8/10 - The Skeleton Twins is a really endearing, funny, and emotional film on the realistic struggles faced by two siblings. Starring Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, the acting here is very good and helps with the authentic feeling of the film. An incredibly sensitive and touching film, The Skeleton Twins manages to touch on topics such as marriage, depression, infidelity, and just general struggles as you get older, especially when you grow in distance from your family. Well-written and well directed, The Skeleton Twins is a delightful little indie film that is both entertaining and incredibly mature. It really never steps on the breaks, instead opting to continue pushing through the various family drama elements it touches on and, as such, the film can be quite emotionally draining. Fortunately, the jokes do lighten the mood considerably. Overall, The Skeleton Twins is a good film that is more than worth your time.



8/10 - eXistenZ is an incredibly weird film that is pretty hard to explain, but I still loved it. It has to be one of the weirder concepts I have seen put to film, but director David Cronenberg does a great job keeping track of it all as things get weirder and weirder. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law's performances are very good here and, though some would call them wooden, it is purposeful here, so they did a good job capturing that. Additionally, the film really messes with your mind and makes you question reality incredibly well. What is real and what is not real is really hard to put together and it is thanks to Cronenberg's assured direction that the film is not a mess. eXistenZ is an oddball of a film that is an incredibly good time and really makes you think.



6/10 - What We Do in the Shadows is a very entertaining and, at times, quite funny film. However, it is never really as funny as it thinks it is or should be. Beyond this, it is well done and authentic as a mockumentary, in spite of its absurdist plot. The acting is quite good, even though I was completely unfamiliar with the cast. This fact may have actually helped with the immersion, since I truly believed these people were vampires for the duration of the film. Additionally, the concept is quite good and really interesting. Never drifting into stupid territory as so many vampire flicks do, What We Do in the Shadows effectively covers its classic horror film tropes. However, the film just feels like it is missing something. A crucial piece, I cannot identify what it is, but the film feels slightly incomplete. Regardless, the film is still pretty funny, unique, and compelling, which makes the film more than worth your time.



5/10 - Star Trek: The Motion Picture is by no means a trainwreck, but it is also just not very good. Overlong with a nonsense plot, Star Trek certainly drags at times and really would have been well advised to pick up the pace. The special effects look dated, but for 1979, they are not too bad. At times, they are quite bad, but at others, incredibly impressive. The acting comes in and out. Moments are comically bad due to bad delivery, but at others, they really do a solid job. All of this being said, Star Trek is still quite a fun film that does entertain for the most part. For me, this one is better than the original Star Wars for that reason. The decent special effects, solid acting, and entertaining aspects of this one, are all improvements over its sci-fi franchise rival. Above all, the world and characters it introduces seem intriguing enough for me to keep trucking through this series. All in all, a non-disaster of a start.



9/10 - Brave is an absolutely delightful and moving experience with fantastic voice acting and Pixar’s trademark across the board. From the emotionally stirring love letter to moms to the beautiful animation, Brave brings the very best of what the animation giant has to offer. Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, and Billy Connolly, are all brilliant here and really bring their animated characters to life. The writing from the various screenwriters is pitch perfect. From great dialogue to great characterization to a great story, Brave’s script is all that I can ask for from a film. Additionally, the film is well paced and even when it establishes its story, Brave never slows down and keeps you entertained throughout. Finally, the music is phenomenal, especially the song "Learn Me Right". Fantastic stuff. Overall, I loved the fairy tale feel here and the moral is fantastic: love and respect your mom, she would do anything for you. Brave basically had me in tears and it is not hard to figure out why.



8/10 - 10 Cloverfield Lane is a very well-crafted and intense film, elevated by a fantastic performance from John Goodman. A mix of thriller, sci-fi, horror, and drama, 10 Cloverfield Lane also works in some moments of comedy to lighten an incredibly bleak mood. Director Dan Trachtenberg does a great job here creating tension and letting it build to a very good pay-off. As mentioned, Goodman is phenomenal with an intense and entirely gripping performance that plays very well into the air of mystery the film possesses. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is great here and John Gallagher Jr was also quite good. The film is a very compelling and thought-provoking one, lending itself greatly to further study as to character motivations and what all is really going on throughout the film. Some have criticized the ending, but I really am a fan. I thought it was a thrilling end to a thrilling film. Overall, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a very good film that has some filler and is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it still a good thriller that really gets the gears in the brain turning.



8/10 - I loved Into the Woods. Hilarious, touching, and fantastically musical, the film is a wonderfully entertaining take on the fairy tales of old and their worlds, while adding in a nice twist with the trademark moral of the story. First off, the music is fantastic. Both the musical sequences and score are beautiful and sung perfectly. The acting from Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, and Meryl Streep, is very good. Additionally, the direction from Rob Marshall is very good. Without it, this film would have been DOA due to the mashup of various stories. The pacing is good, though it can be a touch frenetic in the beginning, but it was far from detrimental. The script is good and really does a good job balancing everything. The cinematography and special effects are great and capture some seriously beautiful shots together. Into the Woods can also be truly hysterical as it gleefully makes fun of musicals and the fairy tales it incorporates. However, the piece I loved the most was the ruminations on life (and the dangers hidden within), love, loss, grieving, and parenthood. This is where the film is a home run success and truly becomes a major success. Into the Woods can be weird at times and it requires a willingness from the audience to go along with it, but on the whole, it is a funny and truly emotionally moving musical that has fantastic music to go along with it.



8/10 - Exploring racism, sexism, prejudice in general, acceptance, and following your dreams, Zootopia is a fantastic film. Consistently poignant, Zootopia's sole weakness comes in the form of it being mildly heavy handed at times. Without that, the film would be nearly perfect. The animation is beautifully brought to life and the voice acting is incredible across the board. Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, and Nate Torrence, being the absolute standouts on that front. They all brilliantly bring their characters to life with their great work. Additionally, the writing is stupendous. Consistently funny throughout, the characters are also well developed and the plot is compelling and interesting, yet still accessible enough for a child. That being said, the jokes (DMV, The Godfather, etc.) may go way over the heads of children. If I were a child, I would find it way less funny than I did as an adult. That said, Zootopia is a fantastic film that starts off Disney Animation's 2016 with a bang and sets a high bar for their release later this year. Wonderfully thoughtout and thoroughly entertaining, Zootopia is another great film to add to Disney's extensive catalog.



8/10 - A smart critique of marriage and the American dream, director Sam Mendes delivers a film with a similar thematic package to his debut film, American Beauty, but it works just as well here. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are brilliant in the leads, while Michael Shannon repeatedly stole scenes here in a stellar performance. This film's writing is out of this world as it crafts some seriously deep characters with relatable personas and, somehow, all of this relationship tension really makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand. Somehow Mendes managed to craft almost a thriller at times with the way the drama here made you sit on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happened next. Ultimately, Revolutionary Road is a gut punch that picks you up and punches you in the gut repeatedly. It is a film that will leave you feeling entirely depressed, but damn is it ever a good movie with even better acting and writing. Revolutionary Road is a success also due to its authenticity and the way it holds back no punches and is yet another stellar entry to Mendes' filmography.