Multiplex Madness
Between the Temples
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director: Nathan Silver
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Carol Kane, Caroline Aaron, Robert Smigel, Madeline Weinstein, Matthew Shear, Dolly de Leon
Oh good, it's a socially awkward comedy about depression that's shot like a documentary. My...favorite? To be frank, this type of movie is not my speed, but I'll give Between the Temples credit for its playful comradery between stars Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane. Schwartzman plays a Jewish man who is mourning the death of his wife while having a crisis of faith, but bumps into his spirited music teacher from grade school, who confesses to wanting the bat mitzvah that she never had. The movie owes a lot to Kane's unique personality traits playing off of Schwartzman, making them an entertaining duo even as its tone can get a little black licorice in the tastebuds. The story is an interesting unroll, that grows complicated in ways that may surprise you. The film's themes work in its favor, even as the colorful characters are asked to perform some unusual scenes. It's a commitment, and everyone steps up to the plate.
Blink Twice
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Comedy
Director: Zoë Kravitz
Starring: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Gina Davis, Alia Sawkat
Zoë Kravitz makes her directorial debut on a film that was originally titled "Pussy Island," a title Kravitz claims she preferred but test audiences rejected because they didn't like the word "pussy." I would counter that Pussy Island is a bad title anyway, for two reasons. First, because it's so on the nose that the film's mystery thriller elements suffer even more when they're somewhat predictable already. Second, it's a title that already been used a thousand times, ranging from YouTube compilations of cat videos to what is probably already a long running adult film series that spans fifty volumes. As to what this Pussy Island is, it actually belongs to Channing Tatum, who whisks away a group of women to his private island where they party all day and do hard drugs in the evening. However, one of the guests begins to suspect there are weird shenanigans afoot when her memories of the prior nights fail to add up.
The Crow
To be very clear, I am not convinced that there isn't more than one great movie that can be made out of The Crow. Why it seems so goddamn hard thirty years on is a mystery to me, when the template of the 1994 film is there and clear as day. Alex Proyas cracked that code, and I refuse to believe it's because he's some filmmaking genius, because he isn't (see: every movie he has directed that is not The Crow, and yes I'm trash-talking Dark City, go fuck yourself). Taking a premise of revenge-from-beyond and rooting it in tragic romance feels like it should have elasticity, telling a different gothic thriller driven by love in each tale. Why does each attempt at this suck ass? Jason Voorhees comes back from the dead for less, but he meets our low expectations every time.
Zoë Kravitz makes her directorial debut on a film that was originally titled "Pussy Island," a title Kravitz claims she preferred but test audiences rejected because they didn't like the word "pussy." I would counter that Pussy Island is a bad title anyway, for two reasons. First, because it's so on the nose that the film's mystery thriller elements suffer even more when they're somewhat predictable already. Second, it's a title that already been used a thousand times, ranging from YouTube compilations of cat videos to what is probably already a long running adult film series that spans fifty volumes. As to what this Pussy Island is, it actually belongs to Channing Tatum, who whisks away a group of women to his private island where they party all day and do hard drugs in the evening. However, one of the guests begins to suspect there are weird shenanigans afoot when her memories of the prior nights fail to add up.
What Kravitz is trying to accomplish here feels pretty simple, as Blink Twice feels like her effort at a personal Get Out, one with a #MeToo twist. The film infuses itself with heavy themes of womanhood, particularly male aggression that come to fruition through emotional and physical abuse, while also exploring tramatic reactions, through repressed submission while also becoming a metaphor of weilding trauma to strengthen one's inner power. The movie feels personal, and Kravitz clearly has a lot she wants to say. It does feel like she lets it all out into a cohesive whole, though I look forward to her becoming a more experienced filmmaker creating a film with a more even pace. The set-up is lengthy and repetitive while its climax is a bit too chaotic for its own good, cramming most of its reveals and metaphors into a massive info dump. I understand why it's like this, as it's trying to portray trust building up to betrayal, but to the mystery needs to be more fruitful and its wit needs to land harder. With minor tweaks, Blink Twice probably could have been a knockout debut, but is instead a flawed, yet interesting, look at the talent she has potential for.
The Crow
⭐️1/2
Genre: Action, Thriller, Superhero
Director: Rupert Sanders
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs, Danny Huston
To be very clear, I am not convinced that there isn't more than one great movie that can be made out of The Crow. Why it seems so goddamn hard thirty years on is a mystery to me, when the template of the 1994 film is there and clear as day. Alex Proyas cracked that code, and I refuse to believe it's because he's some filmmaking genius, because he isn't (see: every movie he has directed that is not The Crow, and yes I'm trash-talking Dark City, go fuck yourself). Taking a premise of revenge-from-beyond and rooting it in tragic romance feels like it should have elasticity, telling a different gothic thriller driven by love in each tale. Why does each attempt at this suck ass? Jason Voorhees comes back from the dead for less, but he meets our low expectations every time.
Based on the 1989 limited comic series, which was in turn adapted into the 1994 classic starring the ill-fated Brandon Lee, The Crow claims to be a remake/readaptation, but it might as well be another sequel because its remake status is just an excuse to call the main character "Eric Draven" again. Bill Skarsgård plays Eric this time, reimagined as a man in rehab who falls in love with a girl named Shelly (also a borrowed name). Unbeknownst to Eric, Shelly is on the run from Danny Huston, who plays an immortal bad guy who considers Shelly a loose end to his secret satanic sacrifice schemes. He sends his minions to kill her, and they kill Eric in the process. This being a Crow movie, Eric is brought back to life by a crow, as well as some guy who lives in what I'm assuming is purgatory, even though it just looks like an abandoned warehouse lot. He's not in the original. I think he's here to feed Eric exposition, but I question why you need him when the 1994 movie rocked the "show, don't tell" approach so hard. Anyway, I digress. Eric is brought back to life by a crow, and given near immortality to seek vengeance on those who killed him and the woman he loved.
I hadn't seen the original Crow movie in a good long while. I wanted to watch it again, but I also wanted this movie to stand on its own merits, so I held off on it. So I watched this movie with a fuzzy memory of the original, and felt very muted on it. I swung back and forth between "This isn't that awful" and "God, this sucks." Then I went home and watched the original again, and with each passing moment recollection of small moments I actually enjoyed from the remake drained from me. The original Crow is a movie that 90's goths based their entire personality on. The remake is a movie inspired by the type of emo kids who based their entire personalities on people who loved The Crow but have never actually seen it themselves. It's a version of the idea less targeted at people who grew up with Tim Burton's Batman and/or flocked to The Matrix on opening weekend and more at people who wrote Twilight fan fiction throughout their teenage years.
The remake of the movie feels like it was made with ambition, possibly hoping to turn the idea into a more grandiose love story. Unfortunately, the original is a far more romantic movie, even if Eric's lady love Shelly is barely in it. Her presence is always with Eric in that movie, and you can feel her driving him. The remake does an extended prologue of Eric and Shelly's relationship, which is very little other than having sex and popping pills. I'm assuming we're meant to feel her absence once Eric is brought back, but it's more of a relief to just be rid of her and into the vengeance storyline because it was taking too long to get there. From there, Skarsgård is given a few action highlights, though they fail to really rev the movie up after its slow start. Danny Huston's role is wasted, as it feels like the movie wants to be grand showdown between two immortals, but it ends with a slight bitchslap fight in the above-mentioned warehouse lot that might be Hell, I don't know or care. Even the titular Crow barely does anything. He brings Eric back to life, gives him immortality, then jumps into him and makes him extra immortal because he was too sad to be truly immortal or something. I'm sure there's a Doctor Who joke I could be making, because the last time I saw a black bird fly into someone, Clara Oswald died.
The Crow remake reeks of a lot of things, from doubling down in the wrong direction to studio tampering. It wouldn't surprise me if there was an extra half hour of this movie that the studio mandated cut, as it gets choppy in the middle and rushed toward the end, while there are aspects of the film that feel unresolved (what happened to the pianist girl that Danny Huston was Satan grooming?). I can't see it being a sizable improvement, but it could make the movie more even than it is. But there is little reason to watch this version outside of morbid curiosity. The original is just the better experience. It has better action, a better love story, more heartfelt moments, and just does goth in a way only the 90's could. The original Crow is a goddamn classic. This is...better than the fourth movie, I'll say that much.
Strange Darling
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Thriller
Director: JT Mollner
Starring: Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner
One can probably get tired of people telling them that a movie is better when you know virtually nothing about it, but there are cases where that's true, and Strange Darling is one of those cases. If one likes rough and tumble chase thrillers that hit the ground running and never let up, it's absolutely worth a watch, and is a contender for best movie of the year.
There is very little I am willing to say about the story other than its starting point is a woman in the woods running from a man with a gun, and the narrative spirals from that. The film is told in a nonlinear form, as we learn how she got to this point and where it goes from there. The presentation choice struck me as odd early on, because there seemed to be little reason for it. Usually, nonlinear is utilized in an anthological format (Pulp Fiction) or when there is a very specific storytelling reason (Memento), and Strange Darling came off as more chaotic than not during its early segments. The movie reveals the method to its madness halfway through, when it snaps into place and everything about the movie begins swirling in your head with a completely different context. It's possible the movie might lose steam after it's reveal, but it's constantly engaging largely thanks to the commitment of its cast, especially Willa Fitzgerald, who is in evolving distress in what had to be a draining role. It's a performance that absolutely earns an Oscar, but we'll see if it survives the award season politics bias against genre films (Rebecca Hall deserved a nomination for The Night House and I'll die on this hill).
Aesthetically, the film owes a lot to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, even though it has very little in common with it other than overlap in presentation ingredients. Strange Darling is distinctly its own beast. Taut, exciting, and at the same time both simple and unexpected. Strange Darling is one of the most rewarding sit downs that film fans will see this year.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Alien: Romulus ⭐️⭐️1/2
Borderlands ⭐️⭐️
Cuckoo ⭐️⭐️1/2
Deadpool & Wolverine ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Despicable Me 4 ⭐️⭐️1/2
Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
It Ends with Us ⭐️⭐️
Longlegs ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
My Penguin Friend ⭐️⭐️
Trap ⭐️⭐️
Twisters ⭐️⭐️
New To Digital
Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sight ⭐️1/2
Coming Soon!
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