Sean

I’ve had this* *on my radar for some years now, the concept always intrigued me and as I’ve grown more and more a fan of Gleeson I knew this would likely rival *Banshees* as my favorite of his roles and while he was certainly amazing in his every scene *Calvary *gave me so much more than I bargained for. Immediately, literally with the first line of the movie, it hits you with the incredibly dark subject matter that defines this story (much darker than what I thought I was getting into) and that along with the religious themes being mixed with the this light comedy creates one of the most unique and immersing tones I’ve ever come across. That immersion is also helped by the technical experience, the cinematography doesn’t do anything wild but these gorgeous landscapes and seas, the lovely lighting all throughout, and especially the tremendous editing make it one of the most technically impressive films I’ve seen from the 2010s so far. This story is too powerful and chuck full of an array of amazing themes for me to give a first review surface level analysis of so I’ll talk a little on McDonagh’s screenplay here, the way he’s able to make all of these characters feel so authentic while they’re often pretty stereotypical in their own ways is so impressive and it helps that the cast was as great as they were in bringing those beautiful words to life. The brilliance of this Brendan Gleeson lead really can’t be understated, as I’ve seen in *Banshees of Inisherin *and even something smaller like *Alone in Berlin *his nuanced and subtle acting is some of the best I’ve ever come across and this movie puts a beautiful spotlight on that which I ate up in every scene. Next to him I had four really big standouts which is a great display of how amazing this cast really was, Kelly Reilly was fantastic in her every scene, Aidan Gillen’s line delivery was as great as I remember it in *Game of Thrones*, Dylan Moran nailed the rich douchebag trying to find any sort of meaning to his life, and I also really enjoyed all of M. Emmet Walsh’s scenes. Chris O’Dowd was also a standout, especially at the end, I just wish we got to see a little more of his character so I could’ve appreciated what he was doing with it even more. I was gonna wrap it up but there’s one thing here I really need to give a big spotlight to, I mentioned it earlier but the editing here is truly some of the best work, not just of the 2010s or even the 21st century, but of all time in my opinion, finding out this editor also did movies like *Sunshine *and *28 Days Later *is no surprise to me as those were also phenomenal in that regard, this one is just on another level. After this I’m definitely gonna have to see *The Guard *and *The Forgiven*, John Michael McDonagh’s just completely blown me away with this amazing movie and if it’s any tell of what I’ll get from the rest of his filmography I could be looking at one of my new favorite modern auteurs.

I went in skeptical after hearing some negative things so to come out feeling this positive is a very nice surprise, *undertone *may not shatter any horror cliches and the “scariest movie of the year” marketing definitely made this seem worse in light of the high expectations that brought but after the credits hit I was left surprisingly satisfied. Immediately I get *Smile *vibes* *with a touch of Blumhouse which is definitely a compliment coming from me, it feels like Tuason is finding his horror footing here similar to how Finn was finding his with *Smile *and I get the Blumhouse* *feeling from the story and script which, for better and for worse, feel like they’d fit like a glove into the Blumhouse filmography. The better in that comparison comes from the story which I really liked, it’s a simple modern horror concept that I had a lot of fun following and even though it wasn’t perfect by any means I think it progressed about as well as it could’ve. The worse sadly comes from the script which is just stale, Nina Kiri was able to elevate it a bit with a decent lead performance but the inauthenticity of the writing (especially any dialogue between Evy and Justin) seeped through in nearly every scene. And to continue with the acting even though I’ll always love Adam DiMarco for his role in *The Order *his VA performance was truly bad here, I haven’t seen *Mandalorian & Grogu *as I’ve only watched 5 *Star Wars *movies to this point but I’ve seen clips of Jeremy Allen White’s performance in that movie and DiMarco’s work here doesn’t feel much more inspired than that. For another comparison to Blumhouse* *I liked the abstract way this was shot, for example that shot of the camera spinning in the hallway near the end felt plucked right out of a *Conjuring *movie and the way Tuascon would show the demon through mirrors or over Evy’s back also felt like something I’d see in one of those. I also can’t go without mentioning this elite sound design, the use of these reversed songs and the laughing to create tension worked really well on me and even though it’s far from the scariest movie title I understand why they were also calling it the “scariest movie you’ll ever hear”. The hate makes sense with the issues in the story and the blatant struggles of the script but for my watch here today I had a pretty good time with *undertone*, this great technical work and the fact I was completely hooked to every beat through all 90 minutes make it an acceptable entry into the modern horror scene for me and I’m now very interested in seeing whatever Ian Tuason decided to make next.

***[52 Westerns in 52 Weeks Challenge](https://boxd.it/PTo6M)*** **Week 27:** ****[*Criterion Approved*](https://boxd.it/t8Hw) I’ve had my eyes on *The Westerner *for a while now, over the past year William Wyler has shot up my favorite directors list (he wasn’t even on it a year ago) and considering he directed one of the greatest accomplishments I’ve ever seen in the western genre in *The Big Country *I was ready for this Gary Cooper starring western to nail the vein of my taste that keeps me coming back to these movies. And though I sadly wouldn’t call this one of the better westerns or Wylers I’ve seen it still delivered on that vein of my taste very well. To start off it should almost go without saying at this point that I loved Wyler’s directorial vision, once again every shot in a movie of his looked great with some especially beautiful western skies and the challenges he faced in directing this with the massive herds of cows make it one of the more impressive directorial feats I’ve seen in his filmography in terms of the scale and difficulty and this combined with something like *The Big Country *paints a clear picture of how he’d go on to land the job directing one of the most ambitious productions of all time. And as far as the acting goes I was pleasantly surprised by Gary Cooper, for no reason I’ve always been a little skeptical of him and saw him as a kind of Kevin Costner stoic figure but he had a few really charismatic scenes in here that have finally fully convinced me I was wrong about that and beyond those he gave a consistently great performance in the lead. Next to him Walter Brennan won an Academy award for this role and though it wasn’t earned I really enjoyed him here, he nails this drunken judge character about as good as anyone could and his fun performance really carried and created a lot of the soul of this movie. Where this faltered just a bit for me and didn’t make for a higher rating was in the story, it’s not anything I can really pick out in particular it’s just an impact issue and sadly neither the dramatic feud between Cole and the Judge or the romance between Cole and Jane Ellen mustered a lasting impact on me which is really surprising to say when I think about how pretty much every other story I’ve seen in Wyler direct has worked really well on me. And with some really good music to top it all off I’m happy to say William Wyler has still yet to give me a bad movie, the story may have underwhelmed but the acting, screenplay, and technical work more than made up for it.

This John Ford movie has a very intriguing story on top of the brilliant filmmaking I’ve grown to expect from the legendary director. Though I wouldn’t fully call it an anti-war narrative there are definitely elements here which match that description which is wild considering the release date and the film outside of that, from the epic practical effects in the unforgettable action sequences to the well written dramatic script, is really really amazing and the result is one of my new favorites from the 40’s. I’ll start with the acting because I’m surprised to say John Wayne really worked for me in this one, he’s worked for me before in films like *The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance* and *Angel and the Badman *but seeing him successfully portray this non-western role was a lot of fun and I now have a lot more appreciation for his ability and intrigue to see more. Next to him I thought both Donna Reed and Robert Montgomery were really good, I definitely could’ve done with more of Reed’s character as the chemistry between her and Wayne was really clicking for me but this spotlight being on the fantastic Robert Montgomery lead didn’t bother me one bit. Joseph H. August’s cinematography combined with Ford’s vision is a huge piece of the puzzle here and my lord is it gorgeous, truly some of the defining work of the 40’s I’ve seen so far through the epic ocean sequences and the well-designed shots all throughout. I also thought the score from *The Wizard of Oz *composer Herbert Stothart was great here, during the action sequences it built a very modern feel of tension and suspense which I quite enjoyed and outside of that it embodied the golden age orchestral sound which I’ve fallen in love with over the past couple years. It’ll probably be a long time before I come back to this but I’m gonna save any further deep dive on the themes until then, all in all this was an amazing watch that captured the hopelessness of soldiers in war so much better than I’d have expected from a 1945 American WW2 film but it is John Ford after all and with movie number 7 of his I’m learning to trust his vision no matter what.