movie review
Relationships-focused film reviews of tearjerkers, rom-coms, love lost and love found.
Her Spoiler Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I write reviews about every movie I watch (whenever I watch them). If I had watched this last week again (in July 2020, in other words), I would have seen it exactly one year from when I watched it the first time. In that year, I think I've kept this movie in the back of my mind a lot. I've been curious to see it again, but I didn't know when the best time would be, so I watched it with my parents tonight. The first half hour or so, I was very afraid that both of them (particularly my mom) were gonna trash the film by the end, but when the film actually ended, we had intellectual discussions about things we thought were so beautifully thought out about the script and the characters and the relationships and aspects of them that one of us pinpointed and the other didn't, and it was truly awesome. After re-watching this film, I have absolutely no problems with it. If I were to pinpoint one, it would be that there are a couple of times in this movie where Samantha is able to talk to people when they don't have an earpiece in and the aspect of her being able to talk to some people without those earpieces was weirdly established to me. Other than that, though... this absolutely deserves a spot in my top 10 favorite films. In fact, it might be my second favorite film (I'm gonna have to re-watch Boyhood soon to see where those two films and The Social Network place on my personal list).
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Her Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all of the movies I see. Where in the world did this movie come from?! Where did a movie about a relationship between a human and his AI come from? And how in the world is it so freaking good?!?! Seriously, this feels like it should be some obscure indie film that people discover and celebrate its existence, but this is a mainstream film that people talked about and loved and that got a ton of award buzz. How did this movie get made? However it got made, I am so happy it did. Her is an intricate exploration of relationships, technology, and how they both come together in a way that feels, shockingly enough, human. This movie's portrayal of relationships is fascinating all the way until the end, and the pacing of this film just makes it breeze by so quickly you don't even realize two hours have gone by. You just become so captivated by the two main characters, who both feel blisteringly real and human despite that one of them is a computer.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Sybil Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd page, where I review every movie I see. Before we get started, I wanted to mention that I bought the 187-minute long DVD. For some reason, Wikipedia and Letterboxd state that the full, unedited cut is 198 minutes long, but a crucial scene that Wikipedia said was edited out of certain cuts is in the version I watched tonight. The only logical assumption I can make from this is that 198-minute length takes the commercials that are edited out of the DVD for obvious reasons into account, but I can't confirm that. I'm going to assume I have seen the full, unedited movie, but there may be some longer version that's completely lost to the sands of time out there, I have absolutely no idea. Regardless, enough dawdling, let's get into the review.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Little Women (2019) (Second) Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd page, where I review all of the movies I see. A little over a year ago, I saw this movie for the first time and thought it was fantastic. I thought that it took a little while for me to get sucked into the story, but once I did, I was completely hooked. Watching it a second time, understanding where all of the character arcs were going, getting a better sense of the time jumps throughout this film, I can honestly say I no longer think that this movie is phenomenal. No, I legitimately think this film is absolutely genius. Yep, that's right, this movie got so much better for me the second time that I genuinely think it's a work of genius. I wasn't expecting that to happen, but here we are. I remember when I used to think of the name Little Women and associated it simply with one of those classic literature books that would bore the living daylights out of you when you were inevitably forced to read it for a high school class (even though I've admittedly never read the original book). The fact that I absolutely adore a period piece like this to this extent means that this movie is something special.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Little Women (2019) (First) Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review the movies and limited series I watch. I have to admit, this movie was more of a slow-burn for me. I would say that for the first 45 minutes or so, I had a hard time getting sucked in. I thought the scenery was gorgeous and the acting was really good, but I had a hard time latching onto ANY of the characters for a while. I felt that their development was rushed at times, with some of them just suddenly escalating in anger with no reasonable cause, and the story wasn't that engaging at first. However, once a huge conflict occurs between two of the sisters over what one of them did to the other's writing, this movie got SO much better. In fact, by the time the third act began, the film had basically managed to FIX every single one of its problems. I haven't seen a movie manage to do that in a long time, but this movie absolutely did that to the point where I really want to see it again even though I just watched it. Moments in the third act, particularly some really heartwrenching editing choices, made me choke up and I loved that.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
The Irishman Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I write movie reviews for everything I see. So, here's the thing... I don't like being the guy that says a certain genre or type of film is not the kind of film for them. Sure, I would definitely have said that even in middle school when I watched animated movies and didn't want to watch anything else, but now that I've become more interested in film, I like to think that I'm open to watching pretty much anything so long as its story and overall execution is engaging. There might be some movies that might be more "my kind of movie," like personal dramas or dialogue-driven movies for me, but I like to think that I am open to liking or disliking any film regardless of its content or genre depending on its execution. That being said, I've never 100% clicked with gangster movies. I admittedly haven't seen many of them, but they're just films that I don't really find myself going out of my way to see that often. I'm also really not a fan of longer movies in general, but if a movie can keep me engaged despite its runtime, I'm still there for it.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
I Lost My Body Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd page, where I review all of the movies I see. As I sit here writing this review, I'm still deciding what to rate this movie. I want to give it 4.5, but this is another movie that I feel is more of a 4-star film objectively speaking. Throughout the course of this review, I'm gonna be articulating my thoughts not just to you guys, but also to myself as I figure out what in the world I'm gonna do about that rating. Let's go on a journey, shall we?
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Dolemite is My Name
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I write movie reviews for whatever I watch. Once again, objectively, this is probably more of a four-star film because of some story elements that aren't explained as well as I think they should have been that I'll talk about later. However, I just can't deny how much this movie made me smile throughout the course of its runtime. I just couldn't keep this giddy grin off my face as the events of this movie unfold, watching all of these really entertaining people come together to make something entertaining and working hard to get it in the public eye.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Klaus Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all the movies I watch. Yeah, yeah, I know, it's not Christmas, but give me a break, I need to watch more Academy Award nominees and this is nominated for Animated Feature, so here we go. Besides, I'm the kind of guy that will listen to Christmas music or watch Christmas movies any time of year and not care because to me, the capturing of the Christmas spirit doesn't just have to be in December. This movie's capturing of the Christmas spirit is probably the most perfect I've ever seen in an animated movie. The best way to describe this film is charming. That's really the best word -- charming. It just puts a smile on your face the whole way through, and I would be lying if I said that I didn't choke up a couple of times during some of the more emotional sequences toward the end. In particular, the actual ending to this movie... god, what a powerful ending that perfectly ties the logic of this movie's Christmas into the Christmas we know and love today. Man, what a fantastic ending.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Fosse/Verdon Review
This review is from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all the movies and limited series I see. Wow, what a ride. This show has been recommended to me for a while now, and I should have watched it much sooner simply because of the slightly terrifyingly perfect timing. When this show started airing, our school's production of "Chicago" was about to open. I played an ensemble member, Chief Fogarty, and the judge during the courtroom scene. I participated in a lot of dance numbers and had the honor of announcing Velma and Roxie before they performed "Nowadays." I'm not a huge dancer, so being involved in such nuanced choreography was initially very annoying for me. By the end, however, I grew to really love the show and appreciated Fosse's choreography a lot more by the end of it. I'm probably never going to be involved in another Fosse production again, but I'm really glad I got the experience.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Punch Drunk Love Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every movie I see. Well... that was... something. I'm not even sure if I fully comprehend what in the world even happened over the past hour and a half, but I know that there's something here that just completely sucked me in. To me, there's a definite difference between a movie that turns you away because of its weirdness and a movie that sucks you in because of its weirdness. The former makes its plot and characters so nonsensical and so unbelievable that you don't care about what's unfolding on the screen. The latter immediately hooks you in with some strange occurrence, character, or choice that you WANT to know more about and keeps you hooked even if you don't know what you're watching. Punch-Drunk Love is most certainly the latter category for me. I don't think I've pieced everything together by any means, but I WANT to. I guarantee you they're there, but I have no idea where to even start looking for them.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Swiss Army Man Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every movie I see. It's been a couple of years since I saw this film for the first time and fell head over heels for it. Rewatching it after all this time affects me even more now. Swiss Army Man is most certainly not a movie for everybody. It's an almost alienatingly strange movie, but in my opinion, it's all the better for it. Its premise is one of the most unique I've seen in a long time, if not ever -- Paul Dano's Hank Thompson finds himself saved from being stranded on an island when a corpse played by Daniel Radcliffe washes up on the shore, and this corpse (who becomes affectionately known as Manny) serves as Hank's guide and multi-purpose tool as he makes his way back home. This is the example I'm going to use for years to come of a movie that shouldn't work at all, let alone as well as it does. However, somehow, in my opinion, Swiss Army Man absolutely nails its universal message with an off-kilter execution that is somehow heartwarming and bizarre at the same time.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
