I thought I'd slow down, but no! The upcoming Oscars have lured me into a frenzy of 2015 release binging, and there's no end in sight. Help me! I have a midterm soon. Anyway, here are 13 more movies from me that range everywhere from "Oscar nominated" to "oh, wow, really?"
The Skeleton Twins
The month began with something old, dated, and culturally irrelevant - a 2014 film! This one has Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader playing depressed fraternal twins. I tuned in for the prospect of witty banter and quirky jokes, but mostly I found sadness. I think I can bets sum this one up by saying that it contains three separate suicide attempts, played completely straight. The best and only truly "memorable" scene was an over-the-top lip-sync rendition of Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," but that probably has as much to do with that being an awesome song as it does with the scene itself. Skip this.
Spotlight
Marissa, Keith, Danielle, and I all made a podcast where we discussed the Oscar Best Picture nominees in detail. Check it out at gametimebro.com if you want to hear about Spotlight. Here's a quick overview of my own perspective: I liked the movie just fine but could have used more tone, flavor, what have you. This was a well-made and seemingly accurate portrayal of the Boston Globe investigation that uncovered the Catholic Church molestation crisis. No individual performance stood out to me - and I'm surprised this garnered two nominations for supporting acting - but the ensemble was great as a whole. See this.
Brooklyn
Once again, go to gametimebro.com for an extended take from multiple people. There's not much to this one, really. It's the story of a young Irish girl emigrating alone to Brooklyn in the 1950s. Saoirse Ronan (that's "SUR-shuh") was just great here. Quiet and awkward and homesick as hell at first, and eventually embracing her new home and the people in it. It's a love story, mainly, but also a little bit of a fish-out-of-water story and just slightly a coming-of-age story. Not much "happens," really, but at an hour-forty in length, who cares? This probably isn't for everyone - Trev was pretty bored, apparently - but, see this.
Steve Jobs
The easiest comparison to make here is to The Social Network - another Aaron Sorkin-penned movie about a technological visionary who changed the world and ruffled plenty of feathers along the way. There's an interesting set up here, as the movie takes place on three different days across fifteen years, all at different product launch demonstrations. First comes the original Macintosh, then the NeXT Computer, and finally the iMac. The tumultuous friendship between Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen, surprisingly well-casted) is explored in depth, as is the relationship between Jobs and his alleged daughter. What's weird is how we just had a Steve Jobs movie with Ashton Kutcher in the title role, and it got panned to hell. Did this movie enter development immediately afterward? Did that movie race to beat this one to theaters and suck accordingly? Whatever. This was fun enough, especially with all that Sorkin dialogue, and Michael Fassbender was great. Kate Winslet and Jeff Daniels were also good. I'm actually kind of surprised this didn't get a Best Picture nomination - it's got the big name writer, a sound cast, it's kind of a biopic and the Oscars love biopics - but, oh well! See this.
Fifty Shades of Grey
My favorite film of 2015 was probably The Duke of Burgundy. Search for it and you'll find it in one of my movie dumps last year. It's a movie about the relationship between two middle-aged women who study butterflies for a living. It's certainly not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I was captivated the entire time - fascinated, enthralled, enchanted by the overall beauty in every shot. I bring this up because The Duke of Burgundy featured plenty of BDSM elements, and so did Fifty Shades of Grey, which just may have been my least favorite film of 2015. This movie has all the makings of an all time dud. Not only do the two leads have no on-screen chemistry, but in real life they actively hate each other. (Good thing there are two sequels coming!) Dakota Johnson's character is supposed to be a typical everywoman, which is fine, but then the movie never bothers exploring or even addressing what it is about her that draws the attention of Grey, the 27-year-old self-made multi-billionaire. (Wait, what? Yes - a man born in the late '80s, who would have ostensibly been eighteen or so when the world economy collapsed in 2007, has "hard worked" his way to multiple billions of dollars since then. His line of work, in general, is never explained.) I know this is lifestyle fantasy porn, and I know I'm not its target audience, but there's just such naked contempt here for delivering what could be classified as a "romantic movie." It's more awkward than funny, but not intentionally or in an endearing way, so it's tough to call this a comedy. But it's no tragedy whatsoever, and there aren't any dramatic stakes to speak of. Can I spoil the ending for you? The movie ends with Dakota Johnson breaking up with Grey after a big fight. Resolution! Marissa has assured me that the book ends that way too - fine, but that just means the book sucks, too. Skip this.
Magic Mike XXL
Maybe it's because I had literally just finished watching Fifty Shades of Grey (yes - it was quite a night) but you know what? I kind of dug this. I never saw the first one, but there's barely a plot here, so it doesn't really matter. This is, of all things, a road trip movie. A crew of male stripper dancers is on its way to some kind of big stripping and dancing convention and occasionally standard road trip movie hijinks ensue. Marissa loves the Step Up movies, so I've seen a few of those, and if you take them at face value - laugh at the acting and writing, but appreciate some of the big dance competition scenes - they're not terrible. Magic Mike XXL felt like a smarter, better, self-aware Step Up movie. This wasn't something I loved, but it was something I was at least able to enjoy. If - IF - you think you'd be able to do enjoy it too, then, sure - see this.
The Human Centipede 3
I was bracing for the absolute worst here. I was underwhelmed by the first Human Centipede movie and then equally bored and disgusted by the second one. And this one has been called, repeatedly and by many people, the very worst movie of 2015. But, for whatever reason, I have to admit - I liked this! It was so, so absurd and over the top, and it knew that, and embraced it. This was far-and-away the most insane the franchise has gotten. It takes place in a prison, and, well, the cover says it all - the movie culminates with every inmate being sewn together ass-to-mouth in a hundred-person long human centipede - except for the death row inmates, who've had their arms and legs amputated so that they can form a human caterpillar instead. I still think the trilogy missed the boat by not going full circle - yes, I'm talking about a human ouroboros here. Come on! But yeah, this movie is so far gone that the centipede itself is kind of an old hat afterthought. The bulk of the movie is spent watching the batshit insane warden go around threatening and torturing prisoners and beating and raping his completely devoted assistant - played by porn star Bree Olsen. It's so loaded with offensive scenes and moments and ideas - at one point the warden imports a jar of "dried African clitorises" to consume for strength, just because, sure, let's lump female castration into the horrifying mess that is The Human Centipede 3. I should have have been appalled and disgusted by this movie, but then, I probably never should have watched the first one at all. Tom Six was able to overpower any sense of taste and decency I had through his sheer volume of absurd vulgarity. Is that commendable? Probably not - but this is the movie I was looking for when I started this dumb little series a few weeks ago. If I sound high on this movie, it's just because I had been prepped with such a low, low bar. It is in fact a terrible movie. A fun one, I thought, but your mileage may vary. I cannot, in good consciousness, recommend this movie to anybody - so skip this.
Chi-Raq
I struggle with Spike Lee's movies. There are some quirks and flourishes of his I just don't care for, but then I find myself wondering if I should allow myself to criticize a decidedly black-voiced director when I would have preferred something different. Are my issues colorblind and warranted, or when I disagree with such an accomplished movie-maker, am I just white-splaining? So, yeah. Chi-Raq left me right there, like so many other Spike Lee joints. I wanted to like it and appreciate it, but I didn't, and I really don't think it's because I "didn't get it" or anything. Who knows? This is a movie about all the gun violence in Chicago, and how there've been more murders in Chicago than U.S. deaths in Iraq since 2003, and how it's a serious issue. Borrowing from some Greek myth or play or something, Spike Lee explores what could happen if the black women in Chicago cut all their men off sexually until the gun violence stopped. It's an interesting idea - these men don't really care about dying, but living without sex? Uh oh. Soon enough a culture war breaks out along the gender lines as women ar elocking themselves into chastity belts and chanting, repeatedly, "no peace, no pussy." The whole movie rhymes, too, which gave it a very Dr. Seuss vibe. I'm not sure that helped, but at leas tit was... something notable? Look, I'm struggling here. This movie just didn't do it for me. I'm sorry! Skip this.
Focus
Fun, sexy, flirty - and no stakes whatsoever. This is Will Smith playing a charming and all-knowing con-man who falls for the seductive and irresistible Margot Robbie. Who's conning who? Because one of them is definitely conning the other one, right? There was a lot of disbelief to suspend here, but so what? These are the roles Will Smith excels at - bravado, wit, confidence - and having said that, I think Margot Robbie even one-ups him here. But for what? Nothing! This was enjoyable and entirely forgettable. You wouldn't regret seeing it at all, but you don't need to see it at all. Skip this.
The Ladykillers
I went ahead and saw a rare throwback from this month (2004!) because it's one of the Coen brothers least-beloved films and I had to find out why. I mean, Tom Hanks is in it, and so are J. K. Simmons and Marlon Wayans! It's a remake of a classic British movie from the '50s about a group of men trying to pull of a heist from their unsuspecting, kindly, and church-going landlady's basement. The heist falls apart - that's not a spoiler, that's just how these Coen brothers movies go - due to ineptitude and in-fighting, and until that final act there really wasn't a ton I enjoyed here. Tom Hanks as a Colonel Sanders-esque grifter was interesting, but it also was something I'm not sure one can entirely be prepared for. You know what was excellent about this one? The music. The Coen brothers sure know how to make a proper soundtrack. Coen fans, obviously, should see this if they haven't already, but everyone else? Eh, you can skip this.
Bone Tomahawk
Loved this. One sort-of recent trend I find myself falling for in independent movies is the horror-slash-some-other-genre mash up. Like, just last December, I saw Spring, and it was a blend of Richard Linklater and H. P. Lovecraft, and I found that utterly irresistible. This one - Bone Tomahawk - starts out as a Western and by the end is something entirely different. I actually took three nights to finish this one - not because it's long, and not because I was bored by it, but because I could feel myself starting to fall asleep and I didn't want to miss anything. Kurt Russell is here, and he's awesome - and what a year he's had! And Matthew Fox is here too - remember him? From Lost? And he's perfectly cast, too. And then there's Patrick Wilson, the endearingly bland and straight-laced cop from this last season of Fargo. Have I mentioned that I loved this? I loved the cast, I loved the tone, I loved how horrifyingly tense it grew, and I loved how much I hated this one particularly disturbing scene that puts any Game of Thrones violence to shame. See this!
Goodnight Mommy
Here's an Austrian horror movie that had plenty of acclaim. I didn't hate it, but most of its power seems to come from a twist ending that - and I rarely say this and mean this - was immediately apparent to me, like, ten minutes into the movie. The gist is that two twin brothers live with their single mother, who one day comes home from a cosmetic surgery procedure wrapped up in bandages. The boys quickly realize that she isn't their mother, but an imposter, and they make a few decisions in accordance with that discovery. It's actually a well-made movie - a bit slow maybe, but it's impeccably shot and it feels very realistic and it's creepy and tense without ever selling out for jump scares. But again, when the big twist is something you figured out so early on that you figured it had to be a bait-and-switch, well, the movie loses a lot of its power. If you're really looking for a movie about mothers and kids and scary shit, check out The Babadook, which explores a lot of the same ground as this one does, and without any subtitles, even. I liked this, so I feel bad saying it, but I feel like you can skip this.
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom
It's tough to compare documentaries against fictional movies. This one, nominated for an Oscar, is about the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine two years ago that left hundreds of people dead and forced the Ukrainian president out of office. It was full of haunting footage and stories, including a lot of people getting maimed or shot or losing their friends or children, and it's tough not to be moved by the patriotism, the tragedy, and the camaraderie. I'd say the whole ordeal played out like a real life Les Misérables, but that almost seems to trivialize it. All the same, this was a movie - and a good movie is one that makes you laugh, cry, think, or react in some way in general. And as a movie, I'm not sure Winter on Fire succeeds at telling a story. I feel like a dick even saying that - hundreds of people died, and not for the sake of a documentary, obviously - but it still makes me reconsider how good of a documentary this was. Does that make sense? This one's streaming on Netflix (they're the ones who made it) and even though it was more harrowing and awe-inspiring than entertaining or fun, you should see this.
That's 38 movies just 44 days into the year for me. Consider that I saw about thirty movies in late December and I've been burning through movies at a rate of one per day for more than two months now. I'm not proud of this! But it sucks outside and TV hasn't gotten good yet and the only other thing I've got going on is school. Gross, right?
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