I remember surfing the cable channels one night in the early 2010s when I came across a quaint little movie about an aspiring writer and his attempts to overcome family adversity and escape from the mundane life he felt destined to live. The film was Carl Bessai’s coming-of-age Cole. I remember liking this movie so much that I tried diligently year after year to find a way to add it to my DVD collection. Not only did the task feel impossible, I couldn’t even find a way to rewatch it. It wasn’t available on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Most of the other common streaming services had yet to be established. As my goal is to own the DVD of my top ten favorite movies of each year, I was determined to find this missing piece to complete my 2009 collection. When I randomly found it on Amazon Prime in 2023, I wasted no time renting it. It turns out I would have been better served not seeing the film a second time. Not only has it not aged well, Cole is not nearly as good as I remembered it.
The Starling Girl (2023)
Eliza Scanlen (Old, HBO’s Sharp Objects) may be a name that doesn’t roll off the tip of our tongues yet, but very well could in a few years if she continues to piece together performances as she has in Little Women, The Devil All The Time, and Babyteeth, she could find herself in the same conversation as her Little Women co-stars Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, and Emma Watson. Some may think she’s already there but still needs the supporting body of work. In either case, her performance as Jem Starling, a 17-year-old discovering her identity while growing up in a Kentucky fundamentalist Christian community, is nothing short of mesmerizing in Laurel Parmet’s, albeit flawed, directorial debut, The Starling Girl.
The Covenant (2023)
If you hadn’t known it beforehand, you would never know that Guy Ritchie directed The Covenant. Known for movies (The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Gentlemen, and Sherlock Holmes) with clever plots, quick-wit scripts, and fast-moving action, The Covenant feels wholeheartedly different. Perhaps, this film differed so much from the norm that he felt the need to put his name in the title. The Covenant is, by far, Ritchie’s most realistic film and is entrenched in events from recent history. Had the film been based on a true story, The Covenant Ritchie’s first attempt at a warm movie had the potential to rival American Sniper, Hacksaw Ridge, or Black Hawk Down.
The Social Network (2010)
2010 could live forever as the best year for movie releases in my lifetime. As I write this today (April 22, 2023), I, sadly but more confidently, feel like the years when we have two to three dozen quality movies are forever gone. With the advent of streaming television shows and series and an established vast array of cable programming, the cinematic single-viewing experience may be left to blockbuster-type movies. There have been no better examples than 2020, which I had discussed in previous reviews was the worst year of film in my lifetime, only for that argument to be surpassed by the 2021 cumulative list of below-average movies. 2021 is the first year when none of the Best Picture nominees will be in my end-of-year top ten list. Rewatching a film like The Social Network, despite receiving a 100% review, was just my fourth favorite movie of 2010. This would have been my favorite movie in many other years. Still, with The Town (my second favorite movie of all time) and the incredible Blue Valentine and Shutter Island, even a perfect film finished outside my top three.
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.