The Florida Project (2017)

The Florida Project is a touching story about the innocence of childhood. The kids are highly entertaining as they just try to be kids. They're authentic and honest. Willem Dafoe acts as a father figure to young Moonee as well as to her mother Haley. He protects these kids. The movie is empathetic towards this little seen population living adjacent to the happiest place on Earth. The juxtaposition of their poverty and the riches of Disney World and its millions of annual visitors that never see this nearby population is devastating. These kids manage to entertain themselves in the shadow of kid wonderland. The brilliance of this movie is its perspective. The audience sees from the perspective of young Moonee. She cannot comprehend everything around her. But we can make a pretty good guess. The director need not spell everything out as you would for a 6-year-old. And the purple! It is beautifully filmed on film. Save for the final scene filmed on iPhone without Disney's permission. That's real filmmaking.

Battle of the Sexes (2017)

This is a fun movie about a sport I love and an iconic American. The importance of Billie Jean King transcends sport (and she is arguably the one of the most important athletes of the 20th century). Her story is interesting, daring and entertaining. The Battle of the Sexes was obviously a big and important event, but the US Open awarded equal prize money the same year to the men's and women's tournaments apparently outside of that context and it would have been useful to include that more directly. A little less of their personal lives would have been fine too. It was kind of long, otherwise they could have included more tennis politics. The movie is quite funny and it boasts a big cast of comedians, even in small roles like Fred Armisen, who has a couple lines and then sits quietly.

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2016)

This is a very interesting documentary about a community I care deeply about. It's in traditional documentary style; it was distributed by PBS Frontline after all. Abacus Bank in Chinatown, NY was the lone bank prosecuted following the 2008 Financial Crisis. And Ken Yu, a former loan officer at Abacus, was the lone person imprisoned. The rest of Abacus was exonerated. The crisis was obviously brought about by the failure of the major banks to care that they were endangering the world economy-yet no one has been imprisoned. The idea that little Abacus had an important enough role to really play any part in the take down of the world economy is laughably implausible. But Abacus was important enough to have an impact in Chinatown. It serves the Chinese community that typically cannot qualify for traditional credit. The bank is run by a successful and articulate Chinese-American family that makes for a good documentary subject.

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

It's a dark comedy, cleverly written, well-acted, and unexpectedly quite funny for a movie about vigilante justice. But I do feel like it hides a little behind it's label as a dark comedy. There are some rather problematic parts that I think have been glossed over a little quickly without scrutiny. For example, Peter Dinklage's character is the butt of a number of ill-spirited midget jokes. How about the blase attitude on police brutality? There's the cop that beats African Americans. There's this same cop that defenestrates people. There's the sheriff that seems to condone this cop's behavior. And we're supposed to feel bad for this sheriff? And what about the black friend that is thrown in jail on trumped up drug charges? Frances McDormand makes a big fuss about it at first, but then let's it go. Just collateral damage. So what redeems the movie amidst all this? Frances McDormand. She's devilishly good.

Lady Bird (2017)

What a beautiful little film about growing up. Saoirse Ronan is delightfully quirky as are all her friends and family. The writing is brilliantly hilarious. The relationships are authentic. The movie overall is just so refreshingly honest about adolescence. The ending maybe needed a little bit more closure for Lady Bird. Lady Bird's story is done but Christine's continues. I'm not really sure what specifics I want to say about this movie, but I loved everything about it. I think maybe it's the movies for which words escape you that are the most affecting--to literally be speechless.

Chicago (2002)

I thought the movie was much better than the play. The movie's style does not replicate the revival's minimalist sets and costumes. It is much more extravagant, thankfully. What is so brilliant about the movie, though, is that it is theatrical. The musical numbers are staged, performed on a vaudeville stage with an audience rather than in the context of the story. It gives it an almost dreamlike quality that is just mesmerizing on the screen. The movie is all the better for it--praise for Rob Marshall's direction. The best numbers in the movie are still the best ones from the musical: All That Jazz and Cell Block Tango.   (I admittedly thought Nowadays was very good in the movie too). Cell Block Tango would've been very different if filmed in the prison. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger are both phenomenal. In a musical you're obviously looking at the singing and dancing, but in the non-musical scenes as well, they are acting. Their desperation (for fame) comes through.

Kingsman: The Golden Circled (2017)

Kingsman was a pleasant surprise the first time. But it's much less fun the second go around. It's kind of tired. There's a handful of Oscar winners somehow. It was a miracle they got Colin Firth the first time, but now they've added Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges and Sir Elton John. Elton John is just wacky enough to make it work (he might be the strangest and best part of the movie) and Julianne Moore too, but Berry and Bridges are wasted. And I guess that's part of the farce. This movie is quite long. It's unnecessarily more vulgar without a payoff. The action scenes are very exciting. And the Americans are stereotyped maybe a little too on the nose for comfort.