A Green Dress, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Understanding the Delicate Formula of the Movie Musical

I want to talk about the delicacy of the movie musical. And, how it’s not often that somebody has a grasp on both stage musicals and movie musicals, simultaneously. Earlier this week, a much anticipated deleted scene from Tick, Tick…BOOM! was released. Fans of the film finally got to see the much-talked about sequence, which had required an awful lot of choreography on the parts of … Continue reading A Green Dress, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Understanding the Delicate Formula of the Movie Musical

The Lost Daughter (2021)

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter was a film that hit me unexpectedly. I went in knowing very little about it. All I knew is that the film was adapted and directed by Gyllenhaal, and starred Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson and Jessie Buckley, and was categorized by Netflix as “cerebral, understated, intimate”. And that’s it. That’s all I had to go off of. I had no … Continue reading The Lost Daughter (2021)

Don’t Look Up (2021): So Close to Home That it’s Almost Hard to Watch

You know, I don’t know that I would classify Adam McKay’s new film Don’t Look Up a comedy, only because it emphasized that already hopeless feeling that I have for the state that our world is in today. Did I find it funny, though? Oh, of course I did. If I can’t laugh at the state we are in, then I’ll just end up crying … Continue reading Don’t Look Up (2021): So Close to Home That it’s Almost Hard to Watch

Tick, Tick…BOOM! (2021)

Tick, Tick…BOOM! is Lin Manuel-Miranda’s directorial debut. It’s also Andrew Garfield’s singing debut. And, honestly, both of them have done phenomenal.  Miranda, being both a lover of film and theater, was able to help translate Tick, Tick…BOOM! from stage to screen, with Steven Levenson’s screenplay adapted from Jonathan Larson’s stage musical of the same name. For those unfamiliar with the musical, Tick, Tick…Boom! was written and performed by … Continue reading Tick, Tick…BOOM! (2021)

Things Heard and Seen (2021)

It can be hard to sift through all the Netflix Original films to find a good one. There’s just so many that get released at once, that the choice of what to watch, alone, can be overwhelming. But, that’s why you have me! Consider me your “movie guinea pig”. Things Heard and Seen is a 2021 horror/thriller written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and … Continue reading Things Heard and Seen (2021)

I Care A Lot. (2021)

Writer/Director J Blakeson had a vision with this film and, damnit, if he didn’t nail it. I Care A Lot stars Rosamund Pike as Marla Grayson, a grifting legal guardian whose con is now in jeopardy, as she’s taken advantage of the wrong person. Along with Pike, I Care A Lot also stars Peter Dinklage as Roman Lunyov, Eiza Gonzalez as Fran, Dianne Wiest as Jennifer Peterson, and … Continue reading I Care A Lot. (2021)

His House (2020): Horror Through Trauma

Written and directed by Remi Weekes, in his directorial debut, His House is a harrowing horror film about a refugee couple who have escaped South Sudan and are trying to assimilate into the UK in order to, hopefully, gain citizenship and create a better life for themselves. All the while, they are being haunted by their past and by the fear of losing their culture and … Continue reading His House (2020): Horror Through Trauma