MoFo Reviewers
The Florida Project
Read the full review here.
The Master
Read the full review here.
The Florida Project
Director Baker's camera is a mixed bag of Arri Alexa and Filmic Pro from Iphone. The mix is beautiful. The colors of these motels across the way from one another, as well as the decrepit condos are staggeringly beautiful in a dayglo and pastel overload sort of way. I believe this was a multi format picture where Baker had his DP use an iphone 6s running Filmicpro, as well as an Alexa cinema cam, and then printed the final edit onto Kodak film, which really gives TFP a dense and rich look. This is my own personal answer to the stylings of Spring Breakers, another fulked up film that turned me off, unlike TFP, which made me perk up and enjoy the images and story.
The Master
Such a tough film to unpack, but boy is it worth the effort. I can completely understand why PTA seems to be a director that cinephiles either love or don't care for. He really doesn't cut the audience any slack. Rather he grabs them by the neck and makes them decide one way or the other how they feel. His characters are written in a very challenging way, and The Master may just be the greatest example of that. It is not easy to get a hold of either the intentions or motivations of Freddie Quell and Lancaster Dodd. Quell is such an interesting character. Certainly one that is searching, but one that would on the surface seem unlikely to fall prey to the religion being crafted by Dodd. He is a free spirit whose personality would seem to be unwilling to allow itself to be penned up by such a rigid lifestyle. He does allow himself to be penned up though, even if it is only for a time. Does he see Dodd as a father figure? Does he love the feeling of belonging that can come from organized religion? Is he just biding his time until he sees a train that he would rather jump on? Probably a little of all of those at different times. I do think he grows to love Dodd. Much of that probably has to do with the way Dodd feels about him. It usually becomes very easy for us to fall in love with people who are showing us love.