an uncomplicated good time
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The 10th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special 2023
10 years of these characters trapped in their own trauma cycles. The tragedies grow worse, but the biggest sadness is that Tim is the only one who will keep Gregg in his life and vice versa. I'm starting to believe this is the best use of long-form storytelling out there.
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Scream VI 2023
found 5 wrong-headed in pretty much every way. rarely have I seen a sequel that carries over the same exact creative team improve so much. there's genuine craft and menace to the setpieces. It's a crash course in learning how to write characters for the actors you have, instead of the other way around. and it rivals 4 in extending the ideas of this franchise and giving it new reason to keep existing (4 is almost entirely ignored in 5,…
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Scream 2022
My most generous read is that this is a Fast & Furious '09 situation where they're still figuring out how to make a Scream movie and the sixth one is their Fast Five 'we've figured it out' of sorts. Otherwise, I'm kind of appalled how inert this one is. The legacy cast feels more shoved-in here than even the worst rebootquels out there. The twist is a dumber version of the already-dumb twist the third movie pulled. And worst of all, there's no build or tension to any of it. Looks washed out and slopped together. Whatever!
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Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2013
i don't even think the version of this that Wirkola and company intended to make before the studio mandated a bunch of confusing edits would've been a particularly great movie. i strangely wanted a more nuanced screenplay, just given how sincere the tone and the worldbuilding are. but few movies speak better to being viewed a decade later than something like this, now removed from being punted to the tail end ofthe 'adult fairy tale' kick of the early 2010s…
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Creed III 2023
so close to being GREAT that it's a bummer the rushed third act left me fixating on what could've been done a little better as opposed to just enjoying the otherwise high level MBJ and co. are operating on. but the early Jordan/Majors material are the most i've leaned into dialogue scenes in a big movie like this in forever. there's something phenomenally rich and understated there, self-reflexive towards the legacies of the characters in this franchise as well as Jordan's own career.
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Cocaine Bear 2023
I saw this a year ago and very much enjoyed the placeholder bear VFX. I remember thinking the ambulance setpiece was a banger and that everything else was overthought.
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Magic Mike's Last Dance 2023
totally charming, centered on a relationship I cared about that happened to feature two charismatic movie stars. no idea why people were weird about this one. I guess because it's not XXL? the intentions here feel so transparently different, but in a series that already took a hard left turn between the first and second movies, why not consider where its titular character's life and desires might be eight years later and conceptualize a story from there?
nothing feels overthought or…
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