Weekly Round-up 3 Dead Cells, Black God, White Devil, The Last Duel

Dead cells

After numerous failed attempts over the past couple weeks, I finally beat Dead Cells and can move on with my life! Yet, I can't wait to play it all again. An excellent mixture of roguelike elements (where when you die you go back to the very beginning) and light Metroidvania exploration. It's punishing but every time you succeed, from beating an area or boss, you get to use your collected dead cells(dropped from enemies) to buy new weapons, mutations(small yet helpful upgrades) shields, abilities and general things like upgrading health flask usage. It's addictive: slowly but surely getting just a little better every time, from your personal skill to the things you unlock. You can beat it in an hour, yet it will take much longer than that, trust me. Its pixel art also looks beautiful. My only complaints are I don’t like the games humor nor do I like the references to other indie games all that much. They do make great weapons though, so I can live with it. I can't recommend this game enough and I'm looking forward to playing it's Return to Castlevania DLC

10/10

Black God White Devil

I don’t even know how to describe my feelings towards this one. This film from Brazil, which centers on a cowherder who joins a cult (of sorts) after killing his employer, is messy, political, yet effective. The film is beautifully shot, made all the clearer in a 4k restoration (I saw it at Film Forum with a friend). The screenplay is less character driven and more themes driven, but thanks to it all feeling nuanced it all feels character driven anyway. The biggest problem is the editing which feels choppy and sudden(some lost footage maybe?), and sometimes I felt like I was watching a cartoon with how animated some characters act. Despite all of this, I still like Black God, White Devil. I liked what it has to say, a daring film with some pretty brutal scenes. I also love the whole western feel to its timeless world (sometimes it feels in the then present day, sometimes the wild west because of all the desert). I saw it with a friend, and she loved it, calling it “beautiful”. It’s a film worth seeing so you can see what you think for yourself. It’s the kind of film that, no matter what you think, to say what you think about it you have to out a lot of yourself out there. I will be seeing this one again for sure.

7/10

The Last Duel

Like David Fincher, I find Ridley Scott to be overrated. He’s not bad-he’s got a knack for great atmosphere-but I find a lot of his films to gesture towards themes rather than fully exploring them. I’ll admit he’s a good gateway into getting into films…but once you dig deeper into the medium, you’ll see his films are pretty light. I’m sorry to say I’ll felt the same with The Last Duel. As is always the case with a Ridley Scott film, The Last Duel looks great, with a great use of locations and costumes, but I did find the hair and makeup to be over the top, giving everyone a rather goofy look. Not helping is the over-the-top acting from most of the cast, especially Ben Affleck, who I’ve always thought sucked at acting. Further, the movie has a Rashomon-like structure where the same story beats are repeated but with three different perspectives but it doesn’t really add anything, we learn very little because there isn’t much to the characters or story, nor is there any ambiguity to keep us guessing or to get an emotional response out of us. The movie does explore themes, particularly misogyny in the Middle Ages, but as I often find is the case for Scott, it all feels like an attempt, rather than exploring it. This all could have been salvaged if the final act was memorable, and while it is its strongest, it just repeats a lot of what was already seen.

Despite my criticisms, there are aspects to appreciate about The Last Duel: Adam Driver and Jodie Comer are pretty great, the action scenes are a lot of fun (especially the titular duel that caps off the film), and there is a decent enough emotional narrative throughout that kept me interested throughout. But I can’t shake the feeling that other directors have done it better. Chan-Wook Park’s The Handmaiden and this year’s palme d’or winner Anatomy of a Fall come to mind. Regardless, it is unfortunate that this film flopped because we don’t get many films like it anymore. It’s certainly more inventive than a Marvel, Star Wars or Disney film that’s for sure.

5/10

Still waiting on that printer for my bigger reviews. Also seems like I’m going to do a big review of “Deathloop”. Thanks for reading!