Dark Phoenix (2019)

X-Men deserves a better ending than this. X-Men was probably my favorite superhero series, but they remade it to death. It should have ended with Days of Future Past and Logan. Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix were wholly unnecessary. I had forgotten that Days of Future Past erased the old timeline. Much like the recent bookend of the MCU, the time travel rules are kind of murky. But in their attempt to erase the ill received ending of the original trilogy in The Last Stand, they recreated the same plot, except worse. A redo was not necessary. They get a little into the politics that always made X-Men interesting and relevant. The othering of mutants is a message that is still poignant today, but it takes a backseat to a largely irrelevant main plot. Who are these aliens and why is Jessica Chastain their leader?

Winter's Bone (2010)

This is one I've been meaning to watch for a long time. It was the only Best Picture nominee since 2010 that I had missed. Prompted by Debra Granik's powerful Leave No Trace this year, I caught Winter's Bone. And I admit I was a little disappointed. I thought it was kind of boring. This is the movie that made Jennifer Lawrence a star. She is an optimistic figure in what is otherwise a bleak Ozark landscape in a relentlessly brutal movie. I just wasn't in the mood for this kind of movie.

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. 

Passengers (2016)

I was overall unimpressed by this movie. The coolest thing is the production design. There is a stunning anti-gravity scene in an infinity pool in space. The design of the bedrooms and the whole ship are imaginatively futuristic. The story is extremely unrealistic, even for a science fiction film. It is not believable at all. I know the tag line is "they woke up for a reason" but the reason is actually just not very compelling. The most interesting plot point is Chris Pratt's ethical dilemma. Though it does not actually fit into the "they woke up for a reason" motive of the film. This gap in the plot is inexcusable. This is not Jennifer Lawrence's best work. 

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay--Part 2 (2015)

This is a much darker film than other blockbuster series. And that tone matches the the book but I didn't really like the last book. The Hunger Games series was great because of the hunger games. But the last two films don't feature a hunger games. They focus instead on rebellion, which is complicated, cynical and messy. Much of this final movie is spent filming propaganda. And there is no glamour in propaganda. There is no glamour in war. It makes you long for the extravagance of the earlier films. Jennifer Lawrence can do no wrong-- she'll forever be known as The Girl on Fire. The novelty has kind of worn off now that dystopian teen fiction is everywhere, only exacerbated by splitting the final book (arguably the worst one) into two films.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

What I love about the X-Men series is the complex discussion of politics and the revisionist history making for an engaging story. This movie doesn't do that. Instead, like a typical superhero movie, it delves into mythology, which is less interesting. And X-Men has gotten extraordinarily confusing in terms of timeline. How could this big huge Apocalypse thing have happened in the 80s and we never heard about it in the original trilogy? There is the welcome re-insertion of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner from Game of Thrones!), Nightcrawler, Storm (who is apparently Egyptian now?) and Cyclops, but Angel is a puzzle. Is this a different Angel than the one from the original trilogy? Because his appearance in this film does not fit in with his role in the original. There is a small cameo by Wolverine, which is bizarre because Wolverine usually has a bigger part in X-Men. And if he wasn't going to have a real role, we didn't need the two minutes. The after-credits scene also alluded to something related to Wolverine, probably to connect this to his next standalone movie. The film's greatest strength is fitting Jean Grey's development back into the narrative, seeing as she is one of the most important mutants.  Usually, one of the high points is the Magneto-Professor X dynamic, but I don't think they got enough scenes together this film. And there was really nothing added to their relationship in this story line. Hopefully, the next X-Men movie returns to its roots.

Joy (2015)

There are a lot of good things going on in this movie. David O. Russell has partnered again with his muse Jennifer Lawrence for another stellar performance. Joy is the strongest woman Lawrence has played thus far in her career. She is a divorcee who is constantly putting out fires at home (the opening scene is a showcase for Lawrence), but she wants to do more with her life. She is an inventor by nature and she takes control of her own destiny and pursues her passion. It kind of reminded me of The Good Wife-- a strong female lead who takes hold of her own life. And she is authentic as herself; that is Lawrence's biggest selling point. The characterization of Joy's mother is also well developed. And in the first half of the movie, there is this surreal back and forth between reality and the soap opera world that she lives in.

There is a great scene in which Bradley Cooper is showing Joy around the QVC studio. The studio is a magical place that elicits awe (and joy) from Joy and lets Cooper show off a little too. The scene moves forward at an anticipatory pace. There is a fantastic use of music in this scene that actually reminded me of The Good Wife, which commonly uses instrumentals to build excitement in the lead-in to the titles.  The entire film actually uses music very effectively, including the guitar solo from Alabama Shakes's "Gimme All Your Love" and the piano introduction from Bruce Springsteen's "Racing in the Street." Some of the orchestral bits give it a fairy tale feeling, and the snowfall helps feed that aura.  It is a really good soundtrack ranging from rock to Latin jazz, and when it comes to music I expect nothing less from Russell.

The moral of the story is that business is hard. It's not a glamorous movie. Business (and much less mops) rarely is. I get that. But there is one terrible scene that I felt really detracted from the movie. Robert De Niro and Isabella Rosselini are deriding Joy for not having what it takes to be in business. And she just takes it. Maybe this is how the actual events went, but she accepts that they are right. And they're not. The way I understand it, from a legal standpoint, Joy was in the right. It was the very people chastising her (for simply being herself) that messed up. And Russell makes very clear that Joy's father is not a nice or supportive-type person; but I think this scene was overkill and really contrary to the entrepreneurial spirit that the film seems to endorse.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I (2014)

The penultimate Hunger Games film is all about setting up the final battle between Katniss and the Capital.  Where this movie fails is that it does not give the viewers quite enough.  When it comes down to it, just not that much happened and the action was kind of lacking. I, for one, am not a fan of the recent trend of splitting the final book of a series into two parts. To be fair, I was not particularly fond of the last installment of Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games trilogy anyways.

But this movie does some things right.  With an ensemble cast, there are some very solid performances. This is one of Philip Seymour Hoffman's final roles and his performance does his legacy justice.  And Jennifer Lawrence is good in everything she does (though she doesn't do anything terribly special).  This film does lack the stylish glitz and glamour of the Capital, and the intensity of the Hunger Games that stood out in the first two films.