Review Rewind

 It's nice to enjoy watching movies again without reviewing every single movie that I have seen. These movies were intersperse between my previous reviews.

Sleepaway Camp: This is second re-watch of the movie this year. Every viewing I see something different that I didn't pick up on. This is a bad movie, but it's so bad that it turns out to be amazing. 10/10

X: After I watched Pearl, I wanted to revisit this movie. I hated the name last time, because the situations were very cliched. This time I kind of let my logical mind go. I liked the movie more of this latest viewing. My original score was 2. Now, it's 7/10.

Bringing Up Baby: I wanted to see the movie where Cary Grant was in a robe. It was this movie. It's not a laugh out loud funny. Katharine Hepburn's got too annoying for me with her running and rapid-fire ling delivery. 7/10

Bros: Another re-watch. I loved this comedy as much as I initially reviewed it. Still hate the steroid section. 9/10

Auntie Mame: Holy shit. What took me so long to watch this movie? Mame is so fabulous. Rosalind Russell gave it her all in this movie. I loved it. The only knocks I will give it is the middle section and the length of the movie. 2.5 hours. 9/10

Heartstopper (Season 1): After the whole "queerbaiting" accusations and Kit Connor forced coming out, I wanted to watch the series. Some "fans" of the show are missing the point of themes entirely. Nobody should have to tell a damn thing. You don't anyone an explanation about yourself. It sucks that this happened. It's stilling happening in 2022. I enjoyed the series, but I had a few problems with character motivations in the middle of the season. Any queer person or ally should see this show. 8.5/10

Roman Holiday: This movie was on my watch list for the longest time. I thought I was going to be enthralled with it, but I wasn't. The movie was boring. Didn't care about the romance. It was meh. I heard somebody say if you didn't appreciate this, you are a cynic. Yes. Yes, I am. 5/10

The Great Lie: I saw this movie a lot on Instagram. If you look up melodrama in the dictionary, this movie will be there. It's like a soap opera with a nonsense plot and uninteresting characters. I stopped paying attention to it and did another things while it was still going. 4/10

Causeway

Causeway (2022)

Directed by Lila Neugebauer

Screenplay by Ottessa Moshfegh and Luke Goebel & Elizabeth Sanders

Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Brian Tyree Henry, Linda Emond, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Frederick Weller, and Jayne Houdyshell

There were rumbling about the performances in this movie from the film festival circuit. I agree with that, but the script fails them from truly shining.

Lynsey (Lawrence) has been sent stateside after a traumatic event while she was on deployment in Afghanistan. Suffering from PTSD, Lynsey tries to reconnect with her mother, Gloria (Emond) to no avail. She befriends a mechanic, James (Henry) on day and they strike up a friendship. These two broken people try to find some way to forward with life.

As I stated before, Lawrence and Henry give solid performances in this film. Lawrence conveyed the raw emotion of having your world turn upside in a split second, and having to pick up the pieces again. Henry's character has to deal with a stupid decision that affect the people around him, and how he dealing with the fallout of that.

It felt like it was not a fully realized world. People were going through the motions. The screenplay tries to paint the portrait to a shattered woman living a shattered life. The downside is that the pacing of the movie makes the flow feel like a slog. The dialogue does not feel authentic. The plot sometimes gets lost along the way. 

You question if the screenwriters dropped subplots or they didn't have a good way to have any resolution. It is a shame that the movie does not living up to expectations.

Rating: 6/10

My Policeman

My Policeman (2022)

Directed by Michael Grandage

Screenplay by Ron Nyswaner

Based on the book by Bethan Roberts 

Stars: Gina McKee, Linus Roache, Rupert Everett, Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, David Dawson, and Kadiff Kirwan

The discourse around this film was palpable on Film Twitter with articles talking about the cast getting an ensemble award from TIFF. There was also news that the stars are campaigning for Oscar consideration. I can see that for one person and it's who you think it is.

Centering around a trio of friends. Marion (McKee) brings Patrick (Everett) to live with her and her husband, Tom's (Roache) after he has suffered from a stroke to care for him. Marion digs through Patrick's personal items to discover that he suspicions of the relationship between Tom and Patrick were more than meets the eye.

Getting this out of the way. There has been talking about the acting abilities of Styles. I have seen three movies that he has been in. My problem is that he is not embodying the character to become it. It feels like he is saying lines, because the script told him.

The saving grace of the movie is David Dawson as the younger Patrick. He was the emotional anchor of the movie for me. The character goes through a lot in the movie.

Watching the film, you get the sense that the pacing is very slow and laborious. It becomes a chore to try to finish it. It was like going through marathon. The plot was stepping into melodrama. It did not have any levity. No nuance. It was boring movie about miserable people trying to "do the right thing."

Rating: 5/10

The Good Nurse

The Good Nurse (2022)

Directed by Tobias Lindholm

Screenplay by Krysty Wilson-Cairns

Based on the book by Charles Graeber

Stars: Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne, Nnamdi Asomugha, Noah Emmerich, Kim Dickins, David Lavine, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Devyn McDowell, and Alix West Lefler

The story sounds familiar to me, but I confused it with a case of a nurse that killed four patients by injecting air in their bloodstream. Anyway, there was a tepid response to this movie at the London Film Festival. The story is compelling. The movie is not.

The action center around Amy (Chastain), a hardworking nurse that doesn't have health insurance which is complicated that she has a severe heart condition. A new hire, Charlie Cullen (Redmayne) comes in to ease the workload for the staff. The two become fast friends. Patients who are normally is good health suddenly code. Two detectives, Baldwin and Braun (Asomugha, Emmerich) are brought in to investigate and uncover a dark secret.

The thing with telling true stories is that they feel generic. You get the feeling that some stories should not be told. This is one of them. If this movie was a talking head documentary, the subject matter would be more compelling. A dramatized version of the story will fall flat. This movie is a prime example.

Chastain and Redmayne give solid performances, but it is not enough to warrant seeking out this movie. Have in on in the background while doing chores around the house.

Rating: 6/10

Pearl

Pearl (2022)

Written and directed by Ti West

Stars: Mia Goth, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, David Corenswet, Emma Jenkins-Purro, Amelia Reid, and Alistair Sewell

When I heard that there was going to be a prequel to X following the origin of the killer from that movie, I didn't want to bother with it. I heard people praising Mia Goth's performance in the movie. Biting the bullet, I decided to check it out. I have misjudged it.

The action takes place on the same Texas farm as it was in the previous movie. The time is 1918 and Pearl (Goth) has to take care of her ailing father (Sunderland). Her domineering German mother, Ruth (Wright) wants her to stay on farm in their bubble so no one could catch the The Great Influenza that was sweeping the nation that time. Pearl wants to be a big star, but there are some obstacles in her way.

I did not know what to think with the movie in the beginning. Was this going to be a musical? It's not. It is more of Pearl's imagination getting the best of her. When the switch flips on Pearl's sanity, that is when the movie hit its stride. Seeing the way Ruth dictated her whole life made me feel bad for Pearl. She wanted to follow her dream.

Mia Goth acted her ass off in this movie. Let me tell you. She delivers a seven minute monologue that it heartbreaking. She was pouring all the emotion out of herself in that monologue. It is a sight to behold.

Rating: 8/10

Triangle of Sadness

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Written and directed by Ruben Östlund

Stars: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Vicki Berlin, Dolly De Leon, Woody Harrelson, Zlatko Burić, Iris Berben, Henrik Dorsin, Jean-Christophe Folly, Amanda Walker, Oliver Ford Davies, and Sunnyi Melles 

You would think that a movie that won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival would be good? This is hints of it that is saddled with nonsense scenes.

The biggest problem with the movie was that it followed a drawn out fight between fashion models Carl and Yaya (Dickinson, Dean). Holy shit. That part of the movie was unnecessary. This movie was two and half hours long. Cut the first part of the movie it would have been better.

The movie doesn't pick up until a whole bunch of rich people go on a yacht on a all hell breaks loose. That's when I was engaged in the movie.

I understood that the movie was supposed to be a satire on classism, economic disparity and all that. Cool. It was not making a bigger point. If the first part of the movie was jettisoned, the action with the boat and the final sequence of the movie was expanded then I would love the movie more. As it stands on its own, I cannot get behind this.

Rating: 6/10

Rosaline

Rosaline (2022)

Directed by Karen Maine

Screenplay by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber

Based on the novel, "When You Were Mine" by Rebecca Serle

Based on the characters by William Shakespeare

Stars: Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, Sean Teale, Kyle Allen, Spencer Stevenson, Bradley Whitford, Christopher McDonald, Minnie Driver, and Alistair Toovey

I will never learn. I need to stop watching the trailer of films, because it would be a hundred times better than the actual film. Knowing me, I would say that the same thing about another film that will ultimately disappoint me.

Hey. Remember that girl that was mentioned a couple of times in Romeo & Juliet? Well, somebody felt like that they should have a whole story about her. Rosaline (Dever) is dating Romeo (Allen) until fate steps in to push the "star-crossed lovers" together. Wackiness ensues.

Where do I begin? The moment I knew this movie was going to be garbage in when "This Will Be" was playing in the opening credits of the movie. Was this going to be the structure of Moulin Rouge! or Ophelia? It was the latter. Was this taken from a YA novel? Yes. My expectations sunk to an all-time low.

The movie was strange. It has the iambic pentameter of Shakespeare's word mixed in with modern language. It did not have the fun or charm to hold anyone's attention. There was a sassy gay friend and the "stoner" messenger. Okay.

Why Bradley Whitford in this movie? Why was Minnie Driver in this movie? Driver was doing the Lord's work. She was the only reason I stayed to watch this dreck.

Rating: 3/10