one day movie

The Hateful Eight - 2/5

Quentin Tarantino has always had an eye for cinematography and an ear for catchy dialogue, and this movie is no exception. From the title alone it should come as no surprise that none of the characters are particularly likeable (except for Tim Roth's Oswaldo Mobray who, while a villain, was enjoyable to watch). This movie goes straight for the shock value in a few places, as Tarantino does, but the payoff here is less of a twist and more of a "Yeah, I guess that makes the most sense" climax. I only recommend this if you're a die hard fan of his other movies.

Birdman - 3/5

This movie's strength is in its moviemaking. It is shot to look like it's all one continuous, unbroken take, using very clever invisible cuts to make it possible. There are also quite a few mirrors in the film but never the camera reflected in them, a feat which I'm still not sure how they were able to accomplish. The story is pretty weird, though, and there's a lot of sexual dialogue and situations that don't actually add anything to the film. Also the ending undercuts itself. The film could have been going one of two directions, basically, and has an unclear ending that doesn't come down on either side. Instead of making both interpretations meaningful and valid, it only serves to make neither of them interesting or satisfying. If you like dissecting film-making techniques it's really cool, but otherwise I'd skip it.