The Kings of Summer (2013) Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts Starring: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Several Other People You Probably Recognize Genres: Comedy, Drama, Coming-of-Age IMDb Synopsis: "Three teenage friends, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land." |
“That’s not being gay, Biaggio, I’m pretty sure that’s cystic fibrosis.” - Joe Welcome back, everyone. After a hectic two weeks of midterm madness just before spring break, I, like many students in the U. S. of A., find myself sitting around inside with a helluva lot more free time and not much to do with it. That’s right, in case you’re the one person on the planet who wasn’t aware, the world is literally ending right now thanks to a lovely little disease known as COVID-19. The point of all of this is, what better way to waste away these quarantine days than with my mediocre movie reviews?
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"You're not a Nazi, Jojo. You're a 10-year-old kid who likes dressing up in a funny uniform and wants to be part of a club." - Elsa Welcome back, everyone. As I promised back in my “Best of 2019” List, we’re here today to talk about Jojo Rabbit, my favorite film of last year. After picking up the blu-ray last Tuesday and giving this movie a well-deserved rewatch, I’m finally prepared to sing its praises ad nauseum. If that sounds like a worthwhile way to spend the next 10 minutes of your life, stick around.
"Don't you dare cross . . . this stick." - Sam Shakusky Welcome back, everyone. Continuing the winter slog and my film backlog (nice rhyme!), today we’re looking at Moonrise Kingdom - the 2012 coming-of-age adventure from acclaimed cinematic hipster, Wes Anderson.
I imagine you’re probably wondering what this is about.
Well, as it turns out, barring Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen (which I recently reviewed), the first few months of 2020 releases are more barren than a frozen North Dakota countryside on a bright winter day. But unfortunately, I’m in the midst of what one of my professors has dubbed the “winter doldrums.” As such, I’ve been desperate for something - just about anything - to pass the time with. And no, day drinking is not a viable alternative; I’ve tried. So given my urge to write reviews and the lack of new movies to write about, we’ll probably spend some time these next few weeks revisiting some classics and catching up on my watchlist backlog. Or at least, we will until engineering gets insanely busy and I’m forced to put EFR aside for three months. But don’t you worry your pretty little head with that. Anyways, that’s just a long preamble to justify why in the hell we’re talking about the micro-budget Irish film Once today. Let’s go. Alright folks, we’re back with our first review of the decade. Let’s see what’s up today, and it’s…
Wow. Historically, January releases have proven to be, as generously as possible, a mixed bag. For whatever reason, the inaugural month of the year is viewed by studios as primo dumping ground for whatever shit they’ve left cooking on the back burner. Last year, the big release of January was “Midnight Shymalan’s” Glass. I really loved Glass. It was one of my favorites of 2019. Many people, however, didn’t particularly care for Glass. Like I said, “mixed bag.” …. And here we are one last time, dear readers. “Once more unto the breach,” or something like that. To be perfectly honest, I’m damn near ready to have these end-of-year lists behind me. So today, we’re skipping the dramatic building up and getting right to the point. It’s my “Top 20 Most Anticipated Films of 2020!” They’re listed chronologically. Or something like that, whatever.
Two lists down, two to go, folks. This one, the yearly “Bucket List,” is near and dear to my heart as my own personal creation. Because that’s what you guys read Everyman Film Reviews for, right? Innovative writing! Hot scoops! Something else, maybe! Anyway, the “2019 Bucket List” is a small selection of films that I, for one reason or another, did not have an opportunity to see during the year but intend to at some point. Nevermind that my track record for actually seeing the films on this list has been roughly one in five. Let’s do it!
So… this is a little embarrassing. Normally, I’d follow up my “Top 10 Best” yearly list with the equally anticipated “Worst of the Year” list. And while that list seldom makes it to ten movies, there are usually at least five or so that are worth at least mentioning. But for a variety of reasons, I’m having some serious trouble coming up with more than two or three films I’ve seen that truly deserve to be called the worst of the year. For one, I don’t make a point to see bad movies. I’m a chronically broke college kid, and if it’s bad, I’d just rather save my money and not see it. And as I said in my “Top 10 Best of 2019,” this wasn’t a particularly extreme year for films. Most of what I saw ranged from pretty good to just kinda boring, with very little amazing stuff and very little terrible stuff. If I were to even try to come up with a “Five Worst of 2019” list, I’d be forced to either a) rent a bunch of shitty films to pad the list, which I did not enjoy doing back in 2017 (looking at you, Flatliners), or b) throw things like Yesterday on the list, and I truly don’t believe they deserve to be there. I only saw two, maybe three movies this year that deserve to be called “worst of the year.” And I’ve seen Cats. (But more on that later).
Y’know, I convinced myself to just run em down real quick. Here ya go.
So… there you have it. The Top 10 Worst Films of 2019 are Rambo: Last Blood and Dark Phoenix. The point is, today we’re doing something a little different. While only a few films I saw this year were abysmally bad, I saw more than my fair share of letdowns and bores. And now, for the first time ever, EFR Presents: The Top 10 Most “Meh” Films of 2019! (listed from least to most “meh.”) But I’ve introduced it enough, I think you guys get the idea. But should auld acquaintance be forgot… and something, something else…. It’s time once more for the Everyman Film Reviews yearly wrap up lists, and today we’re talking the Top 10 Best Films of 2019! Films! Good ones! Ten of them! Overall, I think 2019 was a very solid year for cinema; however, there are only a few films I view as truly exceptional on this list. (I gave out a lot of B+’s this year.) This list was difficult to create, but after much deliberation, I’m happy to present “EFR’s Top 10 Films of 2019 That Are Probably Worth Your Time!” God, I gotta come up with sharper titles…
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Logan W.Amateur film reviewer & Marvel apologist. Hobbies include weight lifting, piano, and putting off writing reviews until they are no longer relevant. Archives
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