Multiplex Madness
Backrooms
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Horror
Director: Kane Parsons
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell
Chiwetel Ejiofor wanders into a magic portal in the wall of his furniture store and winds up in a weird purgatory labyrinth of abstract rooms that are seemingly endless. The concept is very much like that Twilight Zone episode where the little girl finds a portal to another dimension in her bedroom (also the Simpsons parody where Homer does the same thing and becomes a 3D model), so this movie isn't going to win many points for originality. In fact, we've already had a movie very similar to this one in Exit 8 this year. Exit 8 had a lot going for it that Backrooms does not have, though. For one, it's psychology feels more intricately linked to its labyrinth concept, while with Backrooms, both the psychological aspect and its horror aspect feel separated. Ejiofor is a man going through a mental crisis of being lost in life and finds himself lost in whatever the fuck this is, but there is not a lot about each aspect that enhances the other. The whole Backrooms thing seems pretty incidental. Sometimes it mirrors things from his life but there doesn't seem to be any genuine reason for it, except generic trauma baggage that is only here for decor for a giant pirate man that eats people. Exit 8, by comparison, had a setting that seemed to be very specifically linked to an emotional and mental state, almost like a trial one needed to prove themselves in. In Backrooms, your brain is fucked up, then fucked up shit happens. Whatever.
The film is based on a Creepypasta internet meme, and it feels exactly like one. On first glance, it seems psychologically haunting but the longer you stare at it, the more meaningless it becomes. After a while, it's hard to not get bored and do something else. The movie is not void of effective moments. It just can't munster up the energy to turn them into anything interesting. The primary trick of the film is to use liminal space and uncanny valley to invoke unease. Sometimes it lingers on both too much and it just becomes silly. After a while, wandering around in a bunch of beige rooms starts to become more irritating than creepy, especially since very few of them offer much new except a different object that's stuck in a wall. Backrooms is a movie that I wanted to like but could not work up the energy to care about because it just wasn't anything. It wasn't interesting, it wasn't disturbing, it was just...empty.
MST Note: This movie features footage from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. It's a pretty random movie to just throw in here, but I was happy to see it.
The Breadwinner
Pressure
Tuner
The Breadwinner
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Comedy
Director: Eric Appel
Starring: Nate Bargatze, Mandy Moore, Colin Jost, Zach Cherry, Martin Herlihy, Kumail Nanjiani, Will Forte
Comedian Nate Bargatze tries his hand at a feature comedy in this flick, which has him playing a working dad who suddenly finds himself running the day-to-day household when his wife suddenly starts a business of her own and has to leave town. Things don't go very well because man is not equiped for motherly work or some sexist shit like that. Harmless, if also clueless. The movie is like a Junior High School community play remake of Mr. Mom but nobody had actually seen Mr. Mom so they just took a guess. Honestly, I've watched the trailer to this movie many times at the theater in the past few months and I've always zoned out after the Shark Tank sketch, which was always very weird to me, where Bargatze is scolded by the "sharks" for seemingly no reason. That's the primary joke of the movie, where Bargatze is seemingly innocuous but somehow manages to screw everything up by simply being present. He just walks in a room and that causes everything to unravel around him. The movie becomes that Community meme of Donald Glover walking into a room with pizza with everything in utter chaos, only repeat. It's a movie that's hard to work up any real energy to laugh at, because it's just so sterile. That makes it a pretty okay offering for families wanting a nice clean comedy, and the movie doesn't have any fart jokes or masked innuendo, so it's pretty inoffensive even by the standards of other family movies. I can't promise it will be a favorite of the household, though.
Pressure
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Drama
Director: Anthony Maras
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Andrew Scott, Kerry Condon, Chris Messina, Damian Lewis
Isn't that just typical, when you make a historical war drama but don't know what to say, so you just discuss the weather.
Based on a true story, Brendan Fraser plays then-general, future-President Dwight Eisenhower as he is planning the invasion of D-Day during World War II. There is only one problem, the forecast. The film follows him listening to the advice of debating meteorologists in the uncertainty that the plan of action might go forward. It's a movie about tactics more than event, which makes this movie a tricky sell, even with solid acting. Fraser is good, and I like seeing Kerry Condon in things, but I wouldn't call this a powerhouse of historical performances. The movie's first half is pretty dull, as the drama struggles to really take off in weather pattern analysis. The movie does become more interesting as it goes, when the stakes start getting established. There are even a few dramatic beats that the movie absolutely nails. There aren't enough of them for me to say this movie is a must-see, but it tells it's story pretty decently.
Tuner
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director: Daniel Roher
Starring: Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu, Lior Raz, Tovah Feldshuh, Jean Reno, Dustin Hoffman
Leo Woodall stars as the titular piano tuner, who has a hearing sensitivity defect that also happens to make him ideal for hearing tumbler locks on safes. That, of course, makes this one of those "Normie has one skill that happens to be very useful to baddies" movies, and he is enlisted as a safecracker by some shady folks. Then comes the part where he makes easy money to get out of debt and tries to juggle a girlfriend while doing his bad deeds behind her back. The movie is probably a little too straightforward to stand out among its hapless skilled guy crime movie peers. Tuner doesn't have the rhythm of a Baby Driver, for example. It is a solid execution of tropes with a decent heart in its production. The movie almost seems to have more fun with its music sequences over its crime story, so if it starts to feel a little basic, it will suddenly burst with a passion that might surprise you in the corner you'd least expect.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
The Devil Wears Prada 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I Love Boosters ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Michael ⭐️⭐️
Mortal Kombat II ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Obsession ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Passenger ⭐️⭐️
Project Hail Mary ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
The Sheep Detectives ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
New To Digital
Animal Farm ⭐️
Desert Warrior ⭐️⭐️1/2
Over Your Dead Body ⭐️⭐️1/2
New To Physical
Dracula ⭐️
Dreams ⭐️⭐️
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sentimental Value ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Coming Soon!
