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forfoxessake · 1 year

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February (2023)

A good month over all, I spent half of it travelling abroad and still managed to come across good things with the time that I had.

I saw 5 movies this month, finished reading 2 books (I’m currently reading 7 and I’m listening to a radioplay). I just noticed that I have yet to go to the cinema this year, but I want to fix that as soon as possible.

Ghost World (2001) - I somehow missed out on this film while growing up, I do get why it wasnt so easily available, there’s some difficult subjects in there, but I think my teenage self would have found something important here. And I miss Thora Birch

Tuesday (2015) - “Aftersun” Charlotte Wells is just as brilliant in a ten-minute short and I don't know why I'm surprised.

Apollo: Missions to the Moon (2019) - I like all things space and I love documentaries, and even the whole moon race thing, but this was not a great one.

Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) - I like Daisy Edgar-Jones a lot and she deserved better than this film that just slowly goes nowhere.

Unpregnant (2020) - Two girls who used to be close friends reconnect on a road trip where the goal is an abortion. It's not your usual coming-of-age story but it's an important one that needs to be represented just as much as anything else. Haley and Barbie do a great job of having enough chemistry to carry us on this emotional but also fun-crazy-political ride.

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Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto - I have a feeling that some books from the romance contemporary genre are writen as if people are expecting it to become a rom-com movie. Some of the plot is clearly meant to be watched, not read, and it makes it boring, which was really sad in this since the first 100 pages are really interesting and different from the usual.

Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare - I have been following an youtuber Shakespeare challenge and now that we are almost over I don’t think I want to keep it up, it’s been fun, specially when so many plot points are easily reconizable from inumerals references in every media ever since, but it’s also been a while since I was hooked by one of his plays, peharps the best is behind us now.

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I finished What We do In The Shadows - season 04, it was absolutely perfect, not a single episode out of place, it left me wanting more and I love that they always manage to keep the plot in focus and move the story fowards.

I’m still halfway through Andor, I’m moving slow, it’s an universe I love and I like that it’s more serious and complex than anything else in Star Wars but I’m having a hard time focusing on it.

Doom Patrol is another one I’m moving slowly, still 6 more episodes until the end of the 1st season, and I’m truly enjoying it, the characters, the crazy plots and this universe that is so funny sometimes that I can’t believe this is not bigger.

...

Albums

Turnstile - Glow On has been a favorite this month, they didn’t win a Grammy but they were my favorite out of all the nominees this year.

Songs

Tragician - Frank Iero and The Cellabration - the album version and this acoustic perfomance on the link that I wish was an official recording too.

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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 2 years

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“Where the Crawdads Sing” (2022) movie review:

Short review:

It’s fine, I guess, if you can ignore the huge leaps in logic, story inconsistency, forced melodrama, and the twist ending that felt like a “subversion of your expectations” but only for the sake of doing so.

Letter grade of D+ / C-

Long review:

DISCLAIMER: I did not read the book, so this will be solely a discussion about the movie.

So...yeah. This may be one of the few times where I fully agree with the Rotten Tomatoes score. When I saw that it was sitting at 36%, I wasn’t convinced since the movie looked like it had a lot going for it. Murder mystery, strong female lead, based on a best-selling novel, and tackling heavy themes like abuse. This movie LOOKED good. It was only after watching the movie did I realize that maybe the trailer did too good of a job selling people on the story.

Maybe the problems I’m about to discuss are a result of the movie being an adaptation, which means a lot of material from the books may have been cut. At it sits right now, it feels like there is a lot missing from the movie.

First off, what the focus of the movie was supposed to be on. The trailers make it seem like the story is about a young woman dealing with being ostracized by the town she’s living in. To the people around her, she is the “marsh girl”, this boogeyman-like person who is the subject of many ghost stories and rumors. But, that’s not what the movie is actually about. There’s only one real scene where Kya Clark deals with the town’s bullying (when she ran away from school). Other than that, the REAL movie is about her whirlwind romances with Tate and Chase.

This is a huge problem for me because the closing argument of the movie doesn’t feel representative of the movie as a whole. The defense attorney talks about how the town feared her and didn’t understand her, but you never really see the town do that except for one scene near the beginning. Sure, the prosecution’s witnesses said bad things about Kya, but that’s expected, especially since they were close to Chase. Maybe this is just me but family members bad-mouthing the suspected killer isn’t the same as shunning a girl just for her lifestyle.

It’s not enough to say Kya is shunned by the town, we need to see it. Emphasize that point because it’s literally the closing argument of the movie.

But okay, so the movie is actually a melodrama about two, failed romances. Sure, that’s fine, I can deal with that. Except the romances feel so contrived that I felt like I was watching the first draft of a cheesy, young adult romance novel.

Let’s start with Tate.

Tate’s romance storyline...hurt my brain. I guess there was chemistry there, but it was the type of chemistry where two gorgeous people just stare at each other and you’re supposed to assume they like one another. Because aside from looks, how their relationship progressed didn’t make sense to me. Their first kiss literally happened because Tate talked about the tragic deaths of his mother and sister, which was immediately followed up by them frolicking through some leaves in the wind. And then, they nearly had sex for the first time because they saw some geese flying in (were they geese? That’s just my guess). I guess people are turned on by birds on a creek/marsh/swamp/lake.

But what truly bothered me about Tate’s storyline is that this man left her for years WITHOUT an explanation. I would’ve been fine if his excuse was that he had been drafted for Vietnam since the war was during this decade, but the character’s actual excuse was that he thought Kya would never leave the marsh. So, after promising to never abandon her...he abandons her. And yet, they still get married at the end.

Was I supposed to like Tate? If so, his abandonment of Kya was so egregious that it essentially ruined his character in the second half of the movie. Even leaving Kya for one year would’ve been bad enough, but the movie makes it clear that it was for several years. And the thing is, I think the audience is supposed to be pro-Tate since he’s part of Kya’s happy ending. I’m not saying any of this because I’m #TeamTate, I’m saying this because Tate’s inexplicable abandonment of Kya actually hurt the storyline.

Alright, let’s move onto Chase.

For the most part, I thought the movie did a decent job at setting up Chase. He’s the “nice guy” who starts off great, but then is revealed to be a violent abuser who Kya must escape from. You’re not supposed to like Chase (unlike Tate) and the movie made it clear with its portrayal of the character.

My complaint about Chase’s storyline is more indicative of the movie’s problems as a whole. This whole movie feels like cheap, forced melodrama, like a soap opera but with a higher budget (so...the CW). For example, the scene where Chase is outed as having a secret fiancee. The revelation was so sudden and forced that it was unintentionally hilarious. It’s not enough that Chase is an abuser, no, he has to have a secret lover who Kya never knew about.

The fiancee doesn’t come back up in the movie, if I recall correctly. So...if this character is only there to serve as a “shock” reveal...maybe...cut the character? The fiancee reveal isn’t necessary to show that Chase is an abuser, that point is already made when he smacks Kya. Yes, I am aware that it was the fiancee reveal that led to Chase becoming violent, but the movie could’ve done Chase’s heel turn in a much more natural way.

Maybe Chase turns into a violent drunk like Kya’s father? You see him drink beer several times in the movie, that could’ve been a subtle way of showing that Chase was becoming an alcoholic. Or maybe Chase learns about Tate and becomes a jealous monster when Tate comes back. There are several ways to do Chase’s storyline without having to resort to the forced twist of “I had a secret lover this whole time”.

Now...the ending.

I’m actually not opposed to the “accused protagonist was actually the killer” twist...in theory. This type of twist can work, but it’s usually done when the author is portraying the protagonist as the TRUE VILLAIN of the story. For example (SPOILERS FOR TWO OTHER MOVIES):

1) Primal Fear: Edward Norton’s character reveals he faked his personality disorder in order to escape a guilty verdict.

2) Body of Evidence: Madonna’s character was guilty the whole time and is actually the kind of person everyone thought she was (a gold digger who murders her lovers)

So, what is the movie trying to say here? That Kya is the boogeyman that the town made her out to be? “Oh, but she needed to kill Chase because he’s evil!” Sure, I get that, but the twist hurts the story since it validates the town’s perception of Kya as an unrepentant murderer when most of the movie is centered on portraying Kya as this misunderstood person.

If this is the angle that the story was trying to take, why not just have Kya admit to the killing? Have her claim it was either 1) self-defense or 2) she needed to do it because Chase left her no choice. The attorney can argue that, under the circumstances, Kya killed Chase “in the heat of passion” (voluntary manslaughter). At the very least, Kya could avoid facing the full wrath of the judge and jury, especially since Kya’s story could make her look sympathetic.

This ending really left a bad taste in my mouth. In addition, it was another example of the forced melodrama that was prevalent throughout the movie. What did Kya killing Chase add to the movie? Aside from casting Kya in a negative light, it felt unnecessary, especially since the ending already felt stretched out.

Aside from the story, the leaps in logic were pretty hard to take in. Now, I’m someone who watches Marvel movies, plays games like Persona, and watches shows like Stranger Things. I can suspend my disbelief just fine. But somehow, this movie was pushing it, especially since the story took place in the real world:

1) So I guess Social Services doesn’t know how to do their job? It’s not like Kya was moving around like Jason Bourne, she’s literally living in the same house throughout the whole movie. No one bothered to investigate the house for more than five minutes? Also, she sends out mail from where she lives. The government can’t track her down that way? (my girlfriend, who does social work, was frustrated by this as well)

2) Speaking as a law school student, the courtroom scenes ranged from “Okay, not so bad” to “Please god, make it stop”. Every time the lawyers approached the jurors, I wanted to punch something in the room.

3) This feral swamp girl looks surprisingly good, like she’s a Hollywood actress or something. But seriously, Kya did not look like someone who was surviving alone in the wild. Yes, she had a house, but it was still her alone against the wilderness. She looked like someone living in the town, which goes against her whole story.

4) Kya, the feral swamp girl, becomes a best-selling author...sure. I feel like I’d be more accepting of this plot point if we had actually seen more examples of her poetry. Instead, the movie just assumes that the audience will accept that Kya is an amazing writer.

5) Kya, who was a murder suspect, somehow got away with hiding evidence within her books. You’re telling me the police wouldn’t put her books into evidence? It’s not like there was a secret compartment either, she just taped Chase’s necklace on one of the pages.

6) The defense attorney making it seem like Kya murdering Chase was too ridiculous worked a little too well. So many things had to go right in order for Kya’s murder scheme to work.

Okay, I’m exhausted. My advice, just go watch “Top Gun: Maverick” again. Or “Thor: Love and Thunder”, that’s a fun movie. Oh heck, even “Minions - The Rise of Gru”, people seem to like that movie.

Other nitpicky complaints:

1) It’s not a good look that Delia Owens, who is wanted for murder, wrote a story where a young woman gets away with murder.

2) The army (marine?) brother coming back didn’t really add to the movie. I know he tells Kya that their mother died, but the character doesn’t actually do anything in the main story. Kya could’ve easily learned her mother died through the newspaper or something.

3) What was the point of the cat in the courtroom? They showed the cat sitting on a chair like it was significant or symbolic of something.

4) Kya and Tate never moved from that one spot in the marshes. Sure, let’s just stay in the area where the townsfolk hate my very existence and is the area where all my traumas occurred. You’d think that Tate would’ve convinced Kya to move at some point, especially since he’s a college graduate.

#negative reviews #where the crawdads sing #wtcs #2022 movies #2022 films #films 2022 #movies 2022 #movie review #film review #delia owens #olivia newman #kya clark #tate walker #chase andrews

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