BlacKkKlansman
A true story of how the first black detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department posed as another, white officer to take down the city’s KKK chapter.
Spike Lee’s new film has humor, but it is not a comedy. It acknowledges how insane the story behind it is but takes itself seriously enough to where you feel invested in it and truly care what happens to the characters. Speaking of which, the performances in this film are fantastic. John David Washington and Adam Driver have wonderful chemistry together while holding their own, and each actor in the supporting cast are also great. The way the film connects to current events is creative and gut punching…especially the final few minutes of the film.
Christopher Robin
Now living with a family but having little time to spend with them, an adult Christopher Robin reunites with Winnie the Pooh to find their old friends.
Christopher Robin is a quieter film than most of Disney’s offerings, and while the plot is very thin, it’s just so charming and happy that it almost makes up for it. Each of the iconic Pooh characters are like you remember, and while all except for Jim Cummings are new voice actors, they portray them so authentically. Ewan McGregor is the best they could have gotten for the title character, going against some of the usual stereotypes that we see in the “overworked parent has no time for family” genre, and Hayley Atwell as his wife Evelyn is also great. There isn’t much that happens in the film, and it feels to be more of a celebration of Winnie the Pooh than it is a story about him. It’s a case where I am mixed about my feelings of the film, but I would say I lean more to the positive side of it.
Slender Man
After performing a ritual, four friends wonder if the disappearances in their town are somehow connected to a mysterious being known as the “Slender Man”.
So much wasted potential. Slender Man had the potential to be a very creepy film at the very least, but somewhere in the films development, something went wrong. Beyond the usual issues of boring characters and cheap scares, it feels like there are so many scenes missing, especially involving one of the leads. And that may be, because there are several scenes in the trailer that are altered or completely removed from the film. Characters disappear without any explanation (and not because of the titular creature if you’re wondering), and there are random time jumps. This unfortunately turned out to be an all-around studio-interfered mess of a film.
The Meg
An expedition in the Mariana Trench leads to the discovery of the long believed to be extinct megalodon shark, before it wreaks havoc on the surface.
The Meg is exactly what you expect it to be: nearly two hours of giant shark dumb fun…and when it happens, it is entertaining. The film takes a surprisingly long bit of time to get there, but that actually didn’t bother me. Granted, many of the supporting cast aren’t very interesting, but the leads are actually likable, and you want to see their journey continue. And while it is self-aware, it never feels like the film is constantly shouting “LOOK HOW DUMB WE ARE!”. It is genuinely surprising how the film restrains itself and could be a contender for the second-best shark film ever.
