The following is an editorial and does not represent the views or opinions of The Drury Mirror.

Throughout 2019 I’ve made it my mission to watch at least one film a day in order to broaden my horizons in the art of film making. I invite you to join me on this journey, as I both watch and share my thoughts, through bite sized reviews, on the vast array of films the world has to offer. My goal is to introduce you to a variety of films, some you have heard of, others you might not have, watching them throughout the weeks as I do from the comfort of your own home. Enjoy!

Scoring System

• Highly recommended
• Recommended
• Enjoyable enough
• Decent watch with friends
• Take a look if you’re bored
• Not recommended

“Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”

“Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is a 2007 musical directed by Tim Burton retelling the infamous tale of Sweeny Todd, a barber who kills his customers whilst Mrs Lovett, who owns a pie shop below the barber shop, makes them into pies.

The opening title sequence CGI is awful, looking extremely dated, which gives you a bad first impression of the film. CGI is used a surprising amount in the film, which is sad as it doesn’t look good and is unnecessary for the most part.

The colour palette is dark and drab which fits the films dark tone perfectly, nicely contrasting the bright colours used in flashbacks. The songs are enjoyable, but the fact that they constantly sing starts to get quite obnoxious as the film goes on. I don’t know why they couldn’t have just talked for a lot of the dialogue instead of singing.

The background music is particularly good. It uses a variety of orchestral instruments that are great to listen to and gives the film a nice grand tone. The film has a great cast, who all give convincing performances to really make you invested in the characters. Costume design is also very good, and helps to give the film a nice sense of realism.

Overall “Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is an enjoyable musical with a great cast and good music, even if the constant singing can get a bit annoying.

Recommended.

“Hell or High Water”

Photo via Pexels.

“Hell or High Water” is a 2016 drama directed by David Mackenzie. It follows two brothers who pull off a series of daring daylight bank robberies while two Texas rangers are hot on their tails.

The film has a great continuous opening shot that gives the viewer lots of information and sets up the film’s premise nicely. The camera work in general is very nice. The many long shots throughout the film let you soak up the beautiful Texas countryside.

This showcases the great environmental storytelling, which often shows information instead of telling it and lets the viewer work out information on their own. There is some great sombre and relaxing music at times, whilst at others times it is suitably exciting, always maintaining the nice Western flair.

Ben Foster and Chris Pine are great as the two brothers. They have fantastic chemistry, while still arguing between themselves, giving the viewer a convincing relationship. Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham are also great as the Texas rangers who are hunting them, showcasing a more father/son relationship which is a contrasting dynamic from the brothers.

“Hell or High Water” has an exciting, tension-filled plot that keeps you engaged throughout. It always keeps you on edge due to the phenomenal, tightly written script with dialogue that seems natural and adds to the believability of the film.

Overall “Hell or High Water” is a fantastic film with great performances, a convincing script and satisfying cinematography.

Highly recommended.

“Legion”

“Legion” is a 2010 supernatural action film directed by Scott Stewart. It follows a group of people, one of whom is carrying the messiah, stuck in a diner during an apocalypse.

The film, at times, has some really nice wide shots that look great, whilst at other times there are some strange shots that look out of place. Because of this and the action, it can be quite hard to follow. The script is terrible. Most of the dialogue sounds awful, which doesn’t help when the general delivery isn’t much better.

The acting is laughably bad with many of the characters being pretty bland and never advancing any further than their assigned character trait. The film tries to be creepy, but it never succeeds at it; instead, it comes across as comical, which isn’t helped by the terrible CGI.

“Legion” has an interesting plot that is ruined by the lack of locations. The film only really stays in one place, which doesn’t allow the viewer to see the world falling to the apocalypse, even though the characters are constantly talking about it. This was disappointing and just made me want to see more.

Overall “Legion” has incredible potential, but the lack of locations coupled with the terrible script and bad acting just left me disappointed.

Take a look if you’re bored.

“The Monster”

Photo via Pexels.

“The Monster” is a 2016 thriller directed by Bryan Bertino and follows a mother and daughter whose car breaks down on a quiet road as they start to be stalked by a mysterious monster.

Ella Ballentine is surprisingly good for her age, and I always found her convincing throughout. I can say the same about Zoe Kazan, even if I think she overacted a bit much. I also found the mother-daughter relationship between the two extremely compelling. Their chemistry is great — to the point that I wish the centre point of the entire film was their relationship rather than the monster.

The setting of the forest is suitably dark and mysterious and particularly ominous. I love that you can barely see anything in it past the first few trees. The lighting is also quite nice with a lot of the scenes lit only by streetlights, which again builds up the atmosphere.

“The Monster” has a nice slow build up before the titular monster arrives, which never felt too slow or left me bored. However, once it did show up, I never felt scared by it. I always felt anxious when it wasn’t there, but it honestly looks stupid when you do see it.

Photo via Pexels.

I felt like the appearance of the monster ruined the slow pace the film had going for it, and it would have been better if the monster wasn’t in the film at all, which is ironic given that the film is named after the monster.

Overall the first half of “The Monster” was great, building an interesting relationship between the two leads that I wanted to see more of, and whilst the second half didn’t entirely ruin it for me, it certainly came close.

Decent watch with friends.

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is a 2005 sci-fi comedy film directed by Garth Jennings based off the novel of the same name that follows a rag tag group as they search the universe to find the question to the meaning of life after Earth is destroyed.

The film has an incredibly weird concept, often making me laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all, but the inventiveness of it is great and had me constantly excited at what was going to come next.

The acting is pretty average despite the number of well-known actors, but the voice actors are pretty good such as Alan Rickman and Stephan Fry, who is especially good as the narrator.

The writing also isn’t very good, using quite a lot of sci-fi jargon that doesn’t sound great and a lot of unnatural sounding dialogue. The CGI is also quite bad and unfortunately it is used pretty often, even if the practical effects look good.

Overall “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” just made me want to read the book. The film seems like a fairly shallow showcase of a really interesting universe and only hints at what the film could have been without the writing, acting and CGI that bring the film down.

Enjoyable enough.

“The Fast and the Furious”

“The Fast and the Furious” is a 2001 action film directed by Rob Cohen that follows an undercover cop who infiltrates a group of street racers who are suspected of carrying out a number of heists.

The film has some decent camera work in chases, which along with the pretty great sound design with the cars, culminates to give all the cars a sense of speed that really gets your blood pumping. However, the rest of the camera work is fairly poor and it never raises above average, as the film uses a lot of Dutch angles. These combined with lots of close ups and quick cuts just look pretty bad.

The film is incredibly over the top at times with its very juvenile tone. The amount of girls and cars in the film is incredibly over the top, so at a certain point you just start to laugh at it.

The acting is pretty poor, especially from Vin Diesel, who can’t display emotion to save his life. The acting isn’t helped by the bad script that includes many lines that are downright laughable, as well as lots of car jargon that sounds incredibly stupid.

Photo via Pexels.

Overall “The Fast and the Furious” is a great guilty pleasure film that is incredibly fun and an enjoyable ride, despite its flaws with the acting, writing and camera work.

Decent watch with friends.

“American Pie”

“American Pie” is a 1999 comedy film directed by Paul and Chris Weitz and follows four teens who try to lose their virginity before graduation.

The film has a lot of generic teen stereotypes that are boring to watch, and its dialogue is very juvenile and often quite cringe-worthy. This is also the case with a lot of the film’s jokes, which are awkward at times but that only comes with the subject material.

The acting is just as suitably awkward, with the actors nicely getting across the awkward nature of many of the scenes. The plot, due to its nature, is pretty stupid for most of it, but the writers found some interesting scenarios which, despite the juvenile nature of them, are still pretty funny.

The music is fairly good throughout, even though most of it is the same type of 90s punk rock. The camera work is pretty boring but gets the job done, and it isn’t bad enough to make itself noticeable. However, there are quite a lot of moments when the audio is dubbed in, which sounds awful and is incredibly obvious.

Overall “American Pie” is a decent film with quite a few funny scenes, despite the amount of juvenile jokes and dialogue.

Enjoyable enough.

Written by Jack Goodman.