Category: Three Sentence Movie Reviews

On the one hand, a movie about high school girls written and directed by a woman! On the other hand this movie suffers from the same thing that irritated me about Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!!: The main characters are so confident and are loaded with so much good self esteem, that I wasn’t super interested in their stories. The quantity of substances used and sexual intercourse had was something I associate with well-adjusted late-twenty-somethings, not high school seniors.

Cost: Netflix subscription fee
Where watched: at home

poster from: https://www.what-song.com/Movies/Soundtrack/102511/Dude

Guess who didn’t see this movie in 2010 because she didn’t think she could deal with how sad it was?* I was more able to deal with the sadness and was rewarded with this most excellent, mostly improvised film. It was interesting to note the expansive feeling of the “before” sections of the movie in contrast to the claustrophobic feel of the current story.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

*Did you guess me?  You are correct.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2010/blue_valentine.html

While the setup of this movie was similar to Singin’ in the Rain, the story and the songs didn’t gel like they perhaps should have and most of the movie fell flat for me. The “Dancing in the Dark” sequence was great, and I enjoyed the excesses of Jack Buchanan as pretentious director Jeffery Cordova. Some of the numbers were terrible such as “Louisiana Hayride”* and “Triplets” which was fascinating in it’s creepy earworm structure.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home, part of Filmspotting’s Minnelli Marathon

*Too bad, because Nannette Fabray was great.

poster from: http://www.moviepostershop.com/the-band-wagon-movie-poster-1953

It’s one of those movies where not a lot happens, but the actors convey a lot of emotion and plot through what’s going on with their faces. Overall, it was an uncomfortable watch–nothing really goes terribly wrong, but everything is on the precipice of crashing and burning. The characters are awkward and likable and it’s always about to rain.

Cost: $10.00
Where watched: Kiggens Theater

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2018/outside_in.html

Hey look, it’s the story of a white guy coming of age, this time in 1950s England in the army!* I watched this for Callum Turner, who was fine, though I found that Caleb Landry Jones** tended to overshadow him. It wasn’t a bad movie, but by the end I found myself wanting my 114 minutes back.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

*What a novel and not-at-all-overdone concept!  Meanwhile, he’s got this vivacious older sister and where is her story? Also, the quantity and location of brother/sister kissing in this film was weird.
**That guy–I know him as the psycho brother in Get Out–can really steal a scene.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/intl/misc/2015/queen_and_country.html

An amusing tale of a switcharoo scenario set up by the callous and wealthy Randolph and Mortimer Duke. For being an early-80s film, this doesn’t contain very many cringe-y 80s film moments.* It’s also amusing and there’s a good message buried in the plot.

Cost: Netflix subscription
Where watched: at home. (I watched this because it was mentioned by Tasha Robinson on Filmspotting episode #675 as part of the Top 5 Movie Homages)

*Exception: boobs. So many needless boob shots everywhere. The 80s were such a boob-focused decade.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1983/trading_places.html
(Fold marks!)

John Huston’s adaptation of B. Travers’s novel makes for a very good film. Not to mention Walter Huston’s performance as Howard, the gold miner who has seen everything and is surprised by nothing. This is a classic for a reason!

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home as part of my scratch-off movie poster project.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1948/treasure_of_the_sierra_madre.html
(The artist for this poster was fairly inept. It isn’t a very good likeness of Humphrey Bogart and the pictures of both Water Huston and Tim Holt look nothing like the actors.)

Our scratch off poster gave me two duds and a cool one.

Dud #1: The “before” is cool, but it leads to not much.

Dud #2: I was initially confused what had been added before I realized the umbrella wasn’t there in the original. And yes, there is rain, but this is such an iconic image from this movie, my brain had filled in the rain automatically.

Now we’re talking.

Do you want to scratch your movie poster itch? Get the scratch off poster here.

It was a long wait to see this movie as I had to wait for my DVD player to break so I could buy a BlueRay player and get the disk from the library. The long wait was worth it, because Gugu Mbatha-Raw was so very good in her role as Dido Elizabeth Belle. The subject matter was quite interesting especially because sumptuous costume dramas are not usually concerned with race.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/intl/uk/2014/belle.html

When a movie is still this good the third time through, it’s a classic in the making. I still marvel at the deft spinning between comedy and drama. And I love watching Ronan and Metcalf spar.

Cost: $3.00 (Last second-run show at the Laurelhurst)
Where watched: Laurelhurst Theater with S. North.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2017/lady_bird.html

Toni Collette’s musician boyfriend up and disappeared 10 years ago and her life has been on a downslide ever since. Desperate circumstances and an internet video of a guy who might be the missing boyfriend cause her to make an attempt to locate him; she enlists rich, retired internet guy Thomas Haden Church in her quest. This is full of woman character development and Collette is as fun to watch as she usually is.

Cost: Free from library
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/lucky_them.html