To finalize the end of summer, I decided that it was only right to do so by talking about all of the movies that I watched during that time. During the typical school semesters, I tend to not have the time or mental capacity to consume new content, so summer provides the perfect opportunity to binge – watch anything I want. Since I’m a writer of Her Campus, I get to talk about them, because why not?? I did this last year as well but for shows (oh how time flies!), and if you’re interested in that article, you can read it here on this website. Without further ado, these are some of the movies I watched during the summer season, and if I could, I would definitely write essays on each movie because I’m too opinionated about everything.
- Tales of Princess Kaguya – 5/10
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While I have a special spot for Studio Ghibli movies, this was not my favourite. The movie follows the life of a nymph born out of a bamboo shoot, who was then raised by a bamboo cutter and his wife. The animation of this movie is unique and beautiful (as expected of Studio Ghibli), but I wasn’t a big fan of the storyline. I got frustrated periodically throughout the movie because of how the characters were acting, and I disliked so many of the characters in the movie that it threw me off. Overall, I liked the animation of the movie but not the movie itself.
- House of Gucci – 7.5/10
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The film is a biopic of Patrizia Reggiani (played by icon Lady Gaga) and her life after she marries into the Gucci family. Before watching the movie, I’d already seen a couple of clips online and had expectations for the film. The movie was interesting and well-paced, in my opinion, and the background of certain scenes was stunning. Lady Gaga’s costumes were also so beautiful to look at, and the movie overall was very aesthetically pleasing. However, the movie fell a bit short of my expectations, but perhaps it was my fault for setting the bar too high. Also, I did watch the movie while I was on a plane flying back to Canada from South Korea, so maybe I was too tired to properly process the film.
- Turning Red – 10/10
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Animated movies have a special place in my heart, and Turning Red was no exception. The film is about a Chinese-Canadian girl, Mei Lee, who inherits a family curse which is turning into a giant red panda if she feels any strong emotions. As expected of Pixar, this movie made me laugh, cringe, cry, and rethink my entire life all in the span of less than 2 hours. The storyline hits close to home, and there were many things about the protagonist’s journey that I relate to. I might be a bit biased towards the movie because of its Asian representation, but the movie really was a masterpiece.
- The Black Phone – 8.5/10
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The Instagram algorithm showed me a lot of reviews for this movie, and it was highly praised, and I agree that the movie deserves the hype. The Black Phone is based on a short story of the same name, and it’s about Finney Shaw, who has been kidnapped and held captive in a basement. In the basement, there’s a disconnected black phone hooked on the wall, and Finney realises he can hear the voices of the previous victims coming from it. The movie doesn’t overuse jump scares, and the scary scenes are perfectly timed. The storyline was paced well, except for the ending, which I felt was a bit rushed. I am not a fan of horror, but still, this movie is worth the watch.
- Thor: Love and Thunder – 7.5/10
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There were many instances where this film felt like a parody of the first three movies, but I still enjoyed it. I think I had my expectations too high, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. What I did like about Thor: Love and Thunder was that it included Jane Foster and the other characters that weren’t present in Thor: Ragnarok. The cinematography was okay and aesthetically pleasing, but it was not my favourite of the franchise. Also, I didn’t really like the costumes the characters had on because I thought they were a bit too shiny (?). I don’t think this movie was outstanding and deserves a bunch of awards, but it was entertaining, and sometimes that’s all I want in a movie. While I didn’t love this film, I still think that it was a good movie that concluded the Thor movie franchise well.
- Dog – 4/10
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I would usually give any movie with a dog in it a 10/10, but this movie was so bland that I couldn’t bring myself to give it above a 4/10. Dog is about an Army Ranger, Jackson Briggs, who has been tasked with bringing his fallen comrade’s military dog to his funeral on time. The dog, Lulu, has aggressive behavioural issues and Briggs has to learn how to cooperate with Lulu in order to get it to attend his friend’s funeral. The movie was pretty heartwarming and I did tear up a couple of times, but I still found the movie to be a bit boring. In today’s world, originality is basically extinct and everything is essentially an imitation or inspiration of something else. I personally don’t see a problem with that, but in my opinion, Dog did not bring anything new to the table. It honestly felt like a movie people would only watch once just because there’s a cute dog and Channing Tatum in it.