Category: Three Sentence Movie Reviews

3SMR: City of God

3SMR: City of God
http://www.impawards.com/2003/city_of_god.html

I’m not familiar with the slums of Rio de Janeiro,* and the City of God transported me to that location and aptly illustrated Rocket’s (Alexandre Rodrigues) brutal life. The film left me unsatisfied due to unanswered questions** but quite satisfied with interesting camera stuff. I will say that City of God is worth watching for its opening scene.

Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home, in preparation for Filmspotting’s March Madness 2019: Best of the 2000s

*My total experience with Rio is Romeo + Juliet.
**The transition from child to teenager comes with houses increasing from one story to multi-story. Did he move, or did the slums grow up? It was never really clear. Also, once Rocket became a teenager, what happened to his parents?

3SMR: The Good Place Season 2

3SMR: The Good Place Season 2
http://www.impawards.com/tv/good_place_ver2.html

While this is a movie review site, I’m happy to feature good TV, and The Good Place is very good TV. In season two, we get to see all of our characters grow, which isn’t always a thing in American Television. This show is funny,* visually interesting, and has Janet.**

Cost: Netflix monthly subscription fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home with Matt.

*We knew Kristen Bell had good comedic timing from the funny parts of Veronica Mars, and it’s good to see her skills at work in this show.
**Janet is the best!

3SMR: Top Movies October 2018

(12 movies watched, one of them twice, for a total of 13)

Eighth Grade: possibly my top movie of 2018

3SMR: Top Movies October 2018

A Star is Born: Brings back the magic, last seen in 1954

3SMR: Top Movies October 2018

Private Life: I don’t want children, but this couple does.

3SMR: Top Movies October 2018

Boy: Love that Boy.

3SMR: Top Movies October 2018

Community Season 1: Never has community college looked so good.

3SMR: Top Movies October 2018

The Hate U Give: A book and movie for our times.

3SMR: Top Movies October 2018

3SMReviews: The Hate U Give

3SMReviews: The Hate U Give
http://www.impawards.com/2018/hate_u_give.html

George Tillman Jr.’s The Hate U Give is full of love: between family members, between people, between friends. It’s also grounded by incredible performances by Amandla Stenberg as Starr Carter and Russell Hornsby as Maverick, Starr’s father. Based on the book I picked as last year’s zeitgeist read, this is a worthy adaptation and worth watching for the performances, for the loss, and for the love.*

Cost: $5.55 (though actually $11.90 because I watched it twice, though actually actually free due to a gift card.)
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12, by myself, and then with Matt. Because when a movie is this good, you come back with someone else.

*It’s also funny in parts.

3SMR: Children of Men

3SMR: Children of Men

Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men is a good action movie, of the regular-people type.* For me though, it suffered from me having read the book which goes deeper into the relationships than the movie does.** The movie achieves a tense vibe throughout, but I found I didn’t care about the people because I knew too little about them.***

Cost: Free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home in preparation for Filmspotting’s 2019 March Madness: Best of the 2000s

*Any of the Bourne films? I couldn’t do all that stuff. I could do the action stuff in this film.
**I read the book over 20 years ago, which is a sign of a book with staying power.
***This also suffers from the White Guys in Suits problem (although in this case it was a Radical Insurgents in Black problem) in that I couldn’t tell some men apart and a key plot point flew by me.

3SMReviews: Boy

3SMR: Boy

Taika Waititi is a fabulous director of children* and his talent is on full display in Boy, the story of a Alamein, a boy living in New Zealand in 1984.  Alamein tells his friends a lot of stories about the adventures his father is having, and then must reckon with the reality of who his father is, once he appears. Boy contains 80s touchstones, abounds with the earnest/slacker New Zealand accent, includes really great fantasy sequences, and is a movie that is a  masterpiece of the wonder and fantasy of childhood, while also doesn’t spare childhood’s dark places.

Cost: free via the Multnomah County Library’s Kanopy service (first movie watched via that platform!)
Where watched: at home with Matt when we were both feeling under the weather.

*As seen in the delightful The Hunt for the Wilderpeople

3SMReviews: Private Life

3SMR: Private Life

Tamara Jenkins’ Private Life is a sad and funny tale of a couple trying everything to become parents, specifically through fertility treatments. I cannot say enough about how good Kathryn Hahn is in this movie–she’s unrecognizable from the comedic roles I have loved her in, and incredibly real. Aside from being a movie worth watching, this sheds light on the high hopes sold by the fertility industry, something probably foreign to women who don’t want children, or who can easily conceive.

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

3SMReviews: A Star is Born (2018)

Three sentence movie review of A Star is Born (2018) directed by Bradley Cooper with and written by Eric Roth and Bradley Cooper. Stars Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, and Sam Elliott.

I can finally exhale, because A Star is Born (2018) ignores the travesty that was the 1976 version and restores what made the 1937 and 1954 versions magical: a story of gentle love and nurturing talent through kindness and adoration. The plot has always focused on how a woman must transform herself to become famous, but for some reason seeing those transformations in the current day really annoyed me.* This movie is also a meditation on the power of performance and provides many examples of the magic of a live audience.**

Cost: $5.55
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12

*What a man needs to be famous: a guitar and a microphone. What a woman needs to be famous: specific looks, particular hair color, ability to dance, the right clothing, etc. etc. etc.
**Despite what people say about the last song not quite being up to the emotional heft that is necessary Lady Gaga gives it her best and nails the final shot.

3SMR: Community Season One

3SMR: Community Season One

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Back when I discovered Gillian Jacobs, everyone always referenced her work on Community, which I had never heard of. Having now watched the first season, I can say that not only is her work delightful, so is everyone else’s in this hilarious community-college-set comedy. While I have to sit through the will-they-or-won’t-they between Jacobs and McHale, (which got old waaaay back in the Sam and Diane days) it’s worth it for the antics of Glover and Pudi.

Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home

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