The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Allow me to preface this with the fact that I knew how this movie was going to end before I started watching it, and I meant to watch this movie because I felt like I wanted to cry, I just didn't think it would be nearly as sad as it actually was. The main character is the son of some level of Nazi commander and they move to a new house with a concentration camp basically in their back yard. It's not like, right there in their backyard but they can smell the people burning and they can see the smokestacks and the smoke that comes from when they burned the Jews. So this  little boy naturally wants to go exploring and finds this concentration camp but of course he doesn't know what the hell it is. He finds this little boy sitting by the fence and he's wearing the uniform Jews had to wear in concentration camps and that's where the name The Boy in the Striped Pajamas comes from. This movie doesn't end well at all and I suggest if you have any love for children don't watch it. Don't even try it because you will want to die at the end of this movie.

Nightcrawler

NIghtcrawler made me feel the same way American Psycho and A Clockwork Orange made me feel. I felt slimy afterwards and I felt like the friends I watched it with and I should go do something good in the world-- contribute to society. This movie was a piece that made me think a lot about something I have never even thought to consider before-- crime scene videography. It also makes you think about the gross underbelly of media in general and just how slimy it might be. The key to this movie is ti makes the audience think "is this really what's happening out there?" This movie is completely bonkers. I genuinely believe Jake Gyllenhaal is a little bit crazy because after watching Donnie Darko and now this; I was shocked. He is, in addition to probably being a little bit crazy, an amazingly versatile actor who commits to everything he does. Every little crazy thing he did in this movie was 110% believable; that's why it was so jarring.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I will preface this with the fact that I do not like Star Wars. I've seen two of the originals, none of the prequels and I wasn't going to see this one but it happened to be playing at our local theater where we could get in for $1. I also happened to be craving buffalo wings and my friends wanted to see this movie so we went. If Adam Driver hadn't been Kylo Ren I would have felt no inclination to see it, but since I love Adam Driver in about everything he's done, I thought why not and I could get some awesome food out of it. I guess I can understand this being called the movie event of the year, but in no way is this the movie of the year.

Home

Most adorable animated film I've seen in such a long time. The alien in the movie calls the pet cat "pig-cat" for Christ sake. It's just filled with the cutest characters and has the cutest plot ever. And Rihanna and Jim Parsons voice the main characters so how could that not possibly be amazing, I'm telling you, this movie is all kinds of great. And maybe critically this movie is not the best but in terms of pure entertainment this movie hits the nail on the head for me. Jim Parson's voice and the soundtrack just bring my mood up. The general vibe to this movie is "feel good".

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd is a funny, scary Les Miserables. The dark aesthetic, the time period, the returning-criminal-looking-for-redemption character, the poverty, the weird daughter dynamic, the singing-- all reminded me of Les Miserables, however, it was dark and freaky. It also started out as a musical, like Les Miserables. The ending of this movie really reminded me of Crimson Peak, or of a dark Guillermo Del Toro ending.
I didn't know what I was expecting this movie to be. All I knew going in was that there was a barber that killed his clients and, who I thought was his wife, made meat pies out of them and their business was booming. That's all I thought I knew about this movie, and then Sacha Baron Cohen showed up and Alan Rickman is the main villain and I was confused but also simultaneously pulled in. Also like Les Miserables, I was not expecting so much singing in this movie. More so in Les Miserables, but still there are a lot of songs that get thrown in at weird times. It's weird to compare Sweeney Todd to Les Miserables but the comparisons reveal some interesting similarities.