Spitball Army

watched Oct 21, 2017, spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 8.0 [blu-ray, Netflix] I laughed a lot during this movie. Tom Holland should take advantage of this perfect role while he is still young enough to pull it off well – he’s relatable and believable. Marisa Tomei (as Aunt May?! What?!!!) has the best and funniest moment of […]

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rewatched Oct 15, 2017, spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 8.7 [theater] This movie, by now, has become review-proof. Everyone has seen it, everyone seems to love it, it is funny and romantic and endlessly quotable. So, watching it with a group of people becomes an enjoyable group experience every time. Today’s “group experience” was at […]

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watched Oct 14, 2017, spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 7.7 [DVD, library] How I have lived this long without seeing this classic that is exactly as old as me is a mystery. But, since I have seen countless Westerns since then, seeing the one that so many of them borrow from and imitate is a bit […]

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watched Oct 14, 2017, spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 6.8 [streaming, Netflix] This isn’t a critical appraisal of Kubrick’s work, but a character portrait – told roughly in chronology – through the eyes of his personal assistant/chauffeur. The all-consuming self-focus of Kubrick’s personality is on full display here, yet the interactions have an intimate charm when […]

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watched Oct 14, 2017 spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 6.8 [DVD, library] Torn about what to think of this film. Is its uneven tone purposeful or a result of wanting to be too many things (a portrait of childhood precocity; a morality play; a vigilante thriller; an apologia of single parenthood; a messianic fable) all at […]

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rewatched Oct 13, 2017 spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 7.5 [blu-ray, Netflix] I’m glad to have not seen this as a pre-teen when it was first released. Yet, it’s been at least 25 years since I did first view it, and the emphasis for me has shifted from the episodic backwoods horror to the moral quandary […]

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watched Oct 13, 2017, spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 5.4 [DVD, Netflix] The sea will swallow you whole, says this bleak, grey and miserable little movie, which uses a plaintive and bare minor-key piano & violin score to drive the figurative point home. https://boxd.it/kOtdN

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watched Oct 13, 2017, spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 4.4 [blu-ray, Netflix] This one was a motley motley, with overall good intentions, and sweet with no ambitious message. Which is to say that it seemed to me like a generally inoffensive TV pilot that never made it to its first season, and was remembered by no one. […]

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watched Oct 11, 2017, spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 4.9 [on-demand, TCM] Entertaining, and not as bad as the cheap production value would lead you to believe. This Dracula is a charming social phobic, an Eastern European version of Fernando Lamas, who’s not so afraid of fur balls that he won’t suck the life out of […]

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watched Oct 10, 2017, spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 5.9 [blu-ray] So, when the boy turns into a bear (which is not much of a spoiler), the aspect ratio of the movie switches from windowboxed 1.75:1 (or thereabouts) to a panoramic 2.35:1…signifying what, exactly? The entry into a fantastical world, like the black-and-white to color […]

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