Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
March 4, 2017
Best in Film 2016, Best of 2016, Cinema 20th Century Women, Arrival, Drive It Like You Stole It, Elle, La La Land, Nerve, No More Weapons, Nocturnal Animals, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sing Street, The Ballad of Wiener-Dog, The BFG, The Neon Demon, Toni Erdmann, Wiener-Dog, X-Men: Apocalypse 1 Comment
The Oscars were not that long ago, so I guess I better run down the best scenes of 2016.
A lot of great food scenes: dinners in Elle and 20th Century Women, plus the frobscottle feast in The BFG. Also, The Neon Demon stopped by a bar, but I don’t think they ate much.
December 31, 2016
Best in Film 2016, Best of 2016, Cinema 10 Cloverfield Lane, Arrival, Best of 2016, Jackie, La La Land, Lights Out, Midnight Special, Nocturnal Animals, The Neon Demon, The VVitch, The Witch, Zootopia Leave a comment
CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots
This ranking was originally posted on News Cult in December 2016.
Yes, it’s another best movies of the year list, which you are reading perhaps because you know me personally. Or maybe you don’t know me in the flesh, but you follow my writing and want to keep up with my opinions regardless of how much you agree or disagree with them. Or it could be that you have stumbled upon this article by sheer happenstance. In that case, I shall do best to steer you straight.
Is this list more “right” than any other critic’s? It is certainly correct in the sense that it has come from a place of honesty. I feel enthusiastic about these films, and so I have decided to say to the world, “This is my interpretation. Perhaps you will feel the same.”
Enjoy!
10. 10 Cloverfield Lane
An anthology-style cinematic universe grows into itself in its second chapter. Mary Elizabeth Winstead finds herself in a bunker under the iron fist of John Goodman, giving the performance of his career. A drum of acid is even scarier than the monsters supposedly outside. Our pulses adapt to the rhythm of the thrills.
November 11, 2016
Cinema, Movie Reviews Amy Adams, Arrival, Arrival Movie, Denis Villeneuve, Forest Whitaker, Jeremy Renner, Michael Stuhlbarg 1 Comment
This review was originally published on News Cult in November 2016.
Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Rating: Rated PG-13 for Visceral Disorientation
Release Date: November 11, 2016
Arrival takes the novel approach of making translation the focus of an alien invasion movie. Amy Adams plays Dr. Louise Banks, a renowned linguist hired to attempt to communicate with extraterrestrials to understand the purpose of their visit to Earth. This may sound like a formula profoundly devoid of excitement, but if you believe that, then you are vastly underestimating humanity’s potential for paranoia, as well as director Denis Villeneuve’s (Prisoners, Sicario) proven knack for drawing out intrigue by just lingering on the vastness of his settings. Also, if you can get over the lack of typical sci-fi action, Dr. Banks’ sessions with the two main “heptapod” aliens (dubbed “Abbot and Costello”) are a lot of fun, in a Sesame Street-edutainment sort of way.
Ultimately, Arrival justifies its existence by demonstrating that the question of how to talk to the aliens should pretty much always be one of the most pressing concerns in this genre. More fantastically inclined entries may get away with universal translation devices, but the road to such an invention, as presented here, is a thrilling triumph of human ingenuity and transcendent gumption.
Cracking the code of whether or not the aliens are friend, foe, or something else entirely requires an entirely new way of thinking. Understanding context is always important when it comes to communication, but this is a film about when context does not exist, which is existentially terrifying. In the fight to create context, what emerges is a holistic approach that is simultaneously not at all about cracking any code and entirely about cracking a code that both exists and does not exist. To truly understand Arrival, you must accept that it can never be understood. This is filmmaking at the crossroads of theoretical physics, hope, and the sublime.
Arrival is Recommended If You Like: Primer, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the quieter moments of 2001
Grade: 4.5 Out of 5 Droopy Forest Whitaker Eyelids
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