Elf

Elf is a story of a man raised as an elf, working in Santa’s Workshop, in the North Pole. After he discovers that he is human, he decides to travel to New York City to locate his biological father. 

The movie came out in 2003 but visually holds up. I thought that the plot was easy to follow and wrapped up nicely in the end. I liked the themes surrounding taking a chance and stepping outside your comfort zone, having positivity through all of the negativity around you and the importance of spending time with loved ones.

I was surprised to see Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage, in this movie. His role was prior to his well known character, Tyrion Lannister, and a major step away from that iconic role. In regard to the acting from the rest of the cast, I think that everyone, for the most part, was subdued and very one dimensional. Perhaps that was because they couldn’t be out shown by Will Farrell. His character, Buddy, was extremely extroverted, easily excitable, childlike and full of positivity. I know the juxtaposition of his age and height compared to his behavior was supposed to be funny but it just made me uncomfortable. Farrell’s portrayal was so over top that I couldn’t relate and I didn’t find it funny.

I thought that the plot wasn’t very realistic and that script was corny. I imagine this movie plays better for kids than adults. With that being said, I know this is a classic Christmas movie that some watch religiously, this time of year, but in the end it wasn’t for me.

The Irishman

The Irishman is a typical Martin Scorsese gangster drama starring his go to collaborators, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. It is based off of the book, I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa by Charles Brandt. It is a loose biography on the life of Frank Sheeran, played by De Niro, who is an Irish meat truck delivery man who is recruited into the Italian mob. The movie covers a pretty vast time frame starting in the 1950s. 

What attracted me to this movie was the high profile cast and director. I think that all of the actors in this movie are great. I also thought that the plot was interesting, since I didn’t really remember a lot about Jimmy Hoffa.

I had some issues with the cosmetology. They tried to do some movie magic to make the actors look 30-40 years younger in the flashback scenes but I wasn’t buying it. I think that the aging makeup that they did was way better than their attempts to turn back the clock on these older guys. Physically, they also struggled emboding younger characters. A scene where this really stood out to me was early on the in the movie De Niro had a fight sequence. He was supposed to be a man in his 30s but it was painful to watch because he had the young makeup and hair but was fighting like an old guy. Even the way he walks, it was not the way a young man walks.
In another scene, Joe Pesci’s character, is supposed to be about 20 years older than De Niro’s, but in real life they are the same age and the makeup didn’t give enough distinction in age, so when he calls him kid it’s almost hilarious since they look about the same age. I think the casting director should have just had younger guys in those scenes.


Another place where I think this movie went wrong was over doing it with all of the type cast actors. Robert De Niro, Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa, Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino, and Boardwalk Empire’s Stephen Graham and Bobby Cannavale as Skinny Razor have all played this type of tough guy, gangster so many times now that I wasn’t really excited to see any of them on screen. I came into this movie hoping that I would get some variety from this talented bunch but I ended up getting a lot of the same.

Additionally, the timeline wasn't super clear. The only thing that gave you a bit of a hint was that you could see them ageing a little bit and there were some historic pin points, but other than that, you never really knew what year you were in.

In the end, this movie was 3 ½ hours long which I thought was unnecessary. The plot was slow moving and the script was super dialogue heavy with a lot of moving pieces and characters so it was hard to keep up. Because of this, I became board pretty early in; this one was a waste of time and I am glad I didn’t spend my money to see this in the theater.

Hustlers

Hustlers is a drama based on the true story of four strippers who flipped the game on its head by swindling large sums of money from shady Wall Street men in the early 2000s. Inspired by the New York Magazine article that went viral, this movie stars Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu.

I thought that the plot was interesting especially since it was based off of real life events. With a female director it did give this movie a different, more female driven, possibly more tasteful perspective, than if it were directed by someone else. There were also a couple of comedic moments that helped to break up the monotony.

The character development was good enough to where you actually wanted to side with the criminals at certain points and could understand their individual struggles. Additionally, the acting was pretty good all around. I thought that Lopez did a great job committing to the character and it was refreshing seeing both her and Wu in these unconventional roles. I liked how all of the women were resourceful, smart and driven. I also enjoyed the cameos from famous musicians like G-Easy, Usher, Lizzo and Cardi B.

This movie has received a lot of Oscar buzz and even though I thought that the movie was good I didn’t think it was Oscar worthy. There was something missing for me to fully jump on to that bandwagon. To me this movie would be okay to watch at home but not worth spending time and money at the theatre.