By Kosalan Kathiramalanathan & Vidya Thakoordeen
Welcome to our new series, Cineplex or Class, where we fill you in on which movies are worth skipping your class at the Cineplex for—and which ones are not. Skip class at your own risk, The Eyeopener is not responsible for bad GPAs.
Call Me By Your Name
★★★★★
Skip your midterms, all of them.
Call Me By Your Name is more of a dream than a movie. The film is a coming of age story of a 17 year old boy named Elio as he explores his own feelings when his father’s student, Oliver spends the summer with him and his family in their villa in northern Italy. The film is filled with a cacophony of emotions that bounce off each other as Elio finds his way through his feelings. The characters can be relatable at times, with several moments in particular that can speak out to the audience. The movie’s visuals are surreal, and near perfect, you can almost feel the warmth of the Italian sun on your skin, and the cool of the lazy rivers and ponds the characters spend most of their time at. Everything in the movie seems to be brought together through an artistic lens but also feels natural. The pacing of the movie is slow throughout only to pick up near the end. But the build up pays off with a profoundly moving ending. This movie isn’t for everyone but it’ll help thaw out your cold heart that froze over in second year.
Paddington 2
Rating: ★★★★☆
Skip your lecture and learn how to be a better human being.
Paddington 2 may seem like your run of the mill children’s movie cash grab. But instead, it turns out to be a genuinely heart-warming story and a riveting adventure. Picking up from the last movie, Paddington the bear, who now fits in with his new family, works odd jobs to buy his aunt an antique book as a birthday present. But when the present gets stolen and when he gets framed for it, a series of whacky events unfold. The movie has a wholesome and simple theme that we don’t see often nowadays. Paddington’s warm personality and clever humour is infectious and it makes us want to be just like him. Visually speaking the movie is gorgeous, the colours bounce off the screen, not to mention, this bear is cute as fuck. Paddington 2 is an extremely well crafted movie where we get to see an adorable little bear get out of sticky situations. Moral of the story is: if you’re cute, things will go your way!
Fifty Shades Freed
Rating:★★☆☆☆
Skip the movie and hook up with someone in the Yonge and Dundas bathroom when your econ prof gives you a break.
The Fifty Shades franchise is coming to an end with its final instalment, Fifty Shades Freed. The mommy porn turned blockbuster follows the married lives of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey and the drama they face as newlyweds. Like the past two movies, Fifty Shades Freed continues to pass off abuse as sexy, and propagates the myth that BDSM is abusive. Christian seems to mimic the behaviour of a 17 year old boy in a first relationship, jealous, controlling, and basically bat shit crazy when he doesn’t get his way. After what feels like hours of cringe worthy acting, ridiculous plot lines, and very awkward sex scenes, we get to the sweet release of the end of the trilogy, where we’re finally freed from the most un-erotic erotic series ever made.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
Rating:★★☆☆☆
Watch it if you’ve already missed the first 10 minutes of class.
This is the final instalment in the Maze Runner series, the films based on of the dozens of edgy young adult books you read obsessively in Grade 10. The movie is much like the genre it comes from, predictable and a little cliche. They pull all the regular plot devices that we’ve seen a dozens of time through these movies leaving it feeling bland and but also bizarrely confusing at times. The Maze Runner does have it’s accolades, it’s one of the few franchises that learns from the past instalments and tries to improve, but those improvements aren’t enough to pull the series through. The film unfortunately rode the tail end of the wave of YA dystopian thrillers craze and (hopefully) it’ll be the last one for a while. While fans of the book or those who’ve watched the other two will have a reason to watch it, if it’s your first time even hearing about the series, then I wouldn’t bother. Good thing they didn’t pull a Hunger Games and split this movie into two parts.
Black Panther
Rating: ★★★★☆
We should all collectively skip our classes on Feb. 16 when the movie comes out. Does Cineplex offer group discounts?
I haven’t even seen this movie but I’m already excited for it. The movie puts the spotlight on the MCU’s newest hero in his home country of Wakanda. Ever since his introduction in Captain America Civil War, the Black Panther has been both an enigmatic and fierce and his stand alone movie seems to carry that on. The movie delves deeper into a side of the universe that hasn’t been as fleshed out giving a sense of freshness to the films and a new take. The visuals are also stunning, with it’s unique and bold aesthetics.
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