(Some media are marked with at “Stacey Sleepiness Scale”. This is obviously not a scale. My girlfriend falls asleep during movies.)
- Shutter Island
- I loved this film. Stacey figured out the major plot twist about ten minutes into it, but that didn’t lessen our enjoyment: we spent the rest of it trying to figure out how each element figured into the twist. It is Scorsese’s love letter to Alfred Hitchcock. Stacey Sleepiness: Stacey did not fall asleep.
- Crazy Heart
- The Dude starring as Willie Nelson in The Wrestler. An excellent film. Stacey Sleepiness: Stacey did not fall asleep.
- Alice in Wonderland
- I saw this in 3D Imax. It was the first “modern” 3D film I’ve seen, and I liked it for that reason. Otherwise, it’s typical Tim Burton fare. Stacey Sleepiness: Stacey did not fall asleep.
- Stranger than Fiction
- I had seen this a couple years ago but it was in Stacey’s Netflix queue so we watched it. I forgot how weirdly good it was, and unassumingly dark. Stacey Sleepiness: She liked it a lot but fell asleep in the last 15 minutes.
- Precious
- This movie starts off depressing (based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire), gets more depressing (based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire), and then decides to jump off a building (based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire). There won’t be a magic trampoline at the bottom; we splatter unceremoniously on the asphalt (based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire). It’s an excellent film, but it is absolutely “punishment theatre.” Stacey Sleepiness: Stacey did not fall asleep, though the film’s dark motifs preyed on her for a couple days.
- Miracle at St. Anna
- I put off watching this for a long, long, time because I expected it to horribly boring given its extreme length and likely overly symbolic nature. Boy, was I wrong. It’s a great film. You may want to watch it in chunks, though. Stacey Sleepiness: N/A
- Moon
- I really enjoyed this film even though I figured out the twists early on. It is very cerebral and evokes many feelings about 2001. Stacey Sleepiness: N/A
- Bolt
- This movie is fucking awesome. Do not let your expectations lie to you; it’s an excellent film, soup-to-nuts. Stacey Sleepiness: Stacey loves this film more than me.
- The Taking of Pelham 123
- This movie got remade three times. I’m not entirely sure why. Stacey Sleepiness: N/A
- The International
- This was so uninteresting I forgot I was watching it after about 30 minutes. Stacey Sleepiness: N/A
- Year One
- What a piece of shit. I know you put it in your Netflix queue because you were drunk one night and thought, “oh, it’s Jack Black, it can’t be that bad” but yes it can. So just delete that shit and move on. Stacey Sleepiness: N/A
I guessed what the twist in SHUTTER ISLAND was simply by reading the one-sentence log-line.
I think MOON is brilliant because it knows you’re a smart cookie and you’re going to figure out the usual twists, so it just throws them down on the floor 30 minutes in like a mat and then starts to walk all over it, and the whole latter two-thirds of the film are in marvelously new territory.