Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 17 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margaret.

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Comedy, Drama

Director:  Kelly Freman Craig

Starring:  Abby Ryder Forston, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Benny Safdie, Elle Graham

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret has been advertising itself with "Introducing: Abby Ryder Forston" as the title character, which is a bald-faced lie.  Abby Ryder Forston has been in movies for a while now, specifically playing the memorable role of Cassie in the first two Ant-Man movies.  This is probably her first starring role, however, and she definitely deserved one.  The one she received is based on a classic novel about a young girl named Margaret making her way through sixth grade, working through puberty and intently anticipating her looming adolescence.  The film's fidelity to its source is something I can't comment on, because the novel was novel was not a staple in my childhood as it seems to be for most, but the film itself is charming enough to stand on its own two feet.  It's an encompassing look back at an awkward period when you're on the cusp of that young adulthood where everything changes.  The film, like the novel itself, primarily deals with the growing issues of girls becoming women, though I found a lot of its walk-through-life story universal, as Margaret deals with growing up, learning more about the opposite sex, discovering who the people around her are as she goes, and ponders her placement and her life beliefs.  The film feels a bit laggy as it sometimes panders to a sitcom nature, but it's not hard to glance over to just enjoy Margaret's little tale of who she's growing into.

Big George Foreman

⭐⭐

Genre:  Drama, Sports

Director:  George Tillman Jr.

Starring:  Khris Davis, Forest Whitaker, Jasmine Mathews, John Magaro, Sullivan Jones, Lawrence Gillard Jr., Sonya Sohn

Nearly decided to skip this one.  Word on the street said it wasn't very good and I wasn't too interested in it.  This also came in an afternoon where I had to scrap some showtimes due to bad traffic (my arthouse watch of Showing Up, which I'll hopefully have time for next week, was already in the trash can this week), and my Regal had a last minute addition to their showtimes with low budget shark movie called The Black Demon.  I mean, SHARK MOVIE!  With a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes!  How can you tempt me with such beauty?  I could have just crossed this showtime out and seen that instead, because it sounded more appealing.  Plus after Sweetwater, I think I've had my fill of lackluster sports biopics.  But I stuck with the original plan and saw Big George Foreman, which is thankfully a better movie than Sweetwater.  Sweetwater was flooded with bad storytelling judgment calls that just choked the life out of the story it was trying to tell.  Big George Foreman has different vices, but it feels more honestly presented than Sweetwater.  Undemanding sports fans may enjoy this abridged tale of the Heavyweight Champion, but it's one of those movies that's so into its own rhythm that it can't tell how jumpy it is.  The movie jumps through Foreman's life so heavily and casually that it's hard to invest in where Foreman is at any given moment because he's constantly doing something different every five minutes.  It is also deep into melodramatics, but while it's annoying, it's far from its worst problem.  Maybe I'm just disappointed there wasn't an entire segment of him doing George Foreman Grill infomercials.

Polite Society

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Comedy, Action

Director:  Nida Manzoor

Starring:  Priya Kansara, Ritu Arya, Nimrah Bucha, Akshay Khanna, Seraphina Beh, Ella Bruccoleri, Shona Babayemi

The sensation of being the hero of your own story fuels Polite Society, which is the story of a high school girl who does everything in her power to stop her sister from getting married.  The catch of the film is that it's presented like a youthful good vs. evil fantasy, with action, conspiracies, and villains and everything.  It's a film made for those who remember that exuberance of a time when you're nothing but piss and vinegar, and used it to build a dream in their head of how they're going to take on the world and show it who's boss.  The film lifts off primarily because of its manic Edgar Wright style energy, specifically films like Hot Fuzz, The World's End, and a dash of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but while the film is Wright in flavor, debut director Nida Manzoor makes her own dish in this deliciously entertaining comedy.

Netflix & Chill

Peter Pan and Wendy

⭐⭐⭐

Streaming On:  Disney+

Genre:  Fantasy, Adventure

Director:  David Lowrey

Starring:  Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, Jude Law, Yara Shahidi, Joshua Pickering, Jacobi Jupe, Jim Gaffigan, Alan Tudyk, Molly Parker

It's admittedly been a red hot minute since I've seen Disney's Peter Pan movie (Hook is probably fresher in my memory), which I recall enjoying while a lad, but it was never a favorite.  But after the last decade of being pummelled by Disney's live-action remakes, I can safely say Peter Pan & Wendy is one of the better ones.  It's a status that can be achieved by attaining the bare minimum of the "Sure, it's fine, I guess." sort of reactions, but it is a legitimately good movie.  Sadly, the worst of these always seem to be the ones that do well at the box office, thank you very much Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King (I enjoyed Guy Ritchie's Aladdin movie, though), so this one was dumped on Disney+.  This film was made by David Lowery, who also directed the remake of Pete's Dragon earlier in his career, which I haven't seen but heard was actually surprisingly great.  Since then he's been making more arty fare, like his previous film, The Green Knight, which is one of the best looking movies I've ever seen that I just did not give a single shit about while watching.  But at least the man knows how to make a handsome production, and Peter Pan & Wendy is handsome, lavish, and breathtaking from a production standpoint.  Probably easily the best-looking streaming film you'll watch this year.  If there is one thing holding it back, and I hope you'll forgive me for nitpicking a child actor, it would be Alexander Molony as Peter Pan.  Peter is a tricky character to play, because he needs to an extent be smarmy and insufferable, but not unlikeable.  Molony reels in Peter's attitude to keep him from becoming an asshat, but while he's delivering Pan's brazenness, it's without flair.  He is supported well by his other cast members, though.  Wendy is played charismatically by Ever Anderson, the daughter of Milla Jovavich and her husband/Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson.  After a few supporting roles over the years (including Resident Evil:  The Final Chapter with mommy and daddy), this is her first starring role and she carries the film splendedly.  Yara Shahidi is a delight as Tinkerbell and Jude Law is an excellent antagonist as Hook.  The movie does so much so well, but Peter himself is a letdown.  The result is a movie that isn't always high flying, but does one thing most of these live-action remakes forget to do:  it reminds us how we felt watching our favorite Disney movies when we were kids.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Air ⭐⭐⭐

Beau is Afraid ⭐⭐⭐

Chevalier ⭐⭐⭐1/2

The Covenant ⭐⭐⭐

Dungeons & Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Evil Dead Rise ⭐⭐⭐

John Wick:  Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nefarious ⭐

The Pope's Exorcist ⭐⭐1/2

Renfield ⭐⭐⭐

Sisu ⭐⭐⭐

Somewhere in Queens ⭐⭐⭐

Star Wars:  Episode VI - Return of the Jedi ⭐⭐1/2

The Super Mario Bros. Movie ⭐⭐1/2

New To Streaming

The Magic Flute ⭐⭐

Return to Seoul ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Scream VI ⭐⭐1/2

New To Physical

Triangle of Sadness ⭐⭐⭐

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 16 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Beau is Afraid

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Thriller, Drama, Comedy

Director:  Ari Aster

Starring:  Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Parker Posey

We all know better than to expect the conventional when you walk into an Ari Aster movie.  I'm accepting of this, but I might also have to accept that he doesn't have another Hereditary in him.  He'll try.  He'll make his movies bigger and more intricate.  Load them with more metaphors and imagery, but they won't be that lightning in a bottle.  Beau is Afraid is his most surreal film to date, as Joaquin Phoenix plays a neurotic man who learns that his mother is dead and makes the journey to her wake, which is more dreamlike and nightmarish than it would be for normal people.  Beau is Afraid feels like a metaphor for anxiety, that unrelenting feeling that the world is out to get you and what it probably would look like if you were right.  Everything in this movie is an exaggerated attack on Phoenix, and its unrelenting.  Even when things are calm, something is amiss, preventing his personal peace.  I think the film is interesting, but like Aster's previous film, Midsommar, it does feel like a long journey on the same road, becoming a monotonous drone along the way.  I think it's a more engaging film than Midsommar, but I will admit Midsommar had a better destination, which would probably make it the more investing film for some.  Meanwhile, Beau is Afraid is just as much an abstract piece that just ends when it feels like it.

Chevalier

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Stephen Williams

Starring:  Kelvin Harrison Jr., Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton, Marton Csokas, Alex Fitzalan, Minnie Driver

Based on the life of barrier-breaking composer Joseph Bologne and how he rose to prominence leading up to the French Revolution, Chevalier aims to make a movie as large as his talent and accomplishments.  The film will be of primary interest to history buffs and classical music fans, though it might be a bit too flavorful for traditionalists.  It aims to have more attitude and sex appeal than that, emphasizing Bologne's challenging personality, pushing the limits as a Black man inhabiting a racist elite culture.  This manifests in duels of music and opera, pushing an energy to a biopic that might feel like an anachronism of modern snark.  What makes it work is that sort of attitude likely honors the type of man he was perceived as being at the time.

The Covenant

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Drama, Thriller

Director:  Guy Ritchie

Starring:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this military film by Guy Ritchie, as Gyllenhaal plays a soldier in Afghanistan who forms a bond with his interpretor through their mutual survival on the run from the Taliban.  The Covenant might appeal solely to those who gravitate toward militaristic movies, but it's a very tight and investing one about life debts and heroism.  Gyllenhaal is great, and so is his co-star Dar Salim.  The film shines a light on the people of Afghanistan who risked their lives in standing up to the Taliban, even when there was little paid in return.  Some of its systematic critique is heavy in this regard, though in other areas it seems soft on the occupation in general.  But I suppose that's not the story it's telling, choosing instead to be about a couple of men stuck in a shitshow trying to do what they need to do and not die doing it.  Sometimes Ritchie's strokes as a filmmaker are broader than he needs to tell this story, but he tells it affectively.

Evil Dead Rise

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Lee Cronin

Starring:  Alyssa Sutherland, Lily Sullivan, Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, Nell Fisher

Warning:  Occupants of theater may get bloodsoaked.  Chainsaws, boomsticks, and so much gory chaos, that can only mean Evil Dead is back in cinemas.  Following the classic original trilogy, the balls-to-the-wall remake, and the hilarious TV series, Evil Dead Rise brings the satanic spirits of the Necronomicon to the big city, where another Book of the Dead has been uncovered and infects the occupants of an apartment complex.  The fear of a new Evil Dead production is always the question of if it can maintain that manic energy without the deft hand of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell's meatheaded protagonist.  Fede Álvarez's remake took a leap in proving it can be done, though it being stigmatized as a remake of something as distinctly personal as Sam Raimi's indie darling of tenacity always seemed to dangling over it.  People are starting to come around on that movie, which is good, because it goes hard.  Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise is more of a reboot/non-specified sequel, taking the lore of Evil Dead and trying to make something new, but also familiar.  Despite some promising ideas, the mesh between the two doesn't always work.  I don't want to say Evil Dead Rise is restrained (if anything, Army of Darkness is the restrained Evil Dead movie), but it doesn't have the grit and rawness of the best Evil Dead movies.  It probably couldn't go full metal because of studio restrictions (there's a reason those first two independent movies are unrated), but I feel like it probably could have worked a bit more to keep its momentum moving, as it comes alive in small bursts.  Sometimes with inspiration (there are several excellent sequences that play out through a peephole) and sometimes with nostalgia, to mixed effect (the recycling of Evil Dead II's eyeball gag is neutered and ineffective).  What makes this movie really come alive is a killer performance by Alyssa Sutherland as the main antagonist and an absolutely ballistic third act.  It's not enough to save it from being the least of the Evil Dead movies, but when you consider the pedigree that came before it, just being an Evil Dead movie should be enough.  If nothing else, it's just the series wanting to prove it can break free of Raimi and Campbell for eternal franchise potential.  There's enough here to be optimistic about that.

Sisu

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Action

Director:  Jalmari Helander

Starring:  Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan, Mimosa Willamo

The latest Regal Mystery Movie had more walkouts than any other.  I don't think many people expected to see that many heads explode that night.  I mean, most of these movies are comedies, while this one was an action flick with a slightly cynical flair about a guy who will stab you in the face.  Sisu is very much in the tradition of films like John Wick, Nobody, and Don't Breathe in that its main hook is that it's about a character who you'd assume is a pushover, but is secretly the most hardcore motherfucker on the planet.  The film takes place in 1944 Finland, where an old man has just struck gold, but finds his claim jumped by Nazis.  Cue him killing them all, because he's a legendary Finnish soldier who doesn't know how to die.  The film is largely a realized pulp comic book, presented in segments that could be issues you pick up each month. Some might find it too narratively wanting, but a cult will look forward to each part because its their favorite thing ever.  I found it a bit too reliant on the main character having luck or the villains just being cartoonishly stupid, but if you're into revenge fantasy, it's hard to argue with a film that's only ambition is to kill Nazis as brutally as possible.

Somewhere in Queens

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Drama, Comedy

Director:  Ray Romano

Starring:  Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Sebastian Maniscalco, Sadie Stanley

The directorial debut of Ray Romano is a family dramedy of a family in Queens raising a son with esteem issues, has just broken up with his girlfriend, and finds it affecting his chance at a college scholarship.  Romano plays the father, who tries to push his boy through some questionable means, but means well in doing it.  Laurie Metcalf puts on her best Italian-American accent to play the mother, and is at her henpecking finest.  The film doesn't have anything too spectacular or memorable in its tank, but it prefers to live in the moment, showing off performers doing true-to-life and funny work.  It's a good relaxing watch.

Netflix & Chill

Ghosted

⭐⭐

Streaming On:  AppleTV

Genre:  Action, Comedy

Director:  Dexter Fletcher

Starring:  Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Adrien Brody

Cute, but underscripted, action vehicle has Chris Evans finding himself ghosted by Ana de Armas after a date that he thought went well, and in his attempt to find out why she won't return his calls finds out she's actually a CIA super-spy.  Think of it as Second Date True Lies.  Ghosted will be a fun watch for action film viewers, while the romantic tension between Evans and De Armas will provide enough amusement for couples looking for a fun date night flick.  It falls limp in several areas to make it a full recommend, because while it's serviceable, it's not the whole package.  I understand why you would want Evans and De Armas headlining this movie, as they're two attractive actors who are probably at their "in demand" height (De Armas is even fresh off an Oscar nomination).  However, they both feel miscast for this particular movie.  Evans is a bit too studly to pull off the whimpering boyfriend who hates violence that he has to play throughout most of the movie, and while it's true that he has to have a convincing turn into action hero toward the end, he just always looks like an action hero.  De Armas works well as a spy queen girlboss, but she's a bit too stern of an actress to pull off her bickering banter with Evans for maximum comedic effect.  It doesn't really help that the script is more anemic than it should be, feeling like it hasn't oiled out all of its kinks.  Evans' character is even required to take several problematic actions for the film to move its plot forward, and how this movie got to the screen without calling some of them out is a bit of a mystery.  That being said, I probably had more fun watching this movie than I should have.  It's breezy, has good action, and I enjoyed a lot of the needless but funny cameos (some of which are notable if you're familiar with Chris Evans' Marvel career).  If this were on my TV again for whatever reason, I wouldn't change the channel.

Living with Chucky

⭐⭐⭐

Streaming On:  Various

Genre:  Documentary

Director:  Kyra Gardner

Starring:  Brad Dourif, Fiona Dourif, Don Mancini, David Kirschner, Jennifer Tilly, Alex Vincent, Christine Elise, Billy Boyd, Tony Gardner, Kyra Gardner

My internet took a dump this week, which gutted my streaming plans (mostly).  Luckily I had received this documentary on Blu-ray, which helped fill that void.  It was also fun to have two new projects to look forward to this week in two of my favorite comedy-adjacent horror franchises:  Evil Dead and Child's Play.  Living with Chucky is a documentary on the latter, obviously.  Made by Kyra Gardner, the daughter of Tony Gardner, who has been the puppet designer for the Chucky movies since 2004 (aside from the 2019 remake film), Gardner makes a film that masks itself as a documentary about the Child's Play legacy and switches gears to tell a story about family bonds.  This is an interesting take for this particular series, because one of the things that makes Chucky appealing as a horror creation is that he was a massive horror gateway character to children of the late-80's and early-90's, because a lot of kids were frightened and oddly fascinated by the idea that a toy could spring to life and try to kill you.  The first three Child's Play movies were certainly one of things that opened my doorway into the genre, and because of that they'll always have a special place in my heart.  A lot of us grew up with Chucky, so to speak, and the film's hypothesis may extend to us, because Gardner is just like us, and it almost makes us part of one weird family.  She devotes a lot of time to Chucky voice actor Brad Dourif, and his daughter Fiona, who was only a little girl when the original Child's Play was released and would eventually play Nica in Curse of Chucky, Cult of Chucky, and the Chucky TV series, and there is talk about her coming in and inheriting this legacy that she gets to share with her father.  Gardner, herself, gets on-camera as well, talking about her relationship with her father throughout his time on the movies, dating back to when she was a little girl and saw the dolls decapitate him in his cameo in Seed of Chucky, recalling how upset it made her.  Also discussed is the "Chucky family," as most of the crew that works on each film is largely the same, talking about them as an adopted family of their own.  I feel I would have appreciated this documentary more if it had decided to deep dive into its family aspects more.  There have been many documentaries on the making of Chucky films, and Living with Chucky spends a little over an hour covering the productions as quickly as it can with tidbits we've heard before, before switching gears for more intimate talk that lasts the remaining half hour.  It feels like it should side with one or the other, because both feel like they're are getting shortchanged.  On the film-side, Child's Play 3 is practically tossed to the side while the remake isn't discussed at all (it was a different production crew, but maybe talk on how everyone felt about it might have been welcome).  The TV series is briefly discussed, but this documentary was primarily filmed before it went into production, so there wasn't really anything to say.  But if this is the family story that Gardner presents it to be, the theme should be spread more evenly.  I understand what Gardner is doing, because she's going through the films one at a time about this production family building as new members come and go, then surprising you by showing you just what the movie is really about two-thirds in, but everything feels lopsided.  It might have been more interesting to see her interject at the beginning of the film to tell her story of seeing her father decapitated by Chucky, and then see her work her way through this family of killer doll movie makers coming together with her as a narrator.  I think that would have made for a great hook and helped spread the documentary's message of the love behind these murder movies.  But it's a solid look at this often overlooked series that does successfully shed a new light on them, and for that I give her kudos.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Air ⭐⭐⭐

Ant-Man and the Wasp:  Quantumania ⭐⭐⭐

Avatar:  The Way of Water ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Creed III ⭐⭐⭐

Dungeons & Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves ⭐⭐⭐1/2

John Wick:  Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

How to Blow Up a Pipeline ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Mafia Mamma ⭐⭐1/2

Nefarious ⭐

The Pope's Exorcist ⭐⭐1/2

Renfield ⭐⭐⭐

The Super Mario Bros. Movie ⭐⭐1/2

New To Streaming

65 ⭐⭐

Ant-Man and the Wasp:  Quantumania ⭐⭐⭐

Marlowe ⭐⭐

A Thousand and One ⭐⭐⭐1/2

New To Physical

Cocaine Bear ⭐⭐⭐

Kids vs. Aliens ⭐⭐

Living with Chucky ⭐⭐⭐

Magic Mike's Last Dance ⭐⭐1/2

Marlowe ⭐⭐

Maybe I Do ⭐

The Son ⭐⭐⭐

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 15 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Nefarious

⭐

Genre:  Faith, Horror, Thriller

Director:  Cary Solomon, Chuck Konzelman

Starring:  Sean Patrick Flanery, Jordon Belfi

I went into Nefarious under the impression it was a horror thriller, and I guess technically it is.  I suspected something was off about this assumption when I entered the theater and all the patrons were of a much older demographic, far above what you'd expect for a horror film.  Not that horror films can't appeal to the 60-plus crowd, but you would expect the youth demographic to be in that audience above others.  It becomes more clear as it plays out that Nefarious isn't just a horror film, it's one made by a religious group.  I'll give Nefarious this, it's a different direction from what most faith films go, and that's moderately refreshing.  It's not enough to come off as more than a haphazard "preach to the choir" movie, no matter how much they hope their horror element will scare the fear of the devil into their viewers.  Just having a horror underline to your film isn't enough to scare your audience.  Maybe it is to an audience that doesn't normally watch horror films, like the faith crowd likely wouldn't.  A horror film needs to hook, which could be simplistic violence or it could be atmosphere and scare tactics.  Nefarious goes for a low budget idea of two dudes talking around a table, one of which is an atheist and the other is supposedly possessed by a demon.  See, that's an idea.  But that's the only hook the movie has, because to pull this off, you need the script to back it up.  The film runs into the rabbit hole of being a discussion between a nonbeliever and the supernatural, while the demon looks at the atheist and is like "Lol, you stupid dummy face" and that's about it.  The script is a pondering bore, and the actors can't work it.  The atheist is a plank of wood, only existing to get pummelled by bible talk while presenting himself as a static idea of what the movie thinks a liberal talks like (It's adorable that the movie thinks being pro-choice means you wallow in frivolous abortions care-free).  The demon man is overacting to a comical level, mistaking facial twitching for intimidation, while his only job Satan seems to have given him is to "own the libs."  And it doesn't even address the central issue that this movie isn't a good representation of Christianity, as it's trying to sell it through fear-mongering with a fictional story that's based in the supernatural, which will sell Christianity to no one except people who have experienced a similar situation (which I'm assuming is very few members of its audience).  It's such a doofus attempt at crossing the genre streams, and it doesn't have the slightest idea of what to do with any of its elements except to just prattle on obnoxiously, even throwing its own dignity out by preaching intolerance along the way, both purposefully and accidentally.  It's the film equivalent of a far-right leaning Christian aggressively arguing with themselves and then claiming victory.  I mean, I could have seen that at home by watching Newsmax.

The Pope's Exorcist

⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Julius Avery

Starring:  Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Franco Nero

If there's one thing you can always count on, it's that Sony will always chase a trend.  If The Conjuring succeeds with its marketing sale of being based on the stories of actual paranormal researchers, they're going to want to get in on that pie.  And with a Vatican exorcist with books handy full of stories, there's something to invest in.  Like just about every exorcist movie ever made, from The Exorcism of Emily Rose to The Last Exorcism, it can and will be compared to The Exorcist, and for good reason.  The Pope's Exorcist shares more than a little in common with it, but it's larger and louder, lacking The Exorcist's boldness and intimacy.  The movie has one thing in its favor, and that is Russell Crowe's committed performance.  He is all-in on this motherfucker, even when it gets so ostentatious that it's more inclined to induce a laugh than a fright.  But if you wanted to see a version of The Exorcist that has umpteen times more explosions, this is the movie for you.

Renfield

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Comedy, Horror

Director:  Chris McKay

Starring:  Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, Shohreh Aghdashloo

A pure love for the quirky cycle of late-80's horror with hard rock soundtracks, tongue-in-cheek tones, comically gory make-up effects, and bold and colorful lighting choices is infused in Renfield, which forms a film around Dracula's long-time lackey.  Like Leigh Whannel's The Invisible Man, the film is primarily a metaphor for abusive relationships, depicting Renfield as a man who needs to leave his toxic counterpart and learn to love himself.  It's a different, more comedic approach than The Invisible Man, which probably slightly undercuts the trauma of such situations, but it's a fun approach to this iconic duo.  Horror fans who like their movies weird and gory will get the most out of this film, which is a barrage of silly humor and gooey violence.  It also stands a triumphant battle cry for the abused.

Sweetwater

⭐1/2

Genre:  Sports, Drama

Director:  Martin Guigui

Starring:  Everett Osborne, Kevin Pollak, Cary Elwes, Richard Dreyfuss, Jeremy Piven

Tolerance levels may vary on Sweetwater, which tells the true story of how Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton became the first Black player signed to the NBA.  It's an important, groundbreaking story, but it probably deserves a movie that's not aiming to be as saccharine as a TV biopic.  It doesn't seem to be targeted at people who will necessarily care that it favors using textbook plot devices that similar biopics have done many times before.  I'm not entirely sure that movies about African Americans in the 1950's need a run-in with a generic hick with a shotgun to establish racism hurdles of the time period anymore, but here we are.  The movie surrounding those "safely traditional" instances of racism feels sterile and scripted like 70's telepilot.  It's a movie about overcoming systematic racism that isn't really interested in honoring just what these achievements mean, as it weirdly celebrates the white men around Clifton more than Clifton himself.  It's a movie about a great Black man made for white people to collectively nod their heads at and think "Yeah, we did beat racism, didn't we?  You're welcome."  Some people are going to hate that, and I don't blame them.

Art Attack

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Thriller

Director:  Daniel Goldhaber

Starring:  Ariela Barer, Kristine Forseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary, Irene Bedard

Boy, this one is a whole can of worms, isn't it?  No matter what, certain audience members are going to bring their own political ideas into How to Blow Up a Pipeline, and they will judge it favorably or harshly based upon that.  Craftwise, it's an admirable film that is excellently put together, tense, well-acted, and with brilliant cinematography.  The film, like the book its influenced from, is an argument for eco-terrorism, as a group of young twenty-somethings decide to save the world by raising gas prices.  They could have just helped Putin invade Ukraine, but I guess blowing a pipeline was more convenient to them.  The movie's argument is flawed from the beginning, as one of the characters does mild acts of vandalism like slashing tires to spread fossil fuel emission awareness, while what she really did is bring out a tow truck before causing the inconvenience of a new tire purchase, which probably created far more emissions than she saved.  All she did was put out people a few hundred dollars who just need a ride to work.  But agreement isn't entirely the point of the movie, because the point of the movie is to make noise.  These are people without voices who are angry that the world won't listen, and the movie isn't necessarily asking you to agree with them, it just wants you to understand them.  They all have a tale to tell about how they got to that point, and taking the time to hear why they might turn to extreme measures might actually help such a cause.  But given how systematic the oil companies and fossil fuel is in the economy, the events of the film feel more like a dent than the uprising it presents itself to be.  It's just lucky it's so investing.  I don't think the philosophy of the film is entirely sound, but it certainly isn't uninteresting.

The Lost Weekend:  A Love Story

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Documentary

Director:  Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman, Stuart Samuels

Starring:  May Pang, John Lennon, Yoko Ono

Despite the title, The Lost Weekend is not a remake of the Best Picture winner by Billy Wilder.  Of all things, it's a Beatles-adjacent documentary.  Yay?  I don't know music and don't really care about the Beatles.  I've heard their music and I'm told it's brilliant and I'm like "Sure," but if you're looking to me to get passionate about anything them, that's probably not gonna happen.  The Lost Weekend is more of a relationship doc than a music doc, though, as May Pang guides us through her brief love affair with John Lennon while he was separated from Yoko Ono.  It's strength is that Pang is a very colorful storyteller, and her tales are vibrant and detailed, which makes this a documentary worth checking out for Beatles and Lennon enthusiasts.  If I were to slight it for anything it's that it's a very one-sided tale.  Everything we see is through Pang and mostly Pang alone (there are a few asides from Lennon's son, Julius).  But it's hard to reach for other takes on the situation as Lennon is no longer with us and Ono probably has no interest in talking about it.  I guess that makes The Lost Weekend about as good as it's going to get, and as a story of a woman telling a love story through her eyes, it's a solid watch.

Netflix & Chill

Kids vs. Aliens

⭐⭐

Streaming On:  Shudder

Genre:  Science Fiction, Horror, Comedy

Director:  Jason Eisener

Starring:  Dominic Marchie, Phoebe Rex, Calem MacDonald, Asher Grayson, Ben Tector

Weird, yet embracing of said weirdness, low-budget film sees a group of children trying to survive a hostile close encounter in their neighborhood.  The film feels stylized like if Troma tried to do their take on an Amblin film and whatever nuttiness might result from such a bizarre combo.  The film doesn't lack interest, especially for connoisseurs of trashy, microbudget 80's genre films, but it can't help but be a little grating with its sugar rush hyperactivity.  What it boils down to is that it's either a more grindhouse E.T. targeted at people who watch Joe Bob Briggs or it's just Stranger Things as interpreted by Jim Wynorski.  I think Kids vs. Aliens is such a unique goofball that it likely will find a slight cult following that thrives on its silliness.  It's probably deserved too.  I'd be lying if I said this didn't appeal to my inner-tween "watching nonsense on the Sci-Fi Channel" days, giving a nostalgic warmth to it.  Can't quite say it fully found a place in my heart, though.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

65 ⭐⭐

Air ⭐⭐⭐

Ant-Man and the Wasp:  Quantumania ⭐⭐⭐

Avatar:  The Way of Water ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Creed III ⭐⭐⭐

Dungeons & Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves ⭐⭐⭐1/2

John Wick:  Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Mafia Mamma ⭐⭐1/2

The Super Mario Bros. Movie ⭐⭐1/2

New To Streaming

Emily ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Fear ⭐

A Good Person ⭐⭐1/2

Jesus Revolution ⭐⭐1/2

Living ⭐⭐⭐1/2

One Fine Morning ⭐⭐⭐

New To Physical

Living ⭐⭐⭐1/2

One Fine Morning ⭐⭐⭐

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 14 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Air

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Ben Affleck

Starring:  Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, Chris Messina, Marlon Wayans

Nothing celebrates the greatness of one of the most legendary sports stars of all time more than making a movie devoted to the people who got rich off of him.  Hooray capitalism!  This movie, where Ben Affleck finally getting back on the directorial horse after his Batman movie fell through, is devoted to the men at Nike who risked their entire basketball line on courting (lol) then-rookie basketball player Michael Jordan as their sole endorsement deal in 1984.  Jordan doesn't have a very large role in this movie, mind you, as the movie mostly alludes to him off-screen and when he is involved in a scene is played by a stand-in from behind as the film hopes you feel his presence by the mere association of such an icon.  It doesn't quite work, but I'll give the film credit for side-stepping the risk of casting the role, which was likely going to wind up disappointing.  The rest of the movie is good actors giving jazzed up performances, and Matt Damon giving scripted speeches predicting just how great Jordan will be because the screenwriters have hindsight to pull from.  The movie's finale highlights something the rest of the movie isn't quite building up to and comes out of thin air, suddenly becoming an argument in favor of residual and percentage deals, of which the Air Jordan line was a huge president for.  The point the movie is making is well said and heard, but it's also something the movie doesn't quite bring up until it's inches from home plate, which causes the message to feel disconnected from the story that comes before it.  The movie is also a love letter to Jordan's mother (here played by the wonderful Viola Davis), who was a large part in brokering the deal, but this is also in that King Richard sort of way where the movie is more interested in what she wants that it sidesteps what Jordan himself wants.  In a way it's worse, because at least Venus and Serena Williams were characters in King Richard, even if they took a backseat to Richard himself.  But on the flip side, Air's not a film about Jordan but rather the people who bet their lifelines on him, so the approach can work out in its favor.

Mafia Mamma

⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Catherine Hardwicke

Starring:  Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci

This month's Regal Mystery Movie was yet another comedy (as almost all have been, with the exception of Missing), this one hailing from Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke.  It's a rather basic fish-out-of-water concept, where Toni Collette plays a bubbly American woman who finds her life starting to go down the drain, who then discovers she's inherited an Italian Mafia "family business" after her grandfather has passed away.  Shenanigans ensue.  It's goofy and light, and those looking for silly laughs will get them. Collette carries it with an amusingly aloof performance while Monica Bellucci works her sultry magic as her intense and passionate straight man.  The issue I found myself having with it is that it's largely aimless.  It's more of an episodic, "events happening" movie that are mostly unrelated, except they're all happening to Collette.  There isn't even a real reason why Collette's character inherits this Mafia Don title that she gets stuck with, other than it's her grandfather's wishes.  Why did he wish it and did he really think she could handle it?  Who knows.  The movie doesn't care about that, and is more concerned with injecting Collette into the action as fast as possible.  The movie also makes a habit of being the type of comedy that mugs for the camera and plays up its audience, instead of having a humorous rhythm and flow to it.  Not everybody will be down with that, but if you're watching a movie called Mafia Mamma then you made a conscious decision to watch a movie called Mafia Mamma and have no right to complain that you're watching a movie called Mafia Mamma (mystery advance screenings notwithstanding, that is).

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Fantasy, Adventure, Comedy

Director:  Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic

Starring:  Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen

One can't say Mario hasn't given it one hell of a go on the big screen.  They've made two movies, both with extremely opposite approaches to a cinematic take on "plumber steps on turtles to save princess."  The 1993 film was made back when movie studios had to look at the thing their kids were playing and guess what it might have been about, and say what you will about that movie, it most certainly is an interpretation.  This new animated movie has the benefit of thirty more years of Mario lore to pull from, a lot of which tell full stories.  The issue becomes that despite that, Mario's lore is still steeped in basic video game mechanics that are built so that children can understand them, and no matter what, translating those to a film narrative is a rough task.  This film hails from Illumination Studios, an animation company that's best known for its sense of humor than its creativity.  And sure enough, the Mario movie is funnier than it is creative.  Interestingly, the film translates a lot of Mario lore more literally than I expected it too, very earnestly.  Sometimes earnest to a fault, as it feels like a world tour of game references audiences will recognize masking that the movie is just random colors and noise.  That's doesn't make it a bad movie, just a really simple one that children will shine to, while parents who grew up on this stuff will think "Hey, I understand that reference!"  It's amusing and cute, which might disappoint some who were hoping it would achieve greatness.  But if you want the basic "plumber steps on turtles to save princess" experience, that's what you get.

Art Attack

The Quiet Girl

⭐⭐⭐

Oscars Nominated:  Best International Film

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Colm Bairéad

Starring:  Catherine Clinch, Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett

It took them long enough to get the last International Oscar nomination into my neck of the woods, but I'm just glad it got here.  The Quiet Girl is an Irish movie from an Oscar ceremony that had no shortage of Irish content, from the shut-out Best Picture favorite The Banshees of Inisherin to the winning short film An Irish Goodbye.  The film is about a shy girl from a broken family living in poverty who is sent to live with relatives over the summer, and seeing her adapt to a warmer and more loving environment.  The Quiet Girl is primarily a film about the surroundings a parent makes for their children, as the titular "Quiet Girl," Cáit, is a product of abuse, neglect, and passiveness, who finds herself in a situation where people both notice her and want her there.  Cáit spends a lot of time taking in her surroundings, not sure how she's supposed to react to certain things but opens up in slight ways through encouragement and bonding.  The Quiet Girl is an argument in favor of the bond between family being treasured and not taken for granted.

Netflix & Chill

Chupa

⭐⭐

Streaming On:  Netflix

Genre:  Fantasy

Director:  Jonás Cuarón

Starring:  Demián Bichir, Christian Slater, Evan Whitten, Ashley Ciarra, Nicholas Verdugo

Jonás Cuarón, son of acclaimed director Alfonso Cuarón, brings us his take on an E.T./Amblin throwback.  Chupa sees a 13-year-old boy visiting family in Mexico, only to discover his grandfather is harboring a baby chupacabra, a legendary beast of the region.  The kids befriend it, laughs are had, bad guys want the baby Chupa because reasons.  The film has very modest ambitions as a family film, but feels mostly intent on making a film of its type targeted at the Latino community over making a memorable film itself.  Unfortunately it's just not a strong enough example of its genre to stand on its own two feet.  Chupa is very stuck in broad tropes, doing what better movies have already done with little intent of finding its own rhythm.  It's too much of a copycat to achieve greatness, and its few points where it looks to find its own identity feel limp.  But if you ever thought E.T. needed a character who was a luchador, Chupa has you covered.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

65 ⭐⭐

Ant-Man and the Wasp:  Quantumania ⭐⭐⭐

Avatar:  The Way of Water ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Creed III ⭐⭐⭐

Dungeons & Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves ⭐⭐⭐1/2

John Wick:  Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Malum ⭐1/2

Paint ⭐⭐⭐

Shazam! Fury of the Gods ⭐⭐⭐1/2

A Thousand and One ⭐⭐⭐1/2

New To Digital

65 ⭐⭐

The Amazing Maurice ⭐⭐⭐

Inside ⭐⭐⭐

The Quiet Girl ⭐⭐⭐

Shazam! Fury of the Gods ⭐⭐⭐1/2

New To Physical

Aftersun ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 13 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Dungeons & Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Fantasy, Comedy, Adventure

Director:  Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley

Starring:  Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Regé-Jean Page, Hugh Grant, Daisy Head, Chloe Coleman

Dungeons & Dragons has a large stigma to overcome.  The RPG itself has been deemed "too nerdy" for mainstream for decades, but then again so were comic books and Star Trek, now both more widely embraced by the public than they've ever been.  It also has to live down a previous film from 2000, notoriously one of the most disastrous blockbusters in film history (and I wouldn't have it any other way. I love that steaming pile of crap).  But at first you don't succeed, try and try again.  Several decades later, D&D is back on the big screen, this time less self-serious but more attentive to making the lore work for film.  Made by the directors of Game Night, one of the best comedies of the last decade, this D&D movie sees that the strength of D&D is how tangible it is.  D&D isn't definitively one thing, if anything it's a loose concept designed for escapism or just goofing off.  Dungeons & Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves embraces that, providing a loose adventure taken seriously enough to be involved in, but not so serious that the characters aren't having a laugh living in this world.  A close comparison might be a Marvel movie, like Iron Man, as it's quippy and funny, and the action helps define it as an excellent ride.  Some sequences are even more impressive than you'd expect, especially a sequence that follows Sophia Lillis's shapeshifting character being chased in one take.  While the element of "fetch quests" might be too prevalent in the film, considering D&D's very core is about fetch quests, I think we should let it slide.  If anything, there's too many dungeons and not enough dragons.  But everyone involved in this movie is giving it their all in making a D&D film franchise a thing. And if this is D&D's last stand on the big screen, at least they went out screaming "LORD OF THE RINGS IS FOR PUSSIES!"

Malum

⭐1/2

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Anthony DiBlasi

Starring:  Jessica Sula

I didn't know this going in, but Malum is remake of Last Shift, which is a film I've never seen but have heard of, but was interested in hearing was made by the same director.  I'm pleased to say I have no comparison to hold back my opinion of this movie, so I can let it suck on its own merits.  Solid make-up work highlights this dim attempt at a psychological horror flick, which sees a rookie cop taking a shift at the all-but-abandoned old police station her father went on a rampage in, only to find lots of ghostly spookums.  The movie feels like it's taking influence from many haunted house movies throughout the years.  Sometimes it's trying to be The Haunting, then The Conjuring, then Ju-On, and sometimes it's doing its own thing.  I just wish it were good at any of it.  Malum seems to distinctly know what it wants to be, but there's a limit on how deep down a movie's own rabbit hole I'm willing to go before I toss my hands up and say "You know what, movie?  Do whatever.  I stopped caring a while ago."  The movie wants to be such a psychological beat down that the audience will never know what's real and what's not, but it never leads to anything that feels like what we witness bears any meaning.  It's a lot of noise and imagery, some of which can be effective in hitting at the right moment, while others are bungled by just tossing itself out of nowhere.  It doesn't help that so much of the movie seems to hinge on its sound design, which is very sloppy, feeling oddly disconnected from the image.  It brings about a movie that feels muted, both in its suspense and its audience reaction.

Spinning Gold

⭐⭐

Genre:  Drama, Comedy, Musical

Director:  Timothy Scott Bogart

Starring:  Jeremy Jordan, Michelle Monaghan, Lyndsy Fonseca, Jason Isaacs

Spinning Gold chronicles the true story of Neil Bogart and Casablanca Records, as they go from debt-filled indie label with an ear for talent to the host of some of the hottest sounds of the 70's, including KISS and Donna Summer.  It's certainly an interesting story, and the movie tries like hell to do it justice, even if it seems like these good intentions are leading to the path to hell.  It has a very strange tone, that's halfway through quirky wise-ass dramedy and schmaltzy nostalgic sentimental soap operatics, and it leans into both harder than it probably should.  I think I understand why it's going for that, but it's more off-putting than charming.  Its attempts to look lavish also backfire, because the movie wants to feel big, but its enclosed sets and obvious green screen work all make it feel tiny and quaint.  I gotta respect it for sticking to its guns, even if they're backfiring.  The film almost works as a metaphor for its story, working hard to sell itself without realizing its approach is flawed.

A Thousand and One

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  A.V. Rockwell

Starring:  Teyana Taylor, Will Catlett, Josiah Cross, Aven Courtney, Aaron Kingsley Adetola

This drama sees a Black woman kidnapping her son from the foster system and hiding out in New York City, where they struggle to live through systematic racism and the changing landscape.  The movie's drama can be aggressive, but I always got the impression that the film was built upon honesty, a genuine insight into a barely-scraping-by minority family, built upon a very strong performance by Teyana Taylor.  The movie's climax is almost a misfire, as it's more complicated than the movie knows what to do with, but it does thematically tie the movie together as a experience of life and society's unfairness and the uncertainty of what comes next.  There is also a bit of uneven schmaltz littered throughout, but that's about all that's holding me back from claiming this is the full package.

Trinket Box

⭐1/2

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Patrycja Kepa, Acoryé White

Starring:  Augie Duke, Acoryé White, Sandra Ellis Lafferty

A couple moves into their new house where they are gifted with a necklace by their neighbor, which seems to cause strange hauntings and behavior around them.  It's like someone liked the portion of the last Harry Potter book where a cursed necklace turned Ron into a whiny little bitch, so they decided to make an entire horror movie out of it.  Now imagine that crossbred with Paranormal Activity, only abandoning the found footage gimmick.  This is a movie that is obviously working with limited money, time, and resources.  Most of its effort seems to have gone into making its horror scenes as effective as possible.  The problem is that when the movie isn't going for the spooks, it doesn't seem to know what to do with itself.  All the acting and drama scenes seem fumbled through, hoping to get to the next night haunt faster.  It's all clumsy and choppy, with a strange softcore porn soundtrack.  One can even argue that the horror scenes are trite and not very interesting too, but my counterpoint to that is that when everything is failing around them the way that they are, the competency of them should be relieving.  But even that ends unfortunately with a conclusion that is abstract and unsatisfying, with the added thematic afterthought of "Racism, maybe?"  If they had started with a fully formed idea and then added subtext to it, then maybe you could have worked this, but as is, the movie is just random shit in a horror package.

Art Attack

The Blue Caftan

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Maryam Touzani

Starring:  Lubna Azabel, Saleh Bakri, Ayoub Missioui

My arthouse brought in some flicks that were submitted for the International category at the Oscars but didn't make the cut.  The first is The Blue Caftan, which hails from Morocco, telling a story between a married couple who run a caftan tailor shop, the husband a closeted gay man and the wife dying from cancer.  It's a very quiet movie that favors reflection, as we see the struggle of his personal deception as the woman who he has lived his life with prepares to be laid to rest.  What I found interesting is the strong relationship between the pair, in that even if the relationship was at odds with one partner's repressed sexuality, you could define the love and affection between the two and why they are together.  If the movie didn't have that piece of its soul on display, I don't see it being have as investing as it is.

Return to Seoul

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Davy Chou

Starring:  Ji-Min Park, Oh Kwang-rok, Guka Han, Kim Sun-young

A film co-produced by several countries (including the premise-involving France and South Korea), Return to Seoul was claimed by Cambodia for the Oscars race but didn't quite make it, though I've still seen it pop up on end-of-the-year favorites lists.  This movie sees a Korean orphan who was raised in France return to South Korea where she attempts to find her parents.  A very basic-sounding premise is more complex in her actions than is story, as thematically the film is about a woman who is lost.  She doesn't know who she is, and she thinks that if she finds out where she comes from, it will answer the question of who she's meant to be.  Instead she finds that the questions answered may not satisfy her and feel alien to what she needs.  As to what she needs, she doesn't know.  That's another question she needs answered, and she tries to fill that blank in a variety of ways.  It's a film about the misery of uncertainty, projecting an image of one's self that masks how confused one is with a carefree nature.  And there are also the moments where she starts to look content, which causes her to hit her own self-destruct button, because there is still the anxiety of uncertainty in happiness.  It's an interesting journey of following her emotional state, and if you can keep up, it's quite the ride.

Netflix & Chill

Tetris

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Streaming On:  AppleTV

Genre:  Drama, Thriller

Director:  Jon S. Baird

Starring:  Taron Egerton, Nikita Efromov, Sofia Lebedeva, Anthony Boyle, Toby Jones

Anybody who has an interest in video games owes it to themselves to learn the much-more-complex-than-you'd-think story of how Tetris left Russia and became the most popular puzzle game in gaming history.  If you've never heard it, now there is a movie that exists to bring you up to speed.  The film follows game licenser Henk Rogers as he makes his bid to own a piece of distribution of a then-new Russian game Tetris, but in doing so finds contracts so tangled up that he may actually have a chance at worldwide distribution.  But business on Soviet soil becomes potentially dangerous as politics start to get involved in the bidding war for a simple little puzzle game.  The drawback to this film is that you can easily see the elements of it that were spruced up for Hollywood, but one can't deny that they infuse this already crazy story with an entertainment value that helps keep its tone playful, like a video game.  To an extent, the movie feels less grounded as it goes on because of this, and since the story by itself might have been good enough to serve as a movie by itself, I can see this not being everyone's cup of tea.  But for those who might be experiencing this story for the first time, they'll be whisked away by it, and then dare to look it up to see how much of it was factual.  It's a blast.

The Unheard

⭐⭐

Streaming On:  Shudder

Genre:  Thriller

Director:  Jeffery A. Brown

Starring:  Lachlan Watson, Brendan Meyer, Nick Sandow, Shunori Ramanathan, Michelle Hicks

Those who don't like their suspense movies slow burn will do best to look elsewhere, as The Unheard takes its sweet time to get where it's going.  Personally, I found there to be an exceptional amount to like in the film, but it never comes together the way it feels like it should.  The film centers around a deaf woman, played by Lachlan Watson (they played Glen and Glenda on Chucky!!!), who undertakes an experimental procedure to regain her hearing, but finds herself hearing strange, possibly supernatural occurrences in her house.  Watson is a really good lead for the film, and their performance is quite nuanced and investing.  I also really dug the cinematography, which seems heavily influenced by John Carpenter's Halloween, and I quite liked the sound design as well.  The movie gets more problematic with its themes, of which the film tries to be a metaphor for anxiety stemming from trauma, attempting to move past it and being snapped back unexpectedly.  The ideas it plays with are interesting, but its delivery grows more chaotic with the more elements it adds to the brew. Quite simply, it's a movie about deafness that threatens to become just noise.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

65 ⭐⭐

Ant-Man and the Wasp:  Quantumania ⭐⭐⭐

Avatar:  The Way of Water ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Champions ⭐⭐1/2

Cocaine Bear ⭐⭐⭐

Creed III ⭐⭐⭐

A Good Person ⭐⭐1/2

Jesus Revolution ⭐⭐1/2

John Wick:  Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Lost King ⭐⭐⭐

Scream VI ⭐⭐1/2

Shazam! Fury of the Gods ⭐⭐⭐1/2

New To Digital

Champions ⭐⭐1/2

Creed III ⭐⭐⭐

The Son ⭐⭐⭐

New To Physical

All Quiet on the Western Front ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Missing ⭐⭐⭐

Plane ⭐⭐1/2

Coming Soon!