March Movie Madness!
Sorry this is coming to you three days into April. I went home on a whim over the weekend and didn't bring my laptop so I wasn't able to post until now. Before I start with my monthly movie reviews, I just wanted to kind of flesh out my rating system, because I realized it may seem kind of arbitrary. (And honestly, it feels a little arbitrary at times when I'm assigning the scores too.) Overall, here is what I try to go by when giving a score out of ten to a movie.
10/10- This movie was as close to perfection as a movie can hope to be and I believe anyone would enjoy it.
9/10- This movie had everything that I, personally, love in a movie.
8/10- This movie had very few negatives, but wasn't perfect.
7/10- I liked this movie, but not everyone might, and I can understand why.
6/10- I didn't particularly like this movie, but I can understand why others might.
5/10-This movie fell pretty flat for me. I have a feeling it would do the same for most others.
4/10- This movie was unimpressive, confusing, and/or boring.
3/10- This movie had almost nothing to recommend itself.
2/10- This movie was a train wreck. I saw no redeemable qualities in it.
1/10- This movie is not worth a watch.
I rarely give ratings below 5, or at least I haven't so far (since I've begun the monthly Movie Madness reviews). This is mostly due to the fact that once a movie reaches below a 5 rating, I often just don't finish it at all and then don't feel like I necessarily have a right to review it. Also, it gets a little muddy under 5 because they're basically all just variations of "I didn't like it". Obviously my rating system is not a perfect science by any means.
With that, let's get started!
Baby Mama
7.5/10
A successful, single businesswoman who dreams of having a baby discovers she is infertile and hires a working class woman to be her unlikely surrogate.
I think I saw this movie once before a long time ago. It's a solid comedy movie. It gets checks in all the right boxes. I guess I just don't love love it because it's nothing spectacular. The jokes are a little been-there-done-that and the story line tries to be fresh and new but is still pretty predictable. Even so, it's a great movie to watch at a sleepover or girls night (I watched it with Emily and Rachel in Rachel's room while slurping milkshakes). While the whole movie is scattered with humor, this is my absolute favorite part since it shamelessly makes fun of the new age hipster moms who name their kids ridiculous things, and if you blink you might just miss this comedy gem:
Manchester by the Sea
7/10 personally, 10/10 artistically
A depressed uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.
This. Movie. Was. So. Depressing. I mean, it was a piece of art, definitely. The acting was beautiful and phenomenal and it deserves all the awards it was nominated for and received. It was evocative and tragically realistic in every sense, and funny in all the ways that real life can be bitterly funny. But it certainly wasn't fun to watch. It didn't make me feel good. It was just one thing after another too. This guy could not catch a break. And there was no happy ending. I wouldn't watch this movie again unless I was some sort of glutton for punishment.
Tallulah
9/10
Desperate to be rid of her toddler, a dissatisfied Beverly Hills housewife hires a stranger to babysit and ends up getting much more than she bargained for.
SPOILERS
This movie was every bit as good as I hoped it would be. Ever since I saw the movie Juno, I absolutely loved Allison Janney and Ellen Page. (I wanted Ellen Page to play me in the movie version of my life. I also wanted her to play Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars. I'm still mad about that. She would have been perfect). Then I saw a trailer for Tallulah and got really excited because it has both of them back at it again together! I held off watching the movie for a while because I was kind of scared that it wouldn't live up to my hopes and dreams. But it did. It, like Manchester by the Sea, was not really a happy story. The ending wasn't what you would hope, because it was the ending that would actually happen in real life. She doesn't get to keep the baby. She gets arrested. The baby has to go back to her awful mother, because awful mothers still have more say over their children than well-meaning kidnappers do. So the ending of the movie was sad. But the in between was happy and hopeful. I think we tend to hope for and expect stories with a troubled beginning and middle, but happy ending. Tallulah gives the audience a troubled beginning, a happy middle, and a troubled end. Which is more like real life. And I don't know which I prefer. I can never decide: should movies take me away from reality to some place more beautiful? Or should they be an artful representation of the real world we live in?
Something else I noticed about this movie: The guy who plays Tallulah's boyfriend Nico looks like the love-child of Toby from Pretty Little Liars and Sean Persaud of YouTube's Kissing in the Rain and Edgar Allen Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party. Here, I'll show you:
The Shack
9/10
A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called "The Shack."
We read this book in my Sunday school class (well, most of this book) so we'd been talking about going to see it as a youth group when it came out. Somehow the stars aligned and it came out in theaters right before spring break, so I got to go see it with everybody from my church while I was at home. I liked it a lot and I cried a little. I understand that this movie is not necessarily "biblical" and that for this reason, there are a lot of people who won't even consider watching it. I think that's a little harsh. Is everything you experience in your life in relation to God "biblical"? A personal relationship with God extends so far beyond just the bounds of the Bible. The Shack is just an artistic interpretation of one man's own faith journey and the way he understands how God works. Nobody's relationship with Christ is the same as another person's. The guy in the movie goes to a shack and hangs out with God who is a big black lady. I go to Powerhouse and stare up at the cracked, unfinished ceiling while I sing to God as if He's floating around up there. Is that in the Bible? No, it's not. But it feels real to me, just like the shack felt real to the guy in the story. Okay, that's my little sermon and that's all I have to say about that. If someone can glean spiritual meaning from this movie, then I am all for it, 100%. I will say that Jesus was a bit too attractive for my liking, just because it made it kind of distracting. The main character guy was also a total Hot Dad, which was distracting too. But those issues are really my own girly fault. The actor who played the main character was also trying to cover up a pretty thick Australian accent, which was distracting at times as well. But those are just little surface issues and didn't detract from the movie. I did feel that at times the movie played it a little safe, despite the fact that the book is not happy or kid friendly at all. This is a common theme with Christian movies and media however-- this idea that it has to be wholesome and safe for the family. Even though Christianity is radical and dirty and difficult and the world can be graphic and gruesome. But I still felt it kept the main points of the book clear and it got its message across.
The Great Gatsby
8/10
A writer and wall street trader, Nick, finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbor, Jay Gatsby.
I would probably like this movie more if I liked the book more. As it is, I've always thought the character of Nick was super awkward and unnecessary to the story (like he's literally just a third wheel that everybody manipulates to use for their own purposes. He's basically a prop). Also, I can't sympathize with Daisy because she was dumb to get married when she was in love with someone else and she was especially dumb to marry somebody as mean and awful as Tom (who, awful as he is, is played by the ah-mazing Joel Edgerton, so two thumbs up for that casting choice) and she's dumb for not paying attention to her daughter and she's dumb for just turning a blind eye on Tom's cheating. I get it, it was the 20s, times were different, she was rich and had to keep up appearances. But even so. Rise above Daisy, rise above. AND ANOTHER THING! In the book the girl that Tom is cheating on Daisy with is described as being pretty thick and curvy right? But in the movie she's as thin as anything!!! Why???? Urgggg. Whatever Hollywood. Give some thick girls a chance.
I think a lot of the allure of this movie for many people is Leonardo DiCaprio because, as I've been told, he's a total babe, but, um, I can't say I really agree. He's a great actor and I like his work (especially What's Eating Gilbert Grape, that is a cinematic masterpiece), but he's anything but attractive in my opinion. Still, he did make a great Jay Gatsby. One thing I did love about this movie was the choice to use modern music instead of music from the 20s. I absolutely adore music from the 20s, but I think that using modern day music kind of showed how similar the lifestyle of the extravagant 1920s was to the saturated, colorful, loud lifestyle of today. So I appreciated it as an artful cinematic choice. Especially since it features Lana Del Rey's music and Lana Del Rey is one of my faves.
Magic Mike
6.5/10
A male stripper teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women, and make easy money.
Firstly, this movie wasn't nearly as "raunchy" as I was expecting. Yeah, it's about strippers, so of course that's a part of the movie, but it wasn't as prevalent as I thought it would be. In fact, I found this movie pretty boring. We never got to hear any of the characters' backstories, and the main character never really got to follow his dreams, at least not in this movie. Maybe that's why there's a sequel. But truly I have very little interest in seeing the sequel because I didn't feel invested enough in the characters to care all that much what happened to them. I will say that if you're looking for cute guys, you'll find some--but not actually that many. Alex Pettyfer's character is attractive, but not a nice guy by the end of the movie. Channing Tatum is too old and too basic to really be appealing to me anymore. Matt Bomer and Adam Rodriguez were really good looking, but they were barely in the movie. And the rest of the guys? Too old and just not attractive!! I think this movie is definitely geared towards women in their 30s and 40s who want to feel young again or something. Or maybe I just wasn't in the mood? Or maybe it's because I am so not into guys in speedos? I don't know. It just wasn't exciting to me, any way you slice it. Also, the cinematography annoyed me because everything was yellow for the entire film? It looked really weird. I hate when movies do that. The real world does not look like there's an Instagram filter on it. I was, on the whole, unimpressed, as were my gal pals who watched it with me.
Beauty and the Beast
8/10
An adaptation of the fairy tale about a monstrous-looking prince and a young woman who fall in love.
The thing about remaking Disney classics is that it's an incredibly tall order to try and please everyone. The makers have to think about the original audience from back in the 90s, the kids growing up today, and just about everyone in between. And that's just a hard thing to undertake. So I liked the movie, but it felt like they played it kind of safe. They didn't take as many interpretive leaps as I felt they did with the live action Cinderella movie, and I liked that movie much better perhaps because they actually took some liberties. Also, I think there's a reason Beauty and the Beast is an animated movie. You can't make teapots and candles come to life in REAL life and not expect them to look a little weird. As per usual, I thought the prince looked pretty dweeby when he transformed back into his human form and I liked the beast better-- but I feel like everybody secretly did.
So on the left is what he looks like in real life, right? Pretty solid looking dude, pretty cute. And on the RIGHT is what they made him look like for the movie???? Why? Ew. I like long hair and everything but he couldn't even have his magical hair brush brush it back into a nice man bun before he came out of the transformation looking like a bedraggled dork??
As for Emma Watson as Belle, I think it was a good choice even if she's not like the most wonderful singer on the planet. At the same time, there are tons of women out there who are both amazing actresses and amazing singers and I kind of wonder why they wouldn't have gone looking for a Belle in that pool of talent? But nonetheless, Emma Watson pulled it off delightfully.
The Lost Children of Rockdale County
10/10 for evocative-ness 2/10 for how I felt once it was over, so I guess 6/10 overall?? If I remember how averages work from way back when in math class? 10+2=12, 12/2=6. (Documentaries are hard to rate because I can't very well say that I LIKED this film, but it was incredibly well done and definitely evoked lots of reactions and thoughts and emotions, so it certainly accomplished its goal.)
A syphilis epidemic among teens of an affluent community points to drug use, orgies and aimlessness.
So I'm reading this book about radical Christian femininity and how Christian girls are called to do more than just fit God in where it's convenient, and I came across this part that's talking about this town where basically the entire population of teens contracted syphilis and I was like what???? So I looked up the documentary that the book mentioned about the case, and wow. I don't even know quite how to describe this or how it made me feel, but here's a list of a few adjectives that came to mind throughout this movie: shocked, appalled, secondhand shame, really sad, scarred for life, angry, confused, like I need to wash my hands, like I need to hug my parents, like I need to say some prayers. I don't even know. You honestly just need to watch it to understand. I didn't feel these things because I'm a prude. It's just that I have literally never heard of such an extreme case of teenage chaos in my life. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I'm too optimistic. Or maybe these kids were just a one-of-a-kind group of incredibly entitled, very bored, very curious children with money and education but nobody who actually cared about them. Here's a link to the documentary on YouTube.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
9/10
The adventures of writer Newt Scamander in New York's secret community of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter reads his book in school.
I REALLY LIKED THIS!!!!! Listen ya'll, I'm not really a Potterhead. In fact, I'm not one at all. I've seen most of the movies I think, and they're all right. I've usually watched them at the bidding of others or out of boredom (everybody knows they're literally always on ABC Family (or Freeform or whatever it's called now)). I realize that saying I'm not obsessed with Harry Potter is as detrimental in certain circles as saying I'm not obsessed with Beyonce in certain other circles. But I've never been super into fantasy. I can never seem to suspend my disbelief as well as some people can, and so I often find fantasy books and films corny or boring. But you guys! Fantastic Beasts was really really good! I was able to follow the storyline the whole way (that's another thing--fantasy storylines are always waaaaayyyyy too complicated for my little RomCom loving brain to wrap around) and I liked all the characters and I loved the score (1920s music is the besssst) and I love love love wacky little critters and creatures and there was an ABUNDANCE in this movie. They were all so cute. Honestly this might have been my favorite movie all month! There was a bit of political undertone, but I feel like that's just become the norm in movies these days, and as annoying and belabored as it can seem sometimes, I didn't feel that it was too distracting in this movie. Also, the cast was amazing! Eddie Redmayne is great, as is Colin Farrell and ma boy Johnny Depp, and I will seriously watch anything with Ezra Miller in it just on principle. But I was also truly impressed with the actors who I didn't really know! I'll certainly be looking up some of the lesser known faces from the film because they were all splendid. I would also say that this movie is a great pick for the entire family. It keeps everyone's attention and has some scary parts but nothing too serious.
One small annoyance: was it necessary for the main character's name to sound like a newt and a salamander, two slithery creatures? (His name was Newt Scamander). Like, we get it dude, you like funky critters.
10/10- This movie was as close to perfection as a movie can hope to be and I believe anyone would enjoy it.
9/10- This movie had everything that I, personally, love in a movie.
8/10- This movie had very few negatives, but wasn't perfect.
7/10- I liked this movie, but not everyone might, and I can understand why.
6/10- I didn't particularly like this movie, but I can understand why others might.
5/10-This movie fell pretty flat for me. I have a feeling it would do the same for most others.
4/10- This movie was unimpressive, confusing, and/or boring.
3/10- This movie had almost nothing to recommend itself.
2/10- This movie was a train wreck. I saw no redeemable qualities in it.
1/10- This movie is not worth a watch.
I rarely give ratings below 5, or at least I haven't so far (since I've begun the monthly Movie Madness reviews). This is mostly due to the fact that once a movie reaches below a 5 rating, I often just don't finish it at all and then don't feel like I necessarily have a right to review it. Also, it gets a little muddy under 5 because they're basically all just variations of "I didn't like it". Obviously my rating system is not a perfect science by any means.
With that, let's get started!
Baby Mama
7.5/10
A successful, single businesswoman who dreams of having a baby discovers she is infertile and hires a working class woman to be her unlikely surrogate.I think I saw this movie once before a long time ago. It's a solid comedy movie. It gets checks in all the right boxes. I guess I just don't love love it because it's nothing spectacular. The jokes are a little been-there-done-that and the story line tries to be fresh and new but is still pretty predictable. Even so, it's a great movie to watch at a sleepover or girls night (I watched it with Emily and Rachel in Rachel's room while slurping milkshakes). While the whole movie is scattered with humor, this is my absolute favorite part since it shamelessly makes fun of the new age hipster moms who name their kids ridiculous things, and if you blink you might just miss this comedy gem:
Manchester by the Sea
7/10 personally, 10/10 artistically
A depressed uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.
This. Movie. Was. So. Depressing. I mean, it was a piece of art, definitely. The acting was beautiful and phenomenal and it deserves all the awards it was nominated for and received. It was evocative and tragically realistic in every sense, and funny in all the ways that real life can be bitterly funny. But it certainly wasn't fun to watch. It didn't make me feel good. It was just one thing after another too. This guy could not catch a break. And there was no happy ending. I wouldn't watch this movie again unless I was some sort of glutton for punishment.
Tallulah
9/10
Desperate to be rid of her toddler, a dissatisfied Beverly Hills housewife hires a stranger to babysit and ends up getting much more than she bargained for.
SPOILERS
This movie was every bit as good as I hoped it would be. Ever since I saw the movie Juno, I absolutely loved Allison Janney and Ellen Page. (I wanted Ellen Page to play me in the movie version of my life. I also wanted her to play Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars. I'm still mad about that. She would have been perfect). Then I saw a trailer for Tallulah and got really excited because it has both of them back at it again together! I held off watching the movie for a while because I was kind of scared that it wouldn't live up to my hopes and dreams. But it did. It, like Manchester by the Sea, was not really a happy story. The ending wasn't what you would hope, because it was the ending that would actually happen in real life. She doesn't get to keep the baby. She gets arrested. The baby has to go back to her awful mother, because awful mothers still have more say over their children than well-meaning kidnappers do. So the ending of the movie was sad. But the in between was happy and hopeful. I think we tend to hope for and expect stories with a troubled beginning and middle, but happy ending. Tallulah gives the audience a troubled beginning, a happy middle, and a troubled end. Which is more like real life. And I don't know which I prefer. I can never decide: should movies take me away from reality to some place more beautiful? Or should they be an artful representation of the real world we live in?
Something else I noticed about this movie: The guy who plays Tallulah's boyfriend Nico looks like the love-child of Toby from Pretty Little Liars and Sean Persaud of YouTube's Kissing in the Rain and Edgar Allen Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party. Here, I'll show you:
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| THIS GUY + |
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| THIS GUY ON THE LEFT = |
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| NICO FROM TALLULAH |
The Shack
9/10
A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called "The Shack."
We read this book in my Sunday school class (well, most of this book) so we'd been talking about going to see it as a youth group when it came out. Somehow the stars aligned and it came out in theaters right before spring break, so I got to go see it with everybody from my church while I was at home. I liked it a lot and I cried a little. I understand that this movie is not necessarily "biblical" and that for this reason, there are a lot of people who won't even consider watching it. I think that's a little harsh. Is everything you experience in your life in relation to God "biblical"? A personal relationship with God extends so far beyond just the bounds of the Bible. The Shack is just an artistic interpretation of one man's own faith journey and the way he understands how God works. Nobody's relationship with Christ is the same as another person's. The guy in the movie goes to a shack and hangs out with God who is a big black lady. I go to Powerhouse and stare up at the cracked, unfinished ceiling while I sing to God as if He's floating around up there. Is that in the Bible? No, it's not. But it feels real to me, just like the shack felt real to the guy in the story. Okay, that's my little sermon and that's all I have to say about that. If someone can glean spiritual meaning from this movie, then I am all for it, 100%. I will say that Jesus was a bit too attractive for my liking, just because it made it kind of distracting. The main character guy was also a total Hot Dad, which was distracting too. But those issues are really my own girly fault. The actor who played the main character was also trying to cover up a pretty thick Australian accent, which was distracting at times as well. But those are just little surface issues and didn't detract from the movie. I did feel that at times the movie played it a little safe, despite the fact that the book is not happy or kid friendly at all. This is a common theme with Christian movies and media however-- this idea that it has to be wholesome and safe for the family. Even though Christianity is radical and dirty and difficult and the world can be graphic and gruesome. But I still felt it kept the main points of the book clear and it got its message across.The Great Gatsby
8/10
A writer and wall street trader, Nick, finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbor, Jay Gatsby.
I would probably like this movie more if I liked the book more. As it is, I've always thought the character of Nick was super awkward and unnecessary to the story (like he's literally just a third wheel that everybody manipulates to use for their own purposes. He's basically a prop). Also, I can't sympathize with Daisy because she was dumb to get married when she was in love with someone else and she was especially dumb to marry somebody as mean and awful as Tom (who, awful as he is, is played by the ah-mazing Joel Edgerton, so two thumbs up for that casting choice) and she's dumb for not paying attention to her daughter and she's dumb for just turning a blind eye on Tom's cheating. I get it, it was the 20s, times were different, she was rich and had to keep up appearances. But even so. Rise above Daisy, rise above. AND ANOTHER THING! In the book the girl that Tom is cheating on Daisy with is described as being pretty thick and curvy right? But in the movie she's as thin as anything!!! Why???? Urgggg. Whatever Hollywood. Give some thick girls a chance.
I think a lot of the allure of this movie for many people is Leonardo DiCaprio because, as I've been told, he's a total babe, but, um, I can't say I really agree. He's a great actor and I like his work (especially What's Eating Gilbert Grape, that is a cinematic masterpiece), but he's anything but attractive in my opinion. Still, he did make a great Jay Gatsby. One thing I did love about this movie was the choice to use modern music instead of music from the 20s. I absolutely adore music from the 20s, but I think that using modern day music kind of showed how similar the lifestyle of the extravagant 1920s was to the saturated, colorful, loud lifestyle of today. So I appreciated it as an artful cinematic choice. Especially since it features Lana Del Rey's music and Lana Del Rey is one of my faves.
Magic Mike
6.5/10A male stripper teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women, and make easy money.
Firstly, this movie wasn't nearly as "raunchy" as I was expecting. Yeah, it's about strippers, so of course that's a part of the movie, but it wasn't as prevalent as I thought it would be. In fact, I found this movie pretty boring. We never got to hear any of the characters' backstories, and the main character never really got to follow his dreams, at least not in this movie. Maybe that's why there's a sequel. But truly I have very little interest in seeing the sequel because I didn't feel invested enough in the characters to care all that much what happened to them. I will say that if you're looking for cute guys, you'll find some--but not actually that many. Alex Pettyfer's character is attractive, but not a nice guy by the end of the movie. Channing Tatum is too old and too basic to really be appealing to me anymore. Matt Bomer and Adam Rodriguez were really good looking, but they were barely in the movie. And the rest of the guys? Too old and just not attractive!! I think this movie is definitely geared towards women in their 30s and 40s who want to feel young again or something. Or maybe I just wasn't in the mood? Or maybe it's because I am so not into guys in speedos? I don't know. It just wasn't exciting to me, any way you slice it. Also, the cinematography annoyed me because everything was yellow for the entire film? It looked really weird. I hate when movies do that. The real world does not look like there's an Instagram filter on it. I was, on the whole, unimpressed, as were my gal pals who watched it with me.
Beauty and the Beast
8/10
An adaptation of the fairy tale about a monstrous-looking prince and a young woman who fall in love.
The thing about remaking Disney classics is that it's an incredibly tall order to try and please everyone. The makers have to think about the original audience from back in the 90s, the kids growing up today, and just about everyone in between. And that's just a hard thing to undertake. So I liked the movie, but it felt like they played it kind of safe. They didn't take as many interpretive leaps as I felt they did with the live action Cinderella movie, and I liked that movie much better perhaps because they actually took some liberties. Also, I think there's a reason Beauty and the Beast is an animated movie. You can't make teapots and candles come to life in REAL life and not expect them to look a little weird. As per usual, I thought the prince looked pretty dweeby when he transformed back into his human form and I liked the beast better-- but I feel like everybody secretly did.
So on the left is what he looks like in real life, right? Pretty solid looking dude, pretty cute. And on the RIGHT is what they made him look like for the movie???? Why? Ew. I like long hair and everything but he couldn't even have his magical hair brush brush it back into a nice man bun before he came out of the transformation looking like a bedraggled dork??
As for Emma Watson as Belle, I think it was a good choice even if she's not like the most wonderful singer on the planet. At the same time, there are tons of women out there who are both amazing actresses and amazing singers and I kind of wonder why they wouldn't have gone looking for a Belle in that pool of talent? But nonetheless, Emma Watson pulled it off delightfully.
The Lost Children of Rockdale County
10/10 for evocative-ness 2/10 for how I felt once it was over, so I guess 6/10 overall?? If I remember how averages work from way back when in math class? 10+2=12, 12/2=6. (Documentaries are hard to rate because I can't very well say that I LIKED this film, but it was incredibly well done and definitely evoked lots of reactions and thoughts and emotions, so it certainly accomplished its goal.)A syphilis epidemic among teens of an affluent community points to drug use, orgies and aimlessness.
So I'm reading this book about radical Christian femininity and how Christian girls are called to do more than just fit God in where it's convenient, and I came across this part that's talking about this town where basically the entire population of teens contracted syphilis and I was like what???? So I looked up the documentary that the book mentioned about the case, and wow. I don't even know quite how to describe this or how it made me feel, but here's a list of a few adjectives that came to mind throughout this movie: shocked, appalled, secondhand shame, really sad, scarred for life, angry, confused, like I need to wash my hands, like I need to hug my parents, like I need to say some prayers. I don't even know. You honestly just need to watch it to understand. I didn't feel these things because I'm a prude. It's just that I have literally never heard of such an extreme case of teenage chaos in my life. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I'm too optimistic. Or maybe these kids were just a one-of-a-kind group of incredibly entitled, very bored, very curious children with money and education but nobody who actually cared about them. Here's a link to the documentary on YouTube.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
9/10
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| This little platypus guy was adorable and kept stealing money. |
The adventures of writer Newt Scamander in New York's secret community of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter reads his book in school.
I REALLY LIKED THIS!!!!! Listen ya'll, I'm not really a Potterhead. In fact, I'm not one at all. I've seen most of the movies I think, and they're all right. I've usually watched them at the bidding of others or out of boredom (everybody knows they're literally always on ABC Family (or Freeform or whatever it's called now)). I realize that saying I'm not obsessed with Harry Potter is as detrimental in certain circles as saying I'm not obsessed with Beyonce in certain other circles. But I've never been super into fantasy. I can never seem to suspend my disbelief as well as some people can, and so I often find fantasy books and films corny or boring. But you guys! Fantastic Beasts was really really good! I was able to follow the storyline the whole way (that's another thing--fantasy storylines are always waaaaayyyyy too complicated for my little RomCom loving brain to wrap around) and I liked all the characters and I loved the score (1920s music is the besssst) and I love love love wacky little critters and creatures and there was an ABUNDANCE in this movie. They were all so cute. Honestly this might have been my favorite movie all month! There was a bit of political undertone, but I feel like that's just become the norm in movies these days, and as annoying and belabored as it can seem sometimes, I didn't feel that it was too distracting in this movie. Also, the cast was amazing! Eddie Redmayne is great, as is Colin Farrell and ma boy Johnny Depp, and I will seriously watch anything with Ezra Miller in it just on principle. But I was also truly impressed with the actors who I didn't really know! I'll certainly be looking up some of the lesser known faces from the film because they were all splendid. I would also say that this movie is a great pick for the entire family. It keeps everyone's attention and has some scary parts but nothing too serious.
One small annoyance: was it necessary for the main character's name to sound like a newt and a salamander, two slithery creatures? (His name was Newt Scamander). Like, we get it dude, you like funky critters.
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