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I Am Sam

I can't speak to the negative (or positive) aspects of the representation in this movie, so I'm just going to ignore that whole conversation. All I can do is comment on how it landed with me, someone who doesn't have any skin in the game and was just watching it as a movie. Overall, I thought Sean Penn's performance was compelling and the central relationship between Sam and Lucy landed enough emotional beats to carry the film. The story understandably dodges any real conversation surrounding Lucy's conception or some of the practicalities of how Sam raised Lucy for the first 7 years, but they glossed over it efficiently enough that it doesn't really detract. What does detract is Michelle Pfeiffer's character, which often feels superficial and melodramatic, especially toward the end.

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Mad Max: Fury Road

After watching both Dune's back to back, I had an itching for more epic, desert based cinematography and decided to revisit George Miller's masterpiece. This also makes for an interesting comparison. While I enjoyed my 5+ hour visit to Arrakis, I think this is the stronger movie. The amount of world building it accomplishes in just 2 hours is incredible. Combine that with an elegantly simple story, strong central performances, and jaw dropping action sequences, and you've got a winner. After almost a decade, the action set pieces remain unmatched, and it's honestly not close. Comparing the practical heavy stunt work to the CGI messes that are so common now is night and day.

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Poor Things

I can understand why critics are loving this movie, but I am a bit surprised that its audience scores are almost equally high. I guess it's more digestible than some of Lanthimos other films, but it still feels more arthouse than your typical best picture nominee. But maybe I'm just underselling the appeal of watching Emma Stone's explicit adventure of uninhibited sexual discovery. But, while that element of the movie certainly appeals to some of my baser instincts, I was never fully on board with the rest of it. It just feels like some of the decisions are trying to inject weird for weirdness sake, rather than tying it to any sort of character/story motivation. It's that feeling of an online video that is trying too hard to go viral. In terms of pacing, the final act (or at least everything from the interrupted wedding onward) felt rushed. Now, with all of that said, I still enjoyed the movie. There were lots of interesting characters and ideas being explored and, despite feeling intentional/manufactured, some of the quirky humor still lands.

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Dune
Dune: Part Two

Spectacle is undoubtedly the focus, and in that respect the movie generally delivers. The one exception might be the worm riding, which is something that seems cooler in theory than it looks in practice. The set-up for it is cool, but once they actual get on the worm it just looks goofy (especially when they show it from a distance). But like I said, that's the exception - there's plenty of fantastic production design, visuals, and audio throughout. So what about character and story? This was a mixed bag for me. I think there are some ideas that worked well (Emperor/Princess interplay, Bene Gesserit intrigue, Feyd-Rautha set-up), but Paul's central conflict of accepting or rejecting the prophecy felt repetitive and ultimately fell flat. Now, I do think the ending salvages the arc and makes it work as best it could, but the path to get there was less than compelling. All in all, I think Villeneuve's two-part adaptation is worthy of praise for its ambition and technical brilliance, but I don't think these will be movies I feel the need to re-watch with any regularity.

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The Zone of Interest

The biggest strength of this film is the extreme contrast between the story of the Höss family and the story taking place on the other side of the wall. The former gets most of the attention, with the movie playing out like a slice-of-life family drama. But the latter, which exists only in the background, unspoken and off screen for most of the film, is what packs the punch. The writers leverage the knowledge that most audiences already have - we all know what was happening. And that's where the contrast is - watching a man help orchestrate one of humanity's darkest moments without any acknowledgement is disturbingly compelling. That said, this isn't my favorite kind of film, as it feels less focused on building a narrative arc and more focused on the thematic ideas. Just a little too arthouse for my tastes.

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Dune

Re-watched in preparation for part 2 next week. I wish I had been writing reviews back when this came out, because I'd like to compare my current thoughts to my initial reaction, but overall I suspect they didn't change much. This is a spectacle focused movie that rightfully prides itself on production design, cinematography, and audio. I have a distinct memory of my brother coming out of the theater and raving about the costumes and you know what - he's not wrong. But through all of the impressive visuals and thunderous soundtrack, the characters and story felt a little thinner than I would have hoped. Not bad, by any means. I think the performances themselves are excellent. But I just didn't find myself particularly attached. I think part of the problem is that the scope is so ambitious that even with a 2.5+ hour runtime, things have to move pretty quickly to get through it. There's also the problem of being a part 1, as the arc definitely feels incomplete and the ending is somewhat abrupt/unsatisfying. Luckily, that last problem will soon be solved - looking forward to part 2!

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Wonka

I didn't have high expectations for this movie. First, I'm not the biggest fan of musicals. And second, I hadn't yet been sold on Timothée Chalamet. Now, the first issue remained an issue for me, as the music here wasn't catchy enough to win me over. But on the second issue, I was happily surprised by Chalamet's goofy/optimistic performance. He's fun and wholesome and carries the film. There's a solid ensemble with plenty of humor that lands throughout. I'd also generally compliment the writing. The whole opening sequence, even when wrapped in a song that I didn't love, was an impressively efficient and clever way to introduce the character, the world, and the conflict.

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The Iron Claw

Having unexpectedly enjoyed the TV show Heels, I was looking forward to another dramatic story in professional wrestling and was not disappointed. The relationship between the brothers is the highlight here, with nuanced writing that reveals complexities and contradictions. The wholesome moments are disarmingly heartwarming, which makes the gut punch moments land so much harder. The performances are excellent across the board. The production and technical filmmaking deliver memorable shots throughout. My only minor complaint is the pacing in the final act, as things moved rather quickly, with the final scene feeling a bit too on-the-nose/cheesy.

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The Marvels
Flora and Son

John Carney has carved himself quite an interesting Dublin-based, musical niche. The advice of "write what you know" can be controversial, but here is an example of someone who seems to have leaned into it and the results are consistently excellent. Flora is not the type of protagonist we see very often, with flaws prominently on display, but the writing and performance was nuanced enough to win me over. Not just to sympathize with her situation, but to cheer for her. The relationships are interesting, the dialogue feels real, and the story comes together in an unexpected way. The one thing holding the movie back for me was some pacing problems, as I felt like things were rushed in the back half. At only 97 minutes, it seems like there was room to let things breathe a bit more.

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American Fiction

Went into this one blind and perhaps the most interesting aspect of it was how the central premise felt more like a B plot. It'd be interesting to look into relative screen time, but I suspect family/relationship drama comprises as much, if not more, than the pseudonym author plot. Luckily, the writing and performances are strong enough to make both plotlines compelling. I will say that the meta ending felt a bit like a copout, but even there the execution (and a hilarious performance by Adam Brody) makes it work. I don't know if Jeffery Wright's performance will be enough to land him the Oscar, but at the very least I hope it lands him more leading roles, because he deserves them.

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Halo: 2x03 Visegrad

More negativity in the comments, so once again I'm going to inject my more positive take. I'm not saying this was a perfect episode. Yes, I was disappointed that the opening didn't end with an action sequence, but the build up/tension was well done, and the way it played out adds more weight to the ONI intrigue/drama. At the end of the day, this is an episode to balance the budget. A cheap talk-y episode so they can save money for extended action sequences in other episodes. I think they are doing a respectable job with both the writing and performances to make even these cheap episodes compelling. Ackerson has definitely been the stand out for me. The actor is killing the role and the development/back story reveal in this episode was excellent. The scene between him and Halsey was fantastic.

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Halo: 2x01 Sanctuary

After reading some of the negative perspectives, I thought I'd chime in with a more positive take. Overall, I thought this episode was a significant improvement over most of the first season, and the primary reason was writing. The dialogue has a more natural flow and finds ways to inject tension/conflict even in the non-action scenes. To my eyes, the opening action sequence was at least as good (and I'd argue better) than most of the action from the first season. Some of it is a production design shift, with things feeling a bit more gritty. As for the non-action scenes, budget constraints require the writers to build story around human drama, finding B plots that don't require extravagant CGI. I'm sure this is the basis for many of the complaints, but I'm actually impressed with much of what they've come up with so far (e.g., Ackerson tension, spartan team feuding, visiting knockoff Cortana) and am hopeful that they can keep it up.

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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

A big step down from to the first film, which was already not great. Superficial writing, bland action, questionable CGI, and less than compelling acting from most everyone involved. I'll give Patrick Wilson credit for being the only somewhat okay part of the movie. With the material he's working with, somewhat okay is actually pretty impressive.

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Mean Girls

With the release of Mean Girls The Musical, it came to my sisters' attention that I had never seen the original and they felt the need to correct that oversight. I'm glad they did. This movie is genuinely clever and hilarious. Tina Fey knocks it out of the park on the writing and the performances from the entire ensemble really sell it. Turns out there's a reason this is so heavily quoted.

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Anyone But You

When the most enjoyable part of a movie is the end credits, you know you've got a problem. Very disappointed with this one and honestly confused how it's getting so much positive attention and doing well at the box office. The writing felt like Hallmark/Lifetime took a stab at R-rated. I know "chemistry" is subjective, but I didn't feel chemistry between any of these characters. And I don't know if the writing is to blame, but Sydney Sweeney wasn't really working for me at all. I've been a fan of Glen Powell since the excellent Everybody Wants Some (an R-Rated rom-com that is actually good, go watch that instead), so I was very much expecting to enjoy this, but even he wasn't able to save it.

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Ted 2

A definite step down from the first, as the novelty has worn off and a lot of the humor falls flat. Specifically, the humor feels more forced and sketch based, often having no intersection with the story (e.g., Liam Neeson cameo, throwing fruit at joggers). On top of that, it seems to lean more on over the top set pieces and slapstick versus clever dialogue. That said, there are still successful bits sprinkled throughout (e.g., Monopoly exchange, improv suggestions). The final act felt rushed and Donny's return as the central villain was superficial and didn't go anywhere interesting. Despite all that, Wahlberg and MacFarlane are still enough to keep it watchable.

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Ted

After hearing good things about the new prequel TV series, I decided to go back and watch the movies in preparation. I saw the original back when it came out and never got around to the sequel (I think because I heard it wasn't that great). The clever premise does most of the heavy lifting, with plenty of humor to be extracted by the reliable work of Wahlberg and MacFarlane. That said, I was surprised at how dated some of the humor feels. Even in 2012 a lot of these jokes probably would have caused discomfort for certain audience members. I suspect the offensive humor was largely intentional, but that's a dangerous game to play and a decade later things that were once riding the line now feel well beyond it. In the end, I definitely don't think the movie lives up to the 8/10 score that I gave it originally. Probably would give it a 6 today, but I'll average the two for a 7.

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Self Reliance

Enjoyable enough with some surprisingly deep messaging for a movie this goofy. Jake Johnson's comedic chops are always dependable and he proves to be capable enough behind the camera too. I'd say my biggest gripe was the balancing act of "is it real or is it in his head". Just feels like the movie plays a bit too fast and loose on that issue. It was certainly intentional, but the ridiculousness of certain elements took me out of it a bit (e.g., production ninjas). Still, with its fun premise, plentiful humor, and admirably brisk 89 minute length, I think this one is worth the watch.

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Saltburn

Fantastic performances, interesting character dynamics, and a technically impressive production are all let down by an unsatisfying ending that felt unearned, infeasible, rushed, and vaguely derivative. It's not enough to sink the experience completely, but I certainly wish they had taken it in a different direction.

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The Bad Guys

It's a little too slapstick-y and kid-leaning in its humor to secure a spot among top-tier animated films, but between the stellar cast (Sam Rockwell in particular), the ever reliable heist genre, and the surprisingly solid animation, this was still a very good time that shouldn't have any problem winning over its target audience.

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Silver Linings Playbook

This was a rewatch after only seeing it once 10+ years ago. Initially I was surprised I only gave it a 7, as I was really enjoying the opening act, but then it started to lose me a bit in the back half, with the final conflict feeling too manufactured and over the top. That said, the performances were still excellent and there was plenty of solid humor, so overall still a good time.

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Godzilla Minus One
Leo
Maestro
The Boy and the Heron
4

Shout by SkinnyFilmBuff
VIP
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BlockedParent2023-12-22T20:05:34Z— updated 2024-02-20T17:39:38Z

Even though I've only seen two Miyazaki films before this (Nausicaä and The Wind Rises), I still felt like a I had a pretty good idea of what to expect and thought I would enjoy this one. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Way too abstract for my tastes. Didn't feel like a cohesive story and I didn't connect to any of the characters. You can have the cutest, most impressive animation in the world, but if the story and characters aren't working, it just feels empty. Once we enter the tower, all semblance of relatable story-telling is jettisoned and instead we get a random collection of "wouldn't it be cool if..." visual ideas in service of vague thematic elements. Clearly I'm in the minority here, but this one was just not for me.

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The Holdovers
Waitress: The Musical
Rocky Balboa

Better than most of the sequels, but still not great. It seems like Rocky has been flirting with retirement since 1976, so the overall arc certainly feels familiar, but the time jump gives us a new context that adds emotional weight. Adrian's passing is obviously the biggest change, and the opening act uses this to good effect. The exchange between Rocky and Paulie at the demolished ice skating rink was a highlight. Everything with Rocky's estranged son is less effective and the actual boxing storyline is just more of the same.

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