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Reviews
Lucy in the Sky (2019)
It's a mess
Pretty disappointed in this one. While Natalie Portman's performance is excellent, as is Jon Hamm's, nothing could save this mess of ideas from itself.
Lucy Cola comes back from space and can't adjust to the smallness of her life. Her husband can't understand. It seems like maybe Mark, a fellow astronaut who's done more tours that she has, does, so Lucy begins an affair with him. But Lucy's displacement is making it hard for her to stay grounded, per se, and she slowly delves into her own madness. There are side storylines about Lucy's take-no-prisoners grandmother and how Lucy became as strong as she did, as well as Lucy's teenaged niece, who is staying with them. But basically, the story is threadbare. It should have relied on strong characters. But nothing felt very authentic to me - not the emotions, not the way the characters reacted. For a film that seemed to be celebrating, or at least admiring Lucy's strong work ethic in a man's world, I felt that the filmmakers dove a little dangerously into archetypal female reactions at times.
There were a few moments when the form follows function aspects of the filmmaking (letterboxing to widescreen, fisheye lens, background sound) worked very well, and more moments where it was completely incongruous to the story and felt like the filmmakers were just trying to make something artsy and cool (superimposing the moments over the stars, so cheesy; conveyor belt for hospital scene). In the end, the whole thing just didn't hold together and the themes seemed muddled at best. Wish I'd liked this more.
Before I Fall (2017)
Strong acting and cinematography fall to predictable writing. For teens only.
I was lucky enough to attend a press screening of #BeforeIFallMovie. In case you didn't know, this story is originally a YA book of the same name by bestselling author Lauren Oliver. It centers on Samantha, a popular high school student who is your quintessential mean girl. On the school's "Cupid Day", meaning the day that Valentine-grams with roses go out, Sam and her best friends end up in a car accident at the end of the night. When Sam next wakes up, it's Cupid Day again, and she discovers that she is reliving the same day over and over again.
The movie was beautifully filmed, with gorgeous Pacific Northwest landscapes, and dark, brooding palates. Zoey Deutch and the rest of the actors do a really good job portraying the various characters, but as with many teen movies, I found myself totally frustrated with the "Baes", Sam's mean girl group. I was just NOT HERE for their bitchiness and bullying. The pacing was a bit quick for the character development, although I understand the book does this better - it's a movie, what can you do.
The bigger issue for me was that it was hard to enjoy the character development because the dialogue and plot were predictable. There are a lot of moments when I felt like the narrative was trying very hard to be "deep," and as an adult, it just ended up feeling clichéd to me.
That said, I think a lot of teens will like this movie, particularly those who are questioning what it means to live and survive and be a good person. I know 15-year old me definitely would have eaten up this Mean Girls meets Groundhog Day story.