Say what you will about Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Magnolia). Whether you are a fan of his directing or not, his movies feel like they are so much longer than they need to be. Painfully so, sometimes. He hooks you with his rich characters (often played by some of the finest actors in the industry) and what feels like is going to be a soft, gentle story. But then his movies tend to drift aimlessly, going down so many different wormholes before finally arriving at an unsatisfying conclusion. Such is the case with Licorice Pizza, a boy meets girl, coming-of-age story that is likely to earn some Oscar nominations despite its waning story and crawl to the finish line.
Riders of Justice (2020)
In a year when movies have been the worst of my lifetime, I have been pleasantly surprised by the originality of the three most recent films I have seen. Jockey, A Hero, and Anders Thomas Jensen Riders of Justice gave the year a late jolt of hope that the year can amount to something more. However, it may be too late with only a dozen or so movies left to see (and even fewer than I am excited to see). Different from the first two movies, Riders of Justice, while a neat little film, won’t finish in my end-of-year top ten, which is something that I believe Jockey and A Hero will.
Jockey (2021)
2021 has been a year filled with disappointing movies. The pandemic has played a crucial factor, with many studios opting to push back their release dates to 2022 (or 2023), hoping that theaters can lure audiences back once those who are more tentative feel safe again. Movies, as a whole, couldn’t get worse than the 2020 batch. Unfortunately, 2021 has proven to be worse. There are still a handful of films that I haven’t seen that I hope will elevate the year (Dune, Nightmare Alley, Belfast, Spider-Man: No Way Home, C’mon C’mon, Being the Ricardos, Licorice Pizza, Red Rocket, Spencer, Last Night in Soho).
A Hero (2021)
I recently took an annual leave day off from work. The plan was to attend my local independent art-house theater and see a movie that would receive a nomination for some Academy Awards. I watched an early morning showing of Jockey, a quiet, little film in its own right that will be what I review next. Upon leaving, I spotted a poster of A Hero. It was a film I had seen pop in advertisements on some of my other frequently visited movie websites. It had intrigued me, but I knew it was a subtitled (Persian) movie. I need to be in the right mindset, or I’ll get distracted and miss everything. Still, I debated buying a ticket and doing a double feature. But then I saw it was an Amazon Prime movie. I looked up the film on my phone and noticed that the movie was available on Prime starting that day. So, I decided to skip the theater viewing and watch it at home instead. I’m glad I did, but only because the film was a bit longer (127 minutes). I wanted to break it up into a couple of chunks (full transparency, I also took a quick nap between Jockey and A Hero…by the time I started the second movie, I was ready to go).
Worth (2020)
More often than not, movies that attempt to capitalize on the tragedy of real-life events have mountains to climb over that other movies don’t even have to navigate. The greater the tragedy (at least when it comes to the loss of human life), the closer the attempt to reap any profit from the tragedy through music, literature, art, film, or other types of storytelling expression to the actual event itself presents an even steeper cliff to escalate.