Original Movies (not sequel, not reboot, not spin-off)
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Migration (2023) directed by Benjamin Renner
Animation, about a family of ducks migrating migrating from New England to Jamaica. There is the "dad" that stared out risk averse want want to keep his family safe and never venturing beyond their little pond, there is "mom" who wants to encourage the kids to venture out and try new things, there is the wacky "uncle," and they pick up a bunch of other weird characters along the way. Of course the migration experience made them better ducks at the end. Nothing all that special, but competently produced and is a better-than-average family movie to watch with young children.
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Dunki (2023) directed BY Rajkumar Hirani
Hindi drama and comedy. "Dunki" refers to the "donkey route," an euphemism for illegal immigration. The movie covers two stories of illegal immigration, one when the protagonists are young and wanted to migrate from India to England, and ended up taking the "donkey route" to get there; the other when the protagonists are old/middle-aged and wanted to travel from England to India, but because they claimed asylum to stay in England before, the Indian government does not want them back in India, hence again they have to take the "donkey route" to get back to India. Of course you get many scenes depicting the hardship, dangers, and horrors of illegal immigration. Also in there is an acknowledgement of certain Indian mentality of the time, not long after India gained independence from the British Empire, that many Indians view England as the promised land, where their best and brightest want to go. Then later also another sentiment, that their old age, the Indians in England want to return to India in their old age. And, yes, there is an ex-soldier among the protagonists and Indian nationalism is again on display in this movie. Ha-ha funny aside, this is also a complex, thoughtful movie. Recommended.
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Weak Layers (2023) directed by Katie Burrell
It's a bit of a love letter to skiers and ski towns. The protagonists are a few female skiers needing to find money for rental downpayment and enters a ski movie competition to try to win the prize money. So it's also a bit of a "girl power"/"women empowerment" movie for skiers. This looks to me like a low-budget production, most likely an "indie" movie. Still, I get the feeling that this is a very sincere movie, that the people who wrote and made this movie truly love the subject matter. Recommended.
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American Fiction (2023) directed by Cord Jefferson
Drama, comedy. A black author, frustrated that it seems the world only wants black authors to write "black books," submitted a manuscript of a stereotypical "black book" under an alias as a joke. ("Black book" in this case means books that depict certain black stereotypes, like the blacks characters speaking ebonics, are discriminated against, are associated with gang culture and jail, etc.) To his surprise, a publisher is willing to pay big bucks to publish his "black book," a movie producer wants to turn his "black book" into a movie. At one point he thinks the joke is getting out of hand, so he tried to stop the joke by demanding that the title of the book be changed to "Fuck," only to be surprised to see the publisher accepting that change. The book has even been nominated for a literary award, one that the protagonist has been invited to serve as a judge. And there, he saw the other white judges wanting to award that book a prize despite objections from the black judges, all while claiming that the world need to hear more "black voices." Lots of material on the identity politics in the publishing world. This a smart comedy. Highly recommended.
(@Aqua-Letifer, if you ever see this movie, let me know what you think of it.)
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The Beekeeper (2024) directed by David Ayer
Action. A bit like a one-man "Mission: Impossible" or one-man "Fast & Furious", one super-fighter dude uses exaggerated violence to take down bad guys that the law fails to take down. Feels like this can be the start of a new franchise. Whatever, it's fast paced with exciting action. Don't think too much about it. It's good entertainment, a good popcorn flick.
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The Book of Clarence (2023) directed by Jeymes Samuel
Black Christian Biblical comedy-drama. The protagonist is a black Hebrew man who was a contemporary of Jesus Christ. The protagonist started out not believing in the divinity of Jesus, to trying to present himself as the Messiah (as a con), them finally accepting Jesus' divinity. Almost an all-black cast, only the Romans are played by white actors -- and the "fake Jesus," there is a joke in there that "explains" how the world later thinks and depicts Jesus as "white."
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I.S.S. (2023) directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Sci-fi. I.S.S. in this case stands for the International Space Station. The story is about how the U.S. crew and the Russian crew reacted after ground nuclear war broke out, the two crews each received orders from their respective governments to take control of the I.S.S., then lost communications. In that sense it's a bit like a submarine movie where, after receiving an important and unexpected directive, crew members are trapped in a metal tube without communication (thus cannot get clarification for the last command they received). It's a small production (six actors/crew members max, trapped in a small space station most of the time), but still I find it captivating. Recommended.
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Argylle (2024) directed by Matthew Vaughn
Spy action/thriller. Very good entertainment! It starts out with a popular spy novelist being pursued by multiple spy agencies because her spy novels seem to track real world events all too accurately, then lots of action happened with a very twist to the story. Good humor, good action, really beautiful scene and spectacular action design in which a femme fatale mow down a large team of bad guys with a machine gun while figure skating on an oil tanker! And unlike other femmes fatale in other spy thrillers, this one is not skinny or deliberately portrayed with much sex appeal. Recommended.
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Scrambled (2023) directed by Leah McKendrick
Comedy/drama about a woman in her mid-30s going through all sorts of life challenges and emotional ups and downs trying to get her eggs frozen. It looks like a very sincere effort on the part of the writer/director to give voice to women in similar situations. This movie is not political and it came out before the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that did a number on the state's IVF practices, but it's probably more poignant now in view of the Alabama Supremer Court ruling. Recommended.
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Popular Theory (2024) directed by Ali Scher
Coming-of-age comedy (I think). A socially awkward child genius decides to create a chemical formula that makes people popular. Woking with another socially awkward child genius classmate, they implemented the popularity chemical formula in the form of chewing gun and tested it on two other unpopular school students. The unpopular-turned-popular students got out of control, and supposedly those child geniuses learn some vague life lessons out of the ordeal. I believe the director/producer tried very hard and was sincere with her effort to want produce a movie that would leave a positive impact on kids ... but the movie just doesn't quite stand out that much among movies in this genre.
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Lisa Frankenstein (2024) directed by Zelda Williams
Horror comedy? High school girl progressively "improves" a reanimated corpse with a magical tanning bed, killing other people in the process to get body parts. Plot development feels rather slow, and doesn't really stand out among Frankenstein movies or even just among movies that make fun of Frankenstein.
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Madame Web (2024) directed by S. J. Clarkson
Superhero movie. Well, the main character is from the Spiderman universe. The plot is not all that original and the action design is not all that thrilling. The special effects looks great but ultimately nothing groundbreaking. But, dang, the casting is just brilliant. I myself would never have thought of casting Dakota Johnson as Madame Web, just like I would never have thought of casting Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, but this casting works great and it is just brilliant. No need to watch/read any Spiderman or any superhero movie/TV/comic to enjoy the Madame Web movie. It stands alone just fine. Good entertainment.
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Sometimes I Think About Dying (2024) directed by Rachel Lambert
Romance with a little bit of dark-ish comedy? The story revolves around a woman who lives and works in a small town in the North East. The woman is socially awkward, emotionally lonely, and day dreams about her own death. Then a new male colleague enters her life and things happen. Good effort by the cast, but what really impressed me is how authentic the sets are. It's like they rented a real office (that's actually used by real office workers) and a real home (that actually has people living in it) to shoot the movie rather created sets.
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Drive-Away Dolls (2024) directed by Ethan Coen
Comedy. Two girl friends rented a car to go on a toad trip and, by mistake, took with that car a special object (not saying what that object it to avoid spoiler) and a decapitated head in an ice box stashed in the trunk. Mob sends goons after them. Hilarity ensues. This movie is very unapologetically lesbian, though lesbianism doesn't seems to have much to do with the main plot of the movie.
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Laapataa Ladies / Lost Ladies (2024) directed by Kiran Rao
Hindi comedy drama. In rural India, two brides got swapped on a train. Swapped because they were arranged marriages and the brides wear similar wedding garments with their faces covered as is tradition. One innocent bride, one no-so-innocent bride, one kind love-sick groom, one shitty groom, one corrupt cop, one lying politician, assorted social and family issues, gender discrimination, domestic violence, the issue of the dowry ... many India issues rolled into one. But ultimately this is a thoughtful, very human movie that shows that there are kind people who will do the right things despite societal pressures, that kindness will ultimately triumph. This is among the best Hindi movie I have seen in a very long time. Highly recommended.
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A Hip Hop Story (2024) directed by Damaine Radcliff
Comedy with a lot of rap music. Supposedly this movie retells hip hop's 50 year history with modified names (e.g., "Jay-B" instead of "Jay-Z", "Kanyan" instead of "Kanye"). It starts off with a seemingly thoughtful critique on Hip Hop's effects on today's youth, and for the first one third of movie I quite enjoyed the beat as it recounts of development of Hip Hop and Rap over the years. Then it become tired as the jokes get over done and become contrived, and the beat/rap gets too repetitive. May be I would have enjoyed it more had I know more about Hip Hop.
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热辣滚烫 / Yolo (2024) directed by Jia Ling
Chinese comedy. A lie-flat obese woman, after being dumped by her boyfriend and learning that the boyfriend has been cheating with her closest girlfriend, then subsequently got duped by another relative and humiliated on stage in some TV program, decides to walk out of her old life. She then meets a boxer, who becomes her boyfriend. (Then some other stuff happen with that boxer boyfriend that I won't spoil.) Then she becomes committed to taking up boxing herself and trained herself to fight in a real boxing match in an attempt to win something in life, even if just for once. This turned the movie from a social commentary into a motivational movie, a transition masterfully executed by the playwright and the filmmaker.
This movie is very well made, the sets, the scenes ... everything looks and feels very authentic; in the first half, the actors look like they are "living" rather than "acting." (The second half is more dramatic and the plot itself calls for a TV studio recording scene and boxing tournament scenes; so you can't expect the actors to "live" those scenes anymore.) According to outtakes and information rolled along with the credit at the end, it appears the lead actress (who is also the director) actually transformed herself from "obese" to "athlete" in real life as she filmed this movie; so there's probably a lot of truth backing up the "authenticity" I saw in the movie. (I have noticed that actress in other works before, so I know for a fact that she has been obese for a long time before this movie.)
Overall, this is very thoughtful, very heartfelt movie, one that honestly looks at some existing downsides of human conditions yet conveys an uplifting motivational message; likely the best Chinese film I have seen in a very long time. Highly recommended.
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"American Fiction"
Summary: Intellectual (mostly failed) black author dismissed from his teaching job decides to write a "Black" novel under the pen name "Stagg R. Lee," using all the tropes that one associates with Black culture. Book is a huge success.
Lots of interesting points about pandering, culture, sales-commerce. Also some subplots about family, gayness (of course) etc.
Very enjoyable and provocative - until the last 10 minutes, when it kind of cops out. Still worth a watch. Jeffrey Wright is great, and it's always good to see Leslie Uggams.
Link to video
