Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 21 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

About My Father

⭐

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Laura Terruso

Starring:  Robert DeNiro, Sebastian Maniscalco, Leslie Bibb, Kim Cattrall

Oof.

I mean, what can I say about a movie that thinks screaming "SUCK THE LEMON!" is a funny bit worth devoting two minutes to.

Influenced by the life of stand-up Sebastian Maniscalco, About My Father is yet another Meet the Parents scenario featuring Robert DeNiro.  I guarantee you there are better options for anybody who wants one of those.  It's a very blandly presented comedy trying to wring laughs out of broad accents and poorly structured slapstick.  This is a very unfunny movie, but positives include some good comedic chemistry between DeNiro and co-star Kim Cattrall, which begs for a better movie to be showcased in.  Also I thought an adult coloring book gag was pretty funny.  That's about all I got out of this poor comedy, which misfires for 90 belabored minutes of mugging and just made me feel sad.

Kandahar

⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Thriller, Action

Director:  Ric Roman Waugh

Starring:  Gerard Butler

Kandahar was last week's Regal Mystery Movie, which I didn't attend because Regal's accelerated schedule for the promotion was so rapid that taking time off work to attend was becoming problematic (AKA I needed to save that time off to attend Shin Kamen Rider next week), and there were no movies that fit the profile that I thought it was worth taking a night off to attend (I was leaning toward the theory that the screening was going to be The Machine, admittedly).  Kandahar was the lucky draw, which is a fairly sturdy thriller starring Gerard Butler, which has him as an American agent in Afghanistan, seeking to make his way out when his cover is exposed.  Can he do it?  Of course he can, because he's Gerard Butler, motherfucker.  He's like Batman if he were Scottish and instead of a costume had large amounts of body hair.  Butler fans might be better served by the movie Plane from earlier this year, which was a heavier action showcase, while Kandahar keeps action to slight plot events while there is a heavier emphasis on dramatic beats while exposed in enemy surroundings.  It's pretty okay, though it never thrills as hard as it aims to.  It's a solid two hour investment if it looks up your ally.

The Little Mermaid

⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Fantasy, Romance, Musical

Director:  Rob Marshall

Starring:  Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy, Javier Bardem, Jonah Hauer-King

It's that time again.  Time for another live action remake of a Disney animated production.  They will not stop until all they have left is Home on the Range and Chicken Little.  Do those now, you cowards.

This time the choice for de-animation is The Little Mermaid, which is possibly a much more unthinkable production in a pre-Aquaman world.  But sadly Aquaman worked its underwater world better.  There's a strange non-committal to realism or expressionistic fantastical.  Animals like Sebastian and Flounder try to look like real animals with bizarre features to exaggerate them while underwater physics are inconsistent, coming off as real gravity with floaty hair.  The water almost seems choosy on what it affects and doesn't.  The result fails to capture the beauty it aspires to, but at least it isn't the garish nightmare that was Beauty & the Beast or the blandness of The Lion King.  But credit where credit is due, director Rob Marshall embraces the Broadway nature of the Dinsney Renaissance era films by trying to deliver a showstopper with flair.  It probably would have done wonders if the movie had been guided by someone more stylish though, but that might be my bias as I enjoyed that spicy little Bollywood favor Guy Ritchie gave Aladdin.  But even when the movie struggles to work at full efficiency, it has a secret weapon in Halle Bailey, who shines like a bright star as Ariel.  When the movie sputters, it just points the camera toward her and everything falls into place.  That's a lot of power for one performer.

(True story, when coming out of The Little Mermaid, the theater was next to another theater playing Evil Dead Rise with an open door. I just got to see a dozen families pass by a black hallway that was screaming "DEAD BY DAWN!" at them.)

The Machine

⭐⭐

Genre:  Comedy, Action

Director:  Peter Atencio

Starring:  Bert Kreischer, Mark Hamill, Iva Babic

This is the second movie this week based on a comedian's stand-up act that I've never heard of.  I guess this one is supposed to be a viral one, so that shows how hip with the kids I am.  This one is a sequel to Bert Kreischer's "The Machine" bit, where he relates a story about robbing a train with the Russian mafia in his 20's, seeing that come back to haunt him as the daughter of a kingpin comes looking for a watch he stole.  I don't know anything about Kreischer or even if any of this nonsense is true.  Is it funny?  Ehhhh...maybe the stand up is, but the movie struggles to maintain itself.  It has a tendency to tucker itself out on its own plot and just broadly mugging for the camera for lengthy sections.  Some of it is good for a laugh, while some of it is just tiresome.  Even Mark Hamill isn't immune and is sucked into the movie's vices.  But Iva Babic is surprisingly the most consistent player, as while mostly she's confined to being a straight performer to Kreischer and Hamill, she handles a lot of her comedic material with more heft, and works the action beats like a trooper.  Spin-off of her, please.

The Wrath of Becky

⭐⭐

Genre:  Action, Thriller, Comedy

Director:  Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote

Starring:  Lulu Wilson, Seann William Scott

Cards on the table, I thought Becky was one of the worst movies of 2020.  That was quite a hill to climb, because that year was a hellscape of mediocre releases studios didn't think would make money and scattershot indie productions that had nothing to lose.  Becky was one of the latter, and from what I understand it created waves in drive-ins while normal theaters took a hit during the summer.  Unfortunately I didn't seem as crazy about it as others were.  It was an idea that was amusing on paper, which saw a hormonal teenager with anger issues going gory Home Alone on a group of Neo Nazis who had targeted her family.  Watching bigoted assholes (which included a terribly miscast Kevin James) getting their faces sliced off had primitive charm, but the issue was that Becky herself was a misfire of a character, who sabotaged the film with her unlikability.  While it's true that she never was less likable than her antagonists, it was hard to care about the outcome when the warring factions were nobody you wanted to root for.

Now they're franchising the character.  Yay.

I guess you can say I liked The Wrath of Becky better than the first one, but not enough to the point where it matters.  This sequel sees Lulu Wilson reprising the role, vowing to kill another group of Neo Nazis who stole her dog and killed a woman she befriended.  To put it bluntly, the thing that stuck out about the original was its chaotic, relentless carnage, which seems to be something Wrath of Becky knows but is unable to replicate.  Gore and over-the-top kills are featured, they all feel light and none of them feel centerpiece.  If I were a bigger fan of the first, I'd probably be disappointed with how little Wrath pushes the envelope.  However, the slight edge is that this movie makes strides to make Becky more of a character and less of a screaming psychopath.  Those who liked that she was just a hellfire ball of rage in that first movie might be disappointed in that, but it worked wonders in making her an appealing protagonist.  There might be a much better movie in cross pollinating the pros of each movie into something that is as gleefully edgy as it thinks it is.  The Becky series might be slowly figuring that out.  Unfortunately it hasn't figured out how to be fun yet.  But it's hard to dislike a series that hates alt-right white supremacists as much as the Becky series does, so it's doing that right.  But it's also hard to recommend these movies for that when you could watch Sisu instead.

You Hurt My Feelings

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Nicole Holofcener

Starring:  Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Michaela Watkins, Arian Moayed

The always wonderful Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as an author married to a therapist, who overhears that he doesn't like the latest book she's writing, and the existential crisis it stirs within her.  The film is very dry, but stunningly sharp as it explores the supportive deception people partake in in personal friendships and relationships.  It's not just her story in play, because we see the ripple of the theme work its way though her and her supporting cast and how the little pieces of gaslighting they all partake in to make it through the day create an almost hollow reality.  While it saves criticism of it for its final act, it mostly stays observational, though its honesty about "honesty" is delightful and therapeutic.

Art Attack

Everything Went Fine

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  François Ozon

Starring:  Sophie Marceau, André Dussollier, Géraldine Paihas

Former Bond Girl Sophie Marceau (The World is Not Enough is a goddamn classic and I won't hear a word against it) stars in this French import as a woman who cares for her father, who has just suffered a stroke, and finds herself hearing his pleas for assisted suicide.  Movies like Everything Went Fine are usually a contemplative study of mortality, of which I didn't feel this was quite its full intention.  Themes about the acceptance of a loved one's loss are present, but to me Everything Went Fine was more about the reluctant embrace that a loved one's wants and needs are different than another's own.  The father's wishes are prevalent and never change, as eyes turn to Marceau to have a character arc where she goes through the stages of grief while her father is still alive and the tension the idea brings as his request hangs above them in every moment of their day, whether it's mentioned or not.  I think there are aspects of its conclusion that are left too open ended to satisfy, but life is messy and closure doesn't always happen the way we desire, so in a roundabout way it still works.

Netflix & Chill

Influencer

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Streaming On:  Shudder

Genre:  Thriller

Director:  Kurtis David Harder

Starring:  Cassandra Naud, Emily Tennant, Sara Canning, Rory J. Saper

An absolute knock-out of a thriller has hit Shudder this week.  To say too much is to spoil the game, but to stay as coy as possible about it, Influencer features a social media diva meeting a mysterious stranger while out and about, who may not be what she seems.  If that sounds familiar, that's because that's the basest elements to it, which it jumps from about twenty minutes in and compounds.  If there's a flaw to the plan, it's because it reveals so much early on and what plays after aren't so much plot twists rather than complications.  The ending is a tad predictable based on how it plays out, but when the product is this dynamite, it's easily forgiven.  Influencer takes influence from the iconic, from Single White Female to Gone Girl, while spicing it up with its own take based around the fleeting fame of social media.  If you have that Shudder account and are waiting for Joe Bob Briggs to come back from hiatus, this is a good flick to keep you entertained until then.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margaret. ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Evil Dead Rise ⭐⭐⭐

Fast X ⭐⭐1/2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ⭐⭐⭐

John Wick:  Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nefarious ⭐

Sisu ⭐⭐⭐

The Super Mario Bros. Movie ⭐⭐1/2

New To Digital

John Wick:  Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Love Again ⭐⭐

The Super Mario Bros. Movie ⭐⭐1/2

New To Physical

Consecration ⭐⭐

Creed III ⭐⭐⭐

Shazam! Fury of the Gods ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 20 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Fast X

⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Action

Director:  Louis Leterrier

Starring:  Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Sung Kang, Jason Momoa, Charlize Theron, John Cena, Jordana Brewster, Brie Larson, Alan Ritchson, Scott Eastwood, Jason Statham

The greatest strength of the Fast & Furious franchise is also it's greatest weakness, it's that every entry of it is pretty much exactly what you think it is and it doubles down on stupidest things about it with each installment.  Sometimes it can create a golden dummy of an action movie, such as Fast & Furious 6, or fizzle out with a junky misfire, like F9.  Here's the thing though, I can't guarantee that each viewer will fit those descriptions with the same movies.  Some might think 9 is a great time while 6 is probably boring (these people are wrong and I will street race them for pinks).  There are also those who are all in on the chaotic joyride (these people are insane) and those who won't touch these movies with a ten foot pole (these people are arguably even more insane).  I can't guarantee anybody's reaction to this movie, but I personally had enough knee-slapping "That is so stupid but I can't look away" moments that I'd consider Fast X a recommended watch for those who even have a 51% ratio of enjoyment of this franchise.  This time the Team Family group is targeted by the psychotic son of the drug lord they robbed in Fast Five, who spreads the group thin and hounds them to their breaking points.  The film doesn't offer a hell of a lot that previous F&F installments didn't already deliver, but Jason Momoa shines like a star as the villain, who joyously brings pain to anybody in his way.  But as good as Momoa is, the film suffers from a lack of pace, as it splits the characters in five different directions that aren't distinctive enough to make the film feel like it has momentum.  It has action to spare, but the highlight is a bomb chase in Rome that happens early on and the film struggles to find a setpiece that's half as interesting, settling on using cars as indestructible wrecking balls that leave devastation in their wake.  The movie's erratic storylines might not be so jarring if the film had an ending, but the film ends on an abrupt cliffhanger, setting up an underdog comeback for the next film that hasn't been filmed yet despite the two-part status of these two movies.  And when it does come back, it's hard to feel like its overcoming through the fire is earned, as the franchise has killed and brought back characters willy nilly for a good while now, showing that there are no consequences to the actions of these characters despite how devastating this film wants to be toward them.  Despite this, I enjoyed this movie's nonsense, but given where the road ends up, I can't say it's a satisfying journey.

Art Attack

Carmen

⭐⭐

Genre:  Drama, Musical

Director:  Benjamin Millepied

Starring:  Melissa Barrera, Paul Mescal

My lack of experience with opera is probably getting the better of me, though if there's a solid opera venue in Idaho it's likely very niche, I can tell you.  Carmen is an adaptation of one of the most beloved operas, though from what I can tell it's a very lose one, reimagined as a story of a Mexican immigrant crossing the border and on the run with a soldier who killed his partner to protect her.  The movie is very dynamic, well photographed with excellent choreography highlighting it.  In the Heights and Scream star Melissa Barrera shines brightly in it because of it, as while the camera has always loved her, this camera in particular makes a concentrated effort to flow with her every movement like it's dancing with her.  The issue that I come to with this movie is that it feels like the risks its taking aren't paying off for it.  As an opera itself, it feels broken, more focused on basic drama that is disconnected from its format.  What I feel in my gut is that it puts so much effort into tearing its story down and rebuilding it from scratch that it loses its own identity while trying to forge its own.  The return for the work it puts into itself seems like less that it was hoping it would be worth.  As an experiment it's interesting, as a movie it's frustrating.  Even if you have no context for what it's doing, you can tell that it's not working.

Monica

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Andrea Pallaoro

Starring:  Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Browning, Adriana Barraza, Joshua Close

Monica is the story of a trans woman who comes home to help tend to her ailing mother who doesn't recognize her.  The film is look at the anxiety of trans life, from fragile family bonds to sexual relationships.  Interestingly the film doesn't dig into the most extreme of trans issues, like the bigotry they can face, instead choosing to stay a very intimate portrayal of an estranged woman who reluctantly finds herself in a situation where she has to see if old wounds can mend and if she can be accepted by those she's supposed to call family.  There's a smartness to a presentation, because it turns Monica's journey as a trans woman into something relatable and sympathetic to those who don't relate to the trans identity, because we can feel what she feels through the screen.  It's a look at the turmoil that humanizes a trans person in a world that seems to want to treat them less human every day.  Not everybody will hear that message, because some minds are walled off too thoroughly for anything to penetrate, but it's a compelling expression of a struggle that should be in the spotlight.  And it's a movie that shows her doing nothing extraordinary to win her family's graces, just being herself.  Which, in a perfect world, should be enough.

Róise & Frank

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Comedy, Drama

Director:  Rachel Moriarty, Peter Murphy

Starring:  Bríd Ní Neachtain, Cillian O'Gairbhi

This cute little Irish import sees a grieving woman visited by a stray dog, who she adopts while believing to be the reincarnated soul of her dead husband.  Pet owners are the ones most likely to fall down the film's rabbit hole of schmaltz, as its sentimentality is its underlining trait as it tells a very sweet, but also very safe story.  There are little surprises in the film, and a lot of the comedy relies on how a woman treats a dog like a grown man.  But while it's a tad too safe, it finds its way to an ending that says so much while little to no words are being said.  What results is a lovely little ode to the therapeutic nature of pets and why we love them, making them some of the most important members of our family.

Netflix & Chill

White Men Can't Jump

⭐⭐

Streaming On:  Hulu

Genre:  Drama, Comedy, Sports

Director:  Calmatic

Starring:  Sinqua Walls, Jack Harlow, Teyana Taylor, Laura Harrier, Lance Reddick

For context, I haven't seen the original White Man Can't Jump, which I guess is a generational classic from my era.  It was just something that never fell in front of me while I watched silly monster movies growing up.  So I have no nostalgic anchor to hold me back on judging a remake of that film fairly.  I can only imagine it being better though, and that's based on the cast alone.  Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes?  I mean, yes please!  Why didn't I stream that one?  And that's the failing that I saw with this movie, is that it isn't necessarily bad, but it's cast doesn't give it spice.  Sinqua Walls and Jack Harlow aren't individually bad, but there is no real chemistry between the two of them to spark the character comedy that that the movie wants to ride on.  The movie is about a pair of shit-talking street hustlers, and sharp tongues and charismatic interplay are required.  Harlow's inexperience as an actor is a hurdle to overcome as well, often making the film feel like it's being carried by Walls, which is unfair.  This needs an ensemble to survive, and without that it falls well short of the hoop.  But the best part about watching an underwhelming remake of a popular movie is that there's still a better version you can watch instead.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Air ⭐⭐⭐

Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margaret. ⭐⭐⭐1/2

BlackBerry ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Book Club:  The Next Chapter ⭐⭐

The Covenant ⭐⭐⭐

Evil Dead Rise ⭐⭐⭐

Fool's Paradise ⭐⭐⭐

Hypnotic ⭐⭐

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ⭐⭐⭐

John Wick:  Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Knights of the Zodiac ⭐⭐

Love Again ⭐⭐

Nefarious ⭐

Sisu ⭐⭐⭐

The Super Mario Bros. Movie ⭐⭐1/2

New To Digital

Big George Foreman ⭐⭐

Sisu ⭐⭐⭐

The Super Mario Bros. Movie ⭐⭐1/2

New To Physical

Ant-Man and the Wasp:  Quantumania ⭐⭐⭐

The Magic Flute ⭐⭐

Moving On ⭐⭐1/2

Operation Fortune:  Ruse de Guerre ⭐⭐⭐

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 19 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

BlackBerry

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Matt Johnson

Starring:  Jay Baruchel, Glen Howerton, Matt Johnson

I missed the whole BlackBerry fad because I didn't have a cell phone until 2008 because nobody wants to talk to my dead ass, so I have little context for what this thing is except that it's maybe that thing from that episode of The Simpsons where Homer yelled "I had Lenny's name on that!" (or was that a Palm Pilot?)  The BlackBerry movie had to offer me something other than brand recognition, and if it did anything that caught my interest it's that it offered what the movie Air didn't do last month, where it offers a glimpse at a capitalistic whirlwind and spiral.  Air tried to set up corporate overlords as relatable underdogs, which was strange and didn't hit for me.  BlackBerry shows well-intentioned nerds with ideas and no business-sense swept up in a tidal wave of corporate expansion and greed that is designed to flood people like them and they either learn how to surf or they get washed up.  The film shows the group of people who came up with this idea of a cellphone/email device but with no clue on how to unleash it upon the world take up a deal with a business shark who takes a stake in the company and turns it into a corporation, with the highs and lows that come with it.  That being said, Air was a snazzy film that had a lot of effort put into its presentation.  By comparison, BlackBerry is held back by feeling aesthetically off-putting.  Jay Baruchel is very good in this movie as Mike Lazaridis, but every time he's onscreen all I can see is his bad wig.  Glen Howerton is also very good as Jim Balsillie, but he plays a balding man in this movie and you can clearly see his shaved hairline throughout the entire movie.  It's little details that don't work out in its favor that drive me batty (like that buzzing noise does to Lazaridis), even down to something as minor and someone claiming they're going to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark in letterbox and when we see them watching it it's clearly pan and scan.  The movie is good enough to earn a watch in spite of the corners it cuts.

Book Club:  The Next Chapter

⭐⭐

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Bill Holderman

Starring:  Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen

I don't know if I accidentally stumbled upon a renaissance or whatever, but what I do know is this is third movie in the last four months I've seen starring Jane Fonda.  I have no idea what to read into that (is this a Covid delay thing?), but if Book Club:  The Next Chapter also had Lily Tomlin in it, I think there'd be some conspiracy afoot.  I've also seen the same amount of movies in a slightly extended amount of time starring Diane Keaton, and my brain is fusing them together because I now have Mandela Effect memories of the three movies being the exact same movies.  Or maybe it's because Mack & Rita and Maybe I Do were so bad that I'm retroactively adding Diane Keaton to 80 for Brady and Moving On to protect her.

I haven't seen the first Book Club, which I remember from the trailers being about a book club of women of a certain age reading Fifty Shades of Grey or something.  I can only imagine it being a sexual reawakening thing.  That or they'd openly mock it like the rest of us, but given how my general impression of this sequel is that it's a GILF innuendo comedy, I think the former is more likely than the latter.  Is it a funny GILF innuendo comedy?  It's wry, but I didn't find it particularly funny or amusing.  Book Club:  The Next Chapter is a basic friends on an international trip movie and its appeal is going to lie heavily on how big of a fan you are of the leads.  If you love them and just want to hear their gabby girl talk, then it will probably please you.  For everyone else, it's not really anything.

Fool's Paradise

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Charlie Day

Starring:  Charlie Day, Ken Jeong, Ray Liotta, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody, Jason Sudeikis, Edie Falco, Jason Bateman, Common, John Malkovich

Fool's Paradise sees Charlie Day making his directorial debut, while also starring as a mute homeless man who gets swept up into the Hollywood system and accidentally becomes a superstar.  The film feels like a ode to the sort of madcap comedy of silent comedic characters swept up by his surroundings, with Day playing a character that feels influenced by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Harpo Marx. It's fused with the stylings of a Blake Edwards comedy from the 60's, which is its own brand of madcap that meshes well with what Day is already paying tribute to.  I had a blast watching this movie, because Day clearly loves a lot of things I love too and wants to honor them. I think what the movie is missing is a great central physical performance.  Day is very expressive in the movie, but I think finding someone who could move the way Chaplin or Keaton did probably would have boosted it just that much more, that way you don't have to rely of the rapid fire chatterbox comedy surrounding Day, that can grow inconsistent.  I think Day is pretty good, but he's drug around the movie like a prop when there is probably more he can do to generate the biggest laugh of the moment.  The movie doesn't always run its best game, but I think there's an audience who will watch it and admire what it does achieve.

Knights of the Zodiac

⭐⭐

🏆 Must-See Bad Movie Award

Genre:  Fantasy, Action

Director:  Tomek Bagiñski

Starring:  Makenyu, Madison Iseman, Famke Janssen, Sean Bean, Nick Stahl, Diego Tinoco, Mark Dacascos

Based on a manga series called "Saint Seiya," which probably has an anime series or fourteen like every other manga, Knights of the Zodiac is a basic story of boy meets girl, girl happens to be a repressed goddess, and he is fated to serve her as a guardian.  They fight, they friend zone, if there's a sequel, they're probably gonna fuck too (or kiss if this is supposed to be a kids movie but I can't tell).  People who watch this movie will likely focus on the negative, rightfully so, because this movie sucks.  But allow me to be glass-half-full on a movie this stupid because I don't feel like dog piling.  Knights of the Zodiac is a very earnest attempt at a live-action anime stylization, which doesn't always help the movie rise up above being seen as loopy nonsense, but the effort has a quaint charm to it.  I can pinpoint shots thinking to myself "That's a manga panel" or "That's an anime angle," and even the line reads are odd, like they were trying to mimic a bad anime dub.  I kinda had fun watching how laborious the film was to something that clearly wasn't working.  Say what you will about this movie, but it goes all-in on itself.  The costume design is absolutely ridiculous but it commits to it, right down to a climax where Madison Iseman gets to wear a purple clown wig and scream at the camera.  The movie is a full Mighty Morphin Power Rangers:  The Movie experience.  The movie is a load of waffle, but I had a good time.

Rally Road Racers

⭐⭐

Genre:  Comedy

Director:  Ross Venokur

Starring:  Jimmy O. Yang, Chloe Bennett, J.K. Simmons, John Cleese

I don't think Rally Road Racers is going to be of interest to many adult animation buffs.  The movie looks good enough and its has a few clever lines, but it's struggles to maintain an attention span.  But if you have children under 10, it could be a solid "prop them in front of the TV and play on your phone" movie.  It's a pretty generic humble underdog movie, with a little panda striving to save his grandmother's house by winning a race.  It's a light breeze of a movie that might be more of a one-and-done option if you're tired of watching the Cars movies with your kids.

Netflix & Chill

Crater

⭐⭐⭐

Streaming On:  Disney+

Genre:  Sci-Fi, Adventure, Comedy

Director:  Kyle Patrick Alvarez

Starring:  Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Mckenna Grace, Billy Barratt, Orson Hong, Thomas Boyce

This cute little sci-fi film features an orphaned boy on a mining colony on the moon, who is about to move to another planet where he'll never see his friends again.  He spends his last few days with his friends by stealing a rover and going on a lunar road trip to a crater that was special to his late parents.  Flaws of the film include a choppy and undercooked first act that seems intent on getting the kids into the rover as fast as possible.  The film understandably wants this because that's where its heart is, showing off its young leads in a youthful bonding environment that brings laughs, excitement, and hardship.  The journey never slogs and the cast always charms.  The film ends on a note of sweetness, acknowledging that even if periods of our lives aren't meant to last, they help shape who we become and how we approach the world.

Huesera:  The Bone Woman

⭐⭐⭐

Streaming On:  Shudder

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Michelle Garza Cervera

Starring:  Natalia Solián, Alfonso Dosal

Shudder imported this Mexican flick for Mother's Day weekend, which sees a pregnant woman haunted by supernatural beings that seem to want her or her child.  The film deals with prenatal and postpartum anxieties, which seems to be drawing a lot of comparisons to The Babadook.  It's not an unfair comparison, but I feel The Babadook is a lot more layered in its presentation, while Huesera:  The Bone Woman is more a series of ambiguous imagery assaulting its lead and the viewer.  There's nuance to it, but the film feels like its keeping the viewer at arms length as its makes its way to a frustrating, if understandable, conclusion.  The movie is a very well made and striking film, which makes it an excellent choice for horror hounds this weekend.

The Mother

⭐⭐1/2

Streaming On:  Netflix

Genre:  Thriller, Action

Director:  Niki Caro

Starring:  Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Omari Hardwick, Gael Garcia Bernal

Jennifer Lopez stars as an assassin who gave up her child years prior, and many years later tries to hide the daughter she never knew from bad guys.  Okay concept is a bit dryly produced, feeling drained and dull.  The film has a tendency to shift gears every twenty minutes, being an action movie one minute, a suspense film the next, and even a gritty, secluded drama at different points.  The film's setpieces are suitably stylized, but it's a less exciting and interesting watch than it should be.  The movie's best stuff comes when Lopez's character is allowed to bond with her daughter, but sadly it's only a fraction of the movie.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Air ⭐⭐⭐

Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margaret. ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Big George Foreman ⭐⭐

The Covenant ⭐⭐⭐

Dungeons & Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Evil Dead Rise ⭐⭐⭐

Hypnotic ⭐⭐

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ⭐⭐⭐

John Wick:  Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Love Again ⭐⭐

Nefarious ⭐

Sisu ⭐⭐⭐

The Super Mario Bros. Movie ⭐⭐1/2

New To Streaming

Air ⭐⭐⭐

The Covenant ⭐⭐⭐

Evil Dead Rise ⭐⭐⭐

The Lost King ⭐⭐⭐

New To Physical

Children of the Corn ⭐1/2

Knock at the Cabin ⭐⭐

Coming Soon!

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 18 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Science Fiction, Action, Superhero, Comedy

Director:  James Gunn

Starring:  Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillian, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, Elizabeth Debicki

James Gunn has always used Guardians of the Galaxy as an outlet for his sentimental side, occupying a corner of his creative life that's separated from his violent R-rated crazytown movies like The Suicide Squad and his masterpiece, Slither.  The third film finds him using his adoptive family motif to address themes of confronting personal trauma head-on, which makes it feel like the most personal of the bunch.  But at the same time, it feels like he's juggling too many tones to really work his magic, as the film tries to be light, funny, touching, dark, devastating, and harrowing, and bizarrely it tries to do it all at once in select scenes.  It makes the film seem jumbled for what is really just a simple story of the Guardians trying to save one of their own and doing whatever it takes.  But even as simple as that idea is, the movie goes to so many places and tries to tie up so many threads that they don't always seem relevant.  The anticipated character of Adam Warlock doesn't really serve much of a purpose in the film, while Quill and Gamora's subplot might baffle people hoping for it to have a more status quo ending.  But on that last point, the idea of embracing what has happened and moving on to a place of healing is a large part of the film's underlying theme, so it does have a place.  It's a bittersweet film about knowing where it hurts and trying to work your way through it.  It's imperfect, but it understands the themes of family far more than another Vin Diesel starring franchise I can name.

Hypnotic

⭐⭐

Genre:  Thriller, Action

Director:  Robert Rodriguez

Starring:  Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, William Fichtner

The latest Regal Mystery Movie is from notable "I make whatever the fuck movie I feel like" Desperado/From Dusk Till Dawn/Sin City/Spy Kids/Sharkboy and Lavagirl/Machete/Alita: Battle Angel filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.  This time he feels like making a mind game thriller that tries to pull the wool over the audience's eyes only to big reveal a third act that, surprise surprise, reveals things are not what they seem in a movie that specializes in things not being what they seem.  Ben Affleck stars as a detective chasing a man known as a "hypnotic," someone who hypnotizes people into doing his bidding.  It's kind of like trying to make a feature film villain out of David Tennant's Killgrave character from Jessica Jones, but if anything the movie reminded me the most of films like the old Chris Evans/Dakota Fanning film Push, with its "people can do this and always could" lore and convoluted presentation.  Maybe I'm reminded a little bit of another Ben Affleck movie from the heyday called Paycheck also, which also dealt with slow reveals and puzzle pieces.  Movies like this play up their complexity in hopes of being labeled as smart, but it's hard to appreciate films that spend too much time trying to confuse the audience and then go for a third act revelation of "Ah...uh...I guess?"  Normally I can find them entertaining in the moment while not really thinking twice about them as time goes on, but I found myself more scrutinizing of Hypnotic as it played out.  It's first hour is a wave of actions that make little sense, as we're watching a villain do his actions by making as much noise as possible, when if he were really as powerful as the movie claims, he could have done something far more low key.  The movie only makes less sense as it goes on, and it held up worse the more I thought about it.  Of course, there is a twist to all of this, which comes into play at the end, which I had already figured out aspects of because they were the only way I could wrap my head around any of this.  The last half hour of the film is better than everything that came before it, but there's nothing in it that made me feel like it was worth watching the film run in circles until then.  The film feels like something most would regret seeing in a theater, but if you saw it streaming on Tubi, you might not think it was that bad.

Love Again

⭐⭐

Genre:  Romance, Comedy, Drama

Director:  James C. Strouse

Starring:  Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, Celine Dion

This counterprogramming romcom that's set to get destroyed by the sure-thing blockbuster this weekend features a woman who copes with the loss of he deceased ex-boyfriend by texting his old number, only to have the current number user fall in love with her through her words.  It's a fair attempt at a modern "missed connection but linked by fate" scenario that has littered the genre, ala The Shop Around the Corner (or You've Got Mail for all you Gen-Xers and Millennials that are more likely to know Tom Hanks over Jimmy Stewart).  Love Again struggles to keep itself earnest enough to keep the audience fully invested in its central romance, because it's tone seems mildly self-depreciating while never outright admitting it's not taking itself seriously.  The night the lady lead first texts her leading man happens on a dark and stormy night that almost seems to be implying the Hand of God is guiding them rather than leaning into the wild coincidence that should be the hook of the film.  Then the movie gets to the point where is casts Celine Dion playing herself as this sort of love messiah who is constantly influencing and guiding their actions.  It's so goofy that if the movie could just take a step back and look itself in the mirror, maybe it could have a moment of clarity on just how off-the-rails it got at one point.  That being said, romcom hounds can (and probably have) do worse, because the leads are charming and the movie is legitimately funny at the best of times.  It just cringe.  I suppose that might not matter to its audience.

Art Attack

Showing Up

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Kelly Reichardt

Starring:  Michelle Williams, Hong Chou, Judd Hirsch

Showing Up feels like a salute to artistic process, as we watch Michelle Williams live day-to-day, weaving through life to get a chance to take time to work on her personal craft.  Those who are familiar with what this process feels like will appreciate how painstakingly it has been realized in the film.  The counterpoint is casual viewers will be left bored by the film's lack of inertia.  Art takes patience and time, and Showing Up is a film that requires patience as it explores personal time.  It's not going to be for everyone, but the little details keep it admirable, as we often see Williams living inside her head or dealing with a sheltered form of anxiety.  It's a finely detailed look at creative reality for those who will recognize it.

What's Love Got to Do with It?

⭐⭐⭐

Genre:  Romance, Comedy

Director:  Shekhar Kapur

Starring:  Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabama Azmi, Sajal Aly, Emma Thompson

The more charming romcom option (if you can find it) this week is What's Love Got to Do with It?, which despite its title is not a remake of the Tina Turner biopic...or has anything to do with the Tina Turner song that you'd assume would be in it but isn't.  No, this movie features Lily James as a documentary filmmaker who decides to film her best friend (played by Star Trek:  Discovery's Shazad Latif) as he goes through with an arranged marriage to a woman he has just met.  This being a romcom, one can probably guess the third wheel plot twist to the story that plays out.  Things go about as you'd expect them to, though the film is a bit more balanced in a look at the pros and cons of arranged marriage than most might anticipate, even if it struggles to come up with a conclusion that's not wivehat we all expect it's building toward.  What's Love Got to Do with It? might have resonated more if it leaned into an unexpected outcome, as the film ventures primarily through James's character as her love life goes from low points to okay enough through a lack of contentment (there's a cute throughline of her dating life being related through implication of fairy tales she tells her nieces), meanwhile Latif has his feet more sturdily on the ground with one relationship that lacks the chaos of dating, but with a cloud of connect uncertainty.  The movie's message is one of not settling for "just fine," relying on the denied romantic tension between James and Latif to sell it.  James and Latif are good leads for it, and they successfully convey the complications of relationships in the many forms it takes, but to an extent it feels like it should have a more complicated outcome that it refuses to go for because a romcom needs that "JUST KISS" ending.  Spoiler alert, that ending is gone for, as well as offering more than one happy little bows on certain heavy aspects of the film that are tied up to make the movie sparkle.  My version of the movie would probably please less people though, because a more open ending would tie into the frustration themes of the movie and nobody wants to leave a romcom frustrated and angry.  That's probably my fault for building something more complex in my head, but I'm not going to sit here and hate a movie that identifies the firmest foundation of a relationship is just finding someone to watch a whole television series with.  I've identified my personal TV series for that to be Mystery Science Theater 3000, which probably makes me terminally single.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Air ⭐⭐⭐

Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margaret. ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Beau is Afraid ⭐⭐⭐

Big George Foreman ⭐⭐

The Covenant ⭐⭐⭐

Dungeons & Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Evil Dead Rise ⭐⭐⭐

John Wick:  Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nefarious ⭐

Polite Society ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Renfield ⭐⭐⭐

Sisu ⭐⭐⭐

The Super Mario Bros. Movie ⭐⭐1/2

New To Streaming

Dungeons & Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves ⭐⭐⭐1/2

How to Blow Up a Pipeline ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Inside ⭐⭐⭐

Mafia Mamma ⭐⭐1/2

Moving On ⭐⭐1/2

The Pope's Exorcist ⭐⭐1/2

Renfield ⭐⭐⭐

Sweetwater ⭐1/2

New To Physical

80 for Brady ⭐⭐1/2

Champions ⭐⭐1/2

Coming Soon!