The Uprising is written and directed by Paul Greengrass , and the film certainly looks the part. The costumes, dialogue, and scenery all do a great job of establishing the time period and making the world feel authentic. Unfortunately, the movie has a frustrating habit of taking scenes that could have been much shorter and dragging them out until you are simply waiting for something to happen. Andrew Garfield does a great job leading the film and proves he still has what it takes to carry a movie on his shoulders. His performance reminded me of his work in Silence and Hacksaw Ridge , where he is able to bring a lot of emotional weight to a character without completely overplaying it. The problem is that the movie occasionally focuses on minor characters who do not have the same level of delivery. When the camera stays on them for too long, the cracks in the dialogue and performances become much more obvious. Jamie Bell , who you may remember from Jumper , does a decent job as a supp...
Colony is written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho , the director behind the cult classic Train to Busan . While Train to Busan has become the more celebrated film, Colony shows how much Yeon has improved as both a writer and a director. The story is stronger, the filmmaking feels more confident, and the way he builds the world gives the movie more substance than I expected going in. Jun Ji-hyun is the clear standout of the cast. She does a fantastic job conveying emotion through subtle movements and expressions rather than relying on exaggerated acting. That is not surprising considering she is one of South Korea's best actresses, but she still manages to make the character feel grounded and believable. She carries much of the emotional weight of the film. I did not recognize many of the other actors, and unfortunately, none of them really stood out enough to make much of an impression. That is not necessarily a knock against the cast as much as it is a testament to how much Jun ...