Take heart friends; the third and final movie push of the year is upon us. With the majority of the movie industry shifting towards spectacle, the blockbusters aren’t locked into the Summer window any longer, but don’t sleep on movies being dropped just in time for “your consideration.”
Author: Frankie (Page 2 of 4)
Up front, I want to say that I absolutely adore Stranger Things. It does this weird thing, in that it generates a feeling of nostalgia for a childhood that a) I didn’t really have and/or b) I only feel like I had because of all the movie and TV references it makes. Not that I wasn’t a miscreant, riding bikes all over creation and cursing profusely, but that Middle America, Stephen King style township and the surrounding geography abound were hard to come by in Florida. Still, it’s difficult to not see yourself and your friends in the Stranger Things kids, which I think is a huge part of the overall charm.
Woof. We’re definitely in the doldrums to start off the month of September folks… there’s a decent amount of limited release films this week and let me tell yah, not a lot of winners. I think, and I’m no expert, but I genuinely believe that you should just miss the week at the theater, even the Close Encounters of the Third Kind Re-release.
Much like their cinematic counterparts, the Marvel produced Netflix shows have been barreling towards a shared universe since their inception. Beginning with Daredevil in April of 2015, the collective has seen five total seasons of TV dedicated to the four members of the Defenders, with the latest being our introduction to Iron Fist in March of this year. While the majority of the universe has garnered commercial and critical praise, with the first season of Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage all being seen as well made shows, a lot of what plagued the much maligned Iron Fist, along with the major pitfalls of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), crept into the eight part Defenders mini series, keeping it from being the coup viewers, and Marvel alike, were hoping it would be.
August just refuses to quit! If it wasn’t for knowing how many days there are in a calendar month, I’d be convinced that August isn’t ever going to end. Luckily, there’s a few interesting movies out this week, worthy of a trip to the theaters, unless the impending eclipse has you convinced the end is nigh.
First week at the theaters in August and boy oh boy, have the reviews for The Dark Tower been ruff. Talk about the dog days of summer, amiright? Also, I get kidnapped in a movie appropriately named Kidnap. Don’t really have a Dad joke for that one. Commence!
Dunkirk, the latest from acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan and the most recent movie to be based on the War that keeps on giving, is an unrivaled spectacle of film making. This visual tour de force covers the 1940 Dunkirk military evacuation from three different perspectives (land, air and sea) and interweaves those viewpoints with Nolan’s signature disjointed timeline to create a somewhat confusing but ultimately run of the mill narrative. This movie doesn’t set out to say as much as it does to show, but what we see as an audience is breathtaking from start to finish.
Since its premiere at Sundance, The Big Sick has been a gigantic ball of positive buzz. Based loosely on the story of how star Kumail Nanjiani and his real life wife Emily V. Gordon started their relationship, The Big Sick relies on the comedic talents of Kumail to produce one of the funniest romantic comedies to date, and it does all of this without sacrificing the romantic side of the genre. With all that buzz, it is kind of difficult to lock down exactly what The Big Sick sets out to be. Is it a drama about modern healthcare, a political examination of race and relationships, an attempt to redefine what is it that the American dream has become? Surprisingly, and luckily for audiences; all of the above.
We’re in the midst of the summer movie season but we’ve got a brief breather from the superhero films. Luckily, we’ve got monkeys and horror and comedy and something with Alec Baldwin so… good week?
So here we are again: another reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. This 3rd live action version in the last 15 years has a lot stacked against it, battling the fatigue that surrounds a film industry hellbent on sticking to remakes, re-tellings and sequels. Luckily, these perceived hurdles end up working in favor of what narratively ends up being the most unique and well made entry into the cinematic history of old web-head!