Movie Diary
a) Molly's Game
My faith in Aaron Sorkin's ability to make a good TV show has plummeted since "The West Wing," but his work in film has been pretty consistently enjoyable, with his screenplays often based on interesting true stories and filmed by talented directors. So I was cautiously optimistic about his first film as a director, Molly's Game, based on Molly Bloom's memoir of the same name. And while I could nitpick about some of his amateurish habits as a director, I mostly just enjoyed Bloom's whole strange story and Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba sinking their teeth into Sorkin's dialogue. But what really surprised me was the movie's parade of supporting actors having really good brief roles in the story, including "The Night Of"'s Bill Camp, Jeremy Strong, Brian d'Arcy James, and one of the most unlikely and compelling performances of Michael Cera's career where he plays an unnamed movie star who, I suppose, you're meant to believe could be Cera himself.
I didn't see the first Paddington, but my son wanted to see Padding2n, so we went. And it was pretty enjoyable, the animation is great and Brendan Gleeson and Hugh Grant had a lot of fun with their roles. And there were some scenes that were just very cleverly orchestrated little blends of action and physical comedy, a lot of creativity went into this movie. Afterwards, my son wanted to try marmalade, naturally, so I bought some. He wasn't that into it, but I like having some marmalade in the house.
c) Bright
This movie was pretty rightfully savaged by almost everyone who saw it. But I will say that after you get past the really poorly executed social commentary laid out in the first half hour, it eventually just turned into a pretty capable generic action movie. But in a way it was even worse than Suicide Squad, where Will Smith was the best thing about the movie but it felt like anybody could have starred in Bright.
d) Pitch Perfect 3
My wife loves the Pitch Perfect movies and watches them all the time, so I took her to see the lates (final?) entry in the series over the holidays. I feel like them having to suspend disbelief more to keep the story going with each additional movie has led them to make each movie a little more cartoony and self-consciously ridiculous than the last, and I think that's kind of a good move, just let the cast have fun with it and throw music into a scene even when it doesn't make total sense.
e) Landline
Jenny Slate and writer-director Gillian Robespierre's follow-up to Obvious Child is every bit as excellent as their first collaboration, maybe better. I always love to see John Turturro just quietly inhabit a character, but Abby Quinn as Slate's sister is the breakout performance of the movie, and they really do look just like sisters.
f) The Big Sick
I feel like this movie was getting puffed up like it was gonna be a real blockbuster and Oscar contender and then expectations slowly deflated, but it's a perfectly good and charming movie when taken at face value. The way Kumail Nanjiani depicts his family and the women they tried to match him with got a lot of criticism that I think was justified. But I found myself wrapped up in the story more than I expected, it was pretty enjoyable, the parents played by Ray Romano and Holly Hunter really brightened up the second half of the movie.
g) Going In Style
How many movies have Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman done together now? Are they a package deal? Are they close friends IRL? But anyway, I like these movies where aging Hollywood legends get to be badasses, it's a good genre of minor films. Also, congrats, I guess, to Zach Braff on directing a serviceable movie that's not an indulgent starring vehicle for himself.
h) The Belko Experiment
I think it says a lot about The Belko Experiment that a successful director, James Gunn, wrote the screenplay and got it greenlit, but then realized how unpleasant it would be to film and begged off directing it until it was finally made with another director 5 years later. I mean, it's hard to make a movie about a sadistic experiment that forces people to kill their co-workers without the film itself ultimately seeming sadistic and cruel, and this is one of the goriest mainstream movies I've ever seen. That said, I actually kind of liked it, there were a lot of scenery chewing performances by character actors like John C. McGinley and Michael Rooker that made it watchable even as it progressively more ridiculous.
i) Get Out
Get Out seems like the kind of movie that benefited from the element of surprise, that it just seemed to come out of nowhere and become a huge hit. That is to say, seeing one of 2017's most discussed movies at the end of a year of having it spoiled for you is not a great experience, and it really felt like there was not a lot left to enjoy as a fresh experience once I finally watched it. But I do find it funny that people who often dismissed "Key & Peele" were offended that this movie was nominated in comedy categories at the Golden Globes, at times it felt very much like one long "Key & Peele" sketch.
j) Capsule
This was a really surprising little British sci-fi movie that I stumbled across while channel surfing, the whole movie is basically one early astronaut trying to survive some technical issues while in orbit, and the whole thing plays out really intensely with some surprising twists, very cleverly written movie.
I think it says a lot about The Belko Experiment that a successful director, James Gunn, wrote the screenplay and got it greenlit, but then realized how unpleasant it would be to film and begged off directing it until it was finally made with another director 5 years later. I mean, it's hard to make a movie about a sadistic experiment that forces people to kill their co-workers without the film itself ultimately seeming sadistic and cruel, and this is one of the goriest mainstream movies I've ever seen. That said, I actually kind of liked it, there were a lot of scenery chewing performances by character actors like John C. McGinley and Michael Rooker that made it watchable even as it progressively more ridiculous.
i) Get Out
Get Out seems like the kind of movie that benefited from the element of surprise, that it just seemed to come out of nowhere and become a huge hit. That is to say, seeing one of 2017's most discussed movies at the end of a year of having it spoiled for you is not a great experience, and it really felt like there was not a lot left to enjoy as a fresh experience once I finally watched it. But I do find it funny that people who often dismissed "Key & Peele" were offended that this movie was nominated in comedy categories at the Golden Globes, at times it felt very much like one long "Key & Peele" sketch.
j) Capsule
This was a really surprising little British sci-fi movie that I stumbled across while channel surfing, the whole movie is basically one early astronaut trying to survive some technical issues while in orbit, and the whole thing plays out really intensely with some surprising twists, very cleverly written movie.
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