While the regular box office brought us more dreck in Gold and A Dog’s Purpose, Sundance delivered some good films to compensate. Gold is boring and long and predictable. There’s no excuse. Also no excuse for animal cruelty in A Dog’s Purpose, but if you can get over that and don’t mind emotional manipulation, it’s barely mediocre. XX lets the ladies take on the horror anthology subgenre, and it’s mostly pretty good. Meanwhile The Discovery explores life after the verified existence of an afterlife. The Yellow Birds was one of the best things Adam saw at Sundance– our young Han Solo is amazing.
One holiday movie, one Oscarbait ths week. Office Christmas Party throws a bunch of jokes and funny people together and hopes it works. It mostly does, and its saving grace is Kate McKinnon, but the plot sometimes gets in the way of the funny. Manchester by the Sea is going to make you depressed and wow you with amazing acting skills of Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams. Get that Oscar!
