Multiplex Madness
Americana.
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Comedy, Thriller
Director: Tony Tost
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Simon Rex, Eric Dane, Zahn McClarnon
Someone in Hollywood seems convinced that I think about Sydney Sweeney more often than I do. My news feed gets littered with news about what dress she's wearing and whenever, while others are trying to sell me her on her own brand of soap, and right-wing nuts on YouTube are telling me that I'm trigger'd because she wears pants or something, I don't fucking know. Things about Sydney Sweeney failed to make sense a long time ago. I only know two things about her: she's very attractive and I have yet to see her in a movie that's actually any good. The closest has been the horror movie Immaculate, which was a boring nothing that was only written to pad out until it got to the only portion of the movie that had any vision, which was an ending where a woman caves a baby's head in with a rock. Americana didn't break that losing streak.
Sweeney plays a waitress who strikes an unlikely bond with Paul Walter Hauser and the two find themselves neck deep on a caper seeking out a Native American artifact that is leaving a bloodtrail across South Dakota across various vignette segments. Americana is the type of movie made by someone who has seen every Tarantino movie a hundred times and makes it his sacred mission to make "socially awkward white trash Pulp Fiction." The movie feels like it was made with focus but scripted with callousness, not really understanding the story it's telling but opting to simply throw idiosyncrasies at the wall and hope they work out for it. The movie wants to be peppy, funny, and unexpected while not exactly supporting any of those aspects. It's easy-going enough, though its habit of going ride-or-die with some of the weirdest plot contrivances makes it less endearing than it thinks it is. If nothing else, the movie has a mask of confidence to cover for it wandering around aimlessly. That's almost impressive by itself.
East of Wall
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Drama
Director: Kate Beecroft
Starring: Tabitha Zimiga, Porshia Zimiga, Scoot McNairy, Jennifer Ehle
Filmed in South Dakota, East of Wall features real-life mother/daughter duo Tabitha and Porschia Zimiga playing fictionalized versions of themselves, living on a family ranch in the wake of the death of Tabitha's husband and struggling to make ends meet. Tabitha works to sell horses, house children in need, and fend off offers to buy her land. Movies like this strive for an art in authenticity over storytelling but it's very easy to make it a shitshow when you're working with a group of amateurs (see: Clint Eastwood dramatizing a terrorist event with actual people who lived through it in The 15:17 to Paris). For a movie centered on a bunch of non-actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves, the acting is better than we've come to expect in productions like this. It's a movie that actually does achieve that far-reaching authenticity that escapes the grasp of many. Does it succeed at everything? Not entirely. The movie's cautious and quiet approach to the story can be repetitious with its slow burn, sometimes needlessly wallowing in similar scenes more than once. The movie does find life in its finale, giving heavier dramatic moments and allowing the leads to impress in several affective moments. The movie is otherwise a slight but beautiful-looking debut for Kate Beecroft, who mostly films like a docudrama but intercuts with some stunning cinematography. It's worth a look, especially if you're invested in ranch culture. But there are also a few filmmaking techniques that amateur artist might find inspiring.
Jimmy and Stiggs
⭐️1/2
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Director: Joe Begos
Starring: Joe Begos, Matt Mercer
Made by guys who had a lot of paint, a blacklight, and a dream, Jimmy and Stiggs also feels like a movie made by people whose only reference points for human culture were late-80's MTV and the video game Doom. The rather simplistic low budget movie sees director Joe Begos play a down-on-his-lucky director (self-portrait?) named Jimmy, who finds himself trapped in his apartment with his best friend Stiggs, and the duo are under attack by aliens. But if you ask me, these two deserve what they get. I mean, Jimmy has a Cannibal Holocaust poster on display. Who the fuck has a Cannibal Holocaust poster?
The movie itself feels largely a love letter to Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, and Rob Zombie. The movie barely has any story and it's visual storytelling seems intent on being a rambunctious acid trip. A lot of its aesthetic is made up by blacklight, neon, and bunch of rubber alien dolls. Very little in the movie looks realistic, but the movie does save its dollars for several impressive practical shots for the climax. The movie's sole ambition is to be relentless violence, and it succeeds modestly. I admire the movie's spirit but I just didn't have very much fun watching it. Jimmy and Stiggs are not endearing characters and their only purpose in the film is to exclaim and curse at each other. I both respect and appreciate this movie's dedication to being nothing but chaotic, low budget, bloody violence. I just wish they found a more endearing package to deliver it in than one that grunts and screams incoherently for eighty minutes.
Incidentally, this is one of those movies that starts out with fake trailers. What I find funny is that both fake trailers looked like they had a higher budget than the entire movie. Hell, one of them even had narration by Snoop Dogg. That was probably the highest bill, right there.
Nobody 2
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Action, Comedy
Director: Timo Tjahjanto
Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielson, John Ortiz, RZA, Colin Hanks, Christopher Lloyd, Sharon Stone, Colin Salmon
Bob Odinkirk returns to the role that casually saved his life a few years ago, as the stunt and fitness training on the original Nobody actually put him in a shape that helped him survive his heart attack in 2021. And who says action movies bring nothing of value to the world?
Nobody 2 returns us to the "quiet life" of Hutch Mansell, the suburban dad who is secretly an agent with John Wick level skills. Needing a break from the stress of killing a lot of people, Hutch and his family go on vacation at a spot he remembers fondly from his childhood. Unbeknownst to him, there is a underground bootlegging ring there, which puts Hutch directly in the path of the crooked law enforcement and mad criminal tycoon Sharon Stone. It's been a while since I've properly seen Sharon Stone in a movie. Even then, I have a gut feeling she only spent two days filming her stuff because she's not in this that much. Still, it's good to see her. As for the movie itself, it's more Nobody chaos. Those looking for the simple pleasures of seeing Bob Odenkirk being the most dangerous man in the room will find that Nobody 2 is a delight from its sunny start of family bonding to its booby trapped amusement park finale that just makes the movie Home Alone with a body count. Say what you will about the Nobody movies, but if you don't see the therapeutic nature to seeing a meek-looking Odenkirk lay waste to a group of thugs who are trying to bully him, then your objectivity might be broken.
MST Note: Future War star Daniel Bernhardt has a role as one of Sharon Stone's goons in this movie.
Went Up the Hill
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Drama, Horror
Director: Samuel Van Grinsven
Starring: Dacre Montgomery, Vicky Krieps
Went Up the Hill was a bit of rocky ride for me, let me tell you. There are legitimate arguments that the movie is very good and legitimate arguments that the movie is dully mediocre. Ultimately, I'm going to split the difference and round slightly down because the movie's Jack & Jill motif is annoyingly purposeless. I'm going to blame the movie for this because I feel like it.
Former Power Ranger Dacre Montgomery attends his mother's funeral and stays at her home with her widowed wife Vicky Krieps. They find that every night, the deceased woman is still present, taking turns possessing their bodies. It took me a good long while to meet this movie at its own wavelength because for a time the film seemingly is about grief and holding onto a lost loved one but it was being told with cold, detached performances and seemed to only be half an idea, at best. Patience eventually rewarded me as it eventually becomes clear that the movie isn't about grief at all and is actually about abuse victims. The reason Montgomery and Krieps are so withdrawn in this movie is due to a timidness in laying to rest someone who has hurt them physically and emotionally. Halfway through the movie, they start showing that the emotion they're withholding is actually pent up fear and anger, turning their performances from being dull into being exceptional. It's a movie about a haunting that's also about being haunted, and that's kind of brilliant. Unfortunately, it frustrates as it milks the drama unnecessarily and collapses upon itself as its metaphors go off-the-rails in the climax. There is a ton of good stuff in this movie, but its story is drowning in the artistic expression. It's a cautious recommendation on the basis that it's certainly a movie that specific film goers will forgive its flaws much easier because the story it's trying to tell is so powerful.
Witchboard
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Horror
Director: Chuck Russell
Starring: Madison Iseman, Aaron Dominguez, Melanie Jarnson, Charlie Tahan, Antonia Desplat, Jamie Campbell Bower
🏆"Hurts So Good" Must-See Bad Movie Award🏆
When the world runs out of brand name horror franchises to reboot, we must turn to the obscure ones. Witchboard is a trilogy from yesteryear that genre aficionados who jump into the niche corners of the video store might have heard of, though personally the only reason I know it at all is because the original 1986 film was on The Last Drive-In a few years ago. Whether that makes me a fake horror fan or not is up to you to decide, but in all frankness, even though I did see it, I barely remember it. I remember the movie being a rather base movie about friends playing with a Ouija board and dying. But remaking that franchise idea is going to be difficult when Ouija has practically been played out by trying to franchise it into its own brand name horror franchise, though the only one worth a damn was Mike Flanagan's Ouija: Origin of Evil. The decision to bring Witchboard back after that franchise raises an eyebrow, but the film is more of a ground-up reinvention than a remake. Witchboard got a glossy, sexy makeover.
Instead of a traditional Ouija, the new Witchboard is a redesigned "pendulum board," which guides the user based on the swing of a spooky pendant on a string. Lady lead Madison Iseman finds it in the woods and does what all curious cats do and starts playing with it. People start dying, Iseman finds herself haunted by a scarred witch lady, and a cat won't stop hanging around and stealing dismembered hands. I'm not joking. The cat steals hands. There's a whole scene where some dude chases it with a meat cleaver, which is an extreme reaction to have to a cat but admittedly it has been a weird day for him and the cat stole a hand. The whole production is extreme like this in a daft and plastic way. The movie looks and feels unapologetically phony, being a macabre showcase of animated blood and carnage wrought on artificial people. Horror geeks who vibe with the tone will enjoy it more than others, which meant I was vibing with most of it.
The film is advertised as being directed by "horror master" Chuck Russell, which is not how I've ever thought of Chuck Russell, but whatever. Russell has directed only three other horror movies in his career: Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (which is great), the 80's remake of The Blob (which has its moments), and Bless the Child (which I don't remember). He also directed The Mask, which started production as a horror movie but switched gears when Jim Carrey signed on to star. He also hasn't really had a Hollywood presence since 2002 when he made The Scorpion King, and he certainly feels as if he's out of practice. There's a certain devil-may-care nature to the movie's theatricality which feels more at home in 80's horror. The movie isn't focused on being anything in particular, just something silly you might find on streaming and get a laugh out of. I'm not entirely sure what it's actually trying to sell me otherwise, although it's at least getting some mileage out of hiring Madison Iseman as the lead. Iseman is not someone I'd normally consider high on my list of overlooled acting talents but she has always presented herself as a minor gem when she pops up in movies like this. In Witchboard, she is taking a thankless part and she's actually trying to show acting chops, clashing hard with the stilted dialogue she's given, but she's the one castmember that's trying to come off as genuine in a fake prism. That's more than this movie deserves, but it gives it a bit of soul to prop up its playfulness and turn it into a minor knee-slapper of splatter.
Netflix & Chill
Night Always Comes
⭐️⭐️1/2
Streaming On: Netflix
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director: Benjamin Caron
Starring: Vanessa Kirby, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zack Gottsagen, Stephan James, Randall Park, Julia Fox, Michael Kelly, Eli Roth
Vanessa Kirby stars in this generally faithful adaptation of the 2021 novel of the same name, where she plays a woman working several jobs to support herself, her mother, and her brother with Down Syndrome. When her mother spends what was supposed to be the money for the down payment on their house, Kirby spends the night trying to raise $25,000 in a hurry, by hook or crook. Fans of the book will probably be pleased with this adaptation, as it's mostly true to outline of the story, even if it's simplified somewhat, though it doesn't exactly use the opportunity to clean up some of it's messier storytelling methods. Night Always Comes gunshots us with information at relevant points, which can sometimes be overwhelming. The structure of the novel tries to use this to allow us to learn more about Kirby's character as it goes, though a movie can't explain a complex history the way a book can. The movie does the best it can with what it has, keeping the relevant notions base to keep the narrative from getting distracted. The biggest change in the narrative hits with a cameo from Eli Roth in the climax, a sequence that replaces one that is far different than its book counterpart, but establishes Kirby's mental state and emotional issues so the audience can see it rather than being told about it in dialogue. Whether it's a necessary change or not depends on what you feel the movie needed at this point. Kirby does sell it, though, and is uniformly fantastic throughout.
The movie does tend to make the environments less unappealing. The book goes to scummy places, they've just been made Hollywood scummy as opposed to "I feel like I'll get herpes from touching anything in here" scummy. Stephan James character, for example, is more approachable in the movie than he is in the book. Characters, in general, are given a Hollywoodized makeover. Her handicapped brother is played by Peanut Butter Falcon star Zack Gottsagen, who plays a less cognitively-impaired version of the character that's in the book, likely because of a "rule" that was put forth in Tropic Thunder (you know the one, I'm not saying it, but you know what it is). The movie also lets him tag along for a brief period, probably to give him more to do. Gottsagen still doesn't do much, but his character is more of a plot motivation than an actual player in the book and there wasn't much you could do with him.
Both the book and the movie have their flaws, but the theme of the story being about the degradation of the American Dream and the perceived futility of even trying to achieve it is pretty sound, depicting a woman who can't stand on her two feet because she's struggling to stay afloat. The movie has less hefty monologues explaining it to the audience, which is a more palletable version of it, but I'm also not sure it gets its point across as strongly.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
The Bad Guys 2 ⭐️⭐️1/2
F1 ⭐️⭐️
The Fantastic 4: First Steps ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Freakier Friday ⭐️⭐️1/2
Jurassic World: Rebirth ⭐️1/2
My Mother's Wdding ⭐️⭐️
The Naked Gun ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Shin Godzilla ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sketch ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Superman ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Together ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Weapons ⭐️⭐️⭐️
New To Digital
Eddington ⭐️⭐️
Smurfs ⭐️1/2
Superman ⭐️⭐️⭐️
New To Physical
The Accountant² ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Coming Soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment