Three Sentence Movie Reviews – Page 5

Judas and the Black Messiah: FBI and the Black Panthers

Judas and the Black Messiah

?Directed by Shaka King?
?Written by Will Berson & Shaka King?

The review:

I first learned about Fred Hampton in Ava DuVerney’s 13th and so I knew how this film was going to end.* But it was interesting to watch Daniel Kaluuya’s evolution of Hampton as he gained skills as well as the dance between LaKeith Stanfield and Jessie Plemons as FBI informant and agent.** I would have liked Dominique Fishback to have a bigger role, but she was great with what she was given in this movie that’s gonna kick you in the stomach right before the credits roll.***

The verdict: Recommended

Cost: I paid Matt $6.00. He’s the one paying the HBOMax fee ($12.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Not well for Fred Hampton.
**It’s interesting how we forgive the FBI for their many sins, but so often the Black Panthers are portrayed as the lawless party.
***If there’s an award for best after-movie text on screen, this film will sweep that category.

Questions:

Should they have bothered with the makeup for Martin Sheen?
Fred Hampton was 21 and William O’Neal was 17 during this film. Should they have cast younger actors?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

With both LaKeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya receiving Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor, Judas and the Black Messiah becomes the first film to have multiple black performers nominated in this category for the same film.

Other reviews of Judas and the Black Messiah:

Selome Hailu, The Austin Chronicle
Karne Han, Slate

American Utopia Will Get You in the End

David Byrne and cast members of American Utopia.

David Byrne’s American Utopia

?Directed by Spike Lee?
?Written by David Byrne?

The review:

It’s not yet been a year since I watched Jonathan Demme’s movie of the Talking Heads’ concert Stop Making Sense* and I was looking forward to this David Byrne/Spike Lee collaboration for which there was much gushing about among the critics. For three-quarters of the film I found it very striking visually and musically, and I wondered what all the gushing was about, but then there was his cover of “Hell You Talmbout” and I, too, could be counted among the converted.** I found that Spike Lee and I sometimes disagreed about what I wanted to be looking at on stage*** but since I couldn’t be there in person, I thank him for letting me see his vision.****

The verdict: Good

Cost: Monthly HBOMax charge ($12.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*And was more than dazzled.
**It was one of this, “Oh, holy crap, this is incredible” movie moments.
***Demme knew better what I wanted to see.
****At times, this felt a little like watching a very talented marching band, in all the best ways.

Questions:

Who was your favorite performer?
What was your favorite song?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

If you look carefully, you will notice small spheres on the shoulders of all of the suits. These are tiny BlackTrax infrared transmitters which enable the lights to automatically track performers as they move around the stage. When they leave the stage to march through the theater, you will notice some of these trackers glowing slightly.

Other reviews of American Utopia:

Beth Webb, Empire
Karen Han, Polygon

Top Movies: January 2021

6 movies watched, 6 rewatched

Rewatched:

Before Sunrise (Recommended)
Before Sunset (Recommended)
Crazy Stupid Love (Recommended, with qualifications)
Easy A (Good)
Superbad (Good)
The Old Guard (Recommended)

January. Where I was dazzled by half my choices!

A pie chart. Text: January 2021 Movies. Recommended takes 1/2 of the pie chart. On the other half, Good is twice as big as Skip.

Click on any linked title to read the full review.

Mad Max Fury Road

Dusty and thirsty.

Soul

Sad and longing.

The forty-year-old version

Tired and striving.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Young and in danger.

Locked Down

Far apart and depressed.

Locked Down: Observing a Pandemic from within a Pandemic

Locked Down

★Directed by Doug Liman★
★Written by Steven Knight★

The review:

This is a light affair* that might be handy to have on tap in ten to fifteen years when kids who were very young or were born after 2021 start asking questions.** It’s all there for you to point to*** and covered with a veneer of a story about a couple on their last legs as a couple. Ejiofor and Hathaway are fun to watch and there are a bunch of cameos.****

The verdict: Good

Cost: HBOMax monthly fee ($8.99) (Still living off the WW84 month)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Contagion
127 Hours
Cast Away
Gravity
Into the Wild
Room

Further sentences:

*So light that despite the fact that I’m still living in quarantine-type restrictions I could watch this without feeling traumatized and did not have feelings of “too soon!”
**This, of course, assumes that there won’t be any global pandemics in the next ten to fifteen years. Which is not an assumption I’m willing to bet on at this point and time.
***The general end-of-the-world feelings, the day drinking, the odd sense of time, the awkward Zoom calls, the abrupt job changes, the sliding into familiar bad habits, kids being stuck at home with their parents, the reevaluating of life choices.
****However, if you’ve seen this, I wish to chat about the ending. Do look me up.

Questions:

What will you remember most about this time?
Was this the exact right temperature for a movie about a quarantine released during that same quarantine?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The movie was shot in only 18 days in London during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the hectic pace of filming, stars didn’t have the time to properly prepare and for some scenes Hathaway’s and Ejiofor’s lines had to be taped to their eyeline.

Other reviews of Locked Down:

Dana Stevens, Slate
Alonso Duralde, the Wrap

Orange background with a white frame. Being locked up is making it worse.—Locked Down. Read the three sentence movie review: 3SMReviews.com

Like Ike Barinholtz’s Chris, Swear off The Oath.

The Oath

★Directed by Ike Barinholtz★
★Written by Ike Barinholtz★

The review:

I forgot to write a review for this movie and now it’s more than three months later and things are hazy, but I can tell you that there are some funny parts of this, but also that tonally it’s off.* It may that it’s a Too Soon! movie** or that Barinholtz just wants to push buttons that I wasn’t in the mood to have pushed, but I could see people putting in their best effort, but it just didn’t come together. It was interesting to see Haddish play the straight man, so there was that.

The verdict: Skip

Cost: Monthly Disney+/Hulu charge ($8.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider watching instead:

Further sentences:

*Like it’s a dark comedy, but I think a little too dark?
**We did watch it three days after the storming of the capital by domestic terrorists.

Questions:

What’s your favorite kind of movie for Tiffany Haddish to star in?
Would you take the oath?

Other reviews of The Oath:

Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly
Moira Macdonald, The Seattle Times

Orange background with a white frame. If it wasn't for people like me, people like you would be slaves to people like me.—The Oath. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com

Never Rarely Sometimes Always: Dangers Abound

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Directed by Eliza Hittman
Written by Eliza Hittman

The review:

Eliza Hittman takes us on a journey worthy of an epic poem* so a young woman can get a procedure that should be available to her in her own small town. On the way, we see how rules to “protect”** women actually end up putting them in more danger, the things women sacrifice for other women, and a quiet, perfect performance by Sidney Flanigan. By the time you get to the scene where the phrase “never, rarely, sometimes, always” is used, you will never forget the order of the words in this very wordy title.

The verdict: Recommended.

Cost: HBOMax monthly fee of ($12.99) (Still living off the WW84 purchase)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*It’s interesting to see how little of Flanigan’s life we learn about before the journey begins in earnest and how the sparse details we do find paint a vivid picture.
**But we know why those rules are passed and it has nothing to do with protection and everything to do with control.

Questions:

What moment of this film will be seared on your heart forever?
How many ways (big and small) were Autumn & Skyler violated in this film?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Prior to this film, Sidney Flanigan worked as a janitor.

Other reviews of Never Rarely Sometimes Always:

Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
Mary Sollosi, Entertainment Weekly

Orange background with a white frame. Text: Don't you ever just wish you were a dude?—Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com

Radha Blank is a Star in the Forty-Year-Old Version

The Forty-Year-Old Version

Directed by Radha Blank
Written by Radha Blank

The review:

Despite decades of “girl power” and versions of “leaning in” there are still a lot of spaces that aren’t available to women.* Radha Blank explores a couple of them** in this film that is both humorous*** and can really kick you in the solar plexus. Having Radha Blank on screen would probably be enough of a win,**** but she delivers a story that a lot of people would be better off having taken the time to watch.

The verdict: Recommended

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

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*There are the obvious ones, like pro baseball and pro football, and the less obvious ones like film criticism and, hey, the music industry, where talented women have to trade on something other than just their talent to achieve fame (and even then the gatekeeping is fierce.) I’m thinking of 20 Feet From Stardom, where there already was an Aretha, so there was no need to promote other talented Black female singers. I’m thinking of all the women singers who had the voice, but their looks were deemed to be not good enough by the men who control the recording companies. How many Taylor Swifts do we not hear from because they aren’t as attractive as she is?
**Hip hop music, where she reinvents herself as RadhaMUSPRime, and theater, where her play is finally being produced by a major (read: white) theater.
***Some of her rhymes are giggle inducing.
****She does not fall into gatekeepers’ standards of beauty.

Questions:

What do you make of Radha and D’s relationship?
Do you think the film’s title (so similar to a famous Judd Apatow film) helps or hurts?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Cinematographer Eric Branco explained that he actually showed up to the interview with a bag full of street photography books (Bruce Davidson, Matt Weber, Saul Leiter, Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson) for the director. From the beginning, Radha wanted the footage to be shot on black and white 35mm film.

Other reviews of The Forty-Year-Old Version:

Aparita Bhandari, The Globe and Mail
Shannon Miller, AV Club

Orange background with a white frame. Text: The good news is, I still need a writer for my Harriet Tubman musical. —The Forty-Year-Old Version. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com

Soul: Meditations on the Zone

Soul

Directed by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers
Written by Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers

The review:

Not so much a movie that people in middle age should watch if they feel like they are trudging through their life never having found their thing,* but otherwise this movie is an interesting look at personality, passion and the zone. It’s got usual excellent details expected from a Pixar movie.** I also appreciated that the story centered on a middle-aged Black man and his New York City life.***

The verdict: Good

Cost: Disney+/Hulu bundle ($12.99) (We have this because Matt wanted to watch the Mandalorian)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*For them, I worry it will cause a level of anguished tears equal to mine at the conclusion of L’Illusionniste.
**I loved the look of the counselors in the Great Before, plus the fact they were all named Jerry.
***The middle school band scenes felt very familiar.

Questions:

What personality badges would you have been assigned in the Great Before?
Who was your favorite voice?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Animators used footage of several music performers, including jazz composer Jon Batiste, performing as reference for the film’s musical sequences. By capturing MIDI data from the sessions, animators were able to retrace the exact key being played on the piano with each note and create the performances authentically.

(I appreciate this as it bugs me when I can tell the actor isn’t playing the instrument.)

Other reviews of Soul:

Wendy Ide, ScreenDaily
Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter

Mad Max Fury Road Crackles. Plus, That Guitar Guy!

Mad Max Fury Road

Directed by George Miller
Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nico Lathouris

The review:

If you, like me, held off from watching this 2015 film because you hadn’t seen the other Mad Max movies, worry not because you’ll catch on right away.* What makes this better than a lot of films that try to be like this is that 1) it’s got a great story at its core with a lot of humanity and 2) the inventive set design combined with its never stop never stopping pace means this movie is a sensory treat. Populated with a lot of actors who are known for, you know, acting** and not just being action movie stars this is the one action film you should watch this year.***

The verdict: Recommended

Cost: HBOMax monthly fee ($12.99) (We’re still living off our month we signed up for due to WW84.)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*It’s an action film, after all, so the nuance is not great.
**Charlize Theron! Tom Hardy! Nicolas Hoult! Zoe Kravitz! Riley Keough!
***Assuming you didn’t watch it back in 2015, like I should have.

Questions:

What was your favorite set detail?
Which of the bad guys do you think was the worst?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Editor Margaret Sixel, is married to director George Miller. When she asked why he thought she should take on this project, as she had never edited an action film before, Miller replied, “Because if a guy did it, it would look like every other action movie.” Sixel’s work paid off; she received an Academy Award for Best Editing.

Also this gem:

The cake-decorating company Wilton makes a decorative “Color Mist” in silver that is meant to be sprayed onto baked goods to give them a silver sheen. Before May 2015, the Amazon listing for this product contained a few pages of reviews only from bakers opining on the quality of the product when used as intended (on cakes). After the release of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), both the comments section and FAQ on the Amazon listing were filled with comments from users posting as though they were War Boys or Immortan Joe “reviewing” the product that the War Boys spray onto their mouths before going into battle. As of mid-June 2015, there were nineteen pages of Mad Max-related “reviews” of the Wilton product on Amazon.