Overview provides my readers with a brief overview of the articles or reviews that I have written. In December 2020, among other things, I reviewed Netflix’s The Midnight Sky and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In general, I tried very hard to review as much as I could before the end of the year, but I actually still have some reviews that I need to finish.
To say that 2020 was unique for everyone on the globe would be a massive understatement. The year will obviously be remembered for the shocking and world-changing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I think most people would agree that 2020 was a pretty bad year, all things considered, even though there definitely were good things that happened along the way. But today, on New Year’s Eve, I want to take one last look back on the tumultuous year and, since this is primarily a blog about films and television, how it forever altered the film and movie theater industry Continue reading “Goodbye 2020: Mads Mikkelsen did what Nolan and Warner Bros. failed to do”
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh — Screenplay by Chris Sparling.
Ric Roman Waugh’s Greenland follows John Garrity (played by Gerard Butler), a structural engineer, who is getting ready to attend a party at his wife Allison’s house where they, along with friends and their diabetic son Nathan (played by Roger Dale Floyd), plan to watch an interstellar comet pass by Earth together. However, Allison (played by Morena Baccarin) and the rest of the Garrity family are soon surprised by a sudden presidential alert that notifies them that their family has been selected for evacuation and emergency sheltering due to the fact that experts now apparently expect the comet to impact Earth and cause a cataclysmic event. Soon the Garrity family must travel great distances to reach a safe haven, while those not selected for emergency sheltering protest and riot. Continue reading “REVIEW: Greenland (2020)”
Directed by George Clooney — Screenplay by Mark L. Smith.
I don’t think I have a favorite genre, per se, but, it is true that I usually am a sucker for science-fiction. It is probably the genre that I find the most interesting, and, whenever a new film is on its way, I do get excited about what new ambitious story is about to be told. George Clooney is no stranger to science-fiction and space films since he has appeared in films such as Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris, Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland, and, possibly most memorably, Alfonso Cuarón’s incredible Gravity. Due to Clooney’s own experience with the genre, I was very interested in seeing what kind of story he had planned to tell with The Midnight Sky, which he both starred in and directed. Unfortunately, it ended up being a bit of a disappointment, for me. Continue reading “REVIEW: The Midnight Sky (2020)”
Directed by Robert Rodríguez — Screenplay by Robert Rodríguez.
Robert Rodríquez’ We Can Be Heroes is a sequel to his 2005 family adventure film The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D. His 2020 standalone sequel tells the story of how after the superhero team ‘The Heroics’ — this universe’s Avengers — fail to prevent an alien attack, their children, who almost all exhibit X-Men like superpowers, must work together to find a way to save their parents and the entire world from the invading extraterrestrials. Continue reading “REVIEW: We Can Be Heroes (2020)”
Directed by George C. Wolfe — Screenplay by Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
Based on the August Wilson play of the same name, George C. Wolfe’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom primarily takes place in a recording studio in Chicago back in the 1920s. Here Ma Rainey (played by Viola Davis), lovingly dubbed the ‘Mother of the Blues,’ is planning to record several songs with her band. Rainey arrives fashionably late and is ready and able to throw her weight around, whereas the ambitious, animated, and flirty Levee (played by Chadwick Boseman), a young and talented trumpeter, is preparing his next move towards stardom while practicing with the rest of the band. While Rainey battles with both her manager and a producer for the purpose of having some control of her own career, Levee’s ambitious attitude doesn’t sit right with Ma or his bandmates (played by Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, and Michael Potts). Continue reading “REVIEW: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)”
Directed by Alexander Nanau — Seen on HBO Nordic.
It was inevitable that during this global coronavirus pandemic we would all start to think more about the state of our countries’ health systems and hospitals. During both the first and second wave of the pandemic, there has been a lot of talk about how many patients each hospital can take in, and so on and so forth. I thought about all of this as I watched the incredible and infuriating Romanian documentary Collective, which is an exposé of widespread corruption in Romania and a health system that, as one whistleblower puts it, has lost its humanity. Continue reading “REVIEW: Collective (2020 – Documentary)”
Directed by Julia Hart — Screenplay by Julia Hart & Jordan Horowitz.
In the first scenes of Julia Hart’s latest film, I’m Your Woman, we are introduced to Jean (played by Rachel Brosnahan) who has become passive and inactive as she has resigned herself to never become a mother, which she had always hoped to become. For Jean, days go by at home, while her husband, Eddie (played by Bill Heck), goes out to do God-knows-what. But then one day her dream comes true in the oddest way possible. One day, Eddie stands in the doorway with a nameless child who he insists is theirs. Continue reading “REVIEW: I’m Your Woman (2020)”
Directed by Rob Savage — Screenplay by Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage, and Jed Shepherd.
Whether we would like it to happen or not, I am sure that over the next many years we will be treated to several films about, or simply set during, the Coronavirus Pandemic. It will be interesting to see what films treat that period of time appropriately and if any films about said period can stand the test of time. However, today I want to talk about the first fictional film that I have ever seen that directly mentions the Coronavirus pandemic, which is the Rob Savage-helmed techno-horror film Host. Continue reading “REVIEW: Host (2020)”
Directed by Ron Howard — Screenplay by Vanessa Taylor.
Though it was once touted as a huge player at the upcoming Academy Awards, the overall critical reception of Ron Howard’s adaptation of J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy has been surprisingly negative. What was once looked upon as the film that might finally be the vehicle that would give Amy Adams and Glenn Close the Oscars that their careers most definitely deserve, now looks like a surprisingly unengaging piece of Oscar-bait, which is a term that refers to films that give off the impression that they were made only to be nominated for Oscars. However, while I do think one performance is good enough to earn praise at awards ceremonies, the film as a whole is not memorable or good enough to leave a lasting impression. Continue reading “REVIEW: Hillbilly Elegy (2020)”
I'm Jeffrey Rex 