Meewella | Critic

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Tag: Amanda Seyfried

QuickView: Anon (2018)

“We can’t control what we can’t see. We require persistent identity.”

Josef Kenik

Writer-director Andrew Niccol’s science fiction projects use their individual conceits to explore modern societal issues but they tend to be overshadowed by his astonishing debut, Gattaca. Although his script has intriguing ideas about privacy, Anon is closer to the unfulfilled potential of In Time. Set in a near future of pervasive augmented reality and surveillance where everyone’s vision is recorded and stored, a detective finds himself investigating a series of murders by a hacker who has found a way to conceal themselves and hijack what others see. The augmented reality visuals are stylishly subdued with text overlays that will be familiar to those who have played Watch Dogs. Coupled with Amir Mokri’s cold cinematography in a world that feels sparsely populated, the stylistic choices distance the audience from the characters on screen — this was occasionally effective in heightening the voyeurism of looking through another person’s eyes but it was largely disengaging, similar to my criticism of Sharper. Ultimately Anon works as a brief and efficient thriller, but it does not have a great deal to say about privacy and surveillance beyond the inevitable tension between the individual and those in control.

5/10

QuickView: Mank (2020)

“This is a business where the buyer gets nothing for his money but a memory. What he bought still belongs to the man who sold it. That’s the real magic of the movies.”

Louis B. Mayer

With the freedom afforded by Netflix, Fincher explores 1930s Hollywood by painstakingly creating a black and white film that feels as though it might have been unearthed from that era. It is something of a niche endeavour but the results are remarkable. Structurally, it is less convoluted than it first appears, using the screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz’s work on the screenplay for Citizen Kane as a vehicle for his reminiscing through a series of flashbacks about his experiences with the Hollywood figures who inspired the story. Gary Oldman’s larger than life characters have always been entertaining, but the nuanced roles he has chosen of late reveal his true depth as an actor — as Mank he is self-confident and witty but not always likeable, with alcoholism and a need to sound smart often eroding any self-restraint. Fincher’s focus is less on how Citizen Kane was written than the squalid nature of Hollywood as seen through Mank’s disillusioned eyes, with executives performing as much as actors to manipulate others, and the lies of the silver screen feeding into politics. What holds the film back is (in common with much of Fincher’s work) a lack of emotional weight to any of Mank’s relationships, all of which seem considered rather than felt, more in character for Welles than the erratic Mankiewicz.

8/10

QuickView: Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Jennifer's Body quad poster

“No. I mean, she’s actually evil. Not high school evil.”

Needy Lesnicky

Jennifer’s Body paired Girlfight director Karyn Kusama with writer Diablo Cody, fresh off her debut hit in Juno. Although critically panned, the duo plainly set out to create something different within the exploitation horror genre and the result has gained cult status over time even if it remains deeply flawed. Pairing Megan Fox with the more talented Amanda Seyfried only serves to highlight her acting limitations, though for the most part Fox is required simply to be sultry and unrepentant. The witty teenage dialogue that felt natural in Juno (aided immeasurably by Elliot Paige’s delivery) here sounds stilted, as if Diablo Cody is trying too hard to be youthfully cool. Jennifer’s Body may be tongue-in-cheek but its overt humour rarely lands. A pointed scene intercuts Jennifer’s seduction of a victim, stylised in the usual Hollywood fashion and softly bathed in candlelight, with Needy’s first time, brightly lit and awkwardly fumbled like a genuine and healthy teenage sexual experience. Yet, since the script ultimately still leans heavily on genre tropes, it has little fresh to say, save perhaps that Jennifer’s promiscuity had nothing to do with her becoming evil.

4/10

"A film is a petrified fountain of thought."

(CC) BY-NC 2003-2023 Priyan Meewella

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