Fiction of 2019

[nerdietalk]

Hell yeah, a new and improved obsessive list

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January

[nerdietalk]

If Beale Street Could Talk

A moving yet brutal film about touch decisions in the face of a system rigged against you. A love story between a gorgeous couple: one behind bars, the other pregnant with his child. First major role of Kiki Layne and she puts on an amazing display. The whole cast is acting their socks off and the camera takes the time to carefully give each character just enough focus to understand them. The fathers who have to steal to support their families, the friend who's been in jail and has only just gotten out when the system tries to use him to imprison his friend. The victim who just wants to heal from the damage done to her, even if someone else suffers in the meantime. They are no good solutions, only ways to survive and try to keep yourselves going in the meantime. There's a couple images I don't understand the symbolism of, but I was real into it anyway.

Tokyo Godfathers (Rewatch)

I was pretty nervous showing this to my family. I think I was scared of being vulnerable enough to show something I loved that they might not like. That they wouldn't understand. And that's what this movie is about, in a way. That fear that the people you love won't want you anymore because of some mistake or flaw about yourself. But family - a tue loving family - won't judge you. They might even enjoy things with you, like mine did. And that's a powerful message. Its a film about hope and miracles. Its beautiful.

Mary: Queen of Scots

I sure do love it when historically murdered people are portrayed as gay so the straight white lady looks hip. Very progressive to depict the Elizabeth/Mary rivalry as jealousy over beauty and youth instead of angry Catholics/Protestants murdering a lot of people who believed different things. Didn't feel like a straight white man screenwriter trying to seem woke at all.

Even that aside, its just boring

Bumblebee

Finally, some good fucking Transformers.

This movie cares about its characters. It cares about its hero. It wants Charlie to improve and move past her father's death. It wants her to accept her stepdad Ron. It wants to see her bond with a giant yellow robot named Bumblebee. And that's so refreshing after a series of films that don't care about themselves, their content, their designs, or their girls. Its a good movie with good characters and good relationship building. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Rewatch)

It's impossible to understate how good this movie is. It's a miraculous spectacle that defies all animation we've seen before. It's a brilliantly written character piece with an absurdly likable cast. Every single piece of this puzzle fits beautifully. I'd watch it a million times over.

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened

The Netflix Documentary. WOOF. Its a slow countdown of things going wrong and not enough time to fix them. Its funny and entertaining but there's a moment where it becomes revolting. Billy McFarland is an absolute sociopath and its sickening to watch him get away with it. Poor goddamn Andy.

The Green Book

Its basically modern Driving Miss Daisy. Black guy teaches white guy about racism. White guy saves black guy. The dynamics of those kind of odd couple movies are fun but still frustrating in how much they put the onus of teaching white people on black people. Mahershala Ali is doing his darnedest with what he's given and I appreciate that.

A Star is Born

Boy, people went gaga for this. And I don't entirely blame them? Its well-filmed. Its real nice to look at. It wasn't entirely for me but its good at using its camera to tell a hidden story. Ally looking directly at the camera to say "I do" for the wedding, but Jack isn't looking at the camera. He can make eye contact with her physically, but he can't emotionally. He thinks he can. But he can't. There's a lot of visual storytelling I appreciate.