Joy Reviews Movies

Looking for something?
Archives
Archives
Find me!

I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. (2017)

06/03/2017 · by Joy

I don’t even know how I ended up stumbling across this one on Netflix. It’s a Netflix original and it was really good. I didn’t know what to expect, but at the same time, even if I did expect something, it would have been totally different. Melanie Lynskey is one of those people who I almost always enjoy watching, but never think of as one of my “favourite” actresses. She can do it all and she can do it all well. She just slips herself in there and does a good job but doesn’t seem to get a whole lot of praise for it, which is a shame! And Elijah Wood is always enjoyable to watch too (Maniac remake, anyone? The critics weren’t fans but I enjoyed it!)

I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., with it’s inconveniently long title was an exercise in powerlessness and “riding the wave.” It was weird, it was interesting, it got thrilling really damn fast… it was good! I was impressed! I watched it last night and I’ve been thinking about it all day. Every performance was on point… the story at first felt too thin to carry a feature-length film but it got better.

It was just the right amounts of funny and shocking, but most of all, it was quirky. I’m not sure if it will get a Bluray release since it’s a Netflix film, but if it does.. I want it. And thus ends the shortest movie review I’ve (probably) ever written!

Moonlight (2016)

03/03/2017 · by Joy

I went into Moonlight knowing nothing about the plot. All I knew was that there was a character somewhere in the film at some point named Chiron and only because the Twitter-verse told me so. I had high expectations, though, of course, because it was this year’s Best Picture!

Moonlight was different… but different in all the right ways. It was intimate and revealing. It was beautiful, but at the same time, so incredibly, appallingly ugly. The acting was amazing. I’m not at all surprised that Mahershala Ali won Best Supporting Actor, because I was awestruck by his performance. But really, everyone was great. There isn’t a single performance in Moonlight that I can honestly say didn’t blow me away.

It’s definitely not a film I’d suggest for say, a group of friends to watch together, or for a date, because it’s slow. It crawls along, but I feel like that gave it more of an edge and made it feel that much more real. I also feel like not everyone is going to like it. As much as it is a film that speaks to the issue of race, it’s a film that speaks about masculinity and what is “expected” of a man, black or otherwise, in society.

What Moonlight does best is introduce us to the character of Chiron. When you finish the movie, you feel like you knew Chiron because it does such a great job of really showing you who Chiron is as a person and how he came to be that way.

In sum, it was something I was not expecting at all because I read nothing about the plot or the characters or any reviews before starting it. I watched it because of the people pulling for it on Twitter to win Best Picture – because of the people who were so crestfallen when La La Land “won” the Oscar – and I regret nothing.

Nocturnal Animals

27/02/2017 · by Joy

I don’t really know where to start with Nocturnal Animals. I just have a lot of feelings about it and none of them are all that positive! I went into this film intrigued by the plot summary provided by the Google Play Store and I came out so thoroughly disappointed. I hadn’t (and still haven’t) seen his other film A Single Man (2009), but I really don’t think I’m that excited to ever see it.

Nocturnal Animals is a very stylish film, but really, I feel like that’s where the compliments end. It was all style and so little substance? The story-within-the-story was more interesting than the overall story and even then, I don’t think it was enough to pull its own weight… as in, I don’t think it could have stood on its own. I think that, more than anything, I was expecting a thriller and what I got was… a bore. It was only 2 hours long, but it felt like 4. That’s never a good sign. I was left saying, “Thank god that’s over,” and feeling a wave of relief combined with absolute bafflement at the ending, or lack thereof. It felt like Tom Ford was like, “I really don’t have any idea how to end this film… so I won’t.” And then he subsequently does not. You spend the whole time waiting for some kind of ultimate pay-off after this pretentious, gruelling two-hour spectacle only to be letdown. SPOILER ALERT: Amy Adams gets stood up. That’s her ex-husband’s big revenge. That’s the big finale. The Big Finish.

Even with A+ performances from Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (etc. but those were the ones that stood out the most for me), it’s just not enough. It leaves you feeling like you’ve just watched some film student’s incomplete project. I just felt depressed.

Most of the reviews I have glanced over have mentioned something about it being a film that “makes you think,” but all it made me think was that I should have spent the last 2 hours of my life watching something more enjoyable. Like paint drying, perhaps, or maybe grass growing.

I mean, maybe there’s something I’m totally missing, but I can see where it was trying to go: fantasy revenge is awesome, reality revenge is chickening out and being totally petty; “You killed my child so I’m going to write a book about how your actions totally wounded me…” But it just fell so flat for me. It’s definitely not something I’d go so far as to recommend or to watch again, and I certainly won’t be adding it to my collection.

Get Out (2017)

23/02/2017 · by Joy

When I see a movie that has been reviewed 94 times on Rotten Tomatoes and it’s still sitting at a score of 100%… colour me intrigued. I mean, I was intrigued already because a horror/thriller film written by Jordan Peele??? Not only written, but directed, as well!? This could go very very well, or it could go very very poorly. It was… weird, bizarre and Stepford-esque. It was… satirical. It was… something… something that I very much enjoyed. It takes a lot to get me genuinely creeped out in a movie. I won’t say scared, because I wasn’t scared, per se, but I was genuinely freaked out. Maybe because while the concept that this movie is based on isn’t entirely based in reality, it’s juuuust on the precipice of “not that far-fetched” for me to go, “whoa, okay.”

The racial undertones (if you can really call them “under”-tones as they’re pretty blatantly obvious) are clever and satirical and Peele uses great finesse to make a movie that is so unsettling because of it’s roots in reality all around us.

Barring the racial themes, Get Out is actually an intelligent thriller film that isn’t overly cliche. I mean, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a horror, even though it was pretty horrifying. It’s one of those hard to place movies that doesn’t really fit in any one category. If nothing else, it is unforgettable. I don’t want to go into it too too much because I really feel like if you’re reading this, you need to see this one. It was so many shades of “WTF,” I can’t even begin.

Final review (I’m rambling): Jordan Peele came out of the directing woodwork on fire… I am truly impressed. The acting was spot-on (Betty Gabriel knocks it out of the park, especially). It acts as a social commentary, chilling thriller, with hints of comedy to keep you breathing throughout. I will own this movie. I must add it to my collection!

The Harry Potter Series (2001-2011): Part II

19/02/2017 · by Joy

Well, we did it! We finished the entirety of the Harry Potter series. 19 hours and 40 minutes later, we have been enlightened. Well, I mean, I already knew what happened, but David has been enlightened. I really enjoyed the last few movies. Even Order of the Phoenix was good while I found the book rather dull and dragging. I think the movies really benefited from having a consistent director and it’s too bad that David Yates hadn’t done all of the films. There were certain continuity errors that were likely caused by not having the same director all the way through. But even so, a very solid series with the lowest film rating on Rotten Tomatoes at a two-way tie between Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, both sitting at 78% which is still certified fresh! Honestly, I think my least favourite in the series was probably Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince… I really find scenes with Ginny just dreadful. I Googled it and found so many threads about movie Ginny being the worst and I 200% agree. She’s awful and doesn’t do book Ginny justice. She has no presence, no character development, and absolutely 0 personality. She is a cardboard character and it’s such a shame. Even still, it is now my goal to add all of the Harry Potter films to my Bluray collection (as of yesterday, I only require Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, and Deathly Hallows: Part 1… thanks pawn shops!)

So instead of coming up with some qualms I have about the wizarding world (while I have many and I definitely still stand by my previous ones 100% – especially guns vs magic… guns win every time, safety or no), this time I thought I’d provide you with a little something I have compiled: a drinking game! Everyone loves drinking games and even if you don’t like Harry Potter, you can’t deny the movies are good movies. So here are some of the rules I came up with for all of the movies. I know some websites go for a movie by movie approach, but that was just too tedious and if you’re marathon-ing the films, you’ll know which films apply and when, so here you go:

Joy Reviews Movies’ Harry Potter Drinking Game Rules Master List (Good Luck):

Take one drink when…

Draco Malfoy threatens, “Wait until my father hears about this…”
Harry Potter’s scar is visibly in pain
Ron Weasley whines about something (take a second if it has to do with spiders or when it has to do with Harry Potter being chosen for the Tri-Wizard Tournament)
Someone says that Harry Potter has his mother’s eyes or looks just like his father (take 2 if it’s Snape… you’ll need that extra drink)
A new rule gets posted on the wall of Hogwarts by Filch
Voldemort is referred to as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”
Anyone says anything stereotypically “British” (“bloody hell,” “blimey,” – this is pretty much up to your discretion)
Hermione Granger answers a professor’s question in class
Harry Potter is oblivious to something everyone else in the wizarding world seems to be aware of (e.g., who Sirius Black is)
Luna Lovegood references Nargles
Harry Potter is referred to as “The Boy Who Lived”

Take two drinks when…

Points are added to Gryffindor house
Points are deducted from Gryffindor house
Harry Potter meets someone for the first time (good luck…)
Literally anyone says that Harry Potter is the “chosen one”
The pensieve is used (by anyone)
An Unforgivable Curse is used (Crucio, Imperio, Avada Kedavra)
A Dementor tries to suck out someone’s soul (whether they’re successful or not)
A Patronus is conjured
Fred & George Weasley say something simultaneously and are the ultimate twins
Someone speaks Parseltongue
Dobby shows up! (first time, second time, third time… last time… anytime)
Cedric Diggory smiles (and you subsequently swoon)
Anyone says “Merlin’s Beard!”

Finish your drink when…

Seamus Finnegan blows something up
A Horcrux is destroyed
A main character dies doing their heroic duty
Draco Malfoy gets his comeuppance (e.g., when Hermione punches him in the face or when Mad-Eye Moody turns him into a ferret)
Dumbledore yells, “DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?!” (…calmly)
Voldemort is defeated!

The Harry Potter Series (2001-2011): Part I

11/02/2017 · by Joy

I’ve been relatively quiet lately, but I’ve definitely been watching movies. I have actually been keeping track on an Excel spreadsheet of all the movies we’ve watched since January 1st. I’m lagging behind, I feel, with only 18 to date (that’s at the time this is being written… February 11th… I anticipate this won’t be posted until a later date).

What I have been spending an inordinate amount of time on… is re-watching (and in half the case, watching for the first time) the Harry Potter series! In the past, I watched up to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire but after that, I just sort of… stopped, I guess? Maybe because Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was easily my least favourite book so I was just like, “Meh.” As of today, David and I have finished up to, you guessed it, Goblet of Fire. What I totally forgot about these movies was how looong they are. It’s taking us forever to get through them because we have to commit to 2-3 hours a night/day to watching a Harry Potter film, which is super fine by me but David is all, “I have a life, you know,” which no, I didn’t know, but okay.

I really do enjoy all of these films. They are wonderful and there’s nothing more iconic from my childhood, I think, than Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. I read all of those books at least twice over, but probably more… David, on the other hand, hasn’t read past Order of the Phoenix because he didn’t much care for it either. So, everything that happens after that is going to be a surprise to him! I have found that re-watching and initially watching these movies has raised many questions about the wizarding world that I now wish to share with you. This entry is going to be a two-parter because, well, we’re only halfway through the movies and I have quite the handful of questions already. I think they’ll easily double by the end of the saga! So, without further ado, let’s begin:

P.S. This is GOING to include spoilers, so if you haven’t seen or read at least up to the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire… turn back. I couldn’t live with myself if I spoiled the story for you!

Who would win in a war – muggles or wizards – and why is it unequivocally the muggles? Like, really. Yes, wizards have spells and wands and magic, but they also lack a TON of technology that muggles have and it’s super weird because we know for sure that muggles and wizards can intermingle because how else would you get mudbloods? The muggles won’t share their knowledge of guns or modern mail services or the Internet with their magical counterparts? In a one-on-one battle between a muggle with a gun and a wizard with a wand, I’m pretty sure the muggle with the gun is going to win. It’d take some kind of fluke for the wizard to take out a muggle faster than the muggle can fire a gun unless they use an unforgivable curse, in which case you can’t use a self-defense claim because it’s literally unforgivable under any circumstance, and it doesn’t even really matter because it appears that there is no cohesive court system or really even any decent government agencies in the wizarding world – leading me to my next point…

Why are there no regular Joe laws in the wizarding world? There are laws like, if your name is put in the Goblet of Fire, even by someone else, you are BOUND by LAW and DESTINY to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. Oh, it’s a super deadly tournament in which you fight dragons, spend up to an hour underwater amidst merpeople and grindylows to save someone close to you, and also navigate your way through an awful, deadly, truly impossible maze? Yeah, well doesn’t matter, someone got your name in there and now you have to do it and if you die, too bad. But what about laws about libel, defamation, or theft? Rita Skeeter can just come in and write a totally and entirely falsified article with no repercussions or consequences whatsoever? Makes total sense. What about assault? What about assault by a figure of authority on a minor?… leading me to my NEXT point…

Professors are allowed to attack students, verbally and physically, on pretty much a daily basis especially the ones who are in rival houses from themselves? Snape literally just walks by Ron and Harry like 8 times in one scene of Goblet of Fire and smacks them, pushing their heads around violently, all because they’re talking quietly during class… like everyone else in the room? I mean, to be fair, Moody does get reamed out by McGonagall for turning Malfoy into a ferret and whipping him around in the air with his wand, BUT she tells him that “we never use transfiguration as a punishment, surely Dumbledore told you that”… nothing about that fact that he was flailing him about in the air? The bigger problem was the fact that he was a ferret… yeah, okay. Just what qualifications ARE required to be a professor at Hogwarts anyway?…

Teachers are pulled off the streets and clearly not screened or interviewed whatsoever – Quirrell gets in literally carrying Voldemort on the back of his head??? Gilderoy Lockhart has no experience with the dark arts and is actually kind of a wuss. Lupin is a fricken’ werewolf (but arguably, the best Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in all of Harry’s years)! Mad-Eye Moody is rumoured to be mad, chugs mysterious vials of liquid periodically throughout the day, and turns out to be a notorious Death Eater… What exactly is the hiring process at Hogwarts? Maybe they need to look at that. Maybe they need to screen these eager beavers a little before just letting them live amongst hundreds (thousands?) of students who are not really the best prepared to deal with these issues because their Defense Against the Dark Arts professors have all been garbage! Not one has helped with protecting against Voldemort. Not one! Most of them hindered the process, to be quite honest… and for that matter…

Does Harry Potter wake up before his 3rd or 4th year going to Hogwarts and say, “Wonder what form Voldemort will take this year? What squabbles will we get into this time?” He has to realize by that point that every single year around the same time, Voldemort is hanging around causing hijinks. I mean, really, there’s a liiiittle bit of a pattern that emerges there. How is he not better prepared? I mean, yeah, the first year it’s like, okay, I’ve never met Voldemort, he’s probably not here anywhere… then the second year, hmm… okay, there’s a Chamber of Secrets and it’s whispering to me telling me to kill people, could it be the work of Voldemort? The third year… I guess the third year is probably to throw Harry off because Voldemort doesn’t really make an appearance, just Dementors, so we’ll give him an out there. But then the fourth movie, Harry begins to dream about a meeting between little baby fetus-looking Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew and a mysterious man we later learn to be a notorious Death Eater and loyal follower of Voldy… so does he not go, hm… I’m in a maze and things are getting really intense, maybe Voldemort could be involved.

“Hogwarts isn’t safe… anymore????” When was Hogwarts ever safe? Every year something pretty awful happens. Voldemort travels around the castle on the back of an unvetted professor’s scalp. A giant snake lives within the walls of the castle and turns out to be a… a pet of Voldemort’s. Sirius Black, notorious “serial killer,” finds his way into the castle/onto the grounds of Hogwarts. Again, a professor is not who he seems and there are about 1,000 clues to that notion, yet nobody figures it out until the end of the year. Hogwarts is not a safe place. I think I’d send my kids to Beauxbaton’s, probably.

House points are literally bullshit. They can be removed or added on any basis. Anything. And there’s no… set amount for any good deed or any bad deed. It’s arbitrary and ridiculous. In year 1, Hermione, Neville & Harry are all deducted 50 points for “wandering the corridors at night” whereas Harry only gets 60 points for defeating Quirrell AKA LORD fricken’ VOLDEMORT. Harry and Ron save Hermione’s life against a fully grown troll and only get 5 points each? But then in year 2, Harry and Ron are both awarded 200 points EACH for saving Ginny, slaying the Basilisk and defeating Tom Riddle… year 3, Hermione is deducted 5 points for “being an insufferable know-it-all”… shall I continue?

To conclude part I, I’ll end with one that’s near and dear to my boyfriend, David’s, heart. Quidditch. What a ridiculous sport. It would be 100 times better if they just eradicated the goals altogether, because you have to get 15 goals to even break even with the team that catches the Golden Snitch. Even if there was a time limit on the game, it would be a little bit better because then at least there’s a chance that the goals might mean something if the Snitch isn’t caught. And really, the record for the longest Quidditch game ever played is 3 months because the Snitch hadn’t been caught for that long. I’m sorry, but that’s an awful game strategy.

Despite all of these flaws, which are not really flaws in the movies or even really the books, they’re just flaws that come with writing about an entirely fictional universe. J.K. Rowling’s creation is impressive and it is vast so I’m super not surprised that so many of these things irk me. But they’re so minor compared to the overall story of Harry Potter, which is just… the embodiment of the fantasy genre for children and young adults, and I’m sure, even some adults. I’m sure you will be waiting with bated breath on part II of this exploration of the wizarding world. Until then, I’m out.

The Hateful Eight (2015)

22/01/2017 · by Joy

I love Quentin Tarantino, I really do, but man… 3 hours and 7 minutes is a long-ass time for a movie that’s like, 90% dialogue. That’s not to say I lost interest, because I didn’t. I knew what was coming… that Tarantino ending. The payout I was waiting for. If I stopped 2 hours in and abandoned the trek, it’d all be for naught. So you best believe that I toughed it out.

Nothing about The Hateful Eight was boring – Tarantino doesn’t do boring. It’s dark, it’s unrealistic, it’s gory (at times)… it’s everything I’ve come to expect from a movie directed by the Tarantines himself. You’ve got a roster of A-list stars who are typical of his movies – Samuel L. Jackson (True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained and now, The Hateful Eight), Walton Goggins (Django Unchained), Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill). Tarantino loves to build a relationship with his stars and reuse them again and again. He also added Kurt Russell to the roster, as well as Channing Tatum, who surprised me by doing a decent job!

The overuse of the n-word doesn’t particularly agree with me. I get that he’s trying to be historically accurate of the time period the film is set in, but it was juuuust a bit excessive at 65 (I didn’t count myself, though, so I could definitely be wrong) utterances.

To be honest, it wasn’t my favourite Tarantino film… not by a long shot… but I did enjoy it. It was interesting, it was a bloodbath (as is his modus operandi), and it was thrilling, at least at the end. Solid watch! Solid watch.

La La Land (2016)

07/01/2017 · by Joy

I am a huge fan of musicals. I will admit that hands-down I am definitely, 100% biased going into La La Land in the first place. My boyfriend, David, however, is not a huge fan of musicals and therefore, not biased. Actually, going into the theatre, I was prepared for disappointment. My mother-in-law had me pretty convinced that I was going to see a huge, steaming pile of garbage. I was convinced that this was going to be one of those movies… you know, the critically-acclaimed, Oscar-nominated films that are totally pretentious pandering?

Boy, was I ever incorrect.

From the first minute, I was hooked. It was a visually stunning cinematic masterpiece, which is precisely what I went home and said to my Snapchat following (very small, probably didn’t care all that much). I won’t go so far as to say it’s a perfect film, but it is pretty much my perfect film. I’m a big fan of Ryan Gosling (some of my favourites being Blue Valentine, Lars and the Real Girl, The Place Beyond the Pines, and Fracture)… I’m a big fan of Emma Stone (Easy A, The Help, and Zombieland) and like I said, I’m a big fan of musicals (Les Miserables, West Side Story, Rent, Chicago, Little Shop of Horrors, Singin’ in the Rain, Cry-Baby, Hairspray… etc, etc, dot dot dot). One of my OTHER favourite things is a movie that makes full use of colour and La La Land does just that perfectly.

I’ve read some of the negative reviews and I just can’t take most of them seriously. Tossing around terms like “worst movie of the year” simply because musicals don’t appeal to you isn’t valid! The acting is wonderful and beyond believable… Emma Stone is phenomenal, even when she’s acting that she’s acting (act-ception). She plays Mia, an aspiring actress. Ryan Gosling is pretty typecast because he does typically play one character, I find, but that’s not a bad thing because he plays his character well. He plays Seb, a confident jazz musician that’s trying to revive a dying genre of music. The writing is good (I won’t say great, but it’s definitely good). The songs are lovely and while the lyrics are pretty simplistic, they are touching and evocative.

I think the opening scene, which is more typical of movie-musicals with people bursting out of their cars into choreographed song and dance, cajoles people into expecting something that isn’t really coming. La La Land is a musical, for sure, but it’s not filled to the brim with song and every piece of dialogue doesn’t take place within a song. If you go in expecting West Side Story, that’s just… not what the film is.

The film really blew me out of the water when it came to the visuals. It was beautiful. It was imaginative, the colours were perfect and could not have been an iota more perfect. It’s colourful and it’s vibrant and it’s everything wonderful about musicals and it does a great service to the genre of jazz music, which is fantastic because if you don’t like jazz, you’re just wrong.

The first thing I said when David and I left the theatre was, “If and when we get a 4K Bluray player, that is the movie I want on 4K,” and I stand by that. That is my review. That sums up my feelings for this film. I will definitely watch this movie again and again. And again.

Green Room (2015)

02/01/2017 · by Joy

Lately, I’ve been feeling like I’ve seen way too many movies. It’s been so difficult to find movies to watch that I’m interested in and that can keep my attention past the first 30 minutes! Green Room has been on My List on Netflix since it was added to the Recently Added category and I just kind of decided out of desperation that today was the day and let me tell you, I was not disappointed! I haven’t seen a single movie before this with Anton Yelchin and he was a treat to watch onscreen. He was wonderful and it made me so sad to think of his passing. Beyond that, however, I really liked this bizarro Red State-esque thriller. The cake was topped when I went to Cash Converters and, lo and behold, there it is – Green Room on Bluray! It’s been a glorious day.

The plot is pretty basic – a punk band goes to perform a gig but oh no the gig is to be performed in a neo-Nazi skinhead bar… they then open with the Dead Kennedys song “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” which is, in retrospect, the worst choice they could have possibly gone with. They essentially win the hearts of their white supremacist audience, but then witness a stabbing and have to fight for their lives and try to escape alive. The things they encounter during their escape attempt(s) are gruesome and gritty and shocking. There is bonding with traitors (of the neo-Nazi organization), there is injury, there is death… it is not for you if you’re afraid of gore, but I really liked it. I thought everyone acted well and I thought the story, while basic, was compelling.

The villain – the leader of the skinheads – is played by none other than Sir Patrick Stewart and he does a fantastic job portraying a bad guy. He is a bad guy and encompasses all that is bad in this film. The green room is a claustrophobic setting and for the better part of the movie, they’re stuck in it. I felt the tension rising as every second ticked by and desperately wished for them to get out of that room!

Overall, I thought this film was… not exactly a work of art, but it was gritty and the characters were well-developed. The plot, while thin, was sufficient enough to carry me through the film. I bought this one, and I plan to watch it again… definitely worth a watch!

2016: A Year in Film

29/12/2016 · by Joy

2016 is almost behind us and I really didn’t watch (or review) as many movies as I wanted to this year. I mean, I can really only look back to about March and you know, my memory only goes back so far. I can’t rely on my brain, that’s just ridiculous!

So in honour of ringing in the new year (which hasn’t happened yet, but whatever, just go with it), I wanted to do a little recap post as my (probably) last post of 2016.

The Best Movie I Saw in the Year 2016 (That Was Also Made in 2016)

swiss-army-man-_02_3681_rgb-e1467313839148

I’m really really torn. It’s a very close call between Arrival and Swiss Army Man. Neither are a flawless film, but both really affected me and I really, truly enjoyed them!

The Worst Movie I Saw in the Year 2016

thegallows

Hands down, The Gallows takes the cake. It was so bad, so beyond bad that it was almost mediocre but actually it wasn’t, it was just the worst. The worst. I will not ever watch this movie again. Ever. Not even once.

The One I Couldn’t Believe I’d Never Seen Before 2016

5012_5

I am almost ashamed to admit it took me 20 years to see The Frighteners for the first time. I had really dropped the ball for, like, 2 decades by not seeing it sooner. I’d never even HEARD of it. But this will definitely be a Halloween season classic from now on, thanks to Rhiannon and Mel who played it and introduced me to the wonderfulness that is Michael J. Fox’s adventures in the after life(?)

The Best Movie You Probably Haven’t Heard Of or Seen from 2016 That I Saw and Really Liked

tallulah

Tallulah was a super pleasant surprise. I love Ellen Page, so I wasn’t expecting a garbage film or anything, it was just a movie I saw and watched on a whim without reading reviews (which doesn’t really happen too often). I can’t say I’ve ever seen a BAD Netflix original, but this was a really underrated (well, not really, it has 84% on RottenTomatoes) and really unmentioned film worth watching!

The Best New TV Series From 2016

stranger-things

Stranger Things – season 1 was absolutely fantastic. I am waiting what feels like endlessly for season 2. It feels like it’s never going to come! I can’t wait for the young stars of this hit new show to return and show us what they can do… they’ve made a fan out of me!

The Best Older TV Series I Fell in Love With in 2016

batesbar2

A show I hadn’t seen before this year (even though it premiered in 2013 and I’m obsessed with Norman Bates… I even have a betta fish – bate-a fish if you will – named Norman Bates) was Bates Motel and I’m SO sorry I hadn’t seen it before this year. It was so good! I can’t wait to watch season 4, hopefully in 2017!

The Weirdest Movie I Saw in 2016

the-housemaid-korea-2010-dvdrip-xvid-ac3-avi_snapshot_01-42-28_5b2010-09-18_05-28-225d

The Housemaid was a super bizarre South Korean film I watched on Netflix this year. I am usually a pretty big fan of every Korean film I watch, especially Oldboy, Memories of Murder, A Tale of Two Sisters, and I Saw the Devil… they really do thrillers well there! They have that genre down… however, I did watch (half of) one just the other night – The Wailing – which I was less a fan of, but alas, another review for another time. The Housemaid was explicit, not what I expected, and had a super weird ending, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Honourable Mentions from 2016

In 2016, I didn’t see or review as many movies as I’d hoped I would… but some of the films I saw that made their way into my heart include The Den, local creation Sleeping Giant, the horribly underrated As Above, So Below, Andy Samberg’s satirical Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, a wonderful horror that surprised me in how good it actually was in Don’t Breathe, and another that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen before, The Loved Ones. All of these (I hope) will be making their way into my Bluray collection. I already own Don’t Breathe as I picked it up at a local pawn shop on Boxing Day for $7! AND HEY, I have a birthday coming up ;)

I can’t wait for the films I will see in 2017! There are tons coming out which I am SO excited for… Split, A Dog’s Purpose, Rings, Beauty and the Beast, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, IT, Pitch Perfect 3… should be a good year in the film universe!

Page 4 of 8 « Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 … 8 Next »