The Goods: Film Reviews
I can never decide if this one is underrated or properly rated. It feels like two movies grafted into one — a comedy about a mom and a daughter coming to understand each other via transformation hijinks, and a more mythic tale of a young girl discovering the dark truths of the world via creepy bear. Both are solid premises and decently executed… but peculiar together.
About as wholesome and idealistic as the story of a lobbyist sleeping with the president could be. I always love listening to a Sorkin-written screenplay.
A rare movie I actively hate. Misogynistic and pointless, kind of filthy but never fun, terribly directed. I was ready to at least enjoy the romcom bits of the best friends falling for each other… but even the love triangle is botched. Avoid.
A pleasant studio-era romcom set at Christmas with some interesting class stuff going on. The romantic tension is pretty light, but the farce and comedy stuff is breezy fun. And they all end up caroling together in the end. Hooray!
The sequence from the the old housekeeper ringing the doorbell to the Kims escaping in the rain is one of the single greatest, most physically precise, set pieces I have ever seen.
A great ensemble mystery with some great performances and a thoughtful core of social commentary.
I feel like I have an infinite appetite for ’80s romantic comedies starring John Cusack. I want to travel the multiverse collecting all of the John Cusack 80s romcoms I can.
This one is pretty solid, with good control of its tone and characters, occasionally funny, and appealing chemistry between Cusack and Daphne Zuniga. And it’s also a road trip movie, because why the hell not. Good fun.
From 1985-1995 (i.e. when the median Gen X-er was aged 13-23), and maybe even a few years beyond that, Hollywood made a slew of comedies that explored the “slacker” mindset of young adults.
I want to be in every scene in this movie. A rare movie I’ve seen 4+ times… and liked more every time. I’m increasingly convinced it’s the hangout masterpiece of the 21st century.
Yikes. For starters, you have a really rough, entirely predictable teen romantic comedy that wants to be fun like Animal House, but is just a chaotic mess. The romance portions are maybe passable, but if so, only barely. (I do like Lori Laughlin here.)
Where it nosedives into catastrophe is the other half of the film, where an entirely misguided romantic farce involving the teens’ parents is thrown into the mix. It’s baffling, but not in a fun way. Just a total misfire.