Quick Ramblings: Films That Haven't Cut It For Me

Lawd.

Y'all, I've been watching some mediocre shit lately. Initially I had separate reviews written for a few of them but I didn't want to have several posts of negativity in a row, so I resisted the urge to vent and condensed them a bit. Here are a few films I've watched lately that just did not do it for me. 

A Fantastic Woman

This one stings the most because I had really high expectations. I felt like this film reveled in the fact that Mariana didn't get the chance to grieve. It was like watching torture porn. No one was nice to her and she faces hostility at every turn. For a film that cast a trans actor - and a very good one - at its lead, I was hoping it would be a bit more than constant misery. Grade: C-

Just Before I Go

My curiosity of "I wonder what Seann William Scott is up to nowadays" lead me to dropping this Courteney Cox directed film in my queue at the beginning of the year. It's about a man who decides to commit suicide and goes home to confront some old bullies before he does. I'm not sure I've ever seen a film so tonally all over the place. And it's way too incompetently directed to make sense of anything. Despite a solid cast, the only one that actually breathes some life into their character is Kyle Gallner, and I felt bad for him because the actor playing his boyfriend (Evan Ross) was trash so Gallner had to do all the heavy listing. Even the always reliable Olivia Thirlby couldn't come out of this mess unscathed. Grade: D (and lets be honest without Gallner - F) 

Summer of 84

This was another one I was looking forward to but I clearly was expecting a different film. I was thinking I was going to get an ode to 80's slashers and really what I got was the slowest of burns with mostly un-compelling kids and a payoff that didn't make up for it. I will give the lead Graham Verchere props. He was good. Grade: C-

The Little Hours

Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, and Kate Miccuci are foul mouthed nuns in the Middle Ages. To be fair, this movie is meant to be stupid and I legitimately laughed a few times, but the best thing that can be said about this is that it didn't bomb as hard 2007's Virgin Territory did when it did the same thing. When Fred Armisen shows up the comedy just stops all together. Grade: C

Hot Summer Nights

The weirdest thing about this movie is that the narrator is a random teenage boy that has nothing to do with the story, so that should tell you right there it's going to be a bit aimless. Timothee Chalamet is actually really good in this, but everyone else around him was really inconsistent, like the director couldn't decide on what kind of orders he wanted to give throughout. Grade: C-

My Left Foot

So funny story, I had this on my Blind Spot list because I didn't think I had seen all of it, but upon watching I realized that 1) I did actually watch this entire movie and 2) Daniel Day Lewis and Brenda Fricker give excellent performances and that's the only thing that makes this movie watchable. This was a weird experience and maybe I've finally reached peak "you watch too many movies." Anyways, I took it off my Blind Spot list and replaced with something I'm absolutely sure I haven't seen. Grade: C

>Bandersnatch (Black Mirror)

Most of you probably know how much I love Black Mirror. It's honestly probably in my top 5 favorite series of all time, and I was looking forward to this special...until I realized this was the "Choose Your Own Adventure" episode. Don't get me wrong, it's innovative, but I never cared for that type of story telling. It feels like a cop out. This is easily the worst episode of Black Mirror yet. The story isn't nearly compelling enough to sit through multiple times while you're looking for different endings and you don't really get to choose everything. It will make you start over if you choose wrong. Will Poulter is the best actor in it and he's barely in it at all. I did get one good laugh out of one of the choices, but this was such a bust. Grade: D