MoviePass We Hardly Knew Ye

Around this time last year, MoviePass was creating quite a buzz. A subscription for going to the movie theater was the latest in the game, and for $10/month, it seemed too good to be true. Around Thanksgiving they started an even better deal-$90/year. Well, as a movie-loving person there’s no way I could pass that deal up. Since then I’ve seen 27 movies with the MoviePass card, some great some not so good. MoviePass themselves have also had some not so good news-they’re stock plummeted and they’ve been tottering on the brink of collapse for months.

At this point it’s almost stupid to even have a MoviePass account in Chicago. I have three AMC theaters within walking distance, and only one of them even accepts MoviePass. And even that one only gives me a single option, sometimes two if I’m lucky. Last week I opened to app to find the only movie I could see was Mid90’s at 10:30pm. Of course I had already seen Mid90’s the week before, by buying a ticket through MoviePass for the Blythe Danner family drama What They Had and then walking into the auditorium playing the Jonah Hill-directed skateboard film.

So, last week I officially cancelled my account and switched over to AMC A-List. Below, I’ve ranked all the movies I saw with MoviePass over the last year.

27. Dog Days-This movie was kind of garbage, but had some of my favorite comedic actors and also dogs. Dogs make every movie better.

26. Avengers: Infinity Way-What are the chances everyone that Thanos snapped away somehow return for the next Avengers movie? I’m guessing pretty good.

25. Isle Of Dogs-I liked this one, but it’s no Fantastic Mr. Fox.

24. Mom & Dad-This one is just insane and fun. Nic Cage really had a great year between this and Mandy.

23. Hotel Artemis-A bit of a jumbled mess, but great performances from Sterling K Brown and Jodie Foster. Needed more Goldblum (can you name a movie that doesn’t?).

22. Beautiful Boy-Not as good as I expected. Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet were both ok, but I never got knocked over emotionally like I thought I would.

21. Love, Simon-This one was pretty good. Funny without trying too hard and honest about how tough it is going through High School.

20. The Sisters Brothers-Joaquin Phoenix and John C Reilly both gave great performances, but it never quite strikes the right tone.

19. Mid90’s-I wasn’t quite as impressed with this as some people were. A well-directed debut for Jonah Hill, but some of the scenes didn’t make any sense (particularly the self-flagellating stuff with the main character).

18. A Quiet Place-Never would’ve expected this gem from Jim Halpert. Great premise for a movie and they really pulled it off well.

17. First Reformed-This one just won some Gotham Awards for Paul Schrader. He wrote Taxi Driver so he has a forever pass in my book. This one was interesting, though. Ethan Hawke is great in it.

16. RBG–On The Basis Of Sex comes out in January if you want a dramatized version of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s life. This documentary is fantastic and shows you how very important RBG has been to the advancement of women over the last few decades.

15. The Post-One of the first times I used MoviePass. I didn’t love Tom Hanks in the role of Ben Braddock, but everything else about this movie is really great.

14. Mission Impossible: Fallout-These movies just keep coming out. I don’t know how they keep the quality as high as they do. I’d rank this one second in quality in the series behind Ghost Protocol.

13. Hearts Beat Loud-It’s a bit schmaltzy, but Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons play father and daughter so well that I was really happy for them at the end of this movie. It’s a good movie about family and the power of music.

12. Searching-John Cho is a leading man and I don’t want to hear anyone saying otherwise. Between this and Columbus he’s delivered two very strong performances. This one had me on the edge of my seat.

11. Star Wars: The Last Jedi-A lot of people were hating on Rian Johnson’s take on Star Wars. I liked it and have a good feeling about the new trilogy he’s working on.

10. Eighth Grade-Bo Burnham’s narrative feature debut could not have gone any better. As a long time Josh Hamilton fan, I’m happy to see him getting some dad work here and playing it so well. Elsie Fisher could have a huge career in front of her.

9. The Shape Of Water-Hated the previews but then figured, “Hey, I’m not paying for it if I use my Movie Pass!” Ended up enjoying it a lot for the first hour and less so every minute of the second hour. Richard Jenkins should’ve won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

8. Sorry To Bother You-Boots Riley’s film is unlike anything you’ll see. Insane ideas, very funny, great performances. Nothing bad to say about this one.

7. The Disaster Artist-The Franco controversy might have killed this one’s Oscar chances, but it’s a good movie.

6. BlacKkKlansman-Best Spike Lee movie in years. Didn’t realize the guy that plays the lead is Denzel’s son! Adam Driver is brilliant in this and everything he’s in. Hilarious at times, but takes a real turn at the end that I was not expecting.

5. Blindspotting-One of the most intense movies I’ve seen. The last fifteen-twenty minutes get pretty hectic. At my screening a woman had to get up and leave because she wasn’t prepared for how intense it was.

4. Coco-I went to see Coco seven weeks into it’s run in theaters and there were over 20 people there at a noon screening. And then at the end there were about 20 people crying.

3. Lady Bird-I do not enjoy Greta Gerwig as an actress, but as a writer and director she did an amazing job. Ronan and Metcalfe are absolutely perfect in their roles and I can’t believe they both lost at the Academy Awards.

2. Annihilation-Alex Garland made the brilliant Ex Machina so I was down for whatever he wanted to do. This movie is bonkers in the best of ways. Natalie Portman leads a strong female cast that includes Tessa Thompson and Gina Rodriguez. Plus Oscar Isaac.