2021 Movie Reviews

[Jondalar]

1. Cruella, grade C+ = although this movie got better toward the end, I really didn’t like it that much. It an origin story and has a weak plot. To give the movie energy, they have music blaring in the background almost throughout the entire movie. It almost feels like a big music video and it gave me Cat Woman vibes, which was a terrible movie starring Halle Berry. The best thing about this movie is Emma Thompson. She gives a great performance as the main villain. I wouldn’t really want to watch this movie again.

[Jondalar]

2. The Quiet Place 2, grade B+ = this is a good horror movie. Everything is solid about it. There are plenty of tense moments and lots of action. The reason I didn’t give it an A is it is too much like The Quiet Place 1 and we don’t learn that much more about the monsters. However, it is still effective and I would definitely watch it again. I think this is best seen on the big screen. Also, there is definitely going to be another sequel.

[TrueFaith77]

After last year’s relative wasteland this has been an astonishing year for movies ... let’s see if I have the energy to articulate why ... but don’t miss these great-to-remarkable films

Shoplifters of the World
Summer of 85
Saint-Narcisse
Sublet
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Army of the Dead
Sin
About Endlessness
Keep an Eye Out
Coming 2 America
Sin Hijos
Mandibles
Dear Comrades
Cliff Walkers
Sophie Jones
French Exit
Georgetown

[Jondalar]

After last year’s relative wasteland this has been an astonishing year for movies ... let’s see if I have the energy to articulate why ... but don’t miss these great-to-remarkable films

Shoplifters of the World
Summer of 85
Saint-Narcisse
Sublet
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Army of the Dead
Sin
About Endlessness
Keep an Eye Out
Coming 2 America
Sin Hijos
Mandibles
Dear Comrades
Cliff Walkers
Sophie Jones
French Exit
Georgetown

Never heard of some of these.

[Jondalar]

3. The Conjuring 3, the Devil Made Me Do it, grade B- = not near as good as the first two Conjuring movies, but does have it's moments. It also has high production values and some of the exorcism scenes are done really well. I love horror movies, and this wasn't bad. The story just wasn't as good as the first two movies.

[TrueFaith77]

Never heard of some of these.

You have much pleasure ahead!

Example: Shoplifters was the first movie I saw when theaters reopened in NYC — and I kept going back! I truly think it’s a great movie — but the subject matter transcends its value as a movie for me. It’s like my dream movie.

[Jondalar]

4. Black Widow, grade B = This was a solid movie. There are really good action sequences in it, the acting is good and the relationships between the characters are fleshed out. It's also funny. However, the villain sucks. It feels like the movie isn't really about the villain, it's about Black Widow's pseudo family. The lack of a strong villain brings the movie down. The movie seemed small and almost too personal. Although, I liked the movie, I kept thinking this was a missed opportunity for a better movie: it had all the great action sequences, good character development but the stakes weren't just high enough. Still, it was worth viewing.

[Jondalar]

5. The Forever Purge, grade D = Another purge movie. None of them are great. This movie tries to send a message about immigration, which just makes it desperate. The bottom line is are the kills unique and is the movie scary? The answer is NO! This movie is boring. Blah.

[Jondalar]

6. Old, grade C+ = This movie isn't bad, it's just not that good. It's a cheap horror movie about aging but it's not really scary. M Night Shamaylan is the director and he directed the Sixth Sense, Signs, Split, Unbreakable and The Visit, which are pretty good movies. However, he has also directed a bunch of duds. This movie falls somewhere in the middle pack. I don't want to give away any spoilers but the ending saves this movies. I wish that parts of the big reveal at the end of the movie would have been spread out over the duration of the movie instead of just summarized at the end.

[Jondalar]

7. Snake Eyes, D - = This is the new GI movie. It's really bad. The marital arts sequences suck, and the movie feels cheap. It's also a bit confusing. Don't waste your money on this movie.

[BombaySapphire3]

Anyone seen The Green Knight yet? This looks like something that it might be worth going the multi-plex for.

[Jondalar]

Anyone seen The Green Knight yet? This looks like something that it might be worth going the multi-plex for.

It's not playing where I live. It's getting good reviews too.

[Jondalar]

8. Suicide Squad 2, grade A- = this movie is funny, gorey, and a real triumph for the DC Universe considering that the first Suicide Squad was a bad movie. It's packed with unique characters, good performances and I think most people are going to like this movie. This is the best I've seen Harley Quinn and it has great cinematography and action sequences. I hope James Gunn directs more DC films. I am going to rewatch this one.

[UnwindedDreams]

8. Suicide Squad 2, grade A- = this movie is funny, gorey, and a real triumph for the DC Universe considering that the first Suicide Squad was a bad movie. It's packed with unique characters, good performances and I think most people are going to like this movie. This is the best I've seen Harley Quinn and it has great cinematography and action sequences. I hope James Gunn directs more DC films. I am going to rewatch this one.
Next to Army of the Dead (the Vegas horror film with Bautista)... is this one funnier?

The Shark character just looks too lame for me.

[TrueFaith77]

Next to Army of the Dead (the Vegas horror film with Bautista)... is this one funnier?

The Shark character just looks too lame for me.

THE Suicide Squad is not funny or fun. It’s nihilistic and visually repellent.


Meanwhile, here was my mini-review of the original superior film:

Suicide Squad (David Ayer): “You are looking for friends, I’m looking for leverage”: devious Viola Davis sums up divisive Politics 2016. This post-credits dialogue with Bruce Wayne also clarifies the spiritual-comic book underpinning of auteur-producer Zack Snyder and director Ayer’s approach to the conceit of supervillains doing good. Private longings unite this team, as explored in the members’ pop song-scored backstories. Ayer externalizes this longing in graphic-novel imagery that recalls von Sternberg films and Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry music (a karaoke performance of “Love Is the Drug” notably appeared in Snyder’s own Sucker Punch). Such bracing Romanticism climaxes in the final sucker punch landed by MVP Margot Robbie’s Joker-devoted Harley Quinn who refuses to kneel at the altar of power, remaining faithful to an idolatry of love.

2016 JOHNNIE AWARD WINNER: Best Actress (Margot Robbie)

[Jondalar]

Next to Army of the Dead (the Vegas horror film with Bautista)... is this one funnier?

The Shark character just looks too lame for me.

I would say it's in the vein of the Evil Dead to a point, or maybe the Toxic Avenger. It definitely deserved an R rating. I really liked it but some people can't tolerate it. The movie is warped and has many cringeworthy, funny moments.

PS. Sharkman is fun. He grows on you and he does a lot of gross stuff.

[Jondalar]

9. Candyman, grade C - = (horror movie) starts out pretty decently but has three big problems. 1. It's not scary and it's a horror movie. 2. The ending is confusing and sucks. 3. It's anti police. On the other hand, the movie is nice too look at and uses shadow puppets for some of the visuals. I liked the actors. It also takes place within the arts world and that is interesting. It's not as good as the original and felt like a waste of time.

[Jondalar]

10. The Night House, grade C = (Indie, horror movie) About a woman who lost her husband and believes she is being haunted by his ghost. It's a low budget, well-acted horror movie that is intriguing until the very end. The ending felt a bit a forced and was confusing and I think it really hurt the movie. It also made me quite aware of how low budget this movie really was. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again. It's ok.

[Jondalar]

THE Suicide Squad is not funny or fun. It’s nihilistic and visually repellent.


Meanwhile, here was my mini-review of the original superior film:

Suicide Squad (David Ayer): “You are looking for friends, I’m looking for leverage”: devious Viola Davis sums up divisive Politics 2016. This post-credits dialogue with Bruce Wayne also clarifies the spiritual-comic book underpinning of auteur-producer Zack Snyder and director Ayer’s approach to the conceit of supervillains doing good. Private longings unite this team, as explored in the members’ pop song-scored backstories. Ayer externalizes this longing in graphic-novel imagery that recalls von Sternberg films and Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry music (a karaoke performance of “Love Is the Drug” notably appeared in Snyder’s own Sucker Punch). Such bracing Romanticism climaxes in the final sucker punch landed by MVP Margot Robbie’s Joker-devoted Harley Quinn who refuses to kneel at the altar of power, remaining faithful to an idolatry of love.

2016 JOHNNIE AWARD WINNER: Best Actress (Margot Robbie)

I totally disagree. The first movie was terrible. This movie actually captured the spirit of The Suicide Squad. It also has the best depiction of Harley ever. Their are gross moments it was supposed to gross people out in a fun way.

[Jondalar]

11. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, grade A- = This is one of the better Marvel superhero movies. It has really good fight scenes, beautiful scenery and some very good side characters - Awkwafina steals the show. It's also just very charming and funny. My only criticism is it felt a little too Disney and was almost too light. I never really felt that any of the main characters could die.

[TrueFaith77]

ASPHALT GODDESS (LA DIOSA DEL ASFALTO)

In ASPHALT GODDESS, 21st century master filmmaker Julian Hernandez punctuates lesbian barrio gangster Ramira's (Mabel Cadena) castration-at-gunpoint threat with vertiginous camera angles: "Don't step out of line!" It flips the post-punk band the Au Pairs' classic challenge to hetero-patriarchy in the song/album "Stepping Out of Line" on its head. Hernandez dares to delve deeply into how masculine oppression and economic squalor warp feminine instinct by placing value on power over nurturing, berserk violence over artistic purgation.

Like the ice-woman cometh, the return of rock-'n'-roller Max (Ximena Romo) to her old stomping grounds--converted from a garbage dump into "more boxes" for people to live in--dredges up primal guilt and thwarted desire. The resulting brutality signals a title card that takes the audience back into the characters' past to chart cycles of violation and vengeance that take on the overwhelming force of fate as traced by Alejandro Cantu's unfettered camera and the Greek-Chorus of ginormous graffiti and illustrated t-shirts. "Cool, it feels good to breathe free air," Ramira says when released from prison only to end the day by unburdening herself from responsibility and from her humanity: "What's done is done.”

Hernandez's gangland film expressionistically conveys biological tribalism so that its vision keeps expanding from the personal to the social to the cosmic--blood oaths and revenge acted out as ancient ritual. With his existential elan, Hernandez transforms realism into classical Tragedy and epitomizes operatic filmmaking like nobody since Bernardo Bertolucci (a transformation akin to Morrissey detailing "sunlight thrown over smashed human bones" on "First of the Gang to Die"). Released in the U.S. direct-to-Netflix, ASPHALT GODDESS exposes the impenetrable border-wall maintained by America's hypocritical elite cultural gatekeepers. By the time Hernandez revitalizes the most famous scene from Shakespeare's MACBETH, one shudders to think of Steven Spielberg's upcoming descent into the ersatz-Shakespeare kitsch of WEST SIDE STORY while Hernandez's star-crossed Tragedy wails in isolation on television.

[Jondalar]

ASPHALT GODDESS (LA DIOSA DEL ASFALTO)

In ASPHALT GODDESS, 21st century master filmmaker Julian Hernandez punctuates lesbian barrio gangster Ramira's (Mabel Cadena) castration-at-gunpoint threat with vertiginous camera angles: "Don't step out of line!" It flips the post-punk band the Au Pairs' classic challenge to hetero-patriarchy in the song/album "Stepping Out of Line" on its head. Hernandez dares to delve deeply into how masculine oppression and economic squalor warp feminine instinct by placing value on power over nurturing, berserk violence over artistic purgation.

Like the ice-woman cometh, the return of rock-'n'-roller Max (Ximena Romo) to her old stomping grounds--converted from a garbage dump into "more boxes" for people to live in--dredges up primal guilt and thwarted desire. The resulting brutality signals a title card that takes the audience back into the characters' past to chart cycles of violation and vengeance that take on the overwhelming force of fate as traced by Alejandro Cantu's unfettered camera and the Greek-Chorus of ginormous graffiti and illustrated t-shirts. "Cool, it feels good to breathe free air," Ramira says when released from prison only to end the day by unburdening herself from responsibility and from her humanity: "What's done is done.”

Hernandez's gangland film expressionistically conveys biological tribalism so that its vision keeps expanding from the personal to the social to the cosmic--blood oaths and revenge acted out as ancient ritual. With his existential elan, Hernandez transforms realism into classical Tragedy and epitomizes operatic filmmaking like nobody since Bernardo Bertolucci (a transformation akin to Morrissey detailing "sunlight thrown over smashed human bones" on "First of the Gang to Die"). Released in the U.S. direct-to-Netflix, ASPHALT GODDESS exposes the impenetrable border-wall maintained by America's hypocritical elite cultural gatekeepers. By the time Hernandez revitalizes the most famous scene from Shakespeare's MACBETH, one shudders to think of Steven Spielberg's upcoming descent into the ersatz-Shakespeare kitsch of WEST SIDE STORY while Hernandez's star-crossed Tragedy wails in isolation on television.

I've never heard of this until now. Thanks.

[Jondalar]

12. Malignant, grade B- = Can a move be saved by the ending? In the case of Malignant, James Wan's new horror movie, I think so. On the bad side, there is no character development and really not much happens but people getting killed for most of the first half of the movie. However, after about 65% of the movie is over, the movie turns into a pretty good action movie with a big reveal and I think it's enough to recommend the movie, However, be warned - some people hate this movie. (I can't reveal much about this movie because the big reveal is everything.)

[TrueFaith77]

Cry Macho (Clint Eastwood): The cock named Macho transforms Clint Eastwood’s humbly beautiful CRY MACHO into a fairy tale—the film *looks* like the Twilight of the Western. The cockfighting rooster externalizes the depth of masculine feeling in Clint Eastwood and young Eduardo Minett’s heartbreaking confessions that reveal their need for redemption and for belief (one monologue is delivered in a shrine to Our Lady). Significantly, both characters ameliorate their wounds by teaching each other to heal and tame animals (the dream of cowboys and horses that are the inheritance of the global pop audience). Doing so prepares them for precarious fates and uncertain reunions—Macho symbolizes hope. Rooted in the culture’s spiritual heritage, CRY MACHO is the most moving Western since John Ford’s masterpiece 3 GODFATHERS.

[TrueFaith77]

Saint-Narcisse (Bruce LaBruce):

Notes on Saint-Narcisse:

5/9
@BruceLaBruce makes a new, unexpected, leap with #SaintNarcisse—drawing upon classical and Catholic imagery (Odysseus’ gambit with the Cyclops, Mother-and-son rhapsodies out of Michelangelo, Euripidean voyeurism, the piercing gaze of St. Sebastian) but with PoMo porno subversiveness (a nude in sneakers). If not quite a master sensualist like Bertollucci or Morel, he matches their transgressiveness and ascends here as North America’s premiere gay-cinema auteur because he challenges gay hegemony with history’s radical kernel of truth. Bra-f**king-vo!

9/17
So great to see the visual feast of @BruceLaBruce ‘s #SaintNarcisse on a big screen with a game audience. A second viewing reveals its brilliant structure (tripled incest) that combines Parent Trap farce with the melodrama of #DePalma’s Obsession (and much more).

Also clocked his erotic interpretation of the Visitation. More iconography to dive into, for sure. Don’t miss it, NYC! @BruceLaBruce #SaintNarcisse

Interestingly I’ve noted De Palma’s influence in the last 4 movies I saw. Malignant (De Palma reduced to an amusement park ride) and The Voyeurs (De Palma reduced to television), but also…

the camera dynamics of @JULIANHERPER #AsphaltGoddess (the Vertigo kiss in Body Double) and the 70s-style psychosexual melodrama of @BruceLaBruce #SaintNarcisse (the psychosexual casting gambits of Sisters and Obsession). Both films revitalize cinema’s essence. Viva #BrianDePalma!

Worth looking for the influence of De Palma in Bruce La Bruce’s Saint-Narcisse which explicitly references *Sisters and which the director also has explained is inspired by Obsession stylistically and in one key casting/plot point.

[Screenwriter’s response: We also put some Carrie references in there, notably on the subject of religious fanatism. Bruce and me share the same admiration for De Palma.

To which I responded: Ah! Saint Sebastian’s eyes are very Piper-Laurie-Christ eyes! Amazing!!]

9/18
Third time seeing the film remains a charm. From the Sticky Fingers opening shot to the radical wink at the end, @BruceLaBruce POV challenges the spectator to look deeply into family and culture in his new film #SaintNarcisse — now playing at @QuadCinema in NYC. Don’t miss it!

9/22
I got a sweet shout-out in Armond White’s eye-opening review of @BruceLaBruce #SaintNarcisse De Palma’s Sisters and Carrie resonate!

[From Armond White’s review: Critic John Demetry [ed. that’s me] pointed out a connection to De Palma’s Carrie (a great movie not generally appreciated for its profound satire of sexual-social-religious guilt) in the scene where an arrow-pierced Saint Sebastian statue (often a gay objet d’art) looks down, comically condemning a perverse supplicant.]

[Jondalar]

13, Venom 2, grade C- = It feels like a great big music video and the special affects aren't that good. The acting is good and some of the banter is good, but this is just not memorable. The first movie was better and it wasn't very good. Blah.

[Jondalar]

14. No time to Die, grade C+ = It's way too long and hard to follow. I'm still not sure I understood all of it and by the end of the movie I couldn't wait to leave. However, there are some really good scenes in the movie and Daniel Craig is excellent as Bond. I wouldn't watch it again though.

[Jondalar]

15. Halloween Kills, grade D = This movie pretty much sucks but I guess I never expected it to be good. I just wanted to watch a horror movie in the theaters for Halloween. Jamie Lee Curtis is hardly in the movie and the acting is pretty bad. It's not scary at all but there are a few good kills. Oh well... like I said, I never expected it to be good so I'm not really disappointed.

[TrueFaith77]

Dune (Denis Villeneuve)

Denis Villeneuve's #DUNE begs the questions: Is it too dull to accuse of "Fascism"? No! Look beyond the intellectual murk of the beige-on-beige-on-beige Brutalism of the futuristic sci-fi production design and photography. DUNE fans will geek out on Easter eggs but popular audiences will be left unimpressed: Villeneuve casts obnoxious and pouty Timothee Chalomet as protagonist Paul because he looks a rodent (the character's future namesake), a sandworm's homage--the film's cgi anti-climax--foreshadows Paul's unfathomable genetic destiny, Jason Mamoa's sacrifice as Duncan Idaho feels meaningless (rather than legendary), and more. Remember that David Lynch's 1984 DUNE imaginatively interprets--and transcends--the source material to examine culture personally, constituting an under-appreciated mystic and triumphant vision. Through idiosyncratic imagery, Lynch conveys religious longing for salvation and justice: hypnotic images of obsidian water drops, uncontainable sexual surrealism contradicting and expressing sterile eugenic planning. Meanwhile, Villeneuve conflates puppy love with genocide. Yes, Zandaya's narration makes this as hiply depressing as an episode of EUPHORIA. Compare that to Lynch's myth-making and palpably mythic prologue delivered by Virginia Madsen. A moral let-down: Villeneuve's #DUNE ends mid-story, sprinkled with spice-dust hallucinations as "coming attractions." At over 2-1/2 hours, it all amounts to movie history's longest trailer. In Villeneuve's half-adaptation, Paul's revenge quest erases the moral challenge--a fatalistic humanism--of even Frank Herbert's book. Instead, Villeneuve provides exposition that establishes religion as merely a manipulatable human impulse ("superstition")--making the Middle Eastern and Irish tones in Hans Zimmer's score particularly risible and never rousing (derivative of Peter Gabriel's THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST and Zimmer/Junkie XL's own Wonder Woman theme in BATMAN V SUPERMAN). Through the audience proxy Paul's ratty brattiness, Villeneuve reduces Faith to a final solution of vengeance exacted upon irredeemable races by an oppressed tribe. Consumerism IS the new Fascism. Even sandworms--and a COVID-conquered global populace--bow down to it. Audiences don't need--and I predict won't want--the promised sequel. We live its nightmare.

[Jondalar]

Dune (Denis Villeneuve)

Denis Villeneuve's #DUNE begs the questions: Is it too dull to accuse of "Fascism"? No! Look beyond the intellectual murk of the beige-on-beige-on-beige Brutalism of the futuristic sci-fi production design and photography. DUNE fans will geek out on Easter eggs but popular audiences will be left unimpressed: Villeneuve casts obnoxious and pouty Timothee Chalomet as protagonist Paul because he looks a rodent (the character's future namesake), a sandworm's homage--the film's cgi anti-climax--foreshadows Paul's unfathomable genetic destiny, Jason Mamoa's sacrifice as Duncan Idaho feels meaningless (rather than legendary), and more. Remember that David Lynch's 1984 DUNE imaginatively interprets--and transcends--the source material to examine culture personally, constituting an under-appreciated mystic and triumphant vision. Through idiosyncratic imagery, Lynch conveys religious longing for salvation and justice: hypnotic images of obsidian water drops, uncontainable sexual surrealism contradicting and expressing sterile eugenic planning. Meanwhile, Villeneuve conflates puppy love with genocide. Yes, Zandaya's narration makes this as hiply depressing as an episode of EUPHORIA. Compare that to Lynch's myth-making and palpably mythic prologue delivered by Virginia Madsen. A moral let-down: Villeneuve's #DUNE ends mid-story, sprinkled with spice-dust hallucinations as "coming attractions." At over 2-1/2 hours, it all amounts to movie history's longest trailer. In Villeneuve's half-adaptation, Paul's revenge quest erases the moral challenge--a fatalistic humanism--of even Frank Herbert's book. Instead, Villeneuve provides exposition that establishes religion as merely a manipulatable human impulse ("superstition")--making the Middle Eastern and Irish tones in Hans Zimmer's score particularly risible and never rousing (derivative of Peter Gabriel's THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST and Zimmer/Junkie XL's own Wonder Woman theme in BATMAN V SUPERMAN). Through the audience proxy Paul's ratty brattiness, Villeneuve reduces Faith to a final solution of vengeance exacted upon irredeemable races by an oppressed tribe. Consumerism IS the new Fascism. Even sandworms--and a COVID-conquered global populace--bow down to it. Audiences don't need--and I predict won't want--the promised sequel. We live its nightmare.

16. DUNE, grade A = I loved this movie. Having read the books and watched the awful 1982 movie, I thought there was no way they would be able to successfully bring this to the big screen again. Well, they did and thanks to Denis Villeneuve, it's almost a masterpiece. This movie is all about world building and this is just part 1. Don't expect a great dramatic ending. The book is soo dense and complicated, that trying to cram the whole story into 1 movie is a death knell. Thus, the movie is only an introduction into this world and Denis Villeneuve's DUNE is a magnificent, visual masterpiece. You have to watch this on the big screen. I cannot wait for part 2. I'm soo glad that the director is really trying to world build and not just after a quick buck. DUNE is such a great book. It deserves this type of care.♥️

[TrueFaith77]

Lol well we not only seemed to have seen different movies, we seem to have read different books.

Brian Herbert’s perspective is a humanist one but his belief is that history nonetheless returns to medieval tribalism and despotism.

Hence Paul’s dilemma in the book between revenge and the “wild jihad” that leads to the massacre of billions across the galaxy. His fault in the book is that he believes he can possibly defeat his enemies and steer the future away from the holy war — a despotic delusion.

But the MOVIE does not visualize or dramatize this dilemma. I would argue that it celebrates his choice. The only hint at this choice in the movie is when he kills Jamis—after his vision suggested an alternative future in which they became friends. However, that’s bogus because Paul had no choice—it was, in fact, Jamis’s choice. I defy anyone to tell me why he makes it based on the movie alone (it’s clear in the book). So where in the movie does Paul make his fateful decision? Why? How is it expressed?

One more point: Denis Villeneuve used to be a master of using motifs to achieve a climactic gestalt—the tattoo in Incendies, Guernica in Polytechnique, the scary designs in Prisoners, the monkey figurines in Sicario.

What has happened to him?

He attempts this with the recurring cris-knife gift-giving, the return to Paul’s grandfather’s bull-fighting death. But they all lead to nothing.

I think if he had defeated Jamis with the cris-knife using bull-fighting technique, it would have tied those elements together and could have dramatized his betrayal of his ancestors. Instead, those motifs are reduced to insignificance. Mere Easter Eggs—as the kids say.

And the movie looked like a video game. Puke.

[TrueFaith77]

Army of Thieves (Matthias Schweighöfer)

.@netflix releases @MSchweighoefer @ZackSnyder #ArmyOfThieves—a prequel to #ArmyoftheDead. It is so effectively romantical. The secret of the safe unlocks the characters’ and the culture’s origin stories. Hence, the film’s essential primer on Wagner’s Ring Cycle: education + fun.

ETA: More on #ArmyOfThieves: Note how @MSchweighoefer cracks safes—he plumbs the depths of its design and then LISTENS. Just as the safe-cracking encourages us to listen to Wagner, each tumbler click visualizes mental “clicks” connecting designer, characters, culture. Rhapsodic.

[Jondalar]

17. Last Night in Soho, grade B+ = I really enjoyed this film. It’s a very stylish horror, mystery movie. The acting is great, and so is the music. There is also a really good twist ending. I didn’t give this a higher grade because It wasn’t really scary but it’s still a good little horror film.

[TrueFaith77]

Of the 55 new movies I’ve seen so far this year, here’s the 11 movies of 2021 I *hated* in declining order (from bad to worst):



Dune
Judas and the Black Messiah
Malcolm & Marie
The Little Things
I Care a Lot.
The Guilty
The Many Saints of Newark
The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It
Woman in the Window
Halloween Kills
The Suicide Squad

[Jondalar]

Of the 55 new movies I’ve seen so far this year, here’s the 11 movies of 2021 I *hated* in declining order (from bad to worst):



Dune
Judas and the Black Messiah
Malcolm & Marie
The Little Things
I Care a Lot.
The Guilty
The Many Saints of Newark
The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It
Woman in the Window
Halloween Kills
The Suicide Squad


This is not a great year for movies, however, the movies expected to win awards haven't been released yet.

[TrueFaith77]

This is not a great year for movies, however, the movies expected to win awards haven't been released yet.

Not a great year - true. But it’s been a good year with 25 terrific movies I’ve seen this year.

Oscar-bait movies are never good anyway.

I do hope the new Terence Davies movie comes out this year.

That could shake things up.

It’s called Benediction.

ETA: Now slated for 2022 release.

[TrueFaith77]

SPENCER

Pablo Larraín luxuriously mounts the Princess Di biopic SPENCER as a Kubrickian psychodrama about eating disorders and self-harm, in which the threat of “sandwiches” proves as ominous as “Tuesday” in THE SHINING. Unfortunately, the film fails to recognize her rebellion as an extension of self-destruction, conflating her duty with a scheduled wardrobe labeled “P.O.W.” and celebrating her lack of fidelity with a hat brandishing “O.P.P.”

[Jondalar]

18. Eternals, grade C - = huge disappointment and the first MCU movie that most critics dislike. What really ruins this movie is the structure. it’s full of flashbacks and feels like the director didn’t know how to tell the story. The movie keeps flashing back and then forward and it’s just weird. The story is also overly complicated and the movie is very long winded. The director won the Academy Award for Best Director last year so everyone was expecting a pretty good movie, not this thing. It’s a mess. There are some good fight scenes and neat creatures in it but not enough to make up for the storytelling.

[TrueFaith77]

LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE (Eleanor Coppola):
Eleanor Coppola explores the existential malaise and triumphs of her bourgeois female characters in PARIS CAN WAIT and, now, the three short stories of LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE (characters toast “to us and people like us”). Through thematically intertwined tales of infidelity and regret, understanding and forgiveness, she ultimately achieves spiritual—cathartic—revelations (“beautiful secrets”). Not just truthful, it’s honest. Coppola roots her life lessons in an essentially Catholic tradition and grounds them in class-specificity (FaceTime dinner dates, retirement-age boat picnics, and housekeeper-catered secular rituals). She structures character development as relational through complexity and surprise, narrative as confession and reconciliation. Through this process, Coppola extends irony into a metaphysical perspective—a prismatic expansion of Diane Lane’s prayer in PARIS CAN WAIT. She reveals in dramatic form and in the cinematic distillation of reality an enduring presence of Love as assured forgiveness, but also the necessity of perseverance (the secret to a happy marriage? “Never getting divorced”). Taking a confessional approach—“creative non-fiction”(?) transformed into compassion—Coppola elicits from her actresses moments of grace almost worthy of Rodrigo Garcia. Most poignantly, Cybill Shepard’s politically challenging monologue encapsulates the spiritual toll of the sexual revolution through its nearly iconic perceptual reality—a benediction for the modern woman.

[Jondalar]

19. Spider-Man, No Way Home, grade A-, = my only criticism of this movie is it is too long. Other than that, it’s pretty much perfect. The movie sets up the MCU Multi-Verse and it’s actually a very important movie to the MCU. The plot is complicated but understandable and there are excellent action scenes which feature multiple villains. This is one of the best MCU movies. Watch it in the theaters.

[Jondalar]

20. West Side Story, B = this movie is directed brilliantly and it is great to look at. However, I couldn’t wait to get out of the theater. I felt the themes of the movie were dated and I just couldn’t get into it. I’ve already seen the original West Side Story and know the songs and story. The remake bored me.

[Jondalar]

21. Nightmare Alley, grade D+ = Style over substance. Great art direction but lousy story and plot. Huge disappointment. The most overrated movie of the year. The movie is about Carnival workers but somehow managed to be boring. Skip this one. It’s only getting some good reviews because the director won an Oscar.

[Jondalar]

22. Ghostbuster Afterlife, grade B = This movie was a lot better than expected. It reminded me of Poltergeist and The Frighteners from 1980s. It has a genuine 1980s feel about it and the movie just works. It's very nostalgic and the special effects are decent. The problem with the movie is that everything is pretty good but nothing is great. The original Ghostbusters do make an appearance.

[TrueFaith77]

#TheNineWorthies - 9 Best Films of 2021
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/johndemetry/_thenineworthies-9-best-movies-of-2021/

1.Shoplifters of the World (Stephen Kijak): The soundtrack of songs by The Smiths—the greatest band of all time—both expresses a day of revelations for its characters returning home from freshman-year at college—a primal experience—while the narrative analyzes the music of The Smiths (and all pop-music enthusiasm), so that the band’s sub-cult subversion and compassion revitalizes hetero rom-com ritual and creates definitive Myths of young adult self-discovery

2.Zack Snyder’s Justice League (Zack Snyder) / Army of the Dead (Zack Snyder) / Army of Thieves (Matthias Schweighöfer): Zack Snyder’s Autumn Cycle confronts private grief (the primal familial scene of impotence in Army of the Dead) but expresses it as a universal longing repressed within the culture (the burial of the safe-maker in Army of Thieves)—and then fulfills those films’ primers on Wagner’s Ring Cycle and their redemptive sacrifices through the awesome spiritual spectacle (Good and Evil, Power and Love personified) of Zack Snyder’s Justice League—the very existence of which is a modern-day miracle

3.Summer of 85 (Francois Ozon): Ozon deconstructs narrative and p.o.v. while simultaneously achieving high melodrama and ravishing romanticism—a real tear-jerker—by so completely intertwining transgression-and-sentiment that the year’s most cathartic scene (see the title of the film’s source material) leads to gay reckoning with mortality and earns existential hope—Ozon finally synthesizing the influences of Hitchcock and Rohmer to create his best film (so far)

4.Asphalt Goddess (Julian Hernandez): MVP Alejandro Cantu’s soaring camera and graphically striking compositions affords operatic largesse to Hernandez’s gay empathy and the majesty of Tragedy to the economically and sexually oppressed female barrio gang members whose unfulfilled longings twist the value of loyalty and their own feminine instincts into murderous betrayal

5.Saint-Narcisse (Bruce LaBruce): Philology 101(a) - LaBruce piles on sexy taboo (twin-cest) on top of kinky taboo (lesbian-cest) and pop history (from The Rolling Stones’ Stick Fingers to De Palma’s Obsession and Carrie) to interrogate Western culture’s central myths—classical-Greek and Catholic—and uncover its kernel of truth (and cinema’s essence in montage)—destructive narcissism replaced by the social imagination of gratuitous Love

6.White as Snow (Anne Fontaine): Philology 101(b) - Fontaine’s naughty conceit in which a drop-dead-gorgeous woman draws out the affection and goodness of her seven admirers and the fatal jealousy of her mother-figure nemesis reworks fairy tale tropes and symbolism to unexpectedly discern a Catholic (Marian) essence—so fun and beautiful it’s worthy as an addendum to Neil Jordan’s masterpieces A Company of Wolves and Byzantium

7.Sublet (Eytan Fox): At his best, Fox expresses questions of Jewish identity (the search for home and longing for the Other in God) through gay desire and surprising catharsis, which here manifests itself in a tourism journalist and his younger air-bnb host exposing first their deep wounds and needs and then healing them through intimacy

8.About Endlessness (Roy Andersson): The artifice of Andersson’s aesthetic creates hilarious vignettes out of spiritual realities, by which the indignities of daily life take on the gravity of cosmic persecution, amounting to a deconstruction of the most mysterious of icons—the Cross—from the vantage of the film’s opening apocalypse (like a sequel to his You the Living) and the book-ending infinite horizon

9.Annette (Leos Carax): In a year of 30 pretty terrific films, Carax’s enervating and cinematically astounding musical film anchors this best-of list because its climax achieves a jaw-dropping aesthetic coup that pulls together all of Carax’s gambits to express a profoundly moral denunciation that identifies the limits of love and forgiveness for a nihilistic era desperately in need of miracles and compassion

Runners-up (alphabetical): Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude); Casanova, Last Love (Benoit Jacques); Cliff Walkers (Zhang Yimou); Coming 2 America (Craig Brewer); A Cop Movie (Alonso Ruizpalacios); Cry Macho (Clint Eastwood); Dear Comrades (Andrei Konchalovsky); France (Bruno Dumont); French Exit (Azazel Jacobs); Georgetown (Christoph Waltz); Keep an Eye Out (Quentin Dupieux); Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson); Love Is Love Is Love (Eleanor Coppola); Mandibles (Quentin Dupieux); Pig (Michael Sarnoski); Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (Johannes Roberts); Sin (Andrei Konchalovsky); Sin Hijos (Roberto Fiesco); Sophie Jones (Jessie Barr); Together (Stephen Daldry)

[TrueFaith77]

Forget the #Oscars!
Here’s… the 2021 #JohnnieAwards

BEST PICTURE: SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD (Stephen Kijak)

BEST DIRECTOR: Zack Snyder (ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE)

BEST ACTOR: Félix Lefebvre (SUMMER OF 85)

BEST ACTRESS: Helena Howard (SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Nick Krause (SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Elena Kampouris (SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: SAINT-NARCISSE (Martin Girard, Bruce LaBruce)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: WHITE AS SNOW (Claire Barre, Pascal Bonitzer, Anne Fontaine)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: ANNETTE (Caroline Champetier)

BEST FILM EDITING: ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE (David Brenner)

MOST ARTISTIC AND UNIQUE PRODUCTION DESIGN AND VISUAL EFFECTS: ABOUT ENDLESSNESS

BEST MUSIC SCORE: ARMY OF THIEVES (Hans Zimmer, Steve Mazzaro)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: ASPHALT GODDESS (Julian Hernandez)

BEST GAY FILM: SUMMER OF 85 (Francois Ozon)

[DownOnRodeo]

Saw "Reminscence" (2021). Visually pleasing but everything else was weak and cringe. Should have been called "Exposition."

Fascinating to hear that its screenplay had been on the Black List of top unproduced screenplays. They probably needed to further 'adapt' the screenplay into a movie.

[TrueFaith77]

32.Firestarter (Keith Thomas); grade: C+
33.Memory (Martin Campbell); grade: C
34.Montana Story (Scott McGehee, David Siegel); grade: F

Two B-movies and an American Indie film deal in different ways with child abuse. None do so sufficiently, even as they tap into subterranean political fears. From best to worst (essentially in order of cinematically satisfying catharsis): 1) Firestarter streamlines typically overpacked Stephen King material. A secret government agency tortures two young adults in experiments that transform them into psychic human weapons. They parent a messianic child with nuclear-potential powers. Zac Efron’s perfect physique makes him an impressive Daddy and a Zaddy. When he unleashes his and his daughter’s rage—in refreshingly low-fi practical effects—it conveys something resonant about parental authority compared to all-too-believable government treachery (Gloria Reuben resonates as the villain). 2) Meanwhile, Campbell’s overlong Memory is the best directed of the 3. It emphasizes the determinism of trauma in Liam Neeson’s amorality as a hitman who finds his moral center: “I don’t hurt children.” His quest to destroy those that do takes him to the realm of the rich and powerful, those above the law and moral law. “My son was weak. You are not my son,” threatens Monica Bellucci. 3) Finally, McGehee-Siegel tie child abuse to abuse of the environment in an aesthetically constipated film. Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague play estranged activist sister and gay brother with clenched expressions. They replace family obligation and forgiveness with murder, justified by their respective self-righteousness and guilt. The movie’s final shot could have given release after the dour resolution, but the directors euthanize the cinematic potential.

[TrueFaith77]

35.Downton Abbey: A New Era (Simon Curtis); grade: F

Downton Abbey is anti-cinema. The latest installment in the franchise is directed by the abominable Simon Curtis (My Week With Marilyn, The Woman in Gold), but Julian Fellowes is the real show-runner here. Fellowes learned nothing from working with master auteur Robert Altman on the surprise hit Godford Park that made Downton Abbey possible—and unacceptable. As in Gosford Park, the invasion into an Upstairs-Downstairs world by movie celebrities rings Fellowes’ bells. In Gosford, Altman explored the sources of devastating fantasy while Fellowes now indulges it (but without offending his audience of aristocracy queens). A filmmaker cites Abel Gance’s titanic (now hard-to-find) Napoleon as the impetus for filming a silent movie on location at Downton abbey. Then, Fellowes ripping off Singin’ in the Rain, the filmmaker ludicrously makes the transition to sound without filming in a studio. Like the MCU, the Downton Abbey franchise is television that makes no room for artists or narrative fulfillment. There’s not an expressive edit or shot in the film (two characters exclaim over a French Riviera beach view, and Curtis cuts to a reverse shot in which the actors’ heads are in focus but the view is not). Like serialized TV, it’s all anti-climaxes (Will Mary cheat on her husband? Does Cora have cancer? Is Robert illegitimate? Will Thomas get laid? No, no, no, and who knows?). It completes the transformation from movie fantasy to TV’s total commodification.