#10- Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical
[Watched on Disney+]
Is it cheating that my #10 of the month is a pro-shot of a Broadway musical? Maybe, but hey, it's pretty damn good. I adore the movie
Frozen and I like Broadway well enough, so because I never get to go to these shows on account of money and distance I like it when a pro shot comes out. The stars here do a great job and the camerawork is pretty incredible. Maybe it's not the most original idea for a movie, but I'm happy it's able to be viewed by anyone now, now I just need one for
The Lion King.
#09-Materialists
[Watched in theaters]
Is it crazy to say I liked this better than
Past Lives? Like, I can agree
Past Lives is probably the better movie, but I found this significantly more enjoyable and watchable without really compromising the emotion. I'll never fall down the Dakota Johnson hate train, nor the hate train for Chris Evans or Pedro Pascal and here, all three of them are great in this sort of love triangle. It's not really a rom-com because there's very little "com" and actually has a really important and serious discussion, but it's still sweet and cute about how love isn't an algorithm and blah blah blah. It's not going to do
Past Lives numbers, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
#08- 28 Years Later
[Watched in theaters]
If we were rating the last act of this movie alone, it'd be number two or three, but unfortunately I found a lot of the first two acts before we get to Ralph Fiennes character pretty tedious and not all that interesting, especially the escort mission with the mom. I don't know why they sidelined Aaron Taylor-Johnson so badly either because between this and
Nosferatu he's actually had some pretty good roles recently (I still love him in
Bullet Train too of course.) This isn't really a horror movie or even a zombie movie in the same way that
28 Days Later or even the incredibly forgettable
28 Weeks Later is, it's more akin to
The Last of Us than a
The Walking Dead, but by the time we hit the third act at the Bone Temple, I was in and I wanted more than that. I'm very excited for January when
The Bone Temple comes out because I want more of that story. Also, the final scene is literally the most "what the hell" out of nowhere ending ever but I kind of loved it, but that may just be my Jack O'Connell goodwill post
Sinners, we'll see.
#07- Elio
[Watched in theaters]
I really enjoyed
Elio way more than I expected to. It still reeks of post-pandemic Pixar, but I've enjoyed more of those movies than I haven't to be entirely honest. This was a really fun and sweet space adventure with a pair of really fun and cute characters and it's a huge disappointment it's doing so poorly in the box office and that Disney let this be the sacrificial lamb to
Lilo & Stitch, but I hope it has the
Elemental effect and legs out because this was a pretty sweet and charming family movie and one I think more people should go see.
#06- Dangerous Animals
[Watched in theaters]
Jai f***ing Courtney is back baby! When Hollywood isn't stuffing him down your throat in every early 2010s production, he's actually a really charismatic actor and his role as this sadistic serial killer who uses sharks as his modus operandi is actually really freaking good. This movie is a serial killer film which can be super generic, but it's also a hostage movie and a single location thriller, and a romance, and a shark movie, and despite all of this it balances out really well into one of the biggest surprises of the year. There is a lot of repetition in the characters escaping just to be caught again that I've seen people complain about, but I found it to just heighten the tension in a really good way. Again, it's not best picture or anything, but I found it to be a shockingly good time and recommend everyone who likes thrillers and killers and sharks to watch it. It also has some great real footage of sharks in there.
#05- Predator: Killer of Killers
[Watched on Hulu]
This was actually way higher on my initial version of this list and I can definitely see the argument that this and #3 should switch places (honestly after posting it probably will but I'm sticking to my guns with this list). This is a really surprisingly good Predator movie that's done by the director of
Prey and the upcoming
Predator: Badlands. The fact we're getting two movies in this franchise directed by the same guy in the same year is crazy, but the fact this was even remotely as good as it was is even crazier. This is an anthology of different people from different times and cultures taking on Yautja predators who come to hunt them and all three stories are wildly different but culminate in a really great final act that I hope we get more of. Honestly another huge surprise that I want more people to go check out.
#04- Shark Whisperer
[Watched on Netflix]
Here it is, the obligatory nature doc that's high up on PerGron's list!
Shark Whisperer is exactly what I want in these documentaries where it focuses less on "cool animal" and way more on conservation stories and the protection of these species. I've been familiar with Ocean Ramsey for a while now and her controversies as well as her conservation efforts and so to see a documentary covering her is pretty interesting. This movie definitely takes the angle of she does more good than harm and honestly that's where I fall too. I mean, she pretty much single handedly pushed for killing sharks to be illegal in Hawaii and also does a lot of good for showing the public sharks aren't monsters (something
Dangerous Animals does pretty well too ironically enough). I found this to be a pretty stellar documentary which is nice because every once in a great while Netflix can actually do it. Definitely one I recommend.
#03- The Phoenician Scheme
[Watched in theaters]
This is Wes at his most Anderson. I can absolutely see where people don't love this movie, but I found it to be super Wes Anderson and just perfectly wacky and absurd without being too difficult to follow for me personally. I agree with the critique that the extended cast feels more like cameos than anything, especially with Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson and Jeffrey Wright showing up for blink and you'll miss it moments, but still I found the core cast of Benitio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton, and especially Michael Cera to be really fantastic characters and the movie was full of fun worldbuilding and globetrotting that I was really into. I like Wes's bigger scale movies like
Grand Budapest Hotel and
The Life Aquatic, so this fit pretty well within that ranking for me. Not my favorite Wes Anderson by any stretch, but a nice addition to his repertoire.
#02- F1: The Movie
[Watched in theaters]
While I had some big surprises this month, none was more so than
F1: The Movie. I do love
Top Gun: Maverick much like the rest of the world, it was my favorite movie of 2022 and it's just a rip roaring good time, but I have very little interest in F1 as a sport and the whole filming from the vehicle seemed like a one trick pony that was already done in
Maverick in planes so why would race cars be better, but man did I have a great time with this movie. No, it's not as good as
Maverick and the story itself is pretty standard sports drama, but Brad Pitt is one of the coolest actors out there, Kerry Condon is a consistently great presence in everything she's in, Damson Idris is a great up and comer, and yeah, the cinematography, editing, and score here are some of the absolute best. Do not miss this movie on the biggest screen possible and if you have a D-Box or a 4DX that's still showing this and not
Jurassic World: Rebirth right now, run, not walk, to check it out.
#01- The Life of Chuck
[Watched in theaters]
There's no question in my mind what my number one of the month was though, it had to be
The Life of Chuck. I'm such a Mike Flanagan fan I'm gonna call myself a Stanagan. Everything about this movie worked for me between the three separate acts told backwards, the performances from everyone but especially Mark Hamill, the amazing dance sequence that may be the best one I've seen in a film maybe ever? This movie was brilliant, emotional, and just overall amazing, plus it ended with a Gregory Alan Isakov song the same way my beloved
Haunting of Hill House did, so extra points for that. Just a must watch movie if you love film because that's what this is.
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Well, July is in full swing and I'm excited to catch
Jurassic World: Rebirth either tomorrow or Saturday even if it's getting mixed reviews because I'm a sucker and I just like dinosaurs. Of course I'm also looking forward to a ton of new releases including
Superman, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Fantastic Four: The First Steps, Eddington, and
Happy Gilmore 2, plus who knows what surprises we may get. Until then, I'll see ya around but don't forget to check out
@TheOriginalTiki and I in a few weeks when we do our halfway breakdown and nominations for this year's Golden Tikis once Superman comes out!
...) It's pretty obvious that Elio's story shifted around a lot in late stage development hell, but unlike The Good Dinosaur I think a really lovely little movie comes out of that mess. Elio himself starts out as basically just "male Lilo", but I really like how much he's thinking on his feet throughout the space plot which results in one of the better uses of the "liar revealed" trope. Brad Garrett is one of the better Pixar villains we've had in a while, and the environments and ESPECIALLY the music are as masterful as ever.
