Mike Goes To Movies

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Today marks the 20th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick's final film, the infamous, sexually-charged Eyes Wide Shut. In structure and theme the film centres upon dreams and desire. Dr. Bill and Alice Harford, portrayed by A-listers (and then-married) Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, are a married couple heading a seemingly standard American nuclear family. Below the surface of the couple however lie deep-seated jealousies, desires and lust. Like most of Kubrick's films, Eyes Wide Shut requires multiple viewings - every scene and every shot is constructed to be a masterpiece in its own right with hidden meanings and secrets littered throughout. It is a testament to Kubrick's auteur that this film does not rank among his very best, however, given to most other filmmakers it would certainly be marked as such. Eyes Wide Shut is a voyeuristic experience into the erotic dreams of an upper-class New Yorker - here, Cruise's Dr. Bill. Upon hearing his wife...

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) I'll be honest, though I did enjoy Homecoming I didn't think it was anything overly spectacular. Even with my great like of Michael Keaton, I thought that everything about the film was done admirably and well but nothing entirely special came out of it. It was for this reason that my interest in Far from Home wasn't over the moon, other than the fact that I also really like Jake Gyllenhaal and think Mysterio is an interesting villain. However, I can now say that I actually enjoyed Far from Home more than Homecoming - it is a wildly entertaining superhero flick and has one of the most visually arresting sequences I have seen in a superhero film thus far. Far from Home picks up the pieces from both Homecoming as well as Avengers: Endgame. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is still in high school, struggling with the balance of being both a superhero and a teenage student, as well, that he's now mourning the death of his great mentor, Tony S...

Russian Doll - Season 1 (2019) I had been meaning to watch Russian Doll, Netflix's newest critical darling, when it released in February, however, life got in the way a bit (as it always does) and I just finished the show's incredible inaugural season a few days ago. Created by Natasha Lyonne, Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland, Russian Doll is the newest incarnation of the 'Groundhog Day' formula, that is, a plot revolving around a character being stuck in a time loop. In this case, it is Nadia (Lyonne), a gregarious, headstrong young female living in New York City. The catch, in this case, is that Nadia's time loop restarts every time that she dies - which just so happens to be quite often. For the first two-thirds of the show, the series plays out more as a comedy, with much of the humour stemming from Nadia's in-your-face and eccentric antics as well as her attempts at staying alive to not restart her loop. What makes this series special though is the slo...

Toy Story 4 (2019) It is a true testament to the excellence of the Toy Story series that sometimes you actually wish for the films to not hit you as hard as they do. The visceral emotions that this series evokes is on par with anything you will find in a non-animated or 'adult' film. Woody being replaced by Buzz, Buzz realizing he is only a toy, Woody being shelved for his broken arm, Jessie and Lotso's backstories, and, of course, the tragic scene in Part 3 where our beloved toys accept their deathly fates taking each other by the hand and waiting for whatever comes next... goddamn... Like it's three predecessors, Toy Story 4 has its own debilitatingly-impactful moments - though I will surely not spoil them here. In fact, the general story and arc at the core of the newest instalment may be one that will strike home for adults more than for its adolescent audience making it a film that people of all ages should make an effort to go out and see. Again, it would be...