Horse Girl: What begins as a quirky indie comedy about a seemingly awkward craft store employee (Alison Brie) quickly morphs into a dark, disturbing character study about a woman's increasingly difficult struggle with mental illness. While co-writer/director Jeff Baena's (The Little Hours, Joshy) surreal, improv-heavy style obstructs whatever message Horse Girl is trying to convey and leads to an abrupt ending that is pretty underwhelming, Brie works overtime to maintain a level of intrigue that no amount of uneven filmmaking can erase. Her fearless, transformative performance makes it easy to feel awful for her character even as she engages in increasingly alarming behavior as a result of her paranoid schizophrenia. Although Brie will likely continue to predominantly star in comedies, this is the type of powerful, multi-faceted acting showcase that will hopefully result in her landing more dramatic roles in the future.
Grade: B-
The Photograph: A great mainstream romantic drama released on Valentine's Day that isn't even remotely sappy or contrived almost seems too good to be true, but The Photograph is indeed real. The story dedicates a good chunk of time to fleshing out its characters, the leads (Issa Rae, Lakeith Stanfield) have that rare type of explosive chemistry that becomes apparent from the moment they first appear on screen together and the eventual happy ending feels earned because the road to get there was refreshingly bumpy. It sure as hell isn't perfect (the flashbacks involving Rae's character mother and the love interest she left behind aren't nearly as engaging as the scenes in the present), but writer/director Stella Meghie deserves major kudos for creating a warm, heartfelt love story that is far more convincing than your average big screen romance.
Grade: B+
Sonic the Hedgehog: What a turnaround for this little blue alien speedster. Less than 9 months after horrifying the internet with the presence of some unsightly human teeth, the redesigned big screen Sonic is leading a movie that's setting the box office ablaze (it made $113 million worldwide in its first four days of release). Truly an inspirational underdog story that people in the film industry should celebrate for years to come. As for the movie itself, I found it to be a good time. It's a goofy little family adventure comedy that moves at a brisk pace, produces some decent laughs and gives Jim Carrey a valid reason to return to the vintage manic goofball antics that made him such an exciting comedic force in his mid 90's to early 2000's heyday. For a video game adaptation about a hedgehog that runs really fast and collects magic rings that allows him to transport to different places across the galaxy on a whim, that's more than enough for me to deem it a success.
Grade: B
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