Movies to Sink Your Teeth Into
"Mr. Woodcock"
starring: Seann William Scott, Billy Bob Thornton, Susan Sarandon, Amy Poehler, Melissa Sagemiller, Ethan Suplee
written by: Michael Carnes and Josh Gilbert
directed by: Craig Gillespie
In what is now considered classic Billy Bob Thornton, he plays another character with a nearly perfect "deadpan malignancy." It's rare to find any other actors who can deliver such disdain, disrespect, and malicious indifference read just in his facial expression or lack thereof. This film marks another go at the "exhausted-contempt for the world" that we've seen in "Bad Santa" and the remake of "The Bad News Bears" in which Thornton gets to play a character with complete indifference to the rules of etiquette and the feelings of other people.
Thornton plays the title character, a gym teacher in small-town Nebraska legendary among students for his bullying tactics and total lack of sympathy for the awkwardness of youth. The movie begins 13 years ago, with Woodcock badgering a group of early-adolescent boys into learning the rules of basketball, the primary one being, apparently, that strength is the only rule that matters.
One of his unfortunate charges is John Farley (Scott), who commits the cardinal gym-class sins of being overweight and unable to do a pull-up. Flash forward 13 years, and John is now a famous writer of self-help books about letting go of your past and moving on with your life. Of course John hasn’t let go of anything; behind that gleaming smile and muscular body, he’s still a fat kid in his underpants, hanging for his life from a chin-up bar. Which is made painfully clear when he returns home to Nebraska to find out that his mother (Sarandon) is engaged to Woodcock and that he’s the only one who’s clear-eyed enough to stop the relationship and expose Woodcock for the abusive cuss that he is.
Unfortunately, the film is supposed to be a comedy, but there's probably only about a handful of comedic moments through the whole film. This one falls flat on its face almost as soon as it starts.
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"Cheap Thrills"
starring: Pat Healy, Sara Paxton, Ethan Embry, David Koechner, Amanda Fuller, Laura Covelli, Todd Farmer, Elissa Dowling, Eric Neil Gutierrez
written by: David Chirchirillo and Trent Haaga
directed by: E.L. Katz
I knew this was going to be a dark comedy, given the cast and the premise, but let me tell you, as soon as the first "cheap thrill" is negotiate, I was like, oh damn, it's going to be one of those cringe-worthy, over-the-top, pushing boundaries types of dark comedies. It tackles the ever-present game of "the have versus the have-nots" and just what exactly the have-nots can be pushed to. It also seems to be talking about how desensitized we are to sex, drugs, and violence. Essentially, though, this is a film about greed and what someone will do for a load of cash, even if they begin with good intentions, everyone gets greedy and their mindset changes.
Failed writer and family man Craig (Healy) starts his lousy day with a $4,500 back-rent eviction notice tacked to the door of the apartment he shares with his wife and 15-month-old child. The day grows even worse when he's let go from his job as a lowly grease monkey. Seeking solace from his financial woes in a seedy dive bar, he runs into an old high school pal, Vince (Embry), who's also on one of the lower rungs of the ladder to success. A strong-arm thug for a loanshark, Vince shares Craig's pain but offers no real comfort until millionaire lounge lizard Colin (Koechner) shows up with his snaky wife Violet (Paxton) in tow. Many rounds of tequila ensue – Colin's never-ending wad of cash paying for it all. A series of increasingly dangerous – not to mention humiliating – bar bets begins and then escalates into a frenzied, polarizing, mad grab for the rich man's money. Unsurprisingly, nothing ends well for anyone.
The film's writer (and first time director, whoa, great debut) does a good job exposing the repressed and dark side of a man's psyche when money comes into play- especially since he's a family man and is really doing what he can to provide for his family.
The loaded (on booze, coke, and most importantly, money) Colin begins daring Craig and Vince to do simple dares like taking shots of tequila and getting girls to slap them, with big bucks as incentive. The foursome eventually drift over to Colin and Violet’s home–an eccentric hippy cave filled with weird art and tchotchkes–where the dares become exponentially more objectionable and vile. (It’d be a shame to spoil just how extreme these little freak shows become, but what I will say is that I have a reasonably strong stomach when it comes to gross-out horror flicks, and some of the latter dares border on unwatchable.)
There's an actual message and great philosophical conversation starter within the realms of this film. It was really great.
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"The Kissing Booth"
starring: Joey King, Joel Courtney, Jacob Elordi, Carson White, Molly Ringwald, Jessica Sutton, Bianca Bosch, D. David Morin
written and directed by: Vince Marcello
Netflix, once again, throws out so much "Original" programming that it definitely makes you think- do they think, throw enough shit against the wall and eventually some will stick?? This is one of those really bad movies, or the shit that didn't stick. It has unknown young actors who seem to have just kind of been chosen through a lottery or something. The chemistry between them all is minimal. Maybe they all took acting classes together and this was a class project or something!
When the underlying premise of a film's story is the friendship between a teenage boy and girl (who are both virgins) and the "rules" they've created for their friendship- especially the #1 "don't fall in love with each other's siblings..." well, you know what is going to happen. It is an easily predictable setup. Of course, the girl falls for the older, hotter, hunkier, more bad-ass brother and shit falls apart. Somehow, the film's writers found a way to include the kissing booth, as well, sort of attempting to make it the focal point of where the characters change.
This was an all around terrible movie. And I feel bad for Molly Ringwald, because she must be struggling to pay some bills since she took the role of one of the moms. She's a long long way from her own great stint as the teenage girl struggling through high school and romances.
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"Friend Request"
starring: Alycia Debnam-Carey, William Moseley, Connor Paolo, Brit Morgan, Brooke Markham, Sean Marquette, Liesel Ahlers, Shashawnee Hall
written by: Matthew Ballen and Philip Koch
directed by: Simon Verhoeven
There have been a number of horror films where technology is the "evil." Films like:
Rec
The Lawnmower Man (Stephen King story seemingly a bit ahead of its time)
Untraceable
Demon Seed
They Live
Tron
Poltergeist
Christine (another King)
The Lift
Maximum Overdrive
Ringu (and the American version The Ring)
One Missed Call
Pulse
Stay Alive
Brainscan
and many many more.
Social media has now taken over as the go-to branch of technology for the millennial generation, because there's so much that can be dissected as social commentaries using technology as the vehicle for which to do just that. And essentially, at the heart of horror films, there's always a message (whether it's a good one, transparent enough or not is to be determined in a case by case way).
Meet Laura (Debnam-Carey), a popular college student taking some vague class on Internet Addiction Disorder or something, who befriends the shy, perpetually hoodied Marina (Ahlers), who subsequently becomes obsessed with Laura. Marina has zero Facebook friends, but Laura’s kindness notches that up to one, and when Marina commits suicide on camera and posts it to Laura’s page, things go south real quick. Laura is unable to delete the post, and soon, as other macabre videos appear on her FB page, she becomes increasingly unnerved and ostracized by her friends. The film reminds you of this constantly by keeping a running tally of Laura’s friends as they diminish. Once it’s revealed that Marina killed herself in front of a “black mirror” which causes her soul to be reconstituted into a supernatural being who begins to kill Laura’s friends, the whole thing reeks of a spooky Halloween episode of Law & Order.
It all is pretty lame, if you ask me, and trying way too hard. Trying too hard to be something like "The Ring."
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"Ibiza"
starring: Gillian Jacobs, Michaela Watkins, Phoebe Robinson, Vanessa Bayer, Feliz Gomez
written by: Lauryn Kahn
directed by: Alex Richanbach
What should you expect from a film totally revolving around the techno/dance music and all-day/all-night party scene found in Ibiza?!? Debauchery, that's what to expect. This is a film that was written with the intent of being something the likes of "The Hangover" except with three females, instead (which seemed to already have been done with "Bridesmaids" but who can blame the industry for trying to market female-led movies nowadays). Plus, Gillian Jacobs has more than proven her worth and ability to lead, so Netflix gave her a chance here.
Jacobs plays Harper, a businesswoman sent to Ibiza, Barcelona on a very important business trip by her boss. She brings along her two best friends, for whatever reason, and you know things will not be about business while they are there. Harper pretty much does absolutely nothing work-related and then convinces her friends to chase a hunky DJ around town and to the next town, because she felt a connection.
Harper is the embodiment of everything I've come to dislike about this millennial generation (or I should say, most of it)-- entitlement is the worst quality to have. Harper is extremely narcissistic which breeds entitlement. She only has concerns for herself and everything she does has a means to an end for her own benefit. She is the worst kind of character and so unfortunately, does not have any redeeming qualities that make you hate her. I didn't care what happened to her throughout the whole movie and actually wanted her to learn some kind of lesson, but knew that was not going to happen.
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"Spivak"
starring: Michael Bacall, Maggie Lawson, Elden Henson, Mark Webber, Robert Kazinsky, Ahna O'Reilly, Michael Cera, Chloe Wepper
written and directed by: Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder
This was actually a surprisingly engaging, fresh take on the romantic comedy, produced by Netflix.
Wally Spivak is played by Michael Bacall, a writer in real life mainly known for his credits on the JUMP STREET movies and SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD.
Wally has been working on the same novel for years and cannot get out of his rut. When his two best friends drag him to Las Vegas for Valentine’s Day, he ends up meeting a couple from the Westside of Los Angeles who become enamored with him and take him under their wings. The couple, played by Rob Kazinsky and Maggie Lawson, feel hysterically guilty about how they used him and set him up with a Laker Girl they know.
There are a number of twists and turns in the film, all of which Wally fights against with his writer’s soul until his humanity peeks through, giving him a chance to crawl out of the box he has erected around himself for most of his life.
This is another Netflix-produced film and so I didn't exactly know what to expect (or I should say, I had low expectations), but this is the type of film they should be trying to make! It is smart, charming, and unpredictable. It has moments of silliness, but also is surprisingly romantic. The jokes are a bit more below the surface and not necessarily obvious. And the cast works really well together, as the glue that holds the entire film together- cast chemistry for films like this is essential to its success or failure.
This was a great find on Netflix!
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"Sin City: A Dame to Kill For"
starring: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Powers Boothe, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Lloyd, Jaime King, Juno Temple, Stacy Keach, Jamie Chung, Julia Garner, Lady Gaga, Alexa Vega
written by: Frank Miller
directed by: Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
The original "Sin City" really breathed new life in the cinematic approach to bringing a graphic novel to life and keeping it and its integrity in tact throughout. The original came out in 2005 and it was fresh and it really helped the the graphic novel's creator Frank Miller was at the helm (with a lot of help from Robert Rodriguez, who else would you ask for). Miller wanted his graphic novel to look and feel like a graphic novel, only with real actors and that really came through. Here, though, 9 years later (why so long for a sequel), it's more of the same, tried and true. If you loved the first "Sin City" you will thoroughly enjoy its sequel, and maybe you could even play them back to back, because they are essentially like long episodes of a show.
It's been nine years since the release of "Sin City," a collaboration between Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, with its dark crime-novel heart, surreal visual style and some chewy performances by a cast game to aim for the cheap seats. The style was lifted right out of Frank Miller's books almost shot for shot in some cases; the books used as a storyboard. "Sin City" was all gleaming car grilles and seedy bars and tortured men lurching their way through the grim streets, casting gigantic shadows. Mainly black-and-white, with red lips or green eyes shining out of the monochrome, the film looked like a noir on acid, or a grisly crime photo by Weegee, overexposed until black and white are reversed.
Some of the vignettes held together better than others, but overall, it was hugely entertaining, an exercise in style that pushed the envelope as hard as it could. It felt fresh.
Robert Rodriguez approaches the material with the same enthusiastic vision that pulses off the screen, each image tweaked for maximum drama. The cast, some re-creating their roles from the first film (Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jamie King), and some new characters (played by Ray Liotta, Lady GaGa, Christopher Meloni, Christopher Lloyd, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and more), are all great, exhaling the hopelessness and desperation of living in a city overtaken by sin.
The vignette-structure returns, with a couple of additions written by Miller expressly for the film. At some points the film lags, loses focus, especially in the segues between vignettes where you can hear the gears creak. Thank goodness it's so pretty to look at, and it is fun to count the references to classic films. "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" starts with a snowy Saturday night in Marv's brutal, haunted, and angry life (Mickey Rourke). He stops off at the nudie bar to watch Nancy (Jessica Alba) dance, his anvil-shaped head glowering out at the world. He breaks up an atrocity about to be perpetrated in an alley by a bunch of preppy jerks. He has bouts of amnesia. It's "same ol' same ol'" for poor lonely Marv.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt appears in another vignette as Johnny, a reckless card shark, determined to infiltrate a high-stakes poker game run by a villainous senator (Powers Boothe, gloriously horrifying) with a shady past and a taste for cruelty. Johnny is a whiz at cards, dealing them out to the table with lightning-quick speed, astonishing everyone present. Nobody wins against the senator. The senator will kill you if you cross him. But Johnny will show him. It's personal.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to have become a reliable go-to guy for a solid turn in a film. Around the same time, he had films including "Looper" and "The Dark Knight Rises," and "Don Jon" that proved he could both carry films as a lead and play a decent secondary character worth remembering.
Eva Green enters the scene as Ava Lord, the "dame to kill for" in the title. She is reminiscent of every black widow woman from every film noir ever made. One kiss with Ava Lord and, forget it, you're willing to do anything. There is one scene where Ava, totally nude, dives into her pool, and Rodriguez shows it to us doubled, two white nude bodies diving towards each other through the black, the water splashing out at us whitely in 3-D. It's a kaleidoscope moment, a Busby Berkeley nod, a perfect evocation of the dizzying effect this sociopath has on the men unfortunate enough to cross her path. Dwight (Josh Brolin, taking up the role played by Clive Owen in the first film) has a past with Ava, knows she is bad news, and yet there she stands at the doorway, in her bright blue silk coat, ravishing against the black-and-white scenery, and what is a man supposed to do? Eva Green plays Ava with a great and controlled relish, bringing on the crocodile tears or her sexuality or her helplessness when she needs them, her green eyes gleaming cunningly out of her black-and-white face.
"Sin City" is clearly an homage to noir-inflected thrillers and comic books in which women are cunning creatures, willing to trade their sexuality for money to gain advantage or protection. The men are often more physically or economically powerful than the women, but they also tend to be naive and dumb in ways they can't see because their vision is fogged by lust.
I liked this one, even though the pacing was difficult at times and some of the stories seemed thrown in and a bit unnecessary (re: Jessica Alba's character arc for this one seemed a bit pointless).
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"Cake"
starring: Jennifer Aniston, Adriana Barraza, Anna Kendrick, Sam Worthington, Mamie Gummer, Felicity Hoffman, William H. Macy, Chris Messina, Lucy Punch, Britt Robertson
written by: Patrick Tobin
directed by: Daniel Barnz
Although this film came out a few years ago, I somehow missed it in the theater and it took me awhile to find it on Netflix. I'd been wanting to see it because it was Jennifer Aniston's Oscar bait, much like Charlize Theron had "Monster" and Reese Witherspoon had "Wild." For some reason, the Academy Awards voters love to see transformation roles, especially when beautiful actresses make themselves "ugly" per se. "Cake" is Jennifer Aniston playing a role that sees her flaunting facial scars and rather brood.
The whole cast works well together when they have to play in scenes together (and even Anna Kendrick, sweetheart that she is, showing up as a ghost), but the film absolutely belongs to Aniston and she proves that she is a worthy one.
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"Bitch"
starring: Marianna Palka, Jason Ritter, Jaime King, Brighton Sharbino, Rio Mangini, Kingston Foster, Jason Maybaum, Sol Rodriguez,
written and directed by: Marianna Palka
Talk about a film never more necessary and relevant to time and what's going on in our country than this one right here. Sort of the embodiment of everything all in one film.
Tired of being treated as indifferently and inhumanly as a family pet, an exhausted suburban wife and mother takes ownership of that status in the most drastic way imaginable — by assuming the identity of a dog herself. As this scenario plays out as strangely and snappishly as might be expected, one could call “Bitch” a one-joke film — except this absurd conceit isn’t really a joke at all. Marianna Palka’s fourth feature is as brash and as blunt as its title, more abrasive than amusing in its snarling takedown of patriarchal family politics. Acted and executed with brute conviction, if not much delicacy, by its writer-director-star, with an excellent foil in Jason Ritter’s boorish, baffled husband, the film feels overstretched in its latter half — with its central metaphor revealing only so many facets before the shock factor begins to pall.
The stark severity of its feminist message is present from the opening shot, with overwhelmed mother-of-four Jill (played by Palka herself) shown trying to hang herself from the dining room chandelier — using, in a symbolic detail that could hardly be more pointed, one of her husband’s belts. The failure of her attempt is predictable, as the light fitting comes loose and she crashes woefully to the ground, yet it’s not played even as morbid slapstick. How funny can one desperate woman’s injury in place of death be? “Bitch” is a comedy that occasionally seems to challenge, rather than openly invite, its viewers to laugh, and to consider the implications of their reaction.
Bill (Ritter, an indie darling of a guy in a different kind of role for him) is the definition of chauvinist slimeball. We are introduced to him as he is in the throes of cheating on his wife with a coworker. Bill is narcissistic and completely exploitative of his wife, taking her for granted at every turn, seen and unseen. He is forced to face the consequences of his toxic masculinity. Palka's roles sort of recedes, with purpose, as a way to show how women are muted and disabled by the patriarchy. Still have your attention?
For all the bravado behind the movie’s galvanizing idea, however, it begins to run out of steam approximately an hour in. With the film’s gender politics laid candidly on the table, and the symbolic relevance of Jill’s uncanny possession more than clear from the get-go, the premise’s manic fallout doesn’t open up many more new avenues.
A fine, testy Jaime King, in particular, doesn’t get enough to do as Jill’s sister, who’s loudly at loggerheads with Bill over the best way to keep the situation, well, on a leash.
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"The Boy"
starring: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, James Russell, Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle, Ben Robson, Jett Klyne
written by: Stacey Menear
directed by: William Brent Bell
Horror movies are cool, but I'll be the first to admit that dolls, well more specifically, puppets freak me right the eff out! This is a horror movie about an elderly couple that has "adopted" a boy doll and treated him as their own boy, who seemingly died years ago. They've hired a nanny, Greta (Lauren Cohan, away from her survivor role on The Walking Dead) to look after this boy doll, and she is expected to treat him like any other living young boy, take care of him, put him to bed, talk to him, etc. Weird?!
Greta is a young woman who has moved from Montana to England, seeking to disentangle herself from an abusive relationship. She shows up at a formidable, rambling manse owned by Mr. and Mrs. Heelshire (Norton and Hardcastle) in the position of nanny to the Heelshires’ young son Brahms. The kicker is that the nicely dotty Heelshires’ offspring is a doll, apparently designed to manage their grief over losing their flesh-and-blood son in a mysterious fire years before. The two oldsters give Greta a list of dos and don’ts regarding their porcelain un-child and head off on a much-needed vacation. Brahms, however, refuses to stay put. In a standard series of jump scares and mirror shots, Greta and her new friend and grocer/potential suitor Malcolm (Evans, late of Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle) attempt to figure out the doll’s backstory, and whether or not the supernatural is truly involved.
The mix of Gothic and old Victorian atmospherics work up to a point, before kind of getting on your nerves, specifically in the third act, when the big reveal sort of slaps you in the face. I didn't think it was worth it, for all the effort the filmmaker put into telling to story and building the suspense. Sure, it creeps you out a few times, but not enough to really stick with you. There's so many of these types of films, nowadays, that I'm sure you can find another one that won't patronize you with its climax.
starring: Seann William Scott, Billy Bob Thornton, Susan Sarandon, Amy Poehler, Melissa Sagemiller, Ethan Suplee
written by: Michael Carnes and Josh Gilbert
directed by: Craig Gillespie
In what is now considered classic Billy Bob Thornton, he plays another character with a nearly perfect "deadpan malignancy." It's rare to find any other actors who can deliver such disdain, disrespect, and malicious indifference read just in his facial expression or lack thereof. This film marks another go at the "exhausted-contempt for the world" that we've seen in "Bad Santa" and the remake of "The Bad News Bears" in which Thornton gets to play a character with complete indifference to the rules of etiquette and the feelings of other people.
Thornton plays the title character, a gym teacher in small-town Nebraska legendary among students for his bullying tactics and total lack of sympathy for the awkwardness of youth. The movie begins 13 years ago, with Woodcock badgering a group of early-adolescent boys into learning the rules of basketball, the primary one being, apparently, that strength is the only rule that matters.
One of his unfortunate charges is John Farley (Scott), who commits the cardinal gym-class sins of being overweight and unable to do a pull-up. Flash forward 13 years, and John is now a famous writer of self-help books about letting go of your past and moving on with your life. Of course John hasn’t let go of anything; behind that gleaming smile and muscular body, he’s still a fat kid in his underpants, hanging for his life from a chin-up bar. Which is made painfully clear when he returns home to Nebraska to find out that his mother (Sarandon) is engaged to Woodcock and that he’s the only one who’s clear-eyed enough to stop the relationship and expose Woodcock for the abusive cuss that he is.
Unfortunately, the film is supposed to be a comedy, but there's probably only about a handful of comedic moments through the whole film. This one falls flat on its face almost as soon as it starts.
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"Cheap Thrills"
starring: Pat Healy, Sara Paxton, Ethan Embry, David Koechner, Amanda Fuller, Laura Covelli, Todd Farmer, Elissa Dowling, Eric Neil Gutierrez
written by: David Chirchirillo and Trent Haaga
directed by: E.L. Katz
I knew this was going to be a dark comedy, given the cast and the premise, but let me tell you, as soon as the first "cheap thrill" is negotiate, I was like, oh damn, it's going to be one of those cringe-worthy, over-the-top, pushing boundaries types of dark comedies. It tackles the ever-present game of "the have versus the have-nots" and just what exactly the have-nots can be pushed to. It also seems to be talking about how desensitized we are to sex, drugs, and violence. Essentially, though, this is a film about greed and what someone will do for a load of cash, even if they begin with good intentions, everyone gets greedy and their mindset changes.
Failed writer and family man Craig (Healy) starts his lousy day with a $4,500 back-rent eviction notice tacked to the door of the apartment he shares with his wife and 15-month-old child. The day grows even worse when he's let go from his job as a lowly grease monkey. Seeking solace from his financial woes in a seedy dive bar, he runs into an old high school pal, Vince (Embry), who's also on one of the lower rungs of the ladder to success. A strong-arm thug for a loanshark, Vince shares Craig's pain but offers no real comfort until millionaire lounge lizard Colin (Koechner) shows up with his snaky wife Violet (Paxton) in tow. Many rounds of tequila ensue – Colin's never-ending wad of cash paying for it all. A series of increasingly dangerous – not to mention humiliating – bar bets begins and then escalates into a frenzied, polarizing, mad grab for the rich man's money. Unsurprisingly, nothing ends well for anyone.
The film's writer (and first time director, whoa, great debut) does a good job exposing the repressed and dark side of a man's psyche when money comes into play- especially since he's a family man and is really doing what he can to provide for his family.
The loaded (on booze, coke, and most importantly, money) Colin begins daring Craig and Vince to do simple dares like taking shots of tequila and getting girls to slap them, with big bucks as incentive. The foursome eventually drift over to Colin and Violet’s home–an eccentric hippy cave filled with weird art and tchotchkes–where the dares become exponentially more objectionable and vile. (It’d be a shame to spoil just how extreme these little freak shows become, but what I will say is that I have a reasonably strong stomach when it comes to gross-out horror flicks, and some of the latter dares border on unwatchable.)
There's an actual message and great philosophical conversation starter within the realms of this film. It was really great.
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"The Kissing Booth"
starring: Joey King, Joel Courtney, Jacob Elordi, Carson White, Molly Ringwald, Jessica Sutton, Bianca Bosch, D. David Morin
written and directed by: Vince Marcello
Netflix, once again, throws out so much "Original" programming that it definitely makes you think- do they think, throw enough shit against the wall and eventually some will stick?? This is one of those really bad movies, or the shit that didn't stick. It has unknown young actors who seem to have just kind of been chosen through a lottery or something. The chemistry between them all is minimal. Maybe they all took acting classes together and this was a class project or something!
When the underlying premise of a film's story is the friendship between a teenage boy and girl (who are both virgins) and the "rules" they've created for their friendship- especially the #1 "don't fall in love with each other's siblings..." well, you know what is going to happen. It is an easily predictable setup. Of course, the girl falls for the older, hotter, hunkier, more bad-ass brother and shit falls apart. Somehow, the film's writers found a way to include the kissing booth, as well, sort of attempting to make it the focal point of where the characters change.
This was an all around terrible movie. And I feel bad for Molly Ringwald, because she must be struggling to pay some bills since she took the role of one of the moms. She's a long long way from her own great stint as the teenage girl struggling through high school and romances.
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"Friend Request"
starring: Alycia Debnam-Carey, William Moseley, Connor Paolo, Brit Morgan, Brooke Markham, Sean Marquette, Liesel Ahlers, Shashawnee Hall
written by: Matthew Ballen and Philip Koch
directed by: Simon Verhoeven
There have been a number of horror films where technology is the "evil." Films like:
Rec
The Lawnmower Man (Stephen King story seemingly a bit ahead of its time)
Untraceable
Demon Seed
They Live
Tron
Poltergeist
Christine (another King)
The Lift
Maximum Overdrive
Ringu (and the American version The Ring)
One Missed Call
Pulse
Stay Alive
Brainscan
and many many more.
Social media has now taken over as the go-to branch of technology for the millennial generation, because there's so much that can be dissected as social commentaries using technology as the vehicle for which to do just that. And essentially, at the heart of horror films, there's always a message (whether it's a good one, transparent enough or not is to be determined in a case by case way).
Meet Laura (Debnam-Carey), a popular college student taking some vague class on Internet Addiction Disorder or something, who befriends the shy, perpetually hoodied Marina (Ahlers), who subsequently becomes obsessed with Laura. Marina has zero Facebook friends, but Laura’s kindness notches that up to one, and when Marina commits suicide on camera and posts it to Laura’s page, things go south real quick. Laura is unable to delete the post, and soon, as other macabre videos appear on her FB page, she becomes increasingly unnerved and ostracized by her friends. The film reminds you of this constantly by keeping a running tally of Laura’s friends as they diminish. Once it’s revealed that Marina killed herself in front of a “black mirror” which causes her soul to be reconstituted into a supernatural being who begins to kill Laura’s friends, the whole thing reeks of a spooky Halloween episode of Law & Order.
It all is pretty lame, if you ask me, and trying way too hard. Trying too hard to be something like "The Ring."
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"Ibiza"
starring: Gillian Jacobs, Michaela Watkins, Phoebe Robinson, Vanessa Bayer, Feliz Gomez
written by: Lauryn Kahn
directed by: Alex Richanbach
What should you expect from a film totally revolving around the techno/dance music and all-day/all-night party scene found in Ibiza?!? Debauchery, that's what to expect. This is a film that was written with the intent of being something the likes of "The Hangover" except with three females, instead (which seemed to already have been done with "Bridesmaids" but who can blame the industry for trying to market female-led movies nowadays). Plus, Gillian Jacobs has more than proven her worth and ability to lead, so Netflix gave her a chance here.
Jacobs plays Harper, a businesswoman sent to Ibiza, Barcelona on a very important business trip by her boss. She brings along her two best friends, for whatever reason, and you know things will not be about business while they are there. Harper pretty much does absolutely nothing work-related and then convinces her friends to chase a hunky DJ around town and to the next town, because she felt a connection.
Harper is the embodiment of everything I've come to dislike about this millennial generation (or I should say, most of it)-- entitlement is the worst quality to have. Harper is extremely narcissistic which breeds entitlement. She only has concerns for herself and everything she does has a means to an end for her own benefit. She is the worst kind of character and so unfortunately, does not have any redeeming qualities that make you hate her. I didn't care what happened to her throughout the whole movie and actually wanted her to learn some kind of lesson, but knew that was not going to happen.
"Spivak"
starring: Michael Bacall, Maggie Lawson, Elden Henson, Mark Webber, Robert Kazinsky, Ahna O'Reilly, Michael Cera, Chloe Wepper
written and directed by: Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder
This was actually a surprisingly engaging, fresh take on the romantic comedy, produced by Netflix.
Wally Spivak is played by Michael Bacall, a writer in real life mainly known for his credits on the JUMP STREET movies and SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD.
Wally has been working on the same novel for years and cannot get out of his rut. When his two best friends drag him to Las Vegas for Valentine’s Day, he ends up meeting a couple from the Westside of Los Angeles who become enamored with him and take him under their wings. The couple, played by Rob Kazinsky and Maggie Lawson, feel hysterically guilty about how they used him and set him up with a Laker Girl they know.
There are a number of twists and turns in the film, all of which Wally fights against with his writer’s soul until his humanity peeks through, giving him a chance to crawl out of the box he has erected around himself for most of his life.
This is another Netflix-produced film and so I didn't exactly know what to expect (or I should say, I had low expectations), but this is the type of film they should be trying to make! It is smart, charming, and unpredictable. It has moments of silliness, but also is surprisingly romantic. The jokes are a bit more below the surface and not necessarily obvious. And the cast works really well together, as the glue that holds the entire film together- cast chemistry for films like this is essential to its success or failure.
This was a great find on Netflix!
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"Sin City: A Dame to Kill For"
starring: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Powers Boothe, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Lloyd, Jaime King, Juno Temple, Stacy Keach, Jamie Chung, Julia Garner, Lady Gaga, Alexa Vega
written by: Frank Miller
directed by: Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
The original "Sin City" really breathed new life in the cinematic approach to bringing a graphic novel to life and keeping it and its integrity in tact throughout. The original came out in 2005 and it was fresh and it really helped the the graphic novel's creator Frank Miller was at the helm (with a lot of help from Robert Rodriguez, who else would you ask for). Miller wanted his graphic novel to look and feel like a graphic novel, only with real actors and that really came through. Here, though, 9 years later (why so long for a sequel), it's more of the same, tried and true. If you loved the first "Sin City" you will thoroughly enjoy its sequel, and maybe you could even play them back to back, because they are essentially like long episodes of a show.
It's been nine years since the release of "Sin City," a collaboration between Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, with its dark crime-novel heart, surreal visual style and some chewy performances by a cast game to aim for the cheap seats. The style was lifted right out of Frank Miller's books almost shot for shot in some cases; the books used as a storyboard. "Sin City" was all gleaming car grilles and seedy bars and tortured men lurching their way through the grim streets, casting gigantic shadows. Mainly black-and-white, with red lips or green eyes shining out of the monochrome, the film looked like a noir on acid, or a grisly crime photo by Weegee, overexposed until black and white are reversed.
Some of the vignettes held together better than others, but overall, it was hugely entertaining, an exercise in style that pushed the envelope as hard as it could. It felt fresh.
Robert Rodriguez approaches the material with the same enthusiastic vision that pulses off the screen, each image tweaked for maximum drama. The cast, some re-creating their roles from the first film (Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jamie King), and some new characters (played by Ray Liotta, Lady GaGa, Christopher Meloni, Christopher Lloyd, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and more), are all great, exhaling the hopelessness and desperation of living in a city overtaken by sin.
The vignette-structure returns, with a couple of additions written by Miller expressly for the film. At some points the film lags, loses focus, especially in the segues between vignettes where you can hear the gears creak. Thank goodness it's so pretty to look at, and it is fun to count the references to classic films. "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" starts with a snowy Saturday night in Marv's brutal, haunted, and angry life (Mickey Rourke). He stops off at the nudie bar to watch Nancy (Jessica Alba) dance, his anvil-shaped head glowering out at the world. He breaks up an atrocity about to be perpetrated in an alley by a bunch of preppy jerks. He has bouts of amnesia. It's "same ol' same ol'" for poor lonely Marv.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt appears in another vignette as Johnny, a reckless card shark, determined to infiltrate a high-stakes poker game run by a villainous senator (Powers Boothe, gloriously horrifying) with a shady past and a taste for cruelty. Johnny is a whiz at cards, dealing them out to the table with lightning-quick speed, astonishing everyone present. Nobody wins against the senator. The senator will kill you if you cross him. But Johnny will show him. It's personal.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to have become a reliable go-to guy for a solid turn in a film. Around the same time, he had films including "Looper" and "The Dark Knight Rises," and "Don Jon" that proved he could both carry films as a lead and play a decent secondary character worth remembering.
Eva Green enters the scene as Ava Lord, the "dame to kill for" in the title. She is reminiscent of every black widow woman from every film noir ever made. One kiss with Ava Lord and, forget it, you're willing to do anything. There is one scene where Ava, totally nude, dives into her pool, and Rodriguez shows it to us doubled, two white nude bodies diving towards each other through the black, the water splashing out at us whitely in 3-D. It's a kaleidoscope moment, a Busby Berkeley nod, a perfect evocation of the dizzying effect this sociopath has on the men unfortunate enough to cross her path. Dwight (Josh Brolin, taking up the role played by Clive Owen in the first film) has a past with Ava, knows she is bad news, and yet there she stands at the doorway, in her bright blue silk coat, ravishing against the black-and-white scenery, and what is a man supposed to do? Eva Green plays Ava with a great and controlled relish, bringing on the crocodile tears or her sexuality or her helplessness when she needs them, her green eyes gleaming cunningly out of her black-and-white face.
"Sin City" is clearly an homage to noir-inflected thrillers and comic books in which women are cunning creatures, willing to trade their sexuality for money to gain advantage or protection. The men are often more physically or economically powerful than the women, but they also tend to be naive and dumb in ways they can't see because their vision is fogged by lust.
I liked this one, even though the pacing was difficult at times and some of the stories seemed thrown in and a bit unnecessary (re: Jessica Alba's character arc for this one seemed a bit pointless).
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"Cake"
starring: Jennifer Aniston, Adriana Barraza, Anna Kendrick, Sam Worthington, Mamie Gummer, Felicity Hoffman, William H. Macy, Chris Messina, Lucy Punch, Britt Robertson
written by: Patrick Tobin
directed by: Daniel Barnz
Although this film came out a few years ago, I somehow missed it in the theater and it took me awhile to find it on Netflix. I'd been wanting to see it because it was Jennifer Aniston's Oscar bait, much like Charlize Theron had "Monster" and Reese Witherspoon had "Wild." For some reason, the Academy Awards voters love to see transformation roles, especially when beautiful actresses make themselves "ugly" per se. "Cake" is Jennifer Aniston playing a role that sees her flaunting facial scars and rather brood.
When first we meet Claire Bennett (Aniston), she’s bringing down her support group of fellow chronic pain sufferers, pithily dismissing their collective grief over the suicide of former group member Nina (Kendrick). Maybe it’s just the pills and the pain talking rather than her personality, but she treats her housekeeper (Barraza), physical therapist (Gummer), and estranged husband (Messina) with the same caustic attitude. Only the hallucinatory – or perhaps otherworldly – reappearance of Nina causes Claire to reach out to Nina’s widower, Roy (Worthington), and confront a bit of her own grief in the process.
Nina’s ghost marks the lone fantastical embellishment in Patrick Tobin’s screenplay, settling instead into a series of supposedly grounded yet evidently contrived encounters and setbacks. It doesn’t take long to learn the cause of Claire’s immediate physical pain, but Tobin and director Daniel Barnz play coy with the source of her deeper emotional wound, turning a potentially resonant exploration of loss into a hollow game of hide-the-trauma.
The whole cast works well together when they have to play in scenes together (and even Anna Kendrick, sweetheart that she is, showing up as a ghost), but the film absolutely belongs to Aniston and she proves that she is a worthy one.
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"Bitch"
starring: Marianna Palka, Jason Ritter, Jaime King, Brighton Sharbino, Rio Mangini, Kingston Foster, Jason Maybaum, Sol Rodriguez,
written and directed by: Marianna Palka
Talk about a film never more necessary and relevant to time and what's going on in our country than this one right here. Sort of the embodiment of everything all in one film.
Tired of being treated as indifferently and inhumanly as a family pet, an exhausted suburban wife and mother takes ownership of that status in the most drastic way imaginable — by assuming the identity of a dog herself. As this scenario plays out as strangely and snappishly as might be expected, one could call “Bitch” a one-joke film — except this absurd conceit isn’t really a joke at all. Marianna Palka’s fourth feature is as brash and as blunt as its title, more abrasive than amusing in its snarling takedown of patriarchal family politics. Acted and executed with brute conviction, if not much delicacy, by its writer-director-star, with an excellent foil in Jason Ritter’s boorish, baffled husband, the film feels overstretched in its latter half — with its central metaphor revealing only so many facets before the shock factor begins to pall.
The stark severity of its feminist message is present from the opening shot, with overwhelmed mother-of-four Jill (played by Palka herself) shown trying to hang herself from the dining room chandelier — using, in a symbolic detail that could hardly be more pointed, one of her husband’s belts. The failure of her attempt is predictable, as the light fitting comes loose and she crashes woefully to the ground, yet it’s not played even as morbid slapstick. How funny can one desperate woman’s injury in place of death be? “Bitch” is a comedy that occasionally seems to challenge, rather than openly invite, its viewers to laugh, and to consider the implications of their reaction.
Bill (Ritter, an indie darling of a guy in a different kind of role for him) is the definition of chauvinist slimeball. We are introduced to him as he is in the throes of cheating on his wife with a coworker. Bill is narcissistic and completely exploitative of his wife, taking her for granted at every turn, seen and unseen. He is forced to face the consequences of his toxic masculinity. Palka's roles sort of recedes, with purpose, as a way to show how women are muted and disabled by the patriarchy. Still have your attention?
For all the bravado behind the movie’s galvanizing idea, however, it begins to run out of steam approximately an hour in. With the film’s gender politics laid candidly on the table, and the symbolic relevance of Jill’s uncanny possession more than clear from the get-go, the premise’s manic fallout doesn’t open up many more new avenues.
A fine, testy Jaime King, in particular, doesn’t get enough to do as Jill’s sister, who’s loudly at loggerheads with Bill over the best way to keep the situation, well, on a leash.
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"The Boy"
starring: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, James Russell, Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle, Ben Robson, Jett Klyne
written by: Stacey Menear
directed by: William Brent Bell
Horror movies are cool, but I'll be the first to admit that dolls, well more specifically, puppets freak me right the eff out! This is a horror movie about an elderly couple that has "adopted" a boy doll and treated him as their own boy, who seemingly died years ago. They've hired a nanny, Greta (Lauren Cohan, away from her survivor role on The Walking Dead) to look after this boy doll, and she is expected to treat him like any other living young boy, take care of him, put him to bed, talk to him, etc. Weird?!
Greta is a young woman who has moved from Montana to England, seeking to disentangle herself from an abusive relationship. She shows up at a formidable, rambling manse owned by Mr. and Mrs. Heelshire (Norton and Hardcastle) in the position of nanny to the Heelshires’ young son Brahms. The kicker is that the nicely dotty Heelshires’ offspring is a doll, apparently designed to manage their grief over losing their flesh-and-blood son in a mysterious fire years before. The two oldsters give Greta a list of dos and don’ts regarding their porcelain un-child and head off on a much-needed vacation. Brahms, however, refuses to stay put. In a standard series of jump scares and mirror shots, Greta and her new friend and grocer/potential suitor Malcolm (Evans, late of Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle) attempt to figure out the doll’s backstory, and whether or not the supernatural is truly involved.
The mix of Gothic and old Victorian atmospherics work up to a point, before kind of getting on your nerves, specifically in the third act, when the big reveal sort of slaps you in the face. I didn't think it was worth it, for all the effort the filmmaker put into telling to story and building the suspense. Sure, it creeps you out a few times, but not enough to really stick with you. There's so many of these types of films, nowadays, that I'm sure you can find another one that won't patronize you with its climax.
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