OH MY GOD I AM SO TENSE FROM THE LAST FEW DAYS OF ELECTION UNCERTAINTY THAT I AM GOING TO LEGIT SNAP INTO PIECES LIKE A FROZEN RUBBER BAND
AND THEN I REMEMBERED I HADN’T SENT OUT A NEWSLETTER IN A BIT SO HERE YOU GO, WHY NOT
(★) = fave of batch, (☠ ) = least fave, skippable
THE MOVIES
Movie #73: Clear and Present Danger (1994) | PG-13
Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan!
An entertaining honor-among-thieves thriller that feeds us the comforting fiction that there are still men of conscience in corrupt presidential administrations who can actually affect change. It feels so quaint to see people think that the truth getting out will actually MATTER when we’ve seen how little it really does.
I don’t think I knew this was a Jack Ryan movie when I started, and Ford plays a very different, more mature, more grizzled, world-weary Ryan than Chris Pine, and the plots are totally different, so it doesn’t feel at all like either movie is stepping on the other’s toes or a direct echo of the other. [Repeating my disappointment here that Pine’s Jack Ryan wasn’t enough to relaunch the franchise. Sadfaces.]
Movie #74: Power Rangers (2017) | PG-13
This is totally a modernized, superpowered version of The Breakfast Club and I am 1000% on board
(They have a ranger who is on the spectrum! They moved the Black and Asian casting around so they're not racist allusions! Good job, movie.)
And I do mean that it is, at heart, very similar to the Breakfast Club, in that it is a bunch of teenagers with completely different personalities who are forced by outside circumstances to peel back their layers and get to know each other. And I unironically think it’s much better than the Breakfast Club because a) no rapey overtones in any scenes, b) the outside circumstances are much higher stakes and fun than school detention, and c) the issues they’re dealing with socially feel more current and d) overall I found the characters much more likeable and their dynamics more organic.
(★) Movie #75: Confessions of A Shopaholic (2009) | PG
This one is so UTTERLY charming. The characters are endearing, the situations are understandable enough to be relatable but extreme enough to be mined for comedy, the romance with Hugh Dancy is sweet af, and I really appreciated the way the protagonist's best friend (Krysten Ritter!) toes the line of being supportive without being enabling. If you like romcoms and haven't seen this one, it's a must.
I immediately recommended it to my mom; it’s that kind of movie.
Movie #76: Nerve (2016) | PG-13
If I hadn’t starred Shopaholic already, I would give this batch’s star to this one, not because it’s perfect, but because it seems like no one knows about it and so much of it is pretty excellent and enjoyable.
No lie, I picked it to DVR solely because this gorgeously psychedelic cover, but it was so worth it:
It starts off as an intriguing and sometimes adorable exploration of the potential toxicity of social media validation vs. one's own self-empowerment, and gradually escalates into a kind of modern-day Hunger Games?
There's next to no plausibility, but that's really not the point. The characterizations are solid and keep you invested despite the absurdities, the cinematography is slick and beautiful to look at — often skipping seamlessly from one type of camera to another, a mix of found footage style and regular film — and Emma Roberts and Dave Franco are just great. I’ve seen them occasionally in some other things, but this movie really puts them on the map for me.
(☠ ) Movie #77: Point Break (1991) | PG-13
(Okay, i watched this solely to understand why Tony Stark calls Thor "Point Break")
So it's kinda like The Fast & The Furious, except with surfing and bank robberies instead of drag racing and truck heists, and it's not as good because Keanu is more wooden than Paul Walker, and Swayze's antagonist isn't as sympathetic or compelling as Vin Diesel's. So I guess F&F took this early 90s blueprint and updated it. Which is good because it could use an update.
I think there’s a remake out there somewhere, but I didn’t like this one nearly enough to want to watch another version.
Thanks for reading SM’s Movie Cramming Project, where I, SM, watch all the movies so you don’t have to. You’re welcome. If you liked this batch, feel free to subscribe: