My Own Little World

Blade Runner 2049 is a really, really, really beautiful film. I don’t think I have been more visually or sonically treated in the past few years of watching movies. Between Roger Deakins’s Oscar-winning cinematography that is transportive and elegant, Hans Zimmer’s electronically graceful score, the sound direction, production design, and perfect (and I do mean perfect) visual effects, there is so much to take in from each shot that I almost could not comprehend everything that was happening. And that is Blade Runner 2049 ’s undoing. As perfect as Denis Villeneuve’s technical direction of the film is, its structure and narrative are kind of a mess. I loved Ridley Scott’s original film that discussed big-picture questions of humanity and reality while also forcing me to use my brain to connect the pieces of his visual storytelling amid the lack of plain and simple exposition – something that I was annoyed with at first but came to enjoy the more I reflected upon it. Wha...

I loved literally everything about Get Out . There hasn’t been a horror film that reminds me of the more classic form of the genre in the past few years that has been as inventive and impactful as this one. I love being scared in the way this film scared me with its brilliant pacing and tension. Nearly all of this is due to Jordan Peele’s writing and direction. This guy amazed me in how he was able to move into a completely opposite genre from his prior comedy work and make his first movie and not miss a single beat. There is so much tension and eeriness surrounding the first and second acts that play beautifully into the third act that I swear Hitchcock or Kubrick must have been responsible. Peele has a way of using somewhat unconventional shots in cool ways – in particular when Chris (the film’s protagonist) arrives at his girlfriend Rose’s house, using a wide shot the whole time instead of cutting close to see Chris meet her parents for the very first time. Because it doesn’...

I have a love-hate relationship with mother! On some level, I do love this film. It has some of the most evocative and unforgettable images I have seen in the past several years of film. It also has the guts to do things I would never have imagined with its story and in particular its perspective. Director and writer Darren Aronofsky has created one of the most intriguing yet still puzzling films ever made, and almost all of this comes from its use of allegory. Actually, let’s talk about that. Aronofsky’s use of metaphorical and allegorical imagery and narrative is bold, to be sure (and not something that I will be discussing in detail so I can avoid spoilers); however, there are times where it almost lost me – in fact there’s a lot of those times – because of this film’s slow pace. In retrospect after having talked with other people about this film, the sequences of monotony that slow the film down do have a lot of meaning, but that doesn’t mean I appreciate them any more...

If I’m being honest, I really want the Christian film industry to succeed. I want it to be good art that families can feel comfortable seeing in a theater. I want it to have good messages for Christians in the world today, and I want these films to do well and gain respect outside of the American evangelical sphere. There haven’t been many films of this genre, though, that have risen above one of two categories – borderline sermon or borderline propaganda – and the typical lack of production quality behind these films means that I cannot in good conscience say they are good movies either. If I’m being honest, though, I also must admit that I Can Only Imagine is one of the better Christian films of the last several years. It does a surprisingly good job proving that its story – the life of Bart Millard and how his journey led him to write the titular song – can make an emotionally compelling film, which considering how unnecessary the film seems at its outset is quite a feat. ...

Aw man. Before it came out, I was really rooting for A Wrinkle in Time . I liked the only other film by its director Ava DuVernay that I have seen (it was Selma ), and I thought she could do a good job with material like this that needed a stylistic, visionary mind. I also liked some of the cast, and the first time I saw the trailer I was actually quite excited for it. Yeah, that visionary film I was expecting wasn’t the final product we got. A Wrinkle in Time is a mess. It doesn’t make any profound points, even though it spends every second trying. It also doesn’t tell a coherent story, even though it is from one of the most acclaimed children’s science fiction novels of the past century. It doesn’t even do the one thing I thought it could for sure achieve: be a visually astonishing film. I don’t think this film looks bad, to be sure, but some of the shot-to-shot editing seems really choppy, especially in dialogue scenes. DuVernay uses a lot of solo close-up shots of a...

Spy films typically have very quick paces, moving from one set piece to another to progress the plot and eventually move towards a large twist or showdown. That’s not a problem with the genre, but it can allow characters to go undeveloped and their plot twists either too predictable or too spontaneous. When that happens, no matter how good the films can be otherwise, they feel shallow and too palatable. Shallow and palatable are not words I could use to describe Red Sparrow . This is the antithesis of a typical spy thriller, with its slow pace that focuses on the more deliberate parts of a spy’s work while also confronting Dominika’s (Jennifer Lawrence) harsh training and what it meant for her humanity. I really appreciated this actually; even though the film is long and does feel like it, it focuses a lot more time on elements of the story that might be short montages in a Bond or Bourne film. The biggest beneficiary of this slow, deliberate pace is the character developme...

I love dark humor. It always has a way of sticking out way more than conventional humor because it grabs me with its shock value, and when it’s done well, it can make me laugh harder and longer than just about anything else. Game Night thrives on this kind of comedy, which is part of what makes it as good as it is. I honestly was not expecting much of this movie when I saw the marketing for it, but it actually is a really solid film. It utilizes its premise very well, it twists its plot around in the right ways, and it also has some solid comedy that often takes a darker turn, further bolstered by great comedic performances. The premise of a friendly game night is one that I’m guessing most can relate to, and its familiarity makes Game Night so easy to latch onto. For one, it is not a premise that Hollywood has touched before, so that helps it tons; however, it also pokes a lot of fun at itself and furthermore the concept of groups of couples hanging out together. If it h...

I have no words. Guys, Annihilation is one heck of a movie. It doesn’t hold my hand through its runtime; instead, it forces me to think with the iron grip of its narrative. For that reason, it is one of the most unique movies I have had the pleasure of experiencing in a theater. Of course, this film goes nowhere without director Alex Garland. I remember watching his first film Ex Machina and getting floored by the points it made about human nature by using an artificially intelligent robot to demonstrate our unique ability of attachment and how that could eventually be our downfall as a race. Besides that, that film was beautiful and brilliantly crafted, a slow burn that exploded in a pitch-perfect climax. Annihilation changes the game a little for Garland as he continues his exploration into human nature. This time, the film centers on our desires and how they ultimately will lead us to our self-destruction. Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character posits at one point that ...