Movies So Far: 2016

There hasn't been too much going on in my house fiber-wise this month; I'm trying to do more painting, and that's taking up some of my time, and I still have a moratorium on yarn-buying, which takes some of the fun out of it! I am taking a long plane trip on Sunday, so I'll cast on some socks in preparation for that.

Though movie-going seems like it ought to be another luxury on the chopping-block, I can't resist seeing some films in theaters! The communal experience is part of it to me, as well as the overwhelming, focusing darkness. Too often these days the communality means loud whispering and the darkness is pierced by the glare of phones - but those things don't really bother me (they drive my husband CRAZY).

So far in 2016, we've seen:

Room - I'd been wanting to see this for months. I haven't read the book, though I'd like to. It was wonderful and I want Brie Larson to win best actress. The escape sequence was one of the tenser moments I've ever experienced in a theater, even though the trailer gave away their success!

The Hateful Eight - god, I feel so conflicted about Tarantino! First off - I didn't like this movie one bit. It was unbelievably nasty purely for the sake of being nasty. That being said - Tarantino has an incredible stable of actors and gets the most delicious performances out of them. Watching Walter Goggins and my beloved Kurt Russell roll that dialogue out of their mouths was like eating a bite of perfect steak. And the dialogue itself - Tarantino uses language to its fullest potential. But it all added up to a bunch of nothing. I was disappointed. He has the ability - he could be doing ANYTHING. But he's hindered by this petty white-man-from-the-90s sensibility! Get over yourself, guy. Go watch some Michael Powell movies and get back on track.

Starship Troopers Rifftrax and The Room Rifftrax - obviously not new releases. We try to hit up the Fathom Events Rifftrax screenings whenever we can, because it's so fun to experience in a room full of people! These were both rescreenings of live events they already did, and in fact we'd already seen The Room riff when it originally aired, but we have a chronic condition where we CANNOT pass up a Room screening. Starship Troopers was, as always, a terrible movie, and the riffs weren't great either. At least my husband got two chances to bust out his Joel jumpsuit.

Deadpool - I loved it. Of course - everybody loved it! It was fun, it was irreverent, it got a great performance out of RYAN REYNOLDS who hasn't done anything worthwhile since Harold and Kumar! I've enjoyed this whole superhero boom, but it was fun to see the piss taken out of it. Of course, someday this bubble will burst. But Deadpool managed to (lovingly) mock the tradition while also belonging to it.

Roar - we saw this a few nights ago at an art gallery, as opposed to a traditional theater. I've been wanting to see this for a long, long time - ever since I saw the Life magazine photo spread of young Melanie Griffith swimming in her pool with a fully grown lion and cuddling up to him in bed. The situation, if you don't know - Melanie Griffith's mother, the lovely Tippi Hedren, was married for a time to Noel Marshall. They adopted a lion who lived with them in their California home. They developed a story based on Hedren's time shooting films in Africa. Eventually, over the course of four years, they shot an INSANE movie starring themselves, the teenaged Griffith, and two of Marshall's sons, about a family who lives with upwards of 100 wild cats of every species in their giant cat-toy home in Africa (I don't think they ever specify a country). Over 70 crew members were injured during the shoot, including DP Jan De Bont (future director of classics Speed and Twister) who was scalped. The movie is INSANE. There is practically no story, but it's worth it just for the spectacle of humans rolling around on the ground and tussling with giant creatures who could kill them at any time.

There are quite a few other movies I'd like to see in the next few weeks - Spotlight, Hail Caesar, Brooklyn. I'm not really looking forward to Batman V Superman but of course I'll see it. Sadly, this coming Sunday I will miss the Oscars for the first time IN MY LIFE because I'll be on a plane flying to a friend's wedding! I know the Academy Awards are stupid and at this point (this year especially) offensive, but I always enjoy making an evening of it. Oh well! I guess I don't have to feel guilty about missing most of this year's prestige pictures!