Movie Review Opus

Opus 

Directed by Mark Anthony Green 

Written by Mark Anthony Green 

Starring Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis 

Release Date March 14th, 2025 

Published March 17th, 2025 

Opus is yet another in a growing sub genre of ‘Vibes’ movies. What is a ‘Vibes’ movie? It’s a film where atmosphere and oddity are as, or more, important than plot and character. A great example of a Vibes Movie is Mark Mylod’s 2022 film, The Menu. That film develops a menacing and confounding air, sending up thriller feels but preferring to keep the audience off balance more than terrified or breathless. Some also consider the work of Ari Aster in the genre of Vibes Movies. I get that, though I prefer to keep Aster in the horror genre, there is no denying the Vibes Movie feel of Beau is Afraid. 

Naturally, because our modern culture does not slow down, there are already critics who are talking about being tired of Vibes Movies, even as they haven’t been around all that long. But with many of these movies having been highly praised by critics, myself included, tropes in vibes movies are beginning to emerge and stagnate the sub genre, as always happens when a unique new way to approach a film story takes hold. Others have called this A24-Core, as A24 is the home to Ari Aster but Neon and other indie studios have been in the Vibes Movie Sub-Genre since it took hold in the later part of the previous decade.

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

Movie Review Novocaine

Novocaine 

Directed by Dan Berk, Robert Olson 

Written by Lars Jacobson 

Starring Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Jacob Batalon, Ray Nicholson 

Release Date March 14th, 2025

Published March 14th, 2025 

Novocaine stars Jack Quaid as Nate Caine, aka Novocaine, a nickname given to him by childhood bullies. You see, Nate has a rare medical condition which causes him to not feel pain. When kids found out about his condition, they immediately wanted to test it and set about beating Nate up on a regular basis. All grown up, Nate takes great care not to get hurt. He is, of course, not afraid of pain but rather, if he were to get hurt, he would not know it. He could be bleeding out and he wouldn’t know it until he saw the blood. 

Nate works as an assistant manager at a bank where he has recently fallen in love with a newly hired bank teller, Sherry (Amber Midthunder). She doesn’t know he’s in love with her, but he very much is. When she asks him to lunch he trips all over himself before finally accepting. They flirt and chat and he opens up about his unique condition. The two end up spending the night together and it seems as if Jack’s dreams are coming true. That is until he gets to work the next day. While daydreaming about Sherry, bank robbers dressed as Santa Claus, yes, Novocaine is a Christmas movie, enter the bank and proceed to rob the place.

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

Documentary Review Kim's Video

Kim's Video (2024)

Directed by David Redmon, Ashley Sabin 

Written by David Redmon, Ashley Sabin 

Starring Yongman Kim, Cinema 

Release Date April 5th, 2024 

Published April 4th, 2024 

Kim's Video is a documentary turned heist thriller and an overall tribue to the love of movies. Directed by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon, Kim's Video is about an obsession and a director who perhaps shares a little too much about his unique way of seeing the world. David Redmon, acting as co-director and narrator, details his obsession in a fashion that could be off putting if it weren't directed in a most unique and noble direction. 

In the 1980s a video store opened in New York City, one that was like no other video store around. Yongman Kim owned a dry cleaning business in New York City where he happened to stock a few videos in the corner for rent. This was the beginning of the VHS boom and Kim found the videos were more popular and successful than the dry cleaning. From there, Kim collected the most eclectic and unique collections of videos imaginable.

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

Movie Review Sting

Sting (2024) 

Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner 

Written by Kiah Roache-Turner 

Starring Alyla Brown, Ryan Corr, Jermaine Fowler 

Release Date April 12th, 2024 

Published April 11th, 2024 

Sting promises a big nasty alien spider and it delivers a big, nasty, alien spider. If I could end this review here, I would. Sting is exactly what it promises to be. It's a monster movie in which an alien spider crash lands in a Brooklyn apartment building. It's captured and befriended in its infant form by Charlotte (Alyla Brown), a curious and dark-souled 12 year old aspiring artist. Charlotte goes by the name Fanggirl on social media and enjoys drawing herself as a super-heroine riding a giant spider. 

Thus how an alien spider, only we know that it is an alien, comes to be a pet named Sting. All that Charlotte knows that Sting looks cool and, when it is hungry, it whistles. If you don't know, that's not a typical trait of a Spider, especially one you find in an attic in Brooklyn. These unique qualities are intriguing but they grow dangerous as Charlotte starts feeding Sting other bugs and Sting starts to grow and fast.

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

Movie Review Hundreds of Beavers

Hundreds of Beavers (2024) 

Directed by Mike Cheslik 

Written by Mike Cheslik, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews 

Starring Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Olivia Graves, Wes Tank

Release Date Streaming April 12th, 2024 

Published April 12th, 2024 

Hundreds of Beavers is among the funniest movies of 2024. It's a wildly inventive, entirely unique and utterly bizarre comedy and I loved every minute of it. The brain-child of Mike Cheslik and his star Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, the film mixes animation, furry costumes, and old west tropes to craft a live action Looney Tunes movie about an old west trapper and the wacky animals he traps and violently murders in the name of love. 

Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) was a successful tavern owner. He served apple based alcohol to mighty trappers, hunters, and burly, manly, manly, men. Then winter came and Kayak, now a stumbling drunkard, accidentally blows up his apple grove, home, and thanks to some interfering beavers, his gigantic barrels of alcohol. Waking up covered in snow, Jean suffers through the winter, unable to kill anything for food and being tormented by the elements and the animals.

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

Movie Review Abigail

Abigail (2024)

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Written by Stephen Shields, Guy Busick 

Starring Melissa Barrera, Kathryn Newton, Dan Stevens, Kevin Durand, Alisha Weir 

Release Date April 19th, 2024 

Published April 20th, 2024 

Abigail 0pens on a heist. We meet a series of criminals as they are preparing to break into a home. Joey (Melissa Barrera) is picked up by Frank (Dan Stevens) and Peter (Kevin Durand), they wear all black and put on masks. In a different vehicle at a different location, Dean (Angus Cloud), is talking with Sammy (Kathryn Newton), who is hacking the security of the home where they just dropped off Rickles (Will Catlett) who has a rifle and positions himself on a nearby rooftop to watch the home that is about to be robbed. 

If you have not noticed the naming convention for these characters, it's The Rat Pack, Frank Sinatra's group of friends who ran Hollywood and Las Vegas in the 50s and 60s. These are the aliases chosen by the group's benefactor, Mr. Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito). But this is not an ordinary heist. You see, the target isn't money or a hard drive filled with crypto or ancient art worth millions of dollars on the black market. Rather, the loot in this heist is a little girl named Abigail (Alisha Weir). Abigail is the daughter of a very rich, very powerful man and the goal is to ransom the child for millions of dollars.

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

Movie Review Sasquatch Sunset

Sasquatch Summer (2024) 

Directed by Nathan Zellner, David Zellner 

Written by David Zellner 

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough, Nathan Zellner, Christophe Zajac-Denec 

Release Date April 19th, 2024 

Published April 20th, 2024 

Sasquatch Sunset isn't a movie. Let me explain. Technically, there are actors, it was filmed with cameras by a director with the aid of a film crew on a scouted location. All things that add up to making a movie. But that's just a technicality. The reality is that brothers Nathan and David Zellner have tricked a modest audience of indie movie lovers into paying money to watch them screw around in the forest. I can admire the audacity of making a movie as a prank on the audience but figuring out the joke doesn't make the movie any less of a pain to sit through. 

There is no plot in Sasquatch Sunset. The film has four actors dressed in Sasquatch suits. These are quite good suits, this was not a cheap prank, it's elaborate. It's also quite a good looking setting that is beautifully captured by cinematographer Mike Gioulakis. And yet, what you are watching, for all the skill on display, is an elaborate troll job. They've got your money, they have you in the theater and now you are sitting there watching actors in Sasquatch costumes grunt at each other in between times when they are scratching their privates and smelling their fingers, picking their noses and eating it, and waving their skinny genitals at each other.

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

Classic Movie Review As Good as It Gets

As Good As it Gets (1997) 

Directed by James L. Brooks

Written by James L. Brooks, Mark Andrus 

Starring Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear 

Release Date December 25th, 1997

Published April 22nd, 2023 

As Good As It Gets stars Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall a famed writer struggling and suffering from a severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Melvin is a hateful person, stunted by his various fears and mental health problems. At the diner he goes to everyday as part of his O.C.D routine, he meets and falls for Carol, a waitess and single mother to a sick child. When she's not able to be at work because her son is sick, a misguided Melvin sends a doctor to her house out of the selfish desire to have his chosen waitress at his chosen diner. 

Meanwhile, at home, at Melvin's apartment, he has a new neighbor. And, he's not happy about. The neighbor, Simon, is an artist and gay man who is recovering from having been assaulted and left terrified of the outside world. Melvin, naturally, is insensitive to the point of cruelty. That said, via Simon and a burgeoning friendship, based on Melvin helping to care for Simon's dog, Melvin starts to become a better person, He grows less cruel when confronted with Simon's decency and humanity. Through Simon, Melvin will discover more of the shortcomings in himself that work to keep him miserable and alone.

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

Movie Review I Saw the TV Glow

I Saw the TV Glow (2024) 

Directed by Jane Schoenbrun

Written by Jane Schoenbrun 

Starring Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, Helena Howard, Fred Durst, Danielle Deadwyler

Release Date May 17th, 2024 

Published May 17th, 2024 

I Saw the TV Glow is my favorite movie of 2024 so far. Written and directed by rising star Jane Schoenbrun, the auteur behind the brilliant We're All Going to the World's Fair, I Saw the TV Glow centers on the story of Owen, played by Ian Foreman as a child and Justice Smith as he gets to High School and beyond. Owen was a lonely kid with no friends. A traumatic childhood pushed Owen deep inside himself. As if possessed by a will outside of himself, Owen brings himself to talk to a girl, a slightly older kid at his High School, Maddy (Brigette Lundy Paine). 

Knowing what it is like to be an outsider, Maddy takes pity on Owen and shares with him her book. It's a book about her favorite TV show, a supernatural mystery called The Pink Opaque. The show is about two teenage girls who meet at a summer camp and then never see each other again, in person. Instead, the show protagonists can speak to each other across a different plain of existence. This incredible talent allows them to fight monsters that attack their respective hometowns. It's an odd show that airs on weekends, Saturday nights at 10:30 PM. Too bad for Owen that it airs after his bedtime.

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

Movie Review Back to Black

Back to Black (2024) 

Directed by Sam Taylor Johnson

Written by Matt Greenhalgh

Starring Marisa Abela, Jack O'Connell, Leslie Manville, Eddie Marsan 

Release Date May 17th, 2024 

Published May 21st, 2024 

Why did director Sam Taylor Johnson want to tell this story? Is she a fan of Amy Winehouse? It's hard to say based on Johnson's new movie Back to Black. This is a nothing biopic that offers no insight on Amy Winehouse, her art, or her tragic death. The emptiness of Back to Black reminded me more of Johnson's Fifty Shades sequel than her slightly more accomplished John Lennon movie, Nowhere Boy. In that film, at the very least, we sensed that there was joy in the discovery of artistic talent and the forming of bonds that would become legendary. Back to Black carries little joy beyond playing Amy Winehouse's music. I could have gotten the same insights sitting at home next to my record player. 

Back to Black opens on an odd image. Amy Winehouse, played by Marisa Abela, is running down a London Street alone. The camera is shooting down at her from overhead. If this were a male director I'd want to ask why they have decided to aim the camera in a way that centers Marisa abela's cleavage as it bounces while she runs. The odd angle is perhaps, if I were to stretch a little, a visual comment on the strange way we view celebrities, but that's a pretty big stretch. Realistically, I can't think of a good reason for this visual. It's also a piece of a scene that unfolds later in the movie, not the end, it's not a preview of the end of the movie, it's a piece from around the end of the second act. So why does the movie start with this? I can't think of a reason.

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

Movie Review You Can't Run Forever

You Can't Run Forever (2024) 

Directed by Michelle Schumacher

Written by Caroline Carpenter, Michelle Schumacher 

Starring J.K Simmons, Alan Leech, Fernanda Urrejola, Olivia Simmons 

Release Date May 17th, 2024 

Published May 20th, 2024 

The thriller You Can't Run Forever opens with J.K Simmons on a motorcycle rolling up to a remote gas station. There, he pulls out a gun and shoots three people. He seems to have no motivation for this action. Seeing a woman hiding behind her vehicle, he looks at her, laughs to himself and chooses not to kill her. Another man exits the gas station and sees the bodies and Simmons just looks at him, points a finger of acknowledgment, and rides off. It's stunning, breathtaking, and fast way to start a movie. You Can't Run Forever grabs you by the throat from the first minute. 

It's such an incredible and brutal start to a movie that there really isn't anywhere to go but down and sadly, yeah, that's where we're headed. You Can't Run Forever stars Isabelle Anaya as Miranda, a troubled teenager. A year ago, Miranda's father took his own life and since then, Anaya has struggled to get by. Her struggle has been unfortunately and unintentionally compounded by the fact that her mother has remarried and is about to have a baby. Stepdad, Eddie (Alan Leech), is a nice guy who has been nothing but supportive and sympathetic toward Miranda but he's not her dad and that weighs on their relationship.

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

Movie Review Babes

Babes (2024) 

Directed by Pamela Adlon 

Written by Ilana Glazer, Josh Rabinowitz

Starring Ilana Glazer, Michele Buteau, Hasan Minhaj, John Carroll Lynch

Release Date May 17th, 2024 

Published May 28th, 2024 

Babes stars Ilana Glazer as Eden and Michele Buteau as Dawn. Best friends since forever, the two are so close that their share photos of their bowel movements. You know you're close when a significant bowel movement is a subject of your text chats, am I right? No, no one does that? Awkward. Well, Eden and Dawn do that and the dialogue that introduces the concept goes a long way to setting up the bond of friendship that will be tested by the story about to unfold. 

The friendship of Eden and Dawn is tested on multiple fronts. First, Dawn is having her second baby. It's Thanksgiving and she and Eden are at the movies when Dawn's water breaks. A rush to the hospital and some very gross, and quite funny jokes about the process of giving birth, leads to Dawn having a healthy baby. This will further tax the time she gets to spend with her closest friend, Eden, who has no children or family to occupy her time.

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

Movie Review Cops and Robbersons

Cops and Robbersons (1994) 

Directed by Michael Ritchie 

Written by Bernie Somers 

Starring Chevy Chase, Jack Palance

Release Date April 15th, 1994

Published May 28th, 2024 

Cops and Robbersons is a terrible movie. That's probably why no one reading this review has any memory of it. So why are we talking about it today? Well, it's the subject of the latest edition of the I Hate Critics 1994 Podcast. And that's the only reason why I am bringing it up here today. I was forced to watch it by circumstance and I need to find some kind of value in the experience, aside from having mocked the movie on the podcast. 

Thus, I want to illustrate the bankruptcy of comic ideas in Cops and Robbersons. Think of it as a warning for future filmmakers, don't make the mistakes that director Michael Ritchie made as he brought this comic abomination to life while dealing with the massive ego and drug problems of one of Hollywood's least liked figures, star Chevy Chase. If you don't know, a large portion of Hollywood hates Chevy Chase and he hates them right back. Bitter about not being treated like the star he believes he is, Chase has made a habit of ruining projects on a whim and that appears to be the energy he brought to this movie.

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

Movie Review Backspot

Backspot (2024) 

Directed by D.W Waterson 

Written by Joanne Sarazen, D.W Waterson

Starring Devery Jacobs, Evan Rachel Wood, Kudakwashe Rutendo, Shannyn Sossamon 

Release Date May 31st, 2024 

Published May 29th, 2024 

If you are going to use a particular style of handheld camera work, make sure that it is being used for a good purpose. Handheld or shaky cam style is a visual tool that works when you are making a movie like The Blair Witch Project where the characters are also the camera operators, and their camera is also the eyes of the audience. The characters are active and running and the shaky cam reflects the fact they are running for their lives. Shaky cam is not recommended when you are trying to have a serious, dramatic conversation, say, between a mother and a daughter at a crossroads. 

Unfortunately, there is a scene in the new cheerleading melodrama, Backspot, in which star Devery Jacobs is having a dramatic, late in the movie, conversation with her mother, played by Shannyn Sossomon. The scene isn't poorly acted, from what I could see of it. Sadly, I had to look away because co-writer and director D.W Waterson chooses to shoot the scene with a camera that will not stop shaking. The style choice undermines the drama, it loses focus on the heavy emotions at play, and it's just visually impossible to look at.

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

Movie Review Summer Camp

Summer Camp (2024) 

Directed by Castille Landon

Written by Castille Landon

Starring Diane Keaton, Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, Eugene Levy

Release Date May 31st, 2024 

Published May 31st, 2024 

In a season 7 episode of The Simpsons, titled Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming, the character of Sideshow Bob is pushed over the edge when he hears that beloved actress Vanessa Redgrave is starring in a vapid television show that casts her as a wacky granny who is going 'haul her ass to Lollapalooza' before peeling out on a motorcycle. So bereft is Sideshow Bob that he decides he must destroy television. 

I bring up this beloved memory of The Simpsons not because it relates to the new movie Summer Camp but rather to remind myself that I once enjoyed the work of actress Diane Keaton. I held her in high regard once, not unlike how Bob feels about Vanessa Redgrave. And now, when I hear that Diane Keaton has a movie coming out, I want to burn down the very concept of movies.

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