Category Archives: Movie Reviews

IG REVIEW: “READY PLAYER ONE” (2018) Warner Bros.

03/30/2018 Peggy Marie Leave a comment

Hey all –

Just a quick update – I’ve had major computer issues – as in my computer has gone to it’s final resting point. I tried to save it, but alas, it just couldn’t happen – good news is, a new computer is on order!! Yipee!!! But won’t be here till middle of April. In the meantime – please.. check out my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peggyatthemovies/ as I’ve posted my #READYPLAYERONE review there. And give a follow while you’re at it as I love to do quick one-offs of reviews there also. And for right now, that’s as good as it gets.

Happy Easter to all..

Peggy

Movie Reviews

Reviews at https://www.instagram.com/peggyatthemovies/ – temporarily while computer being fixed!!! please check them out!!

03/23/2018 Peggy Marie 2 Comments

Hey all –

Just a quick update – I’ve had major computer issues – as in my computer has gone to it’s final resting point. I tried to save it, but alas, it just couldn’t happen. The hard drive took a nose-dive. So my full length reviews just haven’t been able to be done.. but please.. check out my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peggyatthemovies/ in the meantime because I am posting up some shorter, quick reviews of movies that’s I’ve gone to screenings of like #LeanOnPete, #TombRaider and #PacificRimUprising with upcoming screenings next week of #ReadyPlayerOne and #TheLastMovieStar.

As soon as I can either, get a new hard drive installed and hope it works, or get a new computer – I will be reviewing at my instagram!! So please, give a follow and a look-see over there. Much Appreciated!

Peggy

Comedy, Drama, Movie Reviews, Romance

REVIEW: “LOVE SIMON” (2018) 20th Century Fox

03/13/2018 Peggy Marie 4 Comments

What a wonderful teen angst movie Love, Simon is. Simply put, it reminded me of my teen years watching John Hughes films and I just felt like this is something he would have made had he ever done a film of the challenges of a teen coming out. Our storyline focuses on Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) and his one ‘big ass secret’ that no one in the world but him knows. As he is not the type of flamboyant, gay guy obsessed with musicals etc, he is just an average high school teenage boy with a seemingly picture perfect suburban family. He has a sister Nora (Talitha Bateman), whom he actually admits to liking, a very picture-perfect pretty mom Emily (Jennifer Garner), and the I-just-get-better-looking-with-age- Josh Duhamel as his dad Nick. He has his circle of best friends in Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) Leah (Katherine Langford) whom have known each other all throughout their childhood, and along with new addition Abby Suso (Alexandra Shipp) rounding out their little clique, they are just your average high school teens..or so it seems. They go to a fairly average high school with a rather funny, hammy-over the top, trying to hard to be cool, Vice Principal Worth (Tony Hale) as I don’t really remember any Vice Principal in the history of Vice Principal’s ever being, but hey, it’s a movie after all.

The story focuses on Nick’s coming out – or more the fact that he’s not done so. He has however, started emailing someone named ‘Blue’ who is also a ‘hidden’ gay student at high school. They found each other on “Creek Secrets”, the local school gossip site where Blue does a coming out, in a sense. He reveals he’s gay, but not who he actually is. Nick responds to this with his own fake moniker “Jacques”. Unfortunately the whole secret emailing starts to get really messy when fellow classmate Martin (Logan Miller), the school’s somewhat nerdy dimwit, stumbles upon the email exchange. It’s with this that he proceeds to blackmail Nick into manipulating all sorta of social situations so that he can ‘get with’ Abby, whom he wants in a big way. This whole thing goes terribly wrong and you guessed it – Nick is outed by Martin in the worst way possible.

Even with the dramatic outing – can you sometimes feel the movie is a bit homogenized? Sure you can – but it’s also sweet and likable. As someone who has many gay friends and knowing sometimes the total and complete trauma they’ve undergone in coming our and how many have never been fully accepted by family or friends – they did make that all on the more simplistic side of things with having supportive parents and friends and of course a magical ending of Nick finally meeting his ‘Blue’ and everyone living happily ever after. But even with those few nitpicks, and that’s all they are is nitpicks – I still highly enjoyed myself and ran the gamut of emotions of laughing, tearing up, smiling & being happy for them all. Jennfier Garner & Josh Duhamel are really wonderful here as the parents and the whole cast of teens are highly likable and do a completely believable take on these characters. From me to you, take the family, take your friends, take everyone as it’s a wonderful film for teens and adults alike.

Grade: B
@pegsatthemovies

Media Review Screening: Tuesday, February 22, 2018 ~ Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
LOVE, SIMON will be out in theaters Nationwide on Friday, March 16, 2018 // U.K. and Worldwide release to follow starting in April

Action, Comedy, Crime, Movie Reviews

REVIEW: GRINGO (2018) STX Entertainment / Amazon Studios

03/08/2018 Peggy Marie 2 Comments

Over the past few years, Nash Edgerton has bounced – possibly literally – between being a top-notch stuntman and a career as a burgeoning director. After a stack of shorts and a 2008 feature The Square, co-written with his more famous sibling Joel, he now steps things up with “GRINGO”, a comedy-thriller-esque type movie that looks sharp in the trailers.

With brother Joel Edgerton on board as one of the co-leads, Richard Rusk – alongside Charlize Theron as his co-conspirator Elaine Markinson and David Oyelowo as the trusty but naive, Harold Soyinka what you have here is a south-of-the-border caper with blood, guns and medical marijuana. As the film opens, crooked business partners Richard and Elaine – post-boardroom bonk – get a call from their Harold, screaming that he’s been kidnapped in Mexico.

That’s just the start – or rather the mid-point – of a twisty amoral adventure where no one is to be trusted and most are to be feared or so they like you to be – but you’re not. Flashing back and forth, the film fleshes things out..sort of. In the process of ditching their Chicago pharmaceutical firm to a conglomerate, Richard and Elaine are looking to cut ties with one of their more shady partners in the business of manufacturing medical marijuana.

Harold, the only good guy amid this nest of ever growing scumbags, and yes, even his wife Bonnie – played by Thandie Newton – is doing the dirty on him with no less that his own boss and supposed friend, Richard. Harold gets wind that he’s going to be out of a job and this is when he realises that his employers couldn’t care less about the fact he has been kidnapped, he sets out to turn the tables. But little is straightforward in a dense plot that also ropes in Amanda Seyfried and Harry Treadaway as tourists and Sharlto Copley as a mercenary with a conscience.
Double-crosses, cases of mistaken identity… just trying to keep up and make sense of what’s going on at this point, leaves you out of sorts with a plot that really isn’t going anywhere. The script is guilty of trying way to hard, to go into sub-Tarantino area – and completely not succeeding in this endeavour.

Performances vary: Theron’s foul-mouthed act wears thin very fast and honestly, I thought she would be a lot funnier than she was, Edgerton passes you by again, not speaking in his own voice (I’m really so very over this Joel), but Copley provides a few live wire moments. Oyelowo isn’t known for his comedic turns and you will see why here with a mostly blah performance with one or two ha! ha! moments by him. While it’s a pity talents like Seyfried and Treadaway are just a weird almost background note here, as their characters almost seem as if they were given something to do, they would be funny. This is one of those films where the trailer shows you all the fun, best moments of a film that’s not terrible, but very easy to forget.

Grade: C-
@pegsatthemovies

Media Review Screening: Friday, February 23, 2018 ~ Courtesy of STX Entertainment
GRINGO will be release nationwide & UK on Friday, March 9, 2018 ~ Worldwide release throughout Mar/Apr

Movie Reviews

7 DAYS OF OSCAR COUNTDOWN ~ DAY 7 ~ BEST PICTURE

03/04/2018 Peggy Marie 5 Comments

It’s HERE!! The Holy Grail of all Holy Grail’s aka High Holy Day otherwise known as ‘THE OSCARS’. And for the last time this year – I give who I think will win – and what my pick would be – as those two choices sometimes differ.

BEST PICTURE
NOMINEES

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges and Marco Morabito, Producers
While this was a sweet film and a good coming of age story, it was also long, slow & plodding. A great speech at the end does not a great movie make.

DARKEST HOUR
Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten and Douglas Urbanski, Producers
Again, one of those more drawn out pictures but with a twist. I learned things from it. I understood more about what happened at Dunkirk here than I did the actual picture called ‘Dunkirk’ – that shows a lot to me and while I won’t give it a win, it was good.

DUNKIRK
Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
So – another war movie with an attempted storyline to make it more watchable. And mind you, it was watchable, but it was also lacking a lot.

GET OUT ~ POSSIBLE UPSET #2
Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr. and Jordan Peele, Producers
I get confused by this film somewhat. Not the message behind it, that I got thank you very much. Where I am confused is they made it out to be some scary horror picture when it’s not. It’s suspenseful at times, and more of a comedy than it’s given credit for. I mean the best friend is hysterical. As Jordan Peele himself says, he sat down to write a horror movie, not a statement movie, so with that I can’t be behind it as just a horror movie. It most definitely has a chance of an upset due to that statement behind it though.

LADY BIRD
Scott Rudin, Eli Bush and Evelyn O’Neill, Producers
Again, a wonderfully sweet yet strong teen angst movie. I can probably relate to this one more having once been a teen girl who did many of the strange things done here. It’s real people – we do this. And while I loved that part of it, it didn’t resonate as ‘great’ to me. Sorry Greta – but please keep doing movies!

PHANTOM THREAD
JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson, Megan Ellison and Daniel Lupi, Producers
I am still trying to figure this one all out. Do I like it..do I love it.. do I hate it.. it’s a tough one – but I do know this – it’s not a best picture win for me.

THE POST
Amy Pascal, Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers
Sure it’s examplary what Katharine Graham did being the first woman publisher and of a major paper such as The Washington Post no less. But there is also parts of this story that because it’s a movie, they pass up on. Like the fact that she was friends with many politicians and some think that’s how she got her stories. No matter what the what there.. it still wasn’t a great drama at times just boring. A no win for me.

THE SHAPE OF WATER ~ POSSIBLE UPSET #1
Guillermo del Toro and J. Miles Dale, Producers
I almost don’t know where to begin with the next two films on this list. First, thank you Fox Searchlight for bringing this amazing film to us and going outside the box. If someone had told me before seeing this movie, ‘oh it’s about a deaf, mute girl who falls in love with a fish-man, you’ll love it’ – I probably would have rolled my eyes and just went ‘uh huh’ – instead I didn’t know what it was about at all and I loved every single minute of it. And yes, I will cheer if it wins because it’s a stunning piece of work.

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI ~ MY PICK/WINNER
Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, Producers
Which brings me to this movie. The day I saw this, I had actually a cram-packed schedule of a screening of another movie in 70mm at 11am, work and then this screening. I could have, and almost did, skip this one because the initial 70mm movie that I saw in the morning, were scheduled for the same time. Thank goodness I didn’t. I walked out of Three Billboards absolutely speechless. I knew I had just seen the Best Picture. As I ran into the people leaving the other film on the lot, I was asked if I liked the movie. I told them I thought it should win best picture and they all looked at me crazy like as I was forgetting – they had all just seen the other movie. I told each and every one of them to see this one. I know some don’t like it, you’ve got your reasons and that’s fine, but I love it and my reasons will hopefully add up to Oscar gold.

Movie Reviews, Movies, Mystery, Spy Thriller, Thriller

REVIEW: “RED SPARROW” (2018) 20th Century Fox

02/25/2018 Peggy Marie 4 Comments

So with my media screening confirmation for “RED SPARROW” we received this note from Director Francis Lawrence. I much appreciated this as I hate spoilers and always try to avoid them in reviews. However, after the screening, I’m thinking he doesn’t want anyone to reveal his ‘plot points’ and ‘ending’ because they are downright ridiculous.

To sum this up quickly and make this review as painless and short as possible the basics of this story is Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence), a Bolshoi Ballet dancer – yes, if you eyerolled here, you are not alone – who sees her career go down the tubes when her dance partner makes a bad move and breaks her leg. It’s a horrible break which would take months to heal let alone walk in heels – and yet there she is three miraculous months later – running around in heels. Not just that, but she finds out of a conspiracy on the part of the aforementioned partner and her replacement. This is all thanks to the fact that her uncle Vanya Egorov (Matthias Schoenaerts), who is nothing less than one of the heads of the secret service of the “mother country” has given her secret tape on this. Dominika exacts a revenge that can only been seen to be believed, in other words yes, again ridiculous. She is then faced with the need to keep her home and medical care for her sick mother, Nina (Joely Richardson), both of which have been provided by the Bolshoi. Well weclome back Uncle Vanya who offers her a job because you know..she has been so intuitive as a child even. YAWN! Well, sweet Uncle Vanya sends her to ‘Sparrow School’ or as JLaw puts it in her ridiculously bad Russian accent, Whore School. You know that place we all want to go to because they train you to have sex and use your body as a weapon to overcome the enemy. After watching some of the weirdest, most uncomfortable sex scenes to grace the screen in a long time, we go to part duex. Sigh.

Dominika has to approach Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), a CIA agent who had been working for years with a mole in Moscow and who eventually had to leave the country when he unmasked himself when he mistook some police officers for secret service agents. Nash and Dominika immediately begin a relationship because of course they do – and of course the physical attraction will prove to be a bond to guarantee a “mutual benefit”.

Honestly, that’s all I can give and it’s even more than planned. Red Sparrow is just plain ridiculous and bad. There is no chance anyone is EVER going to believe Jennifer Lawrences’ performance here as not only a ballerina, but a Russian Agent to boot. EVER! Nor Joel Edgerton as a spy – I mean when is this guy ever going to speak his native Aussie again? He really tries with his accents, but never really gets it right. Not even my go to guy, Matthias Schoenaerts or the great Jeremy Irons can save this film. It’s almost like if Fifty Shades of Grey met Die Hard in the worst way possible. With Domenika’s line “They gave me a choice: die or become a sparrow.” I wish I could have chose for her and saved myself from watching this.

Grade: D-
@pegsatthemovies

Media Review Screening: Tuesday, Febraury 20, 2018 ~ Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
RED SPARROW will be in theatres worldwide on Friday, March 2, 2018

Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Movie Reviews, Movies

REVIEW: “ANNIHILATION” (2018) Paramount Pictures

02/21/2018 Peggy Marie 8 Comments

Sometimes I have to step out of the box of basic reviewing. This came to me all at once as I was waking up this morning after viewing “ANNIHILATION” last night – which by and by I really enjoyed. Sure it started off a bit slow, and I could nit-pick over a few things, but by and far it was a fascinating film – until the ending for me. The last 10 minutes took everything I had previously so enjoyed and threw it out the window. What can I say to that? Well I decided to snap it up and make the review like the movie – completely different than the norm.

There once was a lighthouse which started to glimmer,
None could figure out what made it shimmer.
All who went in, never came out,
Save for one, but he can’t recount.

So send in the troops , five brave souls and women to boot.
Into the ‘shimmer’ they went, where suspense and chills met them at each turn,
the gene cycle seemingly constantly to spurn.
Nothing set us up for the finale to come, disappointment was most surely to be done.
While beautifully filmed and fairly well acted, there were a few who could be redacted.

And that here sums up my review – for as surely I loved it all the way through,
the ending left me more than feeling a bit blue.
Before I forget to mention – I adored the group of women in this film – from the anthropologist Cass (Tuva Novotny), nerdy physicist Josie (Tessa Thompson), to Natalie Portmans’ ex-Army, biologist role of Lena. But my two favourites were defintiely the gung-ho beefy, butched up Gina Rodriguez as Anya, a paramedic who takes her ‘Jane the Virgin’ role and throws it right out the door – to the magnificently almost scary, creepy Jennifer Jason Leigh whose cagey psychologist role of Dr. Ventress takes this performance to a very different level.

Grade: C+
@pegsatthemovies

Media Review Screening: Tuesday, February 20, 2018 ~ Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
‘ANNIHILATION’ is out in theaters nationwide on Friday, February 23, 2018 // International release starting March 2018

Comedy, Dark Comedy, Drama, Independent Feature, Movie Reviews, Movies

REVIEW: “THE PARTY” (2018) Roadside Attractions

02/16/2018 Peggy Marie 4 Comments

This opening scene and the closing scene of Director Sally Potter’s new black & white shot film “The Party” are exactly the same. What lies between those two shots is a thankfull scant 71 minutes of a rather abysmal ‘dark comedy’ that didn’t really bring me any laughs, though in all fairness – I did hear a scant few on the other side of the screening.

While the film was not outright dreadful, it does go to show that one should never be taken in by a slickly made trailer or a stellar cast-list. Kristen Scott Thomas as Janet and a really craggy old looking version of Timothy Spall as her husband Bill, lead as the couple having ‘The Party’ to celebrate Janet’s promotion in the political arena. Guests: April (Patricia Clarkson), her seemingly always annoying partner Gottfried (Bruno Ganz), lesbian couple Martha (Cherry Jones) and the much younger, newly preggers with triplets Jinny (Emily Mortimer) and lastly we have Tom (Cillian Murphy) a wound up, coked out financier of some sorts.

Let’s start off with the script to which the statement huh? might apply for me. As truly no attempt was seemingly made to write anything approaching natural conversation. Dialogue was jagged and disjointed, lacking any genuine motivational flow. Sorry, but real people just DON’T interact like this and yes, I get that’s it’s a movie and not everything needs to be exact but whoa! this was just ridiculous in a manner of speaking. And as for it being a comedy, I was definitely fooled into thinking this might be, yet I think I laughed three times total and two of them were little more than polite ha!’s to be sure. Now again, I did hear some others laughing more than this – but no one near me.

Pacing: what pacing? I’m just going to roll with – there really wasn’t any. At one point I caught myself yawning and for a film that last only 71 minutes – well it says a lot.

Lastly the characterisation: seven characters flapping about on screen and not a single one of them believable. Just 2-dimensional assemblages of what I can only call over-the-top histrionics. Consequently I never felt any sympathy (or even antipathy) toward any of them, so couldn’t engage with any of the supposed crises they were experiencing.

Performances: almost uniformly muggy and overdone – an effect made even worse by the habit of shooting an awful lot of exchanges in tight close-up.

Oh yes… I said “short”, didn’t I? Well let’s say this, when the end credits appeared there was an audible “Uh?” of surprise from the audience and a sigh of relief from myself. The film had lasted barely over an hour and on second thought, this was probably a blessing: not sure I could have withstood another 30 minutes of such nonsense.

Wrapping it all up: There isn’t ONE person in this cast of seven whom the audience can really sympathise or relate with. The seven characters call themselves ‘friends’ but treat each other with hostility, dishonesty etc. Too me it felt more like an unreal vacuum of lovelessness than a real group of people. Even the super-talented Cillian Murphy comes across as one-sided and overacting. The ‘twist’ at the end is also not very interesting and a bit of a cliché. I’ve seen much better work from Sally Potter!

Grade: D+
@pegsatthemovies

Review Screening: Thursday, February 15, 2018 ~ Courtesy of Film Independent at LACMA
THE PARTY is now playing in select theaters worldwide

Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Movie Reviews, Movies

REVIEW: “PADDINGTON 2” (2018) Warner Bros.

01/15/2018 Peggy Marie Leave a comment

Growing up, we didn’t have the adorable Paddington Bear as he was mostly a British ‘bear’. It was only later that I was made aware of his wonderful adventures. So I was hugely surprised at just how good the first film was and was tentatively cautious when this sequel was green-lighted that perhaps it might cheapen Michael Bond’s beloved family friendly creation.

However, fear not, for this sequel is absolutely terrific on all levels. Firstly it is as funny and witty and as brilliantly animated as the first film. The excellent cast from the first film is also enhanced by a superb turn from Hugh Grant as Phoenix Buchanan. Grant, who hasn’t been as good as he is here in a long time, is even nominated for a BAFTA for his role here as the villian, and rightfully so I say. In fact it is quite clear to the viewer that Grant is thoroughly enjoying himself by playing against type and sending himself up as a faded egotistical actor and total cad who sets Paddington up to be the fall guy (or should that be Bear? 🙂 ) for a dastardly deed. There is a touch of the pantomime villain to his performance, but it works splendidly and it fits his character perfectly.

All the wit and heart of the first film is still evident here and in some ways, built upon. Brendan Gleeson is superb as the ‘nasty’ Knuckles, an old lag and prison cook who loses his angry nature when he succumbs to Paddington’s charms and talents in the kitchen who warms up to Paddington quickly..maybe too quickly. The whole film shows and plays scenes as a child might imagine things to be – for example how the prison works and especially the lovely idea that the warden reads the inmates a bedtime story to help them all get to sleep. There are also loads of great jokes too, some pitched at younger children and some deliberately aimed at the more adult viewer. I took a 4 1/2 yr old and she definitely laughed at different parts than the adults at the screening did and there was a good 10-15 lag time where I was glad they had so nicely given us an adorable Paddington Bear backpack with our own Paddington Beach & storytime book as she started to look through that. It is a bit lengthy of a film for children at 1 hour 45min run time.

All in all this is a worthy sequel and a great memorial to Paddingtons creator, Michael Bond, who sadly passed while this sequel was still being filmed. It is full of laughs, thrills, action sequences, great characters, some wonderful animation and you would have to have a hard heart indeed to not burst into a smile at the end. Also, don’t leave the film before the credits start to roll and you will surely miss Hugh Grant gloriously send himself up with a musical song and dance act as the end credits roll.

Thoroughly recommended to anybody who wants to see film of family friendly fun that isn’t either sickly sweet or too dark for youngsters and still thoroughly watchable to adults too. Great fun and a worthy sequel to the first Paddington.

Grade: B
@pegsatthemovies

Media Review Screening: Wednesday, January 10, 2017 ~ Courtesy of Warner Bros.
PADDINGTON 2 IS NOW PLAYING IN THEATRES WORLDWIDE

bad movie, Comedy, Drama, Futuristic, Movie Reviews, Movies, political, Religious, Sci Fi

REVIEW: “DOWNSIZING” (2017) Paramount Pictures

12/30/2017 Peggy Marie 6 Comments

Welp. we’ve got a strike three for Matt Damon on his 2017 films with “DOWNSIZING”. This movie takes an interesting premise, “What if we could make ourselves smaller to use up fewer resources and save the planet?” and really just does nothing with it. Having heard little about the film aside from its concept, I went into the screening fairly cold. Sadly, the film doesn’t have a whole lot more to offer than its brilliant concept and exceptional first act. I must admit that I left feeling disappointed, thinking they could’ve made this a better movie in many ways. When a film has so much promise and doesn’t exactly deliver on much of it, I feel as though many people would be let down by that.

In this dramedy, which also in part a social satire of its own genre, Downsizing follows a couple Paul (Matt Damon) & Audrey (Kristen Wiig) Safranek, who believe their lives would be better if they were to shrink themselves and be transferred to a new world called Leisureland. This place exists to conserve the Earth and save the environment, as let’s face it, smaller people need much fewer resources. With multiple meanings to the title, this is a concept that sounds incredible on paper but doesn’t exactly translate into that great of a movie. Throughout the first act, I found myself immersed in this world and couldn’t wait to be taken on its journey, but I soon found myself losing interest when political and religious elements began to take over and it started to go very sloooowww. And it’s sad as this is a movie that could’ve done so much more with its premise.

Without giving anything away, there are many characters such as Niecy Nash playing a Leisureworld salesperson, or that of Dusan Mirkovic (Christof Waltz), The Lonowski’s, Jeff (Neil Patrick Harris) & Laura (Laura Dern) or Paul’s good friend Dave (Jason Sudeikis), that come in and out of this film in a heartbeat, pretty much leaving them in the dust, when in reality they were actually interesting and added a layer to the overall story. It felt as though Director Alexander Payne wanted to focus so much on the idea of the Downsizing concept, that he sidelined quite a few characters along the way. His films have always been about characters, and while Paul and Ngoc (Hong Chau) share some great chemistry throughout this film, it’s hard not to wish that all of the characters throughout the first act were present throughout the entire film. This was a very curious issue I had while watching and definitely upon reflection.

As soon as you’re brought into this other world that has been built for those who shrunk themselves over the years, you will find yourself kind of transfixed at how interesting the visuals are and how lackluster the comedy is, but what you don’t expect is for the film to take a dramatic turn and really have you thinking hard about the world we live in and whether or not certain lines of dialogue are true about society in general. This is an eye-opening film in that regard and the third act is incredibly ambitious, but I just don’t think it really sticks the landing that it strives to achieve.

In the end, this is one of the most original ideas I can recall in recent memory, but an idea doesn’t make a film great. It’s the film itself that needs to win you over as a whole, and Downsizing just didn’t do that for me. On many accounts, this is a very impressive movie from a technical standpoint and it takes risks that I didn’t expect it to, but the risks it takes will only work for a few audiences members that can relate to it.

This is a movie that promises a lot and tries to deliver on all of those promises, while also shoving in side plots that make this film too emotionally complex to really be invested in the satirical aspects by the end. I wish this film went through a few more rewrites, because there is a satirical masterpiece of a movie in here somewhere, but it’s just not the product that you’ll be seeing in theatres soon. Downsizing might be worth your time in terms of originality, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up on it being a favorite.