I love it up here! I really do. #OliviasOlivia
[Read about my experience hunting down a copy of The Beaver Trilogy at The Lumiere Reader, by way of the Internet Archive.]
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Snowden 2016
JGL is pretty good in this role, and the film rolls along just fine, but Stone likes the theatrics a little much, plus the lack of character dimensionality and contrasting perspective rob this biopic of much of the source story's inherent potency. I'd prioritise Poitras's CITIZENFOUR if viewing for the subject matter otherwise, enjoy if this is your kind of thing.
[Also, I can't help but laugh thinking of my dad walking the 'serious security mode' halls and rooms of that Hawaii base in shorts (and possibly jandals), like a good Māori boy! 😂]
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Emily the Criminal 2022
I like aging Aubrey Plaza, with a few more lines and a little more gravitas in her performance, but there is a certain slightly detached facial expression she wears in every role I've seen her in that takes me out of what I'm watching, which I don't love. Plus EMILY THE CRIMINAL's socio-economic disparity theme gets the heavy-handed treatment, including a couple of clanging scenes that do it no favours. Still, the film has a number of strong sequences (e.g. learning 'the business' and the buyers who dupe her) and good chemistry between the leads, making for an enjoyable little crime drama overall.
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Safety Not Guaranteed 2012
Excellent indie rom-com with more feel-good factor than I expected but it carries it well. Ostensibly a time-travel piece (genre flavour of the month!) the film's primary interest is in subverting mainstream rom-com tropes and character stereotypes; a goal which it achieves most admirably. Fun, funny, and possessed of an honest warmth lacking from many Hollywood productions of this nature, even the broad, physical comedy in this worked for me. Well worth seeing. Also, Aubrey Plaza...swoon.
