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.
That Sisu trailer does look good.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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