Trashbag's Reviews

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Running time: 2h 22min
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff
Written by Volker Schlöndorff, Jean-Claude Carrière, Franz Seitz
Starring David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler

The Nazis, for all their faults, inspired a lot of creative work, such as Günter Grass’s 1959 novel Die Blechtrommel and its 1979 film adaptation, which, unlike the Nazis, were quite successful. This was my first viewing of the film — I have not read the book — and while it is undoubtedly memorable and well-made, it is also a conflicting and difficult movie to just enjoy. Oskar, a young German/Polish boy born in the 1920s, decides he does not want to grow up — and then, magically, does not. Thus, he lives through World War II as a perpetual child, and the audience gets to view some of the horrors of that time through him.

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Running time: 2h 37min
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Written by Mark Boal
Starring Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt

If one wanted to watch a documentary about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty almost fits the bill. That is to say, it almost feels like a documentary with its lack of entertainment value. The historical accuracy of the film is not quite documentary level, however — resulting in an overly long, if technically competent, snooze of a film.

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Running time: 1h 42min
Directed by Simon Hunter
Written by Simon Hunter (based on an idea by), Edward Lynden-Bell (story by), Elizabeth O’Halloran (screenplay)
Starring Sheila Hancock, Kevin Guthrie, Paul Brannigan

Edie is a film that relies entirely on its visuals — the story is just an excuse to show off Scottish landscapes, which do, admittedly, look great. The movie’s half-assed attempt at masquerading as anything but a traveling advertisement for Mount Suilven feels almost insulting.

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Running time: 1h 39min
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Written by Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary
Starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen

Reservoir Dogs, a gritty, dialogue-heavy heist-movie focusing on the aftermath of a job gone wrong, is arguably one of the most important films of the 90’s, being the directorial debut of former video store employee Quentin Tarantino. Reservoir Dogs and the immense success of his second film, Pulp Fiction (1994), launched a career that made Tarantino one of the most influential and imitated directors of our time. Reservoir Dogs is rough around the edges, and it is also not a crowd-pleaser; the cast is nearly entirely male and there’s plenty of violence, profanity, and usage of the dreaded N-word before Samuel L. Jackson was able to give QT the N-word pass. Is it still a good movie after 30 years?

IMDB link
Running time: 2h 56min
Directed by Matt Reeves
Written by Matt Reeves, Peter Craig, Bob Kane (created by: Batman)
Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright

How many live action Batman films have been made by now? Not too many, it seems, since they still draw audiences. In The Batman, Twilight star Robert Pattinson gets to put on his emo face as he takes on an even bigger emo, the Riddler, played by Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood (2007)). Despite its problems, the film is decent — until the final third, that is, where it falls off a cliff in quality.