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"Promising Young Woman" is a tale on the revenge a woman takes to achieve her idea of justice for something awful that happened to her best friend. Carey Mulligan plays this young woman, Cassie alongside Bo Burnham (one of my favorite comedians) playing an old friend from college.

This film is brilliant, colorful, and intelligent, and I haven't been able to stop thinking of it for weeks. It is smart because you assume a woman's revenge tale would be gory, bloody, more like Kill Bill, but there is barely any real violence shown. It is a realistic take on how a woman who has let a single event consume her personality turn into someone who makes men realize the truth that they aren't the perfect guys they think they are. I also believe it is so genius that the movie shows no nudity of any kind, and does not objectify Cassie or any woman in the movie. Nobody is wearing skimpy clothes or is shown naked; and that is the point. Cassie doesn't rely on her views on most men to get revenge, she relies on their views of themselves.

Also, for a movie with a very dark, cynical view on the world, it has a nice contrast with the girly, colorful, sleek, candyland aesthetic of the set and lighting. Every actor is perfect for their roles, and each shot has purpose that I could gush about forever (I am a fan of color theory, so watching the shift in colors was so fun for me). The soundtrack is also pretty genius. I have never been a fan of modern pop music, but to the film's credit, it works well with the environment. I will praise their unnerving violin cover of "Toxic" by Anthony Willis.

I will not spoil the ending, but it is the most gut-wrenching, sad, bittersweet, smart, exciting, happy, depressing ending I have ever seen. It is everything you go to the movies for.

The movie is even genius in the way it uses Roman Numerals. The fourth mark is up for debate who it is, I will just say.

For a movie that could so easily fall flat, "Promising Young Woman" defies all expectations and is my favorite live-action film of 2020. In a year that had so much horrible garbage in it (not movies, just events in general), this movie gave me the slightest bit of hope for the future. It is my wish that everyone go sees this movie, no matter what gender you are. I am so happy this got Best Screenplay at the Oscars this year, and Carey Mulligan deserved Best Actress despite her not winning.

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is an 'adaptation' of the classic Dr. Seuss book about a green curmudgeon who lives on a mountain despising Christmas and all it stands for until he realizes exactly why it meant so much to the people around him. This book was then adapted into a classic animated cartoon that I adore, and this adaptation was adapted from that cartoon.

Let me make it clear: I did not want to see this movie, but my schoolmates voted on watching it in Freshmen year of high school when all work was done, and I thought, well, "How Bad Can This Possibly Be? If everyone else likes it so much, it must have some value" Oh boy how naive I was...

There is only one good thing in this movie, and that is the fact that Jim Carrey is trying so hard to make you laugh. I can't fault him for that.

Everything else in this movie is absolute garbage. The look of the movie is coated in a thick, dusty, foggy filter, like looking through a broken camera lens. The design of the "Whos" themselves are disturbing, the stuff of nightmares. The movie looks gross and almost nauseating, and a Dr. Seuss movie shouldn't look like a scary fever-dream you cannot wake up from.

There are also some really inappropriate jokes in this movie, which are really not suitable for kids, and it disturbs me a little to know so many children adore this movie for its humor.

The final thing that always ticked me off about this movie is the change in the theme. The original "Whos" had lots of things that made them happy in the original, but the "things" and the "noise" were not part of that. They were nice to have, but they were not necessary. Family and Unity were always what mattered. In this adaptation though, the "Whos" are capitalistic, and only Cindy-Lou truly sees the holiday as it should be seen, but that defeats the entire purpose of the story. The Grinch himself is a changed 'man' after seeing the "Whos" sing and gather together, but in this movie it means nothing. No character really has a moral compass except Cindy-Lou, who is a literal child. The theme of the original Grinch is not about innocence, it is about connection. This defeats the purpose of Seusses original intentions, and makes their whole reconciliation with the Grinch more their fault than his fault.

In all honesty, this is one of my least favorite movies of all time. I have no idea why so many people like this movie non-ironically. I hope that someday, someone can explain to me why they like this movie in a way that makes any sense. Stick with the original cartoon.

"Black is King" is a movie supposedly based on the morals and story of the 2019 Lion King, connected by Beyonce's music; a visual album. The main theme was that...Black is King (no pun intended).

Let me make this clear: I am not a person of color, and I cannot claim to relate to any of the feelings that the primary audience may have toward this movie. I personally do not believe Beyonce knew that what she was saying and doing could be interpreted as pretentious, preachy, and possibly racist(?). At first, I thought maybe I am just not the main demographic, but after reading a few of the reviews that noted that they were of African culture to any degree, I realized this movie has people completely split. I will not speak on how this movie represents a culture I do not know too much about, simply on how it made me feel.

I will start with positives. The dancing clearly has effort in it and the choreography, and some of the costumes (while mostly flashy) are at least different enough to see the lengths they went to create some sort of identity. There were some nice natural locations in deserts and jungles and rivers, which were colorful. There is also some slight touches of style that were enjoyable in camera angles, feeling like a national geographic movie.

Now the negatives. This whole film is inconsistent in nearly every regard. The editing is well-paced in some scenes, and awful in others (during some dance scenes, it looked like some high budget Tik Tok video fad). The costumes are pretty, but there are so many that it just feels like Beyonce is showing off how rich she is, and the same goes for locations, feeling like she is showing off her house. Self-indulgent really is a fitting word. The changing aspect ratios have no symbolic effect as the smaller aspect ratio is not limited to a single dance number and song. The symbolism is not always spot on, like the part where the boy is a comet, or the baby being sent down the river. The lyrics do not usually match visuals at all like the "jealousy" song. The connections to the Lion King are tenuous at best (and this is a nitpick, but why didn't they use the original Lion King? Most people agree, 2019 Lion King was not great). The poetry, from someone who is usually good at interpreting poetry, does not always connect. It is not enough to use metaphors to describe an entire group of people, you have to do something with those metaphors. Also, some of the dance moves do not seem like they should be shown to families who show young kids this, two of the scenes in particular having very sexual moves, flashing twerking very close to the camera in skin tight clothing. Some movies could pull this off because they handled their messaging more maturely, but I cannot say the same here.

This movie feels like epitome of trying to inspire people by primping out your richness and wealth under the guise of metaphors and humbleness to make only one group of people feel important. A good movie is supposed to make that group feel important, but not alienate the rest of your audience. A white person can watch "Black Panther" or "Queen of Katwe" and not feel weird for being white, a boy can watch "Wonder Woman" or "Little Women" and feel empowered just as much as a girl, and a non-Asian can watch "Crazy Rich Asians" and relate to the differences in cultures because they don't draw too much attention to the fact that they are "Black" or a "Woman", or an "Asian" any more than necessary. "Black is King" does not understand this. "Black is King" made me, at the very least, slightly uncomfortable and a little guilty for being white. I've never had that experience before and I do not want to seem like the victim here. I have stated my case well enough for you to determine if you want to see this yourself or not.