Shows
The Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Social Dilemma (2020)Did you think you were a Facebook customer and not their product? The years most essential documentary paints a terrifying portrait of how devastating and deep the impact of social media has been on society. Not so much a review as an overview of the incredibly important themes the documentary raises.
2020-09-2219 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Devil All the Time (2020)Writer, Donald Ray Pollock's debut novel is brought to the screen by director Antonio Campos and with a great cast and strong production values, it's exactly the kind of grimy Hillybilly-noir I should adore. Sadly it's a boring, indistinct, meaningless mess of a film that takes far too long to give us the salvation of Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson.
2020-09-2214 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewMandy (2018)I've been trying to start THE AGE OF CAGE for some time now and with both this from 2018 and The Color out of Space this year, I feel we are really there. Cage is the Omega to Keanu's Alpha, and this utterly magnificent gonzo-horror is the real deal. Director Panos Cosmatos weaves some of the most heavily stylised visual palettes ever (Benjamin Loeb) and music (nearly the last from Jóhann Jóhannsson) into an unforgettable fever-dream nightmare revenge fantasy. A truly committed Nicholas Cages is at the centre of the LSD maelstrom.
2020-09-1508 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Owners (2020)This latest home invasion horror has a couple of interesting paradigms to throw at the genre (income inequality and the hunter becoming the hunted) but peruses neither effectively with a wayward screenplay and a first half dominated by some of the most obnoxiously stupid characters imaginable. It gets better but only like an awful party improves now the worst people have gone, it's still terrible, despite the efforts of a couple of more esteemed actors and a low rent Florence Pugh knock off.
2020-09-1513 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewHard Kill (2020)The only reason you ever came across this no-rent endeavor were the combination of Bruce Willis and a zero on Rotten Tomatoes. I struggled to give it a zero myself as unlike We Summon the Darkness, it didn't really earn it, though alongside The Prince it, I think, makes him the only double recipient of a 0/10 on this podcast. But it's not really a movie, more a filmed paintball session.
2020-09-1505 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewI'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)The esteemed Charlie Kaufman's latest is a dark, bleak and most depressing existential, near plotless retread of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And my favorite film of the year so far. Enjoy in a double-bill with Vivarium to lose all hope in living. (NOTE: This radio show is movie heavy as the music is my favorite scores and soundtracks from my list, last year, of my top fifty films of the decade - https://www.mixcloud.com/julian-brown/the-brown-note-radio-show-presented-by-julian-brown-7-sep-2020/ )
2020-09-0712 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewTENET (2020)The years most exciting and eagerly awaited cinematic experience is here and its the dullest and most disappointing movie imaginable, in almost every way a film can be and Nolan's worst film by a long margin. Booo indeed. (NOTE: This radio show is movie heavy as the music is my favorite scores and soundtracks from my list, last year, of my top fifty films of the decade - https://www.mixcloud.com/julian-brown/the-brown-note-radio-show-presented-by-julian-brown-7-sep-2020/ )
2020-09-0715 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewRogue (2020)No doubt this Megan Fox starring actioner (think Triple Frontier with schoolgirls instead of money, in Africa, with lions) will head straight for sub 15% Rotten Tomatoes land, pretty much solely on the lion special effect, which will be meme'd to death. Outside of that it's a perfectly reasonable shooter-horror straight-to-video affair, that's richly shot and has perfectly acceptable action.
2020-09-0113 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Rental (2020)The directoral debut from James Franco's brother immediately marks him as someone to watch, as he does nearly everything very well indeed. Taking the overused trope of the cabin in the woods and updating it to the AirBnB age, everything is classy.
2020-08-2511 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewProject Power (2020)For a few years Netflix were one of the best movie "studios" on earth, providing many of the best, most artistic, most original and most challenging films each year. Now they seem stuck in a new and distressing paradigm. Great idea for an action movie, big budget, name actors combined with terrible directors, screenplays and scripts. Not QUITE as terrible as The Old Guard but still annoyingly so.
2020-08-2513 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewWaiting for the Barbians (2020)A massively heavyweight effort featuring Noble Prize winning author J M Coetzee adapting his own acclaimed novel and the first English language film from Colombian Embrace of the Serpent Oscar nominated director, Ciro Guerra and actors Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson and Mark Rylance. Sadly its too flat, uninvolving and heavy handed to be a masterpiece but it's still far better and more interesting (and beautifully shot and acted) than most reviews recognise.
2020-08-1813 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Tax Collector (2020)My endless appetite for LA crime films is making me follow one of the kings of the genre, director David Ayer, all the way down to this, just passable as a once through Shia Lebouf starring and fairly low rent, base-line effort. I still don't agree with the consensus of how awful it is, if you think Training Day is a masterpiece this is still - just - worth a once through but only just.
2020-08-1812 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBad Education (2020)A possible career best performance for Hugh Jackman in this hugely watchable, classily written, warm, amiable and funny reading of America's biggest public school fraud.
2020-08-1118 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewMiami Vice (2006)Michael Mann's signature style given arguably its purest outing in this hugely aesthetic remake of his own iconic TV series. A bit of a failure on release and without the strong narrative or characters of Heat but near sublime as a very expensive, now cult mood piece.
2020-08-1117 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewGreyhound (2020)Tom Hanks acts his own screenplay in this WW2 naval cat and mouse thriller, that is completely solid but needs to offer a bit more to be great.
2020-08-0313 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewSorcerer (1977)Director William Friedkin may have destroyed his career and gone through his own Apocalypse Now journey through hell making it but for me, his remake of the equally classic, Wages of Fear, is a better film than even The French Connection or The Exorcist and his third flat-out masterpiece in a row.
2020-08-0321 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewWe Summon the Darkness (2020)A big fat zero out of ten for by far the worst film I've seen this year. It's difficult to be a pastiche of bad 80's horror films when you are a much worse film yourself. Dreadful in every single film-making way possible - the T'Pau song over the closing credits is literally the only good part to this travesty.
2020-07-3108 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewVivarium (2020)I've rarely felt more depressed after watching a film. This underappreciated sci-fi eviscerates the perfect suburban life like no other and completely changed my opinion on the abilities of star Imogen Poots.
2020-07-3111 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewUnderwater (2019)A deep-water monster flick that barely lives up to its great environment and hint at Cthulhu and whose main purpose seem to be to reaffirm that Kristen Stewart cannot act.
2020-07-3109 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Wire specialCorona binge watch heaven. It's been long enough to do a retrospective of one of televisions finest ever shows. All five seasons of The Wire reviewed and rated.
2020-07-3146 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Way Back (2020)Almost shamefully aims at the Oscars and in a tepid year has every chance. Ben Affleck is magnificent, especially by himself, in a painful performance that reeks of personal reckoning - it stops shy of greatness by tacking on a rote sports film.
2020-07-3111 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Old Guard (2020)Yet another of the recent streaming friendly franchise hopeful actioners has inexplicably good reviews. The mythos, Charlize Theron and Matthiias Schoenaerts set things up magnificently but from there on in almost everything is dire. Painfully bad.
2020-07-3111 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Lodge (2020)More proof that modernist new horror is where it's at as far as filmmaking is concerned. Ultimately surprising and disturbing and one of the years best.
2020-07-3112 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Gentlemen (2020)The most surprised I've been by a movie in ages. After years of relentlessly bagging Guy Ritchie as one of the most consistently bad directors working (even giving his last outing my worst film of the year) I was shocked to see a massive uptick in his writing and direction here. A film that enthralls whenever Hugh Grant, Charlie Hunnam or Colin Farrell are on screen - which they nearly always are.
2020-07-3115 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe James Bond SpecialAfter an inspired Aussie TV network showed every Bond film in order, not only showing me lesser films I hadn't seen since childhood but also in detailed wide-screen for the first time, enabling back-to-back comparisons. So here it is - every single Bond film ranked and scored in order, my best and worst bond villains and girls and the top fifteen theme tunes.
2020-07-311h 22The Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Invisible Man (2020)Definitely one of the years best and most surprising films, expertly helmed by director Leigh Whannel - whose low budget Aussie sci-fi, Upgrade, I recently raved about. A thrilling new take of an old story that perfectly fits with modern concerns.
2020-07-3113 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewExtraction (2020)Despite a brilliant performance from Chris Hemsworth and great visuals, far too much action and far too little writing spoil the party.
2020-07-3114 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewColor Out of Space (2020)The age of Cage is returning (though this isn't quite as good as the insane Mandy). A welcome return for long absent director, Richard Stanley in this vivid, psychedelic take on H.P. Lovecraft.
2020-07-3112 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBloodshot (2020)One of a raft of streaming friendly actioners released this year. Vin Diesel stars in a promising, yet ultimately underwhelming attempt at franchise starting.
2020-07-3111 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewHarley Quinn: Birds of Prey (2020)You have to hand it to the DC comic movie universe - they can do do any kind of movie just as badly as any other. Here they tackle indie/Joker-ish to predictably dire effect.
2020-07-3110 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBacurau (2019)Politicised Brazilian auteur, Kleber Medonca Filho, is clearly one to watch but his acclaimed genre-bender isn't quite wild enough a ride and falls down in a few areas.
2020-07-3111 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewTop 50 Films Of The DecadeMy top fifty films from 2010-20 plus my most overrated films of the decade - including one from Martin Scorcese (no, not that one).
2020-07-311h 11The Brown Note Movie ReviewUncut Gems (2019)This near masterpiece was possibly the most stress inducing film I've ever seen and not one for people with anxiety. Criminally shut out at the Oscars given its strengths in direction, cinematography, screenplay and sound plus a lead performance better than the Joker.
2020-07-3115 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewStar Wars SpecialA look back over the second attempt at rebooting the Star War franchise, which after a strong opening salvo, was nearly as bad as the first attempt. All five films reviewed (and it isn't pretty).
2020-07-3131 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewRambo: Last Blood (2019)What started as a review of the abysmal franchise nadir ended up an overview of the entire character of Rambo.
2020-07-3119 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewParasite (2019)With three incredible and very different, yet socially and politically awake films, as good a decade for Korean director Bong Joon-ho. Paradoxically I thought that though Tarantino deserved best picture at the Oscars, this was also one of the best best picture winners this century.
2020-07-3118 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewNarcos: Mexico Season 2 (2019)All five seasons of Narcos have been superb and none more than the second Mexican cartel focused endeavor, where Diego Luna has a shattering Walter White-like descent into evil, as good as anything on television.
2020-07-3115 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewKnives Out (2019)Trailers rarely ever lie but thank god this modernist take on Agatha Christie wasn't the quirky Wes Andersen twaddle I expected, and instead was a truly wonderful film.
2020-07-3116 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewFord v Ferrari (2019)It was with supreme irony for a film about how inspired maverick geniuses are held back by corporate interference as that's exactly what it felt like held back this film from greatness.
2020-07-3117 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewEl Camino (2019)After putting Jesse through hell for most of the final season of Breaking Bad, finally some closure in this nerve jangling stand alone piece.
2020-07-3110 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewDeep Red (1975)Part of a two movie David Hemmings retrospective (along with Blow Up) another classic - Dario Argento's masterpiece is superior to Suspiria.
2020-07-3112 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBlow Up (1966)As part of a two film retrospective on actor David Hemmings (along with Deep Red) - a first watch of the Michelangelo Antonioni's counter culture classic didn't let me down.
2020-07-3116 minThe Brown Note Movie Review1917 (2019)I'm no fan of director Sam Mendes at all - he stank up the Bond universe and few films got old quicker than American Beauty. Here he tried the time honored graft of releasing a film based on a gimmick just before the Oscars to hoodwink everyone for a month until they realise it wasn't very good after all - and if it wasn't for those pesky kids...
2020-07-3113 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Great Hack (2019)Our liberal democracies are being stolen from us in broad daylight and it's only getting worse and a polarised political scene is doing nothing to stop it. One of the most important documentaries of the modern era - the story of Cambridge Analytica using weapons of war against the public get right wing agendas elected.
2020-07-3018 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewSpider-Man: FarFrom Home (2019)Retrospectively uploading these reviews as podcasts, I've sometimes disputed my initial review - nothing comes close to this, inexplicably given 7.5/10. It's genuinely atrocious, a pointless and stupid film that takes the over-used trope of going to a major city and blowing up famous landmarks and makes an entire film out of it. A 3/10 awful nadir in the Marvel universe.
2020-07-3018 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)Just like the Hateful 8 (which I also loved) it polarised audiences but I thought the latest Tarrantino effort was his most impressive and mature directoral effort yet - had I not been preoccupied with end of decade best of lists, it would've beaten Parasite as my best film of 2019.
2020-07-3023 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewJohn Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)With several of the best fight sequences of the modern era, a breathtaking, flawless first hour and the best use of the mythos yet - the finest of the three Keanu Reeves genre films.
2020-07-3016 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewGodzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)In retrospect a minor classic for me. The human side is still dire but it's evocation of Japanese monster aesthetics through stunning modern effects has never been done better.
2020-07-3007 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewDave Chappelle Sticks & Stones (2019)The most recent of five uniformly good Netflix specials from the stand up legend is arguably the most focused and consistent.
2020-07-3010 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewCold Pursuit (2019)I'd rate this hugely unusual, winter-blown black comedic entry into the Liam Neeson multiverse even higher now. Its icy Colorado landscape is hugely appealing, its dark humor closer to something like Fargo and Tom Bateman is one of the greatest gonzo B-movie villains ever.
2020-07-3011 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBad Times at the El Royal (2018)Superb work from writer director Drew Goddard, who takes throws the usual post-Tarrantino school book out the window and instead allows long, slow, patient character development to occupy the front half of the film, ably abetted by an excellent cast.
2020-07-3009 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewWidows (2018)If there is a flaw in Steve McQueen's UK-tv female bank heist remake, it's too much of a good thing. All of the micro-universes portrayed in this film are worthy of a film of their own and all contain outstanding acting.
2020-07-3013 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewVice (2018)Director Adam McKay continues to score after his move away from comedy. After the superb The Big Short, this undervalued look at a broken American political system that is even worse today. Christian Bale was robbed of an Oscar, again.
2020-07-3015 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewUpgrade (2018)Australia continues to produce these incredibly impressive, low-budget sci-fi films. This a perfect blend of body-horror, violent action and cerebral ideas.
2020-07-3011 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Equalizer 2 (20180)Both films have wasted the TV Show's iconic premise and the perfect star to do it justice.
2020-07-3011 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewSkyscraper (2018)As I've said, being amiable goes a long way in this kind of film and the central pair of The Rock and (a welcome return for) Neve Campbell are certainly that.
2020-07-3011 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewSicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)One of the most mysterious films of the decade. After the original boasted one of the greatest across the board arrays of talent assembled in a film the last decade, a drop off was to be expected - who knew it would be in the writing. Taylor Sheridan was on the imperious run of Sicario, Hell or High Water and Wind River, yet this films has the most baffling narrative choices in recent memory.
2020-07-3009 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewFruitviale Station (2018)The superb debut from director Ryan Coogler nails everything it needs to without overdoing anything.
2020-07-3008 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewFirst Man (2018)For me a massive and impressive return to form after the awful La La Land, in this underappreciated, magnificent, first man on the moon biopic.
2020-07-3015 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewDeadpool 2 (2018)I love Ryan Reynolds but hated the acclaimed first film and found its "edgy" humor painful, I enjoyed its sequel more.
2020-07-3009 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBohemian Rhapsody (2018)A film I gave a reasonably good score to because of how hilariously awful it was, oh dear. Bloody entertaining though.
2020-07-3010 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBlack KKKlansman (2018)After savaging Da 5 Bloods a far better film from Spike Lee here.
2020-07-3012 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBest and worst films of 2018My best and worst films of, drum roll, 2018.
2020-07-3057 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewAquaman (2018)Director James Wan is far better at visual storytelling than creating a coherent narrative in this exposition loaded, over-complicated and overlong film but being amiable goes an awful long way. Be interesting to see if Amber Heard ever gets a role this prominent again.
2020-07-3010 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewYou Were Never Really Here (2017)Lynne Ramsay and Joaquin Phoenix's incredibly dark drama.
2020-07-2709 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewVertigo (1958)For years whilst Citizen Kane was ranked the greatest film of all time, I said this was, and over the years, that's exactly where it has risen to be. This is a wonderful article about the film coupled with a shorter 10/10 review.
2020-07-2716 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewTomb Raider (2018)This utterly pointless reboot is as slight as a level in a video game.
2020-07-2710 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Last Jedi (2018)The start of the downward spiral in the second failed attempt at rebooting the Star Wars franchise has inexplicably great reviews. I gave it even lower than here on my Star Wars special and it's still only the third worst film.
2020-07-2709 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Commuter (2018)Middling effort in the Liam Neeson mutli-verse.
2020-07-2709 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewRicky Gervais Humanity (2018)Sadly, far less laugh-out-loud funny than previous efforts and with deeply problematic targets (no less than three rows he's had with members of the public on Twitter and a really bad Caitlyn Jenner bit).
2020-07-2711 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewReady Player One (2018)Even thought his output this century has been mostly bad, sci-fi used to be Spielberg's safe space. This lackluster, forgettable effort exists in a problematic 1980's boys world.
2020-07-2713 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewPacific Rim Uprising (2018)Guillermo del Toro has ruined more sequels by NOT directing them than any other director, this, sadly, has none of the magic that made his original wonderful.
2020-07-2709 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)The godawful Jurassic series has so far given one classic and five duds. What on earth was I smoking here to give this such a good review?
2020-07-2709 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewJumanji: The Next LevelA lot to enjoy with this board game movie sequel and it sure looks pretty, even if it over-eggs much.
2020-07-2711 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewJim Jeffries This Is Me (2018)One of my favorite comedians this century's lesser stand-up works.
2020-07-2706 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewGame Night (2018)I've been a fan of Jason Batemen since It's Your Move (look it up) and Rachel McAdams is his worthy co-star in the often hysterical comedy.
2020-07-2709 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewCoco (2019)This heart soaring Mexican effort from the Pixar team, sits just shy of WALL-E, Inside Out and UP in their all time hall of fame. (as a side note, on my mixcloud page is a recent 8 episode, 8 hour travelogue on Mexico).
2020-07-2709 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBlockers (2018)Superior teen-adult comedy finds, improbably, that John Cena - alongside The Rock and Dave Bautista - is as good a comedic actor as wrestler.
2020-07-2708 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBlack Panther (2018)This huge cultural event - the first black superhero movie - was, whisper it, a mediocre film and more a 6.5/10 than the 7.5/10 I begrudge it here.
2020-07-2712 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewAvengers: Infinity War (2018)After some mid-franchise wobbles, the Russo brothers landed the Marvel Movie universe better than anyone could've hoped. Part 1 of the finale had one of the decades greatest WTF! endings.
2020-07-2713 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewAnnihilation (2018)One time zeitgeist hitting novelist and frequent Danny Boyle collaborator, Alex Garland, never impressed me with his overrated debut, Ex Machina, but he sure as hell did here (as did Natalie Portman, who is a much better actress than a decade ago). In the end I think I bumped this sci-fi mind bender at the last minute into 2nd place in my films of the year list - but can't remember what replaced it.
2020-07-2711 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewA Quiet Place (2018)Post The Office, actor-writer-director John Krasinski has led a wildly unexpected path, here both he and his wife (an excellent Emily Blunt) helm one of new-horror's high points and an entry into the human sense genre.
2020-07-2712 minThe Brown Note Movie Review12 Strong (2018)There seems to be a raft of new American war films that don't seem to realise the moral landscape post the invasion of Iraq is very different and trying to portray American military involvement overseas in a golden light is jaw-dropping. This spoils an amazing true-war story here with some great battle sequences.
2020-07-2714 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewValerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)Luc Besson's multi-million dollar, neon schlock disasterpiece is a film I have a lot of love for and one that is fatally hamstrung by the insufferable lead pairing of Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan, the worst and most damaging casting blunder this century.
2020-07-2412 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)I would definitely down-vote this Oscar hoover now, as everything falls apart in an often silly second half.
2020-07-2410 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThor: Ragnarok (2017)Just when the Marvel universe was entering the home stretch and tiring, with some dodgy entries, along came Kiwi Taika Waititi to unexpectedly deliver a third Thor film that was as fresh and funny as Guardians of the Galaxy.
2020-07-2412 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Shape of Water (2017)All the talk is of Koreans but no one dominated cinema last decade like Mexicans, taking an incredible five out of ten best director Oscars. Like many before him, auteur Guillermo del Toro took home the gong for a far lesser and surprisingly slight work in comparison to a masterpiece like Pans Labyrinth.
2020-07-2412 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Post (2017)I've said before, no director as talented as Steven Spielberg has ever ruined so many films. This century the cupboard is especially bare and he brings his trade mark morally black and white, simplistic, heavy-handed approach to hammer home this flat modern history drama.
2020-07-2409 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewThe Disaster Artist (2017)A cynically timed and utterly pathetic accusation against director star, James Franco, was all it took to derail Oscar contention for his perfect recreation of the weird world of Tommy Wiseau and his infamous bad movie, The Room.
2020-07-2409 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewShot Caller (2017)Ric Roman Waugh directs and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stars in this very underseen, brutal and gritty prison drama, that follows a DUI stockbrokers decent into hell.
2020-07-2408 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewWar for the Planet of the Apes (2017)The uncommonly intelligent, thoughful, superb sci-fi trilogy ends in fitting style, making it four awards worthy performances (including King Kong) for CGI king, Andy Serkis as an ape.
2020-07-2413 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewOnly the Brave (2017)The fireman entry into the new-patriot genre of film, that I just made up, to go alongside the likes of Deepwater Horizon, is surprising for NOT starring Mark Walhberg. We get an excellent Josh Brolin instead. Most of these films are far better than they should be and this shocking true wildfire tragedy is top-tier.
2020-07-2410 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewMolly's Game (2017)Jessica Chastain has never been better (or hotter!) than her criminally ignored role as a high stakes poker madam in the nearly great but overly wordy Aaron Sorkin, true-crime drama.
2020-07-2410 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewKingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)If I thought it was bad here, a rewatch convinced me it's one of the worst sequels of all time. Absolutely everything that made the original such a blast is thrown out.
2020-07-2411 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewJustice League (2017)It's remarkable how the DC movie universe has managed to get it so badly wrong in so many different ways. This light and airy comedic superhero jaunt is somehow even worse than the dark and turgid BvS.
2020-07-2408 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewIT (2017)Stephen King's 1980's colossus was a land mark of horror fiction and world creation, here they get the people right but the clown oh so wrong as it works as a human film and not a horror.
2020-07-2413 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewDetroit (2017)Ironically, for me director Kathryn Bigelow became better AFTER winning Oscars for the frankly quite naff, The Hurt Locker. This timely true-crime/race drama is however not a pleasant watch.
2020-07-2410 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewDave Chappelle Netflix specials (2017)It was great and timely to have back the somehow uncancelled stand-up god, Dave Chappelle - here a review of the four specials he recorded for Netflix.
2020-07-2410 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewCall me by Your Name (2017)I fell hopelessly in love with director, Luca Guadagnino's beautiful tale of first summer love.
2020-07-2416 minThe Brown Note Movie ReviewBladerunner 2049Fearless auteur Denis Villeneuve wasn't afraid to tackle the thankless holy Bladerunner legacy and astonishingly made an entirely worthy followup.
2020-07-2411 min