MST3K, RiffTrax, and My Cinema Playground

Jurassic Park ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Landscape with Invisible Hand ⭐⭐⭐1/2

The Little Mermaid ⭐⭐1/2

Oppenheimer ⭐⭐⭐

Retribution ⭐1/2

Strays ⭐⭐1/2

Talk to Me ⭐⭐⭐⭐

New To Digital

The Boogeyman ⭐⭐1/2

New To Physical

The Flash ⭐⭐1/2

No Hard Feelings ⭐⭐

Coming Soon!

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 34 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Golda

⭐⭐

Genre: Drama

Director: Guy Nattiv

Starring: Helen Mirren, Camille Cottin, Liev Schreiber, Lior Ashkenazi, Dvir Benedek

Golda is what I call a "performance movie," a film that's less about the character at the center of it and more about how well the actor plays that character. Movies like this can be great, while others are only carried by that performance alone. It largely depends on whether the narrative around them completes the package. Golda aspires to be the former, but falls short of its ambitions as it feels at some point it was going to settle for being a movie shown to high schoolers in class for a "movie day." But the performer at the center of this is Helen Mirren, who must be shooting for another Oscar as she plays Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during the days of the Yom Kippur War leading up to the cease fire with Egypt. If I were to judge Golda via its best moments, I'd give it a pass, but ultimately its failure is that while its politics can be investing, it never gets past the surface level, choosing to instead just have us "look at the actor, goddammit!" What we're left with is Helen Mirren, who is pretty good in this movie, and a handful of arty shots that seem leftover from a point when the film had a vision. Golda is not a bad movie, but it is a missed opportunity. But I did enjoy the lovely line of "All political careers end in failure." To bad the movie based on one's career ended in failure too.

The Hill: The Rickey Hill Story

⭐1/2

Genre: Sports, Drama, Faith

Director: Jeff Celentano

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Colin Ford, Jesse Berry, Scott Glenn

Sappy, trite, and pandering, The Hill is a baseball movie made either for people who have either seen every baseball movie ever made and are gearing to see even more or never seen a baseball movie before and have less context for how bad it is. The film tells the true story of baseball player Rickey Hill, and how he started his journey to the bat as a little boy with a degenerative spinal condition who dreams of playing baseball, but his strict pastor father won't allow it. Apparently that latter point is seen as more dramatic than the crippling disease, but the movie needs to hammer home its "God's will vs. the passion life gives me" message. I do like the movie's message of living for one's passions along with one's beliefs, but the movie is such a dollar store version that investment is minimal. What's mildly frustrating is that the movie shows some confident presentation, and can sometimes pull a soft moment of humor out of its ass that are actually pretty funny. There is a competence here that's drowned out by its thick overbearing sentimentality. Subtlety and nuance is not is specialty, though, choosing to instead to just throw every trick in the book at its audience hoping it masks how desperate it is for an emotional reaction.

Retribution

⭐1/2

Genre: Thriller

Director: Nimród Antal

Starring: Liam Neeson, Noma Dumezweni, Lilly Aspell, Jack Champion, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Modine, Arian Moayed

Liam Neeson is back. Has his particular set of skills met their match? Probably not. This time has plays a man in his 70's with teen children, who he tries to drive to school but finds out a bomb has been planted in his car and he must do what the bomber says to get his children out alive. Retribution feels like an attempt at a bottle thriller, which takes place in a single location featuring a limited cast in a threatening situation that is mostly handled through dialogue. The movie I thought of the most while watching it was 2003's Phone Booth starring Colin Farrell, though I do confess Retribution also plays out like a low-rent Saw movie without balls. Retribution is just a broken movie that seems built from a nugget of an idea that was scripted and shot before they found a way to make it compelling. Nothing in the movie is nurtured to fruition, its thrills lack tension, and the film has no sense of pacing, which is utterly astonishing for a movie that's only ninety minutes long. And somehow the thing that irritated me the most was the villain's master plan involved turning his cash into crypto (you fucking idiot). Retribution probably could have been a really fun diversion of a movie, but it just settles for just being something dumb and quick to kill time on a boring weekend.

The biggest smile I got from this movie was seeing that Liam "Darkman" Neeson's wife was played by Embeth "Sheila from Army of Darkness" Davidtz. That's a serious Sam Raimi pedigree power couple right there.

Netflix & Chill

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah

⭐⭐⭐

Streaming On: Netflix

Genre: Comedy

Director: Sammi Cohen

Starring: Sunny Sandler, Samantha Lorraine, Adam Sandler, Sarah Sherman, Idina Menzel, Jackie Sandler, Sadie Sandler, Luis Guzmán

Wow. A Happy Madison production that actually got good reviews? I think cinema is dying.

Based on a young adult novel from 2005, this film is about a middle school Jewish girl who has a falling out with her best friend over a boy in school. Adam Sandler adapts it into something of a family enterprise, primarily as a vehicle for his daughter Sunny Sandler, while he his wife Jackie, and other daughter Sadie have supporting roles. Basically its vibe is Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, only more Jewish, contemporary, and underlined with that trademark Sandler rude goofball humor. For those of us who loved the Margaret movie as it was, there's not a whole lot to wring out of this movie that we haven't already seen this year, but having another coming-of-age movie for women that is this cute, sweet, and funny isn't a bad thing. Those who tend to lean soft on Sandler will likely enjoy it more than others, but the extremity in which a Sandler production can go for is both a blessing and a curse to this movie. When the movie is funny, it's really funny (there's an argument scene between Sunny and Adam Sandler's characters that is heard while everyone downstairs can hear that had me laughing for days), but it does have a tendency to jump past the taste line to a point of no return, which isn't unusual for this production team. And even when it's not going too far, there is some stale material on generational culture that most definitely feels like some boomer wrote it thinking "This is how kids talk these days, right?" (the jokes about cancel culture made me groan). But Sandler doesn't get to make movies like this very often, and the fact that he can inject his trademark style into this particular work as successfully as he does is something of a minor miracle (the last time he did so was The Wedding Singer, probably?). It's a flawed movie that wins points with its adorable personality, so I'm inclined to think positive on it.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Barbie ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Blue Beetle ⭐⭐⭐

Elemental ⭐⭐⭐

Gran Turismo ⭐⭐1/2

Haunted Mansion ⭐⭐

Jurassic Park ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Little Mermaid ⭐⭐1/2

Oppenheimer ⭐⭐⭐

Strays ⭐⭐1/2

Talk to Me ⭐⭐⭐⭐

New To Digital

New To Physical

The Blackening ⭐⭐⭐

You Hurt My Feelings ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Coming Soon!

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 33 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Back on the Strip

⭐1/2

Genre: Comedy

Director: Chris Spencer

Starring: Spence Moore III, Wesley Snipes, Tiffany Haddish, Raigan Harris, J.B. Smoove, Gary Owen, Bill Bellamy, Faizon Love

A struggling magician moves out to Las Vegas with hopes of becoming a successful act, but winds up being taken under the wing of former exotic dancer Wesley Snipes, who hopes to use the well-endowed kid to restart his stripping act. I like this movie's self-confidence, but it's delivery is pure amateur hour. There are chuckles to be had, but the movie's poor framing and joke delivery kills its best material. The movie has seasoned performers willing to elevate it like Wesley Snipes and Tiffany Haddish, but they're in a vehicle going down in flames, and if they ever deliver a good line of dialogue, the movie's clumsy presentation sucks the joy out of it. And to make matters worse, it's conclusion to its "romantic" subplot is a disaster of ADR and bad editing, concluding this movie on the worst possible note. It's an attempt at a sexy comedy that isn't sexy and seems timid about being funny.

Blue Beetle

⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Action, Superhero, Science Fiction

Director: Ángel Manuel Soto

Starring: Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, George Lopez, Belissa Escobedo, Susan Sarandon, Adriana Barraza, Damian Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo, Raoul Max Trujillo, Becky G

When I first heard they were making. Blue Beetle movie, my gut reaction was "But they already made a Blue Beetle movie, they just replaced Blue Beetle with Venom at some point and turned that character into a Blue Beetle that bites people's heads off." To Blue Beetle's credit, it's a much better version of that movie, only a softer PG-13 with less brain-eating.

Based on the DC comics character, Blue Beetle is the story of Jaime Eyes, who becomes bonded with a robotic alien scarab, but rich people want it, something something something, superhero antics. Blue Beetle's biggest detraction is also, in a sense, its biggest asset, because the movie feels specifically modeled after the type of superhero filmmaking approach you'd see in the 90's in movies like The Guyver or Star Kid. Blue Beetle is probably the best superhero to do this with, because, while this incarnation of the character wasn't introduced until 2006, he always seemed somewhat reactionary to era tropes like that. Still, the movie does struggle to overcome some cheesy triteness, but it wins points in displaying its tropes with its spry spirit and heartfelt tone. Even when the movie was testing how much corn I can endure in one sitting, I never had a bad time with it, because it always knew exactly how to present itself. Half of the appeal is its wonderful ensemble cast, who are such rich performers that the entertainment never dies. It does come at a cost, because the film is so focused on them that the relationship between Reyes and the scarab becomes too underplayed and the villains are way too generic, but who says charisma is free? At least it's a good time.

Landscape with Invisible Hand

⭐⭐⭐1/2

Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Comedy

Director: Cory Finley

Starring: Assante Blackk, Kylie Rogers, Tiffany Haddish

Oh look, another Tiffany Haddish movie. You know, including Haunted Mansion, this makes three of them playing at my theater. And they say superhero movies are what's taking over cinemas.

Or maybe Haddish is a superhero. I don't know what she does by night.

Very out-of-the-box sci-fi concept is set in a future where a benevolent alien colonization of Earth represents the elites, and those outside the alien cities are the poor living in the slums. This movie tells the story of a pair of human teens decide to broadcast their romantic relationship for alien study (which is easy money), which complicates when they have a falling out and try not to break up for their audience. It goes off in several directions from there, so this is just the tip of the iceberg. Landscape with Invisible Hand has difficulties with maintaining that all of its ideas are equally interesting or if it even has all that much story to tell with any given vignette of where its plot currently is, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a fascinating movie. It one that is so weird that I don't think a lot of people will necessarily connect with it, but the movie's spirit of lower class struggle in a world that will treat it like a dumpster has a lot of observation and heart. Ultimately, I think the movie will play best with creatives, because what it's essentially about is how our hardships inspire creative expression, which results in something off-beat and unconventionally beautiful.

Strays

⭐⭐1/2

Genre: Comedy

Director: Josh Greenbaum

Starring: Will Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, Randall Park, Will Forte

The dogs said bad words. There, now that you're up to speed, you've pretty much experienced the primary joke that Strays has to offer. It's an R-rated riff on a Homeward Bound style movie of lost animals trying to find their way home, only the characters are foul-mouthed street toughs, as a recently abandoned dog travels home to take revenge on his owner. There's not a lot to say about it other than it's very "What you see is what you get." If you've seen the trailer and it made you laugh, then the movie is just more of that. I found the movie an enjoyable diversion, though it's a bit too basic to really earn admiration past its gimmick. But it's got cute dogs and a couple laughs, so there's that.

Netflix & Chill

Bad Things

⭐1/2

Streaming On: Shudder

Genre: Horror

Director: Stewart Thorndike

Starring: Gayle Rankin, Hari Nef, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Rad Pereira, Jared Abrahamson, Molly Ringwald

I can just picture someone watching The Shining growing up and thinking "This movie needs to be gayer." That seems to be the underlining idea of Bad Things, to do the haunted hotel thing that drives people crazy thing but with LGBTQ characters. The character-work tries to generate friction between the two queer couples by making each one with romantic history with a partner of the other, but the love entanglements somehow make these characters less interesting because while there seems to be effort in portraying characters with a rich history with each other, it always falls back on such a dull trope that I can't get invested in. Pairing that with the ambiguity of the premise, which is a domino effect of weird happenings that just suddenly occur, and we're left with a movie that doesn't compel.

Here's the thing, though: Bad Things' approach to the horror genre is so unique that you can see greatness pumping through its veins. The way the movie inducts horror into itself is distinctly its own, with mundane cuts and pans that just show it as something unimpressive, leaving the viewer to just raise an eyebrow at the unexpected while thinking "Oh! Holy shit!" I don't think I've ever seen a horror film do this before, and there's something quite unsettling about it. There's something borderline psychotic about it, as if it's choosing to witness horror through the lense of a neutral observer. And it helps with the way the characters respond to it, because they aren't sure what to make of what they're seeing until they deem what's transpiring a threat, so it works with portraying characters who don't know they're in a horror movie. The movie also has confident craftsmanship under its belt, because the cinematography is distinct and interesting, utilizing a lot of symmetrical shots that can get frantic in the heat of the moment, but choose to show an eerie stillness in the quiet night. The film's humming scorework also helps it maintain its off-putting tone throughout the film. There have been quite a few swings at abstract horror works that didn't work this year, from Skinamarink to The Outwaters, but Bad Things feels like it's the only one that has a vision that it could have actually pulled together. The film's abstractness even adds to a sense of archaic madness, leaving one to believe that despite what the film is showing, everything is just in the mind. The film loses this thread, though. If it found a way to tie it off, I would have been over the moon. Instead it's just chaos and borderline nonsense.

A part of me wants to scream from the hilltops that this is the most brilliant horror movie I've ever seen. The fact that it absolutely does not work makes that completely devastating.

The Communion Girl

⭐⭐⭐

Streaming On: Shudder

Genre: Horror

Director: Victor Garcia

Starring: Carla Campra, Aina Quiñones, Marc Soler, Carlos Oviedo

This Spanish ghost movie doesn't reinvent the wheel on films about things that go bump in the night, but horror fanatics who are content with a tight, traditional package of well-staged jolts will find it a solid popcorn watch. This flick shows a group of partying teens who stumble upon the ghost of a communion girl, who leaves behind her doll for them to find. They soon find themselves haunted by the girl's rotted corpse, who causes them to pass out and wake up in a flooded underground where she tries to drown them. It's a very standard "debaucherous teens get stalked by something bad, and unlock the mystery of the past along the way" movie, but it's a good one. Atmosphere and dread are plentiful, and the cast is colorful enough to keep viewers invested in their outcome. Scare tactics include traditional haunting set-ups as setpieces, but it does get pretty bold with the depiction of its title spook. It never hides her, though a lot of what we see is in flash, but up close and clearly on camera. It feels like a compromise between the restrained and showing off the monster, which makes the film refreshing in that it seeks out that happy-medium rather than going too frustratingly far in one direction. The climax is a variation on Ring, though more ambiguous and perplexing. That might be enough for many to leave this flick scratching their head. While I won't spoil it, the one thing I will point out is that while the end reveal feels out of left field in how non-contextualized it is, it does let you ponder the actions of the ghost girl in a different light, which may encourage a rewatch. And the ambiguity gives the aura of a campfire ghost story (or an R.L. Stein novel), so it doesn't exactly hinder the spooky movie experience.

Heart of Stone

⭐⭐

Streaming On: Netflix

Genre: Action, Spy

Director: Tom Harper

Starring: Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt, Sophie Okenedo, Matthias Schweghöfer, Jing Lusi, Paul Ready

Heart of Stone is lavishly made with hopes of being hot franchise material, but its also several layers too thick on the espionage secrets, leaving one sick of its convolution withing ten minutes. Gal Gadot is an MI6 agent, which is actually a cover for being a super-spy for another spy organization called the Charter, who exist beyond governments to make sure the important missions go right. I'm going to be honest, this is a premise that has the pretense of being clever, but is actually a bad rabbit hole to wander down. Covert spy heroes in movies like this are already supposed to be the best of the best, and taking that premise and layering another group that are better than the best, it just makes the initial spy group feel superfluous and borderline incompetent. Basically the message they're sending is that the only person that's important is Gal Gadot, and everybody else is expendable cannon fodder who contribute nothing. James Bond always has the preference on being a solo act, and while Ethan Hunt is a super-spy of his own in an already super-spy organization, the members of his team serve a function. And as Heart of Stone goes on, it sheds everything and just lets Gadot do the super-spy thing without much care for what its premise was to begin with, which leads me to wonder why bother jumping through the double and triple agent hoops if they don't matter. Gal Gadot is very good as the lead, and if nothing else Heart of Stone proves that she could lead a spy franchise like this, she just needs a better premise to fuel her. This one is just both over-thought on its gimmick and somehow generic at the same time, because it's a gimmick and nothing else. It sucks, because I want to like this movie, but it's core just annoys me.

Maybe hand the keys to Mission: Impossible over to Gal Gadot when Tom Cruise finally gets tired of jumping off cliffs. That might scratch the itch this movie seems to have. Or maybe that's just a daydream of mine.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Barbie ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Elemental ⭐⭐⭐

Haunted Mansion ⭐⭐

Jules ⭐⭐⭐

The Miracle Club ⭐⭐1/2

Oppenheimer ⭐⭐⭐

Talk to Me ⭐⭐⭐⭐

New To Digital

The Blackening ⭐⭐⭐

Elemental ⭐⭐⭐

No Hard Feelings ⭐⭐

New To Physical

Asteroid City ⭐⭐1/2

The Machine ⭐⭐

Nefarious ⭐

The Wrath of Becky ⭐⭐

Coming Soon!

Monday, August 14, 2023

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 32 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness

Gran Turismo

⭐⭐1/2

Genre: Drama, Sports

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Starring: Archie Madekwe, David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Djimon Hounsou

This flick was supposed to open this week but was bumped back later in the month, but it has so many preview showings at my theater that you wouldn't know it. So technically this is a pre-release review.

The film tells the true story of Jann Mardenborough and how he won a Gran Turismo video game competition for a shot at being a real life race car driver, Gran Turismo's experience is like a race car itself. It wants speed, precision, and it wants to be so quick you'll feel like you're right on the track yourself. The consequence is that the film moves so fast that its detail gets left in the dust. The film shoots from one event to the next very rapidly, without any time to feel the weight of any of them, even some of the heavier ones. When it does stop for a breather, it's usually to meander with characters telling Mardenborough that he's "not ready for this" and "video games aren't reality." I get it. I don't need the majority of the film's drama to be this. There's even a slight love interest subplot, but her character is has so little screentime that you might wonder why they bothered leaving her in the movie at all. But the movie's rhythm is something some people might not care about, just wanting to get swept up in the adrenaline. Gran Turismo will be a great time for those looking for that, even if it falls short of a full experience.

Jules

⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Drama, Comedy, Science Fiction

Director: Marc Turtletaub

Starring: Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, Zoë Winters, Jade Quan, Jane Curtin

We've all wondered what it would be like if E.T. were an indie dramady, so...oh, nobody? Okay, well here's Jules. The film stars Ben Kingsley, doing his best Judd Hirsch impression, as an aging battling dementia who finds that an alien has crash landed in his backyard, and those around him dismiss him as he tries to tell people about it. He then befriends the alien and lets him live in his house. Probably the test for how amusing one may find this movie is that the alien spends a section of the film just wearing a shirt that says "I'm not a lesbian, but my girlfriend is." and if you think that idea is funny, then Jules is worth checking out. It's a soft and quaint movie that embraces its own oddness with a gentle touch and a dry wit. It's not a particularly well plotted movie, as it hits several speed bumps that it seems to knock it off-kilter (the alien needs dead cats to fix his spaceship. Why dead cats? Who knows.), while the ending is open in understandable respects, it also lacks proper resolution in other, less thematic areas. But Kingsley is pretty great in this movie and it is charming enough.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

⭐⭐1/2

Genre: Horror

Director: André Øvredal

Starring: Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosci, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian

Based on an idea from the novel Dracula, The Last Voyage of the Demeter tells the story of the boat that brought the legendary vampire to London, where there were no survivors upon arrival (apart from Renfield, who is not present in this movie, likely because he's busy in group therapy). The tale of the doomed vessel is an intriguing idea for a film, because it's mostly dismissed as a "what you don't see is scarier than what you do" event to showcase how dangerous Dracula can be. The movie proves its worth in some areas, but doesn't quite fully get itself to gel. The movie is endearingly earnest about its melancholy folktale tone, and it's commitment to gothic theatricality keeps it constantly vivacious. Its horror doesn't hit home, though. It goes for both sublime chills and overbearing bombast, often in the same sequence. I found myself wishing the movie would pick a lane, even if it's not necessarily bad at either. It works well enough to be an entertaining diversion for horror hounds, because it is dark, it is stylish, and it goes for the jugular, but it's not the movie it aims to be, and that's a shame.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Barbie ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Elemental ⭐⭐⭐

Haunted Mansion ⭐⭐

Oppenheimer ⭐⭐⭐

Talk to Me ⭐⭐⭐⭐

New To Digital

New To Physical

Fast X ⭐⭐1/2

Coming Soon!

Monday, August 7, 2023

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 31 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madnees

Meg 2: The Trench

⭐⭐

Genre: Action, Adventure, Horror, Science Fiction

Director: Ben Wheatley

Starring: Jason Statham, Wu Jing, Sophia Cia, Cliff Curtis, Skyler Samuels, Page Kennedy, Sergio Persis-Mencheta, Sienna Guillory

I love The Meg. I went into that movie five years ago with zero expectations except maybe I'd get to see Jason Statham save the day by roundhouse kicking a giant shark in its goddamn face. I came out thoroughly entertained by a stupidly fun creature feature. I say mostly to contextualize just exactly what I went into this particular movie feeling about it, as opposed to the dismissal attitude you'd probably see from most critics

Based on the second novel in Steve Alten's ridiculously long-running book series (I didn't know you could have ten stories to tell about a giant shark but someone found a way), this sequel sees Jason Statham leading a routine expedition down to the trench that houses long-thought extinct aquatic species (including Megalodons), only to be trapped by internal sabotage and forced to traverse the trench by foot to escape back to the surface. I think anybody who enjoyed the first Meg will enjoy the second through its very primal creature feature thrills, though in scrutinizing the details it's a more lackluster blockbuster than the first. The original had greater pace, leaner presentation, and laser focus, while The Trench is more chaotic and clunky. The film is a Saturday morning cartoon in both good and bad ways, including cackling Captain Planet villains whose master plan is 1. Blow up the trench, 2. Murder people, 3. ?????, 4. Profit. Sienna Guillory, in particular, is going full Parker Poesy in her limited role, becoming one of those characters who doesn't care about the environment because it's in the way of her making money. Meanwhile, setpieces can grow to be uneven, as the trench scenes feature the cast in large, clunky suits that make it difficult to tell who is doing what and the climactic beach scene feels like the climax of the first again, just with a few more creatures thrown in. Noted horror director Ben Wheatley (who also directed one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, Deep Breath) takes the reins from National Treasure's Jon Turteltaub for this installment, and it feels like he wants to go full Piranha 3D for the film's climax but is forced to scale back for the sake of a PG-13 rating. There is some thrills and laughs throughout, making it an easy recommendation to those who enjoy the full Megalodon movie monster experience. How appealing its brand of nonsense is beyond that might prove to be limited.

Shortcomings

⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Director: Randall Park

Starring: Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, Ally Maki

Based on a graphic novel, Shortcomings tells a story about a dickbag film enthusiast (you know, like we all are) who "takes a break" from his relationship and tests the waters with other women types that he is attracted to, while also being morally guided by his brash lesbian best friend. If Shortcomings has a shortcoming of its own, it would be that it tends to be a little on-the-nose with its name-dropping pop culture references, which sometimes feel clunky and unneeded to the point where they take you out of the movie (Jacob Batalon only seems to be in this movie to drop a reference to the Spider-Man movies, where he plays Ned). Shortcomings doesn't rely on this, to its credit, as it only keeps them as quaint little moments for simple laughs. The romcom elements are mostly isolated from them, wishing to be a commentary on quite a few thing, including a somewhat complicated culture behind interracial relationships, exploring the "type" and a line between fetish and love and being mature enough to tell the difference between what you want and what you need, while overall working with the idea that overanalyzing it leads to chaos and you should just love who you love (I think the film might be paralleling this to film critique, but it never sticks the landing on this). The film is a predominantly Asian cast, and its male lead has a thing for white girls, which his Asian girlfriend does take note of, so as they go their separate ways he gravitates toward his "type." From here it's a "grass is always greener" scenario as what he desires changes the more he experiences, to the point where he, predictably, wants his girlfriend back and the complications that stem from that. The film starts with his critique of the film Crazy Rich Asians, which he dismisses as a plain romcom that was only celebrated for its diversity, completely removing himself from what a mass takeaway from the film might be and resenting that someone might actually enjoy it while dismissing any view other than his own (which is sadly a very honest portrayal of who most film students try to be). That lack of outside consideration pretty much defines his character. What follows is the movie doing its own version of the romcom with a central protagonist who is a complete douche, dismisses the fact that he is a douche, and spends the film coming to terms with the fact that maybe his life is becoming a mess because he is a douche. Shortcomings shines in this corner, because the arguments and outcomes feel both real and deserved. The movie is also really funny, directed with great comedic punch by comedian Randall Park in his directorial debut. Indie comedy nerds will want to jump on this one, because it is probably one of the funniest they'll see this year. Other than Joy Ride, it's probably the hardest I've laughed all year.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Comedy, Science Fiction, Action, Superhero

Director: Jeff Rowe

Starring: Micah Abby, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Ayo Edebiri, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Maya Rudolph, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, John Cena, Rose Byrne, Giancarlo Esposito

The latest incarnation of the indie comic turned pop culture phenomenon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is probably the best movie based on the property to date (depending on one's nostalgic love for the 90's film). This version sees the Turtles as young teenagers living in the sewers dreaming of living a life as normal teenagers, but fearing that mankind will not accept them. They meet a high school girl named April O'Neil who accepts them for who they are, and also leads them down a rabbit hole of a criminal mutant named Superfly, who plans to mutate every animal on the planet and dominate the planet. The film has a distinct tone to it, presented like an indie coming-of-age comedy and animated in a unique street graffiti style that suits the Turtles quite well. The film sometimes stumbles because it becomes more about its vibe than its plot, and often random occurrences happen that the movie just kinda goes with because it's living in itself. There are brief moments where the film shows glimpses of greatness, but sometimes it seems too stoned on itself to follow through. A refined version of this could be quite spectacular, and I look forward to seeing what the future of the Turtles looks like based on this film. It gets so much right, right down to its moral that it's okay to be a freak, just try not to be a dick, bruh. If there is any message that sums up the Turtles, it's that one.

Theater Camp

⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Comedy

Director: Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman

Starring: Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro, Ben Platt, Patti Harrison, Nathan Lee Graham, Ayo Edebiri, Owen Thiele, Caroline Aaron, Amy Sedaris

Theater Camp has been out for a few weeks now, but brutal overtime hours at work have forced me to cut corners over the last few entries. I finally got to check it out this week, and I'm glad I did. This cute little mockumentary is about a summer camp for theater kids who find that the camp's founder has been put into a coma by a snafu during a production of Bye Bye Birdie. The kids and teachers scramble to put on a performance dramatization of her life while her vlogging, man-child son tries to prevent the camp from being closed down. Theater Camp is a love letter for theater community people made by people who hold both its positive and silliest aspects near-and-dear to their hearts. Anybody who grew up around the playful environments like this and the colorful characters that inhabit them will recognize so much in this movie. Sometimes it feels so specific that it might feel boxed in by it, lacking general appeal, but the film is probably funny enough to stand on its feet with non-theater goers as just a humorous ninety minutes. It will probably play best with those who enjoy mockumentary style comedies, like The Office, more than a casual comedy audience. But those of us who are familiar with what Theater Camp portrays, we do assure that this movie hits its target.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Barbie ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Elemental ⭐⭐⭐

Haunted Mansion ⭐⭐

Oppenheimer ⭐⭐⭐

Talk to Me ⭐⭐⭐⭐

New To Digital

Insidious: The Red Door ⭐⭐

New To Physical

About My Father ⭐

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ⭐⭐⭐

Coming Soon!

Monday, July 31, 2023

Cinema Playground Journal 2023: Week 30 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiples Madness

Haunted Mansion

⭐⭐

Genre: Horror, Comedy

Director: Justin Simien

Starring: LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto

Disney is convinced Haunted Mansion should be a Pirates of the Caribbean franchise for some reason. Or maybe they just felt guilty for the Eddie Murphy one. Either or, but truth be told I never watched the Eddie Murphy Hunted Mansion movie. All I know is nobody liked it. It seems nobody really likes this one either, so...apology not accepted?

Based on the Disneyland theme park ride, Haunted Mansion is about a haunted mansion. A Disney style haunted mansion, but a haunted mansion nonetheless. Rosario Dawson plays a mother who moves into said mansion with her son, only to find themselves haunted by the spirits within. She then invites supernatural experts to help her with her problem, only to have them all get trapped in the house with her one by one. Haunted Mansion has playful charm to it, though it feels collapsed under its bold style weighted down by its attempts to make its long patches of exposition humorous. The movie just shatters and feels slow while trying to feel like a ride. It's a movie that never pulls itself together in spite of the best efforts of the talented people putting it together. The ensemble cast is excellent, its visually stimulating, and at times its pretty funny. Individually these things work, but the movie never quite gets them to gel. The script feels choppy at some points and overexerting in others, while some character feel superfluous and just present so it can cast its beloved character actors. I can't really blame the movie for using the opportunity to be indulgent, but I just wish it worked better. Some people will cotton to it more than others, so it has some value in that.

Talk to Me

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Horror

Director: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou

Starring: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto

What if Reefer Madness but with spooks? That's the question asked by Talk to Me, a new Australian horror film that blends allegories of grief and drug addiction into a chilling tale of a group of teenagers who like to party and get high by talking to the dead through a ceramic hand that allows them to be possessed for ninety seconds at a time. As you can possibly imagine, things spiral out of control as they begin seeing people that they know and ghosts start to stick around. The movie is not traditional jump-scare startle horror, choosing instead to thrill by getting under one's skin and twisting an audience member's head with the idea of what is happening. This is an existential dread movie, like the original Pulse, but not nearly as nihilistic. Talk to Me is an ugly movie that conveys beauty in its poetry on the outlook of the solitude of one's personal tragedies, how even if you share your feelings, you're still the one who has to live with them. The movie is touching in its own way, which involves rattling your inner cage. I'd even argue that it could potentially be the most emotional movie of the year, though some might look at me funny for saying that. But I look at this movie, admire the performances of its young and clearly talented cast, and see how intricately weaved and crafted this tale of personal hell is and it just floors me. If I had one note, I think the conclusion lacks some clarity in its execution. I'm pretty sure I left understanding the intent, but what actually happened to conclude the story becomes a little lost in the wind as it whisks the audience into its ironic epilogue. But even so, the more I write about this movie, the more I love it, which truly tells me it's something special.

Netflix & Chill

Happiness for Beginners

⭐1/2

Streaming On: Netflix

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Director: Vicky Wight

Starring: Ellie Kemper, Luke Grimes, Nico Santos, Blythe Danner, Ben Cook, Shayvawn Webster, Esteban Benito, Gus Birney, Julia Shiplett, Alexander Koch

Call me an unhappy camper, but I wish for better for Ellie Kemper.

Hey, that rhymed. I'm clever!

Netflix's latest romcom sees The Office/Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt/Bridesmaids star Ellie Kemper play a recent divorcee who tries to start life anew by going on a hiking trip, only to find her brother's best friend has tagged along for reasons unknown (spoiler alert: he's into her). Kemper is a wonderful comedic performer and absolutely deserves a starring role in a film to showcase her. This is what she got. Life is unfair. The biggest mistake that Happiness for Beginners makes is that it keeps Kemper restrained. It clearly wants to be cute and funny, but it's keeping someone who knows how to do the cute and funny thing well and leaves her to be the straight man. Everyone around Kemper is trying to make this movie funny, and Kemper just stands in place and bears witness. But at the same time, Happiness for Beginners doesn't seem to want its comedic personality to overwhelm it, hoping instead to just be a light film about a woman seeking a new outlook on life and finding a little bit of love along the way. Maybe this is Kemper wanting to stretch her profile by taking on a more serious role in something that isn't ostentatious, which I can support, though I question it being in a movie that is this unserious. The fact is that the lead in this movie is not that good of a part. The film introduces us to her as a divorcee to a man that it's hard to believe she got married to in the first place, which calls into question the character's internal logic, as she doesn't seem to display any. It's a very junky character that only seems to exist when the camera is pointed at her, because the life we're told she has off-camera doesn't really work. And her character arc in the film is just being the one who tries so hard to do this hiking thing well that she is accidentally the worst at it, only to suddenly be the best at it at some point in the movie. Also kiss at the end.

The film's slight merit might be to the romcom crowd, as it likely will have an audience in it. Those who just want a lightweight movie that just portrays a woman finding herself while also not noticing Mr. Right is just to her left will find an enjoyable evening with this movie. I think history has shown that there will always be an audience for just that very thing. Those who actually like their romcoms to be both funny and romantic may want to look elsewere, though.

Sharksploitation

⭐⭐⭐

Streaming On: Shudder

Genre: Documentary

Director: Stephen Scarlata

Starring: A whole school of Bruces

Just in time for Shark Week and the release of Meg 2: The Trench, Shudder offers up a documentary with bite, as we take a look at the history of sharks within cinema. Not just Jaws, which is the obvious alpha and omega of the discussion of the shark movie, but Sharksploitation takes a very thorough dive through the many uses of sharks, including pre-Jaws shark portrayals, the Jaws knock-offs that don't neccessarily include sharks (Piranha, Alligator, Grizzly), and the many, many dumpster fire direct to video films (including a brief mention of one of my favorites, Ouija Shark). Sharksploitation is a great watch for those who have that sort of fondness for a shark movie, where one accepts that chances are the movie is going to be bad but they don't care because it has a fucking shark in it. The doc might even bite off more than it can chew, because its range of topics is a bit too dense to the point that a lot of films are likely to just get namedropped. Probably the most popular shark movie of the last ten years is The Shallows, and it gets less than a minute of discussion (which is less discussion time than a certain line from Shark Attack 3: Megalodon gets). But it also sheds some spotlights on some hidden gems of the genre, like Open Water or The Reef, and gets into the brains of the people who run the Asylum and their brand of movies (Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, Sharknado).

The presentation probably could use some sprucing up, as it feels like it's going for a grouping discussion of various states of the shark movie, but they spill info so fast that it can't help but feel a little scatterbrained. Another thing that can be said is that some viewers may need to heed a content warning, because this film discusses the crewmember who was killed by a shark on the movie Shark! who's death was used in the actual movie and the footage is also seen in this documentary, while they also discuss the films that killed actual sharks on camera and show footage from them here as well. It feels like exploitation of the grossest form of exploitation and while they probably should be discussed, the documentary goes a slight bit over the grey area. But it does have that environmentalist messaging of shark preservation at the end, which is a good note to end on that counteracts that sour taste.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater

Barbie ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Elemental ⭐⭐⭐

Insidious: The Red Door ⭐⭐

The Little Mermaid ⭐⭐1/2

No Hard Feelings ⭐⭐

Oppenheimer ⭐⭐⭐