Nutshell movie reviews: Fantastic Mr Fox and Sherlock Holmes
Fantastic Mr Fox is great kiddie fare. It's the sort of thing children love to watch over and over and over on DVD. Despite certain reviews, however, there is pretty much nothing in it for adults.
Sherlock Holmes was notable for two things. Firstly, counter to all the advertising material, the character of Irene Adams is actually played not as obligatory love-interest, but as an ass-kicking, bomb-defusing, highly intelligent and capable person whose relationship with Holmes falls into "it's complicated" territory. They play some lovely cat-and-mouse games with each other.
Secondly, the dialogue must have been deliberately fine-tuned for slashiness and the amount of seminaked Downey Jr that can be crammed into the plot.
Holmes is presented almost as a high-functioning autistic, or at least prone to easily falling into hyperfocus and forgetting things like hygiene and social convention. Watson is the very capable ex-military doctor here; the two are presented as equal experts in their own areas rather than the more lopsided relationship lighter interpretations tend to take.
Reviews aside, there's an interesting moment where Holmes has arrived early at a restaurant for dinner with Watson and Watson's fiancee, and the details and noise of the scene build up and up until he's snapped out of it by Watson's arrival. Classic hyperfocus/introversion moment. He moves through the world, observing every aspect of it, but not living in it himself.
Sherlock Holmes was notable for two things. Firstly, counter to all the advertising material, the character of Irene Adams is actually played not as obligatory love-interest, but as an ass-kicking, bomb-defusing, highly intelligent and capable person whose relationship with Holmes falls into "it's complicated" territory. They play some lovely cat-and-mouse games with each other.
Secondly, the dialogue must have been deliberately fine-tuned for slashiness and the amount of seminaked Downey Jr that can be crammed into the plot.
Holmes is presented almost as a high-functioning autistic, or at least prone to easily falling into hyperfocus and forgetting things like hygiene and social convention. Watson is the very capable ex-military doctor here; the two are presented as equal experts in their own areas rather than the more lopsided relationship lighter interpretations tend to take.
Reviews aside, there's an interesting moment where Holmes has arrived early at a restaurant for dinner with Watson and Watson's fiancee, and the details and noise of the scene build up and up until he's snapped out of it by Watson's arrival. Classic hyperfocus/introversion moment. He moves through the world, observing every aspect of it, but not living in it himself.