JoeMama's Movie Reviews

  We Live in Time Starring Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield, Adam James, Marama Corlett Directed by John Crowley Many times when we see a bad movie, we say that the actors did a decent job with the limited script they were given. They gave it their all but in the end the movie just wasn't that good. I'm not saying "We Live in Time" isn't good, but the script could've devolved into sappy Hallmark style romance with manipulative tugs at your heartstrings when the other shoe drops. However, when you get two of this generation's most acclaimed and naturally talented actors - and the script that doesn't follow the generic linear narrative - you've got a movie that doesn't deserve to be so good, but it is. One night, Tobias Durand (Andrew Garfield) is hit by a car on the road, and while in the hospital he meets the driver, Almut Bruhl (Florence Pugh). The two strike up a friendship which eventually leads to romance, and the two fall deeply in love with

Here Starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly Directed by Robert Zemeckis There's many times where I think about a place and wonder about its history. What existed there before? What will be in the future? I think about this a lot thinking about the place I grew up, and all the memories I had there - the good, the bad, and the mundane. What existed in this space before we built our home here? What will be here once we go? What are the memories we'll carry on? In a way, "Here" is a film that we see on screen about made-up characters living in one space in time in the past, present, and future - but in another way, it's a reflective look inside ourselves and the memories we have in the places we've lived in. After the meteorite destroys the dinosaurs, and the Native Americans lived on the land, the home of Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son William is constructed. Later, a house is built across from it, and it becomes inhabited by numer

Anora Starring Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian Directed by Sean Baker Every year there's "that" movie, the film that everyone praises and hypes up beyond conception, a film that is said to earn all the awards and will make a household name out of its lead. More often than not they're right, but there's other films that garner this much praise but falls short of the high expectations placed upon it. "Anora" is no such film. It's more than deserving of the accolades it's been receiving, and while Mikey Madison was already a somewhat established name, this film takes her talent to the stratosphere and easily creates a new leading lady rivaling the likes of Florence Pugh and Saoirse Ronan. Anora "Ani" Mikheeva (Mikey Madison) is a high-priced stripper working at a well-established club in New York City, when she's told by her boss to cater to a young Russian man because of her knowledge of the language.

Your Monster Starring Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster Directed by Caroline Lindy Everyone knows "Beauty and the Beast," the classic fairy tale-turned Disney animated movie-turned Disney live action movie about a young girl who falls in love with the titular beast and her love brings him back to humanity. It's sweet, emotional, and heartfelt, and of course that concept has been remade for the modern area again and again, and "Your Monster" is one such film, a movie that follows in the iconic film's footsteps but provides modern wit and humor while maintaining the heart. Laura Franco (Melissa Barrera) is a girl struggling to live. She's been diagnosed with cancer, and her longtime boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Donovan) - who's a playwright and whom she helped pen his latest play - dumps her in the middle of it. Her only friend Mazie (Kayla Foster) is oftentimes absent, and she's resorted to moving into her mother's old home

Don't Move Starring Kelsey Asbille, Finn Wittrock, Moray Treadwell, Daniel Francis Directed by Adam Schindler & Brian Netto If a woman is paralyzed in the woods and chased by a killer falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound? While in real life this sort of scenario is terrifying and haunting, "Don't Move" takes away any tension, dread, suspense or excitement and replaces it with mundane, generic moments that you've seen in numerous films like this, where all of a sudden everyone and their mother makes the stupidest mistakes possible (and other people will use the excuse that this would happen in real life too, and I call BS on that). It's surprising that this by-the-books film wasn't just directed by two people, but written by two people as well - it's like the running gag with Beyonce's "Run the World (Girls)" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," where Beyonce's song involving repetitious words was

Saturday Night Starring Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cooper Hoffman, Willem Dafoe Directed by Jason Reitman "Saturday Night Live" has been a television staple for nearly fifty years, and it's hard to imagine the television landscape without it - but it almost never came to fruition. It took a lot of luck and skill to make it happen, and only through the revolutionary lens of Lorne Michaels was it able to be achieved, even by the skin of his teeth. On October 11, 1975, Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) arrives at the NBC building to prepare for his show, "Saturday Night," which would air in ninety minutes. A live sketch comedy act, the show seemed a mess from the start - the actors run amok, there's no script, the sets appear unsafe, and everyone is running around like crazy. Michaels tries to maintain control with his boss Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) who tells him that NBC wants them to fail because they make more money airing reruns of Johnny Carson, b