Tread (2020)

Man moves to a tight-knit community in Colorado, starts a successful business & makes close friends. But the bureaucracy involved in the running of his welding business begins to eat at him: he's being treated like an interloper in a community that watches out for its own. And, for the first third of the film or so, we are with him. We agree that he's being unfairly treated. But then the rest of the town gets to tell their stories and we see the full picture. Isn't that always the way?

I couldn't believe I'd never heard of this event, because it's incredibly extreme. Terrifying and terribly sad in equal measure. Suffers only from the inescapable truth that we'll never be able to completely understand what happened here.

B

The Age of Adaline (2015)

Woman stops aging due to hypothermia + electric shock (it's all explained in a patient voice-over reminiscent of Winnie the Pooh narration). When people start wondering what's going on, she starts a pattern of changing her name and moving every decade or so. The only one who knows her secret is her daughter. Well, until she encounters a blast from her past.

Wow, this movie is dumb. But it's also incredibly romantic. I think it probably caught me in the right mood because I just went with it and enjoyed myself.

C+

The Aeronauts (2019)

A mismatched pair -- flamboyant balloon pilot and bookish researcher -- embark on a balloon flight. The goals are to set the record for highest altitude and to get data in hopes of proving that weather can be predicted.

Though it's beautiful and effective (I felt my body react to the perilous "height" a few times), the crisis --> bonding --> crisis --> flashback --> crisis, etc. pattern felt manipulative.

C+

Hello, My Name is Doris (2016)

Doris is an older woman who has never lived for herself because she served as her mother's caretaker and companion. But, now that her mother's gone, she decides she's gonna go for what she wants: the new young guy in her office. It's so cringey -- you just want to reach through the screen and deliver a few home truths to Doris, who is basically a high-schooler in her twilight years.

She's a movie character that does not exist in the real world. She may as well be a coma patient who wakes up after 40 years and just picks up from where she left off, it's that ridiculous.

D+

The Batman (2022)

A new villain begins leaving notes for "The Batman" at his crime scenes. They're riddles and so easy to crack that Batman usually does so within a minute. 

Murky, overlong, and nothing we haven't seen before.

C-

Penguin Bloom (2021)

Sam, an active wife & mother of three suffers a broken back, paralyzing her from the chest down. Her new reality causes a huge shift in the easygoing vibe of the family. She's depressed and angry and her oldest son is blaming himself for her fall. Her husband is trying his best, but the stress is getting to them all.

And then "Penguin," an injured magpie, comes into their lives. It brightens their days and gives Sam something to focus on other than herself. The story is is neither saccharine nor maudlin -- it's handled matter-of-factly.

B 

The Green Knight (2021)

Gawain, nephew to the king, battles the green knight to prove his bravery. A year later, he must journey to the green knight and receive the same wound he inflicted on the knight.

And that bit of information, imparted in the first 15 minutes of the movie, is about the last time I felt like I possessed solid understanding of what was happening. It was a muddled mess.

D-

After Yang (2022)

A family copes with the sudden breakdown of their AI "Yang." Mika, the young daughter, is hit especially hard as Yang was like a devoted older brother with infinite patience. The parents are struggling to cover childcare that was previously handled by Yang while the father (Jake) searches for someone who can help to repair their "technosapien." In his quest, he finds that Yang had a memory bank which could record a few seconds daily.

This is a beautifully-told story. It unfolds quietly and without unnecessary exposition. As Jake views Yang's memories, he's transported back to moments of loveliness in which he is sometimes featured. He also discovers that Yang had a life outside of the family, which poses questions about what constitutes personhood. 

Just wonderful.

A

The Assistant (2020)

I'd somehow gotten it into my head from snippets of reviews that this was a horror movie. So, after the first half-hour of just watching a young woman perform a soul-killing job, I was wondering when something was going to happen. Soon enough I found out that this was a horror movie alright --- but just a run-of-the-mill everyday horror of powerful people behaving like entitled assholes because everyone accepts it as their due.

I didn't find it interesting in any way. Sure, it's effective in conveying the situation, but I'm not interested in the situation. I mean, if Silence of the Lambs was entirely comprised of a girl whimpering in a pit, it wouldn't be interesting... and it'd be even less interesting if everyone could see a clearly-marked accessible exit.

C

The Confirmation (2016)

Alcoholic, unemployed guy is watching his kid for a day while his wife is on a couples retreat with her new husband. He lands a job and then discovers his specialty tools have been stolen, putting that job in jeopardy. He and his son then embark on a kind of half-assed quest to find the tools.

It's a drag and I'm not sure if anything could've saved it -- the story itself is fundamentally boring.

D+

Border (2018)

A caveman-looking woman works as a customs agent and is highly skilled at identifying people with something to hide because she can, literally, smell it on them. When a caveman-looking guy comes through customs, they're instantly drawn to each other and he turns her on to what they really are: trolls.

Finally, she feels like her existence makes sense and she starts to live more freely with her new partner. Too bad he's kinda bent on exacting vengeance against humans for wiping out most of the trolls. It's doubly (triply? infinitely?) worse that his method of vengeance involves baby golems he "births" and then subs for human infants he then sells to pedophiles.

Seriously. What. The. Fuck.

C-