Weekend Expectations: Jan 13-16

For this weeks Weekend Expectations I am picking four movies even though I technically will only see two during the weekend. I hope to see Patriots Day and Live by Night early next week so I decided to include them.

Elle

Elle is one of those movies where I don't know too much about. What I do know is that it has won a few Best Foreign Language Film awards, including last week at the Golden Globes. Also at the Golden Globes, actress Isabelle Huppert won Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama. It also has appeared on numerous best films of 2016 lists. Given all those accolades you would assume that my expectations should be high, but I have also heard there is a little bit of controversy with Elle. I don't know the entire details of the controversy but I will look into it once I have seen the movie. Because of this, I will have moderate expectations for Elle.

Jackie

Jackie is another movie where I have heard tons of good things about it. I have heard it is beautiful to look at and that Natalie Portman gives a great performance. But I have also heard some negative things saying it doesn't live up to peoples expectations. Just like my expectations for Elle, I have moderate expectations for Jackie.

Patriots Day

I'm not sure what to think of Patriots Day. The cast looks spectacular, it has Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, J.K. Simmons, Kevin Bacon and one of my favorite actresses Michelle Monaghan. Most of the reviews I have seen for Patriots Day have been very, very good. I'm not sure how I feel about having a film already being made about such a tragic event that happened only three plus years ago. Given director Peter Berg's recent filmography, Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon, I know that this movie will be emotional, graphic and extremely patriotic. Lone Survivor exceeded expectations but Deepwater Horizon was a bit of a disappointment for me. I should probably have high expectations for this one, but I am once again going in with moderate expectations.

Live by Night

Oh look, another movie directed by Ben Affleck. I really enjoyed Gone Baby Gone and Argo, but don't really remember anything about The Town. Reviews for Live by Night have been pretty bad and the trailers haven't really impressed me. Given those two factors, my expectations for Live by Night are pretty low.