Multiplex Madness
F1
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Drama, Sports
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Javier Bardem
Joseph Kosinski continues to try and become the Tony Scott of this generation by following up a Top Gun movie by trying to do Top Gun with race cars. F1 proves to be more like original Top Gun than the more invigorating Top Gun: Maverick, as aged racer Brad Pitt hits the Formula One grand prix to help bring wins under a struggling team's belt. Sports movies are usually ride-or-die on their home-grown charisma. F1 theorizes that the definition of charisma is Brad Pitt's smile. It's not entirely wrong, but it can only help the movie so much when the rest is dull melodrama set to a banger soundtrack. The movie just isn't much of anything. The drama is uninspired, coasting on well-liked cast (in addition to Pitt, we have Kerry Condon and Javier Bardem), but all seem to be cast based on how well they smile into the camera and scream into a void victoriously. The film gives little context to how well their racers are doing outside of these reaction shots and victory spoils, leaving it feeling like the entire enterprise has been coasting in neutral, despite the kinetic racing visuals that Kosinski brings to the table and a few intriguing dives into Formula One team strategy. That's about all the entertainment value the film has, so if you're in for the racing, you'll get the racing, albeit mostly in choppy montages. It's hard for me to picture returning to this movie when Ford v Ferrari exists and did many of the things this movie does better.
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Drama
Director: Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Starring: Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw, Vicky Krieps
Emma Mackey escorts mother, Fiona Shaw, to a Spanish clinic for her cancer. Mackey increasingly feels pinned down by the demands of her ill mother, seeking refuge in romantic liaisons with seamstress Vicky Krieps. This can only lead to one thing: hot arthouse drama lesbian sex! It's actually more heavy petting and make-out sessions than anything intense, so for those who want their queer love stories steaming and with a lot of oh-face, Hot Milk is not quite that, basking in afterglow rather than intercourse. The movie is more about the main character's emotional state than any love story she seeks out, because the camera loves to focus squarely on Emma Mackey and lets her emote. Mackey is great at glowering. Her chiseled, angular face offers great expression for the intense looks the movie asks her to do. She can look extremely pissed off and still be radiant. Most of the movie relies on her emotive range because she needs to be a boiling pot at risk of swelling over. The movie is very good at subtly conveying someone who feels trapped and desperately seeks comfort, which has a lot to do with the work Mackey does. Sometimes the rest of the movie feels like it's rushing to catch up with her, up-to-and-including an ambiguous ending. It's an ending that is certainly a choice, though the longer I sit with it, it does feel like it matches the theme of a person resenting the cage she feels she is locked up in. Hot Milk eventually ends up being an interesting movie. Not interesting at all times during its duration, but if you think about it long enough, it can make you wonder a little more about it's more curious corners.
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Comedy, Action, Science Fiction, Thriller
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Starring: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Ivanna Sakhno, Jemaine Clement
To quote a classic tagline of yesteryear, the bitch is back. The base model and source code to killer robot toy M3GAN has been used for a government prototype named AMELIA, who has gone rouge and deadly in a decidedly M3GAN-type fashion. The surviving M3GAN A.I. (hiding in the household wi-fi for the last two years) convinces her previously terrorized host family of Gemma and Cady to rebuild her body to help protect them from the upgraded android. M3GAN 2.0 seeks to be the Terminator 2 in comparison to its original. It accidentally stumbles into being Iron Man 2 instead, doubling down on everything people liked about the last one but leading them in a more less interesting direction. It's bigger, bolder, and quippier, and M3GAN sings and dances some more, though it has half the heart. Or, at the very least, the heart it chose to have is put to a more pandering use. This movie has a very distinctly kitschy vibe, and it's actually different than the one that is on display in the trailers where it's just a silly sci-fi action/comedy. The movie is actually a recreation of a very niche genre of "kids bond with something grotesque/scary that becomes savior against similar things that are less friendly" type of storytelling that was mostly predominant in the 80s and 90s (Terminator 2 is kinda one of these movies, also). Meanwhile, the film also approaches a Chopping Mall level of camp in its over-the-top action. I'm of two minds on the result. Half of this movie is the funniest comedy and the coolest action movie I've seen thus far this year. The other half is needlessly overblown. What makes M3GAN 2.0 a conflicting watch is that it seemingly thinks the latter is what creates the former.
The movie's storyline is large and convoluted while its humor can be big swings that result in moderate amusement. Most of the movie's charisma kicks into high-gear when M3GAN is back into the picture, still being the absolute queen that she has always been. Vocalist Jenna Davis and physical actor Amie Donald slip back into the role with ease, though M3GAN is allowed to mature just a slight bit as they are neither the little girls they were when they filmed the first movie. But there would be little point in making a second M3GAN movie if we didn't keep them, because a good chunk of the first film's popularity stems from what they brought to the table in the title role (yes, including the endlessly memeified "M3GAN dance"). Ivanna Sakhno is solid as her antagonist AMELIA, though she is given less character by design. The choreographed action scenes between the two steal the show, ensuring that even if the movie is a misfire in plotting, it brings the thunder in its most important moments. This movie even has a really fun car chase with M3GAN at the wheel, which was something I didn't see coming.
There are things about this movie that I know I can tear into, because it could be so much better than it is if full sections of it were overhauled. I'm going to refrain from doing so because, deep down, I do see what this movie thought it was doing and am tickled that it even tried it. In some ways, M3GAN 2.0 is my biggest disappointment of the year, but it also did it in a way that makes me shrug and say "But I had fun anyway." M3GAN is probably the most charming horror icon we've had in a while, and 2.0's efforts to turn her into a lovably violent anti-hero are done with good intentions. If a third movie ever happens (or if, god forbid, they ever do the Chucky "versus" movie that has been floating around), I'll be first in line.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
28 Years Later... ⭐️⭐️
Ballerina ⭐️⭐️1/2
Bride Hard ⭐️
Bring Her Back ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Elio ⭐️⭐️1/2
The Life of Chuck ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Lilo & Stitch ⭐️⭐️
Materialists ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Phoenician Scheme ⭐️⭐️1/2
Thunderbolts ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
New To Digital
The Last Rodeo ⭐️⭐️
The Ritual ⭐️1/2
New To Physical
A Minecraft Movie ⭐️⭐️
The Monkey ⭐️⭐️1/2
Novocaine ⭐️⭐️1/2
Snow White ⭐️⭐️
Coming Soon!