🚫44%
2021 List- Click HERE

Watched via digital screener

Lee Daniels is a director that I had faith in for this project (the devastating Precious showed promise for his career and I quite liked The Butler), but he unfortunately crafts a mostly uninteresting experience. The production is astonishing and the costumes are also excellent, but those two things alone don't make a movie good. The writing is just lazy, there's barely an attempt to develop any characters aside from Billie…

👍68%
2021 List- Click HERE

Watched via digital screener

Heavily overstylized and too long but there was enough good here to warrant a positive rating from me. Some risky decisions made by The Russo Brothers didn't work out all that well and some paid off, but it's clear to me that they focused way too much on style and not enough on substance. Also some of the voiceover is really bad and on-the-nose (a similar criticism I have with Dances…

🏆90%
2020 List- Click HERE

Watched on HBO Max

Handles it's sensitive subject matter carefully and with grace. Hittman's filmmaking is entrancing to the point that little moments become more noticeable and meaningful, and she deserves to be nominated for an Academy Award (though she unfortunately won't.) The stylistic choices are risky, but brilliantly executed. I believe this film to be generally flawless aside from one specific scene involving a chicken, which I thought was pointless and detracted from the…

⚠️50%
2021 List- Click HERE

Watched on Netflix

Has about every cliche you could think of based on this familiar premise but I wasn't expecting anything less. The cinematography is actually pretty good, but the overly sentimental (I was rolling my eyes at points) writing and uninteresting directing overshadow the moments of noticeably impressive camerawork. The editing is also decent and I felt this story was put together well.

Roberts does what he can with this material but his character…