Morgan

I wanted to like this more, especially with this cast, but I found everything that happened to be so predictable. This was very by-the-numbers, even the direction felt retread. The acting was indeed excellent, but this was just okay for me. 3/5

Morgan on Netflix

Anomalisa

It's been a long time since I've seen anything by Charlie Kaufman. The last film of his I saw was "Synecdoche, New York", which I found altogether too strange and off-putting. But this film, this Kaufman let unfold slowly like a rose, one perfect petal at a time. It took a full hour for the true nature of the plot to be revealed, and I was stunned and very affected by it. It's wholly original in the way that his first film "Being John Malkovich" was. It's amazing and tremendously tragic and I will remember this one for a long long time. If you've given up on Kaufman, please do watch this one - you will not be sorry. 5/5

Anomalisa on Netflix

The Hateful Eight

Oh dear. If I hadn't seen "Inglourious" or "Django" I might be tempted to be done with Tarantino after this god awful mess. This was needlessly long, gory for no real point, crass, and just plain annoying. I lost count of how many times I heard the "n" word, most of the time just for shock value and not to further the plot. By the end of the first hour I was rolling my eyes at how ridiculous a story this was. By the end of the second, I was exclaiming out loud. By the end I was just cursing Tarantino for being so utterly self-indulgent at the sake of what could have been a decent movie if it had an editor and a much better writer. The actors were all great, but that's to be expected. Oh, and only Kim Ki-Duk gets to write things like "The 8th film by" before the title. Tarantino gets maybe one more shot from me before i toss him on the same pile I threw Malick a while back. Ugh. 2/5

The Hateful Eight on Netflix

Kill Your Darlings

The entire cast is brilliant in this marvelously decadent drama about Ginsberg's early life. Wonderful. 4.5/5

Kill Your Darlings on Netflix

The Jacket

Adrian Brody is wonderful in this thriller but the plot feels a bit flimsy for most of it. Good, not great. 3/5

The Jacket on Netflix