State of the Blog – July 2017

The summer is in full swing, and it is time to update you with the goings-on here at Plot and Theme.  The standard formula will apply to this State of the Blog post:  we’ll look at the past month, talk a tad about the new movies that are on the horizon, and make outlandish promises about the posts I am going to write this month.

We’ll start with the previous month, which was called “June”.  The very best film I saw in June, bar none, was Baby Driver.  It was the perfect mash-up of comedy, action, crime, and weirdness, and not in the standard Edgar Wright way.  Sure, it feels a little like Hot Fuzz, but plays things more down the middle even though there’s still a bunch of ridiculousness.  If you stayed away on the first weekend, I have to recommend that you had out and see Baby Driver.  It is the kind of movie that should be seen in theaters.

Another solid film was released at the beginning of the month:  Wonder Woman.  I probably ended up liking it slightly less that most people, but that’s mostly on account of the predictable third act letting me down after the amazing Trench Sequence.  Let’s just be sure not to fall all over ourselves and proclaim things like “DC can make movies afterall!” or “LOL, WAT’S SUPERHORO FATIGUE?” just yet.  These movies are just like any others:  if they’re made well, people will go to bat for them, if they’re not, they’ll ridicule them.

A couple of under-the-radar flicks surprised:  Captain Underpants and It Comes at Night.  These are very similar movies, both easily recommendable for general audiences on account of their high quality, disrespect for authority, and cheery outlook on life.  The Mummy was a terrible.  Don’t see The Mummy without mind-altering substances.

For this month, I’ve got my eye on two big blockbusters, and two indies.  The blockbusters should surprise no one:  Spiderman and Planet of the Apes both have new iterations out that look promising. Each franchise has had missteps in the past, so there’s a chance that these flicks miss, but I think they’ll both end up being above average.  But the real draw this month comes from the indies The Big Sick and A Ghost Story.  The former is a quirky rom-com staring Kumail Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan, and has been buzzing up the Twitterverse and other ‘verses for the past two weeks as the coastal socialites saw the film during its limited release.  It opens wide on the 14th.

A Ghost Story is weirder:  Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara star in some kind of movie where a ghost walks around looking at stuff for some reason.  You know it is a ghost because it is dressed in a big sheet like ghosts do.  I am aware that this is probably not the kind of movie for everyone, but it is the kind of movie for me, so you can expect me to hunt it down.

All that is left is the posts.  Look forward to my Top Ten Films of 2017 in the next day or two.  My Stanley Kubrick film this month is A Clockwork Orange.  The German film Toni Erdman narrowly edged out Contact as the first Plot and Theme Patron-Chosen Film For Review (or, the PaTPCFfR for short), so look for that about mid-month.

As always, thanks for reading.  And, if you want to be the cool kind of person who suggests movies to review, earns cool rewards, or other such fantasticisms, be sure to click on the Patreon button at the top or side of this page and become a patron of Plot and Theme!

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