

Then I find out it was a secret Blair witch sequel and people then trashed it. I never did end up seeing it.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Interesting, I didn't know about that. It's definitely not worth the time. Not a good film at all.

Iron Man (2008)

(84%)
Director: Jon Favreau
Writers: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard
Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, Marvel Enterprises

The one that started it all. If Iron Man wasn't a success, one could argue that the MCU may not be what it is today. This is a very well done origin story that is also incredibly entertaining. Tony Stark's journey to Iron Man is nicely paced to where it doesn't drag like some origin stories, and we get plenty of "Iron Man is a badass" moments throughout the film. There are some very unrealistic moments like when Tony is thrown into a wall while testing the suit and magically sustains no injuries, but those are small nitpicks. Iron Man remains one of the best MCU movies to date.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

(62%)
Director: Louis Leterrier
Writer: Zak Penn
Stars: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth
Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Marvel Enterprises

This is the other side of the origin story coin. The Incredible Hulk isn't a terrible movie, but it does tend to drag and I can't say I ever truly bought into Edward Norton as the Hulk. Heck, I didn't even buy into him as Bruce Banner. The CGI here also shows its age and isn't the best, and the action scenes aren't that great. Overall, I'm glad that the role of Bruce Banner ended up being re-cast after this film.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

(73%)
Director: Jon Favreau
Writer: Justin Theroux
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow
Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, Marvel Entertainment

Iron Man 2 is a disappointment as a follow up to Iron Man, but it is still an entertaining film. We get more character development of Tony Stark and things start to shape up with the Avenger initiative as there's a reference to Captain America and SHIELD starts to get involved. The problem with this film is the weak villain. Replace Ivan Vanko with a more relatable villain, and Iron Man 2 may have been much better.

Only God Forgives (2013)

(71%)
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: Nicolas Winding Refn
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm
Production Company: Space Rocket Nation

Only God Forgives is not liked by a lot of people. I completely understand why people don't like it. It's slow, quiet, and as the viewer you're expected to put some of the pieces together and figure out what the film is really trying to say. Those three things are a recipe for disaster with most viewers. I'm a big fan of Refn's other film that has Ryan Gosling, Drive. And really, Drive and Only God Forgives are very similar in a lot of ways. The main difference here is that Drive dealt with a getaway driver who was obsessed with Hollywood and there were a couple of cool car scenes, while Only God Forgives takes place in Thailand, doesn't have any car chase scenes, and focuses on some bad people. But, they both have a similar color palette, quiet moments followed by brutal violence, and a quiet, violent man as the protagonist. Julian (Ryan Gosling) is the main "protagonist" and he's actually a drug dealer who has a brother who rapes an underaged girl. His brother is killed by the father of the girl, and Julian's mother wants him to avenge his brother despite what he did, and Julian doesn't want to do it. So his mother takes the quest for revenge into her own hands, while a sword-wielding law enforcement man, Chang, seeks to punish those responsible for the revenge murders. This is a very slow moving one hour and thirty minute film, but I found myself enthralled by it. The ending is a little anti-climatic and the real meaning of this film can be interpreted a few different ways, but overall I very much enjoyed this Only God Forgives, although it's not on the same level quality wise as Drive.

Revenge (2018)

(68%)
Director: Coralie Fargeat
Writer: Coralie Fargeat
Stars: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe
Production Company: M.E.S. Productions

Revenge follows a girl, named Jen, who is brought out to her boyfriend's luxurious house in the middle of the desert. They hang out for a bit until two of her boyfriend's friends show up for a hunting trip. When the boyfriend goes away for a few hours one of the men rapes Jen, and then upon the boyfriend's return he offers her a job and money to forget about that happened, but she runs away and is eventually caught and pushed off of a cliff by the boyfriend and left for dead.

Revenge is your typical revenge-tale film. The most original thing this film has to offer is how over-the-top the gore is, and while I'm all for that I don't think simply adding more gore to it makes it any better than any other revenge-tale flick. The cinematography is great, and it is awesome to see how Jen keeps herself alive and then goes after the men who tried to kill her, but there are also some very unbelievable moments throughout the story that made me get sucked out of it for a moment or two. And like I said, there's not really anything new here that blew me away. It's not a bad watch, though.

Thor (2011)

(64%)

The Good:
- Chris Hemsworth IS Thor. He's pretty much perfect for the role.
- Sets up Asgard well for future MCU movies, and visually it looks fantastic.
- Has some nice character progression for Thor; shows him grow into the superhero he needs to be for the MCU.
- The Loki and Thor sibling rivalry is very believable and very well done. This film also sets up Loki as one of the MCU's most formidable villains.

The Bad:
- The pacing in Thor is never very good. The beginning sets up an intriguing world but then Thor is banished to Earth where he runs around without his powers for a while, and the characters he interacts with are nothing special. It essentially slows down to a crawl and struggles to find its feet for the final act.
- The final "boss battle" was incredibly disappointing.
- For a superhero film, Thor feels very bland throughout. There is not much excitement and little actual fun to be had. This is essentially a set-up movie that fits well in the grand scheme of the MCU, but isn't that great on its own.

The Witch (2015)

(81%)

The Good:
- Doesn't rely on jump scares, but instead just casually crawls inside of you and lays an egg of creepiness.
- Doesn't hold back. A lot of horror movies will cut away during some of the more questionable scenes. The Witch shows pretty much everything.
- This actually works as a period piece (apart from the part where there's a witch in the woods) as well, since the characters actually talk like they did back then.
- It may be a slow burn, but the final 30 minutes or so make it all worth it.

The Bad:
- I wish we got to see more of the Witch.
- None of the characters are particularly likable, and because of this I wasn't really worried about them when stuff starts to go wrong.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

(80%)

The Good:
- I think this is a near-perfect origin story for the character of Captain America. They captured his character very well and Chris Evans was a solid choice.
- The CGI they used to make Chris Evans appear much smaller was actually well down.
- The action is solid, and overall this is a fun film.

The Bad:
- The villain is weak and we never get any real sense that Captain America may not have everything under control, despite him being somewhat new to combat.
- The love story between Captain America and Agent Carter feels a bit forced and unneeded. Not every story needs to be a love story.

Mile 22 (2018)

(25%)
Director: Peter Berg
Writer: Lea Carpenter
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais
Production Company: STX Entertainment

Mile 22 follows James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) and his team of covert operatives as they attempt to get a man, who has valuable information which could stop potential future terrorist attacks, out of the country.

This film is terrible. Mark Wahlberg's character is quite possible the most arrogant and poorly written "intelligent" protagonist I've seen in a long time. My guess is that the writer wanted him to come off similar to how Mark Zuckerberg does in The Social Network: a super smart *******, but instead he comes off as a dude who thinks he is smarter than he actually is and just constantly yells at people. Lauren Cohan's character is also not written very well and her anger issues (spawning from her messy divorce) seem drastically overdramatic.

The story of Mile 22 isn't anything to write home about, either, as the entire film is about them trying to extract a police officer who says he has the codes needed to unlock a hard drive that has the locations of materials that could be used for terrorist attacks. That isn't really the problem, though, as my main issue with this film's story is how it tries to get the audience to play the guessing game of "who's the bad guy" while painting it on the wall in red paint. There's a huge reveal at the end where I'm guessing they thought the audience would be thinking "holy cow", but instead I was just severely disappointed. The editing in this film is also absolutely atrocious. In some fight scenes, there would be about three cuts between when someone goes to throw a punch and when it actually makes contact. It's completely disorienting and while I could still keep up with what was happening, it was honestly just too much. It got to the point where the constant cutting was seriously annoying me. The best thing about this film is the somewhat realistic gun play. That's basically the only positive thing I have to say.

Overall, this is one of the worst films I've watched in a long time. And I say this because generally whenever I give a film a very negative review I can at least say that it was a competently made film, but I can't say that for this one. It's bad all around.

The Nun (2018)

(40%)
Director: Corin Hardy
Writer: Gary Dauberman
Stars: Demián Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet
Production Company: Atomic Monster


The Good:
- The environment of the Abbey in which the story takes place is genuinely creepy.
- Sister Irene and Father Burke are likable and well acted.
- The story connects into the Conjuring universe well.
- In general, this film is well shot.

The Bad:
- This film isn't scary.
- It relies way, way too much on jump scares.
- Unsurprisingly, the main group of characters seem to lose any common sense that they had the second they saw the Abbey.
- There are a few attempts at comedy, but they fall flat.
- The effects on the Nun later in the movie are pretty dang bad.
- The story just isn't very good. It's extremely predictable and doesn't deliver on its promise of being "the darkest chapter" of the Conjuring universe.

Overall, The Nun was a huge disappointment. I wanted to be scared, but instead I found myself chuckling towards the end.

White Boy Rick (2018)

(69%)
Director: Yann Demange
Writer: Andy Weiss, Logan Miller
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Richie Merritt, Bel Powley
Production Company: LBI Productions

White Boy Rick follows a teenage boy, named Rick, who becomes a drug dealer and informant for the FBI.

The Good:
- This is based on a true story and I found it to be very well done. I had also never heard of this story until now.
- Matthew McConaughey is solid as always.
- They captured the 1980s well.
- It's interesting to see a "gangster" movie that actually focuses quite a bit on kids rather than a mob.
- They also tackled the story in a realistic and grounded way. Nothing that happens in this film seems overdramatized or unrealistic.

The Bad:
- The story of someone getting involved in dealing drugs and informing for the FBI is nothing new. And while there are some elements of this story that I found to be original, the overall story is nothing we haven't seen before.
- I don't mind language in films. In a lot of ways it makes films more realistic, but it becomes a little much when the main characters are saying "f**k" in almost every sentence.
- The pacing of the story is by far the weakest part of this film. It's never consistent and therefore makes it hard for the audience to gauge exactly how quickly it's moving along.

Overall, White Boy Rick is a solid watch, but it doesn't push the envelope by any means.

The Avengers (2012)

(70%)
Director: Joss Whedon
Writer: Joss Whedon
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson
Production Companies: Marvel Studios, Paramount Pictures

The Avengers is the first team-up film in the MCU and follows the crew as they argue for a while before teaming up to fight some aliens that are invading Earth thanks to Loki opening up a portal.

Even when I watched The Avengers for the first time back in 2012, I didn't think that the story was all that special. This is a long film, and for most of it we just sit around watching the heroes talk. There are a few action set pieces throughout the film, such as when Thor, Loki, and Iron Man (and Captain America) have a pretty awesome scuffle, but besides that it's a whole lot of chatter and not a whole lot of anything else. And it doesn't help that these conversations aren't particularly interesting. The final battle in the city is cool, but there's nothing particularly jaw-dropping about it either. The story here is just...okay.

I will say that having watched the first Captain America film it was cool to see Steve interact with the son of a man that he considered a friend, and slowly realize that he's a bit of a douche. Steve and Tony's dynamic is by far the most entertaining in the film (and possibly the MCU, which makes sense given the future these two have).

As to be expected by this point with MCU films, the cinematography is great. Of course, this is also the film where we get the iconic shot of The Avengers as they assemble on the battlefield, which was cool to see.

In the end, though, while everything in this film is solid, I don't find it to be particularly mind-blowing. And really a big part of the reason why I don't like to watch this one very often is because of the long run-time. There's nothing in this film that makes me want to sit down for 2.5 hours and watch it, unless I'm doing an MCU marathon.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

(69%)
Director: Shane Black
Writers: Shane Black, Drew Pearce

Iron Man 3 takes the character of Tony Stark in a new, more personal direction, but it continues the Marvel tradition of having a weak villain, and even weaker finale.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)

(87%)
Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright, Michael Bacall

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a blast from beginning to end. It's funny, quirky, and it fully commits to the video game/comic book style that fans were hoping for. And even when you take out all of the theatrics, it's just a fun story to watch unfold. The music is awesome too.

Enemy (2013)

(68%)
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writer: Javier Gullón

Enemy is an odd one, but in a good way. It's not a film that will be very well understood after one viewing, and even after several viewings I'm still trying to dissect some of it. The story is intriguing in so many ways and Jake Gyllenhaal gives a great performance as a man who may be a little crazy, but at the same time this is one of the slowest moving 1.5 hour films I've ever watched. The pacing feels a little off and makes it feel closer to 2 hours for me. I still enjoy watching it occasionally, though, as it forces your brain to do more thinking than the average film these days.

I do want to see Enemy. I am hoping it doesn't have the same kind of pace Prisoners did (same Villeneuve/Gyllenhaal combo), but it sounds like it might....

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

(84%)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writer: Hubert Selby Jr.

Requiem for a Dream is not a film that you just pop in on any given night. You have to be prepared to watch four characters slowly spin out of control due to drugs. This isn't a wholesome, the world is great kind of movie. It's painful to watch, but yet it's hard to not get invested in the story and feel curious about how it'll all end. There isn't much about this one to not like. The writing is great, the story is great, and the characters are all very interesting on their own. Oddly, the only thing I had a bit of an issue with was the cinematography. I just wasn't much of a fan of how it was all shot and the overall look of the film, but that's more of a nitpick than anything. Requiem for a Dream is a must watch, even if you can only get through it once.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

(50%)
Director: Alan Taylor
Writers: Christopher L. Yost, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely

Thor: The Dark World is by far the worst MCU movie. It's boring, the action isn't that great, and once again the villain is nothing special. The only redeeming qualities of this film are the cinematography and the visual effects which are on par with other MCU films. Otherwise, it's a bit of a dumpster fire.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

(78%)
Director: John Hughes
Writer: John Hughes

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is an easy film to watch. It's lighthearted, the comedy is good, and it's got that 80s movie vibe that I'm a sucker for. Some elements of the story don't work for me, but I can get past that pretty easily. It's one of the most re-watchable movies out there, I think.

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)

(79%)
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder

I like almost everything about The Place Beyond the Pines: the three intertwining stories, the multiple perspectives, the writing, the characters, and how it all ends. It's a great movie to watch if you have the time (it runs a bit long at two-hours and twenty-minutes), but the problem with a film having a three part story that focuses on three different characters is the time limit of a film. This one runs longer than most films, and I still feel like I didn't get to spend enough time with each of the characters. I liked everything about it, but I didn't feel that connection at the end that I felt like I should have, and I think that's a pretty big flaw in an otherwise great film.

Sinister (2012)

(60%)
Director: Scott Derrickson
Writers: Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill

Sinister is an average horror film for the most part that isn't very scary. The jump scares are pretty poorly done, and at times it feels a bit silly and cliche. But, I am a fan of how dark the actual story is, and how a decent bit of the murders is actually shown in the rolls of film that are found by Ethan Hawke's character. Take out the silly jump scares and the demon children running around the house in the second half of the runtime, and it's a pretty solid horror movie.

Venom (2018)

(49%)
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Writers: Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, Kelly Marcel

Venom is standalone non-MCU film distributed by Sony, and it focuses on Eddie Brock before and after he becomes Venom.

The Good:
- Tom Hardy gives a solid performance.
- The back-and-forth between Eddie Brock and Venom is very entertaining. Venom's humor is a little childish at times, but I chuckled quite a bit.
- If you turn your brain completely off before it starts, you will be entertained.

The Bad:
- This is a messy CGI fest of a film. It looks entirely fake at times, and the action scenes were a huge let down.
- Riot may be one of the weakest villains I've seen in a comic book film in a long time. Riz Ahmed is a great actor, but this wasn't the role for him. The final fight of the film was a bit of a joke.
- This script is far from great. The dialogue is weak and the story is all over the place.
- The PG-13 rating significantly hurt this film's potential as far as violence goes, because for a Venom film there was a severe lack of violence.
- I laughed several times at moments that were clearly meant to be taken seriously.
- I commend Sony for trying out a different kind of spin-off film focusing on a character other than Spider-Man, but this was a huge swing and a miss.

Green Room (2015)

(80%)
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Writer: Jeremy Saulnier

Green Room is a brutal, intense thriller and is arguably one of A24's best films. It follows a small-time metal band as they land a gig at a bar and travel there to perform. Little did they know it's a Neo-Nazi bar, and when they walk in on a murder scene things turn hostile. The main characters truly feel trapped and at times it seems like there's no way any of them will survive. The action is brutal and intense, but it isn't an over-dramatized gore-fest. The story is realistic but not over complicated, and that's arguably the best part about this film. This is a must watch for thriller fans.

Halloween (2018)

(42%)
Director: David Gordon Green
Writers: David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Jeff Fradley

Halloween picks up 40 years after the original Halloween (poor title choice for a sequel) and Michael is incarcerated for his previous killing spree, but when the prison bus that's transferring him crashes he's set up for another night of killing.

I found Halloween to be a huge disappointment. From the first set of scenes, it was pretty clear that this wasn't quite the sequel that I was hoping for. In a lot of ways it pays homage to the original, which is fine except for the fact that in doing so it comes off as a cheesy 80s slasher. Some people dig that, and I think that's why a lot of people who have seen this film have enjoyed it. I, however, was hoping for a more modern and somewhat serious take on the story. Instead, Halloween is a film with little-to-no character development, a hollow plot, a severe lack of on-screen kills, a mediocre script, and the production value feels like that of a Lifetime TV movie. It was a disappointment on almost all fronts for me, and doesn't give me any hope for any future Halloween films.

First Man (2018)

(95%)
Director: Damien Chazelle
Writer: Josh Singer

First Man follows NASA's pursuit to put a man on the moon, with Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) being the main focus. It spans several years (1961-1969) and gives an in-depth look at Neil's life before and during his quest to reach the moon.

First Man marks yet another success for director Damien Chazelle, who has yet to disappoint me with a film of his. This film is beautifully shot, perfectly paced, and it has the emotional punch that I hope for from a period piece like this. Despite the long runtime (almost 2.5 hours), it doesn't feel like a drag in the slightest. I was locked in from the first scene to the last, and after I got out of the movie theater I already wanted to see it again. Ryan Gosling at least deserves an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Neil Armstrong. From what I've gathered from interviews with Armstrong's sons, while Ryan's portrayal was rather stoic (as many of Ryan's roles are) he was pretty much on point with how he played Neil. Ryan is also able to convey so much while saying so little. He may not say much at all during the more emotional scenes, but in some ways that makes them even more impactful. We don't always need sobs and choked up ramblings to feel something from a scene. Claire Foy and Jason Clarke are also solid in their roles. The special effects are fantastic and there are some mesmerizing scenes in here that I look forward to seeing again. Screenwriter Josh Singer also has once again proven that he's a force to be reckoned with when it comes to period piece films, as he's three-for-three in my book (Spotlight, The Post, and First Man). Overall, I think this is one of the best films of the year so far.

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

(81%)
Director: Drew Goddard
Writer: Drew Goddard

Bad Times at the El Royale follows a group of people who find themselves at a hotel that, while once a popular spot for people to stay, is now a rundown spot that people only stay at if they have to. All of these strangers have secrets and all of them have a role to play. Dock O'Kelley (Jeff Bridges) is a former thief that poses as a priest, Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo) is the innocent one in the bunch as she's just a singer, Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson) is a trigger-happy woman who's trying to save her sister from a cult, Dwight Broadbeck is a CIA agent undercover as a vacuum salesman, and Miles Miller (Lewis Pullman) runs the hotel. It's clear from the beginning that there's some tension between some of the characters, and when a moment of confusion leads to a character's death, all hell breaks loose.

I wasn't exactly sure what the tone of this film was going to be as I walked into the theater. I only watched one trailer and it looked a little Tarantino-esque and it also reminded me of Murder on the Orient Express. So I was expecting a bit of a murder mystery, but was more or less open to whatever. This isn't a murder mystery, though. This is a slow burn thriller, and a pretty good one at that. It takes its time setting everything up and it never exactly hits that point where everything starts moving really quickly, but that's okay because if it did this film would feel very rushed. There's a lot of story for them to get through here, and if it was a fast-paced thriller it would have come off as shallow and frankly kind of bland. But the slow pace really allowed for me to settle into the environment and start to care for the characters and their situations. None of the characters are unsympathetic, quite the opposite really as it's hard to dislike any of them. The two-hour and twenty-minute runtime is mainly composed of flash backs, dialogue-driven scenes, and tension building, but there are some moments of violence and it doesn't hold back when it happens.

The film begins with a fantastic scene that doesn't really matter until later in the film, but it's incredible well done. The editing and cinematography throughout this film was pretty top notch. It fit the quirky, but serious, tone of the film perfectly. We are then introduced to each of the characters as they meet each other in the lobby of the hotel, before they split up into their rooms where we find out more information about each one. Then interactions start to occur and the story starts to develop, and from there it's a slow-jog to the finish.

The entire cast puts in some great performances, which isn't that surprising considering how stacked the cast is. I will say that Jeff Bridges and Lewis Pullman stole the show for me, though. There's a scene towards the end with Jeff Bridges' character that made me feel a sense of dread that I never thought I would while watching a film like this, and I really was shocked by that.

My main grip with this film actually comes at the end, as I feel like one of the main "twists" (it has to do with the background of a certain character) that greatly affects the ending was a bit cheap and easy. I don't think this was an attempt at subverting expectations, either. I think Goddard genuinely thought it would be a good twist that the audience wouldn't really see coming, but in the end it just didn't have the impact he was hoping for. Apart from that, though, I enjoyed this film from beginning-to-end. Because it's a slow burn, this won't be for everyone, and some people will undoubtedly just say that Goddard was just trying to copy Tarantino, but it's worth a viewing for fans of the thriller genre.