The year is coming to an end, and my hectic school semester is over, so I've had some time to relax at home, but unfortunately some computer business and general laziness has kept me from writing any substantial blog posts. So, to clear up that and some other things I'd like to address, I have three main points I'd like to get out of the way below.
1) Where are the reviews of all the movies I saw before I started this blog?
I have quite a bit of catching up to do with reviews of movies I've already seen this year. Even with limiting myself to films I've seen in theaters this year, I've had a lot of backtracking to do that I still haven't done yet, and this has clashed with the pretty solid amount of movies I've gotten to see since starting the blog and with my school work loading up at the end of November. With the exception of a few movies that I'd really like to talk about, and probably will write whole reviews of in January when the frequency of good movies dies down, I don't think I'll have the time to write about all of these in a timely fashion while also getting in all the movies that are still coming out, and I just don't think there's much interest for most of them.
To save my ass and make myself feel good, though, at the bottom of this post I've provided short "mini-reviews" of the rest of the films I've seen this year, providing my positive and negative points along with my grade. I hope this'll satisfy people who were curious as to my opinions on different films of 2015. Movies marked with an asterisk (*) are ones I plan to write a full review of in the near future.
2) Where's my Star Wars review?
If you were wondering, yes, I've seen the new Star Wars movie. Twice. And I'm seeing it again this Saturday. And again next week. And again in January. I have my share of thoughts on this movie, but there's a lot to unpack with this one, and it's a huge release. I love Star Wars, and I want to be sure of myself and really get this shit right. I promise to have a full review by year's end.
3) When can you expect a top 10 of the year list/commentary on the Oscars?
I give myself until a day before the Oscars to catch up on the movies of the previous year that I missed and compile my top 10 favorites list, which means something of that nature can be expected around the end of February. It's a little bit late, I know, but I alternate between living in boring Maryland and a section of Philadelphia that doesn't have as thriving of a film scene as I'd like, so sometimes it takes me a while to get to every movie I want to see. Also, if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gets until the end of February to decide which movies they liked the best, then I think I should be extended the same grace.
As for Oscar/awards stuff, that will come. I plan on doing a recap/reaction blog post for the Golden Globe Awards, which are on January 10th, but the more interesting post to look out for will be my reaction to the nominees for the Academy Awards on January 14th. This year in particular is an interesting one to come in on, as the nominee predictions seem to be almost entirely up in the air this year to a degree I haven't seen before. I'll also post my reactions to the winners at the end of February/beginning of March, but that might come a little later since actual movies come out at that time. January is a slow and pretty uninteresting time for movies generally, so I'll have more time to talk about other stuff on this blog and be bogged down at work at the beginning of next semester.
As for reviews of new movies, you can expect reviews of the following films in the coming weeks: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Revenant, The Hateful Eight, The Big Short, Trumbo, Brooklyn, and maybe Krampus.
Mini-Reviews
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
+ Suitably funny and appropriately weird
+ No huge emphasis on CGI sequences in trailers
+ Decent for kids
- Unfocused narrative
- Inconsistent humor
Grade: B-
Ex Machina*
+ Smart and thought-provoking storyline and themes
+ Well-developed characters with excellent performances
+ Subtle but effective VFX
+ Beautiful cinematography and set design
- Heavy on expository dialogue
Grade: A-
Avengers: Age of Ultron
+ Suitably fun and upbeat
+ Plenty of good little character moments and performances
- Overstuffed with subplots and unfocused narrative
- General lack of tension in action
- Unfulfilled potentially intriguing villain/themes
Grade: C
Mad Max: Fury Road*
+ Excellently directed, exciting action sequences
+ Interesting story, character development, and world-building
+ Amazing cinematography, score, and sound design
+ Great lead performance by Charlize Theron
+ Unexpected thematic depth
+ Perfect marriage of practical and digital effects
Grade: A+
Jurassic World*
+ General dinosaur fun
+ Good musical score
- Thin, recycled plot
- Over-emphasis on nostalgia
- Hypocritical anti-corporate satire
- Tensionless action
- Muddled character motivations
- Boring and often nonsensical subplots
Grade: C-
Dope
+ Fun characters with great performances
+ Great message about race and drugs
+ Upbeat, eclectic soundtrack
+ Brisk comedic pace
- Somewhat muddled third act
Grade: B+
Inside Out
+ Smart, emotionally resonant, unconventional message
+ Great balance of comedy and drama
+ Beautiful animation
+ Creative visual metaphors and storytelling devices
+ Beautiful score by Michael Giacchino
- Minor pacing issues in first act
Grade: A
Trainwreck
+ Good central performances by Amy Schumer and Bill Hader
+ Pretty consistently funny
- Overlong and bogged down in subplots
- Pacing issues with comedy; over-reliance on improv
- Recycled plot and message despite transgressive aura
Grade: B-
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
+ Great performances
+ Emotionally resonant
+ Smart, grounded approach to subject matter
- Succumbs to genre cliches
- Minor jarring tonal shifts
Grade: B
Straight Outta Compton
+ Fantastic performances
+ Great soundtrack
+ Fun energy
+ Sleek editing and camerawork
+ Surprisingly emotionally resonant
- Avoids major biographical facts at times
- Mildly muddled first act
- Succumbs to genre conventions (but pulls them off well)
Grade: B+
Sicario
+ Amazing performances by Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro
+ Very, very intense
+ Amazing cinematography and score
+ Refreshingly blunt in its message and presentation
- Overall by-the-numbers screenplay
Grade: A-
Spotlight*
+ Amazing performances across the board
+ Tightly written script
+ Perfect handling of subject matter
+ Subtly intense and disturbing
+ Factually accurate
+ Emotionally rewarding
+ Well-paced and edited
Grade: A+
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more reviews and nerdy Oscar talk.
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