Cinema Playground Journal 2024: Week 16 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Abigail

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Horror, Thriller, Comedy

Director:  Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Starring:  Melissa Barrera, Alisha Weir, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, Will Catlett, Angus Cloud, Giancarlo Esposito

The filmmaking team of Radio Silence, Best known for the Samara Weaving vehicle Ready or Not and the last two Scream movies, enter the Universal Monsters legacy with a film that is very loosely based on the film Dracula's Daughter, which, in turn, was very loosely based on the Bram Stoker short story Dracula's Guest.  Abigail largely has nothing in common with Dracula's Daughter, instead just taking the idea that Dracula might have a daughter and running with it.  Hell, the movie doesn't even mention Dracula by name, making the link between the two films tenuous, at best.  But I suppose it doesn't matter what the inspiration was, as the selling point is a vampire kid terrorizing thugs.  And it absolutely rocks.

Scaling down Gloria Holden's sultry and sapphic vampire mistress from 1936 to a 12-year-old girl in 2024, Abigail sees the young vampire kidnapped by a group of thieves who wish to hold her for ransom, only to find out the tables have turned the entire ordeal was a trap to group them all together as her prey.  The film is a spectacular showcase of gore, thrills, and laughs, all brought together by a mesmerizing performance by Alisha Weir as the title character.  It's very possible that if Weir were a weaker antagonist, the movie might succumb to it's trite aspects, because it's less interesting when it's setting itself up than when it's executing.  Once the cat-and-mouse games start, the movie becomes a wild chase movie full of guts and glory, with a silly, no-nonsense attitude about taking each section to an even more wild next level.  Abigail is a full-stop blast for horror fans, and quite possibly Radio Silence's best movie yet.  If you're one who embraces the dark side of cinema, this flick should be topping your must-see list.

Hard Miles

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Drama, Sports

Director:  R.J. Daniel Hanna

Starring:  Matthew Modine, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Jahking Guillory, Jackson Kelly, Damien Diaz, Zach Robbins, Leslie David Baker, Sean Astin

This true story based inspirational movie sees a teacher of troubled students taking them on a seven-hundred mile bike trip to the Grand Canyon, hoping to teach them perseverance.  Well-meaning, but spiritless and boring, Hard Miles is inspiring in theory, but in execution it's a flat and characterless dramatization that does the bare minimum to keep the audience invested.  Those who don't demand their movies to be compelling and just desire uncomplicated takes on life problems with simple solutions might find the most to enjoy in the film.  Matthew Modine is friendly-looking enough to play the likeable teacher role, but he isn't charismatic enough to pull off the whole inspirational life-changer schtick.  If anything, the movie would have benefited from having Cynthia Kaye McWilliams as the lead.  She wasn't the person this true story was based on, but she's the only person here who is breathing life into the movie.  Otherwise, the only personality the movie has are based in a lot of generalized takes on deliquency and a few jokes about butt lube.

Sasquatch Sunset

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Nathan Zellner, David Zellner

Starring:  Riley Keough, Jessie Eisenberg, Christophe Zajac-Denek, Nathan Zellner

Sasquatch Sunset is a dry and dull failure, but at least it's an ambitious one.  Following a group of sasquatches throughout a year, doing sasquatch things, usually in crudely humorous ways.  The joke of the movie falls on its "beauty of nature" framing device centered on humanoid characters, who often indulge in their more primitive, uncivilized instincts.  It's a lot of juvenille humor littered throughout a prestige format, and to it's credit, it's not exactly unfunny, but it feels like a ten minute sketch stretched to ninty minutes.  It's a movie where I found myself wishing it would tell its joke and fuck off, but it winds up telling it to me for ten minutes straight just to make sure I understand it then brings it back a half hour later, hoping I'd laugh this time.  The movie does also attempt a sense of poignancy in the "nature of man," but it's never observant nor clever enough to pull it off.  It's certainly an interesting try, though.

Villains Inc.

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Comedy, Superhero

Director:  Jeremy Warner

Starring:  Mallory Everton, Colin Mochrie, Jason Gray, Billy Mann

I've seen castmembers of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in movies before, but I don't think I've ever seen Colin Mochrie in one.  Not saying he hasn't been, just saying I haven't seen them.  He always seemed to me like he's the most firmly "improv theater" of the group, so that probably should have tipped me off as to what type of movie Villains Inc. was going to be, which seems to be primarily produced by people who work on a YouTube sketch series that I've never heard of called Studio C.  It might be super popular, I don't know, though this movie had a higher attendance in the theater than I expected, so I assume they were Studio C fans.

Villains Inc. sees a group of freelance henchmen-for-hire who are down-on-their-luck after they accidentally kill their latest supervillain boss, who also stiffed them on their paycheck.  One of them tries to join an evil organization to dominate the world, only to be rejected (and barely escape) and returns to her friends by lying to them, claiming to be a new head honcho supervillain and hires them as her goons.  It's a dumb movie, told in a hammy way, but I'll give it points for its consistent tenacity.  It feels like it was made by people whose favorite superhero movie is Mystery Men and get unreasonably upset every time a TV series based on The Tick gets cancelled.  And I mean that statement in a loving way.  I totally get the people who made this movie.  I would have a beer with them after a hard day and have a good laugh.  It's so rambunctiously goofy, made with a cast that's fearless over how silly they might look.  I especially enjoyed Mallory Everton as the lead, as her personality really lends itself well to the movie's strange, hammy tone.  But everyone really dives right into this off-beat slice of nonsense and chews the scenery for all it's worth.  This movie isn't particularly great, but I kinda love that it exists.

Art Attack

Housekeeping for Beginners

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Goran Stolevski

Starring:  Anamaria Marinca, Alina Serbin, Samson Selim, Vladmir Tintor, Mia Mustafi, Dzada Selim

Another queer drama from Goran Stolevski, this film sees a woman vowing to raise her girlfriend's children after she dies of cancer, marrying her gay roommate to create the illusion that he's the father.  It's an intriguing approach to a mixed family dynamic, though it does tend to dive in several directions that make it seem like it lacks focus.  But the family is well played, their relationships are interesting, and the drama is compelling.  I think the movie could use a bit more room to breathe in some areas, because it feels confined and its ending is slightly abrupt, but maybe that's just me hoping to hear more about the direction these people are going.  If I was that invested, this movie was doing something right.

Netflix & Chill

Rebel Moon:  Part Two - The Scargiver

⭐️⭐️

Streaming On:  Netflix

Genre:  Science Fiction, Action, Adventure

Director:  Zack Snyder

Starring:  Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Staz Nair, Fra Fee, Elise Duffy, Anthony Hopkins

It was possible that I went in with low expectations, or I was just in a good mood while watching a movie I was almost certain was going to make me miserable, but I do remember liking the first Rebel Moon.  I would hardly call it a great movie, and I certainly didn't rewatch it before Part Two came out, but it seemed like I was in a minority in leaving that movie with some positive words to say.  I have some positive words to say about the second film as well.  Some.  Though, maybe my low expectations have been raised enough that I find its lesser aspects to be more grating.  The word saying it's Zack Snyder's worst movie is still hyperbole, because that would still be Sucker Punch, and that is unlikely to change any time soon.  I still like it more than Army of the Dead, too, but that movie bored the piss out of me.

Based on the second half of the Seven Samurai formula, the second Rebel Moon sees the intergalactic ronin warriors teaching the colony of peasants to defend themselves, preparing for an hour long battle in the back end.  The action sequence is pretty spectacular, though be forewarned that it is littered with Snyder's trademark flourishes/indulgences.  That can be said for the entire movie, really, because he wants all of his characters to have a tragic backstory, and it's always told in a hyper-dramatic style that can only be described as hilarious.  I have no problem with Snyder's tendencies to be self-serious, though he would be best to not crank his drama to eleven in making his characters tragic out of creative cruelty.  While I enjoyed Rebel Moon more than most, that tendency turns his "epic saga" into a bit of a joke.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Arcadian ⭐️1/2

Bob Marly:  One Love ⭐️⭐️1/2

Civil War ⭐️⭐️1/2

Dune:  Part Two ⭐⭐1/2

The First Omen ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ghostbusters:  Frozen Empire ⭐️⭐️

Godzilla x Kong:  The New Empire ⭐️⭐️1/2

Kung Fu Panda 4 ⭐⭐1/2

Late Night with the Devil ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Long Game ⭐️⭐️1/2

Monkey Man ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare ⭐️⭐️⭐️

New To Digital

Asphalt City ⭐️1/2

Dune:  Part Two ⭐⭐1/2

Immaculate ⭐️⭐️

In the Land of Saints and Sinners ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Late Night with the Devil ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Problemista ⭐️⭐️⭐️

New To Physical

The Peasants ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2024: Week 15 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Arcadian

⭐️1/2

Genre:  Horror, Thriller

Director:  Ben Brewer

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins, Sadie Soverall

Nicolas Cage survives the apocalypse with a pair of sons, living out in the middle of nowhere where strange creatures come out at night.  Arcadian stumbles and fumbles it's way through its family drama in a land of monsters without a genuine vision of what it's supposed to be about.  How did the apocalypse come about?  The movie doesn't care.  Everything piece of information we get is incredibly vague, and it even chooses to explain exposition in a game the young characters play which basically amounts to "Guess the premise," which certainly is a choice.  What are the monsters?  Doesn't matter.  The movie mostly creates them as showcases for suspense sequences, but they throw too many ideas in a blender to the point that they're just abstract concepts that make little sense.  They look like an abominable love child of Horace Horse and the Cloverfield monster, and can appearance suck up people in their rectum and cocoon them (or something, I honestly can't tell because the monster sequences are terribly executed).  They also act like ants sometimes, grouping together and can even travel as a giant ball, like Critters.  The difference between Critters and this movie is that Critters was comical and this movie is stone serious.  Maybe I would be easier on this movie if the drama were more interesting, but it's just a rehash of A Quiet Place, but people are allowed to talk and done much worse (except with Nicolas Cage, so brownie points for that).  It has an aura of not wanting to bother with certain elements while trying to pass it off as minimalist.  Even if the movie were minimalist, if you're not prepared to actually tell a story, your movie only comes off as a string of nonsense.  One or two good scenes is not enough good will to carry ninety minutes.

Civil War

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Thriller

Director:  Alex Garland

Starring:  Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson

War!  Huh!  Yeah!  Good god, y'all!  What is it good for?  Absolutely nothin'!  Alex Garland seeks to prove those lyrics correct in his latest (supposedly final) directorial effort, where we follow a group of journalists driving to Washington D.C., chronicling a second United States civil war that has broken out.  Those hoping for Garland to get elbow deep into political tensions, be it reality-adjacent tensions, parody/satire, or completely made-up shit, will leave Civil War disappointed.  The movie is astonishingly unconcerned with the how or the why a national divide could happen, brushing a lot of it off in passing.  Garland is more concerned with imagery than he is with politics, wanting his film to be a reflection of foreign warzones portrayed on US soil, hoping the audience will see it as disturbing.  The message he's sending out is "All of this happens for no good reason."  This is probably true, but because he is so flippant about fleshing out the idea behind this imagery, there is a struggle to attach any sort of meaning behind any of it, leaving the whole project feeling gutless and sterilized.  There are positive qualities that make it worth checking out.  Kirsten Dunst, for starters, is very good in it.  Garland does showcase a lot of striking imagery, even if they aren't as harrowing as I think he hopes for it to be.  I don't think it's too much to ask for your movie to have more balls about its subject matter than Red Dawn, but maybe I'm wrong.

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Wade Allain-Marcus

Starring:  Simone Joy Jones, Nichole Richie, June Squib, Patricia "Ms. Pat" Williams, Jermaine Fowler

Maybe it was just out of my line of sight, but is there a huge following for Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead?  I know I've seen the original, but I also remember next to nothing about it other than that sweet title and the fact that Christina Applegate was in it.  Is it some beloved cult classic dark comedy or something and I just don't know it?  That seems to have happened with Hocus Pocus, where one day people were just hailing it as a forgotten gem and I could only respond with "It was?"

This remake primarily seems updated to make the family at the center a Black family, though keeps the premise of a mother going out of town and leaving her children with a tyrannical babysitter, who happens to pass away while caring for the children.  Skimming a wiki synopsis for the original, it feels like the film hews fairly closely to the original's plot layout, though as to which movie does it better, I can't say.  What I can say about this movie is that it feels determined to barrel through its story, trying not to stay in place for too long so it doesn't get boring.  The scenario is set-up and executed really fast, and the whole "dead babysitter" angle is tossed out of the way earlier than you would think, then pushing a story of kids working to maintain a household by themselves narrative.  But even that is swiftly forgotten about, as the lead actress gets swept up in her new job and suddenly the movie is more of an office workplace comedy than a family story.  I get why the narrative skews so hard in this direction, but it certainly feels like it's a movie that forgets what it's supposed to be about.  But is it funny?  Kinda.  It has some good laughs, but they aren't consistent enough to make it an easy recommend.

Another strange aspect is that even if the original film is a cult classic, a lot of that probably has to do with kids at the time latching onto a PG-13 comedy about kids thumbing their nose at the adult system they have to live in.  That seems like an outcome unlikely for this movie, since it was released with an R rating.  And that rating is really weird too, because there is very little in the movie to justify it, which I'm assuming was instead the result of explicit lyrics from its soundtrack and a hefty usage of the N-word.  I don't know if they were aiming for a PG-13 and just got heavily scrutinized by the MPAA and were unable to work around it without drastically altering the film, but it's hard for me to picture the film attaining any sort of childhood cult audience because of that.

La Chimera

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Alice Rohrwacher

Starring:  Josh O'Connor, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato, Alba Rohrwacher, Isabella Rossellini

Italian import sees a dowsing expert recruited by a group of graverobbers who wish to use his talent to find tombs full of items they can sell on the black market.  That sentence probably makes it sound more exciting than it is, as the film derives more tension from drama than their escapades.  Particularly a romantic subplot that our lead has with a local mother, who has little knowledge of what he does when he's not around her.  Carol Duarte is a charming counter to Josh O'Connor, as the two weave different, yet complicated performances around each other.  It's an interesting and compelling movie in its own way, though it tends to run a little long and over-complicate its ending.  Admittedly, I'm working at a disadvantage with this movie, because the print I watched cut off 40% of the subtitles.  I think I got the gist of it, though I'd probably need to watch it again on streaming to make sure.

The Long Game

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Drama, Sports

Director:  Julio Quintana

Starring:  Jay Hernandez, Dennis Quaid, Julian Works, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Brett Cullen, Oscar Nunez, Paulina Chavez, Gregory Diaz IV, Jose Julian, Cheech Marin

Dennis Quaid picks up a sack of golf clubs for his latest inspirational sports movie, which sees him as an assistant coach opposite Jay Hernandez, and the duo lead a group of promising Mexican-American students to win a golf tournament in the face of discrimination.  It's a movie with heart, but it's traditionalist to a fault.  Despite being made by a predominantly Hispanic production crew, the movie feels like it's geared toward old, white folks who don't care about the racial stuff and just like a good sports movie.  This tone feels slightly problematic, because for a good long while in the movie, the young players are being taught to "conform, and make white people feel comfortable."  The final lession is that you shouldn't have to, but it's also a movie made that feels like it's being made specifically to make white people feel comfortable.  It's not enough for me to call the movie bad, but it seems like a safe swing instead of a full experience.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Action, Adventure, Comedy

Director:  Guy Ritchie

Starring:  Henry Cavill, Eiza Gonzalez, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Henrique Zaga, Til Schweiger, Henry Golding, Cary Elwes

Pre-release review of Guy Ritchie's latest!  But enthusiasm may vary depending on how much one can sit still for Guy Ritchie.  Personally, I think Ritchie has been putting out some under-the-radar bangers lately that he hasn't been getting a lot of credit for, from The Gentlemen to Operation Fortune, movies dismissed by critics but are perfect entertainment for the audiences they were made for.  (He also made Wrath of Man, but nobody is perfect.)  The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is exclusively in that demographic area that outsiders likely won't be into it, but those who watch the trailer and say "Yes, that's for me" will love it.  Loosely based on a covert British team during World War II, this film sees Henry Cavill lead a group into Europe on a secret mission to destroy a ship full of weapons.  But let's just call it what it is, an excuse for a pulpy adventure where an unstoppable killing force mows down Nazis.  It's for from the first, and won't be the last.  Depth and nuance are of no interest to the film, which solely focuses on making its protagonists charismatic mad men who face little repercussions for their actions.  For bullets and laughs, you're probably not going to find a higher quota.  If you think you're going to love it, you probably are.  If you think you're going to hate it, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Sting

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Kiah Roache-Turner

Starring:  Alyla Browne, Penelope Mitchell, Ryan Corr, Jermaine Fowler

This creature feature sees a little girl finding an alien spider, who she keeps as a pet, which in turn grows to massive size and attacks people in her apartment building.  The biggest thing holding this movie back is that it starts off with a level of flamboyance that it loses over the course of the movie.  The movie at the end has a much more serious face on than when it starts and dilutes the expectations of a playful monster flick.  However, the solid qualities make the film a worthwhile investment for genre fans.  It a smartly laid-out flick that is obviously on a limited budget.  The sole-confinement setting is luckily shot in a location with a lot of character, ensuring that we never feel as trapped as the characters are.  The CGI spider shots, while sparse, are used wisely and the moments they break them out make them count.  The screenplay stumbles with pacing and tone, as the film struggles to really rev up its engine and take its audience for a ride.  But there are a few instances of creature mayhem that will keep its target audience's attention.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Arthur the King ⭐️⭐️

Cabrini ⭐⭐

Dune:  Part Two ⭐⭐1/2

The First Omen ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ghostbusters:  Frozen Empire ⭐️⭐️

Godzilla x Kong:  The New Empire ⭐️⭐️1/2

Immaculate ⭐️⭐️

Kung Fu Panda 4 ⭐⭐1/2

Late Night with the Devil ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Monkey Man ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Wicked Little Letters ⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Digital

Kung Fu Panda 4 ⭐⭐1/2

One Life ⭐️⭐️⭐️

New To Physical

Fallen Leaves ⭐️⭐️⭐️

It's a Wonderful Knife ⭐️⭐️

Lisa Frankenstein ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Night Swim ⭐️

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2024: Week 14 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

The First Omen

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Arkasha Stevenson

Starring:  Nell Tiger Free, Tawfeek Barhom, Sonia Braga, Ralph Ineson, Bill Nighy, Charles Dance

An Omen prequel seemed like a really bad idea.  You don't have much of a story without Damien, and the premise they conjured up, centering on his conception and birth, seemed like something you really shouldn't do.  First of all, the mystery behind where Damien came from is arguably spookier than explaining every fine detail of it.  And even if it weren't, one of the big creepy reveals of The Omen is the allusion that (spoilers for a movie that's almost half a century old) Damien was born from a jackal.  Giving him a human mother undercuts that reveal, and I honestly kinda hate it.  That's not even getting into the fact that The Omen just isn't a very good franchise.  The only movie that's worth a damn is the first one, and I don't even recall caring for that one that much.  I did think the remake was passable, but it was also the first one I watched and had nothing to compare it to.  Everyone else who has commented on the remake seems to disagree with me, so I just let it lie.  I don't know why they've decided to continue this dead franchise, but studios also seem to be convinced The Exorcist should be a franchise, even though every movie in that series proves them wrong, so why not The Omen as well?

But to the surprise of almost everyone, especially me, The First Omen is actually pretty good.  It might even be the best one, but bear in mind that I haven't watched an Omen movie in nearly twenty years, so I don't know whether any appreciation or depreciation of them would happen with time.  I guess "6" really is the lucky number for this franchise.

Taking place in 1971, The First Omen sees a nun at an orphanage uncover a conspiracy that one of the children in their care may have been specifically bred to be the mother of the antichrist, and she seeks the help of Father Brennan to smuggle her out.  I was surprised at the confidence in the production, which feels like a hybrid of a lot of influences.  If I remember correctly (which I'm probably not), the original Omen was more of an unease horror than anything, as it scared through the implications of the story unfolding rather than trying to jolt you with frights.  It would certainly go for a shocker moment with sudden deaths, and definitely blow your eardrums out with Jerry Goldsmith's bombastic score, but it's more dramatic than most horror movies.  The First Omen pays homage to that style, sometimes recreating 1970's style editing and cinematography.  It doesn't hedge everything on it, like last year's The Holdovers.  They create something more unique out of it instead, crossing it with styles and tones that range from Giallo to J-horror, with imagery that is creepy in a subtle way without resorting to too many jump scares (though there are a few).  There is even a sequence where the camera focuses solely on lead actress Nell Tiger Free and has her convulse for the camera for a lengthy, unnerving take, which feels like an homage to Isabelle Adjani's most memorable scene in the 1981 film Possession (which co-starred Sam Neill, who played Damien in the third Omen movie, The Final Conflict, the same year).  This blend makes the film a subdued affair that can still get under your skin.

I also like how they slowly induct Jerry Goldsmith's score into the movie before blasting it at the end.  It's like Damien is James Bond in Casino Royale.

The craftsmanship is top-tier, though its instances of pandering sometimes deflate my enthusiasm.  The opening with Charles Dance is a bit much, which is a callback to Patrick "Doctor Who" Troughton's death scene in the original Omen, but it's just silly and unnecessary.  There's also a "It's all for you" moment, and while I agree that's one of the most memorable moments of the original, I didn't need a recreation of it when it was already done to perfection.  I'd also criticize the screenplay for taking a few turns that seem like twists but are actually predictable cliches, while also am curious about how the ending seems to set up a sequel that might happen parallel to the original Omen movie.  I'm not sure if that last point is a knock against this movie, though.  If they ever do a sequel to this that has potential to be as good, I'd be more than welcome to see if them try.

Monkey Man

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Action, Thriller

Director:  Dev Patel

Starring:  Dev Patel, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sophita Dhulipala, Sikander Kher, Ashwini Kalsekar

Dev Patel writes, directs, and stars in this action flick that impressed Jordan Peele so much that he personally purchased it from Netflix so it could get a theatrical release.  These guys get it.  The film is a pretty standard revenge thriller, where Patel hunts down the leaders who destroyed his village and killed his mother and becomes an unstoppable action hunk along the way.  Patel gets points for his grit and style because he is fully in the trenches creating the most brutal movie he possibly can, that is spry on its feet and funny in places, as well.  The movie does get sluggish halfway through, and sometimes Patel's ambition puts him a little out of his depth (there is a kill scene with a CGI knife in Patel's mouth that looks like shit), but I have to respect him for holding nothing back.  If nothing else, it's something that should get more producers banging on his door with more projects for him, which is the best possible outcome.

Wicked Little Letters

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Comedy, Drama, Mystery

Director:  Thea Sharrock

Starring:  Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Anjana Vasan, Timothy Spall

This film takes place in 1920's England, where Olivia Colman is receiving angry, obscene letters from an unknown source.  Everyone's gaze turns to Jessie Buckley, Colman's foul-mouthed, ill-tempered Irish neighbor, who is arrested for the harassment, though the town's one marginalized lady cop suspects that she isn't the culprit.  Watching Wicked Little Letters requires a patience with its indulgence in tonal shifts, as it pivots between aloof comedy and moments that are surprisingly drama-heavy for a story this goofy.  I'm having a hard time figuring out what the tone of the screenplay is supposed to be, because it could either be just a quaint little neighborhood story that was leaned into comedy in production based on its gifted, comedic performers, or it is a rambunctious comedy that also wants to feel like its stakes and emotion are serious enough to pack a punch.  I'm willing to roll with the latter, but this story is a bit too small to carry some of its more thundering moments, and I find myself pining for it to reel itself in and just be a silly showcase for its talent.  Also, it gives up on the intrigue of its mystery fairly quickly, opting to show the culprit long before any of the characters figure it out, which I feel is a mistake that makes the second half far less engaging than the first.  Still, with a cast this good, this movie does achieve at being an entertaining piece for fans of its performers.  Olivia Colman is delightful, Anjana Vasan is charming, and Jessie Buckley steals every scene she's in with her very colorful vernacular.  It's a cozy evening watch, but it's a hard movie to love.

Art Attack

Io Capitano

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Oscars Nominated:  Best International Feature Film

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Matteo Garrone

Starring:  Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall

Finally, I can cross off the last nominee for the International Oscar off my list, because Italy's Io Capitano (translates to "Me Captain" in English) has finally made it to Idaho.  At least I got to see this one in a theater, which is more than I can say for Perfect Days (or Society of the Snow, but that was a Netflix movie, so that wasn't going to happen).  Io Capitano is the story of two cousins from Dekar, who make a long trek to Italy in search of a better life.  What follows is a heavy depiction of the lengths that people will go through to immigrate, as they face perils and hardships of their journey brought about by vast deserts and encountering those who wish them harm.  It's a strong story of persistence, overcoming their fear, their uncertainty, and, in some cases, even their own compassion, all in the name of reaching their destination.  The film's young stars, Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall, are both outstanding, holding this rich drama on their shoulders.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Arthur the King ⭐️⭐️

Cabrini ⭐⭐

Dune:  Part Two ⭐⭐1/2

Ghostbusters:  Frozen Empire ⭐️⭐️

Godzilla x Kong:  The New Empire ⭐️⭐️1/2

Immaculate ⭐️⭐️

In the Land of Saints and Sinners ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kung Fu Panda 4 ⭐⭐1/2

Late Night with the Devil ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Love Lies Bleeding ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Digital

The American Society of Magical Negroes ⭐️⭐️1/2

Imaginary ⭐️1/2

Knox Goes Away ⭐️⭐️

Snack Shack ⭐️⭐️1/2

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2024: Week 13 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Asphalt City

⭐️1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Jean-Stephane Sauvaire

Starring:  Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan, Katherine Waterston, Mike Tyson

Asphalt City is a paramedic film that feels like it's targeted at people who watch movies centered on corrupt, cynical beat cops, so if that sounds up your alley, then I would probably give it a watch.  From a technical standpoint, there is nothing wrong with it.  It's well-shot, visceral, and features good acting (except maybe Mike Tyson, and don't ask me to explain why Mike Tyson is in this movie, because I don't know).  Whether or not you enjoy it probably depends on how bitter and angry you like your movies.  The film's story centers on rookie paramedic Tye Sheridan being teamed up with grizzled senior medic Sean Penn, and it tells of their many nights together as they answer calls, which range from being hopeless to humiliating.  The entire underlining point of the movie is that being a paramedic sucks.  And it wants to make sure the viewer knows just how thankless and traumatizing this job is.  One can't say that they shortchange you on that.  What really weighs the movie down is how heavy-handed it is, often making its point and going a step further just to make sure the dead horse is beaten.  I like what the movie is trying to do, but every time I try to throw it a bone and let it do its thing, it decides to run to some sort of extremity that is only done to shock the viewer, while the filmmakers wear a shit-eating grin and go "lol."  And the last nail in the coffin is that nagging feeling that you can do these themes without making the people who have a thanklessly heroic task come off as jaded pricks who make selfish decisions.  That attitude is gross and disrespectful.  They already have a hard enough job, they don't need a movie that's spreading around the idea that it's mostly their fault, because "the job makes them this way."  If the movie were a film about snap decisions in the heat of the moment that may be scrutinized, it would be a different story.  Instead, it's about decisions that are done by calculated choice, and that doesn't gel with me.

Godzilla x Kong:  The New Empire

⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Adventure, Fantasy, Action, Kaiju

Director:  Adam Wingard

Starring:  Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Brian Tyree Henry, Kaylee Hottle

Hot off the coattails of Toho's 70th anniversary film for their mascot monster, Godzilla Minus One, comes an American produced Godzilla film that is actually being unleashed in Godzilla's seventieth year (though the big guy won't actually turn seventy until November).  Godzilla Minus One actually had to do an act of avoidance for Godzilla x Kong:  The New Empire, because their contract with Legendary states that they're actually not allowed to release their own Godzilla film in the same year as Legendary produces their own, which meant Godzilla Minus One had to kick off the festivities early, even if it was only the big birthday of 69 (nice).  Some have pointed to this as the reason Minus One isn't on streaming yet in the US, though I tend to believe that has more to do with the film needing a US distributor first, and Toho tends to let foreign home media releases lag behind, so they don't compete with their own domestic releases (I've been following Godzilla DVDs a long time).  So, by happenstance, Godzilla x Kong:  The New Empire is the official flick celebrating the franchise's latest milestone, though it narrowly misses Kong's 90th anniversary by a full year.  Respectively, The New Empire is the 38th Godzilla film and the 10th Kong film.

Taking place several years after Godzilla and Kong's brawl with each other that turned into a fight against a giant robot, because reasons, The New Empire sees Kong chilling in his new home in Hollow Earth, where he finally begins to see signs of a simian civilization that he might have hailed from, which is being led by a ruthless ape that has turned them against human civilization.  Kong's only chance to keep them from reaching the surface world is to team up with the lumbering brute Godzilla in a tag team match against an army of apes.

With 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, director Adam Wingard leaned heavily into the absurdity of late-Showa-era Godzilla stylings, with elaborate sci-fi production design weaving a tale of the fantastical and had no time for any sort of reality to weigh it down.  While it was rough around the edges, you could see a code to the MonsterVerse being cracked on-screen as it shed the more grounded elements that previous films in the franchise struggled with (particularly King of the Monsters, which had a balancing act of grit and camp that chained it to the ground).  With The New Empire, Wingard doubles down on his approach, making a movie that's even more absurd and silly and just making a film that was a wild ride.  This could have been either a good thing or a bad thing, as it could either be really fun or just numbing.  Turns out it's both.

A lot of Godzilla vs. Kong's suffering came at the expense that it felt like the film's plot was stripped in post-production in an attempt to keep it simple, which came at the expense of certain elements lacking coherency.  The New Empire doesn't have that problem, at least, not for a good long while.  The story is simple with a purpose, and it goes through its adventure-trotting feeling like this was what it set out to do from the beginning.  The third act is a different matter.  A new element is introduced to the film that has been kept out of the trailers, and from a screenplay perspective, it plunges the movie into chaos.  Veteran Godzilla fans will understand it, and probably dig it, sitting in their seats and going "OMG, are they doing...?  THEY ARE!"  Someone who is only versed in the MonsterVerse will probably just tilt their head and struggle to understand just what the hell is going on.  It's not their fault either, as the script doesn't really introduce it properly and it rushes through it to get to the monster action faster.

I don't think we ever had any fear that the monster action was going to be neglected though, because The New Empire is probably the most beast-heavy film of the MonsterVerse saga, and they're ready for a tumble, let me tell you.  The film is pure pulp, with the title creatures as the heroes.  Kong is Conan the Barbarian and Godzilla is John Matrix, and the Schwarzenegger-inspired duo are ready to bulldoze everything in their way.  The movie has no interest in holding them back, though one might suspect Godzilla gets sidelined in favor of Kong.  It feels like Wingard and the writers favor the ape because it's much easier to humanize him, so Godzilla gets stuck fighting a few monsters in brief matches in the meantime, ala Godzilla:  Final Wars.  And when they finally team up for the finale, it is a dizzyingly frantic showcase of CGI that will either make you vomit or leave you grinning from ear-to-ear.

It's not as good as Minus One, though it doesn't need to be.  Kaiju flicks have ranged between harrowing and spectacle, and that is part of their beauty.  The New Empire struggles on its own path, though it has a clear ambition that it comes close to achieving.

In the Land of Saints and Sinners

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Drama, Thriller

Director:  Robert Lorenz

Starring:  Liam Neeson, Kerry Condon, Jack Gleeson, Colm Meaney, Ciaran Hinds

Liam Neeson plays an aged assassin yet again, putting his particular-set-of-skills to the test against a gang who are after him for killing a member of theirs.  This is better than most Neeson thrillers, as there is an effort to be more thoughtful than just have him "do the Taken voice" and punch people.  The movie almost doesn't even have a premise, as the film is more about circumstances that align and accidentally escalate.  The bad guys, led by Kerry Condon, wildly misinterpret Neeson's motives, which lead to them acting less cautiously and getting more desperate as the film goes on.  Meanwhile, the events take Neeson by surprise, which leads him with a desire to diffuse the situation, but also be ready for things to go south at any moment.  If I had any issue with the film, it would be that it takes a while to get going and the domino effect in play feels too confined, which leads to a minor anticlimactic ending.  But the movie also isn't about spectacle, so I'll forgive it for trying to find a quiet way out instead.

Art Attack

Shayda

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Noora Niasari

Starring:  Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Selina Zahedina, Osamah Sami

Australia's submission for the International Oscar is a film about an Iranian woman escaping spousal abuse with her daughter, who seeks refuge in a shelter for women and tries to take the first steps to moving on with her life.  It's a strong story about the strength to work beyond trauma, and partially about a sisterhood of support to keep a woman strong.  These things come with hurdles, because the abusive partner is still in the picture, with a court order for visitation rights that he abuses to continue harassing his ex.  It's a thorough and realistic examination of what a woman goes through even as she tries to put a horrible experience behind her, and the strength it takes to build a better life for one's self in the heat of the old one still knocking at your door.  If I were left wanting on anything, I feel some of the supporting characters deserved a stronger presence.  Part of Shayda's story lies in taking comfort in others, and those she turns to often feel neglected in favor of something more relevant to Shayda and her daughter.  I get it, though.  It's Shayda's story, and we shouldn't wrestle it away from her, though there are little bits in it that could help it feel complete if they added just that much more.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Arthur the King ⭐️⭐️

Cabrini ⭐⭐

Dune:  Part Two ⭐⭐1/2

Ghostbusters:  Frozen Empire ⭐️⭐️

Immaculate ⭐️⭐️

Kung Fu Panda 4 ⭐⭐1/2

Late Night with the Devil ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Love Lies Bleeding ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Luca ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Problemista ⭐️⭐️⭐️

New To Digital

Imaginary ⭐️1/2

Ordinary Angels ⭐️⭐️⭐️

New To Physical

Good Burger 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Iron Claw ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Out of Darkness ⭐️⭐️1/2

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2024: Week 12 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Ghostbusters:  Frozen Empire

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Comedy, Fantasy, Horror

Director:  Gil Kenan

Starring:  Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckeena Grace, Kumall Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Celest O'Connor, Logan Kim, Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts

I'm pretty much resigned from the idea that Ghostbusters will ever be the great franchise that it probably had the potential to be.  I let a lot of that attachment go when Harold Ramis passed away and it was clear that if the franchise came back, it would have to reconfigure itself.  Which it did.  Twice.  Both with very, shall we say, colorful discourses about their approach.  People will have their preferences as to whether the 2016 reboot or the legacy sequel Ghostbusters:  Afterlife is a better movie, but it fully depends on what you'd like Ghostbusters to lean into.  The 2016 sided pretty heavily into madcap slapstick comedy, and while it worked in places (and in others it failed miserably, but that's an entire other conversation that I won't get into, because that movie remains a hot button topic for some stupid reason), that's not what made the original Ghostbusters work.  The first Ghostbusters was an apocalyptic fantasy movie that had comedy derived from the idea that blue-collar shlubs were the ones who stumbled into it and saved the day.  It was very Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in that manner.  Afterlife was a closer approximation of this, though blending it with an homage to an Amblin-style rural kids fantasy is questionable, but that movie is better than it should be.

Afterlife wound up being the chosen route by Sony Pictures, and here we have Ghostbusters:  Frozen Empire, which takes place three years after Afterlife and now the Spengler family and their friends have taken up the mantel of Ghostbusters in New York City.  Exactly how or why they did this is unknown, because they lived in Oklahoma and the last time I checked, the Ghostbusters business had been shut down for decades (not to mention ghosts only seem to break out when something apocalyptic is afoot, so business ebbs and flows anyway).  I'm not even sure why they would want to be Ghostbusters, either.  I get why Paul Rudd would, because he's a Gen X fan boy, but why is Carrie Coon here?  I don't have any impression as to why this business would interest her.  Why is she allowing her kids to do this?  And now New York just happens to have a regular ghost problem again, after decades of not needing Ghostbusters?  This is a lot to imply happened in between movies that Frozen Empire just waves off.  But I digress, even though I'm ten minutes in and my inner screenwriter is pulling his hair out.

Accepting all of that, Frozen Empire sees the discovery of an orb that contains another demonic entity bent of spiritual chaos, which of course gets unleashed as the film goes on so the Ghostbusters can save the day.  It's the Ghostbusters formula of the first two movies that Afterlife sidestepped, which could be a positive or a negative, depending on your point of view.  On the plus side, this is a comfort food storyline that is adequately entertaining for Ghostbusters veterans, but it's also same-old-same-old for those who think the only good movie is the first one (or none at all, but those people probably shouldn't be watching the fifth Ghostbusters movie if they don't like Ghostbusters).  The movie feels muted and through-the-motions, with a couple of inspired moments along the way.  Mckenna Grace, who is the best thing to happen to this franchise since 1984, continues to shine, and she has a subplot with a ghost girl that is cute and charming.  The movie's comedy is also successfully funny most of the time, it's just drowned out with mundaneness and pandering references.  It's hard to pinpoint what exactly goes wrong with this movie, because elements of it feel like the correct ones, displaying a Ghostbusters movie that feels like it's what a Ghostbusters movie should be, but does so without much (if you'll pardon the pun) spirit.  If you're going to coast for the ride, the movie will prove to be a solid, popcorn-munching time, but as the case for making more Ghostbusters movies, it doesn't really sell itself.

MST3K Cast Note:  Patton Oswalt has a supporting role in this film.

Immaculate

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Michael Mohan

Starring:  Sydney Sweeney, Alvaro Morte, Benedetta Porcaroli, Dora Romano, Georgio Colangeli, Simona Tobasco

Sydney Sweeney stars as a nun who joins a special convent that tends to dying and mentally unstable nuns.  This being a horror movie, there is of course a dark secret beneath all of this.  There is a little bit of a "Stop me if you heard this one..." quality to this movie.  I mean, scary things happen to a nun.  This is hardly an original premise in horror, because a nun is a symbol of purity and they have a perfect antagonist in devilish devices.  Immaculate is a movie that feels like it wants to be the most efficient example of this, but isn't quite up to the task.  The movie is wildly inconsistent about what kind of horror movie it is, switching between psychological shocker, geek show body horror, and "Boo!" jump scares.  The result is a boring movie that sometimes intrigues but often is just screaming at you.  As the movie plays out, it becomes understandable as to why it would present itself this way, and while its final revelation is interesting, it doesn't really fall into justification for the horror around it.  It's an unnerving idea, but there are extremities about everything surrounding it that feel like being grotesque for the sake of being grotesque.  I mean, this is a convent, and they are openly doing horrible things with little thought or care.  It seems you've probably lost the plot in your "service to God."  I understand that this is the point, but it's also not a well developed one.  It just becomes a movie where bad things are going on under a saintly roof because they feel like it, and that makes whatever promising aspects of the premise there may be feel like a lost cause.

Late Night with the Devil

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes

Starring:  David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli, Rhys Auteri

This indie horror film had been riding hype waves for months (only to face backlash at the last minute after it was revealed that the filmmakers used AI art in the film), and it's finally hitting wide release for a small theatrical run before hitting Shudder in the near future.  Late Night with the Devil gives David Dastmalchian a long overdue lead role as a late night talk show host who puts on a Halloween show devoted the supernatural.  His special guests:  a psychic, a skeptic, and a presumably possessed girl.  It's a movie that hams it up with its late night influences, working hard with that comfort atmosphere of stale jokes and performative pandering only to unfold into something spookier as it goes.  For the most part, the snowball effect works.  It does an impressive job of balancing the campy and the intense, being both silly and earnest at the same time, though it tends to slip up in balancing the theatrical with the gritty.  It might have done better if it had slowly let go of the former in favor of the latter toward the end, but it always seemed to have a death grip on keeping that talk show tone throughout.  Because of that, the horror elements can have a hard time breaking through because the movie both wants to treat them seriously and unseriously at the same time, which feels like a missed opportunity to take such a comfort format and tear it to shreds.  But the film is buoyed by a fabulous performance by Dastmalchian and young co-star Ingrid Torelli, which makes it a fun, spooky watch for a evening viewing.

Problemista

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Julio Torres

Starring:  Tilda Swinton, Julio Torres, RZA, Greta Lee, Catalina Saavedra, James Scully

Writer/director/star Julio Torres is an aspiring toy designer who finds his work visa threatened but may find his only savior with eccentric artist Tilda Swinton, as he struggles to wrangle in her erratic behavior just to stay afloat.  Torres creates a film through a lens of expressionistic imagination, as he infuses a lot of flourishes throughout the narrative based on how his main character feels through his inner anxiety.  It's a film that gets off on its own quirkiness, and it can tend to overwhelm.  That overwhelming nature is part of the point, because it metaphorically stands as a piece about how anxiety pushes itself on us during those days where we are uncertain about our lives.  Tilda Swinton toes a line between being hilarious and infuriating, though it's practically a perfect performance.  It's also the exact thing the movie needs to fully work, because of how large her personality is, fueling it's metaphor.

Netflix & Chill

Road House

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Streaming On:  Prime

Genre:  Action

Director:  Doug Liman

Starring:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Joaquim de Almeida, Austin Post, Conor McGregor

Remaking Road House is a towering task.  It's not like remaking a normal movie.  Normally, there are certain qualities a film can have that makes it beloved, and while recreating them is challenging, there are ways to go about it that can create something fresh and enjoyable out of a new experience.  Road House is different.  The things people love about Road House are so unique to this one particular movie that is objectively awful, but so much fucking fun to watch.  That movie is a perfect storm of machismo horseshit done in such a campy way creating a movie that you just sit in your seat, drinking a beer, and nodding to yourself "Yeah, fucking Road House, yeah."

Now we finally have a remake, which switches up the machismo horseshit with a different kind of machismo horseshit, turning Road House away from being a trasy 80's VHS classic and rejiggers it into something for the Fast & Furious generation.  It's a pick your poison situation.  Instead of Patrick Swayze, we're given Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays a former UFC fighter who is hired as a bouncer to chase off thugs who have been terrorizing a roadhouse in Florida, but sees the situation escalate when it links to a real estate scheme trying to shut the place down.  The film downplays the original's camp value, but is very embrasive of its cheek.  Surprisingly, this movie doesn't try to replicate any of Swayze's iconic one-liners, opting to give Gyllenhaal his own.  Gyllenhaal's aren't as memorable, but he does keep the film upbeat and light.  The action sequences are still laughably absurd, but done in a showier manner.  These are things that might turn off a loyal Road House viewer, because the authentic Road House experience will always be the original.  But I feel there is also a sect of Road House lovers who will accept that the original lives in the 80's, while this is pretty much what the modern Road House can and should be.  I did feel like I went through the Road House wringer during this movie, which leads me to believe it's a success.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

The American Society of Magical Negroes ⭐️⭐️1/2

Arthur the King ⭐️⭐️

The Boy and the Heron ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Cabrini ⭐⭐

Dune:  Part Two ⭐⭐1/2

Imaginary ⭐1/2

Kung Fu Panda 4 ⭐⭐1/2

Love Lies Bleeding ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Luca ⭐️⭐️⭐️

New To Digital

Bob Marley:  One Love ⭐⭐1/2

Land of Bad ⭐⭐1/2

Coming Soon!