Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

It's fine. I liked it just fine. It's breezy fun but the plot is sort of thin. Paul Rudd's character is under house arrest due to external conflicts from Avengers: Civil War. The mid-credits scene alludes to the Avengers too. But the central conflict within the film has three sides, Ant-Man vs the ghost vs a common black market dealer. The dealer's presence in the film is seemingly insignificant in the grand scheme of thing. The ghost is a sympathetic villain. But by the time we get to the resolution of the plot, we see that the antagonism between them was moot. Paul Rudd is fun though.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

I like a good mystery, but the fun is in the buildup to the revelation. And everything before the revelation in this movie is kind of dull. Poirot interrogates all the passengers separately so all of the movie stars get a a little bit of screentime and a couple lines to say, but with every little reveal I'm like so-what. There are hints of Sherlock in the style, but without the likability of Sherlock. If you don't know the solution, it's kind of clever. But immediately after, I fell asleep. I admit, I don't know how the movie ends and I couldn't be bothered to go back and find out. At least it looked nice.

mother! (2017)

What an utterly baffling movie. What's really frustrating is that I think I understood the allegory with my basic knowledge of the Bible and yet I was still baffled. Javier Bardem is God. And the house is Earth. That much I'm sure of, but Jennifer Lawrence is a little trickier. Is she the mother Earth? Is she the nature spirit? Is she Mary? Is she also Christ? I think there's probably a degree of truth to all those identities. That's what was confusing. Pick a metaphor and stick to it.

The movie itself defies categorization. It's marketed as a horror film, but it's not actually scary. What is scary is just the sheer number of people in the house and what terrible guests they are. But it's not really thrilling either. It's just uncomfortable. I will concede that the last twenty minutes of utter chaos is pretty impressive. It's an immersive, visceral experience. 

Wizard of Lies (2017)

There are two cool scenes of note in the latest HBO movie. The first is a dream sequence, or rather a nightmare sequence. It features some really slick editing, cutting in faces of Madoff's many victims. The other is a drumming sequence--drums remind me of Whiplash or Birdman. Drums give you a sense of urgency, of continuity, of panic, and of style. Madoff is at a dinner party, panicking as his clients are asking to pull their money out of the fund. In another instance of cool editing, the drums drive the action in this scene, not the dialogue. Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer are both quite good. The acting keeps the movie afloat during some admittedly boring scenes.