July movie reviews

In theaters:

PAST LIVES 

This is getting a lot of very early Oscar buzz, and it's pretty warranted. Two Korean kids are separated at age 12 but re-connect years later. It's a very bittersweet film that maybe doesn't have quite the emotional gut punch ending it needed to get over the top. Very good performances though and a couple of the best written scenes in a long time. 

JOY RIDE

Kind of a miss for me, this hard R comedy with 4 Asian women on a road trip. The main cast (including Stephanie Hsu from EEAAO) has good chemistry and there are some laughs. I just didn't laugh that much. I don't know if the cultural specificity of some of it was a barrier or what. We get so few comedies anymore so it kind of sucks when one misses. 

BARBIE

The other half of Barbenheimer, this will probably end up being the biggest movie of the summer (who saw that coming?). I enjoyed it. Greta Gerwig commendably just makes this whole movie increasingly weirder as it goes on. The cast is great fun. Robbie is luminous. Gosling is hilarious. Was delighted by every Michael Cera moment. Some stuff is a little cringey, but there are a lot of laughs. And it's pissed off the MAGAts with its brash, unapologetic feminist pov. 


Everything else:

ONLY

A passing comet unleashes some sort of disease onto the planet that kills women. This was made before COVID but is quite prescient and has a lot of parallels. I watched it cause it stars the always stunning Freida Pinto, who should have had a bigger career. She's good, and the premise is a grabber, but the film is kind of boring and doesn't build out the world enough. 

FOLLOWING

Christopher Nolan's debut film, made way back in 1998 for an absurdly low $6,000. (Even Clerks cost over 30k) It has no recognizable actors and at only 70 minutes comes off like an expanded short film. But for all its limitations it is very well shot and has a pretty solid story.

THEY CLONED TYRONE

A strange, original mix of blaxsploitation and sci-fi. The first half of the movie has a wildly entertaining comedic energy. The 2nd half leans more into the mechanics of the plot and is more serious. Wasn't as into that. Both halves have pretty great performances by Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Paris. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Message Board Classics: 2004 NFL Season

Preseason kickoff post (and other posts): Oh yes, it IS that time again. Training camps are open. The first preseason games are less than a week away. Players are already being idiots. It's the best time of the sports year. It is not yet the time for predictions, but I'll hit on some of the big recent stories. Ricky Williams retires. Well, we know now he did so cuz he was gonna be suspended for using marijuana. He's a little shit as far as I'm concerned. You do not abandon your team when he did. He had every right to retire, but do it at least before the draft. He's left the Dolphins with zero chance of making the playoffs. They couldn't go get Eddie George or Antowain Smith, nor could they draft a RB. The Cowboys cut Quincy Carter. I spent all offseason pleading with Dallas to go get a QB like Warner or Collins or Garcia. Instead they fail to upgrade, and now take a step back. Vinny is 80 years old and has little if anything left. My prediction is that Drew Hen...
Read more

Awful NFL season ends with awful Super Bowl

BUCCANEERS 31 CHIEFS 9 The 2020 NFL season is over. Thank god! A season that was almost across the board unenjoyable, and felt empty and largely felt manipulated, ended with the worst outcome imaginable. With a result that not only continues this 20 year nightmare but that will frankly hurt the NFL for years to come. I was not looking forward to this game. I knew this was going to happen. Maybe not in blowout fashion but I knew the NFL was going to see to it that Tom Brady got his 7th title. The house wins. The game was never fun. Right from the start the Chiefs seemed sleepy, like they weren't really in it. This team plays with swagger, but in this game they had none. Patrick Mahomes was under enormous pressure from the start. The Chiefs grabbed the 1st lead at 3-0 but then from basically the end of the 1st quarter until halftime it was a nightmare. The Chiefs offense remained lifeless. The Chiefs defense did manage a goal line stand that at the moment seemed like it could be a tu...
Read more