Movie Review Acid Test

Acid Test 

Directed by Jennifer Waldo

Written by Jennifer Waldo

Starring Juliana Destefano, Brian Thornton, Mia Ruiz

Release Date November 21st, 2021

Acid Test is a coming of age drama set in 1992. It’s about a teenager on the brink of a future that includes Harvard, a good job, and a career. Of course, she begins to question this path and that question provides the plot of the movie. It’s a journey of self discovery that will take the main character, Jenny, played by Juliana Destefano, from straight A student to Riot Grrrl feminist willing to experiment with psychedelics as an escape from her troubles. 

Jenny’s father, Jack (Brian Thornton) has had Jenny on track to go to Harvard for years. Jack himself is a Harvard graduate and that makes Jenny a legacy, and more likely to be able to get into the school on a scholarship. Jenny however, as she’s grown up she’s grown disillusioned about whether Harvard is her dream or her father’s dream. Jenny finds a new path via a trip to a concert where she hears the punk rock of a band of Riot Grrls and has an epiphany about being able to make choices for herself.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Documentary Review Accepted

Accepted

Directed by Dan Chen 

Written by Documentary 

Starring T.M Landry College Prep

Release Date June 12th, 2021

Accepted is a harrowing story, one that begins triumphantly and slowly devolves into an ambiguous sort of tragedy. Director Dan Chen endeavored to explore the incredible success that was T.M Landry College Prep in Louisiana. This factory school that sent low income kids to Ivy League schools was a viral sensation in 2017. That year, the school uploaded a series of videos showing their students reacting to getting into the college of their choice. 

Every news outlet from Fox News to CNN to entertainment outlets such as The Today Show, The View, and Ellen, picked up the story of inner city kids blasting open the doors to the Ivy League. It indeed was a great story and with the charismatic showman Michael Landry at the helm, it appeared there could be an entirely new educational paradigm on the rise. T.M Landry, the T.M is for Tracy and Michael Landry, did not have textbooks or a set schedule or classrooms.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Clara Sola

Clara Sola

Directed by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén

Written by Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Daniel Castaneda Rincon

Starring Wendy Chinchilla Araya 

Released July 21st, 2021 

Clara Sola is a bold, strange and mysterious movie about faith, sexuality, and the senses. It’s the story of a childlike woman of about 40 years old who may or may not be a healer. The woman’s mother believes that her daughter is the living embodiment of the Virgin Mary but the woman, Clara, would prefer to live a normal life, one unencumbered by her mother’s expectations and the requirements of a virgin healer/savior. 

Clara is played by dancer turned actor Wendy Chinchilla Araya, in her first acting role. It’s an unusual and rather brilliant performance that captures both the childlike desires of a stunted intellect and the adult desires of a grown woman. Clara is a dichotomy and her alien-like presence immediately grabs and holds your attention. It’s a captivating performance even as there doesn’t appear to be much of any story going on.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Documentary Review Claydream

Claydream (2021) 

Directed by Marq Evans 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Will Vinton, Bill Plympton, Jerry Beck 

Release Date August 5th.2022 

Streaming Now Streaming on Amazon Prime 

Will Vinton was an almost accidental visionary. An artist by trade, Vinton stumbled on to the art of claymation with his friend Bob Gardiner, a visionary in the art of claymation. The pair met in college at the University of California-Berkley and moved to Portland in 1970 where they began their influential collaborations in the basement of Vinton’s home. The collaboration led to a breakthrough in 1974 when Vinton and Gardiner won an Oscar for their animated short, Closed Mondays, about an inebriated man who wanders into a closed art gallery. 

Closed Mondays was just the proof of concept the pair needed to launch Will Vinton studios in Portland. Sadly, mental health issues plagued Gardiner and he left the business in 1976 after they’d created their second claymation short. Vinton then took the techniques he learned from Gardiner and combined them with his own talent for innovating camera technology in claymation to create a legacy that has outlived Vinton himself who passed away in 2018.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Documentary Review: Roadrunner Film About Anthony Bourdain

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021) 

Directed by Morgan Neville 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Anthony Bourdain, Asia Argento 

Release Date July 16th, 2021 

Published June 17th, 2023 

Late in the new documentary Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, a friend recalls asking Bourdain how he managed to quit his heroin addiction cold turkey. This was a foreign concept to Bourdain’s friend, a fellow addict, who could not begin to imagine that level of willpower. Bourdain offered no real answer, just that he’d done it. It quickly dawned on Bourdain’s friend that Bourdain may have beaten heroin but he hadn’t beaten addiction. 

Instead of heroin, Anthony Bourdain’s addiction jumped to other sources of pleasure or pain or experience, unattainable highs that could never be sustained in the same fashion that addiction to any drug either ends in death or simply losing the ability to get high all together. To me, this is a fascinating and thoughtful insight. Director Morgan Nevillve had a similar fascination with what Bourdain’s friend mentioned, how his addiction jumped from heroin to other types of obsession. 

In the immediate aftermath of Bourdain’s friend relating this story we join Bourdain learning Jiu Jitsu. Bourdain was obsessed with Jiu Jitsu for a time, an all consuming obsession, addiction, that drove the people around him crazy. Another of Bourdain’s friends, a member of the crew of his television series, recalled being irritated by Bourdain droning on endlessly about the benefits of Jiu Jitsu, he was relentless in talking about things he was passionate about. 

Bourdain applied this passionate obsessive quality to people as well, his wives, and his girlfriends. In a disturbing example of Bourdain’s obsession with and his addiction to very specific things, the movie recalls a time when Bourdain was speaking of his then girlfriend, actress Asia Argento, and going on and on about what he’d determined to be, her remarkable ability to parallel park. There is a look on Bourdain’s face as he’s discussing Argento’s ability to park a car in Italy that approaches madness, his eyes are wide, his gestures are broad and Argento appears deeply uncomfortable. 

It could be argued that director Morgan Neville frames this scene to underline the effect but regardless, I couldn’t help but feel the implied discomfort and Bourdain’s mad obsessive zeal. The documentary frames Bourdain’s entire relationship with Argento, which came in the last years of his life, as an addiction. Bourdain was deeply lonely after the end of his second marriage and is seen to wonder if he is someone who can be loved. 

In 1999 Anthony Bourdain, then already into middle age and seeing his life as one of working as a chef until they dragged his corpse from the kitchen, began writing a series of emails to a friend. This friend happened to be married to a publisher and after urging his wife to read Anthony’s breathlessly intelligent, urgent, and provocative words in these emails, the wife was sold, she needed to publish Anthony Bourdain. 

That is the story that led to Bourdain’s national breakthrough, the bestselling book, Kitchen Confidential which turned Bourdain into the bad boy of celebrity chefs. The book was an immediate smash success story which almost spawned a movie adaptation starring Brad Pitt and did spawn a brief and uninspired television series starring Bradley Cooper. Fame didn’t come easy to Bourdain but once he embraced it, his life was changed forever. 

The success of Kitchen Confidential led to Bourdain’s own series on The Food Network called A Cook’s Tour. The team behind Bourdain’s television series tell a terrific story about that show and how Anthony Bourdain was not the bon vivant personality that he would come to be known as, not right away. In fact, on the first trip for the show, Bourdain was listless and withdrawn, he refused to play the part of host and it appeared that the show was doomed. 

It wasn’t until the crew arrived in Vietnam when things began to click. Bourdain loved Vietnam, it also helped that his friend and former restaurant boss joined him and perhaps brought out a friendlier and more excitable version of Bourdain. From there it was off to the races on a career that would touch the lives of millions of fans and inspire wandering souls to discover their own inner traveler. 

From the outside, Anthony Bourdain had everything. His job was to go to cool places, have adventures, and eat food. His travels were exotic and beautiful and also provocative. Through his travels, the bad boy chef transformed into a deeply empathetic soul eager to tell the stories of the people behind the culture and food he was experiencing. This proved to be exhilarating television and in many ways, an exhilarating life but the strain on Bourdain comes clear as Roadrunner unfolds. The heart wrenching stories Bourdain sometimes told weighed on him more than his cool exterior let on.  

In 2018 Anthony Bourdain shocked the world by taking his own life in the midst of a shoot for his travel series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. His death was a stark reminder that while you think you know a celebrity or you assume that someone on television has a life that is a dream come true, you really don’t know them. This aspect of not knowing Bourdain but wanting to, drive so much of Roadrunner. 

Some have claimed that the troubled end to Bourdain's relationship with Asia Argento led him to take his life. Many read Roadrunner: A Film Abouut Anthony Bourdain as making that case, that Argento holds a responsibility in Bourdain's death. I don't see the movie quite that way. I feel that director Morgan Neville lays out the case that Bourdain's various addictions are what drove him toward a tragic end. Having chased a particular kind of high for his entire life, he finally reached a place where that high was no longer attainable. 

I believe, based on what Neville shows us in Roadrunner, that Bourdain was 'addicted' to his relationship with Argento in a deeply unhealthy fashion. That parallel parking story may be cringe-inducing in many ways, but I believe it is the thesis statement on Bourdain's obsessive personality, his addiction to Argento being the latest thing that had driven his lust for life. When that 'supply,' if you will indulge that as a metaphor for a human being, is cutoff, Bourdain simply felt he could not go on. That's not Asia Argento's fault. This type of obsession with another person is not healthy and it was perhaps better for Argento herself, regardless of whoever she might be as a person, I don't know her, to get out of that relationship. 

If you've never been the subject of another person's obsession, you don't know how strange and suffocating that can be. If you are the subject of someone else's obsession, you need to get out of it. It's not something that can be sustained or repaired. We happen to have some visual evidence of Bourdain's obsession with Argento and it's strange and haunting. It starts out humorous and slowly morphs into something pitiable and deeply uncomfortable. Anthony Bourdain's obsessions are what led to his death. His desire to be obsessed with something to distract him from unspoken anguish he felt and did not process or seek help for, are why we no longer have his brilliant mind in the world. 

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain is brilliant, beautiful and tragic. It's incredibly difficult to watch but it's also engrossing and enlightening. It's a story that aches to be told. That it exists is a warning to anyone that an unexamined emotional pain is as dangerous and deadly as an unexamined and untreated open wound. Anthony Bourdain was bleeding emotionally and was unfortunately unwilling or unable to seek treatment for it. Roadrunner then is a cautionary tale about such deep emotional wounds. 

Movie Review: New York Ninja

New York Ninja (1985) (2021) 

Directed by John Liu, Kurtis Spieler 

Written by John Liu, Kurtis Spieler

Starring John Liu, Don The Dragon Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, Linnea Quigley, Michael Berryman

Release Date October 21st, 2021

Published August 22nd, 2022

The movie New York Ninja was lost to time. In 1984 director and actor John Liu gathered a cast and a crew and made an entire movie. Then, he never finished the movie. 37 years later the video distribution company Vinegar Syndrome, a boutique movie distribution company which specializes in movies few other studios wanted, outlandish and bizarre movies from foreign countries and the like, discovered that they had an unedited camera negative of the movie. 

This means that they had enough of the actual completed footage to edit into a complete movie. What they did not have, unfortunately, was the soundtrack including the recorded dialogue for all of the characters. That was unfortunate but the end of the road for this project as Vinegar Syndrome’s Curtis Spieler cut the movie together, wrote a script to match the action and tone of the film and then hired actors to provide voices, including some true B-movie legends, and New York Ninja was reborn. 

New York Ninja was the brainchild of actor-director-martial artist, John Liu. It’s rather unknown why Liu abandoned the project and how it ended being transferred around from owner to owner before ending up at Vinegar Syndrome. Regardless of the circumstances, New York Ninja is quite a revelation. That’s not to say it is a good movie, it most certainly is not, but it is a classically 80s style bit of nonsense that would have been right at home in the canon of Cannon Films or under the banner of the legendary schlockmeister Roger Corman. 

The story finds our lead character, played by John Liu, greeting his newly pregnant girlfriend. The girlfriend may as well have deadmeat tattooed on her forehead as they share a confusing interaction that ends after she ominously talks of her excitement about becoming a mother. In this conception of New York City street gangs roam the streets as of cosplaying The Warriors but with Halloween masks. They rob just about everyone and those who witness the robberies, assaults and rapes, simply turn the other cheek and go on with their business. 

Liu’s pregnant galpal happens to witness another woman being assaulted and because she didn’t just go on her merry way like nothing was happening, one of the thugs breaks away from the assault to murder her in broad daylight, on street teeming with cars, shooting her multiple times as she fumbles down some subway stairs. It’s a brilliantly unsubtle bit of off-kilter violence. You know this death is coming, everything about this screams motivation for a man to become a vengeance seeking Ninja. 

But first, John Liu has to show his range as he grieves his loss in the strangest way imaginable.  In a scene that I imagine would have resonated with a young Tommy Wiseau, Liu is alone on a rooftop of an apartment building where he had laid out a picnic for he and his lady love. He is desperately sad and after sending his news reporter coworker away, he proceeds to destroy the picnic table including a photo of himself and the girlfriend which he shatters. He then picks up the pieces of glass and crushes them into his hands leaving him cut and bleeding. 

When did he set up the picnic? Did he find out she was dead while on the rooftop? Did he set up an elaborate picnic on a bare rooftop after he knew she was already dead? None of these questions are answered and, even if they were answered, I can’t imagine the answers making any sense. All I do know is that this scene is awesomely funny. It’s a glorious piece of unintentional comedy, both poignant and hysterical, poignant for being so pathetic. 

In case you need it laid out any more blatantly, the death of his girlfriend is the impetus for Liu to become the New York Ninja, a martial arts vigilante. Or it will be his motivation, eventually. Before we actually see the New York Ninja in action we have to see him grieve in different locations and eventually show off some of his fighting skills out of costume when some thugs try to steal a thing he appears to be praying to? Not sure what it was but it was gold and he didn’t want to give it up. 

It actually takes forever for Liu to swear revenge. Before that, he becomes the Ninja and sets about saving random New Yorkers from random attacks by one of the City’s many roving bands of rapists and thieves. It’s actually an unintentionally hilarious send up of the perception of New York City in the 1980s. If you weren’t living in New York in 1984 you might have assumed it was overrun by gangs of rapists and thieves based on news coverage and comedy acts. Homer Simpson would appreciate the New York Ninja version of New York City as if it were a documentary. 

All the while the New York Ninja is finding himself as a crime fighter he’s missing the major criminal enterprise that was responsible for murdering his girlfriend. Considering that this gang is kidnapping attractive women, in broad daylight, and committing various murders, you might assume that Liu would target this group but that doesn’t happen until the final act when Liu finally gets around to trying to rescue nearly 20 or so beautiful women who were kidnapped in broad daylight and have been reported on repeatedly on the television network that Liu himself works for as a sound guy for the same reporter who is covering that story. 

Much of this odd, disconnected story was intentional, for comic effect. The intention of co-director, screenwriter and editor Kurtis Spieler who took John Liu's bizarre movie and pushed it to new Z-movie heights. With the help of distributor Vinegar Syndrome, Spieler created a new script, had that script performed by well known martial arts movie stars, and mixed the new comic dialogue over the unfinished work of original filmmaker John Liu. Famed figures such as scream Queen Linnea Quigley, beloved character actor Michael Berryman, and martial arts legends Cynthia Rothrock and Don The Dragon Wilson have leant their voices to the new track of New York Ninja. 

Now, I love the idea behind what Kuris Spieler has created here and some of the movie is quite fun. However, I can't help but feel a pang of disappointment. It's not a bad thing that we're all in on the joke of New York Ninja but it does take away some of the magic of it all. Take for instance, a movie like Miami Connection. The magic and appeal of Miami Connection is that no one involved is aware of the joke we in the audience are sharing. We are all laughing at the genuine effort of the filmmakers and the poignant, earnest failure is a delicious irony. 

You simply cannot manufacture that kind of ironic appreciation. There is only so much of that in New York Ninja and it comes from what little of John Liu's work remains. His deeply misguided plotting and lack of awareness of how a story should flow. In fairness, the dialogue created by Spieler is earnestly delivered and fitting for the strange anti-narrative of Liu's movie but knowing that this dialogue was crafted for the movie takes some of the thrill of New York Ninja away. 

Maybe it's just me, I felt the same way about the manufactured badness of Sharknado and never enjoyed any aspect of that brief cultural phenomenon. Perhaps, if you did like Sharknado and you don't mind having your so bad its good created with specific intent, then you might enjoy New York Ninja. For me, I will be over here enjoying Miami Connection, Fatal Deviation, and The Room. 

Movie Review: Zola

Zola (2021) 

Directed by Janicza Bravo 

Written by Janicza Bravo, Jeremy Harris

Starring Taylour Paige, Colman Domingo, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun

Release Date June 30th, 2021 

Published August 21st, 2022 

Zola is a breath of fresh air in modern cinema. Based on a larger than life story from a Twitter thread, of all places, Zola tells a story of modern sexuality, female friendship, empowerment, and the American sexual marketplace in a suitably surreal fashion. The film was adapted and directed by Janicza Bravo, an exciting new filmmaker whose candy colored visuals are a lovely comment on the dark, almost neo-noir story she’s telling. 

Zola stars newcomer Taylour Paige as Zola, a waitress and part time exotic dancer, who meets and falls in lust with Stefani (Riley Keough), a customer at the Hooters style restaurant where Zola works. Whether or not the attraction between Zola and Stefani is sexual in nature is up to your imagination, however the film keeps the nature of that fluid in a manner that recognizes how so much of millennial culture is based on sexual fluidity. 

The surreally captured scene of Zola and Stefani vibing with each other crackles with tension and excitement and is a terrific set up for the story about to be told. Zola and Stefani exchange phone numbers and text messages and soon enough, Stefani invites Zola for a weekend of getting paid easy money, touring strip clubs in Florida. Stefani claims that she has a hook up who can get them stage time at a series of popular clubs for good money and Zola is eager for the money. 

Things, naturally, take a turn once the trip actually begins. Stefani has invited her boyfriend, a dupe named Derrek (Nicholas Braun), who is certainty in love with Stefani and blind to how Stefani truly feels about him. Also joining in on this journey is a man Stefani calls her ‘roommate,’ Zola has no idea what his name is. The roommate is played by Colman Domingo and he immediately gives off the impression that he is a bad dude. 

Zola is right to be suspicious as soon after they arrive at their cockroach infested Florida motel, the Roommate takes them to the club and leaves poor Derrek behind. He then books a separate room at a much nicer hotel and when the girls are done stripping, they are shown to this room where the real purpose of this so-called ‘ho trip’ is revealed. Zola must find a way to fend for herself while also looking out for Stefani, even if it is all Stefani’s fault that Zola is in this mess. 

The real A’ziah ‘Zola’ King was made to be a social media star. With her natural wit and charisma, it’s no surprise that her 2015 Twitter thread about this ‘ho trip’ to Florida became an immediate sensation. King captures the way young people talk in frank and uncompromising terms. She’s fully self-possessed and brilliantly detailed in her storytelling and that Janicza Bravo captures that unique, brash, and fresh voice so perfectly is what makes Zola the movie so remarkable. 

The movie makes sex work look borderline mundane and yet dangerous all at once. As Zola navigates this bizarre trip, taking mental Twitter notes the whole way, she is both a figure of motherly concern for Stefani and a very pissed off co-worker. Taylour Paige embodies the bizarre dynamic of Zola beautifully as her attitude tells us more than any dialogue ever could. Her suspicion of Stefani and her ‘roommate,’ her being completely over the whole sex work dynamic that Stefani has brought upon the trip, and her strong sense of self-protection and wit, are a refreshing way to experience a character. 

You might suspect a movie based on a Twitter feed would be thin and not particularly artful but you would be assuming wrong about Zola. Zola is brimming with wit and invention. It’s a frank and bitter dark comedy and simply a well told story from beginning to end. The characters are fascinating and the performances are uniformly brilliant, each bringing a different and electric energy to the movie. Taylour Paige is a revelation as Zola, a rare fully formed female character on the big screen. For such a young actress to be this assured and charismatic is a true wonder to watch. 

Then there is director Janicza Bravo whose work is the equal of her young star. Bravo has complete mastery of her aesthetic and a remarkably well placed confidence in her actors. Zola is an exceptional announcement of a new directorial talent. Based on this confident, smart, exciting movie you can't help but be excited about what Janicza Bravo will do next. 

Movie Review: The Matrix Resurrections

Matrix Resurrections (2021) 

Directed by Lana Wachowski 

Written by Lana Wachowski 

Starring Keanu Reeves, Jonathan Groff, Yahya Abdul Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, Carrie Ann Moss

Release Date December 22nd, 2021 

Published August 20th, 2022 

The story of Matrix Resurrections proceeds as a pursuit of Neo by those who wish to save and protect Neo from a world that wishes to exploit him. That’s a description of the plot of Matrix Resurrections and a description of how modern popular culture feels about Keanu Reeves the actor. Any check of social media searches of Keanu Reeves reveals a wholesome, earnest appreciation for Keanu and his down to Earth approach to being a worldwide celebrity. 

The Matrix Resurrections picks up with Thomas Anderson/Neo working as a video game developer. Thomas’s most popular game is called ‘The Matrix’ and the incidents that we witness in the original Matrix trilogy are now things that happened in the video game that Thomas Anderson developed with his partner, Mr. Smith (Jonathan Goff). The plot kicks in when Thomas Anderson subconsciously creates a simulation in his code that creates a new program called, Morpheus (Yahya Abdul Mateen II). 

The Morpheus program catches the eye of Bugs (Jessica Henwick), a ship’s Captain in the real world who recognizes this strange blip in the code and goes to investigate it. Bugs ends up pulling Morpheus out of the Matrix and this begins their search for Neo, The One, the man who went missing many years earlier after being viewed by many as a God who may have the ability to destroy the Matrix and end the tyranny of the God-like machines that enslave humanity and have been trying to crush what remains of a society outside of their control. 

The Matrix Resurrections is very smartly cast with each choice providing a clever new layer to the Matrix mythos. The best addition to the cast is Jessica Henwick, a sort of fan insert character both fan-girlng over being the one to find Neo and getting the chance to protect and preserve his legend. Henwick is a capable action star, a convincing badass, and a hard as nails Captain as she lives out our fantasy of protecting Keanu Reeves from all harm. I say that in jest but it’s true, if you love Keanu you’d likely leap at the chance to protect him from harm. That makes Bugs a terrific fan avatar, smart and capable, tough and laying down her life on behalf of our beloved hero. 

Also joining the cast Neil Patrick Harris, an obvious program, at least to us, as he plays Psychiatrist to Thomas Anderson, feeding him Blue pills and repeatedly reassuring Thomas Anderson that this life he created for himself, the Matrix, is all in his mind. Harris is snaky and charming in the role, a proper and unique antagonist for this franchise entry. Bonus points for recognizing a distinct disdain for the industry of psychiatry of which director Lana Wachowski is not a fan. 

Then there is the glorious Jonathan Groff, the erstwhile King George of Hamilton, taking over the role of ‘Agent’ Smith. In the story that Neo is living in, Smith is his antagonistic business partner, a thorn in his side but one he can’t live without. The parallels between Thomas Anderson’s new life and Neo’s old life endlessly fighting with Agent Smith within the rubbery reality of The Matrix are beautifully illustrated even as Smith’s existence in this sequel story is a tad bit mystifying. 

Yes, there are reasons why both Morpheus and Agent Smith do not appear in their original form but you must discover that on your own by watching The Matrix Resurrections. And that is something I do recommend even as the movie does spin its wheels a bit while underlining Neo’s life as Thomas Anderson and the boring and suspicious repetitions in his daily routine. Once the movie advances to the real world things get much more interesting. 

Big shoutout to Jada Pinkett Smith who is excellent in her too short role. Some will complain about her makeup job but, for me, her performance is too good to complain about cakey makeup. Jada Pinkett Smith delivers gravitas and a believable sense of conflicted emotions, resentment and hurt battling against a sincere care and hope. It’s a very small role but Pinkett-Smith’s Niobe is a great way to link the past and the present in surprising and exciting ways. Her motivation and conflict is given weight and care. 

I also want to highlight the score which is exceptional. The final act score is propulsive to the point of exhausting, in a good way. The music, credited to Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, and the chaotic action of the final moments of The Matrix Resurrections combines the electronica infused score of the early 2000s Matrix sequels with a post-modern orchestral sound heavy on piano and choir to deepen and enrich the electronica sound that Tykwer brought to the fore throughout his career. 

Is The Matrix Resurrections preaching to the choir, using nostalgia to appeal to a built in fanbase? Perhaps, but, since I am a member of that built-in fanbase, I didn’t really mind. Unlike supposed original concept blockbusters from this past year, the team behind The Matrix Resurrections are really good at making a blockbuster movie that doesn’t feel like just another cash grab. There is a strong sense in the work of co-writer and director Lana Wachowski had a story she really wanted to tell, far beyond the profit motivation that was undeniably always there. 

The Matrix Resurrections debuted in theaters and streaming on HBO Max on December 22nd, 2021.

Movie Review: The Eyes of Tammy Faye

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) 

Directed by Michael Showalter 

Written by Abe Sylvia 

Starring Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Vincent D'Onofrio, Cherry Jones 

Release Date September 17th, 2021 

Published December 24th, 2021 

A trope that has become overused in biopics is the necessity to provide a literal explanation for something that becomes part of the life of a famous person after they become famous. With that in mind, I was prepared with a heavy sigh and an eye roll while watching the biopic, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, all about the life of Tammy Faye Bakker, played by Jessica Chastain. As I started the movie, I girded myself for a very literal explanation of why Tammy Faye began wearing garish clown-like makeup. 

What a surprise then to see that the main explanation of Tammy’s love for makeup was simply because she liked makeup. The backstory of Tammy Faye’s makeup gets a very brief scene at the very start of the movie and is mostly left behind as Tammy’s true obsession is revealed to be religion and being completely oblivious. Credit goes to director Michael Showalter who makes many smart choices in how to bring the unusual life of Tammy Faye Bakker to the big screen. 

The Eyes of Tammy Faye stars Jessica Chastain in the role of Tammy Faye Bakker and Andrew Garfield as her husband, con-man conservative Christian talk show host, Jim Bakker. The two met at a bible college in Minnesota. Here, Jim preached prosperity gospel, much to the dismay of his professors but to the great delight of his classmate, Tammy Faye. It was, and likely remains, Jim Bakker’s belief that God wants certain people to have great wealth and anyone with great wealth is therefore blessed by God. 

Never mind all of that stuff Jesus said about the poor, Jim Bakker was not one who believed that there was divinity in poverty. Thus he set out to be rich by any means necessary. After marrying Tammy Faye, Jim took Tammy Faye on the road where they preached the gospel and Jim took out loans and raised money for their personal needs via the many church congregations that accepted him as a guest preacher. 

Meanwhile, Tammy Faye also had her eyes on the horizon, searching for her big break. That break comes when Tammy Faye incorporates a puppet show into their preaching and singing and it gets seen by leaders of the Christian Broadcast Network, owned and operated by Pat Robertson (Gabriel Olds) and Jerry Falwell (Vincent D’Onofrio). They jump at the chance to bring the young and talented Jim and Tammy Faye aboard for a kids show but Jim has bigger plans. 

After finding success with children, Jim pitches himself as the host of a late night religious talk show that would be called The 700 Club. This comes at a cost however, to his marriage as a pregnant Tammy Faye is left off of the show and sulks at home. Before long Tammy Faye is demanding that Jim spend time with her while also getting in his ear about how they should be making more money. It’s Tammy Faye who plants the seeds that would become their crowning achievement, PTL, Praise the Lord the cable channel. 

Here is where Jim and Tammy Faye would find multi-million dollar success but also eventually find their grave downfall. As successful as the PTL was, Jim’s dedication to prosperity gospel drove him to constantly spending more than the PTL was bringing, especially spending it on himself while allowing Tammy Faye to shop to her heart’s content. While Jim desperately chases every dollar, Tammy Faye quickly comes to recognize the emptiness of their lives and the conflict between Jim and Tammy Faye eventually spills into their very public downfall. 

It’s a good story but not one that translates easily to a film narrative. Despite what The Eyes of Tammy Faye might want you to believe, Tammy Faye is not an entirely sympathetic character. Some might be able to buy Tammy Faye as a naïve innocent, as Jessica Chastain plays her, but reality also indicates that Tammy Faye was as or even more ambitious than her husband. Even as she may have been a victim of her husband's duplicitousness, she very much indulged and enjoyed the lifestyle trappings that his scheming made possible. 

The Eyes of Tammy Faye quite often tips into hagiography, as if the filmmakers and star Jessica Chastain were striving to make Tammy Faye a martyr and a counterpoint to her con-man husband. I say that but I don't say it with a great deal of confidence, especially after a final scene that appears to push the film into an area of camp that seems to both deify and deflate the legacy the film had been building for Tammy Faye. The final moments highlight a problem with The Eyes of Tammy Faye that's difficult to explain. 

For most of the movie, it doesn't appear that the film has a sense of humor regarding Tammy Faye, she's not being pitied or parodied. The final act, and especially the final scene of the movie, are the first time we get a sense of what I know I was looking for in the film, a slightly more savage and unrelenting look at Tammy Faye. In the final scene, the film reaches a remarkable climax that is both high camp and genuinely emotional. It's a moment where the potential of The Eyes of Tammy Faye emerges. Sadly, it emerges to late to rescue the movie and instead serves to highlight the tone that was missing from the first two acts of The Eyes of Tammy Faye. 

Ultimately, I am mixed on The Eyes of Tammy Faye. I adored the ending and I loved elements of Jessica Chastain's full bodied performance as Tammy Faye. The problem, for me, appears to be that Chastain started to like Tammy Faye and feel protective of her. That appears at times to be at odds with the tone that director Michael Showalter is going for. The disconnect between her desire to do justice to Tammy Faye and Showalter's high wire act attempt to bridge Chastain's performance into his more savage send up of Tammy Faye, ultimately short circuits both Chastain and Showalter's efforts.