Frailty (USA, 2002)

Nine Things About the Movie Frailty

1. This is one of the most underrated psychological horror movies of all times.

2. It's theatrical release was really only into art houses, and it's still pretty unknown today - probably because the sensitive subject matter and extremely dark undertones keep it from being talked about much.

3. Matthew McConaughey kind of stars in it as a guy named Fenton, but most of the movie is a flashback to Fenton's childhood in Texas, where he lived with his younger brother Adam and their father (played by Bill Paxton, who also directed this movie). One morning, the father tells his sons that he got a vision from God and now he needs to destroy demons. Adam is excited to help his father, but Fenton is much more skeptical. As Fenton learns what his father means by "destroying demons", the three develop a strained relationship.

4.  I can say no more about the plot. The less you know, the better, whether you want to see the movie or not.

5.  The script and the acting are so tight and tense that it manages to be a pretty shocking horror film even though it shows almost no blood.

6. The movie makes some serious statements about religion. It also makes you reflect on family and what you would (and wouldn't) do for them.

7. There are different levels of sadness and horror here, depending on how deep you want to look into the darkness.

8. I've seen the movie four times in the past 13 years and I'm still chewing on the ending. And the title.

9. This is a bold, unflinching contemplation of the terrors of faith and the trauma of childhood. It's a legitimate "hidden gem" of American cinema, and will probably always remain that way.

Empire of the Sun (USA, 1987)

Nine Things About the Film Empire of the Sun

1. This is perhaps the best representation of the loss of innocence ever put on screen.

2.  It's the story of a British boy named Jim (played by 13-year-old Christian Bale in his very first movie) caught between China and Japan during WWII, and how he goes from being privileged and sheltered to being... somebody else.

3. The movie is epic both externally and internally - huge scenes of wartime China juxtapose with huge shifts in Jim's psyche and emotional development.

4. In some ways, this movie can be seen as a modern, wartime interpretation of the story of Buddha.

5. The screenplay was written by the legendary Tom Stoppard, and the movie was directed by the legendary Steven Spielberg. I feel sorry for people that see Spielberg's name and think it's going to be like Jurassic Park or E.T.. This is not a regular Spielberg movie. The partnership between Stoppard and Spielberg results in a film that is densely packed with ideas, allusions, metaphors, and symbols. You can peel it almost endlessly, and find something else to ponder.

6. To really appreciate the context of the film, you have to know some basic history of World War II and Japanese culture.

7. At certain scenes of the film the dialogue drops to a minimum, or even disappears entirely. These scenes are not breaks from the story. They are the real story. The most important ideas in the film are impossible to explain verbally, but must be communicated visually (and musically). They have to move past your talky-brain and deeper into who you are. The "Cadillac of the Sky/bones in the runway" scene is one of my most favorite scenes in all of cinema.

8. The movie is about childhood, death, overthinking things, pragmatism, and the realization that you are not special. The world owes you nothing. You deal with that, or you die.

9. It's impossible to fully explain in words the multi-layered masterpiece of this movie. It's a visually astonishing, existentially profound examination of the beauty and terror of being alive. From a kid's perspective.

Fantastic Four (USA, 2014)

Nine Things About the Film Fantastic Four

1. When it comes to bad movies, there are four main types:
a) Movies that are cheap rip-offs of other movies
b) Movies that are boring or full of generic story ideas
c) Movies that don't understand the topics they're talking about
d) Movies that have stories that just don't make sense
Fantastic Four manages to combine all four of these fantastically bad movie types into one shameful mess.

2. It's basically a rip-off of X-Men - special kids go to school and learn to do cool stuff.  It's about a grade-school kid named Reed, who understands quantum physics. He joins with his junkyard friend Jim and makes a teleporting machine in his garage. Instead of telling anyone, he just saves it and enters it into the high school science fair.

3. Reed and Jim get recruited to a genius school and meet some other kids. Some more stupid stuff happens, and the four kids teleport to a different dimension. When they discover that the ground is unsafe to walk on, they walk on it for a couple miles and then Reed dips his hand into some green lava, which makes the ground explode and gives them all superpowers.

4. The sorriest superhero in the movie is The Thing. For a big tough guy made of boulders, all he does is pout and whine. And the superpowers of the others don't make sense. Like, when Reed gets all stretchy, how come his clothes get all stretchy, too?  When Johnny Storm lights himself on fire, how come his face doesn't get burned off? (And by the way, when he says his catchphrase "flame on" - well, where I come from that means something different).

5.  Like most of these kinds of movies, there are trite sayings like "Separate we are weakest, but together we are strong!" and "We can't change the past, but we can change the future!" There's a fake Einstein quote. There are tons of meaningless sentences that are supposed to sound scientific; my favorite is probably "His biochemistry is off the charts!" The movie should have premiered on SyFy, right before the new Sharknado movie.

6. The kids are all supposed to be around high school age, but the youngest actor is 28. So it's really weird seeing grown adults acting like teenagers.

7. The biggest mystery of the film is the casting. The main four actors are excellent. Michael B. Jordan killed me in Fruitvale Station, one of the best movies of 2013.  Miles Teller starred in Whiplash, one of the best movies of 2014. Kata Mara is excellent in "House of Cards", and I've loved Jamie Bell ever since Billy Elliot in 2000. They must all have played a serious game of Truth or Dare to have been put in this movie. Hopefully the Men In Black will come flash us so that we don't remember this incident in their careers.

8. Every ten minutes or so, the movie does something even more boring or stupid than before. Eventually, the sheer incompetence of the whole thing pressed me into my seat so I could barely move.

9. Will this be the moment where people discover that Marvel tells the same stories over and over again, and they aren't very creative in the first place? Probably not. But the fact that the movie almost put me to sleep is the only thing that partly saves it - this is probably the worst movie of 2015, but I was so bored that I didn't even care.

Killers (Japan, Indonesia, 2015)

Nine Things About the Movie Killers

1. This epic tragedy, filmed as a partnership between Japan and Indonesia, easily wins the award for "feel-bad movie of 2015". It is over two hours of despair, hopelessness, and violence. And a lot of blood. But if you can handle that, it is also perversely compelling.

2. It is really two separate stories connected at one horrible nexus. The first story is about Nomura, a serial killer in Tokyo that records his murders and uploads them onto the internet. The second story is about Bayu, a disgruntled and angry journalist in Jakarta who has a secret obsession with Nomura's snuff films.

3. When a traumatic incident happens in Bayu's life, he suffers a psychotic break; he begins his own series of murders and uploads the recordings to the internet. Nomura contacts Bayu, and their lives begin to mirror each other, in some very unhappy ways.

4. The main thesis of the movie is that there is no point in seeing life as something beautiful and precious, because life is just hell, and there's nothing you can do about it.

5. I had to pause the movie at one point so I could mentally prepare myself for what was going to happen in the next scene.

6. There are are small sub-stories within the main stories, when Nomura and Bayu attempt to deal with relationships that occur in their unhinged lives.

7. The movie is about how it's unhealthy to hold onto the past.

8. It's also about how you can sometimes think you've formed a bond with someone... but you really didn't.

9. Nothing happy occurs in this movie, unless it's to set up something sad later. This is a bleak and bloody meditation on the darkness of humanity. If you think that's something worth exploring, this is one of the most creative stories I've seen - it really commits itself to going the whole way.

Otherwise, go ahead and skip this one.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Nine Things About the Film Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

1. This quirky, funny, sad story is one of the best films of 2015.

2. It's about a high school senior, Greg, who hates himself. He has a "coworker" named Earl, who he has known since kindergarten - but refuses to call his friend. They get to know Rachel, a fellow student who is dying of leukemia (yes, it has a similar theme to 2014's The Fault in Our Stars. But this movie is way better).

3. Greg and Earl have a hobby to make really terrible spoofs of classic movies. Hardcore cinema fans will have fun with this.

4.  I'm still trying to figure out why there are so many references to Werner Herzog in this movie.

5. The movie begins basically as a comedy. But there's an almost unnoticeable emotional slide downward; eventually, things that would have been hilarious 30 minutes before just aren't very funny anymore. A few scenes are funny and sad at the same time, and I wasn't sure how to feel.

6. The movie repeatedly heads towards stereotypical romantic subplots, but then veers into a different direction. There are more important topics to explore than romance here, and the movie takes the time to examine these issues.

7. The movie is about lying, especially to yourself, and why you would even do that.

8. It's about keeping hope alive, and it's about facing reality.

9. The movie blatantly rejects the Hollywood versions of teen dramas. It's very smart, and does a good job of walking the line between genuinely being emotional and just being manipulative. Mainstream audiences may not totally connect with this film. To me, it's an instant classic of kids learning to not be kids anymore.

The Tribe (Ukraine, 2014)

Nine Things About the Movie The Tribe

1. OK, so when you think of major contributions to cinema, you may not think of the Ukraine. Until now. The Tribe is a completely unique film that pushes the boundaries of cinema, and serves as an experiment in human communication. It will be taught in film classes until the end of time.

2. The story takes place at a boarding school for kids who are both deaf and mute. Sergey is a teenage boy who has just arrived, and is immediately targeted by a group of boys. They both bully him and accept him, and he becomes part of the group. This ends up not being good for Sergey.

3. What makes the story so amazing is that the movie is "spoken" entirely in Ukranian sign language. There is absolutely no spoken dialogue, no narration, and no subtitles. There isn't even a musical soundtrack. The only sounds in the entire film are peripheral sounds like footsteps and traffic.

4. Unless you are one of the minuscule percentage of people that know Ukranian sign language, this film is the same for everybody in the world, hearing or deaf. You must concentrate and figure out the story entirely from body language, movement, and the way the movie is filmed. I was both surprised and proud that I pretty much understood what was going on.

5. It's pretty odd to watch people fight and have sex without ever saying anything. But it makes sense.

6. This movie could have ended up being a gimmicky stunt, but it's not. It tells a full story like any other movie, except that all the dialogue between the characters is in sign language. Since you don't know what the characters are saying to each other, some scenes don't make sense until a little later, when you get some more context.

7. The actors are actually deaf, and are just regular people - they are not professional actors. This is obvious in a few of the scenes, which feel a little amateur.

8. Though the movie is about teenagers, it's pretty adult, and contains scenes of fairly explicit sex and violence. It's bleak, both visually and emotionally.

9. Because it takes place in almost complete silence, and it's a drama with no special effects or loud noises, this movie is not for everybody. Some people may find it boring, or even fall asleep from a lack of stimulation. And that's too bad. Reflecting on what the movie does and says, I think it's an amazing work of art that opened my ears to parts of life that I didn't realize I could actually hear.

Ant Man (USA, 2015)

Nine Things About the Film Ant Man

1. This is the second-stupidest of all the Marvel films (Thor is still the stupidest).

2. To its credit, the movie knows it can't be taken seriously, and it tries to have fun with itself for awhile. So it's not a complete disaster.

3. It follows one of the usual Marvel superhero formulas (a super billionaire corporation makes a scientific breakthrough and turns it into a super weapon. It ends up in the hands of a regular schmuck, and bad guys try to get the technology). Which means there is absolutely zero suspense to the story, because we've seen it in so many other Marvel movies.

4. The "scientific breakthrough" is a chemical that shrinks the distances between atoms of things but leaves the original power the same - whatever that means. This chemical is put into a suit that not only shrinks the suit, but anybody in the suit. OK, I admit, I'm actually not sure what the idea is, but I don't think I'm alone - the movie doesn't really want you to pay attention to how or why it works.

5. This movie is a weird mix of superhero movie and heist caper. The heist caper part (which was the first half of the movie) was better than the superhero part.

6. There are several scenes and conversations in the movie that let you know where it fits in the larger Marvel timeline.

7. This movie features another clunky Disney family drama, another smart-ass female sidekick/romantic interest, and some racial stereotypes. In addition, true to Marvel's worldview, lots of things can get destroyed with no actual consequences, human or otherwise (well, unless you need to shoot the helicopter pilot).

8. The acting is pretty good, all things considered. Paul Rudd is a good choice to play such a ludicrous figure; his tongue-in-cheek charm is the right approach for the ex-convict who rides flying ants.

9. The movie starts off being stupid, but kind of clever, so it's actually fun. However, by the time we get to the last 30 minutes of the movie, it has lost its cleverness. It's just stupid.

Terminator Genisys (USA, 2015)

Nine Things About the Movie Terminator Genisys

1. This is the fifth Terminator movie in 30 years.

2. The first two Terminator movies told basically a complete story. Parts 3 and 4 gave an alternate timeline for the first two movies. Terminator Genisys combines all four previous movies to make an alternate-alternate timeline.

3. While technically this is a stand-alone film, in order to really appreciate what's going on, you have to know the first four movies. The plot is very complicated, and makes references to all the other films.

4. The film shows the events that led to the original Terminator film - sending the T-800 to kill Sarah Connor, and sending Kyle Reese after it. But something goes wrong at the last second, and the timeline splits, giving Reese two sets of memories.  He ends up in a different 1984 than he was expecting... and different from what we were expecting, too.

5. Part of the movie recreates the original Terminator from 1984. With some new twists.

6. Like all time-travel movies, this one causes problems for itself, especially considering it tries to absorb all the other time-travelling from the other movies. But it commits itself to the story and doesn't get wishy-washy. Like the other movies, you have to just go with it.

7. Combined with the clever but confusing story, there are some great action sequences. The special effects are impressive.

8. The movie ends with some serious unresolved questions and paradoxes (which Kyle Reese is Sarah going to sleep with? Why was there a T-1000 in 1984 if Skynet and the Resistance were basically leap-frogging each other?  And why did it really start in both 1973 and 2017? Are the alternate timelines weaving through each other?).  This is supposed to be the start of a trilogy, so I'm hoping these will be addressed eventually. But they have a lot of explaining to do.

9. Since I've seen all the other movies, I can say this is my favorite of the series, because of its pure audacity in looping everything together. If you haven't seen the other movies - or don't remember them - this can be fun to watch, but frustrating and confusing to understand.

San Andreas (USA, 2015)

Nine Things About the Movie San Andreas

1. This could have been a fun little piece of disaster porn. Too bad it sucks.

2. The movie basically starts with an earthquake scientist team that thinks they can predict earthquakes by using big vocabulary words (this was made up). When they see signals that an earthquake may hit the Hoover Dam, they don't warn anybody. They just go stand on the Hoover Dam and watch it get destroyed.

3. Super fireman/rescue guy Ray (played by Dwayne Johnson) hears about the destruction of the Hoover Dam and is called in to work, but takes the day off to see his daughter before heading to the disaster site.

4. When the San Andreas fault shifts and the earthquake hits Los Angeles, Ray gives most people the actual, real advice to drop to the ground, cover yourself with a table or up against a wall, and hold on. But he tells his ex-wife to run to the top of a skyscraper and wait for him on the roof so he can abandon his job and pick her up in his helicopter. Then Ray talks to his daughter in San Francisco. When she says she's fine, Ray doesn't tell her to evacuate the city with the rest of the people. He tells her to run back into the earthquake zone, climb a tall building, and wait for him on the roof so he can abandon his job again, fly to San Francisco from Los Angeles, and pick her up in his helicopter.

5. The star, Dwayne Johnson, publicly said that earthquake experts consulted on the film and determined the movie was realistic. This was a lie. Earthquake experts did examine the script but said most of it was crap. The filmmakers ignored the experts and did what they wanted.

6. Earthquakes cannot be predicted. The San Andreas fault isn't the right size to make an earthquake that big. The San Andreas fault cannot make tsunamis. Many buildings in California are built to handle an earthquake, at least long enough to let people escape - they don't collapse like a house of cards. I could go on, but you get the idea.

7. One of the biggest disappointments for me was that the movie was pretty boring. The disaster scenes were fun, but they were only about half the movie. The other half of the movie consisted of Ray and his ex-wife opening up about their feelings, and their daughter falling in love with a random British dude.

8. The screenplay was amateur, the characters were one-dimensional, and the acting was terrible. I cared more about what happened to the buildings than what happened to the people.

9. I went in to this movie with low expectations; I just wanted to see some fun destruction and a halfway coherent story. It turns out that this movie really is a disaster, but not in the way I was hoping.