War for the Planet of the Apes, 03 November 2017, Blu-ray via RedBox
"I save myself."
"Is there anything left of you to save?"
These movies are stupendously good, y’all. I do wonder, though, how folks in the Deaf community experience the movie. Most of the dialogue is in sign language, but the CGI scenes are dark enough that I suspect it would be difficult to follow. Plus, what little I’ve seen indicates that some words are legible, but the overall use doesn't quite correlate to ASL. Hm!
I'm still impressed with how expressive Caesar-as-CGI is. There's an intensity of soul that I find more affecting than in most non-CGI lead actors. Kudos to Serkis and the team of wizards.
Thor: Ragnarok (3D), 04 November 2017, AMC Classic Central City 10
I wish there were more women, and apparently Asgard only contains, like, 350 people. I literally groaned aloud when Strange appeared, and I'm sad Thor’s old team was dispatched without ceremony.
All that aside: THIS MOVIE IS SO FUN. So, so, so fun. Also, Loki is a genuinely awful antihero who's been woobified way too much, but Tom Hiddleston's saunter, man. I am weak. Like, they could have had an additional 20 minutes of Loki and the Last Valkyrie power striding on the bifrost, if I had my way.
Monuments Men, 04 November 2017, DVD via university library
A movie about Cate Blanchett’s character would have been awesome. Like, a psychological thriller of Matt Damon, art curator, trying to get possible-quisling, possible-Resistance agent Cate Blanchett to reveal Nazi art smuggling routes? I want THAT movie.
The Imitation Game, 04 November 2017, DVD via public library
Someone call me when Benedict Cumberbatch finally plays against type.
Gasland, 06 November 2017, streamed via Amazon
For one of my writing classes I’m using Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America as our reader, so we watched this in three parts. It’s actually excellent text if you want to talk about research, because Josh Fox, the filmmaker, details pretty clearly how he went about doing investigation. There are a number of sequences of him just trying to get corporation representatives to sit down in the same room with him and a camera. (In one really fun scene, one executive rapidly backs out of the conference room as they see the camera and realize what the meeting is actually about.) And a lot of it is Fox being rejected, over and over, via voicemail, in contrast to the interviews he conducts with the folks who are being directly affected by fracking. (Even if you don’t know anything else about the film, you’ve probably seen the snippet of him lighting someone’s tap water on fire, which was the main feature of the documentary trailers.) As a narrative device, this works great: we, as an audience, are learning about fracking at the same time he is (or so it seems). The one major issue I have--and it’s possibly a silly one--is the mumblecore monotone Fox uses to narrate. It’s like he really, really wanted to sound like Werner Herzog, but couldn’t quite infuse his voice with the same conviction that Herzog manages. It’s...off-putting.
The Queen, 11 November 2017, DVD via public library
I remember seeing the news about Princess Diana's death and crying, really crying in my bedroom. My mom found me and gave me a hug, murmuring about how it was very sad, and how Diana had tried to do good in the world. (I'm actually crying now, thinking about it, which is odd.) I was too young to be cognizant of the context, so I can barely contrast the movie with the events proper. I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of personal turmoil and state-appropriate grief.
Jupiter Ascending, 11 November 2017, DVD via Netflix
The Wachowskis don't do anything half-measure do they? This movie is lush and imaginative, and Channing Tatum is somehow talking in an entirely different cadence, and I'm not surprised folks were completely weirded out by this movie, because what is happening in this movie? What is going on? (Still more satisfying than the Divergent trilogy. Actually, Mila Kunis would be perfect for a YA sci-fi romp. Someone make that happen immediately.) What glorious and incoherent nonsense.
THESE COSTUMES, THOUGH.
The Big Short, 12 November 2017, DVD via university library
This is the most expensive educational film made to show college sophomore economics classes ever made.
The Incredible Hulk, 13 November 2017, streaming via HBO Now
Weirdly, I had never watched this before (nor the Bana version), even though I am pretty sure I own it on DVD. I appreciate that the movie just dives right in without running us through yet another origin story. And it could just be I’ve accustomed myself to Ruffalo’s interpretation, but Norton's Banner is a bit too squirrelly for my tastes. This is sort of dissatisfying as all the individual MCU movies are, in that the titular hero is just fighting an evil version of themselves. Ah, well. I will imagine Betty, Jane, and Pepper get together for wine night once a month, because OF COURSE THEY DO. (Do I have to write this? I’ll write it if I must.)
Justice League (3D), 18 November 2017, Cinemark Colonel Glenn 18
I mean, it didn't suck? Though, as much as I appreciate Gal Gadot’s ass, I didn't really see a need for so many shots of it. Anyway, can confirm I did, in fact, cry through all the Amazon battle scenes.
American Hustle, 18 November 2017, DVD via university library
The real winner of this movie is whoever had the lightbulb moment about everyone's hair, because that's really all the audience can really focus on for the first half of the movie. By about two-thirds through the movie, I started to suspect the movie wouldn't end with JLaw's and Amy Adams's characters making out, and I was QUITE MIFFED. And then THEY DID.
I LEGIT THOUGHT THEY WERE JUST GOING TO TEASE US HERE.
Murder on the Orient Express, 19 November 2017, AMC Classic Central City 10
I am leery about any movie involving Johnny Depp nowadays, but Leslie Odom Jr is in this, too, so. In any case, it's a gorgeous movie with some fascinating camerawork (the overhead shots, zow), and I actually had never read this particular book, so the denouement was pretty fun.
This Means War, 21 November 2017, DVD via public library
What I’m learning from this movie is I’d really be interested in watching a Reese Witherspoon action movie. Also, Tom Hardy doing comedy is pretty disconcerting, while Chris Pine seems right at home. ALSO also, the movie clearly and immediately establishes Hardy/Pine is the REAL OTP. But nice try at making massive violations of a woman's privacy a romantic comedy, I guess? (It is entertaining, but I chalk that up to the undeniable charisma of the actors.)
Capote, 22 November 2017, DVD via public library
This is such a quiet movie, but it's difficult to look away from it. Most striking are the brief scenes of Capote holding court at parties, all jagged stories and sparkling wit. And we never see the beginnings or ends of tales, making those moments unsettling, in contrast with Capote as interviewer, as observer, as writer, as friend. (Early-ish in the movie, one of the murderers calls the other “mendacious,” but the word only resonates once we get a clearer glimpse of Capote's skillful and somewhat horrifying ability to manipulate.) And Keener as Harper Lee is wonderful--I would love to see a flipped version of this movie, focused on her experience in this handful of years.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, 23 November 2017, Blu-ray via RedBox
I wasn't sure what to expect, but the opening montage set to Bowie and the act of ceremonial greetings over centuries is really lovely. And then a longish CGI sequence of an alien civilization under sudden attack, which was entrancing. And then directly to a shot of Cara Delevingne’s bikini-clad ass and our two protagonists “bantering” about their “sexual tension” that ends with Laureline telling Valerian her heart would be won by a dude who would, I kid you not, “erase his playlist for me.”
I just. I can't. And to be entirely fair, the world-building is spectacular. They just could have introduced their leads (who read more as precocious teenagers than the uber-competent agents they're supposed to be, and it is entirely because of their hair-styling) in a hundred different ways that would have been interesting and not gross.
Also, there's an interlude with Rihanna doing burlesque, and then reciting Verlaine's poetry, and I have no idea how to parse it. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MOVIE IS BUT IT IS SO PRETTY. (So, pretty much every Luc Besson movie, it turns out.)
Talk to Me, 23 November 2017, DVD via public library
I wasn't sure what this movie was about, but I can't really argue with this cast.
I MEAN, SERIOUSLY.
I actually felt like it could have used a longer runtime--we see Petey’s success escalate almost exponentially, but the conflict between him and Dewey, and him and Vernell, needed development. The fight after the Tonight Show should’ve landed more sharply than the blunt actuality. What we get, though, is great--plus Taraji P Henson's playing proto-Cookie as Vernell.
Get On Up: The James Brown Story, 24 November 2017, DVD via public library
What with Black Panther coming up, I figured it would behoove me to get familiar with Chadwick Boseman. And he's pretty amazing here, along with Viola Davis, Nelsan Ellis (RIP), and Octavia Spencer. And I really loved the way scenes ricocheted from era to era. The breaking of the fourth wall was uncomfortable but interesting from a narrative standpoint--to what extent is the film itself influenced by our titular character, and to what extent is the movie constructed by him in the role of an unreliable narrator? (That scene of the boys fighting each other blindfolded for the amusement of rich people, set to that jaunty band, is possibly the most horrifying thing I’ve watched all year.) Side note: since I watched Talk to Me the day previous, with Petey Green opening a concert after the assassination of MLK Jr, it was kind of neat to see the James Brown side of the concert.
Step, 25 November 2017, DVD via RedBox
This is so lovely. It follows the arc of a Baltimore high school step team as they go on competition, but it focuses on three young women applying to college, and their struggle as they try to raise their GPA, or find enough funding, or get into a school where they can still help their families. The most heartbreaking scene was one young woman worrying, close to the end of the month, about whether they had enough food to sustain her six-year-old nephew. (Oof.) Largely, though, this is affirming, plus showcases some pretty damn excellent step routines.
Focus, 26 November 2017, DVD via Netflix
Can you imagine seeing Will Smith and Margot Robbie in this movie and then being excited to see Suicide Squad? That isn't to say they have chemistry, actually, but just borderline reality that if either one of these two came at you with intent, you'd run with it.
In any case, if you like Will Smith or heist movies, you’ll probably enjoy this.
La Vie en Rose, 26 November 2017, DVD via public library
I honestly know nothing about Edith Piaf, but the movie adhered to the rags-to-riches musician formula, and Marion Cotillard was wonderful, as everyone knew already. I will say, though, that the non-linear storytelling got old after a while, even though I do think it could have been an effective device, as I've previously noted in my Get On Up review. But by the time we reached the end of the Marcel sequence--which, to be fair, was a superb scene--I found myself wondering when this would end already.
SO PRETTY, THOUGH.
Bridge of Spies, 26 November 2017, DVD via public library
This is a pretty terrifying cautionary tale that is so far going unheeded.
War of the Worlds, 30 November 2017, DVD via public library
This might not have been the intent, but I would absolutely watch a movie about the mostly-amicable dissolution of the marriage of Tom Cruise’s and Miranda Otto’s characters. Seriously, this movie is hella good. Terrifying, but.
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