My February in Media

This month, I wrapped up my "Best Picture" reviews with a long war movie and an even longer mob movie; watched a few oddball films, both new and cult classic; and took in a few of my boyfriend's favorite films in exchange for him watching a few of mine. #Romance.

But I'll admit 17 movies in one month is too many for anyone, even me. Here's to leaving my house more in March.

Primal Fear
This movie should be a little better than it is, but it's still pretty good. Laura Linney does a good job throughout and fresh-faced, feature-film-debut Edward Norton gives a real career-starting performance – especially in the last 10 minutes.

1917*
I don't know that I necessarily liked this film but it is very impressive filmmaking. It didn't make me feel much except "wow, this looks like it was really hard to make."

The Irishman
It's rare to come across a movie that's truly so boring that you absolutely cannot pay attention to it. I aged 20 years watching all 209 minutes of The Irishman and I can barely tell you what happened.

Horse Girl
This movie reminded me a lot of Unicorn Store in that I was frequently like "quick question: wtf is going on?" Except I liked Unicorn Store and I don't think I liked this? Alison Brie gives a very good performance (because she always does) but overall, it's just weird.

Ma
This movie had potential, but it takes way too long to go off the rails. By the time it finally does and you're watching the movie the trailer promised you, you're just like, "...Ok? Sure?" It's short, so it's not a huge waste of time to check out but it's meh. I watched it as an antidote to all the so-called Cinema™ I was watching for my Oscars project.

Prisoners
Tim and I have been watching movies "together" over the phone since we started dating, but when he was visiting for a few days this month, we watched a few of our all-time favorites. He's a big Denis Villeneuve fan (and we're both big Jake Gyllenhaal fans), so this was his first pick. I liked it! It has a good story, with well-earned twists and I was really impressed with the way certain elements became overarching themes. I made Tim watch Almost Famous after.

Wild at Heart*
I had never seen a David Lynch film before this, but I feel like seeing this one at the Drafthous Ritz was a worthy way to get into his filmography. Wild at Heart is absolutely bananas. Every choice just feels completely unhinged. But that also makes the whole thing so funny. Laura Dern also has some fire Looks.

The Lodge*
This movie wasn't great, but there wasn't really anything wrong with it either. It's pretty predictable and has some minor plot holes, but overall, I thought it was interesting and it had a few real shocks. An adequate thriller.

Blade Runner
In preparation for another Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, which we didn't get to), Tim and I watched the OG Blade Runner. Overall, I thought it was good but it felt like a preamble – all exposition, like it was meant to be a franchise but didn't turn into one until 30 years later. I do really love the less sleek aesthetic of older sci-fi films (Star Wars, Alien/Aliens, even early X Files) though and bonus, Harrison Ford.

Overlord
This movie took until about halfway to get interesting, but then it was pretty cool! For...a while. And then it wasn't anymore. The ending is super lame and so, even though I liked the middle, my whole experience of the movie is kind-of skewed now.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette
I read this book a few years ago, enjoyed it, then followed the film's journey through development hell for literal years. I missed seeing it in theaters and then was discouraged by the negative reviews I saw – but when I finally watched it, I liked it! It also made me tear up at the end.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before: P.S. I Still Love You
I, like every other person on the Internet, loved To All the Boys I've Loved Before. But, tragically, I didn't really care for TATBILB2, a movie whose title is so exhausting that even the acronym is too long. There were some good things about it! The soundtrack was very good, the colors were to die for, Holland Taylor appears and has a very good apartment. But overall, it was...just OK. It suffered from a common sequel fate: doing twice as much half as well. John Ambrose deserved better and so did we. (It also made me feel 1,000 years old and very, very glad I didn't date in high school.)

Fortune Feimster: Sweet & Salty
This special didn't do a lot for me, but it was sweet and salty and Fortune seems like a sweetheart who I would like to spend a day with.

Candyman
Everyone was buzzing (pun intended) about the trailer for the Candyman remake, but I mostly just thought it looked fine. I wanted to see if I was maybe missing something because I hadn't seen the original so I decided to watch it and...it's not great, but it's also not the worst thing I've ever seen. It tries to do a little too much and it ends up messy, but overall, it's about what I expected going in – though I did want it to be a little more fun, like I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Bernie
This was so good! Honestly, I was bound to like a movie that's a collaboration between Richard Linklater, one of my favorite directors, and Skip Hollandsworth, one of my favorite journalists, based on a Texas Monthly article. But this is one hell of a story and it's told so well. Bonus: my coworker, Quita Culpepper, makes a cameo!

Little Shop of Horrors
I loved every second of this. Rocky Horror meets A Bucket of Blood, with a little Sweeney Todd and a spritz of Hairspray. With music by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken! Featuring Steve Martin as an unhinged dentist! There's a cannibalistic plant puppet that sings villain songs, y'all. It's incredible.

Under the Silver Lake
I didn't really like anything about this movie, but I can't fully articulate why. I think a lot of it had to do with a visceral dislike for Andrew Garfield's character, but it's also way too long, way too convoluted and sometimes seems fake-deep while other times seems completely devoid of meaning. It just didn't do anything for me.

I also finished the final season of Bojack Horseman, which was as emotionally traumatizing as all the rest, and watched all of Hulu's new High Fidelity TV show, which I was heavily anticipating because 1) I have a weird relationship with the movie (I keep watching it over and over to try to convince myself to like it more?) and 2) I'm in love with Zoe Kravitz. Overall, I really liked it! It starts off stronger than it ends, but I think it did a good job of fixing some of my issues with the film and a lot of the music conversations felt both relatable and important.

I also started reading Beauty Queens by Libba Bray, which is very funny but is taking me a while to get through because I've been terrible at making myself read this month. The inevitable slump after a book-filled January.