This movie is rated R.
The Big Sick is based off the true story of how Pakistani comedian Kumail Nanjiani met his wife, Emily, amidst his traditional Muslim family trying desperately to set up an arranged marriage for him. He meets Emily after one of his stand up shows, and they immediately form a relationship. It is clear to see that the two click. They are pretty much perfect for each other, but Emily holds off on a relationship due to her being in school with dreams to become a psychologist. Despite trying to withhold the relationship, Kumail and Emily get together anyways, and their relationship is adorable and perfect. It was so cute that it was almost annoying to watch during the classic montage of happiness with cute music in the background that happens in almost every RomCom. Things are going perfect until Emily finds out about all the women that Kumail's parents have tried to set him up with for an arranged marriage. She becomes extremely upset that he has been hiding this from her, and Kumail feels at a loss because he has let her down. He has an internal struggle of falling in love with Emily, but knows that he will lose his relationship with his family if they find out that he has fallen in love with a non-Muslim woman. Then, Emily all of a sudden is in the hospital with a pretty bad infection. She is put under a medically induced coma, and things are looking really bad. Kumail is at the hospital every day, even when her parents show up and make it clear that they do not like him for what he has done to Emily. Kumail is still relentless, waiting at the hospital everyday in hopes that she will wake up soon. Kumail and Emily's parents eventually form a really cute relationship and they take a liking to him. Kumail is naturally hilarious, and they even come to one of his stand up shows, and one of my absolute most favorite scenes in the film is when Emily's mom almost gets in a fight with a racist frat boy at the bar for defending Kumail. Kumail and Emily's parents receive scary news that the infection Emily has has spread to her heart. Kumail is also balancing his job as a comedian with an important show coming up and still going to family dinners with women he has never met. He is still hiding everything from his parents, because he knows that everything will blow up if they find out that he is in love with Emily. Keep in mind that the last time that Kumail and Emily spoke, it was during a fight that they had where they had broken up. Eventually, Kumail's parents find out about everything, and they pretty much disown him. At the same time, he bombed his comedy show while there was an important critic in the crowd. Things are going deeper and deeper into a downward spiral. Emily then wakes up! The doctors had been giving her the wrong medicine the whole time, and once they found the right one she went all back to normal. Kumail is ecstatic, but when he first goes into see her, Emily is very upset and tells him that she doesn't want to see him. That was a downer. Kumail keeps trying to get her back, despite his parents hating him now. It shows how in love he really is with her. They eventually have a talk, where Emily says that she isn't ready for a relationship with him now. I was pretty upset at this point, thinking that this movie was gonna end on a really depressing note. Kumail decides to move to New York with his two friends to find work as a comedian, leaving Emily behind after trying multiple times to get her back. He is trying to move on from her at this point. I was really bummed and at a loss. Things looked pretty bad until the ending scene, where Kumail is in a comedy club performing, and he looks up and sees Emily in the crowd. So it had a happy ending! They ended up together, and then it showed the real pictures of the real couple getting married (with Kumail's parents!) Everything was perfect. This ended up being one of my new favorite movies. The fact that it is based off a true story made it even better and made me even happier, if that was even possible after watching this movie. Kumail was dedicated to Emily, and he risked everything to be with her (even his family). It was amazing. Everyone should watch this movie.
1 Comment
This film is rated R for violence and language.
I know I am really late to see this movie, and my anticipation to see it was heightened after I heard everyone talking about it. I have yet to hear a bad review. After watching it, I have to say that I agree. This movie is awesome. One thing that caught my eye from the start is how visually pleasing it is in addition to the soundtrack. The color schemes were on point, and Baby did this really cool thing where his actions would match the beat of the songs he was listening to. It was really satisfying. I have experienced a change of heart in my opinions having to do with crime/action movies. They used to bore me, but this film is a perfect example of an action movie that I loved every minute of. There was quite a lot of guns and shooting at the end, which was a little much, but I was able to overlook it. My favorite performances were by Ansel Elgort, who played Baby, and Kevin Spacey, who played Doc. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to see Elgort as anyone other than Gus from The Fault In Our Stars, kind of like how I could only see Katniss when watching Lawrence in Mother!, or the impossibility of watching Kristen Stewart in literally anything other than a Twilight movie. Elgort, however, was funny and charming on screen and really melted into his role. It was really enjoyable to watch, and it made me admire him more for being such a skilled actor. It was pretty much the first movie I had ever seen him in besides TFIOS, and I was pleasantly surprised. I really don't have anything bad to say about this movie. I enjoyed it from start to finish, even though it did follow a group of criminals who shot people and robbed banks. The humor and story line made it not seem so violent. Baby's relationship with Deborah (Lily James) was a very refreshing aspect of the film, and probably my favorite part. Though Baby is involved in crime as he is the getaway driver for Doc, you can see how pure and good he is with his relationship to Deborah and also with his foster father. There were a lot of heartwarming moments that I really loved. I would recommend this movie to pretty much everyone. This movie is rated R, it is not meant for children.
Mother! is a film that follows the lives of a young couple (played by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem), and how their home and livelihood slowly becomes unraveled and destroyed in an allegorical sense that is really hard for the viewer to understand. This film is going to be incredibly hard to write a review for, but here goes. Bardem is a famous writer, and Lawrence spends her day cleaning, cooking, and making home improvements. They live a very secluded life: their house (an old mansion) is in the middle of no where and they scarcely have visitors. They seem like a normal, happy couple, but the viewer immediately knows something is off from the opening scene, which is chilling and very odd, and foreshadowing for the end (albeit you don't know when you first see it). Their lives become disrupted very quickly when they receive an unexpected guest who stays the night. He is a doctor and also a complete stranger, but he seems to hit it off with Bardem from the get go. They bond and have long talks over drinks. This is odd for Lawrence, because she is so shocked that her husband would let a complete stranger stay in their house, but he could easily just be mistaken for a crazy fan of Bardem's, since he is a famous writer. Things escalate quickly when the rest of the doctor's family arrive unannounced and uninvited, the wife being extremely rude to Lawrence but deeply in awe of Bardem. After snooping around their luggage, Lawrence finds a picture of her husband in the doctor's bag. This really freaks her out, as it would anyone, and at this point she really wants them to leave. You get the feeling that Bardem likes the attention or knows something that his wife doesn't, because he is so at ease and says that he likes their company. The movie takes a turn when their two sons show up, angry and fighting over who gets their father's inheritance (it is revealed that he is dying), and one son kills the other. This was shocking and much like a thriller or horror film, but this is when the movie turns from suspenseful and off-putting to another dimension that makes the film unlike any I have seen before. When the son dies, people start flooding into the house to have a gathering to celebrate the his life. Bardem seems to be a magnet for these people, they surround him and admire him, almost in a weird way where he is not human. All while this is happening, Lawrence is discovering more things going on within her house. Since she cleaned the blood from the murder scene that took place within the home, there is a blood spot that stains the carpet that won't go away. She lifts the carpet up, and it is causing the wooden flooring to rot away and create a hole. She goes into the basement to check for further damage, and finds blood seeping from the floor onto the wall. The wall is eroding away, and with further examination part of the wall breaks away and Lawrence finds a hidden room/compartment on the other side, pitch black and something that you would expect from a horror movie. More on that later. *MANY spoilers in the next few paragraphs. After this odd funeral gathering in the house, for which there is no explanation but Bardem seems to think is completely normal, things go back to normal for a little. Lawrence becomes pregnant, and Bardem finally writes again and his new piece sells out in one day. Things are going swell. One night, the couple decides to celebrate together the success of Bardem's latest work. Everything is perfect, and Lawrence seems to finally be getting back to her normal self and happy once again. Then, the doorbell rings again. (Doorbells and knocking seems to be a recurring theme). As the door opens, there are hundreds of reporters and interviewers and fans waiting for Bardem to speak. (How did they find him? How did they know where he lives? These are all unanswered questions.) Then, it turns really crazy very quickly. People invite themselves in, flooding in and crashing the house, the scene turning into total anarchy. People are breaking things, fighting, making out, and everything else that you can imagine in every corner of the house. Bardem seems to be a magnet for these complete strangers, and they obviously think of him much higher than just an ordinary famous writer. There is a really creepy scene where people in the house create a shrine with pictures of Bardem, and an impromptu priest is marking the people on their foreheads, much like they do in a Catholic mass on Ash Wednesday. Police show up, there is a ton of guns being shot and people being killed. It is hard to describe what all is happening in the house. There is war, religion, and terrorism. Then, Lawrence goes into labor. Bardem finds her, and takes her into his study where she delivers the baby while people are desperately trying to break down the door and get to them. Lawrence begs her husband to make them leave, saying that they will listen to him. He finally says, "I don't want them to go." This is when you know that Bardem is not just her husband, but he is either in on something that she doesn't know about or knows the reason why these people are all here. Lawrence falls asleep, and when she wakes up, her baby is gone. Bardem is parading the baby around the house, with all the people screaming and shouting and celebrating. They are all grabbing for the baby, desperate to hold him, and once they finally get a hold of him, they snap the baby's neck on accident. He is dead Lawrence completely loses it at this point, and proceeds to set herself and the entire house on fire. You would think that this would be where the movie ends, but it wasn't. Her husband, completely unburnt and unharmed from the fire, carries Lawrence from the rubble. She is barely alive and almost burnt to death. He says, "I need one more thing from you," and Lawrence says, "I have nothing left to give." He then says that he needs her heart. He reaches into Lawrence's body, which was a particularly disturbing part, and pulls out a diamond. Lawrence then turns completely into ash, and Bardem takes the diamond and sets it back to its rightful place in a case in Bardem's study. He laughs, and the house turns from rubble and ash back into its original state, with an entirely new woman as his wife. (This was the exact opening scene, except it is a new wife instead of Lawrence). I left this movie in a state of shock and confusion. I had no idea what I had just watched for the past two hours. After some researching, I realized that this movie is an allegory for religion and current events. This movie has allegorical references to Christianity, Catholicism, the Bible, and things that are happening on the news. Bardem is the god-like figure, which is obvious from him being unburnt from the fire, the people being drawn to him and worshipping him, and the ending scene where he places the diamond in the case and the entire house builds itself again. The house is, in a sense, his creation. It is debated what Lawrence's character represents, some saying she is Mother Earth, Mary, or Eve from the Bible. She definitely represents some feminine energy that is a reference to some Biblical figure. You get some serious Cain and Abel vibes from the two brothers fighting and one killing the other in the opening scene. There is also the references to current events, with the terrorist attacks and gun violence that goes on within the house towards the end of the movie. The trailer of Mother! makes it look like a horror film, but it is unlike a horror film completely and left me feeling confused and dazed instead of scared. It kind of belittles beliefs such as Christianity and Catholicism, which might explain why so many people walked out of the theatre in the middle of the film. I don't really know what to say about this movie, other than it was incredibly hard to grasp. It is definitely unlike any movie that I have ever seen. If you are looking for a movie that sends you on an intellectual mind trip and makes you question the meanings of everything, then I would recommend it. Pan's Labyrinth is about a young girl named Ofelia, who is growing up in the middle of fascist Spain in the 1940s. She is staying at the base camp of the Spanish during the war, because her mother is married to the highest ranking captain. Turns out, he is evil and sadistic and you watch him kill a lot of people throughout the film. As you can see, not a great environment for this girl to be in. On top of that, her mom is pregnant and really sick. This is a pretty depressing life for Ofelia, and there's not much for her to look forward to until her adventurous-ness and curiosity lead her to discover a fantasy world. This turns her world upside down.
Ofelia encounters a small fairy who leads her to a Labyrinth, or a huge stone undergound palace/lair situation where she meets a goat-looking man who is made out of stone (?) but speaks to her like a friendly grandpa. (???) This stone-goat-man then tells Ofelia that she is immortal and that she was born from the moon, saying there is an birth mark on her shoulder to reveal the truth. Low and behold, later in the film, there is a crescent moon birth mark on her shoulder, so we know that stone-goat-man isn't just joking around. He tells Ofelia that she was meant to be here, and she now has a series of tasks that she must carry out before the next full moon so her kingdom and throne can finally become hers. If you didn't think this movie was weird yet, just sit tight. Ofelia has a run in with a toad who eats roaches, and then she proceeds to kill this toad and retrieves a special key from the toad's weird throw up that he produces as it dies. The next task is weird and terrifying: Ofelia has to create a portal to a creepy lair of a child-killing, non-human thing that is really hard to describe with words. It had huge hands with long fingers and holes in the hands where this creature put its eyes. Stone-goat-man gave Ofelia clear and crucial instructions to not eat any of the food that she would see on the table where the dormant creature sat, or it would come to life and kill Ofelia. It seems pretty simple, but what does Ofelia do? She couldn't resist a grape or two, so she popped them back and out of no where, the creature comes to life and tries to kill her! She then runs for her life and escapes with mere seconds left on the sand hourglass that stone-goat-man gave her. Other than the above scene mentioned being the weirdest movie scene I have ever seen possibly ever, this movie was confusing and I really don't know what to think of it. The ending didn't improve my feelings about it any more, either. SPOILER: Ofelia's mom dies, Ofelia's only friend in the house, the maid/undercover spy Mercedes ditches her, and then the captain ends up shooting her and she dies. The ending scene is her dead body in the Labyrinth and the narrator saying how her spirit went on to live forever in the kingdom. This was a weird movie. It might even be the weirdest I have ever seen. Is this supposed to be artistry? One minute Ofelia was killing a magical/supernatural toad, and the next she was running from a weird non-human child killing monster. All the while she was being mentored by stone-goat-man, who didn't have much character development and was honestly a little rude to her. I feel like a lot of random things happened with no explanation as to why they were happening. And then Ofelia just abruptly dies, and there was no point for any of it. She never even ended up ruling her magical kingdom that Stone-goat-man promised her. I was disappointed and really just in awe of how weird this movie really was. Maybe the gripping meaning just flew over my head and I'm missing the point or something. But I really did not get it at all. This could be cinematic artistry, but it did not click for me. Maybe it will for someone else. For my personal opinion, however, I wouldn't recommend this film. Tallulah is a film about a young woman (played by Ellen Page) who is homeless, lives out of her van, and is a petty thief. She enjoys living her life on the road. This all changes when her boyfriend leaves her and then she ends up stealing a baby from a drunk woman one night in a hotel. After being mistaken as the hotel maid, the lousy mom asks her to babysit her child while she goes out with a guy, and when the mom returns passed out drunk, Tallulah decides to take matters into her own hands and kidnaps the baby.
I really liked this movie. Made by Netflix, it is another one of their hidden gems that you only find when you're 30 movies deep into searching in the drama section. The actual idea of the movie is messed up, since Tallulah did kidnap this baby. She did it because she thought it was morally the right thing to do; the mom was not a fit mother and was getting drunk every night. Even though Tallulah has zero knowledge of what to do with a baby, she thinks that the baby might actually have a chance if she was raised by someone who was capable of learning. She goes to her ex-boyfriend's mom (Allison Janney) for help, lying to her and saying that it is Tallulah's and that her son is the father. Begrudgingly, Janney takes them in and lets them stay for a while. The movie gets really cute really fast. Janney (who's character is never really named), Tallulah and the baby become this sort of blended little family, helping raise the baby together. Janney and Tallulah bond, talking about their lives and her relationship with Janney's son, Tallulah's ex-boyfriend. It is really heart warming to watch until you remember that Tallulah is keeping this huge lie from Janney: that she actually kidnapped that baby and her face is all over newspapers and TV networks because the child is technically missing. When you think about that part, it almost ruins it. SPOILER The ending is sad, because Tallulah gets arrested and the baby is returned to her rightful mother. Janney and Tallulah had this beautiful friendship that is now coming to a halt because Tallulah is arrested, the ending scene being her driving off in a police car. The ending felt very abrupt and it left a lot of unanswered questions, which I did not appreciate. Overall, though, this movie is very cute but sad in the end, making it only slightly disappointing. I would still recommend it, because it is a quick movie that is still enjoyable to watch. *This is rated R. It shows some graphic stuff having to do with sexual assault and gun violence.
Wind River is a mystery/crime thriller about the death of an 18 year old Native American woman named Natalie, who died in the middle of the snowy woods in the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. The movie opens up with this really chilling scene of the young woman running through the snow barefoot in the middle of the night, while an eerie poem is being recited as the scene plays out. You automatically know that she is running from something and that she is in some kind of danger. After the opening scene, I immediately got the creeps. The film's protagonist is a man named Cory Lambert, a hunter in the area who knows the area in Wyoming like the back of his hand. He teams up with an FBI agent named Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) to solve the mystery. It might seem weird that a man who hunts animals for a living would be working to crack a homicide with an FBI agent, but the viewers soon learn that Lambert lost his daughter Emily three years ago, very similarly to how Natalie died in the snow. Lambert and Banner are automatically confronted with conflict when the doctor who performs the autopsy on Natalie's body declared she died of the effects of the cold on her lungs and her body. With this being said, the death can't be ruled as a homicide, so Banner and Lamber are on their own to crack the case. With more inspection on the crime scene, Natalie had ran for 6 miles straight in the freezing cold with no shoes. She was obviously running for her life. This movie keeps you on your toes the whole time. It is terrifying, eerie and poignant all at once. What I liked about this movie was that the setting was one of the biggest antagonists in the film. In the middle of an Indian reservation in Wyoming, there is nothing but the freezing cold, snow, and silence. There are miles and miles between any residence or shelter. It becomes extremely evident how dangerous this land truly is when you see how Natalie died. The man vs. nature theme is very prominent. There are no real police out there, either. The Indian reservation is an outcasted land where people are truly on their own. Since the population is so small on the reservation, Banner and Lambert have a pretty small pool of suspects to investigate. That doesn't mean that they aren't in incredible danger while doing so. It is every man for himself there, and Banner and Lambert get into life or death situations more than once. This movie is dark. If you like dark, unhappy and at times creepy movies, then you'll love this one. You'll feel pretty heavy after watching it, though. When Lambert and Banner finally discover the man who sexually assaulted Natalie, causing her to run away, the ending is not pretty. This movie was still really enjoyable, mainly because it is dark yet carries an important message. It also kind of reminded me of a modern-day western movie, which I really liked, because those aren't usually the types of movies that I tend to watch. At the end of the film, it leaves you with a chilling fact: there are no official records in America of missing/murdered Native American women. It is really sad to see that a population is still so outcasted and marginalized in the country. Overall, this was a very smart and intense movie. I would recommend. 3 Generations is a movie about a former girl named Ramona transitioning to a boy named Ray. It shows the struggles that happen within a family when someone is transitioning, and it does a particularly good job of showing the thoughts and processes of every single person involved. Elle Fanning was the actor for the role of Ray, and it was very interesting to see her in this role, since she has never done a role like this before. The role of Ray's grandma was played by Susan Sarandon, who is one of my favorite actresses. This film is very much a drama, because it focuses on a very tough subject that is not touched on a lot, but Sarandon's role brings a lot of comedy to the film. The setting for this movie is in New York, and it makes the city look a lot prettier than it actually is. I loved it.
This movie is definitely one of those Netflix hidden gems. It could also be called Liberals: The Film, so if you're not into the LGBT movement or the NYC-living-in-a-very-expensive-loft-and-very-left-winged theme, then I wouldn't recommend this movie. I, however, really liked this movie because I think it did a good job of shedding light on what it is like for an entire family when a member is trans. The person undergoing this transition is obviously going through a lot as they realize who they are meant to be, feeling like they are a stranger to themselves, and also worrying about how everyone else perceives them. A lot of people also fail to see how the process is for the rest of the family as well. This is showcased well in the character of Ray's mom, played by Naomi Watts. Throughout the film, she experiences a rollercoaster of emotions. It is obvious that she loves her son more than anything in the world, and would do anything to make him happy. She is okay with her son's transition, but it is still a hard time for her and wants to take it at a slow pace. She is trying her hardest, but the situation hardens for her when her mother and her mother's wife are slow to accept the transition.Your heart almost breaks for her as you watch her struggle with this monumental change that her child is going through. *SPOILERS* The ending to this movie is a beautiful one, because it isn't picture perfect. During the film, Ray's world collapses again when he finds out that who he thought was his dad isn't really his dad, and makes him feel even more resentment towards his mom for keeping this secret from him. To fully undergo his transition, Ray needs signatures from both his mother and his father. He feels completely defeated when he takes one step forward only to take two backwards when he finds out that his real father isn't even the man who he thought was for years. The movie ends with the real biological father signing off on the papers after months and months of waiting on Ray's part. Ray decides that he wants to know his biological dad and the man who he thought was his dad, since he has been estranged from them both for years. The ending scene is a heart warming dinner party where Ray's family, who are all kinds of kinds, gather together to finally get to know one another. Overall, this movie was really enjoyable. It has light drama mixed with comedy with a very cute ending. It makes you feel fuzzy after watching it. I also really appreciated this movie because it taught me more about trans peoples' lives, and how the process can be for the whole family. It was a subject that I was not very informed on, and I am glad that I can be more open and empathetic to these peoples' lives now. Casting JonBenet is a Netflix documentary centered around the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, a 6 year old girl who was killed in her home on the night of December 25th, 1996. Though there are suspects as to who killed the little girl, no arrest has been made to this day. There are many theories and speculations of the people in the town of Boulder, Colorado and many other people who have heard about the murder. I watched this documentary after watching the trailer in class and wanting to know more about it. I didn't exactly go in with an open mind, since I had already heard a review saying that it was anticlimactic and disappointing. Still interested, I wanted to get my own take on it.
For the most part, I agree that this documentary is disappointing and not very informative. Most documentaries on murders provide more information on victim and their back story, their relationships with friends and family, and what they were like. They show clips, pictures, videos, and tons of more detail, so the viewers really feels like they are getting a real inside look on the victim's life. They also go in depth about theories on who killed the victim at length. The documentary did touch on all of these things, but not nearly as in depth as I had expected or hoped for. I felt like the entire film was just actors being interviewed and then sharing how they knew about just as much as I did, and I didn't know anything. The ending was the most disappointing part, because you are still sitting there with a million unanswered questions. I wish this story was a Nightline episode instead of a Netflix documentary, because although the artistic approach that the filmmakers went for for this film is creative, it frustrated me and made me just want some real answers. There are a lot of reasons to dislike this film, but I also found some reasons to semi-enjoy it. As mentioned before, the way this documentary was filmed was annoying, but I also sort of admired it. I thought it was a very interesting take on a documentary on the murder of a little girl. I found the interviews of the actors fascinating, even though it didn't give me very much insight, it was interesting to hear their takes on it and also relating it to stories from their own life. The actresses' different takes on how to portray Patsy Ramsey based on whether they thought she was the murderer or not was entertaining. My favorite scene of the whole film was towards the end, when the camera moved from room to room with all of the actors doing their scenes together and seeing their different ways of telling the story. It showed the complexity of the situation of this family, from the tension in the parents' marriage life to Patsy's interactions with JonBenet and her brother. Overall, this movie was a 4/10. I appreciated the creativity of it, but that did not outweigh the annoyance of not knowing anything more about JonBenet's death after watching it. If it provided 10 times more information of JonBenet's life, her relationship with Patsy and her father, and just an overall more in depth analysis of the death, I would have liked it a lot more. Instead, it was just a montage of people talking about what they thought and their theories. After feeling just general annoyance and confusion after watching this film, I wouldn't really recommend it. |
AuthorCasey Land Archives
January 2018
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