MST3K, RiffTrax, and Beyond: Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 3 (My Cinema Playground)

Art Attack

The Son

⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Drama

Director: Florian Zeller

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins

Interestingly after getting out of The Son I found out that it was a companion film to The Father, a film that has been on my watch list for a few years now but haven't gotten around to yet. Anthony Hopkins even reprises his role from that film here, albeit briefly. While I can't say anything about how The Son compares to The Father at this time, what I can say is that The Son does stand on its own two legs fairly sturdily as a look at family ties and dealing with depression. The story revolves around a divorced couple trying to cope with their son, who has become more secluded and depressed in his teenage years as they struggle to understand it or even identify the source. Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern do good work here. Jackman might even be shooting for an Oscar, but the film itself might not stick out against its competition. Part of this has to do with the film's script, as it handles complicated and fragile problems with care, but can't help but be a little clumsy, especially in its ending. It can be overbearing, but it's hard to deny it's effective in the best of moments.

Women Talking

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre: Drama

Director: Sarah Polley

Starring: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Wishaw, Frances McDormand

The title Women Talking is very much a literal, because the entire premise of the film is women talking in a barn. It's very 12 Angry Men, just with far angrier women. Women Talking has a lot to do with oppression, repression, trauma, love, forgiveness, and what it means to forgive, as it tells of a self-sustaining farming community isolated from the rest of the world who have had their women assaulted both physically and sexually for years, and the women discuss options on whether to leave the colony. The movie's dialogue is very weighted, not only because it's discussing heavy subjects, but rather because everyone if the film has large amounts of dialogue to spill. Everyone has at least one monologue that sounds more than a little rehearsed as they seem to be counting the minutes until its time to deliver it. The movie has a basic stage play structure, as if everyone is on their marks and waiting for their turn to speak. The film almost feels like a stumble because of this, but the subject of the film hits hard enough to overcome it. It's a film that is made with passion, by both the filmmakers and the actors, and that passion helps it shine.

Netflix & Chill

Sick

⭐⭐

Streaming On: Peacock

Genre: Horror

Director: John Hyams

Starring: Gideon Adlon, Beth Million, Dillon Sprayberry, Joel Courtney, Marc Menchaca, Jane Adams

Sick was co-penned by Kevin Williamson, best known as the man who turned the slasher genre on its head during the 90's and made it hot again. The flick starts out familiar to his best known films, with killers sending messages to their victims in the vein of "Do you like scary movies?" and "I know what you did last summer." From there it turns into a pretty standard slash and chase, using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to keep its characters isolated. An issue arises when it becomes clear that our cast is so small that there is no way that the killer can be someone we've met before, leading us to prepare for a random reveal that may or may not have little to nothing to do with the events that precede. But while the reveal works okay enough, the issue becomes that the whole scenario presents a rather backwards message that the people who take Covid seriously are the crazy ones and the people who thoughtlessly spread it around are the true victims. I'm assuming this is unintentional, but it's pretty fucked. And as someone who has lost family to the virus, I did not gel with that. Ignoring that, the film is tightly directed by Alone director John Hyams, has decent suspense sequences, and doesn't wear out its welcome at a brisk eighty minutes. Horror fans looking for a light hack 'n' slash will find this of interest, but I can't fully promise that it's a memorable experience.

Sorry About the Demon

⭐1/2

Streaming On: Shudder

Genre: Comedy, Horror

Director: Emily Hagins

Starring: Presley Allard, Paige Evans, Kristen MacCulloch, Jon Michael Simpson, Olivia Ducayen, Lucy Banner

Sorry About the Demon is a comedy about a guy who was recently dumped and moves into a haunted house while he tries to figure his life out. As the demon who resides inside rejects him and tries to make him leave, he finds himself with nowhere to go and just puts up with it. Focusing on the positives, the idea behind this movie is really funny. I love a lot of the scenes in concept, like the demon trying to spook our protagonist in traditionally creepy ways only to have him vent his frustrations out on it while half-acknowledging it's efforts. The movie trips over its script way too often to ignore, as the comedy is too bright and peppy, presumably to contrast the sinister goings on. This approach has limited appeal unless you're a Halloween special on the Disney Channel targeting tweens, so unless you're a ten-year-old and with a Shudder account, it's hard to recommend. Sorry About the Demon may have been better off leaning into something more aggressive, both with its comedy and its horror, so the two could merge cozier than they do in this product. Director Emily Hagins directed one of the more amusing segments in the comedic horror anthology Scare Package, which makes it more surprising that this full length offering drowns as thoroughly as it does. I can't really justify sitting through a hundred minutes of this movie when you can get less cringe paranormal comedy in a half hour by watching Ghosts on CBS.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Avatar: The Way of Water ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ⭐⭐⭐1/2

The Devil Conspiracy ⭐⭐

The Fabelmans ⭐⭐⭐

House Party ⭐⭐

I Wanna Dance with Somebody ⭐⭐1/2

M3GAN ⭐⭐⭐

A Man Called Otto ⭐⭐⭐

Missing ⭐⭐⭐

Plane ⭐⭐1/2

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish ⭐⭐⭐1/2