I love it when a movie is timely and relevant. I refer to The Social Network, the 2010 origin film about the social phenomenon of Facebook. This social media platform had been made available to the public less than four years earlier. Aaron Sorokin and David Fincher worked magic to create such a masterpiece quickly. I still maintain that The King’s Speech beating The Social Network for Best Picture was one of the biggest shams in Oscar history. It showed just how antiquated and set in their ways The Academy had become. While Craig Gillespie’s (I, Tonya, Lars and the Real Girl) Dumb Money is not entirely on the same level as The Social Network, its timely significance cannot be overlooked. Though in a completely different way, the events in Dumb Money are (to many individuals, organizations, and sectors) as impactful as to those in The Social Network.
Category Archives: Comedy
The King of Staten Island (2020)
Judd Apatow’s humor is my kind of humor. Actually, I should preface that some. The movies that Apatow directs (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, This Is 40, Funny People, Trainwreck) are my kind of humor. The films that he is merely a producer for are hit or miss. While I love Kicking and Screaming, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Step Brothers, Bridesmaids, Get Him to the Greek, and The Big Sick, there are just as many of his produced films that I am not a fan of, most notably Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. If anything, I wish I would stop producing altogether and spend more time writing and stepping behind the camera.
Barbie (2023)
Sometimes when someone is describing a movie to someone who might be on the fence about it, they might say something like, “Yes, it’s a kids’ movie, but it’s made for adults. So much of the humor will go straight over a child’s head.” This rarely, if ever, works and can be a terrible tactic. Yet, here I find myself again writing a review for a movie that I knew I was not going to enjoy (though I knew I would see it regardless because of the hype, favorable review, and gnawing curiosity) under the pretense that the movie was made for me when it was not. However, that was not the half of it. With most animated films, children are likely to be entertained and understand the story, even if that story parallels an overarching story intended more to reach adults. Greta Gerwig’s (Lady Bird, Little Women) Barbie had all the shininess of Mattel’s most iconic toy and was often shot in such a simplistic way that it felt like it was perhaps aimed toward children, but this was not a kids’ movie. Its clever and ubiquitous marketing campaign seemed more interested in selling out as many theaters as possible for as long as possible before revealing its plot. It did work. The film grossed over $150 million domestically in its first three days. To the film’s credit, it was a PG-13 film, though I bought into the intrigue so much that I hadn’t even looked at the rating until I left the theater.
About Time (2013)
About Time was a movie I watched for the first time a year after its 2013 release date. Despite relatively high Rotten Tomatoes scores (70% critics, 81% audience), I recall being unimpressed by it. Many accounts I follow on TikTok are of people giving film reviews. While most, if not all, of those I follow in this niche, are younger than me, more often than not, I generally agree with their assessments (hence, my reason for following them). So often, About Time is referenced in a video. The film is often called beautiful, poetic, and devastating. Some have gone so far as to call it a gut punch. Those characteristics I seek out in my romantic dramas, so I signed up for the rewatch, thinking I must have missed something. It turns out that I didn’t. My second viewing did hold my interest more than my first, but it still felt very average. I’m even more uncertain now about what others see in this film that I missed.
Babylon (2022)
Love it or hate it. There isn’t much middle ground or neutrality regarding Damien Chazelle’s (La La Land, First Man) divisive Babylon, a fantastical look at the debaucherous look at the rise and fall of the Hollywood movie industry during the 1920s. While some might believe its 56% /52 % scores on Rotten Tomatoes suggest it’s an ordinary movie, those average scores may result from people either loving or hating it. I enjoyed the movie. It is far from being in my top ten of the year. With only a couple of 2022 films left to watch, Babylon sits at #16 (out of the 74 2022-released films I’ve seen). It’s a fine film and one that is worth viewing.