movie review
Relationships-focused film reviews of tearjerkers, rom-coms, love lost and love found.
Rolling Thunder Revue Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all of the movies I see. In a lot of ways, this is a conservative rating for me because, for a while, I couldn't quite jump on board with whatever this movie was going for, but after finishing it, I'm pretty sure I love it. I think I may need a bit more time with this movie before I decide whether or not I fully loved it or not, so I should explain my experience with this film.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
The Graduate Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every movie I see. The only thing I knew about this movie was the incredibly famous line, "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me." That was it. I thought that the line and the seduction was only a short scene in the film. I didn't know the entire film was going to revolve around that. As such, I had no idea what to expect with this movie. I didn't know whether I would think it was overrated or whether I would like it. I didn't know that this film would hook me as much as it did, I didn't know it would resonate with me as much as it did, and I didn't know that this film would be so amazing to me that it might actually make my top 10 personal favorite films of all time. This movie is beyond fantastic. Again, I really want to give this film five stars. However, there are some aspects of the plot that are incredibly dated, there are some cuts between shots that are really obvious (cuts in time are really obvious because the center of the shot moves a bit during the cut, so you can tell there was a cut), some of the music editing is repetitive, and there are continuity errors in some of the lighting in this film (admittedly, my parents noticed those, not me). There are so many minor glaring flaws like that that don't affect the story that I can't give this film five stars. However, that doesn't mean I didn't adore this film.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Casanova Review
This review comes straight from my Letterboxd profile, a place where I review every film and limited series that I happen to watch. This was one of the first reviews that I wrote for the website, and it was one of the first times that I remember feeling confident in my ability to actually review movies. Check out my profile if you're interested in more reviews like this and to see the actual order in which I write them, since I'm posting them to my Vocal page completely out of order.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Stargirl Movie Review
This comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I write reviews of every movie I watch. There's a particular reason why I wanted to see this film when I got Disney+. Stargirl, as a book, means a lot to me. I don't remember many specific elements from the book, but I remember the plot generally enough. It's the experience I had with it that really made it memorable for me. It was my sixth-grade year, and our LA teacher read this book to us for class. I was so invested in the relationship between Leo and Stargirl that I remember being annoyed when I found out I had taken a sick day when my teacher read the chapter where their relationship actually initiated. There was something about this fictional relationship (and fictional relationships in general) that stuck with me, probably because I was so focused on wanting my own relationship and dreamt that I would immediately find someone like that and have an incredible relationship with them and all that nonsense. Of course, that's not how middle school or even high school relationships go, but that's how my brain saw it. In fact, in a lot of ways, I think I'm still struggling with the fanciful ideas of being in a relationship vs. the actual reality of how one begins. I could go on for hours about all of this stuff, but that's not what you came here for. Even though they're related to my thoughts on both the book and the movie, they're not the point of this review. You want to hear my thoughts on the movie, so let's talk about the movie.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile Review
This review talks about things that happen throughout the film (including the ending) but does not go into incredible detail about what exactly happens in these events. Because of that, I am going to give a warning for minor/somewhat major spoilers for this review.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Close-Up Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every film I see. How in the world do you describe something like this? It's pretty difficult, to be honest, but Close-Up is unlike any film I've ever seen. I suppose the idea of a film that combines real footage with reenactments isn't something that's not all that new in concept, but when even the reenactments are portrayed by the real people who experienced these events, the film takes on a whole new meaning that other documentaries like this wouldn't be able to nail. It blends together these reenactments and the real footage so seamlessly that I genuinely couldn't tell which scenes were re-shot or not until after the end of the film when I looked it up. Sure, I could have made a good guess at which ones were real and gotten it right, but even the scenes that in retrospect I can tell are reenactments still feel so authentic that it never feels like they are. This film captures this event in such a raw, palpable way. It covers everything from inherent attachment to art to self-identity to the ways we express ourselves to the grey area between legal and moral and even human nature as a whole. It does that by constantly allowing each principle player to explain their side of the story, even when it's flawed, even when it doesn't always add up. There are exchanges of dialogue in this movie involving the making of movies and acting and bringing a film to life that I think in literally any other context might come across as some of the most pretentious dialogue ever put to film. In fact, there are so many ways in which the ideas in this movie are assembled could have come across as pretentious, narcissistic, and completely hollow -- if the entirety of the movie was reenactments and only SOME of the real people played themselves, if certain scenes that were written as reenactments were slightly altered in dialogue to get a point across, etc. However, not only are the majority of the scenes that involve some of this dialogue COMPLETELY UNSCRIPTED and therefore completely genuine, the scenes that are reenactments never feel like they condescend to the audience's intelligence. This is a movie where you can get away with exposition by just having the characters say it, because not only is it a real trial with real people talking about their real motives, but even in the reenacted interviews, the aspects of the individual that every person talks about in this movie is something that no one would want to get across by making it complicated or filling every one of their words with symbolism. They would want to explain their thoughts to the point, no dodging around it, this is how they feel and this is what they know and it never comes across as anything but authentic. Not once.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Star Wars: A New Hope Review
This review is for the theatrical cut of the movie released on the 2003 limited edition DVD set of the trilogy, which I happen to own. I may review the special edition contained on that DVD at a later date, but for now, here's my review of the original theatrical cut, which comes from my Letterboxd profile.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Hereditary Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I write movie reviews like this for every film I see. With the reputation this film has received over the years, I assumed that Hereditary was going to be a film that purposefully confused you from the first scene, never concretely explaining its twists and turns to you and forcing you to figure it out yourself. It might require some individual thinking time after seeing the film or it might require a second watch, or even a third or a fourth. I've found those kinds of movies more and more fascinating over the years, and since I've been hearing great things about this one for three years, I wanted to finally check it out. In my opinion, this film is not a purposefully confusing film. For the majority of the runtime, the sequential events that occur in this film felt natural to me, even though they were consistently unsettling. It wasn't until the last 40 minutes or so of this movie where the meaning of the entire story starts to take shape that I realized that this was yet another unconventional horror film brought to you by the independent geniuses at A24 that continue to greenlight and distribute original and unique films like this.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Dark Waters Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I write reviews like this for every movie I see. I will admit, the pacing of the first half of this film was really strange for me. Even though I was intrigued by Dark Waters as it began, I found myself slowly wondering more and more where it was going as the film progressed. It felt very similar to other films like this I had seen before despite how enjoyable the film was, and even though I love Anne Hathaway as an actress, I had a hard time finding her character likable. However, the second half of this film, the half of the film that transforms Dark Waters from a simple Rob Bilott biopic to a relevant and thrilling courtroom drama, elevates the material so much more and makes the film ten times more investing than it already was. Once the courtroom investigations actually start, my attention was glued to this film and I found so much more to appreciate in it than just a story about a lawyer that discovered the shady actions of a large American corporation.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Full of youth
Because of a trip, I didn't have time to watch "To Youth". Although some friends gave it mixed reviews, I was still seriously moved by it. After reading it, I sat in front of the sofa, picked up my mobile phone, and suddenly wanted to send a message to the man who walked through the tail of youth with me, telling him that "Zheng Wei has let go, and I hope Chen Xiaozheng can let go, and face the coming life with an open mind". Of course, I didn't send it. I swallowed what I said.
By oy.xky.jlq785725 years ago in Humans
The Lobster Review
This review comes straight from my Letterboxd profile, where you can read hundreds of reviews like this if you want to. The Lobster is most certainly an off-kilter movie with an unconventional narrative. I've been wanting to watch this movie for years ever since I saw The Favourite, also directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, and somehow this movie is even stranger than The Favourite. Well, I guess with a premise as niche as this, I should have seen that coming, but there was some almost out-of-touch charm to this movie that still managed to take me off guard as I continued watching it. It's bleak, its tone is incredibly depressing, but somehow, there's something about this film that latches onto your subconscious and encourages you to think about it. I'm blown away that a film like this was actually nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars. Don't get me wrong, I think it deserves it, but this is the type of film that is usually ignored by the Academy, the kind that is so inaccessible to most people that nobody acknowledges it come awards season. However, I think this concept is so unique and the style of this film so original that even though I still haven't been able to completely wrap my mind around this film's message, it feels like it deserves the nomination.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
Nomadland Review
This review is one of many movie reviews that I have written over the last two years that are available to read on my Letterboxd profile. I've been reviewing every miniseries and movie I watch since I created the profile, creating a giant catalog of reviews to share my opinion of some of my favorite (or possibly least favorite) movies, along with learning to improve the way I communicate my thoughts on movies. If you like my style of movie reviews and are curious to see what else I've watched over the last two years, check out my profile if you want to read more and see what movies and shows I would recommend.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Humans
