The Brown Note Movie Review

Relic (2020)

Australia has punched well above it's weight with magnificent low-budget films this century, first with hard nosed crime dramas, then last decade with striking forays into sci-fi and horror. Even against that back-drop the major film debut from writer-director Natalie Erika James stands out as a masterpiece. Posited as a near Hereditary house-horror film, it works in seamless tandem as both a high-class stock horror and something far superior, a metaphorical look at the scariest monster of all - mortality. An emotionally overwhelming and highly original use of standard horror tropes to examine our relationship with ageing parents to a point that I think it's the only horror film I've seen to make me cry. Astonishingly human and utterly devastating.

First Cow (2020)

Most critics are like sheep. They read each other's reviews and are too scared to rate anything they don't understand accurately lest they get it "wrong". The latest by slow-movie auteur, Kelly Reichardt is case in point, winning numerous movie of the year awards. Though I gave warm reviews to both Meek's Cutoff and Night Moves, this is a weak and virtually empty film, devoid of any real substance, symbolism, depth, artistry or poetry. It's just a diverting half hour spread thinly over two laborious hours. Don't believe the hype.

The Deeper You Dig (2020)

John Adams is undoubtedly a triple threat worth investigation, as here he occasionally directs well, acts in a often dialogue free, nuanced performance very well, and creates a great soundtrack for this indie horror. But no way does this very limited and often ordinary film deserve the place in the pantheon of modern indie horror greats its 75% on Metacritic and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes suggests. Not worth bothering.

Best And Worst Films Of 2020

Exactly what it says in the title, in a very tepid year all round (lots of 8's, not many 9's!) my best and worst films of 2020, with the ten best and worst going head to head.

Top 25 Albums of 2020

Bit of cross pollination here with the radio show (show with music https://www.mixcloud.com/julian-brown/the-brown-note-top-25-albums-of-2020/)

My top 25 albums of 2020 in a very flat year all round. Best and worst films of the year next week.

Mank (2020)

David Fincher's return to his father's old screenplay, about the writing of Citizen Kane by the immortal Herman J. Mankiewicz, is awash with Hollywood lore and golden-era standard bearers. If a fairly soulless but utterly whip-smart script of back and forths from ridiculously clever people, in love with how clever they are sounds like your perfect night in, you'll love it. If that sounds like pretentious twaddle and hell on earth, you'll hate it and find it intensely annoying. I loved it and the background of the way socialism was treated by right wing media, pushed it totally over the line for me. Also Gary Oldman's best role of the century as the lead. No doubt multiple Oscar nominations await as Hollywood loves to love itself.

Aliens (1986)

A recent unexpected TV viewing left me wondering if this is the Citizen Kane of Science Fiction Horror movies. Near perfect film making on every level from James Cameron, on a roll that would include Terminators 1&2 and the most perfect film of the lot. Even the sound effects or the machine guns are sublime. Full marks for production design, screenplay, effects that haven't dated, developed side characters that pack a memorable punch, unbearable building tension, iconic lines and an almost unheard of lead acting Oscar nomination for it's equally unusual female action lead, Sigourney Weaver as Ripley. Hugely influential from video games to any film where a state of the art military force is hopelessly out of its depth and packed with fascinating subtext like having warring mothers as both antagonist and protagonist. A perfect 10/10.

HillBilly Elegy (2020)

Already critically notorious, I was still impressed by how awful and cringe-inducing this latest from the master of Oscar bait and the worst half of trite-Spielberg, Ron Howard, was. Not so much toe curling as shin snapping, Howard's worst ever manages to make Cleetus from the Simpsons seem subtle and deep. Glenn Close will likely win an Oscar but this soft-core poverty porn is the years most misguided film, the Hallmark greeting card version of Winter's Bone, with very little story and a central character who is almost entirely unsympathetic. A front runner for worst film of the year and taken all in all (including the intent of the story arc versus what it actually achieves) - the years second (Hard Kill not included as it isn't a real film) big fat zero out of ten (after We Summon the Darkness).

Let Him Go (2020)

Has director Thomas Bezucha coined an entirely new genre?  The senior shoot-em-up. With the instantly winning pairing of a (bulldog) Diane Lane and Kevin Costner, we don't get The Bridges of Maddison County but a Southern potboiler that builds patiently for through its first half of 1960's "white poverty" country folk, before barreling towards a violent denouement, as the leads try to extricate their grandson from the clutches of an abusive matriarch driven clan. All very satisfying and made with intelligence.

Megan Is Missing (2011)

This slice of extreme cinema barely made a splash on release in 2011 but has inexplicably attained a whole new life on YouTube through TikTok. Hugely controversial and easy to dismiss for either its amateur elements or its brutal content, none the less this internet predator horror is a valid film, that paints as nihilistic and confronting a portrait of young teens as the legendary film Kids and whose portrayal of matter of fact abuse, sex and drug taking is nearly as shocking as the near unwatchable last half hour. Abandon hope ye who enter.