Thoughts on 5 Films

1. The New Mutants - Not nearly as bad as I was led to believe. I actually enjoyed it for what it is - which is a sci-fi horror. It's certainly not your typical superhero film, as it's very clearly filmed as a horror movie (jump scares and all). And even though it's part of the X-Men series (the final one? I don't believe it), I appreciate that it does its own thing. It's weird and dark, with a smaller, more focused story. However, it's not exactly good, either. For one, the acting is atrocious (Anya, is that you??? I thought you could act? And her character is the best one too! I wanted to love her, but some of that line delivery is *cringe*). The different accents are all very jarring (and none of them feel natural - the worst is Maisie Williams. I don't think she can act at all - she was horrible on Game of Thrones and even worse here, but I was so confused by her accent because I thought she was Irish and I thought why is she doing such a terrible Irish accent if that's her natural accent? So I looked it up and apparently she is supposed to be doing a Scottish accent? What? That was Scottish? And she's actually not Irish, she's English.). It's all very obvious as to what is happening and it takes them way too long to figure it out. And the lesbian plotline feels very forced. It's a shame because there is a great movie in there somewhere, it just doesn't work. 

2. The Prom - Let me start off by saying that I have been a Ryan Murphy fan from the beginning - I was a huge fan of Nip/Tuck and I was obsessed with Glee (if you go back far enough on this blog I used to even do episode recaps! OBSESSED). This film seemed like Murphy doing what he does best - which is over-the-top, campy, musical productions. Yet, I hated *everything* about this. Yes, everything. My biggest problem with it is that it feels soooo dated. Yes, I realize that there are certain parts of America (and the world) that are 20 years behind the times (this takes place in Indiana. One of my co-workers is from there. When she moved here 10 years ago, she said she felt like she was in another country. I don't think people outside of America realize how incredibly different each state is). But, movies aren't behind the times, Hollywood is not behind the times, so stories like this have been told TO DEATH. Even Murphy, himself, did stories like this on Glee 10 years ago! And does anyone else find it weird that they make sexuality a big "taboo" subject, but don't say anything about racism & diversity? The cast is wonderfully diverse, but doesn't that NOT MAKE SENSE in Indiana? It's falsely presenting Indiana as culturally and racially diverse (one of the LEAST diverse states out of 50 - I think it ranks in the bottom 5), and the movie doesn't even address it. Another big issue is that it has this ridiculously amazing cast of Hollywood A-listers like Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, and then they go and cast James Corden in the main role. First, EVERYONE hates James Corden. I know that there are plenty of celebrities who I hate, but have a large fan base, but I've literally never seen anyone say anything nice about James Corden. Also, it's really surprising to me that Ryan would cast a straight man in this role? I actually don't agree with people who feel that only gay actors should play gay roles (this idea is problematic for so many reasons but the biggest one is that not everyone is out - and maybe playing a gay character will help them with their own identity? And also some people don't like labels - I'm one of those people.). BUT, I also think that it depends on the movie and the character? And this felt like it needed someone who has a little more connection with the character - because it feels like Corden just took a bunch of flamboyant gay cliches and WENT TO TOWN, and therefore it becomes offensive. I don't know, I may be contradicting my own thoughts, but my point is that Corden is terrible. ANYWAY, the musical numbers are mostly awful - the only one that is great is the "Love thy neighbor" one, and the final number is fun and sweet. I also enjoy that it makes fun of celebrities who take up a "cause" (mostly for publicity and public support). This always angers me - bringing attention to certain things is sometimes necessary, but the ones that really get me is when celebrities tweet something like "hey my friend has cancer and she can't afford her medical bills - here's a link to donate money", when this person can literally pay said medical bills with one week of their own salary. FUCK OFF (I literally just saw this happen a few weeks ago.). Overall, I really hate this movie - even though it's probably a better film than, say, The New Mutants, I had higher expectations so it just becomes even more of a disappointment. 

3. Mank - I was dreading watching this, but I figured I should get it out of the way now, otherwise it will keep moving down THE LIST and I'll never end up watching it. I thought it was super weird when the trailer released and everyone flipped their shit about how "great" it looked because I thought it looked like boring, film elitist garbage. And guess what? I was fucking right. Fincher has made some masterpieces - there is no denying that (se7en is one of my favorite movies ever), and even the ones that I think are lesser than, are still good. And they are all...beautiful. This loses the one thing that all Fincher films have - the beauty. The black & white is just so pretentious - and it looks terrible - it's mostly just grey. And it makes it even harder to pay attention to. The story isn't even that interesting? The only people who care about the true story behind Citizen Kane are film buffs, and they likely already know this story. Not that that completely matters (knowing the story shouldn't hinder ones enjoyment), but they do absolutely nothing to make it interesting. Drunk Gary Oldman just reminds me of his guest appearance on Friends, and it's really distracting. But, Amanda Seyfried is great - I've been a fan since she surprised me in Loveless, but I don't think this performance is worthy of awards chatter at all. 

4. I'm Your Woman - Now this is an award-worthy performance. Rachel Brosnahan is wonderful in this very complicated role. I've never seen her in anything before, but I'm so happy to know that she's this good because she's received many awards for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (a show that has been on THE LIST for years...I'll get to it...eventually!). She always reminds me so much of Evan Rachel Wood, which is a good thing. I really love this movie from beginning to end - I love the way it mixes the suspenseful, thrilling parts with the quietness of the day-to-day. I love that it's from her perspective, so we never quite know the full story - the audience is forced into the same confusion that she suffers from. I love the way it ends in a really satisfying way. And most importantly I LOVE the sunglasses she wears in the beginning (I NEED them). This is one of those movies that is hard to articulate why it works so well, it just does - there is just something special, something memorable about it, a vibe that I just adore. And as much as I appreciate films telling a concise story within their timeframe, I do think this would have worked really well as a mini-series. I could have watched hours more of this woman's story. Also, on a side-note, I keep getting this, Pieces of a Woman and Promising Young Woman confused - all three seem to be getting really good reviews. 

5. The Witches (2020) - I'm not sure if I've ever seen the one from the 90s? I certainly don't remember it. There's a few things that surprised me about this - first, it STARS Octavia Spencer! Every promotional image I've seen is with Anne Hathaway. I had no idea that most of the story revolves around Octavia and some mice (the main one narrated by Chris Rock!). Second, I thought it was supposed to be darker - more of an adult Halloween campy movie (the promo images reminded me of Death Becomes Her (one of the greatest films of all-time!) - but it's very clearly a kids fairytale, which is ultimately disappointing. And third, *spoilers* they stay mice in the end! Haha! That's kind of funny, and sad? Especially when he's like "hey Grandma we'll probably die at the same time because mice only live a few years....COOL!". Like, what in the actual fuck is that about? This is not great, and barely entertaining, but Anne Hathaway is perfectly cast, because she does "camp" so, so well. And the production design is fabulous.