FRACTURED!

Hello beautiful people, how are you feeling today? are you ready for today's post?

Today I come to tell you about a suspense movie directed by Brad Anderson, based on the script by Alan B. McElroy, which is on the Netflix platform. With Sam Worthington, Lily Rabe, Stephen Tobolowsky, Adjoa Andoh, Lucy Capri, among others.

It's called “Fractured” and it's a family drama that goes through the trauma filter of an accident that, as we will see, determines everything. A psychological thriller that flirts with the idea of criminal conspiracies to construct a story about guilt, and especially about the inability of its protagonist Sam Worthington.

SYNOPSIS:

Ray Monroe is an alcoholic in the midst of rehabilitation, who drives behind the wheel of his car along with his wife Joanne and daughter Peri. They return from a disastrous Thanksgiving meal with her parents, and at a certain point on the way, the little girl needs to go to the bathroom and they park the car at a gas station, where a few minutes later the tragedy will occur, in a mistake of her parents, Peri is cornered by a menacing-looking dog and falls on her back in a space under construction. Ray tries to help Peri by throwing a stone at the dog but it scares her, he tries to grab her but it's too late and he falls into the construction too.

"Fractured" It's a haunting and captivating story that shows how untreated trauma can cause us to part with reality.

Director Brad Anderson spoke about what the final scene of the film means to him, and how it might apply to how many people live today:

"I wonder if he will wake up to the truth or not. That is the question at the end of the movie. Depending on how gloomy the point of view is about things, it can be said that he lives in self-deception, that for him it is better than living in reality”.

“We all do that up to a point in our lives, we do not want to face harsh realities we just want to ignore them and set them aside. Maybe there's a little bit of that going on here. It seems to me that the end is sad and tragic, but it is also moving”.

“He is just a boy who wants to be a good father. He wants to be a father and a husband who does the right thing. At the beginning of the movie, he is blinded and depressed. I don't think he understood. It is not a direct horror. It is a tragedy with connotations of horror”. 

Like so many others in its genre, this film invites us to be the smart ones, to anticipate the resolution. That is, in fact, one of the most interesting games in this genre for the viewers, but I think the possibilities on this film are a bit slim. Sam Worthington's portrayal, which does a good job on its part, helps bring the suspense, and clues to uncover the true meaning of the plot.

I liked it, i's not a boring movie, but it wasn't excellent either, I think it had everything to be much better but it fell short.

I leave the trailer:

XOXO Li.

YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT!

Hello beautiful people, happy Thursday!! how's that quarantine going? are you enduring it?

Today I'm going to tell you about the recent film by Kevin Bacon and Amanda seyfried called "You should have left".

It's an American psychological horror film, written and directed by David Koepp, based on Daniel Kehlmann's 2017 book of the same name.

Kevin Bacon plays Theo Conroy, a retired millionaire banker who lives by, listening to a kind of self-help guru who tries to calm him down in what appears to be outbreaks of anxiety, impatience, or jealousy, often accompanied by brutal nightmares.

This film can be a mix between Hitchcock and Kubrick, it has good drama, you could think about the toxic dynamics and their repercussions within the family nucleus, you realize that although it seems like a relatively happy family, each one has their problems and secrets, and who think that a vacation away from the city can remove such problems?.

So one thing I notice is that the big star of the movie, in addition to Bacon and Seyfried, is the house itself, a sleek modern construction that has little to do with the country setting near a village in the mid-Wales surrounding it. And the house, shows its tricks at the outset: what we see is not what there is and to understand how to move in there, it may not even reach with a square or a tape measure.

In my opinion, the acting was excellent but the plot was normal, this type of movie is one of those that always makes you think "what's really going on here?" a theme that seems to have most of the psychological thrillers. But it lacked more content to make it solid, at times it felt confused, rushed, and lacking in depth.

By the way, it gives you some warning signs for an AirBnB, choose the house well when you travel, hahahahaha. On the other hand, I loved the camera work, straight lines, good screen angles, focused reflections, and depth-of-field material.

I'll leave the trailer for you to judge for yourself.

XOXO Li.

SWISS ARMY MAN!

Hello beautiful people, how are you today? Today I bring you a wonder in the world of movies

It's a dark comedy-drama film released in June 2016, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Paul Dano, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

The film was not released commercially but was widely accepted by critics, praising Radcliffe's twisted performance and his charismatic and bizarre character, but is available on the Netflix platform to her delight.

"Swiss Army Man" is about the desperate decision of a man who is on the verge of suicide on a desert island when he meets a body on the shore of the beach and goes in search of him in the hope that he is alive, but he is not, instead he meets a flatulent corpse who will help him get off the island and return to civilization with his strange "powers" and thus creating a strange friendship between the two.

The Daniels duo went on to create a film that will not leave anyone indifferent, causing different tastes and points of view as extreme as absolute hatred for this film or glorification of a story that is not easy to tell and interpret with an ending difficult to explain. Uncomfortable and touching in equal parts.

The film demystifies death in every possible way, and it does so by looking closely. There is no contrast more beautiful than that which occurs when someone saves his life by a miraculous call from death.

You don't have to put anyone else when you see how perfect Paul and Daniel are together, the union they create with their characters is so real and close that they make you believe that their friendship really goes beyond eternity. In this film you realize that each situation leaves you with a lesson, that you can always learn something new in life, that things are easy and simple but we make them complicated.

If you are one of those who supports black humor, do not believe in taboos and like funny movies, "Swiss Army Man" is for you. This film has an excellent and delicate work of photography, artistic direction and a brilliant soundtrack (Andy Hull and Robert McDowell); impeccable performances that reveal the sensitivity of the film, risky, original and without limits.

For me it's undoubtedly a difficult film to forget, fascinating, worth commenting on and sharing, I leave the trailer for you to see it.

XOXO Li.

PARASITE!

Hi beautiful people, sorry for not posting yesterday, I had a little problem and my mind wasn't on it. Let's talk about movies, specifically the movie Parasite, another of South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's masterpieces.

It's a 2019 drama, suspense, and dark humor movie, starring Song Kang-ho (Snowpiercer), Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Jang Hye-jin, Choi Woo-shik, and Park So-dam. The film premiered on May 21st, 2019 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it became the first South Korean film to earn the Palme d'Or and the first to do so with the unanimous vote of the jury since 2013 in which it won the movie La vie d'Adèle.

It was launched in South Korea by CJ Entertainment on May 30th, 2019, and in the rest of the world between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. It raised $128 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing launch and the 19th highest grossing film in South Korea.

PRODUCTION

Script:

The idea for Parasite originated in 2013 while working on Snowpiercer, Bong was encouraged by a theater actor friend to write a play. He had been a tutor for the son of a wealthy family in Seoul when he was in his early twenties, and considered turning his experience into a theatrical production. After completing Snowpiercer, Bong wrote a fifteen-page film treatment for the first half of Parasite, which his production assistant Han Jin-won converted into three different drafts of the script.

Filming:

Filming began on May 18th, 2018 and ended 77 days later on September 19th, 2018. The Park family home, which in the film says was designed by a fictional architect named Namgoong Hyeonja, was a set brand new. Production designer Lee Ha-jun said the sun was an important factor in building the outdoor set.

SYNOPSIS:

Both Kim Ki-Taek and his family are out of work. When their oldest son, Ki-Woo, begins teaching private lessons in the Park's wealthy home, the two families, who have a lot in common despite belonging to two completely different worlds, form a relationship of unpredictable results. He begins to sneak the other members of his family into the house, such as his sister as an art teacher, his mother as a domestic worker, and his father as the personal driver of the Park patriarch.

OPINION:

The way in which the appearance of this subject destabilizes the bourgeois order makes us think as much of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Theorem, with the figure of the handsome young man who destroys the harmony of a wealthy family, as in The Servant, by Joseph Losey, with his claustrophobic portrait of how a butler ended up subduing his master. Here the acid radiography of the family institution is formulated from the satirical, the cartoonish, and ends up leading to a wild dissection of the class struggle.

With the title of the film it could be evident that it is about this poor family that takes advantage of a rich family, but as you delve into the plot you will notice of certain characters that play the role of “Parasites” are appearing and that in the end It's not the Kim who are precisely the harvesters, in fact if you think about the Park and how their position at the top prevents them from seeing the real problems of society, or how they are unable to perform the simplest tasks of the house but on the contrary, they have someone to do it for them. Would they not then be the greatest “Parasites” in this story?

Bong Joon-ho hid in his movie more than one meaning. The main one is undoubtedly the criticism of the economic model that is almost impossible to change. If Ki-woo's plan is literally interpreted, this is nothing more than a daydream as the last shot of him ending his letter in the basement shows.

But if there has been anything so far Parasite taught us, it's that everything can go from "good" to "terrible" in no time, especially when it comes to dreams. Ki-woo has ideas and promises that sound good in his head, but the really complicated thing comes when he gets to the practice of it.

I recommend this film 100%, you have a lot of content to digest and criticize. Let me know in the comments your opinion and if you enjoy it.

Here is the Trailer:

XOXO Li.

SNOWPIERCER!

Hello beautiful people, how are you doing? Today I want to talk to you about “Snowpiercer”, a Korean film shot in English, directed by the genius Bong Joon-ho and written by Kelly Masterson.

Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. His film works include Memories Of Murder (2003), The Host (2006) and the science fiction action film Snowpiercer (2013); these last two are among the highest grossing films of all time in South Korea.

In 2017, Metacritic ranked Bong Joon-ho at # 13 on his list of the 25 Best Film Directors of the 21st Century as his films feature awkward themes, dark humor, and sudden mood swings, a perfect mix that doesn't you see a lot today.

In 2019, his film Parasite won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Film at the Academy Awards the same year, making it the first non-English-speaking film to win the category. But I will talk about this majesty in another post, ok, back to Snowpiercer

DEVELOPMENT

During the production of The Host in late 2004 in Hongdae Seoul, Bong visited a comic shop he used to frequent where he met Jean-Marc Rochette, one of the French cartoonists who is the author of the graphic novel "Le Transperceneige". After reading the comics he was fascinated to see how a group of people struggled for survival in cars classified by social status. Bong showed his directing partners Park Chan-wook the complete works and in 2005, the producer Moho Films acquired the rights for the film adaptation.

They say that it only takes 10 minutes to know if a movie is worth it, if in those minutes you are already thinking about something else, then there is nothing to do. Well, with Snowpiercer you don't need 10 minutes because after 5 minutes you are already caught in the plot and you do not even want to move to not miss anything.

SYNOPSIS

In 2014, an attempt to counter global warming through climate engineering is counterproductive, causing an ice age and extinguishing almost all life. The only human survivors are in the Snowpiercer, a massive train that travels the entire world at high speed without ever stopping to avoid freezing and preserve the lives of its passengers created by the transport magnate and inventor, Wilford.

By 2031, elites inhabit the flamboyant front wagons, enjoying all the luxuries and privileges, while the "scum" inhabits the tail in sordid and brutal conditions under the watchful eye of Wilford's guards; something we could relate to in this society.

This film features Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Ah-sung Ko, Jamie Bell, Song Kang-ho, Ed Harris, Octavia Spencer, Sir John Hurt, and a cameo by Jean-Marc Rochette himself (author of the novel on which the film was based).

I like Science fiction because, in the world of imagination, anything goes and, with the proper justification, even the most unthinkable, manages to make sense within a suitable framework. In this case, the class struggle can reach an expression as epic and emotional as it is dark and perverse. It is a crazy techno punk story in which you can discover something as evident as the commandment that we citizens respect, because things are like this and thus we have been told "each one in his place" (the first in front and the others behind).

All great actors, excellent direction, impressive visuals and an exact soundtrack result in a magnificent film that without prejudice and without fear is launched to tell an unusual, dramatic story, full of nuances, analogies, ulterior motives and interpretations.

Those who have not had the opportunity to see it, I say that you are missing something incredible, something you have not seen before and that will make you enjoy every second.

Trailer of the movie:

There is the series based on the movie and it is on Netflix, but personally I am not a fan of it, I feel that the narrative is a bit confusing and lthe show lost the symbolism that both the Rochette novel and the Bong Joon-ho movie have .

Anyway, the invitation is to look for this movie, watch it, digest it and give it a critique and if you want to watch the series, we can also discuss it.

XOXO Li.

THE INVISIBLE MAN!

 

Hello beautiful people, sorry for not publishing anything yesterday, but I had problems with my internet company and I was offline all day yesterday.

I bring you a super movie, it is full of drama, suspense, and pure emotion, he is called the invisible man.

The Invisible Man is a 2020 American thriller and science fiction film written and directed by Leigh Whannell. The film stars Elisabeth Moss and Oliver Jackson-Cohen and is based on the H. G. Wells novel of the same name.

Like the original story, this film begins with a brilliant scientist, physicist, inventor, optics expert: Adrian Griffin, this scientist is well recognized, is a billionaire, and is in a relationship that, to all outside observers, seems happy and stable. However, Cecilia is trapped.

Perverse terror floods the film, which is greatly elevated by Moss, an actress painstakingly familiar with the most thorny, distressing, and disturbing situations. Her Cecilia is a portrait of a woman desperately fighting for her freedom and haunted by the specter, real or imagined, of the terrifying Adrian.

Much of the film's most accomplished moments are comprised of open-ended shots in which the character of Elizabeth Moss finds herself isolated in a corner with a menacing void behind. Faced with the enormity of an empty frame we hope that something will appear, that something will materialize, that we will see a clue, that the monster will appear... But we see nothing.

We are already very deep in this plot and we realize that perhaps it is not a "physical" monster but something more psychological, something that can harass us, destroy us, without having to be present in the same room.

At the same time, the production design of the tape has impressive details. One of them is, of course, Adrian Griffin's house. an imposing glass palace where everything is seen, everything is guarded and everything seems transparent. This "beautiful jail", as Whannel described it, is open in every way: surrounded by ocean and grasslands as an oasis of freedom.

One of the scenes that most impressed me about the movie is when, Cecilia sits at a table to tell her sister and friend James why she decided to escape from the stormy relationship she had with Adrian. The description of what she suffered for years is gradual and incomplete. Cecilia speaks of a manipulative and aggressive man who imposes on her a way of dressing, eating, speaking, and, finally, thinking. She never says what the consequences of disobeying were, but when asked if he beat her, she responds: "among other things."

With that scene I can say with total accuracy that fear here forces silence, even after she believes her torturer is dead, Cecilia remains silent. Thus is drawn, beyond the silence of the victims, the lasting invisible power imposed by the victimizers. 

Fear, emotional scars, trauma, are vestiges that last: there is an oppressive physical presence that does not fade in the absence. Violence does not persist only in the physical marks it leaves, such as bruises and wounds, its longevity is hidden, also, in psychological oppression.

This excellent plot of psychological terror shows us once again that there is no need for vampires, zombies, or murderous robots since the human being can be the most frightening creature that exists on the face of the earth.

If you have not seen it yet, I recommend it 100%, they will not take off the screen for a minute and in the end, they will have a sense of freedom and internal peace along with the protagonist.

XOXO Li.

THE VIRUS AMONG US!

   Hello beautiful people

Apparently, the film industry loves to talk about viruses, over the years we have seen how many films have a pandemic as a central point or make mention of it in their plot. And either scientifically or with a touch of surrealism, we see how it is a common and recurring topic. I thought taking advantage of this time when we have to be protected due to COVID-19, to bring you what for me are the best Movies about a Virus.

Although we have always thought that what we see on television is a science fiction and cannot be true, we have had the dose of reality with what is happening at the moment in the world. And if we look at it quickly the whole situation seems to come out of a script from the mind of some film director.

Well, I think it is time to give ourselves up to the internet and movies so that this moment of quarantine can be less unpleasant and tense, perhaps the vision of these catastrophic films will help us reflect on what is happening. Let's start:

#1 CONTAGION

This 2011 film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, and Gwyneth Paltrow places us in a scenario tremendously similar to the one we live today with the coronavirus.

It tells the story of a deadly virus that begins to spread around the world, in a few days, the disease begins to decimate the population and to try to get a vaccine, a WHO (World Health Organization) doctor must take a trip to Hong Kong where they think that It could have been the origin of everything. This is a realistic thriller about the effects of an epidemic.

#2 VIRUS (THE FLU)

It is a 2013 film written and directed by Kim Sung-su, about the proliferation of the Influenzavirus A subtype H5N1 that kills its victims in 2 weeks, wreaking havoc in the Bundang-gu district in South Korea. It starred Jang Hyuk and Soo Ae.

The virus, transmitted by the respiratory route, reaches the district after a group of illegal immigrants will carry the disease there when transported in a container, the plot is very shocking and makes you wonder if it is just coincidence with reality.

#3 TRAIN TO BUSAN

It is also a South Korean film, awarded at the Sitges Festival, by the prestigious director Yeon Sang-ho, with Gong Yoo, Ma Dong seok, and Kim Su-an as protagonists.

This plot takes place mainly on a train to the city of Busan, where its passengers will have to fight for their lives when they learn that a deadly virus is spreading throughout South Korea.

This film focuses mainly on the so-called "Zombies" who, after being infected, become beings with basic instincts such as eating and attacking, causing Dantesque scenes of physical violence and altercations where the primary vision is to survive.

#4 WORLD WAR Z

This movie starring Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, and Daniella Kertesz is directed by Marc Foster and is based on the novel of the same name by Max Brooks. Follows in the footsteps of Gerry Lane, a former United Nations worker who, when witnessing a virus that turns the people in "Zombies" in only twelve seconds must do everything in his hands to save his family.

It has great special effects, a way to keep you in suspense throughout the entire movie, and it makes sure to give you the clues you need to draw your conclusions along with the protagonist.

#5 RESIDENT EVIL

Although this was originally video games, it became a media franchise, including manga, novels, movies, and collectibles such as action figures and strategy guides, but today we'll be talking about the movies.

The Resident Evil saga starring Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, and Michelle Rodríguez, talks about Virus T which was manufactured and spread by a scientist at a genetic research center.

  

The film is developed with Alice unraveling the secrets of the Umbrella Corporation and the purpose of Virus T and its antidote, all this occurs amid the mutation that humans have due to the virus, becoming either simple "zombies" or truly horrendous and violent creatures.

If you still don't know the reason for my choice of movies, let me tell you, these five movies yes, are my favorites in that regard, but for me, they are the ones that can best evoke the point of chaos that can cause a virus or a pandemic, how fast it can spread and how easy it is to create a deadly weapon of mass destruction. 

Although there is a big difference in these five films, and it is that two of them (Contagion & The Flu) mainly talk about the virus, their plot is more realistic and follows the steps on how easy it is to get sick with something and the consequences of it.

While the others are more carried away by fiction, special effects and bloody fights between monsters who only want human flesh, and people who need to survive to have the happy ending that the viewer wants.

I still like them a lot so I invite you to watch these five films, either because you want to see the similarities between reality and the film or for pure entertainment and let me know in the comments if you agree with me or if there are better films on this aspect that I should see.

XOXO Li