10s – Page 15 – Out & About

3SMReviews: Us

In Us, Jordan Peele has crafted a taut, creepy thriller that kept me gasping and guessing right up until the credits rolled; and then the questions rolled in.* It’s very clear that Peele is not a detail-oriented filmmaker, he’s all about the craft and the theme, which is fine.** It’s worth seeing because it’s a movie to watch now and also because the performances all around are tremendous.***

Verdict: Recommended

Cost: $5.00
Where watched: Hollywood Theatre with S. North

*This also happened with Get Out. I loved it. And then I had questions because some things didn’t hang together. In this film there were even more questions and much of it didn’t hang together afterward.
**And I mean that, really. Normally when I have this many things to pick apart, it’s a sign that a movie has failed. In this case I was thoroughly entertained at the theater and am happy to accept the movie as metaphor.
***It’s one thing to turn in an excellent performance, it’s another thing to craft a second similar-but-different character. And every single person did this.

3SMReviews: Toy Story 3

I’d missed out on Lee Unkrich’s Toy Story 3, and Filmspotting motivation helped catch me up.* I was happy to find a really fun prison-break narrative undertaken by the gang of toys, plus some fun twists. And as I had heard, the end was full-o-tears.

Verdict: Good

Cost: Free from Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching: The Italian Job (1969)

*Although, now that I think about it, the motivation was to watch Toy Story 2 for the 9 from 99 series. But Toy Story 2 went back to the library before I could watch it. Must re-reserve.

3SMReviews: Fighting with My Family

I’m the first to admit that in Fighting with My Family, director Stephen Merchant has created an incredibly predictable film with one too many of many things (training montages, dog reaction shots, pep talks, brother looking sad). However, I’m a fan of sports movies, and especially ones with women doing the sports.* So I found this to be a fine film, wrestling its way (perhaps undeservedly) into the Good category.

Verdict: Good

Cost: $7.00
Where watched: McMenamins St. Johns with S.North

Consider also watching:

Whip It
Bend it Like Beckham
The Heart of the Game
The Cutting Edge
Love and Basketball
The Company

*Training montages are the best! When it’s women doing the training, so much the better. Plus, as much as I am of a fan of movies where not much happens and/or there’s a lot of talking, I also adore films where bodies move through space. The movement through space in this film is amazing to watch. Plus: Florence Pugh!

3SMReviews: All About Nina

Eva Vives takes a chance in All About Nina, giving us a character who, being female, is easily slotted into that female-dominated category of “unlikable.” Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives it her all as Nina, a stand-up comedian ready to take a chance to leap to success, while also trying not to let her demons get the worst of her. While the movie eventually illuminates the source of Nina’s demons, there wasn’t enough along the way to have me rooting for her,* plus Common (playing love interest Rafe) drove me batty with his line delivery.**

Verdict: Skip, unless you want to do a compare/contrast

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider watching instead:

*This is actually a great movie to watch as a contrast to Can You Ever Forgive Me?, who also has an unlikable protagonist, but one I was rooting for from the beginning despite not knowing, or ever knowing what shaped her into that very prickly person.
**Abusive, stalker ex-guy she slept with, Joe is played by Chace Crawford, who I spent time with while watching Gossip Girl. This movie also has a treasure trove of recognizable actors I don’t see much of: Camryn Manheim, Jay Mohr, Mindy Sterling, Beau Bridges.

3SMReviews: Five Feet Apart

I’ve had a good run of Haley Lu Richardson and director Justin Baldoni’s Five Feet Apart continued that trend. While on one hand, it’s your standard teen love drama (of the illness subset), on the other hand it’s got Haley Lu Richardson who is really good at making standard things much better.* Aside from good acting, I really liked how, as the story progressed, the hospital transformed from a dreary place of healing to something a bit magical.

Verdict: Good

Cost: $8.05 (the bargain Sunday price has officially tripped back into too expensive and I’m crossing Sunday movies at this theater off my list.)
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12

Consider also watching: Miss You Already, Everything, Everything, the book version of The Fault in our Stars (I do not recommend the movie)

*Plus, she had the help of Kimberly Hebert Gregory as Nurse Barb who should probably be getting more roles because she was also quite good. Oh! And Moises Arias, so good in the Kings of Summer, was in this.

3SMReviews: The Kindergarten Teacher

Settle in for some pleasantly uncomfortable observations of a woman going off the rails. Director Sara Colangelo slowly turns up the heat in the Kindergarten Teacher and things grow increasingly uncomfortable as the excellent Maggie Gyllenhaal’s interest in her talented five-year-old student grows. There’s no explosion of violence, or anger, or much of anything; what makes this uncomfortable is how things that are only a little off kilter build to become something that is verboten.*

Verdict: Good

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home

*I feel like I need to add a disclaimer. At no time is the child abused, or in danger. He’s a victim of liking too much, which gets out of control.

3SMReviews: Captain Marvel

Brie Larson has played a lot of characters who put their heads down and get through things; her turn in Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel continues that line. The plot of this film is like one of those “scrambler”-type carnival rides* but in a coherent way. You also get origin stories of many things, a woman casting off the mantle that was put on her so she can find her own power and a cat named Goose.**

Verdict: Good

Cost: $11.00
Where watched: McMenamins Baghdad Theater with Matt. (There were multiple points where we clapped. I love the Baghdad.)

*This is where we are—*woosh*— no this is where we are—*woosh*—no really we’re over here—*woosh*—but maybe we’re here?
**And the classic Marvel intro has been restyled as a tribute to Stan Lee. I was not emotionally prepared, and was momentarily overcome. You’ve been warned.

Consider also watching some other great Brie Larson performances: Room, Short Term 12, The Spectacular Now (that’s a tiny role, but I like that movie for its depiction of a teenage alcoholic.)

3SMReviews: Hello I Must Be Going

I’ve long been of the opinion that Melanie Lynskey is tragically wasted* and in Todd Louiso’s Hello I Must Be Going, she gets a chance to shine. Lynskey plays Amy, who can’t quite get it together after her divorce—until she meets the 19-year-old son of her father’s work colleague.** A May December romance follows, and while I would be annoyed if the genders were reversed, I loved how the two found their way to new lives.

Verdict: Good

Cost: Free via the Multnomah County Library’s streaming service Kanopy
Where watched: at home

*”Who?” I hear you asking. She’s kind of the New Zealand version of Judy Greer, but with more gravitas. She was the co-lead with Kate Winslet in Heavenly Creatures, but she mostly shows up in bit parts here and there (Away We Go, Sweet Home Alabama, Ever After) and IMDB tells me she does a lot of TV.
**Christopher Abbot, who played Marnie’s boyfriend Charlie in Girls. I really like him, though he has a flat acting style that some people might characterize as “not good.”

Consider also watching: Home Again, City Island, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Don Jon

3SMReviews: Sleeping with Other People

Goddamn, do I love Leslye Headland’s Sleeping with Other People, which is kind of When Harry Met Sally in present day with much more discussion of sex. Alison Brie elevates everything she is in and Jason Sudeikis succeeds with his “Hey, I can really do this acting thing, not just comedy!” It’s a witty and sex-positive and blatant film about coupling and love.*

Verdict: Recommended

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching: When Harry Met Sally, Some Kind of Wonderful, Clueless, 13 Going on 30, Friends with Kids, Love and Basketball, What’s Your Number?, What If (I could apparently go on, as this happens to be one of my favorite sub-genres of romantic comedy.)

*I’m still giving the Dirty DJ scene the side-eye though.

3SMReviews: American Honey

In Andrea Arnold’s American Honey we get a meander across America via a white van full of underprivileged, tattooed youth selling magazine subscriptions.* Star’s (Sasha Lane**) good heart shines through, cutting through the layers of poverty, scraping, and fighting to get a handhold up to the place where you can start pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. This long, uncomfortable*** film is worth watching and will stick with me for a very long time.

Verdict: Recommended

Cost: free via Multnomah County Library’s streaming service Kanopy
Where watched: at home

*All of these kids need a lot of interventions, probably starting with access to any amount of unconditional love.
**Who recently caught my eye in the Miseducation of Cameron Post and was also the love interest in Hearts Beat Loud
***Two hours and forty minutes of me feeling every ounce of my middle-class privilege. Plus the conflicting feelings of Shia LaBeouf’s skeevieness vs. me kind of rooting for him.

A thing my middle-class self and this lot have in common: love of music. This was my favorite scene of the movie. Stuff that advances the plot is happening while the song is playing, and the van sing-along that develops parallels many of my adolescent times with friends in a car.

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