The Girl With All the Gifts and Happy Death Day

After a pretty exciting double feature this weekend, I decided to knock off two on my list that I'd wanted to see but maybe weren't the tippy top of my list. Sorry for the short updates. Neither of these films wowed or disappointed me enough to whip up a lot of enthusiasm. ;) Without further ado...


The Girl With All the Gifts

Release: August 3, 2016
Rating: R
Production Company: Altitude Film Sales, BFI Film Fund, Poison Chef
Director: Colm McCarthy
My Rating: 6/10
Themes: Civil unrest, zombie apocalypse, dystopian future, education
Content or Trigger Warnings: violence and some gore

I really watched this because it was the book we were reading in my book club, to be honest. I probably wouldn't have chosen it on my own. It's not that I don't like zombie movies, necessarily. I loved World War Z, Zombieland, and Dawn of the Dead (remake and original). It's just that I don't usually pick such movies at random. This one fell into my lap.

The plotline was interesting. First of all, it tied up a lot of loose ends that zombie pics rarely handle like 'what happens to all the zombies when they run out of a food source?' From that perspective, it was an interesting idea. And I enjoyed watching it, even if it was the kind of film you forget about a few days after you watch it.

The real weight of the film is in the underlying themes of justice, rights, humanity, education, and what it is that makes someone worth saving. How does education form us? What, if any, rights do dangerous people have? How do you draw the line between utilitarianism and human rights? Such themes are timely right now and cleverly explored here in this film.

I probably wouldn't watch it again, but it's is well worth seeing - especially if this genre is up your alley.

Happy Death Day
Release: October 13, 2017
Rating: PG-13
Production Company: Blumhouse Productions
Director: Christopher Landen
My Rating: 6.5/10
Themes: Being a good person, selfishness, popularity
Content or Trigger Warnings: violence and some gore

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. While it was a horror remake of Groundhog Day, and while it was a bit predictable - bitchy girl becomes a nice person after learning something over the course of reliving her death day - it was a lot of fun to watch and I only caught onto who the killer was about half way through which is better than most scary movies.

'Tree' (Jessica Roth) is a pretty unlikable character that you do end up rooting for in the end. The catharsis of her getting back at her enemies is a lot of fun to watch. The characters throughout the show are pretty one dimensional but it doesn't need much more depth than that. Making the 'survivor' not only not virginal but also not a Mary Sue is a fresh twist on an old trope. More than that, you can tell the filmmakers really enjoy film. This movie is almost like an opportunity to play out as many alternate endings as you can dream up. That's pretty fun for an audience.

The best thing is, you never get the feeling Happy Death Day is taking itself too seriously. For that reason, you can enjoy it for what it is and move on.

BONUS POST: Call Me By Your Name and Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Yeah, I know it's not Friday. Don't worry, I'll post on Friday too. My husband, the amazing man that he is, offered to allow me to have a Double Feature Saturday at the local art house movie theatre (not that local, actually - the other side of town). So, he took the kids to Inflatable Wonderland and I spent 6 blissful hours enjoying two movies I've wanted to see for a long time.

Call Me By Your Name
Release: November 24, 2017
Rating: R
Production Company: Sony Pictures Classic
Director: Luca Guadagnino
My Rating: 10/10
Themes: sexuality, coming of age, star-crossed love
Content or Trigger Warnings: sexuality

I just have to get this out of the way before I go on. I loved this movie. Loved it. I wish I could watch it again right now. It was so beautiful and pitch-perfect, so expect some gushing in the following comments. I'm not exaggerating with my rating of 10 out of 10.

Set in the summer of 1983, we find Elio (Timothee Chalamet), who is a precocious and introverted 17-year-old at his parent's beautiful summer home in Northern Italy. His father, who is a professor annually invites home a grad student to stay with them and study. This summer, that student is Oliver (Armie Hammer) - Jewish, like Elio, ruggedly handsome, and thoroughly American.  After a large portion of the summer dancing around the topic, the two give in to requited feelings and have a beautiful, passionate love affair that ends far too soon when Oliver has to go back to America and, later we find out, and on-and-off-again relationship with a woman. You can probably guess the rest.

While the plot line is the stuff of typical bittersweet summer romance, what makes this film really soar, narratively, is how absolutely real and authentic it feels every step of the way. A storyline that could easily become cheesy never once strays there. It's pure and even innocent. It's a beautiful love story. In fact, I'll go so far as to say it's one of the most beautiful and captivating love stories I've ever seen on film. Yes, I believe that. Elio is innocent but not cartoonishly so. He knows what he wants, he doesn't mind taking it. Oliver is not some Harlequin fantasy, his feelings for Elio are real, deep, and vulnerable. Both of them want each other so badly, both of them are honest enough with themselves - eventually - to be unguarded and pure with each other.

Some will say the love they share, and the way things unfold is a little too perfect, a bit idyllic. Well, sure. The entire setting is idyllic, from Elio's gorgeous summer home, to the perfect swimming holes, the quaint and charming town, the parents who understand you and don't judge, the Italian countryside. Really, the beauty of this film cannot be overstated, and the warmth and love within Elio's family unit is something that I know I longed for while watching. Hell, even Oliver's dancing is charming as hell. But, in my opinion, having a love story that was so real, vibrant, and pure that didn't need to have added plot bunnies of homophobia, cheating, lying, manipulation, misunderstanding only served to make the movie better - less predictable. We've seen all of that before. This film didn't need contrived plot devices.

As you can understand, when Oliver eventually must leave, Elio is heartbroken. What follows is one of the most beautiful monologues in LGBTQ+ movie history. Instead of an awkward father hmm-hawing around for the right thing to say to his son who is heartbroken over another man, Mr. Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) accepts his son with no qualifiers, validates his feelings, encourages him to feel it and not to try to 'get over' how much it hurts. He knows Elio and Oliver had something special and he articulates that to Elio. It was a really powerful scene that left me a total wreck.

I'll finish with the chemistry and acting. Chalamet and Hammer ooze sensuality on screen in a way that has you longing for them to touch from the minute they meet. The movie keeps you waiting but the chemistry is always crackling. The acting is superb on all counts, but I give special nod to Timothee Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg, the former who shows such adeptness at complicated subtle emotions and the latter who stole nearly every scene he was in.

Go see this movie. It's easily my favorite movie of 2017.


Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Release: November 10, 2017
Rating: R
Production Company: Fox Searchlight
Director: Martin McDonagh
My Rating: 9/10
Themes: justice, police brutality, injustice, vigilantism
Content or Trigger Warnings: language

Francis McDermott is a force to be reckoned with as Mildred, mother of a rape and murder victim in a small town in Missouri. Every part of her screams 'bad ass', and at the same time, she is vulnerable and deeply, deeply sad. There can never be enough good said about Ms. McDermott's acting, to be frank, and this role was written just for her. 

The script blends deeply troubling and upsetting scenarios with humor seamlessly. One minute you are laughing, the next, well...you are righteously pissed. It has all the makings of a good film and it is one. I'm not sure I'd label it as the best film of the year. Still, I'm not going to hold the Hollywood Foreign Press responsible for setting my expectations too high. It was a great movie that I thoroughly enjoyed watching.

Frustrated, with no idea how to get police attention back on her daughter's cold case, Mildred rents three billboards on a rarely used road near her house to ask: Raped while dying, still no arrests? What now, Chief Willoughby? And, of course, things are not all quite as simple as they seem. It turns out that Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) is actually a pretty good guy - a police officer who hasn't forgotten her daughter's case, but has no leads. Of course, there is the shitty cop (Sam Rockwell) who is also a racist. And while he's those things, he runs deeper too. Mildred, though, is single-minded in her efforts to get police searching for her daughter's murderer, if not only for her own peace but to protect other women out here. 

The real magic of this movie is in the dialogue. Mildred delivers some excellent mini-monologues gouging holes into 'the system' be it police, religion, or society at large. I wanted to stand up and cheer when she told the town priest that, like The Bloods and The Crips in LA, he was 'culpable' in the abuse of boys by the Church. 'You joined a gang, man.' She spits at him. It's brilliant. She highlights how the police waste time harassing and beating people of color but not solving real crimes. She puts a voice to the 'he said/she said' argument that seemingly always fails the victim. The script is rich with social commentary and gives a foul-mouthed, bad ass voice to women who are sick of being told to sit patiently and wait for justice. 

Bushwick and Gerald's Game

I'm barely getting these movie reviews in under the wire. It's been a busy week and I crammed both films in over the last 24 hours. These are both newish movies, but whatever. Without further ado...

                                                 Bushwick

Release: August 25, 2017
Rating: NR
Production Company: XYZ Films
Director: Cary Murnion and Johnathan Milott
My Rating: 6/10
Themes: Civil unrest, racism, current political divisiveness and polarization, survival
Content or Trigger Warnings: violence, war-like scenes, some light gore

I actually kind of liked the movie, though I do think some of the analysis of the film being 'too close to reality' is the hight of hyperbole. You have to suspend disbelief with this film to enjoy it. No, we aren't anywhere near martial law and civil war in Bushwick, guys.

As the titles suggest, the movie takes place in Bushwick - an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn. Texas has seceded from the Union and a number of Southern States wish to follow. In order to set up an east coast base and to convince the Senators in DC to ratify their secession along with Texas, southern mercenaries planned to round up New York residents until demands are met. They miscalculated the amount of resistance New Yorkers would put up, assuming that their ethnic diversity would make it impossible for them to form a united front and that their gun laws would leave them unarmed. Of course, we know that when necessity calls, people unite. We also know that NYC is full of guns, illegal or not. When the residents of Bushwick put up a fight, the mercenaries open all-out war, killing anyone who gets in their way. This finds our two leads (David Bautista and Brittany Snow) in the middle of a war zone.

It's an interesting premise and one with a lot of meat to dig into - much of which was abandoned at the table. But still, it was well directed, if a bit unpolished, and entertaining. I might even watch it again. The ending, which I will leave a mystery, makes for an interesting discussion piece and while the whole plot is improbable, it allows the audience to think about what might happen in their own town should something like war break out at a moment's notice. Bautista is a bit one dimensional, but for a former WWE star, this is some pretty decent work. Brittany Snow plays Brittany Snow, yet again, and does a fine job of it. What I liked best about the film was the way it showed a variety of reactions to such chaos. Some people band together. Some people march. Some people take up arms and fight. Some people take advantage of chaos and rape, murder, steal, etc. But, at the core, most people just want to survive and will put aside differences in the moment to make it to safety.

All in all, it was a fine film that never reaches potential but doesn't really disappoint either. If you like doomsday action flicks, it's worth a watch. If that doesn't interest you, I'd skip.

Gerald's Game 

Release: September 29, 2017
Rating: NR
Production Company: Intrepid Pictures
Director: Mike Flanagan
My Rating: 7/10
Themes: domestic unhappiness, shitty husbands, sexism, sexual abuse
Content or Trigger Warnings: sexual abuse, gore, violence, sexual content

I had no great expectations for this movie. I've never read the book and Steven King can be hit or miss with me. I'd seen the trailer some time ago and it was on my list, so I decided to watch it. It was better than I expected.

Starting with a 'sex game' designed to salvage their failing marriage, Jessie (played by Carla Gugino) finds herself handcuffed to the bed, unable to break free after her husband (Bruce Greenwood) suffers a heart attack and dies on top of her. That, alone, is a scary enough premise, but what follows is a psychological rollercoaster that is far deeper than you might expect.

You see, Jessie is a victim of childhood sexual abuse. The abuse she's kept secret from everyone her entire life. She goes on to marry a man who has his own darkness and misogyny, trading one kind of abusive male figure for another. Her mental struggle to figure out how to unchain herself from the bed takes us through painful parts of her life to draw on the experiences and strength of the past to finally figure out how she can free herself. In the end, she's a self-assured, independent woman who no longer walks through life with her eyes shut.

While the plot is not that complex, what is really excellent about the film is two things, really. The first is Carla Gugino's amazing performance. There is something about her that is both vulnerable and strong. It's not a thing that is easy to convey, especially with very little free movement to express yourself. This performance is probably the best I've ever seen her and worth watching as a study on its own. Secondly, director Mike Flanagan takes a plot that would be seemingly very difficult to translate to film and makes a watchable and engaging movie out of it. Considering the bulk of this story takes place in the mind of a woman strapped to a bed, it is easy to understand why it took so long for the film to get made. Flanagan makes excellent choices in visualizing her internal struggle.

Some of the gore I could have done without, but it wasn't gratuitous. It was necessary. That didn't stop me from covering my eyes for the degloving sequence. Hardest to watch, though, had nothing to do with blood or gore. It was the heartbreaking scene where Jessie's dad (played by ET's Henry Thomas) manipulates her to stay silent about his sexual abuse by making her believe it was her idea all along to keep it a secret. In that moment, you realize just how horrible a human being he is. It condemns her to a life of never feeling comfortable in her own skin and never being honest with anyone about what is going on inside her. Truly heartbreaking to watch.

The end is typical Steven King and just 'whatever' to me, but the meat of the story was engaging and it was well directed. I probably won't watch it again, but I'm glad I saw it.

Y Tu Mama Tambien and The Mountain Between Us

First things first, what a Golden Globes? There were some shockers in there, but I was happy to see Lady Bird get its due - even if Greta Gerwig was clearly overlooked for a Best Director nod. It also feels like Get Out didn't get proper recognition, likely because it didn't well fit any of the genres. After Sunday night, I have a LOT of movies to watch once they drop on DVD/Digital download. Unfortunately, most of the best movies don't play on my side of town - or in San Antonio at all. :/

Also, I watched Big Little Lies all in one day and I highly recommend. It's streaming on HBO.

Now, onto my week's movies. One is more than fifteen years old, has always been on my list but just never got around to watching it. The other is a newish flick that I've wanted to see since I saw the preview.  Without further ado...

Y Tu Mama Tambien
Release: March 15, 2002
Rating: R
Production Company: Anhelo Producciones
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
My Rating: 8.5/10
Themes: Coming of age, bisexuality, classism, gender, sexuality, friendship, betrayal
Content or Trigger Warnings: Graphic sexual content,  nudity

This movie had been on my list to watch for more than a decade, but I'd just never gotten around to seeing it. I'm really glad I took the time now. What a wonderful, bittersweet film. I absolutely loved it.

The film is a mosaic of a number of well-worn movie tropes: road picture, sex comedy, coming of age, older woman teaches younger men, etc and so on. But I can't think of any other film in these subgenres that moved me quite as much as this one. It's, at times, carefree and funny and at other times heartbreaking and melancholy. The two friends, Julio and Tenoch (played by Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna respectively) have a realistic and tight chemistry that probably comes from the fact that they were real-life friends long before director Alfonso Cuaron cast them. Their light-hearted ribbing of each other feels natural, just as their fights do, just as their eventual distance from one another feels tangibly sad and upsetting.

While obvious correlation can be made to American films like Weird Science and American Pie, this movie is far better than either both in realistically depicting the oversexed teenage male, and in offering a female character of interest that is complex, interesting, and more than just a one-dimensional object of fantasy.  In fact, I'd happily watch a movie about Luisa (played beautifully by Meribel Verdu) all on her own. I want more of her story. That's a sign of great characterization.

Below the surface of the sexed-up teens taking a road trip with a more experienced, beautiful woman is a very interesting commentary on sexuality and toxic masculinity. While Julio and Tenoch assure Luisa they have no problem with homosexuality - though they continually call each other 'faggot' - and though they do not seem to have any trouble getting each other off verbally (via mutual masturbation), the moment they cross that line to physical intimacy with Luisa on their last night together, it breaks their friendship. They might have been able to move past sleeping with each other's girlfriends, but that knowledge of attraction and intimacy shared in a small room in the middle of nowhere shattered the deep and beautiful friendship they had. They were easily able to navigate the class divide between them (Julio's mother being working class, while Tenoch's father is incredibly wealthy), they could not stand to be reminded of their physical relationship which contradicted their masculine heterosexuality. When they return to Mexico city, they go their separate ways and that is, in itself a really sad ending.

Technically speaking, the handheld camera work and consistent narration added to the sense of real-life melancholy. It was the perfect way to tell this story. The cinematography was beautiful and this movie seemed, at times, like a love letter to the country of Mexico. You can tell Cuaron has a deep affection for his home country.

I highly recommend this one if you haven't seen it. Beware, though, it is very explicit in sexual content and language. So, if that's not your thing, it might be best to skip it.


The Mountain Between Us

Release: October 6, 2017
Rating: PG-13
Production Company: 20th Century Fox, Chernin Entertainment
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
My Rating: 2.5/10
Themes: Survival, Love, Complicated emotions
Content or Trigger Warnings: A love story starring Idris Elba that is boring AF (it's enough to make you break your tv/computer)

Okay, I might be a little too hard on this movie. It's wasn't like it was offensive - unless you count misusing the talents of Kate Winslet and Idris Elba offensive (and I do). But holy god, it was boring. BORRRRING. And Winslet and Elba have about as much chemistry together as two wet mops. In fact, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan look madly in love in comparison.

The story is trite, and coming from someone who enjoys 'plane crash' and 'lost in the wilderness' flicks, that is saying something. I get what the movie was trying to do, it just didn't do it well. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think the most miscast here was Kate Winslet. She's a very fine actress but this portrayal just never seemed authentic and it threw a wrench into the whole mess. If at the end of it, you don't believe this love story, then you've wasted 2 hours of your life on a movie that doesn't make you feel much of anything. Elba pulls his own, playing an emotionally distant man who eventually shows great depths of emotion and character progression.

The last 10 minutes is certainly more interesting than the bulk of the film but it doesn't make up for over an hour of boring, tedious non-chemistry on a cold mountain. Shame on anyone who makes a movie where Idris Elba is the romantic male lead and you aren't on the edge of your seat in anticipation of his every scene. Shame.

Hacksaw Ridge and Pitch Perfect 3

Before I dive into my thoughts and reviews, let me explain how I plan to organize this. Each movie, I'll tell you the year of release, rating, production company, director, and my rating on a 1-10 scale. Then, I'll include themes the movie highlights and possible trigger/content warnings. After that, I'll dive into my thoughts and opinions about the particular movie. If there is anything else you'd like me to add to my reviews, feel free to drop a line in the comments.


Hacksaw Ridge 
Release: November 4, 2016
Rating: R
Production Company: Summit Entertainment, Icon Pictures, Cross Creek Pictures
Director: Mel Gibson
My Rating: 7.5/10
Themes: War, Bravery, Standing on conviction, Strength of will, Masculinity, Pascifism, Conscientious Objectors
Content or Trigger Warnings: Gore, Violence, Death

Set in the Pacific Theatre of WWII, this true story about Seventh-Day Adventist Desmond Doss who enlisted in the military even as a conscientious objector hits all the usual notes as far as war movies are concerned. There is the alcoholic father, the tough as shit Sargent (played impeccably by Vince Vaughn), overcompensating brothers in arms with whom the protagonist has conflict, and the unlikely hero. Their stories play out predictably, but I don't think it matters. This isn't a movie to remake all war movies. This is a movie, at the core, about standing on principle and the hellishness of war - even if it is a justified one.

Doss, who is a real-life war hero probably more impressive than his fictionalization here, is the kind of hero that has such a strong character he almost seems unrealistic. But according to the tales, his portrayal in this movie is not far from the truth. Imagine how strong a person you have to be to repeatedly climb up a ridge and save the lives of your compatriots without so much as a knife to defend yourself. Imagine facing a Court Marshal over not holding a gun - in the army. And he did all of it because he felt the need to be of service without abandoning his principles. We should all be so lucky to have that strength of character.

But the man Desmond Doss has been written about extensively, so I'll tell you my impressions of the movie. It is well directed and edited. Andrew Garfield gives an endearing performance as Doss, and the supporting cast rounds out the picture nicely. It's gory, but it needs to be. War is hell. War is gory. It rips bodies apart and destroys lives. It's a movie I'd probably watch again, which is an endorsement, as there are few war movies I need to see more than once. I liked it. It was formulaic at times, which was noticeable but didn't destroy the viewing experience. All in all, I'd say I'm glad I finally got around to seeing this one.

*photo: property of Summit Entertainment and/or Icon Pictures



                                             Pitch Perfect 3
Release: December 22, 2017
Rating: PG-13
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Director: Trish Sie
My Rating: 3/10
Themes: Sisterhood, Friendship, Music, Singing, Life as a Grown-Up, Daddy Issues
Content or Trigger Warnings: Extreme Sachriney Sweetness. May cause tooth decay

So, we know going in this isn't going to be a great movie. The Pitch Perfect franchise is strictly guilty pleasure territory. Thankfully, this installment left the slut-shaming and fat jokes at the door. What it also left at the door was a reasonable plot, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Of the three Pitch Perfect films, this was probably the worst? It's hard to say. The music selection was lacking, the plot was thin, but it was also much less mean-spirited than Pitch Perfect 2, and at least it didn't repeat the same medley for the first third of the movie like Pitch Perfect 1. The basic premise is that, yet again, the Bellas don't want to say goodbye to Acapella and want to cling to those days of sisterhood and song. This time, they do so in the form of a USO tour that Aubrey's military dad gets them an invite to. The prize at the end of this short tour? The chance to open for DJ Khaled. Same formula as before, the underdog Bellas perform to the best of their abilities, only at the end of the day, the lesson is that the singing doesn't matter. The competition doesn't matter. These ladies are family. Awww. It's pretty sweet, even if it's trite.

It was fun, which is about as good as you can expect from a Pitch Perfect movie, but it just didn't have the same hits, the same musical knockouts, even the riff-off seemed like it was phoned in. While the end was a cute 'goodbye' to the franchise it was just okay. The best part was the lesson that women are better building each other up than tearing them down or competing. If you enjoy Pitch Perfect movies, you'll like this one fine. If you don't, you will really hate this one. That's about the gist.

*photo: property of  Universal Pictures.

Stay tuned for next week's reviews. No, I haven't decided which ones I'll be watching. It will be a surprise to all. :)

Welcome to my New Year's Resolution

Hi. I'm Krystle. I'm a libertarian, feminist political junkie with a love of film, and a renewed purpose to see more new movies, and catch up on some classics that I never got around to watching. Join me as I endeavor to keep at least one of my New Year's resolutions (I doubt very much my commitment to going to the gym or eating healthfully will last long): Watch two movies I've never seen each week.

How this will work is, I'll choose one movie from the past (up to about 2016) that I've wanted to watch or been told to watch a million times but never really got around to doing. I'll also watch one new movie (from 2017- brand new release). I'll review these movies and post my commentary on them every Friday. If you have any suggestions or requests, feel free to leave them in the comments.

The only deviation of these rules are movies that come in a set. For instance, I've never seen the Godfather Trilogy. If I choose those movies to watch, that will be my selection for the whole week. No new movie that week - hey, I have a life too...kind of.

But for now, just some information about me. I'm 32 years old, mother of two. Originally from Indianapolis, I lived all over - including Ontario, Canada - and am now settled in San Antonio, Texas. I'm a double major (Political Science and Film) from an all women's college in Roanoke, VA (Hollins University). I love all kinds of movies, but movies that move me are among my favorites. I also enjoy reading, listening to music, binge-watching TV, playing with our family dog, Daisy, and lazing about.