A much anticipated same-sex attraction/sexual attraction conversion therapy movie had been initially projected to earn multiple Oscar nominations. Unfortunately, the Lucas Hedges/Nicole Kidman/Joel Edgerton/Russell Crowe Boy Erased failed to live up to the hype. I had read the book earlier and hoped that the movie could capture the aspects of the novel I liked and take it to the next level. And despite decent Rotten Tomatoes critics and audience scores (81% and 72%), that didn’t happen for me.
But here we have this much less marketed movie in The Miseducation of Cameron Post with a much less recognized cast and a first-time director in Desiree Akhavan (Boy Erased was directed by Joel Edgerton, a pretty darn good actor turned director). Many didn’t see This lesser-known movie, earning less than $1 million domestically (compared to $7 million for Boy Erased, which could have been more successful). Still, it succeeded because of both its softness and its quietness. The movies were similar, and I’d like to know what Edgerton knew about Akhavan’s movie and vice versa. While Boy Erased underwhelmed (primarily due to my lofty expectations of it going in), something about it still made the movie more memorable than The Miseducation of Cameron Post. So, with that said, Boy Erased was better. Still, The Miseducation of Cameron Post was a more enjoyable movie that leaves you feeling more hopeful for those struggling with (and those not struggling with) same-sex attraction.
Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge (a terrible title since it has the same name as the Kevin Costner 1990 movie, a 2002 Roman Polanski film, a 1971 Shelley Winters film, and more) might be the best movie of 2018 you have yet to hear about. However, I can’t think of a better one for a movie that makes no bones about it, a movie about revenge, and nothing more. Driven by a first-time director in Fargeat, a cast that has no one that you’ve ever heard of, and a marketing campaign that likely consisted only of trailers on just as unknown straight-to-DVD releases, Revenge earned less than $125,000 at the box office and its limited May 2018 release, the movie resonated with the critics (92% with 119 reviews) though, with more than 2400 ratings, just over half (55%) gave the movie a favorable review. Much more than a simple popcorn flick, Fargeat creates a highly likable protagonist in Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz – Somewhere Beautiful, Rings) and three highly unlikeable antagonists, whom I’ll discuss in subsequent paragraphs. You’ll find yourself cheering hard for Jen and hoping, even if you are against violence, that those who have wronged her get what they deserve.
More than a decade before earning back-to-back Best Director Oscars (Birdman, The Revenant), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directed a series of unrelated hyperlink films. The idea behind hyperlink movies is that you have a movie that tells completely different stories in entirely different settings but is connected or influenced in ways unknown to the characters (and, for periods, the audience). These films started gaining popularity with the success of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic in the year 2000. When done correctly, hyperlink films can be incredibly memorable. Traffic won four Academy Awards and was a favorite for Best Picture in 2000.
An upstart politician is seen with a woman who is not his wife. A scandal ensues. Would-be presidential candidate resigns amidst the controversy. Just because a story happens doesn’t mean you must make a movie about it. At best, Jason Reitman’s (Up in the Air, Young Adult) Gary Hart biopic should have been a straight-to-cable drop. But really, a 60-minute documentary on The History Channel or something would have sufficed. That’s not to say The Front Runner was a bad movie. Because it wasn’t, but it wasn’t a movie we needed. Reitman, a fantastic yet underrated director fresh off the incredibly impressive Tullywith also such films as Juno and Thank You For Smoking among his credits, had no business involving himself with a movie that, no matter what he did, wasn’t going to register with the critics or with the audiences because:
Even though it is a 30-year story at the time of its release, it is one everyone knows.
It’s a story that we, as a society, tried to make into some huge deal, whereas 30 years later, we realize that a politician cheating on his wife is something that hardly bats an eye.
It’s a story that raises some issues related to morality and tries to be a little preachy in a day and age when none of us are interested in hearing and seeing preachy, especially from a story that is trying to be relevant in today’s society but does feel 30 years old.
Will everybody be okay in the end? In fairytales, yes. In real life, maybe not so much. If we work hard enough, we can maintain a tolerable life at its worst and, at its best, offer 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 could do what What They Had was able to do, which 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 theater 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 together.
A much anticipated same-sex attraction/sexual attraction conversion therapy movie had been initially projected to earn multiple Oscar nominations. Unfortunately, the Lucas Hedges/Nicole Kidman/Joel Edgerton/Russell Crowe Boy Erased failed to live up to the hype. I had read the book earlier and hoped that the movie could capture the aspects of the novel I liked and take it to the next level. And despite decent Rotten Tomatoes critics and audience scores (81% and 72%), that didn’t happen for me.
Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge (a terrible title since it has the same name as the Kevin Costner 1990 movie, a 2002 Roman Polanski film, a 1971 Shelley Winters film, and more) might be the best movie of 2018 you have yet to hear about. However, I can’t think of a better one for a movie that makes no bones about it, a movie about revenge, and nothing more. Driven by a first-time director in Fargeat, a cast that has no one that you’ve ever heard of, and a marketing campaign that likely consisted only of trailers on just as unknown straight-to-DVD releases, Revenge earned less than $125,000 at the box office and its limited May 2018 release, the movie 
More than a decade before earning back-to-back Best Director Oscars (
An upstart politician is seen with a woman who is not his wife. A scandal ensues. Would-be presidential candidate resigns amidst the controversy. Just because a story happens doesn’t mean you must make a movie about it. At best, Jason Reitman’s (
Will everybody be okay in the end? In fairytales, yes. In real life, maybe not so much. If we work hard enough, we can maintain a tolerable life at its worst and, at its best, offer 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