Movie Review The Tender Bar

The Tender Bar 

Directed by George Clooney 

Written by William Monahan, J.R Moehringer

Starring Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan

Release Date January 7th, 2022 

George Clooney is the kind of director that actors love. As an actor himself he understands the way actors think and what actors enjoy doing. It’s easy to imagine Clooney encouraging his actors to follow their muse no matter where it takes them. That has unfortunately led to some deeply indulgent performances in Clooney directed movies. From Sam Rockwell’s entertaining but kitsch heavy performance in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind to Matt Damon’s downright weird performance in Suburbicon, Clooney shows himself to be a director willing to indulge his actors to good and not so good extremes. 

The latest actor allowed to indulge in extremes under the direction of George Clooney is Ben Affleck in the new Amazon Prime feature The Tender Bar. In this adaptation of JR Moehringer’s best selling memoir, Affleck plays Uncle Charlie to Tye Sheridan’s fictionalized version of the famed journalist and author. And boy can you tell this is directed by George Clooney. Affleck’s Charlie is a walking cliche of a New Yawk, Lawn Guy-land accent, all broad machismo and brainy posturing. As a fan of Affleck I can’t completely hate it, but even I have to recognize how a different director might have tried to reign in some of the broad aspects of Affleck’s otherwise scene stealing performance.

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

Movie Review The Tragedy of MacBeth

The Tragedy of MacBeth

Directed by Joel Coen 

Written by Joel Coen, William Shakespeare

Starring Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Alex Hassell

Release Date January 14th, 2022

The Tragedy of Macbeth suffers from our expectations. This newest take on the Shakespearean legend stars two of our finest and most respected actors, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth respectively. The film is directed by one half of the most respected directing duo in film history, Joel Coen, working for the first time without his brother, Ethan Coen. To say that the expectations for The Tragedy of Macbeth were high would be a significant understatement. 

Macbeth is a story of the corrupting influences of power and greed. Macbeth (Washington) is a man who gains power through his merciless abilities at war. As we join the story, Macbeth and his best friend, Banquo (Bertie Carvel), are recently returned from war with their reputation for merciless violence preceding them. The heroism of Macbeth and Banquo is announced well before they’ve actually returned from the battlefield and they are credited with killing an enemy leader that may or may not yet be dead.

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

Movie Review See for Me

See for Me 

Directed by Randall Okita

Written by Adam Yorke, Tommy Gushue

Starring Skyler Davenport, Kim Coates, Jessica Parker Kennedy

Release Date January 7th, 2022,

See for Me stars newcomer Skyler Davenport, a long time voice actor making their debut as the lead in a feature film. Davenport plays Sophie, a former world class skier who lost their sight. Bitter about the loss of their ability to ski independently, Sophie has found a niche working as a house sitter. This niche has allowed Sophie to dabble in nihilism as they take advantage of wealthy clients by stealing something valuable that Sophie assumes the owners won’t miss and on the assumption that they’d be too ashamed to accuse the helpless blind person of stealing. 

Sophie’s latest gig is somewhere in upstate New York in what, from the outside, looks like a massive ski chalet/hotel. Instead, it’s merely a mansion owned by Debra (Laura Vandevoort). Debra has just finished a nasty divorce and is headed out of town for a few days. Debra has hired Sophie not to watch the house but rather her cat. It’s not an important detail, just one the movie insists upon more than once. Sophie immediately searches for something to steal, using her friend Cam (Keaton Kaplan) over Facetime to locate an expensive wine cellar.

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

Documentary Review American Gadfly

American Gadfly 

Directed by Skye Wallin

Written by Documentary 

Starring Mike Gravel

Release Date January 3rd, 2022 

American Gadfly is one of the most exciting and fun documentaries I have seen in some time. Most political documentaries are so dry that they make great kindling. That’s certainly not the case with American Gadfly which is colorful and engaging while also being intelligent, thoughtful and enlightening. If you don’t know who former United States Senator Mike Gravel was or you think he was just some crackpot who ran for President a couple of times, this documentary sets the record straight about a hero of Progressive Democratic politics and the generation he so unexpectedly enlivened. 

The Senator from Alaska from 1969 to 1981, Mike Gravel rose to fame in the early 1970s when, in the midst of the scandal building from the leak of The Pentagon Papers by government contractor Daniel Ellsberg, Gravel, with help from Noam Chomsky, read a version of The Pentagon Papers into the official record of the Senate using parliamentary procedure to cover the fact that he was releasing top secret information. It was a master stroke that allowed the media to hear what was in the Papers and cleared the legal hurdles that halted the Washington Post and New York Times from publishing the Papers.

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

Movie Review Rucker

Rucker 

Directed by Amy Hesketh

Written by Amy Hesketh, Aaron Drane 

Starring Bobby C. King, Cheyenna Lee, Corey Taylor

Release Date January 4th, 2022

Rucker is an ugly and stupid little movie about truck driving serial killer and a budding sociopath documentary filmmaker. The movie is a pointless and meandering splatter movie that wanders the highways and byways of the United States in search of an ever elusive point. The point is never found and what is in its place is a dimwitted, often deeply confusing movie that pretends to be a boundary pushing horror-comedy. 

Rucker (The Trucker) stars Bobby C King in the title role of truck driver Leif Rucker. Rucker is being filmed for a documentary and for a time the documentarian is off screen and unseen. Eventually however, Rucker draws the young female filmmaker, Maggie (Cheyenna Lee), in front of the camera and learns her in the ways of the trucker, the language, the lore and the lonely, lonely road. Soon enough however, the veneer of respectability falls away to reveal a deeply disturbed man and an equally disturbed young woman.

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

Movie Review King Car

King Car 

Directed by Renata Pinheiro

Written by Sergio Oliveira, Renata Pinheiro

Starring Luciano Pedro Jr., Clara Pinheiro 

Release Date January 7th, 2022 

King Car is a bizarre and fascinating movie. Set in modern day Brazil, the story follows a college student named Uno who, somehow, develops the ability to speak to cars. Uno, actor uncredited, was born in the back of one of his father’s taxis. This, apparently, fostered a bond between Uno and the car. That bond was broken for a time when the car saved Uno from being struck by this car driven by Uno’s mother who was distracted and didn’t know she was about to hit Uno. The car swerved itself to save Uno but was crushed in the effort and Uno’s mother was killed. 

Uno grew up hating cars and only ever riding a bike. He goes so far as to completely reject his father who expected Uno to take business classes and join the family taxi business. Instead, Uno goes to college and learns about Agriculture and Sustainability. Uno meets a young woman named Amora with whom he develops a romance. However, when Uno’s father suffers a heart attack, Uno is drawn back into the family business in very unexpected and strange ways.

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

Movie Review Sex Appeal

Sex Appeal 

Directed by Talia Osteen

Written by Tate Hanyok

Starring Mika Abdalla, Jake Short, Fortune Feimster

Release Date January 14th, 2022 

I’m not quite sure what to make of the new Hulu teen comedy Sex Appeal. On the one hand, it’s good to see a sex positive movie with a good message about seeking safe, consensual, and pleasurable sex. On the other hand, the jokes and characters feel lifted from various other teen comedies and sitcoms. Director Talia Osteen has made both a sex positive teen comedy and a movie about as sexy the sex talk you might get from your cool aunt. 

Sex Appeal stars Mika Abdalla as Avery, a straight A student who prides herself on being good at everything she does. However, when her equally intellectually driven boyfriend proposes that they take their relationship to the next level, Avery is thrown for a loop. Since Avery is good at everything she feels the need to be good at sex as well. Meanwhile, Avery will be seeing this long distance boyfriend at an upcoming STEM competition, one where she’s been challenged to develop an app that solves a personal problem.

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

Movie Review The Legend of La Llorona

The Legend of La Llorona 

Directed by Patricia Harris Seeley

Written by Cameron Larson, Jose Prendes, Patricia Harris Seeley

Starring Danny Trejo, Autumn Reeser, Antonio Cupo 

Release Date January 11th, 2022

The Legend of La Llorona is a laugh riot. I busted a gut watching The Legend of La Llorona but, unfortunately, that’s not exactly what the makers of the film had in mind for an audience response. The latest iteration of the Mexican legend of the weeping woman who curses and steals children is not intended to be a comedy. The intention was to make a horror movie and the team behind The Legend of La Llorona failed this intention in spectacularly silly fashion. 

The Legend of La Llorona stars Autumn Reeser and Antonio Cupo as Carly and Andrew Candlewood, a couple vacationing in Mexico and trying to recover from the recent loss of a baby that died in childbirth. They are traveling to Mexico with their 9 year old son Daniel much to the dismay of their caretaker, Mama Veronica (Angelica Lara), who was not expecting them to bring a child with them. Children in this area of Mexico have been going missing for years and Mama Veronica is worried for the child while also concerned that the parents will think she’s crazy if she explains why she is so worried.

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

Movie Review The Free Fall

The Free Fall 

Directed by Adam Stillwell

Written by Kent Harper

Starring Andrea Londo, Shawn Ashmore

Release Date January 14th, 2022 

Content warning, this review mentions suicide and discusses a character attempting to take their own life. If depictions of suicide are a trigger for you, please either read with caution or click away from this review. I don’t recommend the movie The Free Fall which is far from a sensitive depiction of suicide, among many, many other failing elements. 

The Free Fall stars Andrea Londo as Sara, a young woman deeply traumatized by witnessing her mother murdering her father. So traumatized by the event was Sara that she almost immediately went from the bedroom where the murder suicide occurred before her eyes to the bathroom where Sara slipped into a bath and attempted to take her own life by cutting her wrists. Sara is saved by the arrival of her husband Nick (Shawn Ashmore).

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

Movie Review Belle

Belle 

Directed by Mamoru Hosada

Written by Mamoru Hosada

Starring Kaho Nakamura, Ryo Narita, Shota Sometani

Release Date January 14th, 2022 

Belle left me a wreck by the time it was over. The movie about a young woman rediscovering her voice years after the death of her mother, hit me like a ton of bricks. Critics try to be as objective as possible but as someone who lost his mother 8 years ago, around the same timeframe that main character Suzu has suffered the death of her mother, my objectivity melted away in a sea of cathartic tears. Suzu’s journey does not resemble me in any other way and yet that shared grief is an unbreakable bond I have with this character. 

The main character of Belle is named Suzu. Suzu has been grieving the loss of her mother for nearly a decade and has retreated from life. Suzu gains a chance at a new life with the launch of a new fully interactive and physically immersive form of social media called U. U posits a technology that allows users to create a beautiful avatar and fully embody that avatar right down to physically being able to touch and feel things inside this virtual world.

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

Movie Review The Curse of La Patasola

The Curse of La Patasola 

Directed by A.J Jones

Written by A.J Jones, Shaun Mathis

Starring Patrick Walker, Luciana Faulhaber, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer 

Release Date January 14th, 2022 

Some movies are just impossible to care about. They may have a scene or two that is pretty good or even a good idea or two in the storytelling and yet, they fail to engage your mind. The Curse of La Patasola is such a movie. Despite there being at least one legitimately good scene, the film from director A.J Jones never rises above mediocre to downright terrible. The low budget provides some excuses for the low rent nature but it can’t excuse the overall throwaway aspect of The Curse of La Patasola. 

The Curse of La Patasola stars Najah Bradley as Naomi, one of half of a pair of couples sharing a camping getaway. Both couples are struggling though they haven’t been talking about their problems. For Naomi, her boyfriend, James (Patrick R Walker), is too passive and doesn’t challenge her in the way she longs for. As for the other couple, Sarah and Daniel, played by Gillie Jones and director A.J Jones, they’re struggling with finances. Daniel has spent several years trying to get a business off the ground while Sarah has supported them both.

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

Movie Review The King's Daughter

The King's Daughter

Directed by Sean McNamara

Written by Perry Berman, James Schamus, Vonda N. McIntyre 

Starring Pierce Brosnan, Kaya Scodelario, William Hurt

Release Date January 21st, 2022

The King’s Daughter thrives on being the kind of movie Hollywood doesn’t seem to make anymore. It’s a family friendly, mid-budget, romantic adventure that earnestly evokes similar fare from the 80s and 90s. Blockbuster culture and the Marvel Movie Revolution had seemingly killed movies like The King’s Daughter but here we are. And, even more surprisingly, time has been kind to this genre. The King’s Daughter feels like a breath of fresh air at a time when the smog of blockbuster culture has held a chokehold on the big screen. 

The King’s Daughter stars the delightful Kaya Scoledario in the title role of The King’s Daughter, aka Mary Josephe, say it with a French accent so it doesn’t seem plain. Mary is a spirited child who believes she was an orphan because she grew up in a convent. Mary is unaware that when she was born her mother traveled to the convent to give birth in secret and unfortunately died in childbirth. Why did she decide to deliver in secret? Because the father was King Louis the 14th (Pierce Brosnan) and mom didn’t want him to know about the child if it wasn’t a male heir to the throne.

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

Documentary Chari XCX Alone Together

Charli XCX Alone Together

Directed by Bradley Bell, Pablo Jones-Soler

Written by Documentary 

Starring Charli XCX 

Release Date January 28th, 2022 

I love fandoms. I love dedicated groups of people who take to an artist and their art and become a community. It’s an online phenomenon that did not exist when I was young and part of various fandoms. I am still a fan of many different artists and their work but I’ve never been part of a fandom and I envy those who have that connection and are able to share their love of pop ephemera with other like-minded people. I’m happy when I see a group of people who get along and are able to find a space to share their dedication to something. 

The new documentary Charli XCX Alone Together is about a pop star coping with the pandemic, the lockdowns, and all that came with the start of COVID-19’s hold on the country. Part of how that pop star, Charli XCX coped with the pandemic and shelter at home was further embracing her fandom, bringing her biggest fans even closer to her via virtual hangouts on Zoom, Tweeting and interacting on social media, and eventually deciding to make an album that was fully part of her online community, one that could organically be attributed to her fans who contributed lyrics, ideas, art and support.

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

Movie Review Cyrano

Cyrano

Directed by Joe Wright

Written by Erica Schmidt, Edmond Rostand

Starring Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison

Release Date February 25th, 2022

Cyrano stars Peter Dinklage as Cyrano De Bergerac, legendary swordsman, soldier and wordsmith. Set in France in the 1600s, Cyrano finds our hero pining for his oldest friend, Roxanne (Haley Bennett) while she pines for a newly arrived soldier in Cyrano’s regiment. Christian De Neuvillette (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is a wide eyed new recruit who spots Roxanne in a crowd at the theater and shares a long romantic glance that each mistake for love at first sight. So powerful is this look that Roxanne arranges to meet with Cyrano to ask her friend to arrange their romance. 

Though it pains him to do it, Cyrano begins to coach Christian on how to woo Roxanne. However, when Christian proves to be foolish with words, Cyrano begins writing love letters on his behalf. The letters are filled with passionate prose dedicated to feelings for Roxanne that go well beyond the kind of first love fascination one has at first sight. Nevertheless, the letters work and Roxanne begins to believe that she has fallen in love with Christian through his passionate letters, even after their first in-person meeting goes horribly.

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

Movie Review They/Them/Us

They/Them/Us 

Directed by Jon Sherman 

Written by Melissa Vogley Woods, Jon Sherman

Starring Joey Slotnick, Amy Hargreaves, Jack Steiner

Release Date February 1st, 2022 

They/ Them/Us is a modern sitcom crossed with Fifty Shades of Grey. Though the movie has some minor charm it lacks anything to truly make it special. They/Them/Us is another in a surprising yet slow growing trend of sex positive movies that have the appeal of not shaming people over their sexuality but the film also carries the tone deaf quality of a woke dad, trying way too hard to show the kids how cool he is. 

They/Them/Us stars Joey Slotnick as Charlie Goldman, a college film professor recently separated from his wife. Charlie is getting back out into the dating world while also trying to co-parent a pair of obnoxious teenagers eager to blame their parents for every minor inconvenience in their life. For Charlie’s son, Danny (Jack Steiner), that means getting heavily into drugs, first marijuana and then psychedelics. For Danny’s sister, Anna (Shanna Strong) that means complaining that no one is doing anything about Danny.

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

Movie Review The Long Night

The Long Night

Directed by Rich Ragsdale 

Written by Mark Young, Robert Sheppe

Starring Scout Taylor Compton, Nolan Gerard Funk

Release Date April 8th, 2022

The Long Night is a remarkably dull and derivative horror movie. This story about a couple trapped in a southern plantation home by some form of powerful demonic cult paints itself into multiple corners that it has no hope of getting out of. The villains have too much power and our protagonists are a bickering couple who have zero chemistry. So that’s fun. Then the movie builds to an ending that features character motivations that shift so fast you may get whiplash trying to keep up with the silliness. 

The Long Night stars Scout Taylor Compton as Grace and Nolan Gerard Funk as her obnoxious boyfriend. While bickering over how bad her introduction to his parents was, a scene that happened off screen, the two travel to the deep south. The plan has the couple going to a southern plantation where the owner has offered to help Grace find information on the parents she never knew; they abandoned her when she was very young.

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

Movie Review The Wolf and the Lion

The Wolf and the Lion 

Directed by Giles De Maistre 

Written by Prune De Maistre, Giles De Maistre

Starring Molly Kunz, Graham Greene

Release Date February 4th, 2022

The Wolf and the Lion is a harmless trifle, a modestly charming family movie with zero edge and occasionally baffling continuity. The heart of the filmmakers is mostly in the right place but you can sense the marketing strings being pulled and tears being jerked with excessive force. Based on the true story of a real life friendship between a baby wolf and baby tiger who grew up together on a Canadian island, The Wolf and the Lion is inelegant but harmless. 

The Wolf and the Lion stars Molly Kunz as Alma, a piano prodigy dealing with the loss of a beloved family member. Alma’s kooky granddad owns an island on the coast of Canada where he worked to protect local wildlife from hunters and other human incursions. Granddad passed away and has left his island to his granddaughter in hope that she will keep up his conservation efforts for the local wildlife.

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

Movie Review Moonfall

Moonfall 

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Written by Roland Emmerich, Harold Kloser, Spencer Cohen 

Starring Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, John Bradley 

Release Date February 4th, 2022 

Moonfall stars the charisma vacuum that is Patrick Wilson, continuing in his astonishing magic trick, fooling the world into seeing him as a movie star. Wilson plays a NASA astronaut, Brian, who, while debating the lyrics of the song Africa by Toto, because random counts as a personality in a movie like Moonfall, sees a massive alien destroy the satellite he’s working on, killing a fellow astronaut. 

Through the necessity of the plot, Brian’s best pal back in the ship, Jo (Halle Berry), was knocked unconscious and did not see the alien Brian claims destroyed the satellite. Brian manages to fly the damaged ship back to Earth but is blamed for the failure of the mission and is left disgraced and broke. This is so he can needlessly play the cliché of someone whose bills all have final notice on them and lay face up on a table in place of an actual character. Jo meanwhile goes on to become the head of NASA and if you want her to have any more personality than simple competence, too bad.

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

Movie Review Cosmic Dawn

Cosmic Dawn 

Directed by Jefferson Moneo

Written by Jefferson Moneo

Starring Camille Rowe, Emmanuelle Chriqui 

Release Date February 11th, 2022

Cosmic Dawn stars Camille Rowe as Aurora. As a child Aurora witnessed her mother being abducted by aliens. She was 5 years old when it happened but her memories are still vivid. Regardless of her account however, people chalk up the alien story to having been traumatized by her mother’s disappearance. Aurora grows up a lost soul always searching for something she can’t quite wrap her mind around. 

Then one night after a rave party, Aurora finds herself drawn by the presence of an older woman to enter a bookstore. Once inside however, Aurora finds that the woman has vanished. The store clerk, Natalie (Emmanuelle Chiriqui), finds Aurora searching for the woman she saw in the supernatural section. While Aurora takes interest in a book about alien abduction, Natalie steers her toward a different book called Cosmic Dawn. A photo of the author reveals that she is the older woman that Aurora followed into the store.

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