One thing I did not know about this movie at first was that this is a 2 part story and the conclusion will be released next summer.

I had to admire the screenwriting involved with this huge movie because a writer or a team of writers had to come up with a story that had to include just about all the Marvel Comic characters from the last 15 years and even some new ones we have not seen before. The entire cast of the “Guardian’s of the Galaxy” are also in this film, adding even more of a challenge to fit everybody into this 2 1/2 hour movie. The story reminded me of many other Marvel movies in the past, somewhat complex and disjointed and the computerized special effects were as good as I have seen in all of the other movies like this. There is a giant battle at the end of this movie that was the most elaborate end of movie battle for a Marvel movie in recent memory and overall this film has all of the action and special effects that just about all fans of this franchise will appreciate. I did not like the ending however, because of the way it leaves the audience completely hanging and I thought that part could have been handled better. This movie left me wondering about the conclusion next year and thinking about the huge amount of money and the number of movies that have been generated all due to Marvel comic book characters. At this point it has to surpass even Star Wars.

I thought this was a good action movie, not a great one and I do recommend it.

With rare exception with some movies like Gladiator in 2000, Joaquin Phoenix has been making low budget art movies throughout his career. Most of this is admirable because its obvious that he is not interested in the money, only the art form of making movies. His new movie “You Were Never Really Here” is another example of one his art movies and this film is unusual in many ways including the story telling and the over the top method of showing flashbacks to explain the action and the main character’s abusive childhood.

Like the recent movie Traffik this film deals with the tragedy of human trafficking. Joaquin portrays a man whose job it is to find young girls who have been abducted and return them to their families. This story is about one abduction that becomes far more involved and violent than others he has done in the past, although the details on the reasons behind why all of this is happening is never explained. In other reviews I have done in this blog in the past, I have said several times that its one thing try something new but if that idea is too off the wall or doesn’t make sense, then this is not a movie I will review positively. You Were Never Really Here is pretty close to going off course but for the most part, the movie made sense and was not too strange to give a negative review.

I give a marginal recommendation to You Were Never Really Here.

It all starts with a logline: “A woman with low self esteem hits her head and suddenly thinks she is extremely attractive”. This idea is simple, brilliant and perfect for Amy Schumer, who has made a huge career out of self deprecating comedy and now with her third movie “I Feel Pretty”.

Why the ratings for this movie are so low I have no idea because I thought this was a very solid comedy that in the end had a very strong message. There were several laugh out loud moments in this movie not only for me but for several other people in the audience, which is always the most important test of any comedy.

This is Amy Schumer’s third movie, her first “Trainwreck” was very good and her second movie, “Snatched” did not work. There were moments in this film where I was impressed with Schumer’s acting as I was with her acting in Trainwreck. She is one of the few comedic actresses who can be funny with her eyes by just looking at the camera. I have seen this innate ability in very few other actors including Will Farrell, Steve Martin and the late John Candy.

The message of this movie through the transformation of Renee played by Schumer from someone who hates herself to after a head injury to someone who loves herself I thought was very strongly portrayed in this film. There is a scene in this movie that for me stood out the most – when a salesperson in a clothing store went out of her way to go over to Schumer and knock her down by telling her that she would have to go online to find her size. People like this are everywhere in life; callous, diseased people who believe they can be the judge over someone they don’t know and in many cases over someone who is obviously hurting. There are many people like this in this story, as Renee works for a high fashion makeup company. For me the best message in this film is why do so many of us give others the power to judge us. Why is the opinion of others, even total strangers so important to so many of us, even to the point of hating ourselves.

This movie also stars Michelle Williams in what I think is her first comedy performance and Lauren Hutton who is the creator of the fictional fashion company and I thought both were very good in their roles. Renee’s friends are played by Saturday Night Live cast member Aidy Bryant and Busy Phillips who were also very good in their roles as well providing some funny moments in this movie.

I thought Renee’s transition to a likable self hating person to someone who became an egomaniacal jerk due to her head injury was another very important message in this film – the message being love yourself but show respect to those around you, especially your friends.

I thought I Feel Pretty is the best comedy of 2018 and I recommend it. Once again the critics are very wrong about this very solid comedy.