Movie Review May December

May December (2023) 

Directed by Todd Haynes

Written by Samy Burch 

Starring Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton, D.W Moffett, Piper Curda 

Release Date November 17th, 2023 

Published November 15th, 2023 

A few days ago I watched David Fincher's new movie The Killer and I was left wondering if that film was intended to be a comedy. Not a traditional comedy mind you, rather a David Fincher comedy. A David Fincher comedy finds humor in a way that is far from typical comedy. It's a humor that either you get it or you don't and the filmmaker doesn't particularly care whether you understand the joke or not. It's a puzzling movie, to say the least. Now, I find myself watching another movie by another famously particular auteur and having the same question: Is this comedy? 

Todd Haynes' new movie, May December, starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman tells a story that would not, on the surface, seem appealing to Haynes' particular type of movie. The film tells the story of an actress, played by Portman, who travels to Savannah, Georgia to meet the real life woman that she is set to play in a new movie. That woman is played by Julianne Moore and some 30 odd years earlier, she went to prison after she had an affair and a baby with a 13 year old boy, played as a grown up by Harry Melton. 

If this scenario sounds familiar, you probably grew up in the 1990s and you recall the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, a teacher who was caught having sex with a 13 year old student named Vili Fualau. She was arrested and convicted of statutory rape. She became pregnant before heading to prison and went on to marry her much younger baby daddy when she was in her mid-30s and he was only 18 years old. The couple stayed together for over 20 some years before ending their marriage just before Letourneau passed away in 2020. 

That kind of trashy, tabloid story would not appear to suit the man who made such elegant movies as Carol and Far From Heaven. That said, both of those movies are about tearing away the blinders that many choose to wear regarding the America of the 1950s and 60s to reveal the trashy, ugly, and awful core that many Baby Boomers, and their parents, would like to forget. In this case, Haynes applies his talents to a story from the 1990s and he's pulling back the veil on a story we'd all put behind us and tried to ignore. We'd all made up our minds about Letourneau and her teenage victim, she was the older person in the relationship and bore responsibility for it. 

Haynes doesn't try to change or complicate our memory but he does appear to add some texture and nuance to it. While we laughed at late night jokes at the expense of Letourneau in the 1990s there was a real person there and she did go on to marry her victim. What was that about? Is this a love story? Or is it something more sinister, a case of grooming that was so pervasive in the public that we collectively tried to ignore the fact that it didn't actually end when Letourneau went to prison. The story continued, she married her victim, they had more children and we all turned away to search for the next big scandal. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Documentary Review Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer

Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer 

Directed by Thomas von Steinaecker

Written by Documentary 

Starring Werner Herzog 

Release Date December 5th, 2023 

Published November 9th, 2023 

Like many cinephiles, I have a particular fascination with the legendary director Werner Herzog. I find Herzog's work to be incredible, dangerous, unique, and often quite alien when compared to the kinds of movies I spend most of my life writing about. Herzog's work has a hypnotic quality to it, especially his documentary work where he lingers on beautiful images and in that mellifluous, German accented voiceover he explains the beauty or the horror, or the fascinating sight before us and draws us in with his philosophical and unique observations. 

The new documentary, Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer, aims to do for Herzog what he has done for his own subjects, reveal their fascinating qualities and revel in the beauty of such observation. Radical Dreamer opens on Herzog driving the streets of Los Angeles. He's taking director Thomas Von Steinaeker, and by extension, us, to one of his favorite places in Los Angeles. But first, Herzog muses about how doesn't actually dream. He hasn't had an actual dream in years. Rather, he has waking dreams while driving for 20 hours or so on a random road trip. In these dreams he has various visions that appear like dreams. 

Only Werner Herzog could make falling asleep behind the wheel of a moving car sound like a lovely and poetic experience. Of course, having spent a portion of his career working with Klaus Kinski, a vehicle crash is probably not something that would phase you. Radical Dreamer will take us through Herzog's legendary career, stopping on several of his most famous productions, with Kinski showing up to be Kinski, unhinged, bugged eyes, screaming and threatening Herzog and his crew with various forms of physical threats. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Albert Brooks Defending My Life

Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (2023) 

Directed by Rob Reiner 

Written by Documentary

Starring Albert Brooks, Rob Reiner 

Release Date November 11th, 2023 

Published October 4th, 2023 

It's rare, if not impossible, to find a consensus funniest person in comedy. That said, the closest one might come to a consensus all time funniest is Albert Brooks. Few in the world of comedy are as widely beloved and respected as the stand up comic turned SNL break out star to filmmaker. Brooks unites a coalition of comedy greats in the opinion that he is wildly funny, influential, and respected. That's clear from the new documentary on Brooks' career called Albert Brooks: Defending My Life. The documentary, directed by Brooks' lifelong friend Rob Reiner is mostly a conversation between the two filmmakers that is occasionally broken up by an all star cast of comedians praising Brooks. 

Oh, and that conversation is occasionally interrupted by some of the most incredible archive footage possible. Reiner, with access to Brooks' vast catalogue of comedy dating back to the late 60s and early 70s, unearths some absolute gems. Brooks was a hardworking comic and made appearances on any variety show that would have him. He soon became a beloved talk show guest, performing stand up routines unlike any comic on the planet, true comedic art projects that Brooks pulled off the top of his brilliant comic imagination. Though known today as a remarkable writer, Brooks' approach to the medium of stand up was freeform and completely unpredictable. 

Even before he became a celebrity, Brooks was beloved and ballyhooed in comedy circles. While attending High School alongside Rob Reiner, Rob's dad, Carl, saw Brooks perform at a school talent show. Brooks recounts the bit he did, one fitting of his off the cuff comedy style, and how it left Carl Reiner, then one of the most beloved minds in comedy, rolling in the aisles. So impressed was Carl Reiner that when he appeared on the Steve Allen Show, shortly after seeing Brooks perform, and before the rest of the world had heard of Brooks, Reiner called Albert the funniest guy he's ever seen. 

That's remarkable praise coming from a man who counts Dick Van Dyke and Mel Brooks as his closest friends. That's also a testament to the power of Albert Brooks, a witty guy who is not above turning himself into a spectacle for a laugh. The opening of the documentary features a routine in which a sullen Brooks lamenting his place in the world of cerebral comedy. He swears that he can be wacky and while holding onto his somber tone, he proceeds to drop his pants and hit himself in the face with a pie, all while demonstrating contempt for physical comedy, it's meta before meta was a thing. Indeed, Brooks is likely THE progenitor of meta comedy. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media

Documentary In the Court of King Crimson

In the Court of King Crimson: King Crimson at 50 (2023) 

Directed by Toby Amies 

Written by Documentary

Starring Robert Fripp, King Crimson 

Release Date November 3rd, 2023 

Published November 3rd, 2023 

Robert Fripp is a bit of a control freak. The leader turned ruler of the band King Crimson has ruled the band with an iron fist for more than 50 years. The new documentary, In the Court of King Crimson: King Crimson at 50, details Fripp's control freak nature, the bridges that Robert has burned with past members and the comfort Robert has developed with a group of musicians who've grown comfortable doing what Robert asks of them. I sound like I am being critical but I am truly not intending that. If the members of King Crimson are happy taking orders from Robert, and the result is the exotic and extraordinary music of King Crimson, who am I to complain about it. 

King Crimson formed in 1969 and were fractured within their first year of existence. Two of the original members, having tired of Robert's iron grip on the band, decided that life was too short to be under the rule of Robert and left. Robert chose their replacements and moved on. Every so often over the next next 50 years, Robert would choose new band members and when he tired of them, no matter how long they'd been with the band, he'd fire them and replace them. A telling story has one band member who became part of an iconic lineup for the band was unceremoniously let go after over a decade with the band. He was the lead singer at the time. 

King Crimson is like a constantly evolving musical experiment with Robert Fripp as the mad scientist. Having helped to define the notion of a prog-rock band, King Crimson toured and recorded for 50 years while developing a loyal and dedicated fanbase who don't seem to mind that Robert Fripp openly berates them during shows for occasionally distracting him. The band is famously private about their live shows and have gone to great lengths to punish anyone attempting to record their show or even grab a still photo of the band during a show. It sounds almost impossible in the day and age of the smartphone but its true, King Crimson concerts are a phone free environment. 

Fripp is prickly and fastidious but also fascinating. He claims to practice playing the guitar for 6 hours a day. Seated in his living room, Robert will noodle away on the guitar, following his muse wherever it takes him for hours on end. So yeah, he takes King Crimson very seriously and he has for the past 5 decades. This makes the music of King Crimson that much more fascinating as the band appears to spend a good deal of their live performances jamming and riffing off of whatever Robert decides to play. It's an improvisation highly reminiscent of Jazz fusion but with a classic rock edge. And it sounds incredible. 

I've not spent much time listening to King Crimson in my life, they don't have many singles and, because of their prog-rock style, they were rarely on the radio. Hit singles are hard to come by when your songs run on for endless runs, solos, and random sounds that Robert Fripp has collected and catalogued over 50 years, slipping these sounds seamlessly into King Crimson live performances via a large tower he keeps on stage next to him. The tower gets more time and care than any piece of equipment on stage because if it fails, there is no back up. If it goes, all of the sounds go with it. 

Find my full length review at Beat.Media

Movie Review Dicks The Musical

Dicks The Musical (2023) 

Directed by Larry Charles 

Written by Aaron Jackson, Josh Sharp 

Starring Aaron Jackson, Josh Sharp, Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, Megan Thee Stallion 

Release Date October 27th, 2023 

Published October 31st, 2023

Dicks The Musical is not quite as filthy as that title might imply. Don't get me wrong, the movie is uproariously filthy, but it's not filled with much full frontal male nudity. That remains one of the very few taboos that Dicks the Musical doesn't confront, at least not head on. Of all of the things that Dicks the Musical gets away with under the banner of an R-Rating, the sillier that Larry Charles and writer-actors Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, make the MPAA look like a completely joke. Yeah, you can show two men in an aggressive, upside down nude embrace as long as you only show their butts. It's that kind of charged silliness that drives Dicks the Musical in humiliating the Hollywood ratings board. 

Dicks the Musical centers its story on a pair of gay men, Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, who are playing a pair of non-gay characters, alpha male types who have a different woman every night and a six figure salary plus commissions as the top salesmen of their company. Named Craig and Trevor respectively, these two manly beasts are about to come face to face for the first time as their company, Vroomba, is combining their sales staff from two sides of the same big city. This will prove to be important as Craig and Trevor are twins, separated at birth. No, they look nothing alike, but for the purposes of this story we are asked to go along with the gag.

Discovering their brotherly bond, not because they look like, but rather because they carry to different sides of a necklace, Craig and Trevor excitedly start dreaming of reuniting their parents. To do this, they will engage in their own version of The Parent Trap with each going undercover in the home of the parent who abandoned them. For Craig, this means meeting his mother, Evelyn (Megan Mullally) for the first time. As for Trevor, he is going to meet his father, Harris (Nathan Lane) for the first time. Using the skills that made them top salesman, they believe that they can convince their parents to get back together, Parent Trap style. 

Find my full length review at Filthy.Media

Documentary Review Pay or Die

Pay or Die (2023) 

Directed by Rachel Dyer, Scott Alexander Ruderman 

Written by Documentary

Starring The Public Fight Over Insulin

Release Date November 1st, Streaming on Paramount Plus November 14th 

Published October 31st, 2023 

I was going to say that other countries in the world are laughing at our healthcare system but that's not true. You see, other countries have a deep wealth of empathy for others so rather than mock us for the mess that is our healthcare system, our insurance nightmare, and the con-game that is our pharmaceutical industry, other countries feel pity for us. Friends from other countries ask me regularly to come live in their country because they know how much I pay for Asthma medication that I have to have in order to live. It's medication I could get for a fraction of the price in other countries and that I have to scrimp and save for in a country where I am one of the people who actually has affordable insurance. It's just insurance that doesn't cover the one drug I need in order to keep breathing. 

The new documentary, Pay or Die, from directors Rachel Dyer and Scott Alexander Ruderman is far more harrowing than even my modest struggle every few months to purchase asthma medication. Pay or Die is about how pharmaceutical companies are gouging people who can't live without insulin. Let me be clear, they are gouging people who can't live without insulin. The cost to produce insulin versus the price that patients must pay for insulin is a four figure profit mark up for the three companies that produce 90% of the insulin made in America. These companies sell insulin in America at 4 figure prices whereas you can buy insulin in Canada, Great Britain, or Switzerland for a between 15 and 20 bucks. 

This means that poor Americans are dying because they can't afford to purchase a drug that they need to stay alive. Pay or Die opens its story on just one of those deaths. A 24 year old man making minimum wage could not afford to buy his insulin for his Type 1 Diabetes. He was hoping that he could ration what little insulin he had until his next payday. His friend went to pick him up for work and found him passed out on the floor of his apartment. He had passed away because he'd not been able to afford more insulin and his payday did not arrive in time. 

If you don't know about Type 1 Diabetes, the fact is, you can't simply go a few days without insulin. It's deadly to not have insulin on hand. But, this young man could not afford it and insurance and an apartment and a vehicle so he was trying to get through from one paycheck to the next. The bill for his monthly insulin was in the range of $1500 dollars per month. This is because the price of Insulin, in just the last 5 years has gone up over 600%. The three companies that produce 96% of all of the insulin in America have profits in the billions and insulin is a top profit driver for those companies. 

Read my full length review at Longevity.Media 

Movie Review Rustin

Rustin (2023) 

Directed by George C. Wolfe 

Written by Julian Breece, Dustin Lance Black

Starring Colman Domingo, Aml Ameen, Glynn Turman, Chris Rock, Jeffrey Wright 

Release November 3rd, 2023

Published November 2nd, 2023 

I must be honest, I am not sure I can review the movie Rustin objectively. The film stars Colman Domingo, an actor whom I have interviewed on three occasions and who I have found thoroughly charming. Despite being an actor on a media tour on which he spoke to numerous journalists and was undoubtedly as the same questions again and again, Domingo is one of the most dynamic and kind interview subjects I've had the pleasure of talking to. And, on top of that, after my first interview with him, he remembered my name the next two tours I was on with him and recalled details from the prior interviews. The man is a wonder. 

With that out of the way, Colman Domingo is exceptional in Rustin. Based on the true story of the 1963 Civil Rights march on Washington D.C, Domingo plays the driving force behind the March, Bayard Rustin, a controversial figure in the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s. Rustin was at the right hand of Martin Luther King (Aml Ameen) until Bayard over played his hand politically and King was forced to side against him, causing Bayard to resign and leave the Civil Rights movement all together for several years. 

Rustin was drawn back into the Civil Rights struggle after seeing the horrors being committed by authorities in Alabama. Reverting to his roots as a planner and organizer, Rustin gathers together a disparate group of young radicals in California and starts planning for a two day march on Washington D.C intended to put pressure on Congress to pass President Kennedy's Civil Rights bill. The plan is for more than 100,000 black people to gather on the National Mall where people like Dr. Martin Luther King and prominent black leaders from around the country will address the crowd. 

8 weeks is the time frame when Bayard pitches the idea to Union Leader and Civil Rights legend, A. Phillip Randolph (Glynn Turman). The idea would be absurd if it weren't for Bayard Rustin whose talent for organizing is seemingly unmatched at the time. Randolph is on board but it will take a lot more convincing to get black leaders involved. Specifically, Roy Wilkins, the head of the NAACP is no friend or fan of Rustin. It was Wilkins who appeared to orchestrate Rustin's ouster from leadership among Civil Rights leaders, and help divide Rustin from his friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King. 

Click here for my full length review 

Movie Review The Holdovers

The Holdovers (2023) 

Directed by Alexander Payne 

Written by David Hemingson 

Starring Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da'Vine Joy Randolph 

Release Date October 27th, 2023 

Published November 20th, 2023 

The Holdovers is the story of three people trying to avoid discomfort, sadness, and reminders of grief and loss. It's a story that patiently and comically lays out the case that avoiding life is as painful or more painful than risking pain or sadness in the pursuit of something good. The trio of main characters in The Holdovers are cut off from the world physically and, more importantly, metaphorically as they'd like to avoid discomfort or wish that they could shape the world to what they want it to be. They will each learn that the world doesn't conform to anyone's will and that hiding from the world is not the answer. 

Paul Hunham, a perfectly rumpled Paul Giamatti, is the most hated teacher at Barden Academy, a private school for very, very, rich boys. Hunham is openly contemptuous and hostile toward students who don't appear to take their learning as seriously as he does. Hunham doesn't appear to enjoy many things but he does relish openly insulting students who fail to meet his standard of excellence in learning. Oh but, Paul's contempt is not reserved for just the lesser students in his class. He has hate for school staff, fellow teachers, and for his boss, a former student of his who can't understand how Paul has remained at the school considering how miserable Paul appears to be at all times. 

The plot of The Holdovers kicks in when one of Paul's fellow teachers schemes his way out of staying at the school for the winter/Christmas break. Thus, the duty of staying behind at the school and supervising kids left behind by parents and guardians, falls to Paul. Admittedly, Paul was going to be at the school during the break anyway, he doesn't have a life or home away from Barton. Monitoring the holdover students will also allow Paul to indulge in his dictatorial style of teaching even during a time when students are supposed to be on a break. 

There are five students this year who have nowhere to go for the holidays. Among the five is Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a brilliant young man haunted by the ghost of his father. The other four students are soon shuffled off to a convenient trip with a generous parent but Angus is stuck as his mother is refusing to respond to repeated calls. Thus, we end up with Paul, Angus, and the school's head cook, Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph). Mary is grieving the loss of her son who was killed in Vietnam not long before the setting of this story in December of 1970. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media

Movie Review Dream Scenario

Dream Scenario (2023) 

Directed by Kristoffer Borgli 

Written by Kristoffer Borgli 

Starring Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Dylan Baker, Tim Meadows 

Release Date December 1st

Published November 30th, 2023 

Dream Scenario stars Nicolas Cage as college professor, Paul Matthews, a bang average human being who randomly starts showing up in the dreams of strangers and acquaintances alike. Why? No one knows. It starts with Paul's youngest daughter, Sophie (Lily Bird), who suffers a nightmare in which things fall from the sky and her father is there and does not react. He continues just to watch as Sophie begins to float away, all the while calling for him as he stands and watches, doing nothing. As Sophie relates this dream the following morning, Paul can't help but seize on how he feels Sophie is portraying him as a bad father for letting her float away, something she was not doing. 

Paul seems to seek out things to take offense to, personal slights that he can seize on as if the world were always conspiring against him. One such offense occurs that same day as Paul attends a lunch with a former colleague. He's chosen to confront this colleague on the vague assumption that she's about to publish a paper that he believes was inspired by his work over a decade earlier. The deeply awkward and uncomfortable confrontation occurs at a restaurant at what this colleague believed would be a friendly bit of catching up. The friend hasn't even picked up her menu before Paul accuses her of not crediting him on her paper.

Never mind that in the more than a decade since they have spoken that Paul had not published on this topic, he's the one who has been slighted. The scene is edgy and anxiety inducing because we've only begun to know Paul and this is our first lengthy introduction to Paul and he's a sweaty, stammering, deeply awkward mess who doesn't realize what a mess he is. Paul is clearly in the wrong her and his gross entitlement and barely restrained anger charge the scene with a finger nails on a chalkboard like feeling of skin crawling physical cringe. 

This feeling will return throughout the entirety of Dream Scenario as Paul grows into a strange viral celebrity and, as happens with such odd fame, he quickly turns into a canceled villain. If you think Paul is hard to take as a smiling, entitled minor celebrity, just wait for the levels of angst inducing cringe behavior he will engage in as his celebrity curdles into infamy. Nicolas Cage's performance is twitch inducing. He makes you wish you could flee from him even as you can't tear yourself away from this fascinating story as it unfolds. The premise is such a grabber that the question of why this guy is appearing so many different stranger's dreams keeps you rooted to your seat. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

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

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

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 

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