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The Big Sick (2017)

23/07/2017 · by Joy

Critics are hailing The Big Sick as “one of the best movies of the year” and “a traditional rom-com that’s so original,” but I have to be honest with you… it was pretty cut and dry for me. It works, it’s good, but it’s nothing that’s breaking the mold for me. It was just… a good movie. I didn’t leave upset that I had spent money to see it in theatres, but I didn’t leave overwhelmed with passion for how great the movie was (ahem, Baby Driver)… I left saying, “It was… good!”

It was funny and I did, I laughed a lot. I thought both leads (Kumail Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan) were really great – their acting was enjoyable and their chemistry was really robust – but the plot was formulaic, even with the cross-cultural dilemma thrown in there. I will give it that – I learned some things about Pakistan that I, admittedly, didn’t know. Before now, I had no idea that Pakistan had the largest irrigation system in the world… but aside from being educational, I wasn’t… moved. I get what it was trying to do and I get that it’s his and his wife’s real life story, but it just wasn’t really all that touching to me.

I couldn’t help but feel that it was just another romantic comedy. A critic (the name is escaping me now) compared it to Annie Hall… I believe he said “for the ISIS age,” and that’s just insane… I don’t think it should be compared to Annie Hall. Annie Hall was and is iconic. That’s a rom-com that breaks the mold. A rom-com full of neuroses. They tried to do the neurotic thing with Emily, but it just didn’t really work.

I appreciate that Kumail did this, he made a film that normalizes and includes Muslim and Pakistani culture. That’s great, and that’s a wonderful thing, but if you take that out of the equation, it’s just another rom-com that I could take or leave. It was just… okay. It was nothing super special and if I could do it again, I’d probably wait to see it on Netflix.

En man som heter Ove / A Man Called Ove (2016)

23/04/2017 · by Joy

It makes me so sad how often people write off a film because it’s foreign and/or because it’s subtitled. Some of the best films I’ve seen have been subtitled and after a while, you get so used to watching movies with subtitles that you start watching English movies with subtitles… and here I am. Doing that frequently.

Anyway, my second movie of the NOFSA Film Festival was A Man Called Ove. Ove is pronounced oh-vay, by the way. I learned this pretty much instantly. It is not pronounced oh-vvvv as I was under the impression previously (I am ashamed, I am uncultured swine). We got stuck at the front because apparently a lot more people wanted to see A Man Called Ove than had wanted to see Hello, Destroyer, which is not surprising since Ove was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year at this past Oscars ceremony! It unfortunately lost to The Salesman, which I’m going to see next Sunday (maybe I’ll get there a bit earlier this time, though).

I was far more impressed with Ove than I was with Destroyer! I almost want to watch it again, it was that good. Ove is a grouchy, yet oddly loveable old Swedish man and while you should hate him in the first 10 minutes of the film for his stringent application of the rules and regulations of his neighbourhood and the way he calls small dogs “winter boots,” you just can’t. From the get-go, he’s endearing in his grouchiness. Throughout the course of the film, you learn Ove’s entire life story bit by bit as he: befriends his new neighbours, Parvaneh, Patrick and their two daughters; fights for his old friend, Rune; mourns his wife, Sonja; and finally, adopts a stray (seemingly purebred Ragdoll) cat.

When we first meet Ove, he’s trying to commit suicide and join his wife in the afterlife, however, it turns out to be relatively difficult since there are so many DARN interruptions going on around him. Each time he tries a new method, continually only to look out the window and notice someone breaking the rules or to have someone knock on his door, which sounds like a gimmicky attempt at getting cheap laughs, but it works. It really, really works.

By the end of the film, I was so attached to so many of these characters that are so quirky in their own ways. The movie spent a lot of time making sure you got to know each character well. I mean, I had questions about certain motivations, but they were flaws I was willing and able to let go because in the grand scheme of the film, they didn’t matter that much. What mattered was Ove, and his character, and his friendships, and his rounds.

A Man Called Ove was touching and heartwarming without going overboard and being too sentimental or sappy. It was really well done and you can definitely colour me impressed!

Edge of Seventeen (2016)

21/03/2017 · by Joy

I’ve always been pretty intrigued by films about high school. I don’t know what that’s about seeing as I’m a full-fledged adult now (yeah… yeah, that’s what I am). Also, I’m a fan of Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit remake, anyone?) I love the way she says everything so, like, deadpan. It’s great. Just great.

I’m not too sure what struck a chord with me about this particular coming-of-age dram-com. I think it was the fact that more than it was a teen comedy, it was a comedy about a teen, who is so unlikeable to begin with that she’s likeable.

I really enjoyed pretty much every performance in Edge of Seventeen and, setting Hailee Steinfeld’s aside, Woody Harrelson’s was particularly notable. He is always enjoyable, but I find his role as strange, supportive mentor to be one of my favourites (hello, Haymitch!) The story was enough to sustain the film and I was actually pretty sad when it ended – I wanted more.

I just loved watching Nadine go from selfish, narcissistic teen dramatician (that’s a word I just made up, don’t Google it) into a slightly less selfish, slightly less narcissistic teen dramatician. It was an enjoyable ride. Maybe it wasn’t Oscar-worthy material, but it was fun and it was good!

Ghostbusters (2016)

09/10/2016 · by Joy

This is a film I wasn’t ever really that interested in seeing. I figured, how could they possibly improve on the original which had everything anyone could ever have wanted in a film about a bunch of people literally bustin’ ghosts. And the whole “now with women” thing wasn’t all that intriguing either. I’m all for equality and I’m totally all for feminism and empowering women, but that doesn’t mean we need to remake classically male-casted films with women. It’s fate was pretty much already set as “not as good as the original.” Despite that, though, it did an okay job of being it’s own movie. It was entertaining enough and it had it’s moments.

The star of the show, by far, was Chris Hemsworth who played the lovably stupid receptionist, Kevin. I found myself pretty much just waiting for his appearances because they were just downright hilarious. Of course, Kristen Wiig is always funny too, but I was really living for Chris in this one.

But to be honest, the story was lacking – it lacked originality, it lacked depth, and it lacked intrigue. I didn’t honestly care what the outcome was and I didn’t care about any of the characters’ fates. They weren’t fleshed out or given much backstory at all. Okay, so Kristen Wiig’s character is a professor at MIT up for tenure when her friend from yore decides to publish their book about paranormal activity which pretty much asserts that she believes in ghosts over the scientific method. I don’t care if her character gets tenure.

Clearly they had fun filming it and it’s an entertaining time, but it just wasn’t enough to captivate me and I’m sorry to say, but I simply wouldn’t watch it again.

The Frighteners (1996)

29/08/2016 · by Joy

This past Friday evening was movie night at my friend Mel’s and since Halloween is just around the corner (okay, like 2 months away), we decided to watch a Halloweeny movie. I think it was Rhiannon that chose The Frighteners and I’m pretty appalled with myself to say that I didn’t know what it was. Apparently it was directed by Peter Jackson – like, THE Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Lovely Bones) and starring Michael J. Fox, I feel now like it should be a classic. Reading up on it, I learned that it was (a) a box office flop and (b) received decently on Rotten Tomatoes at 64%.

Watching it, I got definite Beetlejuice and Poltergeist vibes and it was great. I also have to say it started off as one film, took a hard left and turned into an entirely different film altogether. By the end, I was mostly just sitting there saying, “What. The. Fuck!” – in a good way, I assure you!

It’s about an architect named Frank Bannister (played by Michael J. Fox) who semi-sort-of cons people into thinking that he is cleansing their houses of spirits. Semi-sort-of because he does have the ability to see and speak to ghosts, but each haunting is a clever ruse put on by him and his ghost buddies, Cyrus (played by Chi McBride), Stuart (Jim Fyfe), and Judge (John Astin). He charges people money to cleanse their houses and is basically a con artist.

Pretty soon he finds himself at the centre of a bizarre pandemic: People begin dropping like flies, usually after contact with him. He discovers there is a creepy entity, strongly resembling the Grim Reaper, killing people and marking their number in their forehead (but only Frank can see these numbers!)

I don’t want to spoil it because I didn’t see it coming, but it spirals into the most off-the-wall, messed up thing involving a myriad of… interesting characters, including an FBI agent named Milton Dammers who was apparently a victim of the Manson Family in ’69 (played by Jeffrey Combs – Re-Animator).

It was just the strangest, most wonderful thing I’ve ever watched. I thoroughly enjoyed the weirdness and the absolute what-the-fuckery and it was more than just a film – it was an experience. I almost want to add it to my October movie line-up now – I will definitely watch this again in the future. Definitely.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

16/06/2016 · by Joy

I actually went to the theatre and saw Popstar on Friday night and it is now Wednesday evening and I am just now sitting down to talk about my thoughts about Conner 4 Real nnnnoowww… my life is a black abyss of studenthood, full-time employment and professional TV show binge-watching at the current time, so I haven’t had any time to sit down and think about this movie.

Which is OKAY in the long-run because there is not a lot of thinking required for this one, my friends. If you are not familiar with The Lonely Island then I can’t help you and you should probably leave this post now and then not return until you’ve educated yourself a little bit. But seriously, if you haven’t been living under a rock since 2001 (you’ve literally had 15 years to get to know this wonderful trio!!), you know who Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone & Akiva Schaffer are and what they have done.

So anyway, I went into Popstar with some pretty high expectations, as I generally have when it comes to Andy Samberg and I did not leave disappointed. This movie is a riot. It’s a mockumentary (think This is Spinal Tap) that is basically out-and-out making fun of Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never “documentary” which followed JB for 10 days leading up to some big ol’ concert he had or something and had some home movies and shit in there. Whatever. Who cares. Popstar was a trillion times more enjoyable and a gazillion times better.

Andy plays Conner (4 Real), a former member of the Style Boyz gone solo, who is literally the cutest, most clueless popstar in the entire universe. It is not overextended at 87 minutes, and it doesn’t feel nearly long enough (which is probably a good thing, because if it gets too long then it only leaves room to get worse). Imagine watching a Saturday Night Live skit… but it was 87 minutes long and hilarious from start to finish. That’s what Popstar embodies and it’s glorious. It features many prominent stars from the current pop and comedy world, such as Sarah Silverman, Usher, ASAP Rocky, Tim Meadows, Maya Rudolph, Joan Cusack, Justin Timberlake, 50 Cent, Ringo Starr, Simon Cowell, Adam Levine, D.J. Khaled… and almost all of them star as themselves commenting on Conner’s fame. It just works so fabulously!

In sum, there was never a dull moment… there was never a time when I wasn’t at least smiling ear-to-ear. Andy Samberg is just the greatest thing to grace this planet and I’m not ashamed to say it.

Ava’s Possessions (2016)

07/05/2016 · by Joy

One of the new films that is circulation on Reddit.com’s horror subreddit is Ava’s Possessions (2016). When I saw that it was on Netflix, I jumped at the chance to watch it. I was excited even though I knew literally nothing about the film other than it was about Ava and probably her possessions.

My first impression (as in, within the first 5 minutes) was that the soundtrack was bomb. Not even the bomb, just bomb in general. It was so good, I enjoyed it thoroughly… and after those first 5 minutes, it only got better. So if nothing else, you can watch it simply for a great score composed by Sean Lennon (yes, as in John and Yoko’s son).

However, there are many other great reasons to watch it. These include, but are certainly not limited to, someone asking the main character, Ava (Louisa Krause), if being possessed by a demon was anything like being pregnant or the inclusion of Alysia Reiner (Natalie Figueroa/’Fig’ in Orange is the New Black).

Like I said, I didn’t know what to expect going in and what I got was different than anything I’ve personally ever seen before. It was basically the “after-story” of what happens when a movie character gets possessed by a demon. She’s picking up the pieces of her life after a major life crisis and trying to put together what actually happened that week that resulted in the state her life is in presently.

Honestly, I wasn’t enthralled with it and it wasn’t something I’d watch again and again. It’s definitely not on its way to becoming a classic horror film anytime soon, either. But it was fun, creative, and original, and that was enough for me to keep watching. The sideplots were just not that interesting and I can’t help but feel the film would have landed better if they didn’t exist.

If anything convinces you to watch this film, let it be the 12-step satire, “Spirit Possession Anonymous,” because no idea made me smile more in this entire film.