Movie Diary
So much of the press around this movie was about how Daniel Craig was openly was sick of playing James Bond that I kind of expected him to to just sullenly sleepwalk through the role and drag the entire thing down. So I was surprised that the moments of levity in Spectre are as effective as any of the Craig films, and that the whole thing is fun in kind of an on-the-nose way -- it opens with a bad guy toasting "to death!" and there is something inevitable yet totally justified and appreciated about Christoph Waltz being a bond villain and Monica Bellucci being a Bond girl.
b) Mr. Right
It's been over 20 years since Pulp Fiction inspired a wave of darkly humorous movies about the inner lives of hitmen, and for some reason it's still happening to some degree. This one is written by Max Landis, perhaps doomed by his name to forever make inferior "edgy" millennial versions of movies by previous generations, and is at least animated by spirited Anna Kendrick and Sam Rockwell performances before it kind of collapses into a far less charming Grosse Pointe Blank thing.
c) By The Sea
The Pitt-Jolie union began with them co-starring in a light, sexy movie about a faltering marriage, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and then it ended with a drab, depressing movie about a faltering marriage. I think they should've just made a sequel.
d) Creed
It still blows my mind that Wallace from "The Wire" is a bona fide movie star, I feel weirdly proud of Michael B. Jordan, just watching his career blossom into moments like Creed. I have a passing affection for Rocky movies and a weariness of boxing movies in general, but this movie really did a great job of breathing some new life into the familiar tropes of both, and by the end I was on the edge of my seat seeing how the final fight would end, they really shot and choreographed that fight incredibly well.
e) Sicario
Emily Blunt is maybe my favorite movie star out right now, and I thought it was badass that she got to star in this movie after producers had tried to change the screenplay's protagonist from a woman to a man. That said, outside of a couple of pretty gripping scenes, I didn't think much of it.
f) Grandma
I enjoyed what a deliberately small scale, intimate movie this is -- it runs less than 80 minutes and basically covers one day in the life of 2 characters. And between this and "Grace And Frankie," Lily Tomlin is having a good run of playing lovably cantankerous hippie grandmothers.
g) The D Train
I didn't even hear of this movie until I watched it on cable, but apparently last year it had "the 15th worst opening for a wide release film of all time." I thought I was just watching this amiable, unremarkable comedy about a high school reunion, with Jack Black playing the insecure nerd and James Marsden as the cool jock, but then in the first act it kind of took a surprising twist when they fuck. Unfortunately the rest of the movie kind of fails to really do or say anything funny or substantial about that plot point and it just becomes this weird flailing movie that is neither a regressive gay panic comedy nor a love story or really much of anything.
h) The World According To Garp
A few years ago I read the John Irving novel and had kind of a love/hate relationship with it and often thought about how such a deliberately overstuffed book must've made for a strange movie. So it was interesting to finally watch it. I really never could visualize Robin Williams as Garp, though, and really very little of the casting worked for me, I definitely prefer the book, even if I still have issues with the book.
A few years ago I read the John Irving novel and had kind of a love/hate relationship with it and often thought about how such a deliberately overstuffed book must've made for a strange movie. So it was interesting to finally watch it. I really never could visualize Robin Williams as Garp, though, and really very little of the casting worked for me, I definitely prefer the book, even if I still have issues with the book.
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