Getting back to the movies

 It has been quite sometime since my last post, I have been riding the up and down emotional rollercoaster as half this country I am sure has. Originally when the shutdown occurred back in March it hit me hard as I was used to going to movies two or three times a week and being stuck at home I was depressed, the thing that makes me happiest outside of my family was gone, going to the movies is my escape from work life and my therapy. Then when things started to get open, I found solace in a local art house theater that was open and eventually my AMC Theatre reopened. Of course it was all down to independent films and the stuff studios did not want to spend the time and energy on rescheduling, which is fine just every now and then its nice to have that big crowded theater blockbuster. I am one that actually enjoys the audience experience and listening to reactions then hearing the conversations as people walk down the stairs to exit. The next blow to my psyche was I wanted to convert our sunroom into a home theater, I had grand visions and plans to make this work, until it came down to execution. That is when I discovered how small the room actually was, how hard it would be and expensive to totally black out the room, that concept morphed into what it is now a place to put our computer desk and a craft space or my wife. Losing the theater room was a hit to me and then the talks of theater bankruptcies and the continual delaying of movies to next year and more being pushed straight to digital. Being home as much as I have been lately and just working non-stop I have had several ideas popping into my head where I want to talk my film loving career to, unfortunately given the state of the world none are feasible at this time, I have tried to start other avenues and just do not have the motivation to get them going right now, hopefully next year that will change. For now I decided to just jump back on here and do what I know, the best I can. So here we go...LAISSE LES FILMS ROULER...Let the films roll!

Train to Busan

Train to Busan is one of those films that I do not know how I got by without seeing it, as it is one of the more talked about zombie survival movies. Released in 2016 it is a South Korean film that is presented with English subtitles for those that cannot check off speaks Korean on their job application. A father and daughter board a train to visit their wife/mother who lives in Busan, while they are getting on the train another person has boarded at the last minute unknowing to the porters and that person is infected. Eventually all hells breaks loose on the train as the zombies start increasing in numbers rapidly. Together the father and daughter team also connect with a husband and his pregnant wife as they fight their way to a safe car and try to come to terms with what is occuring around them. Of course along their journey to Busan there are obstacles to overcome such as a false sense of security stop along the way, which just picks off more of the survivors and brings on a bigger hoard of zombies. What I enjoyed most about this film is outside of a few times when the train goes through tunnels, it all takes place during the day where many of these zombie films its at night time, this allows us to see the action, have a larger sense of realism and it allows for the unique strategy that tunnel hopping provides. I am going to be front out honest and say I have no clue who any of the actors are, I am sure those better versed in South Korean films may recognize some, I think a couple were in Parasite don't hold me to that. Overall I did enjoy it quite a bit, maybe not to the extent some have raved about, for me there are a couple times that it felt a little dragged, I mean how many different ways can you fight through a zombie filled train car. The effects and creature designs worked well, for me they stand out enough from other zombie films, my favorite though [Spoiler Alert] was the deer that gets hit at the beginning of the film ad how it pulls its self back up and walks off, I want that story I want a family hiking in the woods that come across this zombie infested deer. But now that comes to a plot problem I found, the guy hits the deer, kills it and it comes back to life. Does this imply like the beginning of the movie that there was a chemical leak of some kind is it in the water or airborne, if so why does it spread through human bites, did the first human eat the deer or drink the water the deer did. Always had that problem with zombies, you can get covered in the blood and let them grunt and drool over you while you keep from being bit, but none of that outside from actually being bit will infect you. From a survivability stand point, the actors on the train are getting about as much information as the audience, except the audience we know there is something out there and we know a stranger is on the train. These are regular people thrust into the situation and having to adapt as they go and learn about their enemy, making mistakes along the way and some being life ending bad decisions. Its also shown how in a situation it will go from everyone helping each other to starting to form survival groups and the every person for themselves mentality. There is a sequel that is coming out soon and I don't know I watched the trailer, not that excited to me it seems they are putting themselves at risk to go out into the infested world where this one it was they found themselves unknowingly trapped and its looks like to goes into more of the zombie tropes that this first one avoided, I'll still see it if I have the opportunity in theaters being the completionist that I am if not I'll catch on VOD.

Shark Season

We are in the middle of 2020's shark week, you know what that means, time for the shark attack movies to come out. This year you have the lovely selection of Shark Season or Deep Blue Sea 3 (which I have pre-ordered the DVD version to go with my physical collection of the other two and will discuss that one when I received it). Let's look at Shark Season produced by the wonderful people over at The Asylum and no their visual effects department have not progressed any since the last Sharknado. A photographer (Jack Pearson) is planning on doing a photo shoot on location at a remote newly formed island with his model (Paige McGarvin) and Juliana Destefano , who will be doing the makeup for the shoot. The three set out on kayak to their island on the outskirts of Florida Bay, except there is a massive great white shark, I mean its The Asylum you could not expect them to be more generic with the type of shark. Thanks to a totally phoned in, almost literally, performance by Michael Madsen, seriously he's in a room on the phone pretty much every time he is on screen. Side track on the subject of the phone, that is how I knew what movie this was going to be because early on their is a phone call between Madsen and McGarvin, where she obviously thinks she is face timing him and he obviously thinks he's just voice calling her. You see there are two kinds of these when nature attacks movie their is the large studio production such as The Shallows versus this which is made by a small company like The Asylum which I feel like they purposely try to be the worst version possible of the type of movie they want to make. Because let's see I am sorry I will not be kind on this one, the main actors are horrible, the camera cut from on location stunt kayaks to the performers up close obviously on a stage is laughable as is the cuts from b-roll shark footage to the badly bland looking CG shark. I struggled to maintain my focus to get through this movie, the script is horrible and with inexperienced actresses trying to pull off the distress and emotional weight of their situation is just comes off dull and I found myself drifting to my cell phone until the shark makes its appearance. I honestly can not think of any reason you should spend good money on renting this, it is available currently through at least VUDU and Amazon Prime with option to rent or purchase, there are plenty of other shark thrillers out there that if you want to spend money on will give you at least some edge of your seat intensity and life or death stakes for the characters where these girls I felt myself wanting the shark to finally get its meal.

The Pool

     A man in a pool with a damsel in distress, a dog on a leash and a crocodile. The Pool is a movie from Thailand that came out in 2018, yes, that means it is in Thai and you have to read subtitles if you want to watch this. No spoilers if you look below at the poster or google the trailer, everything I mentioned is there, I won't spoil how the two of them get into the pool, well, three if you count the crocodile. Regardless the two find themselves trapped at the bottom of a ridiculously deep diving pool that has a huge design flaw of no built in ladders, the "6" on the poster if you can't read the foreign language that part translates to 6 meters or almost 20 feet, however the pool does feature a nicely sized drainage system. Unable to scale the massive tile walls things get worse when a crocodile slips into the pool and conveniently likes to lay in the worst possible locations when things need to get done. Adding to the tension of trying to save his girlfriend from their predicament is that his dog is chained above the pool. 
     I wandered upon this movie by being in my new state of wanting to watch more survival movies wandering over to see what Shudder had available and this popped up, figured sure why not lets try it. It has your survival aspects of making poor decisions, instant reacting instead of thinking decisions through and what the poster does not show you is how CG the crocodile actually is. The premise is different, being trapped in a man made location versus on a mountain or in a cave, there are a couple times I had to look away at injuries that are incurred when trying escape the confines of this tiled cell. Outside of the crocodile needing a little more finesse it has a realistic feel and as the days go on the characters and the environment so deterioration well. My main problem with the movie outside of the crocodile look is there is a story element put into play with the couple that feels placed for dramatic tension and to heighten their emotions of being trapped together and up the stakes for survival, however I just did not care about that at all the way I think the filmmakers intended it to. If your into survival horror, enjoy watching people trapped in unforgiving locations or just enjoy anything that they toss a crocodile into then you might have a nice evening at home streaming this. I wouldn't have suggested back in 2018 to see this in theaters most likely, it does work on a streaming platform like Shudder perfectly. 

Yes, God, Yes

You may recognize the lead actress, Natalia Dyer from her role as Nancy Wheeler in Netflix’s Stranger Things. Here she is a teenager in the early 2000’s which is pretty clear thanks to the wonderful trip down memory lane of the AOL system and chat rooms. Dyer’s character of Alice attends a catholic school and decides to go on a catholic retreat with the school in the midst of her discovering sexuality. That is it pretty much in a nutshell seeing her awkwardly and unnerving at times experiencing things for the first time while witnessing it is not just herself that has these feelings that everyone is saying will send you to hell. Dyer fits the role perfectly with her almost mousy youthful appearance and portrays nervousness through he facial expressions. There were times that I did feel uncomfortable as this is a not intimate, but, close look at a girl discovering self sexual stimulation. This is a movie that will definitely not be for everyone, those with daughters at that age of discovery or even actual girls going through the process of sexual awareness will probably get some underlying take away from this, it could also go the opposite way depending on your family or religious belief structure and create a bigger divide on beliefs. 

Black Water: Abyss

There is one genre that I have a guilty pleasure for that I will always watch whatever comes out regardless and that is survival horror, specifically when its nature related. In 2007 a movie came out called Black Water about a group that gets terrorized by a crocodile in the mangrove swamps of Australia. Now we get the next movie in the line up, much like the follow up movies to Open Water and 43 Meters Down this one has nothing to do with the original movie except for the environment and/or creature trying to kill them. In this case its a crocodile again, this time a group of five are going to explore an unknown cave, yup, did not tell anyone they were going. When torrential rains they thought were not going to affect them hit the area while they are in the cave system it begins to flood the cave and force of the water pushes rocks across their only exit point. Finding themselves trapped underground in an unknown cave with the water steadily rising, oh and there is a killer crocodile in the water that has nothing better to do than wait until they get in its territory. Much like the other examples I referenced this one is no where near as good as the first one, I actually liked Black Water quite a bit because it was outdoors with most of it happening in daylight which this one goes the usual route going for dark and confined areas with the ability to try to unsettle you by having a flashlight shine across the creature hunting them. Black Water also took place in the mangrove trees along a river in Australia, lot of these movies take place in Australia lately, anyways it works well with my mangrove logo. This was at from being the best and no where near the worst that I have seen, I recently watched Outback that is pretty up there in terms of the worst, a lot of my ranking for this would be the amount of times characters make stupid choices. I don’t think this is worth the price of rental or purchase, though if it wanders onto a streaming platform you subscribe to an also find guilty pleasure as I do in watching people in situations far worse than your in then I’d say go ahead click on it a night you have a little bit of time to waste and don’t want to watch something taxing on the brain. Now to get ready for Deep Blue Sea 3 and yes it is a real thing.

AAR - Eyes Wide Shut

After Action Report

Date: 08/03/2020

Title: Eyes Wide Shut

Location: Enzian Theater

It has been around twenty years since I last saw Eyes Wide Shut which was back in 1999 when it came out. I remember going to the theater back then to see this and it was for the same reason I think many guys went because Nicole Kidman gets naked and there’s a secret sex cult in the film. That is what I recall remembering about the film and now revisiting it at Enzian during their Stanley Kubrick week is yup it has a lot of nudity in it though this time around decades have passed and with time now able to see beyond it just being about naked women. How Tom Cruise reacts to Nicole Kidman’s story of the navy man at the hotel and how she talks about the way women are seen by many men. Kubrick brings a stylizing and gravitas to the film that heightens the film to keep it from being in the “skinamax” lineup of straight to cable soft porn titles. Also at 159 minutes it is a rather long movie if your just looking for some exposed women, what was I thinking when I was younger? It is very long though it never feels weighted down or sluggish as slowly more and more is unraveled, though one of the audience members when we were leaving told his friend that it was so long he felt that it was Christmas time by now. I would say though it still is not one of my favorite Kubrick films, I am sure if I had the time to sit through it a half dozen more times to pick up on little nuisances and themes  it may elevate it. I think it’s a movie that many going into long term relationships or have been in should experience together to understand how the other may be feeling or how one slip can come back around later to do more damage.

Relic

Relic is the feature film debut of director Natalie Erika James, and she comes out of the gate with a phenomenal horror thriller. Emily Mortimer and Bella Heathcote are a mother and daughter, respectively, who venture out to check on their mother/grandmother played by Robyn Nevin. When the two arrive at the house they notice its resident is missing and some eerie things happen little by little. This film does great in the beginning, building suspense of what is happening in this house and developing characters that are interesting and connected to the point you care what is happening to them. Bella Heathcote learns about a neighboring child who found themselves locked in a room in the house for several hours and later finds herself in the same room. That is when things get good or deteriorate depending on the viewer. If you are expecting the house to be alive or some scary monster to crawl out of the shadows, you’ll still be waiting as this movie goes into a much more psychological horror tone. Robyn Nevin gives a stellar performance as this aging mother/grandmother who can be sane and conversational then switch gears to go ranting mad as this character is the key to the whole movie which plays into Dementia and the effects it has on an individual and their loved ones. My main gripes with this movie is that it feels shot too dark during some scenes and trying to see what is occurring or trying to read some post-it notes around the house can be difficult and the other is when the film gets into what the house is capable of it almost seems to adapt conveniently to the situations it needs to for the film to get from A-B though I could get past that because of the investment early on with the development of the characters. The ending is one of the most cringeworthy yet impactful moments of cinema I have seen this year. If you buy a ticket or streaming access expecting for what it is more of a psychological horror movie than creature horror, which I can see from the trailer how that might assumption may happen, then I think you're in for a suspenseful unnerving night at the movies. B.

Future home of The Mangrove

Even though I have gone back to my full-time retail day job, I still find myself with quite the free time, before all this craziness happened I was going out to movies or plays at least three days a week which now I see how much time that was taking. For the past few years I have worked on my film watching skills, on and off blogging reviews, and recently just started thinking about what do I want to do with the next half of my life and incorporating what I love from the past few years. One of the few theaters that have opened in the area where I live is a one screen art house that has been around since the 80s and is nestled in between large oaks trees and just has an inviting quality to it and a sense of community. I take about an hour to drive out to this theater and since going it has made me question, why is there not something like this closer to where I live and you don’t see single screen art houses that have that kind of atmosphere to them being built. That is half of what I discovered is that want to open a theater that has that aesthetic to it, then came branding which has eluded me the past few years. Over the years one thing I have always struggled with is finding an identity and a branding that I am comfortable with, the piece I always circle back to is being a native Floridian and incorporating that into what I want to do. That popped into my head was going with using Cypress as part of the name for the large Cypress trees that grow along the lakes and swamps, it is also a name that residents are familiar with because of many places using it in their name which makes it identifiable. My problem started with logo and branding, do you know how hard it is to find a Cypress tree that looks like one and not overly detailed to reproduce, because the theater I was speaking about is named after a mountain flower, my head already had I wanted a tree to be part of the concept early on. Nixing Cypress, I began going through identifying foliage of Florida, which led me to now wanting to do obvious like Palm or Azalea then thinking about things I recalled back to high school where I loved a Marine Science class I took for a few years thinking of the activities and places we visited it came to me Mangrove trees. Scouring the net I could find and tweak a little for colors what is the current logo, though I envision something very similar yet different as the final logo down the road. I started thinking of what can I do with Mangrove trees, what will make this something I believe in, what are Mangroves in their environment, they are homes to communities of animals, they provide protection from storms for marine life and they help stop erosion. That fit with what I envision, a theater that has a sense of community among its patrons, a place where people can feel safe going and where roots can grow to keep it growing. I figured out what I want to do, a purpose and then it is on to fine tuning what can become of this, early on I knew what I want to start working to is a small theater, an art house, looking up names of art houses online across the country, I decided theater was not going to be a main player in the brand, I didn’t want locked into a theater with people thinking it was a traditional theater from the name I want a communal feel and welcome conversations before and after shows. I liked cinema giving it the air that its not just movies, its about the art that is film and the experience, Mangrove Cinema is the company I have settled on starting where I want to create online content, I want to open my theater called The Mangrove and I want to be active in the community which leads to the next part of the puzzle. What will make my theater unique and that will be by showcasing products from Florida and putting part of the proceeds to Florida ecological and wildlife programs. I have a vision that over time I will probably be sharing of visually how this will all look and will give me more material for posts and don’t want to give everything away on day one. There of course is a long way to go before ground can even be thought of being broken, first I want to get past this COVID-19 nonsense, there is money to be raised, locations to be scouted, and biggest of all learning how a theater functions. Until then I am working on building brand and building a name and image for myself. Starting with my review blog here becoming Mangrove Film Talk where I hope to discuss topics other than reviews which will also be a sister site to my YouTube channel of the same name that I plan to start once my home theater room is complete, that is for another day and another post.

My Spy

​JJ (Dave Bautista) is former special operatives for the military who has taken a job with the CIA and turns out being a spy is more than just shooting people and blowing things up. Such as killing any person with intel on a black market nuclear device is not the great idea when you need more information. Getting assigned with a tech handler (Kristen Schaal) he is reassigned to watch the wife and daughter of the brother who is out to create a nuclear bomb. Except JJ did not plan on the daughter, Chloe Coleman, being a combined force of spy wannab​​e with her own tech skills. Blackmailed by the young girl JJ must teach her how to be a spy to not blow his cover with the mother. Then things get hairy when JJ starts to get emotionally attached to the mother and oh that bad guy who probably was never going to show up does and then it’s time to pu​​t all the skills we were shown to work and get those jokes to pay off. I actually found this quite enjoyable and fun, especially because I had low expectations for it. To me I felt I saw trailers for this for years every movie I went to seemed to show a trailer for this and it was had commercial in online shows I streamed, usually to me a movie I feel that over saturated with marketing is either bad and they trying everything to get people to it or being a comedy every joke was in the trailer. Which turned out to be untrue there are some lines in the trailer that didn’t make the cut, though there was quite a bit that wasn’t in the trailer I found funny and it is sad I didn’t get to see this in theaters, damn you COVID-19, to me it would have been an even bigger impact on surprise to me than on my TV laying on the couch and would have once word went around probably cleaned up pretty well at the box office, now with everything heading to VOD in the next week and Hamilton (ugh) it’s most likely to get buried in the streaming world. I though Bautista and Coleman had great comedy together for their scenes which are what make the movie while the spy stuff goes by, meh, its there because it has to be. What is enjoyable and makes it stand out from many of the family comedies that tread similar beats is that it's not afraid to dip its toe into its PG-13 with a little darkness here and there. It's a shame that it never got its long delayed theatrical release, I would definitely give it a watch as family movie night or even solo just for Bautista performance, he has great comedic timing and pulls of the tough guy with a loveable side perfectly. This is one I would have paid $19.99 to rent and been satisfied with paying that, however, it is out on Amazon Video and watchable for free if you have Amazon Prime. B.

You Should Have Left

​Kevin Bacon is a former high profile banker that has a troubled past that follows him in this newest Blumhouse production based on a novel by Daniel Kehlmann. Why do I call out Blumhouse, because they are usually misses for me more than hits, there always seems to be a formulaic model they use for the majority of the films, this one is no exception. Bacon and his younger movie star wife, Amanda Seyfired, decide to take a vacation with their daughter before her next picture begins production and they decide to stay at a foreboding modernist house in the Welsh countryside near her future shooting location. Things begin to shift as we learn more about Bacon’s past and that this house has more secrets in its walls and becomes a character in and of itself. I started off intrigued as the mystery of Bacon’s past is stirred up early on, when the​​y get to the countryside and visit a small shop in town there seems to be something eerie about the house that matches up with its black modernist design out in the country. The house is modernist both in and out though it has a closed floor which allows the director l, David Koepp, to be able and manipulate the house as needed and setup shots that disorients the characters. There is some interesting concept here especially as Bacon begins to discover the workings of the house then it kind of went off rails in the end for me. The performances are good, the problem was I just got bored through most of this movie there are your standard Blumhouse jump scares for the most part though they come well predicted. Many have compared it to The Stand, if your looking for a lite version of that then here you go, I wish it had hit theaters, open up already!, because I probably would have seen this for $5 bucks at my local AMC in the morning. It is not worth the $19.99 theater at home rental, I feel that is what my reviews have come down to now is it worth the cost of rental, I wish it had a cheaper rental option and kept the $19.99 to purchase, for a rental or this quality it’s a hard pass. D.

7500

There are some movies that are probably not best when viewed in certain locations. Example: Jaws is one you probably don’t want to watch on your weekend trip to the beach. Another example: Psycho probably not the best decision if your on a trip solo staying in a hotel room by yourself and you plan to take a a shower. 7500 is probably not the right choice for your inflight entertainment, if your not familiar with the title 7500 is the squawk code pilots enter to signal a hi-jacking. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a pilot who’s airliner has just been hi-jacked and his wife is also a flight attendant, separating them a near impenetrable cockpit door. While a movie about an airplane being hi-jacked is nothing new this one stirs up the pot by placing the entire movie inside the cockpit as events unfold from beginning to end pretty much in real time. It’s hard to talk about a movie when its as straight forward as this, yes there are some bumps in the middle, but I don’t want to give away spoilers for you. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is charismatic enough to keep you entertained and often times on the edge of your seat waiting to see how events will unfold. I think the self contained nature of this movie is what makes this a good fit for its debut on Amazon Prime, at right around an hour and a half if doesn’t feel stretched out as it easily could have been and makes for a little thrilling evening of entertainment if your looking for something where you do not have to get invested too much into character or plot, you could easily walk up pop some popcorn come back and not have missed much or easily fit A and B together. C.

Babyteeth

It has been 97 days since my last visit to a movie theater when I saw Emma before going on a family vacation that ended with the country shutting down. Today I got to venture back into my favorite past time and hobby of movie watching thanks to a local art house theater called The Enzian in Maitland, Florida. While I watched movies at home off and on during the shutdown I largely got into a depressive state of missing seeing movies in theaters and the experience of going out to the theater.  For the last few months as you may see it has been touch and go on keeping up my enthusiasm to write and maintain a consistent watch trend. I have missed seeing movies come out initially into a theater, while the theater at home concept with VOD has become somewhat of a thing most only have a rental option of $19.99 which does not include owning a copy only a limited time rental, for an individual such as my self that attends movies for $5 - $9 dollars going out it is not cost effective for me to rent every single new release they throw into VOD instead of theatrical release.

Now let’s talk film, with my first showing back in a theater environment with Babyteeth. I have not seen any other films by director Shannon Murphy though I may seek them out after watching this one. Eliza Scanlen is Milla a high schooler is also dealing with having cancer when she happens upon an older boy named Moses played by Toby Wallace. Not only is he quite a bit older than she is he is also into the drug dealing scene which does not sit well for Milla’s parents especially when he starts to take their own drugs after being introduced to the family and invited into their home. Things take a turn when Milla begins a serious relapse and her parents must put differences aside if that’s what it means to make their possibly terminally ill daughter happy. I’ll be honest with the title my mind immediately went to the film Teeth from 2007 which this turned out to be nothing like, phew. When this started I was not quite sure what to make of it or if I was going to find myself committing to it, as it starts to unravel and more of each characters traits starts to be explored I found my self drawn into Milla’s world. It is told through title card segments that keep things moving along and I never found myself bored and its warmly shot. This might be a little harder for those that have had to experience a child going through cancer, especially towards the end. It was a nice film to get back into the movie going saddle as it has moments of laughter and times to cry which experiencing with the audience their laughs and sobs enhances the emotions the film is trying to convey. I would not say it’s a must see for most viewers, those in the independent circuit I feel will enjoy this especially in the art house environment I was in, though I would say check it out when it comes to VOD if your leery still of venturing out because Eliza Scanlen and Toby Wallace their performances feel very natural. It is a good exploration into having to accept negatives for a positive outcome. B.

Another topic I get a lot of friends and family looking for my commentary on is the mask being required in the chain theaters when they reopen. I am going to take AMC’s original stance and not want to get drawn into the political debate in regards to masking. I will just say I love going to movies and the experience that the theater with an audience brings especially to certain genres of movies and would rather wear a mask than not be able to go at all, because I have just been miserably depressed not being able to do my favorite past time these past few months. My main argument through this phase of reopening is if you do not feel safe don’t go and if you love something as much as I love going to the cinema a piece of fabric should not deter you from that experience.

The Vast of Night

The movie opens with a The Twilight Zone inspired opening on an antique style television setting up the tone for this movie, think Mysteries in History from Men in Black 2, a fictional show about alien events or was it real. Set in the late 1950’s in a small Nevada town seemingly in the middle of nowhere it is game night at the high school gym and the whole town is going to watch some basketball save for a few residents here and there. One of them a switch board operator the other the town’s radio host, when an unusual noise comes through the radio and odd calls start lighting up the switchboard with reports of something happening in the sky. The two listen to a caller and a town recluse that spin stories that may elude to something other worldly that may be happening in the skies above the town and that has happened before. Five minutes into the movie and I was hooked, from the tracking shots to the dialogue that unfurls between the towns people, the setup for this gives it a feel of a small town that could have existed back then. It captures that time period amazingly and the score elevates the visuals with this eerie, sci-fi feel that also has that feel of an old television show. While so much happens off screen, through telephone calls, the dialogue and the story being told just made it all the more intriguing. There are some issues with lighting at times being very dark, given this was filmed in just seventeen days with an extremely limited budget there has to be a little give here and there, the choice of how conversations are shot to the tracking shots make up for the lighting problems in my book. There are no distracting big name stars in this, the genuine performances of Sierra McCormick and Justin Horowitz captivates. If you’re a fan of The Twilight Zone or Stranger Things with that retro science-fiction aesthetic I think your going to enjoy this quite a bit. Regardless for what a first time director / filmmaker (Andrew Patteson) was able to accomplish is worth watching on Amazon. The best part being this one of the movie that actually works on a home VOD format being presented in the way it is as the old television show. A.

Becky

Don’t mess with Becky, Lulu Wilson is Becky, a rebellious young girl who has lost her mother to cancer and now lashes out at the world about it. Picked up from school by her father, Joel McHale, they are off to their lake front cabin in the wood conveniently in the middle of no where. Oh yeah and her father’s soon to be fiancé and her son are also coming to this trip at the cabin. There’s a problem though because Kevin James and three other inmates have escaped their prison transport and have shown up at the cabin looking for a key, don’t ask what the key is for, seriously don’t. What they did not count on is young Becky and her ultra violent Home Alone style make shift weapons and booby traps. I am going to be kinder on this movie than I probably should be, basically because I just had a damn fun time watching it, sure it has several super gory and grotesque scenes, highly unbelievable moments, though I found Wilson’s entertaining and Kevin James is just so damn charming as a villain you love to hate. End of the day it is a home invasion movie, though it does some different things at the beginning there is so fun editing flipping back and forth between Wilson and James setting up these two as combatants. Home Invasion movies are a dime a dozen nowadays especially with all the streaming platforms because honestly you have one or two locations and a handful of players its quick to turn these out, the kill styles set it apart from the invasion pack. It’s bloody and over-the-top at times, if your looking for an action ride until the mainstream movies get rolling again I would give Becky as shot, maybe skip the popcorn if you have a weak stomach to graphic violence.C.

The Goldfinch

I finally committed to watching this movie in its full 149 minute runtime entirety, why is that such a big deal? Because I had zero enthusiasm to watch this movie, the trailers looked blah and boring while the reviews I read or watched were not to kind on it. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Donna Tartt that centers around the character of Theo in his youth and as an adult, played by Oakes Fegley and Ansel Elgort respectively. Theo had his world changed in an instant when he was young while visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art the day a bomb went off killing his mother, of the survivors a young girl he would come to be friend through his life and the painting the movie gets its name from that he takes, which will be his Macguffin through the movie that he carries everywhere. After the explosion he is taken in by a well to do family featuring Nicole Kidman who takes Theo in and develops a fondness for him and plans to bring him into their family until Luke Wilson shows up, Theo’s father, who takes him back to his house in the Nevada desert where there are more motivations than just to be a father once again to his son. But, it’s not all for nothing being dragged from the cozy comforts of the well to do family then moved to a dust bowl neighborhood because he befriends Boris played by Finn Wolfhard. Things progress and by happenings, Theo will end up living with Jeffrey Wright a colleague of a man who died next to Ansel Elgort in the museum that left a ring that connected the two, Theo would then live a life of antique furniture sales and trying to find his place in the world. Admittedly this is a vey fast paced summary of what happens in the movie which is quite the opposite is very slow paced. Directing the adaptation of the novel is John Crowley, who directed Brooklyn, I loved Brooklyn and did not know this was being directed by the same guy that did that until I started doing some research before actually hitting play. What I enjoyed about Brooklyn was the characters more than anything, while the characters in this movie are interesting which is largely what kept me going through this was being invested in what was going to happen to Theo as time goes by though and more and more I just started getting bored which I don’t know if its just the story, I have not read the book or if its just did not make the transition from page to screen well. I do have to say I enjoyed the younger scenes with Oakes Fegley more than I did with older Ansel Elgort who comes off pretty wooden in this movie. I also enjoyed seeing Finn Wolfhard in a new genre than he normally appears in and some of the scenes with him and Oakes were my favorite. Shot by Roger Deakins The Goldfinch is nothing if not gorgeous to look at, Deakins is slowly creeping his way up to being one of my favorite cinematographers. The big question is was this movie as bad as I was expecting it to be, actually it was not, I got invested in the character of Theo and the movie has some interesting themes it explores, I do not know if it was the cutting back and forth on the timeline or pieces of the book didn’t make it into the screenplay that made the movie kinda of a chaotic mess of scenes and character relationships. It’s not a movie for everyone, undoubtably if you read the book your most likely going to watch it, it was okay not something I am going to remember in a few months. C.

The Lodge

I watched this movie due to the fact I had many on social media talking about how this is the scariest thing they have seen recently. It stars Jaeden Martell and Lia McHugh as two children who’s parents are separated and something happens to the mother, I’m gonna try not to go too far into spoiler territory as it is still relatively new and being discovered, their father is ready to get remarried to Riley Keough who is actually a survivor of a mass suicide in the vein of the real life Heaven’s Gate mass suicide. Well Riley feels it be good for the kids to spend sometime with her just before Christmas, where better to bond than a secluded mountain cabin aka lodge, to me it wasn’t big enough to be a lodge, whatever. Of course their father still has to work in the city leaving the three of them in a lodge in the middle of snow and ice season. Well strange things begin to happen, material possessions disappear, power goes out and medication goes missing for Riley’s character. Won’t spoil it, the movie leads you where this could go a couple different ways and makes a decent choice with good moral implications then in the end just goes off the rails, I get where they, the directors, were coming from doing it, I just think it could have used some finessing and clean up to the concept. The biggest problem with this movie is the pacing, nothing happens for a good hour and there’s some moments where the bond and tension could be developed between the kids like Jaeden and Riley after a shower, but, more time rather be spent with her wandering in the snow. For me this is right behind The Turning in the run for worst horror/thriller of the year, this is definitely more on the thriller side and unless you get scared of the long takes of a character with music building waiting for a jump scare that does not come, then most won’t be affected by this. As I mentioned the I don’t know if you could call it a twist with what actually happens is interesting concept that I feel could make for some interesting projects. Overall, I was bored most of this and unless your home alone wanting a little fright without the actual scares or any gore than this might push you to keep a light on while you wait for your other to get home or fall asleep after. D.

Code 8

This is if I am not mistaken a Netflix platform exclusive release that came out the end of 2019. I tend to gravitate more towards science-fiction movies released directly to streaming than other genres because I love sci-fi especially the production design of them. Code 8 is a little different as it is a crime movie being disguised as a science-fiction movie, first the best part of a sci-fi movie is setting up the world we are witnessing, in this case what appears as a not so distant future where superhuman powers have manifested themselves (okay, now get X-Men out of your head). In this movie they are referred to as powered individuals and are classified based on their ability and strength, Robbie Awell is an electric class 5, that means he’s quite electrifying. His mother has ice powers and is sick, being a powered you have to sit out waiting for work similar to a migrant worker, needing money to help his mother he takes a job which ends up being for some robbery work ultimately reporting to a drug kingpin that deal in Psyke. Psyke is a drug that they get from taking spinal fluid from powered people creating hallucinations as a form of getting high. Of course a super power human movie would not be one without some force out trying to stop them, here it is the police armed with drones that can deploy robotic humanoid officers called Guardians. I started off quite enjoying this movie the setup, the world building with the Guardian program, then the more we got into this whole crime story and drug dealing it pulled away from me. Movies about drug dealing and running are probably on the lowest part of the totem pole for me, I don’t know why the subject material just does not interest me, I have never done drugs and don’t care to try, then they always seems to work in cliches of double crossing one of the dealers or runners. Strip that away from the movie and its a decent B rated science-fiction flick, I don’t think the acting was noteworthy, but it also did not suck. I think its fine for a little sci-fi action middle of the day you have nothing else to do or if you need to kill sometime on a flight.C.

Gemini Man

Gemini Man aka the movie you know from the trailer that showed Will Smith fighting Will Smith. Some of you saw this in theaters, many saw it in 3D and then many saw it also in 120 frames per second. I however did not see this movie in theaters, why? I honestly do not recall what I did besides seeing this movie, I do remember that I had grown tired of seeing the trailer for it. Usually when I see a trailer played that many times its over compensating for the quality of the movie. Now lets talk about director Ang Lee's most recent technology experiment, I say that because to me each of his movies is like a little kid who got into a film expo saw something he felt was cutting edge and said I want to make a movie around that technology, here it is de-aging. By now we have seen de-aging effects being used quite often Samuel Jackson in Captain Marvel and several actors in The Irishman to name a couple. You know from the trailers that your going to see Will Smith fight a younger Will Smith, we know from the context in the trailer, Will Smith knows nothing of this other him that means its not a son, but a clone. Ang Lee could of went the way of The 6th Day where Arnold Schwarzenegger fights a clone of him self that is the same age, however he chose to go with Will fighting a younger version of himself, this of course adds a little more to the humanistic side of the story which is cloning a person and then raising that clone in the shadow of the real person. Before we get into what I thought of the de-aging, lets talk about the actual movie, Will Smith plays an exceptionally skilled sharpshooter that has over 70 kills under his belt, which is starting to weigh on him and decides it is time to retire. There are those that are not happy he's leaving and then there are some that consider him a loose string that needs to be plucked away from their ulterior motive. Enter Clive Owen the head of an elite group of a black ops paramilitary group named Gemini, there you go now you get the title, because you guessed it Will Smith 2.0 works for them. After a couple associates of Smith's are off'd he puts the puzzle together quickly, gathers up Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Benedict Wong, then quickly escapes with unknowingly a clone in tow. This is where I feel Ang Lee likes his toys, because the plot it's not intricate and you have some interesting characters though we never get to spend time with them because Ang Lee is making a Bourne lite movie he's not used to making. There are a couple decent action scenes notable the motorcycle chase and a fight in some catacombs, though I felt like I'm watching a scene designed to be Smith v Smith. Will say, look its a different use of a will, acting wise to me everyone did well especially Benedict Wong, loved his character. [Spoiler Alert] There is not just one clone and the first one looks better than the second one, though many of the close up of the clone there was just something off and I felt it was de-aging via CG because there is just something missing in the eyes and around the cheeks his face took on a putty like look to me. The issues I had with it though, I do acknowledge that Ang Lee is taking chances and giving us something new not in the form of story telling but deliverance of the material with the high frame rate that was a very big thing he wanted it shown in theaters with, I did not see his one with the frame rate though I have seen others and it just looks too real not cinematic for my tastes almost like I'm watching a 4K video on YouTube its almost like too clean if that makes sense. I wasn't challenged intellectually with this movie, but that is not to say I was bored, I think this movie got a little more negativity than it deserves largely due to technical choices. It entertained me throughout, which is all we can ask for a movie truly to do and that was what they started as a way to entertain which this does, good example of always watch a movie to make your opinion. I had very negative outlook for this movie, largely due to watching reviews, I am a sucker for clone movies whether good or bad, I enjoy the ethical debate they instill into the movies. C.

Swallow

Unless you were able to attend one of the festivals that played this or live by a drive-in theater showing it, you are going to have to rent this on a streaming platform, because movie theaters are still closed due to COVID-19...end rant. Haley Bennett has recently just married Austin Stowell, who’s family is well to do and has bought them a nice big shiny contemporary house to live in and now thanks to her husband she does not have to work and can work on pursuing her passion of art. Except when she becomes pregnant she starts to learn that not working and being under this family umbrella she doesn’t necessarily get to make all the decisions she wants and being treated how she would like to be treated. It leads to her developing a disorder called Pica, if you are unfamiliar what this is I’ll give you the definition, an eating disorder where a person eats things (usually in animate objects) that a not considered food. Before this movie I was vaguely aware of this disorder, I have heard about it, but, not to the extent that this movie takes it. We are talking a marble, battery and dirt just to name a couple, it was uncomfortable watching this movie, but, in a good way. I had to take a break half way and just recollect myself, you see her putting these in her mouth and then fishing them out of the toilet when they come out the other end and she has kind of a trophy gallery on her stand of the things she has swallowed. When I said it was in a good way being uncomfortable, its due to the fact that when this first starts happening, I was like what the serious F*’@ is she doing, very quickly she is ushered by the family to see a therapist, where as she starts discussing her upbringing you can begin to see what it has done to her mentally and partly why she is doing this. Haley Bennett is the whole movie, her very relaxed, calm demeanor about everything and when she goes into her swallowing objects its such effortless mentality she is displaying doing this. Then while this is going on with her you have the family giving ultimatums to the extent of go to rehab or divorce, Elizabeth Marvel plays the mother in-law with a beat where you aren’t quite sure is she on her side or her son’s side. So, you get this great debate that different viewers may get from this movie over is the family being controlling of her because of this or is it that they are protecting the child she is carrying. It’s gonna be difficult for many to stomach this movie, though it is such a different subject matter, at least I have never seen represented in a movie and as put off as I was at the imagery of her ingesting these things, the film as a whole is very well lit and has wonderful color palette with nice up close shots of her object, I was transfixed and had to watch to see what was going to happen to her. B. Of course after watching this I had to go and see what basis in reality this movie is and I found sites that said one-fourth of pregnant women may develop a form of Pica due to anemia or iron deficiency resulting from the pregnancy.

Freaks

Right away we are put into a dilapidated house with Emile Hirsch and his daughter, Lexy Kolker, where it has a vibe similar to a movie like Room where you feel she is being held captive by Emile. They are father and daughter though and he is protecting her from the outside world where he says people want to kill them if they go outside and you here him telling her to try and act normal. Slowly as reveals start to happen, Lexy Kolker is not an ordinary child, she has some kind of power that we are not quite sure what it is. Bruce Dern comes into the picture as a man driving an ice cream truck trying to lure her outside and I do not know about you, my mind instantly goes to creepy old man trying to kidnap little girl, wrong, its her grandfather. Venturing with her grandfather into the world it appears its not as bad as her father makes it out to be, or is it. You see she is what is referred to in this movie as a “freak” a human with superpowers, think X-Men sort of with some Brightburn and you get the gist of what’s going down, Emile Hirsch has created a time bubble to keep his daughter safe as long as he can stay awake, oh yeah, forgot to mention her mother is being held inside a mountain where they take “freaks” and she is about to be put down, except her daughter has the ability to control other people and visit other people’s environments. I understand this sounds all over the place, to talk about this movie without giving any spoilers is kind of hard, already gave a way a couple, oops my bad. Somehow though it all manages to work out and with some nifty visual effects along the way. What I liked about this was it constantly keeps unraveling itself and opening up more and more defying some predictions I had as to what was happening. If you have the time to give the movie and actually actively watch, I think you’ll be entertained. B.

Extraction

I have grown to be skeptical of direct to Netflix movies, they always tend to be more hit or miss for me. But, I have been watching a lot of dramatic ones lately and wanted some just turn off the mind action, blow s*!# up type of movie. This one did not let me down, Chris Hemsworth plays a for higher mercenary who takes a contract to rescue the son of a drug dealer that has been taken hostage in India. What he does not realize is that this kid is wanted by many more individuals and he has gotten himself into a bigger situation than anyone thought going into the mission. John Wick showed us what action movies could do under the direction of a former stunt coordinator and now it is happening once again, this time helmed by Sam Hargrave a stunt coordinator that worked on many of the Marvel films has now stepped behind the lens and brings the level of action from the John Wick films into a more real world environment with mercenaries instead of assassins. This is a movie that does not let up it is hard hitting action for a good majority of it, because to be honest the plot is not that great and the main character is not quite as developed as John Wick himself, it makes up for with action though. From breach and clearing residences to one of the best car chases that I have seen in years. The pairing of Hargrave and Hemsworth is perfect as they have worked together before with Marvel, the director knows what Hemsworth is capable of performing and then gets that ability without the comedy elements that Thor usually exhibits. This is one that I wish we would have had the ability to see in theaters because I feel especially in like a Dolby format that the action would be that much fuller with a screen encompassing my field of vision and the shots, punches and engines in full surround. It’s not an intricate storyline and the characters could use some more defining, but, if your looking for some popcorn munching action, the way this movie is shot and put together on a technical level is another helping to redefine what action movies can be, highly recommend for someone wanting a dose of some adrenaline action. C.

See You Yesterday [Review]

This is a movie that came out last year and was nominated for best first feature and won best first screenplay at the Film Independent Spirit Awards this year, it is available on Netflix to watch, I remember seeing it on Netflix browsing through titles and never gave much thought to watching it. However, being a member of Film Independent I have the opportunity to attend what they call Coffee Talks which is where a member of Film Independent moderates a discussion of the film with the filmmakers and then does a little audience Q&A at the end. Living in Florida on the complete opposite coast of all the action in Hollywood, I was never able to attend many of these events until recently due to COVID-19 they are all taking place on the Zoom platform, at least that good came out of the situation we are in, giving myself the opportunity to attend events such as this where it was a discussion with the director and write (Stefon Bristol) and the other writer (Fredrica Bailey). Signing up for this Q&A I realized pretty quickly that I should actually watch the film that I am going to have them talking about. What if teenagers figured out time travel? How would they direct that ability? That is the underlying story of this film, yes I said underlying, first and foremost it is about police brutality. The movie revolves around two teenage students who are both extremely gifted when it comes to technology and science, Eden Duncan-Smith and Dante Crichlow, who have figured out time travel and put it into a wearable backpack device. Their focus is using it to when a science fair until Astro who plays Eden Duncan-Smith's brother is fatally shot by a police officer over mistaken identity for a robbery suspect. To save her brother the two are able to jump back twenty-four hours and try to stop the shooting from taking place, thus saving her brothers life, until their interference in time creates ripples that have far worsening effects, resulting in them having to do several jumps to try and set the timeline back. Taking place in Brooklyn this movie doesn't try to explain it rules of time travel or go deeply into how their technology functions, instead it asks audience to just go with it as the main focus is to draw attention to police brutality and prejudices occurring in areas such as Brooklyn, doing this with a science-fiction film as the driving factor is actually quite brilliant as it delivers a subject that has been represented by several movies recently, but, using a different genre to engage a whole other audience. This is the first feature film to be be directed by Stefon Bristol and for both writers himself and Fredrica Bailey, which is apparent during the film as there are some continuity errors and some scene setups that don't quite line up because of the time paradoxes created, though even for advanced filmmakers anytime your playing with time travel this becomes a factor. Its not a shiny polished film, as I said though the idea is to draw light to a societal problem occurring in our world and the characters surrounding that main idea are strong and the time travel aspect just makes it feel fresh. Resulting in you can either watch this movie from a science-fiction stand point or from a culturally conscious dramatic point of view. Its under an hour and half which works well it doesn't add any unnecessary fluff, its a good watch especially if you want to introduce pre-teens to the subject of what is police brutality and overreach without using a long tense dramatic alternative. C.

We Summon the Darkness

Alexandra Daddario, Maddi Hassan and Amy Forsyth are on a road trip to attend a music performance from a metal band when on the road a van on pranksters tosses out a container from the van at the girls. Little did the girls know that they would be seeing that van again in the parking lot of the little venue where the band is playing, three guys (Keenan Johnson, Logan Miller and Austin Swift) make the van home as they tell that they are following the band tour going from place to place. Three girls and three guys you can see from a mile away these two groups are gonna be hanging out for a while. It is decided that the guys will be following the girls to Alexandra Diddario’s father’s place not to far away. This is where the movie decides to start upping the tension and thriller factor hoping to bring audiences into a twist, though the setup for said twist is seen coming and just does not make that impact it could have, I mean come on look at the poster art or for COVID purposes the VUDU graphic, its clear the girls are gonna be up to more than just flirty metal music fans. Early on in the movie it is dropped a couple times that there have been satanic killings happening around the country and when we see their interactions with different people from the gas station attendant where they get gas to the boys in the van, its easy to tell these girls have more to them they are laying on and it turns out to be true. The problem I had was once things start going wrong and the horror/killing aspect of the movie kicks into full gear, I just couldn’t have given a crap about any of the characters if they lived or died and with a horror movie you need at least one character to champion through if they live or die, there are times that they tried to create a dramatic tie between Alexandra and Keeanan though its just not well written and most of the direction feels lazy. Johnny Knoxville’s character as Alexandra’s father was probably the most interesting character in the movie, yet we hardly get to know about him and his beliefs which may have helped out on the motive of why these girl’s did what they did. I mean if this was included in a streaming service and your genre of choice is the slasher horror/thriller category, its a quick movie that may satisfy, though I feel there is enough to also have a group with some drinks and snacks to just make fun of it the whole time, I mean one decides the best weapon is like a boat trolling motor and propeller to kill with. My recommendation is to just go and rewatch The Craft. D.

Beanpole Review

Whew, this was a struggle to get through, not that it was bad, it is kind of a slow burn about two women that is quite emotionally deep at times. The story takes its name from the character Iya played by Viktoria Miroshnichenko who is a tall sort of lanky girl, which the community they live in refer to her as a beanpole due to her stature. Let me set the scene for you, it is set just post World War II in Russian, oh yeah its a Russian language film that is about 130 minutes (that might have had an effect on my getting through this), Iya works in a hospital that treats soldiers that have lost limbs or the ability to fully move in one case. She has a small boy that lives with her in a small room in a shared building, aka, has to take baths in a community bathing room. Just after a tragic event with the boy, we meet Masha (Vasilisa Perelygina) the boys real mother who has just returned from serving in the Army. Iya and Masha served in an anti-aircraft unit where they met and formed a strong friendship, Iya was discharged for medical reasons and still suffers from freezing up unexpectedly at times a result akin to a form of PTSD. Coming back and finding that her son died under her friends care, Masha, feels that her friend basically owes her a child and sets that plan into motion. This brings the two girls into a whirlwind of emotions that brings the audience into the mix, they at times are now closer than ever, while at the same time the reason they are becoming closer is creating friction pushing them away. I mentioned that it took me a while to get through this, actually is was a full afternoon, one of the reasons is it does unfold and move slowly. It is a heavy movie that does not loosen up and I resulted to having to press pause step away for a little bit then move forward a little bit and take another break. This is the first film for both leading actresses and they are what is golden about the movie, the emotions they are able to portray and work through the movie for new actresses is quite extraordinary. Directed by Kantemir Balagou, he is able to effectively transport audiences back to Leningrad in 1945, there for me was just some pacing issues and some off choices on shot setups, again though this is a Russian made film obviously they are gonna be shooting films different than films made stateside, was this a movie for me no, though I do appreciate it as an International Film and the craft work that went into making it. C.

Sea Fever

The beginning of the year gave us an alien like confined, isolation, horror thriller based underwater and now we have one on the surface of the water.

From first time feature film director Neasa Harriman comes a decently competent sci-fi  survival thriller on the high seas. I am sure you could classify it as a horror film at IMDB has it listed as one of the genres to describe it, for me I would say more thriller than horror, there are a couple gore scenes,  for the most part its more the tension of who will be next or what is this thing doing. Let’s start at the beginning where we meet Hermoine Corfield’s character, Siobhán, who is working on her doctorate and is told by her professor she must go on a fishing trawler to finish her studies against her wanting to stay in the lab on campus. She is not warmly welcomed by the crew consisting of Connie Nielsen, Dougray Scott, Olwen Fouéré, Jack Hickey and Ardalan Esmaili because she is a red head, if you are not familiar with maritime myths, it is considered bad luck to have a red head on your vessel. Even though this movie is set off the Irish coast where red heads are not uncommon, it is still bad luck to have them on board, which is foreboding because that is just what they encounter a bunch of bad luck or is it a certain captain trying to skirt the rules. You see as they are putting out to see they are warned by the coast guard they are entering an exclusion zone, which unknown to the rest of the crew they have just entered against being told not to. If you are reading this then you probably know movies pretty well and know that doing what your not told, hiding it from everyone else, surely something is bound to go wrong. They encounter something that has latched onto their ship and has started an infection of the crew and one by one the start to be killed off by this thing. This movie is taking cues from a little bit of Alien mashing it up with a little bit of The Thing, you have a creature killing of members of the crew in a confined space, which the director is able to work with very well, it is not the largest fishing trawler but you get the sense of where everything is happening and can see enough to know what is going on. If anything this movie has become more relevant without it even knowing it was going to be, cause I am sure the release date was planned in advance, this is another film that was suppose to be releasing into theaters instead it had the sad honor of going straight to VOD. At the time of writing this we are still going through COVID-19 stay(safer)-at-home orders where we are distancing for the greater good, well as crew becomes infected our main character, Siobhán, specializes in predicting behaviors and knows that they cannot go back home until they know they are not infected any longer, aka stay-on-the-boat to keep from spreading what they have found on the mainland. Movies like this are one of my favorite genre’s, Alien, Leviathan and even Life(2017) are some of my favorite movies, your combining survival horror with the science fiction of sci-fi creatures. Earlier I said this played more thriller to me than horror and that is because a lot of this is trying to see who has it, what is it and focus more on social interactions with the crew than action. There are as I said a couple gore scenes for those that want that kind of stuff, to me less is more, some are gonna be put off by the conversations in the movie, trying to develop more character and bonds with them then focus on running and screaming. If your into movies like those I mentioned, I would check this out, the creature has an interesting design and has the relevant message going for it and even treads into the mankind encroachment on the environment if that is something up your alley. C.

Wendy Review

Wendy as you may have either guessed from the title or saw the trailer is a re-imaging of the Peter Pan story. For me this is more of using Peter Pan as inspiration for the story rather than calling it a re-imaging or as some call it a new interpretation of the classic story. Yes, you have characters named Wendy and Peter, yes there is the island where kids can not age and the idea of never losing your inner child. The movie starts where a young boy named Thomas wanders off and boards a train and skip forward several years, has never returned, when a young girl named Wendy and her twin brothers (Douglas and James) hop on a train in the middle of the night. Finding a young boy on the train named Peter they are kicked out of the moving train over water, where a boat awaits to take them to a mystical island. On this island are two populations, children who never grow up and old people who stopped believing. The two live on separate sides of the island as the children play and run about, with a fondness and protection of a large fish-like creature named 'Mother', while the older inhabitants are trying to get their youthfulness back by capturing 'Mother' believing eating her flesh will bring back their youth.

This is a hard movie to try and explain as it is one that to me has to be experienced to understand, It is very obvious that the filmmaker behind Beast of the Southern Wild is behind this from the look and feel of the movie once it starts it has that whimsical feel while still having a worn, rusty, aesthetic. There were times I felt this was a Peter Pan movie and other times if the characters had different names, I would just take it as a fantastical youth adventure film as there are enough changes to the story. What is still there though is the messages about keeping hope and youthful joy in your lives as your grow up that J.M. Barrie with his classic story instilled on the world. There are tons of messages, takeaways or symbolic meanings that can be interpreted from watching this if you sit and think on every thing. As with Beasts of the Southern Wild the children in the movie are for the most part all unknowns, however I can see one or two of them coming out of this into the spotlight as Quvenzhané Wallis has become a common name in the film world. As beautiful as the island is and the rich production design of combining fantasy with an almost dystopian aesthetic, there were a couple problems I had with the movie which are mostly pacing related, I felt the beginning dragged on a little bit and towards the middle it also slowed down as we waited for the conflict to start. There is also some use of handy cam work that results in shaky cam at times that I think other setups would have worked better. Though if you watch the making of this movie and read a little bit about it, the island they filmed scenes on called Montserrat was severely devesated from a volcanic eruptions in the 1990's and the remote locations made it hard to get to safely except for the more critical cast and crew, so, while I was not a fan of some shaky cam moments, I get that you have to the best with what you have to work with.  Most will say its another Peter Pan movie and skip it alone on that merit, which I can  kind of understand then you will have those that are put off by the trailers and the look of the film, those that have seen Beasts of the Southern Wild and enjoyed it or recognized the passion the filmmakers had to craft that one will enjoy Wendy. I do not think its worth going out of your way to  watch or pay the theater at home fee I did unless you are in the latter group I mentioned, I do feel though it will be worth a watch on a streaming service you subscribe to once it becomes available on it, if you are looking for something outside the mainstream studios. C.