Film Reviews
Relic Is a Terrifying and Touching Allegory for Dementia: Review
The Pitch: Three generations of women deal with the inevitability of death in the face of a global pandemic largely affecting the elderly. Kay (Emily Mortimer) and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) travel to grandmother Edna’s (Robyn Nevin) remote Australian home after receiving news that she has disappeared. When Edna returns days later with no memory of where she’s been, the house begins to change, complicating an emotional story of aging with sinister undertones. Directed by Natalie Erika James, who also wrote the script along with Christian White, Relic effectively weaves in elements from Hereditary and The Visit to deliver a terrifying tale that tugs at the heartstrings. The Ties That Bind: Relic struck a nerve with me. The story of a woman dealing with her ailing mother at the end o...
Tom Hanks Saves Apple TV+’s Greyhound From Sinking: Review
The Pitch: In the North Atlantic during World War II exists a stretch of water known as the Black Pit. It’s there, beyond the reach of any air support, convoys of American supply ships heading toward a battered Britain are attacked by hunting wolfpacks of German U-Boats. Their only protection in this perilous span of water comes by way of accompanying destroyers. One such ship, the USS Keeling (call sign “Greyhound”), is helmed by Commander Ernest Krause (Tom Hanks), who must safeguard his convoy over the course of 50 hours in his first-ever wartime command. Adapted by Hanks from C. S. Forester’s novel The Good Shepherd, Greyhound’s subject matter should come as no surprise. The two-time Academy Award winning actor has explored other World War II stories as the star of Saving Private Ryan ...
Jon Stewart’s Irresistible Is A Snarky, Silly Plea for Less of the Same: Review
The Pitch: In Jon Stewart’s Irresistible, the year 2016 and the U.S. presidential election very much happened. The Democratic National Committee is left licking its wounds in the wake of what was to be a slam-dunk win for Hillary Clinton. All the strategy, all the super PAC money, all the campaigning, photo ops, polls, and beyond still couldn’t put a seasoned veteran in the White House. Gary Zimmer (Steve Carrell), a leading DNC strategist, is burrowed under his bedsheets, dodging calls from MSNBC, CNN, national networks, and the rest of the circus. He was too smart, too punchy, too confident, too well-funded, and too connected for this to happen. Fast forward to the present. Zimmer discovers a viral video of a town meeting interrupted by a Marine colonel, Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper), pro...
Artemis Fowl Isn’t Worth 94 Minutes of Your Life: Review
The Pitch: After years in development hell, Disney is unveiling its attempt at a new franchise with the adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s first Artemis Fowl novel. With a cast that includes Colin Farrell, Josh Gad, and Dame Judi Dench, and esteemed director Kenneth Branagh behind the camera, what could go wrong? What Went Wrong: Well, just about everything. The one mercy of Artemis Fowl is that it’s short, clocking in at just 94 minutes including its end credits. Unfortunately, that gives Branagh and credited screenwriters Conor McPherson and Hamish McColl plenty of time to create confusing character motivations, half-assed attempts at emotional gravitas, and stabs at humor that are best left unsaid or unseen. For those of us who haven’t read the Colfer books, Artemis Fowl fails to tell its most...
Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods Brutally Confirms We Haven’t Learned Enough From War: Review
The Pitch: Five bloods, four surviving soldiers, the fall of Saigon, a hunt for gold, and the ever-lasting damage and degradation of war. Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods is his take on Vietnam through the eyes of African American grunts, both past and present. Vietnam, 1971. Paul (Delroy Lindo), Eddie (Norm Lewis), Otis (Clark Peters), Melvin (Isaiah Whitlock Jr.), and Norman (Chadwick Boseman) are a battalion that finds a crate filled with Vietnamese gold. Knowing they can’t just grab it and go, the men bury the prize with the hope of coming back for it when the time is right. In the meantime, they’re fighting in a war they’re not sure they need to be a part of, questioning the dangers of this foreign land against the rioting, fires, and protests at home. Ho Chi Minh City. Today. Paul, Eddie, Oti...
The King of Staten Island Turns Pete Davidson Into a Judd Apatow Archetype: Review
The Pitch: There’s not much distance between The King of Staten Island, the sixth feature film from comedy legend and super-producer Judd Apatow, and Pete Davidson’s much-publicized real-life. The circumstances are different — Davidson’s character in the film isn’t a comedy star on the most-watched sketch comedy show in the world, nor has he ever dated the world’s most famous pop star — but the background details are largely the same. Essentially, the movie is a fictional dramedy based on the real-life of 26-year-old Pete Davidson, comedian and the youngest cast member currently on Saturday Night Live. Art Imitating Life: On Saturday Night Live, Davidson traditionally opts to appear as himself, often riffing about his actual mental health issues and sobriety. When he became tabloid fo...
The Trip to Greece Offers a Fitting Farewell: Review
Bon Voyage: Funnymen Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon — playing fictionalized versions of themselves — once again join director Michael Winterbottom on a European excursion, this time tracing Odyseus’ 10-year journey home from Troy in a single week. The Trip series might best be described as a mash-up of an Anthony Bourdain special with Whose Line Is It Anyway? — a colorful combination of culture, comedy, camaraderie, and culinary exploration set in some of Europe’s most visually striking locales. However, at its best (the original film set in the north of England and its Italian sequel), the series, thin on plot as it may be, also poignantly chronicles two middle-aged fathers with problems, frustrations, and fears that many men endure at that age. Fortunately, the fourth and final installment ...
Netflix’s The Lovebirds Brings Out the Best in Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae: Review
The Pitch: Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae) are four years into a relationship that’s on the fritz. They snip at one another. They argue over the littlest things. They can’t even imagine themselves winning The Amazing Race. All of that drama is put on hold, however, when the two fading lovebirds fly right into a maddening murder mystery that takes them all across New Orleans. Even worse, they’re the prime suspects. Can they solve the crime before they’re taken in to do the time? That all depends on whether or not they can set aside their differences and find a way to be a team again. The Big Schtick: The Lovebirds reunites director Michael Showalter and Nanjiani, who both leveled up with 2017’s heartfelt and hilarious The Big Sick. It’s a strong collaboration and this latest...
Scoob! Is The Avengers of Hanna-Barbera Movies: Review
A New Mystery: Following a prologue that shows how Shaggy (Will Forte), Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker), Daphne (Amanda Seyfried), Fred (Zac Efron), and Velma (Gina Rodriguez) met and formed Mystery Incorporated, the film flashes forward 10 years as the gang is trying to find funding for their new base of operations. They are approached by potential investor Simon Cowell (yes, really), who refuses to fund the group after declaring Shaggy and Scooby inessential to the team. Soon after, the teenage hippie and his dog are attacked by a squadron of chainsaw-wielding robots before they are saved by the Falcon Fury and its inhabitants: Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg), Dee Dee Sykes (Kiersey Clemmons) and Dynomutt (Ken Jeong). Together, they are trying to find the three skulls of Cerberus (yes, that Cerber...
Tom Hardy’s Capone Is an Absolute Horror Show of Decaying Tropes and Hungry Ghosts: Review
The Pitch: Alfonse Capone (Tom Hardy) was once the scourge of the FBI and law enforcement across the nation. He was Public Enemy Number One, the king of Chicago’s underground, the scourge of FBI agent Elliot Ness, who lived high on the hog and killed people with a gold plated Tommy Gunn. Now? It’s the mid-40s and untreated syphilis has caught up with the aging Capone, decrepit before his time and the FBI is getting sick of surveying him at his home on Palm Island, Florida. Supervising Agent Crawford (Jack Lowden) thinks there’s something Capone still knows, that he’s still hiding. Capone, now going by Fonzo to keep his profile low — even as he lives on a sprawling estate with his wife (Linda Cardellini), full battery of protection, and serving and gardening staff — starts to imagine he can...
Shudder’s Z Capitalizes on Parental Nightmares: Review
Spelling It Out: Parents Kevin (Sean Rogerson) and Beth Parsons (Keegan Connor Tracy) notice their eight-year-old son, Josh (Jett Klyne), has begun to play with a mysterious imaginary friend he calls Z. What at first seems like a childish phase quickly becomes destructive and dangerous. As Z causes chaos in Josh’s life and those of his friends and family, we learn that Z may have more sinister origins and desires. Real-Life Parent Horror: While the titular monster is the main source of horror, director-writer Brandon Christensen’s Z features prime examples of everyday parental nightmares. Josh doesn’t seem to have many friends and he’s not doing well in school. Parents will connect with the pain of worrying that their child is an outcast and struggling to know how to intervene. Particularl...
