Delayed Reaction: Predestination

The Pitch: A time-travel puzzle involving a man, a woman, a baby, a time-traveling agent, and a terrorist bomber.

This is tricky. The Delayed Reactions have have an assumption of spoilers baked into them ("delayed" means "you should've seen it by now"). However, I don't think many people actually saw this yet, and it has some pretty fun twists that I don't want to spoil. I guess, I'll keep this vague.

That was a trip. It's based on a 1950s short story (All You Zombies) that I certainly wasn't familiar with. I dug how they chose to keep with the timeline from the short story rather than trying to update and futurize everything. It gave the movie a fun alt-history feeling that not many movies do. I'm impressed by how much the story makes sense, except, of course, for the endless recursion aspect. But, even that makes sense within the logic of the film. I thought this was an Ethan Hawke movie. It turns out that it's really a showcase for Sarah Snook. That's a demanding role and she nails it. Hawke is fine too in a more supporting role.

Pretty much, this is Looper with a more interesting paradox. Predestination would pair nicely with that, 12 Monkeys, or Primer. It would not pair so nicely with About Time. So, that's the kind of time travel it is.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Final

The Pitch: High school rejects get deadly revenge on their classmates.

I honestly don't remember putting this in my Netflix queue or how it got to the top of my 400-movie list. I assume I knew at one point. It probably came from one of my Google searches of "good horror movies" or "most disturbing films". Whatever the case may be, Netflix delivered it, so I watched.
Based on the description, I assumed this would be much gorier than it was. As someone who avoided direct eye-contact with most of the Saw movies, I'm thankful that it's somewhat restrained in the visuals. Don't get me wrong, the people that made this like to see people in pain, but it's a little more psychological than "how can we hurt this person in a new way?".

What I found most entertaining was the cast. The reject kids are kind of perfect. Marc Donato some may remember as the nerdy Derek Haig from Degrassi: The Next Generation. Before you ask, yes, that is Orin from Parks and Rec (Eric Isenhower) as another reject. I even find it fitting that the reject girl (Lindsay Seidel) is mainly known for American dubs of anime.

I couldn't ever get into the movie. The overacting by the "cool kids" at the beginning was too much for me. I understand that they need to set up that these people are sufficiently awful to deserve the torture they get later, but this is like taking a mallet to a pinata: too much. I have to care about them a little bit or at least think of them as people rather than "types". I did not. I was very “pro-murder” throughout.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Capote

The Pitch: Truman Capote investigates the murder that inspired his most infamous book.

I'll be sad when I run out of Phillip Seymour Hoffman roles. Excluding TV, shorts, and animated films, he has 50 credits on IMDB. With Capote I've now seen half of them. I doubt I'll ever get to all the films - Something tells me My New Gun isn't worth hunting down - but it is nice to know that I still have plenty of films left to rediscover. Capote is probably his most famous role. Oscars will do that. I have no issue with that. He is excellent. He manages to capture Truman Capote's cartoonishness without sacrificing any of the dramatic beats of the film. That's really hard to do. Having seen all three of Bennett Miller's films (Capote, Moneyball, Foxcatcher), I definitely have a sense of his work now, especially between Capote and Foxcatcher.

Catherine Keener is really good as Harper Lee but the film leans just a little too hard on the dramatic irony about To Kill a Mockingbird's success. Yes, it is pretty cool that these childhood friends both became famous writers and her success came in unassuming fashion. I get it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Color of Money

The Pitch: The Hustler, 25 years later.

I recently watched The Hustler with the intention of following with The Color of Money* soon after. It's a weird way to get a sequel. 25 years apart. Same lead actor. New, more acclaimed director. The most similar comparison I can find is also in 1986: Aliens, which had a much smaller gap in time. The difference between filming in 1961 and 1986 is significant (even ignoring the shift to color). I'm reminded of how we went from the Wright brothers' 3 second flight to Lindbergh's flying from New York to Paris over roughly the same time span. Change happens fast sometimes.

*I suppose it's a reflection on my age that I keep wanting to type "The Color of Friendship" instead.

After both films, I don't have a much better understanding of billiards hustling than I did before. In the 1986 film, Eddie (Paul Newman) is happy to point out to Vincent (Tom Cruise) what he's doing wrong or how they should approach a con, but Scorsese doesn't seem to be all that interested in the con itself. I'm also a little confused by the concept of a hustler hustling another hustler. Like, when Forrest Whitaker's character gets the best of Eddie, isn't that just because Eddie is getting drunk and stubborn? Whitaker is playing better than him, but is the hustle just convincing Eddie to keep playing? In which case, Eddie is essentially choosing to be the victim? I'm just not interested enough in 9-ball to understand, I think.

As far as lifetime achievement Oscars go, Paul Newman's performance is better than Leonardo DiCaprio's in The Revenant or Meryl Streep's for The Iron Lady (technically, her third Oscar, but long overdue). I suppose this is the role that began Tom Cruise's hunger for an Oscar that drove many of his choices for the new decade and a half. I suppose that's a good thing.

The film is easy to watch. I don't think The Hustler needed a follow-up, nor do I think this added much to the story of Fast Eddie. But, that's as much Walter Tevis' fault as anyone's for writing a sequel to the novel in the first place.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Searchers

The Pitch: John Wayne goes Camanche huntin'.

I probably would've never seen this movie if not for The Great Movie Ride at Disney World. I'm slowly working my way through the films in that attraction. By my measure, I still have Footlight Parade, The Public Enemy, A Fistful of Dollars, and Tarzan the Ape Man to go*.

*Supposing they never update the attraction.

I'm also slowly introducing myself to more Westerns. I saw The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly quite a while back and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance more recently. The Searchers is basically the Western you think of in the generic sense. John Wayne is the lone hero fighting Indians on the frontier. That's all I needed from this.

In looking this movie up, I see that it's greatly influential. Influence is something that's hard to track. Something like John Wayne's introductory shot certainly looks familiar (apparently it inspired Sherif Ali's entrance in Lawrence of Arabia). Was that the first time it was done, the most iconic instance of it, or part of a common trend around then from several films?

The story meanders a bit, which I like more in theory than execution. The patience of the storytelling successfully conveys the length of the journey. It does feel like there should be a better way to convey how monotonous it the journey is though.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Movie Reaction: The Space Between Us

Formula: The Martian + Paper Towns

Sometimes, the release date for a movie being repeatedly pushed back is a bad sign. Ok, more than sometimes. Almost always. It isn't a hard rule though. There's many reasons to be delayed. The studio could be going bankrupt. I believe that's what delayed Cabin in the Woods. Plenty of films a move out of a crowded markets one weekend so they stand a better chance of turning a profit when it's less competitive. Occasionally, films are moved out of the awards season so people don't go in expecting an "awards movie" (See: The Monuments Men). Kenneth Lonergan's film Margaret was delayed six years due to assorted lawsuits and post-production problems. The Space Between Us though? That was delayed because it isn't very good.

Let me brief you on the story. Back in 2018, Nathaniel Shepherd (Gary Oldham) sends a group of astronauts to live on Mars. The lead astronaut turns out to be pregnant, which they don't realize until after liftoff. Her child, Gardner, is born on Mars and kept a secret for 16 years to avoid bad PR for Nathaniel's company. Eventually, they decide to bring Gardner (now played by Asa Butterfield) back to Earth since he wants to go. He goes through extensive surgery so that Earth's gravity doesn't crush him. He is quarantined on Earth while they test how his body is handling everything. Because he's a teenage boy, he eventually escapes the NASA facility he's at and tracks down a girl he likes who he's been Skyping (or 2034's version of Skype) with. The girl, Tulsa (Britt Robertson), immediately agrees to go on the run with him as they then track down Gardner's father. Nathaniel and Gardner's surrogate mother (Carla Gugino) are hunting them down the whole time.

If any of this sounds convoluted and implausible, you'd be right. I often refer to what I call my One Big Leap, which is a shorthand for saying "I'll accept one major conceit about the movie - coincidence or plot convenience - but after that, it needs to be consistent". The Space Between Us fails this test several times over. It uses up the Leap early with the double-whammy of Mars colony/astronaut whose pregnancy wouldn't be caught before getting sent into space. Maybe I can also give it "Gardner is successfully kept a secret for 16 years despite there being a rotation of astronauts making the trip to Mars over the years". But, there's no way that I'm believing he'd be able to successfully escape the NASA facility (they use "He was raised by scientists" as a coverall excuse for him being able to do things). Also, every beat of Gardner and Tulsa being on the run doesn't make sense. She just happens to know how to steal any car (and never get pulled over by the cops). At one point, a wire fence keeps out everyone in Nathaniel's agency from getting to Gardner. Garnder goes to a hospital for several hours and that's not immediately flagged by Nathaniel's people. Gardner sure does run a lot for someone with an enlarged heart that's ready to explode at any instant. The story is a mess of conveniences.

I like this cast a lot but not for this movie. Asa Butterfield I've liked since Hugo. He's been fine in things like Ender's Game. He tries to use his gangly awkwardness to his advantage here. The movie confuses "Gardner hasn't been on Earth before" with "Gardner has never spoken to a modern human before", which gets irritating. (He has the internet. He would've been exposed to shows, movies, and pop culture. He shouldn't been needing instructional videos from the 50s to prepare for Earth.) Britt Robertson plays a cousin of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Let's call her the "Everything Girl". She's beautiful but also an outcast and unpopular at school. She's drives a motor cycle. She flies planes. She wears sundresses. She sings and plays the piano. She steals cars. She's an unattached orphan. She's in advanced calculus classes. She's everything. Robertson plays the character well. It's very similar to her Tomorrowland character. I'd prefer a version of this with her as the main character instead. Butterfield and Robertson have more of a big sister/little brother dynamic (or maybe just buddies). The romance between them doesn't work. I didn't buy it at all. Oldman tries to do what he can with an underwritten character. Same with Gugino.

I was hoping to at least come away from the movie thinking it was charming, which I guess it is. Its heart is in the right place. But, when there's little chemistry between the leads and it has a story that strains to convolute a way to make all the events happen, it's hard to come away saying anything positive. There was nothing that actively angered me. That has to count for something. It's a movie that isn't worth watching, not an unwatchable movie.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Stuck in Love

The Pitch: What if Crazy, Stupid Love wasn't funny?

This is a super easy movie for me to like. It has established actors like Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, and Kristen Bell who I all like. There's young actors such as Lily Collins, Logan Lerman, Nat Wolff, and Liana Liberato who I am growing to like. I've got a hopeless romantic streak buried deep inside me that responds well to it. So, I had no trouble watching and enjoying the film.

It sure feels like it was written under the guidance of an "Indie Writers 101" handbook though. Maybe it's just because I saw The Squid and the Whale not that long ago, but it sure feels like there's a lot of stories out there about somewhat washed up literary geniuses and their messed up kids. Collins and Lerman attempt to have an anti-meet-cute, which is one of those self-aware moments of becoming a cliche by trying to break the cliche. I don't recall seeing a single typewriter being used for serious writing, so I do have to give writer/director Josh Boone for resisting that urge.

I have a theory that a lot of screenwriters secretly want to be music critics. That applies to here. Nat Wolff describes Liana Liberato in terms of a Beatles song. Liana tells him that a Bright Eyes album is the "roadmap to [her] soul". The moment when Lily Collins finally falls for Logan Lerman is when they listen to his favorite song in the car. I'll be nice and call that a motif.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Bulworth

The Pitch: A California Senator decides to start being honest in the last days of his re-election campaign.

The timeline of when I put these Reactions out is always lagging behind. For some context, I saw this a couple days after the election. It seemed fitting for such a protracted and high-emotion campaign. In a lot of ways, Bulworth is the Democratic version of Trump. He speaks with no filter and many people love him more for it. So, this felt like a good way to transition out of all the talk of the election.

Someone is going to have to explain Warren Beatty to me. I don't get it. He's treated like Hollywood royalty and I'm not sure why. Specifically, him as a director*. He hasn't done many films, but those he has directed sure are loved. Reds is ambitious but too long for not enough pay off. Dick Tracy is visually interesting, I suppose. Rules Don't Apply was a dud (although I'm not hearing universal praise for that one). I haven't seen Heaven Can Wait. Now I've seen Bulworth. And...I don't get it.

*I don't fully understand his appeal as an actor either, but I kind of get it, at least. I'm intrigued by the actors like him who only work occasionally and pick their roles carefully.

Bulworth is a thoroughly 90s comedy. It's from the same period that gave us Nothing to Lose and High School High. The Bulworth principal of comedy is "it sure is funny to watch white people act black", which, I'd say doesn't age well, but I'm not convinced I would've found it all that funny in 1998 either.

It's striking how familiar the political talk was. The things Bulworth says about big business, health care, and corrupt politicians are virtually the same as what we hear now. I find that oddly comforting. That was 20 years ago and not that much has changed. Sure, that means a lot of things aren't great, but it also means that change, for better or worse, is slow. No single politician is bigger than the system...Ok, I think I just found a way to idealize my lack of idealism. Is that a thing?

So yeah, I wasn't very impressed by this. This doesn't look like a movie that was directed by a former Oscar winner (for Directing). I see the screenplay for Bulworth was actually nominated for an Oscar. I'm not sure if that's a matter of the Oscars being political or Oscar voters loving Warren Beatty something fierce, but it wouldn't've received my vote. Clearly, I have bigger issues with Warren Beatty  that I should figure out, bigger than this film. Bulworth is fine. Beatty is having fun playing the character. Halle Berry is good in it. I could've used more Christine Baranski, but when isn't that true? I really do like the idea for the movie. I just don't prefer the execution of it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

February Movie Preview

January turned out to be busier than I expected, except for that last weekend. February isn't slowing down at all. The only different is that Oscar contenders populated January, whereas February is stacked with more commercial fare. Looking at the next month, one thought immediately comes to mind: So this is where all the delayed releases went. There are a lot of movies that I've either covered before or nearly did that were moved on the release schedule at the last second. In theory, that isn't encouraging. It could explain why many months last year sagged so much. It seems like most of the good movies in 2016 were saved for the last two months at the expense of the other ten. That does not appear to be the issue in 2017 early on.

2017
 Jan  
2016
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec  
2015

Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | Jul | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec 

2014

Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2013

Mar |  Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2/3

Rings
A new young woman is being haunted by Samara; this time, digitally.
Working For It: The first of the many delayed releases from 2016. This looks like a more promising sequel to The Ring than the 2004 sequel. The assorted "TV All-Stars" are appropriate for the size of the movie - Laura Wiggins, Aimee Teegarden, Vincent D'Onofrio, Johhny Galecki. Although, I believe the lead of the movie is Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, who is completely new to me. I really love the original movie, and even a 70% quality sequel would excite me. I think that's possible to achieve.
Working Against It: I'm concerned about why it was moved at the last second to February from a release date in a slow October 2016. It's good money to bet against a horror sequel being any good. The idea behind the movie loses some of its appeal when it's no longer a VHS being passed around. I have more questions than answers about how this movie could be good.
Verdict: It's a slow enough time of the year, that this feel like a lock that I'll see it, even though I have heavy doubts.

The Space Between Us
A boy born on Mars travels to Earth to meet a girl he likes.
Working For It: The boy is Asa Butterfield (Hugo, Ender's Game) and the girl is Britt Robertson (Tomorrowland). So, I like the leads well enough. The bar is set pretty low for me to like this. As long as Butterfield and Robertson are moderately charming and funny and the supporting cast (Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino, BD Wong, Janet Montgomery) doesn't ham it up too much, this is probably very watchable.
Working Against It: Well, it's another movie that was delayed at the last second. I even covered it in December. That's not a good sign. And, while I've set the bar low, the trailers don't appear to even be aiming that high. I sense there's more sizzle than steak to this.
Verdict: There's a better chance of me seeing this than I'd like to admit to myself.

The Comedian [Limited]
I covered this just last month before it was pushed. Not much has changed. Here's what I said.

Robert De Niro is an aging comedian who is down on his luck, until he befriends Leslie Mann and stumbles into a late career resurgence.
Working For It: I'll tend to give anything about the comedy world a shot even if I end up hating it (Punchline). I still consider De Niro a plus casting move and Leslie Mann tends to be better than whatever role she's given (See The Other Woman). There's potential for a lot of fun cameos by [primarily] older comedians.
Working Against It: I'm hoping that they really don't make De Niro and Mann's relationship romantic, because that 30 year age difference is a little uncomfortable. Also, for someone who I've seen so many of his movies (Ray, The Devil's Advocate), I sure don't have a sense of what director Taylor Hackford is about.
Verdict: Enough praise for Leslie Mann may be enough to get me looking for this. Still doubtful though.

Eloise [Limited]
The only thing between a man and a large inheritance is proof that his insane aunt has died. The problem is, to get that proof, he and three friends must break into the burned down insane asylum where she died. Of course, it's haunted.
Working For It: The friends include Eliza Dushku (Always welcome) and Chace Crawford (for the Gossip Girl fans out there). Director Robert Legato is new to directing but cut his teeth in visual effects. That's promising for a horror movie. Robert Patrick is giving a nicely crazed performance as the head of the asylum before it burned down (all through old footage in the movie trailer).
Working Against It: Odds are this will be crap because most horror movies, especially ones with a studio polish, are. The screenplay is from a journeyman writer. There's nothing specifically about it that looks inventive.
Verdict: If I've seen Satanic and The Lazarus Effect, I will end up seeing this, but not in theaters, even if it was an option.

I am Not Your Negro [Limited]
The story of the African American experience in the United States.
Working For It: It got the Oscar nominations People speak very highly of it. It looks lively.
Working Against It: This sounds a lot like 13th with a broader focus. Normally, if I'm watching documentaries with similar topics, I prefer more, not less specificity. The reviews are positive enough through, that I may check it out anyway.
Verdict: This might be part of my run up to the Oscars. Otherwise, I'll wait for it to pop up in a movie queue somewhere.

2/10

Fifty Shades Darker
Anastasia and Christian are back at it again. This time with no rules. And, Christian's past comes back to haunt him.
Working For It: The formula isn't all that different. I'm sure there will be a lot of R-rated nudity that doesn't ruffle too many feathers. Dakota Johnson will still be the best thing in the movie and be mostly wasted. Jamie Dornan will remind you just enough of how perfect Matt Bomer would've been for the role that he'll be a disappointment. A nice soundtrack. Young pretty people like Bella Heathcote, Rita Ora, and Eloise Mumford show up. Kim Basinger, Jennifer Ehle, and Marcia Gay-Harden too.
Working Against It: The first movie was pretty miserable, but also exactly what it promised to be. If something only aspires to be a C+ movie, can you really attack it when it ends up being a C+ movie? The answer is "yes", but in a different way than a film with actual aspirations.
Verdict: I will not be the guy in the theater watching this by myself at 2pm on a Sunday. But if I get a friend to go...

John Wick: Chapter Two
There's another bounty on John Wick's head and he has to fight his way out of it against incredible opposition.
Working For It: Here's the thing. This is a franchise that can make as many sequels as it wants without me complaining that it's ruining the merit of the original. Keanu Reeves fights a lot of people. That's the story. You can complain about his acting all you want, but he can do an action movie well. He also has some humor about himself, which can be a substitute for good acting. This chapter leans even more into the Smokin' Aces approach with Wick squaring up against the likes of Common, Ruby Rose, John Leguizamo, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane, and Lance Reddick*. Also, this one doesn't appear to rely on the death of a puppy. Big plus in my book.
*I'm not sure who he actually fights out of that group, but it's safe to assume all of them.
Working Against It: If you liked the first, I don't see a reason why you wouldn't like this. Conversely, it you didn't like the first, there's nothing here to change your mind.
Verdict: It isn't my top target of the weekend, but it's probably enough to get me to see a second movie.

The LEGO Batman Movie
LEGO Batman is lonely and adopts a son, who becomes Robin. He also has to fight the Joker. Probably other stuff too.
Working For It: What a weird sequel. Think about it. The LEGO Movie exists because of a rights loophole that allowed LEGO forms of so much IP, normally controlled by different competing movie studios, to all exist in the same world. That movie became a hit, so, in addition to an outright sequel, Warner Animation decides to give Will Arnett's Batman, a scene stealing side character, a whole movie. I'm sure it helps that Warner Brothers has the DC rights outright as well as the LEGO partnership. The voice cast is huge again, with everyone from Michael Cera to Billy Dee Williams to Mariah Carey in it. The director, Chris McKay, cut his teeth working for Robot Chicken, and one of the many credited writers is Chris McKenna, who wrote most of your favorite episodes of Community. That's a lot of reasons to be exicted.
Working Against It: Arnett's Batman may work better in small doses.
Verdict: I am absolutely seeing it and looking forward to it. The LEGO Movie was too much of a treat not to.

Kedi [Limited]
A documentary about Istanbul told by following seven cats.
Working For It: I've heard about the Istanbul cat culture before. It would be interesting to see something a little more in depth about it.
Working Against It: The trailer tries too hard to give the cats distinct personalities (tropes, really). I worry about how "cute" the story-telling is going to be.
Verdict: I may find it one day on Netflix. That's about all I can promise.

A United Kingdom [Limited]
The [based on a] true story of an African king who creates an uproar when he marries a white British woman.
Working For It: David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike are two great leads to start with. It's from the screenwriter of Eye in the Sky (which most impressed me with the screenplay) and the director of Belle (a film I keep meaning to see).
Working Against It: I'm sure some producer assumed this was Oscar gold when he/she put this together. The fact that it's getting buried in the pre-Oscar wastelands (too late to qualify for the Oscar but in the shadow of the Oscar ceremony) is worrisome.
Verdict: The trailer gives away too many of the beats in the story. That's not a deal breaker, but it would take some sterling reviews to convince me it's worth tracking down.

2/17

A Cure for Wellness
Gore Verbinski's pet project about a young executive who gets trapped in a "wellness center" that has a treatment that may not be as great as it seems.
Working For It: Gore Verbinski has had an interesting career. He's mainly known for the Pirates movies, although he's also responsible for The Lone Ranger, Rango, and The Ring. This is closest to The Ring but even more visually adventurous. I think you are supposed to be sold of the visuals, which do grab attention. I only recognize Jason Isaacs and Dane DeHaan from the cast, because he appears to have gone very European (which is appropriate, since the "wellness center" is in Europe).
Working Against It: I need more of a story hook to get excited about this. Otherwise, I get worried that it will just be a pretty mess.
Verdict: It's my second or third choice for this weekend, so I'm in no hurry to see it.

Fist Fight
One teacher (Ice Cube) challenges another teacher (Charlie Day) to a fight.
Working For It: The idea is refreshingly on the nose. Day is essentially the straight man whose life turns into a cartoon once he's challenged to a fight. Day and Cube are playing characters they've played before many times. People like Jillian Bell, Christina Hendricks, JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Tracy Morgan, Dean Norris, and Kumail Nunjiani get some room to be funny and weird. Even if we're talking about Ride Along with an upgrade from Kevin Hart to Charlie Day, I'm on board.
Working Against It: Nothing in the trailers has made me laugh out loud. It's relying a little too heavily on the inherent funniness of two teachers getting in a fight. The director is pretty new to features too, although he has a lot of TV comedy experience (including several episodes of It's Always Sunny).
Verdict: This feels like a lock for me to see. I like too many of the people in it to miss.

The Great Wall
A European man in search of gunpowder gets pulled in to help defend the Great Wall of China against monsters.
Working For It: I'm on board with Matt Damon, action movie star. This looks exciting and visually interesting.
Working Against It: Regardless of how Asian the rest of the cast is and the Chinese director, it's really hard to not look at this as a "white savior" movie.
Verdict: This will really depend on the word-of-mouth leading into the release weekend. I won't need much to convince me, but if it's going to be a hot mess, I'll pass.

Land of Mine [Limited]
German POWs have to scour a beach for land mines as a condition for their release.
Working For It: Being an Oscar nominee for Foreign Language Film helps. This looks tense as hell, in a good way.
Working Against It: I don't see that many foreign films and I rarely hunt them down. That's a me problem though. It looks like this could live a little too much in the dreariness, like a Silence.
Verdict: I only assume I'll see this in theaters if it's available and I've checked everything else off my Oscar checklist. It's doubtful.

2/24

Collide
Nicholas Hoult gets caught up in a drug smuggling ring trying to save his girlfriend, Felicity Jones.
Working For It: I like Hoult and Jones a lot. Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley are prominent figures (Hopkins is the villain, Kingsley is a pseudo-ally, I think). That's a fun quartet.
Working Against It: This is another one that I think was delayed at some point. Hopkins and Kingsley both have histories of doing bad movies because they think a character would be fun to play. Even Jones damaged her "she wouldn't be in a bad movie" record with Inferno.
Verdict: It's very doubtful.

Get Out
A young African American man meets his white girlfriend's parents and finds out that something weird is going on with all the black people in the area.
Working For It: Written and directed by Jordan Peele (of Key & Peele). Simply put, it looks bonkers. I'm not sure how much of it's a comedy and how much of it's a horror movie. Other than Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, and Catherine Keener, the cast is pretty new to me. It looks like a lot of fun.
Working Against It: I guess if the twist(s) turns out to suck, that would kill my enjoyment.
Verdict: I can't think of anything that will stop me from getting into the theater.

Rock Dog
A dog wants to become a rock star.
Working For It: It's a pretty fun voice-cast, including Luke Wilson, Eddie Izzard, J.K. Simmons, Lewis Black, Kenan Thompson, Mae Whitman, and Sam Elliott.
Working Against It: The drop off between the major and minor animation studios is no joke. This looks straight-to-video quality and is yet another movie that was delayed a lot (at least, in the US).
Verdict: No chance I'll ever see this.

Bitter Harvest [Limited]
An epic movie about the Holodomor.
Working For It: It looks like some people worked very hard to make a prestige movie. I don't recognize most of the cast, but I get the feeling it will be like Anna Karenina, and a few years from now, one of them will show up as an Oscar nominee for something (See: Alicia Vikander).
Working Against It: It seems like every year or two, there's a movie that was made as Oscar bait using a formula that's 2 decades old. Remember The Railway Man? How about The Book Thief? Bitter Harvest looks like a dynamite idea circa 1995, when Schindler's List and The English Patient were gobbling up Oscars. I don't see where it fits in 2017.
Verdict: Look, I'm always happy to be wrong about a movie I thought was going to be bad. It'll be up to it to convince me though.

Tulip Fever [Limited]
A painter starts having an affair with a married woman in the 17th century.
Working For It: The painter: Dane DeHaan. The married woman: Alicia Vikander. Her husband: Christoph Waltz. Also in the movie: Judi Dench, Cara Delevingne, Jack O'Connell, Holliday Granger, and Zach Galifianakis. The script: written by Tom Stoppard. If that's not enough to get you excited, then I don't know what to tell you.
Working Against It: Again, the release for this was delayed. Look, I know movies jump around in the schedule all the time, but this is excessive for so many to land on one month. This seems like a peculiar time to release this, unless it's going for a Love & Friendship strategy of appealing to the art house crowd without bothering for Oscars.
Verdict: At some point, I'm seeing this, but probably not in theaters.

Delayed Reaction: Burn After Reading

The Pitch: An anti-spy dark comedy with A-list stars who should be "too big" to play these roles.

Technically, I've seen this movie before, back when it was in theaters in 2008. Up to this point, I've had a pretty hard line on only writing Reactions only for movies that are new to me. That much is implied by calling them 'reactions' rather than 'reviews'. With the loss of my Club 50 project though and my ability to appreciate movies a second or third time in a different way these days, I feel fine including some rewatches.

Burn After Reading has been at the top of my rewatch list for a while. I saw it back in 2008 before I had any kind of appreciation for the Coen brothers. I wasn't prepared for how dark it would be or how silly. Brad Pitt and George Clooney are complete goofballs. Frances McDormand is gloriously oblivious. John Malkovich is a raw nerve in a hilarious way. All the people are awful, or if they aren't, they are just sad-sacks, like Richard Jenkins. Nothing of significance is ever discussed. It's all just a series of miscommunications, both willful and accidental, that go horribly awry. That's pretty great once you get used to it.

What seals it for me and demanded that I see the movie again is the end. The scene when Palmer (David Rasche) is explaining the events to his CIA director (J.K. Simmons) is wonderful. When I originally saw it in theaters, that became one of my favorite movie theater experiences ever. The movie hadn't really connected with the audience before that, but then Racsche starts recapping all the crazy things that have happened. The more perplexed Simmons got and the more we realize just far this spun out of control, the harder the audience laughed. It's one of the top two slow-build laughs I've ever been part of in a theater. Over the years, I'm sure I've built up the legend of the experience in my mind to be bigger than it actually was (I'm pretty sure there was a teen wolf there), but I don't care. I'd rather remember it as the cacophony of thunderous laughter that I recall rather than the half-full theater with a couple people picking up a the joke slowly that it probably was Besides, that really is a great scene. The Coens are the greatest at making you sit back and wonder "what was the point of any of that?"

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend