Movie Review The Rift Dark Side of the Moon

The Rift Dark Side of the Moon (2016) 

Directed by Dejan Zecevic

Written by Barry Keating, Milan Konjevic

Starring Ken Foree, Monte Markham

Release Date March 27th, 2017

Published March 27th, 2017 

Streaming on Plex 

The Rift: Dark Side of the Moon is a strange little low-budget sci-fi horror movie that has no business being as fun as it is. This American-Serbian production from director Dejan Zecevic is well paced, fun and quite creepy. Movies like The Rift are a nice reminder that low-budget sci-fi horror is still being made and can still be quite fun despite our pop cultural prejudice in favor of big budgets, big studios and big movie stars.

The Rift: Dark Side of the Moon stars Katrina Kas as Liz, an American sleeper agent in Belgrade. Liz has been inactive for two years following the death of her son when she is asked to return to the field. The agency, the CIA, has asked Liz to accompany Agent Smith (Ken Foree) to the site of a crashed American satellite outside a small village in Serbia. Joining the mission are a Serbian secret agent named Darko (Dragan Micanovic) and an American scientist and former Astronaut named Dysart (Monte Markham).

Read my complete review of The Rift Dark Side of the Moon on Geeks.Media. Subscribe to my movie reviews on Geeks and if you enjoy the review, consider leaving a tip. 

Movie Review The Bobby DeBarge Story

The Bobby DeBarge Story (2019) 

Directed by Russ Parr 

Written by Norman Vance Jr

Starring Roshon Fegan, Big Boi, Romeo Ballantine 

Release Date June 29th, 2019 

Criticizing TV One's The Bobby DeBarge Story is like having to discipline a puppy that has urinated on the floor, you don't want to be mean, but you have to let the puppy know not to do that again. As with a puppy, I will attempt to be gentle, but this is a huge puddle on the floor. This earnest, high camp, biopic mixes emotional honesty with some of the cringiest costumes and performances of 2019.

Multi-hyphenate entertainer, Roshon Fegan, plays the role of Bobby DeBarge, among the oldest of the DeBarge siblings, who would each find a measure of success on the Motown label in the late 70s and early 80s. It was Bobby and his brother Tommy (Blue Kimble) who would break out of the incredibly talented DeBarge family first.

Read the complete review of The Bobby DeBarge Story on Beat.Media here. 

Article February 23rd, 2012 It's Art Vs Mainstream at the Oscars

It's the art crowd vs. the mainstream crowd in the race for Hollywood's biggest prize at the Academy Awards. The battle for Best Picture has boiled down to "The Artist," a black and white throwback to old time Hollywood, and "The Help," a mainstream phenomenon that has earned well over $100 million at the domestic box office.

This divisive battle has two aspects of the Academy crowd at odds: Those who wish to promote film as an art form, and those who bow to the tastes of the mainstream, movie-going public.

Anti-Commercial

If there is anything the art crowd in the Academy loves, it's a movie that flies in the face of commercial sensibilities. "The Artist" -- a black and white silent film starring a pair of relatively unknown French actors, Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, and directed by a Frenchman, Michel Hazanavicius -- does just that

Recent Academy history bears out the battle-lines. In 2009 the commercially challenged "The Hurt Locker," without a big star or big name director, became the lowest-grossing film ever to win Best Picture by upsetting the biggest commercial hit of all time, James Cameron's epic "Avatar." The result was hailed as an upset almost solely because of "Avatar's" massive box office numbers.

"The Help"

The mainstream crowd in the Academy has a soft spot for the movies that mainstream moviegoers love. In 1998 the mainstream got in line with the phenomenon that was "Titanic" and overcame a wave of art-lovers pushing for the tiny English indie "The Fully Monty" and the gritty cop drama "L.A Confidential." In 2003 the mainstream stuck it to the art crowd by honoring "Chicago" over art-house fave "The Pianist." And the mainstream won again in 2004 when "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" topped the beloved art-house flick "Lost in Translation."

Box Office Blockbuster

"The Help" may not have the box office numbers of a "Titanic" or "Lord of the Rings," but it is the highest grossing film among this year's nominees by a wide margin, taking in over $169 million at the domestic box office. That total is nearly $100 million more than the next closest Best Picture nominee "War Horse," which has an estimated domestic box office of $78 million. "The Artist" stands at $28 million ahead of only "The Tree of Life" among Best Picture nominees at the box office.

Art vs. Popularity

Why the divide between the art crowd and the mainstream? It may have something to do with ratings for the Academy Awards. Handing the big award to the most popular film in the field is the quickest way to curry favor with fickle awards show viewers who feel the Academy looks down upon non-Academy members. Whatever the reason, the art vs. commerce battle-lines have been drawn; we're set for a showdown on Oscar Sunday.

Article January 24th, 2012 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to 9/11

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" opened nationwide on Friday, Jan. 20. The film deals with September 11 through the eyes of a young boy who lost his father in one of the towers. The Hollywood approach to September 11 thus far has been direct and earnest for the most part. Here's a closer look at Hollywood's approach to September 11.

"Collateral Damage" / "25th Hour"

Less than a year after the tragedy, Hollywood had no idea how to deal with September 11. Arnold Schwarzenegger dealt with the tragedy by trying to go back to fighting bad guys. However, his film "Collateral Damage," which found Arnold trying to stop terrorists from blowing up a building in Los Angeles, didn't feel so much timely as ill-timed and inconsiderate; Schwarzenegger would go back to the "Terminator" well one more time before giving up movies for politics.

Spike Lee was more thoughtful when he became the first New York filmmaker to reflect on 9/11. "25th Hour" was not about post-9/11 New York directly but the sense of gloom that hangs over the movie has as much to do with the fearful, edgy sadness of the city as a whole in the wake of 9/11 as it did with the sad fate of Edward Norton's convict on his last free night before prison. Also, the footprints of the Towers are revealed right outside the window of one character's apartment -- the first time the site had been seen in a Hollywood feature.

"United 93" / "World Trade Center"

By 2006 Hollywood was ready to deal directly with the tragedy of 9/11. Director Paul Greengrass gave audiences a surreal trip inside one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center as well as inside the air traffic control command center for the East Coast of the United States which tracked the chaos of the day. The striking authenticity of "United 93" included the casting of Ben Sliney, National Operations Manager for the FAA, as himself re-enacting the choices he made on September 11.

The tragedy of 9/11 inspired earnest assessment even from one of the most controversial directors in the world. While many worried that Oliver Stone would desecrate the memory of that day the director of "JFK" and "Natural Born Killers" turned in the least controversial and arguably most flag waving and heroic portrayals of the 9/11 aftermath with "World Trade Center."

"Reign Over Me" / "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"

The film that most resembles "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is a slightly more adult oriented but similarly grief oriented film. "Reign Over Me" starred Adam Sandler as a man whose life went to pieces after he lost his wife and daughter in one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. "Reign Over Me" carries the same strange sense of humor and odd warmth that makes up much of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

Both films are focused on the grief of those left behind after the tragedy and that grief extends to us in the audience. Seeing actors we know playing out the stories of people who really experienced the tragedy and loss of September 11 is the closest that some of us will ever come to knowing what that tragic day was like.

Of course we all shared the shock and the fear of that day but those who lost someone in the tragedy have a different and far more life-altering experience of September 11. Movies like "Reign Over Me" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" give the rest of us an approximation of that experience that makes both films unique and valuable.

Article May 30th 2011 10 Movies to Watch This Summer

Summer is all about the blockbusters and this season offers blockbusters galore. The rebooted X-Men take us back to '˜The First Class.' We will find out the origins of "The Green Lantern" and '˜Captain America' this summer. And just who are all of these little blue people running around? Plus, this summer we'll see the return of Optimus Prime, Harry Potter and some Apes. So stay out of the sun and stay inside the theaters for the Top 10 Movies for Summer.

X-Men: The First Class June 3rd

In need of a reboot after the modest returns of "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the creators of the X-Men film franchise decided to go all the way back to the beginning for "X-Men: The First Class." Find out where Charles '˜Professor X' Xavier, Erik '˜Magneto' Lensherr and the first class of student at Xavier's School.

"Kick Ass" director Matthew Vaughan takes the directorial reigns of this origin story set in the late 1960's just as Charles Xavier has started his school for gifted, mutant, students. The supporting cast includes Academy Award nominee Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Lenny Kravitz's daughter Zoe as Angel and Nicholas Hoult as Beast.

Super 8 June 10th

J.J Abrams and Steven Speilberg are a superstar team behind the scenes and the result of their collective imagination is the buzz heavy "Super 8." Ever since a big tease during the Super Bowl in January fans have been anticipating this secretive event movie about unseen, alien forces attacking a small town, secretive military types trying to keep the problem under wraps and a father and son, Kyle Chandler and Joel Courtney, along with their family, neighbors and friends who are caught in the middle.

Green Lantern June 17th

We've seen Superman, Batman, Spiderman and Iron Man; it was about time that The Green Lantern got the big screen treatment. Long a favorite of the D.C comics' fans, The Green Lantern has been talked about for a movie for years. However, it wasn't until the super combination of director Martin Campbell and star Ryan Reynolds came together that stingy Warner Bros. finally offered a '˜Green' light.

The story of "The Green Lantern" finds test pilot Hal Jordan shocked to be gifted with a ring of power by an alien who crashes not far from him. Jordan is not exactly the hero type but once he discovers the power of the ring and the responsibility that comes with it he rounds into hero form. Meanwhile, a crazed scientist named Hector Hammond threatens the survival of earth and one of Jordan's friends plots a betrayal.

Transformers Dark of the Moon July 1st

Michael Bay, Shia LeBeouf and some CGI robots reunite to imperil the earth for the third time in "Transformers Dark of the Moon." This time, Optimus Prime discovers that humans have been lying to him about just how much they know about his people and he's none too happy. The revelation of a spaceship on the moon leads to a new round of war between Autobots and Decepticons with more carnage and destruction in store for planet earth. All this just as LeBeouf's Sam gets a new girlfriend played by Maxim model Rosie Huntington Whitely who takes over for the departed Megan Fox.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows July 15th

The final film of the '˜Harry Potter' franchise, until the inevitable remakes, arrives this summer and we will finally see the showdown that we've waited nearly a decade for. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) will go nose to, well, nostril (?) with the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes.) The showdown will happen but not before several beloved characters and hated villains meet their end. A happy ending is assured by J.K Rowling's astonishingly popular book series but there are likely surprises still in store even for fans well aware of how the story ends in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2.

Captain America: The First Avenger July 22nd

Chris Evans has some experience as a comic book superhero; he played Johnny Storm in a pair of underwhelming "Fantastic Four" movies. Now, Evans takes an even bigger role in the Marvel universe becoming Steve Rogers the weakling who becomes the heroic Captain America after a unique and dangerous experiment.

Joe Johnston ("Jumanji," "Lost World: Jurassic Park") directs "Captain America: The Last Avenger" as an origin story set around the beginning of America's entrance into World War 2. Steve Rogers wants to go into the army but is too scrawny until a secret government experiment recruits him to become a guinea pig for a program to create super soldiers. Soon, Steve Rogers is the muscular and heroic Captain America fighting the Germans and the evil Red Skull played by Hugo Weaving.

Cowboys and Aliens July 29th

The director of "Iron Man," Jon Favreau, is making a western with aliens, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and James Bond (Daniel Craig)? Talk about a fanboy dream. Yes, "Cowboys and Aliens" hits theaters this summer with a whole lot of novelty and a whole lot potential. Daniel Craig plays an outlaw who wakes up in the desert with an alien weapon strapped to his arm while Harrison Ford is a villain who wants Craig dead but must instead team up with him when Aliens invade.

Smurfs July 29th

The little blue forest dwellers, The Smurfs, are smurfing to New York City in their first live action feature film adventure and they are bringing the evil Gargamel (Hank Azaria) as they seek help from Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays as a helpful New Yorkers. The voice cast includes Katy Perry as Smurfette, Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, Paul Reubens as Jokey and SNL's Kenan Thompson as Greedy. "Scooby Doo" and "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" director Raja Gosnell is at the helm of what will likely become a little blue film franchise.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes August 5th

A young indie director, a quirky Oscar nominated actor and a bunch of Apes have to be a bit worrisome but the track record for the "Planet of the Apes" movies at least offer a good deal of kitschy fun. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" provides the origin story of a planet dominated by apes. Franco is a scientist who accidentally dooms humanity by greatly enhancing the intelligence of apes leading to a war for supremacy. Hey, it can't be any worse than the Mark Wahlberg-Tim Burton remake? Right?

Glee Live in 3D August 12th

If Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers can go 3D why not the kids from Fox's "Glee?" Yes, the cast of the hit series is currently on the road for their first nationwide arena tour and the cameras are rolling for a concert film, "Glee Live in 3D," with "Mobbed" creator Kevin Tancharoen at the helm. Chris Colfer, Lea Michele, Cory Montieth and Kevin McHale are all in along with the rest of the New Directions but Matthew Morrison is not, he's got his own tour plans this summer as he pushes his first solo CD.

Article March 31st, 2011 Leaked Dragon Tattoo Trailer

The first glimpses of David Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" leaked over the Memorial Day weekend. While Sony remained mum about the release, scrutiny of the stolen clip has centered on Sony executives leaking the clip themselves, as noted by MSNBC. Curiously, Sony has not asked outlets like Entertainment Weekly to pull the clip. The "leaked" trailer has already been downloaded more than a million times on Youtube, indicating interest in "The Girl with Dragon Tattoo" is quite high.

Here are a few famous examples of movie leaks and how they helped and hindered movies in the past.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1"

Just days before the release of the first installment of the final Harry Potter movie hit theaters Nov. 19, 2010, the first 36 minutes of the movie appeared online. While Warner Brothers issued a statement promising to prosecute whoever leaked the footage, the leak only stoked the already flaming hot buzz: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" opened to the biggest box office in the history of the franchise.

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine"

In April of 2009, a full length but not completed version of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was leaked online less than a month before the film opened on May 1, according to CNN. While the film eventually opened to more than $85 million, the opening was down from the previous X-Men adventure, "X-Men: The Last Stand," which opened to $102 million.

More than 1 million people downloaded the film illegally, but problems behind the scenes that led to reshoots plagued the movie, as did many negative reviews. Ironically, while 20th Century Fox was pursuing those who illegally downloaded "Wolverine," Fox News movie critic Roger Friedman reviewed the leaked version and gave the film a very positive review. Friedman was subsequently fired.

"Ang Lee's Hulk"

In 2003, a New Jersey man named Kerry Gonzalez received a copy of "Hulk" from a friend two weeks before the film's debut in June. Gonzalez digitized a copy of the film and then uploaded it onto the Internet. Gonzalez ended up paying $7,000 in fines and spent six months in home confinement.

It's unclear how much the leak hurt the opening weekend box office of "Hulk." The ability to download full length movies in 2003 wasn't nearly as advanced as it was when more than 1 million people downloaded "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" in 2009. "Hulk" was also the subject of troubling behind the scenes buzz and mixed critical reviews.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The leak of the trailer for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" may be another watershed for the industry. If the rumors about Sony leaking the clip itself turn out to be true, it would be the first known occasion that a major movie studio has used the very tactics it decries as criminal -- footage shot by an amateur camera in a movie theater and then uploaded onto the Internet -- as a way of marketing a movie.

Movie Review: Documentary Boogeymen

Boogeyman (2001) 

Directed by 

Written by Documentary

Starring Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, Norman Bates, Michael Myers, Jason Voohees 

Release Date Unknown

Published December 20th, 2001 

A warning to horror film fans: avoid the new DVD Boogeymen. The disc that is positioned as sort of a documentary retrospective of the horror genres best. Yet Boogeymen plays more like the kind of promo disc you would receive with your subscription to Fangoria.

All the horror greats are on the disc from Norman Bates to Hellraiser's Pinhead to the greatest of them all, Freddy Krueger. They are all featured on the disc but in strange little vignettes that introduce the characters as if they were contestants on the dating game. For example, clips of Freddy are introduced with a picture, vital stats and little tidbits like "Son of 100 maniacs", killed by the parents of the Elm Street children, now returns to kill in children's' dreams. All that's missing is Wink Martindale saying "Ladies how about a warm welcome for Freeeddyyyyy Krueger." 

The disc is filled with famous clips like Freddy's first kill, and the Phantasm ball but the clips are very long and are accompanied by no commentary and no interviews essentially no insight into the making of these classics.

The DVD extras does include a commentary and a couple of interviews but why are they only in the extras and not in the documentary itself? If your looking for real insight into the making of a horror film rent Wes Craven's new nightmare with the commentary by Craven himself and leave Boogeymen on the shelf. 

Movie Review: Die Hard

Die Hard (1988) 

Directed by John McTiernan 

Written by Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza 

Starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald Vel Johnson, Paul Gleason

Release Date July 15th, 1988 

Published July 15th, 2018 

Die Hard is my favorite Christmas movie. Mostly because it is set on Christmas but it is not about Christmas. If I’m being honest, Christmas isn’t a favorite holiday of mine. I don’t care for most Christmas movies including supposed classics such as A Christmas Story and the loathsome, grotesque, and lowbrow National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Die Hard is a Christmas movie for people like me, those who don’t enjoy Christmas movies. 

On Christmas Day, John McClain has arrived in Los Angeles in hopes of reuniting with his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia). Things get off to a bad start when John arrives at Holly’s office and finds that now living in Los Angeles, she’s dropped the last name McClane, in favor of her maiden name Gennero. The two begin to argue but they never finish the argument, first after her boss calls and then when terrorists arrive and begin taking over the building, known as Nakatomi Plaza. 

John is changing clothes when he hears gunshots. He quickly intuits the situation using his instincts, he’s a New York Police Detective whose job has been a significant strain on his personal life. John quickly assesses the situation and after escaping to an upper, unfinished floor of the building, he attempts to contact the police. Unfortunately the cops don’t believe him when he calls and only dispatch one cop to the scene. 

Sgt Al Powell (Reginald Vel Johnson) was thinking it would be a quiet night of enjoying twinkies in his cruiser but when he arrive at Nakatomi Plaza the shooting starts and his quiet night turns into a major hostage situation and the only things keeping a bloodbath at bay are Al and his new friend who won’t give his name. The two veteran cops bond quickly and even more when other less capable cops arrive on the scene and begin to screw things up. 

The terrorists are headed up by the nefariously ingenious Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). Making it appear as if they have taken hostages, Hans has the cops running around in circles while his real plan unfolds. Only John McClane stands between Hans and his ultimate goal, a whole boatload of money. Hans’ ruse is brilliant and Rickman’s supremely intelligent and superior performance gives the whole film gravity. 

In many ways, Willis and RIckman were perfectly matched as hero and villain. Where John is instinctive and primal, Hans is calculating and manipulative. Hans is a buttoned up, professional criminal, used to telling others to do the dirty work, McClane is a blue collar cop who acts on hunches and well worn experience. John’s unpredictable nature isn’t merely a character trait, it becomes a strategy and Willis is remarkable in deploying it. 

Willis brings an authenticity to John McClane that matches his star power and charisma and makes John McClane an indelible hero. The film has an old school western feel in terms of the battle of good and evil. John may not be the picture of white hat virtue, but rather, he’s a more down to Earth and believable kind of good. Hans meanwhile, has an alluring evil, though you’re never on his side, you wouldn’t feel too bad if he fooled you. 

Rickman’s arrogant superiority is his most nefarious quality. Even more than his murderous plot, his stuffy, accented, suited persona is a relatable sort of evil. He’s not the picture of either a terrorist or a killer, yet he feels more real than many actual, real world villains because Rickman is so incredible at playing him. His arrogance and his suit are reminiscent of the kind of Wall Street villains that Oliver Stone had recently introduced us to. He’s just more honest than them because he robs and murders people in front of you and not from behind a desk. 

The blue collar qualities of Al and John make them our automatic allies. More of us relate to John and Al than any of the stuffy, suited types in Nakatomi Plaza. It’s part of their charm and a big part of the performances of Willis and VelJohnson. John and Al seem like people we know, people we could have a beer with. The divide between them and the suit wearing villains are signifiers that director John McTiernan clever uses to create a subliminal divide underneath the the obvious criminal and not a criminal divide. 

The action in Die Hard is top notch. Director McTiernan stacks the odds against John McClane brilliantly. The stakes rise in each passing scene with John and Holly’s identity as husband and wife acting in many ways like a bomb about to explode the story at any moment. The name game with Holly is also a terrific piece of screenwriting as the argument over the name tells us everything we need to know about the strain between John and Holly. 

Many screenwriters need a page and a half of dialogue to tell us what the names Gennaro and McClane and the hurt in John’s voice and manner do in a single scene. Die Hard is rarely thought of as being a great screenplay but Jeb Stuart and co-writer Steven E de Souza deserve nearly as much credit as director John McTiernan. The economy of character building in John, Holly, Hans and Al is really remarkable. We learn  more about them from their actions than we would from endless pages of expository dialogue. 

Die Hard is Christmas for me because I watch it every Christmas. It’s the kind of smart, well-worn action movie that is perfect holiday comfort food. The familiarity, the easy good versus evil story, the action that even after 30 years feels refreshingly new and ever exciting. Die Hard is the gift that keeps on giving. 30 years of thrills, 30 years of pithy hero banter, and 30 years of watching Hans Gruber falling to his death. Merry Christmas indeed. 

Movie Review: 1985

1985 (2018) 

Directed by Yen Tan

Written by Yen Tan 

Starring Cory Michael Smith, Virginia Madsen, Michael Chiklis, 

Release Date March 19th, 2018 

Published August 12th, 2018 

Director Yen Tan’s 1985 left me an emotional mess. This incredibly moving drama about a gay man returning home for the holidays to his conservative, religious, Texas family hit me right me in heart with its brave storytelling and artful construction. Filmed in 16 millimeter black and white, the film gives you a feeling of a memory being recalled with great detail, directly from the year 1985. 

1985 stars Corey Michael Smith, best known for his role on TV’s Gotham, as Adrian. Adrian moved away from his Texas home three years ago to live in New York City and, for the first time, to live openly as a gay man. Having never come out to his parents, expertly portrayed by Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis, Adrian decides immediately to keep himself in the closet while back home so as not to upset his family dynamic. 

Adrian’s sexuality however, is not the only secret he’s decided to keep from his family. Verbal and visual cues will slowly reveal as the film goes on that Adrian has been losing weight, he’s been getting ill frequently and in a beautifully telling moment, his beloved dog clings to his side as if to protect and comfort him. It’s not hard to suss out what Adrian’s secret is though the film does gently allow the secret to be unfolded throughout the story. 

1985 was directed by Yen Tan, a filmmaker who I am unfortunately not familiar with though this is his fourth feature film according to Wikipedia. In notes that accompanied the movie when I saw it, Tan discussed how working with AIDS patients years ago inspired him to want to tell the story of a closeted gay man and the sadness, frustration, and heartache that comes from keeping secrets so essential to who you are. 

There is a next level of sadness at play here that I am reluctant to go into. I was lucky to watch the film without having read other reviews on Wikipedia or IMDB, places that give away the secret Adrian is hiding. Again, it’s not a twist or even a major reveal, it’s an organic, growing part of the story. I just really loved watching it unfold even as the brilliant visual and vocal clues in the movie give the game away with intent. 

It’s a wonderful piece of filmmaking and it’s not intended to fool you or gut punch you, it makes sense to the plot why Adrian is hiding something and the journey toward him actually saying what is happening out loud is powerful. Actor Corey Michael Smith does an incredible job of making Adrian genial and awkward and delicately pragmatic. The secret of his sexuality isn’t really much of a secret, as we come to find out, but the way in which the film gently layers this into the characters and the story is remarkable and emotional. 

I haven’t even mentioned one of my favorite parts of 1985. Actress Jamie Chung plays Carly, Adrian’s ex-girlfriend whom he broke up with three years earlier when he left for New York. Now an aspiring stand up comic,  Carly has no idea that Adrian is gay and when the two reconnect there is some awkward and brilliantly relatable truth to their interaction. Carly may seem like an extraneous character in some ways but her presence underlines dramatic moments from Adrian’s backstory that pay off with strong emotional impact. 

1985 will be on my list of the best movies of the year. Few films have touched me as deeply as this movie has. It’s not an easy movie, it’s not a movie for an audience that doesn’t want to be challenged and it is not a movie that rewards you with easy answers. This is a deeply emotional and beautifully rendered film that, if you allow it to, will break your heart in ways that will make it stronger and more empathetic going forward. That, to me, is a better feeling than any 10 blockbusters can provide. 

What a year for Black and White movies huh? Roma dazzled us with its arrival on Netflix last week with it’s crisp, clean, black and white sleekness. And here, in 1985, we get a black and white movie that uses this type of film to give age to the story, to evoke the time it is set within and to give the film a dreamlike or memory-like feeling. The grainy, slightly dark, look of 1985 gives the film the feeling of a story being recalled from memory, a little hazy, a little fuzzy, yet recalled with detail and deep emotion, as if we were in the mind of someone recalling this story and feeling what they felt at the time. 

Movie Review: A Shot at Glory

A Shot at Glory (2002) 

Directed by Michael Corrente 

Written by Denis O'Neill 

Starring Robert Duvall, Ally McCoist, Brian Cox, Kristy Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Michael Keaton 

Release Date May 3rd, 2002 

Published August 5th, 2002

Robert Duvall may be the most under-appreciated actor in the business. Despite his awesome resume, Duvall is not offered the roles that go to the actors of his age and class such as Deniro, Eastwood, Pacino and the like. The reason is likely his lack of leading man looks, but what he doesn't have in looks he makes up for with pure acting chops.

Easily one of the best actors going today Duvall still has a hard time getting a movie greenlighted, struggling with the film The Apostle for nearly 20 years. The soccer movie A Shot At Glory is another of Duvall's passion features, co-written and financed by Duvall himself. Though the film isn't as good as The Apostle the film once again showcases Duvall's amazing talent.

A Shot At Glory tells the story of a tiny Scottish soccer team trying to compete with the big boys. Duvall is the teams coach Gordon McLeod, a former player with the major league team The Rangers whom he now feuds with over incidents not fully explained. Michael Keaton is the owner of Duvall's team, Peter Cameron, a brash American who wants to move the tiny team to the bigtime by taking the team and it's players from it's home in Kilknockie, Scotland to Dublin, Ireland. Cameron thinks he can make the team more marketable to the Irish investors by acquiring past-his-prime soccer star Jackie McQuillan, played by real Scottish soccer legend Ally McCoist.

McQuillan is an egocentric jerk, overcoming a drinking problem, but also Gordon's son in law, though Jackie and his wife are separated. Parallel to the main story is that of Gordon's daughter, British stunner Kirsty Mitchell as Kate McQuillan. Gordon doesn't speak to his daughter since she married Jackie. It has little to do with Jackie's being a jerk, though, it is because Gordon is Protestant and Jackie is Catholic and the marriage took place outside of either church. The rivalry of Protestants and Catholics is vicious at times, even resulting in violent feuds that often spill over onto the soccer field.

Cole Hauser rounds out the cast as a rookie American goalie who is pressed into duty as the team surprisingly advances through Scotland's biggest soccer tournament.

No doubt about it A Shot At Glory is a sports movie bound by that genre’s many clichés. The aforementioned Hauser only plays after the starting goalie is injured and, wouldn't you know it, the rookie is forced to play in the two biggest games of the season. As for Gordon, what a shock when he is forced to play his former team, The Rangers, in the big game and face his hated rival Martin Smith (Brian Cox).

Though the film is steeped in sports movie clichés, the soccer scenes are well presented thanks to cinematographer Alex Thomson who makes his living as a soccer cameraman. Thomson knows how to film the action and given the tools of a handheld cameras and super 16 film, Thomson gives the film a realistically gritty look.

Duvall is excellent, his mere presence elevates even the film’s most leaden moments to passably interesting. Saddled with a difficult Scottish accent and some very dull and obvious dialogue, Duvall still manages to be entertaining and engaging. The real surprise though is Scottish soccer star Ally McCoist who really holds his own against Duvall and comes off very natural.

A Shot At Glory almost never got made. Duvall had set the film up with a Hollywood studio with Russell Crowe attached to play the soccer star. Crowe however pulled out at the last minute and Duvall was forced to make the film independently. Nevertheless, Duvall has crafted an above average sport movie that rises above genre convention to be an entertaining little movie.

Movie Review: Abominable

Abominable (2019) 

Directed by Jill Culton 

Written by Jill Culton 

Starring Chloe Bennett, Albert Tsai, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tsai Chin 

Release Date September 27th, 2019 

Published September 27th, 2019

“For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy” Roger Ebert 

There is a moment in my experience of the movie Abominable that reminded me of that Roger Ebert quote and why Roger was always the best of us, always so prescient. Our young protagonist in Abominable has a violin that means the world to her, a gift from her late father and it appears to be broken and lost forever. 

Behind me, in the dark of the theater, a little girl, who couldn't have been older than 5 or 6, says to her mom, ‘oh no her guitar,’ with genuine concern and empathy. The poignancy of this moment cannot be understated. Abominable inspires feelings like that and while it may not be perfect, if it inspires one child toward that kind of genuine empathy, it’s worth more than all of the greatest movies ever made. 

Abominable features the voice of Chloe Bennett as Yi, an industrious teenager who, since the death of her father, has barely stopped working long enough to grieve his loss. Her absence from her mother (Michelle Wong) and her Nai Nai (Tsai Chai) is deeply felt but mom fears interfering in her daughters coping mechanism, even if it means not being able to offer the comfort she desperately wishes to give. 

Yi’s multiple side hacks, including dog walking, babysitting, and emptying fish guts in the trash of a restaurant, are her way of avoidance and her way of raising money for a trip she and her father had planned and she’s determined to take. But all of that will have to wait when Yi finds a yeti on the roof of her apartment building. Yes, a yeti, a big, white furball of a yeti with more than a touch of magic and wonder to him. 

The yeti, which Yi nicknames Everest, after his home summit, has escaped from the laboratory of a big game hunter named Burnish (Eddie Izzard). Burnish encountered a Yeti as a young man when he climbed Mt Everest and he intends to prove to the world the yeti exists. With the help of his Zoologist sidekick, Dr Zara (Sarah Paulsen) and his bumbling team of security Burnish will do anything to bring Everest back to his lab to exploited. 

Helping Yi and Everest on their journey, as Yi has decided to return Everest to his home, are Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) and Jin’s young cousin, Peng (Albert Tsai). Jin had no intention of helping but when Peng ran off to join Yi and Everest on a departing ship, he leapt after him to protect him. Jin also provides a lucky cover story for the trio as well as he had a trip to Beijing planned for his college visits and he claims Yi and Peng are accompanying him. 

That’s all I will tell you about the plot of Abominable, an unfortunate title for this delightful movie. Truly, THIS movie deserves to be called Everest and it is a shame that the awful mountain climbing movie from earlier this young century claimed that title first. The two films are remarkably different in story but also in quality as Abominable is a wonderful adventure and Everest is a paean to the courage of people dying for no reason other than their ego. 

Stepping off my soapbox, Abominable was written and directed by Jill Culton who has greatly improved her work since the slight and forgettable animated animal flick, Open Season, in 2006. Abominable has the heartfelt care and craft of a Pixar movie without the lowbrow pandering of most non-Pixar animated fair. The animation is lovely, even as the character design choices are a little odd. Not so odd as to be notably bad, just a few unusual choices. That’s just critical nitpicking. 

The eagle eyed among you readers were likely struck by a name in the credits of Abominable, that of Tenzing Norgay Trainor. That’s not merely an homage to the man who joined Sir Edmund Hillary as the first men on the top of Mt Everest, Tenzing Norgay. Tenzing Norgay Trainor is the grandson of Tenzing Norgay making Abominable an apt tribute to his grandfather’s legacy. Trainor was an inspired choice for the role of Jin not just because of his heritage, but also because he’s a star on the Disney Channel and has a naturally expressive voice. 

The most important thing about Abominable is that the story is full of heart. It’s the kind of movie that overwhelms you with a big, lovable heart. These are wonderful characters inside a terrific story filled with adventure and laughs and a few well earned tears. Watching Abominable in a theater full of children and watching even the most attention span challenged child slowly become mesmerized by the sights and sounds is an utter delight. 

The experience of Abominable was nearly enough for me to recommend it. That Abominable is a genuinely wonderful movie, is icing on the cake. 

Movie Review The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) 

Directed by Niels Arden Oplev 

Written by Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel 

Starring Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Ingvar Hirdwall 

Release Date October 9th, 2009 

Published October 9th, 2009

The character of Lisbeth Salander had, for a time, become the dominant pop cultural notion of an international ‘hacker.’ Or, at least she was until faceless Russian trolls became the top meme on that front during the 2016 election year. Before that though, leather, spikes and punk attitude, epitomized by Lisbeth as written by the late Stieg Larsson, was the dominant mode of our imagination of the hacker. 

That is because Larsson’s characterization of Lisbeth Salander as the ultimate, badass, rebel, outlaw of the internet was so incredibly juicy. Pansexual, androgynous, covered in leather and spikes with a photographic memory and an intuition to match. And, she can beat up just about any man put in her way? That’s a recipe for an irresistible pop culture heroine. Add to that, Noomi Rapace’s iconic Lisbeth in the 2009 film adaptation and it is no wonder that Larsson and Lisbeth have lived on long past the author himself and his Millennium franchise. 

With the latest, and the first under a new author, Millennium franchise story, The Girl in the Spider’s Web about to return Lisbeth Salander to our collective pop culture radar, now seemed like a good time to look back at the first big screen incarnation of the ultimate hacker icon, Noomi Rapace’s 2009 award winning performance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo introduces us to Lisbeth Salander as she is investigating a crusading journalist, Mikael Blomqvist (Mikael Nyqvist) who is being set up to go to jail. Blomqvist got suckered into a big investigative story about a powerful Swedish businessman but once he completed his story, he found that all of his sources had disappeared and he could go to jail on Sweden’s harsh libel laws. 

This, however, is not why Lisbeth is investigating Blomqvist. Instead, she is working for another billionaire businessman who wants to hire Blomqvist to investigate a 40 year old disappearance. Blomqvist specifically has a connection to the woman who disappeared, Harriet Vanger, as she was his childhood babysitter. Henrik Vanger, Harriet’s uncle, is betting that the personal connection and Mikael’s desperate situation will make him the ideal person to find evidence that no one has found in the past 40 years. 

Lisbeth’s part of the story should end there but she is deeply fascinated by Blomqvist. Investigating his case she found him to be the rare case of someone who has nothing to hide, a genuinely good man, caught up in a scheme not of his making. When Blomqvist accepts Vanger’s invitation to investigate Harriet’s disappearance, Lisbeth invites herself into the investigation and becomes Blomqvist’s partner and lover. 

The mystery at the heart of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo oozes with intrigue including incest among Swedish elite, billion dollar fortunes, a serial killer and secret Nazis. It’s a whole lot of story for a whole lot of movies, the film, directed by Niels Arden Oplev, comes in at a fully packed 2 hours and 30 minutes. In that time, we also get to know some of Lisbeth’s frightful backstory as an abuse victim who has only begun to fight back. 

We learn a lot about Lisbeth’s resolve and strength in a violent subplot involving Lisbeth’s new guardian, played by Nils Bjurman. The film never explains why Lisbeth, who is clearly of an adult age, needs a guardian but the hint is that she is a recovering addict. Regardless, the brutal guardian exacts a toll on Lisbeth by taking over her finances and strangling the control she has over her life.

This subplot has received a great deal of controversial attention for having a brutal rape as its central conceit. Many have asked why this scene or even the subplot as a whole exists in the book and in the film. The answer is complicated, at least from my critical perspective. I can understand that the scene in question is brutal and could be fairly called exploitative. On the other hand, this subplot comes to play a larger role in the Millennium series as it goes on. 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo introduces this complex, traumatic and problematic subplot and it can be fairly seen as extraneous in the stubborn context of just this movie. In the Millennium franchise however, this subplot has a much larger part to play and comes to be if not a central component of any of the other stories, it’s one that communicates a great deal about Lisbeth, her history and how she copes. 

That director Niels Arden Oplev has done little since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in 2009 to distinguish his directorial career, does little to dim my opinion of the movie. This is one of the most riveting mysteries of this young century, a fascinating, twisty, and riveting work of suspense with an R-rated grit that makes it certainly not for everyone, especially those without a strong stomach. 

If you’re interested in the story of Lisbeth Salander ahead of the release, this weekend, of The Girl in the Spider’s Web, this 2009, Swedish language thriller, is the best possible introduction. Yes, even better than the American version of the story. That’s saying something as the 2011 version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo carries the distinguished reputation of director David Fincher. 

Nevertheless, consider 2009’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet’s Nest as required reading for true fans of Stieg Larsson’s dark, gritty and yet deeply commercial, mystery franchise, before or after you see The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

Movie Review Mission Impossible Rogue Nation and Ghost Protocol

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011) 

Directed by Brad Bird

Written by Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec

Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Paula Patton 

Release Date December 16th, 2011 

Mission Impossible Rogue Nation (2015) 

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Written by Christopher McQuarrie

Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson

Release Date July 31st, 2015 

Published July 25th, 2018 

Mission Impossible 3 made an indelible mark in my mind as the most entertaining and accomplished take on the entire Mission Impossible franchise. After seeing both Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Mission Impossible Rogue Nation, I can now say with certainty that the series peaked with number 3. J.J Abrams' kinetic direction was artful and exciting with an eye toward drama, action and suspense all in the same package.

That’s not to say that Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation are bad, they just lack the same clarity, focus and skill of MI3. Neither directors, Brad Bird or Christopher McQuarrie, appear capable of imposing their vision on the franchise, or at least, they didn’t impose it as well as Abrams did as each seems far more at the mercy of stunt coordinators and the daredevil antics of star Tom Cruise than Abrams was.

Ghost Protocol picks up the action of the MI story some five years after the action of MI3. Ethan Hunt is behind bars in a foreign country, accused of having murdered 6 Serbian nationals. We will eventually be told that his wife, Jules (Michelle Monaghan), a prominent part of the action in MI3, was killed, but death in a spy movie doesn’t always mean death. The big bad this time out is a man code named Cobalt (Michael Nykvist), an arms dealer with the aim of ending the world with a nuclear missile.

It will be up to Agent Hunt and his new IMF team, including Field Agent Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Jane Carter (Paula Patton). Carter is still reeling from the murder of her partner, Agent Hanaway (Josh Holloway, Lost) who was murdered by a killer for hire employed by Cobalt. They are joined by Analyst William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) who gets added to the team after his boss, the Secretary of the IMF (Tom Wilkinson) is murdered and the team is disavowed.

Brad Bird is a competent and highly capable director who keeps the pace up and the action well managed. Unfortunately, the film is little more than set-pieces strung together by a thin plot and a less than compelling villain. Ghost Protocol is remembered for the controversial CGI destruction of the Kremlin and a death-defying sequence in which Cruise appears to scale the outside of the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

Both sequences are solid and well captured with the Burj Khalifa climb coming the closest to evoking the best of the franchise. That said, they appeared to have the stunts before they had a script and wound up tailoring the story to the stunts. This was seemingly confirmed when writer Christopher McQuarrie was brought on half way into production for an uncredited rewrite of the script by Andre Nemec and Josh Applebaum.

Does this make Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol bad? No, it means that it comes up short of the legacy crafted by Mission Impossible 3. That film had big stunts and a big story to tell along with it. Ghost Protocol has ambition stunts but lacks the story to lift it to what I had hoped the series would be after MI3. Still, the movie is good enough, entertaining enough, and has just enough appeal that I don’t dislike it, but I don’t love it either.

Mission Impossible Rogue Nation, at the very least, improved upon Ghost Protocol. Here, Ethan Hunt opens the movie by being captured by the big bad, this time played by Sean Harris. Harris’ Solomon Lane has been eluding Ethan for two years since Ethan began to track him down. Lane has remained 2 steps ahead of Ethan while creating a series of tragedies intended to have a drastic effect on world markets.

Ethan is in so much hot water that the CIA, seen here in the form of a blustering Alec Baldwin, believes he is responsible for the terrorist acts caused by Lane’s outfit called, The Syndicate. In attempting to stop The Syndicate, Ethan recruits Benji to join him on the run from the CIA and they are joined by a British double agent named Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) who has infiltrated The Syndicate and is the key to getting to Lane.

Director Christopher McQuarrie both wrote and directed Mission Impossible Rogue Nation and that fact does lend some clarity to the storytelling. The conspiracy in play is a wild one and rather clever and well executed. The film is still defined by one big stunt, in which Cruise legendarily clung to the side of a plane as it was taking off, but the stunt doesn’t completely overshadow the movie as the Burj Khalifa sequence in Ghost Protocol certainly did.

McQuarrie marries the slick, shallow thrills of MI2 with a little of the grit of the original with the craftsmanship of MI3 and creates easily the second best of the then 5 film franchise. I especially enjoyed the use of Rebecca Ferguson whose lithe physicality matches that of co-star Tom Cruise. The way she floats about fluidly in major fight scenes is really cool and in keeping with the action style of most of the Mission movies. She’s a really solid addition.

Sadly, the villain of Rogue Nation is once again the weakest part of the film. Who’s Sean Harris? He’s not a bad actor but I have no reference point for who he is as an actor. He’s not remotely on the star level of the rest of the cast, even Ferguson who makes her debut in this film. Harris’s lack of a profile makes him forgettable and when compared to the best villain in the franchise, Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s exceptional, Owen Davian, he comes up well short.

The character of Solomon Lane is not all that compelling. His aims are clear but the character is a shell and a full-fledged villain should be. He has no life, no personality, he’s not tough and while he’s portrayed as super-smart, our first time seeing him, he immediately chooses not to kill Ethan Hunt even though he easily could. The sequence makes the character look silly, especially when the script gives him zero reason to keep alive the one man he’s aware could stop his agenda.

The lack of care in the details of the script of Rogue One is part of what keeps the film far from greatness. It’s still solid and has terrific stunt work and top-notch action scenes, but sadly I was hoping for more of a brain. Instead, we get yet another Tom Cruise running chase scene and another Tom Cruise motorcycle chase scene, obligatory action beats that likely existed before a script ever did.

McQuarrie is also the writer-director of Mission Impossible Fallout which hits theaters this weekend. I believe Fallout will be good but my expectations have dimmed for the franchise. I had hoped Ethan Hunt would usurp James Bond as the top movie spy of all time. Sadly, Bond’s legacy is kept safe by a star too eager for stunts and directors unable to make the stunts into a fully compelling story beyond the mere presentation of spectacle that just happens to be part of a story.

Movie Review: A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas

A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas (2011) 

Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulman

Written by Jay Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg

Starring John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Paula Garces, Daneel Ackles

Release Date November 4th, 2011

Published November 3rd, 2011

"A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas" is gloriously offensive. There are scenes of such specifically offensive humor that I really don't feel comfortable describing what takes place in any kind of detail. With that offensiveness stipulated, let me state clearly that I loved this movie. I'm not sure I can recommend it, but I love. "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas" finds our friends Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) having grown apart. Harold has chosen to become a grown up. He has a job on Wall Street, a house in the suburbs and he and his wife Maria (Paula Garces) are trying to have a baby.

Kumar on the other hand has stunted his maturity. Kumar is a degenerate pothead, who we see buying pot and smoking up with a mall Santa Claus in the opening scenes of the film. Kumar lost his job because he failed a drug test and lost his girlfriend (Daneel Ackles) because of his slothfulness. Our heroes are reunited when a package appears at Kumar's apartment addressed to Harold. Kumar delivers the package to Harold's house and from there the latest H & K adventure begins and proceeds in the most irreverent and stunningly offensive fashion.

Also returning for "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas" is the brilliant Neil Patrick Harris who finds new and wondrous ways to send up himself. Harris came out a few years ago and naturally Harris makes great sport of his homosexuality in "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas." Thomas Lennon gets in on the fun in A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas. Lennon, best known for "Reno 911," plays Harold's straight-laced suburban best friend Todd. Poor Todd and his baby daughter Ava get dragged into H & K's adventure and what happens to little Ava will have many parents in the audience either rolling with laughter or asking for their money back at the box office.

I can't stress this enough, if you are offended by drugs, sex, violence, racial humor and such, you don't want to attempt to watch "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas." This movie presses the most offensive hot buttons and does not let up for more than 90 minutes. A particularly offensive and completely hilarious scene involves paying homage to the holiday classic "A Christmas Story" in a way that you must see to believe. There is also a reference to "Annie Hall" involving the baby girl Ava that is startlingly funny.

"A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas" is up there with "Bridesmaids" as one of the funniest movies of 2011. I completely loved this movie and I cannot recommend it for any audience. The film is so outlandish and so very, very, very R-rated that only a select audience will be able to tolerate the well beyond risqué humor. How "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas" did not get saddled with an NC-17 rating is beyond me; the film definitely is offensive enough to deserve it. If you are not easily offended, you are going to love "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas."

Movie Review: 50/50

50/50 (2011) 

Directed by Jonathan Levine 

Written by Will Reiser 

Starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anjelica Huston, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anna Kendrick

Release Date September 30th, 2011 

Published September 30th, 2011

Cancer is a topic of grave seriousness. To even attempt to place the word cancer near the word comedy could be seen as folly. Yet, we have 50/50 a very funny comedy about a young man who faces death from cancer. The tightrope that 50/50 walks in creating its comedy, a broad swath of Knocked Up style irreverence, Seth Rogan is a co-star in 50/50, and the kind of gallows humor that permeates many war movies.

If you were a casino game, you'd have the best odds

Adam (Joseph Gordon Levitt) is 27 years old, he has a pretty artist girlfriend named Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard), a great job working at NPR in Seattle, and he has this pain in his back that just won't go away.

That pain turns out to be a malignant tumor attaching to his spine. Adam has cancer and faces the 50/50 odds of survival with a serious course of chemotherapy. First however, he has to survive telling his family and friends.

Rachael seems to take the news as well as could be expected. The relationship is relatively young for such a heavy burden to be placed on it but she takes it on, first buying him a dog and then being there when Adam tells his mother (Angelica Huston).

I'm moving in!

Adam next tells his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogan). Kyle's emotional reaction is indicative of most reactions to Adam's news. Kyle doesn't process the info well and Adam ends up having to console him.

The same can be said of Kyle's mother who is already caring for Adam's Alzheimer's afflicted father (Serge Houde). Mom wants to move into Kyle's house to care for him but Adam tells her that Rachael is taking care of him.

We know, and he will soon know, that this will not be the case. Rachael isn't a very good person but in fairness, who could be prepared for such a shocking turn of events. The fact that the relationship was sputtering before the cancer diagnosis should also be noted.

Humor from the gallows

Though Kyle proves to be a stalwart friend he to struggles with how to help Adam. Being a typically Rogen character, one lacking in maturity or a filter for his thoughts, Kyle's notions of helping amount to helping get Adam laid and getting high with him.

The only people who react appropriately to Adam's diagnosis and offer honest comfort are two men Adam meets in chemotherapy. Played by Phillip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer, their journeys could likely make wonderful movies of their own.

Somewhere in the middle of the appropriate and the misguided is Adam's therapist, Katherine, played by the terrific Anna Kendrick. We get right away that these two have chemistry beyond the patient-therapist relationship; Levitt and Kendrick however, surprise us by underplaying the attraction to great effect.

A very funny movie about a guy who has cancer

Trying to recommend 50/50 is more challenging that it should be. 50/50 is very funny and humane and is populated by terrific performances, especially from Levitt and Rogan. It's just difficult to get past the idea of a 'Cancer Comedy.'

If you can get past preconceived notions about cancer and comedy being mutually exclusive and give yourself over to this being Adam's specific experience of cancer you will be rewarded with a great movie going experience.

Movie Review: Contagion

Contagion (2011) 

Directed by Steven Soderberg

Written by Steven Soderbergh

Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard

Release Date September 3rd, 2011

Published September 3rd, 2011 

Director Steven Soderbergh has described "Contagion" as an Irwin Allen style disaster movie. For those not up on their B- movie history, producer-director Irwin Allen presided over some of the most celebrated disaster movies in history from "The Swarm," to "The Towering Inferno" to "The Poseidon Adventure."

Only horror movie mavens have produced as many dead bodies on the big screen. The Irwin Allen comparison is apt. Allen's formula, a major catastrophe populated with a galaxy of well known stars, is essentially what "Contagion" attempts to be. The only difference is that Soderbergh's level of skill prevents "Contagion" from drifting toward the kinds of caricature that Allen's characters often became.

"Contagion," at first, stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Beth, just another woman on a business trip in China. However, after a layover in Chicago, Beth has returned home to her husband, Mitch (Matt Damon,) and their son, and has fallen ill. It's mere days before Beth is dead. Meanwhile, a video has spread across the internet of a man falling ill on a bus in China.

That man was with Beth in China and now both are dead. Soon, a man in Chicago has fallen ill. A woman in Kiev who had brief hand to hand contact with Beth in Hong Kong has died and her family is infected. Back in Minneapolis, Beth's son has died and her husband is presumed ill while his daughter is returned from her mother's and isolated.

At the CDC Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) and his team begin retrieving data and attempting to piece together the spread of the virus. In Hong Kong WHO Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) has a key piece of evidence from the security camera at the Hotel/Casino where Beth stayed. The video tracks the very start of the spread.

In Minneapolis Dr. Mears (Kate Winslet) attempts to organize the CDC response as the virus spreads like wildfire. Soon, however, because a hotel worker went to work while sick, Dr. Mears falls ill. Soderbergh's "Contagion" has no respect for Awards or star-power as the Oscar winners seem to be the first to fall.

There is a calm and precision to "Contagio"n that is both comforting and limiting. Soderbergh has taken pains not to allow the film to cause massive panic attacks ( though I would urge hypochondriacs not to see Contagion) yet in doing so he contains "Contagion" into a box that prevents it from being as affective as it could no doubt be.

I don't want "Contagion" to cause a panic ala Jaws depressing beach traffic in the summer of '77 however, it's fair to say that "Contagion" has the opportunity to be more fear inducing and thus a more viscerally satisfying than it is. As it is, "Contagio"n could almost be considered hopeful, in its way.

Many critics of "Contagion" have wondered about the character played by Jude Law. Law portrays a blogger who finds a chance to profit off of the spread of the virus by promoting a Government conspiracy and an herbal medicine that he claims is a cure. When there is a run on the herbal medicine, Law cashes in on the stock jump of the company that makes it.

The character however, is vague in purpose. At different moments he ranges from rambling street preacher to Alex Jones style maniac before eventually being taken seriously before yet another final and strangely vague twist. Jude Law's performance is not up for question, he's highly committed and engaging but the character never finds his footing.

"Contagion" is an artful pseudo-documentary in the hands of a master director. Steven Soderbergh's command of this story takes what could have been sensational and exciting--in a terrifying B-Movie way--and makes it thoughtful, cautionary and occasionally moving. It's nice to see a director who though he demonstrates the worst of humanity at times, allows the best of humanity to rise as well.

There is a surprising and unexpected hopefulness at the heart of "Contagion" that keeps it from tipping into something merely intended to terrify. The hope is needed at the end when the film flashes back to the start of its outbreak and reveals the modest and completely plausible series of events that began the outbreak. So simple and so horrifying.

Movie Review: Bubble

Bubble (2006) 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Written by Coleman Hough

Starring Debbie Doebereiner, Dustin James Ashley, Misty Dawn Wilkins

Release Date January 27th, 2006 

Published January 27th, 2006 

Steven Soderbergh, the multiple-times Oscar nominee and preeminent auteur has launched a new career as a film entrepreneur. With the help of millionaire Mark Cuban, Soderbergh is attempting to change the way movies are distributed to the masses. The idea? Day and date releasing. His latest film, the low budget indie Bubble, has been released to theaters, TV and DVD all in less than a week.

Whether this experiment will work is debatable. What is not debatable is that Bubble is an intriguing little experiment in its own right. The small town murder mystery starring non-professional actors and shot on location by Soderbergh with a single camera is a hypnotic, disturbing little flick about small town artifice.

Martha's (Debbie Doebereiner) life consists of routine actions. She awakens early every morning to fix breakfast for her father. She then picks up her co-worker Kyle (Dustin James Ashley) and drives to work at a toy factory, where she paints faces on dolls as Kyle makes the doll heads. The two have lunch together, but there is little more to the relationship than work. Kyle is much younger than Martha and, while he seems to appreciate her help, he does not consider her his best friend as she does him.

Martha's routine is upset when a new girl begins working at the factory. Her name is Rose and when she gravitates to Kyle, the only other worker in the factory that is her age, she upsets the delicate balance. Soon Rose is imposing on Martha for rides to her second job as a house cleaner--where she bathes in clients homes and often steals anything that is not nailed down.

When Rose and Kyle begin dating, Rose further imposes on the always-helpful Martha by enlisting her to babysit her two-year-old daughter. To describe further would be to describe too much. At a slight 73 minutes, Bubble does not have much plot to describe without going to far. I can only tell you that the film becomes a murder mystery in the third act.

Soderbergh directed Bubble from a script by Coleman Hough and using non-professional actors all from the small town of Belpre, Ohio, where the film was shot. With his digital camera in hand, Soderbergh crafts a small town story that fits the films title. These characters exist in a small town bubble that will be recognizable to many audience members. From the trailer park to the suburbs to the toy factory, this bubble of small town conformity is perfect until the murder bursts the calm--or seems to, temporarily.

The skill of Soderbergh in directing Bubble is to create a calm atmosphere that is lazy yet hypnotic. You cannot help but be sucked in to the films elegiac pace and whisper-quiet storytelling that only temporarily, with the murder and the introduction of a by the numbers police detective, played by real-life detective Decker Moody, comes out of its trance like state of observance.

The look of the film, shot on digital video with Soderbergh acting as his own cinematographer, is reminiscent of Gus Van Zant's similarly low-budget digital feature Elephant. Not only do both films share the digital aesthetic both films are also about small town quiet disturbed by violence. Both take a relaxed, observant view of the action in the film. Rarely does either film rise to the crescendos of the violence that take place in the film, choosing instead to merely watch and record.

This passivity plagued Elephant and made the film's story of a school shooting, similar to the Columbine massacre, less impactful. However, the passivity of Bubble is effective for Soderbergh's story. The lethargy that surrounds the characters in Bubble is part of their reality and Soderbergh enhances it by adopting it into his shooting and editing styles and in Robert Pollard's excellent acoustic guitar score.

How a movie as slow and observant as Bubble will connect with mainstream audiences used to slam-bang dramatics and MTV-paced editing is anyones guess. But audiences willing to be absorbed into this tiny world of small town boredom and routine will find their patience rewarded with a film that offers a trancelike trip into seemingly real lives undone by passions they did not know they had.

Bubble is no small-town-exposed feature. This is not American Beauty, which posited that all suburban homes were covered for some sort of depravity. Bubble observes a small town filled with people who have accepted their lot in life and seek only the minor comforts that small towns provide, a good bar, a decent paying job and someone you can talk to. It is when those small comforts are upended that something dramatic happens.

While I disagree with Soderbergh's new business ideals, I must applaud his artistry. Bubble is a fascinating little indie feature made with the skill and precision of a master director. In fact, had Soderbergh not saddled the film with the burden of his new business model, he may have found a larger audience and more attention for such an accomplished work. As it is, I can only encourage you to seek out Bubble where you can find it.

Movie Review: Apollo 18

Apollo 18 (2011) 

Directed by Gonzalo Lopez Gallego 

Written by Brian Miller

Starring Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen, Ryan Robbins 

Release Date September 2nd, 2011

Published September 2nd, 2011 

Call it The Blair Witch Project on the moon; Apollo 18 takes the found footage horror sub-genre into outer space. The story of a lost NASA mission hidden from the public for nearly 30 years, Apollo 18 somehow manages to seem fresh and exciting even as it recycles the edgy tensions of the Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity.

By official account, the Apollo 18 mission never happened. However, footage has somehow popped up on a conspiracy obsessed website and it reveals footage shot by three astronauts of a mission to the moon gone horribly wrong. In the course of 85 minutes we will watch what begins as any other mission to the moon, as it becomes a slowly unfolding tragedy.

The mission goes off without a hitch, from launch to the landing of two astronauts on the lunar surface as a third circles the moon waiting to drive everyone back to earth. Once on the moon however, strange things begin to happen. First, communications breakdown between the moon lander and NASA.

Then, in a shocking and unexpected twist, the astronauts find that they are not alone on the moon; another country has recently been on the moon and they left behind terror in their wake. I won’t spoil the surprise as many other critics already have; I will only say that there is blood and plenty of it on the moon.

Apollo 18 was directed by the ingenious Spanish director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego who makes clever use of ancient camera technology, the film is set in 1974, to limit what we can see and reinforce the film’s found footage premise. The cameras that the astronauts were instructed to plant on the moon give us static images that when lingered on require audience members to search the screen for clues in what becomes a tense search for signs of life.

Actors Warren Christie and Lloyd Owen are cleverly cast as the terrified and confused astronauts. Both actors are vaguely recognizable but are not so well known that they take you out of what is supposed to be an assemblage of found footage edited into ‘documentary’ form. Cast Matt Damon as one of the astronauts and the movie-ness would undermine the notion of found footage.

Apollo 18 doesn’t break any new ground but the film is well shot, the scares arrive in a strong rhythm keeping the audience in a state of perpetual tension and the finale leaves no questions about the astronauts’ fates. Most importantly, Apollo 18 has one moment, one big scare, that will elicit more than a few terrified shrieks.

And you know what? That’s really all you can ask of a movie that is essentially The Blair Witch Project on the moon.

Movie Review: Daddy's Girl

Daddy's Girl (2018) 

Directed by Julian Richards 

Written by Timmy Hill 

Starring Jemma Dallender, Costas Mandylor, Jesse Moss, Britt McKillip

Release Date September 29th, 2020

Published August 23rd, 2022 

Daddy’s Girl opens on an ambiguously ominous sight. A very sad young woman sits at a kitchen table with a gun in front of her. It appears that she is going to kill herself before we cut away and begin the story. The kitchen table scene is in the future, the next act of the movie will be about how we arrive at that kitchen table and what has made this sad young woman so desperate as to be considering ending her life. 

The young woman at the kitchen table is Zoe (Jemma Dallender). Zoe’s life is as tragic and horrifying as the opening scene indicates. Zoe lives in a backwoods town with her father, John Stone (Costas Mandylor). John is a serial murderer who uses his daughter as bait to lure in his victims. The two go to bars and seek out young women on their own, preferably drifters who might not be missed all that much. 

These young women are seduced by the idea that if this older man has this beautiful younger woman on his arm that he must be harmless. That’s when he slips something into their drink. Zoe becomes part of the seduction and the idea of kinky sex drives these young women to go home with the couple. There is no sex waiting in that backwoods home however. Instead, John takes these women into his dungeon and tortures for having thought they would go home with a man and a woman for sex. 

John is not interested in sex with his victims, he only has eyes for his daughter. Yeah, the movie appears to go there. I can’t say for sure that John is actually Zoe’s biological father but she does call him daddy and your skin crawls when she does. Zoe is not fully complicit in John’s crimes. The film indicates strongly that she’s been groomed and abused into this position and that perhaps John had murdered Zoe’s mother in order to frighten her into compliance. 

John’s double life as serial killer and loving father/owner of a small town mechanic shop becomes threatened by the arrival of a new young deputy. Deputy Scott Walker has recently returned to his hometown from several tours in Iraq as a military police officer and has been tasked with investigating the disappearance of a local girl. Scott is not the only newcomer in town as he meets a drifter named Jennifer (Britt McKillip) just as she is arriving in town. He warns her about missing girls in town and she indicates that she’s not staying long. 

That last part is deliberately vague as Jennifer has a part to play in how Daddy’s Girl plays out. Daddy’s Girl is a nasty little slasher movie that never finds a second gear after general cruelty toward women. It’s not that the movie is nasty and misogynistic enough to be memorably awful. Rather, it’s a more mundane sort of misogyny rather typical to the horror genre and thus nothing special. I can’t bring myself to completely condemn Daddy’s Girl, it’s neither poorly made enough or hateful enough for harsh condemnation. 

No, in fact, in the performances of Jemma Dallender and Britt Mckillip we have two charismatic women who give the story more credibility than the movie can bear. Both actresses are quite compelling with Dallender having a lot of trauma to play with and McKillip a mysteriousness that is intriguing. Their coinciding stories are remarkable for how these two actresses play their roles. It's a shame that their performances are undermined by how trashy the movie around them is. 

Daddy's Girl wallows in the muck of the genre and it never feels organic or well displayed. Instead, the trashiness takes away from what little good there is about Daddy's Girl. 

Movie Review: Eros

Eros (2004) 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Michaelangelo Antonioni, Wong Kar Wai

Written by Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh, Torino Guerra

Starring Gong Li, Chang Chen, Alan Arkin, Robert Downey Jr, Regina Nemni 

Release Date April 8th, 2005 

Published August 18th, 2005 

Three brilliant directors come together for a series of short films under the title Eros. Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh and Michaelangelo Antonioni contribute short films to a trilogy that via the title Eros are about sex... or are they.

The Hand, Mr. Wong's contribution, is sexual in subtext but seems more about an unusual and somewhat disfunctional connection between two strangers. Chang Chen plays a tailor, a mere apprentice when we first meet him, who is assigned to make a dress for a high class prostitute, Ms. Hua played by Gong Li. In their first meeting Li's prostitute sexually humiliates the tailor. She claims it will make him a better tailor and she's right.

Soon he is inspired and continues for a number of years crafting beautiful outfits for the prostitute. The nature of the relationship is mostly business but as time passes and the prostitute falls on hard times she finds that the tailor, though he has never touched her, is the only man who has ever really known her body. The two have an erotic connection through the clothing that is more powerful than other relationship either has ever had.

I love the way Wong Kar Wai uses slow motion. By simply slowing the frames by a fraction and showing his actors moving at just slightly slower rate of speed he gives the impression of a montage without edits. The slow motion marks the slow passage of time. The film covers this relationship over a number of years and they pass in dreamlike fashion.

The Hand is unquestionably the best of the three films in Eros.

Steven Soderbergh's contribution to Eros is called Equilibrium and it stars Robert Downey Jr. as an ad executive and Alan Arkin as his shrink. Shot mostly in black and white the film has the look of a noir detective story with rascotro lighting, Downey wearing the traditional private dick garb, the fedora and trenchcoat and there is a mystery albeit one from a dream.

In the dream there is a beautiful naked stranger, a nondescript hotel room and a ringing phone. Dream analysts I'm sure could have a field day with this scenario however neither we nor Mr. Soderbergh is as interested in the dream as we are in the bizarre behavior of Arkin as the shrink. While Downey lays on the couch with his back turned and his eyes closed, Arkin is frantically trying to get the attention of someone outside his office window. What was the point of this film? I have no idea. I know it's exceptionally well shot. The look is beautiful and every angle Soderbergh chooses is very eye catching, often distracting from the somewhat meandering plot.

Equilibrium is an interesting exercise in filmmaking technique and maybe if you are more observant than me you can glean some hidden meaning from it. On that basis I recommend checking it out.

You however might as well skip Michaelangelo Antonioni's contribution to Eros, an Italian exercise in softcore porn called  The Dangerous Thread. The film is a pointless and painfully protracted exercise in female exploitation. As a couple argues about the end of their relationship, they pass a beautiful woman in a restaurant. The man asks if his soon to be ex knows the woman and she does. The woman lives in a castle just a few miles away. The man visits this beautiful stranger and with a few words they are in bed. Then the beautiful woman and the ex girlfriend each go for a walk on the beach in the nude. They meet somewhere in the middle and simply regard each other for a moment and the film ends.

I must say that Mr. Antonioni is a legend. I have seen his L'Avventurra and was blown away by its beauty. But now at more than 90 years old the master has become nothing more than an ogling old man. That is fine in private but on film it's rather tedious.

Documentary Review: Earth

Earth (2007) 

Directed by Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Planet Earth 

Release Date April 22nd, 2009 

Published April 22nd, 2009 

We are definitely spoiled when it comes to the modern nature documentary. With what the BBC and the Discovery Channel did with the documentary Planet Earth and what Imax filmmakers have contributed in just the last decade, the allegedly new documentary Earth from Disney looks a little like a modern Mutual Of Omaha production. Then again, the whole thing is basically lifts and leftovers from Planet Earth, what does it matter.

Disney's Earth arrives on Earth Day 2009 and feels like a cynical capitalization on the burgeoning holiday. More and more schools and businesses have come to embrace Earth Day and that makes a venture like Earth potentially viable in the marketplace, if not such an artistic endeavour.

That is not a shot at the filmmakers, directors Allistair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, did some astonishing work. It's a shot at Disney for recycling the work of the BBC and the Discovery Channel and pretending it's something new. The fact is, some of the footage cut together for Earth was actually used in Discovery's 12 hour doc that transfixed documentary lovers in 2008.

When not recycling, Earth fills out 90 minutes with the stuff that didn't make Planet Earth. This amounts to some comic relief, monkeys and penguins, and some striking shots of Great White Sharks and baby ducks learning to fly for the first time. Don't get me wrong, even the stuff cut from Planet Earth is pretty impressive looking, it just feels icky that Disney refused to come up with something of their own instead of feasting on scraps.

At the very least, the Mouse House could have released Earth in Disney Digital projection, if not using their dazzling 3D. But no, the release is on average, everyday film stock and thus even loses a generation of quality from the awesome HD presentation of Planet Earth.

For school field trips and those desperate for a way to celebrate Earth Day indoors, Earth may be worth the ticket price but if you have seen the Discovery documentary Planet Earth or can get over to the IMAX for any one of their current offerings, you can skip Earth.