Disclaimer: Several movies or shows discussed are rated R or TV-MA and discuss or include adult themes such as violence, addiction, and sexuality. Several movies will be spoiled to various degrees in this article.
This summer, I watched a lot of movies. A lot. 56, actually, give or take one or two. (That’s roughly one movie every 39 hours!) I promise I’m not a shut-in. I swear. I shared a lot of movies with my family and friends, and I want to share them with you and encourage others to watch movies with people that matter to them! Or just by yourself. I’m not the boss of you.
My Favorites
Serial Mom was easily my favorite. Funny, murderous, and incredibly camp. It’s quintessential John Waters weirdness. Kathleen Turner positively rocks as Beverly Sutphin, a mom whose pursuit of thrills and the perfect suburban life drives her to petty murder, and it also features Matthew Lillard in his first starring role. If you’re into horror— or comedy, I’d recommend you check it out on Netflix.
The Suicide Squad was a re-watch for me. I really couldn’t have placed it in any other category, it’s one of my favorite superhero movies ever made. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, it’s not scared to be gross, and it’s got both Margot Robbie and David Dastmalchian, who I’m always excited to see on screen. I’m very excited to see what James Gunn makes next.
Weird Science was another re-watch. It’s hard to find things to say about this movie. It’s a very “shut your brain off and just enjoy” movie. It’s just good old dumb fun, even if it may not have aged very well at points. But, if you go into a movie where two friends make a woman because they can’t get girlfriends expecting deep, meaningful storytelling… you’re probably looking in the wrong place.
Some Like It Hot rocks. I don’t know how else to put it. It’s a 1959 movie about two male musicians, played by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, going undercover in an all-women band to make some money. It’s aged phenomenally and was one of the funniest movies I watched all summer. I completely recommend it, it’s a Marilyn Monroe classic.
I saw Longlegs one of the first days it was in theaters, and it absolutely blew me away. It’s exactly what I’d wanted from horror recently; something slow. It takes its time, there’s no big plot twist; it’s beautiful. I really don’t want to spoil anything for this one, I just want to urge you to watch this.
The Lost Boys is the #1 greatest vampire movie known to man. Move over Twilight, these guys are the real hot vampires. Campy, atmospheric, chaos. What else could you want from a movie? Though it’s not the first time I saw it, it remains in my top 5 favorite movies.
All previous statements about The Lost Boys also apply to Fright Night (1985). Except I’d never seen this one before. This movie is about a boy, Charley, who begins to suspect that his next-door neighbor is a vampire and goes through increasingly more dangerous trials to prove it. It’s got incredible performances from both William Ragsdale and Chris Sarandon, and Evil is a great representation of a true weird kid. It’s great.
Harvey is the second oldest movie on this list (it’s from 1950!), and the one that packed the most emotional punch for me. I saw it at the Naro after my previous article about rabbits in movies, and the movie was nothing like what I had expected. As I said, it packed an emotional punch, and I ended up crying four separate times in the theater. The basis is that it’s a movie about a man, Elwood who sees a púca (pooka), a tall rabbit named Harvey. This is one of those movies where I think everyone would benefit if we all tried to be a bit more like the main character.
Earth Girls are Easy is another movie to turn your brain off to. Once again, campy nonsense, but with aliens (and a few musical numbers this time)! Geena Davis stars opposite Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey, and Damon Wayans as a stylist whose fiancé cheats on her just a day before three colorful aliens crash into her backyard. Like I said, good old-fashioned fun.
Deadpool & Wolverine. Wow, superhero movies are fun again! It’s been a long time since I was this happy with a Marvel release, let alone one from a series I’d never even seen before. It’s once again just a fun ride from beginning to end, packed with all the blood and deep-cut references a girl could ask for. I mean, they play Madonna! Go check this one out, for sure.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. What can I say? It puts the “cult” in cult film. It’s a chaotic hour and a half of singing, odd yet incredible delivery, and a legendary wardrobe and makeup design. I had friends over to watch this one, and I can say that it’s definitely a movie that’s incredible to watch with others.
The Batman (2022). Now, anyone who knows me knows how much I love this movie. This is the movie that sparked my love of Batman, and my love of Paul Dano, and my love of the Riddler. I was lucky enough to get tickets to the showings on the 28th of August, when the movie was put back in theaters to help promote The Penguin, a series coming soon to MAX. It’s definitely one of the best superhero movies from the past few years and is easily my favorite Batman movie. Except for The Lego Batman Movie.
And, I want to issue a warning for this final movie- skip to the words “My Least Favorites” if you don’t want to read about a movie about drug addiction.
Animals (2014). One of the hardest movies for me to watch, ever. Though neither I nor anyone around me has ever had a drug problem, this movie still managed to hit incredibly hard. This movie is skin-crawling and distressing purely through how realistic it feels; absolutely amazing performances from Kim Shaw and David Dastmalchian shine through and show the heart and struggles of the couple at the center of the movie.
I had to take several breaks when watching, simply because of the intensity of the script, written by Dastmalchian himself— who’s been very open about his struggles with addiction— and the excellent direction by Collin Schiffli. It’s a movie about weakness, love, and pain, and it communicates it perfectly. I never quite thought the sight of a pool would bring me to tears.
Animals never feels preachy, and everything that happens is believable as you watch this couple’s downfalls. Though the ending is hopeful, it’s bittersweet and it’s far from perfect.
My Least Favorites
Lost Boys: The Tribe & Lost Boys: The Thirst. Wow, wow, wow. I watched these with friends too, and we all ended up trashing on them the entire time. But if you want to know how to make a horrible sequel, these are a perfect tutorial! Here are the steps:
- Make a cash grab,
- Make it almost 20 years later,
- Make it against the original director’s wishes,
and finally
- Only bring back two actors, both of whom were secondary characters.
Wow, you’ve done it! You’ve made both The Tribe and The Thirst! Congratulations, I guess.
Now, Pet Sematary is by all means, a pretty good movie. I hate to say it was one of my least favorites. It’s got a solid script, an interesting story, and mostly great acting performances from legends like Fred Gwynne, but there’s one thing that ruins this movie for me; Dale Midkiff, the lead actor. He’s less expressive than a brick. Seriously, the baby does a better job than he does. If you can get over that, it’s a solid movie!
Now, I’m not sure if you can tell by now, I’m a sucker for vampire movies. (Pun intended.) However, Near Dark is an exception. On paper, it’s everything I could want in a vampire movie. Visually gritty and grimy, punk-ish, and part romance. But somehow, for me, it just falls short. Outside of one memorable bar fight scene, it’s paced too slowly for me. It’s only 1 hour and 30 minutes, but even then it seems to drag on endlessly.
Fright Night (2011) is my greatest enemy. My nemesis. My adversary. What a way to take a great thing and strip it of everything that made it great. There’s no chemistry, none of the characters seem realistic… and no offense to Colin Farrell, he’s very talented, but he just doesn’t have the same intense charm and charisma Chris Sarandon had. Even the special effects look worse. The only true positive of this movie is a great performance from a goth David Tennant. Other than that, it’s a weak impression of the original that just seems… mean. Like so many other early 2010’s comedies, it seems to be mad at everything purely to be edgy, and it’s draining to watch.
The Face of an Angel was simply… boring. Almost impressively, given the plot- a director given the job of creating a movie out of a murder case is decently interesting, but it just loses me after the first 20 minutes. It becomes mush of personal drama and a few odd dream sequences as the director actually making the film takes a backseat. This movie wasn’t bad, but to me, being boring is the worst crime a movie can commit.
This isn’t all of the movies I watched, not by a long shot, but I couldn’t fit them all in one article if I tried. Movies and shows are one of my favorite things on the planet; I find it so incredible that we can create stories and communicate emotion through recording and seeing new movies will always be mind-blowing to me, and I’m glad I get to share them with you.
