Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 124

I also love Kay Medford's performance as Streisand's mom in Funny Girl. Tough break that she was up against Ruth freakin' Gordon in Rosemary's Baby for the Oscar.

 

I watched Thief for the first time in honor of the late, great James Caan. Damn what a film and really, what an incredible performance from Caan. It's incredible how he could flip a switch from the cool, calm, unflinching professional to a completely desperate and vulnerable man trying to rush together an honest life.

There's also brilliance in depicting everything outside of "the job" as having an underlying sense of fragility while having all the robbery scenes feel very detailed and lengthy. The heist genre is one of my favorites, but I can't think of many that would show us the entire length of time it would take to burn a hole in that bank vault. Mann chooses to linger on it and it's captivating the whole time.

Anyway, I highly recommend it to anyone else out there who has never seen it.

 

Where The Crawdads Sing

not as bad as I expected but, not good! Felt like a parody of dramatic movies at times.

David Strathairn is good. Lots of pretty people involved. Not much else to say!

 

Not bad but not good, so...

 

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - 7/10
I have a better time with these movies when I'm not highly anticipating them. The Marvel stuff still feels like kids smashing random action figures together, the child performances were insane, and John Krasinski felt like he was in another movie, but otherwise, I had a good time. The horror elements were fun and Raimi did a really good job here.

Child's Play - 8/10
So efficient. Just 80 minutes of exactly what you came to see, all killer no filler.

Censor - 9/10
The best horror movie of 2021 and probably my favorite film of the same year. So engaging and visually unique. The ending is incredibly unsettling.

 

I've only seen the Aubrey Plaza one and I think I liked it

 

The remake is totally different but still fun!

 

After James Caan passed, I watched The Rain People and Chapter Two. Dude honestly had a lot more range than he gets credited with.

 

I Trapped the Devil - 7/10

I was distracted by the guy who plays Matt's John Ritter impersonation for about the first half but it gets much better as it goes along

 

I think I’ve had this saved on Hulu for like 3 years? Maybe? And never gotten around to watching it

 

Old - 6.5/10

really dumb but enjoyable

 

Saturday’s viewings:

Nope - 9/10
Prey - 8/10

 

Ditto.

Prey - 9/10
Nope - 8.5/10
The Beta Test - 8/10

 

Prey - 7.5/10

 

Moonfall - 4/10

baffling, awful, a part of me loved it

 

I’m sure it is terrible but that’s one I wish I saw in theaters.

 

Yeah, can confirm it would have been fun in theaters with friends.

 

Can confirm it indeed was a blast with a buddy on the big screen. There’s a scene where the moon somehow jump scares someone from behind them.

 

Emily the Criminal

Really fucking good. Haven't seen a better movie this year

 

Mad God - One of the most visceral theater experiences I've had in a while. The first half was horrifically mesmerizing. I was fully immersed in Tippet's nightmarish stop-motion imagination. Damn near everything on screen was completely repulsive, but I could not look away. Unfortunately, I was pulled out of it in the 2nd half when it attempts to blend live action with the stop motion style. From what I've read, this was 30+ years in the making, so I wonder if some of that had to do with budget constraints. Either way, I'd recommend it for anyone who just wants to get lost in a nightmare for 80 minutes.

The Worst Person in the World - This was fantastic and might just be my favorite of 2021. Even if the expectations of having kids and a solid career by your mid-20s have (thankfully) died off, the pressure to eventually settle down is still pervasive. Anyone who bucks these norms over the long term is still labeled as immature, unambitious, or selfish. This film forces you to spend time with someone who is trying their best not to give into these pressures and just trying to find themself. It was one of the most moving films I've seen in a while.

Plus One - I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Its message is the opposite of Worst Person in some ways. Where that one is asking the viewer to have patience in finding happiness, this one is warning of seeking perfection. While no one should be asked to settle, the myth of the perfect relationship or the perfect job is toxic and prevents us from appreciating what is in front of us. Maya Erskine stole the show.

On the Count of Three - A solid directorial debut from Jerrod Carmichael. The core of this one really is the friendship that Carmichael and Christopher Abbot really nail on screen. It's also quite hilarious and somehow makes having Papa Roach in your soundtrack acceptable. Though, some of the character motivation near the end feel rushed a cliched.

Breaking - While it's held back by its inability to shake the plot template of your typical hostage/heist film, I'd still recommend it for the performances alone. John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, and Michael K. Williams (RIP) nail it on almost every level. MKW in particular adds so much heart and empathy to the pretty standard "negotiator" role. I hope everyone who was all "rah rah USA" after American Sniper (which, I'll admit I enjoyed when it came out) watches this. This country, and particularly the audience that film panders to, loves to cheer a veteran until it comes time to actually do right by them. Breaking even seems to lean on that with the appearance and some key emphasis on the conduct of a background sniper character. It pisses me off that this is a true story.

 

Vengeance - I went into this essentially blind, knew nothing except that BJ Novak directed it. I really enjoyed it. I absolutely abhor true crime, so I think I was the perfect audience for a film digging into the vanity of the genre.

 

Malignant - 8/10

whaddya know I like a James Wan movie

 

Did you know anything going in?

 

I knew about the parasitic twin

 

Damn, that was the best part! I didn't going in and that made that movie way crazier