November 2022: 3rd Week
Hi everyone!
Welcome back to Top-Notch Movies one last week. It's a pity but every beginning has an end. And although farewells are always sad, we end up our blog with probably the best week of cinema yet!
Thanks for reading us!
MOST IMPORTANT RELEASES (November 3rd week)
1. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Director: Rian Johnson
Starring: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson & Dave Bautista.
Genre(s): Whodunnit, Comedy, Mystery, Crime
Plot: Detective Benoit Blanc travels to Greece to peel back the layers of a mystery involving a new cast of suspects.
Extra Information: The sequel to the whodunnit masterpiece Knives Out, released in 2019 directed by Rian Johnson starring Daniel Craig. This year, they both comeback with the same character and the same concept but in a different scenario with a brand new brilliant cast. A lot of viewers have confirmed that this sequel exceeds the original, and although is true that the hype is real high, everyone who's watched the film says that it is, at least, on the same level than the original, which then again, IS AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE! So this is a must-watch for sure.
2. The Menu
Director: Mark Mylod
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Judith Light & John Leguizamo.
Genre(s): Comedy, Thriller, Mystery
Plot: A couple travels to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.
Extra Information: This is regarded as one of the best movies of the year for the vast majority of the critics. It's praised as one of the better theater-experiences of the year and one of the most intelligent films of the year. The Menu is set in just one location for the most part of the film and it still works perfectly storywise. It stars Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy, who, of course, as always, are mesmerizing.
3. Bones & All
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet & Mark Rylance
Genre(s): Romance, Drama, Horror
Plot: Abandoned by her father, a young woman named Maren embarks on a thousand-mile odyssey through the backroads of America where she meets Lee, a disenfranchised drifter. But despite their best efforts, all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and a final stand that will determine whether their love can survive their otherness.
Extra Information: The director of two movies that I adored as are Call Me By Your Name (2017) & Suspiria (2018), comesback with this extraordinary love-story that, much like 2016's Raw (Julia Ducournau), uses cannibalism as a means of adding drama and a horror to the already complicated atmosphere in which this movie takes place.
4. She Said
Director: Maria Schrader
Starring: Carey Mulligan & Zoe Kazan
Genre(s): Journalism, Drama
Plot: New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor break one of the most important stories in a generation — a story that helped launch the #MeToo movement and shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood.
Extra Information: She Said might not be the best directed, acted, written, executed... film of the year; but it's definetely there when talking about the most important film of the year. This movie criticizes the Harvey Weinstein case/controversy in Hollywood and how that was "allowed" or underestimated due to power and social class. This film analyzes that very concept in an interesting yet moving and compelling way. More than a fun time at the theater this film requires to be watched because of its relevance in sociaty specially in a few years' time.
REVIEW OF THE WEEK - WRITTEN
NOTE:
Just saying, my favorite movie of the year thus far!!!
REVIEW:
That's right. It might not be the best movie technically or the better crafted one or the most impressive visually or the biggest in terms of CGI. But that's the beauty of cinema. The most not always means the best (for you), and the fact is that opinions are subjective and of course they're never imparcial. I haven't enjoyed myself at the theater more during the whole year. By far, the best time I've had at the cinema. Part of this, is due to the fact that my personal favorite movie genres are mysteries/detectives/suspensful movies, and although this movie is more of a comedy than it is a suspense flick, it is absolutely a detective story, or even better, a good, new, original and intelligent whodunnit. In fact, it might be the best whodunnit I've seen since the original Knives Out back in 2019.
Starting with the analysis, this film is packed with amazing performances all over it. From the supporting roles to Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc, everyone is excellent in this film. Although to me the best performance is Daniel Craig, as it was in the first films, the standout here might actually be Janelle Monáe. She is splendid in here. She is the person that has te most to do emotion-wise and probably the character with the biggest and better arch within the new ones. That makes you care and sympathise with her even more. But the rest of the cast is also really really good. Edward Norton is excellent, Madelyn Cline is excellent, Kathryn Hahn is excellent, Dave Bautista is excellent... Literally everyone is at the top of their game. And why am I surprised? This isn't Rian Jonson's first whodunnit, and his previous one also had this characteristic. Every person and every character has someting (important) to do.
This is, unlike most whodunnits, a very clever one in all senses. Not only for the surprise value whenever the plot twists come, but also in the treatment of its characters and therefore, there's no dispensable one. The writing, as for the first film, is on another level. The fact that this film keeps misleadig you even when you think you're already figuring out what's happening is both frustrating and genius. Every time it seemed like it was going somewhere, out of nowhere a new plot twist even more ingenious than the previous one cuts in and destroys every theory you could possibly have at that point in time. And somehow, every single explanation and turn the movie gave was better than my theories which doesn't happen very often.
Also, apart from the movie's writing, the film's cinematography was outstanding. The way Rian Johnson shoots his scenes in an over the top and cartoonish way whenever he wants to get a laugh out of the audience, and extremely overdramatic but realistic and stylistic way whenever there's a sense of tension or a cool montage... Just incredible.
This is a whodunnit so of course the editing plays a huge part in the process. The truth is that, then again, with all those cool montages and specially to raise tension at key moments, the editing is astonishing.
The score, as happen with the first one, is really really strong and adds a lot to the movie's favor.
But of course, the big thing here is Rian Johnson himself. He is the reason of why this film is as good and interesting and entertaining as it is. He knows is audience and therefore knows how to fool them and mislead them with fake clues or unnecessary facts as well as apparently insignificant ones that then turn out to be the most important ones. Everything is on your face and that makes everything even more exciting. The reasons are right there, you just have to find them.
CONCLUSION:
Yeah... It might be a bit cartoonish at times, but who cares. This is the best time I've had on a theater all year so definitely go watch it.
I'll give it 4 and a half out of 5 stars
VIDEOS OF THE WEEK - TIM BURTON SPECIAL & GLASS ONION'S SURPRISE
For our latest post on this blog, we've decided to pay homage to one of the greatest filmmakers ever, Tim Burton, and his career due to the new Wednesday show that's being released this week on Netflix. But, in an umpredictable turning of events, yesterday I (Alejandro) saw Glass Onion on the theater and instantly decided to make my last video about it. So this week, as it is the lest one, you'll have two thematically different videos. Hope you like them!
ALEJANDRO:
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
DANIEL:
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
THANKS A LOT!!!
Hope you found useful all of this information.
top-notch movies are always out there you just gotta find em.
Daniel Perales & Alejandro Gómez, Top-Notch Movies
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