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Some style, but no substance

> ‘Carol’ review

Brittni MacKenzie-Dale The Phoenix (UBC Okanagan)

he eponymous Carol meets young photographer Therese

Belivet in 1950s Manhattan in Carol, a film based on Patricia Highsmith’s ground-breaking lesbian romance The Price of Salt. Director Edward Lachman gives us a wonderfully nostalgic look at post-war New York. As a slow romance builds between the two leading women, dastardly consequences arise within their personal lives. As social commentary, Carol works to a degree—when the novel was published in the late 4os, the subject matter was more risqué and thus the plot was more honest—but in terms of narrative, the film isa bore.

Romance is forfeited for nonstop tension. Therese and Carol spend little time building on-screen chemistry through humour or fun—instead, we see them nearly solely struggling with guilt. Given the temporal context,

this makes sense, but it also makes

it harder to feel anything for these two women as they never quite read as nuanced, real people.

A promising first third leads way to a disappointing middle act and climax. Carol is simultaneously on-the-nose (an early dinner scene between the two women seems like a parody of subtext) and subtle to the point of catatonia. Moments that should feel flirty, sexy, and moving read like a checklist: it’s all stage play and no grit. The costumes are stunning and the women are breathtaking, but there is little character study and plot progression. The one sex scene, a welcome reprieve from the dull flirtations throughout, comes too little too late.

The best moments in Carol unfortunately don’t stem from the main conflict, but from the subplot between Carol and her husband. Two powerful scenes—when her husband believes, rightfully, that Carol is being unfaithful, and a moving child custody scene near the

end—are memorable and

hard-hitting. Thankfully, these moments are strong enough to help keep audience attention. Unfortunately, the usually- fantastic Rooney Mara delivers a

Marvel's funniest anti-hero

> ‘Deadpool’ film review

Lauren Paulsen Senior Columnist

OOOO

think Deadpool is my new favourite Marvel movie. I knew going into the movie I would enjoy it, having seen the trailers, but I didn’t know that I would enjoy it this much. I honestly knew very little about Deadpool outside of what the trailers had shown. I’d heard his name before, but he wasn’t a Marvel character I was familiar with, so I went into the movie fairly blind. Now I can’t wait to see more of him. Deadpool’s humour is its greatest selling point. | haven't been to many movies that elicited so much laughter from the audience. Just the opening credits set the tone, and Deadpool’s breaking of the fourth wall only added to it. Even his incessant pop-culture references never seemed out of place. A memorable one for me was a shot of Time with Deadpool portrayer Ryan Reynolds on

the cover as sexiest man alive, contrasting his horribly scarred appearance as Deadpool.

Reynolds did an amazing job of portraying Deadpool’s character. His sarcastic, macabre, and dirty humour was a riot. | thought the jokes might get old partway through the movie, but they managed to stay fresh for the duration of the film. The makeup crew also did an amazing job of making Reynolds look ugly—who knew that was even possible? I also really enjoyed the fight scenes. They were choreographed quite well.

The movie never takes itself seriously, and that works. There are many times when Deadpool pokes fun at his own film’s lack of budget, such as explaining why there were only two X-Men in the movie. Some of the CGI wasn't all that great, but that might have been another meta-joke.

Compared to other Marvel films, I really liked the movie's unconventional content. It definitely has an “R” rating for a reason. It’s probably the most violent, gory, profanity-

laced superhero movie I have ever seen. But let’s not forget, Deadpool isn’t really a hero. He says so himself many times.

wooden performance. Her skills are underutilized, ostensibly by no fault of her own. The great Cate Blanchett and the even better Kyle Chandler do their best to save Phyllis Nagy’s flimsy

If you like comic books and crude humor, I recommend you go see Deadpool. Just make

sure that you know what you are

Image via www.telegraph.co.u

script, but with poor character development and little chemistry between the two leads, this is an almost impossible task. Gorgeous but largely vacuous, Carol

never lives up to its potential.

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getting into. I will never look at avocados the same way again.