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Overall, I'd say "Black Widow" slightly exceeded my expectations, although, admittedly, my expectations weren't very high. The movie is okay. The 134-minute runtime didn't drag like I thought it would, but it wasn't particularly good either. The comedic moments are fine, and the action is fast. However, the action does nothing new, and it can be a bit bland. The villain of the movie is also pretty lame.

As an exploration of Natasha's character, it's ok, despite being years too late (spoiler alert: don't get too attached to her...). I guess it tells the story of her troubled past well, but it doesn't really add anything interesting to her personality. I don't feel any more of a connection to her character now than I did before watching. It essentially feels like the purpose of the movie is to bring Florence Pugh's character into the MCU, rather than coming from a genuine desire to tell Natasha's story. The multi-billion dollar MCU pushing industrialized, uninspired media out? It's crazy to think about, I know.

As far as the acting goes, everyone was fine, although I thought the Russian accents were kind of awful. It's kind of disappointing to see Florence Pugh take her career in this direction though... At least Scarlett Johansson is free now.

4.8/10

Also, Jeremy Renner should have been in this movie.

"The Perfection" is a mess. The film features Charlotte (Allison Williams), a woman who was a cellist prodigy as a child until she was forced to abandon her position at a world class music academy to take care of her ill mother. Years later, Charlotte flies out to Shanghai to reunite with her former mentor. During her visit, she meets Lizzie (Logan Browning). Lizzie took over Charlotte's position in the academy and is essentially living the life Charlotte wanted. It is from here that the story begins to unfold and oscillates between thriller, body horror, and revenge tale. The movie actually starts off okay, save for Logan Browning's performance, which I found to be unconvincing. But, as the story progresses, everything starts to deteriorate and it gets increasingly more stupid.

The film tries, but nothing really succeeds. The directing, the cinematography, the acting, and the writing all fall flat. Especially the writing, which is extremely unsubtle and all over the place. The writing at the end is so poor it essentially makes a mockery of the characters and subject matter.

3.4/10

A nice surprise: this was the funnest release of 2020! The script is witty, fun, and charming throughout, but still manages to be heartfelt. Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti were perfectly cast and had such a great chemistry. Everything just worked very well, although the emotional moments were a little cliche. I also had the pleasure of not even knowing what the main plot was before watching which made it more enjoyable for me. Overall, "Palm Springs" was a good time and is probably worth a shot if you're on the fences about it. One of my favorites of the year, although that by itself doesn't say much.

I was a little bit worried towards the end, but they managed to wrap up both of my main concerns with the second to last scene and the post credits scene... Nice.