Update on the Field (8/20/20)
Oh hey there! It's been a while! Another cycle is over, and this one took us the longest time because we had a blackout for days and some other things came up, but we're moving forward! We're around thirty movies left before we start re-watching some contenders we had watched prior to starting this project and that we haven't seen in a while. This time though, we watched some intense ones, another space movie, and a few really heartfelt instant favorites! Here are our thoughts:
8/3/20: Blue Valentine (2010)
Tom: I always got this one, Blue Velvet, and Blue Jasmine confused (not Deep Blue Sea or Into the Blue). But anyway, any time Michelle Williams is in a movie, you just KNOW she's gonna have a bad time (see Manchester by the Sea, All the Money in the World). The good thing is, I have a good time when I watch her movies because she's amazing. And Ryan Gosling is a better actor than he has any right to be. This movie was great and powerful (not like Oz the Great and Powerful, another Michelle Williams classic). What am I even doing here? I don't know. I really liked this movie. Marriage Story never needed to be made.
Erin: I had been avoiding this movie for years because everyone told me it was just really sad, and pointless to watch because it was just that sad. Well I’m mad at all of them now, because this movie is AMAZING. I was seriously blown away. I think that it deserved a second look ten years on, because it got the “cutesy Tumblr” treatment in 2010 and it is so much deeper and complex than that. It’s about the end of a marriage, but is so much more. And the Gosling/Williams pairing is spot on awesome.
8/4 to 8/7/20: No movie – we had no power!
8/8/20: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Tom: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie (barring a couple of gratuitously brutal scenes) and thought it was a pretty good adaptation of the book. That being said, it simultaneously was too long and felt rushed. It really should have been split into two movies so that things could have been explained better and that the whodunnit could have been more thoroughly explored without it being completely obvious who the bad guy was. But anyway, I'm going to treat it as a Knives Out prequel because Daniel Craig and Christopher Plummer were phenomenal as usual. And Rooney Mara.
Erin: I had mixed feelings on this one. I somehow was very confused by it but still managed to completely guess the ending? The positives included the performances, the music, and David Fincher’s direction. I just thought that they tried to shove a potentially amazing HBO limited series into a bloated but still incomplete feature film.
8/9/20: The Sessions (2012)
Tom: I was very iffy going into this movie which was about a man with polio getting sex therapy. It could have easily gone off the rails without a proper script and direction, but writer/director Ben Lewin did an amazing job keeping the characters down to earth and relatable. I loved the dichotomy of the protagonist's (John Hawkes) relationships with the sex therapist (Helen Hunt) and his stressed-out Catholic priest (William H. Macy). This is a good, funny, relatively light-hearted one that you should check out if you get the chance.
Erin: I loved this movie!!! It took a subject that could make people a little uncomfortable (sex surrogacy) and made it sweet and funny and fascinating, which is the same journey the main character experienced! Really lovely film, and worth a watch (just not with your parents!)
8/10/20: The Way Way Back (2013)
Tom: Shout-out to Jenna for recommending this one because it wasn't on our original list. I LOVED this movie. There's something about a coming-of-age movie that's just a snapshot of a point in time that I love. Written and directed by the same people who wrote The Descendants, including Jim Rash, the Dean from Community, the movie was light and heartwarming while dealing with some pretty heavy topics like divorce, alcoholism, infidelity, and growing up. Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney were incredible.
Erin: I LOVED THIS ONE TOO!! Wow what a movie. I, as dedicated readers of Motion Picture Madness know already, love movies without much conflict or much dedicated plot. I like to meander and just hang out with movie characters. This movie checked that box and more, because of some really awesome performances from the likes of Toni Collette, Sam Rockwell, and Allison Janney. Totally recommend!!
8/11/20: Mr. Turner (2014)
Tom: Long. Boring. Beautiful scenery. That's pretty much it. It was the guy who plays Wormtail grumbling incoherently for 2 ½ hours as an artist in the late 1700s (whose art is legitimately incredible). I have no idea who this movie was made for. Maybe the subtitle lobby because you couldn't understand a damn thing he said.
Erin: I DID NOT LOVE THIS MOVIE! It was so dang long. And I am just so confused on why someone wanted to make a movie about this guy. Nothing major really happens? I’m just at a loss here. Good acting, beautiful cinematography, just a liiiiiittle bit of a waste of time.
8/12/20: Took a day off, done with 2015!
8/13/20: Sing Street (2016)
Tom: This instantly became one of my favorite movies. As many of you know, Erin and I like a lot of things that come from Ireland, and this was basically the Netflix show Derry Girls but in movie form. I laughed out loud a lot. And Jack Reynor was amazing as the protagonist's older brother. I adored this movie. Go watch it.
Erin: This is a fave. I had already seen it but didn’t remember it being quite this good. Basically a kid starts a band in 1980’s Dublin, so I am already completely in. But what takes this to the next level is the absolute Irishness of it. Things are very serious in this movie, but you wouldn’t know it, because there is a line of gallows humor that runs through the film. I can’t wait until the Broadway show premieres (if live theater ever happens again, sigh.)
8/14 to 8/16/20: No movie! Erin was away. Tom watched Dune (1984) and it was bad!
8/17/20: Wonder (2017)
Tom: In twenty years, Jacob Tremblay (Room, Good Boys) and Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place, Ford v Ferrari) are going to be in some amazing award-winning movie together and we're going to be like, "remember when they had that really sweet friendship in Wonder when they were like 12?" Those two kids are going to be major stars. This was a great one and is important for kids to see because it has such a hopeful message of inclusion. Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson were wonderful as Auggie and Via's parents, and I'm always happy to see Mandy Patinkin and Daveed Diggs get some work!
Erin: I read this book back in college, but missed the movie until now. It was so sweet and the message of kindness and inclusivity is so needed. The cast was on point, and it had two of the major child actors to watch (Jacob Tremblay and Noah Jupe) which I think took the movie past “roll out the TV because we have a substitute today” territory into a legitimately good movie.
8/18/20: First Man (2018)
Tom: I liked this way more than I expected to, especially having seen Ad Astra. Ryan Gosling was awesome as Neil Armstrong. This movie focused more on the space aspects of space travel than the relationship aspects which I think can drag those types of movies down sometimes. There was also enough action to carry through the 2 hour 20 minute runtime although I definitely would have cut the part I dozed off during because I don't even know what happened and I still liked the movie. Overall, it's definitely worth a watch if only for Justin Hurwitz's score, which was absolutely incredible.
Erin: I wasn’t really feeling this when it came out, so I didn’t watch it until this week. I actually really liked it! Damien Chazelle is such a pro, and it was just so well made. While it was a traditional biopic (one of my NOT fave genres) I really appreciated some of the risks that elevated the movie to one that I truly enjoyed.
8/19/20: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
Tom: My favorite part of this movie, besides the obvious Hanks and Matthew Rhys performances, was the framing. The entire movie was framed as an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood – complete with transitions styled like the show – and I thought that was a really interesting touch to set the movie apart from countless other biopic-style films. While Hanks was obviously the perfect Fred Rogers, in my opinion it was Matthew Rhys who carried the movie on the back of his complex performance as a cynic tasked with interviewing Rogers for a profile in Esquire magazine. A less talented actor could have turned the plot into a cheesy mess, but much like Rogers himself, the movie was nuanced and intricate and dealt with the heaviness of life in such a delicate but straightforward manner. It was awesome.
Erin: Wow, another great film in this group! I love Mr. Rogers, so much so that I sobbed in theaters by myself watching the 2018 documentary. Tom Hanks seriously nailed his portrayal of the national icon, and as with anything “Mr. Rogers” based, really makes me think about how I live and act towards others. I loved the choices this movie made, and I thought that making Fred a supporting character rather than the main event was *chef’s kiss,* since he was sort of like a supporting man in many of our childhoods.