With both my semester and the year in television wrapping up, I've been pouring on the movies as of late. I'll be brief with each of these. I can't afford not to be.
Circle (2015)
A super low-budget indie flick places fifty people in a room and has them kill each other one by one through a voting process. It's like the ultimate reality show, with alliances and betrayals and a diverse array of people. Only one person can make it out alive - so who's it going to be? Anyway, it's an interesting concept, but the movie struggles to say anything clever or interesting. Bad acting and flat writing ensure that this is no future cult classic.
Scream 2
This felt a lot like the first movie with a few bigger moments but much less of the novelty.
Scream 3
And this one just kind of felt long and boring and bad.
Inside Out
Another gem from Pixar. Personifying emotions works really well, but I can't help feeling like they left a whole lot on the table here. There were so many more aspects of the mental and emotional aspects of growing up that they could have explored! Then again, this is Pixar; they weren't going to go too deep for children to follow what was going on, and they were never going to make a movie much longer than an hour-forty-five.
Why Don't You Play in Hell?
Just awesome. This one's a Japanese import, so be warned that there are subtitles. Be warned also that the first hour-twenty or so feels needlessly long and convoluted. But know that the final half hour is one of the greatest action-comedy set pieces I've ever seen. People have likened it to Kill Bill: Volume 1 and they aren't wrong to do so. Oh yeah, the premise? A group of amateur filmmakers crosses paths with two warring yakuza factions, and at the center of it all is a charming girl from a toothpaste commercial.
Dark Places
This one's based off Gillian Flynn's second novel. The book was no Gone Girl, but it had its own set of strengths. Unfortunately the same can't be said of this movie, a generic-feeling murder mystery that miscasts some pretty big names. Skip it.
Tusk
It's great to see Kevin Smith trying new things again. This movie, in which a man is transformed into a walrus, was surreal without losing sight of how stupid the premise was. This made for a movie that was both creepy and fun, if little else. Well done.
Midnight in Paris
A man on vacation in Paris goes back in time to the age of the ex-pats and meets the likes of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He's thrilled to be in the city's "golden age" but his hosts don't seem to agree that this is Paris's golden age at all. To them, that's the 1800s. So the man journeys further backward - only to learn that to the people in 1800s Paris, the golden age was the Renaissance. The man then comes to the realization that nostalgia is a powerful thing, and that no matter when you live, you're likely to think of the past more fondly than your own present. It's a good moral, but the whole movie kind of feels like little more than an excuse to get there. A fun excuse, with lots of big actors playing historical figures, but an excuse all the same.
Listen Up Philip
I didn't like this one as much as I hoped to. It stars Jason Schwartzman as an insufferable self-centered writer (surprise!) and uses third-person narration to explore his downfall. I liked it just fine, but for something that showed up on a number of year-end best lists a year ago, it fell short.
God Help the Girl
I went into this one blind and it turned out to be, basically, an indie pop musical. I really liked it! Your mileage may vary.
Palo Alto
Here's another one that just didn't live up to its reputation. James Franco wrote it - or at least wrote the story it's based on - and also stars as a high school girls soccer coach. Will he end up giving into the weird sexual tension he shares with his own player, Emma Roberts? Find out!
Only God Forgives
This one got terrible reviews, but it's made by the same guy who made Drive and it also stars Ryan Gosling, so how could it be that bad? Well, I'm not sure, but it was, indeed, that bad. Just awful. Slow and confusing without any redeeming depth whereas Drive was exciting, clean, and clear. A disappointment, but not a surprise.
It's Such a Beautiful Day
This is an absurd animated movie about a guy who loses his mind and sinks into a depression of sorts. That description doesn't really do it justice - there's more to all this than that. Have you ever seen Don Hertzfeldt's work before? You probably have. If not, here's some required viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuOvqeABHvQ
Phoenix
This one's already landed on a bunch of year-end best lists. It's a German film set in the aftermath of World War II and it focuses on a woman who survived the Holocaust and underwent facial reconstructive surgery. The central conflict is whether or not the woman's husband was the one who betrayed her to the Nazis. It's a slow-mover and everything about it is understated and subtle. If that's your bag, then goddamn, this is amazing. What a movie, and what an ending. But if you're like me, you might appreciate something a little quicker, brighter, fierier, louder, more explosive, what have you. I respect this movie a lot, and I absolutely understand all the love; I just can't fully co-sign myself.
The Brothers Solomon
Dumb as all hell. Will Arnett, Will Forte, Kristen Wiig - and Bob Odenkirk as the director? I had to look into this one, universal negative reviews be damned. It wasn't horrible! I mean, objectively, yeah, it was, but there were still plenty of jokes and gags that I appreciated. If nothing else, this movie was worth seeing just for the opening credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnxUBkZRBe4
I'll be back! With Star Wars! And like a dozen other movies I'm sure.
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