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April 2016 Movies

  1. Bridge Of Spies - Hanks' best role since Big, but movie loses steam trying to appeal to masses.
  2. Vegucated - Funny, thoughtful look at the importance of convincing people to go vegan.
  3. The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie - Style over substance is influential, but club scenes drag.
  4. The Exterminating Angel - Bunuel's look at upper class fragility and the results. Fascinating!
  5. The End Of Summer - Ozu's penultimate film, is funny, charming and ends beautifully.
  6. The Hallow - Truly horrible, but distracted by beautiful co-star.
  7. Chi-Raq - Spike Lee combines Do The Right Thing with School Daze and Greek tragedy.
  8. Steve Jobs - Fassbender, co-stars, direction and cinematography are A-plus. Best of 2015.
  9. Almost Mercy - Need some humor and misses the mark consistently, but solid lead.
  10. The Conspiracy - Great idea, solid start and then becomes a cheap ambiguous mess.
  11. A Woman Under The Influence - Cassavetes' masterpiece. Rowlands and Falk are superb.
  12. The Forest - Great premise and decent acting can't save this disaster. Awful. 
  13. Brooklyn - Saoirse Ronan shines, but movie lacks drama. Cute story, but expected more.
  14. Hush - So many plot holes and errors, but charismatic lead makes it worthwhile. 
  15. Gertrud - Dreyer's last didn't work for me at all. Sight and Sound has it in their top 50.
  16. The Brood - Early Cronenberg is dated and silly, missing all marks in big spots.
  17. Pather Panchali - One of the most aesthetically pleasing black and white films ever. Emotional!
  18. Asian Schoolgirls - Was told it was a gory action film, rivaling horror. It's pure exploitation.
  19. Sunshine - Boyle's sci-fi film publicly hailed for accuracy, but accuracy doesn't mean it's good.
  20. No Regrets For Our Youth - Kurosawa directs. Hara stars and gives the an epic performance.
  21. The Secret Rules Of Modern Living: Algorithms - Fun. Starts of great, but fizzles out. 
  22. God's Pocket - Looks good on paper, but it's bad from start to finish. PSH's last. A shame.
  23. Dream Home - Chinese slasher that makes up for silly plot with amazing violence and gore.
  24. Shoah - The most important documentary of all-time. Long, painful, but heart wrenching. 
  25. In The Heart Of The Sea - Horrible in every way. When was the last time Howard shined?
Special Note: Shoah is the most important documentary of all-time. Is it enjoyable? Not a single second of it is. It's heartbreaking and it's nearly 10 hours long. It is a film that will change how you look at the human condition; both good and bad.

Top Three: Steve Jobs, Pather Panchali, No Regrets for our Youth
Bottom Three: The Hallow, Sunshine, In the Heart of the Sea
Biggest Surprise: Shoah
Biggest Letdown: God's Pocket

Comments

  1. chowdomMay 18, 2016 at 7:07 PM

    Hi Jhopp ... old friend from Chowhound
    some of us who got fed up are posting over here
    https://www.hungryonion.org/
    please stop by and say hello
    hope all is well...any plans to return to Tuckahoe/Eastcheser

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hop's ThoughtsJuly 2, 2016 at 9:44 AM

      Hey! I haven't been on chowhound in ages. Turned into Yelp.
      No plans to return yet, but need to get out of here.
      Sad news....well for the (old) foodie in me...I went vegan. I'm still learning, but shockingly don't miss anything really....maybe French cheeses, but aside from that, not much of a change.

      Delete
  2. UnknownJune 27, 2016 at 2:53 PM

    RE Brooklyn, they ruined the whole point of the story by making it a "happy ending" which it was not in da book.

    ReplyDelete

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