Multiplex Madness
Conclave
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Drama
Director: Edward Berger
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, Isabella Rossellini, Lucian Msamati, Carlos Diehz
The Line
Venom: The Last Dance
Your Monster
Don't Move
A man talks a suicidal woman off of a ledge, but as she tries to thank him, he tries to kidnap her. She manages to escape, only to be drugged and paralyzed with him closing back on her. It's interesting that someone would try to make a chase thriller where the chasee can't move, but it's a doorway to sequence creativity. Don't Move proceeds with enticing scenarios to play up its high concept, though it sometimes feels like it's stalling for time. The movie isn't quite as snappy as its ninty minute runtime would suggest, as it has long periods where the antagonist is driving and talking to someone who can't talk back, while also lot of its suspense scenes rely on the protagonist sitting in place and waiting for someone to notice that something is wrong. They're not unsuccessful plot progressions, but the movie is more casual than anything else. I think Don't Move would have benefitted from beefing up its themes, as its protagonist was a woman contemplating taking her own life caught in a scenario where she is practically waiting to die. She is unable to contemplate fully, because she can't talk, so the undertones need to work harder than they are. The film's antagonist is underdeveloped as well, with traits that are generic without giving personality to a man who paralyzes women because it's a thing to do (although I like how he incompetently lashes out at anything that mildly inconveniences him). Don't Move is diverting, but is stiffened out where it should be nimble.
Woman of the Hour
Twilight and Pitch Perfect starlet Anna Kendrick jumps behind the camera in her directorial debut. The film depicts the victims of the "Dating Game Killer" Rodney Alcala, a rapist and murderer who happened to appear on the game show The Dating Game in the 1970's. Kendrick stars in the film as the "lucky bachelorette" who selected Alcala at the end of the episode. The centerpiece sequence features her flexing her comedic chops on The Dating Game, in a hilarious series of questions that she makes up on the fly that undercut just what a sexist facade the show really was. While I haven't seen the episode that this movie was based on, I feel like I can say with confidence that this never, ever happened on the show and, if it ever did, the network would have never aired it. Kendrick has fun with her creative license though, really tearing down one of television's crowning achievements in crap. She then follows this up with a post-game evening of drinks with Alcala, where her curiosity turns into unease in a slow downturn, which is a fairly strong sequence of its own. Sometimes the movie struggles with the fact that Alcala's appearance on The Dating Game is fairly removed from his psychotic secret life, since there was very little to tell except he appeared on the show and the bachelorette declined a date with him afterwards. Kendrick spices that story by using it to express the struggles of victims, especially women, in a society dominated by men who fail to see their suffering. The movie's strength lies in how well she portrays female oppression and their unease in a sexist surrounding, and often the only people who notice a women's distress are other women. Kendrick is really, really good with the drama. The tension sometimes slips her grasp, because she is so focused on the emotional isolation rather than expanding that sense of unease to the audience. But the movie will pressure an emotional response in most viewers regardless, and Kendrick should be commended for that.
Oh, good. As if American politics weren't stressful enough, now we have to put up with Vatican politics this season. After the Pope dies of a heart attack, Cardinal Ralph Fiennes organizes a conclave to select his successor. Tempers are flared, accusations are hurled, and secrets are laid bare as the pressure is on to find the next His Holiness. Tense with words rather than violence, Conclave is a dramatic tour de force on just about every front. Fiennes gives his usual 110% performance, locked in with contemplation and conflict. He and the audience both soak in the traits of individuality within the cardinals who are named, and weighing what they would mean for the Vatican and their faith. He is backed up by some reliable character actors in Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow, both of which hold their own against him. The film has a strong, intriguing script as its backbone, and it's difficult to fully guess what it's next move is at any given moment. That said, it's ending doesn't quite feel like it's a satisfactory resolution to the conflict, centering around a character who is barely present in the narrative until the climax. There are interesting elements in play with the ending, though some embellishment would have done some heavy lifting in making this movie even better.
The Line
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Drama
Director: Ethan Berger
Starring: Alex Wolff, Lewis Pullman, Halle Bailey, Austin Abrams, Angus Cloud, Bo Mitchell, Denise Richards, Cheri Oteri, Scoot McNairy, John Molkovich
Fraternities are obnoxious, toxic and stupid. I didn't need this movie to point out the obvious. And yet, here it is. This psychological drama sees a rowdy college fraternity go through their annual hazing ritual for freshman pledges as tensions run thick in their ranks, leading to a harsh outcome. In theory, there is nothing wrong with this movie. It is made capable enough and has some elements that show promise. It's just exhausting, witless, and uninteresting. I understand the movie's slow burn style, though it's dramatic setup to its third act is like wading through sewage as the audience is pummeled with overbearing frat attitudes that feel like caricatures. The movie feels rowdy in an effort to mask inadequacy and performative in the hopes that it doesn't come off as lifeless. It fails. The movie has no pulse. It's a slog to get to its centerpiece twist, and when it makes it there, it looks clueless as to where to go from here. It's a plot turn without a plot. Everything wrapped around it is padding, especially a bland love story subplot between Alex Wolff and Halle Bailey that serves little other than just putting a woman in the movie (other women, Denise Richards and Cheri Oteri, have nothing roles). It's a movie with a point that tells everything in a pointless way, and I felt like my time with it was thoroughly wasted.
Venom: The Last Dance
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Superhero, Action, Horror, Science Fiction, Comedy
Director: Kelly Marcell
Starring: Tom Hardy, Chiwatel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo, Alanna Ubach, Andy Serkis
Oh hey, look, it's a Venom movie. They make these from time to time, probably. The Spider-Man fan in me likes seeing the big lug on the screen, though I'd be more excited if the movies were more than goofball noise. Sony's patented romcom sexual tension approach to Venom did wonders to tone him down to PG-13 while keeping him entertaining, but their failure to grow it from that hasn't been stimulating. The Venom movies are still the best of the Spider-Man-less Spider-Man universe movies, by a decisive amount. Though, if I'm being honest, that didn't stop me from enjoying Madame Web the most, which was the biggest knee-slapping chucklefuck of a bad movie any franchise can hope for in a low point. But if empty calory entertainment is what Sony wants these movies to be, the Venom trilogy does it best.
The latest feature for the Lethal Protector reveals that Venom is the keeper of "the codex" for some convoluted reason that I didn't care enough to pay attention to. Now he is being hunted by the imprisoned creator of the symbiote, Knull, who sends big alien hunting dogs down to Earth to retrieve it and free him. The movie has an aimless storyline, seeing Eddie and Venom hiding in Mexico, finding out they're wanted for murder, fleeing to New York because Venom wants to see the Statue of Liberty, and winding up in Nevada because Area 51 is there. New York is on the other coast, silly! It's all an excuse to find a new subgenre to latch onto the symbiotic duo. The first movie was practically a buddy cop movie, the second a breakup romance, and this third one is a road trip. They have a destination, but they are sidetracked because nothing ever goes right in this type of movie. Also, Eddie keeps losing his shoes. Funny, maybe? You decide. Like the other Venom movies, the film is diverting and amusing in its high points. I can't help but feel like it's a regression, as the previous film seemed to have "good movie" on the tip of its lengthy tongue but failed to commit, plunging into a whirlwind of chaos instead. One does wish they would stay true to what little these movies have going for them in the future, other than doing whatever the hell they did with Morbius.
Your Monster
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Horror
Director: Caroline Lindy
Starring: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster, Meghann Fahy
Melissa Barrera has distanced herself from the Scream franchise, but it's okay, because she has a new horrific guy in her life. This dark romcom stars Barrera as a stage actress who has recently gone through a brutal breakup while still accepting a role in a play put on by her douchey ex. Helping her with her fragile emotional state is the monster who has lived in her closet since she was a little girl, who she might accidentally be falling in love with. Cutesy and broad, yet addictively silly. Your Monster takes the traditional Beauty & the Beast narrative and merges it with the story of the prom queen and outcast turn their angsty friction into sexual tension. The purpose of such a story is more metaphorical than anything, as its never confirmed or denied whether or not Barrera's gothic romance is a psychotic breakdown that's happening in her head (though it's heavily implied that it is if you read between the lines). The film's psychological read is fascinating, because it's both an analysis of post-breakup anguish and an argument in favoring self-love for healing and using one's resentment and anger as a doorway into it. Barrera is fabulous in this, drifting in between distrought and feral as each sequence calls for her to do. By the end, she merges them both into one performance, and it's wonderous to behold. And I've gone this entire review without referring to Tommy Dewey as "Former Presidential Nominee Thomas Dewey." I can show some restraint sometimes.
Netflix & Chill
Don't Move
⭐️⭐️1/2
Streaming On: Netflix
Genre: Thriller
Director: Adam Schindler, Brian Netto
Starring: Kelsey Asbille, Finn Wittrock
A man talks a suicidal woman off of a ledge, but as she tries to thank him, he tries to kidnap her. She manages to escape, only to be drugged and paralyzed with him closing back on her. It's interesting that someone would try to make a chase thriller where the chasee can't move, but it's a doorway to sequence creativity. Don't Move proceeds with enticing scenarios to play up its high concept, though it sometimes feels like it's stalling for time. The movie isn't quite as snappy as its ninty minute runtime would suggest, as it has long periods where the antagonist is driving and talking to someone who can't talk back, while also lot of its suspense scenes rely on the protagonist sitting in place and waiting for someone to notice that something is wrong. They're not unsuccessful plot progressions, but the movie is more casual than anything else. I think Don't Move would have benefitted from beefing up its themes, as its protagonist was a woman contemplating taking her own life caught in a scenario where she is practically waiting to die. She is unable to contemplate fully, because she can't talk, so the undertones need to work harder than they are. The film's antagonist is underdeveloped as well, with traits that are generic without giving personality to a man who paralyzes women because it's a thing to do (although I like how he incompetently lashes out at anything that mildly inconveniences him). Don't Move is diverting, but is stiffened out where it should be nimble.
Woman of the Hour
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Streaming On: Netflix
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director: Anna Kendrick
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Nicolette Robinson, Tony Hale
Twilight and Pitch Perfect starlet Anna Kendrick jumps behind the camera in her directorial debut. The film depicts the victims of the "Dating Game Killer" Rodney Alcala, a rapist and murderer who happened to appear on the game show The Dating Game in the 1970's. Kendrick stars in the film as the "lucky bachelorette" who selected Alcala at the end of the episode. The centerpiece sequence features her flexing her comedic chops on The Dating Game, in a hilarious series of questions that she makes up on the fly that undercut just what a sexist facade the show really was. While I haven't seen the episode that this movie was based on, I feel like I can say with confidence that this never, ever happened on the show and, if it ever did, the network would have never aired it. Kendrick has fun with her creative license though, really tearing down one of television's crowning achievements in crap. She then follows this up with a post-game evening of drinks with Alcala, where her curiosity turns into unease in a slow downturn, which is a fairly strong sequence of its own. Sometimes the movie struggles with the fact that Alcala's appearance on The Dating Game is fairly removed from his psychotic secret life, since there was very little to tell except he appeared on the show and the bachelorette declined a date with him afterwards. Kendrick spices that story by using it to express the struggles of victims, especially women, in a society dominated by men who fail to see their suffering. The movie's strength lies in how well she portrays female oppression and their unease in a sexist surrounding, and often the only people who notice a women's distress are other women. Kendrick is really, really good with the drama. The tension sometimes slips her grasp, because she is so focused on the emotional isolation rather than expanding that sense of unease to the audience. But the movie will pressure an emotional response in most viewers regardless, and Kendrick should be commended for that.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Goodrich ⭐️⭐️1/2
Longlegs ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Piece by Piece ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Saturday Night ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Smile 2 ⭐️⭐️1/2
Terrifier 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
We Live in Time ⭐️⭐️1/2
The Wild Robot ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
New To Digital
Azrael ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Transformers One ⭐️⭐️
New To Physical
Borderlands ⭐️⭐️
Cuckoo ⭐️⭐️1/2
Deadpool & Wolverine ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
In a Violent Nature ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Oddity ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Slingshot ⭐️1/2
Twisters ⭐️⭐️
Coming Soon!
