Review: “Hell or High Water”

So let’s do a quick recap of what I’ve reviewed so far on this blog:

-The first season of Netflix original series, “Stranger Things”

-Two pop songs

Well despite how proud I am of all those entertainment reviews, we have yet to touch upon my favorite format of entertainment, film.  I took multiple film courses in college and even wrote a few screenplays back in the day.  I often go to the cinema since I find comfort sitting at the movie theater watching a new movie.  Which I ended up doing the other day on a date night with my girlfriend as we went to go see the movie I’m reviewing today, “Hell or High Water”.

Now when I first read about this movie, I didn’t see a single trailer for it.  Which is a rarity for me since I can’t think of a single occasion where I never saw a movie without at least watching the trailer.  My initial curiosity was an online article where it advertised itself as a modern day western.  If there is any film genre that has hit a bit of a snag recently in terms of successful movies, it’s westerns.  There aren’t nearly as many modern day westerns that are as memorable as the huge hits of yesteryear with the only two successful westerns of recent memory being True Grit and Django Unchained.  It’s been a rough decade for westerns and when I saw the massive amounts of critical acclaim this new modern day western was getting, I was intrigued to give this a chance someday.  Well someday came sooner than I expected.

Texas brothers, Toby (Chris Pine), and Tanner (Ben Foster), come together after years divided to rob branches of the bank threatening to foreclose on their family land.  For them, the hold-ups are just part of a last ditch scheme to take back a future that seemed to have been stolen from under them.  Justice seems to be theirs, until they find themselves on the radar of Texas Ranger, Marcus (Jeff Bridges) looking for one last grand pursuit on the eve of his retirement, and his half-Comanche partner, Alberto (Gil Birmingham).  As the brothers plot a final bank heist to complete their scheme, and with the Rangers on their heels, a showdown looms at the crossroads where the values of the Old and New West murderously collide.

After seeing this in theaters, I can’t wait to rewatch it again real soon.  This is going to be a tough first review for my new blog because this movie was fantastic.  From start to finish, I was on the edge of my seat since it gets straight to the thrills right away and while it does slow down a bit in between heists, it does it for all the right reasons.  What makes this different from recent westerns is instead of borrowing from the past in terms of time periods and settings, it borrows what made westerns from the past so timeless with well developed characters, incredibly strong acting, and great pacing.  The modernization of this western is also a perfect choice because it helps us relate to the brothers choice to rob from the banks that have been robbing them of their livelihoods with their land being foreclosed on them.  It also makes us relate to the Rangers as we understand not only why they are serving up justice because it’s the right thing to do, but how people from different ethical backgrounds can get along despite all of their obvious differences.  That is a strong message conveyed extremely well in our society today.

The acting here is incredible as in a just Academy of Motion Pictures, this should not be forgotten when it comes to nomination time and I seriously hope it doesn’t go overlooked.  Jeff Bridges puts in another fantastic memorable performance, but the real revelations in this movie were Chris Pine and Ben Foster.  Both of whom who have always been charming actors in respective roles in the past, but both I couldn’t take seriously as great actors.  Well not anymore because both of them are amazing in this movie.  Chris Pine shows that he is more than just another good looking male lead as he plays the straight man to Ben Foster, who plays insane and hot tempered very well.  I think these roles should help get both men recognized even more in the future because the chemistry these two shared made me believe they were actual brothers and that both of them held up well on their own as their respective characters.  Toby (Pine) wants to rob these banks to provide a better future for his family, even though he knows it’s not the right thing to do, but wants to be able to see his kids again.  Tanner (Foster) has a criminal background and history due to his anger management problems, but wants to redeem himself in the eyes of his brother and is willing to do whatever it takes to make him happy and feel loved again.  It’s hard to choose between which character I felt more strongly about because I loved both of these characters so much.

Without spoiling too much of the movie because it needs to be sought out by everyone, the movie evens has an ode to the ending of westerns from the past with a standoff about the law and proper justice which ends as tense as you would expect because both sides know that this incident will leave them haunted for the rest of their lives and you feel the tension and repercussions as the movie fades to black.

Hell or High Water is definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen this year.  I am not sure if this will be the best or not come year end time, but as of right now, it will be hard to beat this out.  It’s a timeless classic set in the present and I hope it’s influential for years to come because it is possible to make a modern day western set in this time period.  All you need to do is just make us relate.

Review: “Needed Me” – Rihanna

A day late, but let’s talk about Rihanna.

She is one of the biggest pop stars right now and has been for nearly the past decade.  However, I feel like it doesn’t really sink in how successful she truly is because she is ALWAYS churning out song after song.  If you think Drake doesn’t know when to take a break from recording music, at least it’s only been the past two years of him shelving out a new album or mixtape every three months.  If you don’t count 2014, Rihanna has had new material out every single year since she debuted nearly a decade ago.  That’s mind blowing especially since I can only think of one song in the past five years that I can truly say I would seek out to listen to again and again and again:

FourFiveSeconds is the best song Rihanna has had in eight years and was the first single she released since she took a MUCH needed break.  And you can tell too since she sounds absolutely rejuvenated on it with pure raw power.  Also helping is Kanye West and Paul McCartney, but the true revelation that makes this song that much better is Rihanna for sure.  This was suppose to be the lead single from Rihanna’s latest album ANTI, but that along with Bitch Better Have My Money both ended up being cut from the album entirely.  So here I thought, if neither of those songs were good enough for Rihanna’s comeback album, then what would be?   Well let’s take a look at the new record holder for most amount of weeks on the Billboard Top 10 without ever reaching the Top 5, Needed Me.

 

…honestly, this is perfect…and by perfect I mean a perfect example as to why FourFiveSeconds is Rihanna’s best song in eight years.  Because this song is just another interchangeable Rihanna song.  There is nothing to it.  Which reminds me of Rihanna’s other huge song from this year, Work.

It’s an absolute nothing of a song.  If it did anything, it brought dancehall back to the forefront of modern pop culture, but at the same time, it is completely lacking in personality and you can only take constant repetition so much before it just becomes frustrating to tolerate any longer.  So at least Work had that going for it, despite me not being a fan of it.  At all.  What exactly does Needed Me bring?

Oh…it’s you again.  Okay so it brings DJ Mustard to the table.  If you have been living under a rock for the past three years, DJ Mustard is one of the biggest producers not just in hip-hop, but in all of music right now.  As absolutely sick of him as I got in 2014, the guy has grown on me as he’s moved on from doing the same tropes in all of his songs to actually experimenting a bit more with his standard minimalist beats.  And while Needed Me is as minimalist as nearly all of DJ Mustard’s library, it’s at least the best part of the song, which really isn’t saying much since he’s had better.  At the very least, it works in context to the song too.  The song is about telling off an ex and how reliant he is to a strong powerful woman.  It’s dark enough to work, so why doesn’t the song itself work?

I point all the blame and hatred I have for this song on the performer.  This song is such bullshit if you actually  want me to believe that Rihanna is this all powerful woman who can tell guys off.  I don’t know what topsy turvy world we are living in where Rihanna, who has a LARGE dating history as proof that she is the “needy one”, can have one of the biggest songs of the year trying to be Beyonce.  This just in Rihanna, you are not and will never be as memorable of a superstar as Beyonce.  Beyonce released one of the best albums of 2016 telling off her cheating husband and she can’t even get more than one song to chart on this year’s end list while Rihanna will probably have six or seven like she always does.  This is just unfair.

Even more unfair, Rihanna has a vast library of songs where she is asking guys to stay with her, finding love in a hopeless place, that she’s the only girl for you, I can go on and on through Rihanna’s list of hit songs that show that she is whoever the song wants her to be.  But what’s not helping here is that Rihanna’s flow is literally all over the place.  I can’t even picture who she wants to be since she lingers longer than she needs to on different words that mean nothing to her message.  You can place the blame on the production, but DJ Mustard slows it down before he kicks it into high gear on the chorus, so Rihanna has literally no excuse to try and convey her bullshit that she is trying to send.

Yet for some reason, here this song is.  Still in the Top 10 after being there for nearly half of the year.  I just don’t get the appeal of why so many of the big hits of this year are absolute audio white noise to me.  Maybe I should check in to the early retirement music critics home if this is the best pop music has to offer me.

Review: “One Dance” – Drake

This was supposed to be posted on Sunday, but due to work and internet complications, it was delayed until today.  In the future, I’m aiming to have my song reviews written on Sundays, unless something comes up like what happened this past Sunday.

That note aside, let’s talk about the term “song of the summer”.  It’s a single pop song that gains international popularity during the summer season.  The primary frame of the year where schools are out, vacations are often taken, trips to the beach (or in my case, lake) are made recurring.  Which means that radio airplay is often at it’s peak around this time.  Songs that record studios are marketed to be summer hits often feature an upbeat tempo and summer lite descriptions. You know, ideal topics for a song of the summer.

Keep that in the back of your mind as I ramble about the artist behind this year’s song of the summer, Drake.  Drake is arguably one of the biggest stars in the music industry right now.  And when I say that, I don’t mean by quality standards.  Drake has had, what, FOUR different mixtapes and albums since 2015?  He’s one of the biggest stars due to consistently shelving out product without giving himself a break.  Blame it on his exclusive contract with Apple, blame it on Cash Money, blame it on the man himself, but there was a point in time where I use to love Drake a lot more than I do now.  I’m still a fan of the guy, but the drop in quality just to release nonstop songs is definitely noticeable.  Sure we still get some good songs out of it because the talent is still undeniably there from Drake, but you want a prime example of this statement?  Let’s take a look at the worldwide summer smash, “One Dance”.

No music video because who knows why and who honestly cares.  Normally I like it when Drake sings because while he is underrated as a rapper, what really makes him stand out is that he is actually a good singer.  But here?  Drake’s singing comes off as monotonously dull.  Which for a song, especially a summer song, it needs some sort of life to it to make people actually want to dance to it.  Hell to be completely honest, I preferred his offkey talk singing he did in Hotline Bling so much better.  It was imperfectly amusing to me.  It helped make it memorable.

You know what pisses me off most about this song?  It is nothing.  It’s an incomplete pop song, which is a recurring theme with pop music in 2016 and why so many people are declaring it one of the worst hit music years ever.  I’ve told so many of my friends that it feels like I’m listening to an iTunes free 1:30 audio sample.  Before you quit viewing this page, I want you to riddle me this.  Can you hum the song?  Does anyone even know what the song is about?  Would you be able to recognize it if you heard it?  It’s mesmerizing that Drake has one of the longest reigning number ones not just of this year, but of all time with such an utterly flimsy nothing of a song.  Hell, it doesn’t even last a full three minutes and completely falls apart in a disastrous fashion in the last thirty seconds.

This is what finally gave Drake his long awaited number one hit song.  Unbelievable.  There has to be something I’m missing here because this was number one for such a long time.  Oh wait, there are guest stars here.  British singer Kyla and Nigerian singer Wizkid.  Can you spot them in the chorus?  Because they aren’t honestly worth giving the credit too since their parts are so microscopic and irrelevant as everything else in this song.

Normally, I try to analyze the lyrical content, but the only thing I can get from it is that Drake needs a bottle of Hennessy to be able to reach some sort of spiritual connection on the dance floor with this irrelevant love interest.  Also, he throws in some brag rapping in the second verse that is an utter joke.

Nobody makes it from my end

That’s massive amounts of bullshit because, if anything, Justin Bieber and The Weeknd are two of the other biggest pop stars out right now and both of them are from Canada too.

You know you gotta stick by me
Soon as you see the text reply me

…WHO IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?  This just went from being nothing to Drake being an asshole.  You just met this girl and you’re already telling her she has to be there for you at your convenience.  Fuck off you ignorant jackass.

I…I can’t take anymore of this.  I may be mad now but the time this review gets posted, I’ll completely forget about it.  This review is already two times longer than it takes to listen to this song and I’m just done with it.  Song of the summer my ass.  More like the invisible smash hit that will be completely forgotten at this point next year.  The world will keep on turning while nobody will care that the dance even got started.

Review: Stranger Things

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, we need to talk about Stranger Things.  Why you may ask?  Because in a society where we like to binge watch series from start to finish, this is how you make a compelling binge watch.

In the 1983 town of Hawkins, Indiana, 12-year-old Will Byers vanishes mysteriously. Will’s frantic mother, Joyce (played by Winona Ryder), searches for him while Police Chief Jim Hopper (played by David Harbour) launches his own investigation. Will’s friends Dustin, Mike and Lucas discover a girl with mysterious powers named Eleven who claims to know Will’s location. As they uncover the truth, a sinister government agency tries to cover it up, while a more insidious force lurks below the surface.

I’m just going to come out and say it early on in this review, this is how you make a series built for binge watching.  It left me on the edge of my seat at the end of every episode and compelled to watch the next right away.  Eight hours later, the season was over and now I have to wait until 2017 to figure out where it goes from here, impatiently.  As frustrating as it seems, it’s definitely worth it because this was fantastic.

It’s not original by any means of the imagination.  This is absolutely a love letter to the 1980s from the setting, to the soundtrack, to even the plot devices.  I lost count how many times I felt like this series paid homage to Steven Speilberg movies, Stephen King novels, John Hughes movies, and other movies from that era like The Goonies, Stand By Me…you name a 1980s movie, there is probably a love letter dedication towards it.  It’s definitely easy to call this miniseries unoriginal in every single way possible and I wouldn’t argue against it.  But if you hold that as your reason to hate this show, you are completely missing not only the point, but you’ll be robbing yourself of one the smartest written original series in quite some time.

I like to look at all that nostalgia as unapologetic because they play it off in it’s favor.  It seamlessly ties it’s story not only into the 1980s, but into the 2010s as well with compelling storytelling.  Let me put it this way.  The 1980s is often regarded to as one of the best decades in recent history when it comes to entertainment media.  I regard it as that as well.  Everything in the 1980s wasn’t always good mind you.  It had it’s fair share of clunkers when it came to entertainment formats, but the good stuff just felt huge in hindsight.  Like everything from that decade just felt so big and over the top levels of good.  In the 2010s, we don’t have those levels of originality anymore as we either have adaptations of source material, sequels, remakes, reboots…it’s like Hollywood has ran out of original ideas, so let’s go to the retread pool and see what we can dust off to make a quick easy buck.  How this ties into Stranger Things, is that they pull out not just the vibe of the 1980s setting for it’s story, they take what works from that decade and pay homage to it while crafting a story that feels as big as the decade itself.  You’re going to be left on the edge of your seat in anticipation as to how much bigger this universe is.

It’s just not the writing that makes this phenomenal, the acting is as well.  This is the best Winona Ryder has been in quite some time to be honest.  Maybe it’s due to how many clunkers she has starred in over the past twenty years, but this has been the most in character she has come off in years.  Yes, she gets over the top at times in this series with her acting, but think about it.  She has no idea where her kid is and most of the town already thinks she is crazy.  Making her an over the top lunatic absolutely makes sense.  David Harbour also does a great job too as the police officer who keeps getting more and more invested the deeper he dives into this missing child case.  Trying to avoid spoilers in this review since I want every single one of my readers to take the time to watch this show, but it makes sense as to why Hopper gets so invested the further this series goes.  The cliffhanger involving him especially makes me supremely intrigued as to where his character goes in Season 2.  All the kids in this show are fantastic too, since they actually feel like kids acting as kids.  Most of the time, it’s hard to write dialogue for child actors because you need to get into the mindset of actual children.  I fully believe they pulled this off excellently for each and every single child from the main middle school aged boys to the conflicted emotionally strung high schoolers.  But I’d like to highlight one child actor in particular: Millie Bobby Brown who played Eleven.  She was SSSOOOOOO GOOD.  It’s like they were inspired by Charlize Theron’s Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road, not just because of the buzzed haircut.  She was so fantastic from start to finish that you could feel her emotional and physical pain with such little dialogue.  Out of all the adult performers in this series, this girl was the most adult of them all.  Someone in the Emmy committee, please do not overlook this performance when it comes to nominations for the next awards cycle.

From start to finish, I absolutely loved this show.  Some may say that the ending was kind of weak, but I think it’s setting up for even bigger stories to delve into for Season 2 because that’s what this show did so well.  It left me wanting more in the best ways possible.  I’ll definitely have much more to praise about it come year end time when I do my best and worst of 2016 list for all formats of media.  But for now, I’m giving this show a not exactly perfect, but well deserved A+.

Best Episode: Holly, Jolly, The Body, The Bathtub, The Upside Down
Worst Episode: The Weirdo on Maple Street

Hell, when your worst episode is still pretty damn good, you know you have a fantastic series on your hand.  Season 2 please come soon.

Welcome Everyone

Hey everyone.  I’ve tried many times in the past to open my own blogspot, but constantly keep abandoning the idea due to prior commitments with work and not having a real idea as to where I want to go with writing a blog.

Not anymore.  I know my real passion is critiquing and it just doesn’t feel right to abandon this concept entirely.  So with that being said, instead of just talking about film like I have previously done with my blogspots, I’m going to open the window for another form of entertainment: music.  Over the past four years, I’ve started to dive into getting just as serious about critiquing music.  I enjoy analyzing what music has become popular in the mainstream and following the Billboard Hot 100 charts.  Because it is fun to see what music gets popular and to judge it by my own merits.  Coming from a household where I grew up playing instruments in band classes and listening to an assortment of music (mostly country), my passion for music is almost nearly as strong as my passion for film.

What else can I say about film that I haven’t in my previous attempts to launch a blogspot to those of you who have followed me in the past?  I’ve loved movies since I started following the local newspapers when I was 8 to see what movies are in theaters to go see.  I took a multitude of film appreciation, production, and screenwriting courses in high school and in college.  I’ve followed the box office forecasts and prognostics since I was ten.  No matter how many times I try to freelance critique, I know that film will always be at the forefront of what to try and freelance critique in.  Even when I abandoned my past two blogs, I still want to show my love for movies.

I’d like to also add one more format to my reviews.  Due to how good television has gotten in the 2010s with so many memorable series, I’m going to be critiquing tv series now as well.  With all the new formats of viewing television thanks to streaming, I’ll be doing more binge watching and letting people know how I feel about certain episodes that stick out to me or certain television series that pulled my interest.

So let’s get this journey started by explaining my format for blog post updates.

-There will be a weekly song review since those are very easy to write.  With how much I listen to the radio thanks to the distance I drive to and from work, it won’t be hard to write quick reviews of those.

-Not sure as to how my film reviews will work as of yet.  If I see a movie in theaters, I will definitely write a review for it.  But I may or may not do some more film talks.  Whether it be a short post about retrospective films that have been on mind that came out awhile ago or just simply talk about trailers for upcoming new releases.

-Already explained about television and how I’ll go about reviewing that, but just like with films, it will come down to how quickly I can binge watch a series or whether I find a certain episode about a show that speaks to me: good or bad.  Just like with film though, I can definitely talk about retrospectives or upcoming series that peak my interest.

With that being said, expect at least three updates a week.  May be more depending on the amount of free time I have.  May be less if I’m busy with work or life.  Thank you to whoever reads this and/or comments.  I hope you guys enjoy this and let’s keep my fingers crossed that I don’t abandon this again.