Adventures in Video Games and Film

Category: Movie Reviews

  • The Worst Person in The World (2021) – Is She Really That Bad?

    The Worst Person in The World (2021) – Is She Really That Bad?

    I’ve been watching all of the New York Times 100 Best FIlms of the 21st Century with my wife and she recently picked The Worst Person in The World from the list. I’d seen this film suggested many times and I’d never watched it, frankly, because it looked…boring.

    It’s a Norwegian film (I typically love Scandanavian films and television) directed by Jaochim Trier and it stars Renate Reinsve as a young woman who explores her love life and career path.

    Well, my inkling that the film was boring was correct. It is an incredibly slow burn, for the first half anyway. It really does pick up after that. I’ve never watched a film that was such a drag in the beginning have such a turn around in the latter minutes. Not that the latter parts are action-packed by any means, it’s just that consequential things start to actually happen.

    Nothing really consequential happens in the first half at all. It views more like a reality show following the lead character. I admit, maybe that’s the point. Though, given the title, is the audience supposed to believe that a young woman who doesn’t want children and is happy for the time being working at a bookstore really is the worst person in the world? Aside from some moments of slight ethical/moral ambiguity, she doesn’t actually do anything I’d consider ‘bad’ in the entire film. Of course, I get that the title is perhaps ironic.

    Renate Reinsve won the Best Actress Award at the 2021 Cannes FIlm Festival. And, the film was nominated for Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards.

    The acting is terrific, and aside from the cinemetography, it’s the highlight of the film.

    About the cinemetography, the film is incredibly beautiful. So much so that I actually searched to see how it was shot because I was curious whether it was actually film or the best digital representation of film I had ever seen. Turns out it was shot on 35mm film with an Arricam. So that explains why it looks so good. Honestly, the visual quality is the only reason I made it through the first half. [not that I was really considering turning it off]

    Now I want to be clear, the film isn’t bad. It’s actually quite good if you’re in to slow-moving character studies (which I am). It’s just that I had much higher expectations for a film being heralded as one of the best movies of the past 25 years. It is number 95 on the list so perhaps I’m being too critical. There are many movies higher on the list that I consider to be bad films. I suppose we’ll get to those eventually.

    I give it 2.5/5 stars. It is worth watching but there are many films that are a better use of your time.

  • F1 (2025 Film) – A Review from an F1 Aficionado

    F1 (2025 Film) – A Review from an F1 Aficionado

    As a huge Formula 1 fan I was excited when the F1 movie was announced but also incredibly skeptical that many aspects of the sport could not be dramatized without becoming nonsensical.

    My expectations were exactly met. The film is exciting despite some of it being completely nonsensical.

    Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes

    Brad Pitt, who is now 60 years old, plays Sonny Hayes, a supposedly washed up driver who joins a struggling F1 team to help turn it around. I say “supposedly” because in the opening scene of the film he literally wins the 24 Hours of Daytona. Granted going from that race immediately to an F1 team is a pretty big stretch but we’re supposed to believe that a driver capable of winning one of the world’s top endurance races is completely washed up….but I digress.

    Pitt does a great job throughout the film but I will say, and I know this is cinema blasphemy, maybe he’s a bit too old for this role? Someone like Michael Fassbender comes to mind who, while not quite as big of a box office pull as Pitt, is a big enough star and actually has high caliber real world racing experience. He actually raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in real life….Anyway, Pitt’s fine. I read that Tom Cruise was also considered early on and I do think the film is better with Pitt than it would’ve been with Cruise.

    (side note: if you want a great racing documentary free on YouTube, watch Michael Fassbender: Road to Le Mans – The Film which follows Fassbender as he trains and races in Le Mans with a Porsche team)

    Damson Idris plays the young arrogant driver on the team who Hayes needs to teach a thing or two. Idris shines, I dare say he outshines Pitt. He certainly has a bright future in Hollywood ahead of him.

    Damon Idris as Joshua Pearce

    Javier Bardem plays Ruben, the owner of the team and previous racing competitor of Hayes. The back and forths between Ruben and Hayes throughout the film provide some good comic relief.

    Kerry Condon plays the team’s Technical Director and serves as Pitt’s love interest. It’s great to see a female Technical Director depicted on screen; there has yet to be one in real life Formula 1. However, the fact that she must also function as an object of sexual desire in the plot is so tired.

    But, F1 is completely full of standard racing film tropes anyway. If you’re looking for some kind of deep A24-style racing film, this is most certainly not it. The plot serves the action as I suppose it should in a great action film.

    So, let’s talk about the racing. It’s mostly overly-sensational. Hayes would’ve been banned from Formula 1 for life after his shenanigans during first race with the team. But, aside from the extreme dramatization required to provide blockbuster-level entertainment on the track, much of the surrounding context is more or less accurate. The techincal aspects of the cars and development and the race engineers’ roles and so on is done well. Many people involved directly in Formula 1 served as producers including 7 *cough 8* time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes Team Owner and Principal Toto Wolff (who has a quick cameo trying to poach a driver, lol), and many drivers and other Formula 1 personnel have cameos in the film. I believe it’s as technical as it can be without overwhelming the movie-going masses. If you’re not into Formula 1, just know that it’s many multitides more technical than is even depicted in the film, that’s what makes it great.

    And appeal to the movie-going masses F1 has. It’s grossed more than $600 million and is the highest grossing film of Brad Pitt’s career.

    For any regular action fan, F1 is great fun and worth a watch. Hardcore Formula 1 enthusiasts will have to work to suspend their disbelief. If they can do that successfully, they’ll be rewarded with a decent attempt at depicting their favorite sport on the big screen.

  • Ballerina (2025) – Review

    Ballerina (2025) – Review

    Ballerina (2025) is the fifth film installment in the John Wick franchise and is a spinoff that takes place between the events of John Wick 3 and 4.

    Ana de Armas plays the titular Ballerina, Eve, the daughter of an assassin who seeks vengeance against her father’s killer. 

    Keanu Reeves makes an appearance as John Wick and Norman Reedus guest stars as another assassin, Pine.

    The plot is simple enough and really just exists to facilitate the action. It’s not a character study by any means, even less deep than the other John Wick films in my opinion. But that’s not actually a negative. I think it’s better as a purely action-driven adventure. 

    An early version of the script found its way onto the Black List in 2017, so the foundation of the story is solid. 

    Ana de Armas as the Ballerina

    Ana de Armas does everything you’d expect her to do as a now well established movie star. She doesn’t try to make the role more than it is and is believable as an action star, which we got a glimpse of when she played Bond girl Paloma in the James Bond film No Time to Die. 

    Not that the action itself is believable, but you don’t enter the John Wick Universe looking for realism. Gun Fu, the exciting combination of gun play and martial arts that the original John Wick made famous, is on full display here. A particularly great sequence occurs when Eve enters a gun store and is attacked by would be assassins. She’s forced to make her exit, ironically, without a gun. 

    The best action sequence in the film.

    I do suggest watching at least the first John Wick film first before watching Ballerina. I watched Ballerina with my wife, who hadn’t seen any John Wick before, and had to pause the movie multiple times to explain how The Continental functioned and what medallions were and who The Baba Yaga was and so on. 

    Overall, Ballerina is a solid extension of the John Wick Universe and lays the groundwork for multiple future installments, including Ana de Armas’s character and the character played by Norman Reedus. 

    It’s definitely worth a watch if you’re in the mood for intense action that doesn’t require you to think too much (if at all). 

    Normad Reedus as Pine