Us

Horror fans have been waiting years for a smart, relevant flick that can still scare the hell out of the audience. 

Welcome home, Us.

Us isn't a movie one can discuss in detail without giving away spoilers, but you've seen bits and pieces of Us in other movies. You watched Jack Torrance transform into something he may always have been in The Shining, and you know and appreciate Hitchcockian use of imagery to create suspense. You still squirm in your seat when you hear the Jaws theme.

And you know you and I both watched most of C.H.U.D. while peeking through our fingers.

Jordan Peele, who wrote and directed Us, channels Hitchcock, a lotta Kubrick, some Spielberg, and other modern horror gimmicks to set a tone and pace that well serves the movie. Investing heavily in those flavors pays off. Humor, defection, and imagery pulls the audience deeper into the action, and misdirects us away from the existential themes of the film. 

Until they don't anymore. 

And that makes for a satisfying ending to a complicated story about who we are as individuals and as a society. 

Captain Marvel

I watched and listened

But never once in two hours

Did I hear "Shazam!"

Behind The Curve

I pulled the sucker from my mouth and asked: "Is the earth really flat?"

I was a really young child, riding home with my Dad from someplace I've forgotten. It was late at night, and that moon . . . well, it just seemed to follow us in a way that I didn't think it should. As if it was pinned straight above us.

Much of the rest of the ride home was spent with me getting a lecture on angles, speed, and visual perception, and how those things create an illusion in how we see the moon.

So I continued to stare at the moon while I counted how many licks it takes to get to the center of my Tootsie-Pop.

Behind The Curve, currently in rotation on Netflix. brought back memories of several childhood mysteries; things that seem magical in a moment of consideration but can be explained in full by science.

Behind The Curve pokes a lot of holes in the domed earth conspiracy, but it gives Flat Earthers plenty of opportunity to mansplain their belief to viewers. Boiled down, it sounds something like "I used to think the idea of a flat earth was crazy but once I looked into it I realized I couldn't prove it's not."

Yeah, but, the fact the earth is a sphere has already been proven. Like, a bunch of times in a whole lotta ways.

Watching the flick reminded me of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a psychological phenomenon in which bias occurs because people view their cognitive abilities as superior to others when, in reality, they aren't. These folks don't have awareness of their own cognitive limitations and, as a result, live out an illusion in which they believe their opinions are more accurate than are the opinions of others.

And that includes the opinions of legit scientists, who've theorized and then proved tons-o-stuff over and over and over again.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect. Sounds sorta like our world of social media too, eh?

Widows

It's easy to predict a heist flick that stars Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Daniel Kaluuya, and Brian Tyree Henry would be filled with cinematic fireworks.

Nonstop action!

Complicated schemes and deep conspiracy!

Tons of testosterone!

And there is some of that in Widows. But the traditional fireworks are in the periphery; there to compliment the top shelf acting of lead Viola Davis and her supporting female cast.

Widows brings a fresh perspective to what otherwise might have been just a pretty good popcorn movie. And that fresh perspective is squarely the result of  director Steve McQueen's decision to tell the story from the viewpoint of characters who, traditionally, have been secondary players in a morality play.

McQueen's Widows is the best movie you didn't see in 2018. Catch it while you can.