Over the past week, I've seen a couple of movies that don't exactly warrant a whole post, at least because I wouldn't be able to stretch the words to make it worth writing. However, I still would like to share my thoughts on these movies no matter how few words I am able to write about them and the simplest way to do that is to combine them for one post. Today's selection is pretty diverse featuring two movies from 2014, one nominated for Best Picture and one lesser-known critically acclaimed film. The other two films are films from the past 20 years that include one nominated for Best Picture and one lesser-known critically acclaimed film. I didn't plan that, but this works well. And oh fuck it I'll share my thoughts on Straight Outta Compton too because why not.
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
I loved this movie unabashedly. I have seen far too few movies to be able to declare it one of my top movies of 2015 - because I think I can count on one hand the movies I've seen released in 2015 - but it wouldn't surprise me if it ended up there. Admittedly, I am the perfect audience member for this. I am heavily into rap and am a pretty big fan of NWA, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre (Here's where I confess I've listened to basically no Eazy E songs that aren't "Boyz in the Hood.")
Nonetheless, this is a great movie. I've seen people say that this is no different than other music biopics and here's where I am perhaps not the greatest to determine if it's actually good: I haven't seen many music biopics. They traditionally haven't interested me enough and the really acclaimed ones tend to take a backseat to really acclaimed original movies. (Documentaries suffer the same fate) So if it follows the traditional beats of a music biopic, I am not the one who can complain about that.
Another common complaint is that it completely ignores the real misogyny and violence towards women perpetrated by specifically Dr. Dre. (To say nothing of the casting call for A, B, and C grade looking females in the leaked casting calls for extras) I can't defend this. I will note that this is totally not uncommon for true stories, to completely shun aside terrible aspects of real people that tend to make them more interesting characters. But let's be honest. If we were to grade real life stories based off their true-to-life accuracies, not many would get a good grade. Hell, even if you want to be more specific and only include movies where real people have a known terrible view or action, it is not uncommon to completely ignore that.
I'm writing way more words on this movie than I expected, but the most complex and interesting character, not to mention the one that featured the best performance, was Eazy E. Do you have a problem with Dre? Fine, he's not really a major part of the movie. He gets his storyline and he's not irrelevant or anything, but this movie is definitely about the conflict between Eazy E and Ice Cube and the manager who got between them. It's not a new thing or anything, but it's well done. Oh yeah and the soundtrack is awesome. Never discount that.
(Oh yeah added point: I hated the Tupac cameo. Anachronistic as hell and unnecessary.)
Grade - A-
Theory of Everything
I don't have a lot of thoughts on this I swear. I thought the movie was ok, enhanced by how god damn beautiful it was and also by the performances. Eddie Redmayne gets all the love, but Felicity Jones is my MVP of that movie. I'm more fascinated by what she really went through and the love triangle in real life than I am by the actual movie. I wasn't a huge fan of when Hawking gets smitten with another girl because... I don't know it just didn't seem believable. Not that he would be smitten, but she's into him right off the bat because - well because it happened in real life, but they didn't seem to really earn it in the movie. Charlie Cox is also good because Charlie Cox is good in everything. (I had never seen him in anything before 2015 and then WHAM Daredevil WHAM Boardwalk Empire WHAM this movie. I am not complaining)
Grade - B
Election
Wow this movie sure goes through a lot of plot. If I were to try to summarize everything that happened I would not succeed. This was one of the more unpredictable movies I've ever seen. I had no idea where it was going. It's funny. Reese Witherspoon plays the role Reese Witherspoon seemed born to play. Matthew Broderick is actually good in something for once. Chris Klein is hilarious (what the hell happened to his career? How is his most recent work frequent guest star on Wilfred and TV movies. I love him in Wilfred, but he seems like he could be a star)
I also don't think I've seen a movie have a bunch of different perspectives from characters in voiceover. Sometimes it was overused. But what I liked about it - and it takes a little to get this tone - is that everything is completely skewed by who's speaking. Yes, it's a satire on elections, but it's also pretty spot on about how people can see themselves and how they actually are. I think I'll like this movie more on repeat viewings.
Grade - A-
Little Miss Sunshine
What an incredible cast. You know when you see a movie that has reached its absolute potential based on the writing? That's this movie. There is no way to have a better cast. My only complaint is that Alan Arkin died too early and he was in my opinion the funniest and best part of the first half. But it's a small thing. I also wasn't a fan of the ending as I'm not really a fan of those type of endings in general. It's also a movie where it's kind of distracting that EVERY character has this thing. Grandpa gets horny and does drugs. Kid doesn't talk for months. Uncle is suicidal. The other three are more normal. Hell, the only one I really have an issue with is the kid who doesn't talk, because it seemed like the writers had all the other characters figured out and needed a way to have this kid have a thing and he picked a thing that 99.9 percent of the population doesn't do. We have delusional asshole dads. We have moms who just want the family to stay together. We have horny, drug-abused old men. We obviously have suicidal people. People who refuse to talk for months? Not so much.
Also, Steve Carrell delivers a much, much better performance here than in Foxcatchers and while this is a comedy, he plays it like a drama basically. My two cents.
Grade - A-
Top Five
It's been a while since I've watched a movie as carefree and fun as Top Five. It's so enjoyable. It's charming, it's sweet, it's hilarious. It's absolutely hilarious. It's a movie featuring every comic black actor ever and all of them are used pretty well. Even Leslie Jones, who is extremely one note on Saturday Night Live, shines here and works. There is also a hilarious cameo that I did not see coming and there's no way I'm spoiling it for others. Rosario Dawson is of course fantastic. I was not a huge fan of how they wrote her boyfriend due to... well I want you to watch this movie so I can't really spoil anything. Great movie.
Grade - A- (I know popular grade, but there's always one thing I don't like about the movie to keep it from a perfect A)
No comments:
Post a Comment