Mediocre Movie Club Movie Reviews

Dances With Wolves

12/20/2017

B+
3.21

A jaded Union soldier finds redemption amongst the Sioux.

Directed by Kevin Costner
Starring Kevin Costner, Graham Greene, and Mary McDonnell
Initial Review by Jon Kissel

Kevin Costner’s Western Dances With Wolves is a film we’re watching because of its culture clash narrative, but it could’ve fit into a category that was raised on a recent podcast: films that need a reevaluation. The film nerd expectation on this one is tied in with its Best Picture win over the vastly-superior Goodfellas, another example of Oscar voters going for safe over daring or challenging. It’s also got a decidedly non-PC reputation as a white savior, noble savage exemplar. However, where we mentioned on the podcast a movie like 300 getting a downward reevaluation, Dances With Wolves conceivably deserves one in the opposite direction. As far as white saviors go, John Dunbar is nowhere near the most egregious example, and it’s never the winning film’s fault when a more deserving film is passed over for awards. Much of Dances With Wolves is just as moving and enthralling as it was before I knew a movie like Goodfellas existed. It’s hardly perfect, but Costner’s epic is undeserving of the turned-up nose in its direction.

2 Comments

Morris From America

12/12/2017

1 Comment

B
2.89

A young African American and his father try to adapt to their new lives in Germany.

Directed by Chad Hartigan
Starring Markees Christmas and Craig Robinson
Initial Review by Jon Kissel

Chad Hartigan’s Morris From America places an American kid in Germany, but the culture clash it depicts is both less and more specific than just a transplant of continents. Hartigan gets the strangeness that exists whenever a kid goes to a new school, language barrier or not. They like different things and have their own social rhythms, but there’s also the difficulty of getting comfortable in a new crowd and allowing yourself to take part. While that curtain’s up, it’s difficult to let anyone in, especially peacocking teenagers. There’s also the racial aspect that drills down into Morris’ unique circumstances, being a black boy in a society that only knows about African Americans through stereotypes. Morris From America provides a deeply sympathetic look at the isolation and loneliness of a new place while also giving peeks at the kind of euphoria provided by breaking those walls, no matter how fleeting it may be.

1 Comment

The Big Sick

12/5/2017

3 Comments

A-
3.58

A Pakistani-American comedian juggles his conservative family and his white girlfriend's family when she slips into a coma.

Directed by Michael Showalter
Starring Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano, and Holly Hunter
Initial Review by Jon Kissel

Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon recorded a video game podcast from 2011 to 2015 called The Indoor Kids. If you spend hundreds of hours listening to two people talk, you can’t help but develop a sense of familiarity with them, and Kumail and Emily are so endearing on The Indoor Kids that that becomes especially inevitable. Seeing the culmination of their creative careers together with The Big Sick is like watching a friend achieve a long-held goal or produce something incredible. I barely trust my opinion on it.

3 Comments

Dances With Wolves

B+
3.21

Morris From America

B
2.89

The Big Sick

A-
3.58

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Dances With Wolves

B+​3.21

Morris From America

B​2.89

The Big Sick

A-​3.58

Authors

Categories

Archives

B+
3.21

B
2.89

A-
3.58