Multiplex Madness
Divinity
⭐⭐
Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Eddie Alcazar
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Moises Arias, Jason Genao, Karrueche Tran, Bella Thorne, Scott Bakula
A miracle drug is created that keeps people young and fit, but a pair of mysterious strangers kidnap the creator and pump his system full of it, amongst other weird shit involving sex, drugs, aliens, and hookers in leotards. It's a movie that feels like it's made by film students who find movies only worth watching if they were made by Lynch and Cronenberg and lets 80's infomercials and MTV be their entire vibe (while even stealing the OCP logo from RoboCop to complete it). It's that vibe that the movie tries to coast on, being a product that looks cool and wants to be deciphered. I've never cared for movies like this, because while I might be visually engaged for five minutes, I find myself even more disinterested as it goes on because it becomes clear it's just style over substance. Does the movie have a point? Maybe, but probably not (the movie might be an anti-abortion/stem cell research film, but that's a whole discussion). And if it does, it prefers to get lost in its own abstract surrealism rather than...be anything. It wants you to take out of it whatever you need to. What I took out of it was some nice visuals, I got to see some boobs and a lot of butts, and there was an anime influenced stop motion sequence out of nowhere that was pretty funny, but absolutely nothing else.
Lonesome Soldier
⭐
Genre: Drama
Director: Nino Aldi
Starring: Jackson Harlow, Lisa Grosjean
Based upon a true story (though you wouldn't be convinced of it), Lonesome Soldier is about a man who joins the military, but returns home injured and with PTSD and learns to cope with it. It's a movie that seems to understand the presentation of a story but can't figure out how to make it function. I suspect that the movie was made by people who are stark military and veteran supporters, and they're very compelled by this man's story. Issues arise in that if his story is unique, the film sucks its uniqueness dry by blending it with ideas and methods that have been done many times over by better movies (this movie has an unironic "Unclean! I can't get the blood off my hands!" sequence). To be fair to it, it's a well-shot movie that works well with what seems to be a limited budget. But I look at this movie and feel like there is a gaze of glancing at one's own art with rose-colored glasses and refusing to see what's wrong with it. Even if this movie weren't a sappy attempt at something trite, it feels inauthentic and cynically manipulative. The acting has its moments, but it feels like there only select moments that the movie is actually invested in, and the rest of the time it's rushing through itself because, while those scenes might be necessary to advance itself, it's not invested in them. And when it is invested in itself, the just hammers the audience with a greasy melodrama that will clog your arteries. Maybe if you're invested heavily in military stories, this movie might be of interest. I just think veterans deserve something better than something this gutless.
⭐⭐1/2
Genre: Thriller
Director: Neil Burger
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Ben Mendelsohn, Garrett Hedlund, Gil Birmingham, Careen Pistorious, Brooklyn Prince
Based on the 2017 novel (and it feels it), The Marsh King's Daughter sees Daisy Ridley as an adult woman who left an abusive and traumatic relationship with her survivalist father behind after he was arrested when she was a child, only to be haunted and hunted by him when he escapes. The film is stilted to a fault, with stiff performances that often feel like the actors have memorized their lines phonetically. The actors aren't to blame for this, because the film feels more like a dramatic reading of its novel than an adaptation of it, as each actor patiently waits their turn to speak with a mound of dialogue on the tip of their tongue. To be fair, setting aside the type of performance Daisy Ridley is asked to give in this movie, she is actually pretty good in it. Ben Mendelsohn is properly intimidating as her father, though he slips in and out of his accent pretty often. The savior of this movie actually winds up being its story, which is interesting in spite of scripting issues and uneven plotting. I was interested in Ridley's story and was invested enough to see it through to its end. I feel like The Marsh King's Daughter is going to play better with certain viewers more than others, and those viewers will likely adore it. Those viewers might be book fans, because there is a certain feel to this movie that reminds me of last year's Where the Crawdads Sing, which was loved by fans of the novel and dismissed by everyone else. I liked Marsh King a bit more than Crawdads, because Marsh King's story is a more interesting visual narrative than Crawdads, which relied more on trying to be subtle without having the patience to be. The Marsh King's Daughter is a bit corny and a bit trashy, but it knows how to use it. Like a shitty page-turner that you can't put down for some reason.
Priscilla
⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Drama
Director: Sofia Coppola
Starring: Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi
In a way it's a teenage girl's fairy tale: to meet and be whisked away by the world's biggest superstar. It's also kinda weird and off-putting, watching a 15-year-old girl being courted by a man ten years her senior and one of the biggest celebrities who ever lived, plucking her pretty much straight from high school and trapping her in a celebrity whirlwind that changes her. Following last year's Academy Award nominated biopic of Elvis Presley, Sophia Coppola offers up an alternate gaze on the music icon, telling the story of his wife Priscilla and the unusual story of how he courted and borderline groomed her to be his wife (some might argue that there was no "borderline" about it). I haven't seen Baz Luhrmann's Elvis film since it came out and, admittedly, I don't remember how deep it dived into Elvis and Priscilla's relationship, though I recall it being relatively minor and dismissive. If there is any contradiction between the two, I can't really engage in that, but the depiction of Elvis between the two films is a bit startling. Last year's film focused on the showman aspect, but Coppola tells an "evil that men do" narrative, showing him as intimidating, distant, and manipulative. His relationship with Priscilla is often on his terms, as he takes a soft-spoken high school girl and molds her to be his idea of a what his wife should be, rarely allowing her to have any input into who she gets to be even when he's not around because Elvis's world revolves around him.
Priscilla seems to intentionally choose to not have much of anything to do with what's outside of Priscilla and Elvis's love affair, which can be a bit limiting. The film abruptly starts when Priscilla is invited to a get-together being held by Elvis and it abruptly ends when Priscilla leaves her husband. It's laser focus isn't a bad thing, but it also limits it by boxing it in, with limited view of the entire picture. But it's Priscilla's movie, and what she sees is the most important to it. It might feel limited because she had a limited life within this scenario, as the film is depicting that she wasn't allowed to have one outside of her husband, while he was having an entire life without her. That aspect works because, while they're husband and wife, they never feel like they're all that close, which alludes that they're both living separately under the lie that they're together. The film reinforces that by lingering on those moments where they're tender with each other and makes them feel hollow. Interestingly, while there is quite a bit of era-setting music in this movie, there is very little actual Elvis music. Maybe that's a metaphor for how little he was in her life.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Barbie ⭐⭐⭐1/2
The Creator ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Gran Turismo ⭐⭐1/2
Killers of the Flower Moon ⭐⭐⭐1/2
The Nightmare Before Christmas ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Oppenheimer ⭐⭐⭐
Saw X ⭐⭐⭐
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (probably)
New To Digital
New To Physical
Blue Beetle ⭐⭐⭐
The Good Mother ⭐1/2
Retribution ⭐1/2
Coming Soon!
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