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Movies I Have Watched Starting on February 19, 2011
If you have any suggestions for what to watch, or you would like to support/challenge an opinion of mine, please let me know in the comments.
Enjoy.
Follow me on Twitter at @brandonschreur
Top 11 of 2022. Not ordered apart from picking a number one. Didn't get to see everything but, well, they shouldn't release 2022 movies in February/March/April if they want a spot on my list. Srry not srry.
Honorable mentions: Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical, Confess Fletch, The Menu, Fire of Love, Pleasure, The Bob’s Burgers Movie, The Northman, After Yang, X, Kimi, Scream.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio We’re All Going to the World’s Fair The Fallout Nope Bodies Bodies Bodies Barbarian Tár Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery The Banshees of Inisherin Aftersun 1. RRR
Top 15 of 2021 (Did something different this year where I picked a number one and then 14 others in no particular order. Seemed pointless to decide which of these are better than the other when I love and recommend them all.)
Honorable mentions: Benedetta, CODA, the Fear Street trilogy, Summertime (the Carlos López Estrada movie, not the Netflix show), C’mon C’mon, No Sudden Move, Werewolves Within, Spencer, Vicious Fun and Wrong Turn.
Titane, Licorice Pizza and The Tragedy of Macbeth were all notable, too, but I admired those movies on a technical level more so than I enjoyed watching them.
A couple of 2021 shows that I also loved and want to pause to mention (probably forgetting some): Midnight Mass, Succession: Season Three, Hellbound and The White Lotus.
Psycho Goreman Shiva Baby The French Dispatch Red Rocket Saint Maud The Mitchells vs. the Machines Summer of Soul Judas and the Black Messiah In the Heights The Last Duel Tick, Tick…Boom! Malignant The Power of the Dog Pig #1. Bo Burnham: Inside
Top 15 films of 2020.
Honorable mentions: Gretel & Hansel, Weathering With You, Da 5 Bloods, The King of Staten Island, Boys State, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Borat Subsequent Film and His House.
And they aren’t technically movies, but Ted Lasso (Apple TV+), The Haunting of Bly Manor (Netflix) and part one of the Euphoria special (HBO Max) are also three incredible television watches that meant a lot to me.
15. Shithouse 14. Scare Me 13. Wolfwalkers 12. The Invisible Man 11. Driveways 10. Another Round 9. Minari 8. Never Rarely Sometimes Always 7. Dick Johnson is Dead 6. Possessor 5. The Vast of Night 4. The Half of It 3. Nomadland 2. Palm Springs 1. Promising Young Woman
My top 15 (this is how I win) films of 2019. Also, real quick, I didn’t make a best of the decade list because that’s way too hard, but Sing Street and Inside Llewyn Davis are two of the finest, most wholesome films these eyes have ever seen, so make of that what you will.
Honorable mentions: Glass, Fighting with my Family, Her Smell, Luce, El Camino, Klaus, 1917.
15. The Farewell 14. Ready or Not 13. Marriage Story 12. Us 11. The Last Black Man in San Francisco 10. The Lighthouse 9. Knives Out 8. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood 7. Hustlers 6. The Irishman 5. Booksmart 4. Little Women 3. Uncut Gems 2. Midsommar 1. Parasite
Top fifteen (I do what I want) of 2018:
Honorable mentions: Paddington 2, First Reformed, Game Night, You Were Never Really Here, Love Simon, Upgrade, Sorry to Bother You, Eighth Grade, A Simple Favor, Mandy, Halloween, Shoplifters.
15. Suspiria 14. If Beale Street Could Talk 13. Mid90s 12. Blindspotting 11. First Man 10. The Rider 9. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 8. BlacKkKlansman 7. Black Panther 6. Leave No Trace 5. Roma 4. Beautiful Boy 3. Hereditary 2. The Miseducation of Cameron Post 1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Top fifteen (ten was too hard) of 2017:
Honorable mentions: T2 Trainspotting, Wind River, Mother!, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Shape of Water, I, Tonya, The Post, Brawl in Cell Block 99.
15. Wonder Woman 14. Call Me by Your Name 13. Blade Runner 2049 12. The Big Sick 11. Ingrid Goes West 10. Dunkirk 9. Baby Driver 8. Phantom Thread 7. Loving Vincent 6. Lady Bird 5. A Ghost Story 4. IT 3. Get Out 2. The Disaster Artist 1. The Florida Project
My top favorite ten films of 2016. Favorite, not necessarily the best. And I didn't get to see everything I wanted yet this year - Paterson, 20th Century Women, and, most importantly, Nine Lives but oh well.
Honorable Mentions: Swiss Army Man, Captain Fantastic, Hell or High Water, Sully, The VVitch, Don’t Think Twice, I Daniel Blake, Fences, Hidden Figures, Deepwater Horizon, Lion, Patriots Day 10. The Lobster 9. American Honey 8. Hacksaw Ridge 7. Manchester by the Sea 6. Silence 5. Nocturnal Animals 4. Arrival 3. Moonlight 2. La La Land 1. Sing Street
My Top 10 of 2015: Honorable mentions - Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Martian, Brooklyn, Carol, Creed, Slow West, Bridge of Spies. #10 - Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl #9 - Steve Jobs #8 - Ex-Machina #7 - Inside Out #6 - The Revenant #5 - Spotlight #4 - The Hateful Eight #3 - Mad Max: Fury Road #2 - The Big Short #1- Room
Reviews
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
10 Cloverfield Lane
Two months ago, no one knew that 10 Cloverfield existed, let alone was about to be wide released in theaters. One month ago, no one had any idea how, if at all, this film was related to the 2008 film Cloverfield except for the obvious title and produced J.J. Abrams. And now, all is revealed. Sort of. Here's my review.
One of the greatest things 10 Cloverfield Lane has to offer is that the audience really has no idea what to expect going into the film. Very much in the J.J Abrams way, the production for this film has been left completely under-wraps and the trailers have revealed next to nothing. That's one of the benefits for the movies, so I'm not going to spoil or give anything away in my synopsis or the review. I won't even tell you if this movie is indeed a Cloverfield sequel or if it's something different altogether. You'll have to find out for yourself, because I can tell you right now that you should spend the money to go see it in theaters.
I'll be brief. A woman we know very little about named Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is involved in a car crash in a breath taking opening credit sequence. She wakes up a few days later to find herself in an underground bunker with Howard (John Goodman), a large and crazed eyed farmer standing above her. He tells her that she can't leave, because some sort of disaster has happened and it's not safe to go outside. Finding herself alone with Howard and another man named Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), and I'm stealing their tag line here because it's a dang good tag line, they find out that Monsters come in many forms.
Obviously I had no idea to expect when I went into 10 Cloverfield Lane. No one did. But within the first five minutes they set the tone so you know what kind of movie they are going for, and I found myself instantly engaged. For the rest of the film, I was floored with what was going on. Director Dan Trachtenberg takes the reigns on creating a film that will hit you with the unexpected, and leave your jaw hanging.
The best word I could think of to describe this film while I was watching it was claustrophobic. For the scenes that takes place in the bunker (I'm not saying how much of the screen time that actually is) they create such an intense and nervous atmosphere that you feel yourself getting antsy along with the characters.
That's because for almost the whole film, we don't really know what's going on. We know what John Goodman is telling us and leading us to believe, but we have no idea if that's reliable or not. We discover things along with the characters, which is why this film is such a good build up. When the conclusion to the film finally comes, you leave more than satisfied. But don't ruin it for yourself by looking up online spoilers to see if it is a Cloverfield sequel. Spend the money. See the movie. Find out for yourself. It's worth it.
I've heard the argument and I've sited it a few times in past reviews, that the best way to bring out great performances in actors is to lock them in a single setting film where they having nothing to hide their performance behind. That's what happens here. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, an actress who deserves to get more work than she does, played the character so well as she captures the nervous ticks without acting completely helpless the whole time. In the end, she was pretty bad-ass. John Gallagher Jr., a character who could have been super annoying, ended up being great in the film too, and had really good chemistry with Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
But the stand-out of the film if John Goodman. John Goodman is in so many films every year that we sometimes take him for granted and forget how good of an actor he can be when he's not mailing it in (whatever Hangover film he was in. I forget) but rather commits whole heartedly to a role. That's what happens here. He could have easily over-cooked his performance where it came of as cartoon-y or unrealistic, but he hit just the right level of disturbing and off-putting where you are crept out by the guy but you can't be sure if he's in the right or wrong. It's a performance similar to Joel Edgerton's in The Gift.
ALSO just read on IMDb that Bradely Cooper's voice appeared over a cell-phone in one scene. I knew I had heard the voice somewhere but I couldn't put my finger on it until now.
At no point of 10 Cloverfield Lane does the film slow down or lose interest. It uses it's hour and forty five minute runtime, a surprisingly long one for this type of film, to achieve the best possible effects. The film flies by and I found myself never wanting it to be over.
10 Cloverfield Lane is a movie you should rush out to the theater to go see. Accept that you know nothing about it going in, and enjoy that experience. Because it's something that doesn't happen often and it's a rare gift when it does. 10 Cloverfield Lane has a lot to offer despite the fact that it's a very small film. In fact, regardless of the fact if they are in the same universe, I'll say I enjoyed 10 Cloverfield Lane more than I enjoyed Cloverfield itself. And I want to see the story continued in a sequel. 10 Cloverfield Lane gets an A-, it's one of my favorite films of 2016 so far. Go see it this weekend. " - brands42