Posts

Inside Out 2 - Movie Review

Image
Inside Out 2 - Movie Review Critics Score - 7 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 Kids Score - 8 of 10 The original Inside Out is not only one of my favorite Pixar films, but one of the films I’ve seen the most in a theatre, I think five total times. As it came out in 2015, my two boys were very young so the colorful characters and storyline of grappling with our emotions and becoming aware of our feelings made this film a staple in my household. We even had a set of the five original stuffed characters laying around our home a while. Well, we now have an expanded Inside Out universe with Pixar releasing a sequel to the original film, Inside Out 2, which continues the story of Riley as she begins to navigate the waters of adolescence. The film stars most of the original cast of voice actors minus Bill Hader (Fear) and Mindy Kaling (Disgust) who’s serviceable replacements will only be really noticeable to hardcore fans of the original, like myself. With the amazing Oscar winning Pete
Post a Comment
Read more

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - Movie Review

Image
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - Movie Review Critics Score - 8 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 George Miller is a director that has a pretty varied filmography, from doing several children’s films including the animated Happy Feet movies to adult dramas like Lorenzo’s Oil. But the genre he has leaned into the most throughout his long career has to be action and adventure, from which he has given us the Mad Max series, for which he’ll no doubt be most remembered. While the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road was undoubtedly his pinnacle achievement in the series, Miller continues the world building of the story he reignited with the new film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. I’ll refer to it as Furiosa for simplicity sake going forward. The film stars Anya-Taylor Joy reprising Charlize Theron’s Furiosa character from the 2015 film and Chris Hemsworth stars as the dull-witted yet still politically savvy antagonist, Dementus. This film, as was its predecessor, is impeccably well crafted, excels on a tec
Post a Comment
Read more

I Saw The TV Glow - Movie Review

Image
I Saw The TV Glow - Movie Review Critics Score - 7 of 10 General Audience Score - 5 of 10 Google a definition of the word reality, you’ll get #1 - “the world or state of things as they actually exist” and #2 - “the state or quality of having existence or substance”. But what makes something real? What actually exists? What percentage of people have to agree something is reality for it to be so? The new A24 film called I Saw The TV Glow attempts to discuss some of these topics, life, existence, our individual perception of reality. Reality states the earth is round, but certain people believe the earth is flat. And five hundred years ago, everyone held that belief. So what was their reality? I was raised in a religious cult, whose members believe that the end of the world will come soon and they live their lives in preparation for this belief. This is not reality, probably not for you, not for me anymore, but for the people that carry these beliefs, they live their lives preparing for t
Post a Comment
Read more

The Idea Of You - Movie Review

Image
The Idea Of You - Movie Review Critics Score - 7 of 10 General Audience Score - 7 of 10 The summer blockbuster movie season is one of the times of year I look forward to the least. Most of the films produced and slated for release for the masses aren’t the movies I have much anticipation for. I had no idea what film I was going to even review next until I decided I needed to start writing again and threw on The Idea Of You, a new romantic comedy featuring Anne Hathaway. Hathaway plays a 40 year old, single mother who happens to fall for a much younger man who happens to be the lead singer of a famous boy band. I will say that what helped this film considerably was the fact that I had absolutely zero expectations for any entertainment value I might be able to derive from it. But even with that, this is some of the most conventional storytelling I’ve seen this year, expect the second act drama that pulls them apart, expect the ex that did her dirty to get his ill contrived comeuppance, e
Post a Comment
Read more

Challengers - Movie Review

Image
Challengers - Movie Review Critics Score - 6 of 10 General Audience Score - 7 of 10 I enjoy playing most sports, but Tennis is one that I’ve never really gotten into or even understood all that well. Each “point” moves in fifteen point increments? I believe there are sets, game, match and love? In the word of the immortal Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it?”. In any case, my knowledge of tennis aside, the new film Challengers from Luca Guadagnino is about a trio of tennis players between whom a love triangle forms. This trio is comprised of the incredibly hot actors Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor and Zendaya. The chemistry between them is mostly believable but not off the charts, through some sequences the character motivations and interactions were questionable despite the smoldering tension present. And with a two hour plus runtime, there was plenty of time to get to know these characters well. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross who worked with Guadagnino on his last film
Post a Comment
Read more

Sasquatch Sunset - Movie Review

Image
Sasquatch Sunset - Movie Review Critics Score - 7 of 10 General Audience Score - 5 of 10 Everybody loves a good monster movie. From the dawn of cinema, the unknown creatures of the underwater realm, dark woods, forests and otherwise uncharted areas that might care to pay us a visit in the nighttime hours, has long been the source of many a child’s lost hours of sleep. Even as adults, a walk through unfamiliar areas of remote locations at night can still make the tiniest doubts about monsters still creep up from the deep recesses of our minds with the simple snap of a twig off in the distance. But for all the scary movies about monsters we have, the Zellner brothers have brought us a new type of monster movie called Sasquatch Sunset. In the film, we follow a group of forest “monsters” through the back woods and we observe them going about their daily lives. Most of the situations presented in the film skew towards the comical, but there’s also some sobriety in some of the scenes. Discla
Post a Comment
Read more

Hundreds Of Beavers - Movie Review

Image
Hundreds Of Beavers - Movie Review Critics Score - 8 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 Kids Score - 8 of 10 Every so often a movie comes along that is so unique, original and sometimes wildly bizarre that they’re almost indescribable, there’s not much out there to compare them to. For instance, trying to explain to someone what A24’s Everything, Everywhere, All At One is like or even the Noah Baumback film White Noise on Netflix, they’re almost in a cinematic category unto themselves. The new film Hundreds Of Beavers surely would fall into a category all of its own, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. About the closest thing I could compare it to would be one of the Monty Python movies combined with a bit of Robot Dreams. I say Robot Dreams because the film contains virtually no spoken dialogue, its language devoid script means the film is based exclusively on visually based storytelling. Beavers is simple and clear to follow, it’s all black and white, the simplicity of the pl
Post a Comment
Read more

Late Night With The Devil - Movie Review

Image
Late Night With The Devil - Movie Review Critics Score - 8 of 10 General Audience Score - 7 of 10 Most of us are familiar with night talk shows such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Pretty much the undisputed king of late night television was Mr. Johnny Carson, who ruled over the talk show dominion for about 30 years, from 1962-1992 where he hosted The Tonight Show. The new movie, Late Night With The Devil from IFC, is a film about a fictional rival to Johnny Carson played by David Dastmalchian. He hosts Night Owls, a talk show that was nipping at Carson’s heels for a time in the ratings and overall number of viewers; but couldn’t quite get over the hump. I’m not a massive late night talk show guy, I never watch any these days, but being familiar with the retro shows and style, I immediately took a liking to this film. Dastmalchian has such an engaging look, he’s attractive enough to pull off the late night host but looks strange enough that
Post a Comment
Read more

Civil War - Movie Review

Image
Civil War - Movie Review Critics Score - 8 of 10 General Audience Score - 7 of 10 I’m a simple film critic. People make movies and I assess them via a number of measurables from a technical perspective, but also with my own preferences and biases I try and determine a films “worthiness”. I simply watch films and try and direct people to watch ones I think are of exceptional value or interest. Is what I do important? I don’t feel it is. It is my hobby, I don’t do it for money, I do it because I love it. I love that I live in a country where I have the freedom to make those decisions for myself and that I can live the way I want to with my family. I love that English director Alex Garland has the freedom to make the movies he wants to make, including the latest film from A24, Civil War. This film follows a group of journalists as they make their way towards Washington D.C. to try and interview the president. Except in this fictional world, the president has effectively ended the constitu
Post a Comment
Read more

Monkey Man - Movie Review

Image
Monkey Man - Movie Review Critics Score - 7 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 Although extremely popular, the revenge thriller premise is a mainstay of narrative film storytelling. From Kill Bill to the John Wick franchise to basically every Liam Neeson film from the last twenty years, the box office has proved these films can typically turn a profit. While I used to get a kick out of these types of movies in years past, I find they hold less and less of an interest for me, as my brain leans less toward wanting to be switched off and just enjoying some monsters destroying each other or other monotonous violence and instead favors being engaged on deeper themes and life lessons. The new film Monkey Man from actor turned director Dev Patel is a sleek action thriller with enough violence and blood to soak through even the most plastic covered movie recliners. While the film utilizes some different tactics in setting up and delivering the age old revenge plot, in the end I found mysel
Post a Comment
Read more