Irrelevant But Awesome

Alexa:  I went into “Foo Fighters - Back and Forth” with virtually no expectations. I didn’t know much about the band beyond the fact that Nirvana’s Dave Grohl founded it, and I didn’t think I was that familiar with their music until the film made me realize how many songs of theirs I actually know. But this documentary hooked me pretty early on. The fact that they make great music certainly doesn’t hurt, and their sound makes for an enthralling backdrop throughout the film. But the band members themselves are what make the documentary so compelling. They’re incredibly open and personal about their own highs and lows, their connection to the band and their at times rocky relationship with music itself. And while their popularity certainly grows exponentially throughout the film’s arc, their story is vastly different from your standard rags to riches tale. That’s what makes the film so interesting. It’s not about starting all the way at the bottom and ascending the ladder to su...

Alexa:  “Tale of Tales” garnered a largely positive critical response and its dark fantasy tone seems right up my alley. But for the life of me, I could not get into this movie. It was just not my jam, and I’m not entirely sure why. My only real critique of the film is its pacing. “Tale of Tales” recounts three stories with little crossover, and spends what feels like an eternity on one story before shifting focus again to the point that I often forgot what was happening in the other tales. The acting is solid and the costume and production design are exceptional. It really is a stunning movie to look at. But despite that, I found myself not caring about any of the characters. I didn’t feel any sense of urgency in even the most high-stakes situations. I didn’t have an emotional connection to anyone’s plight, and wasn’t particularly invested in the outcome. For whatever reason this movie just didn’t click for me, so ultimately it was difficult to get through. Joel: I think ...

Alexa:  “Skiptrace” somehow manages to be too much and not enough at the same time. Everything about this movie is over-the-top, from the stylized character intros to the cheesy dialogue to the slow motion close-ups of meaningful moments (seriously, how many times are we going to pan down to that watch?). I am all for big, dumb movies that are self aware enough to lean into the silliness and have fun with it, but unfortunately “Skiptrace” is not one of those movies. What we’re left with instead is jokes that don’t land, a story that makes little sense and characters that just don’t click. It’s hard to fault Jackie Chan too much because he’s such a delightful person, and the scenes that allow him to do his action hero thing are the most interesting to watch. Between those sequences, the movie drags to a painfully slow degree. But there are adorable alpacas wearing red scarves, so I guess that’s something? Joel: The reasoning behind picking this movie was that I had recently...

Alexa:  I won’t lie - I picked this movie because I’m a little bit obsessed with Chadwick Boseman after “Black Panther” and “Infinity War” and I wanted an excuse to watch him in something else. But I’m also a sucker for good sports movies, and “42” is a solid one. It doesn’t try to do too much and it doesn’t drag. It’s just an all around well-made film. Jackie Robinson was such an influential figure that the filmmakers could have easily tried to stuff the movie full of significant moments from his life. But rather than skimming the surface of a vast period of time, “42” wisely focuses intently on a pivotal window in Robinson’s story - the couple of years when he broke the color barrier in baseball, first with the Montreal Royals minor league team before moving up to the Brooklyn Dodgers. The film’s portrayal of these events underscores their significance beautifully, both to the sport and to racial desegregation in America overall. Perhaps nothing captures this more powerfully...