1. Eddington - I like Ari Aster just fine, but I do think he's a bit overrated.
Beau is Afraid is his best film and I know that's a controversial take (
Beau >
Midsommar > Hereditary). I would probably rank this slightly below
Midsommar. It would have been a 4 star film if it were 30 minutes shorter (properly edit your films for the love of God!) and if it didn't go completely off-the-rails about 90 minutes in. I like what it attempts to do - and that is to show the radicalization of both sides of the political spectrum. But before I get into all of that, let's talk about this cast. Literally my first thought was "Jesus Christ, Pedro is in this too?!" It would be easier to list the films he hasn't been in over the past few years. I'm more excited by two of the best actors currently working - Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone - starring in a film together. It's too bad that Stone is completely wasted. She's given so little to do that I almost forgot she was even in this. I do like the casting of Dierdre O' Connell as her mother though (such a perfect mother/daughter match!). Joaquin is also a little weak in this - he seems confused by the character and by the end, I didn't buy him in this role at all. There's a lot of supporting actors who have very small roles (like Clifton Collins Jr.! I love him! and Austin Butler as the blandest cult leader ever). And back to the story - like I said, it's interesting to see this all play out, but I think it's very unfocused and tries to incorporate too many things. I'm pretty sure it's done on purpose to recreate the chaos of what 2020 felt like, but I think if the focus was *just* on Covid effects and how BLM protests spread across the country, it would have been more successful. The added cult subplot and the indigenous aspect feels disjointed. It's trying to comment on problems in America - but there are *too* many problems to fit into one story. I think the beginning is very strong though - showing how insane people became about masking. In the beginning of Covid, I had no problem masking because we had no idea what was happening. I would do anything to prevent someone from getting sick and possibly dying. But people took the masking thing to extreme lengths even after it's pretty reasonable to admit that it doesn't really work. I know so many maskers who got Covid multiple times and they still insisted (for years!) on making others feel bad for no longer masking. I think the solution was fairly easy - they should have kept the "social distancing" part for a longer period of time. And I think that essential services (grocery stores, medical buildings, banks, etc) should have adopted "masking times" each day where everyone had to wear a mask so that elderly people, immunocompromised people, and paranoid people could comfortably complete essential tasks. I do think that masks might work
better if everyone wears them, but you can't force everyone to wear a mask every time they leave the house. It's just not practical. And don't get me started at the maskers who wouldn't cover their nose, or the ones who would take their mask off to eat in public (does Covid know not to infect you because you're eating??). It doesn't make a bit of sense. I also like how they show the BLM protests taking shape in small towns because it became such a media produced protest - people needed to show how "involved" they were by taking selfies at the protests and posting black boxes on their Instagram and it honestly became very sickening. Anyway, I'm on a bit of a tangent, but my point is that the evolution of someone's whole personality can be traced back to 2020 - and I think this is shown very well with a few of the characters here. It just takes everything a bit too far and becomes extremely unrealistic by the end with the whole murder and framing people for murder, etc. It's a shame. Still a solid movie, though. And will end up in my Top 10 because it's already December and I've only seen two 4 star movies (
Sinners and
Thunderbolts*).
2. Nobody 2 - I enjoyed the first one - there were some great fight sequences and Bob Odenkirk is always fantastic. I didn't really remember the details though (like I forgot if his family knew who he was?? It seems like they do in this one, but they don't outwardly discuss it until the end). I also didn't remember the amazing supporting cast of Christopher Lloyd and RZA - what a fantastic combination (lol). The villains in this, though, are super ridiculous. Sharon Stone goes all out and not in a good way. And Colin Hanks? He's too much a babyface to be a scary villain! It's just weird casting. But the movie is entertaining, and once again, there are some really fun fight sequences. The ending is a bit
Home Alone at a water theme park, but it's fun to see all the booby traps. I also enjoy the music choices - the cover of "Ring of Fire" is excellent and then the needle drop of Celine Dion's "Power of Love" during a key action scene is perfect. I laughed so hard. But, there's also not much else to say about it. It's basically the same movie as the first one.
3. Freakier Friday - I mean, I didn't expect this to be good but I thought it would be cute and light and funny. And not on my worst of the year list. But I was wrong. The only good thing I have to say about this is that I'm so happy that Lindsey Lohan looks so beautiful and healthy - I hope she continues to thrive. As you might have guessed, I have no recollection of the first one, but I assume that it was cute and light and funny. I was 22 when it came out, so I think I had aged out of the intended audience, but I remember liking it. I think my personal biggest problem with this one is that I can't stand Jamie Lee Curtis lately. I used to love her, but she's been over-acting her ass off lately. Her scenes in
The Bear are really pushing me over the edge. She's AWFUL in this - watching her try to be funny as a teenager trapped in a older woman's body is PAIN. I also think having all 4 of them switch bodies is very confusing - Lindsey switches with her daughter and then JLC switches with her soon to be step-granddaughter?? It's so stupid! And then they have Manny Jacinto (you know, HOT Manny Jacinto) with the worst British accent ever put to film! And Mark Harmon looks like he's in his 70s!!! HE IS IN HIS 70s?! What a slap in the face. I know he's been on those
NCIS shows for the past 20 years, but I still know him as Shoop from
Summer School. Anyway, this all feels like a pointless exercise and I really want more for Julia Butters. It's almost two hours of the 4 of them yelling at each other and "let's change clothes" scenes. My 2 stars feels generous. And why do people keep wasting Sherry Cola??? She's so funny! Give her more to do, people!
4. 28 Years Later - I knew that I had to watch both
28 Days Later and
28 Weeks Later before watching this because I have the WORST memory. I remember Cillian Murphy in a star-making performance and obviously that it's about zombies, but other than that - nothing. But I loved the rewatch. And then I actually don't think I've ever seen the sequel because I don't remember that cast at all (Jeremy Renner??? Idris Elba? ROSE BYRNE?!) and I actually assumed that it was bad - but I ended up thinking it was *just* as good as the first one. It feels like a completely different thing (makes sense with different writer/director), but still a strong story and some intense scenes (the helicopter scene!). It made me really look forward to this next chapter. I liked it a lot, but slightly less than both its predecessors. It starts off really great - with some stunning scenes. The whole bridge scene with them running from the alpha is incredible. But then it gets kind of old really quick. This kid takes his mom into a zombie infested area because there *might* be a doctor, but that doesn't seem like a logical thing to do. And Jodie Comer is completely wasted - she's barely conscious for half the movie. I'm not really the biggest Aaron Taylor-Johnson fan, but I do think he's best in roles like this (compared to action movies - please God do not make him Bond). But the star of the movie is Alfie Williams - he's an incredible newcomer who has a gigantic career ahead of him. But my other problem with this film is that I knew Jack O'Connell was in this, and Alfie has a resemblance - so I ASSUMED that there would be a time jump and O'Connell was an older Spike. So I kept WAITING for that to happen (as good as Alfie is, I'm a HUGE O'Connell fan) and *spoiler* it doesn't. Instead, O'Connell is only in the last few minutes (setting up for
The Bone Temple), which is
very disappointing. And his character is absolutely ridiculous. Anyway, there are a few good scenes along the way - the doctor scenes with Ralph Fiennes are great - it allows the story to settle and allows the characters to accept death in a really beautiful way. Overall, I did like this - I was just hoping for something a little stronger. And I thought I was watching a film starring Jodie Comer and Jack O'Connell and that's not the case at all.
5. The Bad Guys 2 - I just realized that 4 out of 5 of these films are sequels (or trilogies), which is CRAZY. Not everything needs a sequel!! When people say "Hollywood is out of ideas" this is what they are referring to. This is definitely a movie that didn't need a sequel - it was a cute contained story about a group of criminals who turn good. The sequel would have to make them turn bad again, and that's stupid! They don't necessarily take that route - they aren't really bad, they are being framed - but it's still the same concept told over and over again. Aside from Awkwafina and Marc Maron (who still sounds like Danny DeVito in this), I love this voice cast - Sam Rockwell is so good! And I love the additions of Danielle Brooks and Natasha Lyonne. I'm still a bit "meh" on the movie though. It's cute and entertaining, but I will forget all about it in a few weeks. The plot is also really dumb with them literally stealing a space ship and using basically a magnet to steal all of the world's gold? What exactly is the plan after that? Who is going to buy all the gold that you stole? And then when the "bad guys" save the day, how is all that gold redistributed? LOL. I know I'm overthinking it, but it's just *so* stupid.
