Brie Larson's Directorial Debut Unicorn Store Is A Totally Unique Delight

Unicorn Store is all about Kit (Brie Larson), a young artist who is struggling with the whole conventional grown-up routine. Her relationship with her parents, Gladys (Joan Cusack) and Gene (Bradley Whitford), is a bit strained, her art is constantly looked down upon and she feels like she's not living up to what her peers have accomplished. Seeking to correct this, she receives a job making copies of old magazines at a standard advertising agency. It's the kind of normal grown-up job she's typically avoided, but Kit has decided now is the time to put away childish things. At least, that's what she thinks until she gets told by The Salesman (Samuel L. Jackson) that she has the chance to own her very own unicorn.

Captain Marvel Has A Great Mixture of Cosmic Weirdness And Character-Driven Poignancy

Remember how twelve years ago Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer turned Galactus into a gigantic cloud because the prospect of doing a comic book accurate version of the gigantic space God in a purple hat was apparently too goofy for a live-action movie? Well, welcome to March 2019, where the modern cinema scene is so immersed in oddball comic book cosmic details that Captain Marvel can open, with no introductory text crawl or some expository voice-over narration, with its titular lead superhero living a day-to-day life on the alien planet Hala under the names Vers while Academy Award nominee Jude Law portrays her mentor who talks about the "Kree Supreme Intellegence" and warns his pupil about the dangers of shape-shifting Skrull aliens.

The Glass Castle Is Admirable For Its Thematic Aspirations And Is Less So In Its Execution Of Said Aspirations

At the dawn of this decade, the general populace mostly knew Brie Larson as Envy Adams in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and as a recurring heavy presence on the Showtime drama United States Of Tara. In the years since though, she's starred in a number of acclaimed motion pictures hailing from all sorts of genres, won an Oscar and been cast as a Marvel superhero. Perhaps the movie that really helped her start her ascension to movie star was the 2013 drama Short Term 12, an outstanding feature full of lovable characters and an emphatic spirit that made human beings out of its troubled characters. She reunites with that films director, Destin Daniel Cretton, for the new drama The Glass Castle, which, sadly, is a major step down from the quality of Short Term 12.

Human Beings Helping Other Human Beings Is The Crux Of The Beautiful Short Term 12

I tend to think of myself as a Timely Timothy, but man, I can also be such a procrastinator if I don't keep my innately lazy tendencies in check. Delaying stuff I need to get done has come back to bite me plenty of times, but man, I feel like a real loser for managing to put off watching the 2013 indie drama Short Term 12 for so long. Once I missed this one's theatrical release, it somehow slipped off my radar over the past few years despite constantly hearing quite positive things about it. Well, I managed to rent it from the library a while back and finally finally finally watched it and oh my God, I am filled with an incredible amount of regret in regards to not watching this movie much sooner than I did.

We Didn't Start The (Free) Fire, It Was Always Burning Since The Bullets Were Firing

I've never been much of a gun guy in my everyday life (even as a Texan, a Cabella's store is more puzzling than enticing to me) but I never have an issue with gun-oriented movies, especially when they're top quality like the John Wick films or the first and fourth Die Hard movies (the two best ones in that franchise....come at me internet!). Ben Wheatley's Free Fire doesn't reach those heights of quality but still manages to be some solid grisly fun. It's a shoot-em-up that keeps things simple (maybe a little too simple), confined and directly fixated on two things: over-the-top characters and bullets flying everywhere.

70's Tinged Monster Mayhem Turns Out To Be A Lot Of Fun In Kong: Skull Island

Far too often, remakes and reboots find themselves being merely repeats of the original films they're attempting to remake and/or reboot, to the point where you're left wondering "Why did they even remake this? Couldn't I have just stayed home and watch the original movie instead?" Thankfully, the newest King Kong adventure, Kong: Skull Island, avoids being just a rehash of well-known moments from past Kong movies. No Empire State Building, dinosaurs, movie crew or "Twas beauty that killed the beast" to be found here, much to my personal happiness. Instead, we get an all-new period setting, story and group of characters to follow, though they do retain the loveable nature of Kong himself, of course.

Marvel Studios Brought A New Doctor Strange Trailer, Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 Footage And Captain Marvel Casting To Comic-Con!

Well now, this past Saturday certainly was a fun one for geeks everywhere, huh?

Room Review

Note: Normally, my reviews are as spoiler-free as possible. However, for this review, I will be discussing plot points from later portions of the film that could be described as spoilers in the conventional sense, though the plot turns are revealed in the trailer for the film. Don't worry, I don't go into excruciating detail on such elements of the story, but this is one film where going into it cold might be the best option. Just know that I found Room to be great if you don't want to read my super mildly spoilery review.

Room proves to be a far more harrowing experience than the majority of modern day horror films, simply by having its entire premise hinge on a situation that all too tragically occurs in reality. The fact that its entire concept stems from a more pragmatic source already adds a disturbing undercurrent to its diegesis. Such a connotation would likely bend and crack underneath the weight of poorly developed characters, but luckily, Room goes through great and commendable strides to ensure that its two lead characters are the most engrossing parts of the entire production.