Alright, I’m going to start out by admitting that I never saw the original “Dora the Explorer” animated TV show, so I can’t really commit on how true the movie is to the original source material, in case some millennial purist wants to know. But what I can tell you is that Dora is sweet, fun, and funny. Somehow in a couple of months between the airing of the last episode of “Dora the Explorer” TV show and the release…
Whether you love the KKK or hate them, you’re going to love BlacKkKlansman, the latest movie from Spike Lee. Just kidding, haters are going to hate this true-life story of Colorado Springs police rookie Ron Stallworth as he masterminds the infiltration of the local chapter of the KKK. This film takes a serious story and adds humor and black culture to creates something meaningful and entertaining without being preachy.
I watched 168 movies in 2018, according to my Letterboxd Diary. You can click on the link and see the movies I watched and their ratings. For the most part, I will ignore the blockbusters (except A Star is Born) and focus on movies that did not have big budget advertising and that you probably haven’t heard about. All but one of these have passed the wife test and have a thumbs up by both the misses and me. A…
Housebound (2014) Kylie is an angry, destructive, juvenile delinquent who gets sentenced to house arrest after a botched ATM robbery. She is forced to move back into her childhood home with her mother and stepfather, and to make matters worse the house might be haunted. Kylie is placed under house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet enforcing her confinement. This turns out to be every bit of a bad punishment for her mother and stepfather as it is for her….
Before I Fall (2017) Before I Fall is a cross between Mean Girls and Groundhog Day with a dash of suicide prevention thrown in. Now that I write that, it doesn’t sound too appealing, but this tight little teen drama held my attention and had me almost liking even the meanest mean girl. And that’s a real trick when you make the antagonist somewhat likable and completely understandable. I’ve seen time loop movies before. This one jumps into a familiar genre and makes each loop…
The Little Death (streaming on Netflix) Taken from the french “La Petite Mort” which describes “the brief loss or weakening of consciousness” or for my American movie going audience “I’ll have what she’s having”. I’m glad I don’t have to try and pronounce the “La Petite Mort” because I sound stupid when I speak french correctly, and a complete idiot when I get it wrong, which is most of the time. And speaking of stupid, there is nothing that makes…
Tallulah (2016) Netflix Streaming Tallulah is not your average girl. If this were the 60’s she would have been a hippy, but it’s not and she is just a girl living off the grid and out of her van. She will work if she has to and steal when she can. She has a good heart, but not a lot of integrity. Her life works well for her until her boyfriend leaves her and while looking for him she ends up…
These Final Hours (Netflix Streaming) What if you knew you were going to die in the next 24-48 hours? How would you behave? What would it look like if everyone knew they were going to die soon? Would there be any law and order, how about human decency? In These Final Hours some unspecified global event is setting the world on fire and time is running out. The story focuses on James a tough guy looking to spend his last…
ARQ (2016) I just streamed this little time travel movie on Netflix and was really disappointed when it was over because I wanted more. Since it was rated TV-MA I thought I was watching the pilot to a new series, but it was just a made for tv movie. It’s similar to Edge of Tomorrow and Groundhog Day in that the protagonists live one day and loop back and do it again. It follows the time loop movie rules with a few…
Deepwater Horizon (2016) I like disaster flicks for one simple reason: Crises reveals character. Day to day most lives are boring, but when crises arises people’s mettle is exposed. On the Deepwater Horizon mobile drilling platform many things go terribly wrong and we get to see these common working men and women rise out of the fire as real life heroes. There are books describing the accident, but reading about this is much less fun than watching it. Ok there’s another reason I…