Glen Powell and the endlessly charming Zoey Deutch have great chemistry in a cute, funny but in the end fairly by-the-numbers romcom. Set it Up doesn't do anything particularly new or innovative, but it didn't need to.
It mainly works, it's comfortable, and it's a Netflix watch that you won't regret.
The deceptively marketed I Kill Giants has nothing in common with Harry Potter or the other recent YA movies that the trailer and poster try to evoke. Instead, it reflects on how a child deals with pain and with understanding that there are forces beyond his/her control.
At a reasonable running time and powered by a great performance by young Madison Wolfe, the movie flows quite nicely. It feels a bit heavy handed with the explaining of the methaphor behind its concept, the delivery of some pieces of exposition to the audience is a little clichéd and convenient, and the ending is a bit drawn out and again overexplanatory, but these may be necessary evils to get the point across to the younger viewers.
While I feel that a very similar topic was handled better and more maturely in J. A. Bayona's sensational A Monster Calls, I Kill Giants is still a constantly entertaining and at times moving watch.
There is a line between being purposefully subdued and straight-up boring, and unfortunately The Night Eats the World crosses it. It's a shame, because there are a few deeply beautiful moments, but they are drowned in a constantly unengaging story.
90 minutes feel like three hours.
An ambitious modern fairytale deeply grounded in reality, The Endless is a fascinating movie about, in the end, brotherhood, trust, responsibility and progress in life.
While their previous directorial effort, Spring, resonated more with me, this movie cements Benson and Moorhead as interesting and thoughtful filmmakers with big ideas.
The more I think about Terminal the more I hate it. The two main plot threads (Simon Pegg and the knockoff Guy Ritchie hitmen) are completely unrelated. The twists are never earned. You can see Mike Myers being the actual big bad from a mile away. The director has to think we're all idiots seeing how many times he has past scenes flashing through monologues to remind us of what happened. And when you think for even one second about the overall story it doesn't make any kind of sense, the hitmen have no reason at all to be in the movie, since apparently Margot Robbie knew everything from the beginning. And "she's crazy" can't be a justification for dumb screenwriting.
I lost all hope when the only remotely interesting part of the movie (the Pegg-Robbie conversation) was removed around the end of the second act.
Only redeeming qualities are some cool shots and lightning, and I really liked Myers, Pegg and Robbie, especially Robbie who was hamming it up the whole movie. She made this watchable.
Zoey Deutch tries to salvage with her charm a disastrous script, and she only half succeeds.
The movie is competently directed from a technical standpoint, but seemed to completely misread its tone or subject matter, becoming repulsive at times. It's a shame, because up until the confrontation with Will I had found Flower to be a decently funny movie, even if I found the characters really hard to like and their decision-making questionable, and the movie’s conceptual flaws – like its questionable treatment of heavy themes like teen suicide or pedophilia and its distinctly male interpretation of what female sexual empowerment looks like – were already clearly showing.
The whole third act is then a dumpster fire, between the kids somehow reaching Will before the cops even if the cops had been alerted of the event, the meaningless trip to the prison and Erica and Luke’s relationship, which never felt earned or believable.
Zoey Deutch will become a star, without a doubt. But she is far too likeable a performer for what this movie is going for, and most importantly, this movie doesn't deserve her.
Kodachrome is predictable, light and fun. As with many "trip" movies, the fact that you know exactly how it will end doesn't make the journey not worth taking. Sudeikis and Olsen are perfectly fine in this, but Ed Harris belongs in another league and here he shows why one more time with a masterful performance.
Although, again, telegraphed, the poignant moments hit at the right time, and the movie feels sweet and heartfelt.
It won't make anyone's Top 10 lists, but Kodachrome is well worth the film it was shot on. Even if unlike in the movie - thankfully - it won't be the last one.
I love A24 and campy horror comedy but yikes. This is just plain bad.
It's unfunny, cheap-looking and shoddily put together. Almost nothing in Slice works. Even Zazie Beetz looked bored. The only positive I can think about is the mercifully short runtime that makes this bearable.
Despite being far from his best outings, Last Flag Flying is very much a Richard Linklater movie, and it bears all the defining traits of the director, from the focus on character-driven dialogue to the expert juxtaposition between humor and drama. The character interaction and their history suck you in and the movie feels much shorter than it is, which is a great accomplishment for the film, especially with it being as dialogue heavy as it is.
Bryan Cranston obviously got the more fun role to play, but I found the standout to be, as he often is these days, Steve Carell. The man is doing some exceptional work and just this year we've seen him in two completely different roles - this and as Bobby Riggs in Battle of the Sexes - and he has absolutely owned both of them.
2018-01-01T00:00:00Z2018-12-31T23:59:59Z