Thoroughbreds

GENERAL INFORMATION

Release Info:  9 March 2018
    Watched 30 Oct 2018

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Writer and Director: Cory Finley
Running Time: 92 Minutes

Staring: Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy and Anton Yelchin

Rating? R

SPOILERS? Yes but there is a warning when they start

REVIEWS

IMDB: 6.8 of 10

MY RATING: 9 of 10

STORYLINE

Two upper-class teenage girls in suburban Connecticut rekindle their unlikely friendship after years of growing apart. Together, they hatch a plan to solve both of their problems, no matter what the cost.

MY REVIEW

First, let me say that this was Anton Yelchin's final movie before his passing in 2016. He's always been on my list of highly underrated actors and in many of my reviews over the years. Odd Thomas, Fright Night, Burying the Ex, Star Trek Beyond and Green Room. You will be remembered.

What a movie! For Cory Finley's directorial debut, this was a solid win. Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke were dark and deadly. The combination of dry humor mixed with the perfect slow pace and morose tones was MADE for these two. Cory Finley dropped, what felt to me, like a deliberate filming style that sent a little wink and a nod to Kubrik.

Don't let the genre of comedy fool you, this is NOT a typical comedy. I saw the tagline of "Heathers meets American Psycho" and smiled. Those are two of my favorite irreverent and darkly sadistic movies. This did not fail me. There's something compelling about these emotionally stunted girls who live a bored privileged life, just bored enough to do anything.

What Olivia Cooke brings as Amanda is pure gold. While there were some obvious flaws with her "by the book" sociopath persona, it was a great performance. (She was also great in Ready Player One click the link to read my review!) She feels nothing, every emotion is a muscle memorization. We all have that little piece that makes us ambivalent, but she lives there permanently. Lily on the other hand played by Anya Taylor-Joy is overwrought with emotions. (She was also great in The Witch and Split, click the links to read my reviews!) She is the empirical opposite of Amanda in every way and their friendship seems doomed from the start.

What I DID LIKE about this movie:

• Writing and Direction. Cory Finley will be on my watch list for future movies.
• Cinematography- Well done  Lyle Vincent. After reviewing his credentials, I am not a bit surprised that I enjoyed his style.
• Soundtrack- Hauntingly beautiful

DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF SPOILERS ARE A CONCERN

From the first minute when you realize that not only were Amanda and Lily friends who hadn't spoken in many years the reasons are forefront in your mind. As the clues are revealed throughout the film, it becomes clear that their paths were very different. Seems that Amanda had "put down" a thoroughbred horse after its leg was broken and was convicted of animal cruelty for the way that she did it.

There are subtle notes of foreshadowing as the girls go down their plan to rid Lily of her disturbingly overbearing step father. It's obvious that Lily would be the major beneficiary of the deed, but someone was going to have to take the fall. At first they had selected local drug dealer Tim (Anton Yelchin) was was a massive failure. Next was a do-it-yourself style that also fell apart. Finally, the true "bad guy" rears her head when Lily spikes Amanda's drink and kills her step-father and places the blood and knife in Amanda's hands on the couch. We zoom forward a little to learn that Amanda is now in mental hospital and Lily is interviewing for college. Feels like she may have set it up! Best last line of the movie is when she see Tim who asks about Amanda and Lily said she received a letter. She begins reading the letter to the audience...

Amanda: [Amanda's voice reading her letter to the audience] I had a dream.. I rise out of my body, and I'm staring down at our whole suburb, and time is speeding up. And I see generations of people coming, and going, and building bigger houses. And then eventually... the people start spending more and more of their time staring at their smartphones. And soon enough, they're forgetting to clean their houses, or mow their lawns, or eat. And eventually all the houses rot and collapse, and the people disappear, vanishing completely into the Internet. And then... and this is the really beautiful part, the horses take over. And the whole suburb is just beautiful thoroughbred stallions with no owners and no memory of owners and no way of knowing how expensive they are, just mating and galloping through the ruins. 

Tim: What did it say? 

Lily: I don't know. I just threw it away.

On a more personal note..... 

Had a lot of fun finishing my Halloween costume. Almost there!! 

Halloween 2018

GENERAL INFORMATION

Release Info: 19 October 2018
Watched at Lynnhaven Mall AMC Theaters 

Genre: Horror, Thriller
Director: David Gordon Green
Writer: David Gordon Green and Danny McBride
Running Time: 1 Hour and 46 Minutes

Staring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle, Haluk Bilginer, Will Patton and breakout awesome tiny performer, Jibrail Nantambu.

Rating? R, a very hard R.

SPOILERS? NO

REVIEWS

IMDB: 7.3 of 10

MY RATING: 8 of 10

STORYLINE

Laurie Strode comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the Shape, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

MY REVIEW

I've been waiting for this movie be filmed for longer than the concept has been around. I had high hopes and I personally feel that it lived up to most of my preconceived notions. This, for me, was a perfect next step to the Halloween brand. Let's face it, some of those in the middle weren't even remotely good. Laurie Strode got her day. End of story. There is a sombre journey of reality that this movie takes the watches down a path to see what someone who is affected by such trauma would have to traverse. Haunting. Halloween 2018 does a great job delivering the goods. It's not perfect and I really had to convince myself that an 8 was right.

The writer had very few credits that I'd ever heard of and I could only hope that he was a Halloween fan and would stay true to the story to do us justice. It was obvious that he had a lot of EP credentials as the script was written in a way that seemed fit for this awesome task. The fact that he paired with Danny McBride who injected his fun sense of humor into some pivotal scenes was a great nod to his direction abilities.

What I DID LIKE about this movie:

• That music though! I hear that music and I get chills.
• Oh, Jamie Lee Curtis, all of those yogurt commercials made you amazing!
• Even the cliches worked for this movie. There were cliches, not gonna lie.
• Opening and closing credits were stylized to look like the original 1978 version.
• Have to note that I did enjoy the little dig at the non-fans who thought that Laurie was Michael's sister. They set that one straight pretty quickly.
• The perfection that was the Michael Myers 2018 mask. It's 40 years old and the set design folks who created this gem should all get an extra coupl'a dollars. This was fantastic. It's aged is all of the places it should have been and the hair is matted down like it was supposed to look after having been in an evidence locker for so long.

What I DID NOT LIKE about this movie:

• Pretty slow to get started. It was definitely a slow burn that got you waiting for the "thing" to happen and when it did, it peaked a bit too early. The final act seems to peak too soon and left me wanting more at the end.
• There were a lot of themes that were packed into this movie. It was a film that deals with the psychosis of trauma, revenge, teen relationship drama, babysitter slasher and a little bit of a comedy. I think the story would have been furthered if they had let some of the side stories go.

What QUESTIONS do I now have?

• That ending though? Was that NOT a textbook setup for a sequel? 

On a more personal note..... 

So, apparently between now and the last time I was at Lynnhaven AMC< the finished the new theater with recliners and some really amazing Dolby Surround Sound! Also, working on my Halloween costume. Should be pretty obvious what I am planning on being!

Maniac

GENERAL INFORMATIONTwoRelease Info:  Netflix 2018

Genre:Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Creator: Cary Joji Fukunaga and Patrick Somerville
Running Time: 20-50 minutes per episode, 10 Episodes

Staring: Jonah Hill, Emma Stone, Justin Theroux and Sally Field

Rating? TV- MA

SPOILERS? NO

REVIEWS

IMDB: 8.1

MY RATING: 8 of 10

STORYLINE

Two strangers are drawn to a mysterious pharmaceutical trial that will, and they're assured, with no complications or side-effects whatsoever, solve all of their problems, permanently. Things do not go as planned.

MY REVIEW

After the first two episodes, I was hooked like my cat to catnip! The idea of an alternate reality in this show really did a little dance number that set very well with me. Yes, there were some things that I just let go for the greater good, but this was a solid 8. It's blending of 80's sci-fi and an offbeat quirky cast of just left of center people who are all endearing in their own way. This 10 episode story left me feeling strangely in need of hugging my mom. Well played, Netflix.

I'm not sure if I want to credit the director with the performances of Jonah Hill and Emma Stone, but they were amazing. It was truly a pleasure to watch.

What I DID LIKE about this movie:

• Like I said above, the director got exactly the performance that was needed for the roles of Owen Milgrim and Annie Landsberg. They were pivotal to making the story believable. Their chemistry was palpable. I loved how easily they worked together. It's always better if a team has the right chemistry.
• CINEMATOGRAPHY and SET DESIGN- Just amazing the level of detail that was provided for each location/time. My favorite was the seance episode.
• COSTUME DESIGN- The dichotomy between the locations of each episode were perfection! There is something special about an actor/s who can adapt to that fast change in situation with 
• SCORE/SOUNDTRACK- the music was unsettlingly calm at times but it really worked for the concept.

What I DID NOT LIKE about this movie:

• 80's Sci-Fi mixed with modern was good, but not really my favorite thing. Not a true "didn't like", but just didn't work for me.

What QUESTIONS do I now have?

• When will the story go on?

On a more personal note..... 

Had a little SnapChat fun with the cat ear filters. Pretty much, that is what makes this time of year tolerable! Then I gave the kitties some catnip! We all know how well that goes!