It Is What It Is

God I love Taika. Such a special movie, I love that he made a respectful comedy about an era that hasn’t been portrayed like this before. The production design was simply stunning. Scarlett did so well in her role as well. I instantly fell in love with her character.

Way more fun than I expected. Loved Craig Armstrong’s music.

I wasn’t bored, but it is not a good movie. The story just is so constructed and there’s barely any interesting dialogue. The visuals are still cool, but that won’t save a movie. I hated that Ben’s character got used as a tool.

This felt like the unfinished concept of marriage story. All the subtilty that Marriage Story has, I was missing in The Squid and the Whale. The characters seemed too easy and unrealistic. It also was less funny, but still pretty funny sometimes. The editing and cinematography were driving me nuts. Really annoying.

Acting was great. Antoine Olivier Pilon was very credible without being over the top. The moment when the aspect ratio changes had me sitting in the cinema with goosebumps, even though I knew it was coming. I didn’t agree with the soundtrack. A lot of pop songs just thrown on there without any thought, seemingly.

A lot of fun, but definitely not as great as it got hyped up to be. I didn’t get emotionally invested, so the emotional scenes were just boring to me. Cinematography was great and some of the editing was top-notch as well. I felt like it changed styles so much and especially the ending was terrible. Very lazy to put everything in voice over and be done with it. I loved some of the characters though.

Cried my eyes out. Such a beautiful film. Funny and heartbreaking. All characters except the main characters are slightly cartoonish, which at times could be annoying. But I can respect and understand the choice. Adam Driver and Scarlet Johansson were absolutely wonderful.

It’s always hard to be confronted with stories like these. Especially the opening sequence with the calm city being disrupted by bombings was beautiful.

Impressive documentary about the corrupt system in Romania. Complicated story but somehow constantly kept understandable. The minister of health is one of the coolest characters I’ve seen in a long time

Very interesting and inspiring person. A true role model. The documentary was too long in my opinion and was not that interesting cinematically. It was more like a long video essay.

Very serious story told with a sense of humor. Beautiful individuals that bring life to the story. Love hanging out with these cinevilles for an hour an half

Amusing film. Impressive how these very flawed characters still warmed my heart at the end of the movie, well-written. Brilliant sequence with the prostitutes. 

Crazy story, still unbelievable after an hour and a half. The documentary is too long in my opinion. The audience knows that he succeeded because otherwise this documentary wouldn’t have been made. That’s why it’s not as exciting as it thinks it is. Still a very interesting character and I liked the kind of “crime” documentary style that was used. 

Blown away by the subtleness of this documentary. Seeing these boys shift between being just boys to anger filled people that can’t and won’t take any more shit. Editing was done very well. Loved the symbolism of the building up or breaking down of the house and the fighting or playing dogs. Lighting, though mostly natural, helped a great deal in setting the mood. I want to watch this again already.

Quote: “I am entertainment”

Slinky dog: “mine”

Favorite quote: “every time I would cry, my dad would imitate the sound with his violin”