Total: 134 Abacus: Small Enough to Jail: B After the Storm: B* Alien: Covenant: C All the Money in the World: D All These Sleepless Nights: C American Fable: C Annabelle: Creation: D Atomic Blonde: A-* Baby Driver: C- Battle of the Sexes: B- Beach Rats: B Beatriz at Dinner: B+* Beauty and the Beast:…
Category: 2017 review
Horror for Horror’s Sake – Originally completed 9/16/17
Looking at the (albeit few) films I’ve chosen to review, the ones I’ve been willing to dive into blind, the expectedly shitty ones I’ve willing put up with, it’s fair to say I have a bias to exploring horror films more than other genres. At the very least I’m more interested in exploring scary movies…
The Work (17, A-) – Originally completed 12/22/17
I’m back, folks! The original idea here was to post a review of the 100th 2017 film I’ve seen, which I’m remixing slightly for three reasons. One: The winner was Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a film I really struggled with and know I’ll see again soon, so I know I’ll have even clearer ideas about…
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (17, C) – Originally completed 11/18/17
The absolute best thing I heard going into The Killing of a Sacred Deer was the specific, Ohio-based dread it possessed to one critic who knew that Yorgos Lanthimos had shot the film in Cincinnati. He also lives in Columbus, close enough that I could theoretically run into him at the Wex, and it was his comments…
mother! (17, B (now A-)) – Originally completed 9/27/17
Who here can say they knew what they were getting into when they went to see mother!? Maybe you went to see it after it premiered, and after you saw that polarizing responses to it, the mystification and adoration and all of the outright vitriol. The sheer variety of opinions about it is fascinating, and drew…
Death Note (17, F) – Originally completed 9/9/17
I think part of the reason it’s so much harder to really analyze a perfect film than a perfectly shitty one is that a great film leaves you wondering how they did it. What geniuses had the decision to write that score, to edit in this style, to write that character in such a way,…
Starless Dreams (17, A-) – Originally completed 8/24/17
By the time this posts, I’ll have started fall semester classes at OSU. One of my classes for this year will be a documentary film course, which will require us to see the upcoming feature Whose Streets?, about the Ferguson riots. I’m excited about the class, seeing the film, and discussing it in said class, and…
Hounds of Love (17, B-) – Originally completed 8/7/17
There’s something captivating about the ads for Hounds of Love, the way it markets itself on the difficulty of its subject matter. It knows that we’re disturbed by it, it knows that it is in fact disturbing, and reaches out a hand to promise you that there is something rewarding at the end of this dank,…
My Fair Lady (64, C) – Originally completed 8/1/17
Looking at My Fair Lady, I can’t help but be filled with nothing but questions. Primarily, what in god’s name made this stodgy enterprise such a durable cultural sensation for decades? How did it clean up so many awards on the stage and screen, especially Rex Harrison as the disgustingly crusty Henry Higgins? Did no one…
Arsenic and Old Lace (44, B-) – Originally completed 7/27/17
One of the most interesting things about existing in this hellish landscape of American politics (I’m going to use the term interesting in a loose way, since the most interesting things are also the most terrifying) is the way that almost all cinematic experiences with Things To Say are refracted through the ghoulish, orange, ballsack-like…
It's Just Like The Movies 