#also sam rockwell dances. so.

[mermaidsirennikita]

the world is going to tell you to hate Argylle, but I'm here to tell you it's camp excellence and actually A ROMANCE???

[ninjathrowingstork]

SAYING THIS WITHOUT SPOILERS

Please go watch Argylle it's so good omg. Like the trailer barely does it justice because the twists are so good, and each time it starts to make sense, there's another reveal *and it's all set up and foreshadowed perfectly* even down to throwaway lines, it's all setting the ending up together. The movie is a pastiche of great spy thriller tropes, and you can pick out which piece goes to probably which movie, like there are shadows of the Bourne series, or The IPCRESS file, but all done in the hyper-saturated reality-blurring style Matthew Vaughn used in Kingsman (which is the same universe as Argylle and we're eventually getting both series crossing over).

Also Sam Rockwell's character Aiden is both a hyper-competent spy and fighter, and an absolute doofus who does a little dance while explaining how to stomp in bad guy skulls. But he's also a bit sweetheart when it comes to the people he loves and there's a moment near the end that nearly broke my heart (when he clasps his hands behind his back and stops fighting, if you've seen it). I might actually be a little bit in love with the character.

10/10 recommend, and stay for the scene in the credits, it's gold.

[eemcintyre]

Ok so I saw "Argylle" today upon request by my friend and First of all, was not expecting it to actually be a decently fun time (by no means "reinventing the genre" or anything but still, I think the shitty reviews can largely be chalked up to misleading marketing and modern audiences' tendency to take movies too seriously and not be able to just kick back and have a good time anymore)

But also why was Sam Rockwell lowkey kind of hot? Like he had that middle age short king idiot loser dad rizz and several moments had me a bit hot under the collar, as it were

Spoilers under the cut

The dancing together in Arabia, when he clasped his hands behind his back and refused to fight her, the way he kept calling her "kid"

I was really upset at first when I thought he was going to be a bad guy, and then I was really upset when I thought the writers were going for more of a father figure vibe and I was just wishful thinking with my Lana Del Rey older men do it better trash brain, and THEN I was really upset when I thought she freaking killed him, but I was pleased with the end result; power couple for sure

Idk sometimes I still surprise myself

[hazstur]

do u have any sam rockwell films you'd recommend….

i've downloaded: moon (seen before) box of moonlight confessions of a dangerous mind everybody's fine galaxy quest (seen before) matchstick men (seen before) seven psychopaths (seen before) snow angels three billboards (seen before) mr right (looks so fucking silly i cant wait for this one)

trying very hard to download better living through chemistry and piccadilly jim but torrent sites r failing me

also i saw he's gonna be in another yet untitled martin mcdonagh film with oscar isaac and christopher walken… slay

i really liked mr right it was VERY silly but he and anna have such good chemistry in it

one i'd really recommend is Laggies! he plays a very tired very hot single dad and he and kiera knightly are extremely sexy together because they are sam rockwell and kiera knightly

The Way Way Back was cute, it's a coming of age film where babygirl plays a lifeguard at a water park who takes this kid under his wing for the summer and teaches him to give less of a fuck, he and maya rudolph flirt a lot and steve carell and toni collette are in it, also here are some choice reviews from letterboxd

let's see ummmmm oh Jojo Rabbit was great! i know a lot of people hate it but they're wrong (if you don't like it you're so correct and valid in your opinion), sam's really really excellent in it and he's blind in one eye and i have a big thing for that (he does play a nazi (who's gay for alfie allen and i assume just gay in general but mostly for alfie allen) which i do not have a thing for)

he stars in Choke as a sex addict which is a novel by chuck palahniuk and in the film adaptation sam plays a sex addict, it is not a good movie but sam rockwell does play a sex addict in this, the sex addict movie in which sam rockwell stars

admittedly there are a lot i haven't seen, here are a few that are on my list but aren't on yours:

- Fosse/Verdon (actually a mini series) where he plays the titular bob fosse and gets to show off his very real dancing skills, i've heard michelle williams is also amazing in it

- The Green Mile, based off the stephen king novel, where he plays a murdering psychopath

- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (I just know he's in it idk what he does)

- The Winning Season, it looks cute, he plays the coach of a girls basketball team

- Richard Jewell, which had one of my favorite trailers I've ever seen, I believe he plays Richard Jewell's lawyer

i genuinely cannot recommend Blue Iguana EXCEPT for sam rockwell being in it, it is a terrible film, however according to letterboxd he and ben schwartz are making another film together so fingers crossed for that

there's so many more things he's been in but he should be in more things in fact i have a contract right here that says 'sam rockwell will be in everything i watch' but i can't get him to sign it no matter how many times i ambush him or break into his home

[naughtygirl286]

So we went to see that new spy movie Argylle I seen the trailers and thought that it looked pretty good and it all kinds of people in it that you generally like so I thought we should check it out. and I would have to say that I thought it was a pretty great movie. I feel that it has a little bit of everything in it. Its a action movie as well as a dramatic thriller and at times it was also a bit of a comedy.

Your basic story is as follows Bryce Dallas Howard plays a writer Elly Conway who is world famous for her series of spy novels called "Argylle" which is all about the adventures of a James Bond type of character known as "Agent Argylle" (played by Henry Cavill he basically plays the character as she pictures him in her minds eye) and while she is finishing work on her 5th book in the series an secret evil organizations just like in her stories comes after her because of something that she has written and they want to capture her and find out what she know about their nefarious plots! she had her cat Alfie are rescued by a real life spy Aidan Wilde (played by Sam Rockwell) and her, Alfie and Aidan go on this globe trotting adventure to discover the truth why she is so important and why the evil organizations wants her.

The best way I could kind of describe it this is it is a bit of a spy action movie like James Bond almost but parts of it did kind of remind me of the recent Sandra Bullock movie The Lost City, also there was a little bit of like Jason Bourne/The Bourne Identity in there and as well as the what I like to call Matthew Vaughn's "serious silliness"

Now like I said I thought this movie was great! the story is really good there is there is a nice mystery to figure out plenty of twists and turns and some surprises. I did have a few gasps at some of the reveals as the story unfolded, it really kept my interest and kept me guessing a bit on things you do kinda of have to pay attention to the story a bit or you might miss something being I do feel that this is a bit layered in its storytelling.

I thought the acting was great it has pretty much a A-List cast of all people that you would generally like and enjoy in a movie and I thought everyone played their parts perfectly. The action, fights and stunts are all pretty crazy and pretty cool like the train fight when Elly meets Aidan and that little yellow truck Henry Cavill drives across the roof tops I don't know how that thing survived that but some of the action was very comical I though like the hallway escape dance number thing with the smoke was different and the oil skating did give me a laugh. but that was part of it some of it was kinda outlandish to the point of being funny and there was I thought some good action movie humor in there too between Sam Rockwell and Bryce Dallas Howard's characters.

I seen alot of people online not like it and I don't see why. I feel this is a big fun exciting summer movie in the middle of the winter. I personally really liked it it had great action, had some humor and a story that kept me engaged and curious about what was going to happen next. So me personally I'd say if you are interested in seeing it or curious about it I would say give it a chance.

Also there is a very interesting mid credits scene at the end of the movie also.

[agentnico]

Argylle (2024) review

Mr Cavill, you sir are fine class gentleman. But that flat-top haircut is a disgrace and you know it.

Plot: Reclusive author Elly Conway writes best-selling espionage novels about a secret agent named Argylle who's on a mission to unravel a global spy syndicate. However, when the plots of her books start to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, the line between fiction and reality begin to blur.

I have noticed critics have really been harsh on this movie, with as of this writing Argylle holds a 35% review approval from Rotten Tomatoes. It’s not that bad. In fact it’s really enjoyable. Yes, it’s really dumb, but it’s also fun. Director Matthew Vaughn’s latest is gladly a crowd-pleasing action spy flick that is full of twists and bombastic set pieces, that takes inspiration from the 1973 French comedy The Man from Acapulco starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, where the novelist too was getting mixed into their fictional created spy world. Yes, there are an abundance of twists, so much so that if you really look into it there are so many logical gaps and absurd plot holes, however this movie embraces its silliness and simply tries to out-do each twist with another one, as if in a personal race of wit. Some turns are predictable, some less, but it’s all good fun and every time the story threw another narrative curveball I couldn’t help but have a smile on my face.

That’s really what this movie boils down to - it’s an irreverent over-the-top espionage blockbuster that’s a ton of fun, featuring an all-star cast of famous people, most of whom are only cameos (Dua Lipa fans please reserve your expectations), all of whom are having the best time ever and you’re enjoying the ride alongside them. Henry Cavill does his best Bond impression, however even though he’s the titular character he’s actually hardly in the movie. I’m serious, aside from the opening sequence he pops in maybe 5 minutes total in the whole film? Yep, guess that’s your first twist there. Argylle hardly has any Argylle. Nevertheless Cavill as always is a charmer, but maybe wait till Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare to get your proper 2024 fill of Henry Cavill. Dua Lipa does a dance; John Cena’s in there somewhere but I couldn’t see him (almost as if he’s, dare I say, invisible!); Catherine O’Hara excels; Bryan Cranston does the evil-dude-in-a-lair trope with the gusto of Walter White for he is indeed the one who knocks, and Samuel L. Jackson is heavily under-used, acting as only a MacGuffin to give the movie’s finale some extra stakes, though that does fall a bit flat. However the main characters of Argylle are Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell. This is their movie. With Howard playing writer Elly Conway with a delightful spark, but it’s Sam Rockwell who’s the MVP, which shouldn’t come as a surprise as he’s great in these type of sarcastic roles. He gets one of the best lines and moments, and honestly he’s on top form.

In terms of negatives, the CGI is bad. Like astonishingly bad. There are some truly cool action sequences, but they were consistently hindered by the overused obvious green screen which was so jarring, and at times it felt like even when characters were standing just talking that they were still enveloped in CGI. Heck, this movie includes a cat which by the way adds nothing to the plot, but it’s there and for the most part it’s a CGI cat, which just looked daft. Also at over 2 hours the movie could have easily cut off a little fat and shortened its runtime, as it did overstay its welcome a little. That being said this is the most fun I’ve had with a Matthew Vaughn flick since his first Kingsman movie, and it was nice to switch off my brain and simply enjoy a silly nonsensical piece of entertainment. Oh, and the soundtrack choices throughout were great. Can never go wrong with a lil’ Barry White.

Overall score: 5/10

[hiddengems16]

Argyle

Finding the Patterns

Director:  Matthew Vaughn https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0891216/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

Writer:  Jason Fuchs

Producers: Adam Bohling (produced by) (p.g.a.) | Jason Fuchs (produced by )(p.g.a.) | David Reid (produced by) (p.g.a.) | Matthew Vaughn

Cinematographer: George Richmond

Casting Director: Lillie Jeffrey | Reg Poerscout-Edgerton

Well, I really had high hopes for this one - with the all star studded cast and the $200million dumped into this movie I was really excited to see what new action adventure we'd be taken on. Unfortunately it didn't live up to it's hype. That being said, I'll have to watch it again when it comes out on Apple +. We have to try everything a couple times to really truly appreciate it, right? Don't forget, if you're not an expert in this field, be nice. You know what you like as an audience member, but any movie that comes out is worthy of admiration. The things that have to happen in order for it to even it the screen is nothing short of a miracle. For that I say good job and valiant effort.

Obviously spoilers lie ahead, so if you want to stop here, just know that it is an at home movie that can be found on Apple + . (Highly recommend watching with a bottle of wine.)

On to the juicy bits -

To be honest I was most excited about watching it because of Henry Cavill, with his casting fit to be James Bond, I thought to Myself, "This is going to be a great spy movie". Not to mention - Matthew Vaughn has given us some great action packed movies like "Kick-Ass", "Kingsman: The Secret Service", and "X-men: Days of Future Past" to name a few. Needless to say, the expectation was set quite high. With the film being announced back in 2021 - we've been waiting for this "banger" for a long time, only to be met with a confusing - plot twisting story. Not to mention, not a lot of Mr. Cavill - but I digress.

This story follows the journey of Elly Conway - played by Bryce Dallas Howard. We meet Elly at the height of her career as a novelist and as she is about to finish her final book, she's met with a writer's block from hell. As she travels to get a fresh perspective for her new book, she's whisked away by a spy that suspiciously reminds her of her lead character, "Argylle" played by Henry Cavill. As the story progresses, we find that Elly is actually a spy who had her memory erased by her bosses, and the whole time her partner/lover "Aiden Wilde" - played by Sam Rockwell - has been trying to help her get her memory back while trying to out the bad guys.

There were so many twists and turns that it's hard to write them in a summary. Which leads to the first issue of this film; half-way through you think the movie is wrapping up only to be shoved in a different direction with a new story unraveling. This happens a couple more times before the movie ends. If there were 1 maybe 2 plot twists, the story would have been captivating, but the turns just kept coming.

Next, what started as an adventurous romantic spy story, turned into a ketchy cheesy love story. There was one scene where Aiden and Elly are fighting for their lives after they've found out the truth about each other and they start spraying gas everywhere that turns colors and this weird dance occurs.... it just was out of place. Sam Rockwell did "kill" that dance - pun intended! He really is a great part of this film, never faltering in what he wanted, plus his dance moves were on point.

Lastly, the casting may have been just a bit off. Bryce Dallas Howard is a talent of this age, but she may not have been right for this part. I believed that she was the author of a spy book who's been taken by surprise by reality. But a hardened spy with years of killing under her belt? It just didn't fit. Also, all of the cameos of outrageously famous people, made it feel like they were just trying to break even on their $200 million spend. On the other hand, maybe the outrageous is exactly what Matthew Vaughn was going for - to make it really feel like a story book. But as an audience member it just felt like we were being force fed famous people.

On a more positive note, the action sequences, stunts, and costuming were AMAZING! If you're looking for action, then you've found it! The wardrobe department deserves and absolute standing ovation. The colors, textures, and contrasts of EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER was impeccable! Stephanie Collie, I tip my hat to you, great job!

Also, what the hell is the cornfed Henry Cavill cameo at the end? I didn't understand that tie in with the entire movie or the preview during the credits.

On to the next one old chaps.

Thanks for reading my not expert opinions

Ta ta

[getmemymicroscope]

Like, okay - so this movie is all sorts of ridiculous (mostly in a good way). It doesn't really live up to Vaughn's Kingsman, but then, very little would. I mean - that movie had colorful exploding heads!

This one does give us a dramatic dance sequence that is overflowing with colors that seems to go for a similar sort of vibe, and one hell of an ice skating (oil skating?) sequence that's pretty cool, and a climax fight that is interspersed with scenes of Samuel L. Jackson sitting at a computer watching a full screen-sized "download" bar slowly making its way up toward 100% (these scenes also contain him getting upset when the bar stops, and super excited when it starts again) - so it isn't like it is bad. The action, in fact, is probably the highlight of this movie.

But the whole author/story combo does feel a bit of a letdown (and, to some extent, very similar to other stories that follow this same mold - I mean, just recently, Sandra Bullock's The Lost City had a sequence very similar to that where BDH is trying to write that "one more chapter"), even if you go in knowing about that, because - well, that limits how much Henry Cavill we see. Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, and John Cena are also very limited in screen time. Which is, looking back now, expected, because this is first and foremost a Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell movie, but it does make the trailer seem a bit misleading to some extent. Also, that cat has a couple of scenes - one which just complicates things for good guys a bit right at the end - but otherwise just spends most of his time in a backpack. I was expecting - I don't know. More.

The other thing that sorta bugs me is - and again, it seems to be a frequent thing in movies - that once the "twists" are all laid out (especially about Argylle), the speed in which the character goes from "I know nothing" to "I know it all" is too fast. I mean, I know they're looking at the runtime and all that, and they did have that one fight sequence to show us that some memories were coming back - but like, after that, the switch after the meeting with the keeper of secrets just seemed too fast. Even more so with the final vascular corridor thing - too suddenly be that adept with the weapon seems a bit much. Of course, maybe everything came back to Argylle whilst feeling the effects of the sleeping draught and they just didn't show/tell us that bit.

Again - it isn't that the movie is bad. It is full-on bonkers, to some extent, and the relevance of that macguffin-y flash drive is up in the air after the final destruction of everyone/everything, but, hey - I feel like this movie was sorta advertised as "come watch ridiculousness," and that is definitely what we got (once again, those final couple of fight sequences are pretty great). We also get some full-on brainwashing and, to be completely honest, once everything is out in the open, it almost explains the whole 'storytelling' thing and why her books seem so real.

I just feel like, I don't know - I walked out feeling there could have been more. Which makes no sense - because it has the ridiculous action, the crazy fight sequences, the starcast and their impeccable dressing styles, parachuting out of a train, London, and it is literally a spy movie - and yet, at the end, I was a bit underwhelmed. (Also, not sure what exactly that mid-credit scene is setting up, but hey, it's the male lead from the Enola Holmes films!)

[reptilia2003]

8, 41, 63, 95!!

8. What is your favorite concept album?

kinda obvious answers but american idiot and good kid maad city

41. Song you’ve seen live

got a whole playlist for this which is up to 45 hours as of this week https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5Y5QaAAFeG89iAxjjKC5qA?si=bU85a29TRXGmYZFbCr7whQ

if you want one song I’ll say pink rabbits by the national who I saw last week, loved that song for almost a decade so it was very special to hear that

63. a song to get drugged beyond belief to and dance and fall asleep for 3 days to?

if this is one song for all that i gotta say dance yrself clean by lcd soundsystem

95. favorite album from each decade you listen to?

i’ll do this for 60s-present I guess and also im gonna pick 2 from 70s onward because i’m indecisive, if you ask me again in 3 months i’ll have different answers but

60s: the velvet underground and nico//the velvet underground

70s: born to run//bruce Springsteen, unknown pleasures//joy division

80s: remain in light//talking heads, power corruption and lies//new order

90s: ok computer//radiohead, violator//depeche mode

00s: room on fire//the strokes, sam’s town//the killers

10s: melodrama//lorde, norman fucking rockwell//lana del rey

20s: seventeen going under//sam fender, sometimes i might be introvert//little simz

thanks izzy!!

[d-criss-news]

Illustration by João Fazenda

What Do Shakespeare and Mamet Have in Common?

Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell, and Darren Criss, who star in the Broadway revival of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” at Circle in the Square, and Neil Pepe, who directs it, met up the other day at a West Side thrift shop called No Particular Hours (“Vintage Goods / Industrial Artifacts / Dead People’s Things”). The play, from 1975, is about three desperate characters in a junk shop; the group had planned to visit one in March, 2020, shortly before the show’s opening; two years later, there they were. The proprietor, Jerry Lerner—tall, grizzled, fisherman’s cap—let them wander, offering occasional commentary. (Of a carved statue: “I used to call that Bali Parton.”) The shop, a chockablock riot of curiosities—wagon-wheel chandelier here, helmeted mannequin head there—was a bit more festive than the “Buffalo” set, and the actors were a bit snazzier than their onstage counterparts. Fishburne (Donny, the junk-shop owner) wore an African-print-inspired combo from Moshood, of Brooklyn (“I modelled for them in the eighties”), with a drawstring waist. Criss (Bobby, Donny’s slow-witted gofer) gestured at his own plaid pants, and said, “I’m also rocking the drawstring.” Rockwell (Teach, their ne’er-do-well friend) looked mischievous—rascally mustache, sweater with “high end” in colorful letters. “It’s just a sweater I got because I’m a Hollywood phony,” he said, smirking. Criss and Fishburne laughed. “I’m a dickhead, and I wore a dickish sweater,” he said. They laughed more.

“American Buffalo,” a blunt, staccato symphony of F-bombs, haplessness, and simmering rage, centers on a scheme to steal a valuable nickel and culminates in mayhem. Pepe, a prolific director of Mamet with the presence of a director of much gentler fare, leafed through a bin of old wrenches. “We’ve been talking about what makes a lot of noise,” he said. “There’s stuff that happens physically—it will all be choreographed, hopefully, so that all is safe.” Fishburne got intrigued by an old brass fire extinguisher; earthenware jugs (“Jugs, baby! Now, that’s country”), one of which he blew into, jug-band style; and an early-twentieth-century toaster, which he picked up and carried around.

“Our shop is not as nice as this,” Rockwell said. “We don’t have a ‘Clash of the Titans’ poster. Boy, I would buy that.” He crossed to a wall of old posters. “Or ‘Carmen Jones,’ ” Fishburne said. “I have the one from ‘Black Orpheus.’ ”

“Dude, that Harry Belafonte–Danny Kaye video you sent me was awesome,” Rockwell said. They fist-bumped. Which video? Criss asked.

“It’s called ‘Mama Look a Boo-Boo,’ ” Fishburne said.

“Belafonte was a real sex symbol,” Rockwell said. A feed bag caught his eye. “ ‘Purina Goat Chow,’ ” he read. “I had that for breakfast.”

In 2020, they had rehearsed for three weeks before everything shut down, then continued for several more weeks via FaceTime. “This is the longest I’ve prepared for any show in my entire life,” Criss said. Pepe said that he hoped it would feel “lived in.” Fishburne said, “I’ve wanted to do this play since I was a kid.” When “Buffalo” first made waves, he added, “I was in the Philippines, doing ‘Apocalypse Now,’ ”—but “the talk of it . . . this play changed shit for the American theatre. Nobody had used language like this before.” Pepe said, “All of a sudden, Mamet’s doing iambic with the stuff of the streets.”

Mamet wrote “American Buffalo” while living in Chicago and hanging around with poker players in a junk shop. “Some of the guys were ex-cons, and in the business of thievery,” Pepe said. “He would hear their stories. The play has this idea of wanting a bigger piece of the pie.”

“ ‘Gatsby’s Tennis Nets,’ ” Fishburne said, reading a tag aloud.

On a counter in front, a wooden box displayed a mysterious object: ivory-like, rounded, and carved with dancing skeletons. The visitors leaned in. “I was cleaning out an apartment, and I said, ‘Oh, nice bowl,’ right?” Lerner said. “Then I turned it over and said, ‘Holy crap.’ ”

��It’s a turtle shell,” Fishburne said.

“It’s the top of somebody’s skull,” Lerner said.

“Holy shit!” Criss said. “That is intense! ”

“It’s a real kapala, from Tibet,” Lerner said. “They drank blood out of that thing.” Fishburne picked up the kapala and put it on his head. Actors, skull: Had anybody done “Hamlet”?

“I did the famous speech at my high-school graduation,” Fishburne said.

“To be or not to be, that is the question,” Criss said.

“I like ‘O, what a rogue,’ I like ‘O, that this too, too solid flesh,’ ” Rockwell said. “I think those are funner.”

“Shakespeare and Mamet, to me, are extremely similar,” Criss said. He compared the musicality to a Coltrane riff.

“Even though it’s a bunch of dudes saying dirty words, they’re actually extremely vulnerable,” Rockwell said.

“The junk shop is a fence, it’s a front, it’s a clubhouse,” Pepe said.

“It’s their home,” Fishburne said. “When you start digging, you realize, Oh, yeah—this is very sweet.” ♦

[thehmn]

Seven years ago a friend made me watch the movie Moon from 2009, and even though I didn’t watch it again until recently, it never really left me. I don’t even know how often I’ve brought it up in conversations.

The least spoilery way I can describe it: A corporation mines helium from the moon using giant automated machines. Sam Bell has signed a contract that means he’ll be the only living thing on the moon for three years while he monitors the machines and repair them if they malfunction. His only company is the robot/AI GERTY who’s main job is to look after him and keep him safe. After three years alone Sam has started going a little coocoo, seeing impossible visions of other people, and his health is declining. After an accident he starts seeing a man who looks like himself who refuses to leave.

It isn’t just a story about a man trapped in his own head. There’s a real mystery about shady corporations, and Sam and GERTY have one of the best relationships between human and machine I’ve ever seen. I love GERTY’s cheap looking smiley faces that he uses to emote, and he even has a cup holder! I also love how GERTY refers to the other machines as “him” and “he” making the moon feel more populated than it is.

But seriously, GERTY is such a great character. The way he loves Sam way beyond what he has been programmed to is so sweet, and it’s a delight to watch him express his love by cooking meals for Sam and trying to help every which way he can.

The movie was written with Sam Rockwell in mind so it plays into all his strengths and he’s so very good in it. I love how uncomfortable the two men are with each other. They’re both mystified by the whole situation yet won’t talk about it. You can tell they have a feeling what’s going on, but it’s too uncomfortable for them to think about so they just dance around it, and as Sam gets sicker and sicker the other one tries to take care of him as best as he can despite their strained relationship.

So it stays with you but not in an uncomfortable way, and I highly recommend it.

[estrel]

tagged by @fluffiestlou --thank you eva!! i also really love music so i’m happy to do this!! ♡ 

playlist shuffle rules: hit shuffle on your media player and write down the first 20 then tag 10 people, no skipping!

i follow rivers - lykke li, the magician

lose it - oh wonder

i do (end credits) - kevin abstract

make you mine - public

dance, baby! - boy pablo

alps - novo amor, ed tullett

feelings - hayley kiyoko

are we still friends? - tyler, the creator

to die for - sam smith

golden - hippo campus

thin - aquilo

bottom bitch - doja cat

lilo - the japanese house

sunlight - hozier

alrighty aphrodite - peach pit

watch - billie eilish

old money - lana del rey

hourglass - vacation manor

adversity - beach fossils

as it was - hozier

ten songs i’ve been listening to lately: fair warning, it’s mostly mitski and taylor swift bc i just listened to folklore

all i wanted - paramore

my tears ricochet - taylor swift

a pearl - mitski

your best american girl - mistki

mad woman - taylor swift

whole lotta love - led zeppelin

what kind of man - florence + the machine

exile - taylor swift, bon iver

washing machine heart - mitski

new river - the oh hellos

list your nine most influential albums in no specific order:

wasteland, baby! - hozier

norman fucking rockwell - lana del rey 

boy in jeans - ryan beatty 

birthplace - novo amor

beautiful lies - birdy

feeding seahorses by hand - billie marten 

ii - aquilo

fine line - harry styles

blue neighborhood - troye sivan

tagging: @spn-moosechester @seffersonjtarship @winchester-novak @lizstiel + anyone else who wants to i dont feel like tagging 10 haha (no pressure, feel free to ignore ♡)

[thefilmfatale]

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Who says you can't laugh about the Holocaust? Certainly not Taika Waititi.

The Hunt for the Wilderpeople director’s latest film Jojo Rabbit, set in Nazi Germany with a fanatical Hitler youth at its center, is uproarious, funny, and anything but glib. The story follows 10-year-old Jojo Betzler (played by the effortlessly charismatic and magnetic Roman Griffin Davis), who idolizes Adolf Hitler so much that Hitler (played by Waititi) has become his imaginary friend, popping up like a proverbial devil-on-one’s-shoulder during random moments of turmoil to comfort and counsel our budding young Nazi. 

Jojo’s dedication to the cause is unwavering. Thanks to some imaginative Nazi propaganda, Jojo is convinced that his purpose is to exterminate Jews, whom he envisions as winged creatures that eat children and hoard anything shiny. Alas, after playing cavalier with a grenade at Hitler youth camp, Jojo suffers an accident that renders him unfit to keep training with the other children, including his best friend Yorki (played by the adorably precocious Archie Yates). He’s promptly sent home, where his angst grows due to being isolated from his Jew-hating peers. To add insult to injury, he discovers that his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) has been hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Outraged and beside himself with indignation, Jojo hatches a plan to get rid of the Jewish girl, seizing it as an opportunity to prove himself as a true Nazi believer to his peers. 

Jojo embarks on quite the character arc, and Waititi once again proves that he is a masterful director when it comes to working with children. His ability to elicit the purest, most delightful performances from child actors is amazing (just as he did in Hunt for the Wilderpeople), and the audience swiftly finds themselves endeared to Jojo and the rest of the cast. Performances from everyone were delightful, with Waititi allowing each actor (such as Johansson, Sam Rockwell, and Rebel Wilson) to bring their signature flairs to their characters. While the film is approached mostly as a period piece from an aesthetic standpoint (with costumes, set design, and color palettes largely faithful to the period), Waititi’s deliberate choices in making it anachronistic serve two purposes: to punctuate the satire, and to help make what should be a very sobering subject matter more approachable.   

The story, a loose adaptation of the book Caging Skies by Christine Leunens, while quirky and sweet certainly doesn't shy away from the real horrors of the holocaust. It’s a tightrope walk to juggle humor and atrocity, but Waititi makes it seem natural. He also knows precisely how to tug at heartstrings without being melodramatic. Jojo Rabbit’s triumph is ultimately in its ability to treat the topic of ideological extremism with the ridicule it so often deserves while at the same time provoking interesting questions about why people get sucked into blindly following charismatic demagogues, entrenching themselves in hate-filled cults, and spouting toxic ideologies. The best part? Waititi does this with so much thoughtfulness and nuance, all while serving up an entertaining, poignant story. 

By the end of Jojo Rabbit, you’re not raising your pitchforks screaming about the injustice of the Holocaust—that would be rather trite. Instead, you’re reminded that humans are complex, multi-dimensional, and capable of both immense kindness and unbridled terror. It’s a celebration of people’s capacity to change their minds. More importantly, it’s a reminder of the beauty of comedy and how laughter can be the best medicine during turbulent times. 

(More—including spoilers—under the cut)

What I love most about Jojo Rabbit is the depth of each character and how there’s so much to dissect and unpack for each one. Beginning with Jojo—we learn that not only is his father far away, in danger, fighting somewhere on the frontlines, but that he also lost his older sister Inge. We’re never told in full detail what happened to her, but the main takeaway is that her death, coupled by the absence of Jojo’s father, were tragedies that may have propelled Jojo to seek out the philosophy of the Third Reich. It’s not uncommon for young fanatics to get swept into hate groups when they are at their lowest points. When you’re angry or feeling helpless and lonely, it’s easy to externalize your pain and find someone to blame, whether it’s an entire gender, people of certain ethnicities, or members of a different political party. It’s simpler, you see, instead of owning one’s problems and acknowledging that the world doesn’t revolve around you. By making boogeymen out of people who are easy targets, we assert control over the senseless things that happen in our lives. It’s a way to feel powerful.

When you’re young, there are so many things that are out of your control. You’re caught in this torrent of everyone else’s decisions—your parents, school, your peers, society at large—and you’re looking around, flailing and hyperaware, that you’re living what is supposed to be your life and yet there seems so very little that you have ownership of. That's Jojo’s story. Not only is he caught in the middle of a war, but he’s grappling with some seriously heavy shit: an absentee father, a dead sister, a craving for acceptance from his peer group and, ultimately, a longing for connection that is rooted in positivity rather that hate. 

At first that connection seems to be cultivated by his mother, Rosie, who is literally and figuratively the most vibrant character in the film. From her bold, striking fashion sense and rouged lips to her joie de vivre, Rosie is, to quote Mulan, a flower that blooms in adversity. Even during the bleakest of times, she finds ways to uplift her son, whom she can tell is hurting. Her bursts of energy, her ability to find excitement and enthusiasm even in the most mundane of things, her rally to dance in the face of tragedy—all were reminders that dwelling on hatred and sorrow, while easy and sometimes necessary, is a crutch in a balm’s disguise. We must always forge ahead and seek hope when all feels lost, like “staring a tiger in the eyes”, as Rosie would say. That’s why, despite the risks of being caught by the Gestapo, she housed a Jewish girl in her home. In some small way, she was doing her part in the resistance against a hateful movement. While Rosie says she’s never stared a tiger in the eyes, her act of defiance came at great risk to herself, and that’s true courage.

In one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the film, Jojo is wandering the streets when he notices a bright, blue butterfly fluttering against the backdrop of hate-filled propaganda smattered on the city walls. He chases it wistfully and accidentally stumbles on the gallows in the middle of the town square. All the audience sees, hanging from the gallows, is a pair of legs with bright-colored shoes, and our hearts immediately sink. It’s Rosie. Waititi leads up to this shocking moment during a previous scene, while Jojo and Rosie are hanging out by a river. Rosie makes fun of Jojo for still being unable to tie his own shoes. She’s skipping gleefully on top of a concrete wall, with the camera trained low at Jojo’s eye-level, so the audience sees a shot of her shoes as she taps into a merry little dance. Waititi counts on viewers remembering this quiet scene to make what follows truly devastating. The effect is quite heart-stopping, and it’s impossible to want to reach out and give poor Jojo a hug as he cries out and wraps his arms around his dead mother’s feet. It’s then that Waititi makes his message known: Yes, there’s plenty to make light of in the world, but you can do this while also acknowledging that there’s plenty of darkness. It’s an impressive balancing act, and Waititi does it with so much wonderful exuberance and earnestness that it’s tough not to commend.

Viewers notice that the more Jojo focuses on the positive things in his life—his mother, his new Jewish friend Elsa—the less we see of his imaginary friend Hitler. And this is a deliberate choice by Waititi to prove a point: when you are consumed with hate, you’ll want to constantly keep feeding it because it’s comfortable and easy. As humans, we have a biological negative bias that we rely on as a means of survival. The very idea of entropy exists as a reminder that it takes more work to put things in order, to be good, to rise above, than for things to decay and distort and devolve. The more you fill your life with things that bring you joy, fulfillment, and contentment, the less you’ll rely on poisonous literature and toxic people. While this isn't exactly an epiphany for most of us, one may applaud Waititi for the inventive way he delivers this message.  

Another delightful character who, on the surface, seemed to be solely there for comedic effect, was Sam Rockwell’s Captain Klenzendorf, who’s tasked with whipping up these little rascals into Nazi-fighting shape. From the very get go, we sense that this man’s commitment to the Nazi cause is entirely for appearances’ sake. From his clandestine romance with his right-hand man (played by Games of Thrones’ Alfie Allen) to his soft spot for Jojo, the audience is led to believe that this man is merely pretending to be a hard-ass because that’s what you were expected to do, else be accused of treason to your nation. One could assume his affection for Jojo had something to do with being able to sympathize with the young boy after Jojo is relegated to doing simple jobs due to his injury (Klenzendorf claims he was benched from the frontlines because of an injury that led to him having a dead eye). But it’s toward the end of the film where we fully realize the totality of his character. In an earlier scene, Jojo is bullied by some older boys into killing a rabbit. They jeer at him as he wrestles with the decision to kill an innocent animal. He’s torn between wanting desperately to ingratiate himself into his peer group and staying true to the part of himself that’s kind, pure, innocent, and staunchly against needless violence. The music builds as we lean forward in our seats waiting to see what Jojo does. He decides on an act of mercy at his own expense, releasing the bunny and yelling at it to flee from danger. Unfortunately, before it has a chance to escape, the bunny is snatched up by one of the older boys, who wrings its neck in front of all the young boys to see. 

At first this seems like a scene that’s simply supposed to be an obnoxious display of bravado. But Waititi calls back to this scene towards the end of the film twice. Klenzendorf arrives at the Betzler household when it is being searched and ransacked by the Gestapo, who suspect Rosie has been aiding Jews. Jojo is terrified, not just to be discovered as traitors by the Gestapo but for Elsa’s (the Jewish girl they have been hiding who has now become his friend) safety. To get ahead of the situation, Elsa emerges from her hiding place and pretends to be Jojo’s dead sister Inge. When the Gestapo demand her paperwork, she shows them Inge’s old ID card. Klenzendorf immediately intercedes, grabs the ID from her hand and demands that she variate her identity by stating her birthday. Elsa stammers in response. “Correct,” Klenzendorf confirms flatly. The Gestapo consider this acceptable and vacate the premises, none the wiser. We discover immediately that Elsa had actually given the wrong birthdate, and Klenzendorf could have outed her right then, but decided not to. He was helping the bunny escape.

In another scene, when the Allied troops march into Germany and start rounding up all the Nazi soldiers, Jojo (who has a Nazi officer’s jacket on) is mistaken for one of them. He runs into Captain Klenzendorf, who creates a commotion by wrenching the Nazi jacket off of Jojo’s back and pushing him away, telling him to flee while yelling at him for being a dirty Jew so the Allies don’t execute him. It was an act of sacrifice from a man who recognized himself in the young boy. Klenzendorf saw Jojo’s gentleness and purity of heart and knew this kid needed to live. He released the bunny, stared a tiger squarely in the eyes—at the expense of his own life.

Jojo Rabbit, while certainly laugh-out-loud funny and full of amusement, is a moving story about heroism from a group of people who rarely ever get acknowledgment for their acts of bravery. These were Germans who defied their Führer and their Aryan brotherhood at great risk to their own lives. While these acts will never erase the horrors of the Holocaust, it’s a reminder that people are complicated creatures, capable of miraculous acts of mercy and horrific deeds of violence. It implores us to think about how some of the people that get caught up in hate groups are hurting deeply and just looking for something to blame their pain on. It definitely doesn’t excuse their actions or the bile they oftentimes spew, but it merely reminds us that behind every caricature is a human being in pain. 

Even if you see Jojo Rabbit and don’t think it’s that deep—you may say “Starr, it’s just a comedy about stupid Nazis, it’s not even a true story”. What is true about it is that we live in a world of grey, and while it may be simpler to put people in buckets of black and white, hero and villain, good and bad, more often than not we are all just hurting in some way. What’s true about it is that we have more in common than we have differences and ultimately, everyone regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, craves the same thing: freedom; Freedom from the burdens that we carry on our shoulders, from dead loved ones to strife and war. Freedom from the fear of persecution for being who we are. The freedom to wear whatever we want, screw whomever we want, and to dance like no one’s looking. 

[dafukdidiwatch]

Mr. Right

With a guy like that, you can never be wrong

So this might be a short review because I honestly really absolutely love this film. It’s silly and dorky and just the right about of fluff and violence.

Overview: Martha discovers her boyfriend cheating on her and is in a rut. She finds herself falling for a zany guy who claims to be a hitman. And he is. So begins their struggles of maintaining a relationship, while trying to avoid being murdered.

Listen, normally, I’m not into RomComs. Like when I was younger, I saw some bad RomComs and it sort of turned me off on them. Like if I have to watch it, I would, but they aren’t my first pick. So when my sister wanted to watch this, I was just sort of expecting to suffer through it.

By god am I glad I was wrong.

This movie is freaking adorable. I mean, it really it. Even during murder scenes it has this comedic charm to it. Even during serious battle moments there is this funny banter going on to make you laugh.

Crewman #6. His real name is Sam Rockwell, but I first saw him in Galaxy Quest. So, Crewman #6. He’s such a fucking dork. He’s a complete weirdo but is so genuine in what he’s feeling and what he’s doing that you just love him. But don’t let that fool you, he is Still a hitman and Will kill people. We first see him killing people, so there is no hiding what he does. But it’s so fucking cool!

He dances while killing people! He literally sets a rhythm for his own fights! He break dances and tangos as he kicks their asses! That’s actually really hot. Especially with his laid back attitude and genuine interest in Martha. He’s just, a really dorky boyfriend.

Martha is such a Mess™. Like, an absolute mess. But it’s understandable, given how she broke up. She exasperates her friends with shenanigans, is also a weirdo, but it fits with this dorky charm that both she and Crewman #6 has when they are together. It’s just, they are so adorable together! So much freaking fluff!

Not to say that the relationship doesn’t have it’s struggles. You know how it is, with being a hitman, having people want to kill you, having to kill people, having your potential girlfriend find out you kill people, having people pull you into this attempted assassination plot of a side gang. You know, the usual.

Yeah, not much else to say about this. It’s just, flipping cute, hilarious, and a fun film about two crazy people falling in love.

[mariephillipswriter]

Square Eyes

Do they still say that if you watch too much television you'll get square eyes? Or is that an expression that went out of fashion when kids started spending all their time in front of the internet? Putting aside the obvious riposte (televisions aren't square, they're rectangular) I can report that I have been doing extensive research in this area and have come to the scientific conclusion: no, you won't. I have been watching so much television. SO MUCH TELEVISION. I never believed that I could watch such an immense quantity of television. On the whole I don't watch it during the day except for sometimes when I am having my breakfast and also when having my lunch, but in the evenings, when I have finished pretending to work, I might start watching television at about 6pm, or 5pm, or 4pm on a bad day, and keep going until, say, 11pm or midnight. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE. HOW CAN A PERSON LIVE THIS WAY. Well it's easy enough, it turns out, if you're under lockdown in London in December and it's dark from 4pm and raining most of the time and you have the emotional resources of a gnat and reading is too demanding and talking on the phone is too exhausting and the light in the living room is not good enough for doing a puzzle in evening hours and you quit social media a month or so ago because it was driving you out of your mind with anxiety. I don't watch six or seven or eight hours of television every night. Don't be ridiculous. Some nights I only watch about three hours of television because I have a Zoom call or I'm cooking dinner or I've got stuck into a good cryptic crossword, maybe the Saturday Times Jumbo one because the Guardian ones are too gimmicky, or at last I've found a book gripping yet easy enough that I can't put it down (thank you Robert Galbraith, thank you Marian Keyes), but I would say that three hours is the minimum and my god that is a LOT. EVERY DAY. THREE HOURS. MINIMUM. But you don't need to me to explain that to you because you are all watching three four five six seven hours of television every day and when you are not watching television you are phoning your friends and first of all talking about the specific way that your own personal lockdown is terrible but then eventually saying 'what are you watching on television' because what else is there even to talk about? At the start of lockdown there was quite a small pool of television that everyone was watching (that thing about the Tiger King, which I didn't watch because by the time I got back from my early lockdown in Costa Rica you'd all seen it, and Normal People which I didn't watch because I was too embarassed to sit through all the sex scenes with my flatmates, and I May Destroy You, which I didn't watch because about five minutes of it was enough to send me into a massive panic spiral, but I hear was very good), but once we had all (other than me) got through that and Covid dragged on for months, our conversations began taking on the tenor of Vikings crowding around one another as a boat returns from a foray, WHAT IS OUT THERE, WHAT DID YOU FIND OUT THERE, IS THERE SOMETHING OUT THERE THAT I MIGHT DESIRE? And the Viking says yes, there is this thing called Schitts Creek but you really have to push on through the first season because I promise you it gets better and better and you will start to love that obnoxious family. And then we all watched Schitts Creek. (Including me, it's wonderful, you have to push on through the first series you will start to love that obnoxious family, Dan Levy is a divinity in human form and if you want more of him you could do worse than checking out the lesbian Christmas-themed romcom Happiest Season, which you can rent from Amazon Prime.) And now we are beyond even that and all our lives resonate with the screeching sound of a televisual barrel being scraped and now this is when things get really interesting (or put another way, VERY VERY BORING) because everyone has fractured and we are all watching different kinds of random stuff found in the dusty corners and unloved algorithms of our streaming services. There's the friend who has got into watching obscure French crime series on Netflix (The Chalet! La Mante!) and the friend who is watching every episode of Poirot on Britbox (thirteen series, 70 episodes) (though that pales in comparison with the friend who did a total rewatch of Friends from beginning to end (236 episodes) and finished it ages ago and is starving for more) and the friend who calls me up seemingly every week with a new old show nobody else has ever heard of (such as the early 1990s Nigel Havers and Warren Clarke comedy spy drama Sleepers, which he is watching old-school-style on DVD, and which apparently is like The Americans only with Nigel Havers and funny, and also, you should watch The Americans.) When I look back on the amount of television I have watched this year it defies comprehension. There were the things I would have watched anyway like the whole of Strictly Come Dancing and His Dark Materials, and the things that took me by surprise, like the stealthily hilarious Danny Dyer gameshow The Wall that was on straight after Strictly and drove me into a total obsession with the way that Danny Dyer says "Drop 'Em" (he's talking about the balls that are dropped down the wall, it's hard to explain, you can find it on iPlayer, but meanwhile if you only click on one link in this whole newsletter PLEASE click on that one), there were the things that were created especially to get me through lockdown (the wonderful David Tennant and Michael Sheen Zoom comedy Staged, which is not only extremely funny but allows you to see inside David Tennant's house which I'm not sure I am technically allowed to watch because of the restraining order? Anyway, new series coming on Monday, fellow DT fans) and the familiar things I watched to soothe me when it all got too much (Doctor Who, starting before Tennant even gets in on the action, right at the begining of the New Who seasons with Christopher Eccleston, because armchair space travel is the only kind of travel we are going to be getting for a while) and the exciting things I watched when I could no longer bear the tedious repetition of every identical day (Line of Duty, in which the famous-for-the-far-inferior Bodyguard writer Jed Mercurio delivers ludicrously compelling twisty-turny stories about police corruption that cannot be predicted for even a nanosecond) and the things that I watched just because I loved them (Fosse/Verdon, the Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon bio-series starring the breathtakingly charismatic Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams, which is one of the best-made pieces of television I've ever seen, Love Life, the Anna Kendrick romantic comedy series which was surprisingly touching and truthful about the relationships that make up a life and which didn't make me want to open a vein as a single person the way that many looking-for-love shows do, and Better Things, a sort-of-comedy sort-of-drama written, directed by and starring Pamela Adlon, which began as a collaboration with Louis CK and initially reflected the sensibility of his show Louie, but became far more experimental and interesting once, after CK's disgrace, Adlon took over completely - the fourth series is maybe the closest thing I've seen on TV to a representation of the rhythms of real life, with long scenes of Adlon just cooking a meal on her own, or contemplating the rain, of having arguments with her children that explode from nowhere and end just as suddenly with tears or laughter or nothing at all.) And this entire paragraph is just things that I have watched on the BBC. Not even everything that I have watched on the BBC. The BBC is INCREDIBLE and my license fee has been serious value for money, before you even count all that time spent watching the news [Munch Scream emoji]. But overall, it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of television that I have watched this year. Though while we're here, have you noticed that sometimes it's more relaxing to watch something bad than something good? Have you noticed that a vapid, cliched show like Virgin River (heartbroken city nurse with a secret moves to small town and falls in love with battle-wounded bartender with a secret), a show that makes This Is Us look like Succession, has the same effect on your brain that taking off your work shoes and putting on your slippers has for your feet? You can rest now, it says, there is nothing more for you to do. Have you noticed how easy it is to chug down, say, four episodes in a row of Designated Survivor - a show designed by a committee charged with taking elements of The West Wing, Homeland and 24, and making something similar but, crucially, much more ridiculous - without your mind even noticing that anything has happened at all? And if you're really ready for something utterly idiotic, might I suggest The Bold Type, in which three twentysomething girls in bonkers designer outfits "work" at an aspirationally "feminist" glossy magazine, and by "work" I mean constantly leave the office in the middle of the day to take care of personal business, and by "feminist" I mean "empowering women by for example having them post selfies of themselves looking perfect but without makeup on social media", a feminism so very feminist that they called the magazine's parent company Steinem in the first series and then had to change it to Safford, I can only presume because Gloria Steinem threatened to sue them. A couple of episodes of that is the televisual equivalent of having a nice relaxing full frontal lobotomy. Don't get me wrong: I love these shows. I owe them more gratitude than I can say. I would be unable to survive without them. I've managed to watch five hours of television just since starting this post24 hours ago (three episodes of Doctor Who, half a really cheap and very bad Sky Arts documentary about the musical Hamilton, and a travelogue in which Torvill and Dean go in search of a frozen lake in Alaska on which to dance Bolero but can't find one for almost the entire show because of global warming, which made me simultaneously and conflictingly want to give up air travel, fly to Alaska immediately, become obsessed with Torvill and Dean AND wonder how they managed to skate together all these decades without killing each other especially Torvill but also especially Dean). Five hours of TV, sounds like a lot, but with eight hours of sleep, that still left me eleven hours to fill in this boring boring boring boring BORING BORING BORING boring boring BORING boring BORING BORING lockdown. I think I am being incredibly restrained, all things considered. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some time to kill, having finished writing this post, and with at least five hours to fill before bed. I wonder what's on TV?

***

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[gibelwho]

Top 5: Best Films of 2019

2019 was another momentous year for me - spent the first half of the year living at my in-laws house while we waited to move into our forever home, then spending the back half of the year doing house projects as we slowly unpacked. We weren’t consistently heading to the cinema, but we’ve done a race to fit in many more films before the Oscars, which was held this past weekend and where Parasite made history as the first foreign language film to win Best Picture. This is my second year in a row publishing my thoughts on ranking the past year in cinema, so despite the many life changes, excited to keep the tradition going.

Gibelwho Productions Presents Best Films of 2019

5. Marriage Story

4. Parasite

3. Little Women

2 Jojo Rabbit

1917

Marriage Story (November 2019): The film, written and directed by Noah Baumbach, explores the unraveling of a marriage, where the two people are navigating their way through divorce and must forge some sort of ongoing relationship for the sake of their son. The story is an exploration of identity - being part of a couple, emerging as an individual, surviving as a parent, and balancing one’s career. Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver shine in their performances, finding the truth in each scene, displaying the humanity of flawed people, and really going at it during their epic meltdown fight. The supporting cast is stellar as well, delivering moments of humor, ugliness, and empowerment - notably Laura Dern’s speech about society’s different expectations placed on mothers and fathers. Filmed on location in New York and Los Angeles, the story casts a devastating eye on how two people who have separated can still retain some love in the face of heartbreaking agony.

Parasite (October 2019): A film that starts off as a comical exploration of a poor family slowly infiltrating the house of a rich family in Seoul, then shifts halfway through to become a suspenseful thriller with sequences of violence. Co-writer and director Bong Joon-ho explores the nature of the upstairs / downstairs dynamic, not only having the story center on those in service of the rich family, but also with the production design of the two houses featured in the film. The rich family lives far above the main streets in a multi-level home, with stairs that lead up to a beautifully manicured garden; the poor family’s living quarters is in the lower section of town, they live below the streets, and must contend with the danger of flooding. Avoiding spoilers, a third set of staircases hold a secret that ultimately spells danger for both families. This film has made Oscar history and has opened more people up to the world of International cinema; as Joon-ho said so eloquently in one of his acceptance speeches: “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

Little Women (December 2019): Adapting a classic novel for the modern era, especially one that has been relatively recently brought to the silver screen, one must insist on bringing an original take - or why else bother. Writer and director Greta Gerwig not only took on that challenge, but elevated the material to a higher degree than has been achieved in previous adaptations. Splitting up the linear story into two timelines allowed a commentary on the past and present that gave more life to the characters and depth to their journeys. Having never read Little Women, I was enchanted by discovering these characters brought to life by a terrific ensemble, including Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, and Timothee Chalamet. Additionally, Gerwig pens an ambiguous ending that will satisfy book readers who felt betrayed by character turns that Louisa May Alcott felt pressured to deliver for publishers in 1868, but that didn’t feel true to her character’s spirit.

Jojo Rabbit (October 2019): Imagine writer and director Taika Waititi pitching his adapted screenplay to studio executives: a story that centers on a young boy growing up in Nazi Germany, who attends the Hitler Youth camp, and whose invisible friend is Adolf Hitler himself. Oh yes, and it will be a comedy, tragedy, hopeful, heartbreaking, hilarious, and shocking - dancing between the shades of tones and the audience will follow along with each beat. What makes this film succeed is the casting of Roman Griffin Davis, who despite his love for swastikas, steals the heart of the viewer with his earnest innocence and hilarious delivery, along with his interaction with his little friend Yorki (Archie Yates), his Hitler Youth leader (Sam Rockwell), and the Jewish girl he finds hidden in the upstairs bedroom (Thomasin McKenzie). Waititi is a genius filmmaker, who took all his Marvel Cinematic Universe clout and made a film about the dangers of youth growing up in the time of fascism, preaching an anti-hate message that the world needs to be reminded of in these nationalistic times.

1917 (December 2019): A film that centers on one technical conceit - that a full length feature film is constructed as one continuous shot - could fall under the weight of that enterprise, but 1917 delivers on all fronts - artistically, emotionally, and yes, technically. While the film is not actually one long shot, whole sequences are sustained for minutes on end, an environment more accustomed to theater actors than those working in film and one that brings a weight of reality to the character’s journey. Due to the story - two men must cross No Man’s Land to deliver an urgent message to a general that could save thousands of lives - the leads are constantly moving, through trenches, across the muddy no man’s land, through fields and streams, and finally the battlefield. The camera follows them through tight interior spaces and open fields, finding inventive ways to track their movements in the war zone. The two leads (George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman) deliver incredible performances as they slog through the countryside, encountering incredible British actors for short, yet powerful, scenes along the way. Co-writer and director Sam Mendes leads an incredible team that achieves cinematic glory and Roger Deakins proves for the second year in a row that he is producing the best work of his career. 1917 is not a traditional war film - through its formal choices, it endeavors to place the viewer directly inside the experience of soldiers in the First World War.

Honorable Mentions: 

Knives Out (November 2019): A classic whodunit that involves a twist of all twists - solving the mystery halfway through the film; what can the movie possibly spend the rest of the runtime on? This is the genius of writer and director Rian Johnson - he somehow manages to ratchet up the tension and reveal deeper twists and turns that subvert genre expectations. A stellar cast supports the murder mystery, led by Ana de Armas, a lighthearted Jamie Lee Curtis who is chewy the scenery, and a broad performance by Daniel Craig as the lead investigator. Chris Evans’ winter sweater became the breakout star of the film and the production design included an epic knives sculpture that plays a vital role in the climax of the film. 

Terminator: Dark Fate (November 2019): I am not a huge fan of the Terminator franchise - I’ve seen the first and second installments, but have skipped the rest of the sequels and never went for the television shows. I entered the viewing of this film with low expectations, and thus was pleasantly surprised by how feminist this film is. Linda Hamilton commands every moment of screen time, the enhanced human protector from the future was an incredible mix of strength and vulnerability, and even when Arnold enters the picture, he knows when to stand back when the women are in command. Yes, there is a totally ridiculous action sequence in a falling plane that defines reality and physics, but there are more moments of women communicating intelligently and emotionally and also women taking command and driving the action forward that fully impressed for what could have been a throwaway addition to the Terminator canon. 

Avengers Endgame (April 2019): With this film, the MCU has concluded its first major story arc, wrapping up a 10 years long buildup of the Avengers and affiliated heroes fighting the Mad Titan Thanos in an epic battle. Yes, the film does build up to a climactic final battle, but it takes it’s time getting there, choosing instead to focus on how the character’s we’ve grown to love over the past decade deal with the Snap that killed friends and family and left the world a broken place. The plot really gets moving when a time travel element is introduced and, in one of several lovely tributes to my beloved Star Trek, brings the viewer back through memorable moments in the MCU’s history, layering on meta commentary or radically changing the shape of the past. This film was a bold risk to focus on character over spectacle (at least for a while) and to craft a fitting tribute for the two titans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - Steve Rogers and Tony Stark.

Apollo 11 (March 2019): The American space program of the 1960s has long held a fascination in our household and so we rushed out to see the documentary that promised new footage for the seminal event that landed a man on the moon. To our delight, the film revealed itself to be a cinematic achievement as well. Director Todd Douglas Miller chose not to narrate the film with an omniscient voice; rather, choosing to fill the audio landscape with diegetic sound from contemporary source material - journalists asking questions in a press conference, back and forth between the astronauts and NASA headquarters, and newscasters reporting the progress to the nation. Some of the shots included in this film, all archival footage and some newly released 70mm material, are so beautifully composed and complex shots; it's an astonishment that this thoughtful filmmaking was done to capture one of the nation’s greatest achievements and this documentary honors that effort on its 50th anniversary.