More Movies

Chi-raq

This Modern-day Lysistrata is set in a Chicago filled with far too many black deaths, which is to say contemporary Chicago. It's quirky as anything--it never would have occurred to me to make that play in verse and as a musical. But the actors really pull it off--it lingers between a rap aesthetic and a prophetic one. And is just as hilariously obscene as the original.

Love and Friendship

So Jane Austen and so Whit Stillman, which is a very charming and funny combination. The guy behind us in the theater kept moaning when absurd things happened, but otherwise it was great. May be my favorite Stillman so far.

I, Robot

Great film--the pure rationality of robots is inferior (and threatens) the spirited, passionate humans, for whom love alters rationality. It deals with the ever-relevant problem of things you've created having power over you. And of course it's ironic that Will Smith himself is technologically augmented. The film tells us something about citizenship and the need to be wary of incursions to our liberty.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Religion, Mr. Darcy, super tough female fighters, and Zombies--what more could one want? Jane Austen is so great that it even sort of works as a zombie movie.

V for Vendetta

Good, not great. Some interesting questions like, What is the difference between terrorism and revolution? But they didn't really sell me on the love story.

Hail, Caesar!

Felt more like a Wes Anderson film then one by the Coen brothers film. Scarlett Johansson and George Clooney play characters that are delightfully out of their wheelhouse. And Christ becomes a proto-communist, but not in a bad way.