Multiplex Madness
Barbie
⭐⭐⭐1/2
Genre: Comedy
Director: Greta Gerwig
Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Will Farrell, Simu Liu, Kate McKinnon
Happy Barbenheimer Weekend to all who celebrate! And whether or not you're exclusively Oppenheimer because you're a joyless loser, one has to appreciate the genuine effort to make everyone and their dog curious about a Barbie movie.
It's probably not as groundbreaking as it's being sold as, as it's practically a Matrix take on Toy Story, where a Barbie has a existential crisis that leads her to leave the confines of Barbieland to find the girl who plays with her in the real world. Barbie has the self-referential meta of The Lego Movie and The Brady Bunch Movie, with the aesthetic choose of 1994's The Flintstones movie, which gives the film demographic appeal to adults and men. The issue the movie bumps into is that for a film about a doll aimed at young girls, it's not really a movie for children. It's possible a child could watch it, but parents might want to be aware of it's sexual references and pretty deep systematic commentary that children likely won't understand. It's more of a movie aimed at adult women who remember playing with Barbie as a child, contrasting the world of Barbie to the real world they grew into. Director Greta Gerwig uses the idea of Barbie as a metaphor for growing up: being given so many ideas of who you can be, living in a world will suppress and ignore those ideas from you, and discovering the person you are. Barbie might be too complex for the audience you'd assume it should be targeted at, but it's a beautiful achievement for a film based on a toy. Just be warned that your four-year-old daughter will come out of it asking "Mommy, what's a gynecologist?"
The Miracle Club
Laura Linney plays an estranged cousin who was disowned after aborting her pregnancy returns home to Ireland after her mother passes away, finding her reception less than welcoming. She joins her family on a road trip to Lourdes as each seeks to heal something within them through a "miracle." The Miracle Club knows its audience, playing up to a demographic that has seen sappy generational family dramas exactly like this and are on the market for at least one more. The selling point being the cast, of which this one has Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, and Maggie Smith passing off passive aggressive remarks toward each other but longing for reconnection. Linney, Bates, and Smith are professional enough to give this movie everything they have even if it's not a movie that will go down as a career highlight for any of them. That's probably the best one can ask for with this movie, as it's a movie certain people will adore while others will ignore. Those who do watch it may be interested in the themes of paternal nature, including the children we have and the children that never happened, as well as how it shapes our relationship with those closest to us, as well as one's uncertainty in whether or not their paternal decisions are for the best.
Oppenheimer
They Cloned Tyrone
The Miracle Club
⭐⭐1/2
Genre: Drama
Director: Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Starring: Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, Agnes O'Casey, Stephen Rea
Laura Linney plays an estranged cousin who was disowned after aborting her pregnancy returns home to Ireland after her mother passes away, finding her reception less than welcoming. She joins her family on a road trip to Lourdes as each seeks to heal something within them through a "miracle." The Miracle Club knows its audience, playing up to a demographic that has seen sappy generational family dramas exactly like this and are on the market for at least one more. The selling point being the cast, of which this one has Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, and Maggie Smith passing off passive aggressive remarks toward each other but longing for reconnection. Linney, Bates, and Smith are professional enough to give this movie everything they have even if it's not a movie that will go down as a career highlight for any of them. That's probably the best one can ask for with this movie, as it's a movie certain people will adore while others will ignore. Those who do watch it may be interested in the themes of paternal nature, including the children we have and the children that never happened, as well as how it shapes our relationship with those closest to us, as well as one's uncertainty in whether or not their paternal decisions are for the best.
Oppenheimer
⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Drama:
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Ramify Malek, Kenneth Branagh
Christopher Nolan's latest finds the director doing a biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, the man who led the Manhattan Project to create the atomic bomb, which begat the creation of Godzilla. As a Godzilla movie, Oppenheimer is a failure, as it doesn't have Godzilla in it. As a biopic, it is very threaded, utilizing Nolan's trademark editing flow and light nonlinear style to keep the film's momentum from becoming a chore over its three hour runtime. However, I will confess I found a few elements a bit too "Nolan" for its own good. He utilizes the sound mix to beat down the viewer and keep them rattled throughout the film, though I was more bemused by it as a parlor trick to try and make its drama stronger. Despite Nolan's best efforts to make the film an intensely visceral experience, I found it difficult to view the film further than the lens neutral observer. That doesn't make it a bad movie, just one that kinda slogs through its own mud trail. The good news is that the drama and politics are interesting enough to make Oppenheimer worth a watch, but it's not the experience it sets out to be
Netflix & Chill
They Cloned Tyrone
⭐⭐⭐
Streaming On: Netflix
Genre: Science Fiction, Comedy, Thriller
Director: Juel Taylor
Starring: John Boyega, Teyonah Paris, Jamie Foxx, Kiefer Sutherland
Interesting twist on a science fiction premise finds John Boyega as a drug dealer who is gunned down, but fine the next day, leading to him, a pimp, and a hooker going down a conspiracy rabbit hole of what happened to him. The tone of They Cloned Tyrone is unique, because it starts out as a gritty street drama that soon takes a weird turn, then it turns comedic as the characters grow paranoid of its own bizarreness, with social commentary that reminds of Jordan Peele's horror efforts. It's an intriguingly fun spiral of a story, which probably loses something in a plot point being spoiled in the title. Movies this endearingly different are hard to come by though, which makes They Cloned Tyrone worth a watch.
New To Digital
The Flash ⭐⭐1/2
New To Physical
Fool's Paradise ⭐⭐⭐
Kandahar ⭐⭐1/2
Love Again ⭐⭐
Coming Soon!
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