Minocencia

But in all seriousness, this film was able to hold my attention, which is something most viewers and, admittedly, I did not expect. After hearing chatter about this being two hours' worth of fighting, I wondered why people were forming that conclusion as a complaint. Was that not Sam Levinson's goal?

Because I know one of Levinson's most monumental skills is the ability to write dialect and segues that mirror real-life conversation, I knew this couldn't be the movie others tried to tell me it was.

I did not sit down and listen to people fighting. I heard - and chose to consciously listen to - the reasons they were fighting and the specific events and assumptions they brought up. An image arose of the probable basis of their entire turbulent relationship. Their anger fluctuated, and there were several moments of peace or giddiness between yelling matches.

Because Malcolm & Marie felt so unsparingly real, it is quite reminiscent of pernicious relationships in the real world.

All of the eyebrows move the same way, the realistic mottling of the skin is unsettling, and I swear to god, the Polar Express is a trip to Hell with the conductor as a badly represented bipolar version of the Devil. This is sometimes a musical, but it also isn't; so really, it's just jarring. The score reminded me of Back to the Future, then I found out Zemeckis did direct this. The pacing was surprisingly decent considering how immediately intense the story got. The scene of singing elves and kids turned this into a concert for a cult. Some shots were pretty but added to how much this really is horror movie material.

All in all, I'm a little afraid and genuinely uncomfortable.