The Month in Film: June 2012
Another month of movies has gone by. This is a few days late as I was waiting for a few of my contemporary reviews to be published. I saw two films more than last month, yay! As always titles with a clickable link will take you to my review of that film (whether on this blog or the other site I write for). I’ll get to work on a banner for this series, it should debut sometime next month. Sorry for the late post, I wanted a few of my off-site reviews to go live.
1. Snow White and the Huntsman
2. Stage Door
5. Prometheus
6. The Moon is Blue*
7. Wet Hot American Summer*
10. Phantom of the Opera Live From the Royal Albert Hall
11. Bel Ami
12. Black Death
13. Dark Victory
14. Shallow Grave*
15. Gidget
16. Grease*
17. Desk Set
18. Rock of Ages
19. Bridesmaids*
21. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Love Never Dies
22. This Means War*
27. Brave
28. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
29. The Heiress
30. 21 Jump Street*
31. Network
33. Take This Waltz
34. Safety Not Guaranteed
35. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 50 Years of Magic
36. Magic Mike
37. Sweet Charity
Totals:
37 films watched in the month of June (2 more than May)
8 were rewatches
28 were first-time watches
7 were theatrical releases
Since I’m trying to discuss such a broad spectrum each one of these categories will be top 5’s unless otherwise noted.
Top 5 Favorite Classic Films of the Month:
1. Dark Victory (Bette Davis made me cry)
2. Sullivan’s Travels (Veronica Lake and a classic screwball film)
3. The Heiress (Hot damn Montgomery Clift)
4. Stage Door (Class act from a group of classy ladies)
5. Gidget (I didn’t expect this teen surfing coming-of-age film to stick with me but it has)
Favorite Theatrical Film of the Month: Safety Not Guaranteed is such a sweet film. The plot is truly surprising (for a film about time travel you don’t know whether the main character is true or a total nut) and such an amazing group of characters. I was in a slump with theatrical releases this month and this was a breath of fresh air.
Worst Film of the Month: Here’s the five biggest wastes of my time
1. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Love Never Dies (Three hours of the most ridiculous, unnecessary sequel to the Phantom of the Opera)
2. Bel Ami (Yes this has Robert Pattinson and it proves that the man has zero talent whatsoever)
3. Dr. Coppelius (I still have no idea what I watched)
4. Sweet Charity (I had high hopes for Bob Fosse but this 60s-mod directing début missed the mark)
5. Beach Blanket Bingo (It’s campy I know but that doesn’t make it good)
Biggest Disappointment of the Month: The disappointments were reserved for the theatrical releases I saw this month. I had a lot of high expectations for June’s slate of films but all were shattered. Here were the five worthy of mention
1. Prometheus (Not even Michael Fassbender could save this turgid quasi-religious bore-fest)
2. Magic Mike (60 minutes of beefcake, 50 minutes of dullards bitching about having to be naked)
3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Seth Grahame-Smith should stick to writing books, not scripts)
4. Take This Waltz (Critics have praised this film but I thought Michelle Williams character was too despicable to follow)
5. Rock of Ages (Tom Cruise rocked, the other actors sucked)
Biggest Surprise of the Month: Theatrically Brave surprised me in that the marketing hid a pretty crucial element of the plot. I kind of wish I had known in advance as it colored my enjoyment of the movie, but it was a surprise. In terms of at home, I’d say the biggest surprise was Black Death, a film I watched only for Sean Bean but loved the acting. It’s a far more philosophical film than I expected and I recommend it.
Categories
Kristen Lopez View All
A freelance film critic whose work fuels the Rotten Tomatoes meter. I've been published on The Hollywood Reporter, Remezcla, and The Daily Beast. I've been featured in the L.A. Times. I currently run two podcasts, Citizen Dame and Ticklish Business.
Ticklish Business 
Two Hepburn films! More specifically, MY two Hepburn films! Not bad, not bad. I was really disappointed with Snow White and Huntsman (anti-feminist) and Rock of Ages (just lame) but Brave was a huge hit with me. Here’s my review for Snow White:
http://margaretperrymovies.blogspot.com/2012/06/snow-white-and-huntsman.html
Definitely agree with you on Snow White and the Huntsmen although the film did try to establish a feminist story in the beginning with how the Queen was hardened by the cruelty of men…and then we have Snow White. I actually wrote an essay on why Brave doesn’t do much for feminism either http://www.cc2konline.com/current-reviews-topmenumembers-41/63-movies-essays-etc/2941-pixars-views-on-females-not-too-brave. We are definitely kindred spirits in the feminist department which is awesome considering my best friend (who is female) hates when I get on my, quote, “feminist soapbox.”
Wow, that’s quite the diverse month. Bummer to hear you didn’t like Take This Waltz. I think that’s one of this year’s better films so far.
If there’s one thing that describes my film habits, diverse is one of them. I understood what was attempted in Take This Waltz, that not everyone who cheats does it out of malice and/or sexual gratification but considering how nice Rogen’s character was, I just didn’t connect with Williams.