Micro Review – Outlaw King

  I don't think this movie wants to be an appendage to Braveheart. But that's what it is. It picks up where Braveheart left off, following Robert the Bruce in his morally questionable journey to unite Scotland and free it from British rule (the goal is not morally questionable, but the actions he takes to achieve this goal certainly are). I keep going back and forth...
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Micro Review – Focus

I watched this movie while vacationing in Mexico, when there were only a couple channels in English. I missed the beginning. But I saw enough to know how I feel about it. I still love my girl Margot Robbie, and Will Smith is still a straight up superstar. There were brief elements of fun and entertainment. And it's a slick-looking movie and all. But this mostly felt like it was...
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October Playlist Ready!

It's November, so that means I've completed my monthly October playlist! These playlists are a place for me to remember the songs that struck me throughout the month. It helps me create my lists at the end of the year. And it's fun to go back and listen to what I was into at various points throughout the year. You can kind of track my listening habits and, to a certain degr...
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Review – American Made

  There’s been this new drama/action thriller genre over the past couple decards. I’ve come to think of these movies as Icarus Movies. They’re “Based on a True Story” movies, where an American risk-taker gets sucked into an international criminal enterprise, gets caught up in the lavish lifestyle, flies too close to the sun, and then ultimately gets caught. Sometime...
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Review – Sorry To Bother You

  Sorry To Bother You is like an extended episode of Atlanta directed by Spike Jonze. And not just because of Lakeith Stanfield’s presence. This can be taken as both a compliment and a criticism. Director Boots Riley borrows the absurdist humor and magical realist environment from Spike Jonze. And from Donald Glover’s Atlanta, he borrows an underlying mysticism – wh...
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Micro Review – Murder on the Orient Express

I'm glad that this kind of movie can still be made, and actually be successful. For one, I love the time period and the genre. It harkens back to the earlier days of cinema. Films like The Maltese Falcon, or Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. And while this iteration of Agatha Christie's classic isn't perfect, I still thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I imagine this is th...
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Review – Eighth Grade

  For some reason, it's easy to write off certain times in our lives. Upon first reflection (as a 32-year-old), my time in junior high feels so inconsequential and innocuous, having gotten through it relatively unscathed, and then gotten through high school (which always felt a lot scarier than junior high anyway). And then there's college, which is a reset of sorts...
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Micro Review – Maniac

I can't pinpoint a particular reason why I liked this limited series. It's the type of bizarre, genre-bending storytelling that I often enjoy (when executed well). But there are so many shows and films out there doing that these days (trying to be crazy and philosophical in an attempt to stand out), so it doesn't always mean they're doing it right. To be honest, I'm not sur...
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Best Films of 2017

  I know, I know. It's 2018. It's almost the end of 2018, actually. And here I am, posting my list of Best 2017 Films. I intended to do this in, like, February. Back when this was still a relevant topic. But I never did. I suppose I was too busy watching movies to put this together. But then a funny thing happened. My torrid film-watching pace through the first 5 or...
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Review – First Man

When you look up in the sky on a clear night, you’ll often see the moon perched above the skyline. It shines so bright that your eyes are naturally drawn to it. And it’s so easy to forget that we’ve been there. That a man has stepped foot on that distant rock. It’s easy to forget because it’s almost inconceivable. It’s all the way out there, in the dark midnight sky, and we...
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