In the middle of Sully there’s a 25 minute sequence that reenacts the boarding, take off, geese mishap, and river crash landing of US Airways Flight 1549. Somehow it’s deeply compelling and intense even though you already know that everything turns out ok in the Miracle on the Hudson. As for the rest of the movie, to paraphrase from my blurb on Bridge of Spies, it’s all “Tom Hanks doing Tom Hanks things with his Tom Hanks friends.” Tier 6
Other People wasn’t even on my radar until two weeks ago when Judd Apatow tweeted that it was his favorite movie of the year. Of course Apatow also disclosed that his daughter is in the film, but given his track record I’ll pretty much check out anything he recommends or is involved with (despite This Is 40 being more insufferable than anyone who had a pony growing up). Now, I prefer to go into movies without knowing anything about it, and while this is usually impossible with our media saturated corneas, Other People was one of the rare instances where this was the case. All I had to go off of was this poster that pops up when you pull it up on Netflix.
To me, this looks like a romantic comedy about Jesse Plemons dating older woman Molly Shannon. Perhaps she’s his wacky boss? Or his wacky therapist? Or maybe his wacky childhood piano teacher? Doesn’t seem like something I’d be into at first glance, but again, Apatow Approved, so who knows. Well…after watching Other People I can firmly state that this is none of those things. Shannon and Plemons are not a couple, but rather a mother and son (duh). This is not a rom-com, but rather a sad-com. This is not something to maybe check out down the road if there’s nothing else on, but rather a sweet, absolute gem of a movie and a must see!
Written and directed by Chris Kelly (co-head writer of SNL), Other People is his semi-autobiographical tale of a tumultuous time in his late 20’s when he was a struggling comedy writer and had moved back home to care for his dying, cancer stricken mother. It’s not spoiler territory to reveal the fate of Shannon’s character because the very first scene of the movie is Plemons and the rest of his family mourning her death. The film then shoots back 12 months and details the year leading up to this life-altering event, yes incorporating many grim moments but also some legitimate laugh out loud scenes. Plemons’s profile has risen steadily since he was billed 10th on Friday Night Lights a decade ago, so I wasn’t surprised to see him fully step up as a leading man for the first time, but Shannon’s dramatic chops are revelation. Currently streaming on Netflix. Tier 1 – RATED GREG
Just a quick shout out to my favorite TV shows of 2016. Over the past decade, the best and most original storytelling has shifted to the small screen and this is at least partially due to cookie cutter movie blockbusters becoming big business. In no year was this more apparent than in 2016, one of the weakest film slates that I can remember. In correlation, the current TV landscape has never been more plush with creativity.
Rated Greg’s Favorite TV Shows of 2016 – Ranked
Atlanta (FX) – Season 1: When asked to describe his new show during the press circuit, Atlanta’s creator Donald Glover called it “Twin Peaks for Rappers.” I never made it past the pilot of Twin Peaks so I don’t really know what that means, but I would call it Seinfeld for Rappers, only with a lot more heart than Jerry’s crew. When it gets really good: Episode 3 – The one with the date and the drug deal
American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson (FX): You’ve already seen this so I don’t feel compelled to say much, other than the Marcia Clark episode might be the best TV hour of 2016.
Bojack Horseman (Netflix) – Season 3: Zootopia but strictly for adults. Pound for pound the most clever comedy on TV is disguised as a cartoon about a washed up former sitcom star talking horse living in Hollywood among humans and other talking animals. BoJack is voiced by Will Arnett so of course the character is going to be a jerk on the surface and the majority of the rapid fire jokes come from animal puns, Hollywood satire, and wacky characters…but deeper down this turns into heartfelt commentary on depression and regret. Hand to Cal Ripken Jr, I felt for no TV character in 2016 more than a cartoon talking horse. If you decide to start from the beginning, just know this doesn’t really find it’s footing until halfway through season 1, but when it does you’ll be hooked.
Veep (HBO) – Season 5: As stated in my blurb on The Nice Guys, cursing is a talent, and the characters in Veep are the Golden State Warriors of bad words, only if the Warriors somehow also acquired LeBron James in Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The most consistent comedy on TV. Straight up if you don’t like this show I can’t be friends with you.
Game of Thrones (HBO) – Season 6: Like the OJ show, there’s nothing I need to say about GoT. It’s either appointment viewing for you and you love it or you just don’t get the appeal. I thought the first eight episodes of season 6 were kinda dull (compared to previous seasons) but the final two episodes are in the top 4 they’ve ever done.
Mr. Robot (USA) – Season 2: Mr. Robot’s season 1 was my second favorite TV show of 2015 (The Leftovers was #1) but Season 2 was very slow out of the gate. However, it really picked up after the usual “midseason twist” and was back to throwing heaters. I love the way this show is shot. I don’t know what it is but it looks so freakin’ good.
The Girlfriend Experience (Starz) – Season 1: I realize a Starz TV show about an intern at a Chicago law firm who takes up the escort trade on the side sounds sleazy as all hell, but trust me this is extremely well made and compelling. It’s created by Steven Soderbergh and based on his 2009 film of the same name. This is the most cinematic looking show on TV (yes even more so than GoT or Mr. Robot).
Last Chance U (Netflix) – Season 1: Documentary series following the 2015 football season of the East Mississippi Community College Lions. That might seem like a strange subject to base an entire TV show on but if you’re unaware, EMCC is one of those junior colleges that recruits the elite athletes that did not have the grades to make it into D1 schools and also others that were kicked off their D1 teams. You don’t need to like sports to be into this show because it is about so much more than that. Most of the characters come from such tough upbringings and you just want to see them succeed their goal of graduating. This is the closest thing to Friday Night Lights (my favorite TV show of all time btw) on right now and it even features a guidance counselor who is a real life Tami Taylor. Such wild shit happens in this football season and Netflix really struck gold that they were there filming.
Easy (Netflix) – Season 1: Anthology dramedy series from my favorite mumblecore director Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies, Digging for Fire). Anthology means that each episode is a completely different story with different actors, most of whom you will recognize, so this is basically just eight short films (well actually two are connected but the rest stand on their own). This isn’t particularly laugh out loud or even all that dramatic, but I don’t know I just found it to be really pleasant. FYI – The first episode isn’t very good but the rest are.
Billions (Showtime) – Season 1: As my good friend Juan put it, Empire for white people. Fantastic cursing on this one as well.
Honorable Mentions: The Americans, You’re The Worst, The Night Of, Girls, Silicon Valley, South Park, Bloodline, Black-ish, Vanderpump Rules, MTV’s The Challenge, the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror, and all of the Chad episodes of The Bachelorette/Bachelor in Paradise.
I saw nine worthwhile movies this month, each listed in bold above. As always, you can read spoiler-free blurbs on each in the posts below.
Rated Greg’s All Time Favorite High School Movies – Ranked
Being on the edge of 33, I doubt I’m ever going to come across another high school movie that resonates the way the top 5 above does, but The Edge of Seventeen is a fine addition to school hall lore. Insert Hailee Steinfeld into the awkward, sky is falling, Sixteen Candles Sam role, only on the outcast spectrum she’s much closer to Sissy Spacek in Carrie than Molly Ringwald. Aside from the fact that someone that looks like Steinfeld would never be unpopular in high school (no matter how big of a jerk she is), the rest of the movie seemed more grounded than most teenage rompers. Unlike Can’t Hardly Wait, the party scenes looked like high school to me as opposed to the myth of it, and none of the characters are portrayed as the one dimensional teenage stereotypes (jocks, burnouts, nerds, ditzes, etc) that we’re used to seeing.
I appreciate the fact that this is R rated even though it very easily could have been toned down to a PG-13 to please financiers. It implies that first time director (Kelly Fremon Craig) had a vision and the studio let her run with it. Most studios would either get rid of the f-bombs and switch explicit sex to inferred in order to garner a PG-13 (think Easy-A), or turn the raunchiness ALL THE WAY UP since they are getting an R anyways (think Jonah Hill and his peculiar drawing obsession in Superbad). The Edge of Seventeen is somewhere in the middle. I found it to be more dramatic than funny, however I think I may be in the minority on this because my theater seat mates (aka my Mom and one of her BFF’s) were chuckling throughout. Tier 3
Allow me to borrow the spot-on nickname for the miserable Cleveland Browns football franchise. Manchester by the Sea is a gripping, extremely well made Factory of Sadness. Set in the Massachusetts fishing town Manchester-by-the-Sea (yes, that’s actually the name of a real life town), it’s about grief and heartbreak and family and youth and forgiveness and blue collars and Boston accents. If you’re at a loss for things that make you cry now that NBC’s Parenthood is off the air and the Redskins aren’t half bad, go ahead and watch this movie. And it’s not all somber all the time. There is some genuine humor intermixed with the despair, mostly thanks to a town filled with your classic Boston attitudes. (Sidenote: Film-wise I don’t think there’s another area of the country I’d rather spend two hours in. The character of a Boston movie is just the best. West Texas would be second.)
Casey Affleck is getting a ton of Oscar buzz for his role as Lee Chandler and it’s deservedly so. Apparently Matt Damon was originally slated to star (as well as direct) but he had to drop out completely due to The Martian. While I always appreciate Damon and his apples, I just can’t see anyone else doing a better job than the younger Affleck. And good for him, it must be tough when your significantly better looking big brother is The Batman. Just like Ralph Wiggum, at one point you can almost pinpoint the second his heart rips in half. Also starring Kyle Chandler, Michelle Williams, and Lucas Hedges. Tier 1 – RATED GREG
Rated Greg’s All Time Favorite Theatrical Boxing Matches – Ranked
*Rocky II is pretty unwatchable for the most part but the fight at the end is the best of the series.
I LOVE boxing movies. Nothing in film brings me more joy than a good boxing montage followed by a knockdown drag out, epic fight. In real life I could give a shit, but no sport translates better to film (Ironically my favorite sport, basketball, translates the worst. I think it’s the 8-foot rims). In fact, with the exception of Teen Wolf Too, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad boxing movie. This statement includes Bleed For This, a 2016 entry to the genre starring Miles Teller as the pride of Providence Vinny Pazienza. It’s ok. Teller does a good job as the cocky Pazmanian Devil, but the story drags a little in the middle and the fight scenes aren’t on the level of the fights mentioned above. Tier 5
It’s hard to talk about Nocturnal Animals without giving much away. You can watch the trailer and still have no idea what the movie is about (just a bunch of serious actors looking serious, saying serious things, kind of like the Next Week on Mad Men commercials), and I think that is the best way to go into this movie. I will say you can add it to my previous list of favorite Jake Gyllenhaal movies, probably at #2 or #3. I will say it features the most intense sequence of the year. I will say that between this and Arrival, Amy Adams might be the 2016 movie MVP. I will say that Aaron Taylor-Johnson turns in the most harrowing villain since Heath Ledger’s Joker (I know right? the kid from Kick-Ass? Seriously). And finally, I will say that this movie requires a BIG disclaimer regarding the first 15 or so minutes, especially the opening credits. I considered walking out of the theater 10 minutes in, thinking this film may be a little too artsy for me (it is made by Tom Ford after all) and that I made a big mistake. But stick with it, it gets really good once the Gyllenhaal shows up. I’d actually recommend walking into the theater 5 minutes late if possible, because you will find the opening credits unsettling and awkward, I promise you. And to be honest I don’t even know how it relates to the rest of the movie. Tier 1 – RATED GREG
When seeing the advertising for The Visit last year, I was surprised to see M. Night Shymalan’s name included as a selling point. Usually if a director has a particularly tough stretch, their name will not be allowed anywhere near the TV spots or posters (i.e. it’s hard to believe now but fresh off six years of late night talk show host punch lines, Ben Affleck was not included in any promotions for his stellar directorial debut Gone Baby Gone). Shymalan was coming off four straight critical and box office bombs spanning over a decade. I mean, if you added up the Rotten Tomatoes scores of the four duds, you would still only get a 59%! Using his name in 2015 to promote a quality film made about as much sense as a conservative political party promoting a candidate that’s on his third marriage.
Lucky for Universal pictures, The Visit isn’t bad! The 64% Rotten Tomatoes score is pretty accurate. It won’t blow you away but you will be entertained and truly care about whether these two likable siblings will survive spending a week with their very strange grandparents (the brother in particular would fit in well with the Stranger Things kids). And yes, I mean survive in the literal sense. Hollywood has brought us killer clowns, killer leprechauns, killer Macaulay Culkins, and now we have killer grandparents. Unlike Don’t Breathe, there are some laughs in this one, both intentional laughs and scary laughs. Tier 5
Son of a….. I wrote a good couple paragraphs on this and accidentally pasted something over it and the “undo” button just WOULD NOT WORK! So in brief….
Morris from America is a dramedy about 13 year old aspiring rapper Morris from Richmond who is struggling adjusting to his new home in an all white German town. Coming of age films that include avoiding bullies, crushing on older girls, and experimenting with certain substances isn’t anything new, but at least this comes from a fresh perspective. The best thing by far about this movie is Craig Robinson, who plays Morris’s 90’s hip-hop loving single father that is having his own issues adapting to European culture. Robinson was never able to crack the starting five on The Office, but he displays such range in Morris from America that I wouldn’t be surprised to see him land some leading man roles in the near future. Tier 6
Rated Greg 