My Own Little World

Manchester by the Sea makes me grieve. This is a powerful tale of emotion, a tale of life being so relentlessly brutal in the blows it deals – and in how often a single man can be reminded of those blows. It is a real film – real in the way it portrays the process of grief, the desensitization it causes to the outside world, real in the motivations and reactions its characters have. It all starts with Kenneth Lonergan. The writer-director shows here his uncanny intuition for sculpting characters in respectful, complex, and subtle ways. Manchester does not have one scene out of place: every moment has purpose and builds something into the story. Sometimes films like this one can become bloated due to their complicated character building and the many necessary subplots for doing so, but that is not the case here. In fact, as the film went on and introduced more elements I longed for all of them to be explored more – which does happen – just because these characters became s...

Blockers is surprising. I didn’t expect most of the things I got from this seemingly conventional comedy. It has a surprising amount of heart and great cast chemistry, though not between who you might think. This is a type of film that for me rarely rises above mediocre, but upon leaving the theater I was quite entertained. The thing that sold me throughout Blockers was the three girls. They aren’t the central characters, but every scene they are in stole the show. I don’t know whether it was the writing or the acting, but either way these girls had incredible chemistry on screen that made me believe every word of dialogue they said. Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Gideon Adlon do so much to ensure that I only see their characters on screen, and for actresses this young and this new to the game, that is quite an impressive feat. The rest of the cast is fine, but the lead adults can at times overstay their welcome. John Cena is the one that proves his worth ...

If A Quiet Place has taught me anything, it is the importance of good sound design. This is a highly effective horror film for a lot of reasons, but the way it uses sound to its advantage creates such a tense atmosphere that I won’t be forgetting soon. It is almost entirely silent with few portions of spoken dialogue. The production team tried to make very little noise so that every on-camera sound could be amplified in post-production, and it paid off. Because the suddenly loud noises are so loud and because we know that the creatures in the film are only attracted by these kinds of sudden noises, every time those sounds occur the tension instantly goes up. It is a perfect setup for a lot of good jump scares, but it also lends itself to the character development. One of the children of the family focused on is deaf, and when the film is from her perspective all the on-set sound goes away, giving us some very suspenseful and even emotional moments. In fact, A Quiet Place ...

Ready Player One is exactly what I expected. And that is a very good thing. Steven Spielberg is more or less the one who created movies like this one, and he proves once again here that he can helm a big blockbuster film in ways that few others can. There is attention to detail in the direction; there is a firm command of the power of scale; there is excitement and fun and some emotion. This is probably the most fun I’ve had watching a movie so far this year, and it is all because the man who created the template for great escapist filmmaking is back doing his thing. Of course, Ready Player One ’s escapist nature does make it suffer a tad in some areas that would seem very important like character development and a possession of deeper themes, and I know some will complain about that. While I understand how some might see this film as shallow and meaningless, there is a very good story at its core that makes me feel. It doesn’t have the emotional punch of an Oscar-nominate...