To wrap up my Passion Blog postings, I decided that instead of watching a new movie, I would look back on the highs and lows of this semester’s viewing experience, and divy up some awards. Best Acting Performance: Prisoners This award goes to the first movie of the semester, Prisoners. Admittedly, the film has a … Continue reading A Semester In Review
Spoilers for Nightcrawler ahead… Plot Synopsis Nightcrawler follows the ambitious yet twisted freelance journalist named Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) who wants nothing more than to rocket to the top of LA’s newsroom power structure. He becomes a “nightcrawler”, someone who listens to a police scanner in order to film the aftermath of crimes when they … Continue reading Nightcrawler: A Sprawling Character Study
Spoilers for Gone Girl ahead… Plot Synopsis Based on the bestselling book by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl covers the twisting tale of Nicholas Dunne (Ben Affleck) and his missing wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike). Immediately after her sudden disappearance, the police and nationwide media suspect Nicholas, heightened by increased life insurance policies, affairs, and severe credit … Continue reading Gone Girl: Murderous Marriage Story
Spoilers for The Notebook ahead… Plot Synopsis: Two lovers, one from a working family and one from a rich one, fall in love in the deep South, but break up when the wealthy girl named Allie, fails to get her mother’s approval. The pair reconnects years later, after Duke had served in the war and … Continue reading The Notebook: Overdone and Overrated
Spoilers for Knives Out: Glass Onion ahead… Plot Synopsis: World renowned detective Benoit Blanc is summoned to a remote island of billionaire entrepreneur Miles Bron, where several of his friends have also gathered to take part in a staged murder mystery dinner. One of the guests in attendance is Andi, Miles’ ousted business partner. The … Continue reading Glass Onion: A Social Comedy Dressed Up as a Mystery
Spoilers for Shutter Island ahead… Plot Synopsis: U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his detective partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) travel to the remote Shutter Island for the criminally insane after the escape of a woman, child murderer, serial killer. As soon as they arrive, however, it’s clear something is deeply wrong about the island. … Continue reading Shutter Island: An Homage to Films Past
Spoilers for Barbarian ahead… Plot Synopsis Barbarian (2022) starts out as a horror movie about a girl named Tess (Georgina Campbell) who is double booked in a Detroit AirBnB with an unsettling stranger named Keith (Bill Skarsgård). The movie takes a sharp right turn when Tess discovers a hidden room in the basement of the … Continue reading Barbarian: A Feminist Horror Flick?
Spoilers for Prisoners ahead… Plot Synopsis Prisoners (2013) starts off with the random abduction of two young girls in a rural Pennsylvanian town. The lead detective Loki (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), quickly narrows in on an intellectually disabled young man who lives with his aunt, due to his RV being parked outside the girls’ home. … Continue reading Prisoners: An Ambitious (and Mostly Successful) Mindbender
Introduction When I was growing up, we didn’t watch a lot of television. We didn’t have any streaming services, and my television was kept in a cabinet with two heavy oak doors, closed for most of the day. It was perhaps for this reason that even after my dad got Netflix and a DVD player, … Continue reading Start of a Saga: Clarissa’s Passion Blog