My recent apparent 2020 trend of alternating between Christian Bale, Denzel Washington, and Russell Crowe movies continues with my review of Mary Harron 2000’s cult classic American Psycho. In his first lead role, this film introduced an experienced but still grossly undiscovered Bale (The Fighter, Ford v Ferrari) to the screen.
American Psycho seems like a movie that most people have seen. If you haven’t seen it, you’ve at least heard of it. I’ve seen it three or four times, and each time, I think I will end up liking it more than the time before. And that’s not saying a lot because I wouldn’t say I liked it the first time I saw it and got upset with myself for watching it every four or five years. I want it to be good. It’s just not. The main reason is that it is too obscure. I’m not too fond of zany or batty. I also sometimes like everything laid out before me, so I don’t have to think. American Psycho makes you think, but you have to think too hard, and then you wonder if what you thought was correct or wasn’t anywhere close to being what Harron intended.
Continue reading American Psycho (2000) →
James Mangold’s (Logan, Walk the Line) Ford v Ferrari is the perfect movie to see in the theatre. It has action. It has drama. It has a clear protagonist. It makes you want to stand up and cheer for the good guys. This racing movie is much better viewed on the big screen than on a small screen at home. Likewise, a movie theater’s surround system is a better experience than any surround system you might have at home. With that said, this movie has gotten much better acclaim (91% critics, 98% audience on Rotten Tomatoes) than it probably deserved. I haven’t seen many racecar movies, but this movie fails compared to a film like Rush. However, this is a good and highly entertaining movie.
Continue reading Ford v Ferrari (2019) →
Will everybody be okay in the end? In fairytales, yes. In real life, maybe not so much. Perhaps, instead, if we work hard enough, we can maintain a life that is, at its worse, tolerable and, at its best, offers enough of a glimmer of hope to move on. First-time director Elizabeth Chomko provides the most authentic movie of 2018 with the touching and sentimental What The Had, a look at Alzheimer’s Disease/dementia (I don’t think it is ever specified) that hits you like a ton of bricks. Predecessors like the slightly overrated Still Alice, the underrated Away From Her, the brutally honest The Savages, and the Nicholas Sparks/Ryan Gosling/Rachel McAdams ‘Welcome to Hollywood’ tearjerker The Notebook. None of these four, pretty terrific, movies were able to do what What They Had was able to do…and that was to make it real for me. By the end of this movie, I was lost in all of the major characters and was on the verge of tears at the movie theatre for the first time since 2016 (keep in mind that I see over 50 movies a year in the movie theater). A movie that likely will get snubbed by all Oscar nominations, What They Had is real, brutally honest, and feels like it could be a true story about the family down the street from you, if not your family all together.
Continue reading What They Had (2018) →
Life As We Know It is one of those movies that didn’t interest me when I saw the previews for the first time or encouraged me to overcome those reservations with a 28% positive rating on www.rottentomatoes.com. I would never have seen it had it not been on HBO one day. So I recorded it and gave it 15 minutes to interest me. I was so glad I did it. Not only did it grab my attention with a hilarious first scene between the two lead stars, but it also won me over with its tender story, direction, and actors who were determined to get it right. And, low and behold, the movie came out in 2010. Even though this movie doesn’t come close to cracking the top ten for that year, it further supports my argument that 2010 is the best year for movie releases in my lifetime.
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Movies I Watch That Inspire Me to Critique!