First Man might not be the best movie about space exploration around but it is still a well made drama from Damien Chazelle in a solid follow-up to his Academy Award winning music-drama, La La Land. Ryan Gosling gives a nice, if not quiet, performance.
Blade Runner 2049 is probably not a great sequel to the 1982 classic but still a very good movie as a whole. Although the visuals (both in terms of cinematography and effects) are fantastic, the characters weren’t all that interesting and the performances were just okay. However, this is still well worth seeing.
I can’t stress at how much I loathed Song to Song. I’ve seen plenty of bad movies, but none of them have had me in so much pain to sit through since, well, Malick’s To the Wonder, with only a few very minor redeeming values with the performances by a talented cast.
The Nice Guys didn’t quite match my expectations but the laughs still were there and I did enjoy the bro chemistry that developed between Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling to the point I was able to overlook a story that seemed to get stretched a bit too thin, especially going into the third act. It’s no Kiss Kiss Bang Bang but still well worth watching.
The Big Short was easily my favorite movie of 2015. The strong cast helped but the writing by Adam McKay and Charles Randolph was sharp and in conjunction with Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling’s performances made for one fun yet thoughtful flick that worked so well from beginning to its bitter end.
Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad no doubt blew the opportunity to be a special crime-drama and instead it stumbles trying to emulate other gangster movies in the past. Still, I couldn’t help but enjoy the movie especially the performances from Brolin, Gosling, Robert Patrick and Sean Penn that it makes for a worthwhile viewing even with its flaws.