Teensy Reviews: 6 Films We Didn't Review Properly
Thursday, July 21, 2016 at 9:30PM These reviews could fit in a tweet. Presented to assuage Nathaniel's guilt from not having properly reviewed them when they arrived, though he sometimes dropped hints of his feelings in other contexts.
IN THEATERS
Swiss Army Man (Daniels)
Story: A suicidal man (Paul Dano) finds companionship and a new zest for life when he meets a corpse (Daniel Radcliffe)
Review: Wobbly start, Self sabotaging end. But, Oh!, those imaginative mental heights in the middle.
Grade: Middle Hour: A- / The Rest: C+
Genius (Michael Grandage)
Story: An account of the long working relationship between famed editor Max Perkins (Colin Firth) and one of his literary finds Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law). Let us not mention the women (Nicole Kidman, The Lovely Laura Linney) lest we rage again at the terrible gender politics
Review: The work of an editor is shape & rhythm, so why is a film about a great one lumpy and lead-footed? Over and under-acted at once.
Grade: D-
Extra: Amir's festival review
The Shallows (Jaume Collet-Serra)
Story: A grieving med school dropout is attacked by a shark and stranded in the ocean alone. Can she survive? Review: Mechanical, but that's meant as a compliment. It plays. Slight with just enough bite (sorry). Bonus points for Steven Seagull.
Grade: B
ON DVD & BLURAY
The Bronze (Bryan Buckley)
Story: Two former Olympic champions (Melissa Rauch & Sebastian Stan) fight over a promising new female gymnast
Review: Rude and daring. But its suffocatingly narrow comic tone mars the promising conceit, good jokes, and a lunatic sex scene.
Grade: C+
How to Be Single (Christian Ditter)
Story: Four single girls (Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann, Rebel Wilson, Alison Brie) try to find themselves... and maybe a boyfriend... in Manhattan.
Review: Unexpectedly involving performances. Fun. And yet, as uneven and generic as first dates. One entire storyline needs to go.
Grade: B-
10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg)
Story: A woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up chained up by a man (John Goodman) in an underground shelter. Should she fear the man or the apocalypse he swears is raging outside the bunker?
Review: Discomforting. What it lacks in scope, it makes up for in propulsive plotting: from frying pan to fire to inferno.
Grade: B
Reader Comments (7)
I watched 10 Cloverfield Lane on a long flight Tuesday. It felt like a cross between Misery, Room and an end-of-the-world sci-fi horror B movie. I liked it.
I felt exactly the same about How To Be Single. Much as I like her, I'd probably lose the Alison Brie storyline. Leslie Mann was pretty wonderful, I thought. I almost wanted a separate movie about her and Jake Lacey.
Leslie Mann is always wonderful
Looks like I haven't missed much at the movies! BUT, TV and the internet are loaded with great stuff! Including Randy Rainbow's great Music Man send-off re a certain he-who-should-not-be-named nominee...
This just reminded me to get back into my Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon.
While there was imagination to Swiss Army Man, I am on the hate side of it. I felt the central relationship was ill defined and I never much got on the same wavelength as the film.
However, I was more than enough on the same wavelength of How to be Single. Despite numerous flaws (bye Alison Brie, love you), I felt it was really fun and had an authentic voice that was very specific to today. Plus, it proved to me Dakota Johnson was a real leading lady.
I really love "the shallows'. Blake was outstanding in the movie. Thanks.