This post is a first. It is my first ever post on an animated movie. After 260+ posts, I had actually to add an animation category under my genres. I have repeatedly said that I wouldn’t review animated films or documentaries (heck, sometimes I don’t know what I can even offer when I review a horror film or a comedy). Still, Charlie Kaufman’s (Synecdoche, New York, screenwriter for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) Anomalisa is not your traditional Pixar or Dreamworks animation. And this isn’t really animation. It’s a stop-motion animation, which is entirely different? Well, it is, and it isn’t, I guess. I don’t watch the F/X show Archer or anything on Adult Swim, so I don’t have much of a comparison (if any at all), but Anomalisa was the most adult-oriented animation that I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t adult-oriented in the X-rated sense. I wouldn’t say that there was anything obscene in this movie. It’s just that the themes were very adult-oriented in nature, and you wouldn’t want to be next to a kid while watching this film. Heck, I’m not sure you’d want to be next to anyone during this film. I would not say that I didn’t like this movie. I did expect to like it much more than I did as I kept hearing great things about it. But the two prevailing thoughts that I had while seeing this film were 1) I wanted to like it more than I really did and 2) It was really uncomfortable to watch at times. It is really difficult to recommend this movie.
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Category Archives: Genre
The Big Short (2015)
Completely flying under the radar in an otherwise crowded December release schedule (Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Concussion, Joy, The Hateful Eight, The Revenant) is Adam McKay’s (Step Brothers, The Other Guys) The Big Short, a movie that is neither short on star power or storytelling. While most will find this movie riveting, it will, unfortunately, hit a little too close to home for many viewers. This movie, while at times challenging to understand, will leave you dumbfounded that what happened actually happened not in some far-off land in a time long ago, but right here in our own backyard just a few years ago. I promise not to explain this movie and then talk about some of the pros and cons. I will do my absolute best not to provide spoilers in this review.
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Irrational Man (2015)
Irrational Man is not a terrible movie. If you are a fan of Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris, Blue Jasmine), there’s no reason why you shouldn’t see this movie, despite its rather lukewarm reviews (42% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 48% audience score). This movie didn’t fare very well at the box office, earning just over $4 million. This movie completely flew under my radar. I cannot recall seeing even a single preview for it until I was scrolling through some selections on my Video On Demand network. The movie intrigued me in the same way Midnight in Paris did. Irrational Man was a movie that I did not think I would love but felt would hold my interest. It is certainly not as good as Midnight in Paris, nor does it claim to be. But there is something about Allen’s work in recent years that has me liking him more since about 2007 than I did in the ’80s and ’90s when he was getting most of his acclaim. I’ve never considered myself a huge fan of his movies. I usually like my humor when it is laugh-out-loud funny, and I want my dramas to be serious, while his films tend to fall into the dark comedy/light drama category. I’m also not huge into light-hearted romances. Thus, I’m probably not in Allen’s usual demographic, which has worked perfectly well for both of us. Yet, starting with Match Point and then with Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine, there has been something about him that has convinced me not to write off everything he does before giving it a chance.
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The Walk (2015)
The Walk, the 2015 film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer, Don John), put director Robert Zemeckis back into the driver seat of the unique, quirky, character-driven drams that he is best known for. While he can do the heavier dramas quite effectively (Flight, Cast Away, Contact), we remember him less for these movies than some of his other movies. Known for his ability to incorporate technology while still telling emotional stories, The Walk does just that. After looking at his filmography, this appears to be the first movie Zemeckis has ever directed based on a true story. He does a good job. While The Walk is not one of the 20 best movies of 2015, it is entertaining, and there will be many more people who leave the movie liking it than disliking it.
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Love & Mercy (2015)
Love & Mercy, the Brian Wilson biopic that shows two time periods of The Beach Boys’ life’s most recognizable face, is one of the most underrated movies of 2015. Forgot whatever you know or think you know about Brian Wilson. For me, that was absolutely nothing. I knew he was a member of The Beach Boys, but that was about it. I’m not really a fan of The Beach Boys, but I have a new appreciation for the band and especially for Brian Wilson after seeing this movie. While the band is known for its carefree car tunes like Surfin USA, I Get Around, and California Girls, not all was as peachy as I thought it to be. I’ve always considered The Beach Boys one of those bands that didn’t have a lot of substance in their songs. Not being a Mr. Happy Go Lucky type guy myself and having been to the beaches of California only a couple of times in my life, I couldn’t relate to their music like I could a Tom Petty or a Bruce Springsteen. Their songs, to me, were just that. Peachy. While I will not go out and buy their entire anthology, I will give some of their songs a listen, whereas I might not have in the past. Originally I had no intention of seeing this movie. I thought it was a documentary at first. But I’m glad I decided to see it. I think every fan of the band and everyone who enjoys a good biopic should go out and see this movie.
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