cyzzbkz

Massive Deadpool fan. Had such high hopes for this. Wasn't bad. But still disappointing. I like the whole the meta and self-parody aspects of the Deadpool films. But this one felt as if it is making fun of itself in a way that the movie actually warranted. Like it was telling us what is actually wrong with the very film that we are watching. Wonder if that was intentional. If it were, there is actually something very brilliant about that. But a part of me suspects that it was totally unintentional, which had the (unwitting, im guessing) effect of making the the whole film feel trivial. However, the cinematography was first rate, the costumes amazing, and every aspect of the production are what you would expect from a first rate Hollywood summer blockbuster. And that should make it definitely worth a a watch, especially in the theater with an audience. I loved watching how people I was with reacted, laughing with - and in some cases at - the whole story.

Worth seeing again in 3D. It is a masterpiece. Brothers Grimme meets Tim Burton. Feels like a fully realized, High Romantic tale from Hoffman. Uncanny, amazing and haunting. The world building is on another level and the 3D feels less like a gimmick than a a completely new dimension. One could write a psychoanalytic essay on the parent child relationship and how it is all meticulously estranged in the "fake" nether world parents. Yet it never becomes a simple morality / didactic / cautionary tale of of how children "ought" or "should" behave. Coraline's plight is at once every girl, and unique to her own particular character in this particular circumstance. Nor are her parents the typical evil step parents. They are sympathetically neglectful. This all combines to create an intense degree of audience identification with her, as if we could all fall pray to a similar temptation. I could write a book on this and have to stop myself. Suffice to say, if you've already seen this, see it again in 3D. If you haven't seen, run - don't walk - to the theater.

Weird, dark, and fun is how I'd describe this one. It shows a microcosm of society using a family and their servants holed up during the Spanish Flu. It's satirization of performative activists and limousine liberals feels on point. Peter Sarsgaard makes interesting choices in all of his films, and he does it again playing a charming scumbag of a cook. Billy Magnussen, while not given the same juicy role, does a great job as well playing a writer / aspiring politician, who feels very familiar in the Covid-era where we all had to suffer through the "Imagine" celebs. Overall, it's a fun watch, not a broad comedy, but I did find myself laughing a number of times.