Thursday Movie Picks: 2020 Releases

Well hey there, TMPers. I'm here for another year of (at least partially) taking part in Thursday Movie Picks. The topic this week, as chosen by our illustrious leader Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, is 2020 releases. This is fitting for me because, believe it or not, this is my first post of 2021. Why not do it by wrapping up the prior (shitshow of a) year. As usual, my personal mission is to come up with uncommon choices whenever possible. Let's talk.

Spontaneous

Sometimes you hear a premise and think it's going to be the silliest thing ever. Spontaneous struck me as one of those movies. I mean, that premise is that kids at a particular high school have started to spontaneously combust. No one knows why, or when it will happen. Somehow, this movie makes it work enough to create a legitimate good piece of cinema.

The Willoughbys

We're going animated for this one. It's about a set of siblings, four of them in all, who have some of the worst parents the world has ever seen. Their parents are so selfish that they just up and leave the kids to fend for themselves while they go globetrotting. Soon enough, the kids decide to try and reunite with them, but this takes some serious traveling, as as you might imagine, help. It showed up on Netflix a few months back and was a very pleasant surprise, but if you don't regularly watch animated movies on the platform, you might not have heard about it. Damn algorithms. 

Charm City Kings

Time to complete this trifecta of movies about youngsters. This one is about an 8th grader growing up in the roughest parts of Baltimore. He wants nothing more than to become part of the coolest biker gang in town, only sorta realizing what that means. He soon gains a full understanding. It instantly became one of my favorites of the year.

Wait, I'm not through. If you're a TMP vet, you know that one of the rules of participation is that we pick between three and five movies in a given week. Since this is my first post of the year (did I say that already?) I'm cutting loose. Rules be damned. Of course, I say this as I look to make sure Wanderer isn't coming. 

Okay, the coast is clear. Let's talk some more.

Class Action Park

I grew up in New York during the 1970s and 80s. New Jersey was kinda like a playspot for New Yorkers. One of the places I kept hearing about, but never made it to was Action Park. It was a water park with a reputation for maiming, and occasionally killing, it's customers. This doc shows that this rep was extremely well earned. Until you see this, you just can't imagine poorly this place was run. That it stayed open for as long as it did is simultaneously remarkable, hilarious, and horrifying.

Be Water

It's no secret that I've been a huge Bruce Lee fan practically since I learned to walk. This doc is part ESPN's 30 for 30 series and is a great place to start for anyone who doesn't quite understand the phenomenon he was or the one he created. For those of us who have already been indoctrinated, it doesn't break a ton of new ground, but it still a fantastic watch.

Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies

From the moment the camera was invented, people have found a reason to either get naked in front of it, or get other people to get naked in front of it. This doc goes right to that beginning and takes a decade-by-decade approach to its subject, starting way back at the tale end of the 19th century. Like other similar docs there are lots of talking heads. The difference is that some of these are bigger names than most of its kind. This includes Malcolm McDowell, Sean Young, Mariel Hemingway, and the incomparable Pam Grier. It also manages to score an MPAA rep. It's a fascinating, and uh, eye-popping look at one of cinema's greatest drawing cards.

Oh, I'm pushing the pedal to the metal. I'm asking you to do the same...just make sure you swerve around these potholes.

A Fall From Grace

Tyler Perry's latest craptacular outing was notoriously shot in five days. Yes, days. Post-production couldn't take much longer. And it shows. Horrible writing, egregious continuity errors, visible boom mics, extras obviously eating air (no typo), wigs that are unworthy of a high school drama class, and one character actually has his script visible in the frame while he recites his lines. This is bad on another level. It makes Perry's other productions look like masterpieces. And I'm here for it.

Dolittle

What do you do after an amazing run as the face of the most successful franchise in movie history? Apparently, you shit the bed by starring in a boring, incoherent, crappy cgi-fest in an attempt to start another franchise. Nothing about this movie works. Nothing. Not even its star.

The Wrong Missy

This is probably the most predictable entry in this section, as it's all of Adam Sandlers flunkies together without Adam Sandler. Pretty sure there's never been an easier call than that. It's everything you think it will be going in: an annoying, crass, misguided comedy that isn't funny in the least  bit.

Phew!

Now I'm done.

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