To see the results of last year’s Grouches and to check out the fuller version of the regulations, go here. The Grouches are back this year to award last year’s films, although I’ve timed this up to basically match this year’s Oscars. (Trust me, I’m glad to have the extra time!) Here are the short… Read More 2nd Annual Grouches: 2020 Movie Year Awards
Dir. Eliza Hittman. Starring Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin After Autumn (Flanigan) has gotten her first appointment finished at the Manhattan Planned Parenthood, she’s back in a transit station with Skylar (Ryder). Autumn is taciturn, perhaps more actively standoffish and brusque with her cousin than she is at any other point in the movie.… Read More Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Dir. Autumn de Wilde. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Mia Goth Maybe it’s not the most important thing about this movie, but I know my favorite thing about Emma is Bill Nighy’s performance. Mr. Woodhouse, who speaks seldom and mostly about the presence of drafts in his home, is possibly not a human being. His performance makes… Read More Emma. (2020)
Dir. Danny Boyle. Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels About an hour into Steve Jobs, it’s clear that something about the movie just isn’t working well enough. The first forty minutes are remarkably tight, so direct and effective that it’s easy to forget the freewheeling Danny Boyle is behind the wheel with a roadmap… Read More Steve Jobs (2015)
Dir. David Fincher. Starring Gary Oldman, Sam Troughton, Tom Pelphrey Thank God it finally happened. It took until he was near sixty years old to get to this point, but there is no longer any way for us to understand David Fincher as a cool director. There’s a subspecies of movie guy for whom I… Read More Mank (2020)
Dir. Aaron Sorkin. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Mark Rylance Spoilers for this recent release, but as ever for movies based off historical events, Wikipedia exists, so… I read seven or eight reviews of this movie before I had a chance to see it, but very few of them get further into David Dellinger… Read More The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Dir. Max Barbakow. Starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons Seeing as this is a recent release, and I genuinely think you’re more likely to enjoy this one if you don’t know much about it going in, a wholehearted “spoiler alert!” So when you do a time loop movie and the action is more “romantic… Read More Palm Springs (2020)
Dir. David Dobnik. Starring Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens I realize this is a recent release, so I’ll drop the spoilers tag, but also…come on. No one in Lars (Ferrell) and Sigrit’s (McAdams) hometown wants to hear their Eurovision song at any point in the movie. They’ll be at the bar performing, and Lars… Read More Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)
Dir. Spike Lee. Starring Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Jonathan Majors I’m on top of things! Spoilers! Golly! Watching this movie I got a feeling that reminded me of watching The Edge of Seventeen. In that movie, the teacher carts in a TV and the class starts watching Young Mr. Lincoln. It was at that moment that I… Read More Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Dir. Kenneth Lonergan. Starring Casey Affleck, Lucas Hedges, Michelle Williams The premise of Manchester by the Sea is one that would have fit neatly enough into the serious dramas of the ’40s or ’50s, in part because its drama is fever-pitch loud, and in part because it’s not hard to imagine someone like Casey Affleck… Read More Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Seeing Things Secondhand 