Tag Archives: Dakota Johnson

Movie Review: Verity

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Sometimes it is amazing to see a big miss of a movie like this, with arguably the two hottest female actors in the movie industry, Ann Hathaway and Dakota Johnson. Ann Hathaway has appeared in five movies this year (Mother Mary, The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey, The End of Oak Street, Verity), which has to be one of the all-time record number of movie appearances in one year for any actress in Hollywood history. Unfortunately, the new movie “Verity” is an amazingly big-time boring dud of a film, with idiotic twists and turns and an ending that fell completely flat. While sitting through these two hours, it was impossible to understand why this story could be a big Coleen Hoover bestseller, and the screenplay was then greenlit.

The logline for this movie: A struggling writer is hired to finish the work of a bestselling novelist who has been left unable to speak or move after an accident, but while living in the novelist’s isolated home, she discovers a disturbing manuscript that may reveal horrific secrets about the family—and she begins to question what is true and what is fiction. The problem after this good-sounding logline is that the rest of the story is nothing more than attempts to try and fail to trick the audience, with a convoluted, boring story and then a final twist that comes out of nowhere and makes no sense. This movie is one of the many that just kind of end with no satisfying conclusion, which is something that I have always hated as an idea for all movies.

Two of the better critical reviews: Slant Magazine: Described it as essentially all setup and no payoff, saying it repeatedly promises shocking developments but fails to deliver the thrills or passion. Screen Daily: Called it a “flimsy pastiche” of old erotic thrillers, arguing that its outrageousness eventually overwhelms its logic.

The Rotten Tomatoes consensus is a correct and very low 39%. I agree with this rating and recommend eating a pretzel if you’re looking for stupid twists and turns that make no sense.

Movie Review: Splitsville

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The new movie “Splitsville” starts in a car with a married couple, after witnessing a bad car accident, get into an argument where the wife, Ashley, played by Adria Arjona, tells her husband, Carey, played by Kyle Marvin that she not only wants a divorce, but has been having many affairs. In an effort to be very new and different, Cary steps out of the car and then starts running away for many miles. The last time I saw an emotional reaction to a depressing event involving long-distance running was “Forest Gump” (1994). This time around, running for miles after finding out Carey’s wife wanted a divorce was more weird than effective.

Splitsville plays like a parody of all the many things that can go wrong in a relationship, including the problems with monogamy. This story is also about what can go wrong in an open marriage, which is the relationship solution of Julie and Paul, played by Dakota Johnson and Michael Angelo Covino, who are close friends with Carey. The point of all this is what we all know: there are no easy answers, no perfect marriages or relationships. Many things can go wrong in life when you are single, problems can grow exponentially within any marriage, and even more when you have children. These include money problems, another aspect of this story within the relationship of Julie and Paul.

Another unusual new idea is a huge fistfight between close friends Carey and Paul that travels throughout a large lakehouse, breaking furniture and even a massive fish tank. Much of this is crazy and unexpected, and is mostly an attempt to make the film more memorable than it would be otherwise, without these insane scenes.

There are some funny moments and some good acting within this insane story, and while I do not agree with the too high 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I give this unusual movie a 75% and a mild recommendation.

Movie Review: Materialists

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The new movie “Materialists” is about dating through the eyes of people who join expensive dating services, and through the eyes of professional matchmakers, in this case, the main character Lucy, played by Dakota Johnson. It is good to see Dakota Johnson in a very good acting role, and recovering from last year’s disastrous “Madame Web”. Johnson demonstrates in this film some of the best acting of her career.

Of all the difficult professions that exist in the world, being a high-end matchmaker with a fee as high as $50,000 has to be one of the all-time emotional worst. There are several scenes in this movie where a client sits in a restaurant quoting a long list of unrealistic expectations about the person they think they deserve. All of these clients forget that any dating service cannot accept a long list of expectations and then generate the perfect person like it’s an AI-human-being-creator. This is because any dating service, regardless of the cost, is only as good as the people who join. No perfect person exists anywhere in the world for anyone.

As part of this long list of wants and do-not-wants, there is a great deal of talk about how much people earn in salary, as if that is one of the most important requirements for the perfect long-term partner. One of the main messages in this very good movie is the long-term on-and-off-again relationship of Lucy and her very broke waiter, trying to be an actor boyfriend, John, played very well by Chris Evans. The contrast between Lucy’s current rich boyfriend Harry, played by Pedro Pascal, and John, along with Lucy’s eventual decision about them, is one of the best parts of this extremely well-written screenplay.

As several critics have said that screenwriter-director Celine Song paints a very bleak and depressing story about the realities of dating in this world, but most would agree that her point of view is more about the reality of trying to find love, and much less about just being negative about all of the heartache, and depression involved. Dating will always involve putting your heart and soul into the hands of a total stranger, and then trying to accept the consequences when a person you might potentially love does not feel the same way about you.

For me, the actor who steals this entire movie is Sophie, played by Zoe Winters. Her repeated comments about “dying alone” and one scene where the pain in her eyes when she hears that the previous person she went out with did not feel the same way about her are great acting moments in this movie. Later, Sophie’s conversation with Lucy after the latest in a string of 10 bad dates attacked her, included a moment when she breathlessly tells Lucy that she “deserves love”. In my opinion, Winters is worthy of an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for these two scenes alone.

The one thing I hated about this movie is the chain-smoking that Lucy does with several other characters. Smoking happens in movies because cigarette companies finance the production despite the downside that includes too many people continuing to smoke or taking it up as a new, stupid hobby. As we all know, smoking causes a long list of Cancers, and showing smoking in movies should have been banned decades ago.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a very high 87%, with my rating 95% and a 100% rating for this category of movie, showing what it is like for so many millions of us, who try to find true love in our lifetimes.