My Own Little World

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...

Film has the potential to be one of the most impactful forms of media because it excites the most senses: we can see, hear, and emotionally feel for everything that is happening on screen. We don’t always need big spectacles to do this for us either; sometimes, the smaller and more intimate a film is, the more impact it can have on the viewer. I recently saw Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri , a well-written character-driven mystery that has at its core a really unique portrayal of forgiveness and reconciliation. I think for a time like we are in now, this is a film that everybody must see. It doesn’t become overly political, and it doesn’t try to force these hefty themes: it simply tells a human story. The most central element to Three Billboards is the writing, both of the story and the screenplay. Martin McDonagh, the film’s director and writer, is actually best known for his plays, and that style of writing shows up constantly in this film. The dialogue is meaty...

There are times when I will be watching a film, really enjoying it, and suddenly feeling like something is off. I often cannot put my finger on what exactly the flaw is, but because I can’t put my finger on it I dismiss it and still say the movie is good. There are other times, however, when after talking with other people about the film, I understand exactly what the flaw is. Watching Murder on the Orient Express was one of those experiences. I love myself a good old-school mystery in the vein of Hitchcock films like To Catch a Thief , and my prior experiences with star and director Kenneth Branagh (in particular his four-hour unabridged adaptation of Hamlet ) as well as the rest of this star-studded cast made me very excited to see this film. I didn’t expect a fantastic film, but I was secretly hoping that it would revitalize this largely dead genre. Unfortunately, Murder has one really big flaw that makes it largely forgettable: it doesn’t know how to balance knowledge ...

There's something to be said for old-fashioned filmmaking. Many of my favorite directors use many elements that are considered "outdated" in their films to great success (I'm looking at you, Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg). However, I don't think I've seen a film from the past ten years that is more old-fashioned in its style than The Hateful Eight . That's probably to be expected from a director like Quentin Tarantino. Every single film of his is an homage of some kind to a genre of film that either has gone under the radar or away entirely. He also is a film buff in the most literal sense, going so far as to pay for the installation of one hundred 70mm film projectors worldwide to show a special "Roadshow" version of The Hateful Eight  that adds an overture, intermission, and six more minutes to the already long film. From the opening credits, I noticed two things that made me feel that this film was from a bygone era: the score b...