Night at the Cinema

Foxcatcher  Directed by Bennett Miller Written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman The first thing that struck me when viewing Foxcatcher was the quality of the acting on display. I've liked Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo in films before like The Hateful Eight and Zodiac respectively, but Steve Carell really surprised me. I respect Carell as an actor but none of his work is anything I would say I especially enjoyed. He kills it here as real-life millionaire and certified weirdo John DuPont. As a whole I would say these performances are all worthy of at least an award nod, it's just a shame that such great acting is failed by a flawed and often dry script. The story follows Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), a real life gold medal Olympic wrestler, who lives in the shadow. of his brother Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo), another gold medal Olympic wrestler. He is living his day-to-day life training for the next wrestling event hoping for a chance to win mor...

The Place Beyond the Pines Directed by Derek Cianfrance Written by Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder "Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” -Exodus 34:7 I feel like this quote from the Bible is perhaps the most apt I could find for this film. I was surprised by The Place Beyond the Pines. On Netflix, the description for this film reads: "An ambitious cop and a desperate criminal clash. The impact is much larger than either could imagine." This is technically correct but it made me expect a different kind of movie than I got. If you're looking for a crime drama with two A-list actors going head to head for two hours, this isn't your movie. This is a personal drama focusing on three different characters that doe...

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Written and directed by Martin McDonaugh As I watched Three Billboards I noticed just how much mental energy I was expending trying to figure this film out. By the end of my view I still hadn't gotten to the bottom of it but I knew I liked it. This isn't a movie you could watch once an fully appreciate and I am excited to say that I am looking forward to watching it again and I totally recommend it for anyone who appreciates superb acting across the board from an all-star cast, excellent and smooth directing, and some of the most engaging writing I've seen from movies in the past few years. The film primarily follows Mildred Hayes (played by the stellar Frances McDormand), a working-class mother living in Ebbing, Missouri whose daughter was raped and murdered about a year before the film picks up. The police haven't made any progress with the case so Mildred rents three billboards in an attempt...

Justice League Directed by Zack Snyder Written by Zack Snyder, Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon Based on Characters by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Gardner Fox, Bob Kane, Bill Finger, William Moulton Marston and Jack Kirby Having finished the film just about an hour ago at the time of writing this one phrase sums up my opinion pretty concisely: you are better than this. I mean this for everyone. Zack Snyder is better than this. Ben Affleck is better than this. Gal Gadot is better than this. Joss Whedon is better than this. Warner Bros is better than this. You are better than this. I am better than this (well maybe not, I spend my days writing about my opinions on movies after all). Zack Snyder, for all of the stinkers in his filmography, has some genuinely decent flicks and has shown some talent. 300 is stylistic and silly and I still have fun watching it and Watchmen is as faithful an adaptation of it's source material as can be made in a feature length film (Ro...

Wonder Directed by Stephen Chbosky Written by R.J. Palacio (Novel), Stephen Chbosky, Steve Conrad and Jack Thorne I want to say before I get into the review proper that I usually don't like feel-good movies. At the risk of sounding pretentious I prefer movies that challenge me emotionally, I'd rather get a sad ending like in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford than get something sappy. To be honest my intention to see this movie wasn't exactly pure, I had to choose between going to see this or Justice League; while I know that I'm going to see that one, the same way a prisoner on death row knows he's going to be executed I suppose, I just had to put that on hold. I'm happy to report though that this is one of the few feel-good movies that I actually really enjoyed and I think you should definitely give this one a watch. The film follows Auggie Pullman (Jacob Tremblay), a boy with a facial deformity, and...

Thor: Ragnarok Directed by Taik Waititi Written by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Cristopher Yost, based on the comics of Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby Going into my viewing of Thor: Ragnarok I had a few competing feelings on it. First and foremost I had heard people swear up and down that this was the best movie in the MCU thus far. I didn't put a lot of stock in these comments though because they came from the same circles that still argue that films like Batman vs Superman and Suicide Squad weren't that bad (Spoiler alert: yes they are). I also felt a lot of hesitation going in because I always felt that the Thor movies were the weakest leg of the MCU. I saw the first Thor movie sometime after the Avengers and I was underwhelmed. Thor himself was boring, the story was boring, everything was boring and when Thor: The Dark World came out I didn't hear anything about it which didn't bode well. Finally, I've had a growing dissatisfaction with su...

Rashoman Directed by Akira Kuroswa Written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (stories), Akira Kurosawa and Shinobu Hashimoto Few names in cinema are so universally praised as that of Akira Kurosawa. The famous Japanese director has a staggering number of acclaimed films under his belt: Yojimbo, Kagemusha, Seven Samurai and Ran to name just a few. A very prolific filmmaker, there's hardly a person, even one not interested in international cinema, who hasn't heard of one of the man's movies. There isn't a single moviegoer alive who hasn't felt the influence of his work, Star Wars was famously influenced by Kurosawa's 1958 film The Hidden Fortress and both George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola were both big fans. But Kurosawa made his international breakthrough with 1950's Rashomon. Rashomon begins in the ruins of Rashomon, a ruined castle in 11th century japan, where three men discuss a murder trial that had taken place earlier that day as...