Watched it again on Netflix and I immediately fell in love with it. Whatever it is that didn’t click for me the first time around just completely fell into place this viewing and instantly became one of my top 10 favorite films of the year. Charles Melton absolutely owned this role and I cannot wait to see him get a Oscar nomination.
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Silent Night 2023
John Woo pulled off the impossible. He made a discount John Wick movie boring. Congratulations.
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The Holdovers 2023
Honestly I’m not sure why I took a point off my score on the first two viewings. This film is just so well-written. One of the best screenplays of the year.
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American Fiction 2023
American Fiction (2023) was a solid directorial debut for Cord Jefferson that I wish just went all in on the satire instead of trying to be a drama as well. Because all the dramatic elements kind of ringed hollow or half-baked. It works much better tho as a satire, but I wouldn’t call it anything exceptional.
This is being heralded as one of the best films of the year and it one the People’s Choice Award at Toronto International Film…
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Maestro 2023
There’s about an 8-minute scene in this movie with about a 4-minute long take of Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein conducting music that was so magnificent and breathtaking it would’ve made Lydia Tár’s toes curl. This was a massive leap forward for Bradley Cooper as an artist, and Carey Mulligan is a true virtuoso.
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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes 2023
This is just a character study for Coriolanus Snow, and I really enjoyed it. This is tied with Catching Fire for my favorite in the series. Rachel Zegler singing The Old Therebefore was so powerful, I think it might be my favorite scene in the entire franchise.
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Wish 2023
Probably the most paint by numbers Disney movie I’ve ever seen in my life. Everything in this film doesn’t feel half-baked necessarily, it’s just all very thin and surface-level.
Unfortunately, the animation does not look better in the movie than it did in the trailers. I just don’t think blending the 2D and 3D animation styles worked very well at all.
It feels less like a love letter, and more like a desperate attempt to recapture the magic of the…
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Once Upon a Studio 2023
Rewatched this before going into my screening for Wish (2023). Hopefully the movie is just as heartfelt and loving as this short is.
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May December 2023
I don’t think Natalie Portman or Julianne Moore are going to get the recognition they deserve for this film. This is the best performance I’ve seen from Julianne Moore in a long time. And Charles Melton is the definite breakout star in the movie. He’s excellent and I can’t wait for him to do more stuff in the future. The performances are definitely the main draw of this movie, and it was a great character study. Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Charles Melton all deserve acting nominations, and this film should get a Best Original Screenplay nomination.
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Rustin 2023
There’s no denying that Colman Domingo’s performance is anything short of fantastic, and he should be getting a nomination for Best Actor this year. It’s a damn shame he’s stuck in a bland boring ass Oscar-bait biopic movie that is the exact kind of movie that comes out every single year that annoys me. It’s also too bad because it’s great subject matter about an important figure that hasn’t really been covered in film yet.
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 2015
While these two aren’t as good as Catching Fire, I really like the way Suzanne Collins concluded this story. Katniss and Coin’s dynamic absolutely make this story. Jennifer Lawrence’s performance in this series definitely peaked in these two films. And ending it with “There are more dangerous games to play” is a bit on the nose, but I kinda love it not gonna lie.