Movies That Matter

Adam and Nicole discuss The Hunt, how the movie entertains as horror, but fails on satire, the ridiculousness of the whole controversy, some of our favorite satires, and how we think the coronovirus pandemic will affect the current political dynamic. Check out Citizen Ruth and Idiocracy. Read a timeline of the controversy from Vulture.

Adam recommends Blue Ruin and Green Room. Nicole recommends The Last Supper.

Jen and Nicole discuss The Invisible Man, how effective the technique was in creating a scary movie, how we appreciate the focus on the emotional trauma rather than the physical trauma of domestic abuse, and how we feel about the revenge fantasy of domestic violence movies. We question why domestic violence hasn't had its #MeToo moment. Shout out to @lulamaybelle for her commentary on male critics. Check out the landmark movie The Burning Bed.

Jen recommends the pantheon of abuse movies, The Burning Bed, Enough, Sleeping With The Enemy, and What's Love Got To Do With It. Nicole recommends the Catch and Kill podcast.

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Garrett E and Nicole discuss The Photograph, our differing opinions on the movie, what it takes to sell a romance and breakup, and the difference between what we're told and we're shown in the movie. We strongly disagree on whether the character's lack of good qualities made their romance unwatchable. Check out the article on how the movie was filmed.

Nicole recommends Jumping the Broom and the author Dorothy West and her book, The Wedding. Garrett recommends his curated list on films on love:

• Casablanca
• Brief Encounter
• Cold War
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Unfaithful
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Blue is the Warmest Color
• La La Land
• Her

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Stacy, Lexy, and Nicole discuss Birds of Prey, how delightful we found the film, and how much better we think the female led movies in the DCU are than in Marvel or the male side of DCU. We enjoy all the aspects that made this a movie by women for women. Check out the review we covered in Slate.

Lexy recommends Michelle Khare on YouTube. Nicole recommends She Said, the book about how the Weinstein story got made.

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Garret S and Nicole discuss Dolittle, how neither of us managed to power through the movie, the utterly bizarre accents of the live and voice actors, and the meaning animals have in our lives as adults and children. We recommend some of our favorite animal stories from childhood like Is Your Mama a Llama? and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Garret recommends His Dark Materials the books and on HBO. Nicole recommends the Song Exploder episode on Closing Time.

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Stacy and Nicole discuss Like a Boss, how it's possible to make that unfunny a comedy with that cast, how the movie is both formulaic and misunderstands both women and the beauty industry, and how the movie should have tackled real issues in selling beauty to women. We find the movie tone-deaf in understanding the actual beauty industry and mining the depths of women's relationship to make up. Catch up on beauty podcast faves Fat Mascara and The Beauty Brains.

Stacy recommends The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish and A Black Lady Sketch Show. Nicole recommends the panel discussion on deaths of despair by leading economists.

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Christopher and Nicole discuss 1917, the incredible craft of the movie, the balance it achieved in presenting the beautiful and the grotesque, the over-saturation of World War II as the "good war" versus other conflicts. We are happy to see such a beautifully crafted movie about World War I. Revisit George Carlin's routine on how we've dehumanized the words for battle trauma.

Christopher recommends Paths of Glory and When We Were Soldiers. Nicole recommends Regeneration by Pat Barker.

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Christopher and Nicole discuss Queen & Slim, hotly debate the character of Queen/Angela, how much we appreciate the cinematography and music, and how well the movie explores the black experience. We debate whether the couple would have ended up dead if they had handled the cop differently. Read why the director and writer don't like the calling the movie a Bonnie and Clyde story.

Christopher recommends The Water Dancer. Nicole recommends Joan Rivers' stand up.

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Garret S and Nicole discuss Knives Out, how much we loved the fun comedy and the social commentary, the camera techniques that fed into the theme of the film, and the complications of inherited wealth. The movie takes equal opportunity pot shots at the wealthy. For more ensemble mystery movie fun, check out the original Murder on the Orient Express.

Garret recommends Sleuth, Clue, and The Westing Game. Nicole recommends Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates.

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Stacy and Nicole discuss A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and how overall it left us both cold, the movie's strange choice in telling the story of Lloyd instead of Mr. Rogers, and how the movie fails in every way to understand the dynamic of children estranged from a parent. We vastly prefer the documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor. We get personal on the topic of estrangement and forgiveness. For further reading, issendai has research on estranged parent forums. Also check out the article that kicked off the movie.

Stacy recommends the Twitter account @mrrogersquotes. Nicole recommends Blindspotting.

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