Review | Ignorant Bliss

Review: Almost Christmas

November 11, 2016 by Julian Lytle Leave a Comment

This review was originally posted on Punch Drunk Critics

Another year and another black led holiday film. Sometimes these are pretty decent film going affairs like This Christmas, sometimes it’s pretty terrible like Black Nativity. So where does Almost Christmas sit? It’s a future hood bootleg classic. Some of you may ask what that means, put simply it means that it’s good enough that most black folks will see this in a barbershop or from their uncle with the movies to watch on Thanksgiving day or Christmas. It’s a middle of road holiday weekend movie but maybe not one to run out to go see.Continue Reading …

Review: Kevin Hart: What Now?

October 14, 2016 by Julian Lytle Leave a Comment

This review was originally posted on Punch Drunk Critics

So I’m sitting here wondering how do you really sit and review a stand-up comedy concert film? Like does editing and cinematography really matters here? Is that a standard to even think about? There really isn’t a plot because like come on its stand up. I think first things first Kevin Hart is right now and has been for a few years THE most visible and mass popular stand-up comedian we have. You can counter with Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari or Amy Schumer but Amy isn’t at that level yet, Aziz kind of has a certain niche in that “lovelorn let’s explore romance and ball out” lane and Louie is like the artisan of comedy. Kevin is the one that people instantly gets, can be annoying and you worry about him over saturating himself but somehow he’s just likable enough to keep his hustle going. Which brings us to his newest concert film What Now? It’s been a few years since his last one, Let Me Explain, and here his goal is to take it to another level. Like the last film he bookends his movie with fictional story on a problem on him getting to his concert.Continue Reading …

Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

September 30, 2016 by Julian Lytle Leave a Comment

This review was originally posted on Punch Drunk Critics

So Tim Burton is back with a new film. No lie I thought he did that trash new Alice in Wonderland movie but I found out he didn’t, yet I still give him the blame. For the most part, I haven’t liked a Tim Burton film since 1999 when Sleepy Hollow dropped. He put up so many weaker and weaker live-action film efforts since then that to me it’s almost like he got bored or lost something once he didn’t get to make Superman Lives. Every now and then he has an interesting animated thing he’s working on but that’s far and few between. Sweeny Todd was ok but honestly, I really like musicals so I’m probably biased from the songs (Sondheim is a beast). So many months ago when I heard of this movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children I was like, whatever it’s probably some more Burton overwrought goth art-directed movie where aesthetic is more important than story, pacing, and character. What I ended up seeing actually wasn’t that bad, it was actually pretty decent and the story kind of made sense.