Movie Review: Eden (2024)

Genre: Historical Drama  

Director: Ron Howard  

Starring: Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Daniel Brühl, Sydney Sweeney, Vanessa Kirby  

Running Time: 130 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1921, Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and his partner Dore (Vanessa Kirby) escape an increasingly Fascist Europe and settle on the uninhabited island of Floreana in the Galápagos Islands. Ritter wants to write a manifesto for a better world, while Dore hopes the climate will improve her health. Their solitude is disrupted by the arrival of fellow German couple Margret and Heinz Wittmer (Sydney Sweeney and Daniel Brühl) and their sick son. They are determined to start a new life, and Margret is soon pregnant. Tension escalates with the arrival of self-proclaimed Baroness Eloise (Ana de Armas) and her small entourage. She is a hypersexual manipulative narcissist, and plans to open a luxury hotel on the island.

What Works Well: Based on astonishing actual events, this drama is a condemnation of the base human condition. In an environment combining unspoiled paradise with harsh reality, it only takes a society of five people to bring out conflict, crime, self-interest, deception, and back-stabbing. Ron Howard directs with understated watchfulness, allowing rustic beauty to house an experiment of emotional disintegration. Only small acts of kindness break through the gloom, and then only begrudgingly, momentarily, and often for convenience. The central performances are grounded in gritty survivalism, Jude Law clacking a typewriter into madness, Sydney Sweeney uncovering animal instincts during a birth scene for the ages, and Ana de Armas excelling as the Baroness of wickedness.

What Does Not Work As Well: A slight trim to the running time would have improved the pacing.

Key Quote:

Baroness: Margret! You must tell us all about the birth. Was it fun?

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Movie Review: The Voyeurs (2021)

Genre: Erotic Suspense  

Director: Michael Mohan  

Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Justice Smith, Ben Hardy  

Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: In Montreal, optometrist Pippa (Sydney Sweeney) and her partner Thomas (Justice Smith) move into their first apartment together. They soon notice that they can see clear into the unit of their across-the-courtyard neighbours Seb and Julia (Ben Hardy and Natasha Liu Bordizzo). Seb is a fashion photographer, Julia is a former model, and their active sex life is at first a thrill for Pippa and Thomas. But then they notice Seb regularly cheating on Julia, and Pippa suddenly faces a dilemma when a chance encounter with Julia results in a budding friendship.

What Works Well: Writer and director Michael Mohan uses Rear Window and Body Double as starting points to craft a clever and sexy suspense drama. The thrill and guilt of voyeurism, the limits of what the eye can see, and the eroding definition of privacy underpin the adventure of Pippa and Thomas, as their relationship is consumed by their neighbours' dramas. Pippa dives deeper, Thomas pulls back, and then curiosity takes a dark turn, setting the stage for a series of intensifying jolts. Sydney Sweeney places Pippa at the intersection of noisiness, arousal, and conflict, and that's all before she confronts the reality of what she's seeing.

What Does Not Work As Well: While still carrying Machiavellian impact, the final twist is potentially one curve too many. 

Key Quote:

Thomas: Of all the eye clinics in the world...

Pippa: ...she walks into mine.

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Movie Review: Immaculate (2024)

Genre: Horror  

Director: Michael Mohan  

Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Alvaro Morte  

Running Time: 89 minutes  

Synopsis: In a prologue, a nun attempts to escape a convent in Italy, but is thwarted. In the main story, Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) relocates from Detroit to Italy and joins a convent managed by Father Tedeschi (Alvaro Morte), where dying elderly nuns are cared for in their final days. Although some of the other nuns are unwelcoming, Cecilia befriends Sister Gwen and integrates within the strict environment. After experiencing disturbing dreams and some frightening nighttime experiences, Cecilia feels sick, and receives shocking news.

What Works Well: The forgotten-by-time setting of an isolated and candlelit convent (built on catacombs) creates an effective setting for a story of domination, experimentation, and evil hiding behind charity. The strong undercurrent of men using religion to control women's bodies features impactful jump scares, and Sydney Sweeney rides a range of emotions from the excitement of a newcomer to outright survival horror, her performance building to a phenomenal climax. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Plenty of time is consumed by Cecilia wandering the hallways in the dark, responding to things that go bump in the night. Other characters deserved more time to explain their motivations, methods, or predicaments.

Key Quote:

Sister Cecilia: Wait, so you don't even believe in God?

Sister Gwen: Of course I do. Life is so cruel. Only a man can be responsible.

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Movie Review: Anyone But You (2023)

Genre: Romantic Comedy  

Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Dermot Mulroney, Bryan Brown, Alexandra Shipp  

Director: Will Gluck  

Running Time: 103 minutes  

Synopsis: In Boston, law student Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and investment banker Ben (Glen Powell) enjoy an idyllic meet cute and a great first date, but misunderstandings quickly transform their burgeoning romance into mutual antagonism. Months later they meet again at the Sydney destination wedding of Bea's sister Halle (Hadley Robinson). Bea and Ben set their differences aside and pretend to be a couple to avoid ruining the event, although both their ex-lovers are also invited.

What Works Well: The Sydney locations are scenic, Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell are a photogenic couple (and frequently under-dress to impress), and a few of the jokes work. A romantic rescue scene in Sydney harbour captures a warm spark.

What Does Not Work As Well: This is as generic as romantic comedies can get, with aggravatingly cliched supporting characters, overly-familiar simplistic complications, unnecessary vulgarity overreaching for edginess, all adults behaving with the immaturity of teenagers, and a nauseatingly saccharine soundtrack. Sydney Sweeney's monotonal performance reeks of awkward disinterest.

Conclusion: Anyone but these two.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Reality (2023)

Genre: Biographical Drama

Director: Tina Satter

Starring: Sydney Sweeney

Running Time: 82 minutes

Synopsis: The setting is Augusta, Georgia, in 2017. Reality Winner (Sydney Sweeney) is a multi-lingual government intelligence contractor and ex-US Air Force member. She arrives home to find FBI Agents Garrick (Josh Hamilton) and Taylor (Marchánt Davis) waiting with search warrants. Over the next several hours, they interrogate her at home to determine if she was the source of a classified intelligence document leak.

What Works Well: Director and co-writer Tina Satter adapts her own play into an effectively sparse, three-person, one-set drama. The script is entirely derived from the FBI's actual recorded transcript of Reality's interrogation, and therefore enjoys a peculiar mix of mundane and grave dialogue exchanges as Reality journeys from denial through selective omission to the truth. Sydney Sweeney is magnetic in the central role, conveying Reality's cautious stance when confronted by expert investigators, but more importantly the thoughts simultaneously spinning inside her head. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The reliance on the transcript as a narrative foundation imposes cinematic limitations. The contents and importance of the classified documents are held back for dramatic effect, and then downplayed once revealed, eroding understanding of core motivations.    

Conclusion: A low-key but still gripping battle of wits in an unfurnished room.



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The Movies Of Sydney Sweeney

All movies starring Sydney Sweeney and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood (2019)

The Voyeurs (2021)

Reality (2023)

Anyone But You (2023)

Immaculate (2024)

Eden (2024)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.