#MWi2018: the vanishing of sidney hall

[krokodile]

movies watched in 2018

starting with a trio i didn’t finish.  one was guy in your mfa misogyny bullshit, one seemed so blatantly written by a team of incels the female lead and her husband might as well have been named stacy and chad, and one that was so clunkily written i thought at first it was meant to be satire.  don’t waste time on any of them.

coco - just gonna admit it.  i thought it was just okay.  solid voice acting (the kid playing miguel is an absolute star),and i get the value as a piece of cultural representation, but not being mexican and only being able to critique it as a pixar movie (not having the knowledge to discuss its representation of mexican culture), on that level  it was just okay.  tons of cliches and tropes we’ve seen a thousand times, and while it’s visually extremely creative, storywise there isn’t much there that hasn’t been done to death, especially in kiddie movies, especially in pixar movies.  

proud mary - taraji p henson is a total badass, but way too much of this movie tried to be a soppy drama.  which is fine, but not the movie they advertised, and not a movie i would’ve gone out of my way to see.  really just wanted to see taraji p henson kick ass in cool outfits.  there wasn’t nearly enough of that for a movie about a friggin’ assassin.

downsizing - i found it enjoyable enough.  hong chau is the main reason the film is watchable - her performance is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, and she’s just so damn likeable and fun to watch for the entire time.  i get what people were saying about not really using the premise as anything but a gimmick, but...eh.  they needed to start a new society somehow to have a story in the first place; shrinking people to increase wealth and decrease carbon footprint works as well as anything else.

game night - HOLY SHT A COMEDY THAT’S ACTUALLY FUNNY.  I DIDN’T KNOW THEY WERE STILL ALLOWED TO MAKE THOSE.  evidence of why sometimes the best comedy is strictly scripted - the jokes consistently land, and the performances and chemistry are off the charts.  i had no idea rachel mcadams was so damn funny (and yes i’ve seen mean girls).  

hereditary - well, it wasn’t the movie i thought i was going to see, for sure.  it was a good one, at least for the first two thirds.  it devolved into rosemary’s baby meets one of the paranormal activity sequels by the end there.  but it LOOKS amazing, and some of the performances are jaw-dropping.  toni collette can do no wrong, and milly shapiro is, of course, perfect.  no surprise to find out she’s made for horror; i can’t wait to see what’s next for her.  

tremors: a cold day in hell - so...nobody even tried a *little*, huh?  i like tremors.  i believe a reboot could be good.  but this was just so lazy, so brainless, so ugly.  oh well.

get out - fourth time seeing it.  still a fucking masterpiece.  probably on my list of favorite films of all time at this point.