(2 Jul) Love & Mercy (2015, Bill Pohlad)82
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(6 Jul) The Secret Life of Pets (2016, Chris Renaud)67
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(7 Jul) Blow Out (1981, Brian De Palma)95
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(8 Jul) Amy (2015, Asif Kapadia)
[ I first became aware of Amy Winehouse because of the “Back to Black” album and the “Rehab” single as well as the whole controversy surrounding her self-destructive behavior. So it was a bit of revelation in the early scenes to see her young and pretty and healthy, already a bit confrontional, but in a harmless sort of way. But of course, it doesn’t take too long into this documentary before she goes into this downward spiral of hard drinking and drugs, which isn’t helped by the actions of her asshole father and awful boyfriend, not to mention the armies of lowlife paparazzi hounding her… It’s all so heartbreaking, not only because she had an absolutely amazing voice, but because no one should die pointlessly at 27. It also hits particularly hard because most of “Amy” is made out of home videos and private recordings, making it a disturbingly intimate experience. ]
(9 Jul) The Fundamentals of Caring (2016, Rob Burnett)78
[ I think this is partly the future for quirky indie comedies and whatnot. Here’s a wonderful little movie that people might not rush out to see in theaters, but which makes for perfect “Netflix and chill” viewing. The premise, which has Paul Rudd becoming the caregiver for a young man with muscular dystrophy (Craig Roberts) and taking him on his first road trip, might sound potentially melodramatic and/or cheesy, but the movie is actually just really sweet and funny and cool – particularly when the dup picks up a hitchhiker played by Selena Gomez. ]
(10-11 Jul) O.J.: Made in America (2016, Ezra Edelman)
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(11 Jul) De Palma (2016, Noah Baumbach & Jake Paltrow)
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(13 Jul) Terraformars (2016, Takashi Miike)60
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(14 Jul) King Dave (2016, Daniel Grou)90
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(15 Jul) Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex (2016, Gilles Penso & Alexandre Poncet)
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(16 Jul) The Do-Over (2016, Steven Brill)37
[ Here’s a movie that starts out dumb and then gets dumber, but somehow, it keeps piling up so much dumb shit on top of dumb shit on top of dumb shit that it’s almost enjoyable. Almost. So high school buddies Adam Sandler and David Spade reconnect at their 25-year reunion, then fake their deaths, then discover a fortune and a hideout in Puerto Rico, then Spade has a three-way with a chick and Luis Guzman, then there are a bunch of shoot-outs, they get back to America, they try to find the cure for cancer and… You get the picture. I got to admit, I laughed a bunch of times, mostly because I couldn’t believe how politically incorrect a lot of the gags were… But make no mistake: this is as dumb as it gets. ]
(19 Jul) Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016, Taika Waititi)83
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(20-22 Jul) Stranger Things – Season One (2016, The Duffer Brothers & Shawn Levy)
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(24 Jul) Clueless (1995, Amy Heckerling) [ review] 92
(27 Jul) Écartée (2016, Lawrence Côté-Collins)77
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(29 Jul) Yoga Hosers (2016, Kevin Smith)61
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(30 Jul) Feuilles mortes (2016, Edouard A. Tremblay, Thierry Bouffard & Carnior)86
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]