I was able to preview Steven Spielberg’s (Jaws, Saving Private Ryan) The Post two years before it was released to the public and even a year before it went into production. It was called Spotlight, and it won the Oscar for Best Picture. It was a fantastic movie. I wish I was more than kidding, and with that, I could be more positive about my viewing of, what I hoped could be, one of the best movies of the year. That was months ago when I only knew of the movie title and that it starred Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. In my head, I envisioned a movie about an army outpost and was very intrigued. But then I saw the preview, and I wished the movie would have been about a post office instead. Then, when I was halfway through the movie, I wish I had been watching a movie about a bedpost, a fence post, or any other post that would have represented something far less predictable and boring than the waste of talent and time that was being projected on the screen in front of me. It was one of those times (I’ve had many recently) where I have been more than grateful for having a MoviePass. The thought of actually paying for some of these 2017 movies is even more terrifying than the disappointing IT, a movie that was neither scary nor good. And, except a couple of non-Oscar nominated movies that I am still looking forward to but have yet to see (Hostiles, The Florida Project), The Post successfully ends 2017, the worst year for movies so far this century.
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Category Archives: Michael Stuhlbarg
Call Me By Your Name (2017)
As the release of 2017 movies slowly (and mercifully) comes to an end, each review provides an opportunity to reflect deeper and deeper on the year that was. I’ve mentioned a few times in recent reviews that 2017 has, by far, been the worst year for movies since the inception of this blog back in 2010. There are movies that very may finish on my end of year Top 5 that wouldn’t even come close to finishing in my Top 10 in any other year. Unfortunately, for this review, Luca Guadagnino’s (A Bigger Splash, I Am Love) Call Me By Your Name did not benefit from a week 2017. While this movie has done very well with the critics and likely will earn multiple Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Actor (Timothée Chalamet – Lady Bird, Interstellar), Best Adapted Screenplay as well as potential nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Armie Hammer – Nocturnal Animals, The Birth of a Nation) and Michael Stuhlbarg (The Shape of Water, Arrival), Best Original Song, and others, it still didn’t captivate me in the way I expected it to. For those expecting this to be the greatest movie about gay love since Brokeback Mountain, you may be disappointed. Brokeback Mountain is an A+ movie. Guadagnino’s (A Bigger Splash, I Am Love) Call Me By Your Name is a B at best. Continue reading Call Me By Your Name (2017)
The Shape of Water (2017)
Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak) adult fairytale The Shape of Water is a movie we’ve seen so many different times in so many different forms that it’s a wonder that we’d even be willing to see it again. Starcrossed lovers find themselves in a forbidden love situation while fighting off some catastrophe, or at least societal pressures. Think Titanic, a nearly perfect movie that showcased this is in a way that will never be forgotten by any who watches it. So how does del Toro pull off this story in a completely original yet equally compelling way? Well, he does it in a way that only del Toro can do. And in doing so, he creates both the most unparalleled and also (with no disrespect to Call Me By Your Name) the most romantic movie of 2017. This movie certainly is not for everyone. If Thor: Ragnarok or Justice League is more your thing, then I’m not even sure I’d consider The Shape of Water. This is the ultimate independent movie, and if you go into this movie with the mindset that you’ll be able to enjoy the ride and not have to think, you’ll be in for a long two hours. In a year where the movies have been the worse they’ve been since I began my blog in 2010, the uniqueness of the movies (rather than the quality of them) has really defined this year.
Continue reading The Shape of Water (2017)