Movie Review Slingshot

Slingshot 

Directed by Mikael Hafstrom 

Written by R. Scott Adams, Nathan Parker 

Starring Casey Affleck, Laurence Fishburne, Emily Beecham, Tomer Capone

Release Date August 30th, 2024 

Published September 3rd, 2024 

Slingshot stars Casey Affleck as John, an astronaut who has earned the chance to travel to the farthest reaches of space. With his crewmates, Captain Franks (Laurence Fishburne), and Nash (Tomer Capone), he’s traveling to Titan. It’s a dangerous multi-year mission that includes a maneuver around a distant planet called ‘The Slingshot’ that will either send the crew to Titan or doom them to a slow, agonizing death in deep space. Needless to say, this is a mission that requires focus and mental fortitude. 

The crew will spend a long portion of this mission in hibernation. They will sleep their way to Titan under heavy sedation. Unfortunately, the sleep medications come with some potentially harsh side effects. One of those side effects is vivid hallucinations and John is certainly suffering from those. Before leaving for his mission, John met and fell in love with Zoe (Emily Beecham). The connection was so deep and intense that John might have considered giving up his mission to stay with her. Obviously that didn’t happen but it has led to him thinking that he sees Zoe on the ship and hears her voice in the halls.

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

Movie Review Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) 

Directed by Tim Burton 

Written by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar

Starring Jenna Ortega, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara

Release Date September 6th, 2024

Published September 6th, 2024 

A better title for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice would be Beetlejuice 2: Fulfilling Our Contractual Obligations. Or, even better, Beetlejuice 2: HERE! Now, Stop Asking Us to Make a Sequel to Beetlejuice. This sequel to 1988’s beloved horror comedy classic has the stink of a script that’s been sitting in a box in someone's attic for 30 years. Once contracts were signed, screenwriter's Miles Millar and Alfred Gough simply blew the dust off of it, tacked on a character to be played by "insert popular young actress here;” and gave it to Tim ‘where’s my check’ Burton to halfheartedly turn it into a movie. 

My thesis statement on why Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feels like a movie made at gunpoint from a script barely revised in the past 30 years comes in the form of jokes referencing the Disco era TV show Soul Train and the use of the 1978 Donna Summer hit MacArthur Park in a key moment of the final act. These references might have played in a Beetlejuice sequel written and released in 1991 but in a sequel released in 2024, these relics of the 1970s are going to baffle modern audiences. It’s clear from these gags that no one in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice bothered to make the movie even remotely relevant to a modern audience. That simply would have been too much work.

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

Movie Review The Front Room

The Front Room (2024) 

Directed by Sam and Max Eggers 

Written by Sam and Max Eggers 

Starring Brandy Norwood, Kathryn Hunter, Andrew Burnap 

Release Date September 6th, 2024 

Published September 10th, 2024 

I have a strong stomach for movies containing gross stuff. I have experienced the body horror of David Cronenberg, the horrors of numerous legendary horror movies, and I’ve endured the sight of Jon Voight’s stupid face. The point is, I can take a lot after more than 24 years of watching and writing about movies and yet, The Front Room grossed me out. The Front Room turned my stomach. Body horror is one thing but Bodily Function horror is an altogether different kind of horror, and one that I am not a fan of. 

The Front Room stars Brandy Norwood as Belinda, a college professor who is more than 8 months pregnant. Belinda and her husband, Norman (Andrew Burnap), have bought a new home but the purchase has them struggling financially. That struggle becomes even more daunting when Belinda is pushed out of her teaching position by simply no longer being scheduled for classes. It’s at this point that Norman finds out that his distant father has passed away. The two weren’t close and Norman hints that there was emotional and physical abuse involved, much of it related to his stepmother, Solange (Kathryn Hunter).

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

Movie Review Speak No Evil

Speak No Evil (2024) 

Directed by James Watkins 

Written by James Watkins 

Starring James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Aisling Franciosi 

Release Date September 13th, 2024

Published September, 13th, 2024 

Speak No Evil stars Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy as Ben and Louise Dalton, a couple vacationing in Italy with their young daughter, Agnes (Alix West Lefler). The trip is relatively mundane and going as planned until the family is befriended by another family headed up by Paddy (James McAvoy) and his wife, Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their son, Ant (Dan Hough). Ant has a condition that prevents him from being able to speak. The families spend the rest of their vacation together and things seem pleasant enough. 

After returning to their respective homes, the Dalton’s in London and Paddy’s family on a farm in the countryside, Ben and Louise are surprised with an invitation to spend a week in the country with their new friends. Struggling at home with Ben having lost his job and Louise battling the isolation of being in a new country with few friends and no other family around, the couple agree to accept the invitation. It’s a fateful decision as this trip is set to change everyone’s lives forever in ways they can’t begin to imagine.

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

Movie Review The Substance

The Substance (2024)

Directed by Coralie Fargeat 

Written by Coralie Fargeat 

Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid 

Release Date September 20th, 2024 

Published September 20th, 2024 

I love The Substance. I believe that The Substance is the best movie of 2024 so far and one of the best movies that I have ever seen. And yet, I am not sure how I feel about recommending that you see The Substance. This movie messed me up. I think that I am better for the experience but I also believe that I will be describing the experience of The Substance to my therapist so that I may fully recover from this experience. Does that sound like something that I can recommend to anyone? 

The Substance stars Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, a fitness guru of many years experience. Imagine Jane Fonda from the 80s, including her Academy Award winning acting career, and you have the basic template for Elisabeth Sparkle. Though she looks incredible, she's being pushed out of her fitness empire by a sleazy male executive, played by Dennis Quaid at his most ingeniously grotesque.

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

Movie Review My Old Ass

My Old Ass 

Directed by Megan Park

Written by Megan Park 

Starring Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Percy Hynes White

Release Date September 27th, 2024 

Published September 30th, 2024 

“I’d wish you a happy birthday but cis white men have had enough happiness.” 

That’s a line in the new comedy My Old Ass and, even as I am a cis white man, the line, as delivered by fresh faced, new star Maisy Stella made me chuckle. It’s a little clunky but modern. My description of the line and my reaction to it is a perfect summation of the movie My Old Ass, it’s a little clunky but quite modern in perspective. And, quite often, it made me chuckle. My Old Ass is a high concept, low key comedy about growing up, making mistakes and realizing that our mistakes inform our life as much as our successes. 

My Old Ass stars Maisy Stella as Elliott, a teenager just about to leave the nest. Elliott is leaving behind her family cranberry farm for the big city of Toronto, Canada for college and she’s not looking back. On her 18th birthday, Elliott and her two closest friends go to a remote part of their lakeside hometown and take drugs, specifically, psychedelic mushrooms. While tripping balls, Elliott encounters her 39 year old self, played by Aubrey Plaza. Elliot spends the night quizzing her older self about life in the future and what mistakes she should avoid to make their life better in the future.

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

Movie Review Joker Folie a Deux

Joker Folie a Deux 

Directed by Todd Phillips

Written by Todd Phillips 

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Catherine Keener 

Release Date October 4th, 1980

Published October 4th, 1980 

I was not a fan of 2019’s Joker. I felt the film was nihilistic and wallowed in the misery of the main character while trying to provoke audiences in the same way edgy teens provoke their elders on social media. The film proceeds with a presumed cool that never emerges in the actual film, as if Todd Phillips were assuming we were all in agreement with his vision of this D.C Comics super-villain as an aggrieved incel out for revenge against a world that rejected him: i.e Elliott Rogers mythologized as a legendary troll. The film was like a bad subreddit come to life. 

Now, however, after getting a look at Todd Phillips complete vision of the character of Arthur Fleck in Joker Folie a Deux, I have to admit, I was wrong about Joker. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Joker is good on its own, it’s plagued by Phillips' desperate desire for us to feel as disillusioned and disconnected from reality as Arthur is. Phillips’ mix of Arthur’s reality and his fantasy is muddled in a fashion that is more confounding than it is revealing of Arthur’s character. But, now, with Joker Folie a Deux, I’m convinced that Todd Phillips has pulled off an elaborate prank that I find genuinely funny, even as I am very much among those who fell for it.

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

Movie Review Saturday Night

Saturday Night 

Directed by Jason Reitman

Written by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman

Starring Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, and Lamorne Morris

Release Date October 11th, 1980

Published October 11th, 2024

Do not approach Jason Reitman’s new movie Saturday Night as if it is a documentary style recreation of the actual events in the final 90 minutes before the first episode of Saturday Night Live, then known as NBC’s Saturday Night, went on the air. The film likely will not withstand the scrutiny of historians or those who demand complete verisimilitude. Rather, the correct approach to Saturday Night is as a collective pop culture memory of what that night was like at 30 Rockefeller Center. 

Saturday Night Live, especially the first through fifth season, have been rhapsodized and mythologized for 5 decades and those myths have coalesced into that classic movie born aphorism from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, “When the Legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Indeed, the first night of Saturday Night Live is legendary and the memories of that night have become myths that have been filtered through hazy memories into what is now Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, a flawed but completely fun and watchable take on how we like to think that first episode came to be.

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

Movie Review Terrifier 3

Terrifier 3 

Directed by Damien Leone 

Written by Damien Leone 

Starring Lauren Lavera, David Howard Thornton, Samantha Scaffidi 

Release Date October 11th, 2024 

Published October 15th, 2024 

The tricky balancing act between cult phenomenon and mainstream, money-making, success has caught up with the Terrifier franchise in Terrifier 3. Not that Terrifier 3 has gone mainstream, per se, but rather that the culture has caught up to Terrifier and creator Damien Leone is apparently eager to get some of that mainstream money by finding ways to extend the Art the Clown I.P. In the case of Terrifier 3 this means creating a lore that can sustain the franchise beyond the appeal of the extreme, graphic, and gory violence that made the budding franchise a cult favorite. This introduction of lore may be appealing for some but I found it tedious and not particularly compelling compared to the dark humor and over the top viscera that made Terrifier 2 a decent surprise. 

Terrifier 3 picks up the story of Art the Clown (the wildly expressive face of David Howard Thornton) and his partner in crime, Valerie (Samantha Scaffidi), hooking back up and heading home for a bit of rest, but not before they murder members of a hospital staff, including beloved professional wrestling star, Chris Jericho, reprising his cameo from Terrifier 2. Why Art and Valerie decide to sleep for five years is never explained but it doesn’t really matter either, the lengthy slumber is, perhaps, intended to give Sienna (Lauren Lavera), and her brother, Jonathan (Elliott Fulham), the chance to recover and cover for them having aged up a little from Terrifier 2.

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

Movie Review Smile 2

Smile 2 

Directed by Parker Finn

Written by Parker Finn 

Starring Naomi Scott, Rosemarie Dewitt, Kyle Gallner, Lukas Gage

Release Date October 18th, 2024

Published October 18th, 2024 

Smile 2 stars Naomie Scott as troubled pop star Skye Riley. Fresh out of rehab, and one year removed from a car accident that killed her movie star boyfriend, Paul (Ray Nicholson), Skye is re-entering public life and launching a new tour and record. It’s not an easy time, Skye is still struggling with back pain from the accident while also undergoing grueling hours of choreography for the tour. With that in mind, she’s secretly been visiting a former High School friend turned high end drug dealer, Lewis (Lukas Gage). Lewis is hooking her up with Vicodin to help her work through her pain. 

In need of a new supply, Skye arranges to go to Lewis’ apartment but what she finds there is a completely unhinged Lewis who is seeing something that only he can see. Sweating, screaming, and panicking, Lewis goes on to kill himself right in front of Skye by smashing his own face in with a barbell weight. It’s shocking and graphic, and worse yet for Skye, it’s the result of a curse that was passed to Lewis and is now passed to Skye. This curse causes the subject to slowly unravel mentally until they too end up killing themselves and passing the curse to someone who witnesses their death.

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

Movie Review Venom The Last Dance

Venom The Last Dance 

Directed by Kelly Marcel 

Written by Kelly Marcel 

Starring Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham

Release Date October 25th, 1980

Published October 25th, 1980 

Venom The Last Dance stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Venom, the symbiote alien living inside Eddie’s human form. In their third, and supposedly final adventure, Eddie and Venom are hiding out in Mexico but are eager to return to America. They make a plan to head for New York City, Venom wants to see the Statue of Liberty, but, when a monster from Venom’s home planet attacks them while riding on the outside of a plane, they find themselves dropped in the desert and on the run, not just from this new alien threat but also from the U.S government in the form of General Strickland, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. 

The plot concerns a villain named Knull (Andy Serkis) who was captured by Venom and his fellow symbiotes and trapped in a void somewhere in space. Knull has found a way to escape that involves a thing called a Codex which was created when Eddie Brock died and Venom bonded fully with Eddie’s body to save him. The Codex somehow will allow Knull to escape from the prison created by the symbiotes and since Knull has used his time in this void to create these new alien monsters, he now has the means to get his hands on the Codex.

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

Movie Review Conclave

Conclave 

Directed by Edward Berger 

Written by Peter Straughan 

Starring Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci 

Release Date October 25th, 2024

Published October 28th, 2024

I am divided over the new movie Conclave. On one hand, I admire the boldness of its drama and the exceptional acting. On the other hand, the ending feels forced. The ending of Conclave feels like it came out of left field. As much as there are some seeds planted here and there, and while I can see the real life parallels the director Edward Berger and writer Peter Straughan are striving for, I can’t escape the feeling that the ending is so shocking and such an outlandish twist that it undermines the recognizable drama of the rest of the movie. 

Conclave begins with the death of a Pope. We never meet this Pope, he’s dead just as the story begins. Our gateway to the story is The Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes. The Dean of the College of Cardinals is the man tasked with overseeing the choice of the next Pope. It’s a job that Cardinal Lawrence does not want and tried to relinquish only for the Pope to refuse his resignation. For whatever reason, the late Pope wanted Lawrence in this position.

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