Tag Archives: Olivia Cooke

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Ready Player One (2018) Movie Review

March 28, 2018 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Ernest Cline’s science fiction novel Ready Player One is not just laced in nostalgia; it is fully marinated in it. The story takes place in 2045, where most people in the world are deeply entrenched in an MMO-style VR video game dubbed The Oasis. With the death of the video game’s creator, James Halliday (Mark Rylance, in the film adaptation), a massive game-wide hunt is afoot for an Easter Egg that will give its finder control over The Oasis.

In essence, it is a story about Easter Eggs created by a person with a strong fondness for Easter Eggs that itself is littered with Easter Eggs. It is a nostalgia vehicle. This is not inherently a bad thing.

And yet, because of its affinity for nostalgia, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One feels like Continue reading Ready Player One (2018) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Thoroughbreds (2018) Movie Review

March 13, 2018 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

You wouldn’t know by looking at it, but Thoroughbreds is writer-director Cory Finley’s debut film.

In it, expelled prep school student Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) rekindles an old friendship with Amanda (Olivia Cooke), who admits to Lily that she feels no emotion. Upon observing Lily’s step father Mark (Paul Sparks), who Lily openly despises for the emotional abuse he exerts on her mother, Amanda brings up the notion of murdering him.

The film uses its morbidly comic lens to hone in on concepts of control and ownership in an upper-class, suburban setting. Waves of classism flow on the fringes of the narrative, from the Continue reading Thoroughbreds (2018) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Drama, Indie Films, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Me & Earl & the Dying Girl (2015) Movie Review

April 15, 2015 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

In Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, self-deprecating loner teen Greg (Thomas Mann) begrudgingly befriends Rachel (Olivia Cooke), a classmate who has been recently diagnosed with stage four leukemia. Throughout the course of his senior year, the somewhat selfish and self-absorbed youth grows to care for the titular dying girl.

The film, coming off the heels of last year’s The Fault In Our Stars, Me & Earl & the Dying Girl is cashing in on the young-adult terminal-illness tearjerker novel adaptation genre. It also utilizes Continue reading Me & Earl & the Dying Girl (2015) Movie Review →