October 2022: Final Week

Hi everyone!

Welcome back to Top Notch-Movies one more week. This week, as we did the very first week, we'll also talk about a non-English speaking film, All Quiet On The Western Front, a German film. 

Thanks for reading us!

MOST IMPORTANT RELEASES (October 4th week)

1. All Quiet On The Western Front (Im Westen Nichts Neues)

Director: Edward Berger

Starring: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer, Moritz Klaus, Edin Hasanović & Daniel Brühl.

Genre(s): War, Action, Drama

Plot: Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller, egged on by romantic dreams of heroism, voluntarily enlist in the German army. Full of excitement and patriotic fervor, the boys enthusiastically march into a war they believe in. But once on the Western Front, they discover the soul-destroying horror of World War I.

Extra Information: Netflix's big 2022 release is nothing less than a war-epic drama about the horrors of WWI. This film is being praised by every film critic. Some even defend the idea that although this isn't an english-speaking film, Netflix should submit this for Oscar consideration rather than Glass Onion (a film that we'll talk about in a couple of months). This is definitely an experience to be had.

2. Armageddon Time

Director: James Gray

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Banks Repeta, Jaylin Webb & Anthony Hopkins.

Genre(s): Drama

Plot: A deeply personal story about the strength of family, the complexity of friendship, and the generational pursuit of the American Dream.

Extra Information: this coming-of-age story is directed by the acclaimed filmmaker James Gray, director of Ad Astra (2019), Two Lovers (2008) & We Own The Night (2007) among many other hits. He's collaborated before with Joaquin Phoenix and Brad Pitt (two of the best actors in business) and now he's collaborating with a living legend: Mr. Anthony Hopkins. This alone is a huge reason to go and see this film on the big screen.

3. Till

Director: Chinonye Chukwu

Starring: Danielle Deadwyler, Jalyn Hall, Frankie Faison, Haley Bennett & John Douglas Thompson.

Genre(s): Drama

Plot: The true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14 year old son, Emmett Till, who, in 1955, was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.

Extra Information: Some people might be interested in seeing this film because of the depiction of this real event that once happened and others that might not be as familiar with the real story behind this movie, just because most people are really liking it. However, every single person agrees in which Danielle Deadwyler makes the performance of a lifetime in here and just for that reason, this film deserves to be watched.

4. The Good Nurse

Director: Tobias Lindholm

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Jessica Chastain, Nnamdi Asomugha, Noah Emmerich, Kim Dickens, Malik Yoba & Alix West Lefler.

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Plot: Suspicious that her colleague is responsible for a series of mysterious patient deaths, a nurse risks her own life to uncover the truth in this gripping thriller based on true events.

Extra Information: Another Netflix release starring huge-big stars as are Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne. This film explores the horrors of possibly being friends/workmates with a serial killer. If tension and suspense is your cup of tea, this movie is absolutely for you.

REVIEW OF THE WEEK - WRITTEN

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

GOOD:

I'm not going to wait till the end of the review to say this so... This is one of the best films of the year! Let's get into it and analyse it:

First of all, this film is a delight for all the filmlovers. This film could easily be shown to students who wanna learn and understand how to direct a film and how to master this art-form. This film is, objectively speaking, perfect; meaning it's flawless in every single technical category as well as acting. 

This film has some of the best costume, make up and production designs in all year. Every one of those things helped building atmosphere as well as creating a realistic environment which will then affect, in an emotional way, to the viewer's experience. 

The performances all over are from great to impecable. Felix Hammerer specially did a great job as the lead of the film and from the supporting cast, Daniel Brühl (as always whenever he's in a film) and Albrecht Schuch were the standouts here, they both crushed it in their respective roles. Daniel Brühl specially stole every single scene he was a part of, till the point you're not really paying attention to the other actors, you're just lost in his performance. Although I've only named these three names, this is one of those weird cases in which not even one performance felt out of place, forced or out of tone. 

A part of all of those great performances, apart from the actors' work, of course, had to do with the writing and that's because All Quiet On The Western Front is definitely one of the top screenplays of the whole year. Adding to that the incredibly well use of sound editing and mixing in addition to the perfect score this movie possesses - it all paid off in building characters, a constant sense of tension and a surreal action/fight sequences that were incredibly well crafted.

Also, when it comes to this film, you have to talk about the cinematography, as this is one of the best-looking films of the year. The symmetry in the pictures that were being shown caused an uneven feeling contrasting the beauty of those same images with the nightmare they are representing resulting in an unsettling reaction in the viewer that, I believe, helped the film in the build-up of tension and atmosphere. Also, coming with the cinematography, the color correction was remarkable. Specially in scenes that were shot in the dark, at night or among fire.

Finally, we've highlighted the performances, the sound, the score, the cinematography & color correction, the production and costume designs as well as the make-up and writing departments; but the real reason why all of these work so well is because of a mastermind called Edward Berger. I hadn't seen anything from him and after having seeing this I can assure you he's going to be one of the most influential directors in the future. His style combined with his creativity and vision when handling different complex storylines and his ambition when crafting huge battle sequences with those long takes without cuts and those transitions... Edwar Berger is the reason why this film is as good as it is. If any other director had directed it, this film might have been a disaster, might not had known how to handle comedy with the horrors of the war and might not had known how to mix absolute drama with pure emotion. This movie is a beautiful war film that I'm sure will be remembered for a long long time as well as praised by people all over the world. 

CONCLUSION:

This film is spectacular. It's acted beautifully, it's shot beautifully, it looks beautiful, it's written perfectly and it's directed flawlessly. Adding to all that this film depicts the horrors of WWI in a perfect way and knows how to balance it with the right amount of humor not to pull you out of it and therefore making the experience both more emotional and heart-warming. 

I'll give it 5 out of 5 stars.

VIDEOS OF THE WEEK - HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

As this week Halloween takes place, we've decided to do something a bit different than usual and related with horror films. And as this is different, we also decided to make it personal. These video-reviews will be about our favorite horror films!

ALEJANDRO:

HEREDITARY (2018)

DANIEL:

IT (2017)

UPCOMING FILMS (Next Week)

• Enola Holmes 2: the sequel for the better than expected Enola Homes, with Millie Bobby Brown returning as Enola and Henry Cavill as Sherlock.

• My Policeman: Harry Styles' (international pop artist of the moment) possible breakthrough role after his appearance in this year's Don't Worry Darling, alongside the amazing Florence Pugh.

• BARDO, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths: Alejandro G. Iñárritu's first film in over 6 years after his 2 in a row best director Oscar wins (2014 for Birdman or: The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance & 2015 for The Revenant)

• Weird: The Al Yankovic Story: A revival of Al Yankovic's musical career as well as personal and professional life

Hope you found useful all of this information.

We'll return next week with more, until then, keep indulging cinema, and remember: 
top-notch movies are always out there you just gotta find em.

Daniel Perales & Alejandro Gómez, Top-Notch Movies