The Sisters Brothers

October 11, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in reviews, rosalie kicks, rosalie kicks!

Written and directed by Jacques Audiard
Starring John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Riz Ahmed, Jake Gyllenhaal
Running time: 2 hours and 1 minute
MPAA rating: R for including disturbing images, language, and some sexual content

by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport

“I am 35 years old and my life is like an empty cylinder.” – John Morris

Lately, the darkness of a coffin has never seemed so appealing. The world is an anxiety inducing shit show. Each new day seems to hurl something worse at us than the day before. However, there are movies. It feels so much better to go into a dark movie theater, than into a black hole of sadness. Movies are here to save us. Movies like: The Sisters Brothers.

Bad Times at the El Royale

October 10, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in reviews, sandy devito

Written and directed by Drew Goddard
Starring Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Jeff Bridges, Chris Hemsworth, the kitchen sink
Running time: 2 hours and 21 minutes
MPAA rating: R for strong violence, language, some drug content and brief nudity

by Sandy DeVito

At some point around the halfway mark of Bad Times at the El Royale I disconnected with it pretty abruptly. Is it because I had a super long day at work and then had to rush to eat dinner before the screener and I drank a yerba mate really fast and chased it with two glasses of wine (on the back of yerba mate cans it reads "do not mix with alcohol" hahahaha)? Or is it because the Chris Hemsworth character shows up about halfway through and his presence in the film just makes no fucking sense in the context of what's been going on so far? I mean, you can hamfistedly shove any kind of character into any kind of narrative, sure, and pretend that it works somehow from sheer personal desire to have said character in your story, but that doesn't mean it works. The first half of this movie I was really enjoying (despite having to pee almost immediately and being really tired, as I was saying, which in a way is the truest litmus test for how much you're enjoying something if you're willing to stay awake and hold your pee to keep watching it). But the second half feels unfinished, and I got sort of fatigued and bored of it.

Venom

October 06, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in daniel scully, reviews

Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Starring Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams and Marcella Bragio
Running time: 1 hour and 52 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for language

by Dan Scully (a regular contributor at Cinema Seventy-Six)

As Disney works to take ownership of every intellectual property imaginable, fans of nerdy things are given as many reasons to rejoice as to worry. On the one hand, Star Wars has never been in better shape (literally - The Last Jedi is the best of the whole series, fight me), but on the other, the MCU is growing increasingly homogenous in style. As more entries in the ever-expanding franchise come to fruition, it becomes easier and easier to see the mechanics of our great entertainment machine at work. And as Disney takes great pains to create the most broadly appealing products possible, rather than taking creative risks that they can most certainly afford, it pleases me greatly to see Sony trying to undercut their brand in whatever ways possible.

A Star is Born

October 05, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Bradley Cooper
Starring Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott, Dave Chappelle, Andrew Dice Clay
Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes
MPAA rating: R

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

It’s hard to let yourself sit with loss, to allow the emotions course through you without actively numbing them. It’s like going up a spiral staircase every day without getting anywhere. You feel the same circular waves of sadness, anger, emptiness…over and over again. Up and up: sadness, anger, emptiness. Climb even higher: that same sadness, anger, emptiness. I know it gets better, it usually does. At least, they say it gets better. I want to believe them.

Colette

October 04, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in deborah krieger, reviews

Directed by Wash Westmoreland
Starring Keira Knightley, Eleanor Tomlinson and Fiona Shaw
Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes
MPAA rating: R for some sexuality/nudity

by Deborah Krieger

The thrust of Colette’s plot can be summed up in a single, momentary shot: As Colette (Keira Knightley) and her husband Willy (Dominic West, looking frightfully like Kenneth Branagh as Poirot), ride a tandem bicycle. Sitting in front, Willy lifts his feet from the pedals in a moment of playfulness, while Colette continues pedaling away, keeping them both moving forward. As the ghostwriter of Willy’s bestselling Claudine novels, Colette steadily works to pay the bills, while Willy enjoys the popularity and acclaim that result—until she’s had enough of being a tool, of being an attraction on Willy’s arm, of being half of the Brangelina of Belle Époque Paris. For every Watson and Crick, there’s a Rosalind Franklin.

The Hate U Give

October 03, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in jaime davis, reviews

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls

September 21, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in reviews, sandy devito

Directed by Eli Roth
Starring Cate Blanchett, Jack Black, Owen Vaccaro
Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes
MPAA rating: PG
Genre: Fantasy, Family

by Sandy DeVito, WitchQueen of Darkness

What a delight!

I knew I was going to like this film. Call it a hunch. I get those sometimes with certain films. I like Eli Roth's films. Whether you're a fan or not, you have to admit his love of horror is obvious and guileless. That's a love I share. The House with a Clock in Its Walls is the love of horror that blossoms in the pit of a child's stomach, that interest in the strange and unknown that often needs a mentor to come into itself. Here, Roth is the chauffeur for a new generation of young people who like the weird stuff in life. He couldn't be a better fit for this material; his enthusiasm is evident in every frame. How could I not love something as heartfelt and Halloween-candy-sweet as this? It will be a Halloween staple for years to come. Children are going to love this film. It's spooky, just the right amount of scary, and its heart is truly in the right place. The production design! I was dying. I was eating that shit up. The house! The pumpkins! The tiny minute details on the books, the creepy dolls, Lewis' bedroom with the murals of moons, all the clocks, the costumes! Love after love after love.

Blaze

September 20, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in reviews, emmi kurowski

Written and directed by Ethan Hawke
Starring Ben Dickey, Alia Shawkat, Josh Hamilton and Charlie Sexton
Running time: 2 hours 7 minutes
MPAA rating: R for language throughout, some sexual content and drug use

By Emmi Kurowski

“I don’t wanna be a star. I wants to be a legend. Stars burn out because they shine for themselves… Legends last forever.” – Blaze Foley

I have a confession. I’m a secret songwriter. There are songs swirling around these things called radio waves that I wrote. Nothing remotely well-known, you would never ever find them. But I wrote ‘em, and sold ‘em. I get royalties for them! However, I cast them far away and never listen to them ever again. Why don’t I care? Because they were…country songs. If you like country music, that’s great. I do NOT. I hate it. If you catch me listening to country music, well it ain’t me, babe. But you know what? I *get* it. I find it easy to craft a country music song, but I don't care about it. I’m basically turnin’ tricks fer cash. However, SONGWRITERS. Now that is something I care very deeply about.

Love, Gilda

September 17, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in sandy devito, reviews

Directed by Lisa Dapolito
Starring Andrew Alexander, Anne Beatts, Chevy Chase
Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes

by Sandy DeVito, Witchqueen of Darkness

A lovely, sincere slice-of-life documentary about Gilda Radner, first woman on the National Lampoon radio show and one of the first original seven members of Saturday Night Live. I particularly liked director Lisa Dapolito including some popular SNL comedians from today (Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy) reading bits of Gilda's journals aloud. To see how beloved she is still by the comedy community was particularly moving, even when some of the structure of Dapolito's film veered into a kind of paint-by-numbers scriptedness.

The Nun

September 07, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in reviews, sandy devito

Directed by Corin Hardy
Starring Demián Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, and Jonas Bloquet
Runtime: 1 hour and 36 minutes
MPAA rating: R for terror, violence, and disturbing/bloody images

by Sandy DeVito

I liked Corin Hardy's sophomore effort about as much as I expected to; that is, more than The Conjuring films that have preceded it (1, 2) and not as much as I was hoping to. James Wan, producer of this film and the director of both Conjuring films, was quoted saying this film was meant to be "inspired by Hammer", the British film studio famous for its cheesy, grotesque, genre-pushing horror films, mostly in the '60s and '70s, all of which I'm a huge fan of, running the gamut of legitimately great Horror of Dracula, The Devil Rides Out to fun exploitation The Vampire Lovers, to contemporary efforts at gothica The Woman in Black. I mean, honestly, the bar was set too high as soon as I heard that. Hammer's special because though many have tried to mimic their particular style and wheelhouse, their films remain one-of-a-kind in atmosphere, performance, and horror credentials. I could see and appreciate the ways this film wanted to be like a Hammer film, but ultimately it falls short, lacking the flair, content to be a sort of cardboard 2D cut-out of Hammer's grand 3D horrors. Still, there were things here I enjoyed.

Kin

August 31, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in reviews, benjamin leonard

by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy

Kin is very simple story set in the cliché of downtrodden, hard-workin Detroit but with a Paper Girls-like sci-fi twist.

The Little Stranger

August 30, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in sandy devito, reviews

Directed by Lenny Abrahamson
Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Charlotte Rampling
Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes
MPAA rating: R

by Sandy DeVito, Witchqueen of Darkness

First of all let me say, it’s truly great to see gothic films making a comeback. I’ve long been a fan of gothic narrative above all others, but rarely have I been looking forward to such a slew of films that could fit into the gothic framework (as far as the gothic films that have been made so far go, I made a list that you should check out, and as you can see, compared with other genres, even other horror genres, it’s not as long as purveyors would hope, though it’s filled with gems). The Little Stranger is one of several that remain for the end of 2018, and the mere idea that I have more than one gothic film a year to look forward to is a new experience. As our society turns ever toward chaos, so do our minds need the refuge of gothica, which stares at the chaos with a loving eye; something we must be able to do in order to survive.

The Bookshop

August 28, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in deborah krieger, reviews

Written and Directed by Isabel Coixet
Starring Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighyand Patricia Clarkson
Running time: 1 hour and 53 minutes
MPAA rating: PG for thematic elements, language, and brief smoking

by Deborah Krieger

The Bookshop is a lovely-looking film, but that’s really all there is to recommend it. I’m not familiar with the acclaimed novel upon which this adaptation is based, but the experience of watching The Bookshop is like taking in a version of Chocolat without any of the latter film’s vitality, emotion, or sensuality. The original novel actually predates Chocolat (and its respective source text), but the forty-year gap between The Bookshop book and The Bookshop movie only serves to make nearly every plot point and character beat seem incredibly clichéd and played out. We have the weary, earnest widow Florence Green (Emily Mortimer), who decides to open a bookshop in her dreary little English village; we have the wealthy, petty, manipulative Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson) who wants to stop her; we have Christine, the precious, devilishly charming child who helps Florence at the shop (Honor Kneafsey); we have Mr. Brundish, the mysterious, reclusive benefactor who supports Florence in her cause (Bill Nighy); and, most importantly, we have the expected coterie of small-minded, suspicious, incurious townsfolk who, ultimately, let Florence (and the cause of literary appreciation) down. There’s even an overly-explanatory narration that turns out to have been a recollection by the aforementioned child the entire time.

Nico, 1988

August 27, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in francis friel, reviews

Written and Directed by Susanna Nicchiarelli
Starring Trine Dyrholm, John Gordon Sinclair, and Anamaria Marinca
Running time: 1 hour and 33 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for drug use, language, and some sexuality

By Francis Friel, the Projectionist

Susanna Nicchiarelli has a lot on her mind in Nico, 1988. It’s almost as if the pure, abstract concepts of loneliness, bitterness, and addiction are manifesting on screen even before we get into the day-to-day reality of what it was like to be Christa Päffgen (known to those who don’t know her as Nico, a name she tolerates more than approves of) in the last few years of her life. But once she does show us more than a passing glimpse of the highs and lows of that life, those three traits are joined by another: inspiration.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

August 24, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Desiree Akhavan
Starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Sasha Lane, John Gallagher, Jr., Jennifer Ehle
Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes
Not rated

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

"The world may think I'm foolish
they can't see you like I can
Oh
but anyone
who knows what love is
will understand." - Irma Thomas

Laura Gets a Cat

August 22, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in benjamin leonard, reviews

Written and Directed by Michael Ferrell
Starring Dana Brooke, Michael Ferrell, and Josh Tyson
Running time: 1 hour and 23 minutes
Not Rated

by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy

If I were to start out giving you a synopsis of Laura Gets a Cat, it’d seem like a very dull film. This is because it does such a great job of representing all of the small setbacks and disappointments that the world (and sometimes our selves) dumps upon someone on their way to finding meaning in their career and life. If I described all of that to you, you might wonder why you should watch it. Maybe you are already living it (or have). However, in just his second feature, writer/director/co-star Michael Ferrell brings a sweet, funny and relatable appeal to the story through the use of good dialog and an unconventional main character who sometimes gets lost in her dreams (taking the viewer along for the ride).

Crazy Rich Asians

August 15, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Jon M. Chu
Starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina
Running time: 2 hours
MPAA rating: PG-13

by Jaime Davis

Yesterday I went swimming with sharks and stingrays in the ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic with my family, and I almost didn't do it. Why? Well, because scared. That's why.

Never Goin' Back: Does all that Teenage Wasteland Stuff Better Than Most

August 14, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in francis friel, reviews

Directed by Augustine Frizzell
Starring Maia Mitchell, Camila Morrone, Kyle Mooney
Running time: 1 hours 25 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

By Francis Friel, The Projectionist

Augustine Frizzell’s Never Goin’ Back is the sweatiest, shittiest, dopiest, most rambling new hangout movie of the year. And I mean sweaty and shitty as in - yeah, this movie has a lot of sweaty people in it and they talk a lot about shit. And shitting. And they are all pretty fuckin’ dopey.

True Faith, or: I Never Thought Much About It And Now I’m Thinking About It All The Time - Spike Lee’s BLACKkKLANSMAN Is The Best Film of The Year

August 10, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in francis friel, reviews

Directed by Spike Lee
Starring John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier
Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout, including racial epithets, and for disturbing/violent material and some sexual references

By Francis Friel, The Projectionist

Spike Lee is one of the few remaining living legends who still thinks of his own cinema in terms of great shots. I guarantee that, at 61 years of age, the Master still has camera setups and dolly and crane ideas he’s been waiting to spring his entire life but that he’ll never realize. He lives and breathes movies like no one else. Look at the recent output from others of his generation and you won’t find a single sequence as simple or as powerful as the early goings of BlacKkKlansman, where a meeting of the Colorado Springs Black Student Union transforms into a ritualistic, almost holy presentation of black faces, their features emerging from darkness as crisply and elegantly as if they were floating out of a Rembrandt painting.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

August 04, 2018 by Moviejawn Admin in deborah krieger, reviews

Written and Directed by Casey Wilder Mott
Starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Paz de la Huerta, Avan Jogia, Ted Levine
Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes
MPAA Rating: Not Rated

by Deborah Krieger

When it comes to modernized Shakespeare adaptations, I am inclined to say, “the more, the merrier!” Adapting texts, especially classic ones, from stage to screen can, and should, allow the filmmaker to reshape the text and tell the story from an often completely unexpected new perspective. So Casey Wilder Mott’s Kickstarter-funded adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is right in my wheelhouse of what I want to see in a Shakespeare adaptation. While it keeps the vast majority of the storyline and the original text, it remains true to the surreal, mystic quality of the play’s story by placing it in a setting that contemporary audiences will read as appropriately surreal and mystic: Athens is played by Los Angeles, California, and her forested and beachy environs. It’s why I’ll always argue for the use of contemporary music in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, because it gave the audiences who saw his movie the immediately-understandable equivalent of what those Roaring Twenties parties were like: lush, vivid, hedonistic.