Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare
Cinematic Sommelier
6.1
Hike up your thong, and saddle up your pony… no new movies meant we eventually had to go here.
Holy weird movie Batman. A behind the scenes look at the world of male exotic dancing. A smarter(?) version of “showgirls”… maybe. The race is about as tight as Dallas’s leather pants.
Amazing choreography. A truly inspiration story about chasing your dreams. And a weird side quest about entrepreneurship and investment in day trading and commercial real estate. And furniture.
7.3
I’m going to allow this one on the grounds of a maestro honing his skills. An unpolished Nolan time bender. Left me more confused than anything. With an ending that gave me strong “Shutter Island” vibes. Ignorance is bliss, am I right? Solid premise, but a bit clunky in its execution. Little too much jumping for my taste. Took away from the big reveal moments that I felt lost at times, as a viewer.
8.5
Rick and Morty led me here… no one could have prepared me for that finale. The master of time bending Christopher Nolan at the height of his powers in this puzzle box of a film he’s now known for. A stunning reveal at every twist and turn. A fantastic cast. Pure showmanship, akin to the magicians in the story. Sit back and wait to be wowed.
6.8
Figured I’d check this one out, since I love Zoey Deutch. Man, was I in for a weird 2 hour ride. A nosedive into the… strange… world of debt collection agencies. Part mob movie, part “the big short” fourth wall breaking exposition voiceovers. All capped off with hot wings. A lot of wings references. Buffalo seems like an interesting place to live if it’s anything like the city depicted here. Definitely a nice change of pace form the middle of the road films lately.
8.4
Much better than expected! And I expected a lot. Costner and Harrelson shine in this film about vigilante justice, the sometimes thin lines between right and wrong, and the toll that living the life of an old school lawman could take on one’s soul. The storytelling of their early days together as Texas Rangers opened up a window into the two main characters’ souls. Well veiled exposition. In the vein of “titanic” and other works of historical fiction, knowing the ending had very little bearing on my overall enjoyment, as this film was just so damn well done! Netflix movies and series tend to have a cinematic richness to them that is often unrivaled in modern entertainment, even with their recent uptick in content output volume. Well worth the watch, even if I am a little late to the party on this one.
Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare 