fairbrother’s Film Reviews

201 Films have been rated or reviewed by fairbrother.

Wetlands (2013): The narrative's too thin to sustain feature–length, but the best moments are so TMI filthy as to be refreshing, even oddly charming. Juri's mix of oblivious vulnerability and spunky, precocious charisma carries it a long way.; DVD $29.95
Oleanna (1994): Demonstrates that, for all his gifts as a writer, Mamet's a poor director of actors and camera alike. Still: the play itself is extraordinary (he saw #metoo coming decades ago) so, if you can't be bothered reading it, this adaptation's worthwhile.
Baby Driver (2017): The gimmicky premise delivers some fun set–pieces, but trips over itself making Baby "nice": if he'd been a bastard (or at least a better actor) this mightn't feel so gratingly twee. Hamm and Foxx do well in blah wiseguy roles, Spacey's on autopilot.
Saving Private Ryan (1998): If Spielberg can't quite shake his naive sentimentality, the pulverizing intensity and virtuosity of his combat scenes is undeniable. Morally and thematically reductive, then, but an emotional–visceral knockout all the same.; DVD ~~$19.95~~ $14.95
Hidden (Cache) (2005): Demands patience, and multiple viewings, but rewards them with a wealth of prickly "hidden" themes: privilege, denial, terrorism, media, the fluidity of truth... deliberately frustrating, and fascinating for it, it's stone–cold brilliant.
Detroit (2017): A woke horror film by white artists, with all the good and bad that implies. Authoritarians will write it off as liberal pandering, while the rest of us already get the message loud and clear, so who's it's really for? Potent all the same.
Waru (2017): The acting is variable, and one chapter is all too on–the–nose, but overall this is a remarkable achievement made with love and bravery. It hit me deeper and haunted me longer than anything else I saw in 2017. Don't miss it.
Mother! (mother!) (2017): Someone's been watching too much Lars von Trier! Exhausting and risibly pretentious, with a crap ending, but so admirably wild (and uncommercial) it demands to be seen and debated. Pfeiffer takes the acting prize.
Thin Red Line, The (1998): The poetic, philosophical flip–side to Saving Private Ryan's pandering hero–myths: for all its action, the emphasis is on spiritual conflict, a bold gambit for a big studio picture. A mixed bag but truly unique and beautifully crafted.
Compliance (2012): Hardly much fun but excellent acting means the queasy tension hooks us properly. The fact that the story's unbelievable is why the film deserves to exist: it's based on not one but, chillingly, several documented true cases.

Main menu

Section navigation menu

fairbrother’s Film Reviews