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Wind River 2017
At times very hard to watch. Dark secrets loom behind Wind River's beautiful snow-covered Wymoing setting in this gripping thriller. It took a little while for me to accept Jeremy Renner as a serious leading man, but once I got over that I lost myself in the investigation.
I give a lot of props to this film for highlighting the epidemic of indigenous women being raped and disappearing without consequence, but did the story really need two white FBI agents as leads to make that point? -
The Hunt 2020
Does satire need to have an overarching point? I'm genuinely asking, because despite some truly excellent lines scorching the libs and alt-right alike, The Hunt's main critique boils down to "everyone's conceited and hypocritical."
That said, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. While silly, this umpteenth take on The Most Dangerous Game execute its premise well and adds some original twists. Betty Giplin proves that she can be a goddamn movie star with a measured dry performance as the badass Crystal.
It's no Verhoeven. Hell, it's not even American Dreamz, but it still might be worth your Friday night.
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Ready or Not 2019
Samara Weaving KILLED it.
Lots of fun-- I think horror comedies just pair so well with the weekend.
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Trading Places 1983
While some of the choices made have not aged well, overall this movie holds up. Still very funny, still very entertaining, and I choose to believe that's still exactly how commodities trading works.
Where it lost me was some of the over-the-top cartoonish elements of the last act. I guess that's the 80s for ya.
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Safety Not Guaranteed 2012
This movie had no right to make me feel so much.
I picked something that looked easy to watch and was free on Netflix to play in the background while I folded laundry, but by the end of the 1:25 runtime, I found myself sitting on my living room floor, clutching my laptop, allowing myself care deeply about a Mark Duplass character.
It's not that this movie is exceptional or beautifully shot or even all that consequential, but it does…
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Ginger Snaps 2000
Wrists are for girls; I'm slitting my throat
No, it's not about some girls called the Ginger Snaps like I assumed, but about a girl named Ginger who, well, snaps.
There is so much this movie does well, and despite the distractingly outdated graphic effects, it really was ahead of its time. I think future demon hot girl movies such as Jennifer's Body have improved on the concept with a better executed story, but there's so much originality here that…
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Batman Returns 1992
If you're a freak like me, you will dig this.
Burton's zany gothic flair is perfectly suited to musical theater and comic book movies, and I kind of wish that's all he made.
Keaton's performance is boring and forgettable, but it doesn't matter when you have The Eggman himself, Danny Devito, playing The Penguin: a sewer-dwelling FUH-REAK with a cartoonishly creepy tophat and magical umbrella. Pfieffer also kills it as Catwoman and deserved a sequel.
Not that it matters but I need to call out how The Penguin's mutant hands really do resemble lobster claws and not flippers.
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The Wild Bunch 1969
I need to watch again at some point if only to keep all the names and faces straight. But lots to like! I love when boys get to hang with their boys.
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Dr. No 1962
Solid procedural spy movie, but the titular villain is pretty underwhelming. As far as James Bonds go, I maintain Connery is the best, and I have to give props to the movie for the powerhouse franchise it launched, but Dr No is just not as fun a rewatch as I'd hoped it would be.
+.5 points for the fashion. Those fits would absolutely kill today.
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Suspiria 1977
Stylistically jaw-dropping with an incredible soundtrack. I think Ballet School is an automatically titillating setting for a horror film, so I was immediately drawn in.
That said, the actual story felt secondary to the aesthetic. Am I uncultured if I admit I kind of lost interest 2/3 of the way through?