Fiction of 2019

[nerdietalk]

Hell yeah, a new and improved obsessive list

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May

[nerdietalk]

Death of Stalin

A satirical look at the reign of Stalin and the many backstabbing mind games that ensued after his death. While it may diminish the real harm he did for laugh and where it places its sympathy is strange at times, there's definitely a feeling of "oh these people are the worst." No one comes out looking shiny and even when our "hero" Krushchev wins, you can see the mania of a tyrant start to seep into his thoughts too. Buscemi plays it way better than I expected and I'd love to see him given more things like that.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Way better than it has any right to be. Its not just fun, its surprising heartfelt. It genuinely cares about its characters and wants you to care about them too. Some of them do some pretty horrible stuff and you still hope they get out of it okay. Every performance is inspired, especially Jack Black. Its just a good time.

Detective Pikachu

SO MUCH FUN. For being a Pokemon movie, its wild how little franchise building this flick does? They get in, show their love for the entire Pokemon universe, have a solid mystery, and then get out. There's no loose ends or after credits teaser to get you excited for a sequel. Its really impressive! But most importantly, I got to see my girlfriend smile for two hours. I'd pay to see that anytime.

Ocean's 8

Cool heist movie. Weird gender politics? these GIRLS are gonna steal this NECKLACE and these JEWELRY and they need to go to FASHION SHOWS and hire a FASHION DESIGNER for their team and its all a ploy to get revenge on the EVIL EX-BOYFRIEND". That's weird, right?

Thomas Crown Affair

I watched it because Griffin McElroy kept referencing and man FUCK this movie. Its not even a good heist movie, its a smug asshole being clever and the movie supporting his bullshit. Fuck off with that.

Avengers: Endgame

The third heist movie in a row! But for real, I wish this movie was only the time heist. The time heist was what every Avengers movie should be: fun. Every character mattered, every personality shined, and it didn't try to erase the silliness of comic books. It embraced it for once! And you know, it almost improved my opinion of other Avengers movies? Its a nice celebration of the good the MCU has done.

Its the rest of the movie that falls apart. Nebula and Ant-Man get time to shine and enjoy genuine emotion like they haven't before, so that's good. Its a nice cap (eyyyyy) to Cap's reign in the MCU. But I've never enjoyed the Tony stuff and the treatment of women, POC, and LGBT people? Still pretty bad! Really bad actually!

Tolkien

Fine, inoffensive, kind long and drags sometimes and probably not what you're looking for if you want to know true things about Tolkien. Its two hours, whatever.