Parasite

Parasite: It only went and bloody did it!!

And the award for Best Picture, Best Film in a Foreign Language, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay goes to a film not made in the west! 

A massive congratulations to Bong Joon Ho and all the people who worked on this fantastic motion picture, Parasite. I have to admit I did watch this a few weeks ago so I could keep up to date with the award ceremonies but, I’ve held off my review until it was released in the UK. 

I don’t know what I was expecting from this film when I first saw it. I’m not sure if I thought it was going to be a more grotesque and unsettling horror/thriller, or more of a heavy drama. What I got was both and so so so much more. This film is funny. Very funny in some places, but then again in the same instance very unfunny and quite frankly disturbing. It was a commentary on one social class exploiting another, but then again which social class is exploiting who? It was action-packed, intense and thoroughly gripping throughout, but then again, it was slow, methodical and unrelenting. As you can see here from my very unhelpful review, you leave the cinema not quite knowing how to think and feel, and what this movie was about and ... why? 

Perfect.

That one word seems to be about the only word that I can place with any sort of certainty. Bong Joon Ho is a goddam genius filmmaker and there really needs to be an academy award for Best Ensemble Cast because it would have won that as well. No single actor stood out particularly for me in any way, but as a group and a collective they were seamless, our inspiring and a joy to watch. 

I can’t go too much into the film itself as I want you all to watch it for yourselves and make your own conclusions. But when you do please get in touch and I’d love to discuss it more with you. 

I’m going to give this film my biggest rating yet, a thoroughly deserved 9.6/10. The only reason I don’t give it the full 10/10 is I believe all films can be improved in some respect and even my favourite film in the world doesn’t get top marks. You have to, HAVE TO go and see this film at the cinema! So cancel all your evening plans and go ASAP!

I’ve been Christopher Whitmore, thanks for reading.

Just Mercy: Not a single nomination, now that’s injustice!

So insight into my sad life is I often go the cinema by myself, take a notebook, and jot down things to remember for when I’m writing these reviews, or for The Reel Easy Podcast (which you guys should be listening to!) About a quarter of the way through this film however, I closed my notebook, turned off my critical brain and really listened to the message and the story this film was telling. That is the first time I have done that since starting The Reel Easy Co. almost a year ago (it’s actually almost time for the anniversary party!) 

Michael B Jordan takes the lead in this movie, a lawyer fresh out of Harvard, who starts a clinic in Alabama - “the home of To Kill A Mockingbird” - helping death row inmates get the representation they require. Based on a true story about defence attorney Bryan Stevenson who defends Walter McCmillian in a case of a young white girls murder he’s already been falsely imprisoned for 18 years ago. Walter is waiting for his execution date and it’s a race against time for Bryan to get him exonerated before the state send him to the electric chair.  Critics and reviewers talk about films being “hard hitting” but this film knocked me out as hard a the meteor that took out the dinosaurs. The injustice of the whole thing leaves you dumbstruck and the fact this isn’t up for a single award shows the injustice that is still happening in our award ceremonies today. 

Michael B Jordan was bloody fantastic in this film and the best performance I’ve seen out of him yet, which if you’ve been following his career so far, is really saying something. Equally great is Jamie Fox and Brie Larson who flex their award winning muscles very well!

The film turns it up a gear in the theatrics of the courtroom drama that wouldn’t be amiss in a John Grissom novel. With onerous baddies and small characters having their own arch’s, flip flopping from injustice to justice at the drop of a hat, it couldn’t get more gripping. 

YOU ALL NEED TO SEE THIS FILM! So I’m giving it a massive rating of 9/10, get your arses to the cinema, and witness story telling at its finest.

I’ve been Christopher Whitmore, thanks for reading.