Movie Review Phantom Thread

Phantom Thread (2017) 

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson 

Written by Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring Daniel Day Lewis, Lesley Manville, Vicky Krieps 

Release Date December 25th, 2017 

Phantom Thread is incredible. I’m not surprised by this; P.T Anderson has proven to be one of the most remarkable and consistently inventive directors of his era. Nothing surprises me about P.T Anderson crafting an incredible film. What did catch me off guard was the strange and fascinating way in which Phantom Thread is incredible. There is no predicting where this study of obsession and genius is headed.

Reynolds Woodcock, a name that could only belong to a character played by Daniel Day Lewis, is a famed London designer. Woodcock has dressed queens, princesses, movie stars, and many of the world’s moneyed elite. His attention to detail and peculiar sense of style is unmatched by designers of his day. This peculiar and obsessive manner, however, comes at the price of his relationships.

Woodcock can’t stand to be around anyone other than his sister, Cyril (Leslie Manville), who manages the House of Woodcock. Cyril’s duties include managing Reynolds’ business affairs and his personal affairs, such as when Reynolds tires of a female companion and cannot be bothered to be rid of them himself. Any early scene has Cyril sending a soon-to-be-former companion on her way barely batting an eye.

So averse to conflict or disruption is Reynolds that he takes off for his country home while Cyril clears out this latest affair. It’s not long, however, before Reynolds’ well trained eye has fallen on a new subject. While having breakfast at a country inn, Reynolds is smitten with Alma (Vicky Crieps). At first he is charmed by her awkward beauty but soon we find that he wishes to dress her, seeing her frame as perfect for his work.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal.Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Winchester The House that Ghosts Built

Winchester The House That Ghosts Built (2018) 

Directed by The Spierig Brothers 

Written by Tom Vaughn, The Spierig Brothers 

Starring Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook 

Release Date February 2nd, 2018 

Winchester is yet another silly ghost movie. Despite a cast headed by Helen Mirren, Winchester—subtitled as The House that Ghosts Built—skulks about re-enacting ghost tropes with bad lighting and cinematography, all building toward the same jump scares we’ve seen in every other ghost movie. How predictable are the jump scares in Winchester? All you have to do is remember the rule of three and you will not be surprised.

The Winchester family started the Winchester Repeating Arms company in the mid-1800s to remarkable success. Success, however, is not the word that Sarah Winchester (Mirren) would associate with her husband’s creation. The Winchester Rifle is an instrument of death, arguably the best ever invented, but you would have to be of an odd mind to consider that successful.

Though Sarah and her family enjoy the spoils of their family creation, she has the good taste to feel bad about it. However, when it seems that her grief is manifesting as a belief in ghosts and haunted goings on, executives at the rifle company decide that she is perhaps not well enough to continue as the head of the company. In order to assess Sarah’s mental health, they employ Dr. Eric Pierce (Jason Clarke).

Like any protagonist in a ghost movie, Dr. Pierce has a tragic backstory. Several years prior to the setting of our story, Dr. Pierce died…only briefly. Dr. Pierce was shot and nearly killed by his mentally ill wife, and this association with death is why Sarah Winchester allowed him to be the doctor to assess her well-being. Dr. Pierce travels to California and to Sarah’s bizarre mansion, which has remained under constant, 24-hours-a-day construction since the day it was built.

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Movie Review Columbus

Columbus (2017) 

Directed by Kogonada 

Written by Kogonada 

Starring John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Rory Culkin, Parker Posey 

Release Date August 4th, 2017 

The film language of Columbus is quite striking. Director Kogonada elegantly eschews expository dialogue in favor of allowing his camera to deliver essential information. The story of Columbus centers on a pair of lost souls, Jin, played by John Cho, and Casey, played by Haley Lu Richardson. Jin and Casey bond over the architecture in the city of Columbus, Indiana, which has a unique architectural history to it.

Architecture is a major theme of Columbus, as Kogonada puts the incredible designs in Columbus in the foreground but never at the expense of his characters. The architecture of Columbus compliments the characters and their evolving friendship, often marked by Casey’s list of her top five favorite buildings in Columbus. The architecture of the buildings is a great deal like the architecture of this budding friendship with its unusual foundation, and the use of glass, a hallmark of the city’s architecture, and a strong reflection of the growing transparency of emotion between Jin and Casey.

You may think from my description that you know where this story is headed, some sort of romance between Jin and Casey. You are not entirely wrong, but you are not entirely right either. I will not spoil it for you; I will only say that Columbus is much smarter and more thoughtful than some romantic comedy. This is a character study and Kogonada has constructed a pair of very compelling and complex lead characters.

That is enough of a description for you, so let us return to film language and highlight why I love Kogonada’s direction; especially considering this is his first feature and he demonstrates tremendous craft for a first-time feature filmmaker. Part of the story of Columbus concerns Jin’s father, having traveled from Seoul, South Korea to Columbus for a talk on architecture. While there, he falls ill and into a coma and this brings Jin from Korea to Columbus.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Just Charlie

Just Charlie (2018) 

Directed by Rebekah Fortune

Written by Peter Machen 

Starring Harry Gilby, Scot Williams, Mark Carter 

Release Date January 26th, 2019 

Just Charlie left me an emotional mess. This story about a boy realizing that he is a girl is one of the most emotional experiences that I have had watching a movie. I like to believe that I am an ally to people like Charlie and most certainly am in my heart. Just Charlie, however, reminded me that I have so much to learn and to understand about the experience of someone who is struggling to be whom they really are.

Just Charlie stars young Harry Gilby as Charlie, a standout football/soccer player with a chance to move on to Premiere League. He’s being recruited and his father, Paul (Scot Williams), is over the moon about his son’s success. Paul was a footballer as a young man, but injuries left him unable to succeed in the way Charlie can and like so many struggling fathers, he’s trying to live his dream through his son.

Charlie, however, has a secret; he’s a woman. I apologize as I am going to get the pro-nouns wrong which is not something an ally is supposed to do. It’s part of my learning process. If I use an incorrect term in reference to Charlie, please know that I am working on it. The early scenes of Harry Gilby’s performance are incredibly moving. I worried for a moment that the film was perhaps too invasive, voyeuristic, but soon the film finds just the right balance between respecting Charlie and letting us into her mind.

Things have been very easy me throughout my life. I am a straight, white, male, who has never had to struggle with my identity or with the mindless scorn of mindless people. Watching Charlie struggle and fight within and without floored me. I was always aware of this struggle, and I have seen it portrayed in other works, but something about this teenage girl, this child, having to feel like this and feel so confused and alone, broke my heart into a million pieces.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Hostiles

Hostiles (2017) 

Directed by Scott Cooper 

Written by Scott Cooper 

Starring Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Jesse Plemons, Ben Foster

Release Date December 22nd, 2017 

Scott Cooper is one of the most focused and intense filmmakers working today and the proof of that comes in his latest film, the western, Hostiles. Hostiles stars Christian Bale as military officer in the New Mexico territory who has spent over a decade fighting against Indians and securing the new American west from the people who rightfully owned that land.

Bale’s Captain Joseph Blocker is at the end of his military career when he’s told he has one more mission. The President of the United States has decided that Indians held as prisoners in the territories are to be freed and specifically, an Indian Chief named Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) is to be returned to his native home in Montana. Because the Chief is in poor health and the passage from New Mexico to Montana is lengthy and dangerous, Blocker must assemble a group and accompany his former enemy.

The early scenes of Blocker protesting the assignment given to him by his commanding officer, played with imperious glee by Stephen Lang, are the lowpoint of Hostiles. Cooper mistakenly shoehorns a reporter from Harper’s Magazine, played by Bill Camp, who acts as Captain Exposition, calling out Blocker for his cruelty on the battlefield and reputation for brutally murdering innocent and warring Indians alike.

When Blocker’s pension is threatened, he finally relents but only after getting his best friend, Master Sgt. Metz (Rory Cochrane) as a member of his team. Metz had his guns taken away after their last mission and was headed toward retirement after being diagnosed with Melancholia, what we would recognize today as suicidal ideation. Giving him his guns back is Blocker’s misguided attempt at giving his friend purpose again.

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Movie Review Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) 

Directed by Wes Ball 

Written by T.S Nowlin 

Starring Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Giancarlo Esposito, Aiden Gillen

Release Date January 26th, 2018 

The problem with the first two movies in The Maze Runner franchise was simple mediocrity and blandness. The films weren’t terrible, they weren’t poorly made; the movies’ just didn’t leave much of an impression. The expansive, bland but handsome teen cast was too large and not well developed enough as individuals to be memorable and lead Dylan O’Brien wasn’t bad either but the script did him few favors.

Now that we arrive at the final movie in the franchise, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, we get the first genuinely bad entry in the series. The Death Cure is an utterly moronic and misguided action movie that relies heavily on you remembering the two previous movies which may not have been terrible but were far from memorable. And on top of the homework the producers expect you to do in order to follow the plot; the film is 2 hours and 25 tedious minutes long.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure opens with an incredibly poorly staged action sequence. Our hero Thomas (O’Brien) and his allies are attacking a train owned by the evil, post-apocalyptic corporation WCKD, pronounced Wicked. I assume the evil corporation is called Wicked just in case the audience is dumb enough not to realize who the bad guys are.

Thomas and his team are here to rescue their friend Minho (Ki Hong Lee) whose name changes at least seven times throughout the movie, depending on which character is talking. I’m not kidding; at various points in the movie, Minho is called Minnow, Mean-Ho, and Meano. My best guess is that his name is pronounced Min-Ho but I can’t be sure about that. I spent a good deal of time considering the name because I had little else holding my interest.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review 12 Strong

12 Strong (2018) 

Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig 

Written by Ted Tally, Peter Craig 

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pena, Trevante Rhodes

Release Date January 19th, 2018 

The story of the Horse Soldiers of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11th attack is pretty damn remarkable. As told in 12 Strong, 12 American soldiers became the first American soldiers to hit back at al Qaeda by riding horses over some of the roughest terrain on the planet and taking the fight to the enemy in a way that hadn’t been seen since Roosevelt and The Rough Riders.

Based on a true story, Chris Hemsworth plays Captain Mitch Nelson who was recently moved to a desk job just before September 11th, 2001. Nelson had to plead with his superiors to be reunited with his team of Green Berets so that he could lead them in Afghanistan. Michael Shannon plays Chief Cal Spencer, Nelson’s second in command who manages to convince their superiors to bring Nelson back.

Nelson, Spencer and their 10-man squad arrive in Afghanistan where they convince Col. John Mulholland (William Fichtner) that they can do in three weeks, prior to the brutal Afghan winter, what the other teams could do in six weeks. It’s a bold and dangerous plan that will require Nelson and his team to not only directly engage the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters but also act as diplomats trying to keep the supposed "Northern Alliance" from crumbling before they reach their objective.

The Northern Alliance in Afghanistan was made up of three different warlords who were as eager to fight each other as to fight the Taliban. Nelson and his team are embedded with General Abdul Rashid Dostum (David Negahban). Those who follow world news closely will recognize that name as he is currently the Vice President of Afghanistan, and 12 Strong gives a strong indication as to how he has arrived in his place in the world.

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Movie Review Forever My Girl

Forever My Girl (2018) 

Directed by Bethany Ashton Wolf 

Written by Bethany Ashton Wolf 

Starring Jessica Rothe, Alex Roe 

Release Date January 19th, 2018 

Woof! Forever My Girl is a bad movie. This pseudo-Nicholas Sparks romance about a country music star who walked out on his wedding day and never went back to his hometown for seven years never, never rises above mediocre. Unfortunately, our lead character Liam wasn’t aware when he left that he had a daughter on the way. When a friend dies, he decides to return home for the funeral and finds out about the secrets he left behind.

That all sounds like a potentially good story, but as executed in Forever My Girl, it’s really terrible. Alex Roe stars as country music star Liam Page and I will give him this, he can sing. Beyond his pleasant voice, however, Roe is a void where charisma is supposed to be. Roe is just a hair above somnambulant in his energy level, even in the film’s most emotionally charged moments.

It doesn’t help that Jessica Rothe, recently of the far better, far more fun and exciting Happy Death Day, blows Roe off of the screen. Rothe, playing Josie, the film’s love interest, working through some of the most leaden dialogue and dull characterization, at the very least, brings some life to her performance. I think Rothe is a future star but she needs to avoid making movies like Forever My Girl, where her star qualities are dimmed by having to play down to her co-star and the material.

The story of Forever My Girl, as I mentioned, has potential to work but as presented by director Bethany Ashton Wolf, in her first feature in 11 years, we get boilerplate Robert McKee clichés dressed up with a lot of extremely dull country music. I’ve never been the biggest fan of country music, like any music there is good and bad, but country music seems much more open to the mediocre than other genres and boy is the music here mediocre.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Documentary Review Act and Punishment

Act and Punishment (2018) 

Directed by Yevgeny Mitta

Written by Documentary 

Starring Mariya Alyokhina, Boris Groys 

Release Date January 2018 

I will admit, I didn’t pay close enough attention to what Pussy Riot was really about. In my very Midwestern American way, I passively dismissed Pussy Riot simply because the name made me a little uncomfortable. I certainly could not talk about Pussy Riot on the radio on my talk show so I simply ignored the phenomenon. Now, I wish I hadn’t been so stupid. The new documentary Act & Punishment lays out the case that Pussy Riot is far more important than I had, in my limited worldview, ever imagined.

In 2011, a group of artists began to resist the rule of Vladimir Putin. Under Putin, Russia was beginning to revert to the era of dictatorships with Putin becoming so unquestioned as leader that he was able to name the people who would lead after him. Putin was gathering power around him and this included exerting influence over Russia’s most powerful religious leaders.

In the shadows a group of artists were beginning a small but notable rebellion. Specifically, three women decided that the best way to demonstrate against Putin was in the form of disruptive public performances. They chose the medium of punk rock because they weren’t trained musicians and yet they performed songs. They took their protests to the subways, public squares and prisons and performed songs such as “Mother of God, Drive Putin Away.”

The protests always ended the same with police dragging the women off to jail for several hours until they were released. This changed however when in 2013, Pussy Riot decided to perform inside the Moscow Cathedral. The protest was a disaster from the first moment. Someone had tipped off police that Pussy Riot would be attempting a guerrilla performance at the Cathedral and before they could even set up their instruments, police descended.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review The Commuter

The Commuter (2018) 

Directed by Jaume Collet Serra 

Written by Byron Willinger, Phillip de Blasi, Ryan Engle

Starring Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Jonathan Banks, Sam Neil

Release Date January 12th, 2018

The Commuter is yet another desperately silly effort from Liam Neeson. Once again teaming with director Jaume Collet Serra, Neeson is once again playing an action hero in a desperate situation in which life and death hang in the balance. At this point, a trip to the grocery store could be the premise for a Neeson action hero; it’s not as if he needs anything more than a place, a gun and an elaborate idiot plot for his Mad Libs take on the action genre.

In The Commuter, Liam Neeson stars as Michael, an Insurance Agent and former cop who takes the train to the city every day. Michael’s life is changed forever when he loses his job and on his commuter train home he is approached by an odd but attractive woman named Joanna (Vera Farmiga) who makes a unique proposition. Joanna wants Michael to use his knowledge of the regular riders on the train to find the one person who doesn’t belong.

This person is carrying a bag and Michael is to tag the bag with a GPS tracker. In exchange for doing this, Michael will receive $25,000 waiting for him hidden on the train and another $75,000 after he gets the job done. Michael is dubious until he finds the initial payment and decides to do the job. Naturally, nothing is as it appears. When Michael tries to back out of the deal he gets a message that his family is in danger and he is forced to continue.

I mentioned Mad Libs earlier and admittedly that is a shallow and glib interpretation. That said, we’ve seen Liam Neeson play a very similar character as this one only on a plane in Non-Stop. In that film, Neeson played an innocent man who was being framed for taking over a plane. Here, Neeson’s Michael is being framed for taking over a commuter train so as glib as the Mad Libs comparison is, it’s not exactly off-base.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review Proud Mary

Proud Mary (2018) 

Directed by Babak Najafi 

Written by John S. Newman, Christian Swegel, Steve Antin

Starring Taraji P. Henson, Billy Brown, Danny Glover 

Release Date January 12th, 2018

Proud Mary has the ambition and the movie star to become a franchise. The question it leaves behind, however, is whether or not the people behind it have the talent and investment to make it something more than just a stock action movie. For my money, other than star Taraji P. Henson, Proud Mary comes up quite short. Other than the star, there is nothing memorable or particularly special about Proud Mary.

Mary (Henson) is a professional killer and when we meet her, she’s hard at work. Sneaking her way into a high rise apartment in Boston, Mary dispatches her target with little effort. Unfortunately, she finds that her target has a son, Danny (Jahi Di’Allo Winston), who was home when she dispatched the target. Protocol would call for her to kill the kid but Mary has a code and when the kid doesn’t spot her, she slips away.

Cut to one year later, Mary has been tracking Danny, driven by her guilt. Danny’s life has gone from Boston high rise to living on the street and working for a low level Russian drug dealer named Uncle (Xander Berkley). When Mary decides to rescue Danny, she sets off a war between the Russians and her boss, Benny (Danny Glover). The Russians want revenge and Benny doesn’t know that it was his top killer who set off the war, only that everyone is now trying to kill everyone else. The plot turns on whether the kid will be Mary’s downfall by revealing her accidental betrayal.

The plot sounds a lot more active and engaged than Proud Mary actually is. The reality is that Proud Mary is rather dull. There are two signature action scenes in the movie and both are hampered by the cliché of faceless villains who can’t shoot straight. Only Mary and her former partner, Benny’s son Tom, played by Billy Brown, are allowed to hit things they aim at.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Paddington 2

Paddington 2 (2018) 

Directed by Paul King 

Written by Paul King, Simon Farnaby

Starring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Brendan Gleeson, Julie Walters, Peter Capaldi, Hugh Grant

Release Date January 12th, 2018

Before the comments come, I can already hear you: "lighten up!" "It’s just a kids movie!" "All the other critics like it!: I can hear you saying these things before you type them as a response to this review; there is no need for you to repeat them. I’m speaking of my hatred for Paddington 2 and what I already know will be the response to that hatred. Paddington 2 has received across the board raves and yet I hated almost every second of it.

Paddington 2 returns to the story of Paddington Brown, voiced by Ben Whishaw, the good hearted young bear that moved to London in the first film of this franchise and is now a staple of the lives of the residents in his small corner of London. Paddington spends his days wheeling about London accidentally righting wrongs or creating new forms of chaos via his lovable clumsiness.

Things take a turn when Paddington’s friend, antique shop owner, Mr. Gruber (Jim Broadbent), shows him a London Pop-up book that Paddington believes would be the perfect gift for his Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton), in place of her actually traveling to London. Unfortunately, the pop-up book is very expensive and Paddington will need to raise $1000.00 in order to purchase it.

The book, it turns out, is an artifact related to a traveling circus and when Paddington passes on its existence to a washed up former movie star named Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), the movie star remembers the legend around it and sets about stealing it while framing Paddington for the crime through the cunning use of disguise and sleight of hand magic.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Almost Paris

Almost Paris (2016) 

Directed by Domenica Cameron-Scorsese

Written by Wally Marzano-Lesnevich

Starring Wally Marzano-Lesnevich, Michael Sorvino, Abigail Hawk 

Release Date April 24th, 2016 

Almost Paris is a confounding movie. On the one hand, I like the characters; they’re consistently interesting people. On the other hand, some of the storytelling choices and the editing of scenes are so abrupt and odd that I can hardly make sense of the film as a whole. Directed by Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, Almost Paris is not a bad movie but it’s quite a peculiar movie.

Max (Wally Marzano-Lesnevich) has lost his job and is moving home with his parents, Claire (Susan Varon) and Richard (Adam Lefevre), in Oyster Bay, New Jersey. His sister Lauren and her husband Stephen (Ryan McCarthy) are already there with their five-year-old daughter Rosie (Lily Henderson) and things are strained in the family, to say the least. When everyone began moving back home, mom and dad were in the midst of selling their home to go to Paris.

Max’s return home is welcomed by his buddy Mikey-Mike (Michael Sorvino), a former baseball player who had a cup of coffee in the major leagues. Now, Mikey-Mike is divorced, barely sees his daughter, and fights with his ex-wife over a condo that Max helped them buy that they actually could not afford. Mikey doesn’t hold it against his old friend Max however, as Max remains one of the few people who can stand Mikey’s way of talking like a '90s teenage when he’s nearing 40. Mikey sounds like he would get on your nerves but the film sticks with his strangeness and it becomes endearingly doofy.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Sheikh Jackson

Sheikh Jackson (2017) 

Directed by Amr Salama

Written by Amr Salama, Omar Khaled

Starring Ahmed El Fishawy, Ahmed Malek, Maged El Kedwany

Release Date September 11th, 2017 

Sheikh Jackson is a rare and wonderful movie. This Egyptian production directed by Amr Salama and co-written by Salama and Omar Khaled, tells the unique and touching story of a Muslim cleric who has a crisis of faith related to the death of Michael Jackson. The story is about a man confronting his faith, his past, his family and his very self and each step of the way, this measured and thoughtful drama rarely misses a beat.

Sheikh Jackson stars Ahmed El Feshawy as Sheikh, that’s what people call him anyway, a cleric, a prayer leader, who has found himself unable to cry recently. Tears are urgent reminders for Sheikh that he is in loving fearful worship of God. That he is finding himself unable to reach tears during burial ceremonies and daily prayers is a significant crisis; so significant that he seeks medical attention from a psychiatrist.

The story of Sheikh Jackson shifts back and forth in time with the modern Sheikh a deeply serious and pious man in crisis and the young Sheikh who was rebellious and came to idolize Michael Jackson as a way of getting closer to a girl he liked. There is also a connection between his love of The King of Pop and his late mother, but you will have to see the movie to find out more about that.

Sheikh’s crisis of faith happens to coincide with the death of Michael Jackson on June 25th, 2009. He doesn’t want to believe that something as superfluous and decadent as a teenage appreciation of an American pop star could cause the very foundation of his faith to be shaken but the journey, he goes on isn’t nearly that simple. It’s a journey home to memories of his mother and his brutish, bullying but loving father.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal

Movie Review Insidious The Last Key

Insidious The Last Key (2018) 

Directed by Adam Robitel

Written by Leigh Whannell

Starring Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Davison, Caitlin Gerard, Spencer Locke

Release Date January 5th, 2018 

I’ve finally figured out why I love the 'Insidious' franchise so much. It’s not that the franchise is all that better than most modern horror films, it still has the clumsiness and exposition laden dialogue and awkward humor that mark most low budget horror of the era. But, what 'Insidious' has over other modern horror movies is great characters. Genuinely likable, funny, and strong characters that we can really root for, especially Lyn Shaye’s brilliant Elise Rainier.

Insidious: The Last Key stars Lyn Shaye as Elise Rainier. Elise is a psychic who can speak to the dead and she’s made a business of it with her partners, Specs (Leigh Whannell, also the series screenwriter) and Tucker (Angus Simpson). Together they battle demons but their latest investigation is one that hits close to home, quite literally for Elise; this haunting is in her childhood home in Five Keys, New Mexico.

In an exceptional opening scene we are introduced to Elise as a child, played by Ava Colker). We find that Elise has always had the ability to speak to the dead, an ability that her mother encouraged and her father punished, quite violently. The opening scene finds Elise locked in her basement by her abusive father and suffering an immense tragedy in the fallout. The opening is exceptionally well-staged with a terrific jump scare and a genuinely moving bit of tragedy that only deepens our connection to Elise our franchise heroine.

Cut to Elise awakening from a dream in her home in California. Each dream for Elise is a piece of a puzzle she can use when she goes into 'The Further' that place between life and death where she battles demons for the souls of those who are taken. It is then that Elise receives a call from a man in New Mexico who has a haunting that happens to be in Elise's childhood home. The demons are calling her back to the place where her gift first took hold.

Find my full length review in the Horror Community on Vocal 

Movie Review The Post

The Post (2017) 

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Josh Singer, Liz Hannah

Starring Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford

Release Date December 22nd, 2017 

The Post is an of-the-moment history lesson about the important role of the media in America. Steven Spielberg has made arguably the most relevant movie of our political moment, given the way that President Trump has made attacking the media a staple of his public discourse. Casting two of America’s most beloved and respected actors in the lead roles only deepens the importance of The Post.

The title The Post refers to the Washington Post, which in 1971 battled the Nixon White House over the so-called Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers refers to a study commissioned by then Secretary of State MacNamara, who tasked members of the Pentagon, including young genius, Daniel Ellsburg (Matthew Rhys), to study the state of the Vietnam War.

After not getting the positive returns that they had hoped to get, MacNamara lied to the media and tried to bury the report. Ellsburg then stole a copy of the report from Pentagon partners, The Rand Corporation, and made copies which he leaked to the New York Times. The Times began publishing the report in early 1971 in pieces before the Nixon White House took the Times to court to stop them.

This is where the Washington Post comes in. Spielberg picks up the story with a desperate Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) hammering his reporters to find out where the New York Times is getting their information. He wants a copy of the report so that the Post can publish them as well. While his reporters are scouring their sources, Bradlee’s boss, Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep) is battling with the board of directors over her position as owner of the company.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review Raw

Raw (2017)

Directed by Julia Ducournau

Written by Julia Ducournau

Starring Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Laurent Lucas 

Release Date March 15th, 2017

I hate the movie Raw. I hate every second of the movie Raw. This challenging cannibalistic French horror movie put me through the ringer for 99 challenging minutes and I hated it. And yet, I can’t say it isn’t a damn brilliant film. Director Julia Ducornau directs this movie with such surety, such confidence and with such undeniable wit that I have to admit my appreciation of the film as a work of art, even as I will never watch Raw ever again.

Raw stars Garance Marillier as Justine, an innocent young girl headed off to veterinary school. There, she is immediately subjected to hazing as the students are pulled from their beds by the upper classmen and are dragged through the halls before being taken to an all-night rave. There, Justine finally finds her older sister Alexia (Ella Rumpf) who was supposed to meet her earlier but left her to be found by the upper classmen, per the annual school ritual.

We are told that every freshman goes through a Hell Week like this where they are forced into all-night parties, must follow bizarre dress codes, and are covered in a substance that looks like blood. One of the hazing rituals requires the previously vegetarian Justine to eat the raw kidney of a rabbit. She refuses, but her sister steps in with force and she eats it. This sets off a series of shocking events that rise as the narrative rises and begins to turn your stomach.

I haven’t had an experience like Raw since I first saw Eli Roth’s Hostel. That film, however, lacks this movie’s precise tone and remarkable artistry. Where Hostel was shock for the sake of shock with the intent of making audiences vomit, Raw has a serious point on its mind, with allusions to women’s sexual awakening and freedom to the ways in which our society grinds up those who can’t compete to be consumed by those more prepared for a cutthroat world.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review In the Fade

In the Fade (2017) 

Directed by Faith Akin

Written by Faith Akin

Starring Diane Kruger

Release Date November 23rd, 2017

Fatih Akin’s In the Fade was among the contenders for the Palme D’or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and is now the German entry for nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards. It’s a well-accomplished film centered on a strong, emotional performance from Diane Kruger of Inglorious Bastards fame. I’m left to wonder unfortunately, if the film gets more attention for its shock ending than for much of what takes place in the narrative.

Diane Kruger stars in In the Fade as Katja. We meet Katja on her wedding day via shaky cam footage of her inside the prison where her fiancée, Nuri (Numan Acar) is being held on drug charges. Cut to several years later, Nuri is out of prison and owns his own accounting business. The couple now has a son named Rocco who Mom drops off with Dad before heading to a spa date with her sister.

When she returns to the office, it is surrounded by police and the offices is in flames. Someone bombed the office and police want to know if it is related to Nuri’s past as a drug dealer or perhaps due to ties with Kurdish Muslims from his home country, Turkey. What police fail to look into initially is a young, German, blonde who left a bicycle unattended outside the office that day. Katja saw her and remarked on her obvious Aryan heritage. The implicit answer is Nazi.

In the Fade starts at something of a crawl but picks up speed when we arrive at the trial which is tense and well filmed. Director Akin has well cast every part of this courtroom drama and I found it impossible not to become riveted, especially when Katja takes the stand and finds herself under the intense scrutiny of the Defense Attorney, played by Johannes Krisch.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal

Classic Movie Review Westworld

Westworld (1973)

Directed by Michael Crichton

Written by Michael Crichton

Starring Yul Brenner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin

Release Date August 17th, 1973 

Listeners to the Everyone is a Critic Podcast know that I have a strange relationship with Westerns. On more than one occasion I have spoken of not being a fan of the genre only to then end up praising movies like Open Range, Rio Bravo or, one of my all-time favorites, 3:10 to Yuma. This bizarre relationship to the Western has a lengthy and unique history.

When I was a kid, I told my dad that I didn’t like Westerns. Being a fan of the genre himself, he wanted to try to get me into it. I refused and protested and would not brook watching them quietly. His last attempt to get me into the gunfighting, horse riding genre was rather clever. He said, “What if we watch a Western that also has robots and sword fighting?" The movie was Westworld, and it became the first time I willingly accepted liking something remotely part of the Western genre.

Westworld starred Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as a pair of rich guys who take a vacation at a futuristic park called Westworld. Westworld is one of three rich guy playgrounds where a company called Delos has employed robot technology to recreate the experience of the past. There is Westworld, set in the dusty saloons and whorehouses of the old west. Roman World where patrons indulge in the excesses of ancient Rome and finally Medieval World where guests play around with Arthurian legends.

The first half of the film cleverly plays on the fun of playing dress up and having it appear so real. It’s a wonderful sort of amusement park where Benjamin and Brolin can throw down in a gunfight one night, spend the night with prostitutes at a bordello in the next and have an old west style barfight in the next. All these things are wonderfully fun until they're not.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review Pitch Perfect 3

Pitch Perfect 3 (2017) 

Directed by Trish Sie

Written by Kay Cannon, Mike White

Starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Elizabeth Banks

Release Date December 22nd, 2017

Low expectations are sometimes key to enjoying a particular kind of movie. For example, the third movie in a franchise that was only barely capable of supporting one sequel. The trailer for Pitch Perfect 3 turned out to be the perfect introduction to the supposed finale of the Pitch Perfect trilogy. The trailer was so bad that I expected the characters in the movie to walk on screen, fart, and give me the finger before walking off. That would have been only a slight improvement over that trailer.

What a nice surprise then to find that Pitch Perfect 3 is way better than the trailer indicated. Sure, the film is yet another iteration of the comedy of the awkward pause which has come to plague modern comedy since its introduction in the mid-oughts, but those jokes really only hang around the first half of the film. In the second half we get actual funny jokes and a bizarre plot that works even as it has no business working.

We pick up the story of The Bellas, the A Cappella singing group at the center of this franchise, struggling to find their place in the real world. Becca (Anna Kendrick) has her dream job as a music producer turning into a nightmare when she deals with a talentless rapper who dislikes her changes to his terrible song. Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) is out of work except for her street show performances as Fat Amy Winehouse and the rest of the Bellas are either bored or merely dissatisfied.

When the group mistakes an invitation to a party for an invitation to perform together at a party, they throw on their Bellas gear only to find humiliation and embarrassment waiting for them. Drowning their sorrows, they concoct a plan to get themselves on a USO Tour where they can at least spend time performing together. That the USO Tour also carries the opportunity to perform and tour with rap god D.J. Khaled makes it all the more exciting.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal