Night Owl

Jasper Mall

Viewed: 02 Oct 2021
Directed by: Brett Whitcomb, Bradford Thomason
Listed in: Movies, amazon

A well-made documentary about a dying mall, that is a more fascinating look at Alabamians than a treatise on American retail. It’s not the mall, it’s the people.


Annie

Viewed: 26 Sep 2021

Directed by: John Huston
Listed in: Movies, amazon

Uneven throughout. There are long sections where we wondered "Where's Annie?". Good performances and songs, but overstuffed and strange. Probably better on the stage.


Ponyo

Viewed: 25 Sep 2021
Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Listed in: Movies, library

Ponyo is missing that studio Ghibli spark. It had all of the elements, but it felt more like it was going through the motions. In it’s favor, it had the imaginative chaos of a child’s story.


Trolls

Viewed: 05 Sep 2021
Directed by: Mike Mitchell, Walt Dohrn
Listed in: Movies, itunes

It's fine. The animation style is hyper-textured, every surface is fuzzy or glittery. It's most impressive that it incorporates Troll dolls into a fairly cohesive jukebox musical.


Possessor

Viewed: 05 Sep 2021
Directed by: Brandon Cronenberg
Listed in: Movies, hulu

A gory physic warfare horror film about identity and doubt, where one bleeds into the other, with incredible collateral damage. Lives up to the Cronenberg name.


Inception

Viewed: 04 Sep 2021
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Listed in: Movies, netflix

The perfect concept for an action/adventure/thriller film. You can set up any set-piece and logic doesn't matter! Shoot baddies all day! Jet around the world! Movies are dreams, man! For a certain kind of movie, Nolan is hard to beat.


Da 5 Bloods

Viewed: 04 Sep 2021
Directed by: Spike Lee
Listed in: Movies, netflix

The principle performances are great, the last act is strong. It plays it broad at every opportunity and I never found it engaging.


Spinster

Viewed: 31 Aug 2021
Directed by: Andrea Dorfman
Listed in: Movies, amazon

Starts weak, ends stronger. Not all that funny. The dog is sweet. A pleasant enough diversion.


CODA

Viewed: 30 Aug 2021
Directed by: Siân Heder
Listed in: Movies, appletv+

No surprises. CODA hits every emotional note there is. If it weren’t for the novelty of the situations I would have turned it off.


Tropic Thunder

Viewed: 23 Aug 2021
Directed by: Ben Stiller
Listed in: Movies, amazon

Offensive satire that is mostly on the right side the line, crossing it at times. Fun throughout with some great performances.


1281 quick reviews and impressions of every movie I've watched since 2002.

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