Multiplex Madness
Fear
⭐
Genre: Horror
Director: Deon Taylor
Starring: Joseph Sikora, Andrew Bachelor, Annie Ilonzeh, Ruby Modine, Iddo Goldberg, Terence Jenkins, Jessica Alain, Tip "T.I." Harris
It's cliché to say that the best part of a bad movie are the credits, but in this case the opening credits are legitimately hardcore and the rest of it is really bad. The movie is a bit of a riff on The Haunting and The House on Haunted Hill, seeing a group gathering at a lodge only to find supernatural shenanigans afoot. Fear was filmed during the pandemic and partially takes Covid inspiration into the story, though not in a way that really infuses the plot with any inspiration. Rather it's used as a flimsy excuse to keep the group locked up in the haunted house instead of, ya know, leaving. It only loses what little logic it has from there, as characters start behaving oddly without much reason to their actions. The film wants to be a take on how paranoia affects us when it shouldn't, but it just never works up a screenplay to back it up. Direction is low level "person turns around, soundtrack shrieks" shocks, while half the actors feel miscast. It's a film where almost nothing about it snaps into place.
Infinity Pool
⭐⭐1/2
Genre: Science Fiction, Horror
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth, Cleopatra Coleman
Fans of the Cronenberg family tradition of making art out of the fucked up will find Infinity Pool giving them what they want. The film revolves around a group of tourists who go on vacations to commit crimes and watch clones of themselves get executed for them. The movie has a lot of thought put into its style, which is a film that wants to depict an out of control addiction to get away from a life under-fulfilled. You really need to ride this movie's wave of style and vibes to be fully invested, because if they want me to believe that cloning technology exists only for the very specific use of letting people get out of execution...yeah, I'm not there. Still, fans of Mia Goth will love her here, because she's in top form.
Maybe I Do
⭐
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Director: Michael Jacobs
Starring: Richard Gere, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, William H. Macy, Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey
Made primarily for people who miss 90's romcoms starring Richard Gere, the most enjoyable moment of the movie for me was reading Emma Roberts' name in the cast list because I hadn't seen her in a movie in a while. Granted, I haven't seen Richard Gere in a movie in a while either, but he had a rich career, while Emma Roberts had Scream 4 and We're the Millers, and she was awesome in both then just vanished. The movie is very obviously based on a stage play, as everyone has very bold and large dialogue that is designed to play up to an in-theater audience for a reaction. The movie thinks it's a daring analysis on aging, sex, and marriage, but in reality it's a bunch of sitcom tropes colliding into a film that's pandering to a non-existant laugh track. Susan Sarandon seems game to elevate the material, and everyone lets their romcom spirit out for the awkward situation third act even if they're coasting on a lackluster screenplay. It's a stale waste of a good cast, and that's a shame.
Art Attack
Living
⭐⭐⭐1/2
Oscars Nominated: Best Actor - Bill Nighy, Best Adapted Screenplay - Kazuo Ishiguro
Genre: Drama
Director: Oliver Hermanus
Starring: Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke
Based on one of Akira Kurosawa's best films, Ikiru, Living sees Bill Nighy take on Takashi Shimura's legendary role of a bureaucrat who lives a dull life who learns he has a few months to live and decides to learn from those around him how to live life to its fullest. Nighy plays the role with such dry grace that he seems to have been the perfect choice to take on this character's legacy, while Aimee Lou Wood charms as his bubbly companion. Fans of Ikiru will be pleased to know the story and themes of life are largely intact, just about a half-hour shorter and in English. It's a more efficient film than Ikiru, however Ikiru's longer runtime allowed it to feel more contemplative. Living is a good crack at the bat, nevertheless.
Netflix & Chill
The Lair
⭐⭐
Streaming On: Shudder
Genre: Horror, Action
Director: Neil Marshall
Starring: Charlotte Kirk, Jamie Bamber, Jonathan Howard
This new movie by Neil Marshall sees him return to his Dog Soldiers roots, as he creates a brand new low budget soldiers vs. monsters flick, but I don't see this one making the cult waves his debut did. Co-written and starring his wife Charlotte Kirk, The Lair sees her as a soldier shot down in Afghanistan and hiding out from the enemy in an old Russian facility, which she soon finds houses mutated beasts that she accidentally frees. The movie has the energy of a fun romp, but none of the excitement. The action choreography is stiff while practically everyone is a cartoon character, including Battlestar Galactica star Jamie Bamber, who is doing the most absurd Matthew McConaughey impression you'll ever hear. It seems a little disingenuous to say that the movie didn't have potential to be campy fun, and it's arguably a more promising turn for Marshall's career than that Hellboy reboot from a few years back, but it also seems like a long stretch from the promise he showed with films like The Descent.
Shotgun Wedding
⭐⭐
Streaming On: Prime
Genre: Comedy, Action
Director: Jason Moore
Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Coolidge, Cheech Marin, Lenny Kravitz
Goofy action/comedy sees JLo and Josh Duhamel as a couple on their wedding day too busy arguing to notice that their wedding guests have been taken hostage by pirates. Shenanigans ensue, seeing the couple becoming reluctant action heroes. Fun concept of "Die Hard at a Wedding" doesn't always pan out due to the script's uneven comedic stabs, often feeling too zany and screwball to take advantage of the film's R rating. The movie feels too stale and tiresome until the main plot is in play, but starts becoming more evenly amusing as it goes on. That's mostly because the film's slapstick comedy is much funnier than its verbal comedy, so it starts to spring to life during its silly action scenes. It's just too bad it can't find a way to make it's non-event scenes less annoying.
You People
⭐⭐1/2
Streaming On: Netflix
Genre: Comedy
Director: Kenya Barris
Starring: Jonah Hill, Lauren London, Eddie Murphy, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Nia Long, David Duchovny
In case what you wondered what Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? would be like with different kinds of racial tension, here is You People. This movie is less about a family's reluctant acceptance of a child's mixed race relationship and more about two families from different cultures intermingling with messy results. You People doesn't have a lot fresh to say about racial relation, but it's an enjoyable comedic package with a great cast to sell it. It's cuter than I thought it would be and it does have interesting insight to its points, even if I found it's laughs a little dry for my taste. But if you have a Netflix account and just want something funny for the weekend, you could do worse.
Oscar's Trash Can
For Oscar nominated movies that passed me by that I'm catching up on.
All Quiet on the Western Front
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Oscars Nominated: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay - Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell, Best International Feature Film, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Make-Up and Hairstyling, Best Visual Effects
Genre: War, Drama
Director: Edward Berger
Starring: Felix Krammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Daniel Brühl
The latest adaptation of the famous German anti-war novel actually has the bragging rights of actually have been made in Germany with real Germans and everything. All Quiet on the Western Front is chillingly effective, warning of propaganda, glorifying military, and contrasting it with brutal reality. The film features some of the more harrowing war sequences I've ever seen, littered with chaotic violence, featuring teenage protagonists running around scared and almost lucking their way into survival. It's a hauntingly violent work that advocates for peace and rejects the idea of using the naive and young for other's glory. And now nearly a century after the original adaptation took home Best Picture in 1930, this new take seems poised for Oscar gold as well. I'm curious to see how far it goes.
Turning Red
⭐⭐⭐
Oscars Nominated: Best Animated Feature Film
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Director: Domee Shi
Starring: Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho, Tristan Allerick Chen, James Hong
It's rare that a Pixar movie makes it past me, but Disney's post-pandemic (panda-demic?) streaming dumps make me less than enthusiastic about keeping up with them. I knew very little about Turning Red other than seeing a trailer once, knowing it was supposed to be a metaphor for puberty, and that people either seemed to really love it or really hate it. Finally sitting down to watch it as it got nominated for Best Animated Feature, it's good. Calling it a metaphor for puberty is accurate, but a little overly simplistic. It's a metaphor for a lot of things in early teenagehood, from puberty to shifting relationships with family and friends. There are a few points where I feel its metaphor and it premise run in opposite directions, but it always finds a way to snap back and become a whole. If nothing else, Turning Red features charming animation and is an impressive feature debut for Domee Shi, who feels like she has a promising career in front of her. She laces this movie with such an exuberant stylized depiction of the strong emotional bursts that teenagers have while also taking influence from the popular animation styles of the time period portrayed. It's fun, smart, energetic, and lively, and worth a watch.
Oscar Nominees (bold indicates Best Picture nominee)
Afterson N/A
All That Breathes N/A
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed N/A
All Quiet on the Western Front ⭐⭐⭐⭐Argentina, 1985 N/A
Avatar: The Way of Water ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Babylon ⭐⭐
The Banshees of Inisherin ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths N/A
The Batman ⭐⭐⭐
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Blonde N/A
Causeway N/A
Close N/A
Elvis ⭐⭐⭐1/2
EO ⭐⭐⭐
Everything Everywhere All at Once ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Fabelmans ⭐⭐⭐
Fire of Love N/A
Glass Onion ⭐⭐⭐1/2
A House Made of Splinters N/A
Living ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On N/A
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris ⭐⭐⭐
Navalny N/A
Pinocchio ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish ⭐⭐⭐1/2
The Quiet Girl N/A
RRR N/A
The Sea Beast N/A
Tár ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Tell It Like a Woman N/A
To Leslie N/A
Top Gun: Maverick ⭐⭐⭐
Triangle of Sadness N/A
Turning Red ⭐⭐⭐
The Whale ⭐⭐⭐
Women Talking ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Avatar: The Way of Water ⭐⭐⭐1/2
The Banshees of Inisherin ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Elvis ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Everything Everywhere All at Once ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Fabelmans ⭐⭐⭐
House Party ⭐⭐
I Wanna Dance with Somebody ⭐⭐1/2
M3GAN ⭐⭐⭐
Missing ⭐⭐⭐
Plane ⭐⭐1/2
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Tár ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Skinamarink ⭐⭐
The Whale ⭐⭐⭐
Women Talking ⭐⭐⭐1/2
New To Streaming
The Fabelmans ⭐⭐⭐
New To Physical
Violent Night ⭐⭐⭐
Coming Soon!
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