djross
Criticker Zealot
Member Since: 15 Apr 2006
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Age: 54
Bio: Films receiving a score between 91 and 100 are considered to be a masterpiece.
Longer reviews: https://www.criticker.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5869
X: https://x.com/DJRoss70
Longer reviews: https://www.criticker.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5869
X: https://x.com/DJRoss70
Recent Ratings
Check out djross's...
In Cold Blood (1967) - Rated 05 Jul 2025
"Two desperados with contrasting personalities team up, but their ill-conceived plans go awry. Composed of high-quality elements put together in a stylish manner, and it’s admirable for an anti-capital punishment movie to focus on the seriously guilty rather than the risk of a miscarriage of justice for the innocent, but the viewer will have to decide whether it’s really worth enduring the basic unpleasantness that comes to the fore as the film progresses."
The Brothers Karamazov (1958) - Rated 04 Jul 2025
"A travesty in the sense that it simplifies everything at every turn, but it at least tries to digest the psychological aspects. Brynner’s Dmitry is a pretty stiff version but at least he does have charisma. Basehart is totally wrong as Ivan and twenty years too old. On the other hand, Claire Bloom as the kind of woman who’d like to publicly shame her lover and destroy his reputation, and Albert Salmi as a murder-suicide type of a guy, would both prove to be extremely prescient pieces of casting."
Bratya Karamazovy (1969) - Rated 03 Jul 2025
"Alyosha is a difficult character, but the casting does not seem right at all, and the excision of subplots in which he is involved does not help. In general, the rest of the cast lacks subtlety but is somehow also not wild enough, and the humour mostly lost. Filmed in a prosaic style that does not match the frenzied character of the events, but does come to life a bit once the story hits Mokroye. In short, an earnest attempt, but that was never going to be enough for a book of this magnitude."
May December (2023) - Rated 01 Jul 2025
"Brody thinks this film “knows what it thinks”, but this viewer felt the filmmakers are not at all sure, doling out to each character a little bit of sympathy and a little bit of judgment, and only at the end feel compelled to make plain that we must always be on the side of victims. Ultimately the filmmaker is afraid of being judged, and the veneer of “camp” reverts to a conformist position. Also, I have very mixed feelings about the decision to steal very distinctive music from another film."
Wyatt Earp (1994) - Rated 30 Jun 2025
"Aims for greater historical fidelity than other movies on this subject but fails to make clear why the characters and events are of interest. Poor music can really harm a film."
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) - Rated 28 Jun 2025
"A man longs to get out of the city and go back home to the farm. The cast is good (though the strongest impression is perhaps made by 23-year-old Marilyn Monroe), the attempts at realism are good, the way it portrays police corruption is good, but somehow I really don’t have much to say about this film."
The Duellists (1977) - Rated 27 Jun 2025
"An extremely pretty film about how adherence to the notion of honour leads two men into years of senseless pain and violence. Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel make a good contrast, and the dialogue is well-written, but Kael is right that “the drama doesn’t emerge from what the actors say and do – the drama is in the play of light and shadow against what the actors do”. The simplicity of the idea is what gives the film its hypnotic quality but also sets the limits of its interestingness."
Firestarter (2020) - Rated 25 Jun 2025
"This could have gone further than it did, both in reflecting on the history and work of the company and in exploring the traumas and tragedies of the Page brothers, but it does provide a worthwhile overview of what has become a significant and successful Australian cultural institution."
The Shrouds (2024) - Rated 24 Jun 2025
"On the difference between introjection and incorporation, or between the work of mourning and “carrying a crypt” (Abraham and Torok). Two sisters in the hands of men desperate to maintain control and possession, exposing the perversity, obsessiveness and fetishisation inherent to (male) desire itself…or to love. The impossibility of making sense of the conspiratorial threads may in part be intentional, but also seems like a consequence of rushing through what was originally meant to be a series."
Better Man (2024) - Rated 23 Jun 2025
"Slight change of subject matter doesn't conceal that the structure exactly follows generic rules. Some of the dance numbers are good but reliance on CGI is intrusively obvious. Williams always wants to tell the same story about how his struggle with self-doubt and addiction turns into self-acceptance as a humble entertainer, in turn combined with a feeling of greatness: audiences will either be carried along or see it as a vain and calculated act, depending on their sympathy for the man himself."
