Knew I was smart to invest in the Powell stock all the way to the moon since EWS, he’s one of our best right now. A bonafide star and not everyone has that kind of presence!
A movie that talks at length about identity and the different variations of selfhood transforms itself from a comedy into something a bit more curdled the longer it continues just like its lead character realizes he too can become a different version of himself.…
I've hardly seen a movie so blunt and free of nonsense about one of America's greatest sins. I'm genuinely shocked that this was able to be made.
Starts as your typical cop-in-too-deep story which quickly turns into one of the angriest, most indicting portraits of the War on Drugs and how it is used by powerful white people to keep all other minorities underneath them through cycles of violence and greed.
Fishburne turns in one of his best performances here…
On rewatch, I have expounded thoughts on why I think this will be reevaluated from those who initially dismissed it. Truth be told, some of it gets pretty messy in its execution of narrative especially in the third act. But I think the heart of this movie is about being tethered to nostalgia to provide comfort in a cold, post capital hellscape. So much so that VR gaming is basically the only enterprise left.
I could get into some of…
Once again, I'm just in the tank for Edgar Wright because I had a lot of fun during and after this. People are grappling with certain sequences or thematic registers that they feel he may not have depicted to the best of his ability, but he's too dazzling a formalist for me to care about those complaints. Wright's movies have momentum and that is honestly not an easy feat to try and mimic. His camera and edits have purpose and…
Week and a half since I watched this, gonna have certain lines and visual sequences in my head for the rest of the year. Like a lot of excellent stuff I've seen in the past month or 2, I want to unpack it more before any stars or concrete feelings. Suffice to say, Kaufman just always seems to be on such a specific existential register that it resonates on a level that's hard to put into words. It's not just…
Probably one of the worst offenders in recent memory to over needle drop like its life depended on doing so. When the credits came up and Nicholas Britell's name was mentioned as the composer, I would've assumed that it would read Anonymous because roughly 80% of the movie is 60s/70s licensed music that is beyond being on the nose.
Funnily enough, this would be a better movie if not connected to the Disney IP because it's entertaining in numerous patches…
"play me something from inside Llewyn Davis."
Still the key line for me (title drop aside). Llewyn's got a son or daughter out there from an abortion that didn't go through and so having just learned this, he beautifully plays Queen Jane for an unimpressed Bud Grossman who replies after a still beat, "I don't see a lot of money here." He could've played any number of commercial hits to guarantee some kind of reaction, but he chooses to play…
One of the better 2020 movies I've seen. Will be fun to see Riz Ahmed at the Oscars, he has to be there. Hopefully Paul Raci too. Their performances are so lived in and genuine, one of the rare times I feel that I'd meet these people by chance in real life. Any time this film gives them something emotional to work with, they never go for the easy choice which could be melodramatic or pandering. Instead, they ground these…
WOAH
corporate invasion of the body and mind. soulless and numbing to its core. yes, there's violence within this massive machine (cronenberg doesn't shy away from the immediate carnage), but what struck me most was the resolute approach in how a company could look at a human being and only see value through performance. one company is actively trying to separate a mother from her husband and child to neuter her emotional responses to the assassinations they order her to…
A smaller story that, like so many other excellent movies as of late, feels universal because of its specifics. Really admired the empathy on screen not just for its central family, but the other characters lying on the margins of it who feel like a community of people that you'd actually come across living in the deep south. (And something also to celebrate is that this film doesn't go for the low hanging fruit of obvious racism, but that well…
yep I loved it!!
had no doubt that this would ensnare my senses, but it’s tough to describe in words how much this is such a feast for the eyes and ears. it’s so, so much that i’m going to have a blast on rewatch seeing all the little touches i know i missed since my brain would be catching up from the previous 10 details. the textures and animations are all in tandem to a story that feels like…