Writer. Library person. First in the world to platinum Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two on PS3.
“That was very cinematic.”
A super stylish and composed neo-noir comedy that has a lot of fun with the tropes of the genre and a killer French pop soundtrack. So high-tone.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “I know, above all else, that life is better and filled with more intrigue when there’s a French pop soundtrack behind it. It’s a shame, then, that I’ve had ‘Kiss From a Rose’ by Seal from Batman Forever on repeat since 1997.”
“I have a really good feeling about this.”
Solo is a fun enough space Western with charming leads, plenty of betrayals and heists, something of an identity crisis, and some of that old school Star Wars flair. Not bad!
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Did we need to know the origins of a character whose very hook was his mystery and roguish charm? No. Do we need any movie? Probably not. Do we need anything? Or do we just want? Want to eat, want to breathe, want Star Wars movies to live up to some nebulous standard we’ve built up over years of fortifying the original series with impenetrable nostalgia? I suppose.”
“A man is never alone who has friends.”
Despite some clumsiness and a very basic story about disconnecting to reconnect with what really matters (also, rebellion), nostalgia is a powerful force and I grinned my way through most of this spectacle. Seeing Battletoads, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Chucky, Gundam and the Overlook Hotel all existing and interacting together in one movie worked, perhaps, far too well on me. Plus it fixes quite a few problems from the book and eventually finds it’s way to a beating Spielbergian heart that I haven’t felt since, well, Goonies.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “The set piece in The Overlook Hotel alone makes this whole dang thing worth it. Here’s Spielberg directing characters through his old mentor Kubrick’s masterpiece of horror as a haunted house of sorts. It’s a love letter to the man who helped make him into the director he is today, faults and all. Watching it felt like watching the whole thesis of the film, which stands as a love letter to the rampant artistic and childlike imagination that sits cozily beside the capitalism inherent in pop culture.”
“Is this your King?”
A superhero movie with heavy 007 vibes and both narrative and emotional complexity as important in the evolution of the modern genre as last year’s Wonder Woman. The celebration and incorporation of African culture in all aspects of the film, from the setting to the memorable score, offers a more than welcome new perspective to the MCU.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Lest we forget the trailblazer Luke Cage, though, who took the MCU to aid Harlem and later beat up many ninjas for the good of the world. With how separate the Netflix shows seem to be from the Iron Mans of it all, I doubt these two worlds will ever meet, which is a damn shame.”
“No shit.”
One of Spielberg’s stirring serious swells of strings pictures, but still an important story to be told, especially right now. It often plays like an episode of The Newsroom, wearing its message on its really long sleeve that it keeps slapping you with the way kids used to do because they had small arms and their shirt used to be their big brother’s, but the film still hits the right spots at the right moments.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Halfway through the movie, Meryl Streep broke character and addressed me personally, saying ‘Nick, literally everyone else at this theater is seeing Black Panther tonight. What are you doing here seeing this milquetoast country club shit?’ Only when I assured her and, later, Bob Odenkirk that I’d be seeing Black Panther this weekend did the picture continue. I’ve contacted Mr. Spielberg about this event during the 10:15pm showing of The Post at the United Artists’ King of Prussia, but received only a recorded message from him about how incredible Kendrick Lamar’s work on the Black Panther soundtrack is. Needless to say, I’m excited to see Black Panther in a couple days.”
“I don’t do nothing for nobody for nothing.”
This is the most charmed I’ve been by a movie since Hugo way back in 2011. Paddington 2 shares a distinct love of wonder and sheer entertainment with Hugo, as well as the visual craft that goes into every marmalade slathered frame. It also shares a nearly idyllic version of its splendorous setting, where it feels like the worst thing happening in the world is quite possibly a dissociative Hugh Grant stealing a pop-up book. Prison is an amazing place in a Wes Andersen sort of way, criminals are lovable and merely gruff or roguish, and most everyone has the capacity for self-awareness and change. I want to live in this world.
My VHS cover pull quote: “One of the most substantial and timely things this movie does is keep the Peruvian bear intact as a stand-in for immigration by way of Peter Capaldi’s Mr. Creary and his unfounded fear of the adorable Paddington. Dynamite!”
“I’ve never retired anything that was born before.”
A masterful sequel that solves some of the original’s mysteries while compounding a myriad of other ones and gives us sci-fi expressionism as hard as diamond. Like with Twin Peaks: The Return earlier this year, I somehow feel like this is a world from a bygone era the likes of which we may never be able to visit again. At least, not in the same way. In a film-making landscape with speculative films that are often so homogeneous, it’s as staggering to me as realizing I’m a replicant (but, like, in a good way) when a movie and a world that is so unquestionably its own in every aspect arrives. Well, returns.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “I watched this several moons ago and it still lingers in my thoughts. I dream of it during my counting of electric sheep.”
“I belong up here.”
A somewhat nihilistic entry into the outer space horror/adventure/let’s-watch-some-people-die-horribly-or-survive film genre that feels like the natural evolution of both Alien and Gravity at once.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Remarkable! LIFE will have you up on your feet saying ‘You guys really shouldn’t be messing around with that. Just knock it off.'”
“Because honor demands it.”
There’s a lot of Terence Malick in this Alejandro Iñárritu film. Considering they share a cinematographer in Emanuel Lubezki, this makes a lot of sense. But still, the pacing and the unabashed use of evocative dream imagery and how the latter serves the narrative both visually and thematically entered Tree of Life territory for me. Like that movie, this is an exploration — not only of humanity and all its intricacies (wants, desires, shortcomings, beliefs) or of the classic frontier setting, but of its role in nature. Nature is brutal. Animals are brutal. Humanity is brutal, with a distinct capacity for cruelty (and honor, too). So for the most part, this film is brutal. It’s a deliberate, seemingly perpetual crucible (and spirit quest!) for Hugh Glass with only a few instances of true decency to lend the viewer and Glass some hope and solace until the next instance of despair. Iñárritu’s much-lauded single takes (even the manufactured ones) and close-ups serve to heighten each of the gory, savage moments as well as those crucial lighter ones — those shining cracks in this world’s brutality. The same can be said for the sound effects and sparse (yet near perfect in its function) score.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Watch Leo DiCaprio suffer for the deserved but elusive Oscar that may never grace him with its golden nudity.”
“What if all those things I did were the things that led me here?”
A journey of self-discovery as successful as the memoir on which it’s based thanks to the hyper-focused, personal narrative and a grounded performance by Reese Witherspoon, who is completely game for everything from selling the laborious journey of self-discovery to making everyone cringe when she rips off her prop toenail.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Simon and Garfunkel’s El Condor Pasa features as a sort of theme of the film, reflecting Cheryl’s journey and feelings throughout, which would very much be an intelligent observation I made if I hadn’t read it in an article before seeing the movie so that I could sound smart to you and all my friends. In short, I’m a fraud.”
Nick Perilli