Simon's Movie Reviews

The life of rock stars is very fascinating and often highly absurd. Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap (1984) captures that absurdity perfectly by going through all the tropes of the rock’n’roll world through the lens of a fake documentary. The band members are played by actors, but their mannerisms and anecdotes sometimes feel pulled from real-life rock legend. Plus, the movie popularized the expression “dial it up to 11”, which I think we can all agree is one awesome expression. It’s been a while since I first saw This Is Spinal Tap , but I remember laughing a lot while watching it with my brother. Ever since I have noticed its influence in many facets of pop culture, such as how the Defense against the Dark Arts teachers in the Harry Potter don’t last more than one year. Without it we also wouldn’t have Andy Sandberg’s comedy Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping which does for pop music what Reiner’s film did for rock and roll. Then of course we have the cast, a who’s who of ...

There is an age-old question regarding whether single men and women can be just friends. In real life the answer is obviously “yes,” but in movies and TV the answer always has to be that at some point two single characters will get attracted to each other and move beyond friendship. On TV I find this to be contrived and overused, but some movies can have a lot of fun with the concept, most notably Rob Reiner’s comedy classic When Harry Met Sally …(1989). It may not change your view on love and friendship, but it forever changed the meaning of the phrase “I’ll have what she’s having.” On paper this film’s premise sounds like another rom-com, but seen by oneself during an evening of Netflix binging it does make you think about deep stuff like the long-term impact of your decisions on your life. A person you meet during a tense trip might turn up again sometime later down the road in the most unexpected ways. If there is one thing I believe in it is infinite possibilities, and Nora...

The writers at Pixar have this ability to take ordinary concepts or objects and turn them upside down. What if children’s toys sprang to life when you left the room? What if cars could talk? With “Monsters, Inc.” (2001) they asked the question “what if the monsters in your closet were average guys trying to make a living?” I first saw Pixar’s fourth film while living in Lima, Peru, with my brother and my mom. American movies in South America are usually released in English with Spanish subtitles, but they make an exception for kids’ movies and dub them in Spanish. I would have preferred to hear the voices of John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, but as with all Pixar films this is more about story and visuals than dialogue. Besides, once they get to that scene where Mike and Sully enter the room with a million doors, who cares what language they speak? Only one word comes to mind: WOW! In the city of Monstropolis, power is generated by capturing the screams of little ch...