Who Stole the American Dream? The Banking Bourgeoisie and Hell or High Water

A Critical Essay on the 2016 film Hell or High Water

Speaks Reviews: Jackie

"Don't ever let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was Camelot."
- Alan Jay Lerner (from the Broadway musical Camelot)

Speaks Reviews: La La Land

Top Ten Movies of 2016 (That I Saw in a Theater)

Say what you will about 2016. It has sucked. The world lost so many great artists. The first week of November in America was especially sure shit. The first week of December was a personal worst for me that saw the passing of my Dad. But the silver lining is:  There were some GREAT movies in what feels like a really solid year for cinema. And going into 2017, I can say, at least, that I have a great family and I have my health. What more should a man ask for?

Speaks Reviews: The Edge of Seventeen

Speaks Reviews: Arrival

Speaks Reviews: Hacksaw Ridge

Speaks Reviews: The Magnificent Seven

Speaks Reviews: Hell or High Water

Speaks Reviews Rants: Suicide Squad

Speaks Reviews Café Society

Speaks Reviews: Jason Bourne

Best of 2016 (so far)

Double Feature with My Wife: Swiss Army Man and The BFG

My wife thinks I'm an elitist movie snob and gets mad at me about it sometimes. Sure. She's willing to go along with my more adventurous side and see something like Swiss Army Man, even though, to her, "it just seems too weird." But I'm the guy who also wanted to see The BFG, a mainstream children's movie directed by Steven Spielberg. I will always see every Spielberg movie. It's a given. But here's what I mean:

On Home Video: Everybody Wants Some!!

I'm pretty sure if I met Richard Linklater, we would instantly hit it off. He just gets it. His first great idiosyncratic comedy, the late-seventies one-nighter Dazed and Confused, served as an inspiration for my and my friends' teenage antics. His new one in that same vein, serves as a sort of "spiritual sequel" to the former, and works for me as a remembrance of college. Seriously, the events of this film are dangerously close to some of my college experiences. Seriously. Just not in as short a succession. (Don't judge me. I was a moron.)

On Home Video: The Witch

I'm a scared little bitch boy when it comes to horror movies. Granted, I was really busy with work when The Witch did its short run in theaters around here, but I could've gone, and I could've gone to see Green Room as well. I ultimately talked myself out of it due to the fact that, well, go back to the top.

Speaks Reviews: The Lobster

"That would be absurd."

Speaks Reviews: The Nice Guys

"You're expecting an angel and you get Richard Nixon."

Speaks Reviews: Midnight Special

 

Midnight Special is the kind of movie that forced me into battle myself in some way. To clarify:  it's one I readily admit (after only one watch) that I admire more than I love, if that makes sense.

I went in on the promise of a Spielberg-esque sci-fi chase film. It pulls, quite obviously, from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, even quite well at times. But what I ended up with was a film that doesn't reach the emotional high of its predecessor. It's missing the connections that Spielberg so perfectly offers in the end. Midnight Special offers an answer to the biggest question (and not much else), but it's an ending that didn't fully work for me, and the things I really wanted more of were left by the wayside. In a way, that's all good and well. This is a Jeff Nichols film. I know that. This in spite of the fact that (I know...I know!) I have never seen any of his previous work.

We're All Animals, After All

A Speaks Movie Review

★★★ 1/2 out of ★★★★