The Quintessentialist

Top 5 Best Films Of 2020 Some Much Needed Watches! It's that time of the year! Time to go over the Top 5 Best Films Of 2020! Here are the rules:  the movie must have been in theaters this year or it must have premiered this year, and it must have scored at minimum 4/5 and I only allow myself three 5/5 movies per year. However for 2020 I will be striking the 4/5 minimum because I wasn't able to see enough films to  qualify on that rule, so I will just be doing the Top 5 highest rated films of 2020. With that said, let's get into the list! 5. The Call Of The Wild I enjoyed watching this film. Though Harrison Ford wasn't in the whole of the film, the appearance he made was good, and the CGI wasn't terrible. I found the story to be pretty good overall and it's a nice family film. 3.5/5 4. Human Capital I'm assuming that most people probably haven't seen this film, but it's worth seeing at least once. Though it is very stylized, and it's not for every

   The Top 5 Worst Movies Of 2020 What A Year! Welcome back to my Top 5 Worst Movies of the year list! 2020 has sucked for movies and I wasn't sure going into this list if I would have enough films to even qualify for the Top 5 Worst and Best lists. But I have exactly 10 movies that qualified under part of the rules:  the rules are the movie had to either been in theaters this year, or premiered this year, and the movie must have scored below a 3/5. I am going to change it a little bit because 2020 was so unusual, I'm going to make the list basically in order of scoring so the "scored below a 3/5" rule is going to tossed out this year but the "been in theaters or premiered this year" rule will still be in active. With that said, here are the Top 5 Worst Movies Of 2020! 5. The Invisible Man The Invisible Man was a decent enough film. It wasn't perfect and it most certainly had it's flaws, but I would consider watching it again.   3.3/5 4. Rebecca Rebe

 Merry Christmas Everyone! It's been such a turbulent year for us all, but I hope that this day will be good for all. I think we've earned a break. Quick side note, I'll have my Top 5 lists coming out in a few days so watch out for those. So, eat lots, open presents, and enjoy the time with those you spend.  Merry Christmas!

The Professor and the Madman Movie Review A Good Film I just finished watching, The Professor and the Madman and I found myself enjoying the film. It might be a bit slow for some, but it's still good. The Professor and the Madman is about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and how one Scot, and one American made great progress at the beginning of the Dictionary. James Murray (Mel Gibson) is presented as a hyper-polyglot at the beginning of the film and appears that he may be the only one up to the task at starting a dictionary comprised of every English word. Dr. William Minor (Sean Penn) is found insane for the murder of Eliza Merrett's (Natalie Dormer) husband. He is placed in psychiatric hospital where he faces what he has done and what haunts him from the past. Dr. William Minor discovers a plea for help in the creation of the dictionary and he assists James Murray in its creation, while attempting to make amends with Eliza Merrett. I found The Professor and the

Mank Movie Review A Disappointment David Fincher is perhaps one of my favorite Directors, so I was excited going into watching Mank, but I had severe disappointment coming out. I'm going to let IMDB describe the plot for me, " 1940. Film studio RKO hires 24-year-old wunderkind Orson Welles under a contract that gives him full creative control of his movies. For his first film he calls in washed up alcoholic Herman J Mankiewicz to write the screenplay. That film is Citizen Kane and this is the story of how it was written." Mank is a hot mess of a film and  I  have no idea why it's getting so much attention. The acting is stiff, the music is  anachronistic, the camera work is insulting, and this movie has no sense of pacing. This is without a doubt the worst David Fincher film I've seen. From my understanding, Mank was made to emulate the 1930s style of filmmaking, but I've also heard some say it was 1940s. (MINOR SPOILER) Since most of the film takes place in

The Witcher: The Last Wish Book Review An Entertaining Fantasy Book A while ago I read the first Witcher book, The Last Wish. I once played like 5 minutes of, The Witcher 2 game and watched the show on Netflix but, this book was really a proper introduction to what the series was about for me. The Witcher: The Last Wish is a collection of short stories that follows a Witcher, Geralt. Geralt travels across the world fighting monsters and making a few friends along the way. Ok I oversimplified the plot, but it really was a while ago since I read this book. I do remember some things about it though. The characters were well written, the pacing was pretty good, and it was fun reading about all the different types of monsters. I haven't read many books in the fantasy genre, but I thought this book was pretty good for an outsider looking in. The Last Wish does a great job of establishing Geralt as a character and I got a pretty good sense of who he is. The other characters seemed to st

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope all of you are doing well.  Some updates for you, I wish I could post more, but since Minnesota has been placed on lockdown again, I haven't been able to get to the theater as much as I wanted too. My laptop also crashed this month. I do most of my work off of there, so I hope by the time that this post comes out, my laptop will be fixed. I am fortunate enough to be able to write this post from someone I know's computer.  I have been reading a little more and I've been watching some more shows, so I might have some book reviews and tv show reviews coming out in December. I'm trying to be optimistic, but I don't want to leave you regulars in the dark as to why I'm not posting much this month.  On a more positive note, since it is Thanksgiving, I am looking forward to eating mashed potatoes! What foods are you guys looking forward to? I love the Holidays and let's take some normalcy where we can get it, especially this year

News of the World Movie Trailer Reaction  Looks Pretty Good Well, it appears as though Tom Hanks is going to be in a new movie called News of the World. Based on the trailer it looks like it's going to be coming out pretty strong. I surprisingly haven't heard about this one, and I didn't expect to see him in a Western.  With that said, the color scheme is beautiful, the pacing of the trailer is spot on, and the acting looks promising from everyone involved. I think it's safe to consider me hyped for this film. It does say in the trailer that it will be coming out in theaters, but with everything going on, I'm not sure if that will happen. I most certainly hope that it comes out in theaters, because frankly I miss the heck out of going.  What are your thoughts on this?

 Happy Halloween everyone!  I hope you get too have lots of good treats, watch a scary movie, and enjoy the day. After everything that has been going on this year, let's take a break for one day and get some normalcy into our lives. I think Halloween might be just the thing we need (knock on wood), and I really hope you guys have a fun time today! Oh yeah, and apparently there will be a full moon out tonight, so watch out for werewolves. Happy Halloween!

The Queen's Gambit A Fantastic Show I'm a fan of chess, I'm a fan of Anya Taylor-Joy, and I'm a fan of film. What do you get when you mix the three? Something incredible. The Queen's Gambit follow Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) an orphan who learns chess from her orphanage's Janitor, Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp). Turns out Beth is a prodigy. She excels at Chess and after getting adopted she starts to compete in tournaments. The acting is great, the portrayal of chess is pretty well done, and the show is just plain entertaining. It is a bit slow and that can throw some people off, but for me the show mastered its slower pace and outdid itself. Longtime readers of this blog might have noticed I'm somewhat of a fan of Anya Taylor-Joy. She is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses performing today. She owns her character and completely embodies her. In my opinion it's a flawless performance. The remaining cast all stood out in there own way and everyone pla

Rebecca Movie Review A Well Made Film But Could Have Been Better This adaptation of Rebecca is all right based off of what I know of the story. Though it it hard to live up to Hitchcock. I'm going to keep it simple and quote from IMDB for the synopsis, " After a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo with handsome widower Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), a newly married young woman (Lily James) arrives at Manderley, her new husband's imposing family estate on a windswept English coast. Naive and inexperienced, she begins to settle into the trappings of her new life, but finds herself battling the shadow of Maxim's first wife, the elegant and urbane Rebecca, whose haunting legacy is kept alive by Manderley's sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas). Written by Netflix " The cinematography and the color scheme are good. Lily James seems to fit her role well and so does Armie Hammer. However there is something that is a bit off. I can't exactly put

 2020 Halloween Playlist Well, it's that time of year again! It's time for the Halloween Playlist! I swear this is becoming a tradition around here. So, like each year, I build on the list from the previous years. Maybe you'll find something to add to your Halloween playlist this year too!

 Happy (Fingers Crossed) October Everyone! Let's Kick Off This Spooky Month With Betty Boop! See, I've already matched the number of posts from last month! But anyways guys happy October and lets hope something bad doesn't happen this month... I'm going to knock on wood for that one... But since I'm going to be posting more this month, I thought I'd kick of the celebration of horror with none other than, Betty Boop!  "What the hell does Betty Boop have to do with horror?" You may be asking yourself right now. Well friend, just a few months ago I would have thought the same thing, but then, I actually watched a few of the old cartoons. And yeah, they're basically horror. I was pretty surprised to find this out, but hey it was very entertaining. If you like old school cartoons you might enjoy Betty Boop. If you're a horror fan and a bit skeptical that Betty Boop doesn't fit the October spirit, just watch these cartoons: But anyways guys, I

 Update: Sorry For Lack Of Posts So, it's been about a month since I last made a post. I wanted to apologize for the lack of posts lately. September has been a busy month for me. There have been delays in my work projects and I've barely had any time to watch any movies. Not to mention my local theater is still closed. So it's been a bit tricky to watch some movies. I do have some ideas for October posts. I'm not doing a 31 Posts of Halloween this year. When I did do it that one year it was pretty popular, so I might do it again sometime. With that said, I have some non-movie post ideas for October, but don't worry they're still related to film. Be on the lookout for more posts coming in October. But if you want to help support my movie habit so I can get more posts out, you can do so by reading and reviewing my adventure novel, The Quest For The Sun God's Tomb  which it's available for Kindle for $0.99 and it's also on Kindle Unlimited. I don't

The New Mutants Movie Review IT'S HERE!!! IT'S FINALLY HERE!!! I'm proud to say that I have seen The New Mutants!!! It's been three years in the waiting, but I've finally seen The New Mutants!!! I'm going to keep it simple and use the IMDB description for the film, " Five young mutants, just discovering their abilities while held in a secret facility against their will, fight to escape their past sins and save themselves." I'm so happy that I've seen The New Mutants I thought that this day would never come. If you've been following this blog for a while you know how much I've wanted to see this film. And I'm happy with it. The cast really play well off of each other, there are some cool effects, and it's just all around fun. Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga, and Alice Barga all did a great job in The New Mutants. The script doesn't carry the cast, the cast carries the script. T

Death on the Nile Trailer Reaction I Did Not See This Coming I was completely unaware that there would be a sequel to the 2017 film, Murder on the Orient Express . I thought the film was alright, but no where near the deserving of a sequel. I'm a bit surprised that Gal Gadot is in it. 2020 is just full of surprises I guess. The question is, will I see it? The answer... eh? If nothing else is playing I might pop over to a theater and see Death on the Nile. However, many theaters are still closed in my area so it's been a bit of a headache as of late finding places that are open. But by the time this is out, the theaters in my area should be back up and running I hope. As for the trailer itself, it looks well shot and the setting is beautiful, but the plot seems like it might be a repeat of the first film. I already have a sneaking suspension who did it. I could be wrong. I think I'll give myself 50/50 odds on this one. To be honest I just miss going to the theater,

The New Mutants Opening Scene is partially released! Also A New Release Date! So, we finally got more of The New Mutants material. I'm pretty happy with this. It's a well made opening and I'm excited to see the film on... oh... what's it this time? August 28th? What are the odds of a last minute cancellation? I'm going to give it a 50/50 shot. I hope it's for real this time though. I swear this movie is cursed or something. It's been a while since I've seen a movie with this many delays for release. But anyways, I'd say I'm pretty optimistic going forward after seeing this opening. Let's just hope this is the real release date this time.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Review A Good Sequel The Umbrella Academy Season 2 just premiered a little bit ago, and I watched the season in two days... can you tell I enjoyed it? The Umbrella Academy Season 2 follows The Umbrella Academy from season one as they transport back in time to the early 1960s. The problem is, they transported back to different parts of the 1960s. Some are there for a couple years, others it's only been a month. But what also followed them is the apocalypse. So, this time around they have to prevent the apocalypse again, but there are a few special curveballs in the mix they don't see coming. Alright, The Umbrella Academy Season 2 did take somewhat of a lazy route and do the "apocalypse" thing again, but they pulled it off in my opinion. There are new elements that weren't their before and there is a ton of character growth for some in the family. A few of them didn't get the screen time they deserved which is a shame. 

Human Capital Movie Review An Enjoyable Flick So, a couple days ago it was my first time back at a theater since the quarantine began and I went and saw the film, Human Capital with a friend of mine. I'm not exactly how to describe Human Capital , so, I'm going to quote the IMDB page, " The lives of two different families collide when their children begin a relationship that leads to a tragic accident." Human Capital has a ton of actors you would recognize but may not remember  their names. There is a good pace to the film and it changes things up a couple of times which was really refreshing. Human Capital is a bit more of a character study than a plot heavy film, and it works for what it is. I think you'll probably enjoy this movie a bit more knowing that going in. Regarding the actors, I'm just going to listen their names:  Marisa Tomei ,  Maya Hawke , Alex Wolff , Peter Sarsgaard , Liev Schreiber , Paul Sparks , Betty Gabriel . Plus many oth

Guns Akimbo Movie Review A Fun But Simple Flick I saw Guns Akimbo a little bit ago with a buddy of mine and I have to say that this was a fun film. It wasn't complicated by any means, but it is fun. Guns Akimbo follows Miles ( Daniel Radcliffe ) has a boring life. He lost his girlfriend, he has a jerk boss, and he seems to be going nowhere. But when one night he enters the chat of a deadly game online, he angers the games creators, and the decide he now has to play. They kidnap him and bolt guns to his hands, and tell him if he wants to live, he has to kill one of their top players, Nix ( Samara Weaving ). Miles is out of his league. This isn't a complicated film by any means and if you want a fun action film which kinda acts as a video game film, Guns Akimbo is probably the right fit for you. For what it's worth, the acting was entertaining, the action had a good pace, and the director probably had a lot of fun making this. Daniel Radcliffe has been making some

Happy 4th of July!  Hey guys, sorry for the lack of posts, I haven't seen many movies lately. I'll try and get a couple more posts out this month. Anyways, just wanted to wish everyone a Happy 4th, and hope all of you have a great time! We've been through a lot this year, but I hope everyone has a good time today. So, Happy 4th! And I get some more posts out in a couple days.

Loving Movie Review A Good Little Known Film I recently watched the movie Loving and I found myself enjoying this film greatly. This film came out back in 2016 and I'm surprised I didn't hear about it. Loving is based on a true story and follows Richard Loving ( Joel Edgerton ) along with his wife Mildred Loving ( Ruth Negga ), an interracial couple that got married in Washington D.C. in 1958. But they lived in Virginia which interracial marriage was illegal during that time period. They are basically exiled from the State for 25 years to avoid prison time. The ACLU eventually takes on their case and they fight to live in Virginia and to make their marriage legal across the U.S. and it won't be easy, but they take their case all the way up to the Supreme Court. Loving was a good film. I was browsing around looking for something to watch and I came across this movie. I thought I'd give it a shot and by golly I'm glad I did. The acting was well done, the pa

The Pursuit Of Happyness Movie Review A Great Film A few days ago, I watched The Pursuit Of Happyness which came out back in 2006. I wanted to see it back then, but I didn't get the chance. However, a few days ago I watched The Pursuit Of Happyness for the first time and I loved the film. The Pursuit Of Happyness is based on a true story and follows Chris Gardner (Will Smith) as his life goes from bad to worse while trying to make a better life for himself and his son Christopher (Jaden Smith). He unsuccessfully tries to sell bone density scanners while going through a competitive internship to become a stock broker. I really enjoyed The Pursuit Of Happyness and thought it was a great film beginning to end. The highs and lows of this film are incredible. I think this is one of the best Will Smith films I've seen. There is such an emotional weight to it. The Pursuit Of Happyness captures your attention and holds it from beginning to end. Will Smith is a good actor

The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes Book Review A Solid Prequel I finished reading The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, by Suzanne Collins, and it was a good prequel. The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes follows a young 18 year old Coriolanus Snow as his family has fallen on rough times in the Capitol. His once proud family has been reduced to near poverty while trying to keep up appearances. He still goes to a prestigious Academy for Capitol children, and for the 10th annual Hunger Games, Coriolanus is selected to be the mentor for the District 12 Girl Tribute, Lucy Gray. The war is still fresh in the minds of the citizens of Panem, and as Coriolanus seeks to raise his status in the Capitol, many challenges lay ahead. With the encouraging words, Snow lands on top he is hungry for victory. Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds ever be in your favor! I am a massive fan of this series. I've read the whole series, and the first book multiple times. I've seen every movie on t

The New Mutants Got A New Release Date Will It Change Again? Probably. The New Mutants has been rescheduled for release  August 28th of 2020. I'm kinda getting past the anger phase I had previously but I'm still frustrated with the whole debacle. This movie has been pushed so many freaking times it's insane. If you're a long time reader of the blog, you probably know I'm not the biggest fan of Superhero films. I like some of them, but they're not my "go to" genre of film. However, I have found myself enjoying the X-Men series. Granted not all of their films are that great, but at least they remain entertaining. I loved the idea of adding a horror spin for The New Mutants and it's filled with a pretty good cast. I can only hope that if this movie does come out August 28th, then it will live up to the hype. But looking to the past, it's a 50/50 shot of that happening. Speaking of 50/50 odds, what do you guys think that this film will b

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Movie Review A Classic Western The Good, The Bad And The Ugly is perhaps one of the most recognizable western films. I saw it for the first time a few days ago, and it was pretty good. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly follows three men. Tuco ( Eli Wallach ) the ugly, Angel Eyes ( Lee Van Cleef ) the bad, and Blondie ( Clint Eastwood ) the good. As the three men compete with each other to find Confederate gold. Sometimes working with each other, and sometimes against. Who among them will get the gold? I have to saw it again,  The Good, The Bad And The Ugly is a classic western and it's a must see film for any cinephile. There's some really good acting in this film, but it does drag a little at times. Granted,  The Good, The Bad And The Ugly is about three hours long. So, this is a film that demands some investment. The music is iconic, and the ending is perhaps one of the most famous scenes in movie history. I want to start off by saying,

Penny Dreadful City Of Angels Season 1 Episode 1 Review  Had To Think About This One A Bit If you haven't noticed, I'm a fan of Penny Dreadful . I did address my early thoughts on the new series a little while ago , and now that it's out, I thought I would give my thoughts on the first episode. For the description I'm going to quote IMDB , " Los Angeles, 1938. LAPD detective Tiago Vega and his partner, Lewis Michener, investigate a murder. While at City Hall, Tiago's activist brother Raul Vega battles with the fiery Councilman Charlton Townsend over the construction of California's first freeway. Meanwhile, Peter Craft, the head of the German-American Bun, meets Elsa, the mysterious mother of one of his patients. Sensing danger, Tiago's mother Maria pleads with Santa Muerte to protect her family as the rising tensions in the city threaten to explode." From what I've seen from other reviewers has been very mixed. And here's my two