#susannah grant

What’s your favorite color? Gray.

Ever After: a Cinderella Story (1998)

The 5th Wave shows such promise at first you’ll wonder if my negative review is a mistake. Just wait. With time, this film doesn’t just indulge in a few of the post-apocalyptic YA Novel genre; it checks off every single one of them. Based on this film’s conclusion, I bet you could predict exactly what happens in the next two movies… had the series been deemed worthy of continuing.

It all started when a spaceship appeared in Earth’s orbit. First, a massive global blackout crippled our defenses. Next, our cities were reduced to rubble by earthquakes and tidal waves. A virus came in and whipped out most of the survivors. Now the aliens are among us, picking off the stragglers one by one. When Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) becomes separated from her family, she begins a long journey on her own. Setting her sights on a military base where her brother (Zackary Arthur) is stationed, a question remains: When will the 5th Wave hit, and will we survive?

For the first 30 or so minutes, The 5th Wave is essentially a junior version of The Road, complete with the morally murky decisions one must make in a post-apocalyptic situation. You can see the innocence of childhood erode as Cassie sees everyone around her die and she scratches together the means to keep going. As for her brother and many of the other now-orphaned children, they have been drafted into the U.S. government’s army, Ender’s Game-style. You may oppose the concept of child soldiers but there won’t be any place for them to live if desperate measures are not taken. Damn. There are moral dilemmas, you don’t know who to trust, the aliens’ motivations are kept nice and vague… there’s a lot to like!

All hope vanishes the moment we spot Evan (Alex Roe) chopping wood. Before, it was a bit tragic to see Cassie’s high school crush Ben (Nick Robinson) still alive but drafted. Now, you realize he’s just going to be part of a love triangle meant to carry teenage audiences through a couple more of these movies. Of all the people who could’ve saved her as she lay dying, it HAD to be the sensitive teenage heartthrob. If you can see past this, wait until the film introduces her future romantic rival, Ringer (Maika Monroe), who has somehow scrounged together enough eyeshadow to last months. Nothing is explicitly said or shown to let us know she will begin falling for Ben and he for her, but you just KNOW. Every other aspect of this plot has been following the clichés like clockwork, so why would it refrain from having a double love triangle down the line?

I had already seen this movie. I gave it the benefit of the doubt twice. All my good faith got me was the same plot points we've seen before, stolen wholesale from Divergent, The Hunter Games, Twilight and so many other films. (On Blu-ray, December 14, 2018)

ESE: 110/100

Brie Larson to star in Apple TV+ series ‘Lessons in Chemistry’

Brie Larson (Captain Marvel) is set to star in and executive produce the drama series Lessons in Chemistry, which has landed a straight-to-series order at Apple in a competitive situation, Variety reports. Brie Larson Joe Otterson for Variety: Susannah Grant, who was previously nominated for an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for Erin Brockovich, will write and executive produce the…