It is all flickering neon-light with Aquarium City (1996), a feature film of 76 minutes, using black inserts and the structure of the tatami again. Blue and grey are the most prominent colours, and a sky turning white while a young woman is using drugs and waving her hair. The needle in her arm, and we are watching from a distance while cars and motorcycles are passing the street. The possible contrasts in beauty seem to be Onishi’s theme, so after the dark street we watch another woman masturbating while sitting on a chair. But later placing the needle in the vagina of another woman. The sun is shining outside and cars continue driving. But the power is gone. And the way out is never anything else but a black hole.
A fun-loving story focused on surviving middle school and tailor-made for its target audience. "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid" follows the paradox of finding true friendship and securing popularity no matter what it takes.
Strangers in a crowd, exchanging glances, looking away, continually managing to run into each other then part ways, end up at the same diner, find they've rented the exact same vehicles, and are then made to travel together to learn once more whether they can both find genuine adoration and companionship again. This really does, in so many words, sum up the foundational gist of of this new feature film from writer Seth Reiss ("The Menu") and director Kogonada ("The Acolyte", "After Yang"). Yet, it's all only the set-up for the REAL wonder of everything that happens before, during, and in the aftermath of a magical, meaningful journey.
It only seems to prove that when the company had their backs against the wall and needed an all pleasing, generic movie that had to make up for The Last Jedi, they chose to sacrifice almost everything that made their main protagonist interesting and that made her stand out as the strong female character that a generation of young movie goers was supposed to look up to. Instead, we were left with a Rey that was so much less than she could have been. And I guess that’s the real story of Rey and The Rise of Skywalker; they could have been so much more, but they were just more of the same.
While not everyone may relate to the circumstances Danielle finds herself in in 'Shiva Baby', some are sure to understand her struggles as she is scrutinized for being a woman, a college student, an LGBT person, and a sugar baby.
Clocking in at about four hours, Stranger Things season 4 volume 2 is the length of a double feature. Despite the length and the hype, the finale still falls short of expectations thanks to poor pacing, poor character choices, and poor diverse storytelling.
In a film where a Black couple is framed to be the lead characters, they still managed to get shuffled off to the sidelines. The enthusiastic cast delivers well on goofy bits- but can only go so far before they begin to fall flat.
