Most anticipated movies in 2020

Before I start publishing my best and worst of 2019 lists, here's that time of year again to get excited about what's coming in next year. There's so many wonderful movies on the horizon, including several very anticipated sequels. And my top pick already feels like potential best Christmas gift ever. Here we go:

5 best things I watched this year (so far)

It's August already (what the fuck, right?). While the Oscar season is not yet here I gotta say I don't really care about it this year since my last anticipated movie of the year premieres in 5 days and there's no way in hell Academy nominates anyone from a horror movie. Anyways, there's still 4 months till my end of the year list is completed. I'm sure there's still many interesting movies and TV series to be released this year, but it looks like a sure bet that the three movies I'm about to talk about here will be in my top 10 of 2019. And I also have to feature TV categories in my awards this year, because as you are about to read, TV is officially better than movies this year.

5 reasons I'm really hyped for "It: Chapter Two"

We are now 33 days away from the release of It Chapter Two. Having just rewatched the first movie yesterday and having seen Jade the Orient scene just now, that screened last night along with the re-release of the first movie in USA (as always fuck the rest of the world, right? God bless helpful redditors who uploaded it there) I'm very excited. I'm rooting for this movie to beat the record set by the first one. It's a horror film backed by a major studio, with big budget (and you can really see that budget, the production design alone is lovely) and with a runtime of over 2 hours and 40 minutes. I want it to make so much money and I want it to be good and from the looks of it, it will be

It's time for Tarantino to go away

After suffering through Tarantino's new movie, Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood, an excruciatingly boring trainwreck with editing from hell, I wasn't going to write a review  (and neither is that post one, I only scribbled few words on letterboxd). Tarantino has some of the most rabid, misogynistic fanboys out there and the last thing I want is to have a bunch of incels in my comments section. So on that note - if you wanna call me a cunt, that isn't going to get published here, honey. Maybe it won't happen as they are currently busy harassing Shannon Lee, who was uncomfortable with the portrayal of her father. Apparently that "bitch" "didn't get it".

10 most anticipated movies in 2019

Just like last year I decided to make a list of my upcoming anticipated movies. Granted, a lot of films that I anticipated last year sucked (The Nun...) but number one turned out to be awesome, so fingers crossed for this year too.

Forgotten, underrated and underseen erotic thrillers from the 90's

One thing I don't think I talk enough about is just how much I love the 90's. Granted, I was just a kid back then but I loved everything about it - the music - remember, you could turn on MTV or VH1 and there were actual music videos there? - the clothes, the spectacular hair and the movies that were released back then.

One very distinctive kind of movies we got from the 90's were (mostly) female-led thrillers, usually featuring wild sex scenes, a lot of casual nudity and truly disturbing subject matter. In other words three things we don't see often, if at all, in American movies these days.

Bye, bye Guardians

So this is the hill on which the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy wants to die on.

Good riddance.

Season 2 of Westworld is a huge disappointment

With the largely negative reactions to the finale and the ratings dropping throughout the entire season, people keep comparing what happened to Westworld with what happened to True Detective - great first season, disappointing second season. I actually liked season 2 of True Detective (Rachel McAdams' amazing performance in particular) so this one was an even bigger drop in quality for me. The truth is that this season of Westworld was a massive let down.

10 most anticipated movies in 2018

Can you believe it's only 9 months and 20 days left in this year? This Oscar season lasted so damn long it's already 1/4 into 2018. And as great as last year was, this one is shaping up to be amazing too, with my anticipated Annihilation finally dropping on Netflix tomorrow. So what are the other films I am waiting for this year?

Miss Sloane & Molly's Game

"Depression and anger gave way to blinding rage at my powerlessness over the unfair whims of men"

This month I saw two movies where the lead role was played by Jessica Chastain - terrific Miss Sloane and entertaining Molly's Game. Chastain was Golden Globe nominated for both, missed the Oscar nomination last year and who knows if she makes it next week. I decided to do a double post feature on them, because while it's Molly's Game that is getting attention right now it's a shame Miss Sloane, a much better movie, didn't get the spotlight last year.

"Prisoners" is still so very stupid

(yes, the website is still on hiatus, but my upcoming RF bulletpoint for Prisoners turned into 20-paragraph long rant so yes, we're doing this today)

There is one thing that fascinates me more than what seems like almost universal love for Denis Villeneuve's 2013's assault on brain cells entitled Prisoners and that is the amount of holes in the story of this film. I can only think of two truly atrocious scripts in the recent memory that dragged otherwise promising and well executed films to the bottom of 'what the fuck?' stupidity - this and Interstellar. And this one may actually be dumber than Matthew McConaughey floating around book shelves in space and coding a watch so that Jessica Eureka Chastain solves physics stuff in the future or past or whenever.

No, wait. Nope. Nothing is dumber that that.

I have recently sat through this awfully paced but beautifully shot movie for the third time just to hear Hugh Jackman yell the word "fuck" and look handsome. Don't judge me. At least it allows me to give movies second chances. Or in this film's case second (in March) and third (last Saturday) chance. And in this case proving to me that my initial reaction to it was right on the money.

Medicine in the Movies: The Fountain

Charlene's (mostly) Classic Movie Reviews is hosting a Medicine in the Movies blogathon. The task was to write about a movie where there is some relation to medicine. I decided to focus on Darren Aronosfky'sThe Fountain which is such a beautiful and very underrated movie. The film takes place in the 16th century, in 2005, and in 2500. In the past a conquistador fights in a religious war for his Queen. In the future a man and a tree travel up the sky to reach a dying star. And in the present day storyline a doctor is searching for a cure to save his wife who is dying of brain cancer.

Logan. Our Wolverine.

The strong, silent type. He wasn’t in touch with his feelings. He just did what he had to do.

I always loved Tony Soparno's rants about the archetype of a true man. Someone who simply does the things an honorable man should do, no matter what. Someone who has his own, unspoken code and follows it.

And I can't help but think that Tony Soprano would have loved Logan.

We spent so many years with Logan but not until James Mangold's magnificent film which I have not been able to stop thinking for almost two months now, did we really get to see him in all of his glory. In all of his strong, silent type glory. The ultimate hero, but the hero who feels so very human. In Logan you could take his claws away and it wouldn't change much. In Logan we get to see a hero which is not made extraordinary because of his powers, his claws, or the adamantium covering his bones. We get to see that it is something else that made him so very special.

It's finally time for Harley Quinn!

It's been so long. And in less than a bit more than two weeks we will finally see Harley Quinn on the big screen. A lot has been said on occasion of Batman vs Superman premiere earlier this year about how disgraceful it is that it took so long for Wonder Woman to have her own movie (which is finally happening next year). But what about Harley? Other than short lived TV series Birds of Prey, her appearances in video games and animated series, Harley hasn't been depicted on movie screen, or even referred to, in either of Batman movies released so far.

And now it's finally happening.

Harley Quinn has always been my favorite villain from Batman stories, as you probably noticed even the ratings in my reviews uses the images of her. I find that Batman comic books have the best villains - there is usually so much more to them, some sort of tragic story. They began as good people but because of what happened to them they crossed to the dark side. But Harley's story is a bit more twisted than that.

The ending of The VVitch is one of the most stunning things you'll ever see

I have been eagerly waiting for the movie since I first heard about it last year when the first news and rumors from Sundance started pouring in. I love the horror genre and movies about witches and there is really not enough of the latter. We have one half decent show on TV (Salem) and time and time again someone does new spin on The Crucible. But that's it. There are generic money grabbing uninspired spins on the witches, portrayals of modern witches which are incredibly insulting (how Wiccans were portrayed in season 4 of True Blood) or interesting concepts trapped in a meddled mess (AHS: Coven). So when I heard that there is honest to God (well...) good story out there about witches set in the most fascinating time you can possibly set a story like that in I couldn't wait.

We need to talk about Harrison Ford in "Witness"

OK I'm fairly certain that yesterday I've seen the most beautiful thing ever.

My issues with the treatment of Daisy Domergue in The Hateful Eight

(spoilers!)

The Hateful Eight, Tarantino's eight movie, is a fine film. While it is too long and it's last 60 minutes are significantly better than the first 100, it's still a fine film. It will keep you entertained, it has moments of sheer brilliance (Daisy playing on the guitar comes to mind) and good performances by talented actors, with Leigh stealing the show and Channing Tatum yet again delivering very strong work in spite of short screentime. In spite of a very long running time - nearly 3 hours - the film is never boring. In fact parts of it are really masterful.

Promote, promote your way to that nomination...

Hardy in The Revenant

It was such a beautiful time. When you used to get excited about Awards season, while lying to yourself that people who really deserve the recognition are gonna win, or at the very least get nominated. It is no more for me this year.

Tom Hardy, arguably biggest break out star in 2015, who appeared in 5 different films and one popular TV series did not get a single SAG or Golden Globe nomination this year. That is unpleasant. But the behind the scenes stuff and the fact that HFPA nominated both Mad Max and The Revenant for Best Drama, while ignoring Hardy, whose work is integral to those movies' success, is just ugly.

Sharp Objects, The Girl on the Train, Luckiest Girl Alive - musings on upcoming adaptations

Crime and thriller novels are really almost exclusively what I read. Since last year I was devouring them whenever I had the time and that time, sadly, usually is only July and August. So beginning with Gone Girl I went through many of the hot releases in the genre. Three of those, all three being wonderful books, are being developed into movies. Let's speculate:

12 cinematic and television gems I found because of my actor crushes

My way of watching films? See everything the actor I adore is in. I've recently acquired such obscure stuff with Stephen Dillane that I'm amazed I even managed to find it (and thanks to everyone who helped!). I don't care what imdb rating is. I don't even care what the movie is about. If he is in it, I'll watch it.

It's a technique I employed for years and while I have seen so much shit (Idris Elba really needs to be in better movies, seriously) there are several films which I watched and absolutely adored that I wouldn't have found if it wasn't for my love for that one particular actor who is in it. And almost all of those are completely unknown to the general public, so yet again let me shine a light on these true gems I found, hoping that you guys manage to find them and watch them: