The first set of content bits for 2021. Welcome to the new year and sorry, but no refunds. You're trapped in this dystopia and it isn't quite like the Hunger Games or Blade Runner yet. Speaking of dystopia, we'll be reviewing a ton of dystopian movies this year! Hush, no complaining or we send you back to the KFC farm to harvest nuggets growing on the side of chicken flesh panels.
"Ahead of its time" is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot, but I think 1922's Häxan (Witchcraft Through the Ages) might be the work that suffers most because of this. The limitations of silent film mean the 105 minute runtime often feels painfully dragged out, with the first fifteen minutes, consisting of almost entirely still images and interstitial captions, feeling almost like an early power point presentation. It's a shame, because the imagery is incredible and the attempts to draw parallels between the fantastical nature of witchcraft and more mundane issues feels especially advanced for its time, but I found myself having to periodically get up and move around because I just couldn't handle staring at the screen without looking away long enough to enjoy this in one sitting.
That said, the visuals alone are worth giving it a look, and if the day ever comes when Halloween parties are an option again, you'd be hard pressed to find something better to throw on your tv with the volume off for atmosphere.
Disney knows how to do modern cartoons and this is no exception. The story follows Joe, a school band teacher who seems to have lost his way. As he sees a spark of passion in one student's musical ability and then lands the gig of his life, he has a mishap and finds himself at the pearly gates but refuses to accept that fate. In limbo Joe runs into an odd one known as "22" and finds himself on an adventure to help 22 find a spark so that they can live a life on earth. The movie has a great stride and flows very well with an amazing cast of vocal talent as well as some incredible music by an unlikely trio, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for the original score and John Batiste with original jazz songs. The movie brings the laughs and the feels and is perfect for all ages.
This quirky movie is billed as a Crime/Drama but as far as modern movies go, that is about the farthest thing from what it really is. It's more of a slow-play dry commentary on the nature of humans and how odd we can be, with a splash of low-end grifting, wrapped into a family-dynamic sleeper hit that also moonlights as a love-story. For me, it started out slow and confused as I couldn't figure out what type of movie it was. About half-way through I was hooked as I realized it wasn't trying to be any specific genre; it just did its thing with Evan Rachel Wood stealing the show. If you dig on off-the-beaten-path flicks, this one is worth a go.
It must have been a few years since the last earth-snuffing porn, as we tend to get one movie like that every so often, although more recently in the form of plagues and zombies. Gerard Butler and end of the world, pretty much tells you what you need to know about this movie. All the stereotypical things from this genre of movie too; poorly manufactured explosions to tide you over before the real city-snuffing comes, impromptu gangs that make no sense, cell service outages for plot advancement, and really bad dialogue snippets. I definitely like I watched this so you wouldn't have to.
