The Quite Nerdy Blog

Us is the second directorial feature from Get Out director, funny dude and general all around nice seeming guy Jordan Peele and so for a lot of you, that should be all the convincing you need to see this film. In fact, with the box office take, it's highly likely that if you're reading this you probably already saw Us last weekend but for those who haven't and want convincing, or those who just want to know my opinion, let's get into it. Us is the story of a family who go on holiday to a location of mysterious previous trauma for the mother. She is trying to cope with this while her husband attempts to impress his rich friends, her son keeps wearing this strange mask and her daughter is doing her best to pay none of them any attention at all. So far, so regular family but all of a sudden, four figures show up at the front of their house in the middle of the night. Are they a family? Are they lost? Are they... Us? The film goes into it from there and spirals out in s...

Okay, so the title has probably instantly thrown you off but yes, I genuinely believe there's a lot of powerful existential questions at the heart of the Toy Story trilogy, three animated films made for children. I rewatched them all last year and that idea has been stuck in my brain ever since. So yes, this is going to be slightly more serious than usual, as I basically attempt to apply the year and a half of film criticism and study that I've been taught in university to three movies about toys that talk. Fear not though, I'm not going full on essay style, this isn't meant to be some relentlessly bleak think piece. It's a fun piece! About how toys are embodiments of our deepest existential fears! I was first struck by the thought that this trilogy may have an existential bent when watching the first one, and it's a thought that may seem obvious but remains interesting. With the first Toy Story, the core of it is the idea of being replaced. For the toys, ...

Captain Marvel is the newest Marvel film which means you've probably already seen it and therefore this review feels a smidge redundant but ho hey, I gotta make content and clearly, you still clicked on this. We're stuck in this together. Anyway, it's the 21st Marvel Cinematic Universe film but instead of being set anywhere near either Infinity War or Endgame, it's set in the nineties. Our hero is Vers, a Kree warrior who is sent to Earth in search of Skrulls. All that sounds like utter nonsense so I'll simplify it; Brie Larson is a warrior from some alien planet who comes to Earth looking for a different alien race that can shape shift, although she may have some connection to here. Even that is too complicated though, as it's basically a story about her finding out who she is while also having buddy cop adventures with Nick Fury and generally punching stuff. It's a simple plot and even the twists feel pretty obvious by and large, although I'll give...

We're finally done with the 2019 Awards Season and as I try and keep my Bohemian Rhapsody anger bottled up to save my housemates anymore rambles, it's time to look back over the last couple of months at the people and films who were unfairly left behind. As I do every year, I'm only going to be including films and people who were actually part of the conversation, meaning that favourites of mine like Suspiria and Bad Times at the El Royale will not be making the list because they just aren't those kind of films. Rankings are done by weighing up both the quality of film/person and how unrecognised they ended up being. One example of which would be... 7. The Favourite On paper, this seems like a bad choice for a list like this, seeing as The Favourite won a bunch of BAFTAs, was nominated for ten Oscars (joint highest this year) and had one of the most memorable Oscar wins of the year for Olivia Colman. In reality however, it's hard not to feel like The Favouri...

I have a confession. About a month ago, I bought a Nintendo Switch. It was an impulse thing if I'm honest. I'd seen someone selling one on eBay and it turned out to be a scam but by that point, I was so committed to the idea of buying a Switch that I just followed through on it and bought one from Game, where I got free next day delivery and had no time to really think about what I'd done. So it turns up and a month on, I'm officially in love with my Switch and back in love with gaming which I appreciate sounds slightly pathetic but let me explain a little more. After all, that's kinda the whole purpose of this blog. One of the things that is a draw to basically any Nintendo console (as is certainly the case with the Switch) is the exclusives, which no one really seems to do like Nintendo. Interestingly, I actually don't own plenty of the flagship exclusives for the Switch, among them The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. In a wa...

Edit: this post has been edited to reflect the depressing reality that we live in post-Oscars 2019, where any correct predictions are highlighted in green and any incorrrect predictions are highlighted in red . There's also a little tally at the bottom of how many I got right. We finally made it. The worst awards season since I've been interested in films is finally starting to come to a close but before it does, there's one last wave of pointless predictions to be made. Now that all the nominees are in, I'm going to try and predict all the winners for the 2019 Oscars ceremony. Last year I actually managed to correctly predict all but one so fingers crossed for similar luck this year. As with all other years too, this is a blog that exists to get my trash opinion out there so I will also be saying which nominee I think most deserves to win. So come on friends, one last push and then we can get into dumb blockbuster season, just a little closer to the release of Hobbs...

Nominated for 3 Oscars, including Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay If Beale Street Could Talk is both the follow up to director Barry Jenkins' critically acclaimed indie darling Moonlight and also one of the most cruelly snubbed films of the 2019 awards season. For those who are unaware, this film was not nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and quite frankly, that is an absolute disgrace, hence my stance on saying fuck it and just reviewing this film anyway, because it deserves all the love and praise we can heap on it. It's an adaptation of the book of the same name by James Baldwin (which I haven't read but am now eager to), about a young couple, Tish and Fonny. Fonny is in prison for circumstances that aren't explained to us until later in the film but feel sadly predictable and while in there, Tish discovers she is pregnant with their child. The narrative weaves its way between their exquisite past, a tale of them falling deeper and deeper i...