Movie Review Poor Things

Poor Things (2023)

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Written by Tony McNamara

Starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Rami Youssef 

Release Date December 8th, 2023 

Published November 28th, 2023 

Poor Things is a desperately odd experience. The film stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a woman who died and was brought back to life through highly questionable science, by a mad scientist named Godwin 'God' Baxter. Having rescued Bella following her attempted suicide, Godwin Baxter has made her his daughter and is teaching her how to live again. Bella appears to have the mental age of a toddler as Godwin introduces her to one of his medical students and his newest assistant, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef). 

It will be Max's job to chart the course of Bella's progress in learning to live again. In the process, Max will fall in love with Bella and invite her to be his bride. But, before the marriage can occur, Bella wants to see the world. She gets the chance to do just that when she meets a lawyer named Duncan Wedderburn, a caddish man who sweeps Bella off her feet and takes her around the world. He introduces her to sex, and she takes to the act with gusto and glee. 

The trip has the effect of expanding Bella's interest in expanding her mind. She becomes an avid and eager reader and even takes to philosophy. This proves to be the downfall of Duncan who can't keep up with Bella's insatiable hungers for learning and for sex. While on a cruise, Bella makes new friends in Miss Prim (Vicki Pepperdine) and Harry Astley (Jerrod Carmichael), each of whom encourage Bella to keep studying and improving herself. Astley is the impetus for Bella to give away all of Duncan's money to the poor leading to the next chapter in her life, moving to Paris. 

In Paris, Bella abandons Duncan and finds work in a Paris brothel. It sounds sexier than it truly is. Yorgos Lanthimos seems to be going out of his way to remove the mystery and excitement from sex. Bella still appreciates sex as an activity but sex with gross, smelly, ungainly men does become somewhat meaningless and mechanical for her. She eventually tries spicing things up by getting the men she sleeps with for money to open up a little and even bathe before coming to see her. 

Click here for my review at Geeks.Media

Classic Movie Review Time Bandits

Time Bandits (1993)

Directed by Terry Gilliam

Written by Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin 

Starring John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, Ian Holm, Craig Warnock 

Release Date July 2nd, 1981 

Published November 28th, 2023 

A young boy is lying in bed, fighting off sleep, but seemingly losing the fight. All of a sudden, a horse with a man in armor bursts out of his cupboard and leaps over his bed before riding off into the distance of his bedroom wall which has somehow become an ancient meadow. You naturally might assume that this is a dream sequence, a short nightmare perhaps. But director Terry Gilliam is toying with you. He has the parents come to the child's room immediately following the nightmare and, though the boy's room is suddenly back in order, the parents claimed he was making quite a lot of noise. They tell him to knock it off and go to bed. 

The following day, our hero, Kevin (Craig Warnock) is desperately eager to get back to bed. He's ready with a flashlight and a polaroid camera at hand in case the armored horseman returns. The Knight does not return but Kevin's bedroom is once again magically transformed. This time, a group of 6 little people carrying a magical map invade Kevin's bedroom and begin to wreak havoc. These six men are on the run from a God-like entity from whom, they have stolen a magical map of time. The map allows them to travel to places throughout world history where they can steal all the treasure they want. 

Naturally, Kevin gets caught up in the time travel chicanery as the bandits take him with them on their journey. The first stop is Italy where they land in the midst of the battle of Castiglione. Then it's off to meet Napoleon in France where they manage to get into Napoleon's inner circle simply because they are the only people Napoleon is taller than. Ian Holm plays Napoleon as a height obsessed goof whose idiocy leads to his new friends stealing his entire treasury. The bandits make a narrow escape with their stolen goods and land somewhere in England in the time of Robin Hood. 

Robin Hood is played by some a****** TERF who I will not name and he assumes that the Bandits treasure is their contribution to his cause, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. This sequence introduces a running gag involving Michael Palin and Shelley Duvall as the most unlucky reincarnated couple in human history. In Robin Hood's era they are robbed multiple times and left to die tied to a tree in their underwear. When we see them again, they are also on the brink of death on a historically doomed voyage. 

The most notable stop on their journey is Mycenaean Greece where King Agamemnon (Sean Connery) is found fighting a minotaur. Kevin is somehow alone, his bandit friends having been dropped somewhere else. With no other option, Kevin accompanies the King back to his palace where he is seemingly adopted by the King and really takes to the idea of staying in Greece and becoming royalty. That is until the bandits do arrive and steal Kevin away via there magical map for another strange and unexpected adventure. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Napoleon

Napoleon (2023) 

Directed by Ridley Scott 

Written by David Scarpa 

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby 

Release Date November 22nd, 2023 

Published November 27th, 2023 

Napoleon stars Joaquin Phoenix as the legendary French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte. Once merely a soldier, Napoleon is driven by an iron will to become the leader of all France. What drives Napoleon? What experiences made him such a single minded, obsessive leader, clinging with all of his might to power? That's the heart of what Ridley Scott is after in Napoleon and its questionable whether or not he got there or not. The film is wildly accomplished, technically superb, but it lingers a great deal and some of the lingering aspects leave you wondering what the point of it all is. The lack of a point may be the point. 

We meet Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette is dragged from the royal mansion of France and taken to the gallows. France lines up behind the revolutionary Robespierre but he's soon deposed as well. As Bonaparte helps quell another coup attempt, the power vacuum in France sweeps up more leaders until the tip of the French sword, Napoleon himself takes the reigns. It was a very fast rise to power but given the lack of leaders, the spineless neophyte politicians and remaining royalists, it's no wonder that a dictator willing to get his hands bloody would eventually take hold. 

Written off as a brute, Napoleon uses force to establish dominance and cunning to win on the battlefield. Regardless of what the bourgeois aristocrats of France think, Napoleon commands an army while they can merely command words. As Napoleon's power grows, he seeks companionship and finds it in a former aristocrat whose husband was beheaded in one of the many revolutions. Josephine (Vanessa Kirby) is a snakelike woman capable of slithering into any man's bed. She makes plain that she has a history and that if Napoleon has a problem with that, as so many men do, he should look elsewhere. 

Her forceful sexuality and allure are more than enough for Napoleon to overlook her potentially scandalous background. The two are married and Napoleon leaves to conquer the known world. We see him in various parts of the world, most notably Egypt where France attempted to destroy the ancient pyramids and Napoleon came face to face with Egyptian royalty in the form of a disinterred Mummy whom Napoleon cannot help but compare himself in terms of stature. Napoleon wishes to be as venerated as the Egyptian leaders were, but he first must deal with his cheating wife and a series of toady politicians looking to gain his favor. 

Find my full length review of Napoleon at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review Saltburn

Saltburn (2023) 

Directed by Emerald Fennell 

Written by Emerald Fennell 

Starring Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Archie Madekwe 

Release Date November 17th, 2023 

Published November 27th, 2023 

Saltburn stars Barry Keoghan as Oliver Quick, an outcast at Cambridge University. Oliver is a scholarship kid from a middle-class family. He's a little awkward, a little shy, and doesn't make friends easily. When he meets Felix Carlton it's quite clear that Oliver sees Felix in a more than friendly fashion. He's practically falling all over himself to catch a glimpse of Felix and that makes sense, Felix is a young God. As captured by director Emerald Fennell, Jacob Elordi's Felix is among the most attractive human beings on the planet. 

Felix will also prove to be incredibly kind as when Oliver offers to help him with a broken bike wheel, Felix adopts the outcast as a friend and brings him into his popular Cambridge friend group. When Oliver proves to be a loyal and devoted friend, Felix returns the favor by inviting him to parties and introducing him to others. Eventually, when the holidays arrive and Oliver has nowhere to go home to, Felix invites him to Saltburn, the name of Felix's family property, a sprawling mansion in the English countryside. 

Oliver even gets the bedroom next door to Felix, connected by a shared bathroom. It's more than Oliver could dream of, though Felix seems unaware that Oliver has feelings for him that go beyond friendship. One person who does appear to be on to Oliver's romantic obsession is Farleigh (Archie Madekwe), Felix's best friend and a close friend of the Carlton family. Farleigh delights in needling Oliver, even as Archie seems to be holding more than friendly feelings as well. At the very least, both young men exhibit a fluid sexuality. 

Slowly but surely, Oliver weasels his way into the good graces of the Carlton family, removing obstacles like Farleigh, and earning the trust of Felix's parents, Lady Elspeth Carlton (Rosamund Pike) and Sir James Carlton (Richard E. Grant). If you haven't caught on that this is all part of a master plan hatched by Felix to break into a rich family, then you aren't paying very close attention. For all of Oliver's awkwardness and creepiness, he's not the wilting violet that he would lead you to believe. as Saltburn careens toward its unexpected ending, Oliver's duplicitousness comes to the fore in nasty, bitter fashion. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Next Goal Wins

Next Goal Wins (2023)

Directed by Taika Waititi 

Written by Taika Waititi, Iain Morris 

Starring Michael Fassbender, Kaimana, Oscar Kightley, Elisabeth Moss, Will Arnett 

Release Date November 17th, 2023

Published November 20th, 2023 

Next Goal Wins stars Michael Fassbender as disgraced former Dutch Football Coach, Thomas Rongen. Having been fired from his coaching job for repeated angry outbursts and his team losing... a lot, Rongen finds himself at a unique crossroad. He's given the option to either leave the world of Soccer completely or take on the job as the new head coach for the worst soccer team in the world, American Samoa. Not to be confused with the independent nation of Samoa, American Samoa is a tiny island that is under the auspices of American rule, a territory not unlike Puerto Rico. 

The American Samoa soccer team hasn't scored a goal in international play. The team is most famous for a World Cup qualifying loss to Australia in the early 2000s in which they gave up 31 goals. The team is hard working but that is mostly because each team member has three jobs on top of being on the national soccer team. So, yeah, there are many challenges in this position. Naturally, the cantankerous Mr. Rongen is not exactly in sync with the ways of American Samoa. For Thomas, winning is everything. For American Samoa, winning is not the point of playing or living. 

From the start of Next Goal Wins, Taika Waititi sets the bar incredibly low for drama. In a scene in which Thomas Rongen meets the head of American Samoa's soccer organization, Tavita, played by the wonderful Oscar Kightley, we learn that the goal for American Samoa is not winning a game. Rather, the stakes at hand are scoring a single goal in in international play. That's it, one goal in an actual game and Thomas Rongen can write himself into the history books of American Samoa's soccer history. That's the wonderfully low stakes and with that out of the way, we can focus on characters. 

Read my full length review at Cleats.Media

Classic Movie Review Real Life

Real Life (1979)

Directed by Albert Brooks 

Written by Albert Brooks, Monica Johnson, Harry Shearer

Starring Albert Brooks, Charles Grodin

Release Date March 2nd, 1979 

Published November 13th, 1979

Real Life requires a little context. In 1972 PBS launched what many consider the very first reality show. American Family was a day in the life series about the Loud Family. The show chronicled the day to day life of an everyday American family. The series was a social experiment and became the progenitor of an industry that is now a staple of American television programming. Real Life is Albert Brooks' response to the phenomenon that was American Family, a reality movie. Brooks meta concept is both a critique of American Family and the notion of cameras being able to capture reality. 

In Real Life, Albert Brooks stars as Albert Brooks, television star and filmmaker. Brooks wants to capture real life in the first ever reality movie. He plans to spend the next year living in Phoenix, Arizona, in a home directly across the street from the family who will star in his reality movie, the Yeager family, headed up by Dad, Warren Yeager, and his deeply depressed wife, Jeanette (Frances Lee McCain). For one year, cameras will follow the Yeager's everywhere as they gather footage for Brooks' documentary. 

And things proceed from there. The social experiment is being monitored by doctors working for a family research firm who have ways of measuring mental health down to examining the way someone holds a mug. From the start, the experiment appears to be a disaster. On the second day of the experiment, after a fight with her idiot husband, Jeanette decides to leave and go stay with friends, leaving the cameras behind. Brooks himself has to go and win her back to the project, though this is fraught with Jeanette believing that Albert is coming on to her, something she's receptive to. 

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media

Movie Review Fingernails

Fingernails (2023) 

Directed by Christos Nikou 

Written by Christos Nikou, Sam Steiner, Stavros Raptis 

Starring Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White 

Release Date November 3rd on Apple TV 

Published November 2nd, 2023 

If you could scientifically prove that you and your significant other were in love, would you want that? What does it say about you and your relationship that you would like or need scientific proof of your love for someone. Trust is the most important foundation of a loving, romantic partnership. If you don't trust your partner enough when they tell you that they love you and you need scientific, undisputed proof, that, for me, should be enough to prove that you are not actually in love. The new movie, Fingernails, lingers over this conflict by creating a universe in which love can be scientifically proven to exist between two people and how that effects the lives and loves of three disparate souls. 

Anna (Jessie Buckley) is in a loving, long term, relationship with Ryan (Jeremy Allen White). The two live together and have lived together long enough to have fallen into a comfortable rut, a routine that appears to serve their needs. However, Anna has started to long for something that she can't quite bring herself to admit. In one telling scene early in the film, she mentions how she always gives a certain piece of her food to Ryan. It's his favorite part but it's also a part that she really likes. But, in an effort to make him happy, she sacrifices what she wants for him. 

It might seem like a little thing but how much of yourself, your wants, your desires, you're willing to give up and feel resentment about are incredibly telling. It's one thing to sacrifice for the sake of your partner, but when does that sacrifice become too one-sided and who determines who should give up more of themselves for the other? When is enough, enough? It might just be a bite of food but the deeper meaning attached to it points the way to larger questions that will come to loom over the story of Fingernails. 

The story of Fingernails kicks into gear with a lie, another bit of damage to the foundation of Anna's relationship with Ryan. Instead of seeking a position as a teacher, the recently unemployed Anna has decided to pursue a career with a company that provides scientific testing of true love. It's similar to the place where Anna and Ryan went and got tested years earlier but even more intensive. At this clinic, run with gentle authority by Luke Wilson's Duncan, this clinic tests for true love but only after each couple seeking a test goes through an intensive relationship course that the company believes can set the couple to be in love by the time they take the test or drive them apart. 

Find my full length review at Humans.Media

Movie Review The Marvels

The Marvels (2023) 

Directed by Nia DaCosta 

Written by Nia DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, Elissa Karasik

Starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Samuel L. Jackson, Zawe Ashton

Release Date November 10th, 2023 

Published November 10th, 2023 

Superhero movies are supposed to be fun. I don't know why I need to say that but, given the utterly bizarre response that many have had to The Marvels, I feel like this point should be underlined. Superhero movies are supposed to be fun and The Marvels is a lot of fun. Directed by Nia DaCosta, The Marvels is fast paced, funny, and heartfelt. The special effects are spectacular, the action is solid, and, above all else, The Marvels is FUN! The addition of Iman Vellani's Kamala Khan to the MCU with the Disney series Ms. Marvel was terrific but she's even better as an enthusiastic fangirl living out the dream of every young fan by fighting alongside her hero. I loved this. 

In The Marvels, the status quo has Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, living alone in space and still trying to recapture the memories she lost in her years with the Kree. That aside, Carol is still working with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who now has a space station and helps protect the universe from various threats while negotiating for peace. The status quo of this effort is upended when a villain named Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), with a grudge against Captain Marvel dating back to the events of the first Captain Marvel movie, begins damaging the fabric of the universe. Dar-Benn's goal is part revenge against Captain Marvel and an attempt to rob other planets of resources for her home planet of Hala. 

Whatever Dar-Benn is doing to the fabric of the universe it has a massive unexpected effect on Captain Marvel's light powers which have become entangled with those of two of her fellow superheroes, Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala 'Ms. Marvel' Khan (Iman Vellani). Now, each time they use their light based powers, the trio switches places, leading to great danger as well as comic mishaps. The unexpected switching of places is very funny at times and used to tremendous effect cinematically as we switch locations at a head spinning clip, much like the characters. 

When the trio of heroes are finally together, and able to piece together Dar-Benn's plan, they also have to get over their issues with each other. Kamala's inexperience and youth could prove costly while Carol and Monica are in battle, while Carol and Monica's past, fraught with emotion surrounding the death of Monica's mother, Carol's best friend, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), and Carol's years long disappearing act as she went off to fight around the universe and failed to return home as she had promised young Monica, as seen in Captain Marvel. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media

Movie Review Lion Girl

Lion Girl (2023) 

Directed by Kurando Mitsutake 

Written by Kurando Mitsutake

Starring Tori Griffith, Damian T., Derek Mears, Joey Iwanaga 

Release Date November 7th, 2023 

Published November 7th, 2023 

I'm not sure what I just watched. Parts of the movie Lion-Girl are so insane that describing them feels impossible. If I tried to simply explain the death of Lion-Girl's father in the movie, I would need to full paragraphs just to set the stage. This movie is wacky as all get out. It's also bursting forth with nudity, male, female, and those that lay betwixt. It's entirely gratuitous and, if I trusted this filmmaker at all, I might argue that the nudity is intentionally silly, a comic riff on the idea of gratuitous nudity. But, nothing else in the whole of Lion-Girl makes me think that director Kurando Mitsutake is anything more than a bit of a pervert. 

So, who is Lion-Girl? Great question, it's also a question that the movie itself is asking. In a future world where most of humanity was wiped out by a massive meteor strike, children can be born with superpowers and become protectors of the innocent. Or, you can be infected by walking too close to one of the pieces that the meteor left behind on Earth and you become infected. Once infected, you become something of a zombie who feeds off of the life force of the uninfected. Lion-Girl stands between the infected and the innocent. And she stands between the evil Shogunate and the people living under the ironclad rule of the Shogunate. 

So, Lion-Girl (Tori Griffiths) was born with superpowers, she's not infected and is capable of harnessing the power she was born with via a magical tattoo on her back. When she isn't destroying people infected by the meteor, Lion Girl and her Uncle and protector, offer a protection for hire business. Lion Girl can get people from one part of the remaining tiny land mass of Earth, located in a stretch of Japan, to the other relatively unharmed. Their latest gig however, is a little more dangerous. They've agreed to take a father and daughter to the most dangerous part of the remaining world. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media

Movie Review The Killer

The Killer (2023) 

Directed by David Fincher

Written by Andrew Kevin Walker 

Starring Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton

Release Date November 10th, 2023 

Published? 

Is David Fincher's The Killer a comedy? I'm genuinely asking this question because I think Fincher is messing with us. The Killer is oddly sly, talky, and carries an almost entirely ironic needle drop soundtrack of songs by The Smiths, that most melancholy, death-obsessed, of pop groups. A killer who relaxes by listening to The Smiths is an irresistible comic idea. I asked my music obsessed sister about making a movie about a contract killer with a soundtrack full of Smiths songs and she responded, not knowing I was talking about the new David Fincher movie, 'That's a bit too spirited and haunted of an idea. The Smiths are 'a bit too acutely perfect for it.' 

Putting aside for a moment that The Smiths lead singer, Morrissey, is now a toxic waste dump of a human being, the soundtrack does feel like a bit of a joke. That's especially true when you combine the soundtrack with Michael Fassbender's insanely relaxed performance that slowly starts to unravel as his nameless killer is forced to go on the run and hunt down killers who are now hunting him after he botches a job in Paris in the opening 'chapter' of the movie. The needle drops are mostly early in The Killer but they have a perversely comic edge to them. 

As Fassbender delivers an inner monologue to us in the audience about his work as a killer for hire, Fincher punctuates the scene by raising and dropping the volume on the Smiths' song "How Soon is Now." Pointedly and purposefully, after Fassbender's killer says "I serve no God or country, I fly no flag." The volume rises on How Soon is Now as Morrissey sings "I go about things the wrong way." It's as if the music Fincher chose for this scene is intended as a critique of his main character. This motif repeats moments later when Fassbender intones his personal thesis statement "I...Don't...Give...A...F***" the soundtrack rises again and Morrissey sings, as if in conversation with the movie, "I am human and I need to be loved." 

Do I think this is Fincher saying that a hardened, sociopathic murderer just needs to be loved? No, I think, in the world and mind of David Fincher, this is humor. This is Fincher mocking the idea that someone this cold blooded, this seemingly without remorse, could be saved by a good hug and a cuddle. That's what I thought when the scene was playing out anyway. By the end of the movie, Fincher seems to have come around on the idea of the transformative power of love, at least a little, at least as a way of ending the movie. 

There are other elements of dark and twisted humor in The Killer. After his failed shooting at the start of the movie, as Fassbender is riding a scooter to get away from the scene of the crime, Fassbender says the line 'WWJWBD, What Would John Wilkes Booth Do?' Is the line funny? Kind of, at the odd angle that David Fincher comes to it, it's kind of funny and Fassbender's relaxed, calm delivery of the line almost feels like he's acknowledging the dark comedy of such a statement. I am only amused by the line as I sit here, while watching it, it rang a bell in my mind that it was an odd statement but I quickly moved on from it. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review Priscilla

Priscilla (2023) 

Directed by Sofia Coppola 

Written by Sofia Coppola 

Starring Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi

Release Date 11-03-2023 

Published 11-04-2023 

Sofia Coppola is one of the best directors on the planet. She has a distinctive style, a mastery of tone, and the patience required to tell stories in a way only she can. A Sofia Coppola movie will not be mistaken for another director. Coppola's style is hypnotic and gorgeous. Her patient approach to allowing her characters to reveal themselves via action rather than clumsy dialogue is almost unmatched. There is no bombast, no major theatrics, and a distinct lack of commerciality. It's a kind of direction that simply speaks to me and how I enjoy experiencing a movie. 

Priscilla is a unique challenge for Sofia Coppola. She's used to being the complete master of her narrative. Here however, she has a template, a kind of history that requires a fealty to the memory of generations. The life of Elvis Presley is among the most well-known and documented in human history, matched only perhaps, by the life of Marilyn Monroe. People have particular expectations of a movie that is going to depict even a fraction of that life. Priscilla, obviously, isn't about Elvis but by his design, her life is defined in many ways by him. 

We are entirely in Priscilla's space in Priscilla but because Elvis was a controlling man, a man unaware that he is an abuser, few abusers see themselves as they are, Priscilla has no life that isn't defined by his wants, his desires, and his schedule. And that's the hallmark of this story. As much as Priscilla Presley doesn't want to demonize her ex-husband and the father of her child, his actions speak for themselves in how he isolated a young woman from her support system and used emotional and financial abuse tactics to keep Priscilla under control. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review What Happens Later

What Happens Later (2023) 

Directed by Meg Ryan 

Written by Meg Ryan, Steven Dietz, Kirk Lynn

Starring Meg Ryan, David Duchovny 

Release Date November 3rd, 2023 

Published November 6th, 2023 

What Happens Later stars Meg Ryan as Willa and David Duchovny as William or Bill, depending on how well you know him. Some of the time he's known as W. Davis and, by coincidence, Willa's last name is also Davis. Hence they are both W. Davis. This is something that the movie finds adorable though it didn't mean much to me. Regardless, both W. Davis' are in a Midwest airport in the midst of a massive weather event and they are going to be stuck here overnight as the airport shuts down and somehow leaves only them behind. 

That both W. Davis and W. Davis happen to be ex-lovers with a lengthy and notable romantic history from their early 20s in Madison, Wisconsin, is another thing all together. When we meet these adorable travelers each is trying to avoid seeing the other. They recognize each other at different points and each tries to hide from the other without success. When they do connect they will spend the rest of the day connected, bickering back and forth about their past, their present and their future destinations. They will spend the next 24 hours going over their past and revealing things about themselves and how two people can share the same experience and still see what happened entirely different. 

Willa is on her way to Boston from her home in Austin, Texas. On the other hand, Bill is on his way to Austin from his home in Boston. Weird and cute right? Willa claims that she's going to Boston to visit an old friend and perform a cleansing ceremony for her but that's a lie that will be revealed later. Bill is heading to Austin for a meeting with his millennial boss who he cannot understand because the millennial speaks about safe spaces and doesn't like saying no. It's the kind of boomer reductive idea of millennials that has been tired for quite a long time. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Classic Movie Review Fearless

Fearless (1993) 

Directed by Peter Weir 

Written by Raphael Yglesias 

Starring Jeff Bridges, Rosie Perez, Isabella Rossellini, Benicio Del Toro 

Release Date October 15th, 1993 

Published November 6th, 2023 

Fearless stars Jeff Bridges as Max Kline, an architect who survives a deadly plane crash. We meet Max just as he's emerging from the smoking hull of the plane, several passengers trailing behind him. He appears stunned but also serenely calm as holds the hand of a child and is carrying a baby. After handing off the child to a first responder, Max goes in search of the mother of the child. After reuniting mother and baby, Max simply wanders off. He doesn't merely leave the side of the mother, he leaves the sight of the crash. 

Fast forward to a hotel for a quick shower and Max is off. We next see him arrive at a home where the woman inside, a married homemaker recognizes him and welcomes him inside briefly. The two are ex-lovers and they share a few memories over lunch. And then, Max is back at his hotel where he's located by authorities who've been trying to account for him since the crash. The airline wants to give Max a free train ride back to his home in San Francisco but Max, unexpectedly insists on flying back, first class. This is despite his having had serious fear of flying prior to having survived this crash. 

Back home we will learn that Max has a wife and son that he no longer appears to care for. Nearly dying has made Max a creature of the moment, a man with no time for anything that isn't his immediate desire. Much to the dismay of his otherwise loving and caring wife, Laura (Isabella Rosselini), Max has no interest in being home. Instead, Max seeks out one of his fellow survivors, Carla (Rosie Perez), with whom he pursues a relationship, mostly friendly, though he does eventually talk about running away with her. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media

Movie Review Quiz Lady

Quiz Lady (2023) 

Directed by Jessica Yu

Written by Jen D'Angelo 

Starring Awkwafina, Sandra Oh, Will Ferrell, Jason Schwartzman, Holland Taylor

Release Date November 3rd, 2023 

Published November 7th, 2023 

Quiz Lady is a curiously boring movie. Despite having a spitfire star in comedian and actor Awkwafina, Quiz Lady sputters and drags its way through a dimwitted plot on the way to an unearned happy ending. As someone who is a huge fan of Awkwafina's work, Quiz Lady is uniquely disappointing. Playing against type as a grumpy, frumpy, afraid of the world shut-in, the typically appealing qualities of Awkwafina are dialed back to nothing. Why would anyone want to make a live wire like Awkwafina into a wet blanket? It makes no sense. 

In Quiz Lady, Awkwafina plays Anne Yum, an office worker who is obsessed with a Jeopardy-style quiz show, Can't Stop the Quiz. Hosted by Terry McTeer, the show became a life preserver for young Anne when her parents broke up. Since then, Anne has never missed an episode. She's memorized the questions, and is so familiar with the trivia and tropes, she can reel off the answers to any question right off the top of her head. No one knows yet that she can do this, she doesn't get out of the house much.

Naturally, that state of affairs will change. Anne's ordered, shut-in, life is upended when her mother goes missing from her nursing home. The disappearance leads to the return home of Anne's tornado of a sister, Jenny (Sandra Oh). Jenny is homeless and jobless, couch-surfing while she waits for what she claims will be a big payout from a lawsuit she filed against a chain restaurant. Jenny is coming home to stay but not long after arriving, she puts her sister on a path to get out of the house. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media

Classic Movie Review Quiz Show

Quiz Show (1994)

Directed by Robert Redford 

Written by Paul Attanasio 

Starring Ralph Fiennes, John Turturro, Rob Morrow, Paul Scofield, Christopher McDonald, David Paymer, Hank Azaria, Martin Scorsese 

Release Date September 14th, 1994 

Published November 7th, 2023 

The erosion of public trust was not simply something that happened as a result of Watergate. The erosion of public trust can be traced to several different historic flashpoints that include such events as the assassination of President Kennedy, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, the McCarthy hearings, and, less historically well known but of a similar importance in tracking the erosion of trust between the public and the media, the public and government, and the public and the intelligentsia, is the Quiz Show scandal of the 1950s. 

Director Robert Redford lays out a strong case that the growth of cynicism toward public institutions began not just with the rebellion of the 1960s. It began with a simple Quiz Show called 21. The game was rigged. Though the venerable NBC network and uber-rich sponsor company Geritol, presented the show as a legitimate competition between everyday folks who happened to be remarkably well versed at memorizing facts, the shows were, in fact, scripted so that certain people would win. When ratings started to fall, that person would lose and be replaced by someone who might raise the ratings once more. 

It's a deeply cynical approach but, one that enthralled an America that was very early into the honeymoon phase when it came to television. It was an innocent time when people wanted to believe they could trust the people whose faces were beamed into their home everyday. People like Jack Berry (Christopher McDonald), the well dressed and affable host of 21 carried a public trust, not unlike a newsman. His integrity and that of the show mattered to the public. The show even played that integrity as a marketing gimmick. 

In the opening moments of Quiz Show we open on a bank where a safe deposit box is being opened. Armed guards remove a package. One guard passes the package to another who climbs inside of an armored car. That armored car then receives a police escort to 30 Rockefeller Center, the television home of NBC and the Quiz Show 21. Inside the package being carried, again, by armed guards, are the vaunted questions, a guarded secret even from host Jack Berry. 21 traded on the supposed integrity of the game. 

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Movie Review Freelance

Freelance (2023)

Directed by Pierre Morel 

Written by Jacob Lentz

Starring John Cena, Alison Brie, Martin Csokas, Christian Slater, Juan Pablo Rana

Release Date October 27th, 2023 

Published October 30th, 2023

Freelance stars John Cena as an ex-special forces military man turned suburban-lawyer-dad. Miserable, and on the verge of divorce from his wife, played by Alice Eve, Cena's Mason Pettits' decides to re-enter the world of military security. With the help of his friend, played by Christian Slater, who Wikipedia credits as 'Mason's Boss,' Cena gets a 5 figure paycheck for what should be a cakewalk of a security job. Mason will accompany a disgraced journalist, Claire Wellington (Alison Brie), to some made up South American dictatorship and keep her safe while she interviews the legendary dictator Juan Venegas (Juan Pablo Rana). 

Venegas hasn't given an interview in 10 years and he hopes that this interview will allow him to show how his country is changing. Meanwhile, Mason is no stranger to this country. He was here some 10 years earlier when he and a few fellow soldiers were nearly killed doing a mission. Naturally, Mason assumes it was the dictator who killed several of his fellow soldiers so his role here is a little tense. He has a grudge against Venegas and now he will be in close proximity to him. And hilariousness ensues. 

Oh how I wish hilariousness would ensue. Freelance is a witless action comedy of a very stale variety. If you cannot predict every beat of this deeply derivative movie you have either never seen a movie before or you are just not paying attention. There is nothing remotely original or interesting in Freelance. Bad guys try to overthrow the government, Cena ends up protecting not only the journalist but also the dictator he hates. But surprise, the dictator isn't a bad guy. Indeed, it wasn't even him who ordered Cena's helicopter to be shot down 10 years ago. 

You might be thinking that here is where Christian Slater's character comes back but no. Instead, the movie employs Martin Csokas as the bad guy. Csokas is all sneering malevolence and zero fun as the leader of a rival mercenary gang. Freelance has some grand ambition of being about South American resources being stolen by corporate interests via private armies but it lacks conviction on the issue. The filmmakers simultaneously want credit for mentioning corrupt corporations while also defending the idea of private military contractors as being nothing but heroes picking up paychecks that may or may not be covered in the blood of the oppressed. 

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Movie Review Showdown at the Grand

Showdown at the Grand (2023) 

Directed by Orson Oblowitz 

Written by Orson Oblowitz 

Starring Terrence Howard, John Savage, Amanda Righetti, Dolph Lundgren, Piper Curda 

Release Date November 10th, 2023 

Published ? 

An evil developer threatens a beloved old movie palace in the new action thriller, Showdown at the Grand. It's an old trope and it's perfectly fitting for this old school B-Movie. Written and directed by Orson Oblowitz, Showdown at the Grand celebrates classic B-Movies while embodying all of the things we love about classic B-Movies. It's a wonderfully meta-action flick with a big beating heart and deep love for the kind of drive-in classics that made cult heroes of Roger Corman, Russ, and stars like Ken Foree and Shannon Tweed. 

Showdown at the Grand stars Terrence Howard as George Fuller, the solo proprietor of the Warner Grand Theater, a southwestern staple of B-movie presentations. Fuller has grown up at the Grand, inheriting the business from his father who sank the family's entire fortune into rescuing the Grand after George's uncle nearly ran it into the ground. Now, George is facing a reckoning of his own. A wealthy and duplicitous developer named Lynn (Amanda Righetti), is buying up properties around the Grand but she needs the land where the grand stands to complete her development. 

Aiding Lynn in her hostile takeover of the area are a pair of thugs, Reed (Mike Ferguson) and Burton (Jon Sklaroff). Burton, though he is purely malevolent, happens to be a fan of the Grand, matching George movie quote for movie quote during their multiple encounters. That won't stop Burton from trying to kill George and destroy the Grand. Standing alongside George and the Grand are his longtime best friend, Lucky (John Savage) and George's only employee Spike (Piper Curda). 

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Documentary Review Holy Frit

Holy Frit (2023) 

Directed by Justin S. Monroe 

Written by Justin S. Monroe, Ryan M. Fritsche, Gillian Fritsche 

Starring Tim Carey, Narcissus Quagliata 

Release Date November 10th in Los Angeles, California 

Published October 28th, 2023 

"In your gut, how think the window is going to turn out?" the director asks artist Tim Cary. Cary responds "I don't really trust my gut about anything." And that's the arc of Tim Cary in Holy Frit, a man who will have to learn to trust his gut and make gut wrenching decisions about his art, his massive multi-million dollar stained glass piece, and the future of his career and family. None of these decisions has an obvious answer and Tim is going to be forced to trust his choices are right without knowing what the outcome will be, trusting the gut, the instinct, as he's not done before. 

What is Frit? That is probably the first question anyone would ask, based on the title of the documentary, but it's not that special, in and of itself and the answer is passed on to us in passing. Frit is very small pieces of broken glass. Frit is the innovation of an artist named Narcissus Quagliata, a larger than life personality who innovated in the world of glass art in a way that no one had before. I can't tell you exactly how Frit works, but when dusted onto other forms of stained glass, it creates a remarkably colorful design, unlike anything you've seen before. 

The fact that Tim Cary had never worked with Frit before when he pitched his employer, Judson Stained Glass, as the company to create a 4000 square foot stained glass window for a Kansas City Mega church is just one absurd fact about how this massive stained glass work of art came to be. Judson didn't have the technique, the staff, or the space to do a project as massive as a 4000 square foot stained glass window. Oh, and the design that Tim Cary pitched to the church, is the kind of design that, at the moment he pitched it, didn't appear to be possible. 

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Classic Movie Review After Hours

After Hours (1985) 

Directed by Martin Scorsese 

Written by Joseph Minion 

Starring Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, Cheech and Chong 

Release Date September 13th, 1985

Published 

The tracking shot that opens Martin Scorsese's black comedy, After Hours, is relatively meaningless. It's just a neat visual way to end up with the camera pointing to our protagonist, Paul Hackett. This is a valid cinematic choice, no criticism there. That said, as a student of opening scenes, I am a little bummed out. In my last exploration of a Scorsese classic, The Age of Innocence, Scorsese's camera opened on flowers under the credits and in the opening moment, a flower given from a performer on stage to another. The flower imagery in The Age of Innocence was the underlying theme of the movie. 

Perhaps, the vacuousness of the tracking shot in After Hours is a reflection of Paul's own vacuousness. Under the credits, we're hearing Mozart's Symphony in D Major No. 45. The symphony has little to do with the story either but it is beautiful and Paul is a handsome guy so, if I am going to read too much into every second of After Hours, perhaps these two surface level observations combined with the meaningless tracking shot crashing on Paul's face, is all to add up to how empty the character of Paul is and how his descent into a world of madness will only underline how Paul prefers being an empty vessel of capitalist exploitation to the alternative of actually living a life, as messy and problematic as that can be. 

As Paul Hackett's (Griffin Dunne) co-worker, played in a brief cameo by Bronson Pinchot, prattles on about how he doesn't plan on doing this job that Paul is teaching him in this scene, Paul is struck by the co-worker's words. He stops listening almost immediately, this man having a plan and goals in life, has Paul searching the world around him for a meaning. As the co-worker goes on about getting into publishing, Paul's eyes fall on everyday office stuff before finally landing briefly on a shot of a birthday calendar, and a picture of a child on a co-worker's desk. The story of a person with a family, a life away from work, is what jars Paul back to reality and the reality that his new co-worker doesn't realize he's hurt Paul's feelings a little, just enough to make him not pay attention before awkwardly excusing himself. 

The deck is beginning to stack. The conversation with Paul's co-worker is underlying a theme that will become clear, Paul doesn't have a life outside of work. He has no family, no girlfriend, he doesn't even seem to have friends, or, at least, he doesn't make it plain that he has anyone he can call on a Friday night. As Paul leaves work, he's just another lonely face in the crowd, so insignificant that the gates closing his office nearly close on him, and he narrowly slips through as men are closing them. All the while, another, more melancholic classical music piece plays on the soundtrack. The giant golden gate doors close, and Paul is made smaller by their massive size in a striking visual. 

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Movie Review Killers of the Flower Moon

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) 

Directed by Martin Scorsese 

Written by Martin Scorsese, Eric Roth

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro

Release Date October 20th, 2023

Published October 20th, 2023 

To say that Martin Scorsese is a master of the cinematic form is an understatement. The man has directed epic master works; some of the most iconic works of cinema in last 50 years. He's the Pope of Hollywood, the director that other directors look to for guidance and inspiration. As years pass, Scorsese's mastery of form only seems to grow and gain depth. With age has come patience and maturity that has taken his work from some of the most gut-wrenching and visceral to some of the most thoughtful, elegant, and instructive films ever made. It's an evolution but not a particularly overt one. Scorsese is no longer a Hollywood rebel eager to shake up the world with his cynical vision of urban violence and gritty inter-personal connections. In place of rebellion, Scorsese has embraced his place as one of Hollywood's foremost thinkers, a conscei

For his latest film, Martin Scorsese is not taking it easy but his restraint, patience, and graceful, thoughtful direction is on full display. Taking on the case that provided the foundation of the modern FBI, Scorsese takes us to the heart of Osage Country in Oklahoma. Here, a group of Native Americans happened to strike oil and as the money flowed, the Osage thrived. Then came a group of leeches, con artists and hardened criminals with a taste for both blood and money. As much as racism has a major part to play in what came next, greed is also at the rotting, curdled core of what happened to the Osage people. 

We open on a ceremony. A group of Native Americans are in a tent and delivering exposition in a rather unique way. Via this ceremony, we are drawn into the time period, just after the discovery of oil rich land and just before murderers, thieves, and parasites came looking to rob the Osage people of their newfound wealth. In this ceremony, the elders share a peace pipe that they are laying to rest, it's taught them all it can teach and it is to be symbolically buried. This is at once a warning of the violence that is coming as well as a symbol of the end of the old ways and the birth of a new, unpredictable and reasonably frightening new way of life. 

It's a brilliant opening and it sets the stage for everything that we will see going forward in Killers of the Flower Moon. From there we leap ahead to a train where a man is coming home from the first world war. Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio), could not possibly have a more appropriate name. With his lack of education and naïve willingness to take things at face value, Ernest is earnestness personified. Ernest has come to the Osage country on the invitation of his Uncle Bill (Robert De Niro, though he know him as King. Ernest's Uncle welcomes him with open arms and immediately sets about manipulating the simple young man in the ways of his con. 

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