Personal Shopper

January 07, 2019 by Guest User in jaime davis

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

There’s only so many times I can watch a woman get chased in films, ultimately meeting her demise, hacked to death by some force of evil or insanity, or both, before I can’t take it anymore. It’s one of the main reasons I won’t watch most horror films, or extremely violent films. It doesn’t help that I’m a huge scaredy pants (I have jumped at my own shadow before), and am incapable of watching and processing women brutalized in film. These types of images plant themselves firmly into my over-active imagination and I start picturing the same happening to me. Maureen (Kristen Stewart) of Olivier Assayas’ 2016 genre-bending Personal Shopper feels the same. During a text message interlude with the unknown behind the Unknown number sending her unsolicited creepy-time texts, she point blank admits to her “stalker” that she finds horror films unsettling. There’s always a woman running from a killer, trying to hide. I can relate, Maureen.

Cold War

December 19, 2018 by Guest User in reviews, jaime davis, philly film fest

Written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
Starring Joanna Kulig and Tomasz Kot
Running time 1 hour 28 minutes
MPAA rating R because sexy times and sad times

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

Ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have? Maybe the timing was way off, or they treated you like utter shit, or there was something between the two of you that was equal parts really fucking amazing and really fucking bad? I’ve had the first for real, and the second mixed with the third at the same time. Bottom line: it’s excruciatingly blissful torture. There’s something about this kind of heartbreak that speaks my language - I love the cloying, benign, syrupy aftertaste of a happy ending just as much as the next person, but the bitter pain of a searing bad love is a pleasing elixr to me, like the sweet burning of straight whisky seeping down deep into my belly. Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, a desolate tale of love lost and found, multiple times, across borders and time in Cold War era Europe, is such a tale. Fair warning: after watching at the Philadelphia Film Festival this year I sat in the theater shell-shocked, because right away I knew in my bones that it had become my favorite movie of all-time. If you’re looking for a “real” review, it’s in your best interest to move along quite quickly to wherever it is you go for authentic film criticism, cause this sure as heck ain’t gonna be it.

Vox Lux

December 06, 2018 by Guest User in emmi kurowski, jaime davis, reviews, rosalie kicks

Written and Directed by Brady Corbet
Starring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Jennifer Ehle, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin
Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes
MPAA rating: R (violence, sexual situations, drug use)

In this very special episode of movie reviews, MJ profiles actor/writer/director Brady Corbet’s second feature-length directing effort, the polarizing Vox Lux. MJ’s Rosalie, Jaime, and Emmi join forces to dissect this complex picture, condensing them into one review. An interesting meditation on the culture and self-importance of celebrity in our modern social media haze daze, Vox Lux stars Raffey Cassidy and Natalie Portman as 13 and 31 year-old Celeste, respectively, who explodes into pop superstardom as a result of a national tragedy. The film has incited a variety of responses from audiences, so our official review combines the opinions of three different viewers to better approach this fascinating film.

Chef Flynn

November 26, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Cameron Yates
Featuring Flynn McGarry, Meg McGarry, and Paris McGarry
Running time 1 hour 22 minutes
MPAA rating: not rated

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

Marie: "Restaurants are to people in the 80s what theater was to people in the 60s." I read that in a magazine.
Jess: I wrote that.
Marie: Get out of here.
Jess: No, I did. I wrote that.
Marie: I've never quoted anything from a magazine in my life! That's amazing. Don't you think it's amazing? And you wrote it?
Jess: I also wrote "Pesto is the quiche of the 80s."
Marie: Get over yourself.
Jess: I did!

Widows

November 19, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Steve McQueen
Written by Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn (screenplay), Lynda La Plante (creator)
Starring Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo
Running time 2 hours 9 minutes
MPAA rating: R

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

I’ve seen all the (Danny) Ocean movies, even reviewed the lady Ocean movie for MJ. I’ve watched and rewatched a lot of heist pics, mostly contemporary ones, like the remake of The Italian Job, Inception, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. None of these films are particularly great? Or grounded in realism, preferring to bask in all the slick cool you’d expect from the genre. But none of them, not even The Great Cate’s Eight, made me feel more alive, more proud and in awe of all my power as a woman, than Steve McQueen’s Widows.

Girl

November 13, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Lukas Dhont
Written by Lukas Dhont and Angelo Tijssens
Starring Victor Polster, Arieh Worthalter, Oliver Bodart
Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes
MPAA rating: not rated

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

Imagine going through puberty, that out of control hellscape when body and mind battle it out internally and externally - and you have to endure changes, dear Lort, so many changes! For many of you reading, it’s not hard to imagine at all - you’ve already lived through it. But imagine going through puberty with the knowledge that you were not in the body you should be, that in addition to the transformations your body chose to undertake without your express permission, you wanted to make some changes of your own. Not wanted - demanded, in order to feel fully yourself. For cisgender folk, I think it’s extremely difficult to understand what this might look and feel like. But let’s take a few moments and try.

Boy Erased

November 09, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Joel Edgerton
Written by Joel Edgerton (screenplay) and Garrard Conley (memoir)
Starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Joel Edgerton, and Russell Crowe
Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes
MPAA rating: R

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

“Jared, God will not love you the way that you are.” These words, emphatically delivered by Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton), an impassioned lead facilitator at a gay conversion therapy center, carry so much conviction, so much weighty concern. His “helpful” directive is aimed at Jared Eamons, our boy of note in Boy Erased, played with nuance and sensitivity by Lucas Hedges (Mid90s, Lady Bird, Ben is Back). The thing is, young Jared doesn’t yet know who he is. Does God still love us, even if we haven’t figured ourselves out yet? If there is a benevolent God like the one Western religions claim, wouldn’t it love us no matter what?

Burning

November 07, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Chang-dong Lee
Starring Ah-In Yoo, Jong-seo Jeon, Steven Yeun
Running time: 2 hours 28 minutes
MPAA rating: Not rated

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

How does it feel to watch everything you want, or think you want, get swept up, absorbed by someone or something else? Does it eat at you, slowly, like the consistent gnawing by a small animal? Does it pick you apart, deliberately, piece by piece, like the unmasking of a tangerine? Does it hurt you? A pulsating swell that spreads throughout you with the slow deliberation of poured honey? Or does it burn?

Mid90s

October 26, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Written and directed by Jonah Hill
Starring Sunny Suljic, Na-kel Smith, Lucas Hedges, and Katherine Waterston
Running time: 1 hour 24 minutes
MPAA rating: R

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

At the opening of Mid90s, the main character, Stevie, who I may or may not refer to in the rest of this review as Lil Stevie, is at the age (13ish) when many of us wake to how fucked our families are. It’s part of puberty, right? We start to see the signs and begin testing the waters a bit, acting out, until we’re full-on fuck it, prioritizing our friends over everything else. I think there’s a tendency at this age to see our friends as the ones with all the answers - the ones helping us figure out who we are or want to be.

Beautiful Boy

October 24, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Felix Van Groeningen
Starring Timothée Chalamet, Steve Carell, Maura Tierney, Amy Ryan
Running time: 2 hours
MPAA rating: R

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

Special k. Mescaline. E. It wasn’t a real party unless we got our hands on one of these. Sure we had something nasty and vaguely alcoholic in our water bottles - something sugary and offensive to our bellies but easy on our wallets, but it wasn’t what we were after. On this particular night with this particular group, we weren’t headed to our usual club in “family friendly” Ocean City, Maryland. After dark, we knew this town better than all the vacationers with their family wagons and sunscreen and plastered smiles. On this particular night with this particular group, about 30 minutes north of Ocean City at a party on a public beach in Delaware, we’d all just bought meth.

27th Philadelphia Film Festival Preview

October 18, 2018 by Guest User in philly film fest, rosalie kicks, benjamin leonard, jaime davis

Guys. The 27th Philly Film Fest is here, and I am super stoked! For the past two years, I have ventured to Canada with my movie pal, MJ’s Fixer, Jaime Davis to attend the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). By the time the Philly Film Fest arrives, we’ve already seen many of the flicks during our adventure at TIFF. But this year is different!

A Star is Born

October 05, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Bradley Cooper
Starring Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott, Dave Chappelle, Andrew Dice Clay
Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes
MPAA rating: R

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

It’s hard to let yourself sit with loss, to allow the emotions course through you without actively numbing them. It’s like going up a spiral staircase every day without getting anywhere. You feel the same circular waves of sadness, anger, emptiness…over and over again. Up and up: sadness, anger, emptiness. Climb even higher: that same sadness, anger, emptiness. I know it gets better, it usually does. At least, they say it gets better. I want to believe them.

The Hate U Give

October 03, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

August 24, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Desiree Akhavan
Starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Sasha Lane, John Gallagher, Jr., Jennifer Ehle
Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes
Not rated

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

"The world may think I'm foolish
they can't see you like I can
Oh
but anyone
who knows what love is
will understand." - Irma Thomas

Crazy Rich Asians

August 15, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Jon M. Chu
Starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina
Running time: 2 hours
MPAA rating: PG-13

by Jaime Davis

Yesterday I went swimming with sharks and stingrays in the ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic with my family, and I almost didn't do it. Why? Well, because scared. That's why.

Eighth Grade

July 25, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Bo Burnham (2018)
Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Jake Ryan
Running time 1 hour 33 minutes
MPAA rating: R

by Jaime Davis

What were you doing when you were in eighth grade? Who were you? What were your hopes and dreams? Who were your friends? What did you do together? How did you spend your time? Did you like your parents? What kind of person were you wanting to be?

Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist

June 27, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Lorna Tucker (2018)
Featuring Vivienne Westwood, Andreas Kronthaler
Running time 1 hour 23 minutes
MPAA Rating: not rated

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

My mom worked in fashion when I was younger. In New York! In the garment district. But before we moved to New York she was a dress buyer at Carson Pirie Scott, a department store that used to exist in Chicago. Carson's was swanky and classy - it was where nice Chicago moms with their nice money bought nice clothes if they weren't already shopping at upscale Marshall Field's. If truth be told my favorite department store back then was Madigan's, because they had THE coolest window displays around. I was just a lil' thing in the 80's, when department stores were peaking but still arbiters of style. If you asked me at age six what I was going to do with my life I would tell you I was going to be a visual merchandiser at Madigan's. Yes, I grew up in a retail family. I knew what a visual merchandiser was. And not because I'd watched Mannequin too many times. (Oh but I have. That's another story.)

Ocean's 8

June 08, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Gary Ross (2018)
by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

I was 22 when Ocean's Eleven came out in 2001. I didn't think much of it at first - a remake? From Steven Soderbergh? Dude you better than all that! And who cares about remakes anyway except for he-devils like Michael Bay? It was summertime when it was released, and I was about to be a senior in film school. My family and I were on an annual summer vacation in Breckenridge, Colorado, and my best friend from college, Kathy, was with us. I was having a heckuva time in regular life. Depressed, lonely, drowning in a long-term relationship I couldn't swim my way out of. At the time, my after-graduation plan was to move in with my boyfriend and go to grad school. Get married. Life settled. Game over. Marriage was a foregone conclusion on the part of my bf and his family, yet no one really consulted me about it. I didn't yet understand or know how to put into words why I was so unhappy. Having come out three years ago (almost to the day)...now I see it very clearly. But in those days, the life staring me in the face felt so not mine, like I was watching it all happen to someone else, in very dark, very slow motion. I accepted it as is because I thought that's just what you do. That's just what I get.

Isle of Dogs

March 30, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Wes Anderson (2018)
by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

Once upon a time, a Baby Jaime sat in an AMC multiplex in Philly. It was 2001, and your girl was straight munching on popcorn, Twizzlers, and Sprite, not a (real) care in the GD world. A junior in film school at this point, I thought my shit was pretty tight and right and I couldn't possiblyyyyyyy learn anything new about movies (omg, shameful). Anyway, Lil' Jaime was catching a screening of the recent blockbuster release Pearl Harbor, because, hey, I enjoy some Bayhem in my life every now and then and I don't gotta explain myself to nobody. (And really, who doesn't enjoy Michael Bay in small doses? Even if Michael Bay is like the Loki of Hollywoodland. Insert upside-down smiley emoji here).

Black Panther

February 16, 2018 by Guest User in jaime davis, reviews

Directed by Ryan Coogler (2018)
by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

Once upon a time, a young boy in the faraway land of Oakland walked into his local comic book shop. He'd already devoured all the typical superhero stuff, white men in tight bodysuits saving planets, traveling to exotic worlds in other dimensions, facing civilization's extinction over and over, saving it time after time. He absorbed these stories, believing in his own version of fairy tales. Yet, this boy wanted something different. He wanted to see titular heroes, not just folks on the fringes, who looked like him, who were black. One day he mustered up the courage to ask the shop employee if such a title existed. He was handed an issue of Black Panther.