Multiplex Madness
Five Nights at Freddy's
⭐⭐
Genre: Horror
Director: Emma Tammi
Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, Matthew Lillard
Five Nights at Freddy's is a title I had heard over and over again without really knowing what it was. Even now, I'm only familiar with its most surface level reputation than anything specific about, that being that it's a tween-targeted jump scare horror video game series that plays off of the inherent creepiness of children's entertainment animatronics. Whether or not the movie gets anything right about it, I can't comment on. The movie centers on some guy desperate to keep a job so he won't lose his little sister in a custody battle, who takes up a job at a closed down children's restaurant where the animatronic creations come to life and murder people. The movie's charisma lies heavily in its horror elements, which have a campy delight to them. The animatronics for Freddy's gang are excellent and remarkably expressive, while the spooky atmosphere is flavorful. Unfortunately, the film falters in the scenes that nobody watching a Five Nights at Freddy's movie is particularly interested in, and that's the human element. The plight of Josh Hutcherson's character of protecting his sister tries to give the movie a heart, but he's a non-charismatic character who doesn't seem to give much effort into anything he does. He spends most of his nights at his security job asleep, which not only makes him shit at his job but also seems to miss the point of the games, which is to watch all the spooky shenanigans as they unfold . The movie is half a stylish entertainer and half the most boring movie you could have made out of this. On the bright side, it's never both at the same time.
MST Cast Note: Russ Walko, who plays Growler on our favorite puppet show, worked the animatronics for the character of Foxy on this movie.
Freelance
Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow
This Spanish produced animated children's movie parodies noir mysteries from the 1930's...you know, like every child these days loves. The film centers on a spider, the self-proclaimed greatest detective in the insect world, who finds himself on an airline where a murder of another spider occurs. The death is pinned on the victim's newlywed Black Widow wife, because of the whole "mate and kill" thing, but she maintains her innocence, and Inspector Sun seeks to find the truth behind the event. The comedy runs uneven, bordering on monotonous as the primary gag of the movie is Inspector Sun's uncanny ability to focus on the wrong detail at any given moment, and, in an Inspector Gadget fashion, have a supporting player come to the right conclusion only to have Sun take credit with his "I'm glad I thought of that" attitude. But occasionally the film caught me off-guard with a clever line that made me laugh harder than I'd expect, usually from Sun's plucky sidekick or the femme fatale Black Widow character. The animation is better than you'd expect, too. It's not crazy detailed, but the textures are rich and the character models are very expressive. It's a promising swing that unfortunately hits a foul ball.
Anatomy of a Fall
Freelance
⭐
Genre: Action, Comedy
Director: Pierre Morel
Starring: John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba, Christian Slater, Alice Eve
John Cena plays a Purple Heart military veteran who is hired by a private security firm to protect journalist Alison Brie as she interviews the foreign dictator who killed Cena's fellow soldiers years prior. They are attacked during the interview and he finds himself on the run with both his client and his enemy in a country that's in the middle of a coup. Basically, it's John Cena and Alison Brie in a comedic action romp. What could go wrong? Besides the fact that it doesn't work, that is. I wish it did, because on paper this sounds irresistible, but the screenplay lacks the good humor and the direction lacks the kinetic spirit a movie like this needs. To be fair, the action scenes are not to bad. They aren't great, but they're serviceable enough for a movie like this. It just has no gusto. The film feels underdetailed and artificial. And when the film does go for details they feel like strange, staged details, like John Cena watching embarrassing clips of Allison Brie on the internet while she's sitting right behind him, only to set up a scene of her telling him off about why she's a journalist. It's bad plotting paired with bad comedic timing sucking the blood out of this movie. Cena and Brie work their best to traverse these bumpy trails, because, as Cena says when the situation goes from bad to worse, "Embrace the suck."
Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow
⭐⭐
Genre: Comedy, Mystery, Noir
Director: Julio Soto Gúrpide
Starring: Ronny Chieng, Emily Kleimo, Jennifer Childs Greer, Rich Orlow
This Spanish produced animated children's movie parodies noir mysteries from the 1930's...you know, like every child these days loves. The film centers on a spider, the self-proclaimed greatest detective in the insect world, who finds himself on an airline where a murder of another spider occurs. The death is pinned on the victim's newlywed Black Widow wife, because of the whole "mate and kill" thing, but she maintains her innocence, and Inspector Sun seeks to find the truth behind the event. The comedy runs uneven, bordering on monotonous as the primary gag of the movie is Inspector Sun's uncanny ability to focus on the wrong detail at any given moment, and, in an Inspector Gadget fashion, have a supporting player come to the right conclusion only to have Sun take credit with his "I'm glad I thought of that" attitude. But occasionally the film caught me off-guard with a clever line that made me laugh harder than I'd expect, usually from Sun's plucky sidekick or the femme fatale Black Widow character. The animation is better than you'd expect, too. It's not crazy detailed, but the textures are rich and the character models are very expressive. It's a promising swing that unfortunately hits a foul ball.
Art Attack
Anatomy of a Fall
⭐⭐⭐1/2
Genre: Drama, Legal
Director: Justine Triet
Starring:
We have another import from France this week, this one has the luxury of being half in English, so we're not constantly speeding through subtitles. It's disorienting. Pick a lane, France! Anatomy of a Fall sees a writer plunge from his attic window to his death, and his wife is indicted for murder, but maintaining her innocence and believing it to be suicide. The story, while interesting, feels secondary to the detailed portrayal of living through an event like this while then being subjected to the scrutiny of the court system. We live through the main character's heartache, the intense pressure she faces when being questioned by all sides, and the fabric of her relationship with her son being torn in two as he begins to hear details of his parents' lives that he didn't know. The film also is an incomplete picture of what actually happened, as we're led through subjective viewpoints and theories over what went down at the house that day. When the film ends, we still have questions, because all we know is what we heard in court and what her discussions are with her lawyers. There's even the lingering question of maybe she did kill him, but we never see her husband's death from a straight-on viewpoint or even what she was doing at the time, as the film only relates any of these events through dialogue. Is she an unreliable narrator? Who knows. That is part of the strength of the film, which paints a picture of two extremes within our head and it allows the viewer to find out which end of the spectrum the truth leans toward. The film has its own conclusion, but who's to say that it's the correct one?
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Barbie ⭐⭐⭐1/2
The Creator ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Dawn of the Dead ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Dicks: The Musical ⭐⭐1/2
Dumb Money ⭐⭐⭐
Killers of the Flower Moon ⭐⭐⭐1/2
The Nightmare Before Christmas ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Saw X ⭐⭐⭐
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (probably)
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