You’ll notice that this posts reviews are longer than usual, but you know what, they’re damn worth it. There is so much to be said about every one of these movies - about excellence, about power, and about heart. You owe it to yourself to watch these movies - and yes even I’m Thinking about Ending Things. Just make sure you… you know what. You’ll find out. Stoski’s Ultimate Movies Rating Guide is getting some great additions this time around.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

Taking place for the most part inside of a single house, this is one of those “what is going on here?” movies. Entertaining but confusing and mysterious, the movie centers around a young lady and her boyfriend visiting his parent’s house for the first time.

The movie itself is pleasant and inviting, and the conversation itself is genuinely interesting. Leaving alone what makes this movie particularly interesting, the dialogue, and the actor’s delivery thereof, are the centerpiece of the film. A real slice of life movie, reminiscent of movies like Dazed and Confused or Nepolean Dynamite. A movie about a dinner visit to a boyfriend’s parents’ house doesn’t sound exciting in the slightest, but great dialogue and interesting design decisions make it work well.

Also, Jake, the boyfriend, is played by Jesse Plemons, who played Todd in the final season of Breaking Bad. Bonus!

The movie as a whole is great but the ending is… questionable. Honestly, do yourself a favor and watch up until the part where the young lady leaves the car in the snowstorm. Then, come back for the ending. Mouse over the paragraph below once you’ve done that, or if you just don’t care.

The ending is pure dogshit and it wasted 20 minutes the lives of everyone who watched it. Okay, so it turns out that the whole movie was being remembered years later by the old janitor, who is actually Jake in the future. Various details within the movie are constantly changing because his memory is hazy and he cannot pin down in his mind exactly how that day went, or what they talked about.

Jesus! How pretentious! Bet you’re glad you didn’t watch it all the way through, huh?

3/5

Training Day (2001)

A rookie cop looking to rise through the ranks and become a detective is being evaluated by Detective Sargent Alonzo Harris, played by Denzel Washington. What begins as a slice of life with a twist of no-nonsense policing soon starts to show it’s real colours. The title of the film is literal, as the entirety of the movie takes place within one single day, and no minute is wasted.

Our rookie officer Jake, played by Ethan Hawke, sinks further and further into the depths of corruption and a misuse of power, with Alonzo at the top. Starting off as a mentor and kind of protector, Alonzo at first take seems like someone who our man Jake can trust and aspire to become, but, scene by scene the tables turn and his true nature is revealed. Reletively minor oversights soon give way to more egregious acts, threatening to turn Jake to the dark side of policing with every moment.

Det. Harris is the be-all and end-all as far as Training Day is concerned. No higher-ranking member of the police force is to be seen throughout the entire movie. A hierarchy is referenced, but we never see anyone with a higher rank than Alonzo. This puts Jake’s life in Alonzo’s hands, and later, pits them directly against each other.

With no help from above and no-one to turn to, Jake must work against Alonzo and the networks he’s created for himself in order to survive and come out on top. Years of working the job have afforded Alonzo many ties to crime and gangs in LA. What is a greenhorn to do but use his wits, skill, and luck to stay alive?

Wonderful writing, pacing, story, and acting, put training day at the top of the heap in it’s genre, and perhaps in most genres. We also get our second Breaking Bad reference of the day - this time it’s Raymond Cruz (Tuco Salamanca), and he’s definitely playing a similar character.

4.5/5

Chronicle (2012)

A superhero movie from before everyone went kookoo bananas over Marvel’s latest big-budget film (and DC too I suppose). 2008’s Iron Man had already been released by this point, but things were still relativity calm in this genre. Forget all of that “with great power comes great responsibility” crap , this movie is real. It’s about what a teenage boy would realistically do if he were to one day wake up with a set of telekinetic superpowers. Forget Spider Man, alright. That’s over. No-one is Perpetually Perfect Peter Parker who’s so astounding as to even come with Astoundingly Amazing inner-monologue Alliteration. Guy who gets incredible superpowers and immediately sets about fighting crime and doing good? Not gonna happen.

Peter would never exist in our world, alright. Almost never. One in ten million. Far more likely are Andrew, Matt, or Steve. Three highschoolers who, weeks after receiving their powers (note the realistic timeframe required to merely grasp these powers - let alone master them), are down doing what any highschool teen boy would do; play pranks, impress his friends, and look at girls’ panties. Later: Impress the entire school with a magic/comedy routine that actually gets people excited. Holy shit these guys are down to Earth!

It’s not all looking up skirts, though. Rather than “saving the world” or some other such tired trope of a plot, Chronicle instead turns attention to the main characters themselves. How do their powers change them? What are their stories? What were their lives like before telekinesis, and what are they like now? All 3 main characters change and grow in a realistic way throughout the movie, according to their backstories, something you don’t see much of in this genre. It’s mostly a case of “I got these powers okay time to do good in my community!”. Snore. Instead, we get Andrew. He has a bad home life, with a sick mother, mounting medical bills, and a drunkard father who beats him. Rather than helping old ladies cross the street and whatnot, his new found power leads him down a dark path that leads to his own destruction, but not before trying to steal enough money to help his dying mother, and developing a god complex in act 2.

You’ll notice that, even though all three characters possess powers of telekinesis, and even though all three develop those to a point where pushing, deflecting, holding, grabbing, and even flight, are no big deal, almost every object they manipulate in the air looks as if it’s on strings. Whether or not strings are used (they probably are) in the making of this movie, this detail adds to the realism of the situation that the main characters find themselves in. It took weeks of practice to even grasp their powers, but there’s so much more to learn. Even Andrew, far more powerful than the other two, capable of manipulating many objects simultaneously, cannot keep these objects steady. They float about, bobbing up and down, almost as if they were controlled by a teenage boy still coming to grips with his abilities. This is far from the cheat code other superhero movies give their protagonists, achieving full mastery of their abilities in a matter of days or even less. This is out-of-this-world abilities depicted in a realistic, grounded, realistic way. It’s a breath of fresh air and honestly a blast.

Chronicle is a fresh and honest take on the realities of suddenly inheriting super powers, and a damn fun one at that. It’s one of those movies that somehow gets it all right. It’s smart, well-rounded, well-written, action-packed, and a lot of fun. If this kind of movie has been done better, I certainly haven't seen it.