The Queen’s Gambit | Weekly Recap 5

It’s Monday again, which means it’s time for another Weekly Recap! To start off, we finished the original Planet of the Apes series, which we had started last week. Conquest begins a pretty good film, with a savory, Orwellian aesthetic to create a political thriller that rather nicely builds anticipation for the inevitable uprising. Unfortunately, as is often the case with so many films, the 3rd act completely puts it all to waste. What was previously threatening now becomes cartoonish; what was previously subtle is now spouted with pseudo-Shakespearean gibberish. The apes themselves feel increasingly like costumes, and the characters have become uniquely boring in their personality.

Yet at least it’s not as bad as Battle, which is certainly among the worst films we’ve ever seen. Not in a manner that we particularly hated, as it was ironically rather tame, but in the embarrassing writing that left us flabbergasted. For one, there is far too much exposition, which is probably the best way for a film to discredit itself in our eyes. But what makes the exposition worse is that it’s completely incongruous to the story they’re actually telling. In the process of over-explaining what we already knew, they left out crucial details to legitimise the worldbuilding, only to contradict themselves at every turn. So after the confusion of boredom and contradiction, we were happy we were finally done with this tedious series… that is, until we rewatch the prequel trilogy, which we now realise are actually remakes of these two films.

Planet of the Apes
Conquest: https://boxd.it/1A4Vo5 ⭐⭐
Battle: https://boxd.it/1AQJ2H ⭐

Now for a surprisingly obscure film, The Devil’s Double is another boring mess. Starring Dominic Cooper in a double role that is admittedly brilliant, he is utterly wasted in this 3+ hour long film. Oh wait, my bad, it doesn’t even reach 2 hours! The narrative is an absolute disaster of screenwriting basics, because while Cooper steals the show every second he’s in, the actual story feels like a dog chasing its tail, only for it to realise it doesn’t have one. That’s the feeling one gets from this film as it finally gets to its abrupt climax, because while it’s shot to be cathartic – in fact, the cinematography throughout is a marvel to gaze at – there simply isn’t enough substance for us to latch on to and actually care. Now, we really love Cooper from his performance in Preacher. While we felt the show gradually declined in quality, he was always the reason we went back to it every week. We haven’t seen him in any other films, but we imagine the relationship between the quality of his performance and the quality of the film is identical in every instance. 

The Devil's Double: https://boxd.it/1Ah23H ⭐⭐

And here comes a film that we know we’re going to get a lot of hate for hating, but Back to the Future 2 just doesn’t do it for us. We found the first to be fairly boring and bland, but this one was just awful to sit through. We get that the appeal largely comes from its charming nonsense, but where others see charm we saw grotesquery – in both the Berkovian and literal sense. The exaggeration of the performances and writing made us want to tear our eyes out and stick them in our ears. We’re not fans of caricature, and this one is a caricature of caricature. 

Back to the Future Part II: https://boxd.it/1ApWO1 ⭐

Of course, with such low rated films this week we simply had to return to a couple favourites that we knew we would love. Cloud Atlas might be a marmite film, but we are definitely on the side that adores every painting of pure beauty, every corny line of love and destiny, and every convoluted plot line that interweaves with mellow contemplations on life. We made our first video essay on this film because there’s simply so much to talk about and so many different ways to interpret the same information. The ideas resonate really profoundly with us, in a similar way to The Matrix in fact – we’ve always been apologists for the entire trilogy. Also directed by the Wachowskis, who seem to be the most inconsistent storytellers, as for every soaring 5 star film they make, there’s a 1 star film to pull their masterpieces back down to the ground. Either way, the sheer ambition on display here at the very least warrants applause even from its most avid haters, as while it’s far from a perfect film, this is certainly a rewarding experience for those who are lucky enough to connect with it fully. 

Cloud Atlas: https://boxd.it/1qlThZ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Oh, what’s this? Why, it’s more chess! As you probably know by now, we really love chess, so of course we had to rewatch the biggest thing to have ever happened to the community. The Queen’s Gambit is among the most bingeable miniseries ever created, starring Anya Taylor-Joy in a phenomenal role. Not only is her performance beautifully nuanced and strikingly enchanting, but she has managed to wonderfully realise an immensely complex character – someone who feels shockingly human, with all their aspirations and virtues contradicted by vices that only deepen her personality. We haven’t seen her in much, but we definitely look forward to what she does in the future. Still, despite our praise of Taylor-Joy, Amaurea’s heart truly lies with Thomas Brodie-Sangster. Benny is a joy to watch, because while he doesn’t quite achieve the same complexity as Beth, Brodie-Sangster infuses so much charming arrogance into the role that one can’t help but adore every second the spotlight sticks to him like a magnet. We’ve loved him since Doctor Who, so it’s pretty fun seeing him in such great places. And of course, you can never go wrong with such an awesome costume. 

Yet while these two characters would be enough for an unhesitant 5 stars, The Queen’s Gambit goes further. The plot may not be the most adventurous, as drugs and hubris are almost a cliche of movies that explore a remarkable individual on an unyielding quest to be the best. But the way it goes about treading this over-trodden ground is nothing short of spectacular. For starters, every chess game is so satisfying to watch. If you haven’t already, we definitely recommend watching Agadmator’s analysis videos on the games that were played here, as they’re based on real games that the advisors for the creators managed to find ways to improve so that a draw would lead to a crazy win for Beth. And obviously, every time they speak in chess terminology put a large grin on our faces as we knew most people wouldn’t understand it but we were utterly drawn in. Nevertheless, after all this, the most impactful aspect of the series has to be the emotion. Every defeat along the way – be it defeat in a game or defeat in real life – brings with it several sharp tugs at the heart, but it isn’t until the final episode that the dam fully breaks and our tears couldn’t make up their minds about being happy or sad. Or perhaps both at once, because The Queen’s Gambit balances the two with perfect finesse. We got through it all in just 2 days, and already we want to go for another round. 

The Queen's Gambit: https://boxd.it/1ttrcv ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

But don’t leave yet, for sneaking in on our Sunday evening is a film we’ve had lying on our shelf for months but were reluctant to touch due to its low rating. How wrong we were to doubt its quality. Casshern is an absolute beauty to behold! Now, from a writing perspective, we have to admit it’s not very good at all, as most of the time we didn’t have the faintest idea what on earth was going on, with cheesy performances and iffy dialogue that strangely lent itself to becoming part of what made the film so enjoyable (in a way we unfortunately couldn’t feel with Back to the Future). But there are a lot of very interesting allegories lurking within the milieu of golden hues, gothic set design and colours that sparkle like gemstones, gracing the screen in their melting pot of art styles. From German Expressionism, to Neoclassical, to Noir, to Steampunk, to War Film, these seemingly incongruous styles converge into a sort of postmodern, abstract sculpture that is confusing to understand exactly what it’s depicting, so all you are left with is primal emotion as you allow the meaning to seep through your eyes. Because as this film reaches the heights of Biblical storytelling in all its anime mawkishness, we were left in sheer awe at the gorgeous mess we were joyfully experiencing. 

Casshern: https://boxd.it/1B4i0x ⭐⭐⭐⭐