Mike Goes To Movies

Fight Club (1999) Twenty years later and, man, does Fight Club still pack a punch. The film has often been rejected by the 'cinema' lovers out there; it has been and still is sometimes labelled as 'macho-porn' - being a testosterone fuelled ride of violence, sex and anarchy - and, perhaps, all of that is true. But beneath all of that - that chaos and destruction - there is an order. That order is a prescient message being told by original author, Chuck Palahniuk, director, David Fincher, and screenwriter, Jim Uhls. The message deals with a perpetual character of human nature: discontentment. Discontentment with society. Discontentment with one's own life, and the limited control that one has over it. Discontentment with one's place within the world. And then the motivation to push back. Against everything. There is a lot more going on above and below the surface of the film's plot - foremost, involving the titular fight club, and, of course, th...

Ad Astra (2019) Ad Astra is a profound film, one that, over time, pulls you further and further into its vast black-hole of philosophical and existential ideas and quandaries. It is that rare, elite-level of science-fiction that viscerally reflects the public consciousness of today. It is as beautiful in its presentation and visuals as it is in its thematic explorations. Though the plot works perfectly well on a surface level it is in its deeper discussion that one will reflect on the film and ponder many questions of life for long after the credits end. Minor Spoilers Below: Much credit must be given to director and co-writer, James Gray, for taking on this large-scale and, at the same time, very personal tale. The film takes place in a time when the planet is being hit with interstellar surges that threaten all life on earth. Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is tasked with traveling to the outer reaches of space to confront the source of these surges, which is a now-dorman...

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) DISCLAIMER - FULL SPOILERS AHEAD - do not read on if you have yet to see the film and plan on doing so Damn, did that ending pack a punch! I am just going to go out and say that had that ending not unfolded in the way that it does, the film likely would not have worked for me. Like all of Tarantino's films the hype train leading up to Once Upon a Time's release was over the moon, no less this time because it the director's 'so-called' penultimate film. Unlike many of his previous outings however One Upon a Time is less about the plot and more about an overarching feeling, sentiment, or nostalgia of the bygone era it pays tribute to. Tarantino, as many of us know, is a walking, breathing encyclopedia of pop culture history and in this film he willfully unleashes his love for all things Hollywood onto us, the audience. The kicker here is that, as the public learned early on, he bases this film around the true and infamously...

A visual showcase of some of the finest performances from the 1990's: