Monthly Movie Reviews – October, 2015

Stats

• Movies watched – 10
• Movies that were new to me – 7
• Sci fi movies – 3
• Monthly Masterpieces – Man’s Favorite Sport 

October 27

• That Daughter’s Crazy (2015) – Documentary/concert film documenting Richard Pryor’s daughter’s one-woman off-Broadway show.  Interesting and sporadically funny material, but it mostly serves to remind me that Broadway style shows are really not my cup of tea.

October 22

• Cloud Atlas (2012) – Some story about interconnected generations of people in the past, present and future that is confusingly plotted enough that I’m not sure I really feel the need to finish the last hour that I didn’t get to.  Also, the yellowface is probably just as much of an abomination aesthetically speaking as it is ideologically speaking.

October 20

• Blue Collar (1978) – Pryor, despite being given his head a bit too much, is pretty magnetic in this well-made, but overwritten movie.  Despite being a bit too on the nose in places, it is still a gritty, hard-hitting film.

October 15

• The Martian (2015) – Really fun film that celebrates humanity’s love of solving puzzles.  Some of the “rah rah we are all one world” stuff gets laid on a bit thick, but there is no denying the appeal of watching someone science the shit out of a movie.

October 14

• Monkey Business (1931) – Quite a few classic bits as the Marx brothers are turned loose on a passenger ship, but this still isn’t up there with their best work.  Groucho’s lines are as sharp as they get, Harpo is as feral as he gets, Chico’s puns are as groanworthy as they get, and Zeppo is as superfluous as he gets.

October 11

• Southpaw (2015) – Some decent boxing stuff in here, even if this kind of thing is awful familiar.  My biggest complaint is that the script probably could have used a trim of about 40 pages.
• Man’s Favorite Sport (1964) – Classic mid-sixties rom-com with Hudson in top form as a sham fishing expert.  Like most late-period Hawks, this is about as laid back and enjoyable as cinema can get.

October 10

• Bringing Up Baby (1938) – Madcap and fast talking as they come, but Grant (to some degree) and Hepburn (to a large degree) are pretty insufferable.  At least the madness helps pick things up as the movie progresses.

October 5

• Isle of Flowers (1989) – Pretty creative way to present the subject matter, that somehow makes an approach that would be insufferably twee under most other circumstances actually work.  It is a little preachy, but it is short enough and full of enough ideas that I suppose I forgive it.
• La Jetee (1962) – Novel in concept and execution, but I still found myself wishing it were actually filmed instead of just a photo slideshow.  Also, if I must admit it, it is a little hard to follow as well.