Cinema Playground Journal 2024: Week 39 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Azrael

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Horror, Thriller

Director:  E.L. Katz

Starring:  Samara Weaving, Vic Carmen Sonne, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett

Taking place years after the Rapture, Samara Weaving plays a woman who has escaped a ritual sacrifice to the undead corpses in the wilderness, fleeing into the post-apocalytic woods for survival.  Like last year's No One Will Save You, Azrael is a thriller told mostly in pantomime, which is something that makes me giddy while also being a gateway into style over substance.  Azrael is a very handsome-looking grit thriller, though it sacrifices narrative elements in doing so.  No One Will Save You was simple enough to understand despite it's lack of dialogue, while Azrael has complexities that it brushes by because it chooses implication rather than exposition, leaving us with questions throughout the story that we never get the answers to.  Azrael works in spite of this, because context matters little to the main character herself, who is just fighting for her life and doesn't care why.  Samara Weaving's role can be argued to be a career highlight, giving an expressive performance of feral desperation.  It's another argument for her being the best scream queen of her generation.  Weaving keeps eyes on her, stumbling in and out of obstacles with determination, while the film's grit keeps the looming threats in mind when even when they're off-screen.  It's a thrilling watch, with just a little hint of a desire for more on display.

Bagman

⭐️

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Colm McCarthy

Starring:  Sam Claflin, Steven Cree, Antonia Thomas, Adelle Leonce

A man protects his son from a superstitious being known as the Bagman, who takes people's children and feeds on their fear.  Suspense scenes are few and far between in this go-nowhere horror film, which is unfortunate, because it's better at tension than it is in other departments.  Setpieces are actually okay enough, though it's the run-up where the movie bores its audience.  The lore-heavy film seems exhausted in explaining itself, while character scenes lack characterization, and it ends on a lame twist ending that sucks up what little esteem the movie has.  Bagman falls flat because everyone involved in the film looks like they can't be bothered with enriching it.  It's hard for me to work up enthusiasm for a movie that doesn't seem all that enthusiastic about itself.

Lee

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Ellen Kuras

Starring:  Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Samburg, Noémie Merlant, Josh O'Connor, Alexander Skarsgård

Kate Winslet stars as real life model-turned-journalist/photographer Lee Miller, who is sent into active warzones during World War II to cover them.  Lee is a film that is very prideful in its feminism, covering its own feminine warrior during a time of what can be considered a man's battleground.  One can't blame it for rallying behind its subject, though its bland monotone in its idolization makes it less compelling than it wants to be.  But trying to wrestle away it's melodrama from it feels mean, because the movie clearly feels like it earned it.  Winslet follows the tone's lead, with a performance that is good at being what the movie wants it to be without ever escalating what it needs to keep it from dropping into mediocrity.  The entire movie shouldn't rest on her shoulders, but the filmmakers push more of it on her because she's its chosen asset.  Lee is a movie that would benefit if it took some of that burden and spread it around.

Megalopolis

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Science Fiction

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Starring:  Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emanuelle, Jon Voight, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Lawrence Fishburne, Kathryn Hunter, Dustin Hoffman

This long-gestating Francis Ford Coppola passion project hits without much fanfare, likely because it would have been more interesting in the 90's than it is in its present state.  Magalopolis is a utopian city dreamed up by Adam Driver, made up of some bullshit material that allows him to freeze time.  This material is called "Megalon," which I assume is a resource mined from the Godzilla villain of the same name.  Anyway, he strives to create, while others in the city seek to smear his reputation.  The movie is very Fritz Lang influenced, in its cinematography, transitions, and vibes, while it's hard not to think of Metropolis when looking at several of its visuals.  The movie also feels like vintage comic book pulp, like a film like Dick Tracy or Sin City.  For better or worse, it's a movie that's unlike anything else you'll see this year.  But that just means it sucks in its own distinct way.  It's the rare instance where a movie might be more excusable if it were made by a hack instead of a renowned auteur.

Earlier this year, Megalopolis had a marketing controversy when it put up an ad that was trying to get ahead of the film's spiraling polarizing reception by pulling quotes from negative reviews of Coppola's most popular films.  The ad wound up being pulled because the quotes wound up being fake, possibly AI generated, but the intent of the ad was clear, as it tried to gaslight you into believing that if you didn't like this movie then you didn't get it.  I counter that the movie is easy to understand, it's just kinda shitty.  The movie is a story of a visionary/artist who tries to express his vision, only to be criticized or railed against, and it's a bit meta in that it presents such a tale in a manner that's meant to polarize its own audience as it reaches for the stars while still seemingly aware that creative choices don't work, but do them anyway because MY ART, I DON'T CARE.  How do you criticize a movie that's basically just saying "Joke's on you!  You're the system that I am criticizing!"  Nice try.  If your art is crap, it's still crap.  Coppola's attempt at boundary pushing and innovation is stale and expired, while utilizing visual symbolism that make Coppola seem desperate to create a masterpiece out of thin air but only makes him look out of touch.  Megalopolis is a vision of the future that's stuck in the past.

My Old Ass

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Comedy, Drama

Director:  Megan Park

Starring:  Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Percy Hynes White, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brooks

A teenage girl has a strange trip on shrooms and sees a vision of herself from twenty years in the future, played by Aubrey Plaza, who gives her life advice and warns her away from a boy she might be interested in.  My Old Ass is an interesting take on the coming-of-age tales, one that's is really bizarre if you try to think of the logistics of what is happening, so it's best to not care and go with its flow.  The movie presents itself as a story of "What would you tell your younger self?" but it hesitates in committing.  Instead, it becomes a movie about treasuring the moment while it lasts, and not regretting that it doesn't last forever even when you wish it did.  There's something brilliant about how it turns its moral around like that, though I feel it would have benefitted from more of its premise at work.  Aubrey Plaza is in the movie less than you'd expect, and that's because the movie is primarily about a teenager making teenage decisions and just an overall ode to being young and dumb and the experience that brings you.  It might have been interesting to dwell on those decisions with the hindsight perspective more, instead of Plaza giving off one cryptic warning and fading into the background.  But the movie is funny, charming, and has a sweet tearjerker ending regardless, which will make it a must-watch for those who like movies about young people finding themselves.

Notice to Quit

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Simon Hacker

Starring:  Michael Zegen, Kasey Bella Suarez, Nell Verlaque

Well-intentioned indie comedy sees a down-on-his-luck realtor struggling to keep his feet on the ground, who's daughter comes for a surprise visit and springs the news on him that she and her mother are moving.  If a comedy can coast on quirk, Notice to Quit has its bases covered.  It's full of scenes that are conceptually amusing while being underlined by lighthearted music crafted to amplify a silly tone.  I find the movie difficult to dislike, mostly because it's such an earnest screwball and everyone involved looks like they're having a good time.  They can't overcome its flat simplicity, which makes the movie less joyful than it clearly wants to be.

The Wild Robot

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Science Fiction, Adventure, Comedy

Director:  Chris Sanders

Starring:  Lupita Nyong'o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Tsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O'Hara, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames

Based on the bestselling children's book, The Wild Robot is the story of Roz, a robot who is shipwrecked on an island and adapts to survive.  Primarily, the film is an allegory for parenthood, as its main storyline sees Roz raising an orphaned gosling and teaching it leave the nest.  The film is warm and brisk, the latter sometimes comes at the expense of narrative.  It makes up for that by filling itself with heart, dressing it up with gorgeous storybook animation.  It's a stunning looking movie that is in constant momentum, telling a saga of trust, friendship, and family, while borrowing the best elements of films like Wall-E, Ron's Gone Wrong, and Bambi.  If at least two of those movies hit the top of you animation admiration list, The Wild Robot is a must-see, while also being a frontrunner for best animated movie of the year.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Alien:  Romulus ⭐️⭐️1/2

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Deadpool & Wolverine ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

It Ends with Us ⭐️⭐️

The Killer's Game ⭐️⭐️1/2

Never Let Go ⭐️⭐️1/2

Speak No Evil ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Substance ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Transformers One ⭐️⭐️

Whiplash ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Digital

Between the Temples ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Front Room ⭐️

The Thicket ⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Physical

Bad Boys:  Ride or Die ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Despicable Me 4 ⭐️⭐️1/2

The Exorcism ⭐️

Longlegs ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Cinema Playground Journal 2024: Week 38 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

A Mistake

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Christine Jeffs

Starring:  Elizabeth Banks, Simon McBurney, Mickey Sumner, Rena Owen, Richard Crouchley, Matthew Sunderland

Elizabeth Banks plays Elizabeth Taylor (NO NOT THAT ONE), a surgeon who makes an error during a surgery.  After the patient dies, she has to deal with the fallout as her life spirals out of control.  Medical drama enthusiests will find investment in A Mistake, which seems to be playing up to a comfort food audience while dealing with a subject that's less than comforting.  The film is based on a novel, which feels very evident.  The drama is very dependent on Banks's state of mind, which is easier to convey in text than it is through performance.  Banks is eager to prop that on her shoulders, though the melodrama tends to weigh her down.  The movie heads in aggressively somber directions, and its downbeat plot-turns pile up until the movie blows out its own wheels.  I'm not convinced the movie needed to be this relentlessly dark, but it's also not boring.

Never Let Go

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Horror, Thriller

Director:  Alexandre Aja

Starring:  Halle Berry, Percy Daggs IV, Anthony B. Jenkins

Halle Berry plays a mother living in a cabin, which has been supposedly blessed to protect her and her children from a supernatural "evil" that lives in the woods.  As time goes on, she begins to suspect the evil has possessed her children while they begin to doubt her story.  It's not entirely dissimilar a premise to this year's Arcadian, except Never Let Go isn't nearly the pain in the ass to watch.  The issue with Never Let Go is that its themes and style challenge each other for superiority.  Its desire to keep the audience second-guessing turns a movie about trauma, paranoia, and social isolation into a movie that's almost about nothing.  That is probably harsh, because the movie is effectively creepy and has heart-racing suspense scenes, it just becomes more obtuse as it goes because it's trying to be a tease.  Whether or not it ends in a satisfying place is up to debate, and I'm willing to bet a lot of viewers will leave frustrated, but it's mostly a solid Autumn chiller.

The Shade

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Tyler Chipman

Starring:  Chris Galust, Dylan McTee, Laura Benanti, Mariel Molino, Sam Duncan

Another horror movie with PTSD themes, The Shade sees a young man suspecting that his brother brought home a dark entity into his family's house.  I find myself torn on this movie.  Half of it is a moody and understanding dissection of trauma, while the other half is a meandering bore.  It's an unbalanced movie that seems to be more invested in its metaphor than its story, which would be fine if it didn't fumble plotting itself out.  It dives into its characters, likely thinking the more we get to know them, the more we'll be invested.  Unfortunately there isn't all that much to learn about them, and the movie winds up repeating itself on the journey to find horror in their anxiety.  The horror sequences are well done.  None are showstoppers, though genre enthusiests will likely find interest in the film that has been created here.  It's unfortunate that the movie only seems to understand half the assignment.

The Substance

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Horror, Comedy

Director:  Coralie Fargeat

Starring:  Margaret Qualley, Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid

Demi Moore plays an aged aerobics celebrity who is given the opportunity to try out "The Substance," a procedure that turns her into Margaret Qualley for seven days at a time, so she can be younger, and more vibrant.  MSTies will recognize the story as old hat, as variations of it play out in films like The Wasp Woman and The Leech Woman.  The Substance is a more evolved version of the premise, adding in body horror and satirical parody.  The Substance is a raw commentary on society's obsession with youth and beauty and the pressures of aging that walk hand-in-hand with it.  It can grow a bit on-the-nose with its satire, but it's worth sticking with just to see how far it goes.  And it goes pretty far, leading up to a climax that is Cronenberg meets Raimi as it seeks to sicken while also soaking the audience in body fluid.  Both Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are in full commitment, not only ready to flaunt their beauty for the camera, but to also jump into a deformed body suit to counteract the sex-appeal with something that will make you wince.  The movie is about 50% Margaret Qualley gyrating her buttocks into the camera (I'm pretty convinced most of these scenes are body doubles, but I digress), but it's also 30% Demi Moore looking miserable and 20% vomit, so prepare for complex emotions.

Super/Man:  The Christopher Reeve Story

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Documentary

Director:  Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui

Starring:  Christopher Reeve, Dana Reeve, Matthew Reeve, Will Reeve, Alexandra Reeve Givens, Gae Exton

The innagural feature film from James Gunn's DC Studios (not including the first episode of The Penguin this week) is probably not what you would expect.  Instead of hitting us with superhero action and adventure, they present us with a documentary of an actor who played a superhero who became an inspiration:  Christopher Reeve.  Unfortunately, this came after head company Warner Bros reproduced his image with CGI for a quick buck in the Flash movie, so they owed the man.  Now, they just need to repent for the arguably in poorer taste George Reeves recreation and we'll be square.

Super/Man tells the life story of Reeve, switching back and forth between two periods in his life.  The first presents his early days as an actor, being cast as Superman, and raising his family, and the latter showing the aftermath of his paralysis, which resulted in his creating of the Christopher (& Dana) Reeve Foundation.  Sometimes the flow can feel jumbled because it's telling these two stories side-by-side, but there is a narrative to be found in both of them to keep the audience in their seats.  The film's main focus is the post-paralysis period, keeping Reeve's acting career as more of a subplot that pops in.  The reason they do this is to combine the inspirational figure with the image of a superhero as long as possible, and it's striking.  Sometimes it can be a tad cheesy, like a scene of Reeve addressing Congress that's mixed with a scene at the United Nations from Superman IV or the constant image of a Superman statue that is growing Kryptonite, but it is an effective piece despite this.  It even has the looming presence of Reeve's friend Robin Williams to bring levity to the film's darkest moments.  It's a movie that we all know is going to have an unhappy ending, but it's crafted in a way that even after its bittersweet conclusion hits, it makes us feel like we can fly.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Alien:  Romulus ⭐️⭐️1/2

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Deadpool & Wolverine ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Despicable Me 4 ⭐️⭐️1/2

Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

It Ends with Us ⭐️⭐️

The Killer's Game ⭐️⭐️1/2

Reagan ⭐️

Speak No Evil ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Transformers One ⭐️⭐️

Whiplash ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Digital

1992 ⭐️⭐️1/2

AfrAId ⭐️

Blink Twice ⭐️⭐️1/2

Cuckoo ⭐️⭐️1/2

Slingshot ⭐️1/2

You Gotta Believe ⭐️⭐️

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2024: Week 37 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

The 4:30 Movie

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Kevin Smith

Starring:  Austin Zajur, Nicholas Cirillo, Reed Northrup, Siena Agudong, Ken Jeong

Apologies to Kevin Smith, but I watched The 4:30 Movie at 3:50 instead.  There was no 4:30 showing, and 3:50 was as close as I could get.  But with trailers and ads, it started around 4:30 anyway, so I think it counts.  But enough of my problems, let's just appreciate that a new Kevin Smith movie came out on the 37th week of the year (IN A ROW?!?!?).

The 4:30 Movie was inspired by Kevin Smith's purchase of his childhood movie theater in New Jersey, which he used as a free setting to make autobiographical nostalgia movie, possibly also inspired by his love of Steven Spielberg's The Fablemans.  That last bit is an assumption on my part, but considering The 4:30 Movie also addresses the corelation between movies, dreams, influence, and aspirations, I think it's fair to think he had Spielberg in the back of his head.  The 4:30 Movie has less of an enormous narrative, scaling back it's story and stakes to a single day.  That day sees Smith's surrogate character asking the girl of his dreams to an afternoon movie, but since it's rated R, he and his friends have to play some rounds of sneaking-in shenanigans in getting into the movie.

Along with Clerks III, The 4:30 Movie marks something of a return to form for Kevin Smith, who spent nearly the entirety of the 2010's in an experimental stage of his career, which probably wasn't helped by his marijuana addiction, if I were to be blunt (lol, blunt).  His last two films saw him slingshot back to making semi-autobiographical comedies based on his life experiences, which is really the type of movie that earned him his cult following (with the aid of two stoners named Jay and Silent Bob).  I can't fully say he has his mojo back, because I think there was a hard-hitting Gen X edge to his movies from the 90's that is hard to restore, and it becomes hard to maintain such an edge as we get older and other generations become more prominent.  The 4:30 Movie is on the right track, and I think it's an improvement on Clerks III, even if it's not a sizable one.  The movie is both very funny and very sweet-natured, making it hard not to leave with a smile on your face.  Smith concentrates on those aspects while the plotting suffers because the turns in the movie are too trifle for a full story.  I think that matters very little to the movie that Smith wants to make, though it doesn't stop him from pilfering stronger moments from his earlier movies to tell his story (he has not one, but two scenes that echo Stan Lee in Mallrats or Will Smith in Jersey Girl, but without the big celebrity cameo to push them).  The result is a movie that's easy to like but a hike to love, as its few attempts at big, impactful moments fail to land.  That being said, my personal wish is that Kevin Smith continues to occupy this comfort zone space where The 4:30 Movie resides.  If he wants to keep making Yoga Hosers movies, power to him, but this is the area where he seems most confident.

The Critic

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Drama, Thriller

Director:  Anand Tucker

Starring:  Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Alfred Enoch, Romola Garai, Lesley Manville

Ian McKellen plays an aged theater critic in 1934, who manipulates an actress into helping him blackmail his boss.  Complications and melodrama ensue.  This is a movie I wish were better than it is, because if it followed its best instincts, it could probably be an exceptional drama.  The movie weilds a tremendous cast, though most are kept in monotone circling around Ian McKellen, who is the only one given any character.  Meanwhile, the plot's trajectory spirals in convoluted directions, despite playing with an interesting story.  It's a lot of muchness, too high on the thickness of its dramatic tension to take a step back and really see what works and what doesn't.  Early on, McKellen's character advises Gemma Arterton that less can be more, telling her that a good audience can read the subtlety of a performance without having it spelled out to them.  It's crazy to me that the movie that vocalized that advice never heeded it.

The Killer's Game

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Action, Comedy

Director:  J.J. Perry

Starring:  David Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Pom Klementieff, Ben Kingsley, Alex Kingston, Daniel Bernhardt

Dave Bautista plays an assassin who is diagnosed with cancer, and then puts out a hit on himself so his girlfriend will be paid out on his life insurance policy.  He the discovers he has been misdiagnosed and has to wade his way through a wave of assassins trying to cash in.  It doesn't take long before a viewer will note that the violence in this movie looks fake, with what seems to be cheaply produced CGI blood splatters.  One could probably hold it against the movie, but if you're paying close attention, it's very much an intentional stylistic choice.  The movie is tongue-in-cheek, Looney Tunes nonsense with the goal of being perfectly serviceable junk food cinema, so ridiculously unrealistic that its charisma lies in how far you're willing to ride its off-the-charts bullshit-o-meter.  Some might struggle to give the movie a pass based on how hamfisted its sense of cheek is, though knee-slapping action junkies will likely find something to enjoy in its stupidity.  There are certainly movies that do what The Killer's Game does far better than it, though The Killer's Game is a movie with its sole focus on playing up to those who can't get enough.

MSTies will want to keep an eye out for Future War's Daniel Bernhardt in a supporting role.

Speak No Evil

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Thriller

Director:  James Watkins

Starring:  James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough

In this remake of the recent Danish film, a family is invited to stay the weekend at the farm of people they've just met, which grows increasingly more disturbing the longer they stay.  I haven't seen the original Speak No Evil.  I've heard gushing things, but it just has never been opportune.  Whether or not fans of that movie will be happy with this Americanization is something I can't attest to, though from a quick study of a wiki synopsis, this version has an extended climax and a far less cynical outcome.  Of course, that might make the movie sound watered down, though, in it's own right, the remake is a pretty skillful suspense thriller.  Most of its tension is saved for the climax, where the film becomes a chase movie.  Setpieces are primal and cleverly constructed, while the performers step up to the plate.  James McAvoy is a fucking lion in this movie, switching back and forth between charismatic and intense on a dime and at times demonstrating that he can do both at the same time.  I think the movie offers very few surprises that you can deduce from seeing a trailer or TV spot, but it is a solid evening for suspense fans.

Transformers One

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Science Fiction, Action, Comedy

Director:  Josh Cooley

Starring:  Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, Lawrence Fishburne, Steve Buscemi

There was a pre-release screening of the new animated Transformers movie this weekend, so I decided to quell my curiosity on it.  The trailers looked horrendous, but the word on the street said it was quite good.  Allow me to dissent.  Indeed, the movie is better than the trailers make it out to be, but not by any sizable margin to legitimately matter.  Which is unfortunate, because I would like some stability with this franchise, but it never seems to be in the cards.  The original Michael Bay movies are random noise, some better than others.  It's been evident that the Transformers franchise needed to leave Bay behind since...well, 2007.  Watching it limply flail around for any possible foothold has been truly sad to watch, especially when they had a template in Bumblebee in their hands that they foolishly let go.  This series seems to have no idea what it's trying to be anymore, and Transformers One is a loose cog in a haywire clock.

The film is supposedly a prequel.  To what?  I'm not sure.  Plot developments contradict the Michael Bay movies and it even feels removed from the Bumblebee/Rise of the Beasts dualogy, which may-or-may-not still be in the Michael Bay series but we don't know because nobody who works on them seems to know or care.  It's probably best to treat Transformers One as its own thing, as it delves into pre-war Cybertron, where bromanced Orion Pax (future Optimus Prime) and D-16 (future Megatron) are untransformable Energon miners who accidentally discover the gravesite of the Primes, where they might find the dark secret of why they disappeared.  It's a story that feels like it should be interesting for those who grew up with Transformers lore, which I have, so I was partially invested in seeing a story like this play out.  It just frustrates me that I seem more invested than the people who wrote it.  There are ideas here, but the film doesn't take advantage of them.  It often goes for the easy, low-effort way out.  Megatron's storyline, for example, feels like it should be the most powerful arc of the movie, but it's so undernourished and carelessly constructed that the character that begins the movie just decides to switch him into an entirely different character by the end.  It's frustrating to watch, and it probably would have been best played over the course of two films instead of one.  Meanwhile, the main plotline of the movie is accidental misfits bumbling their way into a scenario they daydream about, then suddenly become competent because the plot requires it.  This whole approach sucks.

The animation is uneven.  The character models are ugly, resembling that of television productions with much lower budgets where we would give them a pass, where the only sign that they're in a big budget movie is how shiny they are.  The Cybertronian landscapes fare much better, with rich and interesting design work.  But even if it were a better-looking movie, it would only go so far to save what is here.  It's lavish production design with a convoluted script and clumsy ironic humor that is often the same two or three jokes over and over again (most of the humor lies in variations on a character just getting beaten up off-camera or saying "Oh, wow, okay, we're really doing this?").  The film is so tonally off-balance that it comes off as the animated equivalent of a rumbling wash machine, while there is no ambition to be a real story instead of a loud series of flashy images.  It's a shame the movie doesn't capitalize on the creativity it could have, instead of just becoming a generic child-pleaser.  The child I took to the theater to see this enjoyed it very much, so parents with young Transformers fans will likely want to check it out.  It's only up for exceeding the lowest of expectations, though. 

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Alien:  Romulus ⭐️⭐️1/2

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Blink Twice ⭐️⭐️1/2

Deadpool & Wolverine ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Despicable Me 4 ⭐️⭐️1/2

The Front Room ⭐️

Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

It Ends with Us ⭐️⭐️

Reagan ⭐️

Twisters ⭐️⭐️

New To Digital

The Crow ⭐️1/2

New To Physical

All of Us Strangers ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Horizon:  An American Saga - Chapter I ⭐️1/2

Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2024: Week 36 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Comedy, Fantasy, Horror

Director:  Tim Burton

Starring:  Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Catherine O'Hara, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux

They've been threatening it for decades, dating back to a "Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian" pitch from the 90's, but we've finally plunged back into the world of Beetlejuice, one of the greatest dark comedies of all time.  I don't know if I ever expected one to surface, mostly because, outside of Batman Returns, Tim Burton has never really been a "sequel guy."  I know one thing about Beetlejuice, and it's that you don't dare make a Beetlejuice sequel without Tim Burton.  It's one of the most personality-defining films any auteur has ever made in this history of cinema.  So you gotta wait until that crazy little man thinks to himself "Okay, fine, I'll do it."

The second film, ceverly titled "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," sees goth kid Winona Ryder now an adult, using her gifts of seeing the dead as the basis of a ghost hunting TV show.  Her daughter, played by Jenna Ortega, is tricked into venturing into the afterlife, and Ryder is forced to turn to Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice for help finding her.  This is the primary plotline, because this is a busy movie.  There are about five plots happening simultaneously, and some of them get shortchanged (Monica Bellucci does very little in this movie).  It is almost impossible to weave, but the charisma of Burton's imagination keeps the film's dead heart beating.  The film was written by Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (who worked with Burton on Wednesday, also starring Jenna Ortega), and if there is one thing they've proven over the years, it's that plot-weaving is not their specialty.  In fact, the last time they tried to resurrect a dead movie franchise, we wound up with The Mummy:  Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and I still haven't forgiven them.  Their script is chaotic, but Beetlejuice is a chaotic character who desires to consume, not be sensible.  The first film is a tad devil-may-care about pacing and storytelling as well, meaning this is a franchise that coasts on vibes.  If you're here for the Beetlejuice vibes, the long-awated sequel does not disappoint.  The movie is a macabre blast in a way that we haven't seen since the height of Burton's career, and if this movie does nothing else other than giving him a shot in the arm, I consider it a success.

The Front Room

⭐️

Genre:  Thriller, Comedy

Director:  Max Eggers, Sam Eggers

Starring:  Brandy, Kathryn Hunter, Andrew Burnap, Neal Huff

In-laws, am I right?  Brandy takes the lead as a pregnant woman who finds that overbearing, religiously abusive stepmother-in-law Kathryn Hunter has moved into her family's house.  As time goes on, Hunter's behavior becomes worse, more malicious, and targeted, seemingly cursing the household and driving Brandy to the brink of madness.  This dark comedy comes from the brothers of arthouse horror director Robert Eggers, and it would be swell to have such a dynasty of that caliber making movies.  While I would not say that all the talent went to Robert in this family, what I will say is that as gloomy as his movies can get, I don't want to curl up and die while watching them.  The good news is that Max and Sam seemed to have learned more than a couple tricks from their more successful brother.  There are some interesting framing choices and aggressively effective sound design (the movie really pushes the sounds of the mother-in-law's crutches to make her feel like an overwhelming presence).  But the honest to god truth is that sitting through this movie is an endurance test.  What's frustrating is that this is by design, and I should give it props for doing it as well as it does, but the movie crosses a line in the tension comfort zone in where it becomes impossible to admire the craftwork on display because the story is so loathsome and unpleasant, increasing the desire to walk out of the movie as it breaks your spirit down.  I fault no one for this.  Everyone is here and doing their best.  This is clearly the movie that the Eggers brothers want to make.  Brandy is solid as the main foil.  Kathryn Hunter was clearly cast due to her striking voice, allowing her to give billowing performance that contrasts the other actors.  The failures of the film are of no fault of theirs, but the pervasiveness of the movie's mood is less enthralling or frightening than it is uncomfortable.  The movie hammers you in the face with its tone of discomfort until you admit you're unsettled, but the unsettlement is just that you're numb with misery and don't understand why the movie won't stop.  Because of that, the film's black comedy aspect is less amusing than it is joyless.  I'm not sure I can call this a bad movie, because the movie feels like it's, in some backwards way, successful at its unconventional aspirations, bleeding the misery of its main character into the audience.  There is something to be said about that.  All I know is that I hated watching it and I want to burn the negative to ensure I'll never watch it again.

I'll Be Right There

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Comedy, Drama

Director:  Brendan Walsh

Starring:  Edie Falco, Jeanie Berlin, Charlie Tahan, Kayli Carter, Michael Rapaport, Michael Beach, Sepideh Moafi, Bradley Whitford

Oh look, an indie dramedy about a midlife crisis.  As someone who has just turned forty, I was probably put onto an automatic wait list for this movie.  Edie Falco stars as a devoted mother of grown-up children, one engaged and pregnant and the other looking for direction.  Falco has to juggle their problems and her own, as she faces an identity crisis of losing her children to their own lives while also figuring out her own future path.  The film plays with simple truths and ideas that feel personal to the filmmakers, but the problem with this film is that it's a movie about contentment in mundanity that can't find an approach that isn't mundane in of itself.  That's the word of the day:  mundane.  The film is mostly just mundane plot elements that are trying to be spiced up with screenplay wit, but the film's sense of humor is also mundane, mistaking calm and lighthearted snark for riotous, biting comedy.  The film even tries to spice up its main character's mundanity by adding complications to her that she is newly exploring, such as being engaged to a man but having an affair with a younger woman.  Her exploring a repressed bisexuality would be an adequate complication to the story, but the movie just can't work up any enthusiasm for it.  It all just seems humdrum.  It doesn't seem to matter much to her.  The idea of being a lost soul in search of a future is present, but the movie doesn't really do anything of value with it.  The film winds up just being a calm evening watch for indie nerds, though it might be a bit of a reach to say they will find it as charming as it thinks it is.  It's decent enough, it's just mundane.

Red Rooms

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Thriller

Director:  Pascal Plante

Starring:  Juliette Gariépe, Laurie Babin, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos

Anatomy of a Fall was just the beginning, the time for French courtroom dramas is now.  Red Rooms is French-Canadian, to be more precise, while also not being entirely inside the court system.  The film begins with a man on trial, accused of murdering three young girls on camera and distributing the footage on the dark web.  But the film isn't set on him, instead centering on a young woman who is watching the trial as it unfolds, seemingly doing her own investigating at home.  We are given limited details about her.  She's a model, a fitness nut, and seemingly a terminally online hacker.  What exactly fascinates her about this particular case is not made apparent, but she hits lengths of digging into it that are pretty extreme.  But the movie is more about its theme than it is her character, both directly and indirectly taking a look at obsessive consumption of true crime media, with minor characters who make snap judgments and/or conspiracy theories, while the main character digs in with a neutral expression, growing more unhinged with the more knowledge she consumes.  Juliette Garièpy gives a powerful performance in the role, expressing a lot through her limited expression.  The movie's plotting seems a little lost in itself sometimes, drifting in multiple directions for seemingly little rhyme or reason.  It could lose the audience in doing this, but instead it successfully hooks them in the desire of figuring out where all of this is going.  It's easy to grow frustrated with how perplexing this movie presents itself, because the only people who know what's on the main character's mind are the filmmakers, and they aren't sharing.  Those who get lost in the themes of obsession will find the film captivating.

The Thicket

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Western

Director:  Elliott Lester

Starring:  Peter Dinklage, Juliette Lewis, Esmé Creed-Miles, Levon Hawke, Andrew Schulz, James Hatfield, Leslie Grace, Gbenga Akinnagbe

I don't think I've ever seen a Tubi original in a theater before.  Hell, I don't think I've ever seen a Tubi original period.  I know that they exist, but why would I seek them out?  Tubi is like a 99 cent section in a video rental store, where you just wander through a pile of crap until you find something to waste a night on.  If something is distributed directly through it...well, that's a bad sign.  But the movie's actually pretty okay, if not terribly involving.  The Thicket is a western featuring Peter Dinklage as a bounty hunter, who has been hired to track down the group of bandits who kidnapped a boy's sister for nefarious, vague purposes.  The head bandit is Juliette Lewis, who is committed to her role, though it's a shame the role is mostly just rambling and mumbling.  You know she's the bad guy because she likes black licorice.  Who the fuck likes black licorice?  Psychotics, that's who.  She's not very compelling a villain, mostly because it's difficult to actually make out most of what she's saying, so if there's anything interesting about her, it gets lost in translation.  Why does she want the girl?  Why alive?  I'm sure this was explained, but I just stopped trying to follow her dialogue after a while.  I do feel like I'm being unfairly judgmental, because the film can be gripping and exciting in the best of moments, but it's also superficial.  There are elements that are thrown in but utterly superfluous.  Leslie Grace is an actress I quite like, but she adds nothing to the movie.  Her role could have easily been junked, along with several other supporting characters who are present for the sake of being present.  They all just group together to ride to a bitter conclusion, where several foul fates are met where my reaction as a viewer was "Great.  Thanks for scowling this entire movie just for that."  The Thicket is a movie that puts a lot into itself, but some of that effort would be best put to use on its characterization.  If the round of characters ever found their hook, this movie would be a lot better than it is.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

1992 ⭐️⭐️1/2

AfrAId ⭐️

Alien:  Romulus ⭐️⭐️1/2

Blink Twice ⭐️⭐️1/2

Deadpool & Wolverine ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Despicable Me 4 ⭐️⭐️1/2

Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

It Ends with Us ⭐️⭐️

Reagan ⭐️

Twisters ⭐️⭐️

New To Digital

Borderlands ⭐️⭐️

Longlegs ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Skincare ⭐️⭐️1/2

Trap ⭐️⭐️

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2014: Week 35 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

1992

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Action, Thriller

Director:  Ariel Vromen

Starring:  Tyrese Gibson, Scott Eastwood, Ray Liotta

A movie centered on the 1992 L.A. riots could be quite interesting, but that's not exactly what 1992 offers.  Instead it's an okay enough heist movie that happens to use them as a backdrop.  Tyrese Gibson plays a former gang member who currently is just trying to raise his son after being freed from incarnation.  After the fateful verdict in the trial for the beating of Rodney King, the entire city breaks out in a riot, Gibson seeks refuge at his factory workplace, which is currently being robbed by Scott Eastwood and, in his final posthumous film appearance, Ray Liotta.  Once the heist plotline starts rolling, the riots are mostly forgotten.  Though, the film provides little context for them, skimming the trial and jumping straight to the verdict, shooting up a bunch of talking heads telling us how angry people are.  What riot scenes we do get are solid, though not as harrowing as they could be.  They're mostly used to set-up the surprising passiveness of Gibson's character and establish a few action hero traits.  Gibson's reaction to what is going on is certainly an interesting creative choice.  He later explains to his son that the rioters are doing exactly what white society wants them to do.  I think that's a sidestepping take.  One might argue that the violence only justified what white society thought of the Black community, while it can be said that Gibson's quiet subjection is really what white society wants the Black community to do.  But I'm not one to explain race issues to those who are discriminated against, so I'm not going to press the issue on this.  The cast is uniformly excelent, with special accolades to the late Ray Liotta.  The screenplay can sometimes feel like chaos without end, which is frustrating because you could use that energy to actually depict a riot when we're just stuck in a factory, instead.  Not bad, but certainly a missed opportunity.

Across the River and into the Trees

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Paula Ortiz

Starring:  Liev Schreiber, Matilda De Angelis, Josh Hutcherson, Laura Morante, Massimo Popolizio, Danny Huston

Based on the Ernest Hemingway novel, this film features Liev Schreiber as a dying soldier, who contemplates his traumatic life in the face of his mortality while also entering an unlikely romance with a young Italian woman.  I'm not a Hemingway scholar (I'm a movie nerd, not a book nerd), so one might need to take whatever I say about this film with a grain of salt.  I have no clue how faithful the movie is to the text, though what context I did find on it, some Hemingway fans find the film's alterations of certain elements deflating to the book's themes (particularly the ending).  Speaking as an outsider, it's well shot and acted, with a budding interchange between Liev Schreiber and Matilda De Angelis giving it dramatic heft.  Schreiber and De Angelis are both very good in their unlikely chemistry, and their interplay is enough to keep the drama rolling and an audience invested in its outcome.  But I've always been a Schreiber fan.  I think he's low-key one of the most reliable actors of the last thirty years, so when you give him a meaty role like this, I'll always be here for it.  If nothing else, the film is a solid showcase for him and his young co-stars that is quite lovely to look at.

AfrAId

⭐️

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Chris Weitz

Starring:  John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Havana Rose Liu, Lukita Maxwell, David Dastmalchian, Keith Carradine

Blumhouse takes a roll of the dice with another high concept horror movie that may or may not be utter garbage, depending on whether it comes together or not.  AfrAId, as you could probably guess, is tossed into the dumpster of misfires.  John Cho and Katherine Waterston head a family that welcomes a sentient A.I. system named AIA into their home.  At first, AIA makes their life easier, but they become more uncomfortable with her overbearing actions as the A.I. begins to take control of their lives.  There are about a hundred things going haywire with this film happening simultaneously.  It's a script that feels based in the idea of a killer Alexa that was infused with A.I. concepts because A.I. started gaining mainstream attention and it forced in a weak commentary on it.  Even if one were to ignore the movie's weak theme, the screenplay is a witless drone, forcing itself forward with a hollow vision for where this story is supposed to go.  Occasionally the movie will catch you off-guard with an effective moody moment amidst jump scare screams and comically bad setpieces.  I'm pleased that the movie has some ambition, even if it doesn't cash in on it.  The movie has one strength that almost does some heavy lifting to make it rise ever so slightly above junk, and that's the casting of John Cho and Katherine Waterston.  Their roles are just terrible, but they're able to pour a little bit of heart into their relationship with AIA, making the movie moderately effective at points.  Even as the duo try desperately to salvage what they're working with, AfrAId proves to be self-destructive to any effort to try and save it.

City of Dreams

⭐️⭐️1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Mohit Ramchandani

Starring:  Ariel Lopez, Renata Vaca, Alfredo Castro, Paulina Gaitán, Jason Patric, Diego Calva

Passionate, if overbearing with its overconfidence, drama tells the story of a mute boy who is smuggled into America, unknowingly through a child trafficking ring that sells him to a slave sweatshop stationed in Los Angeles.  Of what you can say about City of Dreams, you can't say it doesn't have its eye on the ball.  It purely wants to be a gut-wrenching drama of hope in the darkest of times, and while one can't blame them for cranking up the melodrama, one does wish they wouldn't so overtly indulge in it.  Indulge might be an understatement.  It bathes in it, it flaunts it, it streaks around in it, wanting you to notice just how harrowing this story is.  I'd say it stops short of telling the audience just how impressed they should be with their own movie, though it ends with an interview with star Ariel Lopez telling the audience how important this movie is and trying to rev the audience into a call to action.  That's not to undercut the subject matter that City of Dreams tries to shed a light on, but there is a difference between letting a movie resonate with its audience and actively explaining it to the people watching the movie.  It's a shame that the movie threw its faith in media literacy to the wind, because there is promise here.  The movie tugs at the heartstrings in effective ways at times, and the film's craft is pretty excellent most of the time.  There is even a single shot chase scene in the movie that is a bit of a kinetic knock-out.  City of Dreams has the potential to be a great movie, but its play is so heavy that it collapses under the weight.

Good One

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Drama

Director:  India Donaldson

Starring:  Lily Collias, James Le Gros, Danny McCarthy

This indie has a daughter accompanying her father and his recently divorced friend on a hiking trip.  During the hike, she finds herself the reluctant caretaker to two men going through a midlife crisis, as she grows increasingly more frustrated with what's expected of her.  Good One is an interesting story of budding feminity being smothered by fragile masculinity.  Young Sam is figuring out her place in her own generation while coddling two father figures from a generation that are far removed from her.  This includes dated expectations of the female role in their lives to inappropriate impressions of her that frustrate her.  It's a movie that feels personal to writer/director India Donaldson, who lets the movie bathe in subtext, trusting the audience to understand the quiet female rage.  The movie has a greatness that is almost buried in that, though.  The movie's ambition is to come off as naturalistic, though it plays too scripted to fully hit that note.  Its drama feels lived-in enough for its presentation to still work despite this.  Good One is a film that women will want to check out, because its themes will strongly resonate with them.

Reagan

⭐️

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Sean McNamara

Starring:  Dennis Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller, Robert Davi, Lesley-Anne Down, Jon Voight

There is probably a strong narrative that can be found for a biopic for every American President, even the ones you vehemently disagree with (including the elephant in the room linked with the number 45), and to be honest, I'd like to see them.  Regardless of the fact Ronald Reagan's legacy has proved to be polarizing the longer America has marinated with it, he's is arguably one of the most impactful Presidents in recent memory and has earned a movie devoted to his life, because there is certainly a story to be told there.  And whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you have to admit, he deserves a far better one than this.

This Reagan movie is little more than rose-colored glasses jerk-off propaganda for Republicans, filtered through such a romanticized lens that even if Ronald Reagan were the greatest President of all time, the movie would still come off as inauthentic tripe.  The movie has no ambition to be an honest portrayal depicting the challenges he faced and policies he pushed, opting instead to be a portrait of a man who deftly rode the Presidency like a bicycle and struck fear into the hearts of those fucking communists.  The depiction of the Soviets in this movie is so funny, because Reagan is always depicted in bright and angelic lighting, while the commies are always in dank and dark rooms like cartoon villains, helplessly watching TV in groups going "OH NO, NOT RONALD REAGAN!"  Jon Voight tells the story as an unlikely Russian narrator, framing it as the the story of the man who respectfully outfitted his government at every turn.  Voight always calls him "The Crusader" like he's the Avenger of capitalism.  It would be sad if the movie's hero worshiping slant weren't so goddamn goofy.  Dennis Quaid's performance as the man himself is full improv comedy hour in a presentation that is too squeaky clean for the complicated and grimey world of 80's politics.  It's a movie so afraid to present Ronald Reagan with any genuine faults that it flakes off and just depicts a man of genuine perfection.  I get it if you like Ronald Reagan, but if you think this movie is an honest portrait of him, you might want to ease up on the Kool Aid and drink some water.

What I will say is that while the movie is quite unintentionally funny, it does have one actual real joke that lands.  It features Reagan campaigning for Governer for California, knocking on doors, but the lady that answers can't remember his name.

"Do his initials help? R.R?"

"Honey!  Roy Rogers is here!"

There.  That's the highlight of the movie.  You don't have to bother with the rest, now.

Slingshot

⭐️1/2

Genre:  Science Fiction, Thriller

Director:  Mikael Håfström

Starring:  Casey Affleck, Lawrence Fishburne, Emily Beecham, Tomer Capone, David Morrissey, Mark Ebulué

Casey Affleck is a crewmember of a space mission to one of Saturn's moons, but he begins to feel more emotionally unstable as time goes on, hallucinating that the girlfriend he left behind is on board.  He doesn't seem to be the only person on board succumbing to the madness, as another tries to convince him to turn on Captain Lawrence Fishburn in an act of...

SPACE MUTINY!

It's easy to see what Slingshot wants to do, as it's yet another film using the isolated environment of astronauts in space to create a claustrophobic psychological thriller.  We had one of these earlier this year with I.S.S., which was rich enough in characterization where it felt organic.  Slingshot's approach to being psychological is to have the characters sit around in a sleepy daze, only to scream their mental states at you intermittently.  It's very bland, underdeveloped, inane, and dull.  Affleck does his best to try and carry the movie, but there is just nothing here for him to latch onto.  I feel like this is one of those movies that came up with its ending first and then worked it's way backwards, because the final stretch is the only point in the movie where it has any fire in its step.  I wish that paid off, because it's only five minutes of content in a ninty minute slog.

You Gotta Believe

⭐️⭐️

Genre:  Drama, Comedy, Sports

Director:  Ty Roberts

Starring:  Luke Wilson, Greg Kinnear, Sarah Gadon, Michael Cash, Etienne Kellici, Molly Parker, McCauly Tucker

This movie is the story of a team of lackluster Little League players who defy the odds and make the cut into the 2002 Little League World Series finals, in a season that was inspired by their assistant coach, who was dying of cancer.  It's kind of a cute story, but the movie is void of personality.  You Gotta Believe is a traditional misfits sports team narrative that has been scrubbed with bleach to be made as sterile and inoffensive as possible.  It's a sports movie targeted at kids who might be old enough to understand how to hit a ball, but not keep score.  There is very little of an improvement curve that the players go through in it, they just reach a point where they just suck less.  It makes the movie's own evolution stunted, because it doesn't feel like it's going anywhere in particular.  Even with that, the movie probably would increase in entertainment value if its comedy was more than a whisper of slight gags and name-calling.  Some of the jokes in this movie are even just bizarre, like a running gag about a player's braces blinding the pitcher with the sun glistening off of them.  I mean, I guess that's a joke, it's just a really stupid one.  The message of the movie is that you can reach any goal if you put the work in.  It's really hard to sell that message when it's coming from a movie that is doing the bare minimum.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Alien:  Romulus ⭐️⭐️1/2

Blink Twice ⭐️⭐️1/2

Borderlands ⭐️⭐️

The Crow ⭐️1/2

Deadpool & Wolverine ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Despicable Me 4 ⭐️⭐️1/2

Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

It Ends with Us ⭐️⭐️

My Penguin Friend ⭐️⭐️

Strange Darling ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Trap ⭐️⭐️

Twisters ⭐️⭐️

New To Digital

Harold and the Purple Crayon ⭐️1/2

New To Physical

The Garfield Movie ⭐️⭐️1/2

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ⭐️⭐️1/2

The Watchers ⭐️

Coming Soon!