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Reviews
Astartes (2018)
A directing talent emerges
I was astounded by the sophistication of the directors storytelling eye, his economy of coverage. For someone who has no other directing credits. It's really impressive work. Forget the IP itself, or the actual animation and art (which is obviously beautiful, but plenty of people can make beautiful CGI, all you need is money and time) Far more interesting is the true skill in DIRECTING. Particularly directing action and staging. And temporal finesse. The editing. What he's leaving OUT for the mind to fill in is as important as the shots he does include. This guy need to know he's got talent. Don't get stuck in a CGI job. Develop this talent.
Who ever gave this 4 stars is a stone cold cringe loser.
Forbidden Ground (2013)
Woeful attempt at a war movie. Complete ignorance of British characteristics.
Wasted opportunity. I suppose this is what you get when an Armourer attempt to be a filmmaker. Being on set does not qualify one to write and make a movie.
The Defector (2018)
Menacing. Mannion's a serious cinematographic talent
Menacing. If The Defector was any single emotion, it would be pure, unfiltered sense of menace. Like a bus with that might or might not carry a suicide bomber, this short film expertly racks up the tension without doing too much. Instead, it allows its conflicting ideas to battle in the mind of the viewer. Who is justified in his action and who is the real menace? Defector leaves the audience guessing as the story quickly moves through its plot.
There is no doubt that Mannion possesses some serious cinematographic talent and potentially someone who can join people like David Michôd and Zak Hilditch. I hope he gets a chance to try this as soon as possible.
The film follows the real-life figure of Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt as he engages with his security chiefs about the Reds, individuals suspected of working against the state. However, Holt has his own agenda and begins to explore one of the secret threads, culminating in a single night of dangerous confrontation, which the film depicts.
Created by Scott Mannion, the film shows the power of a precisely executed thriller, combined with a modest layer of science fiction. As the film unravels, this layer begins to fill up, but still thankfully remains neither naive nor pretentious. On the other hand, the visual style of Defector, like its superb cast, especially Sean Taylor as Holt, is spot on. The decor and fashion of 1960's offer a great backdrop to the mystery of the real life death of this figure.
All of these elements resemble movies like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, telling a story of incredibly dangerous men who decide the fate of the world and still manage to look like everyday bureaucrats. These gray and almost faceless persons (even though this changes later on as well) are ideal personification of this menace. -Onlinesportz
The Catcher Was a Spy (2018)
Wasted opportunity.
Amazing cast, nice design. Good director. Unfortunately the writing is a big problem. An inactive protagonist, things simply happen to him, he solves none of the problems of the film, he's along for the ride.
Take a lesson from Bridge of Spies: there you have an active protagonist actively taking action to solve the film's problems. There's not one thing the lead solves in this film. He's passive and he's got nothing to offer in terms of skills. And when he does take action, he's shown as incompetent. Very strange choices with the writing. Had they have done the opposite in most of their choices they'd have had a good movie. A real shame they green lit this before they had a script. Now this story will never be told with good writing.
Gunpowder (2017)
Bad title but excellent series
Good as anything on HBO, and deeply tragic. I wish they had gone an Alternate History route, as it's just so brutal to watch at the end. Gunpowder is an odd name, perhaps FAWKES, or Fifth of November. And the key art/poster does not at all represent how good this miniseries is. Think Wolf Hall meets Taboo with no mysticism.