I don’t smoke. I don’t think you should, either. But it’s not my place. You can do whatever you want. That’s the beauty of never truly adhering to one side or another—you can be on either side of the argument, so you can never be wrong. You may piss some people off in the process, but people are always angry because they’re wrong, and that’s because you’re right.
So I say to you: keep smoking. Or don’t. It’s not my place. I’m neither a God nor a guidance counselor, just a man with a blog and people who read it… probably. I make some pretty radical statements sometimes, but I do so with good points. I don’t mean any harm, and I don’t want anyone reading this to get the impression that I feel I’m better than those who fight so valiantly to establish their truths as fact. I’m just throwin’ in my cents, y’know? Mental cents. I wouldn’t throw my money around so carelessly.
Oh, right. I’m reviewing a film here. Well… hard to say about it’s quality any which way. It’s good in some regards… but there’s an issue I feel makes it a little less than extraordinary. This one thing takes up some bit of screentime every so often, flapping its mouth like a doll reading the script off the wall. His name is Cameron Bright. He plays the male lead’s impressionable son. He’s awful. Terrible. Very bad. I could do better, probably, and as I said before, I’m just a dude with a blog. He more than anything made me despise this film. I hate this film. Very bad.
But then J.K. Simmons came on-screen and suddenly the movie’s pretty good. Not because he did a good job or anything. He’s just J.K. Simmons! And Sam Elliott, too! He was in this film. Really great guy. Probably. I’ve never met him. He could be an asshole. What a great voice though. I feel like Katie Holmes gets too much credit, maybe. She just kind of came in here and fucked a dude and absorbed the secrets out of a complex man. She’s like a mind succubus. Not that I’m opposed to that. Here, though, it’s kind of weird. She just fucks a guy and then her role’s done. Seems odd. Not, like, horrible or anything, but… problematic, maybe. I’m not one to judge. No, wait. I am. I have a blog!
I liked the film fine. Lots of interesting themes about mixing morality with professions, America’s greed and interests lying with good press (and money), and how closely our actions affect the next generation of people to make up the country. On the surface, however, most of this was executed in a pretty basic formula, one that packs a lot into a film that’s not even ninety minutes. One has to take a lot of things at face value. Like, yeah, this super smart, suave guy whose job is to be secretive, persuasive, and logical tells all his personal ventures to some girl he fucked because… he has dependency issues? Yeah, alright. Liked what it tried to do, but it needed more time to let the content moisturize. Every piece of information feels too fragile. And the ending; little too sappy for my tastes. Wrapped up everything a little too cleanly. Had a nice attitude, though.
Final Score: 6/10
The rating for all other films can be found at Letterboxd.
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The Visualist's Veranda 