Multiplex Madness
The Bikeriders
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Drama
Director: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Norman Reedus
Loosely based upon the nonfiction book of the same name, this fictionalized take sees a motorcycle club started by Tom Hardy deteriorate over the years into degenerate violence. Most of the movie is narrated by Jodie Comer, doing her best Laverne DeFazio impression, telling of her relationship to her bikeriding husband Austin Butler. The Bikeriders is an interesting piece of character evolution, though it's a story told via a group of rambling characters who tend to trail off, so their is a requisite in bearing with it when it flies off with incomplete thoughts. The cast is uniformly fantastic, acting like they're only here to hang out rather than to make a movie (Norman Reedus feels like he's just here because he wants to be). It's a good movie that's a bit of a basic slowrider. But any motorcycle film without sidehacking loses any cool points it tries to achieve. I'm sorry, that's just how it is.
The Exorcism
⭐️
Genre: Horror
Director: Joshua John Miller
Starring: Russell Crowe, Ryan Simpkins, Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, Adrian Pasdar, David Hyde Pierce
What if spooky stuff happened on the set of The Exorcist? I don't know the answer to that, but I imagine it would have been a lot more interesting than this. The Excorcism is a meta horror in the tradition of New Nightmare or Shadow of the Vampire where the supernatural element of the movie seems to also be haunting the set. In this case, it's an exorcism movie starring Russell Crowe where Russell Crowe starts to act possessed. The movie mixes its meta with an allegory for repressed trauma, alcoholism, and emotional abuse, which feels like a step too far because it's never quite clear whether the the meta or the allegory takes priority when they begin to clash with each other. They both wind up feeling half-assed in the end, with the meta aspect never really taking shape and the film's thematic value never feeling fleshed out enough to become sufficient. The movie feels incomplete, having a rough idea of what it wants to be about but feels at a loss of how to actually turn it into a story. Instead, it just vomits up something boring and atrocious on the screen. I sat there for so long waiting for the movie to actually try to be something, but it never worked up the energy.
Thelma
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Comedy, Adventure
Director: Josh Margolin
Starring: June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell
In what I can only assume is a tribute to all our beloved grandmas everywhere, Thelma sees a 90-year-old woman get scammed over the phone. Rather than accept she's out ten grand, she instead hits the road to hunt down the people who stole her money. It's a rather flavorful little road movie featuring June Squibb in the title role and the late Richard Roundtree as her sidekick, getting into mischief while a family is left behind worried sick about their frail family member. And frail she might be, but she's also determined. The primary source of humor falls with the stubbornness of those set in their ways while also navigating through a world that is more advanced than their normal perception anymore. Traditional and recognizable elderly jokes do ensue, including technology incomprehension, rambling tendencies, and reduced mobility, but while the movie leans into these qualities, it also never fails to make Thelma sharp and self-dependent, making her a heroine worth rooting for as opposed to a walking joke. It's a delightfully silly hoot of a movie that never succumbs to mocking its subject matter.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Bad Boys: Ride or Die ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Fall Guy ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Garfield Movie ⭐️⭐️1/2
IF ⭐️1/2
Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Latency ⭐️⭐️
Treasure ⭐️⭐️1/2
Tuesday ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Watchers ⭐️
Young Woman and the Sea ⭐️⭐️⭐️
New To Digital
IF ⭐️1/2
New To Physical
American Fiction ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mars Express ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Coming Soon!
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