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Showing posts from January, 2020

Judy is Bland and Hollow

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Director Rupert Goold is perhaps most notable for his phenomenal Macbeth  film, which is singlehandedly responsible for sparking my interest in the play (and Patrick Stewart played no small role in swaying my heart, of course). Unfortunately his 2019 biopic, Judy,  is bland and tasteless. As one critic states, Judy  shows the lows, but it carefully avoids navigating the highs of Judy Garland's life. As many know, Judy Garland's life was one full of abuse, addiction, and terrible trauma. She acted and sang under prying eyes for most of her life, was sexually abused by disgusting men in the film industry who were too big to worry about consequences for their actions, and struggled to have the relationship with her children she yearned for. Goold's film, Judy, observes these tragedies within her life through a cold and callous lens. We watch her perform, indulge in her addiction, and get some incredibly painful flashbacks to some of her childhood abuse. There's never

The 10 Best Movies of 2019

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          2019 was an interesting and contradictory year for film. On one hand we had more of the Hollywood Disney/Marvel sameness, and on the other hand we had some unique new releases by some of my favorite directors of all time. This list took a great deal of contemplation, because 2019 had some wonderful releases, and I hope 2020s list is even more challenging. Unfortunately, 2019 had a lot of great movies I didn't get around to watching in time for writing this list ( Uncut Gems and Knives Out , to be specific), but you can expect full reviews for both of those movies in the future.           Also, Cats  gets a shoutout for making me physically ill with its grotesque imagery. Congratulations on feeling three hours longer than you really are.  10. The Lighthouse horror, directed by Robert Eggers           Robert Eggers is singlehandedly responsible for absolutely horrifying me with his phenomenal 2015 release The VVitch . He's also notorious for keeping every d