Thoughts on 5 Films

1. First Reformed - I'm not sure I get it? I have no interest in watching it again, but I think there is supposed to be some sort of "message" that I just didn't get. And I mean something bigger than just a priest questioning his faith, which is the core of the film. Critics have hailed the film as "an epiphany", "spectacular", and "mesmerizing", so there has to be more to it. Aside from my high expectations, I enjoyed Hawke's performance, and the dialogue was really fantastic (my favorite line: "Wisdom is holding two contradictory truths in our mind simultaneously".), I even liked the weird and unexpected ending. Overall though, it's not a movie that I expect will stick with me and I am left disappointed in what could have been.

2. Rough Night - Ugh. I expected to hate this, and I did. For many, many, many reasons. I'm not sure where to begin - the paper-thin personalities each woman has, the fact that they laugh and have a grand old time after they accidentally kill someone, Scarlett Johansson's predictably terrible performance, the constant cliches- like how her best friend is jealous of her having another female friend, the idea the women in their 30s are still susceptible to peer pressure, or just the sheer stupidity of every single plot point. It's all terrible and pointless. It's clearly trying to be the next Bridesmaids (which had similar cliches, but it was done 100 times better), by trying to do the whole "women can do raunchy" thing, but it fails miserably. I didn't laugh once. NOT ONCE. Jillian Bell was great in 21 Jump Street, but she's not ready for such a big role. Actually, I think the cast was a big problem, they did not have the camaraderie that this group should have - and again, none of them were funny. But I bet if you replaced all of them with the cast of Bridesmaids, I would have laughed hysterically.

3. Battle of the Sexes - I admit, I don't really know much about Billie Jean King. I just know the name as a feminist icon, but I'm not really one to follow sports icons so I never really paid attention to how influential she was in the feminist movement of the 1970s. After watching this, I became incredibly intrigued by Bobby Riggs' story - I'm glad they showed how his "personality" influenced people. It's clear that he doesn't really believe the things he says, and that he is just trying to exploit the feminist movement for his own gain - and even crazier, him and King were actually friends! I always try to point this out when some popular person says something ridiculous (AHEM Kanye *cough*) because they clearly just want attention and if you get all "offended" and "outraged" you are just feeding right into what they want. There's an interesting theory that Riggs actually threw the match so that King would win because he placed a large bet on her - and honestly, I believe it. It's kind of hilarious that women felt like this would "prove" something - a women in her 20s beating a man in his 50s at Tennis? How is that proving we are equal? I think King's real progress, and work towards equality was all the behind the scenes stuff - the part where she boycotts, and argues her worth. This is a fairly straight-forward biopic that could have focused more on her battle with her sexuality and her public persona. Or how she influenced people in other fields to join the feminist movement. But instead we get to watch a re-enactment of the tennis match that lasted for what felt like FOREVER. Tennis is extremely boring, so I'm not sure how anyone thought it was a good idea to drag that out (it's not for dramatic effect, because we already know the freakin' ending!). The cast is impeccable though.

4. Mission: Impossible - Fallout - Not as good as I was expecting based on all of the reviews, but a satisfying movie nonetheless. I think Ghost Protocol was a lot better. At least there was an extremely memorable scene (the Burj Khalifa scene will live in my brain forever). This one reminds me of the previous one (Rogue Nation), in that I enjoyed it while watching it, but I will hardly remember anything about it. I think it's supposed to be surprising with all the "twists", but nothing happened that I didn't expect. I'm not a fan of Henry Cavill - he is such a snoozefest, especially when he shares the screen with Tom Cruise. The bathroom fight was pretty great, though. The choreography that goes into those scenes are just amazing. I do like that they left in the scene where Tom hurts himself. I can't believe that he still does all of his own stunts - even the crazy ones. The last scene with the helicopters was really fun to watch, but I totally expected him to jump from the one helicopter into the other one, and then I fully expected to read that he actually did it in real life. What a crazy man.

5. Suburbicon - Wow, this is a bad movie. It's saved by the caliber of its cast, and the talent behind the screen, but it's just not good. First, I like that Clooney is inspired by the Coen brothers, but he really needs to step away and find his own groove, because now it feels like a parody. Second, the story is actually really great and the ending is wonderful, so why did this feel so painful and boring to watch? Third, maybe have the really interesting racial tension that is exploding in the background be the main story? There's just so many ways this story could have been told, but it fails in every aspect. Fourth, again, I LOVED the ending and that little boy is a great actor.

Thoughts on 9* New Shows to Watch

1. Maniac - I just finished this series yesterday so I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. There are things that I really loved, but there was also so much of it that felt really cheesy and terrible. Overall, I would say it's just "okay". Emma Stone is just absolutely stunning. Her performance in the second episode alone is worth watching just to see how versatile she has become. The rest of the cast is...not good. Jonah Hill is not terrible, but, and I say this as a huge fan, Justin Theroux pretty much ruins the whole thing for me. I don't think it was his fault; I think he was directed to act that way because every other actor in his scenes did the same not-realistic-in-any-way style acting (even Sally Field!). The whole series did feel like a really, really long and drawn out episode of Black Mirror, but to Black Mirror's credit - the ending is usually worth it. This ending was horrible! *spoiler ahead* There was no point to it...was there? I spent the whole series trying to figure out how these two people were connected "in the real world" (and I thought I figured it out around episode 5), only to find out that they aren't. What a load of crap. I guess now that I'm writing it all down, I really didn't like it at all. Just Emma Stone.

2. The Kids are Alright - Very cute family comedy. Too much of the pilot episode was shown in the ads, so at first it's a little disappointing, but it picks up in the second episode. The cast work really well together, and it feels like a natural family dynamic. I love Michael Cudlitz - it's almost hard to recognize him because this role is very different than what I'm used to seeing him in, but it's also sort of the same (he does the strict, "don't mess with me" character perfectly - as he did in SouthLAnd). I don't know if the show is going to last very long because I don't ever hear anyone talking about it. Also, it's very hard to find it because when you say "The Kids are Alright" into the remote, it brings up the move The Kids are All Right. It's super annoying.

3. Manifest - What a stupid fucking show. I need to stop watching it, but I'm already sucked it! It's next-level bad. It suffers from bad dialogue, convenient story-telling, expected endings, plot holes, absolutely no nuance or depth, and terrible acting (except for the sister - I had to look up her name because I've never seen her before - Melissa Roxburgh. She has great screen presence.). I think it's going to end up being something about the Bermuda Triangle, but who knows? Every episode just gets dumber and dumber. It's super weird that they diverted the plane to Stewart Airport in Newburgh, NY (which is where I grew up!). That airport used to be this tiny little military airport and now it's expanded so much. So weird to see it featured on a television show.

4. The Little Drummer Girl - I'm half-way through the mini-series, and it is THE definition of slow-burn story-telling. I hope it's worth it because it's really fucking boring to sit through. I think I had really high expectations because it's Park Chan-wook! Directing a televisions series! Why isn't EVERYONE talking about it? That's like a HUGE deal. That's why I think there will be a huge pay-off in the end - a reason that makes the whole thing worth watching. It's been compared to The Night Manager which I didn't like, so that's not really a great sign. Michael Shannon is usually wonderful, but he has a really thick (Israeli?) accent and I can barely understand what he's saying which is obviously detrimental. The girl who plays Charlie (the main character) reminds me of a grown-up version of Sally Draper (which is a good thing...I think?).

5. Mr. Inbetween - Not going to lie, I was really happy that this show is only 6 episodes and they are only ½ hour long episodes. I just have too much to watch, but I got through the first season of this really quickly. The plot has been done before, but there is something about this show that is really likeable. Like the scene where he tells his daughter that Santa isn’t real and Jesus probably isn’t, but unicorns are. There’s some super cute scenes where you don’t think about how horrible the main character is. It does a nice job of the “inbetween” aspect. I really liked the last episode and I’m happy that there is going to be a second season.

6. Escape at Dannemora - I think I've watched 2 episodes so far (maybe 3) and I'm not blown away by it. It's another really, really slow moving show. I feel like everything that happened so far could have been condensed into one really terrific episode. Instead, it's all dragged out for dramatic effect, and it just doesn't work. The acting is terrific, though. I didn't even recognize Patricia Arquette, she really embraces every aspect of the role. Benicio del Toro always sort of reminds me of Brad Pitt. I don't know why; it just feels like they took the same acting class. He always does these little subtle things that add depth or nuance to a character (like the fake smoking thing, that was a nice touch and a lesser actor wouldn't have made that work). I think the biggest reason that this show isn't working for me is that it's just too soon. This event, like, JUST happened. We, as a society, haven't been able to really dissect it or reflect on it yet.

7. The Romanoffs - I watched the first episode so far, and it felt like a movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's going to be hard for me to fit in the time to watch it if every episode is an hour and a half. I do like that each episode is with different characters and different actors. That's a cool idea to do about the infamous Romanoff family since there is so much confusion and mystery about who is actually part of the family. The first episode was ok - it's a story that's been told many times - racist, entitled white woman suddenly becomes less racist once she is saved by a non-white person. I did like the twist about the Faberge egg (and it made the ending delicious). I'm intrigued about the rest of the series, I'm just having trouble fitting it into my very busy tv schedule.

8. Single Parents - Super cute. It's a show that has gotten infinitely better with every episode so far, which is a great sign. At first, I was just like "meh", but now I actually look forward to each episode as something that is guaranteed to make me smile. The cast have great chemistry together, and I love how the relationships have already started to evolve - it all feels really natural. Also, the kids don't annoy me! They are in it just the right amount (and the twin girls are actually hilarious). It's definitely weird seeing Leighton Meester as an adult  - especially during the episode where she was forced to hang out with the "mean" moms because it brought back all of the Gossip Girls memories, but she is surprisingly wonderful.

9. A Million Little Things - I wasn't really on board with this show at first. It's just really over-dramatic, sappy, and also extremely predictable (of course the cheating wife is pregnant!). There was just no subtlety or character development during the first few episodes, but now it's starting to grow on me, though. I think they just tried to tell too much story in the beginning instead of focusing on the characters, but it seems like they course corrected because now I really like almost all of the characters. They do a great job at getting you to relate to each of them, even if they do questionable things. The story-lines have still been a little predictable, but I'm interested in where it's all going to go. Also, a side-note, the one younger daughter looks like she's a Michalka sister but she's not related at all (at least from the info on IMDB) which is crazy to me because she even sounds like them when she sings! She could easily be their younger sister.


*This list has only 9 instead of the intended 12 because I have yet to watch Homecoming, Wanderlust, and The First. 12 new shows was incredibly ambitious...what was I thinking??  

Thoughts on 5 Films

1. You Were Never Really Here - Why has it taken Lynne Ramsay 7 years to make her next film? We Need to Talk about Kevin is one of those movies that really stuck with me. I don't think I was too impressed with it when I originally saw it, but ultimately its unsettling images are unforgettable. I feel like that is the most important aspect of creating films/telling stories - making something memorable. I felt underwhelmed by You Were Never Really Here, but I have a strong inkling that I will be praising it as "unforgettable" 7 years from now, so I guess I would call that a success. I don't really have any fair negative criticism of the film - there are some stunning shots, Joaquin Phoenix continues to be one of the strongest working actor of his generation, and the story turns in unexpected ways. I just didn't really connect with it, or care about what was happening in any way. It's certainly not the "Taxi Driver for the new century" as it is touted as (I mean, come on, seriously?!?). I think it will still land in my Top 10 for this year (it's at #7 currently), but I don't know how I will feel about it a month from now...or 7 years from now.

2. A Wrinkle in Time - Nope, never read the book and I heard absolutely awful things about the movie but I was still intrigued. I wouldn't say it's absolutely awful...but it's pretty close. I can't even imagine kids enjoying it because it's sooooo boring. It isn't even pretty to look at because it's so over-saturated with color that it almost looks like an animated film (a poorly animated film at that). And are we supposed to be impressed with Oprah's bedazzled eyebrows that is literally stick-on jewels adhered to her forehead that a child could do? The costume and makeup design is just really next-level terrible. It was really hard to pay attention to (it's a kids movie, obviously she's going to find her dad - so what's the point?), and the dialogue was too sugary sweet for my taste. If this were an original idea, I might give it some extra consideration for imagination, but to adapt this story into something so dull is just unacceptable. The acting is also pretty terrible all around.

3. The Beguiled - I've written about Sofia Coppola before - I want to like her, but unfortunately I never end up liking her films (Marie Antoinette is the exception and I didn't hate The Virgin Suicides. Every other one of her films I've hated - yup, including Lost in Translation). I didn't exactly hate this movie, but I don't really understand the point of remaking this story. It's not a good story, or relevant in any way. It's a very inherently anti-feminist story. It's a story about women and girls who suddenly find their lives interesting because a man has entered their living space. He pretty much becomes the center of their world - opening themselves up to jealousy, narcissism, and manipulation (and they suddenly care about their appearance?). It's all just so offensive. Also ***spoiler*** are we supposed to feel satisfied because they unnecessarily kill him? There are seven of them against a man who just had his leg cut off - uhhhh, they should be able to subdue him without killing him. It could have been interesting if they updated it to actually make it a feminist story, but as it is, it's just so dated. The cast is exceptional, though. And Colin Farrell is the perfect charming soldier - I'm glad he got to keep his accent.

4. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - Aw man, this was just terrible. I wasn't expecting it to be good. None of the Jurassic sequels were any good. But I liked that Jurassic World rebooted the series and brought it back to life in such a fun way. As soon as I read the plot for this movie, I knew it was ridiculous (They are saving dinosaurs from an erupting volcano? Really? A volcano? Okay...), but I still had hope that it was going to be fun. Especially because they heavily advertised Jeff Goldblum's involvement. He's literally in it for maybe 3 minutes total, so that's their first and biggest mistake. The second mistake is keeping Bryce Dallas Howard as the main star. I can't stand her (as an actress. As a person, I'm sure she's delightful just like her dad). She was the worst part of the first one, and of course, continues the streak with this one. Also, did I mention that the plot is RIDICULOUS. I mean, they outrun a volcano! I'm not even sure how they think bringing them to a different island that would have zero human involvement would exactly save them? An island would have limited resources and the dinosaurs would run out of food and die anyway. But whatever. Then the "bad guys" bring some of the dinosaurs to this mansion to sell them (seems smart), and then of course they escape and wreak havoc (and stomp on the roof that somehow doesn't collapse - what they hell kind of glass roof would hold a freakin' dinosaur??). The only good thing about the movie was the (several) times the T-Rex saves the day. I think it's hilarious that they keep that going in every movie. Right place, right time Mr. T-Rex. The ending was pretty interesting though, with the whole actual, literal "Jurassic World".

5. Terminal - I heard nothing about this movie when it was released (was it even released??). I almost forgot about it! I really wanted to see it because it seemed like a really atmospheric noir film with Margot Robbie (sold!). I wish I could say that I loved it, but unfortunately it is kind of a disaster. There's actually some really great stuff mixed in, but overall it is just a big mess. The biggest "what the fuck" is Mike Myers' involvement. He's dressed up in this weird makeup - as if he's doing a character from one of the Austin Powers movies. Are we not supposed to recognize that it's him? Are we not supposed to guess that eventually it will be revealed that he doesn't look like that? Then they set up "it's only a movie" by talking about how movies don't have to make sense (?), which I guess explains why most of the movie takes place in a 50s style middle America type diner but everyone has British accents. Where does the movie take place? When does it take place? None of it makes sense, but it seems like the creators wanted it that way. It definitely pulls inspiration from Blade Runner and Pulp Fiction but not in a good way. Then, the ending - oh, man, the ending. The last 15 minutes are pure garbage. There are multiple "twists", all of them are stupid. Robbie does her best. I can see why she took the role - if the movie worked it would have been a great platform for her.