Movie Diary
No Sudden Move is a Steven Soderbergh movie about a group of criminals who come together to pull off a job, and it takes place in the '50s, but it's otherwise pretty far from a jaunty Ocean's heist flick or anything with any kind of retro glamour. Instead, Benicio Del Toro leads the cast in a more Usual Suspects-style tale where nobody's exactly sure what the job is or who's pulling the strings, as one double cross begets another and another. So it's not quite as fun as I hoped it would be, but the plot kept me guessing and two unbilled heavyweights who aren't introduced until the second half get some great scenes and keep it all from getting dull. Pretty impressive for screenwriter Ed Solomon, a vet of lighter fare like the Bill & Ted, Men In Black, and Now You See Me movies who readily sinks his teeth into something darker and more hard boiled. And I know people are just crazy about Julia Fox, but she really painfully deflates every scene she's in here.
This is as great as everyone says it is, although given the dozens of hours of Harlem Cultural Festival that ?uestlove had at his disposal, I would've been just as happy if not happier to watch a film of just the performances without all the extra context provided by interviews and research (hopefully there'll be an extended cut for a bonus-loaded DVD at some point). The Nina Simone and Sly Stone footage was great, but what I really wanted more of was a 19-year-old Stevie Wonder, playing drum and keyboard solos and just going off.
I never read the R.L. Stine books, but I thought I'd check out the first movie in this Netflix trilogy based on them. And it was just okay, I don't think I really liked it enough to check out the other 2 movies, the opening vignette with Maya Hawke was way better than the main storyline. Also, it drove me nuts how they had a soundtrack full of alternative rock from the era but a bunch of the songs didn't come out until 1995, 1996, or even 1997.
It probably sounds weird to say that I feel let down by the director of The Lego Batman Movie, but that's one of my favorite animated movies of the last few years, and Chris McKay's first big budget live action feature is a bloated, clumsy sci-fi movie. I kind of respect the sheer shamelessness to do an alien invasion movie, a time travel movie, and a war movie all at once, and there are some clever aspects to the execution, but it really feels like the premise collapses as soon as you think about it at all. All the scenes with J.K. Simmons are gold, though, having him around to dispense some quips really saves the third act. Betty Gilpin is wasted by this movie, though, which is unforgivable.
I have a healthy skepticism of all things Lin-Manuel Miranda, but this was a pretty enjoyable movie. Anthony Ramos is incredibly talented, I've been rooting for Melissa Barrera since "Vida" and was pleasantly surprised by her singing, and Jon M. Chu brought a lot of imagination to translating the musical from the stage to the screen, keeping the focus on the songs and performances but throwing in some flashy movie magic so it didn't feel like a straight adaptation (the scene where people draw animated figures in the air, the dancing on the side of the building, etc.).
Blindspotting is sort of Lin-Manuel Miranda adjacent -- two of its leads were in Hamilton and there's a bit of rapped dialogue, including a scene in the last 15 minutes that completely derails the movie and brings the whole thing down one or two star ratings. Up until that point, though, it's a really enjoyable and fairly original movie that depicts Oakland really lovingly, I'm glad I checked it out on the way to washing the spinoff series on Starz.
I enjoy Iliza Shlesinger's standup and the Netflix movie she wrote and starred in is a pretty solid translation of her storytelling style into a feature film. Since it's clearly autobiographical and she got married a few years ago, I went into it assuming it was a rom com about her current relationship, which was a good way to watch it because I didn't see the twist coming and it was entertaining how that unfolded. It was also funny to see Ryan Hansen play against type since he usually plays himbos, but it was a little funny that they basically put glasses on him and used a chubbier body double for a shirtless scene to really make the character seem less attractive.
My Life is my favorite Mary album and it's cool to see a whole feature-length documentary dedicated to one of the cornerstones of '90s R&B. That said, I think Mary J. Blige deserves a doc of the same caliber as the one Tina Turner got, Tina, earlier this year, and this movie isn't quite it -- despite the focus on one album they don't really get into specific songs as much as I'd like, although the stuff with Chucky Thompson is great, he's really the unsung hero of the album and I'm glad he got his moment in the spotlight.
The Boss Baby was rightfully the object of a lot of derision but it was actually pretty good as far as kids' movies go. And I figured they'd go the easy route of more of the same for the sequel, but instead they jump forward so the kids from the first movie are adults (Alec Baldwin reprises his role but Tobey Maguire got outta there and is replaced by James Marsden) and one of them has his own baby, a female boss baby voiced by Amy Sedaris. I don't think all this stuff works remotely as well as the first movie, but my kids didn't seem to mind.
This entry was posted
on Friday, July 16, 2021 at 9:15 AM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Post a Comment