It isn’t so much that Alice, Darling, the feature-length directorial debut of Mary Nighy, was a good movie or an enjoyable watch, but rather how it remains in your mind long after its watch. It’s both a timely and timeless movie about emotional abuse, told exclusively through the eyes of a victim amid the turmoil, but having no sense of what to do about it or even if she knows if she’s genuinely experiencing this abuse. In this regard, the movie hits on all cylinders, even when it misses almost everything else.
Category Archives: Suspense
No Country for Old Men (2008)
No Country for Old Men is the most well-received and critically acclaimed adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy (my favorite author) novel. There have been six. The Road is, by far, my favorite McCarthy novel and a movie masterpiece. The others are the slightly underrated All the Pretty Horses, the disappointing box office flop The Counselor, the virtually unseen Child of God, and The Sunset Limited, a film I still need to see. No Country for Old Men is the only McCarthy-adapted film to receive an Oscar, earning eight nominations and four wins, including the first nomination and win in Best Achievement in Directing for Hollywood darlings Joel and Ethan Coen.
Memento (2000)
A tour de force with its initial viewing, Christopher Nolan’s (Dunkirk, Interstellar) mind-bending Memento felt, more than 99% of the films I watch, worthy of a second viewing. What initially captivated but also confused me would likely enthrall me further as it clears up plot holes. It turns out that this wasn’t the case. Not only did my second watch make me more uncertain about the events, their timelines, and the overarching structure. It also left me feeling bored by the premise and disengaged from the story. In a way, it feels odd to say that. At the same time, the film could be more straightforward in its attempt to entertain and differentiate itself in new and unique ways. Even in the early stages of his directing career, Nolan was, for better or worse, telling his viewers that he was the most intelligent person in the room and to get used to it.
The Butterfly Effect (2004)
Name a movie that you like much more than you should. I could rattle off dozens, and right at the top of that list might be the incredibly flawed yet thoroughly engrossing The Butterfly Effect, the supernatural thriller co-directed by J Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress. This movie gets better with each viewing, but it still gets the job done. I watch it every four or five years. It captivates me each time, though I pick it apart more. It’s not a criticism but rather an observation. This is a movie that I admire. I enjoy its dark themes.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
In a summer movie season that has seen the unlikely pairing of Oppenheimer and Barbie dominate the box office, two surefire franchises have found it a bit more difficult than anticipated to generate sales. While Oppenheimer and Barbie have both fared well with critics and audiences, Christopher McQuarrie’s (The Way of the Gun, Jack Reacher) Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One has scored just as well, but its box office revenue may have been slighted due to the Oppenheimer/Barbie dual release date two weeks later. It may have made the Mission Impossible franchise’s seventh movie out of sight, out of mind, a little too quickly. Dead Reckoning Part One is a film that should be seen in the theater, as many will agree. Saying that it is better than Oppenheimer and Barbie is an unpopular opinion, but one that I believe to be true. The novelty of Oppenheimer and Barbie is undoubtedly an allure over the seventh installment of a franchise, and is something I do understand and appreciate. However, overall, I found Dead Reckoning Part One to be far more entertaining and better executed.
Continue reading Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)