2021
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26 titles
- DirectorRyûsuke HamaguchiStarsHidetoshi NishijimaTôko MiuraReika KirishimaA renowned stage actor and director learns to cope with a big personal loss when he receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima.Not alot of stuff happens in this 3 hour movie, but I really liked it.
8/10 - DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsAmir JadidiMohsen TanabandehSahar GoldoostRahim is in prison because of a debt he was unable to repay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum. But things don't go as planned.Could almost be classified as a Dogme 95 film, honestly. I think it's great top to bottom. Despite the main character constantly making terrible decisions you still feel bad for him, which is the quality of good writing in my opinion.
8/10 - DirectorJon WattsStarsTom HollandZendayaBenedict CumberbatchWith Spider-Man's identity now revealed, Peter asks Doctor Strange for help. When a spell goes wrong, dangerous foes from other worlds start to appear, forcing Peter to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.Spoiler review.
Okay, I'm not a Marvel guy. Every movie I watch I find to be alright. There's plenty MCU movies that I still haven't seen. I also don't really have a connection to the other Spiderman movies. So, some of the references and continuity stuff and whatnot completely flew by my head. I don't think I've seen Spiderman 3 since I was 11, so when Sandman showed up I started laughing. Not because I thought the jokes were funny or because I thought it was terrible. I hadn't connected the dots so in my head this was just some random mud man showing up out of nowhere and for a few minutes I basked in the idea that he was. I loved the idea of introducing a weird mud monster out of nowhere who apparently knows everything about Spiderman and helps him and then disappears for the rest of the movie. However, then he was captured as well and I realized who it was.
The movie was fun for sure. As someone who's not into the lore it also was a bit too melodramatic. During the most dramatic moments I wasn't moved in a way that is expected, but rather focusing more on thinking how the scenes would be better without any music informing the audience of what they should be feeling. I will give the actors credit, though. They all give solid performances and appear to have good chemistry with each other, especially Tom Holland and Zendaya, which makes sense because I guess that they're a real life couple now? Willem Dafoe is fun, Jamie Foxx is fun, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are great.
My favorite scene is probably when the Peter Parkers are on top of the statue of liberty and just talking to each other before the final fight. I would love like a 10 minute version of that scene.
7/10 - DirectorJim CummingsPJ McCabeStarsJim CummingsVirginia NewcombPJ McCabeA married Hollywood agent receives a mysterious letter for an anonymous sexual encounter and becomes ensnared in a sinister world of lying, murder and infidelity.
American Psycho meets The Square meets Under the Silver Lake written, directed by and starring Jimmy Carr meets Archie from Riverdale meets Barclay from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was a strange ride indeed. Even though the third act started to almost feel like a cluster-fuck, I did enjoy said ride overall.
7/10 - DirectorValdimar JóhannssonStarsNoomi RapaceHilmir Snær GuðnasonBjörn Hlynur HaraldssonA childless couple discovers a mysterious newborn on their farm in Iceland.Despite me basically figuring out the entire plot after the first 15-20 minutes it was a solid film.
7/10 - DirectorPablo LarraínStarsKristen StewartTimothy SpallSally HawkinsDiana Spencer, struggling with mental-health problems during her Christmas holidays with the Royal Family at their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, decides to end her decade-long marriage to Prince Charles.What prevents Kristen Stewart from being a great actress is that she always seem to hold back in her performances. She pretty much whispers all of her dialogue in this movie - even during the scenes when she's screaming. Sally Hawkins, for the short period she's in the movie, gives a more well-rounded performance than her in my opinion. It's a shame because she (Stewart) has so much talent, but I guess that she's scared to give it her all or something. She's great when she's silent and lets her actions speak for themselves, but whenever she's required to reach those high emotions with dialogue it falls short for me.
The movie surrounding her is high quality, though. I like the tone, the directing, the score, the dogs and pheasants etc.
7/10 - DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsDon CheadleBenicio Del ToroDavid HarbourA group of criminals are brought together under mysterious circumstances and have to work together to uncover what's really going on when their simple job goes completely sideways.The plot is very convoluted, everyone gives their most awkward performance to date and I wasn't a fan of the fisheyed lense. Not Soderbergh at his best.
5/10 - DirectorKitao SakuraiStarsEric AndréMichaela ConlinLil Rel HoweryThis mix of a scripted buddy comedy road movie and a real hidden camera prank show follows the outrageous misadventures of two buds stuck in a rut who embark on a cross-country road trip to NYC. The storyline sets up shocking real pranks.The framing device is very uninteresting and formulaic, but the execution of the scenes definitely makes up for it. You don't watch this for the framing device, you watch it for the hidden camera pranks. I love The Eric Andre Show and so this is right up my alley.
7/10 - DirectorLeonardo Di CostanzoStarsToni ServilloSilvio OrlandoFabrizio FerracaneThe last remains of a prison, guards and a few inmates, are waiting to be transferred and gradually the rules seem to make less and less sense and the waiting men become a new fragile community.
- DirectorJan P. MatuszynskiStarsTomasz ZietekSandra KorzeniakJacek BraciakIn 1983, communist Poland is shaken by the case of high school student Grzegorz Przemyk, who is beaten to death by police. The only witness of the beating becomes the number one enemy of the state.
- DirectorCary Joji FukunagaStarsDaniel CraigAna de ArmasRami MalekJames Bond has left active service. His peace is short-lived when Felix Leiter, an old friend from the CIA, turns up asking for help, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.I mean, I guess it's technically a good movie. It's well shot and well acted. Except for the little girl who somehow doesn't scream or cry once despite her being a child put in very stressful scenarios. Scenarios where every single child that doesn't appear in a Hollywood movie would scream and cry all the time. Besides that, everyone else does a fine job.
This movie is far too melodramatic, in my opinion and I'm going to get into my opinion in grave detail. This as a standalone movie, all good. I wouldn't really be at odds with it other than maybe the 2.45h runtime. I didn't really like that they turned Blofeld into Hannibal Lecter either, but that doesn't take up too much of the movie. This as a James Bond movie, not so much. I'm a huge James Bond fan. I've been a fan since I was a child. We had Goldeneye and The World is Not Enough on VHS and I would watch them constantly. I would love whenever a Bond movie would show up on TV. So, the franchise has a very strong nostalgic feeling to me. I love the dated qualities of the early movies because of these nostalgic ties. My favorite Bond is The Bond - Sean Connery. And going into a James Bond film, that is kind of what I want. I want schlock, I want ridiculous action set-pieces, weird lines, a little awkwardness, but most of all I want them to be light-hearted and fun. I'm never going to get a Bond movie like this again because A: I don't think anyone else wants the same thing and B: You can't make a movie like that in this day and age. So, as a result the movie goes all in on having an emotional story, a heavy plot with huge stakes and tearful drama. I can't say that I want that from my James Bond movies. Does this movie completely lack ridiculous action? No and that's the problem. It has like 3 or 4 moments in it that I would love in a James Bond movie. However, the movie doesn't go all in on that and so it feels very inconsistent. You can't have Bond riding his motorcycle up an 85° wall in the same movie where he shares his emotional goodbye to his woman and daughter. If you're going to have a moment like that in your movie then you need to have more of a tounge-in-cheek approach to it.
This year I've delved into the obscure Eurospy sub-genre of the mid 60's which is, if you don't know, cheap James Bond ripoffs produced mostly in Italy from like 1964 to 1967. I gotta say that I would probably rewatch alot of those again before I would rewatch this. I would much rather see Special Mission Lady Chaplin, Requiem For a Secret Agent or Operation: Kid Brother again rather than an actual cannon James Bond movie. Who knows? Maybe I'll come around to this movie again in the future. My friend who I saw it with completely disagreed with me. He said it's probably the best James Bond movie he's seen. But as it is, I'm not feeling it.
6/10 - DirectorSean BakerStarsSimon RexBree ElrodSuzanna SonMikey Saber is a washed-up porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown, not that anyone really wants him back.
- DirectorSam LevinsonStarsJohn David WashingtonZendayaA director and his girlfriend's relationship is tested after they return home from his movie premiere and face each other's turmoil during one long night.From the second the very first argument starts I wanted the movie to be over. I don't think it's bad, but I found it really hard to get behind any of the two main characters. Couples argue with each other all the time, some break up because of it and some endure. I endured this movie even though we were at odds multiple times. The point is obviously to show the ugly side of a relationship, to appeal to everyone who's felt like Marie or who's felt like Malcolm at any given point in their own relationships - except that not everyone is a famous filmmaker and living in a mansion, whatever. Malcolm's rants were annoying for the most part. Intentionally so, he's supposed to be in the wrong I think. So, you can't really get behind him. John David Washington does a good job playing a self-centred over-the-top douchebag except for that one scene when he's trying REALLY hard to shed a single tear. Zendaya is tricky, though. She has a couple of well performed monologues. However, maybe it's just me, but for the first half of the movie I was not believing her. Everything she said rang false to me. She didn't feel like a real character, she felt like an actor rehearsing her lines. It was really weird, because as I said, she came back and in the second half I believed her again. But, I had already spent half of the movie not believing her, so I couldn't get behind her character either.
I've never seen Scenes from a Marriage or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, so I can't compare the films to each other. I have seen Marriage Story. I would call Malcolm & Marie a "discount Marriage Story". Because in Marriage Story you also see the hideous side of a relationship, but you find it very easy to like both of the characters. John David Washington and Zendaya are quality actors, but they're no Adam Driver and Scarlett Johanson. It may also have to do with the fact that Sam Levinson ain't no Noah Baumbach. Maybe he will be in 20 years, but he's got some catching up to do.
This really should've been a play. For most of the runtime I thought it was based on a play and I was going to complain about the movie constraining itself and not transforming it enough through the art of film, but it's not a play. This is an original script. A play can more easily get away with over-the-top theatrical performances and other petty shit I may complain about. When you make it a movie then you're forcing the audience to only pay attention to the dialogue and the actors deliverying said dialogue and you're forcing them to pinpoint character inconsistencies, specific line deliveries and shit like that. You're also forcing me to constantly ask myself: Why is this shot in black and white? Is it to show how black and white relationships aren't? If relationships aren't black and white then shouldn't the movie be shot in color? Is it shot in black and white because the characters are black? Then what signifies the white? Would this movie be any different at all if it was shot in color? Maybe it's a budget thing because it's shot on film? Why even shoot it on film in the first place? If this was a play then this whole aspect wouldn't matter at all.
Yeah, this movie is an allegory of me watching it minus the part where I wake up in bed with it the next morning. It's not bad, even if I come off as if it's the worst thing ever. I think that's all I have to say about it, I've been going on for a while now. And no, Academy, this is not a 2020 film. Just because your movies didn't get a release last year doesn't mean that other great movies didn't either. Stop being to transparent.
6/10 - CreatorMike FlanaganStarsKate SiegelZach GilfordKristin LehmanAn isolated island community experiences miraculous events - and frightening omens - after the arrival of a charismatic, mysterious young priest.Spoiler review.
It's a meditation on contrasting beliefs and how to deal with (or not deal with) each other. It's an astute observation on alchoholism and its stages. It's a thorough study on the different interpretations of the holy scriptures. It's all very fascinating. And then the last episode is basically a zombie movie. The way it's structured is somewhat similar to the video game Until Dawn. The first chapters are setting up all these different things and ultimately it evolves into fun survival at the end with lots of fire.
One of my complaints would be that, like Until Dawn, it isn't really all that scary. It alludes to being scary in the first 2 episodes, but it never reaches there. It doesn't have the moments that will pop up in my head when I'm trying to sleep like The Haunting of Hill House has.
It's mostly a drama/mystery with horror elements. It really takes its time to flesh out the characters accompanied with several scenes of all the different actors getting their moments to truly shine and shine they do. This is a great ensemble piece. Nobody sticks out like a sore thumb in my opinion. Here Midnight Mass trumps The Haunting of Hill House, because the acting in that is very spotty. Zach Gilford, Kate Siegel, Hamish Linklater, Rahul Kohli, they all have monologues that'll end up on their reels for the rest of their lives. Rahul Kohli especially impressed me. The scene when he first discusses going to the mass with his son was phenomenally performed.
Giving myself a week to digest everything may leave me with enough reading material to warrant publication, but I'll just leave it at this. It's great if you've liked previous Mike Flanagan projects, which I have. I still think I prefer Doctor Sleep, but this is wonderful as well. It's not without its issues, of course, few things are. However I believe that the achievement blows the flaws out of the water.
8/10 - CreatorRZAAlex TseStarsAshton SandersShameik MooreSiddiq SaundersonThe show tracks the Wu Tang Clan's formation, a vision of Bobby Diggs, who strives to unite a dozen young Black men who are torn between music and crime but eventually rise to become the unlikeliest of American success stories.Season 2
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsTimothée ChalametRebecca FergusonZendayaA noble family becomes embroiled in a war for control over the galaxy's most valuable asset while its heir becomes troubled by visions of a dark future.
- DirectorWes AndersonStarsBenicio Del ToroAdrien BrodyTilda SwintonA love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional twentieth century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in "The French Dispatch Magazine".
- DirectorSion SonoStarsNicolas CageSofia BoutellaNick CassavetesA notorious criminal must break an evil curse in order to rescue an abducted girl who has mysteriously disappeared.
- DirectorGuillermo del ToroStarsBradley CooperCate BlanchettToni ColletteA grifter working his way up from low-ranking carnival worker to lauded psychic medium matches wits with a psychologist bent on exposing him.
- DirectorDavid LoweryStarsDev PatelAlicia VikanderJoel EdgertonA fantasy retelling of the medieval story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
- DirectorJames WanStarsAnnabelle WallisMaddie HassonGeorge YoungMadison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.
- DirectorShaka KingStarsLaKeith StanfieldDaniel KaluuyaJesse PlemonsOffered a plea deal by the FBI, William O'Neal infiltrates the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party to gather intelligence on Chairman Fred Hampton.
- DirectorMalcolm D. LeeStarsLeBron JamesDon CheadleCedric JoeA rogue artificial intelligence kidnaps the son of famed basketball player LeBron James, who then has to work with Bugs Bunny to win a basketball game.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsLady GagaAdam DriverAl PacinoWhen Patrizia Reggiani, an outsider from humble beginnings, marries into the Gucci family, her unbridled ambition begins to unravel their legacy and triggers a reckless spiral of betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately...murder.
- DirectorJulia DucournauStarsVincent LindonAgathe RousselleGarance MarillierFollowing a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for ten years.
- DirectorEdgar WrightStarsThomasin McKenzieAnya Taylor-JoyMatt SmithAspiring fashion designer Eloise is mysteriously able to return to 1960s London, where she encounters dazzling wannabe singer Sandie. But the glamour is not as it seems, and the dreams of the past crack and splinter into something darker.