ESJ's Movie Project - Once Upon a Time in ... Your Inbox edition

As I write this, it’s almost midnight on a Thursday, so pardon the short wind-up. But thank you to everyone who replied to last week’s email with suggestions of movies I should watch in the future! The door is always open, so keep your suggestions coming: Just reply to this email and I’ll see it.

‪Having now seen it three times, I’m comfortable calling THE BIG SICK my favorite romantic comedy of the past 20 years. I love the fact that this is a romcom without a villain. There’s no rival love interest who must be defeated, because the incredible ensemble cast, led of course by Kumail Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan, doesn’t need one‬. Every turn of the story is as compelling as it was the first time (and the second).

‪THE GREAT HACK is an ominously scored, lavishly shot recap of the Cambridge Analytica scandal that will work for a casual audience. But I wish it had been harder on Facebook, and told the story through one character chronologically, rather than hopping among several protagonists.‬ I also wonder if its unfocused dramatics will backfire, making people who know just a little less than enough about the story laugh at the real dangers it’s trying to warn us of.

The high school heroics (and villainy) of CHRONICLE are solid, although I think you could make a case that this year’s Shazam! delivered an improved version of the same beats. And the movie’s central gimmick — everything is “found footage,” meaning shot on in-universe cameras — is more implausible than I remembered. Also, the characters are too uneven for me to enthusiastically recommend it. All that being said, there’s a lot of pieces I like here. Maybe fit for a TV remake?

‪ONCE UPON A TIME IN … HOLLYWOOD is a smart and fun Tarantino tale, probably in my top five of his films although it’s been too long since I’ve seen most of them to assemble an accurate ranking. It defies expectations without (too much) self-congratulation, delivers some rewatchable scenes, AND has an excellent soundtrack + a satisfying ending. I don’t think this movie needed to be nearly three hours long, but it is still Recommended.

(new additions in bold)