Two flops and two wins made it into this weekend. All were extremely random in terms of story line and genre, but I’ve got an eclectic taste, so nothing ever seems that out of the ordinary for me. However, this doesn’t mean that everything I pick is going to land, and I think this weekend I was hindered by not watching trailers! Yes, they tend to give everything away now, but I think it would have deterred me from watching in a couple of cases. Anyways, here we go.
I’m going to get the flops out of the way so you know what to avoid. First up was Waiting for the Barbarians. I let good casting fool me into thinking this was going to be a good movie. Starring Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, and Mark Rylance, this was really Mark’s movie. He was in about every shot, and both Depp and Pattinson were just sprinkled in. I felt they made the material more entertaining, but when they’re hardly in it, the results were rather boring. Here’s the tagline for you: man that runs a desert community gets bullied and beaten by two soldiers who end up getting run out by its citizens. Bad. Real bad and real boring.
Next was an almost equally atrocious drama called The Delinquent Season, starring Cillian Murphy and Andrew Scott. With those leading men I thought this was going to be a delicious drama, a la Carnage from back in the day. Turns out it was just an awkward drama about a husband who cheats a lot. They take the words “friends” very loosely and just makes everyone look bad! I love Cillian Murphy, and up until this film I thought I at least liked everything he’d been in. I was wrong. Go watch anything else he’s in(I recommend Anthropoid), and catch Scott in Fleabag if you’re looking for something worthwhile.
Now onto the good – Stoker! This is an instance where I didn’t watch the trailer, but the two sentence blurb I read about it was enough to hook me. As it started I noticed the unique camera-work and the oddities of the lead character India (played by Mia Wasikowska). Things only got odder with the introduction of her long lost uncle Charlie. And from there things took so many twists and turns! This had me intrigued from start to finish, and I’ve never seen anything like the piano scene (that’s all I’ll say about that)! If you want a truly unique and engrossing psychological thriller, then look no further! Stoker is for you.
Another great oddity is this older Netflix original film called Patti Cake$. I recall when this film came out that I thought it was a documentary of sorts. So convincing did Danielle Macdonald LOOK as the titular Patti, that I totally ignored it (documentaries aren’t my thing). Since seeing Danielle in other things I decided to watch the trailer before wading in. Again, another truly unique concept that wasn’t the brainchild of an already existing novel that I had to watch! It was totally worth it. So many emotions ran through me as I watched this that I’m sad I waited so long to do so. Absolutely add this to your watch-list!