August 2026 [24-30]
Things Will Be Different, Seagrass, Atlantics, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Things Will Be Different [2024] - 54
Directorial debut for longtime cohort of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, Michael Felker, Things Will Be Different shows a lot of what he’s learned working on their joint films… But also shows how those skills aren’t necessarily transferrable. While the split time-loop scenario that Things Will Be Different sets up is really interesting, the plot itself is poorly translated enough that the film stops multiple times to handhold the audience through explanations that they didn’t even necessarily know they needed. It’s a film that was clearly designed as two interesting pieces [beginning and ending], and then the middle was filled in to make those pieces a whole… But that middle is where all of the simultaneous nothing and everything happens, making the entire journey not only forgettable, but the ending not worth the effort of waiting for it. There’s a really interesting movie hidden among this plot’s fumbling foibles, and I’ll definitely watch what Felker does next, I just hope that he learns from whatever happened here, and that next time Things Will Be Different.
- Seagrass [2023] - 90
Another feature-length debut, Seagrass is a brilliant tale of two children caught between their parents’ various unresolved traumas, and the ever burgeoning threat of divorce. Set entirely in a small, seaside, couples therapy-getaway, Seagrass is a melody of sadness, longing, neglect, and regret sung in both devastating directness, and even more shattering whispers and rounds of theme, character action [or inaction], and consequence. This is certainly not a movie for everyone, and both its patience and seemingly scattered focus may drive some viewers away, but for those that want something to sit with and ponder in terms of theme or voice, Seagrass is right up there with some of my other favorites of the year. Meredith Hama-Brown has a lot to say with this debut, and I truly cannot wait for whatever else she’s got up in her head.
- Atlantics [2019] - 56
Directed by Mati Diop and written by both her and Olivier Demangel, Atlantics [or Atlantique] is a movie that might hit if you’re more engrained in the culture it depicts but, as someone who is not, the film’s narrative [while interesting in concept] takes so long to develop that, by the time anything of real note happens, you’re mostly wishing that thing of note was the credits. This film has really cool ideas and wants to say really important things, but it lacks the sense of pacing required to get any of it across, and ultimately feels like a jumbled mess of parts that aren’t really talking to one another. While some of the execution of these parts is well done and engaging, there’s just not enough meat on Atlantics’ bones to make it worth the voyage.
— The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo [2011] - 79
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a franchise with several different starting points. I chose to start with the 2011 Fincher adaptation. And by “chose” I mean “this was the one that came up first”. Performances from Mara and Craig are solid, and the rest of the cast creates the air of a fun and rompy murder/mystery set in the bucolic Swedish countryside. I understand that this is an adaptation from a book, so some things may not wholly translate narratively, but I don’t entirely get the hype of this excursion. It’s a David Fincher, so the quality is certainly there, but Gone Girl, Zodiac, or Seven this is not. This movie is long and simultaneously feels gratuitous at certain parts, rushed in others, and very plodding almost entirely throughout. There’s nothing “bad” about the film, there’s just not anything particularly good about it either. It’s a mystery, there’s a murder, the villain is bad, James Bond sleeps with the girl… I get it.
— The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo [2009] - 75
Wanting to give the other side of the films a shot, 2009’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is… Ever-so-slightly less interesting than the 2011 American version. It obviously follows all the same major beats, but the longer the movie goes on, the further they diverge from one another. In a similar way to Hamnet’s comparisons between book and film, these two movies both exceed each other in certain ways, while falling short in others. This Swedish original has the more compelling and human version of Lisbeth, while the American version tells a tighter tale with significantly less silly action sequences [and a way cooler motorcycle]. As I understand it, this one sets up the next two books/movies significantly better, while the American seems content to be more of a standalone piece that, if just these two movies are to be considered, I think is slightly stronger overall. I don’t know, I’m glad I watched these, but I’m not exactly inspired to keep putting time into the series.
