Classic Movie Review Clerks

Clerks (1994) 

Directed by Kevin Smith 

Written by Kevin Smith 

Starring Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith 

Release Date October 19th, 1994 

Published September 13th, 2022 

I was in my second year of college in 1995 when my communications teacher told us that we were having some kind party instead of a class the next week. Since I was known for knowing a lot about movies, my Professor asked me to bring along some movies that we could watch as a class. I didn't hesitate in accepting and I knew exactly what movie it was that I wanted to show. Please keep in mind, this is a college course, a room full of adults. I assumed a room full of adults would be able to handle a little bit of raunchy humor from what was, at the time, my favorite movie, Clerks. 

How was I supposed to know that my fellow students were a bunch of uptight squares who get squeamish at hearing the words 'blowjob' or 'd***.' We made it through the scene in Clerks where Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) explains to her boyfriend, our main character, Dante (Brian O'Halloran), what the term 'Snowball' means, in terms of sexual slang. At that point our mortified professor forced me to turn off the VHS tape and choose something else. I chose my second choice, a Robin Williams Comedy special, which turned out to be equally filthy and was subsequently abandoned early as well. Looking back, I would do it all over again. I've never been a troll in my life, but I got to be, unintentionally, one of those rebellious souls who shocks the squares with their off-color antics. It felt good, for a moment. Now, it's a cringy and embarrassing memory, but one I can laugh at.

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

Movie Review Confess, Fletch

Confess, Fletch (2022) 

Directed by Greg Mottola

Written by Greg Mottola, Zev Borow

Starring Jon Hamm, Marcia Gay Harden, John Slattery, Annie Mumolo, Kyle MacLachlan

Release Date September 16th, 2022

Confess, Fletch is a reboot of an 80s franchise that rarely gets discussed these days. That’s perhaps the fault of its legendarily jerky star Chevy Chase. Chase has become a cranky old geezer, as shown by his behind the scenes stories from his time working on the series Community and the ugly end of that run via his feud with showrunner Dan Harmon. It’s not unreasonable to assume that people would remember Fletch and Fletch Lives far more fondly if Chase were a beloved and respected comedy veteran and not as a guy people don’t enjoy working with. 

Nevertheless, Chase’s shadow does loom large over the attempt to reboot the franchise. For years, the project has been cursed by studio magnates balking at creative choices and numerous directors and actors falling in and out of love with the project. The last I had heard of Fletch was all the way back in 2003 when Kevin Smith was desperately trying to make a Fletch movie starring his pal Jason Lee as Fletch. That movie never happened as executives felt that Lee wasn’t a big enough star for the role. So, imagine my surprise when I received an email inviting me to watch Confess, Fletch, a newly completed reboot of the franchise.

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

Movie Review God's Country

God’s Country (2022) 

Directed by Julian Higgins 

Written by Julian Higgins, Shaye Ogbonna 

Starring Thandiwe Newton 

Release Date September 16th, 2022 

God’s Country stars Thandiwe Newton as Sandra, a College Professor living in the western mountain country. New to the area, Sandra has just lost her mother as we join the movie and in a moving, silent 10 minute opening sequence, we watch Sandra collect and spread her mother’s ashes before attempting to get on with her life. Looming around the edges of these opening minutes are an ominous red pick up truck. 

Returning to work, Sandra brushes off the brief condolences of colleagues and sets about her work. Loneliness looms over Sandra as we return to her home on the first day following her mother’s cremation. The bed her mother likely spent the last months of her life in lays empty in the living room, a dark and ironic monument. The darkness of this mountain home is oppressive, lit mostly by the light of a fireplace. Only the comfort of a lovely dog brings any real warmth to the home.

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

Classic Movie Review Take Out

Take Out (2004) 

Directed by Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou 

Written by Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou 

Starring Charles Jang, Jeng Hua Yu, Justin Wa 

Release Date June 6th, 2008 

Criterion Collection Release Date September 13th, 2022 

Take Out is a brilliant slice of life story. This verite, day in the life of a take out delivery man, an immigrant from China, does not have a traditional structure but what it does have is the hum of life. Through remarkable sound design and brave choices by co-directors Sean Baker (The Florida Project) and Shih Ching Tsou, Take Out becomes a heartbreaking and human story of perseverance, striving, hope, despair, hardship and compassion. 

Ming Ding (Charles Jang) is the main character of Take Out. Having come to America without his pregnant wife, hoping to make enough money to bring his family to America, Ming has struggled for months barely getting by. No matter how hard he works, he owes so much money to the criminals who helped bring him to the country that he can't get ahead. When he takes a chance and sends money back to his family, a pair of thugs show up at his rat hole apartment that Ming shares with nearly a dozen other poor Chinese men.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media. Linked here. 

Documentary Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche

Buried The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche (2022)

Directed by Jared Drake, Steven Siig 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Jim Plehn, Meredith Watson, Larry Heywood, Dick Tash 

Release Date September 23rd in theaters, VOD on November 8th, 2022

"The snow was alive" Jim Plehn Avalanche Control Expert at Alpine Meadows Ski Resort 

On March 31st, 1982 an unimaginable weather front moved over the Alpine Valley over Lake Tahoe. The amount of snow that came down in the period of several days leading up to March 31st was more than anyone in the area had seen before. Trapped in the midst of this almost unprecedented storm were the crew of ski patrol officers pf the Alpine Meadows Ski Resort, under the leadership of Bernie Kingery. Though he'd been at this job since the late 1950s, even Bernie Kingery was not ready for the kind of tragedy that would unfold on this day. 

The incredible documentary, Buried The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche,directed by the team of Jared Drake and Steven Stiig, takes us back to that day in 1982 via the rescuers who risked everything first to try and prevent the kind of avalanche that that eventually occurred and then dealt with the terrifying aftermath of the avalanche that left 7 people dead. Through recreations, archival news footage, and photos taken at the scene that day, the harrowing real life tragedy at Alpine Meadows is brought to vivid, emotional life.

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

Documentary Review Claydream

Claydream (2021) 

Directed by Marq Evans 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Will Vinton, Bill Plympton, Jerry Beck 

Release Date August 5th.2022 

Streaming Now Streaming on Amazon Prime 

Will Vinton was an almost accidental visionary. An artist by trade, Vinton stumbled on to the art of claymation with his friend Bob Gardiner, a visionary in the art of claymation. The pair met in college at the University of California-Berkley and moved to Portland in 1970 where they began their influential collaborations in the basement of Vinton’s home. The collaboration led to a breakthrough in 1974 when Vinton and Gardiner won an Oscar for their animated short, Closed Mondays, about an inebriated man who wanders into a closed art gallery. 

Closed Mondays was just the proof of concept the pair needed to launch Will Vinton studios in Portland. Sadly, mental health issues plagued Gardiner and he left the business in 1976 after they’d created their second claymation short. Vinton then took the techniques he learned from Gardiner and combined them with his own talent for innovating camera technology in claymation to create a legacy that has outlived Vinton himself who passed away in 2018.

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

Movie Review Barbarian

Barbarian (2022) 

Directed by Zach Cregger 

Written by Zach Cregger 

Starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgard, Justin Long, Richard Brake

Release Date September 9th, 2022 

In theaters only 

Barbarian lives up to the hype. The movie that has used audience reaction footage as its main marketing image, creating a strong amount of buzz without giving away the shocking twists, is as good as those audience reactions shots indicate. Written and directed by former The Whitest Kids U Know star Zach Cregger, the combination of old school scares and modern, outlandish humor, comes together brilliantly. That's not to say that Barbarian is a laugh riot. Rather, the laughs are flawlessly in place as a release valve for the tense and exciting horror movie thrills. 

Barbarian stars Georgina Campbell as Tess Mitchell, a young and ambitious documentary filmmaker who has come to Detroit to interview for a job. Tess has rented an Air BnB but there is a problem, someone else has also rented this home. Alexander Skarsgard plays Keith, a nice enough, seemingly normal guy, who claims to have rented the home via a different home rental app. Being that it is late at night in a bad part of Detroit, Keith invites Tess to take the bedroom and stay the night while he sleeps on the couch. The two proceed to have a pretty fun night until Tess heads to bed.

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

Movie Review All Jacked Up and Full of Worms

All Jacked Up and Full of Worms (2022) 

Directed by Alex Phillips

Written by Alex Phillips 

Starring Phillip Andre Botello, Trevor Dawkins

Playing at Fantastic Fest in Austin Texas through early October

It’s important to go into a movie with a title such as All Jacked Up and Full of Worms with the right mindset. You can’t approach All Jacked Up and Full of Worms with the same expectations you may have for a normal mainstream movie. That might appear to be common sense but you'd be surprised how often movies like All Jacked Up and Full of Worms suffer from criticism from people whose mainstream tastes go with them wherever they go. 

I approached All Jacked Up and Full of Worms with the same open mind with which I approached the Tommy Wiseau starring Best F(r)iendsmovies. I didn’t expect a classically mainstream, straight-forward entertainment. And I was prepared for something that may not make much sense but did so with stranger, more transgressive intentions. All Jacked Up and Full of Worms met my expectations. It also is just what it advertises, all jacked up and full of worms.

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

Movie Review See How They Run

See How They Run (2022)

Directed by Tom George 

Written by Mark Chappell

Starring Sam Rockwell, Saorise Ronan, Adrian Brody, David Oyelowo, Harris Dickinson 

Release Date September 16th, 2022 

Loosely based on the work of Agatha Christie 

See How They Run is a delightful mystery comedy. The film starring the duo of Sam Rockwell and Saorise Ronan has a distinctly British sensibility that is at once dignified and broadly comic and physical. The film tells the story of a murder amidst a murder mystery on the stage. A famous acting troupe on London's famed West End is presenting the latest adaptation of an Agatha Christie drawing room murder mystery when a visitor from America winds up a corpse on the stage. 

Adrian Brody plays the murdered man, a Hollywood director named Leo Kopernick. Leo is an abrasive, loudmouthed ladies man who has rubbed just about everyone the wrong way since he's arrived at the playhouse. Leo was brought over by producer John Woolf (Reese Shearsmith), to help with the film adaptation the play The Mousetrap. written by the legendary Agatha Christie. When Leo is murdered backstage and his body is dumped on the stage in the midst of the play, just about anyone might have wanted to kill him.

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

Classic Movie Review Sambizanga

Sambizanga (1972)

Directed by Sarah Maldoror 

Written by Sarah Maldoror, Maria Coelho Pinto de Andrade 

Starring Domingos Oliveira, Elisa Andrade 

Release Date Unreleased 1972 

Coming Soon from the Criterion Collection Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project 

Martin Scorsese is working to build the film education anyone willing to watch along. With his work with The Film Foundation, Scorsese has started an incredible online film club where every month a work of historic film significance is made available for free for a single day for fans to watch together online. There is no cost to watch these incredible movies curated by and with an introduction by Martin Scorsese. Fans can interact via an online chat or can simply watch the film for via the partnership of Scorsese, The Film Foundation and Delphi. 

This has been going on since the early part of 2022 and has brought about the opportunity for film lovers to watch remarkable works such as the 1945 Powell and Pressburger feature, I Know Where I'm Going, Federico Fellini's 1954 masterpiece La Strada, the 1979 Indian feature film Kumattyand most recently a fully restored and rediscovered cut of Sarah Maldoror's lost African classic, Sambizanga. Lost to time over rights issues, a cut of the film was found moldering and fading in a French warehouse several years ago. Once it was out of the tangled web of distribution issues, the experts at the film foundation and Cineteca De Bologna, took up the painstaking work of restoring the print so that it could be presented to the world again.

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

Classic Movie Review Scrooged

Scrooged 

Directed by Richard Donner

Written by Milton Glazer, Michael O'Donaghue 

Starring Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, Bobcat Goldthwaite 

Release Date November 23rd, 1988 It’s strange, as much as I admire Bill Murray, I haven’t been much of a fan of his many movies. I like them but rarely love them. I have a rather controversially low opinion of Groundhog Day that many have argued with me over and, as for the rest of Murray’s oeuvre, the only Murray movie I watch regularly is Lost in Translation. I like Ghostbusters but I might as well hate it because in the internet age if you don’t LOVE Ghostbusters, apparently you don’t like it at all. 

So if I don’t love Bill Murray’s work then where am I on Scrooged? I may not LOVE most of Bill Murray’s film work but I really do like Scrooged. In fact, of all of the awful Christmas movies out there, and I have suffered more than my share, Scrooged is the one I can watch more than once. You can have your A Christmas Story, your gross-out Christmas Vacation and even the over-played It’s A Wonderful Life, Scrooged is the only Christmas movie I can truly get behind.

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

Movie Review Knock at the Cabin

Knock at the Cabin (2023) 

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan 

Written by M. Night Shyamalan 

Starring Dave Bautista, Abby Quinn, Jonathan Groff, Rupert Grint, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka Bird

Release Date February 3rd, 2023 

Published February 3rd, 2023 

A Knock at the Cabin stars Dave Bautista as Leonard, a schoolteacher who has been chosen to try and stop the apocalypse. Leonard arrives at a cabin somewhere in Pennsylvania where he meets 8-year-old Wen (Kristen Cui) while she is catching grasshoppers for a science project. Leonard is kind but he's also sweaty and distracted. Eventually, Wen begins to suspect that Leonard has an ulterior motive. She runs back to her cabin just as Leonard's friends, Sabrina (Nikki Amuka Bird), Redmond (Rupert Grint), and Adriane (Abby Quinn) show up. 

Wen runs to the cabin to warn her two dads, Daddy Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Daddy Andrew (Ben Aldridge). They come running into the cabin and find that the foursome, led by Leonard are indeed at the door and planning to come inside whether they are invited or not. After a brief scuffle, the four manage to subdue the loving couple and begin to explain why they are there. According to Leonard, the four experienced the same apocalyptic visions. Those visions brought them here where they hope to save the world.

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

Movie Review 80 for Brady

80 for Brady (2023) 

Directed by Kyle Marvin

Written by Sarah Haskins, Emily Halpern 

Starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita Moreno 

Release Date February 3rd, 2023

Published February 3rd, 2023 

80 for Brady sure is a movie that exists. It's got movie stars; it was shot by a director with a camera, and it was edited into what is a series of scenes that seem to make up a story. It is definitely a movie. It's also not that much more than that. Vaguely inspired by the kind of true story best suited to a 3-minute segment on CBS Sunday Morning, then for a big screen feature film, 80 for Brady is a fawning tribute to the ego of the recently retired football star Tom Brady who gets to relive one of his crowning achievements while everyone fawns over how great he is. 

80 for Brady stars Lily Tomlin as Lou, a cancer survivor who credits falling in love with football during her recovery to getting her through a hard time in her life. Well, Football, and her three closest friends, Trish (Jane Fonda), Maura (Rita Moreno) and Betty (Sally Field), each of whom also embraced football alongside their friend. This happened when they happened to see a rookie Tom Brady take over as the starter for the New England Patriots.

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

Classic Movie Review Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Directed by George Roy Hill 

Written by William Goldman 

Starring Robert Redford, Paul Newman 

Release Date September 23rd, 1969 

Published February 14th, 2023 

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid arrived at the height of a movie world renaissance. In 1969 filmmakers as varied as Sam Fuller, Sam Peckinpah, Dennis Hopper, and Arthur Penn were riding a creative high fueled by the demise of the studio system and the excitement of the free love generation who were eager to embrace these new and daring filmmakers. It was a heady moment that was met with some of the best American cinema of the century. 

The western was also in a renaissance at the time with films like True Grit, which earned John Wayne an academy award for best actor, Sam Peckinpah’s shocking, violent, and unforgettable, The Wild Bunch, and Arthur Penn’s Bonnie & Clyde, which embraced western themes, despite not being a traditional western, all achieving monumental success. Westerns reflected the rebelliousness of the time. It celebrated mavericks and outlaws who defied authority to become icons of the American dream, bathed in blood.

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