Happy April, everyone!! It’s still quite cold here in Minnesota but I’m looking forward to more daylight in the Spring time. Temps are s-l-o-w-l-y warming up to 50s, hopefully even 60s by mid-April!
Things have been quite busy for me this month that I haven’t had time to watch as many movies as I had hoped. It’s all good though, I’m actually planning on an exciting event relating to my passion project Hearts Want… which hopefully moves the needle in the feature film development. I know some of you have seen the short film, but if you haven’t, it’s available to watch on Amazon Prime 😉
Ok, now on to the movie report…
I only watched 10 new movies + and 1 rewatch but I did watch some new series and finished an entire season of one of them.
Mothering Sunday*
Review to come
Tall Girl2*
Review to come
The Adam Project
Turning Red*
Book of Love*
I actually haven’t finished this but I haven’t given up on it, yet. I quite like Sam Claflin and so far this rom-com’s got enough going for it that makes me want to know how it ends.
Deep Water
The Outfit
Embrace The Panda* doc
Thanks to Joe Scott who invited me to be a guest on Downlow.d podcast, I immediately watched this 45-min documentary about the making of Turning Red on Disney+. It’s such a delightful film that’s entertaining, eye-opening, and inspiring… I love the female camaraderie of the crew and the sheer creativity in bringing this wonderful idea to life. I posted the trailer in this post, I definitely recommend it if you like the movie!
The Lost City
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Review to come
52 Films By Women pledge
Movies indicated with * (asterisk) indicate those directed by women.
I saw four films by women this month, well 4.5 as I haven’t finished Book Of Love, yet. So I saw 15 films so far this year… definitely on track to complete this challenge!
TV SERIES
The Gilded Age – HBO Max
I actually helped produce a short film set during the Gilded Age called Master Servant so naturally I was intrigued by the premise and historical setting. The show is apparently conceived as a spin-off prequel of Downton Abbey by its creator Julian Fellowes. It certainly was addictive, even my hubby was into it. Can’t wait for season 2!
Moon Knight – Disney+
I got access to the first four episodes and really enjoyed them! Bummed there are only 6 episodes total, I’d be on board for watching more seasons of Oscar Isaac’s mythical spy adventure, even a movie!
Slow Horses – AppleTV+
I’ve posted the trailer a few weeks ago. I LOVE the premise of a bunch of bumbling spies who have made some blunders in their career that they’re practically demoted in MI-5’s dumping ground known as Slough House. Two episodes in so far and it’s definitely funny but also quite suspenseful.
REWATCHES
THE BATMAN
My hubby and I decided to rewatch The Batman as we wanted to see it in a theater with Dolby Cinema. I still enjoyed it but it felt much longer the second time around, so my quibbles about this one I stated in my review still stands. I stand by my current Batman movie ranking as well, as this latest one is definitely not as good or rewatchable as Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
MARCH MOVIE(S) OF THE MONTH
Everything Everywhere All At Once | Turning Red
It’s only March but it’s been a good year for Asian representation so far in Hollywood. Drive My Car won Best Foreign Language Oscar earlier this week and we’ve got an animated feature Turning Red AND a genre-bending Everything Everywhere All At Once. Not only are all of these have filmmakers of East-Asian descent at the helm, but they also feature mostly East Asian cast. But of course, inclusivity alone does not make a good movie. These are all well-written and well-acted movies that are wonderfully crafted, unique, and original, while still encompassing universal themes anyone of all backgrounds can relate to.
Stay tuned for my full review of Everything Everywhere All At Once coming next week!
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
Tall Girl 2? Oh boy….
I think The Batman was the best film I saw last month, that wasn’t National Lampoon’s Vacation which I think is and always will be… the greatest road movie…. ever.
I actually enjoyed Tall Girl 2 more than I thought. I never saw the first one though.
Been ages since I saw National Lampoon’s Vacation but it’s definitely a classic.
I heard the first one is AWFUL.
Yeah, that’s what I heard too. But it likely won’t be as awful as the abomination that is The Kissing Booth 2 [shudder], I only saw it because I was checking out Maisie Richardson-Sellers for casting purposes. I fast forwarded SO much of it as I could barely finish the whole thing.
I’d really like to see Everything, Everywhere, All At Once and Mothering Sunday. I hope my theaters get them.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once opens April 8 in Mpls, I’m sure it opens wide everywhere else too. Not sure about Mothering Sunday but I don’t think that’s one I’d see in the theater.
I saw more films last month than usual. I caught up on some of the films I missed last fall/winter, watched West Side Story, Nightmare Alley, The Protege and Scream. Also, watched a pretty cool action flick on Netflix called Black Crab. My favorite film of March/year is The Batman, I actually liked it even more the second time around. I wanted to see it again for the a third time but the 3 hours runtime is too much. I’ll just wait to get it on 4K Blu-ray.
For TV shows, currently watching the new seasons of Snowfall, Picard and Billions. I have one episode left of Foundation, decided to finish it since I’ve invested my time on it. Not sure if I’ll watch season 2, the show creators needs to fix a lot of things that didn’t work on season one. I appreciate their effort to stay true to the source materials as close as possible but what worked on the books doesn’t mean it will work on the screen. They need to take some liberties with source materials.
What did you. think of Nightmare Alley, Ted? Hmmm, I haven’t heard of Black Crab, now I gotta check it out.
Gosh I’m SO sorry I kept forgetting to post your review of Snowfall! I’ll do that later this month and also your list post, thank you!
Yeah, Foundation is absolutely beautiful to watch but narratively is pretty weak. It’s too bad as. the subject matter is intriguing, but it doesn’t translate too well to the screen or like. you said, maybe the show runners should take more liberties w/ the source materials.
I liked Nightmare Alley, it’s a bit too long, seems to be the trend in Hollywood films lately, someone needs to tell these directors to edit out some unnecessary scenes.
Black Crab stars Noomi Rapace, it’s a Swedish production. It’s about a post apocalyptic world where a huge war broke out in that nation, it’s kind of bit too close to reality considering what’s going between Russian and The Ukraine right now.
Ha ha, no worries about Snowfall post. I think I’m one of the few people that actually watches that it regularly. Hopefully, once the show is done, more people will discover it.
I think films are getting so ridiculously LONG these days, I don’t get it… are editors on strike or something??
Oh ok I think I saw the trailer of Black Crab the other day, I thought the same thing about it being too close to home but I do like Noomi in action movies.
I’ll post Snowfall this month, I promise. So sorry that one fell thru the cracks.
The Batman and Spider-Man: No Way Home are the two films that contains every scenes that appeared in their trailers. That doesn’t happen often or at all in previous years, typically some scenes in the trailers won’t make it into the final films. But it seems studios are letting these directors keep their first or second cut. I just read that the new Doctor Strange will be close to three hours!
My favorite movie in March and probably in 2022 so far is You Won’t Be Alone. Review coming soon. Otherwise, I thought the 2nd season of Raised by Wolves was an improvement over the first, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was a disappointment, The Batman was even better for me on 2nd viewing…
Your review made me want to see You Won’t Be Alone now, I wasn’t anticipating it before. Raised by Wolves is the one produced by Ridley Scott on HBO right? I’m curious about that one.
Yes that’s correct. Very strange series indeed. Another movie I saw was KIMI which I thought was good. The HBO series Station 11 started out promising but sort of ended kinda meh. It had its moments though.