July 2015

Fifty Shades of Grey
Stars - Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan
Plot - A virginal college girl falls for a billionaire businessman who is a little on the kinky side.
Thoughts - Anyone who knows me, knows that I was not a fan of the poorly written book. It's not even the fact that the writer seems to hate women, it's just that a fifth grader has a better grasp of the English language. I feel like director Sam Taylor-Johnson really wanted to make a better movie, but the source material just wouldn't allow for that to happen. Dakota Johnson is a star waiting to happen, but mostly this was just a bad, unsexy movie and Dornan has the personality of a rock.
Grade - D-

The Loft
Stars - James Marsden, Karl Urban, Wentworth Miller
Plot - A group of friends share a loft where they can take their mistresses, but when a woman turns up dead, they all suspect each other.
Thoughts - I mean, interesting idea. This movie definitely had potential, and despite being shot like some cheesy Telemundo soap opera, it actually kept me interested. Still, there were absolutely no likable characters and it was hard to care about the outcome with no one to root for.
Grade - C-

The DUFF
Stars - Mae Whitman
Plot - A high school girl finds out she is the Designated Ugly Fat Friend and decides to change her life.
Thoughts - Sure, this is a cliche filled high school comedy that pales in comparison to much better, classic teen movies. But I've always felt like the ugly fat friend, and I still feel like an outcast, so this movie hit a little close to home for me. Maybe I related to it a bit too much and maybe I'm being too kind, but I would recommend it.
Grade - B-

Southpaw
Stars - Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams
Plot - A boxer struggles to get his life together after a tragedy puts him in a self destructive tailspin.
Thoughts - Relatively speaking, this is no Raging Bull or Rocky, or even The Fighter. But I do love a good boxing movie, and I think Gyllenhaal is our best young actor, someone who constantly challenges himself and betters himself. He is so exciting to watch.  Even when the script feels overly sentimental or overly cheesy, his raw and devastating performance pulls everything together.
Grade - B

Dark Places
Stars - Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Corey Stoll
Plot - The lone survivor of a horrendous murder rethinks the testimony she gave which put her brother in prison for killing their entire family.
Thoughts - Mostly this movie just made me want to read the really great, perfectly plotted book by Gillian Flynn again. It's not that the movie is bad, per se, it just feels long and sluggish and boring sometimes. The book was a non stop page turner, but this adaptation is just okay. Come for Corey Stoll, though, who steals the show.
Grade - C

Trainwreck
Stars - Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Tilda Swinton
Plot - A hot mess journalist who likes a good one night stand falls for a nerdy and sweet doctor, even though she is a mess and incapable of loving or being loved and she is uncomfortable with intimacy and the idea that her sister is having babies A.K.A. the story of my life.
Thoughts - I was super excited for this movie because I RELATE, man, but I was slightly disappointed. I mean, I laughed, I cried, I fell even harder for Schumer. Still, it just didn't totally get there for me. I think all Judd Apatow movies are about 30 minutes too long and a little editing would have gone a long way. Still, the movie is funny and feminist and breaks rom-com conventions. It's probably the type of movie that will grow on me (like another Apatow movie, Knocked Up, which I despised the first time I saw it). Also, a nearly unrecognizable Tilda Swinton steals the whole movie. (Like, I'm seriously not even fully convinced that it was really her.)
Grade - B-