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Reviews
Crimes of the Future (2022)
Overstatement as compelling as a whisper
There is a lot to digest in Crimes of the Future if you'll pardon the pun. For starters, it screams out as a cousin to Cronenberg's Existenz film. The connective tissue between the two films is obvious, especially in the sense of technology as an extension to human biology.
The performances are all kept natural but with a mild bit of satire that reminded me of the world and characters created by Terry Gilliam in his dystopian comedy, Brazil. Crimes of the Future serves up the same paranoia but with complete sincerity. It makes for an all together uncomfortable watch as the camera creeps along within the movie's bleak world.
The story is going to bother some as it inches along and bangs the metaphor of human suffering and divide among those who embrace evolution and those who won't. I think that with patience, any audience can appreciate that the film doesn't necessarily make a definitive choice.
White Noise (2022)
Great entry for 2023
What a brilliant surprise. We may all be too busy with our millions and millions of concerns to realize what a nice distraction this movie is. The notion of taking a pill to prevent one from fearing death is as funny a plot as the notion of their being two groups of people in the world- "winners or losers" with zero nuance. This movie made so much sense in the sense of each character wildly flailing through life alone while surrounded by others who may be of support but are flailing around themselves. I like that this movie seems to be about everything humanity is told to be worried about and the lengths we'll go to numb ourselves while completing the task of life. That the characters believe they can circumnavigate their own suffering is in my opinion the same reason our own world is as chaotic as it is in 2023. That the nun is only just pretending to believe in a life after death so that god's followers will stay calm is the best joke of the year.
The Wonder (2022)
Brilliant deconstruction
Not for the populist movie fans. This movie is a slow burn that pays back massive returns. The performances are understated and require the viewer lean in a bit. Our biases play along with the narrative, tricking our mind until the mystery or lack of mystery unravels, revealing the power of storytelling. This film is as much a testament to the power of thought as it is a critical examination of what we all choose to be manipulated by in order to feel a part of humanity. (Or in the case of the family the story is about- separate themselves from humanity in order to gain from it.) A beautiful film with rewatching.
Lou (2022)
A great performance
Allison Janney puts on a masterclass in subtlety and restraint in this film. The supporting cast gives her next to nothing to play off of but Janney stays with it. The supporting lead was so bad I almost turned it off but Janney made me stick with it. To be fair to the supporting lead, the dialogue she was given was so boring, it would have been difficult to do anything with it but pretend to cry.
While the story is nothing new, the intensity of the storm throughout made for a dark ride. I can only imagine how hard the job was for both cast and crew to be out in the woods at night under rain towers. The movie must have taken serious dedication to capture and for that alone it is worth the watch.
The twist at the end was clever but needed a little more filling in. I liked how difficult it was for the hero to decide to change. Change is hard, so that kept me watching.
Captive Audience (2022)
Because it was a deconstruction of true crime.
The content for this series was something I had been obsessed with as a child in 1989 when the original mini series was released.
This was a very interesting deconstruction of a true crime obsession that held attention of an entire nation due to the pursuit of the story. The filmmakers enmesh real footage with interviews from the family as well as those who participated in the manipulation of their story like the writers and actors of the fictional mini series.
This was a new way of telling an old story. The irony of asking the family to retell it all over again wasn't lost on me or the filmmakers so it seems.
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (2022)
When Joseph Smith's cult splits and runs further amok.
Yet another story of how old religions (myths) are twisted and reshaped into other religions (myths) which are further manipulated and become a government sanctioned cult. This is the story of how men use religion (myth) to control people and to destroy them.
Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015)
Sally Field is a marvel
Great story, perfectly cast and lots of laughs and tears. The supporting cast are spot, Tyne Daily especially.
The leading man is not an actor I would guess to have the chops to play against Sally Field. I was wrong. They have perfect chemistry together from their very first scene.
Sally Field is at the top of her game in this role as she edged toward a cartoon character but never made me feel like the character wasn't real. Comedy is often overlooked in terms of how difficult it is to render a good performance. For Sally field, this was a slam dunk.
Stranger Things: Chapter Two: Vecna's Curse (2022)
We both didn't want to watch
The first two episodes of this season are even worse than last season. None of the cast can act their way out of a paper bag and the story is exactly the same except Eleven cries in ever scene now. The characters are cliche for all the wrong reasons and the story is muddled with soap opera tropes and false starts and scares. When this show debuted it was a nice nod to the 80s coupled with a fun adventure. Now it's just churned out and forced on us.
When I went to turn on the third episode, I asked my partner if we had to and she confessed that she was only suffering through because she thought I was enjoying it. This show jumped the shark last season. I should know better not to watch what I'm told to watch. This show is not good anymore, which is too bad. They should have made it a limited series. The good reviews are based on populism and that irony is not lost on me. I couldn't keep my eyes open for most of this season 4 brand name show.
This Joka (2022)
Are you kidding me?
Capitalist weirdo trying to relate to us. File it in propaganda and manufactured consent. The lead on this has no idea what comedy is and should not be a host of a show that has tends to make people laugh.
The Pentaverate (2022)
Maybe his best
Mike Myers didn't reinvent the wheel so we're meant to be angry with him. Instead, he created something fun and with a nice message added. The world is broken and Myers had us laughing at ourselves instead of warring. Well done, cast and crew. This show was fantastic.
The Batman (2022)
Finally a relatable hero.
The last superhero movie I enjoyed was also called Batman. It came out in the late 1980s. It was an exaggerated comic book spectacle that made this kid giddy and inspired me to make art.
Decades later I am a changed person and so is The Batman franchise. This Batman bleeds. The villains are a clear and direct line to humanity's own villains. The Batman dealt with reality in a way that all the superhero movie metaphors in the last decades have failed. Even the way Manhattan doubled for Gotham but still retained the reality of the actual setting was fascinating.
Obviously I'm biased. It took a lot of convincing to actually watch another superhero movie. I find them all to be carbon copies of each other. It this one though. This one had a story and characters who I could relate to. Keep it up, Batman.
Time Lapse (2014)
Smart and Fun
The filmmakers do a great job of setting tone, style and rules of their world before allowing the r characters to do the heavy lifting. Time travel movies are often bogged down by too much exposition. I may not understand the world in which this film is set but I related to the characters 100%. I decided to leave a review after finding out the only known actor in the cast was cut out of the film because the scenes they were in didn't support the story during the edit. To me that speaks to how important the story was to the filmmakers. I can almost guarantee a big budget film would not do the same so that they could use any and all stars to market with. Bravo to the independent filmmakers who are telling stories because they are passionate about them.
The Bubble (2022)
Judd Apatow's Throw Away
An inside joke is still an inside joke when relating it back to us via our shared circumstances. This movie must have been a lot of fun to make. It was not fun to watch however.
The King of Staten Island (2020)
Re-examined
Rendered meaningless by the antics of some of its leads who don't actually care about the conversation of mental health at all. There are a lot of jokes within but none of them are funny. This movie gave me hope when I first watched it, now it just makes me cringe.
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure (2022)
A remarkable coming of age story.
Richard Linklater is so completely innovative he was able to relate his coming of age and the birth of his imagination as a story teller in one very sweet and nostalgic package. When I was in college in NYC a friend of Linklater explained to me the filmmakers love of Houston. It's never been more apparent in any of his other love letters to his home city.
Dune (2021)
Sticking with Lynch
Perhaps Dune is not meant to be a movie. In any case, watching set pieces and beautiful ships and backgrounds can only capture my attention for so long. Lynch's Dune is terrible, too but at the very least it tried something new. As far as I knew, this new Dune was created from the leftover footage of the myriad of Star Wars and super hero films we have to suffer through these days. Nice touch caring everyone from those films so as to make sure the blur of Hollywood popcorn fair doesn't scare away the audiences. This movie was extremely tedious at best and entirely boring at worst. Not for me.
The Tinder Swindler (2022)
Mini Trump/Putin Sociopath Story
This movie is about a sad sociopath. It reveals the world we live in and why we are way beyond the 11th hour. There's nothing "fair" about this story. It's essentially a tragedy. Tiny broken sad MEN have always and will always rule our civilization. Watch another consume whatever and whoever he wants with relative impunity.it's horrible and disgusting and yet it is "normal".
The Masked Singer (2019)
Where evil cashes in
This show hires special guests who also attempted to destroy the democratic process of electing law makers in the USA as well as championing the continued fame of some of the worlds most greedy and desperate humans.
This is the American experiment in its last legs where everything has a dollar value, even you and me.
The Adam Project (2022)
Much ado about nothing
Time travel movies are working with a 1 in 100 average. The bad ones rely mostly on the technical part of the story like this one. Something felt off the whole time so I paused at the midpoint of the movie and asked my partner if they knew what the characters objectives were. Neither of us had a clue.
Good time travel movies aren't about the time travel. They are about people. I had no idea who these characters were except for stunt casted famous people.
I like giving the films I'm supposed to watch a try every once in a while. They should have put their advertising budget into the script writing. But then again, they wouldn't be green lit for the next populist film so they have to rely on bells and whistles. Even Ryan Reynold charm was not enough to keep me.
Master of None: Moments in Love, Chapter 1 (2021)
Change is Hard
This episode pivots from the camp of the first two seasons. A risky attempt at adding more weight to a show that had run its course. The risk pays off and renders the show into the Phoenix.
The performances are surprising and the filmmaking is patient. Fans of the show will have to be patient, too. If the first two seasons were an invitation to get to know the characters in the best of times, this new season represents the reality of life that we all will suffer- even those protected by the writers of a comedy about relationships. That's what makes us all human- and that's why I found this episode completely relatable.
The Out of Towners (1970)
Is that you, Karen?
Cringe worthy 'comedy' that has aged itself outside of relevance to those who understand that more than themselves exist on the planet.
I couldn't get past the 1 hour mark as I realized the movie was headed toward a "happy ending" where the privileged get everything they want and more and never have to suffer another moment of reality that requires them to do more than take what they want.
Jack Lemmon's character would have been punched in the face a few times over in the scenarios depicting NYC in the early 70s. It's meant to be ironic but it's not at all, mostly because people like that character do exist and they aren't funny. They're sociopaths.
This movie serves as nostalgia for a culture that shouldn't exist anymore but still does. It isn't a comedy, it's a horror.
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (2005)
Stay For the Concert
This movie is not very good except for the concert footage and even that gets cut up to the point of ruin at times. Even the text font seems out of place in this mess of a film. It's trying to be the Last Waltz but it has no actual story or thread. Stick to the soundtrack.
Alien³ (1992)
The return of story!
After suffering through Aliens, this movie, while not nearly perfect, is a breath of fresh air. Fincher and crew bring back story, character development and find a clever way of rehashing the same idea a third time.
Cameron's shoot em up mashup of nonsense cartoon characters could have been a 5 minute entry into the story whereas this film has a beginning, middle and end.
Aliens (1986)
Watch Alien instead
Aliens breaks the "acid blood rule" to become a movie about shooting at things that move in space. It's exactly like the Ridley Scott movie after removing all character development, pathos, morality, story and weight. But James Cameron does a good job of making it all look pretty. What a fantastically boring populism popcorn flic.
Stargate (1994)
Baseless Sci Fi
I finally watched this movie that somehow is still part of populism. Driving trucks through this movie would help the pace. Adding any scientific thread or story might have helped the plot. Creating more than 1 dimensional characters would have helped too. This movie is not even campy enough to make it ironic. It's just a flat piece of cinema mediocrity. I should have known better after seeing the listed director. This is movie as a form of capitalism, not storytelling. Absolutely unredeemable.