Movies I Watched This Summer

Welcome back Needham High! I spent my summer nights watching movies. I watched a lot of movies. Here are some of the best (and worst) ones!

27 Dresses: 4.5/5

It was a cute rom-com with some fun scenes. I found the main character, Jane, super relatable. I loved the Bennie and the Jets scene in particular, because I think it showed the dynamic between Jane and Kevin really well. I absolutely hated Tess, though, and I thought George was extremely mediocre, but I liked Jane and Kevin and I thought it ended well. 

Set It Up: 1/5

I did not like this movie at all. Essentially, two assistants with insufferable bosses decide that if they set their bosses up with each other, the bosses will be happier, and therefore go easier on the assistants. Predictably, the assistants end up falling in love in the process.  I found that the male love interest had literally zero redeeming qualities. You could tell they tried to make the movie diverse and inclusive, but they did it in all the wrong ways. All of the POC characters were portrayed negatively, except for maybe Lucy Liu’s character. Pete Davidson’s character’s only personality trait was being gay and he did absolutely nothing for the story, making him the definition of a token gay character. If his existence had actually made a difference, maybe I would have cared for the character more. I also really didn’t like the ending. I thought it completely defeated the whole point of the movie.

Catch Me If You Can: 4.5/5

Super interesting story. Great writing, great directing, great acting. The movie tells the story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a young con-man who successfully poses as a pilot and a doctor. Frank made for an extremely likable main character, though he may have simultaneously been the bad guy. Though I suppose that’s kind of the point. It was kind of captivating.

Barbie: 3.75/5

I know my low rating may be controversial. I thought it was super funny, and of course I love Barbie world and I loved the costuming and set design and the acting and the soundtrack. However, at times the movie felt a little long. I think this was because they spent so much time on Ken and the Ken Wars. While the Ken Wars were fun, and I completely understand their satirical importance, as they reflected gendered norms and expectations as well as ideas of masculinity and the patriarchy, what I really wanted was to spend more time focusing on Gloria. Yes, she did have her very influential speech about what it’s like being a woman, and while that was incredibly touching, I wanted to learn more about Gloria as an individual. We didn’t get enough of her backstory. I wanted to know more about where her sadness was derived from, and about her relationship with her husband—something more than the scene of him playing Duolingo (which I thought was hilarious). I left the theater still wondering what her relationship with her husband was like in the past, and how it was in the present. I wanted to know about Gloria’s mental health struggles, and what her childhood was like. How did she even end up working for Mattel? We never got these answers, and in my unprofessional opinion, I would have rather focused on her than on the Ken Wars on the beach. Ryan Gosling did wonderfully, though.

Mean Girls: 4.5/5

Classic. Can’t complain. 

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: 4/5

A very fun and cute rom-com! My only issue with it was that I didn’t get how in the end one of them was so furious with the other one when they literally betrayed each other in the exact same way. A few of the scenes were meant to be cringey, but it was too much sometimes. Good soundtrack, though. 

Little Miss Sunshine: 4.75/5

I really liked this movie. It was a heartwarming, though at times vulgar, family dramedy that takes place on a road trip from New Mexico to California. I thought each individual character was so interesting and complex in their own way, and their relationships with each other growing and changing throughout the movie felt so genuinely real and interesting. The characters were authentic in a way where at times I loved them, and at times I hated them, just like real people. The emotional scenes were so touching and really made the movie. While I did think the ending was a little abrupt, it did somewhat tie everything together nicely in terms of the themes of the movie overall.

Valentine’s Day: 2.5/5

Valentine’s Day follows many intertwined stories of different people and couples on Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t bad; I was just kind of bored throughout it. After watching it I immediately forgot everything that happened in it except for the scenes with Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner and the scenes with Emma Roberts. Great ensemble cast overall. 

Sleepless in Seattle: 3.5/5

Another rom-com! I really loved Tom Hanks and his son, but I did not like Annie. I found her to be extremely creepy, and she was awful to her fiancé. I do understand that the point was that true love is magic and everything, but realistically, Annie was a creep and a stalker. I did like the full circle moment at the ending, though.

(500) Days of Summer: 5/5

I watched this movie for the 500th time this summer. It’s my favorite movie of all time. I just love everything about it. The soundtrack, the cinematography, the non-chronological way of storytelling, the symbolism of the color blue. And I love that it’s one of the most realistic depictions of a relationship that exists in movies, but it also includes elements of magic in order to portray emotion (the Han Solo, You Make My Dreams Come True scene). Tom and Summer are both incredibly rich and interesting and supremely real characters who both have their flaws and strengths, just as real people do. I think the ending is perfectly left up to interpretation. 

Whether or not you agree with my movie opinions, I would argue that every one of these movies is worth watching. Watching the bad ones helps you appreciate the good ones more.