“Sometimes you need to do something bad to stop you from doing something worse.”
India Stoker, quoting her father, in “Stoker” (2013)
I find many movie reviews not that useful, good reviews are hard to find. Given that I watched an interesting movie lately (“Stoker“), I looked on YouTube for a good review and I was successful. Mark Kermode does a nice job of criticizing the movie in the best way possible — by pointing out things you might have overlooked and which are helpful to appreciate the movie. I don’t agree with all of Kermode’s reviews, of course, the best critique cannot apply to everyone as personal preference still matters. For example, I enjoyed “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” (his critique here). But I agree that “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” had the potential for much, much more — and squandered it. Still, I love the anachronisms.
Back to “Stoker”, his review is here:
Stoker reviewed by Mark Kermode:
And yup, I highly recommend “Stoker” — it’s an interesting and smart movie with strikingly beautiful music. Especially the piano duet. The only issues I have is with the voice over — the explanation is not only superfluous, it’s distracting — and that the movie seems to be influenced a bit by “Dexter”. Hmm, with the difference that the shower scene in “Stoker” would not have worked in “Dexter”. In “Stoker” it is memorable and impressive. It probably won’t replace the scene in “Psycho” as the best shower scene ever, but it is something to be remembered. However, in “Dexter”, it would not have worked — it would have turned people off.
But yup, highly recommended.