Alien, Fire in the Sky, Independence Day, Men in Black, Starship Troopers, Cloverfield, Signs, Prometheus. These are some of the many movies that have successfully explored contact in some form with extraterrestrial beings in some form. And then you have films like E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Cocoon, Contact, Solaris, District 9, Gravity, Interstellar, and The Martian, which are also movies about either extraterrestrial encounters or innovative space exploration that deal more with human component or relationship building than they do action, adventure, and a post-apocalyptic future. Add Denis Villeneuve’s (Sicario, Prisoners) Arrival as the latest movie to try to get itself on this impressive list. The critics (93% on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (82%) have enjoyed this movie.
Category Archives: Year of Release
The Lobster (2016)
Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster is one weird movie. I don’t often do well with movies that I find to be strange. Some movies that have gotten high ratings with the critics are so utterly dreadful that they are virtually unwatchable. The tone is simple, the dialect is weird, and the actions are peculiar, but the overall strangeness of these movies makes the experience a chore. I know some love Wes Anderson, and to each his own. The Lobster feels similar to one of these Anderson movies, but oddly enough, it interested me. While I didn’t understand why a strange movie needed to be made, I found it engaging, and it didn’t feel like I was watching it to say that I watched it. While I wouldn’t say I liked it and would never watch it again, there were parts of it.
Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Hot take. Hacksaw Ridge > Saving Private Ryan.
That was my claim after my theater viewing of Mel Gibson’s (Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ) newest film. I’ve since slept on this, but I should have watched it again. Nonetheless, it doesn’t take away from Gibson’s movie. Hacksaw Ridge was based on a true story, whereas Saving Private Ryan was not. For me, when all else is equal, it nods to the more factual-based one. Saving Private Ryan was a fantastic movie. The Invasion of Normandy Omaha Beach to open the movie was one of the most captivating and memorable action sequences in film history. When I claimed that Hacksaw Ridge was a better movie, I almost inserted the caveat that “outside of the opening 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, Hacksaw Ridge is a better movie.” But that seemed like a copout. I couldn’t spoil it with some condition that limited my case.
Christine (2016)
Rebecca Hall (The Gift, Everything Must Go) does what many actors and actresses have tried and failed to do, which is to portray a person with an untreated mental disorder successfully. In this case, the mental disorder is depression. Many actresses find it hard to put themselves in that mold if they’ve never directly experienced that disorder. I’m not sure if Hall has ever experienced a major depressive episode in her life. Still, if she has not, she did a great job researching Christine Chubbuck and bringing this character to life in a way that makes you feel like she’s that one co-worker of yours who you know is struggling with life but doesn’t know how bad it really is. Chubbuck, a reporter for Sarasota’s WXLT-TV news broadcast, made headlines when, while live on air, stated, “In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in ‘blood and guts,’ and in living color, you are going to see another first —attempted suicide” before shooting herself in the head and splattering blood against the back wall. She died later that evening in a local hospital.
The Girl on the Train (2016)
The Girl on the Train will often be confused with and frequently compared to Gone Girl, 2014’s box office success that also registered well with the critics. Both were highly anticipated adaptations of successful novels by two more popular present-day writers. Both movies revolve around complex female characters who may not be mentally stable. It’s easy to see how some people might say that The Girl on the Train could be considered a rip-off of Gone Girl, but it’s not. The book had already been written, and the movie had already been in the works. The movies are actually quite different from one another. And, with that said, it’s easy for me to see how The Girl on the Train might achieve the same financial success, but how its 43% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes is slightly less than half that of Gone Girl‘s 88%. In addition, the movie was far less captivating and much less memorable. Nonetheless, The Girl on the Train is an okay movie. It is much better than the book. And while it doesn’t offer the same intriguing storyline as Gone Girl, it’s worth checking out.