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

Im Westen nichts Neues

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Directed by Edward Berger

Screenplay by Edward Berger & Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell 

Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque 

Stars: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Daniel Brühl, Moritz Klaus, Aaron Hilmer, Edin Hasanovic, Devid Striesow, and Sebastian Hülk

Hearing that the movie is Germany's submission for Best Foreign Language Film for the Oscars. I had to see it. Seeing the original movie so long, this was like a refresher of why war sucks.

The central action of the movie is from Paul's (Kammerer) perspective. It is a journey of him to a naive kid wanting to go to war, then being in the thick of battle and realizing that war is not all it cracks up to be. Most of the movie takes place during the final days of World War I.

The thing that got me into the movie with the haunting score by Volker Bertelmann. You think that this movie is going to put you in state of dread. It does.

My biggest problem with the movie is that there are long scenes of negotations between the French and the Germans that cut the intensity of the battles from Paul's point of view. It didn't flow the why I wanted it to be.

Rating: 8/10

Resurrection

Resurrection (2022)

Written and directed by Andrew Semans

Stars: Rebecca Hall, Tim Roth, Grace Kaufman, Michael Esper, Angela Wong Carbone, Josh Drennen, and Winsome Brown

When my cousin gifted me a pass to attend Sundance virtually this year, I missed my chance to watch this movie. Rebecca Hall will always deliver a stellar performance. She has, but I'm getting the sense of déjà vu.

Margaret (Hall) is businesswoman that seems to have a perfectly normal life. One day, she sees David (Roth), a shady man from her past that triggers deeply buried within her. Margaret notices David appear in other places that she is in. She wants to do everything in her power to protect her daughter, Abbie (Kaufman) and herself.

In the early parts of this movie, I kept wondering if this was the same plot as The Night House or Men. A woman dealing with psychological trauma from the past that has manifested itself in weird ways to haunt them in the present. It does somewhat.

The movie is dealing with Margaret's decent into madness in a way that I knew what the movie was going to end up in. Other the other hand, the ending of the movie forces the audience to re-evaluate what they have watched. The ending was effective. I gave me a lot to think about.

Rating: 8/10

Review Rewind

I did it. I have finished my Best Picture Nominee blog-a-thon. It has been a journey. Sixty movies. That's a lot. I saw some great movie and terrible ones. I'm glad that I did it.

The Trial of the Chicago 7: I was confused because I thought this movie was about The Central Park Five. Oops. Anyway, the movie was perfectly fine. I think Aaron Sorkin has the tendency of stretching historical facts so much that you have to call it out when you watch the film. 6/10

Bridge of Spies:I could not be less interested in a movie. I didn't hate the movie, but it didn't need to be 2.5 hours long. Did Mark Rylance deserve the Oscar? No. Plain and simple. 5/10

Philomena: This movie broke my heart. The beginning of the movie was shaky. Diving deeper into the film, I was enthralled. Judi Dench was magnificent. Truly. I would see it again. 9/10

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: The hate that I have for this movie is immeasurable. It's one of those emotionally manipulative movies that comes out during the holiday season. This movie was nominated for Oscars. Why? 1/10

Captain Phillips: If anybody followed the story of what happened to ship that boarded by Somali pirates, this movie would be incredibly boring. I knew the story. I knew the outcome. 6/10

Joker: This movie made me uncomfortable. Dealing with a character's mental illness and depression hit too close to home. The violence is graphic, but not gratuitous. 7/10

Roma: A story about a maid in Mexico City. She went through a lot in the movie. I never heard of Mixtec before this movie. 7/10

The Grand Budapest Hotel: I am not the biggest fan Wes Anderson movies. The quirky doesn't vibe with me. It had moments of that. I wish the structure of the story was more cohesive. There were a lot of characters. Taking place during three different time periods. Hearing the word "faggot" in the film made me recoil. 5/10

American Hustle: I purposely put this movie last, because DOR is a horrible human being. Do a quick goggle search. You'll see. This movie looked good. The wigs... the wigs were something. Jen Lawrence was crying... a lot. Not my vibe. 4/10

Review Rewind

I am cranking out these viewings of Best Picture nominees that I missed out. I believe I have 7 more to go. I want to talk about Tár, Triangle of Sadness, and The Banshees of Inisherin when they open wide on Friday. This blog-a-thon was more laborious than I thought. Here we go:

Nomadland: The 2020 Best Picture winner. The movie had some interesting concepts that should have been explored more. We get this woman driving. That's it. 7/10

The Post: This movie was dry. Sahara Desert dry. I didn't care about what was happening. The government covered up what happened in Vietnam. Cool. It wasn't compelling. Did anyone notice a big blur circle in the scene with Jesse Plemons and Bob Odenkirk? 5/10

Vice: I thought it was interesting take on Dick Cheney's life. I think Adam McKay's way of storytelling is not my vibe. People talking into the camera for no reason at all. 6/10

The Revenant: The world AGI created looked miserable, but some factual errors with the time and situations made me enjoy the movie less. The movie was too long. Cut a couple necessary characters. It would have been 5 stars. 8/10

Room: Going in, I know this movie going to be depressing. It was, but the movie has heart. It showed that a mother would do anything for her kid and vice versa. Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay and Joan Allen were fantastic in the film. 9/10

Darkest Hour: The movie was literally dark with some nonsense light pouring in from windows. Gary Oldman was good. Some of the events in the movie made question why the screenwriters did that. 7/10

Green Book: The 2018 Best Picture winner. The ham-fisted message of a black man and white man facing prejudice was abundantly clear. I was wondering, why Dr. Shirley was that naive about Jim Crow or segregation? 6/10

Selma: I wanted to be inspired. I wanted to be moved. The feeling when you hear "Glory" at the end credits. I didn't feel it in this movie. 5/10

Minari: There was a disconnection with this movie. I was never a Korean boy in the 1980s. Some of the plot points in the movie, I saw a mile away. Really, movie? 4/10

Hell or High Water: The movie was not breaking new ground. I knew what was going to happen at the end, but some of the action set pieces carried the movie. 7/10

Brooklyn: I thought the main character's name was Brooklyn. Did I want to see a movie about a young woman moping around for two hours? No. 5/10

Hugo: Can somebody tell why a movie taking place in France have all the character in British accents? 4/10

The Descendants: Why are all the characters assholes? Seriously. There was some cringe dialogue in here. Like early 2000s problematic levels. I felt like the mother in the coma. This movie was not good. 3/10

The Theory of Everything: I thought it was a beautiful film. Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones gave solid performance. Michael Keaton should have won the Oscar instead. 8/10

Boyhood: The making of the movie was phenomenal. The biggest failure of the movie is Mason. The boy was supposed to be following. Who is he? You see fifteen minute increments of a year Frankenstein-ed together. There was so cohesive arc for him. The parents, yes. Not Mason. 6/10

The Irishman: This movie was bloated. It did not need to be 3.5 hours long. The chyrons are when characters in the movie get whacked was strange. The de-aging of character was jarring. Pacino and Pesci carried the movie. The first half of the movie was great. It drops like a body with cinder blocks on it in the second half. 4/10

Weekly Review Wrapup

This past week I wanted to watch the Best Picture Nominees that I missed. To this point, I have watched 35 of 55 that I set out to see. I am trying to get through the last movies before Oscar season ramps up. Here the ones that I watched: 

Hacksaw Ridge: I did not want to have a movie spew Bible quotes at me. Be racist to Japanese people. Have disgusting gore effects. Have Doss be a creepy guy. I hated it. 2/10

The Big Short: Having a movie break the fourth wall, telling the audience about housing facts that we don't give a fuck about.  I didn't care. 4/10

Mank: Why do we need to see a movie about an alcoholic screenwriter? The movie was fine. Not memorable. 5/10

Bohemian Rhapsody: I have never hated a movie so much as I did with this movie. It was an affront to Freddie Mercury and his memory. Rami Malek won an Oscar for this? Really? It was just Malek wearing a flipper. Unacceptable. 1/10

1917: This movie was a masterpiece. It was carefully thought out. The way it was shot like a documentary. The long continuous takes. The mood, the music, atmosphere were spot on. I loved this movie. 10/10

Parasite: The only thing I knew about this movie was that it was a black comedy about a family infiltrating an affluent family. It's so much for than that. It's about the class system, economic disparity and so on. The tone was pitch perfect. 10/10

Lion: This kind of movie is one that I don't like. A Oscar baity movie about found family and convenient plot devices. Maybe, it's Dev Patel. I feel like I don't like his movies in general. 2/10

The Martian: Have you noticed a lot of astronaut movies between 2013 to now? Hmm. The movie was about survival on an alien planet. Matt Damon was very good. I enjoyed this very much. 8/10

American Sniper: The movie would have been more effective as a documentary rather than a feature length movie. It felt icky to me. The brave American soldiers against the "savages" (they were called that in the movie). I felt the disconnect. 4/10

Ford v Ferrari: I could not be more uninterested in a movie. This felt like a guy movie. Let's have 2.5 hour movie talking about cars. Yay. I think this is the movie that made me realize that I cannot take Christian Bale seriously as an actor anymore. It was boring. 5/10

Phantom Thread: I knew why this movie was nominated. It was DDL's last movie so let's give it these nominations. Is it a beautiful movie? Yes. The clothes were spectacular. The other parts of movie was meh. 3/10

War Horse: This was so long and torturous. I lost interest in it. It was background noise. It's one of these inspirational movies that caters to certain demographic, not me. 4/10

As I am writing this, I think I will only review movies from the current year, and have these recaps for older movies. Having to write full length reviews is demanding. I want to focus on the current year from now on.

Weekly Review Wrapup

The Father: BPN Catch Up. It delved into the mind of a man's suffering from extreme dementia. The Academy eats this shit up. 8/10

The Nice Guys: Full disclosure. I tried watching this movie once before, hated it and turned it off. Gave it another chance. I enjoyed it. Still think it is weird to show a 13-year-old a porn flick. 8/10

Raging Bull: I wanted to watch films from my birth year for my birthday. I expected more from this movie. I was bored to death with the boxing scenes that looked fake as hell. The second half of the movie was better. 5/10

The Mirror Crack'd: Clips of this movie were on YouTube with Kim Novak and Elizabeth Taylor throwing shade at each other. Just watch that. The mystery of the center of the movie was boring and unsatisfying. I fell asleep in the middle of the movie. 3/10

Coal Miner's Daughter: I was going to see this movie before I learned about Loretta Lynn's death. Do I want to watch a movie about a 13-year-old getting married to a guy in their 20s, having a baby at 14, picking up a guitar and singing? Not really. 6/10

Bros: It's sad that the movie is bombing at the box office. This movie was enjoyable. It poked fun at the hyper-masculine mindset ingrained in the gay community. Bros being bros, bro. 9/10

Don't Worry Darling: Going into this movie, I knew it was going to be garbage. I was right. It was derivative. The "twist" was stupid. 4/10

Blue Jasmine: Not even Cate Blanchett's masterful performance can save this weak movie from fading into the background. 6/10

Blood Simple: A taut and suspenseful noir with a fantastic score and unsettling atmosphere. The motivations of the characters were unclear to me that hurt the movie. 8/10

Hacksaw Ridge: BPN Catch Up. This is not the kind of movie that I vibe with. I don't bible quotes thrown at me. I don't want blatant racism of the Japanese. The gore was too much to handle for me. Enough was enough. 2/10

Weekly Review Wrapup

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris: This seemed like a feel good movie. The plot made no sense. The clothes were fabulous. That what kept me watching. 6/10

Judas and the Black Messiah: BPN Catch Up. Watching this and BlacKkKlansman close together made me not enjoy this movie. It was a head scratcher that LaKeith Stanfield was nominated for Supporting Actor. 6/10

Blonde: I have never hated a movie so much and I did with this. I don't understand who was this movie made for. It is not a biopic. Was it supposed to be a character study about abuse, sexual assault and anti-abortion? Terrible film. 1/10

Niagara: To wash the taste of that movie out of my mouth. I wanted to visit some MM movies. This noir film was not much of one. It was a thriller with a botched murder. I wished that Rose's motive was more clear. 6/10

The Misfits: Being Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe's last full length features, it was nice note to go out on. It's about for unlikely people hanging out. I didn't understand the relationship with Gay and Rosyln. The last thirty minutes were strange. 7/10

The Asphalt Jungle: Monroe has a very small part in this crime noir. The caper was fine. I thought Sterling Hayden delivery was wooden. Sam Jaffe was the only reason to keep watching it. 6/10

Little Women (2019): Another BPN Catch Up. This is the first time that I have watched one of these movies. I liked the movie. The narrative felt a bit choppy. I didn't know if I was in mid-Civil or post-Civil War, except for Jo's hair. 7/10

Hocus Pocus 2: Was there need for a sequel? No. Is this Disney's way of needlessly rebooting long dormant franchises? Yes. 5/10

Imitation of Life (1959): Being that this was Douglas Sirk's last feature length film, he went out on a good note. The central conflict of movie dragged on. I understood, but it felt one note. 8/10