2018 movies

Avengers: Infinity War Review

| Rachel's Reviews

So Avengers: Infinity War has come and gone and I am left with mixed to positive feelings. I gave my review on my youtube channel last night and I would love if you guys would watch and give the video a thumbs up if you have a chance. But let’s talk about Infinity War:

Most of Infinity War is pretty awesome. I have a great affection for Marvel and have enjoyed almost all of their movies. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is really the only one that left me deflated. The original Avengers is still one of my favorite superhero movies of all time because of the way it blends the great characters with snappy dialogue and energetic action. Having Loki as your villain also never hurts! That film was the culmination of 5 films with their heroes into one epic team-up film.

Now with Infinity War Joe and Anthony Russo have the mammoth task of culminating 18 previous films into 2 epic films. One of my big worries going into it is if all of the many characters would be able to shine (how could they?). Naturally the directors have to pick and chose characters to focus on, but I felt like almost everyone got a good line or moment to shine. The dialogue was snappy and funny like I have come to expect with Marvel films. I also thought the action was uniformly entertaining and enjoyable.

They were very smart with how they teamed characters up. I loved seeing Starlord and Thor take jabs at each other. Doctor Strange and Iron Man were great together. There’s an awesome scene where Black Widow, Scarlett Witch and Okoye fight a female henchman of Thanos I loved. All the team-ups worked and didn’t make me annoyed at the characters like I was with Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 although Drax is still kind of irritating if you ask me.

Thanos played by Josh Brolin is a good villain although I certainly don’t think he is better than Loki. Many villains have wanted to purge the earth and start anew. Most recently we had this same motivation in Apocalypse in X-Men Apocalypse but this is handled about a billion times better. At least he has some motivation rather than being a evil man in a suit like many Marvel movies. I also liked that all of Thanos’ henchman were really strong and not just mindless drones.

So over all, this is a fun film. It has witty banter and great action with people that I really like. My only real problem was the ending. I hate movies where I feel like the creators think I am stupid. I remember feeling this way at the ending of Batman v Superman. We all knew Superman was coming back for Justice League so when they try to play off that he is dead it is hollow and manipulative rather than moving.

Something happens at the end of Infinity War that you would have to be a moron to believe is actually going to stick. So this left me frustrated rather than moved, which I think the filmmakers wanted to me feel. How do I cry when I know it isn’t real? It’s not going to last? When Steve Trevor dies in Wonder Woman it felt real so it was tragic and I cried. What happens here is not real and it made what is going to happen in part 4 incredibly predictable and obvious. Also it kind of gives them a massive out for the stakes we were promised which is a problem.

Without giving away spoilers it’s hard to go into details but under no planet is what happens at the end of this film going to stick. Also, it was executed in a way that was really confusing. I wasn’t sure until I got home what had actually happened. It was weird.

It’s frustrating for me because I feel they were so close to having something great but then they didn’t stick the landing. Granted this isn’t the real landing as the final movie is the true ending but still I think they wanted me to feel devastated and I didn’t because I know it isn’t real.

Oh well. It’s still mostly a good movie. (But I prefer Black Panther tbh)

Rampage Review

| Rachel's Reviews

Often when I don’t respond favorably to movies like Jurassic World, San Andreas, Geostorm and Kong Skull Island I am asked with derision “Rachel, why can’t you just turn off your brain and enjoy a dumb movie…?” Well, my friend I can enjoy dumb fun but not when it is uninspired and boring as the 4 movies listed above. When the film can provide charismatic performances, new visuals or an energetic pace/tone I can enjoy a stupid film. Case in point- Rampage.

What Rampage gets right is pretty simple. First, the two main lead actors, Dwayne Johnson and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are charismatic as heck. They are both funny, engaging and Johnson and the Gorilla have a nice chemistry together. There is a believable relationship between the gorilla and Johnson that works and gives heart to the film.

The second reason it works is the CGI monster-fest was actually something new and fresh. I have seen a million dinosaur scenes like in Jurassic World (snooze) but I haven’t seen a giant wolf fight an oversized gorilla and crocodile creature. That’s novel and enjoyable. The movie also gets pretty grisly which was kind of refreshing. Several named characters are eaten by the monsters and in one scene the wolf gets his teeth right up next to the character and stays there before snapping. Pretty memorable moment!

The science in Rampage is stupid but it isn’t dwelt on too much. It’s basically some magic genetic goo that gets the plot going. Rampage is a blessed 107 minutes and doesn’t waste our time trying to justify the ‘science’ of giant monsters fighting each other. Most of the movie is a fun cat and mouse type chase to capture these giant creatures.

Unfortunately there is one part of Rampage that seriously holds it back. Malin Akerman and Jake Lacy play corporate execs who want the genetic goo to do something with, and they are SO AWFUL. Every scene they are in is like nails on a chalkboard. I am sure Akerman is a lovely person, but I honestly don’t know why she has a career acting. She has been terrible in every project I’ve seen her in, and she’s terrible here. Every scene they are in is painful to get through, and they are in quite a bit.

Naomi Harris also does not work as the female scientist who agrees to help Johnson out. She seemed like she was in a different, more serious, movie than the rest of the cast.

Still, if someone asked me to recommend a ‘dumb fun’ movie to enjoy with friends on a Friday night I might go with Rampage. It had engaging performances with some heart and gave me new images and spectacle to enjoy. That’s all I’m asking for folks. It’s really not that complicated.

I Feel Pretty Review

| Rachel's Reviews

Last night I had the chance to see the latest Amy Schumer comedy I Feel Pretty. I walked into the theater having only heard negative reviews but trying to have an open mind as usual. I also had no bias against Amy Schumer as this is the first movie or TV show I’ve seen her in. What was my response? Well, I am happy to say I really enjoyed I Feel Pretty. It is a sweet and consistently funny romantic comedy film that I think critics are being way to harsh on.

The conceit of I Feel Pretty reminded me of a Penny Marshall film from the 90s. In fact, they even show a clip of Marshall’s film BIG, which inspires some of the magic that takes place.

Amy Schumer plays a 30-something woman named Renee who is happy enough with a boring but decent job and a nice group of friends; however, she has settled on not trying for the great life she wants because of massive insecurities she feels about her appearance.

Some have criticized I Feel Pretty and claimed it is ‘fat shaming’ given Amy Schumer is only overweight by Hollywood standards. However, I disagree. The film is not saying that Schumer is fat. They are saying that Renee feels insecure about her entire body. She feels insecure about her skin, hair, clothes, weight everything. In contrast, I Feel Pretty also shows women who are bigger than Schumer who do not struggle as much with body imaging and women slimmer that have their own insecurities, so I found it to be quite accurate to the struggles most women have.

I loved Aidy Bryant (who was also great in The Big Sick) and Busy Phillips as her best friends. They were not as insecure as Renee but still had their own struggles. I also like that they told her the truth when she is too much of a diva on them. They in many ways were the most confident characters of the movie.

There have been many body-switching comedies over the years (a favorite genre of mine) but one thing I liked that I Feel Pretty does differently than most is they never actually body swap. We never see the beautiful woman that Renee is seeing in the mirror. This is an improvement upon films like Shallow Hal where we see Gwyneth Paltrow in the fat suit and then her beautiful self. Seeing Renee feeling confident, empowered and beautiful as just Renee helped convey the message that she was the best version of herself all along.

There are a couple of scenes where Renee is shown as too fat to ride a bike at a gym that are a little over-the-top, but I didn’t care as they worked into the plot quite nicely.

I really liked Rory Scovel as Ethan, the new boyfriend Renee gets because of her confidence. She assumes she is way above him and that’s impresses him. He’s the one who is shy and insecure and a confident Renee teaches him to loosen up. I thought they had pretty good chemistry and were sweet together.

Michelle Williams is practically unrecognizable as a cosmetic heiress who is insecure about her voice and who envies Renee’s speaking abilities and innovative ideas. I’m so used to seeing her as an indie darling that it was fun to see her flex her comedic chops again.

My only criticisms are minor. I kind of wish they hadn’t set the movie in the fashion world because it created a strange dynamic. Renee is confident because she believes she is beautiful but at the same time the very industry she is working for is partly responsible for her lack of confidence in the first place. At the end there is a rousing speech but it would have been more inspiring if it wasn’t also a product pitch for makeup. It’s an odd juxtaposition.

But overall, I thought I Feel Pretty was charming. It made me laugh a lot and the message was very sweet.If I had a teenage daughter I would take her to see this film, and I think we would have a lot of laughs. We would also talk about the importance of confidence and how no matter what we look like we have value to God and this world. It worked for me! I guess you could say I feel pretty 🙂

There is some nudity and sensuality and a little language. PG-13 film.

Overall Grade- B+

2018 Summer Box Office Predictions

| Rachel's Reviews

I bet you didn’t know that Summer starts in April. Well, at least it does for the movie season. Marvel studios moved Avengers: Infinity War up into April and that forced us all to get ready a little earlier than we had planned. For the second year in a row my friend Conrado and I have gotten together to share our predictions for this year’s Summer box office. You can listen to the podcast above or on itunes/youtube.

I must admit my list is kind of bland this year. Last year I had a few more odd ball/risky picks but nothing stood out to me as a real dark horse or wild card pick. There are a few that could possibly make it like Mamma Mia 2, Eighth Grade, Christopher Robin, Teen Titans Go or Uncle Drew but I don’t see them as big challenges. We will see.

My Top 10 Summer 2018 Box Office Predictions

  1. Avengers: Infinity War
  2. Incredibles 2
  3. Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom
  4. Solo
  5. Deadpool 2
  6. Ant-Man and the wasp
  7. Mission Impossible: Fall Out
  8. Hotel Transylvania 3
  9. Skyscraper
  10. Oceans 8

You’ll have to listen to the podcast to learn why we picked what we picked and how our lists compare We would love your feedback.  Thanks!

 

Why I Liked Ready Player One But Prefer the Book (Spoilers)

| Rachel's Reviews

“The book is better…” is an oft hurled accusation thrown at the world of cinema. I have no doubt those that love movies over literature tire of being told their medium of choice is always a second class substitute. Normally I stay clear of this conversation and try to appreciate both endeavors on their own merit; however, in the case of Ready Player One the book has been so unfairly maligned by many who have often read mere pages I decided it was worth an entry in my blog. I enjoyed Ready Player One as a fun adventure mystery movie but it is a step down from the book, and the more I thought about it the more changes bothered me. So, here goes…

There are two huge differences between the book and movie Ready Player One. The first is the time spent in the real world. The first third of the book is spent mostly in the real world of the Columbus Ohio stacks. This allows you to get to know Wade as a character in a way that the movie doesn’t. Wade is your classic nerd and in the movie he is much more of a cool, confident character. This helps make his bond and admiration for Halliday feel more understandable in the book. He knows there is something Halliday has to teach him through this quest and that’s what makes him continue when others have long since given up.

The search for the first key is all done in the real world in the book. He puts together all the pieces from the different parts of Halliday’s life and tries to find what is special or memorable about them. This is a lot more interesting to me than a race. In the book there is a book called “Anorak’s Almanac’ which lists all of the things that Halliday enjoyed (something that has been very criticized but never bothered me… It’s all part of the story of Wade researching to figure out the clues). In the movie they have “Halliday’s Journals” and the process of the research there feels easy and so you see less growth from Wade as a person. This makes his end takeaway when he meets Halliday not as impactful as the book’s ending. Wade comes to understand Halliday in the novel as a full person, and even a reflection of himself in many ways

In the book, Wade struggles with the fame he achieves when he gets the key which is interesting for a person who is literally surrounded by pop culture and knows so much trivia (which isn’t really trivia in the Oasis but survival knowledge). Wade is a character I loved in the book and was rooting for where in the movie he is a standard cocky teen male lead.

The other big difference is the changes to all the side characters. In the movie Art3mis is a standard avatar that doesn’t stand out much from the other avatars aside from her telling Perzival that he would be disappointed by her. One of my favorite things about the book is the reason Art3mis stands out to Perzival in the game is she is so confident and real. She is one of the few characters in the Oasis who has a realistic avatar. She doesn’t go with the sexed up version of herself and Wade finds that very attractive. I wish they had worked this into the movie more. She’s a positive yet still kick-butt character and in the YA literature world where every woman has to be a warrior I really appreciated her.

Much has been made about the pop culture ‘nostalgia porn’ of the movie and book. I personally think this criticism is a very surface-level analysis and misses the point. It’s like criticizing a Western for having too many horses. The pop culture is just the setting which the mystery takes place in. It’s not the story but where the story lives. That’s why in the book setting up the Oasis and all of the parameters of Halliday’s quest makes so much sense. We are in the real world and see all the research that Wade has to do so when we see the cornucopia of images in the Oasis it’s not just fun visual candy but clues Wade is ingesting and processing.

For example, in the book the jade key requires Wade to figure out he needs to recite the movie War Games, play a text game Zork (to get the key), unlock a Voight-Kampff machine from Blade Runner and play a game of Black Tiger (to unlock the gate) and more. This was exciting to read because we knew what Wade had been studying and it was unpredictable what would be asked of him next. Thus making the pop culture part of the puzzle/mystery more so than in the movie.

The other thing that wasn’t nearly as effective in the movie as the book is the villain. In the movie they make Sorrento a former intern who is generally resentful of Halliday and the Oasis. In the book it is more the world as a whole that is against Wade with them being envious and trying to stop him from winning. Sorrento is in the book but not as cartoonishly bad as he is in the movie.

Halliday and Morrow’s friendship is a lot more developed in the book and so their separation is more profoundly felt. It’s one thing to fall out of favor with a business associate as shown in the movie. It’s another to lose your best friend from childhood who you played Dungeon and Dragons with (making the first challenge being playing DandD all the more meaningful). Halliday’s clues are about his life not just nostalgia porn IMO.

The book also treats Aech very differently than the movie. He/she is more of a nerd who builds things and has a chat room as opposed to a warehouse. In the book none of the High 5 meet until very late in the story but it’s just all more layered, with harder clues, and characters than the movie. Aside from Art3mis giving herself to the loyalty center in the movie nobody else does much to find the clues or beat Sorrento like in the book. You even get a whole sublot with Daito and Shoto being hunted down by Japanese authorities in the book that adds to their story.

The last line of the novel is “It occurred to me then that for the first time in as long as I could remember, I had absolutely no desire to log back into the Oasis.” This makes sense because Wade was only in the Oasis because of his connection with Halliday. Now that he has finished his quest he’s done. The mystery is solved. All the research, study, thought is done. That is the fun part of the novel and what makes Wade a great character. The movie ends with him as a moderate user of the Oasis and says that real life is important as well. That’s fine but not as satisfying as the ending of the book.

It might seem like I hate the movie Ready Player One but I don’t. I liked it quite a bit; although, it was not as satisfying on the second watch as the first but still good. Unfortunately, they changed a lot from the book and it makes the movie less special as a result. I enjoyed it and will defend it but probably won’t remember it like I remembered the book.

The reason I loved the book is it was finally a YA novel that felt positive and hopeful. Most of these novels are cynical and depressing but here we had Wade trying to make his life better and trying to understand another human being in Halliday. We had him seeing the beauty in Art3mis and she being confident in her own unique identity. All of these things were hopeful and positive. You had fun characters and a mystery that was fresh and new. Yes, there was the nostalgia but that was just the unique setting like the maze in Labyrinth or Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings. It was an imaginative, inventive narrative where good won over evil, and that is hard to find these days. Most YA novels have characters limping towards the finish line having sacrificed all that was important to them at the beginning (cough Hunger Games cough). Not Ready Player One and I loved the novel for it!

So in the end, my opinion on Ready Player One– the movie was good, fun ride that especially kids will love (although The Shining sequence may be over their heads)

But the book was great. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it

Current Mini Reviews

| Rachel's Reviews

Normally I try to equally divide my time between my youtube channel and this blog. Well, my apologies because I didn’t realize I hadn’t posted on here since my Blind Spot review of The Seventh Seal on March 16th. I’m not sure how I let that happen, but I do have a bunch of reviews over on my channel so make sure you are subscribed over there.

Anyway, it is time to play catch up with one of my mini review posts. I should have a full review for Isle of Dogs on here this week so you will not be abandoned forever :).

Love Simon-

This proved to be a sweet coming of age story about a boy who is afraid to come out and admit he is gay to his family and friends. He ends up getting manipulated by a fellow classmate over an online relationship he has developed with a penpal from school. This bully classmate was the obvious villain of the film but he got on my nerves and was very irritating as well as being horrible (and in the movie a lot). Aside from that, it is a well acted, well written film that will help a lot of young people so I’m a fan.

Smile Worthy B+

I Can Only Imagine-

Anyone who is Mainstream Christian (or Mormon) knows the song I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me. It is a great song that transcended the Christian music charts to become a pop hit. This film tells the story of the writer of the song Bart Millard. Dennis Quaid is very good as the father who is a beast of a man that finds God. Trace Adkins is really good as a manager. The music is great. Overall, it’s an enjoyable and moving faith based film. Only flaw is the same actor, J Michael Finley, plays Bart in high school and he looks ridiculous. He looks like a 40 year old man in high school. Other than that, it’s a good inspirational story with good music

Smile Worthy B

Sherlock Gnomes-

I’m not a fan of the original Gnomeo and Juliet but at least it didn’t annoy me like this film did. Every character was grating and annoying especially the villain. There were a few sections of 2D animation that go into the mind of Sherlock that were fun but that’s about it. It wasn’t funny and the music was less fun than in the original and there are some scenes in an Asian toy market that were kind of culturally insensitive. However, the villain was the biggest problem and was super shrill and annoying. Nut Job 2 was way better in my opinion.

D Frown Worthy

Off the Menu-

A very sweet romcom that I thoroughly enjoyed. It stars Santino Fontana from Frozen fame as an heir to a fast food chain that goes to find new recipes and meets fiery Dania Ramirez. They had great chemistry and it was filmed nicely. Just a pleasant romantic movie that I think you should check out. They even get Santino to sing a little bit which is the best!

A- Smile Worthy

Ice Dragon: Legend of the Blue Daisies-

This animated film reminded me a lot of the Living Scriptures films we used to watch on Sundays growing up. It is for a Christian Evangelical audience although it never mentions Christ. Just the style of the music and the way the morals are taught are very audience-specific. If you are in the audience you might enjoy it. It has a few scary moments but it should be fine for little kids. The songs are very Christian pop rock but were fine. I can’t say that it is good but I think it has it’s audience that will like it.

C Smile Worthy for its audience

Ready Player One-

Anyone who follows me on twitter knows I loved the book Ready Player One and it irritates me how much hate it has gotten. It’s a positive absorbing mystery when most YA fiction is cynical and depressing. Now it has been made into a movie by Steven Spielberg and I loved it. They changed a lot from the book but I had a great time. I loved following all the clues and seeing Wade learn from Halliday’s mistakes. The world-building is amazing and I liked all the performances. See it on the big screen if you can. It has a big heart and a lot more laughs than is in the book. Not every change from the book worked but I enjoyed it!

A- Smile Worthy

7 Days in Entebbe-

I must admit before seeing this film I didn’t know anything about this hostage crisis and I think the movie did a good job informing me and it makes some unusual choices I admire. First of all, the film is told from the perspective of the hostage takers and they try to help you feel sympathy for them. They also tell the story of the hostages and there’s a lot of good stuff in there. However, it can seriously drag and a choice to involve interpretative dance did not work at all. Mixed bag for me.

C Smile Worthy barely

Journey’s End-

I always feel bad disliking a war film because I do not mean any disrespect to the heroes who died or fought in the conflict. Such is the case with Journey’s End. It’s a WW1 film with good performances and one intense battle scene. Unfortunately for most of it the movie was super dull. I couldn’t believe how much time was spent debating eating military rations. They have a whole debate over the fact that canned pineapple is actually canned apricots. Multiple scenes are spent on this. They talk forever about what the mysterious ‘cutlets’ are in their meals. It was very boring.

C- Frown Worthy

So there you have it. Let me know if you have seen any of these movies and what you thought of them. Thanks!

Tomb Raider Review

| Rachel's Reviews

After the disaster that was Warcraft you can imagine my hesitation in going to see another action video game-based film but I wanted to support a female-led action film so I went to see the latest Tomb Raider movie. This is directed by Roar Uthaug who undeniably has the coolest name in movies today, and overall its an ok film.

I must admit that I struggled with Tomb Raider for the first act. There was a ton of set up before she gets to the island and aside from a fun bicycle chase it was not engaging me. I even fell asleep and my friend had to elbow me to wake me up…Yikes.

But when she got to the island things got much better, and I particularly enjoyed when they actually got into a tomb and did some raiding! There were some horror elements, and I liked the various booby traps and puzzles. There is a sequence with a key to a door that is particularly entertaining. These scenes are the kind of fun B movie material I expect in a movie called Tomb Raider.

On the other hand, a lot of the movie could have used more silliness. It is way more violent than it needs to be with people getting shot at close range and other pretty brutal moments. All the characters are taking the movie very seriously even down to nobody questioning the validity of a cursed tomb. You think there would be one person saying ‘you are all nuts to believe this hokum’?

Even the bad Indiana Jones movies are pretty sarcastic and funny, and I wish there had been more of that spirit in Tomb Raider. I realize not everything can be Indiana Jones but even more of National Treasure I would have appreciated. I guess that is more my style for this kind of movie.

That said, my friend did say that it emulated the game very well so I’m sure fans will appreciate those details. And it is an overall entertaining film. It will probably have a low rottentomatoes score, but I bet if you read the reviews they will be on the edge of fresh. It felt similar to last year’s Power Rangers Movie in that regard (I prefer Power Rangers because it had a lot of heart but I think review-wise they will be similar). I would find it hard to believe anyone saying it is Warcraft level bad. It’s solid, watchable adventure movie. I just would have made it a little more fun but that’s me.

The cast also helps elevate it. I really enjoyed Alicia Vikander as Lara. She is a kick butt character but she is also vulnerable and gets beat a lot. I also liked that she has a moment of shock when she realizes she killed a man. It’s in self defense of course, but still I appreciated they had her acknowledge what she had done. You don’t see that in many action movies. Walton Goggins is scary as the bad guy (like I said. He’s pretty brutal) and Daniel Wu is great as Lara’s friend. If they had thrown in one character for comic relief or to be the skeptic (ala Simon Pegg in Mission Impossible) that would have been perfect but it was still good.

Overall, if you saw the trailer for Tomb Raider and it looked like a good time I think you will enjoy it. It’s not perfect but there is enough entertainment there to justify a matinee ticket price. I hope it does decently because now they have set up the world and her skills, I think Lara’s next adventure will be much better.

Sundance 2018 Wrap-Up

| Rachel's Reviews

Hey guys! It is early Sunday morning and I have officially finished my 2018 Sundance experience. It’s interesting because I enjoyed the over-all experience much more than last year but I did not have a film that excited me the way STEP did this year. That movie made me want to be a better person and I can’t say that about any of the 18 films I viewed this year. However, it was still a great year, full of highs and lows.

It also didn’t play out exactly like I predicted with me switching up a couple of days films but hopefully I will get to see those films in my preview eventually that I missed.

I will do them in my ranking order worst to best

18. Lu Over the Wall-

I was really excited for this film because it was the first anime to be featured at Sundance but I really didn’t care for it.  The animation felt like an sporadic assault on the screen and the story made absolutely no sense. What little did make sense felt like a copy of Ponyo. It was a big disappointment and honestly made me kind of nauseated after watching it.

D-

17. White Fang

While this new version of the Jack London novel had some nice moments I was very turned off by the violent content. The dog fight scenes in particular were long, brutal and exploitative. The animation was inconsistent and overall it had a gloomy tone I couldn’t see past

D-

16. Ophelia

This turned out to be the most deliciously bad of the festival. A supposed feminist take of Hamlet has Queen Gertrude having a secret evil Witch sister who lives in the forest and has been damaged by the King. Hamlet is an eyeliner wearing emo kid and Ophelia saves the day and triumphs over all the end. I died laughing

D=

15. Nancy

While all the performances in Nancy are good I felt the pacing and characters were off. I didn’t care about any of them and they didn’t seem to grow and certainly weren’t likable. It was flat and dull.

C-

14. Monster

A classic example of a director that couldn’t get out of the way of his movie. Good performances by the entire cast are hurt by distracting choices like making the lead character a filmmaker and showing tons of his films with him pontificating about them or having long flashbacks with speeches. It just didn’t work.

C-

13. Crime and Punishment

This is a documentary about the quota system that persists in the NYPD despite it being illegal. There was lots of good information here but it wasn’t packaged in an appealing way. It was long and slow and I struggled to stay awake. I would rather just read an article on this issue personally.

C

12. Kusama: Infinity-

It was amazing to learn more about Kusama and see how she created her art. I also enjoyed hearing from the filmmakers and their 17 year odyssey to create this film. It is a perfectly serviceable bio-pick style documentary but it didn’t blow me away or move me.

B-

11. Genesis 2.0

This documentary was very strange. Half the movie is about ivory hunters looking for wholly mammoth tusks in Siberia and the other half is about China’s goal to clone the wholly mammoth. Honestly I found the cloning part to be super terrifying. These clinics they showed where the Chinese are already cloning dogs by the dozens gave me the chills! Haven’t these people learned anything from Jurassic Park?

B-

10. On Her Shoulders-

This is a good documentary about Nadia Murad who is an activist and human trafficking survivor from the Yazidi, a small minority group in Iraq. The frustrating part was how completely useless the UN is to do anything to actually help Nadia or most anything else. The movie kept building up these speeches she would give as huge moments but they are all for naught so it is frustrating.

B

9. Science Fair-

This film profiles students from all over the world that are entering the ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair). One teacher in particular was amazing and got 9 of her students admitted into the fair. The only problem was it felt a little too long. They should have cut 2 of the students to make it tighter but still good film.

B

8. The Price of Everything

This is an interesting expose into the world of art and art collecting and how obscene it can all get. My only complaint is I wish the director had pushed the collectors harder about their collections and how they don’t benefit wide masses like a museum and cost exorbitant amounts that could be used to help people. I wish he had dug a little deeper into these issues.

B

7. Chef Flynn

This was a cool documentary about child prodigy chef Flynn McGarry but it was really about his family and their free range education techniques. Flynn’s Mother is very supportive of him starting a pop-up restaurant in their house when he is 10 and she supports him as his career grows. I love the free range movement and thought this was a tremendous example of it.

B+

6. Search

A movie that is nothing but screens as John Cho looks for his missing teenage daughter. It’s a definite gimmick but I thought it was a ton of fun. It had humor, tension and surprised me on more than one occasion. It might have been partly due to seeing 17 heady movies it was fun to see something sillier but I really enjoyed it.

B+

5. Minding the Gap

Young filmmaker Bing Liu started filming his friends when they were very young and doing interviews with them and the documentary follows 3 of them into adulthood. It also has a lot of great skateboarding and talks about how domestic violence interrupts all 3 lives. It was a fly on the wall type of documentary rather than a message movie and I really enjoyed it.

B+

4. Butterflies

This black comedy is about 3 Turkish siblings that unite to take care of the funeral of their estranged father. It was very funny with exploding chickens and clergy that have crisis’ of faith in the middle of a funeral service, but it also has a lot of heart. I liked all 3 of the siblings and they felt believable as family

A-

3. Won’t You Be My Neighbor-

I grew up on Mr Roger’s Neighborhood so this documentary was such a treat to me. So many people lately are exposed as hypocrites or having scandalous sides but not Fred Rogers. He really does seem like a special man and this documentary explores the value he had in telling children they are loved and of value. It made me cry. It’s similar to the Big Bird documentary I Am Big Bird from a couple of years ago

A-

2. Eighth Grade

Evidently writer/director Bo Burnham is a celebrity of sorts. I had never heard of him but he did a great job with this movie. I am usually mixed on coming of age movies. Often they leave me feeling depressed. Even recent films like Edge of 17 and Lady Bird I didn’t love because the characters were so harsh and mean to each other. I can relate to the gloomy teenager but not to the harshness that is shown in those 2 films. Eighth Grade is finally a coming of age film I connected with (along with Sing Street). It’s sweet, funny, endearing and everything else. I loved it.

A

1 Leave No Trace

I have seen a number of ‘off the grid’ movies over the last few years and I’ve hated all of them. They always glorify the parents for their unconventional choices instead of asking more questions. Here director Debra Granik does an amazing job making Ben Foster’s father figure a complex character. On one hand he is damaged but on another he is very selfish. Thomasin McKenzie is so great as the daughter and there’s a point towards the end where I wanted to cheer. I don’t know when I’ve been more proud of a character.

A+

So there you have it! Let me know what you think about these films and which one’s sound interesting to you.

I did live recaps on my youtube channel if you want to learn more about these films