Beautiful Boy
Dir. Felix Van Goreningen
Based on the memoirs of a father and his drug-addicted son, Beautiful Boy is a harrowing story that shows the terrifying path a promising young man took toward becoming a full blown meth addict. Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) stars as the titular "beautiful boy," Nicolas Sheff, and Steve Carell plays his father, David, who is desperate to help his son. The acting on display is great, but it's hard to watch this film thinking it's anything other than "Oscar bait" for its two leads. The pacing is also languid, slowly flowing from past to present memories with little rhyme or reason, further lessening the impact of the subject matter.
WAIT FOR NETFLIX
Bohemian Rhapsody
Dir. Bryan Singer
Freddie Mercury is hands down one of the greatest rock singers of all time, and his life and persona seem perfectly fitting for the music biopic treatment. But while Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) does a great job channeling Mercury's on-stage energy and flamboyant attitude, Bohemian Rhapsody is a little too formulaic and safe when it comes to depicting his life. In so much as a film about a gay, drugged-out rock and roll AIDS victim can be, it felt like the "family friendly" version of the story. However, despite its relatively paint-by-numbers filmmaking style, it's hard not to get swept up in the music numbers!
Final Verdict:
WAIT FOR NETFLIX
Boy Erased
Dir. Joel Edgerton
Based on the memoir of the same name, Boy Erased is a drama that follows Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges), the son of devout Baptist parents who is coerced into joining a gay conversion therapy program. With fantastic performances from the likes of Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and director Joel Edgerton, Boy Erased is an emotional, disturbing movie that I personally feel should be required viewing for devout religious parents.
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Dir. Marielle Heller
As a teacher, I have already caught multiple instances of plagiarism this year - but Lee Israel definitely has my students beat in the "faking it" department! Telling the true story of a struggling writer who turns her talents to forging letters from prominent authors for book memorabilia collectors, Can You Ever Forgive Me is a fascinating true story showing how a cantankerous, lonely lady fooled a whole lot of literary snobs. Bolstered by great performances from Melissa McCarthy (who's never been better) and Richard E. Grant, this is definitely one of the better under-the-radar movies of 2018!
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
First Man
Dir. Damien Chazelle
Following up his history-making Oscar win for Best Director at age 32, Damien Chazelle's latest takes place away from the sunlit Los Angeles streets of La La Land and up into outer space. Telling the story of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, First Man is simultaneously a fantastic, IMAX-worthy effects movie as well as an intimate drama that exposes the messy reality underneath the heroic story of the space race. Ryan Gosling is great in the role, humanizing this American hero as a man with fears and flaws, and the space flight sequences, through a strictly point-of-view camera and rough-and-tumble sound design, really hit home how rickety and "man-made" these early spacecrafts were. Just a great movie all around - including the music score!
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
The Hate U Give
Dir. George Tillman Jr.
Based on the 2017 young adult novel by Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give follows Starr Carter, a high school student living an uneasy balance between her life in the poor, black neighborhood in which she lives and the rich, white prep school that she attends. As if her identity crisis couldn't get more complicated, she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend at the hands of a police officer. The Hate U Give may have been written for a teenage audience, but this is a seriously powerful film that talks about race in a deep way. Amandla Stenberg, playing Starr, is clearly a "star" in the making and delivers a totally emotionally devastating performance!
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
Mid90s
Dir. Jonah Hill
Jonah Hill, best known for his comedy roles in movies like Superbad and 21 Jump Street, makes his directorial debut with Mid90s, a surprisingly honest, authentic coming-of-age drama set in the world of 1990s L.A. "skater kid" culture. Following a group of kids working at the Motor Avenue skate shop, the cast seems more like documentary subjects than film actors. Mid90s is funny, brutal, dramatic, insightful, honest, and a pretty RAD movie!
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
Overlord
Dir. Julius Avery
The one-sentence elevator pitch for Overlord is basically: take Saving Private Ryan and put in some Nazi zombies. Seemingly made solely for teenage boys who log hundreds of hours a week on Call of Duty, Overlord is a slickly made piece of "nothing" entertainment.
Final Verdict:
SKIP IT
A Star is Born
Dir. Bradley Cooper
This fifth "A Star is Born" movie follows a two stars in their crossing paths, Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper), a "falling" star battling a drug and alcohol addiction, and Ally (Lady Gaga), a struggling "rising" star discovered by Jackson in a drag bar. While it's a typical, generic telling of a tale told so many times before, Cooper makes his A Star is Born shine through its honest performances and fantastic live music sequences (I expect at least 2 nominations for "Best Song" come Oscar season).
Final Verdict:
SEE IT
Suspiria
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Based on the 1977 Italian horror film of the same name (which boasts one of my all-time favorite movie soundtracks!), Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria borrows the spirit of the original but adds a whole hell of a lot more to think about; without incurring spoilers, let's just say that it's one of those ambiguous-enough movies to invite loads of film studies students to write about for their thesis papers. The story is about an elite dance academy in Germany that is secretly run by witches, using the young dancers as sacrifices to live an eternal youth. This remake is genuinely scary, with some incredibly disturbing moments and scary, memorable, intensely-choreographed dance sequences. I haven't seen a movie this genuinely scary in a long time!
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
Venom
Dir. Ruben Fleischer
The iconic Spider-Man villain Venom made his movie debut in Spider-Man 3 to a nearly unanimous negative outcry from fans. Although this new Venom movie has a paltry 29% positive reviews, I think Venom redeems the character from his last screen appearance and that this is a really cool depiction of the character - albeit a character stuck in a very, very stupid story.
Tom Hardy plays investigative journalist Eddie Brock, whose body merges with the "symbiote" alien Venom, essentially becoming a superhero version of Jekyll and Hyde. I loved the quirky dynamic established between Brock and the destructive alien in his head, and how this turns at once from a horror b-movie to a buddy comedy. Although the villains are idiotically evil and the story feels dated, I enjoyed Venom for the oddball flick it is.
Final Verdict:
WAIT FOR NETFLIX
Widows
Dir. Steve McQueen
Following his Best Picture win for 12 Years a Slave, director Steve McQueen (not to be confused with "The Great Escape" Steve McQueen) made this gritty, twisty heist movie with possibly the single most stacked-with-A-list-actors cast this year! The actual heist has a huge scope with dozens of different characters (reminding me almost of The Wire), but at its heart are four widowed women whose husbands died in a robbery attempt in Chicago. In an effort to pay off the debt owed by the botched heist and make a future for themselves, these badass ladies attempt to finish one last heist that was planned.
Widows is a bit of a slow go in places and perhaps is too ambitious in its amount of content for a theatrical film (I could totally see this as an HBO drama series), but McQueen delivers the intensity when he needs to, with both the action and the performances. Definitely a must for heist movie fans!
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
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