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 The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle (2017) 

Director Destin Daniel Cretton

Written by Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham, Marti Noxon 

Starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, Max Greenfield, Sarah Snook, Naomi Watts

Release Date August 11th, 2017 

When I was an up and coming young radio talk show host, I had the privilege of interviewing author Jeanette Walls about her remarkable memoir The Glass Castle. Normally, in prepping for an interview in talk radio, you don’t have time to read entire books, you’re forced to skim and pick and choose important portions to discuss in the brief time you have with your subject. In the case of The Glass Castle however, I was lucky enough to have a full weekend and in that weekend, I read the entire book because I simply could not stop myself.

The adage has it that you should never meet your heroes because they never live up to your idealized version of them. Jeanette Walls defied that adage in every way in my brief interview. Just as in her book she was charming, erudite, earthy, and fascinating. She had the kind of wit that comes from combining the mountains of West Virginia with the privilege of Park Avenue. In short, she was as delightful in voice, it was a phone interview, as she was in written form.

Given how harrowing that written form was, the human result is that much more remarkable. It is this version of Jeanette Walls that I took with me into the film adaptation of her remarkable memoir The Glass Castle. The film version stars Academy Award Winner Brie Larson and thank heaven for her, she resembled the Jeanette Walls of my brief but exciting memory.

The Glass Castle stars Larson as Jeanette Walls in 1989 when her career as a gossip columnist for New York Magazine has brought her the kind of fame and security she could never have imagined while growing up in poverty on a West Virginia mountainside. This Jeanette Walls is perfectly coiffed, stylishly dressed, and on the arm of a handsome, nebbishy financial adviser, played by New Girl star Max Greenfield, giving her even more of the fiscal security she never knew as a girl.

We also meet that young, insecure version of Jeanette, played by a pair of young actresses, Chandler Head and Ella Anderson, whose brilliant but damaged father Rex (Woody Harrelson) and scatterbrained artist mother Rose Mary (Naomi Watts) shuttle her from one place to the next always outrunning some bill collector or agent of law enforcement. When she was very young, alongside her three siblings, these changes in scenery seemed like an adventure with her father as part ringmaster and part wizard. As Jeanette comes of age however, the magic begins to wear off and the stench of her father’s alcoholism and emotional abuse becomes unbearable.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Short Term 12

Short Term 12 (2013) 

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton 

Written by Destin Daniel Cretton 

Starring Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr, Lakeith Stanfield, Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, Melora Waters 

Release Date August 23rd, 2013 

With the release of The Glass Castle on August 12, director Destin Daniel Cretton is stepping into his first major Hollywood feature. Will he be ready for the pressure that comes with bigger budgets, bigger stars, studio involvement, and the inherent issues that come from attempting to adapt a vaunted best-selling memoir to the big screen? That question will only be answered in a review of The Glass Castle. What we do know is, if The Glass Castle is half the movie that Cretton’s breakthrough feature Short Term 12 is it will be worth the price of a ticket.

Short Term 12 tells the story of counselors working at a short-term home for troubled kids. Grace, played by Brie Larson, is the lead counselor at the home who feels as if she’s seen it all from the children in her care. Naturally, she’s in for a surprise with the arrival of Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever) who reflects so much of Grace’s own troubled childhood back at her that it throws the normally well put together Grace into a minor tailspin.

The key to the storytelling in Short Term 12 is intimacy. Director Cretton’s style is up close and personal with tight two person shots that enhance the moments of incredible, realistic intimacy as confessions are made, moments are had, and especially when tragedy strikes. Cretton does a wonderful job of capturing extraordinary moments while also remaining aware of the bigger picture story he’s telling.

The director is aided by a standout cast led by Larson whose big, beautiful beating heart comes through in every scene. Grace may have troubles of her own, but she never loses track of her empathy. Empathy is both Grace’s greatest strength and her biggest weakness as having too much to give leaves one vulnerable, and Grace’s vulnerabilities are a big part of the story being told in Short Term 12.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review The Gambler

The Gambler (2014) 

Directed by Rupert Wyatt

Written by William Monahan

Starring Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Michael K. Williams, Jessica Lange

Release Date December 25th, 2014

Published December 25th, 2014

Mark Wahlberg’s star power sustains “The Gambler,” a talky, existentialist meditation on gambling, addiction and self-destruction.  Without a star of Wahlberg’s charisma “The Gambler” would be a tough hike. Though playing against type as a philosophy-spouting, Dostoevsky-quoting college professor, Wahlberg finds just the right mix of magnetism and machismo to give life to the role of Jim Bennett. 

When we meet Bennett, he’s having an epic run of bad luck at a private casino owned by Asian gang members. In short order, Bennett goes way up and winds up way down -- $240,000 down. Desperate for help, Jim turns to his mother Roberta (Jessica Lange) who gives up the cash only for Jim to blow this $240,000 just as quickly. From there Jim begins a high-stakes scam, playing the money of one mobster against other mobsters, including Michael K. Williams as Neville Baraka and John Goodman as Frank. 

As good as Wahlberg is in “The Gambler,” he’s upstaged at every turn by Williams and especially by Goodman, who is Oscar caliber here. If you see “The Gambler,” see it first for a lesson in what Frank calls “Fuck-You Money.” This brilliant, sprawling monologue is delivered with such style and wit that you feel as if you really have learned something important, even if Jim doesn’t feel the same way. 

Also in Bennett’s orbit are a couple of students: Amy (Brie Larson), a talented writer, and Lamar (Anthony Kelley), a talented college basketball star. That Jim draws both into his massive scheme against his criminal debtors is an illustration of Jim’s twisted morality. Jim seems to have little empathy for others when his needs are involved. At least Wahlberg instills a heavy air of guilt in Jim’s manner. 

“The Gambler” was inspired by the 1974 film of the same title starring James Caan. The original was far colder and far more effective than the modern take. Where Wahlberg has guilt, James Caan has zero compunction about what he does to other people in his search for his next fix. Caan’s Axel was more obviously self-destructive than Wahlberg’s Jim. The only qualities the two characters really share are a shifty intelligence and charisma. 

Is Jim addicted to gambling? “The Gambler” doesn’t seem to be all that interested in that question. Certainly, Jim doesn’t seem capable of simply stopping. But his classroom oratories offer up an alternate theory for his gambling: a desire to feel something. As Bennett sounds off on Shakespeare or other legendary writers, he’s quick to share asides about his failure as a writer, where life has failed him and will fail his class. This gives strong indications about why he seeks out the highs and lows of high-stakes gambling as a way of coping with his life. 

“The Gambler” comes up short of greatness. It’s a little overlong in some areas and the soundtrack, though quite good, distracts from time to time. Nevertheless, the film is engaging and, with Wahlberg, it has a star who easily takes hold of our sympathies. Surrounded by Goodman, Williams and Larson, Wahlberg doesn’t always stand out front, but that’s to be expected because he’s among such an incredible ensemble of performers. 

Movie Review: Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel (2019) 

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck 

Written by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Geneva Robertson Dworet 

Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Scarlett Johansson

Release Date March 8th, 2019 

Published November 9th, 2023

When Captain Marvel was released in 2019 it managed to beat the hype of being just the latest entry in the smoking hot Marvel Cinematic Universe. Brie Larson came into full movie star form playing Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel. Larson’s chemistry with the cast was off the charts, the direction was kinetic and exciting and as a puzzle piece in the long term planning in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was an incredibly satisfying fit. On top of all of that, it was just a great action movie.

Now, with The Marvels debuting and Captain Marvel back on the big screen as part of her own superhero team, it's the perfect time to reflect back on Carol's unique introduction to the MCU. With the Marvel Universe in flux, a lot bad press surrounding the most recent movies in that cinematic universe, it's nice to be reminded just how good Carol's introduction to the MCU really was.

Brie Larson stars as Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, aka Vers to her fellow Kree Warriors. When we meet Carol she has been training as a Kree Warrior with a mysterious and forgotten past for several years. Flashes of memory keep popping up in her dreams but the pieces don’t fit. With the aid of her mentor and commander, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), Vers attempts to keep her memories at bay while focusing on her training and managing her remarkable abilities.

After meeting for the first time with the Kree ‘Great Intelligence,’ Vers gets her very first mission. Under the command of Yon-Rogg, Vers will go to an alien planet and rescue a Kree spy in the midst of a Skrull controlled planet. The Skrulls are a race of dangerous aliens, the greatest foes of the Kree, who have the disturbing ability to morph their features into those of anyone they see down to a DNA level of mimicry.

In her first mission, Vers is captured and her memories are accessed and she is forced to confront her past. When she eventually makes her escape, her only way out is a Skrull escape pod programmed to go to Earth. Here, Carol will be forced to confront her true identity as she battles the Skrull leader Thalos to keep him from retrieving technology created by a figure from Carol’s past, Dr Lawson (Annette Bening), tech that could change the course of the war between Kree and Skrull forever.

Along for the ride, and discovering aliens for the first time in his career is Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson). Captain Marvel may be the origin story for Carol Danvers but it also provides a little more of the origin story for the future leader of Shield and the man behind the Avengers’ initiative. Captain Marvel is set in 1996 and the picture we get of a young-ish Nick Fury is pretty great. Baby-faced rookie Agent Phil Coulson is another standout treat.

The chemistry between Brie Larson as Carol and Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury is off the charts fantastic. These two actors have a comfort, familiarity and ease that would be more expected of actors who had worked together for years rather than having never met before. Larson and Jackson have a comic connection that never fails to charm and when it comes time to fight that same natural chemistry increases the fun and excitement in that arena as well.

Captain Marvel was the first major big screen release for the indie darling director duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and they proved themselves more than ready for the spotlight. The action is exceptionally captured and exciting, the special effects are flawless, the script is tight and focused and the character work is some of the best in the MCU. Much of this can be traced to the steady creative hands of Boden and Fleck.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media