THE OPTIMIST - MOVIE REVIEWS

       The buzz surrounding La La Land has been palpable and infectious. From the trailers I found myself interested, but the insane amount of positive feedback and whispers of possible golden statues in its future placed La La Land from a "I'll get around to seeing it" level to a "I've got to just see this thing already!" state of mind. I'm literally forty-five minutes removed from seeing the movie as I type this and I've got to say right off the bat that this movie is fantastic. I didn't want it to end, and when it did, the bubbling brew of emotions in the cauldron of my soul cried out for more! (A bit over the top? Deal with it. It's that good!). As a love letter to Hollywood, old-time film-making, and the power of a musical, La La Land will sweep you off your feet, place you gently down while caressing and tugging at every emotional string your body entails.    Writer/director Damien Chazelle, a mere rookie in the world of featu...

   As the year comes to a close, movie theaters become chalked full of great films to experience as a new year of possibilities gets ushered in. This is awards season, and films vying for the gold are spewing into the cinemas at an alarming rate. That's not to say there haven't been award-worthy films earlier in the year. It just seems like there's always a push towards the year's end. One of these films of which I speak is the Denzel Washington-directed Fences . Based on the screenplay and original play written by August Wilson, Fences tells the story of an African-American father named Troy (played by Washington) who struggles with race relations in the United States while trying to raise his family in the 1950s and coming to terms with the events of his life. It is a harrowing, heavy tale that is unlike any film to have come out this year. The movie itself plays out like a stage production, relying on the rhythm and poetry of August Wilson's words mingled wit...

     From director Morten Tyldum, who gave us the thrilling Oscar nominated film The Imitation Game , comes a romantic sci-fi adventure that is highly entertaining, yet falls just short of being spectacular. Passengers is one of those films that has a fun premise, great execution, but then suffers from a classic Hollywood trope of making sure there are explosions in any movie with an inkling of action, ultimately taking away from what was working well to begin with. As the movie went along I kept thinking to myself "Man, this is REALLY good!" But as the third act began, it gave way to some interesting narrative choices, ultimately skewering the possibility of true greatness. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed this movie a lot for reasons I will expound on, and I highly recommend seeing it.     Passengers is set sometime in our future. There is a company that has monopolized the business of colonizing other planets and offers the opportunity for...

   If you were to ask me if I was more excited for either The Force Awakens or Rogue One , I don't know if I could answer you. The Force Awakens rode heavily on the nostalgia factor and for that reason alone it garnished loads of anticipation from both me and everyone else in the world. With Rogue One we enter this new realm of the Star Wars legacy in that for the first time we have a Star Wars movie that isn't a saga episode, nor does it focus on the Skywalker family soap opera. Rogue One is something new, something fresh, and it's bloody brilliant. I went into this movie with heated anticipation to see just how much this movie connected with the established narrative. Instead I found myself focused on the characters and the story presented, allowing the minor callbacks to past films to garnish the zesty meal of a movie before my eyes. Rogue One will surprise you, it will tap the Star Wars nostalgia button deep down in your psyche, and then gut-punch you with such ...