Tag: three sentence movies

This movie was trying to be something it failed to be, what with the jumbled time line and the scritch-scritch effects.  It wasn’t a winner in the “Whoa! Super Artsy, Man!” category, but the story of the ebb and flow of the romance was interesting enough.  Both actors were quite solid in their performances.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

I’ve pledged to call out when I see movies unapologetically using fat people to further their plots. In this movie, Justin Long is waiting in line and a teenage girl keeps talking to him.   The guy in line behind Justin Long insults Justin Long for his fat date (the teenage girl), thus trying to set himself up as looking good for Emily Rossum.  I see that the script is using his words to depict this guy as an asshole, but what he said was troubling enough that I gave a cry of dismay and then the movie just floated on by that incident. leaving the fat joke hanging out there.

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

I was so busy taking a stand against internet trolls that the first couple of jokes flew by me before I remembered, “Oh yeah, this is a comedy.”*  And I started laughing and didn’t stop, except when I was being scared, or enjoying that happy, glowing feeling when I realized just how much I’m enjoying a movie.  This was a big winner for me, from the name of one of the characters, to the hilarity, to the fact that a major kick-ass action scene was performed by a female wearing overalls.**

Cost: $10.00
Where watched: Bagdad Theater with Matt, and also AM and BM, who Matt happened to run into.)

*”Anti-Irish fencing” was the phrase where my brain woke up.
**I’ve listened with open ears to the critical responses (Filmspotting was particularly savage in it’s analysis in a way I don’t usually hear on that podcast) and I have to say, that I hear what you are saying, but I just don’t care.  This movie and I are friends forever.  I loved it.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/ghostbusters_ver2.html

Slow-burn love story set before/during/after World War I. It’s an old fashioned kind of a love story, full of longing and denial and long separation.  I can’t say it lit me on fire, but it meanders along just fine and the acting was good, so take what you will from that.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/intl/misc/2014/promise.html

That there quote on the movie poster is spot-on as this is a very classy film about falling in love.  I found the entire thing enchanting in the best movie way possible: where New York City is romantic, the people are pretty, the relationships complex and the ending well-earned.*  It’s always wonderful** when I find a perfect movie I’d never heard of.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.  Matt was playing a game and half-watching it and he really liked it too.

*Also, some amazing lines.  Here’s just one:  In New York, you’re never more than 20 feet away from someone you know, or someone you’re meant to know.
**It’s wonderful and disconcerting.  How many perfect movies I’ve never heard of are sitting there patiently, waiting for me to find them?  What if I never do?

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

I will promise you this:  your favorite story, whatever it may be, was written for one reader.

Thank goodness Mr. Gosling has ended his acting hiatus, and thankfully he has starred in something that doesn’t require him to be silent and sad-eyed all the time.*  He and Mr. Crowe make a funny comedy team in this story that is mostly about the two of them being a funny comedy team and not so much about the big-three automakers colluding.**  The 70s details were nice also.

Cost: $4.00
Where watched:  Laurelhurst Theater, with Matt and a bunch of theater goers who were rather chatty.  Not off-topic chatty, but they reacted to what was going on in the movie very verbally.

*Though I did enjoy the Place Beyond the Pines.
**I felt that the whole plot motivation was shoehorned in at the last minute.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/nice_guys.html

This suffered from comedy-sketch-gone-on-too-long syndrome, but was entertaining enough.  And the kitten was so cute!  Plus, you get to have George Michael songs stuck in your head for a goodly amount of time afterward.

Cost: $4.00
Where watched: Academy Theater with S. North.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/keanu_ver6.html

This was great!  Tense in all the right places with enough humor and outrage at needed intervals to release the pressure.  Clooney and Roberts were their usual solid selves, and I found myself wondering just what that Jack O’Connell had been up to prior to this.*

Cost: $4.00
Where watched: Laurelhurst Theater

*It turns out that he was in ’71 and Starred Up, both of which were reviewed on Flimspotting and O’Connell’s performance was enthusiastically recommended (possibly to a gushing level).

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/money_monster.html

Man, oh man do I love this show, despite not wanting to spend any moment in real life with any of these characters.*  I felt that this season was more logical in its character progressions and I particularly enjoyed the introduction of Mimi-Rose Howard into the Girls stew.  There were some awesome lines that I neglected to write down and some incredibly good scenes.**

Cost:  Free from library (after a long wait because I missed the appearance in the catalog by a week or so.)
Where watched:  at home. One episode per night at first and then probably the last four in one sitting.

*Even Shosh, my favorite and the most normal in her quasi-spectrum way, would massively annoy me after about 30 minutes.
**Just three: Ray telling off Dezi; someone trying to explain to Hannah about boundaries; the Mimi-Rose/Adam/Ace/Jess awkward dinner

poster from: http://www.target.com

An excellent episodic film with solid performances by all.  I enjoyed Lily Tomlin’s Grandma to be something more complex than a kindly older lady.*  There was great reflection of life choices by women (and a few men) of all ages, which was interesting.

Cost: $2.75 from Videorama
Where watched: at home

*For most of the movie, she was the opposite of kindly.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2015/grandma.html

This was first in my post-mortem Yelchin catch-up viewing and I’m surprised I hadn’t ever gotten around to watching it given that I was a fan of Downey Jr, Davis and Dennings when the movie debuted.  I found that though the actors went all-in with their acting stuff, this movie did not really hang together.  For this I blame the script, which was random and sometimes dumb.

Cost: $2.00 from Videorama
Where watched:  At home.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2008/charlie_bartlett_ver3.html