Richie

“Listen” Third act was amazing. Everything before was too much. Took too long to get into its rhythm. In terms of quality this is a 9/10 movie. Quality quality movie butttttt it just didn’t grab me personally as much as it should.

Very strategically basic. I liked the cast.

Holy fucking shit. I am a grown ass man and the entire last hour of this movie I was sitting in my theater seat scrunched up like a little bitch. How can a movie be so scary and yet one of the funniest fucking movies I’ve seen in a minute? It had me laughing and scared shitless at the same time and somehow nailed both perfectly. The right word w is STRESSED! Oh boy was I stressed. This is one of the few movies that had insane hype around it and not only lived up to that hype but completely exceeded it. It instantly made all the praise make sense. Now you cannot write a review for this movie without mentioning Inde Navarrette. She is absolutely in the running to be an A-list actor after this. She was astronomical. Everyone else ranged from solid to good but Inde was running laps around the entire cast. Her facial expressions her mannerisms her pronunciation her charm. Every little detail was locked in. She made it look effortless. I genuinely hope she goes down the Leonardo DiCaprio route and stays away from the giant blockbuster fandoms like Marvel and DC even though I love those worlds. I hope she sticks with great directors and prestige films. The kinds of movies that sweep award season. Because she is going to be in this industry for as long as she wants to be. And of course the biggest credit goes to Curry Barker. Without him none of this happens. He has me as a fan for every project he does from now on. Put it in theaters. Put it on Netflix. Prime. Max. Cable. YouTube. I do not care. Let me know and I am there. Phenomenal vision. A beautiful film. An original story made on a 750K budget. The only horror movie I have ever given a 10 out of 10. No lazy horror slop. No relying on demons creatures or the same tired horror tropes. Just an amazing story told by a person who knew exactly what they were doing and truly cared for his work. Which is exactly what the movie industry needs! Beautiful. Phenomenal. Deserved.

What a performance from the child actors in this one. This film captures what it feels like to be a child with remarkable authenticity. The mannerisms, the way they talk, the way they act, it all feels completely natural. The movie does a phenomenal job portraying the struggles of childhood while never losing sight of its innocence. Moonee and Scooty were both fantastic but Moonee especially blew me away. There were moments where I had to remind myself she was acting because after about 30 minutes it genuinely feels like you're just watching this childs life unfold. That's how convincing her performance is. As for Halley I found it difficult to fully sympathize with her. While she clearly believes she's doing whats best for herself and her daughter many of her decisions make her hard to like. At the same time those decisions makes the film feel even more realistic. You may not agree with her choices but they never feel dishonest to the character or the situation. And of course Willem Dafoe delivers an incredible supporting performance. He plays such an important role in the story's emotional core and he's excellent from start to finish. Where I dock some points is in a few plot points and conversations that felt like they were building toward something that never really came. I also wasn't a fan of the ending. It took a whimsical fantasy-like turn that felt out of place compared to the grounded realism of everything that came before it. I loved the way the film was shot throughout because the visual style perfectly matched the story being told but that final sequence didn't work for me and felt like a noticeable shift in tone. Still this is a great movie. It's one of the best portrayals of childhood innocence, imagination, and struggle that I've seen and the child performances are nothing short of remarkable.