Jamie Lammers
Stories (150/0)
The Music Man Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I write about all of the movies I watch. Okay, fine, this movie isn't an objectively perfect film in any way. I'll agree with the vast majority of people that the pacing starts to drag in the second half from what the first half set itself up to be, there are one or two songs that feel a smidge out of place, there are definitely a few dated aspects to this movie's plot (although not enough to feel like it harms the story at all), and the ending scene feels a little too over-the-top to feel believable even if it is the best ending a musical like this could have hoped for. That being said, I don't care. This movie excited me in a way that I haven't felt excited about in a while. I'm a theater kid, I've missed theater since quarantine started, I didn't remember how excited I got about it after a while. This is the first time I've been euphorically excited about musical theater since my school's production of Urinetown was canceled last spring. Meaning, this is the first time I've been euphorically excited about a musical since I was last involved in one. This is not a musical that was adapted into a movie, or even a movie musical. This is a musical in movie format, through and through. The choreography, set design, and character work is often captured in wide shots that capture the entire set, much like a real musical would allow you to see the entire set as everything happens at once, and as my mom pointed out, there are even moments where the lighting makes it seem like the stage lights are going out. I've never seen a movie fully embrace the format of a musical like The Music Man did, but my god, was it engaging all the way through.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Geeks
Funny Girl Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all of the movies I watch. God, I can't tell if I'm being easy or hard on this movie. Okay, so, let's get the positives out of the way first. The music is pretty good and well-written, and the singing is all great. The cinematography and direction is solid. The story beats for a potential rise to fame are all there and are all intriguing. That being said, I have a huge problem with this movie, and it's the two leads. Barbara Streisand and Omar Sharif do a phenomenal job in this film as actors, they're not the issues I have. The character of Fanny Brice is just consistently unlikable to me. Look, I want to make my stance clear on this issue: A lot of people interpret this film as an inspirational piece that shows a woman overcoming oppression to become successful in something that she's passionate about. That's a fantastic message, and Brice is not unlikable to me because of that struggle. She's unlikeable to me because, throughout the film, she and her love interest Nicky are shown to be completely stuck-up attitude-ridden people who believe they are special and deserve success because wow, they're so incredible and they're not recognized for how incredible they are. Brice has an entire opening number that basically says "No one notices how talented I am, look how amazingly talented I am, no one notices my talent" and then complains about getting a job because she didn't have to suffer through it first. How in the world am I supposed to relate to this character?
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Geeks
Hamilton Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review the movies I watch frequently. Yeah, I know, I'm basic. Honestly, that's a fair call at this point. Hamilton is one of my favorite musicals at this point, which would make me pretty basic. That being said, I really don't care at this point. This musical has been in my life for the better part of four years. I remember I had actually NEVER heard of Lin-Manuel Miranda until everyone got excited at his name being dropped as the writer for the music of Moana, and of course, after getting excited about that movie and loving the music, I decided to finally give this show a shot. I was one of those people that had absolutely no idea how a hip-hop musical about a founding father could be any good before listening to the soundtrack and finding myself completely captured by it. I bought the official book and kept it with me as I stayed backstage for my school's production of The Addams Family, skimming through it before the shows started. Looking back, this musical was one of the big sparks that kept my passion for musical theater strong. It wasn't the only spark (the first musical I ever acted in, Shrek Jr., and what is probably my favorite musical at this point because of how much I connect to it, Dear Evan Hansen, are also incredibly important to me), but it was probably one of the bigger ones, and I've loved Lin-Manuel Miranda ever since.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Geeks
Best Player Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every single movie I watch. Honestly, at this point, I'm having a lot of trouble being able to give anybody the benefit of the doubt here. I just finished my iCarly marathon earlier today (the day I wrote this review), and it was great. When I finished that marathon, I just scrolled through again to see what else there was and I saw Best Player, a movie I haven't seen in years and wanted to at least see one more time to get my thoughts on it. I really tried to at least give this movie another chance and try and see the positives in here, but honestly, there really aren't that many. The actors are trying their best and the direction is polished, but that's pretty much all I can say about this completely ridiculous and poorly thought-out film with an illogical script and poorly edited comedic timing.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Geeks
The One and Only Ivan Review
This review, in which I gave this movie two stars, comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every movie I see. This is another one of those times where I actually don't feel like this movie quite deserves this low of a rating, but based on how I want to grade the film, I have no choice. The One and Only Ivan is, to me, the definition of a crowdpleasing film. It's a film that is made solely to bring audiences in and put a smile on their face for an hour and a half. In my opinion, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that in theory, heck, I've absolutely enjoyed crowdpleasers from time to time. Where I start having a problem with crowdpleasers is when their cliches and predictable character beats become so familiar that I just can't get invested in the particular way they're telling this story. It feels like the exact same kind of motivational crowdpleaser that people have been enticed with for decades -- a new animal comes into this circus, the main character is annoyed by this new animal but eventually befriends it, they realize they want to accomplish something bigger, and they work to achieve it. That's it. That's pretty much all this movie has to offer, which is a shame because the original novel actually sounds like a really heartwarming and potentially fascinating read. This just felt like the same old kind of animal escape film I've seen a dozen times.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Geeks
Two Distant Strangers Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I write movie reviews consistently. I would love to have respectful discussions about people's potentially polarizing opinions on this short because let me get this out of the way now, I am a white, cisgender, straight male. I'm not going to lie about how I felt about a film on the first watch, but I also want to be open to discussing why it may be a problematic watch in general. If I get off balance in any way with my cluelessness here, I would love to have a respectful discussion about it because I think discussions like that are important. However, I can't lie about what I thought about this short film on the first watch. So, what did I think?
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Humans
In The Heights Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every movie I see. Wow, wow, wow! What a night this has been! I'll be honest, this might be a smidge of a biased review partially because I had such an amazing experience with this movie. Yeah, that's right, I saw this movie a month early, and this is actually my first ever advanced screening! My college announced free passes for the movie, so I signed up for one and coincidentally ran into a friend of mine from my old high school who also goes to my college. I'd been meaning to hang out with her for forever, and running into each other and realizing we were BOTH going to see the film was absolutely amazing. This is also the first time I've been in a theater since February of last year, with Birds of Prey being the last film I saw before everything shut down (let me tell you, that's a disappointing last movie to see in theaters). All in all, this was just an absolute blast of a night and one that I won't soon forget, so maybe I'm partially biased in giving this film five stars because of that, but I'll be darned if I didn't also think it's the best film musical I've seen in a long time.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Humans
The North Star
I hope to find the North Star one day. Maybe it’ll call out to me like a lightbulb calls out to a moth at night. I mean, it’s essentially just a big bright spot in the sky, right? How hard can it be to find one of those? Apparently, very. I’ve never completely wrapped my head around which of those billions and billions of spots is the North Star. I’ve been told by various people that it can be found at the tip of the Little Dipper. Unfortunately, I’ve never had any luck finding that, either. I’ve seen the Big Dipper plenty of times, but the smaller cousin that everyone raves about keeps escaping me somehow. People have also said that the North Star is the brightest star in the sky, but if you told me to point out the brightest of all those shiny specks out there, I’d bet you 50 bucks I wouldn’t notice any difference in brightness at all. No matter how many times people have tried pointing out Polaris, as it’s also called, or how many nights I’ve spent looking through a telescope in a desperate search to find it, I’ve never been truly convinced that I’ve seen it.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Humans
From A Distance
I believe it’s important to make a strong first impression. Two years ago, I learned if you get it right, your life could turn upside down in an instant, and it could even alter your entire identity. One evening, as I was browsing through the Instagram account of a friend from my high school, I came across a photo that caught my eye. It was her with two other girls, and both of the other girls’ profiles were tagged in the caption. Both profiles had the same last name. Perhaps being a little too curious for my own good, I looked at their profiles, wondering who they were and how they knew my friend. One of these girl’s profiles stuck out to me, as her bio linked to a second Instagram page where she posted updates on her life as a type 1 diabetic. I knew I had to reach out to her, so I followed her diabetes update account and sent her a message through it.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Humans
An Adventure in Space and Time Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every film I watch. I remember when I watched this film for the first time at a time when I was absolutely obsessed with Doctor Who. I adored this film and put it as one of my favorite films of all time. After watching it again now, it no longer falls in the top 10 or even necessarily in my favorite films, but I still think this is a really darn good TV movie, especially for Doctor Who fans. There's a lot to like about this movie, but there's also a lot that feels like already seen territory, so let's talk about all of that.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Geeks
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every movie I see. This is a really weird movie for me to review. While I personally really enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker, I also have to acknowledge there are a LOT of structural flaws throughout the course of the movie. It's another one of those instances where I want to give it a four subjectively and a three objectively, but unlike Timeless, where I ultimately decided my objectivity outweighed my subjectivity for that movie, this time, it's smack-dab in the middle and doesn't lean one way or the other. While I wouldn't say this is a better film than The Force Awakens, I might have personally preferred it. But, okay, I've talked about my general opinion on this movie, what are my specific opinions?
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Futurism