The thread for movies that aren't going to get their own thread but are still in theaters

I can't wait to get the blu-ray.

Inspired by the enjoyment I glean every "Wii Shop Wednesday", I caught Matt Johnson's biopic-drama/comedy BlackBerry before it left theaters. A dramatization based off of Jacquie McNish & Sean Silcoff's Losing the Signal, the film follows the astronomical rise & downfall of BlackBerry/Research in Motion from 1999 to 2008 and the cutthroat methods taken to hold that bleeding edge before the smartphone burst onto the scene.

Overall, I enjoyed the flick. T'was a competently-made biopic that made good use of Matt Johnson's comedic bent to tie the whole drama together nicely. I wouldn't say it broke new ground, but it didn't need to, it just did what it set out to do pretty well. Glenn Howerton of IASIP is especially well-utilized as a scummy Harvard Business alum who goes all in on turning RIM around w/ ample outbursts (definitely some moments where I could hear "THE GOLDEN GOD!" echoing in my head). The set design & direction did a good job of capturing that slice of '90's/'00's nerd culture, so that was a fun backdrop for the tale.

I wouldn't call BlackBerry a "must-see", but I had a pretty good time with it, and I think y'all might, too.

Watched Godzilla vs Kong last night, it’s amusing that the legendary pictures zilla films are following the same trajectory as the Showa era, starts out serious and gets slowly more ridiculous till you have very straight faced actors explaining very ludicrous science. Much better than king of monsters though and I’ll be front and centre when hopefully the embrace it all and go full jet Jaguar next.

That movie was deliriously stupid in the best way possible. It’s one of my wife’s favorite series, so we we rented a theater to see it during that part of the Covid pandemic and that experience did not disappoint.

My family is going to see The Little Mermaid in theatres today. So far, after listening to the soundtrack: Ariel Halle Bailey) is good, Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) needed a singing double, and Sebastian (Daveed Diggs) is as brilliant as you would expect.

DudleySmith wrote:

That Sisu trailer does look good.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:
Robear wrote:

It's being reviewed as the spiritual successor to Inglourious Basterds.

Eh, I can sort of see where they're coming from, but it's also utterly incorrect. There's killing nazis, there's blatant exploitation inspiration, especially from spaghetti westerns. But that's also where it ends. It's more Sergio Leone than Tarantino.

Yes. What if John Wick's Great Great Grandfather was Finnish and did not like nazis.

Nimcosi wrote:
DudleySmith wrote:

That Sisu trailer does look good.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:
Robear wrote:

It's being reviewed as the spiritual successor to Inglourious Basterds.

Eh, I can sort of see where they're coming from, but it's also utterly incorrect. There's killing nazis, there's blatant exploitation inspiration, especially from spaghetti westerns. But that's also where it ends. It's more Sergio Leone than Tarantino.

Yes. What if John Wick's Great Great Grandfather was Finnish and did not like nazis.

I just finished watching Sisu and he is more Wolverine than John Wick.

Yeah, the way he can regenerate is fantastic.

Nimcosi wrote:
DudleySmith wrote:

That Sisu trailer does look good.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:
Robear wrote:

It's being reviewed as the spiritual successor to Inglourious Basterds.

Eh, I can sort of see where they're coming from, but it's also utterly incorrect. There's killing nazis, there's blatant exploitation inspiration, especially from spaghetti westerns. But that's also where it ends. It's more Sergio Leone than Tarantino.

Yes. What if John Wick's Great Great Grandfather was Finnish and did not like nazis.

... and Russians. Actually, he doesn't seem to like people overall.

Emboldened by this month of wielding the Season Pass, I caught the last Alamo screening in Austin of Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret., and I'm incredibly glad I did. Of the 3 flicks I've seen this week (previously Fast X & BlackBerry), AYTG?IMM has by far been my favorite.

The story follows 11-year-old Margaret Simon in 1970 as, on the cusp of 6th Grade, her family moves from New York to New Jersey. Amidst the upheaval, Margaret falls in with a small clique of girls in her class, wherein anticipation of puberty & burgeoning maturity are at a high. This was the part of the story I was aware of via cultural osmosis.

The parallel layer I wasn't aware of going into this flick was Margaret's quest for religion. Being raised by a less-than-devout-Christian mom & a Jewish dad, Margaret was brought up without a religion, with the idea being that she would be allowed to pick one for herself when she came of age. Throughout the story, Margaret is trying her hand at prayer for the first time, which is woven into her inner monologue and usually prefaced with, of course, "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret."

Watching this film was a heartwarming delight. A+ performances from all of the principal cast that sold me completely. Rachel McAdams is a North American treasure and has been making me cry with skilled expertise for years, Benny Safdie is impeccable as a delightfully dorky dad with a lot of care & heart for his family, Kathy Bates nails the highs & guilt-tripping lows of the Jewish bubbe with aplomb, and Abby Ryder Fortson (who I didn't realize until later I recognized as Young Cassie Lang from the 1st two Ant-Man movies) carries the flick on her back with earnest heart & deep emotion as Margaret.

Trying to sum all this up is making me realize I need to bring a notepad & pen to the theater going forward, because I'm struggling to find a coherent thread on all this, so I'll now state some things I recall that hit me just right:

- In exploring religions, Margaret tries out going to shabbat services at synagogue with her grandma, and hearing the rendition of Ma Tovu used in the shabbat-service-montage took me back to my own youth, sitting through those shacharit services and not knowing what the Hebrew translated to, but enjoying the musicality of it all.

- The ensemble of child actors are tremendous! Never felt corny for a single moment, each of those kids hit their marks and delivered. Props to Melissa Kostenbauder, the casting director, for sourcing the ensemble, and mad props to director Kelly Fremon Craig (who had previously done The Edge of Seventeen, which I haven't seen but heard good things about) for steering these youths in a great direction.

- In true Hans Zimmer fashion, I didn't realize Hans Zimmer scored this flick until I saw his name in the credits. Not his flashiest score, but it achieves what most Zimmer scores seem to aim for - a perfect accompaniment to the film that unnoticeably weaves in and out where needs be.

I highly recommend this film. Maybe it doesn't hit as hard as other contemporary coming-of-age stories, but I don't feel like it needs to. The stakes established in the film carried plenty of resonance for me, even with no menstrual cycle of my own to speak of, and I found the emotional rollercoaster to have ample turns and weaves to satisfy my weepy soul.

If you can catch it in a theater, do so. If not, keep your eyes peeled for the streaming release. But if you're game for a small story with a lot of heart, I think you'll enjoy Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret..

I watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie with my family today (via Amazon Video) and we all enjoyed the heck out of it. So many references and subtle easter eggs all throughout.

I liked John Wick 4. The hotline Miami moment was fun. The entire movie was a video game but that moment hit hard.

I know there had been some frustration with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse being a part one. I haven’t seen any recent trailers so don’t know if maybe Sony/Marvel stopped including that but in their marketing. I definitely see how that could be jarring. Luckily for me I’d been expecting it from the very first teaser.

Knowing that going in…I thought it was masterful. It carried through the threads unwound in the first movie without feeling like a dim paint-by-numbers extrapolation.

I can’t wait until next year.

muraii wrote:

I know there had been some frustration with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse being a part one. I haven’t seen any recent trailers so don’t know if maybe Sony/Marvel stopped including that but in their marketing.

I was totally blindsided by it being part one. I was actually a bit miffed but I guess if it is coming out soon enough I will be ok.

I didn't know but that puts less pressure on me to see it ASAP. We don't really have a regular babysitter right now.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts was actually pretty good. The story made sense, it had some great voice acting, and is basically a sequel to Bumblebee while throwing away everything from the original movies.

Watched Spiderman across the spider verse and thought the movie was great. There were sound mixing problems where I couldn't hear what was being said over the other sounds. This was just in the beginning of the movie and might have been done on purpose but if so seems kind of dumb to me.

The art design was fantastic. The mixing of different styles of art shown at the same time really worked. 2D character swinging around a 3d world. Live action people interacting with cartoons. Pixel characters from video games showing up. Don't know what you would call spider punk style, multiple pictures style. All of it was cool.

The voice acting was great. The actors were matched well with their animation. The story was great, all about family, and it went by fast and furiously.

The ending was a surprise. I didn't know this was just part one. So it isn't a complete movie but still a great one like Dune. Just hope if doesn't fall apart when the next movie comes out. I think this is safer than dune because the movie is already done so the quality should be the same.

Stele wrote:

I didn't know but that puts less pressure on me to see it ASAP. We don't really have a regular babysitter right now.

This is us right now, too.

Kids want to see Mermaid, Spidey and Elemental and I'm like, "Guys. We go to like one movie every 8 months. How are we going to go see three movies in the last weeks of school and summer getting started?"

Just got back from Spidey. Insanely good.

My living & financial situation is kind of upside down at the moment, so the only movies I've seen lately are whatever's on free to air. This has included both Fight Club and Starship Troopers. Both movies are often completely misinterpreted, but on rewatching, it's honestly hard to see how. Neither movie has much interest in subtlety. I guess on the positive side, at least Fight Club is only usually misinterpreted by incels and edgelords.

Also watched Basic Instinct for the first time. For about half the movie I'm like "hey, it's Minsky!"

The Movie Pass Bandit rides again with another matinee stolen away beneath their billowing black coat, y'all.

Today's feature: Past Lives, the directorial debut from playwright Celine Song. The synopsis, as best described by Polygon’s Petrana Radulovic, is as follows:

Petrana Radulovic wrote:

”The movie follows two childhood sweethearts, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) and Nora (Greta Lee), over the course of their lives, revisiting them in 12-year increments. The two part ways in their youth, when Nora’s family immigrates to Canada [from South Korea]; reconnect in their young adulthood, only to part ways again due to the strain of a long-distance connection; and in the present day, Hae Sung visits a married Nora for a couple of days in New York City.”

This was a very quiet & contemplative watch for me. I went into Past Lives looking for a tear-jerker, & what I received was a single, well-earned couple of tears at the end. Maybe it’s action/sci-fi brain poisoning, but I found myself expecting more drama, more excitement. But real life rarely emulates the highs movies like to showcase, and this flick felt grounded like a slice-of-life sort of stage play (which is fitting, given the writer-director’s origins).

Pardon the above-mentioned brain poisoning, but I have an analogy I can’t shake from my head for how I’m thinking about this flick:

How many multiverse stories have you heard told in the last decade? The well of infinite realities is a deep well to drink from because it plays upon our regrets, big & small, feelings resonant enough to fuel at least half-a-dozen blockbusters. But we’re not the verse-jumping Evelyn Wang, we’re Nora. Past Lives sits with those feelings as we do in reality; With quiet reflection, with yearning, mourning the ghosts of futures that could've been as you murmur beneath your breath, "What If?". And then it carries on, as life does.

Forgive me if this is incoherent. Join me next time as I re-watch In Bruges and proceed to proclaim that, in fact, all films by playwrights are actually multi-verse stories, as I gradually shrink into a watermelon that explodes upon reaching critical shrunken density.

It's a typical A24 production. Meaning it's well produced, directed, shot by upcoming professionals at the top of their game.

There's nothing inherently wrong about the 'brain poisoning' films, which A24 also partakes in, or movies like this one co existing. In fact it's a very good sign that they do.

ranalin wrote:

It's a typical A24 production. Meaning it's well produced, directed, shot by upcoming professionals at the top of their game.

There's nothing inherently wrong about the 'brain poisoning' films, which A24 also partakes in, or movies like this one co existing. In fact it's a very good sign that they do.

I mean, one of said brain-poison films is EEAAO, which was my fav film from last year and a big ol multiverse story that does plenty more with the concept than any of the live-action MCU flicks that used it for a crossover episode excuse.

Hell, brain-poison is more negative of a term than I intended, I just meant to indicate that I found myself having to acclimate to a quieter/more subtle film.

Saw Asteroid City last night and I was quite disappointed. If felt like a series of scenes without a real story. Heck if someone wanted argue it was a real story I would have to say "so is the real story the black and white part or the color?"
It also felt like nothing changed really, no one grew, no one realized something about themselves/the world/etc. They just all said funny lines in a deadpan way.
I laughed several times but I don't need to see it again.

Wes Anderson often - usually? - offers what amount to serial set pieces that tell a story, but not one of psychological depth. Characters can resolve some issues but honestly, the appeal is more visual than anything else. For me, anyway. I enjoy how the actors interpret their characters in light of the precision of the sets and the progression of the story, but I expect it always to center on a few events rather than changing characters.

It's almost like his movies could be subtitled "Scenes from a Timeline".

farley3k wrote:

Heck if someone wanted argue it was a real story I would have to say "so is the real story the black and white part or the color?"

I saw it yesterday, and while I would agree it's a very arthouse movie in its construction - I mean, more than usual - I feel pretty sure that the answer to that question is "Yes".

Spoiler:

I think the key scene is the one with Margot Robbie, where Jason Schwartzman the actor acts out the deleted scene. He's playing a man grieving his wife, while in real life he's grieving his lover who wrote the play. And they're acting out a scene about how he needs to replace her/him and move on.

There's no big catharsis there, the change is just this repressed, grieving man waking up one day, and being able to move on a bit and handle the day to day business of living.

Also, the quarantine reactions felt like pretty spot on satire. And seeing a new movie that looks that good is just such a rare treat.

Also, I saw the new Indiana Jones. It's fine. It's the fourth best one. Great cast, needed to be half an hour shorter, and Asteroid City's opening train sequence was more exciting, because it actually looked like a physical train.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Also, I saw the new Indiana Jones. It's fine. It's the fourth best one.

Oof, that's rough considering there have only been two really good Indiana Jones movies.

hbi2k wrote:
Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Also, I saw the new Indiana Jones. It's fine. It's the fourth best one.

Oof, that's rough considering there have only been two really good Indiana Jones movies.

And considering there's only been three Indiana Jones movies.

I was hoping it would at least be better than Temple of Doom so I could finally enjoy 3 movies

Quintin_Stone wrote:
hbi2k wrote:
Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Also, I saw the new Indiana Jones. It's fine. It's the fourth best one.

Oof, that's rough considering there have only been two really good Indiana Jones movies.

And considering there's only been three Indiana Jones movies.

Don't be silly, Young Indiana Jones was a TV show first, that doesn't count.

Stele wrote:

I was hoping it would at least be better than Temple of Doom so I could finally enjoy 3 movies

Chilled monkey brains!