Gendo watches more movies in 2018

[Gendo]

Wonder Woman is the fourth good DCU movie, actually.

Are you counting animated movies or something? Or are you implying that Man of Steel, Suicide Squad, and Batman vs Superman were actually good?

[Raxivace]

I'm not implying it, I'm straight up saying it.

The last animated DC movie I watched was the one with Bryan Cranston as Gordon, which I liked.

[Gendo]

22. Coraline - Stunning and unique visuals, a dark and wonderfully executed story; a good mystery that keeps you guessing; haunting and beautiful music... and deep-seeded symbolic overtones. Not sure if that last part actually meant anything. What I'm saying is that this was excellent. I loved it. I also found it genuinely scary in some parts; was surprised that it's only PG. The Anaglyph 3D was bad though... I should have just watched it normally, but I couldn't resist the fact that I opened up my DVD case and it had 3D classes in it.

[Raxivace]

Haven't seen Coraline but 3D usually doesn't hold much interest for me. There's only like five or six films I would even want to see in 3D, and one of them literally features a dog taking a shit in one scene.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Coraline - Stunning and unique visuals, a dark and wonderfully executed story; a good mystery that keeps you guessing; haunting and beautiful music... and deep-seeded symbolic overtones. Not sure if that last part actually meant anything. What I'm saying is that this was excellent. I loved it. I also found it genuinely scary in some parts; was surprised that it's only PG. The Anaglyph 3D was bad though... I should have just watched it normally, but I couldn't resist the fact that I opened up my DVD case and it had 3D classes in it.

I liked this one, but perhaps not as much as you. Visually it didn't impress me as much as many of the better animated films from recent years (Song of the Sea, Kubo, Book of Life, etc.).

Wonder Woman is the fourth good DCU movie, actually.

Are you counting animated movies or something? Or are you implying that Man of Steel, Suicide Squad, and Batman vs Superman were actually good?

I'm not implying it, I'm straight up saying it.

I've only seen Man of Steel (have some DCU/MCU catching up to do), but it was a really bipolar film IMO. Here's what I wrote on it last year:

Man of Steel (Zack Snyder) - 6/10

It was the best of films, it was the worst of films: yes, a Tale of Two Films. The first half is everything that's wrong with modern superhero films: Visual glitz substituting for humanity, a clunkily plotted origin story, the complete lack of subtlety in the writing (the time-wasting exposition and explicit stating of themes is the most Nolan-esque touch here, and he did supply the story), even a real lack of charisma from and chemistry between the entire cast—Henry Cavill's Superman makes Brandon Routh look like Tom Cruise by comparison; though, to be fair, much of the blame for that is the piss-poor writing and direction.

Then, something strange happens. The villain, Zod, comes to earth, and the film's last half is a reminder of everything that's right with modern superhero films: namely that writers/directors are only limited by their imagination thanks to modern technology, and this is as thrilling an example of superhero action as any in recent (or distant, for that matter) memory.

Perhaps this abject failure/absolute success dichotomy is mostly due to director Zack Snyder, whose feel for stylistically rendered action is as good as his lack of feel for character and emotion is bad. It's a real shame because the lack of human sympathy generated in the film's first half blunts the impact of emotional outbursts that occur near the film's end: moments that could've been remarkably profound for the superhero genre.

As it stands, the film's first half is about a 3/10, the second half is about an 8.5-9/10. I average it to a 6/10, but in truth this is one of those “interesting failure" films whose rating belies its quality, both for the better and the worse.

[Raxivace]

While I generally agree that the Zod stuff is where the film shines brightest, I just plain didn't have those issues with the first half at all. I found Snyder and Cavill's more subdued, introverted take on a Superman unsure about what it is he should be doing to be refreshing, and nothing about the origin story seemed especially clunky to me tbh (Though admittedly its been 4ish years since I last saw it).

[Gendo]

23. Emma (1996, Kate Beckinsale, the British one not the Hollywood one) - Hard to follow. I just struggle with most British stuff in general. And Austen generally has so many characters / so much going on that's only shown in a subtle way. The film was well-made, though clearly low-budget. I enjoyed Mark Strong's performance. Also, some of the subtle "hints" that they were giving as to the twist were too obvious, and I thought that you were supposed to think a certain thing which turned out to be correct. When in fact the intention was that you would think a different thing, and then be surprised when the truth was revealed. I still have 3 more versions to watch; so we'll see.

[Raxivace]

I haven't seen that particular film but sometimes bad to mediocre British films feel stuffy to me in ways that films from other countries don't.

It reminds me of a funny jab Godard made in Histoire(s) du Cinema: "[In World War II] The Russians made martyr films. The Americans made commercials. The English made what they always make: Nothing".

[Eva Yojimbo]

While I generally agree that the Zod stuff is where the film shines brightest, I just plain didn't have those issues with the first half at all. I found Snyder and Cavill's more subdued, introverted take on a Superman unsure about what it is he should be doing to be refreshing, and nothing about the origin story seemed especially clunky to me tbh (Though admittedly its been 4ish years since I last saw it).

You say subdued but I say completely lifeless. It just made me not care at all about the characters. I also remember being really bothered by something in the bus and bully scenes, but now I don't remember what.

I haven't seen that particular film but sometimes bad to mediocre British films feel stuffy to me in ways that films from other countries don't.

It reminds me of a funny jab Godard made in Histoire(s) du Cinema: "[In World War II] The Russians made martyr films. The Americans made commercials. The English made what they always make: Nothing".

It's the theater tradition and their classical approach to staging and acting. The naturalistic revolutions of method acting, Brando, the new wave, etc. never took hold and became the norm there. It exists, but they're more the exception.

[Gendo]

A bunch this weekend.

24. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm - Quite good. Music especially. Took a wonderful cartoon show and made it feel more like a movie.

25. 21 Jump Street - Mostly good. I never saw the show; and wouldn't have cared to ever see the movies except that I've heard from various sources such as CineFix that they're actually really good. The funniest parts were when they were making direct self-referential jokes about reboots, mostly the Nick Offerman parts. A few parts were too crude for my taste though; those parts felt like a typical teen sex comedy.

26. 22 Jump Street - Even better! As before, I think the funniest parts were the self-referential jokes, and there were a lot more of them.

27. Selma - Good. I think I'd heard some bad stuff about it; but RT seems to agree with my assessment. Not sure what other detail to give; it just did a good job of showing what happened during those years.

28. Peter Pan (2003) - Meh... the final battle / climax was actually quite good. Jason Isaacs was great as Hook. But there were a lot of boring parts throughout the middle. And the effects near the beginning were pretty bad.

29. Raging Bull - I just didn't get it. I've heard so much about how good this is. De Niro was great of course. But I just couldn't find myself about to actually care about La Motta. At least as portrayed in the movie (which is based on his own autobiography), he was simply a really good boxer and not so good person. Not someone I ever found myself rooting for. I didn't see any character growth or event-driven plot. Show a boxing match; show him yelling at his wife. Show another boxing match; show him cheating on his wife. Show another boxing match; show him beating his new wife. And then after it's all over, it appears that he blamed his brother for all his own shortcomings. So yeah, I wasn't a fan.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm - Quite good. Music especially. Took a wonderful cartoon show and made it feel more like a movie.

I remember loving this as a kid... hell, I remember loving the entire Batman:TAS. It's also one of the few shows from my childhood that's stuck pretty well in my memory. I wonder how well it would hold up now.

Raging Bull - I just didn't get it. I've heard so much about how good this is. De Niro was great of course. But I just couldn't find myself about to actually care about La Motta. At least as portrayed in the movie (which is based on his own autobiography), he was simply a really good boxer and not so good person. Not someone I ever found myself rooting for. I didn't see any character growth or event-driven plot. Show a boxing match; show him yelling at his wife. Show another boxing match; show him cheating on his wife. Show another boxing match; show him beating his new wife. And then after it's all over, it appears that he blamed his brother for all his own shortcomings. So yeah, I wasn't a fan.

De Niro gives one of the best performances in film history. Scorsese's direction is flawless: it pretty much has the best shot/edited fight scenes ever, and no boxing/fight films since have come close to matching its visceral power. I think you kinda missed the point with La Motta though: of course he's not sympathetic. The entire idea is that La Motta the animalistic boxer and La Motta the animalistic person were one-and-the-same. There wasn't any character growth/development because it was just a depiction of his life and how he was, which in the end was pretty pathetic. He was a monster of his own making and he lacked the awareness to ever see his own flaws or better himself until he lost everything and winds up in prison. I've long thought that one of the most powerful scenes in film history because it really does sum up his entire life in one gesture: a sad, angry little man, all alone in the dark, beating at the walls of a prison of his own making. Could you imagine a better metaphor for such a life?

[Gendo]

Nothing against the directing, editing, etc. I guess I just didn't find La Motta's life story worth telling.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Nothing against the directing, editing, etc. I guess I just didn't find La Motta's life story worth telling.

Fair enough. I tend to find anti-heroes like that far more compelling than your traditional sympathetic protagonists.

[Raxivace]

I liked 21 and 22 Jump Street as well.

The more distance I have from Selma the more I think its honestly its just kind of a mediocre film- not outright bad, but not too much cinematically interesting and perhaps tries to coast by on its subject matter rather than having too much interesting to actually say about Martin Luther King Jr. Its attempts to humanize him are admirable but I don't think it succeeds any more than, say, a movie like All the Way does where MLK is only a supporting character does.

I'm with Jimbo on Raging Bull. Scorsese is probably at his visually boldest there, and he absolutely finds interesting things to say using La Motta's life story. That film often makes me think of how context makes us view the same actions radically differently- like how La Motta's violence was absolutely horrifying in a domestic setting but something celebrated in the boxing ring. Does one fuel the other?

[Eva Yojimbo]

That film often makes me think of how context makes us view the same actions radically differently...

You saying that made me think of the concert scene on Blow-Up, another comment on context determining values.

[Derived Absurdity]

2003's Peter Pan was very good, actually.

[Gendo]

Crap, been forgetting the numbers. Going back to edit.

*Edit* Should have watched 4 fewer movies before watching 21 and 22 Jump Street!

[Gendo]

30. Focus - Not bad. Though ironically, somewhat.. unfocused. Some of the scenes just didn't flow together very well; and some character motivations were under-explained. But the twists were actually good, and well set-up. I was ready to dislike the movie if it had a particular twist I was expecting, and it didn't go that way.

[Eva Yojimbo]

It reminds me of a funny jab Godard made in Histoire(s) du Cinema: "[In World War II] The Russians made martyr films. The Americans made commercials. The English made what they always make: Nothing".

Also: Not to let facts stand in the way of a good joke, but did Godard forget about Powell/Pressburger, or think for some reason their wartime efforts amounted to nothing?

[maz89]

Also: Not to let facts stand in the way of a good joke, but did Godard forget about Powell/Pressburger, or think for some reason their wartime efforts amounted to nothing?

If the rest of their output was close to The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (the only one I've seen), then that does seem like an oversight.

[Raxivace]

It reminds me of a funny jab Godard made in Histoire(s) du Cinema: "[In World War II] The Russians made martyr films. The Americans made commercials. The English made what they always make: Nothing".

Also: Not to let facts stand in the way of a good joke, but did Godard forget about Powell/Pressburger, or think for some reason their wartime efforts amounted to nothing?

I don't remember him mentioning Powell/Pressburger in that specific bit, but it's been a while. I think he was just downplaying British efforts partly for the joke, and partly for the larger comparison of national cinemas (And not really so much auteur work) during WWII.

[Gendo]

31. Life - I think the 1979 version, titled "Alien", was better. This was still entertaining, and I liked the ending even if it was predictable. But still, it was basically a remake of Alien.

32. Hail, Caesar! - Pretty good. I'd rank in "Good" in my 4 Coen Brothers categories. The meeting with the various religious leaders was by far the best scene. A few moments throughout were quite funny; it had their usual absurdity style. But it was far from a masterpiece. Brolin was great.

[Raxivace]

Haven't seen Life, but I saw Cloverfield Paradox which a lot of people said was a ripoff of Life but even worse, so that's that I guess.

I liked Hail, Caesar! a lot. I thought it was a fun tribute to the dead genres of Hollywood, and was probably my favorite of all of the recent films about this era of filmmaking. My favorite scene was the one at the end where Clooney has everyone's attention, and despite all of the behind the scenes bullshit for a moment everyone is still for a moment genuinely moved by his performance...until he flubs the line again, and the noble illusion is shattered.

[Eva Yojimbo]

32. Hail, Caesar! - Pretty good. I'd rank in "Good" in my 4 Coen Brothers categories. The meeting with the various religious leaders was by far the best scene. A few moments throughout were quite funny; it had their usual absurdity style. But it was far from a masterpiece. Brolin was great.

I really liked that at the time, but I'm not sure how well it's held up in memory. It doesn't seem to have the staying power of the Coen's best. Here was my review:

Hail, Caesar! (Coen Brothers) - 8/10

There's a scene-within-a-scene late in this film in which George Clooney's character, playing a Roman, stands at the foot of Jesus's crucifixion and begins delivering a long monologue about his transformative encounter with this “son of God." After a rousing minute-or-so that even transfixes everyone on the crew, he forgets a line and we hear “Cut!" Turns out the word he stumbled over was “faith," and there perhaps couldn't be a more apropos word for a Coen Brothers' character to balk at. Ever since (at least) the time of O Brother--itself inspired by the title of a film-within-a-film in Sullivan's Travels--the Coens' films have been about characters wrestling with the ambiguities of faith in a seemingly chaotic universe, with No Country for Old Men and A Serious Man forming their best one-two punch on the subject.

Perhaps because Hail, Caesar! returns to that fertile ground it ends up being their best film of this decade. It liberally mixes their brand of absurdist humor, visual flair, with the anxiety-ridden broth that's always gurgling just underneath the surface, threatening to erupt through the superficial frivolity.

The plot is less consequential than the trademark Coen tone-combo of the above, but it involves a Hollywood fixer (Josh Brolin) fixing various problems with various actors and directors, including the kidnapping of Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) by a group of communists.

Along the way the Coen's slip in and out of various productions, each being a lovingly satiric ode to Classic Hollywood, from the traditional Westerns, Historical Epics, and Costume Dramas; to a Donen/Kelly tap-dancing sailor musical, to the relatively obscure Esther Williams water-musicals, the latter serving as one of the best visual sequences in a Coen film since Lebowski's Dream.

Combine all that with a perfect ensemble performance in which major actors inject vitality into quite minor parts (Johansson, Fiennes, McDormand, Swinton, Tatum, etc.) and gorgeously moody cinematography by Roger Deakins and you have a film that's no less than excellent, with perhaps the only discernible flaw being the somewhat abrupt ending, but which is thoroughly entertaining all the way up until it happens.

[maz89]

^I can't remember the ending nor what was so abrupt about it, but I liked Hail, Caeser! much as you both did. Humorous, absurd and zippy. I can't believe I didn't remember Deakins was the cinematographer...

[Gendo]

"with perhaps the only discernible flaw being the somewhat abrupt ending" I find this amusing, because at this point a somewhat abrupt ending is practically their calling card.

[Eva Yojimbo]

"with perhaps the only discernible flaw being the somewhat abrupt ending" I find this amusing, because at this point a somewhat abrupt ending is practically their calling card.

Yeah, but in most of their others the abrupt ending still provides a sense of closure, of ending on just the right note given the film's themes (I especially thought this true of No Country and A Serious Man). There was something about HC that didn't do that; but, tbh, I don't even remember how it ended now. :/

[Gendo]

"with perhaps the only discernible flaw being the somewhat abrupt ending" I find this amusing, because at this point a somewhat abrupt ending is practically their calling card.

Yeah, but in most of their others the abrupt ending still provides a sense of closure, of ending on just the right note given the film's themes (I especially thought this true of No Country and A Serious Man). There was something about HC that didn't do that; but, tbh, I don't even remember how it ended now. :/

It reminded me of the ending of The Big Lebowski. Maybe just because of the narration, but it was basically "ok, you've seen the story about what this character went through, and how it changed (or didn't change) him, the end".

[Eva Yojimbo]

"with perhaps the only discernible flaw being the somewhat abrupt ending" I find this amusing, because at this point a somewhat abrupt ending is practically their calling card.

Yeah, but in most of their others the abrupt ending still provides a sense of closure, of ending on just the right note given the film's themes (I especially thought this true of No Country and A Serious Man). There was something about HC that didn't do that; but, tbh, I don't even remember how it ended now. :/

It reminded me of the ending of The Big Lebowski. Maybe just because of the narration, but it was basically "ok, you've seen the story about what this character went through, and how it changed (or didn't change) him, the end".

I'd have to watch it again with this in mind to say anything further on the matter. :/

[Gendo]

33. The Lincoln Lawyer - A good legal thriller. It's hard for me to not like McConaughey these days; though he didn't particularly stand out in this role. Ironically, I felt like Ryan Phillippe stole the show. The story itself was a really unique twist on the whole "lawyer gets a crisis of conscious" idea.

34. Thank You for Smoking - Doug Walker sums up my thoughts much better than I can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7Ot6rJqcEE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I pretty much agree with him. Eckhart was fantastic, and his character very well written.

[Gendo]

35. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) - Pretty good. Somewhat hard to follow due to the Shakespearean language, but that wasn't too bad. Kevin Kline was really excellent; all his scenes were the best ones. Oh, and Sam Rockwell is always a win.

[Eva Yojimbo]

35. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) - Pretty good. Somewhat hard to follow due to the Shakespearean language, but that wasn't too bad. Kevin Kline was really excellent; all his scenes were the best ones. Oh, and Sam Rockwell is always a win.

I... have no idea how I missed this one. AMND is my 4th favorite Shakespeare play (behind Hamlet, Tempest, and Lear), and I thought I'd seen most of the adaptations. Sadly, it's a play that doesn't seem to translate well to film. It's hard to match Shakespeare's linguistic magic with visual magic, so the former always ends up dominating. Same thing with The Tempest, sadly--though Taymor's version of it was a noble effort.

[Gendo]

35. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) - Pretty good. Somewhat hard to follow due to the Shakespearean language, but that wasn't too bad. Kevin Kline was really excellent; all his scenes were the best ones. Oh, and Sam Rockwell is always a win.

I... have no idea how I missed this one. AMND is my 4th favorite Shakespeare play (behind Hamlet, Tempest, and Lear), and I thought I'd seen most of the adaptations. Sadly, it's a play that doesn't seem to translate well to film. It's hard to match Shakespeare's linguistic magic with visual magic, so the former always ends up dominating. Same thing with The Tempest, sadly--though Taymor's version of it was a noble effort.

I'm surprised too. I remember when it came out; it was a pretty big thing at the time, probably due to all the big-name stars in it (yes, Calista Flockhart was once a big-name star). I didn't even know until I watched it that it also had Christian Bale.

Looking forward to finally seeing Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet soon.

[Raxivace]

Baz's Romeo + Juliet is pretty fun if you like campy over the top films.

[Gendo]

Baz'' Romeo + Juliet is pretty fun if you like campy over the top films.

I like Moulin Rouge, so probably. Plan to do a marathon of all his stuff soon; though I don't have Strictly Ballroom yet.

[Raxivace]

I need to marathon the rest of his stuff myself at some point. I thought his Moulin Rouge! and Great Gatsby adaptation were both pretty fun though.

[Gendo]

36. The Lego Batman Movie - Amazing. I had high expectations, and it surpassed them. From the very first joke, I was laughing hard. The numerous references to other Batman franchises were a lot of fun. The action was thrilling, and the drama / story itself was deep for that type of movie. Some of the music was almost straight out of Fury Road, which was awesome. And the 3D was really well done.

37. Stop-Loss - Complete liberal propaganda. And effective! While the message may not be anything new (hey, did you know that war sucks?), I found it to be well-delivered. Really makes you angry at the system that's in place in the US military. I'm beginning to actually like Ryan Phillippe, who'd have thought?

38. Big Eyes - Christoph Waltz is excellent in everything. He portrays a slow descent into madness as well as Daniel Day-Lewis did in There Will Be Blood. Except that Lewis' character was never that charming. The fact that it's a true story makes it even better. Tim Burton's style could be detected, but it was at least somewhat toned down. This was definitely a new type of story for him; although as Waltz became madder and madder; the movie became more and more Burton.

39. Lucy - Interesting visuals; not much else. Some of the ways that they portrayed her powers on screen were unique and cool. But the entire concept was silly nonsense, and there wasn't much of a story.

40. How to Train Your Dragon 2 - Pretty much as good as the first one. Still great animation, with very well done 3D. It really expanded upon the world. While it lost some of the charm and surprise from the first one, it gained a lot of depth and maturity.

[BruceSmith78]

How to Train Your Dragon 2 was garbage. Just a cash grab with none of the heart of the original. I was severely disappointed.

[Gendo]

How to Train Your Dragon 2 was garbage. Just a cash grab with none of the heart of the original. I was severely disappointed.

Don't make me warn you again.

[Derived Absurdity]

He's right. I remember virtually every scene from HTTYD 1, but I remember practically nothing from HTTYD 2. It had none of the original's heart or soul and was indistinguishable from most other Dreamworks movies. Also I was pissed off that Astrid had a severely diminished role.

[Gendo]

41. The Babadook - Good horror film. I rarely find any modern-day horror movie scary, but I think this one succeeded. It was just a great atmosphere throughout. Although the couple scenes with the literal monster attacks were the least scary parts... the implications and suggestive unknowns throughout worked so much better; I think they could have stuck with that.

I took the movie as pretty clearly being about a woman's gradual descent into insanity. Not sure about the idea of the book being completely imaginary, or being written by the mother; both interesting thoughts. But I do think that it's more likely that the monster was in her head. The times of the child seeing the monster seemed that they could just be a typical 6-year-old's overactive imagination.

The mother was suffering from both a failure to cope with her husband's death, as well as too much stress from raising a difficult child alone. As her insanity grew, The Babadook became her internal manifestation of her fears and grief about her husband. This is why it was eventually locked in the basement with her husband's belongings; so she would have to be willing to face them in order to keep it at bay, as well as why she was able to talk about her husband after she had conquered the demon.

The biggest issue with this theory may be the scene near the end when she is seemingly pushing her son around the room with her mind. If the theory is correct, then this entire scene, or at least the way it played out, would be in her mind as well. This may simply be in line with an unreliable narrator. Clearly, she did really physically hurt his neck.

[Raxivace]

Gendo what did you make of the scene where the mother's vision of her son seems to have transformed into the image of the dead husband after he walks down into the basement? It seemed almost Oedipal to me.

That the monster at the end of the film shakes the bed where earlier the mother was using a vibrator seems to suggest something to me though I'm not quite sure what, if anything at all.

[Gendo]

Gendo what did you make of the scene where the mother's vision of her son seems to have transformed into the image of the dead husband after he walks down into the basement? It seemed almost Oedipal to me.

That the monster at the end of the film shakes the bed where earlier the mother was using a vibrator seems to suggest something to me though I'm not quite sure what, if anything at all.

That scene didn't stick out in my mind; don't think I noticed the transformation in that way. But it would seem to make sense, given that in addition to grief over her husband, she holds some resentment towards her son over the whole situation.

After my post, I read up on it over at movies.stackexchange.com. They answers to the few questions given there all seem to say more or less what I was saying, though better-written. Also, I found a YouTube video of a guy giving his explanation; and he agreed with your theory on the book's authorship.

[Raxivace]

Interesting. I agree that whether the Babadook is diegetically real or not that to some extent he represents the mother's guilt/sadness over the death of the husband and the difficulties and the stress of raising her son alone, its just the extent of those ideas that I wonder about. I was kind of hinting at it before, but I'm now I'm starting to wonder if there was some sexual abuse going on too, which while still a variation on the themes you've brought up its also a very dark way to view the story. I'm gonna think on this some more.

Another part of the movie I really liked was when the mother was watching George Melies movies of all things on television and the Babadook was inserted into them. Really clever and cool, playing up the difference between the earliest of cinema and modern conventions for the sake of being spooky.

[Gendo]

42. Anne of Green Gables (1985) - A 2 part miniseries; the first of 4 movies. Pretty good. The character of Anne is just a lot of fun to watch. Not that it's an exciting story or anything; your pretty standard Hallmark-style fare. But it's well acted, and quite funny in some parts.

[Gendo]

43. The Theory of Everything - Ok I guess. I just wasn't all that into it. I mean, I didn't learn anything about Hawking that everyone doesn't already know... except that he was something of a jerk when it came to his (first) wife.It seems like the film was attempting to make some sort of connection between his disease and his theories, but I think it failed to do so.

I would have liked to see a lot more about his actual theories, or even just more emphasis on his genius in general. If you didn't already know it going into the film, you might not have realized that he wasn't just someone with somewhat above average intelligence. Eddie Redmayne was good; but most of his acting came from just playing the disability. Felicity Jones was better.

44. Manchester by the Sea - Good stuff. It really brought you into Lee's world; the way they showed the flashbacks were very effective. The music may have been a little over-the-top, but I was still glad to hear classical music used as a score in that way. I wasn't actually a big fan of Affleck's acting... though maybe it was just how the character was written; it was too one-note for my tastes. He portrayed grief very well; but even people in the deepest grief aren't literally like that 24/7. The ending is quite bold in a way that sticks with you. A very interesting mix of hope with hopelessness.

[Gendo]

45. Moonlight - I had a lot of trouble getting into this. Could be that it's just a different world; but I'm not sure if the movie's intent was to speak to people in that world, or to expose people like me to that world. It was a beautifully done film. One thing I found interesting was that his sexuality wasn't the focus of the film; it was simply one of the aspects of his life. Whereas a lot of similar movies would be "about" being gay.

46. Sixteen Candles - Ah, the 80s. When racism was considered funny, sexism was considered cute, and talking about raping girls passed for casual conversation. The whole movie wasn't like that, but it had its share of moments. Certainly when Jake offered sex with his passed out girlfriend as a bargaining chip. If it's possible to overlook those things as a product of a different time, or at least a different time in Hollywood, then it's actually a pretty decent movie. Anthony Michael Hall was actually fantastic. Playing the exact same character from the Breakfast Club (though this came first), he gets more chance to shine here. The high school dynamics were believable, and the lead romance was actually cute by the end.

[Gendo]

47. Music and Lyrics - A pretty good romantic comedy. It didn't fall into either of the two common rom com traps... having the whole thing based around some unrealistic setup / wacky misunderstanding, or having to main characters be horrible people that I never actually want to find happiness. Just mostly realistic characters, and a realistic romance.

[Gendo]

Interesting timing.. Molly Ringwald just wrote a piece about the things I was just talking about with Sixteen Candles (her article is much broader than that movie though). It's good, though a bit long-winded: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/perso ... ty-in-pink" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gendo]

48. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Awesome. I didn't know much about this going in; not familiar with the graphic novel or anything. Aside from being quite funny; I really liked the blend of fantasy and reality. Other than the sister's brief moments of confusion; the characters just accepted the bizarre anime-like things that happened when it came to combat. Overall, it was just so much fun.