2020 Movie Reviews
 

1. Underwater, grade C+ = is deep sea disaster, monster movie. For a January movie this horror sci-fi movie is decent. Usually the movie industry dumps its total duds in the month of January but this movie has plenty going for it, most notable is the lightning speed pacing. Right off the bat the crew of the deep sea station is in trouble and that’s it. The movie is a race for survival for 99% of the movie. The acting is good. The special effects are decent and the monsters are surprising in ways. The problem with the movie is there is no character development and basically no plot but survival. Also, the movie is really dark and sometimes it’s hard to tell what is going on.

If you like movies like Alien, Pandorum, The Relic, Leviathon, or Deep Star Six, you will probably like this movie. It’s not as good as some of those but it’s decent, especially for a January movie.

Here’s a publicity shot of cute little Ronald Raccoon, co-star of Flaherty’s LOUISIANA STORY (1948), a decent enough little picture about confused but satisfied Acadians, frolicking in the shadows of oil derricks in the swampy bayous. Ronald Raccoon walks off with the acting honors in this petit-portrait. Aside from Ronald, it’s refreshing to see a picture whose cuts need to be shorter, not longer, and to see the poor when they aren’t all bent out of shape over being poor, or hopped up on political grievances!

I have nothing to say about Virgil Thomson.

https://1001movienights.files.wordpr.../05/images.jpg

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RFQTZ2KQB...81948%2529.jpg

2. Gretal and Hansel, grade C+ = another horror movie, great atmosphere, some genuinely scary moments but a story I couldn’t quite make sense at the end. There is a witch in this movie and her story gets muddled at the end and it really hurts the movie. However this movie has great art direction and I did enjoy looking at it. It’s a mixed bag.

3. Birds of Prey, grade C = Blah! Margot Robbie is a great Harley Quinn and that plus some decent fight scenes is all the good stuff. The story is only ok, there is no joker, and the evil guy is not that evil or appealing. Huntress is barely in the story and black canary is wasted. Another February dud. They should of just made this an origin story about HarleyQuinn and skipped the other women.

It's funny that one of the big complaints from fans about Suicide Squad was: "Not enough Joker!"

WB's response: No Joker at all!

sad.

#ReleaseTheSnyderCut

Ok, Parasite was lovely. I really enjoyed it! It was a dark film, but I found myself laughing at times.

I thought it was a terrible film, and am disturbed by its popularity.

On Facebook, a friend's mother asked me if I disliked it because it demonstrates "class differences" (considering how well she knows me, the question is bewildering -- I saw NASHVILLE with her in theaters!)

The answer to that charge is clear: the movie portrays the struggling classes as cretinous and the rich as vaguely suffering from mental challenges. In other words, it's phony.

A stranger on Twitter said the movie has the best editing, cinematography, and screenplay of the year! Oscar-speak. sigh. I responded that the editing failed to raise suspense (e.g., the coffee table sequence) or clarity (e.g., who killed whom at the end, and why?). The cinematography, I believe translates as "I want that house!" The screenplay? I think it's "OMG, there's a guy in the basement!"

Hateful film. And no fun. And I'm easy.

I didn't think it was phony. I thought it was a dark comedy on a, "what if this happened". I will say when the "protagonists" kept getting everything they wanted, I thought, "Oh crap, I'm going to hate this downfall." I didn't. What I loved about it was the fact that the down-slide wasn't typical. I thought the author had quite the sense of humor.

I tend not to politicize things, so I don't have a point of view of: This is too liberal or conservative. Or, it mocks a certain group/class.

As far as phony, I work for a lot of rich people and some of them act exactly like that. Especially, with their children.

Exactly. I just thought it was lame.

Stop whatever you are doing and go see STRAIGHT UP now!

This wonderful and surprising movie finally answers Morrissey’s plaint:

“The woman of my dreams, She, She never came along
The woman of my dreams, Well, There never was one”

Katie Findlay is the actress to beat in 2020.

Actor-Writer-Director James Sweeney makes a remarkable debut.

It’s the best American gay movie since BEAUTIFUL SOMETHING.

It’s playing limited release so hope others can see it streaming soon ... but not too soon.


ETA: Even better the second time!

There is a joke that ranks with the funniest lines of dialogue I’ve ever heard, but then by the time i/the audience was done laughing at the joke—I was crying.

Will there be a better American movie this year?

4. The Invisible Man, grade B+ = solid horror film, everyone I know who has seen this film has liked it. It’s creepy and well thought out and has an excellent performance by Elizabeth Moss in it. It also manages to surprise on a few occasions. The first good film I’ve seen of 2020.

You are missing out. Straight Up, Corpus Christi, and The Traitor are all superb.

As for Invisible Man, I can't stand looking at Elizabeth Moss. Wish she had been invisible.

I haven’t even seen those movies playing in my area.
Elizabeth is no beauty.

5.The Hunt, grade B = fun movie about a bunch of hicks, deploreables kidnapped and hunted down by leftist, globalist. It trashes both sides of the political spectrum but doesn't take itself too seriously. It's a dark comedy and I was pleasantly surprised. Stars Betty Gilpen, in a star making performance and Hillary Swank. The movie is just entertaining and doesn't try to be a masterpiece.

watched this last night.
It was okay. A bit too talkey-talkey-talkey for my liking though (Just shaduuuuup!). Also, just rather too contrived. I understand this is needed for the entire premise of the film, but it meant I didn't really care that much about the characters.

Not 2020 films, but what I've watched during the lockdown so far...

Death of Stalin, Two Popes, Lost in Translation, Straight Up, The Green Book, Marriage Story, Only You, Joker, Roma, Bohemian Rhapsody, Blinded by the Light, Berlin I Love You, Boyhood, The Babadook, Incendies, Knives Out, Jumanji: The Next Level, Peanut Butter Falcon, Thoroughbreds, Nightcrawler, Leave No Trace, The Big Short, The Favourite, Captain Fantastic, The Great Gatsby, Begin Again, A Monster Calls, At Eternity's Gate, My Life As a Courgette, The Meyerowitz Stories, Love Marriage Repeat, Iam Dolomite, Julie & Julia, Pain & Glory, Stranger Than Fiction, Thunder Road, Zathura: A Space Adventure, The Bookshop.

A few new films. A few recent films. A few I always meant to watch but never got around to. A couple I've seen before but wanted to watch again.

I'd recommend;
Incendies: Powerful with a genuine o.m.g. moment- though it does rely on a couple of huge coincidences so you have to suspend disbelief.
Marriage Story: Adam Driver just became my favourite actor.
The Babadook: Really clever and thought provoking.
Leave No Trace: Engaging.
Captain Fantastic: An interesting and beautiful film.

6. The New Mutants, grade C+ = this is not a bad movie iat all but it’s not really that good. The plot happens too fast and they just don’t invest enough time with the characters. There are some nice elements and the acting is pretty good, but it just feels empty. Still it has some decent moments and is not a complete waste of time. It is also nice seeing a new group of mutants with new powers on the screen.

Incendies: i guessed the twist when they met with the lawyer at the beginning ;) but the movie runs deeper than its shocking gimmick — it’s radical empathy (as good is Villeneuve’s Polytechnique about a real-life school shooting in Montreal — it’s Guernica cinema)

My Life as a Cucumber: A perfect film.

Pain & Glory: I remain moved by its primal scene — the definitive expression of gay desire’s essential innocence; Almodovar’s masterpiece?

My Life as a Zucchini in the US, My Life as a Courgette in most other places (I believe).
...watched this with my 7 year old daughter and we both loved it. Thankfully some of the adult themes went over her head.

6. Wonder Woman 1984, grade C+ = the movie is sort of a mess. There are two villains, including Cheetah, who is treated like a sideline character in my opinion. The theme of the movie is “Be careful what you wish for,” which has been done to death in other movies. It’s too long and some of it just doesn’t make sense. However, it does have some visually stunning moments, including one when Wonder Woman learns to fly. I was disappointed.

Ahh you are back to your movie reviews. I am so thankful that theaters are open again. I did notice that the new Wonder Woman sold out every showtime at the theaters in my area. Hopefully good sales performance like that will encourage the studios to release more of the new movies they have been sitting on.

#TheNineWorthies - The 9 Best Movies of 2020
1. Straight Up (James Sweeney)
2. On a Magical Night (Christophe Honoré)
3. The New King of Comedy (Stephen Chow)
4. True History of the Kelly Gang (Justin Kurzel)
5. Joan of Arc (Bruno Dumont)
6. Corpus Christi (Jan Komasa)
7. The Traitor (Marco Bellocchio)
8. An Imperfect Murder (James Toback)
9. Capone (Josh Trank)