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.

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

At one point, Crazy, Stupid, Love. was my favorite movie. And you'll notice, this movie also has Steve Carell in the starring role. This is the only romantic comedy I've ever really loved, and it's probably the only romantic comedy I'll ever really love. This movie is so good because it doesn't rely on stupid tropes to fuel the plot. This movie has so much going on it in and it's all concentrated in the plot. The music, the wardrobe, the shot composition, all fairly unimpressive; They're fine, but unimpressive. This movie fully relies on plot and acting and it's amazing. It's what every romantic comedy wants to be-- clever and unassuming-- but it's actually that. It's actually funny, there's actually something to be learned, the acting is great, it deals with a real life situation not some stupid fairy tale. I love this movie and if you don't like it I likely don't like you.

Crimson Peak

Guillermo Del Toro has outdone himself again with this visual masterpiece. My friend had this movie and the second I found out dead people were involved I asked them if it was scary-- they said no and my official verdict is that they need to learn the difference between a scary movie and a not scary movie because this movie is just a step down from Mama. And in fact, the ghosts in this movie moved and interacted with the characters in a very similar way the ghost "Mama" did in Mama, so I'm beginning to think Guillermo Del Toro has a style to his demon or ghost characters and, while it freaked me out immensely, I really really enjoy it.

Mad Max Series

There is a movie theatre in my city where, if you go at 10:00pm and have a student ID, tickets are $1.00. They just finished a four week long Mad Max Marathon, showing the next Mad Max in the series each week. Me and three of my friends went every Friday night at 10:00pm for four weeks straight with everything building up to Mad Max: Fury Road in 3D. After seeing the first Mad Max we all kind of accepted that we were just going so that we could make it to week four aka Fury Road week. And honestly, if those tickets had been more than $1 each it wouldn't have been worth it, but they were, so it was an experience worth having.