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.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising was a great film, by which I mean it made me laugh very hard when I watched the preview and then even harder when I watched the film. And behind this dumb comedy are four women who have given us some very good performances.
Here’s my list of the quality actors and their movies that you should watch
Rose Byrne
She gets cast in all sorts of things and her poised, porcelain looks fuel a good drama or thriller. But she’s got the heart of a comedian and I love her most in comedies. I suspect there is a nerdy girl hiding in Rose Byrne’s past.
I recommend you check her out in Juliet, Naked, where she plays the fed-up girlfriend of a superfan. She’s also quite good in Spy as Rayna Boyanov. But one of my favorite comedic scenes of all time is of her as Nat in I Give it a Year. This scene is even funnier when one has the knowledge that Rose Byrne is terrified of birds.
Chloe Grace Moretz
As a teenager, she had enough poise to seem much older than a teenager, which is the reverse of what we usually see, what with 20-somethings playing teenagers.
I love her as a teenager who befriends Kiera Knightly in Laggies, and I love that movie in general and I bet you haven’t watched it. Go do yourself a favor and take in Lynn Shelton’s tribute to adult confusion. Moretz was a good anchor in If I Stay and, she makes a great usurping young actress in The Clouds of Sils Maria. But she first caught my eye as the wiser, much younger sister of Tom in 500 Days of Summer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8FuwUhAfUY
Kiersey Clemons
Oh my goodness, I hope there is much more Kiersey Clemons on tap. I first saw her as Diggy in the hilarious Dope, where she wasn’t initially recognizable as a girl. But she was even better as Sam Fisher, the reluctant half of the duo We’re Not a Band in the movie Hearts Beat Loud. IMDB tells me she has a lot of acting credits. I’ll look out for her more in the future.
Beanie Feldstein
Aside from her great “who is that person?” turn as Nora in Neighbors 2, she also played best friend Julie in Lady Bird. The internet provides no clips for her good scenes, so I give you this clip in which both uniquely named actors talk about the origin of their names.
Arrrrrgh! That clip has just alerted me to the fact that Awkwafina is also in Neighbors II. She’s amazing too. So we add one more actress and two more movies.
Awkwafina
Ocean’s Eight had many really great women (eight, to be exact) and Awkwafina was a scene stealer as Constance (Appropriate. Constance is a pickpocket.) She was also the person in Crazy Rich Asians I looked forward to appearing on screen as I grew less enchanted with that movie.
Late-breaking alert. The movie Booksmart has come on my radar and I’m exited. Not only does it star Beanie Feldstein, but it also stars Kaitlyn Dever, who stole every scene in Laggies. This will be a see-it-opening-weekend movie for me.
God bless Doug Liman for making this time capsule of my mid-90s early adulthood experience which captures accurately the casual misogyny, homophobia, and general assholishness of the decade.* Though packed with good lines and with a smattering of memorable scenes, it’s a derivative movie** and a chunk of time spent with guys who don’t deserve your time, but it did take me back to my younger years, so there’s that. Its easy to see this movie in the Miramax oeuvre as it fits perfectly with a a company headed by a guy who abused women for years without retribution.***
Verdict: Skip, unless you need a primer on mid-90s L.A. white guy culture. Or if you were a mid-90s L.A. white guy. You can see how you’ve progressed!
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99) Where watched: at home
Consider watching instead:
Good Will Hunting (ignore the “It’s not your fault” scene—so cringy!)
*Women as objects—they call them Babies throughout, the word fag used as a put down, plus the lisping “gay” voice that I haven’t heard in years but was a constant when I was growing up. There was also a delivery person who is also a person of color put in an uncomfortable position, not to mention how they treat waitresses. **At times Jon Farveau is doing a full-on Woody Allen impression, and I don’t think it was intentional. The Tarantino and and Scorsese recreated scenes are intentional and do work. ***And yet! Somehow I’m still always happy to see Vince Vaughn and John Farveau in movies and it’s because of this film. And really, Vince Vaughn? He’s played the same role in every single film I’ve seen. Something about tall, talky white guys does it for me, I guess.
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
*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.
You know who said that? Barbie. She’s the smart cookie I always knew she was.
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
*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!
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
*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.
This quotes comes from possibly the most delightful scene. But one scene does not a good movie make.
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
*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.
In honor of On Chesil Beach, which was 2/3rds of a good movie, let’s look at movies that I loved, but have some cring-y endings that make me recommend them with qualifications.
The Hate U Give
The scene in The Hate U Give with her brother and the gun was not present in the book and has the stench of Hollywooding up a perfectly good story. I don’t love that scene. The rest of the movie? Funny, warm, caring, sad, scary. I love Star (Amandla Stenberg) and her family so much I watched this twice in the same day. In the theater.
Crazy, Stupid, Love
(L-r) KEVIN BACON as David Lindhagen, JOHN CARROLLL LYNCH as Bernie, RYAN GOSLING as Jacob and STEVE CARELL as Cal in Warner Bros. Pictures comedy CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
Oh my gosh, I love so many things about Crazy, Stupid, Love. Ryan Gosling as a Don Juan taking the hapless Steve Carell under his tutelage. Emma Stone in all her fierceness. Julianne Moore in her hurt. Even Analeigh Tipton’s underage pursuit of Steve Carell is still funny, though it’s fast becoming squirmy. But then there’s the graduation scene which is one hundred ways of awkward and a pale shadow of the greatness that came before. Just turn the movie off after the fight.
Notting Hill
Photo by Clive Coote/Polygram/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock (5884062d)
It’s been 20 years of Julia Roberts films and nothing has yet topped Notting Hill as my favorite of her performances. Was there anyone better to play internationally famous movie star Anna Scott? Was Hugh Grant not perfect as the every man who fell in love with her? Was the roommate not endlessly amusing? Was that scene of walking up the street through the seasons not a great piece of non-montage time passing? Was there ever a better use of the phrase oopsy daisy?
And then there’s this weird car chase scene that has me asking, “Why? Why, Richard Curtis did you do that? It’s not really funny, and drags down your otherwise perfect film. Do like I do for the “Broadway Ballet” scene in Singing in the Rain and fast forward.
I know there are more out there. Leave your bobbles in the comments.
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.
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.)
