Barbie (2023) - Movie Review

After the dramatised kinda-sorta autobiography of Lady Bird, and the classic literary adaptation of Little Women, writer/director Greta Gerwig’s latest feature is… a curveball. A curveball I have had several months to adjust to (and we’re talking before all the actual marketing material and ‘Barbenheimer’ was a thing) but a curveball nonetheless. But that’s just in terms of this film existing in the first place; the actual film itself is something else entirely.

White Noise (2022) - Movie Review

Up to this point, writer/director Noah Baumbach has operated in the chattier sectors of American indie cinema. We’ve look at three of his films on this blog already, and they have all involved intimate and unvarnished looks at families with a shared interest (or even disinterest) in the arts. And despite a couple disagreements here and there in the film craft or the framing of their central ideas, I’ve come to look forward to seeing new films from the guy. So you can imagine my surprise when his new film is a major switch-up from his usual wheelhouse.

Marriage Story (2019) - Movie Review

Noah Baumbach’s work over the 2010’s has been populated by looks at artistic families and the frictions within. Knowing his own relationship with rising star Greta Gerwig, who has grown from some fruitful collaborations with Noah to breaking out on her own with Lady Bird and the upcoming Little Women, you’d think some or even all of this material is him plumbing his own life for emotional truth.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Collected) (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: Harold Meyerowitz (Dustin Hoffman) is a sculptor, retired arts professor, and the patriarch of a family full of aspiring and at least formerly-aspiring artists. His son Danny (Adam Sandler) moves back in with Harold and his wife Maureen (Emma Thompson) and begins to reconnect with his family roots. However, as Danny interacts with his sister Jean (Elizabeth Marvel) and brother Matthew (Ben Stiller), he begins to reflect on the upbringing that Harold gave all of them, and if he can improve in terms of raising his own daughter Eliza (Grace Van Patten).

While We're Young (2015) - Movie Review

As part of my going back and checking films that I should’ve seen earlier in the year, I am also spooling through the archives for films that I only saw segments of to complete. Back when I was doing some part-time work in movie theatre as ticket checker/clean-up crew, along with growing to hate Home even more because those sessions were easily the messiest of the entire day’s run, I also caught bits and pieces of today’s film. Something about a guy in a robe talking about his boat and David Bowie’s Golden Years playing over the credits; that’s pretty much all I know. Somehow, I’ve seen scenes from the actual film and this is still the blindest I’ve gone into a film all year. Well, hopefully Ben Stiller is still waiting to give a decent performance; considering Night At The Museum 3 and Little Fockers, I can’t be sure. So, as a sort-of road test before next year’s Zoolander 2… because, clearly, thatneeds to exist, let’s get stuck in today’s subject.