A Fantastic Fear of Everything

Easily the best, quirky, weird movie I've ever seen, A Fantastic Fear of Everything is so entertaining

and discombobulated you have to watch it twice just to get the whole picture and maybe a third time for giggles. I found a Fantastic Fear on Netflix so as of now, you can watch it as many times as you want. A neurotic writer, Simon Pegg, through writing his television script about serial killers, becomes paranoid that he is actually being stalked by a serial killer. With a mixture of mediums tied in through storytelling, A Fantastic Fear of Everything is the most unique movie I can think of; it reminds me of a Wes Anderson film but not not as coherent. It didn't get great reviews on any of the official review cites, but you have to have an open mind.

Pan's Labyrinth

I don't necessarily have a favorite director, but every Guillermo Del Toro movie I've seen, I have been absolutely been amazed by. Pan's Labyrinth was my introduction to Guillermo Del Toro; I saw it in my 11th grade Spanish 4 class and at first, it freaked me the hell out. I then saw Mama and realized Guillermo Del Toro was involved (executive producer) and they kind of had the same sort of ending (come to think of it every Guillermo Del Toro has sort of the same ending). I've recently re-watched Pan's Labyrinth and I think that because I wasn't in a class being forced to watch it, I enjoyed it more, even though a lot of the parts still did/does still freak me out.

The Martian

I was not expecting to come out of this movie liking it. I thought I would be impressed with the visual effects but otherwise I was not really expecting much mostly because of the fact that I am not a fan of Matt Damon (probably because of those goddamn Jason Borne movies). I think the theme of abandonment on a planet, and the similar cast and vibe to interstellar (you know what I mean if you've seen Interstellar) also made me kind of wary of The Martian, simply because I thought it was going to be too much like it, and I am not one of those people who could watch Interstellar twice. But, as my friends and I were deciding between seeing Black Mass and The Martian, they raised some points about the other cast members and the scientific accuracy of it and the visuals and they outnumbered me, so we saw the Martian, and I did not have any strong feelings against it.

The Fly

I've enjoyed my fair share of weird movies, but I only recently watched The Fly, and I've got to say that is the most fucked movie I have ever seen. Even though its from 86', it really doesn't seem that dated, which surprised me. I was surprised that it didn't just seem kind of goofy with bad effects, but it actually really got me, and I was so shocked afterwards it has since been the only movie ever that, when it ended, I was sweating. I caught myself a few times with my mouth just hanging open. I can't say whether or not I liked it, but I definitely appreciate it and the effect it had on me; I've never seen a movie, except for The Grudge, that had such an impact on me, and even with The Grudge the only prolonging repercussion from that movie was that I couldn't sleep on or look under my cover for a while, and I couldn't be in stairwells alone, you know, because of those scenes. However, if I wasn't in my bed or in a stairwell alone, I didn't think about it and it wasn't a problem. The issue with The Fly, is that even when I'm just walking around town or something is, if I'm thinking about it, I worry about it becoming a pseudo King-Kong Situation where this "185-pound fly" is going to escape and terrorize masses of people and somehow make its way onto my middle-of-nowhere, in the mountains college campus and we'll be stuck with it and no one will save us. I've thought about that extensively. The Fly was so disturbing that I wouldn't necessarily make the decision to ever watch it again by myself, but I was damn intrigued and fascinated and I'm super glad I watched it.

Instructions Not Included

For some reason this movie has a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, which makes it "rotten". Instructions not Included is the cutest, funniest, most amusing father/daughter film I've seen. It certainly isn't a family film in cases where children would be watching it, but I watched this with my mom and we both really liked it. It certainly isn't award winning, but it provides for some decent plot twists and an unapologetic tearjerker ending, which some might call cheap, but I thought it was really smart. Yes, most of the movie is a goofy and cute documentation of how a father would do anything for his daughter, and the whole movie is sort of misleading about what the reveal will be at the end, but the last 30 minutes, I would say, has the most abrupt change in tone from the rest of the movie, and if you have any heart at all, you will cry.