netflix | Joy Reviews Movies

The Open House (2018)

21/01/2018 · by Joy

First and foremost, I feel like I should apologize for the hiatus. I know I have literally zero regular readers, and I’ve never had a very consistent posting schedule, but I still feel guilty since my last post was in October!

A new year means a new, fresh spreadsheet of movies. I failed at keeping track of the films I watched last year in about April, so I’m hoping to keep a full list this year. But anyway, enough rambling and on with the show… the show that ultimately leads… nowhere?

I wasn’t necessarily excited nor did I have high hopes for The Open House. It’s a Netflix original that just aired and it stars Dylan Minnette of 13 Reasons Why fame. To be honest, I wasn’t overly impressed with his performance in 13 Reasons Why either. I found him to be a pretty flat stage presence and I think that carried over to The Open House as well, which isn’t really boding well for his career (although, I will say he was okay in Don’t Breathe).

The film started out okay, if not a little cliche – with a jolting death and a quick change of scenery. Our two main characters, a teenager and his mother, relocate to their relative’s mountain home which is a gorgeous, if not creepy, abode. Pretty basic plot, creepy things happen until suddenly *spoiler* things aren’t happening anymore. That pretty much sums up the entire film, actually. It was a whole lot of slow, ambling, “ooh, spooky” moments that feel like they’re leading up to something big, something earth-shattering, and then… nothing. I was let down! I was ready, I was prepared for some kind of justice, and justice I did not get.

It was just uninspired and unoriginal. It was nothing that we haven’t seen before, that’s for sure. There was no character development and there was no basis upon which to build a connection with any of the characters either. It was confusing, it was stale, it was unimaginative. I definitely would not watch this again or recommend it to anyone. I didn’t hate it, I just… was so disappointed.

Gerald’s Game (2017)

03/10/2017 · by Joy

2017 is the year of the King – Stephen King, that is. This is great news for me because as far back as I can remember, he’s been my absolute #1 favourite author. I won’t claim to be his biggest fan but I do own many of his books and movies and he’s one of the very few celebrities I follow on Twitter, so there’s that. He probably gave me the first nudge into the world of horror when I was, like, 10 years old.

Some of the critics are hailing Gerald’s Game as the best King adaptation of the year. I’m not sure I would go that far, especially in the last few minutes. For a vast majority of the movie, I was pretty well captivated. It’s a slow burn, that’s for sure, it doesn’t have a lot of “action” to it, but if you’ve read the book, you’d see that’s pretty much how it goes. Some people have called the premise absurd, but I don’t think it’s all that absurd. I think the scariest thing about it is how it could happen… I mean, if you’re into kinky handcuff games and your husband (or wife, I ain’t judgin’!) is pretty old, anyway. I was really really REALLY hoping they’d go a different route altogether with the ending. Cut out Joubert and just call it a day. The Moonlight Man/Space Cowboy was just… a figment of Jessie’s imagination. Or was he? Maybe he was a supernatural entity! I don’t care, but at least don’t go the Joubert route. Gerald’s Game is one of my favourite King novels… sans the last 70-ish pages. But I’m just not so sure it would have worked better that way anyway. I don’t know. I just don’t know. I get what Mr. King was trying to do… show how truly un-scary Joubert is in the light of day as opposed to when you’re sequestered in the nighttime fighting off hungry dogs and moonlight… I just don’t know if I love it.

Beyond that, though, disregarding those last few minutes, I thought it was done really well. It’s a difficult thing to film, since, of course, the vast majority of the film is just the character of Jessie alone… in solitude… no one but the “angels on her shoulders” to converse with. That’s a tough scene to film. But Carla Gugino plays her role extraordinarily well. Both Bruce Greenwood (Gerald) and Henry Thomas (Jessie’s father) make you pretty uncomfortable – granted, more Henry than Bruce; he was chilling.

I really liked it a lot, but I don’t know if I can say I loved it. It definitely had flaws, but not in casting, acting, or writing, that’s for sure. It was disturbing and parts were gruesome, but I also thought it was well done. I’d recommend it… to certain people.

Stranger Things: Season 1 (2016)

18/09/2016 · by Joy

It’s taken me far too long to get this review out.

As soon as I saw the thumbnail for Stranger Things, I knew it was something I wanted to watch. I put it off though, delaying the inevitable end of the season that would come all too soon. But we did it. My boyfriend, David, and I sat down and watched it over a couple of nights, trying to stretch it out for as long as possible.

From the minute it started, I was in love. I was in love with the familiar ’80s movie tropes, I was in love with the Spielberg vibe it was shooting off in my general direction, I was in love with the lovable characters and their hilariously witty (for children) dialogue. Not to mention, the wordmark title looks like the title of Needful Things, and I love me some Stephen King. It is a show that takes a little bit of this and a little bit of that, a little bit of E.T. and a little bit of the X-Files, and sprinkles it together in the most beautiful recipe to create a perfect homage to the ’80s – and I mean, perfect.

Apparently I’m not the only one enthralled with it either, because it’s sitting at 95% on Rottentomatoes and 9.1/10 on IMDb, so while I may be one of the only ones to actually shed tears at the end of the season, I am not unique in my adoration.

Besides all of the stylistic and nostalgic perks it has going for it, the story is also great. It’s compelling and keeps you on your toes. The pacing is great, the setting is wonderful and the characters are phenomenal. You can’t help but to fall in love with the children in the story – the lovable, gap-toothed Dustin, Will the missing child, Mike Wheeler, and of course, Eleven. This is Millie Bobby Brown’s first BIG role and she killed it, knocked it way out of the park. Some of the adult characters were just as easy to fall in love with and when I say adult characters, I’m mostly speaking to Hopper, the police chief who spawned one of my favourite quotes of ever now: “Mornings are for coffee & contemplation.” That quote in itself pretty much sums up the character of Hopper. He’s a police chief in this podunk town where very little happens… until now.

All in all, it’s a great sci-fi/fantasy show that I feel pretty much anyone will at the very least find watchable, but more probably will find it enjoyable and thrilling at times. Give it a watch and you will not be disappointed!

Tallulah (2016)

11/08/2016 · by Joy

I have never seen a film starring Ellen Page that I did not enjoy and Tallulah was certainly no exception. Within the first half an hour, I knew I was in for a treat. In Juno, she played a teenager who conceived a child and didn’t want to keep it. In Tallulah, she plays a homeless young adult who ends up “accidentally” kidnapping a one-year-old.

The acting of everyone in this film was phenomenal. Ellen Page plays Tallulah was a fabulous, off-beat and quirky girl who flies by the seat of her pants, living in the back of her van, Jim. Evan Jonigkeit, who I didn’t recognize from anything but is apparently in stuff, plays Nico, Tallulah’s wayward boyfriend who doesn’t really belong in her lifestyle. Deciding to return home, Nico takes off in the night, leaving Tallulah to fend for herself. Tallulah, doing just that, ends up in a hotel scrounging for leftover food. Caught in the act, she is invited into the hotel room of a mother (Tammy Blanchard) who is dying to be rid of her infant daughter, Madison, so she can cheat on her husband. She leaves Madison in the care of Tallulah who shows more compassion and understanding for the child than her own mother did in the short time she spends with her. Her mother returns and promptly passes out, leaving Tallulah with an awful decision to make. She tries to leave, only to find Madison distressed and screaming, and decides a split second later to take her down to the van to sleep. Trying to return her the next morning, she finds the hotel lobby filled with cops, and does what her impulsive mind tells her to – she takes off to Nico’s mom’s apartment, tells his mom, played by Allison Janney, that the child was fathered by Nico. Reluctantly, she is allowed to stay and you’re left wondering how long it can possibly be before she is found out.

Despite a few plotholes (really, if a woman is screaming “STOP THAT WOMAN, SHE HAS MY CHILD,” I highly doubt that everyone in her near vicinity is going to ignore her), some bigger than others, this movie made me feel so many things. It was thought-provoking, the dialogue was witty, sometimes deep, and sometimes funny, but never too much of one thing at the wrong time. This was a fantastic directorial debut for Sian Heder, and it’s something I will definitely rewatch, probably a few times.

All in all, this was something I really enjoyed and I agree with Rottentomatoes – it fully deserves the 82% it currently has!