Equal parts navel-gazing and likely revisionist history, the whole thing just feels hollow. Like the concept of a literary bar itself, it all feels forced.
All tagged Adaptations
All-American - Hustlers
Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood. Michael Douglas in Wall Street. Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers. That is the class this turn belongs in. It was a pleasure to watch someone so accurately capture Americana, and it was a pleasure to watch the film not stand in her way.
Heist Done Right - Widows
The movie has star-power, drama and is about as well put together as anything you’re going to see this year and manages the rare feat of being a blockbuster worthy of critical praise. There truly might be something for everyone here and that is almost never the case.
Maybe If You Weren't The Worst - Can You Ever Forgive Me?
It is not a surprise that a movie could be so technically strong and so emotionally weak. But what is a surprise is that everything that’s wrong with the movie was wrong before the cameras started rolling. That is what I can’t forgive.
They Got There Eventually - First Man
The original footage of the moon landing is so primitive that seeing this version is jarring and incredible. But it took us almost as long to get to that as it did in real life. The first hour and a half is spent with our feet firmly planted on the Earth and therein lies the problem.
Black+White - The Hate U Give
This is not a bad movie. It is a good one with lots of bad elements mixed in very proudly.
Introducing Stephanie G. - A Star Is Born
The first half is a magical ride to stardom on the back of charm and earnestness. The second half is the juxtaposition of spirals upward and downward that both feel unsatisfying. The end result is a movie that is likely to divide, but unlikely to be forgotten.
Her and Only Her - The Wife
Its revelations are telegraphed like rushed passes from a bad high school quarterback, but it somehow still manages to entertain. That it does so is a testament only to Glenn Close’s talents. Everyone else deserves major side-eye for expecting us to buy that this is their best effort.
Nothing There - Slender Man
There is no story here. There are no scares here. There is nothing but the slender outline of a wasted 93 minutes.
The Same, But Different - Crazy Rich Asians
So while it's not quite 'crazy' as suggested by the title, it is rich and it is Asian. So much so that you really do start to wonder where these stories have been all this time.
Fizz, With No Juice - Superfly
Choices made along the way leave us with a pretty unremarkable addition to this canon--unlikely to be remembered long after the Future-laden soundtrack is no longer in rotation.
No Reason To Board - The 15:17 To Paris
Eastwood is making a habit of taking events that took just a few minutes and stretching them into feature length films. He achieves this by showing the event over and over and filling the runtime with backstory that only loosely relates. The 15:17 to Paris represents the very worst of this habit, coupled with production values that feel more like the efforts of a high school drama class than a four-time Oscar winner.
Just Don't - Call Me By Your Name
I can't say I don't understand what they were trying to do here, but I can say that it didn't quite work for me.
A Beautiful Disaster - The Disaster Artist
The extent to which James Franco channels what is hilarious about him, while also maintaining the humanity to make this a fully formed character, makes this one of the best comedic experiences in quite some time.
Down Here Together - Mudbound
These characters circle one another on rails; their orbits well-defined by centuries of oppression. Rees manages to beautifully capture both the broad strokes and small contours that take shape when people fail to realize we are down here together.
Standing Tall - Stronger
This story is not important for what it meant to the life of Bauman; it is important for what it meant to the life of a city.
Review: IT
If you take out the parts where the clown exposes rows of teeth that would make a great white shark envious and uses them to rip limbs off little children, this is basically just a sweet coming of age story. Think ET, but with the occasional mangled seven-year-old.
Review: The Beguiled
Regardless of where you come out on the film or some of the narratives surrounding it, Coppola's craftsmanship is on full display.
Review: Life, Animated
While there were moments, the film actually suffers to fill its 90-minute run time with the kind of drama that seemed possible. In the end, it felt like material better suited for a documentary short than for a feature length film.
Review: Lion
This is the best version of this movie. That doesn’t mean this is the best movie. Just that given what they started with, there were a lot of places this could have gone wrong.