Hello, friends. In the midst of the beginning of the hectic summer movie season here at Tuesdays with Cory, I’ve decided to go with something a bit different this week, a bit more of a deep cut with a number of blue-chip titles in the near future of this site. I suppose this post can be thought of in a way that’s similar to how people think about cleaning out their inboxes – I say people meaning “people other than me” because of course I never clean out my inbox. Instead, I’m taking the approach of just letting the countless correspondences from adoring fans and Kohl’s clog up my Gmail until I’m inevitably crushed under a cyber-avalanche.
But not here!
I know what you’re all thinking – why not just unsubscribe from the Kohl’s email list? I’ll answer that question with another question: how would I know about the Gold Star Clearance event if I didn’t get a hundred emails a day from them?
Basically I’m going for more of a Buzzfeed-ish thing here where I’ll be running down a short list of some quick-hitting paragraph-long reviews of movies I’ve watched recently that I had at least partially planned on doing full posts about but won’t have the time to write – after all, I feel that they deserve at least some small corner of TWC carved out for them. These are comparatively old or under-the-radar jams, so if that’s not your cup of tea and you’re only here to know about the latest and greatest, you’d best skip out now.
Dealt – I don’t watch documentaries as often as I like, but I had heard about this one while reading YouTube comments of all things. I can’t stress enough that this is something that I don’t recommend. Do as I say, not as I do – but actually don’t do what I say, either. I’m not the boss of you, and I definitely shouldn’t be trusted to give any kind of life advice. Heck, you might not even trust me enough to believe my reviews.
Before anyone asks: yes, Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” is featured in the movie.
Anyways, Dealt is a great documentary on Hulu about Richard Turner, a self-described “card mechanic” who’s essentially a cross between a hustler and a magician. His incredible talent alone is noteworthy, as seen in this video (and many others, I’m sure), but what really makes what he does special – and due a documentary, I imagine – is that he’s also blind. I came into Dealt expecting a semi-lighthearted story about a really really good card magician, but what I got in actuality was an incredibly sobering but simultaneously uplifting story about living, and excelling, with severe visual impairment, and I’d recommend it to magic fans and non-magic fans alike, especially since it’s short and easily digestible.
Coco – Yeah, yeah, I know I’m pretty late to the party on this one, and to be honest, my knee-jerk reaction with it was that it just wasn’t as good as a number of people I had spoken to about it hyped it up to be. In the grand scheme of animated films, it’s of course a great movie – Pixar’s standards seem to remain as high as they’ve always been – but when compared to some of the studio’s other entries, it doesn’t hold up as strongly for me. The music is fantastic – well deserving of the Oscar it received – and the animation is gorgeous as always, but the emotional payload just isn’t on par with the likes of Up, Inside Out, or Toy Story 3 (these are my personal favorites, but frankly a ranking of Pixar’s films probably deserves its own full post at this point). In any case, some of its worthwhile themes are similar to those of Pixar’s other movies (namely, don’t trust famous/important people), and it has a decent amount of good things to say/lessons to teach about death and Mexican culture, so if you can handle an abundance of skeleton-centric gags, it’s worth watching.
Predictable? Yes. Still emotional? Yes.
Wind River – This is a great movie, but it was also a bit more gratuitously violent than I signed up for. Featuring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen in lead roles, it’s one of those indie titles that generated quite a bit of buzz when it premiered at Sundance, but failed to be recognized commercially due to a lack of widespread marketing/box-office release. Following a young FBI agent and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker (named Cory, even) who investigate a murder on an Indian reservation, Wind River is part crime thriller, part Western, and all grit. The strong cast and script do enough to elevate it above other films of the same ilk, and especially considering the typical fare on Netflix – where this can be streamed – you can do a lot worse. But again, definitely put the kids to bed for this one – there are a number of scenes that I had a hard time watching myself.
Why, yes, Jeremy Renner’s character does wear the chest version of a fanny pack pretty much throughout the movie.
Zodiac – This is a movie that in all honesty I had seen once before, but after watching it again on a whim this past weekend I felt I had to give it some kind of credit here. Granted the distinct visual stylings of director David Fincher (The Social Network, Se7en, Fight Club) and featuring a star-studded cast led by Jake Gyllenhaal (soon to be Mysterio, I hear), Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr., Zodiac tells the real-life spellbinding story of Ted Cruz‘s – ahem – the Zodiac killer‘s reign of terror during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in Southern California. Based primarily on the book of the same name by Robert Graysmith – who also serves as the film’s main protagonist – Zodiac tries to unwind and artistically present the abundance of facts surrounding the killer of the same name, all the while asking the question of how the case could possibly have gone unsolved. With legitimate edge-of-the-seat thrills, gripping subtext, unsettling setpieces, and a surprisingly satisfying ending for an overall jarring film about a still-unsolved murder mystery, it’s awfully surprising to me that Zodiac wasn’t even nominated for a single award by the Academy, an institution that often seems obsessed with based-on-true-events stories of this nature. Too dark, I suppose. If it doesn’t seem too dark for you, check it out on Amazon Prime.
Apparently pre-Iron Man RDJ voted for Tricky Dick.
Now that my proverbial cinematic inbox is clean, I can stride confidently into the Summer 2018 movie season. Coming next week: either Deadpool 2 or Solo – haven’t quite decided yet, but stay tuned either way!
Tuesdays with Cory 