A light approach

to morality.

Oh,

the places you'll don't. 

Oh my God! I know what you’re going to do,

and when you get there, I’ll be there, too!

Primordial human

stuff.

The disappointment

of being a good person.

Yeah, okay, so you're going to space.

But shit, bitch, you don't got to rub it in my face.
I'm going places, too.
I'm just not telling you.

We’re like healers or something.

Magic Mike XXL - 4/5 
Pretty early on, it gives up on having a story in favor of just having fun. And man, what a great decision that was. It’s a road trip movie with long and weird detours that don’t really matter. A series of short stories revolving around the theme of male strippers doing rando shit ‘cuz they buds. ’Nashville’-esque. And fuck yeah, Joe Manganiello. That dude deserves to be elevated to The Rock-levels of entertaindom.

Girl, like vagina and everything.

Tangerine - 4/5 
It’s everything I like and dislike about the lower cultures – quick to fuck, quick to not give a fuck, quick to anger, quick to turn on you, but also quick to loyalty, quick to forgiveness, quick to being fucking hilarious. Every day is a new day. Every day spans the emotional spectrum.

One by one, we will take you.

Evil Dead (remake) - 1/5 
Terrible. Just a cabin drama with an old name. No character, no charm, no fun. I wish there *were* callbacks. Jesus. But hey, I like the idea of detox as demonic possession. I mean, it’s not really doing that but… has it been done? Is there a movie that does that? Hello? Anyone? That general set-up does leave everyone dour as fuck, but I’m sure a skilled person is capable of overcoming.

You friended up.

The Duff - 3/5 
‘Easy A’-lite, with a mix of ‘Angus’. Lead dude’s a charmer, Mae Whitman is both a perfect choice and also not doing it complete justice. But fun, guys.

When I was small, I only knew small things.

Room - 4/5 
It’s got these great scenes of conflicting feelings. The escape is full of hope and unsurety. The look on the kid’s face when he’s outside for the first time is a better sense of wonder than most Disney movies, mixed with bewilderment. "That terror and wonder in which all lives begin."* The little dude is happy when he should be sad and she’s sad when she should be happy. Everything's on the wrong side of a wall. It earns all its emotional beats, but it perhaps forces a too pat conclusion.

*James Baldwin

People are afraid of all the wrong things.

A Walk Amongst the Tombstones - 2/5 
Generic and rote, but fine in that.

That’s not how the Force works.

The Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 3/5 
It feels like nostalgia for something that never went away. Like when people at work say ‘I saw you last night!’ and yes, of course, but you also see me every day, what’s the big f-in’ deal, Rhonda. It’s excitement for the familiar, which is fine; it’s its insistence on easy references that is less so. In-jokes that the whole world’s already in on. JJ’s desire to internet-ify everything gets in the way of identifying what people actually like about the movies – the tone, the mood, the characterizations, the universe. All this movie needed to be was decent (and it is) and for all its flaws and inconsistencies, it gets a few of those right. I mean, I’m not too tied up on Finn and Rey and wherever-the-fuck they’re going, but I’ll absolutely come back to see what Kylo Ren is up to next. That dude’s a baller; petulant and angry like a 16-year old boy. That swagger down the hallway. Shit. In him, I feel like the movie missed a chance to have a meta-message about living up to expectations. As is, I think we’re all just excited because it doesn’t suck.

For now, we’ll just keep an eye on the time.

Sicario - 4/5
Villeneuve's whole thematic aesthetic seems to be about ‘not knowing.’ Not necessarily playing it like a mystery; just that you only know as much as the main character, and they’re fucking shut out from what’s actually going on. There are long stretches of this movie where I had absolutely no idea where it was going. It’s not full of twists and turns, it’s full of tiny bubbles of chaos, and the bureaucracy of that chaos. It might erupt. It might not. Let’s proceed accordingly. Props to Emily Blunt for playing the edge between powerful and powerless. She knows what she’s doing except when she’s too stoic to ask.

I don’t know him. Ain’t got nothing to do with me.

Creed - 3.5/5 
It’s not the tightest – particularly when Rocky gets sick. But it hits its emotional cues well. And Michael B. Jordan’s the bomb, yo, all this pent-up anger without it taking up every inch of him.