Update on the Field (8/31/20)
We're really getting close to the end of our new movie watching now! We're done with 2010, 2012, 2015, and have only one more movie left in 2018. This cycle, we had a wide variety of movies: a rom-com, a blockbuster superhero movie, a couple of deep indie cuts, and an HBO movie. Here are our thoughts:
8/20/20: 2010 is done! No movie!
8/21/20: Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)
Tom: This was one of those movies that slipped past me, but in hindsight I was destined to like it since Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, and Emma Stone are three of my favorites. It was well written and clever and reminded me of a more updated version of Hitch. It was fun.
Erin: I saw this movie when it came out, and I really loved it. Watching it almost a decade later, I still think that it’s a fun romantic comedy with a stellar cast and fun twists. I love Julianne Moore and Emma Stone, and Ryan Gosling plays a fantastic part. There are some jokes that don’t quite hold up, and I truly truly hate one aspect of the ending, but it’s still a movie that I recommend.
8/22/20: 2012 is done! No movie!
8/23/20: Short Term 12 (2013)
Tom: So this one was a late addition after we watched Just Mercy by the same director. It was an affecting personal drama about counselors at a short-term mental health facility for teenagers with a who's who of indie stars who became really famous a few years later. The cast includes Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, and Lakeith Stanfield. In 2013. Yeah. Wow. And they were all great! And so was the movie.
Erin: This movie rocked! I love Brie Larson so much, and this film had so many future stars at the beginning of their careers. Larson plays a woman who works at a short term care facility for teens, and what I really appreciate is seeing a movie where a character’s internal struggles start to show while she is still doing her best to hold it together at work. I feel like we always see “long suffering” women who manage to be “strong” throughout the entire story, or women who snap or are in the middle of a breakdown. Real life isn’t so extreme, so it was refreshing to watch something in the middle in this movie.
8/24/20: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Tom: I've read a fair amount of comic books and X-Men is my favorite comic book property (and shoutout X-Men: Evolution the cartoon!). I loved the idea of combining the cast of the mid-2000s film series with the First Class gang and this movie really delivered. This was my third time seeing it and I like it just as much each time. These movies reinforce my idea that Michael Fassbender should be a mega star if only he didn't pick movies like The Snowman and Assassin's Creed. He's so good.
Erin: I’m not a big superhero movie person, or time travel movie person, but this one was really entertaining! It was very fun, with lots of action, and a cast that was completely in. I’m not going to watch the third one though!
8/25/20: 2015 is done! No movie!
8/26/20: War Dogs (2016)
Tom: I liked this movie because of the performances from Jonah Hill, Miles Teller, Ana de Armas, and Bradley Cooper, but Todd Phillips is a really hacky director and at times it felt like he was making a cheap imitation of The Wolf of Wall Street, Goodfellas, and his own movie, The Hangover. The performances were really entertaining though – particularly Hill's.
Erin: As a card carrying member of the “Ugh Todd Phillips” club, I can’t help but lament that this movie would have been so much better if someone else was in charge. Sorry! The performances are awesome, and it was genuinely fun to watch... but this movie had the same framing as The Hangover. How is that possible? And the music was the weirdest thing in the entire world. No set genre or mood. Sometimes one song would end and immediately be replaced with a completely unrelated song. It was strange. Fun movie overall though!
8/27/20: We watched Class Action Park on HBO, a documentary on the legendary Action Park theme park in Vernon, New Jersey that just came out. It was REALLY fun and you should watch it. At least click the link and watch the trailer. Just do it!
8/28/20: Lady Macbeth (2017)
Tom: As huge Florence Pugh fans around these parts, we had to go check out her first leading role in 2017. There were like five sex scenes and she killed a bunch of people so it was pretty badass. But overall I thought it was kind of cold and I wasn't really sure who to root for. But Pugh was great!
Erin: Florence Pugh! Florence Pugh! Florence Pugh! This movie was sort of like if Phantom Thread was not funny at all mixed with some Yorgos Lanthimos but also like if The Favourite wasn’t funny at all? I mean this in the most complimentary way possible: Watch this as another example on how Florence Pugh’s face is the most expressive of any actress in the entire world.
8/29/20: Blindspotting (2018)
Tom: I'll follow Daveed Diggs to the end of the earth. This was the culmination of a ten-year writing process by Diggs and his longtime friend Rafael Casal about race relations, gentrification, and living on probation in Oakland. It was down to earth and the chemistry between the leads was top notch and hilarious. Like Diggs, the movie also starred Jasmine Cephas Jones, another Hamilton alum (the original Peggy). I really, really liked this one.
Erin: I really liked this one, because it is clearly a movie that meant a lot to those in charge. It was not like War Dogs, where Todd Phillips was like, “How can I figure out how to get my entire iPod catalogue into a movie nonsensically?” Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal are two friends living in Oakland. Daveed Diggs’s character is three days away from being off probation and is out past his curfew when he sees a horrible crime taking place. This is a comedy-drama in the best way. It’s challenging and ambitious--highly recommend!
8/30/20: Bad Education (2019)
Tom: This was technically a TV movie that came out last year on HBO, and it starred Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney, two MPM favorites. It chronicled the largest public school embezzlement scheme in history, where the administrators played by Jackman and Janney stole $11 million from their school in New York. It was a really interesting story and Jackman did an awesome job putting a really complex, multifaceted character onscreen and making him believable. Also it randomly starred Rafael Casal from Blindspotting as well, so that was fun since we had just learned who he was the day before.
Erin: I dug this one as well! Great performances from Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney (duh.) This is an HBO movie, but like, one of those that is tailor-made for Emmys. It’s a true story about a superintendent and assistant superintendent who committed major major crimes involving money (I’m so bad at understanding the money stuff!). What I liked about it is that Jackman’s character seemed like a really awesome superintendent and said so much stuff about education that is so true--but he also stole so much money! Worth a watch for sure.