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Love, Simon is a very sweet high school movie. It is pretty conventional other than its focus on the coming out plot line, which is really quite refreshing--it feels like a good, normal movie, rather than something radical or rule-breaking. It's funny and well-done (although it feels a little long), and the relationships between the characters feel genuine. I found myself **** into the love story and really rooting for the storybook ending.

I really wanted to like this movie for the sake of Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pyke, but I just couldn't do it. The most exciting scene is the first 10 minutes, and it is all downhill from there. The plot is garbled and boring, and it has nothing more to offer than the average movie about low-key espionage in the middle east--an outsider swoops in with limited experience, has a few drinks, and manages to solve unsolvable problems in a way that isn't at all believable. The script felt like a disappointing waste of the lead actors' talents. The best thing about the movie, to me, was the absolutely beautiful and desolate shots of the city and people's lives there. The more interesting stories seemed to be at the edges--what were the people who stayed there doing?--rather than the center of the film's focus.

Tully is a darkly comic and clever look at the struggles of being a mother and moving on into another phase of life. I loved that the movie treated both parents as flawed, interesting individuals who are trying their best in a trying situation. The characters feel very true-to-life and that keeps the movie engaging throughout.

Mad Max is an astoundingly good action movie in and of itself, and the fact that it passes the Bechdel test over and over is a fantastic bonus. I hope this movie goes a long way to showing that the reason fewer action movie-goers are women isn't that we don't like explosions and car chases, it's that a lot of us like a plot we can be interested and invested in to hold the action scenes together. Really, I think that's the magic of Mad Max--it has a story that automatically piques my interest and sympathy by presenting a group of people attempting to escape a system that has brutally taken advantage of them their entire lives. The matter of the film's depiction of disability is more problematic than its depiction of women. On the one hand, we have the disabled Charlize Theron, who is a complete badass, extremely capable, and whose disability is secondary to her character. But on the other hand, you have the depiction of the rulers in the city, whose disabilities are part of their grotesqueness, their fearsomeness. Around the time the movie came out, one redditor posted to /r/disability commenting on the experience for him of seeing, amongst all the people wearing prosthetics and makeup to render them grotesque, a person in a wheelchair with osteoimperfecta, his own disability--placing it on par with the terrifying invented conditions the movie portrays. That viewer's experience was not positive, and deserves to be recognized as an issue in the film's construction. As a sidenote, almost everyone in this dystopia seems to be white. Despite that matter, I think this movie still represents a considerable amount of progress in the representation of women in mainstream, blockbuster movies. It's thrilling to see female characters participating actively in action sequences, rather than passively waiting to be rescued. The story is engrossing and exciting, the action never ever stops, and Tom Hardy's acting is incredible and subtle as always. I'll be shocked if this movie doesn't instantly become a classic of the genre.

I absolutely loved this movie. There were several times where I nearly stopped to pause it because I was laughing so hard. The awkwardness of all the interactions with the parents are just so perfect, and it brings back all kinds of memories. I also found it easy to sympathize with both the parents and the teenagers, which makes for a more interesting viewing experience because you can see the enormous divide between them. Nick Offerman's character in particular was intriguing--he had the typical Nick Offerman crankiness, but it seemed toned down to the point that it was believable, and in his moments of doubt he became a fully humanized character. The let's-run-away-to-the-woods premise is charming, and I was surprised by how believably it was played out; their house in the woods was certainly impressive, and it strains disbelief a little that they got so many materials, but I liked that it was a ramshackle place to live. The interludes of the boys drumming on a pipe, as well as the quick shots of nature scenes, served to pause the film in interesting ways by giving you a moment to think and reflect on their life together. The boys were well-developed characters, and even the "weird kid" was fleshed out enough that he felt like a real person rather than a schtick. The use of the blonde girl as a plot device rather than a person was a bit frustrating, as it felt like a bit of a cheap way to advance the plot without making her a real character; I'm sad to say this movie fails the Bechdel test pretty hard, as none of the female characters talk to each other. Still, the flaw almost seems forgiveable in a movie that's the coming-of-age story of three boys. All in all, this was a delightful movie--hilarious, relatable, and with moments of tension and heartbreak sprinkled throughout. I'll certainly give this movie a second watching sometime, and I expect my movie partner and I will be quoting lines from it to one another and bursting into laughter for some time to come.

I enjoyed this movie significantly more than the first one, although I concede that it's in part just because it's easier to sympathize with and care about the characters and the world they inhabit with a longer viewing time. But it was also neat to see the world fleshed out, and to see the homes and peoples of the other factions and the breadth of life within their walled city. The dystopian backdrop of urban decay was well used in this movie, as they're always moving in and around ruins. The plot seemed more developed and focused in this movie, although there were several frustrating moments when it seemed like everyone was just making the worst decisions possible in the moment. Overall, I thought it was a neat movie, and definitely more interesting than the first; I expect I'll see the final installment in theatres, although I can't imagine I'd line up opening weekend for the chance.

I didn't have particularly high expectations for this movie, and so I was pleasantly surprised that it's a reasonably good offering. The main actress falls flat often, as she doesn't seem to express very much emotion. Her instructor Four is much more interesting, as he takes her under his wing and helps her learn to get by in her new faction, showing more knowledge and ability than our main character seems to have. One thing the film does well is lay out the world of the factions and how they work, giving the audience enough information to follow and get by, but still leaving lots of questions unanswered for the later movies. Still, it's not a particularly compelling dystopia, and even Kate Winslet's menacing would-be autocrat can't quite save the movie. One of the most interesting performances comes from Miles Teller, whose character provides the perfect love-to-hate rival. The movie had a reasonably compelling plot arc, but it did leave something to be desired; partly this can be blamed on the necessity of setting things up for the next movie, but it would have been nice if it functioned better as a standalone film to introduce the series.

The plot of this movie is fun in the way that it unravels, and the movie's exaggerations in events and characters is charming as well, but the real star of this movie is the soundtrack. The songs are all so gorgeous, beautifully sung and so evocative, conjuring up a completely different ideal of a lost world in the past that never really existed in the storybook way it appears here. Don't get me wrong, the movie is good too, but the soundtrack will definitely get more replay value with me than the movie will--it's the most exceptional and beautiful part of the film.

First off, I would like to say that I was surprised by how much Christmas kept coming up in this movie. I'm sure it made more sense and seemed more natural when it first came out, but since I was watching it in a string of Marvel movies in May, it just seemed oddly time-specific compared to most Marvel movies. The conceit of having a bunch of other people use the suits was fun, but I don't think it worked that well to carry the movie. I can't think of things that were specifically wrong with this movie compared to the others--it had a lot of the same elements of the other Iron Man movies, but somehow it just didn't add up in the same way. It's still good, and it has the same sassy Tony Stark (seeing him interact with a child was maybe the best part of the movie), but it just wasn't as compelling as the first two in the series.

This is a really wonderful movie and a great addition to the Disney canon. It's always nice to see Disney movies taking place in our world, rather than a far away fairy tale place, instead bringing in the far-away from outer space. It's also great to see an alternative family structure represented, and the very real struggle of keeping a family together when it doesn't fit the story book mold of a nuclear family with two parents. Stitch is a wonderfully compelling character, as he has all kinds of powers but also can't understand certain really basic concepts. I think that it's easy to identify with Stitch's frustration with so many aspects of the world, and his inability to deal with his feelings. It's also trait he shares with Lilo in a way, since she too has so many feelings that she doesn't know how to deal with. The movie is of course beautifully drawn and animated, with the Hawaiian backdrop providing gorgeous source material. The score and the original songs are also lovely, adding to the movie's richness. This is just such a fantastic film in so many ways. I don't even know how many times I've watched it, but I know I'll watch it again in another year or two. A wonderful, charming, beautiful movie.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I recently saw this movie for the second time, and I was surprised by how well it held up to a second viewing. I don't think there were new things that I noticed, but the jokes fell just as well the second time, and it was just as much fun to watch the actions unroll. Bradley Cooper's raccoon is voiced perfectly, and gives some of the funniest lines of the movie, particularly in his interactions with Groot. The visual effects and makeup were all interesting and original and really well done; it was neat to see people in red and green and blue, and I like that they didn't go to any trouble explaining history or dynamics, and leaving the audience to mostly tease out the relevant details for themselves. The ending was a bit predictable in its happy fuzzy feelings and sense of adventure, but it was entirely appropriate to the movie and it worked really well. Guardians of the Galaxy has some of the best aspects of the comic book movie genre in the neat, creative environment of outer space. Super fun.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This movie seemed like a reasonably good addition to the Marvel canon. For full disclosure, I should comment that I was kind of confused for a lot of it, because I haven't seen any of the Thor movies, but I recognize that it's my fault I had trouble following. The air ships and seeing more inside of Shield was great, especially because it meant more Samuel L. Jackson. Loki is a really great villain which makes it fun to watch, although I knew I was missing a lot because I didn't know the back story about his relationship with Thor, except what I'd been told by my moviepartner. Still, it seemed like he was a much more sympathetic enemy than a lot of the other comic book movies I've seen. The scenes where all the Avengers are together tend to have a fun dynamic, just because of all the banter and disagreements between the characters. The final climactic scene in New York is also really impressive; the creature-machines that came through the portal were really neat visually, although they seemed surprisingly easy to kill.

Iron Man 2 was a really solidly entertaining sequel to the first movie. Robert Downey Jr's health problem throughout made for an interesting basis for a conflict, as it isolated him while also providing opportunities for personal reflection and growth on his part. The back story with his father was also a neat opportunity to explore Robert Downey Jr's character, while the introduction of Scarlett Johansson's character gave him a good reason to argue with Gwynaeth Paltrow and develop that romantic interest. I thought there was a good pace and a lot of action, and I always really enjoy the planning scenes where he's tinkering in his workshop--the special effects for all the displays are visually engaging, and some of the best banter is between Robert Downey Jr and his computers. Also, this movie has really good villains--the Russian villain is menacing in his efficacy, and he has a great foil in the inept and utterly detestable CEO who's hired him to try to ruin Stark. Overall I thought this was a solid addition to the franchise.

This was the first Marvel movie I'd seen besides Guardians of the Galaxy, and I have to say it was so good that I watched several other ones in quick succession. I'm not used to the form and structure of superhero movies, so it took me a while to clue in that because it's an origin story, Iron Man wouldn't reach his full form until late in the film. I was also super surprised to see that Iron Man is fighting terrorists--I was not expecting that, although after I thought about it for a while I realized that it's a natural way to update superhero plots to reflect modern American concerns. In any case, the movie had a lively and engaging plot, and of course, Robert Downey Jr. was amazing. His smarmy one-liners and his impatience for everyone and everything are hilarious, and he somehow manages to remain charming despite being a huge jerk to everyone. His odd relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts is a good humanizing factor in the movie, as it's clear from their first interactions that he values her more than he's willing to let on. It was neat to see the seeds being planted for the sequels, and of course the film's surprising end-note was as fun as it was frustrating.

This movie was fantastic to watch for so many reasons. There is incredibly acting from everyone in the film, but particularly Oscar Isaac, who seems to light up every film and character he inhabits. The beautiful complex house the inventor lives in is so reactive that it becomes its own character and its own threat, as do the isolated woods and mountains that surround it. The dialogue is tightly structured and delivered throughout, in turns hilarious and horrifying, with its precision accentuated by the occurrence of only one-on-one conversations. The story itself is darkly engaging, becoming more tense and more frightening, and building to a series of grotesque climaxes as the film explores the consequences of building a truly sentient machine. Others have complained that the narrative of AI robot gone wrong is not exactly a new or refreshing concept, which might be true, but the elements that make up the film are so striking that the final product is striking to see.

Despite solid acting from the three main cast members (James Franco, Jonah Hill, and Felicity Jones), the movie lacked enough depth or nuance to make it interesting. It starts in more or less the same place it ends, and neither of the male leads is at all sympathetic. There is no twist, no turn, no real movement in plot or in the perception of any of the characters, and nothing in the struggling romantic relationship between Jonah Hill and Felicity Jones is fleshed out; possibly the most interesting thing to watch in this movie is the beautiful house in the woods they live in.

I'm not generally a scary movie person, but I absolutely loved this movie. It was suspenseful and terrifying and really hard to watch, and a week or two later I still get the heebie-jeebies when I think about some of the film's events. It was incredibly well acted, and so many of the shots were beautiful--just the camera panning slowly across a quiet suburban street. I found it really interesting that they managed to anonymize the time period to such a degree--I've spoken to people who think it took place in the future (because of the clam shell ereader), and ones who think it took place in the past because all the other electronics look so old and dated. I think the overall effect is to set it in any time period, which is also perhaps why it was so hard to tell where it was taking place until near the end. The premise was so simple and startling and the result is an excellent movie. I'm so glad that it received wide distribution and that I got to see it, and be scared by it.

Enchanted was a surprisingly clever movie, making fun of all the Disney fairy tale cliches we grew up with by pointing out how unrealistic they are in the real world. Amy Adams is hopelessly adorable throughout--her boundless optimism and cheerfulness become obnoxious at times, but even the annoyance is a nice commentary on how silly it is to be as happy and excited as a storybook character all the time. Some of the movie's gags are on the silly side, and of course the whole thing is syrupy sweet with a predictably storybook ending, but overall I thought it was well done.

This movie has a lot of things going for it, like a stunning and talented cast and the beautiful backdrop of LA, but somehow the whole thing managed to fall flat. The character of Celeste herself, who dominates the film first with her upbeat acceptance of her marital separation, and then with her downward spiral when she discovers the hard way that she isn't as over things as she thinks, is compelling and interesting in her struggle. But the movie spends a lot of time acting out rom-com stereotypes but with a meta-wink so that we know they're too clever, which is wasted time and often unfunny--Elijah Wood is completely unbelievable and not at all entertaining when his character makes a conscious attempt to be the over-the-top stereotypical gay friend, and of course Rashida Jones has to give a slightly drunk maid-of-honour speech at her BFF's wedding. There's also a weird but somehow not awful interlude where the adult Rashida Jones strikes up a friendship with the young pop star (played by Emma Roberts, who brings just the right amount of attitude and melodrama to the role) Jones' workplace has recently signed, in which Jones somehow finds clarity in the comfort and company of the younger woman--definitely an unexpected plot turn, and not very believable, but Roberts' was charming enough in the role that I didn't mind. Still, the charm of the cast couldn't make up for the lack of direction in the story, which strayed into shapelessness.

While We're Young is an interesting look at two couples who are both in very different places in their lives and their marriages. The early lead-up scenes as Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts get to know this compelling younger couple are the most entertaining--they manage to make fun of the younger generation in a really clever way, that pokes fun and exaggerates without becoming a complete parody. I especially enjoyed the conversations between Naomi Watts and Amanda Seyfried, as they discussed their perspectives on motherhood and how their friends change when they have children. Towards the end, however, the movie became much more about the working relationship between the two men, Ben Stiller and Adam Driver, who are both filmmakers--the older man has been on a downward career trajectory because of an unfinished documentary, while Adam Driver's character is a young up-and-comer. While I understand that the plot turn to focus on their film makes for a dramatic conclusion to the movie, I found it much less interesting and I was fairly disappointed that the movie turned to focus on the male characters, leaving the women on the sidelines. Their characters were interesting and well-developed early on, and I thought it was a waste that they weren't filled out any more in the last half of the movie. I was much more interested in their characters, and in the marital dynamics of the individual couples, than I was interested in the clash of egos that the ending focused on. Also, while I don't want to spoil the ending, I thought that the final few minutes of the film did not at all make sense with the rest of it, which also detracted from my enjoyment of the movie. Despite the problems I have with the ending, I still enjoyed the movie, and it's a reasonably fun and clever comedy.

This sprawling Western epic showed the compelling trajectory of a man who experienced incredibly professional success, but whose personal life was difficult. It was interesting to watch his character adapt to all his successes, but remain completely unable to compromise in the face of difficulties and conflicts. It was also a visually stunning movie, as the landscape of the oil fields provided a dramatic backdrop for the entire film.

Morgan Spurlock's self-experiment with and meditation on fast food culture is an engaging look at an important social problem. He does a great job of bringing both humour and seriousness to the issue in turns, to keep the viewer both entertained and informed. It's also nice that his documentary appears to have had a very real impact--as the end of the final version notes, after the film's Sundance premier McDonald's got rid of the Super Size option and introduced more healthy options. In the years since then, they've also made nutritional information much easier to access, even printing it on the food's packaging for a time (although this is still a long way from the most beneficial approach of putting the information on menus so that diners are forced to consider it as they order). However, as much as I love this documentary (I've probably seen it about five times), there are times where Spurlock takes the dramatic effects further than are strictly necessary. While the health problems he incurred through this experiment were very real and serious, the drama of having different doctors repeatedly tell him to stop, and the conversations with his mother and girlfriend, strained my patience a little. Also, he does occasionally misrepresent McDonald's claims--for instance, McDonald's claimed that most nutritionists said that fast food *could* be part of a healthy diet, and Spurlock then asked nutritionists whether it *should* be a part of a healthy diet, and masked the difference by claiming that his findings proved McDonald's was lying. This felt like more spin than substance, and the same information could have been used more effectively if he hadn't attempted to use it dishonestly. Still, despite these minor issues, the documentary provides important perspective on a major health problem, and Spurlock's work has had a real, positive impact on fast food culture. While the statistics are out of date, it's still an important thing to watch. I still eat McDonald's because it's delicious, but at least I'm better informed about the potential damage I'm doing to my body. Maybe I'm even a little better at moderating my intake because of it.

Princess Mononoke is a wildly inventive fable that explores the tensions between the human and natural worlds. Our main character **** remains resolutely in the middle of the two female leads, the Lady Eboshi and Princess Mononoke, which forces the viewer to assess both sides of the conflict for their merits and problems. Other reviews have said that its message is easy or straightfowrad, but I think it's incredibly complex--both the forest and the ironworks seem to be granted an essential right to exist, and it feels like the impossible goal is to find a way for them to exist together peacefully. These problems aren't presented moralistically, however, as our main character stumbles into this complex situation as part of an already-engaging plot, and the various story elements are gracefully brought together into one essential conflict. The characters and their problems are well-rounded, as Miyazaki makes excellent use of the movie's long runtime to develop the protagonists. Everything is, of course, gorgeously animated. The animal gods in particular are beautiful and inventively portrayed; the way the animals' speech is animated is especially engaging. The many action and battle scenes as well are skilfully done, so that the action is both fast-paced and followable. Overall, I was incredibly impressed by this movie and I'm sure I'll watch it again to try to tease out more of the problems. This movie gives a lot of thought to the essential and complex problems of humans and human society, and it urges viewers to consider these problems as well. A smart, beautiful, and thought-provoking film.

The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a gorgeously animated film, with whimsy and sadness and grace. From the mountain countryside where the princess grows up, to the city and mansion buildings, to the beautiful clothes they obtain for the princess, everything is stunningly beautiful. The story builds very slowly, and as a viewer unfamiliar with the original fairy tale, I was often completely clueless about where it was going, although things were clear as they unfolded. (I did find the ending a complete surprise, though; presumably this is not the case for viewers who know the story.) The characters are complex and highly sympathetic, even the father whose decisions about his daughter's life are questionable throughout. Most of all, though, I was surprised by how very sad this movie felt to me--not in a tragic or sudden way, but in an atmospheric sense. For me, the movie was full of the kind of intense longing and yearning that's engaging even as it hurts to watch. Long and slow, I don't know how many children (or even some adults adults) have the attention span for this story of growing up, but it richly rewards a patient viewing.

I thought this movie was absolutely wonderful. Somehow I'd never seen it before, even though I'm a big fan of chick flicks and I love Meg Ryan in things like You've got Mail and Kate and Leopold. Anyway, I'm glad I finally got around to watching it. The unusual chemistry between Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal is so much fun--rather than the overly flirtatious or sexual chemistry you get between so many romantic leads, Ryan and Crystal fall into this friendly antagonism that makes their friendship so good and so believable, so that the idea of their building a romantic relationship over top of it just feels so natural. Their banter is amazing--I get the sense that Ryan's character is every bit as smart as Crystal's, but Crystal has her beat in verbal gymnastics, which makes it so much fun when she does things to outsmart him, like the fake orgasm she performs in the deli. A really clever and charming movie that I'll definitely be watching again and again.

I don't really know what good things I can add in a review of this amazing movie. The stories all come together so perfectly, the individual scenes are gorgeous, and the dialogue has this wonderful theatricality that makes it so, so fun to watch. Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta frame the movie in a big way, with their quick-paced, antagonistic dialogue and absolutely wonderful portrayals. Uma Thurman is amazing in a crazy, off-kilter kind of way and of course the dance scene she has with Travolta is famous for a reason. Her self-disparaging almost-shyness gives her character this delicacy that's beautiful to watch. Wonderful ensemble cast, captivating web of overlapping stories and timelines. There are so many reasons this film is a classic.

This wickedly funny movie seems to present an awful lot of wish fulfilment for anyone who's ever worked in an office, as Ron Livingston does everything you want to do at your job but can't. The humour is dry and the individual's characters quirks present fun caricatures of some of the types you might come across in an average office, while the movie does a great job of conveying the frustration and futility of modern office life with lots of quotable moments--there's a reason this movie has produced expressions so ubiquitous I didn't even know they were from this movie ("goddamn right Bob") as well as a popular meme. Very funny, clever film.

This movie was fairly bad, but it had some unexpectedly funny jokes along the way to smooth it out a little. Anna Faris was charming in a quirky, ramshackle kind of way, and Chris Evans spent a lot of time with his clothes off. Their antagonistic chemistry was good throughout, but it wasn't enough to balance out the formulaic rom-com plot.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This new version of Cinderella is a very straight retelling of the classic fairytale in line with the Disney animated version. Disney clearly goes to great lengths in the movie to hammer in their version of things as canonical, particularly maintaining the colour scenes and costuming to bring the cartoon to life. One of the best things I can write about this movie is just that it's visually stunning throughout. It does a wonderful job of bringing the animated magic to live action scenes, and everything about the costumes, sets, backgrounds, all of it are always gorgeous. Notable departures from the animated version include Helena Bonham Carter's Fairy Godmother and the depth of the representation of the prince. Carter's Fairy Godmother is perhaps the only part of the movie that isn't played straight--she's delightfully haphazard about it, as if she isn't quite sure how she's going to pull this thing off. It ended up being charming and funny to watch, and it was probably my favourite part of the movie, particularly in combination with the fun special effects to show the transformations. I liked that the transformed animals retained so many of their animal traits as people--it contributed to the feeling that the Fairy Godmother was only just managing to transform them, and provided some nice visual humour. The prince's story departed in that you get some back story of his situation at the palace, why he's having the ball to find a princess to marry, and the pressures that he's under. Robert Madden did a good job of making a living character out of the Prince, who doesn't even get a name in the original animated feature if I recall correctly. It was nice that Disney attempted to flesh out the story and breathe some romance into the fairy tale. He had conflicting motives and desires and it was interesting to see that play out. However, I don't think it ultimately worked, in part because there didn't seem to be a lot of real chemistry between the two lovers. Lily James' Cinderella was just so unfailingly nice that she didn't seem like a full character in the way that Madden's prince was. She has moments of despair, but not moments of doubt; without any kind of internal struggle to match the prince's, she just wasn't as interesting. Cate Blanchett's evil stepmother was also a bit too-dimensional, but Blanchett is just so good at that perfect stepmother smirk that I think I'd forgive her anything. That said, the movie did what it set out to do. It recreated Disney's animated feature in gorgeous live action with magic special effects, a charming cast, and beautiful sets and costumes with a solid, straight retelling of the classic fairytale.

I intentionally went into this movie knowing next-to-nothing about it--I had seen one trailer without English subtitles, and that was in. I was completely floored by the originality of the movie, both its format and its stories themselves. It's arranged into a series of short stories centred around a small number of characters, and they're all these gorgeous little morality plays. The stories tend to start with a perfectly normal scene and set of events--small talk between two strangers on a plane, or a man buying a birthday cake--and some kind of twist happens to take it into the unexpected, to make the tale wild, as the title suggests., as some normal situation gets completely out of hand. Some stories have several twists to keep you guessing. There are so many amazing moments of tension and surprise, sometimes funny and sometimes just so shocking that you have to laugh. A wonderful, hilarious, and incredibly fun and original movie.

Chappie is a reasonably entertaining movie, but there are times when it tried my patience and strained my suspension of disbelief pretty severely. The gag of having a robot speak in the gangster vernacular and strut around wearing chains that say "hustler" got old pretty quickly, and the lightning-fast jumps in capability and understanding toward the end of the movie left me very skeptical--even in the technology-rich future that Blomkamp presents, and even suspending my disbelief as a viewer as much as I could, it was a bit much. I did really enjoy the struggle for Chappie's affection between Dev Patel, Ninja, and Yolandi. I was not at all familiar with Die Antwoord and their work until this movie, but I looked them up after, and I think it's really neat that they seemed to be basically playing their music personas in the movie; some critic reviews have criticized this choice, but even as an outside viewer rather than a fan, I loved their persona and dynamic. (It did make a lot more sense once I had watched a couple of music videos though.) One of the things I enjoyed most in the movie was the set design. There was an incredibly interesting aesthetic, especially for the criminal hideouts. The place Chappie called home was this amazingly dreary, dystopian place with these gorgeous pops of colour and graffiti everywhere that somehow made it gorgeous. There were also really nice, small touches, like figurines of Cartman and Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo from South Park on the bedside table. That said, I do think that the cast was a bit crowded. Our time and attention was split between a large number of main characters, which made the big name actors like Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver seem underused. There was an awful lot going on, and the big action scenes sometimes seemed to go on too long; to me at least, it would have been preferable to trim the shoot 'em up scenes and have more engagement with Chappie and his development, since that was the more interesting and unique part of the movie.

Focus was a decent movie, but it didn't quite have enough substance to make it truly good. In typical con movie fashion, there were a lot of good switch moments, where the audience is left looking from one person to another and trying to assess who's lying, who's telling the truth, and who's in on the con--plus there are good twists and surprises throughout to keep you guessing, and I had fun afterward going back and rethinking earlier scenes in light of information that came out later on in the movie's plot. The central component of the whole story is the love plot between Will Smith and Margot Robbie, but their relationship wasn't given enough foundation to make it a compelling romance. Still, the movie has really fun moments of petty larceny, gambling, sexual tension, and just a touch of violence. Not a great movie, but not a bad one either.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Kingsman: The Secret Service was definitely a fun movie, with elaborately cartoonish violence and fun stunts. Samuel L. Jackson was absolutely amazing as the villain, and his rapport with Colin Firth was wonderful--their shared acknowledgement of spy movie tropes made for some great meta moments. However, I found the plot wasn't quite compelling enough to keep me engaged for the long-ish runtime, especially since the ending is a bit drawn out. It straddled the line of satire and sincerity in an interesting way, mocking and embracing the genre's tropes simultaneously. It was a solid movie with a lot of amazing sequences, but for me it just didn't quite come together. However, I should freely admit that spy movies are not my favourite genre, so there were probably references I missed out on. Still, an enjoyable romp-y kind of movie with fun action and dialogue.

The Mummy's action-adventure fun never gets old for me. It's really well-paced with a lively and engaging (if not original) plot and full of memorable scenes. The antagonistic dynamic between Brendan Fraser jaded treasure hunter and Rachel Weisz's high-strung librarian is wonderful to watch, as they take turns yelling at and saving each other. The violence is cartoonish rather than gory, but in a good way--it's pretty fun and light-hearted, as far as violence goes. This is a movie I always come back to.

This was a very smart, dark, and funny comedy with a ton of fantastic moments and quotable lines. They came up with great plot elements to flesh out the documentary style into a coherent story that ends on a high note, despite some twists and turns for the characters along the way. Possibly my favourite aspect of the movie is the offhanded acceptance of the basic premise that the vampires are going to kill to survive, and all the violence and gore that comes with it--everyone, both vampire and human, politely ignores the questionable morals at work, and it makes for a delightfully amoral movie. I do wonder how many pints of fake blood they went through during production.

The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is an entertaining watch that feels like one really, really long episode of the cartoon. Many of its jokes feel familiar, in a good way, and there's a good balance of jokes for adults and jokes for kids. Antonio Banderas was great fun to watch in particular. The gag of having them out of water and as super heroes lasted a little too long for my liking, but everything came to a satisfying cartoony conclusion.

PItch Perfect is hilarious at times, and the music is excellent throughout of course, but it's predictable and relies on some lazy tropes of humour. The girl-gross-out-scene ends up being more gross than funny (unlike the gross-out scene in Bridesmaids, which PItch Perfect is presumably building on). Anna Kendrick is amazing of course, and very talented, but the other lead voices aren't always full enough to be compelling. Plus every actor and actress in the movie is confusingly and distractingly about ten years older than the plot requires--Anna Kendrick just can't pass as an 18-year-old freshman. Still, the good music and jokes keep it together and make it an entertaining movie, if not a stimulating one.

This movie has a lot of really great moments to it--I loved all the scenes with the two protagonists, for instance, and a lot of others. When they meet for the second time, he's dressed as Dracula and coming from a party and he tells her not to be afraid of him--not realizing, of course, that she's the real vampire, which is a hilarious bit of dramatic irony for us watching. However, there were a lot of very long musical interludes with abstract shots which were beautiful, but (for me at least) slowed down the film and the story I was interested in. Still, the central story and the main characters were incredibly compelling, and in my opinion, the movie ends perfectly, so it's worth the wait to get there.

I was really impressed with the slow, deliberate pacing of this movie. Abel Morales' reluctance to engage in criminal behaviour complicates his position, as he attempts to adapt his own moral code to the looser morals of all those around him, from the DA, to his wife, to his competitors in business. Oscar Isaac's calm and quiet portrayal of this sombre character is compelling, especially when he finds himself arguing with his much more temperamental wife, played beautifully by Jessica Chastain. The quiet constancy of Isaac's character means that when his temper flares, it's that much more intense to watch. I loved the character's insistence on his own particular moral system and his attempts to hold himself and others to those standards.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this movie. I was expecting a cringe-inducing, inspiration-porn style depiction of disability, which the film did slip into at times (such as the pen scene toward the end), but overall I was impressed by how realistic and matter-of-fact the depiction of life with a physical disability is. The overwhelming impression I had of Stephen and Jane's life together is that it was fairly normal--in particular, I loved the scenes of the children naturally and curiously climbing all over Hawking's wheelchair and riding it around the house. Such a normalized depiction of disability is hard to find.

This was a really interesting movie that covered a lot of territory genre-wise. It felt like it was part-romance, part-chase movie, part mob-movie, and the last part was an intense revenge plot. We ended in a very different place than what I was expecting, which was satisfying. The use of silence was amazing, as neither Ryan Gosling nor Carey Mulligan were talkative characters, but they still managed to communicate so much during their scenes together.

I'm sad to say that I was underwhelmed by this movie; it's received such high praise, and there was so much anger about its general absence from the Oscar nominations, that I wanted to be blown away. I thought that the scope was well chosen and the story was effectively told, in that they chose to focus on a single episode from MLK's many accomplishments. It was wonderful to see so much private dealing between MLK and the president, as well as the inner workings and disagreements about how to proceed within the civil rights movement itself. However, there were several scenes where things shifted from interesting discourse between characters to long, oratorical monologues that seemed aimed more at the audience in the theatre than the listeners within the film. The formal speeches in the movie, however, were powerful and well-spaced, punctuating the other events effectively. This movie is definitely good, interesting, and undoubtedly covers incredibly important subject matter that deserves greater exposure in mainstream entertainment.

This movie is absolutely gorgeous--the hotel itself, the costume design, the scenery, the way each shot has been so clearly and deliberately set up to be beautiful all combine to make it absolutely stunning. I found myself trying to take in as much of each scene as I could to try to appreciate the composition of things, from the actors' places in the frame to the background objects and paintings on the wall. It's also a charmingly funny movie, with a number of recurring jokes that tie things together. The sparing use of swear words is perfect; every time Ralph Fiennes loses his composure for a moment and lets loose a stream of profanity, it's hilarious. The action, conversations, everything is so deliberately and briskly paced--it feels like there's never a moment to pause and take stock, and instead we're always plunging on to the next event (in a really, really great way). Wes Anderson successfully juggles a number of story-within-a-story complexities, along with quite a large and star-studded cast. A really wonderful and beautiful film.

I'm still not really convinced I understand a lot of what happened in this movie--it's the kind of film where the problems all compound until you lose track of the threads, and wait patiently while they're (partly) disentangled. It's definitely a movie that I want to see again, because I feel like I must have missed a lot of flags along the way. It was a fun struggle to try to keep up with Joaquin Phoenix's drug-fuelled antics, as he followed one lead after another until the problem was so much bigger than I imagined at the outset. The film also has an incredible sense of humour, and the antagonistic dynamic between Joaquin Phoenix and the police officer Bigfoot never gets old. The costume design and setting was wonderfully organic. It's a difficult movie to follow, but it's a rewarding trip.