The movies we missed during break
Welcome back loyal readers, it’s been a while! Over the last month or so, we haven’t had a chance to take a look at any of the newly released films, so I’d like to play a bit of catch-up! This is every major motion picture that came out from the day most of us left for break, to the first full day of classes.
Anyone But You
An imperfect yet easy-to-get-through romcom that feels like it burst forth from the late 2000s wearing both Silly Bandz and its goofball-ery on its sleeve. Glen Powell puts in another charming performance, and Sydney Sweeney is there…3/5
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom
Aquaman (2018) by James Wan was a decent and fun film with some stellar underwater effects. Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is just a fun movie whose underwater effects look like a diet version of Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)… 2.5/5
The Iron Claw
A gripping, haunting vision of loss, containing standout performances from two of the best actors currently in the zeitgeist. I knew Jeremy Allen White was excellent from the Hulu series The Bear, but never in my twenty years of life thought I would be disappointed when Zac Efron was not nominated for any major awards… 4.5/5
Migration
While other studios like Dreamworks and Sony Pictures Animation continue to push the boundaries of what can be done with animation and storytelling, Illumination is at least making films with a touch of sincere heart, and giving Danny DeVito a paycheck… 3/5
The Boys In The Boat
It’s an inspiring story told classically, it just so happens that “classically” was overdone the last time someone tried to make a feel-good sports movie. The Boys In The Boat plays it too safe to be anything more than the sum of its parts, whereas other films make themselves a spectacle, this is more like a plain cheeseburger, it’s good, but you already know what to expect… 2.5/5
The Color Purple
While I may not have seen the original film directed by Steven Spielberg, or even seen the musical this is in part based on, I can say that Danielle Brooks’ and Fantasia Barrino’s performances made this work as well as it did, resulting in some of the non-musical moments becoming my favorites of the entire film… 4/5
Ferrari
Michael Mann delivers a great film about the trappings of masculinity and how much control people have in their lives. Scenes about the races, or covering meetings about said races, are directed with a tightness most directors Mann’s age could only achieve in their youth. While scenes about his family felt kind of lacking, I choose to believe that was intentional on Mann’s part… 4/5
The Beekeeper
Movies like The Beekeeper are a kind of societal clock that tells us “It’s January”... 2/5
Mean Girls
Renee Rapp is the best part of the film while Angourie Rice, though talented in other works, was not the best choice for a musical. For a movie called “Mean Girls”, the musical remake seems to be too afraid to get mean, lacking a lot of the sharp bite the original had… 2/5
American Fiction
A flawed movie, it kind of feels like a few more passes on the script were needed, but when a movie makes you laugh as hard as American Fiction made me, you can immediately forget its shortcomings. Jeffrey Wright and Issa Rae give stellar performances… 4/5
I.S.S.
Another movie that bellows “It’s January.” Come on, Ariana DeBose, you’re better than this… 2/5
Poor Things
Yorgos Lanthimos has done it again. This is one of the best films to almost completely capture the human experience, and the human desire to learn about the world around us. This film beautifully encapsulates entire worldviews and beliefs about love, gender, sex, responsibility, privacy, and so much more. It goes without saying that some performances in Poor Things are career bests— especially from the great Emma Stone. Even so, this is not a film for everyone, and especially not the kind of film you see with your parents, but Poor Things is such a human film in the best way possible… 5/5
Winter break is such an odd time for movies. In December, you get a bunch of films that most studios think are their most “prestigious” or likely to win mainstream awards. This results in some of the best films of the year… and your standard lazy Oscar bait. Then there’s January, some of the prestige films are still coming out, but it’s mostly riddled with box office bombs and good old-fashioned schlock.
Thumbnail Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons