2018 SEPTEMBER MOVIE RANKINGS:

Good grief, a burnt popcorn film almost got first place. Thank goodness I reviewed “Loving Vincent,” or we’d all be in trouble. As you can tell, this month wasn’t that great for reviews. I didn’t see much of anything good, let alone enough of anything to constitute a successful review month in general (there’s no need to apologize at this point). To be fair, I had high expectations for all of these, besides “Sierra Burgess is a Loser” that is (I had no expectations for that). Let’s see who won…

#4- “Mother!”
40%= Burnt Popcorn
Pros: Solid performances, fresh concept, and good cinematography.
Cons: The theme didn’t hold water, as Aronosfky (the director) made God a weak, ignorant person (yes, there are Christian underlyings in this; no, they are not sound) and mother earth a being. If you were to try to watch this without focusing on the theme, you’d be left with a confusing feature.

#3- “Sierra Burgess is a Loser”
42%= Burnt Popcorn
Pros: Pretty good acting, realistic dialogue (for teenagers, not involving the conflict at hand), and somewhat entertaining.
Cons: The conflict was too harsh to bounce back from. The movie essentially states that someone who cat-fishes another is bound to end up happily ever after with them, even after they discover they were cat-fished. Besides that, there were quite a few nitpicks (involving an unnecessary mute brother and overexaggerated climax scene at a football game).

#2- “Hereditary”
58%= Burnt Popcorn
Pros: Fantastic performances, great cinematography, and gripping story (until the ending).
Cons: Just as fast as this story hooks you in, it loses you in the final act. Everything takes a turn for the worst and silly, as the story opts for a cop-out involving a cult (as if we haven’t seen it before). There was nothing redemptive or worth fighting for in this feature.

#1- “Loving Vincent”
90%= Juicy Popcorn
Pros: Brilliant animation and feat (every frame is a painting), great voice acting, engaging story, and good music score.
Cons: The story wasn’t as tangible as I wanted it to be in regards to detailing who Vincent was as a person (everything was told from different accounts).

“Loving Vincent” has won September, and will go on to face “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Blade Runner 2049,” “Darkest Hour” (2017), “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Isle of Dogs,” “Dances with Wolves,” “Scarface,” “Rain Man,” “Shutter Island,” and the rest of the months to decide what film will be the next Movie of the Year!