The Monkey
Genres:
Horror, Comedy
Review
The twin brothers Hal and Bill Shelburn find an old wind-up monkey among the belongings of their father. Every time it plays its drums, somebody dies in a brutal and often wacky way. After a series of deaths, the brothers decide to bury the monkey and go on about their lives. 25 years later, Hal is on a trip with his estranged son, Petey, when the money suddenly appears again, and he has to take care of it.
That was ... a movie. Maybe horror comedies just aren't for me, but I really couldn't stand this one.
The biggest gripe I have is with the tone. The movie seems like it's trying to have a heartfelt message about family, forgiveness and accepting the inevitability of death while also not taking anything seriously ever.
The dialogue was also very strange. The characters act and talk like they're aliens wearing human suits rather than actual people. I understand that was probably part of the comedy, but I felt it wasn't funny and rather strange and off-putting. In fact, the humor only really landed for me at the very beginning, before the switch to the present day.
The effects looked terrible and plastic in my opinion.
The Whale
Genres
Drama
Review:
This movie was very emotional with fantastic performances all around.
Charlie is an interesting character. His overeating doesn't just seem like a bad coping mechanism but also like self-punishment. The saddest part about him is that he does have people in his life that care about him and want him around, which he just can't see.
Ellie is a complicated character. She does obviously horrible things and it made it hard to get into the movie at first. This got better later. I feel like she thinks if she pushes everybody away and doesn't let them get close to her she won't be abanondend again. I also noticed that unlike seemingly nice characters like Thomas and Dan she stays with Charlie until the end.
The music was also fantastic. Especially during the climatic scenes.
The Woman in the Yard
Genres:
Horror, Drama, Thriller
Review:
After her husband's traumatic death which also left her badly injured, Ramona is struggling to take care of both herself and her two children. Things get worse when a mysterious woman suddenly shows up in their yard.
The only thing I enjoyed was how they played around with the womans powers. I didn't care for anything else within the movie. The story was really boring for the most part and the reveals didn't really add anything in my opinion. I didn't care for any of the characters either. I wouldn't recommend it.
Mickey17
Genres
Comedy, Adventure, Science-Fiction
Review:
Mickey Barnes gets the worst job as an expandable on a space colony. This means he has to die over and over again. After each death, a new clone of him is created and given the memories of the old version.
This movie is quite nice. I thought it was very funny, especially during the different montages. I liked the social commentary that was made in the movie. I also enjoyed the dynamic the different Mickeys ended up developing with each other.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
