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.
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The American President (1995)
Category: Podcast Rating
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!
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Parasite (2019)
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.
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Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)
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.
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Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
For whatever reason I am a total sucker for teen dramedies where supposedly platonic best friends have romantic sparks. I’m determined to watch every one of them.
This John Hughes-penned (but not -directed) example of the form is a pretty solid one, but one that stumbles over itself in the ending with some plot points and bits of dialogue that don’t make sense. Also Eric Stoltz is a total piece of plain white toast this entire movie. Flat and bland.
Nov 2020 update:
Rewatched to record for a podcast. There is exactly one great character/performance (Watts), then a bunch of clunkers. Enjoyable and very much up my alley, but still marred by some weird, head-scratching plot and character points in the third act.
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The Founder (2016)
The McDonald’s founding story segment generates almost all of the goodwill this movie earns. Keaton is also kind of fun if not very nuanced. The script is a catastrophe, though.
Note: This capsule has been superseded by a full-length review.
Visually, Suspiria is a stunner. One of the most striking uses of color I’ve ever seen, with lighting that illuminates every tinted surface of every space we see. The soundtrack is disorienting weirdness too: a ringing, whispering drone.
The script and pacing, on the other hand, have some hiccups that really pulled me out: The weird U-turn of exposition when Suzy meets the psychologist and professor is jarring, and the apocalyptic ending lasts all of 30 seconds, with the credits rolling just when I was getting into it.
Reviewed on The Goods in our first episode here
Edit: This is my first movie since I started logging and reviewing again during the pandemic. It’s also the first movie I discussed on my podcast with Brian. In other words, this is the moment I officially launched my return to film criticism, so this specific film will forever hold a special place in my heart.