Review: To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020)

“I’ve never been a girlfriend before. I hope I’m good at it.”
– Lara Jean

SYNOPSIS: Lara Jean and Peter have just taken their relationship from pretend to officially official when another recipient of one of her old love letters enters the picture. – via IMDB

So while we all know I loved the first, this one didn’t quite measure up (though sequels seldom do). That being said, it isn’t a bad movie at all, and is again easy watching with great characters and good banter. I just love watching all these characters and how they interact, and I enjoy the humour a lot as well.

In this one, John Ambrose writes Lara Jean a letter after receiving her love letter. This gets Lara Jean’s overactive imagination going into overdrive, cross questioning everything in her life, and playing on her insecurities of never having been a girlfriend before and not knowing what she is expected to do now with Peter since they are dating.

Peter, of course, is still like, this slice of perfection. No pressure for sex or for her to be anything she isn’t, and I love it. Centineo is still the perfect choice for this role, as he is insanely charming and super adorable. I absolutely love the chemistry between him and Lana Condor. They just click. They also work the tension and changing tides between them well, and I thought Jordan Fisher as John Ambrose was also smooth and charming, very flirtatious and all, though I was still Team Peter FOREVER.

I think To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You was quite good in exploring that teen anxiety of dating and not knowing the rules anymore, being young and out of your depth, etc. Are you caged? Are you supposed to be with this guy? All the confusion runs rampant in here. Yes, still predictable, but still such a fun watch. These movies are sweet and easy to watch, though the first reigns supreme. Yes, the pacing is weird in places if you think about it too much, but just don’t. Enjoy it for the cute, good looking fluff it is. Can’t wait for the last one!

Review: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)

“I write a letter when I have a crush so intense I don’t know what else to do.”
– Lara Jean

SYNOPSIS: A teenage girl’s secret love letters are exposed and wreak havoc on her love life. – via IMDB

So these movies aren’t typically my cup of tea. However, Natasha is naturally my screener. She knows what I can deal with, and then when it is just too much, so I wait on her to tell me to watch things (like The Duff or Crazy, Stupid, Love), and I have learned to listen to her when she tells me that I should do it.

So this one is just an overload of super sweet, but it is set apart from others thanks to the fantastic leads. Honestly, Noah Centineo oozes incredible amounts charm and is so smooth, and Lana Condor is just too adorable for words, and they have great chemistry. And I do mean great. I just couldn’t get enough of the two of them! One also can’t overlook John Corbett’s performance as her dad, or Janel Parrish and Anna Cathcart as her sisters.

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is heart-warming and super cute, but it never really feels like it is too much, which I highly appreciate. The movie also has a good cast that works well together and just gels, and has some really fun banter throughout, so it’s really easy to watch, and is super cute. I enjoyed the humour in this, and I feel that it all came together really well.

I had fun with this one, and it is something I have, in fact, gone back to rewatch, and liked it enough that I was wary of the sequel, but watched it too, and even got a little giddy seeing there is a new one releasing this week. I will, of course, be watching. I might even look into reading these, who knows? Anyway, all I can say is this movie is a goodie, and is light and sweet and easy comfort watching. Definitely worth checking out.

Review: Vanilla Sky (2001)

“The little things… there’s nothing bigger, is there?” 
– David

SYNOPSIS: A self-indulgent and vain publishing magnate finds his privileged life upended after a vehicular accident with a resentful lover. – via IMDB

I know that there are people with some issues with this film, but I found it to be a rather decent one, and I enjoyed it. Despite all the awful reviews, Vanilla Sky is not the wreck that it is made out to be. By no stretch of the imagination a piece of perfection, it is entertaining nonetheless. Tom Cruise was well suited for the role, and didn’t even really get on my nerves. I am not a fan of either Diaz or Cruz, though they were the leading ladies for this. I think that is the only thing that actually got to me, but overall not enough to detract from the journey that you undertook with David Aames. Diaz pulled this role off far better than most I have seen her in, and managed to give a solid spine and feel to her character.  I liked the way the story was presented and laid out, as well as how it progressed.  There were plenty of plot twists and turns, and kept it fresh and interesting throughout. The back and forth banter between Dr McCabe and David was interesting, as well as David dealing with the tragedy he has been visited with. He did not deal so well with it, and there are plenty of times that you can identify with him, and plenty of times that you can see as a spoiled brat he took things too far. An engaging movie to check out if you have not done so before, and one to watch with an open mind seeing as it was bashed more than it deserved.

Review: Kill Your Darlings (2013)

“Some things, once you’ve loved them, become yours forever./And if you try to let them go… /They only circle back and return to you./They become part of who you are…”
– Allen Ginsberg

SYNOPSIS: A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs. – via IMDB

Kill Your Darlings is a good biographical drama. I remember when it came some people had written it off as slow and dull, so I eventually ended up putting this off for a while. Let me tell you, I am glad I finally got to it. I thought that it was a solid film that was well shot and studded with an exceptional cast that delivered fantastic performances all round. Dane DeHaan was mesmerising as Lucien Carr. Everything about him oozed a certain vulnerability, yet he was confident and was incredibly sensual. He exuded confidence, drew you in, made you fall in love with him too, yet have your illusions broken the same time as others. He really was perfectly cast. Daniel Radcliffe impressed me again, which is no surprise. Take him out of Harry Potter and he is amazing, I think he has some real talent. He was timid, afraid, intelligent, and soon he just grew into a whole different type of person with Lucien. Not in a bad way, either, it is just that he came out of his shell. It was good to see Michael C Hall in something again, I enjoy his work. Jack Huston played Jack Kerouac very well, I do quite like him as an actor and wish he was in more things. I am not the most clued up on the history involved with this, though it interested me enough to do some reading at some point. Maybe I was more fond of this due to liking literature, writing, thinking outside the box, all of that, and while it might not have been put together as well as it could have been and misses some things here and there, I had a good time watching this, and can recommend it, if not for the performances alone.

Review: American Reunion (2012)

“Were we just as obnoxious as these kids back in the day?”
– Kevin

SYNOPSIS: Jim, Michelle, Stifler, and their friends reunite in East Great Falls, Michigan for their high school reunion. – via IMDB

Well. Uhm, this is, hands down, my least favourite of the American Pie movies as they stand with the original members. I didn’t expect this to be good (I mean the older ones aren’t great, but they were a large part of my silly youth),  but I thought maybe nostalgia could save this one a little.

It straight up didn’t. The poster might hark back to the first of its kind, and the content may have tried at times, but it was desperate and a cheap cash grab. How Oz is suddenly back with a stray throwaway line about The Wedding, nope. Kevin is back, has a wife, and has a whole story arc with Vicki going.

We went through three movies with no real severe nudity (yes, there were boobs, but nothing too private. This movie? Show me Jim’s dick. Through a pot lid. Yes, that is exactly what I wanted to see for a cheap laugh. I know the others were also filled with crude, gross out humour, but this just seemed like a line crossed I didn’t need. I also did not like the creepy story with this young girl prostrating herself at Jim’s feet, and all these guys preying on young, high school girls. For reals. If you have been out of school twelve years, you should not be trying to make it with a sixteen year old.

What I did like though was watching Jim’s dad and Stifler’s mom chilling together and having a blast. There is also plenty things that do throw back to the originals, and for the most part, this is pulled off successfully. Stifler has another crazy party, and Jim’s dad is the life of the scene, hands down.

Yeah, I am bitching about this, and I sort of expected it to be weak, but I didn’t expect it to be as terrible as it was at the end of the day. This one can totally just be skipped. It is cringey and embarrassing, and not in the sort of forgivable way of the old ones. I still maintain I don’t know how those would be received if seen for the first time nowadays and no youth to help it along.

Review: Hot Summer Nights (2017)

“You can’t hold on to everything.”
– McKayla

SYNOPSIS: In the summer of 1991, a sheltered teenage boy comes of age during a wild summer he spends in Cape Cod getting rich from selling pot to gangsters, falling in love for the first time, partying and eventually realizing that he is in over his head. – via IMDB

So I moved this up on my watch list because I adore Timothée Chalamet and I also thoroughly enjoy Maika Monroe, so the talent alone had me like “hells yeah” on this. I had no preconceived ideas about Hot Summer Nights, I remember reading about it before it came and thinking to add it to my watch list because I liked the cast, and A24 has churned out some pretty good movies over the years, then I kind of forgot about it. But then I saw it again and I was like “oh yeah!”.

Hot Summer Nights is a mixed bag. It’s carried by amazing performances from the cast, and it looks great – the outfits of the time, the stylish way it’s shot, the colours, everything on that front works for it. I even like the soundtrack, though at times it just felt like someone wanted to cram as much nostalgic/relevant music of the time to set the scene, which sometimes kinda just dragged you out of the whole affair sometimes? Chalamet was (as expected), fantastic. Honestly. Maika Monroe, too, impressed me (as always), and the two of them just looked gorgeous together. Alex Roe (a newcomer for me) was solid, too. He doesn’t have the most extensive filmography and I am not sure why, I thought he was rather good. I really liked them all, and watching them all.

Where the movie is let down is the paper thin story. For reals. It could have been so much more, weaving a coming of age story into this summer and seeing how it would all come together. But that opportunity was wasted. Also, these guys grow their pot sales empire, but never really addresses the how. We are told it is happening, we see the money, but we don’t get anything more than that. It just leaves holes and questions. Thomas Jane, too, is underused in this.

Anyway, Hot Summer Nights is a decent watch. The performances alone are worth a look see, and it’s not a terrible movie. It just doesn’t have an awful lot of substance to it at the end of the day. Not your typical coming of age movie, but I liked it enough.

Review: The Fast and the Furious (2001)

“I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Nothing else matters: not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their bullshit. For those ten seconds or less, I’m free.”
– Dom

SYNOPSIS: Los Angeles police officer Brian O’Connor must decide where his loyalty really lies when he becomes enamored with the street racing world he has been sent undercover to destroy. – via IMDB

You know, this came out when I was a rugrat and it was extremely popular then, so naturally it is a movie I saw multiple times when I was like… 11/12. I liked it. Fast cars and family and all that. I’ve grown up a lot and can see where the flaws are, and there are issues in this movie, but it is a good action movie regardless.

The Fast and the Furious introduces us to characters that we will get close to and stick with for more than a decade, and it’s crazy because they don’t even get too intense about showing you everyone and what they are, but they give you enough. Paul Walker and Vin Diesel work really well together, and give the movie a lot of its charisma. Chad Lindberg as Jesse, of course, is a favourite, and I will always be so sad about how his story was concluded before it even really got started. I also really liked that there were more practical effects here as opposed to CGI, gives the movie a much more authentic feel.

The soundtrack though is something I am not a big fan of. It’s supposed to fit but actually comes off as feeling like it’s trying to be too cool, so seems forced. The story is also super generic, no matter how many fast cars they tried to layer it under and wrap it up in. Granted, we got all the tropes we could expect from it, though some were certainly handled better than others.

Anyway, The Fast and the Furious is the first chapter in a massive franchise, and it’s not a bad one. Nostalgia definitely tides me through, but a simple story and a short run time help. The acting is a little off sometimes and sections of this movie are dated and didn’t age well, but overall, as long as you don’t take it too seriously, you can have quite a bit of fun with this.

Review: American Pie (1999)

“No longer will our penises remain flaccid and unused! From now on, we fight for every man out there who isn’t getting laid when he should be! This is our day! This is our time! And, by God, we’re not gonna let history condemn us to celibacy! We will make a stand! We will succeed! We will get laid!”
– Kevin

SYNOPSIS: Four teenage boys enter a pact to lose their virginity by prom night. – via IMDB

See, this was one of those movies for pretty much every coming of age teen in my youth (except Natasha – how the heck did you miss this train?!), and it is a movie I have seen more times than I care to mention. Now, granted, I haven’t seen these movies in years and years and thought it was time to revisit them.

Now, while American Pie is nostalgic as all hell, I also look at it totally differently than I did when I was a rugrat and it came out. It is fun but it is so silly, and such a ludicrous concept that losing your virginity is the be all and end all in your life – though this is also a common teen movie trope. Growing older and wiser in my years (har har har), I have naturally learnt that there are more important things about. Not when you’re a teen though, I guess.

Jason Biggs is totally the perfect guy to play Jim. He is awkward, he is weird, he nails down that vibe and rolls with it. Seann William Scott own Stifler, he is such a total asshat! Finch is a character that I truly enjoyed – uptight, total oddball, but works. Even as a teen he made me laugh, he was just so different from the lot. Eugene Levy is perfectly embarrassing as Jim’s Dad. Alyson Hannigan will forever be “This One Time At Band Camp” Michelle for me, no matter how much How I Met Your Mother I have seen. Needless to say, American Pie touts a range of characters you will remember for years after as they were presented here. *cough cough* Jennifer Coolidge Stifler’s mom.

American Pie really goes for that icky, gross out humour and tons of sexual humour, and I am not really sure how someone who didn’t watch these movies when they came out, or is a lot older, will feel about them. Me? I still have fun, but that is also quite likely fuelled by the nostalgia. Blink-182 (pre-Tom departure) also has a guest appearance, which is quite amusing. This is not to say that the movie is without flaws – seriously, the story is all over the show, the writing and directing is messy at times, and it is definitely clunky.

All that being said, American Pie is nostalgic, silly, and features some gross out humour and is quite raunchy. Uneven but fun, I still think this is worth the watch, though I have no idea how it will work out for people who have never seen it before.

Review: Rocketman (2019)

“Real love’s hard to come by. So you find a way to cope without it.”
– Elton John

SYNOPSIS: A musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John’s breakthrough years. – via IMDB

Well, this certainly wasn’t Bohemian Rhapsody. Not that I really expected that per se, because I did watch the preview and I wasn’t sold then, but I didn’t think it would be quite so… bland and generic?

Bryce Dallas Howard knocks it out of the park. Honestly, what a reprehensible character. Excellent. However, that does not detract from the fact that the characters were all incredibly one-dimensional. Taron Egerton and Jamie Bell both perform admirably in their roles, and are the only two with actual fleshed out characters. The costumes were really well designed, and really reminds you how Elton John was this larger than life character.

One thing that really got under my skin is how this movie squeezed these bizarre musical numbers in between everything, making the movie not flamboyant or musical enough to be a musical, but the musical numbers were jarring enough to yank you out of the narrative every single time, leaving you with the feeling that the movie couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to be. I know some have praised the choice of it being a musical fantasy, but it just didn’t quite work for me.

Anyway, as you can tell, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this movie. It is not the worst thing you will ever sit down to watch, but it certainly feels like an extremely one-sided story. The music is really good, the performances are fine, but the movie is long and, ultimately, won’t really be remembered.

Review: Call Me By Your Name (2017)

“We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new.”
– Mr Perlman

SYNOPSIS: In 1980s Italy, a romance blossoms between a seventeen-year-old student and the older man hired as his father’s research assistant. – via IMDB

I recently popped this on to watch – I remember when it came out, people raved about it, and I always said that I would get to it and then, you know, life. But then it was on Netflix and I had some chill time and I figured “why not?” and let me tell you, I had no idea what I was in for whatsoever.

Call Me By Your Name is a visually stunning movie. Honestly, it is just beautiful to look at, and it has the feeling of a memory, this charming look back into a summer in the eighties, and I loved that. It almost feels dreamy, and everything just seems to chilled and summery. The music also comes in and just vibes with everything going on. It is never too in your face, but totally the shaping the experience.

Then there is the main meat of the story, and that is (obviously) Elio and Oliver. You get swept up into this story, watching a young boy coming to terms with his blossoming sexuality, and an older research assistant of Elio’s father very much the object of desire. To watch the back and forth between Hammer and Chalamet is very rewarding. You see that while Elio comes across as very cultured and smart, there are still larges swathes of innocence for him. You also see that while Oliver is a confident young man, he, too, has struggles with his feelings towards Elio and the situation in general.

Michael Stuhlbarg is fantastic in this, and it is so lovely to watch him with his family and the relationship he has with his son. It is fantastic to watch his scenes, and I thought the family dynamics between mother, father, and son were wonderful.

Call Me By Your Name creates a beautifully sensual movie that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal measure. It is an emotional journey you undertake and enjoy throughout. This is a movie about first love, not just sexuality, and will resonate with many people. I highly recommend it, it is a beautiful watch and it has lingered with me after the fact. I have bought the book and audiobook already because I just need more of this!