MOVIE: Nickel Boys (2024)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Nickel BoysYear: 2024Rating: PG-13Length: 140 minutes / 2.33 hours Every once in a while, a movie comes along that does something so creatively that you wonder why it hadn’t been done that way before. For me, Nickel Boys (2024) was way more immersive than anything that 3D cinema had done in decades, simply because the filmmakers shot it from a first-person perspective. In making the movie this way, I felt more connected to the characters, which made their plight that much more impactful. After all, you can talk about racism and you can see the effects of racism, but until you experience it, it’s just not the same. The neat thing about this first-person perspective is that it didn’t feel too much like a gimmick (like Hardcore Henry (2015) did). Sure, maybe they could have filmed it in such a way that people with virtual reality headsets could experience these things in an even more visceral format. But the humanity of seeing...
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MOVIE: Black Panther (2018)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Black Panther Year: 2018 Rating: PG-13 Length: 134 minutes / 2.23 hours Anymore, superhero films are a dime a dozen. I get that they’re adding up to a greater narrative for Avengers: Infinity War (2018), but a lot of them seem almost indistinguishable from each other. Enter Black Panther (2018). Not only is this superhero not white, but almost all the action takes place somewhere other than New York City. There are a lot of strengths in Black Panther that make it feel like a cut above the rest. From the set design and aesthetic of Wakanda to the well-developed characters (including women warriors and women scientists), Black Panther shows how a superhero movie should be made. Despite its strengths, there are still a few, minor weaknesses in this film. First, some of the CGI felt a little off in the sense that my mind rejected it when I saw it. These moments were usually pretty rare but were unquestionably obvious. Secondly, one of the tenets of the superhero genre is the action/fight sequences. While...
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