Movie Review Surrogate

Surrogate (2022)

Directed by David Willing 

Written by Beth King, David Willing 

Starring Kestie Morassi, Jane Badler 

Release Date September 2nd, 2022 

Surrogate is a movie with good ideas that comes up just a little short in execution. The film stars Kestie Morassie as Natalie Paxton, a nurse with a beautiful young daughter and a mostly happy life. That life gets upended when, while working far from home to pick up some extra money, she's assaulted by a deeply disturbed and ill woman. While attempting to save this woman's life, Natalie becomes infected by whatever this woman has been infected with. Is it a demon? Is it some kind of alien? It's unclear initially. 

Soon after arriving home, Natalie becomes violently ill. Upon waking up, she finds herself covered in blood from the waste down. She goes to the hospital and is told that she has recently given birth. This isn't possible given the state of Natalie's personal life but the doctor and an investigator named Lauren Balmer (Jane Badler) from child and family services, do not believe her. Balmer wants to know what Natalie did with her non-existent baby and she will be most ineffectual for the rest of the movie.

Find my full length review at Horror.Media

Movie Review We Need to Talk About Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) 

Directed by Lynne Ramsey 

Written by Rory Stewart Kinnear, Lynne Ramsey 

Starring Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly 

Release Date October 21st. 2011 

Streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi

When we chose the movie We Need to Talk About Kevin for our classic on the August 29th edition of the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast I promise you, we were not intending it as a humorous reference to the current real life troubles of star Ezra Miller. I had honestly forgotten that the troubled star was the title character, Kevin, a sociopath who grows ever more unhinged until he causes an unimaginable tragedy. We Need to Talk About Kevin was chosen because star Tilda Swinton is back in theaters with a brilliant new movie called Three Thousand Years of Longing. 

With that problematic aside noted, lets talk about We Need to Talk About Kevin. The inconceivably brilliant writer-director Lynn Ramsey came to the project after reading author Lionel Schriver's unnerving book and after being approached by then producer of the film Tilda Swinton. It was Ramsey who suggested that Swinton should move from the Producer's chair to the center of this swirling vortex of a story about mother dealing with guilt, anguish, depression, and unceasing grief. Ramsey's instincts, as usual, were on point. Few other actors in the world carry the grace and gravitas that Swinton does.

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

Movie Review Three Thousand Years of Longing

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) 

Directed by George Miller

Written by George Miller, Augusta Gore 

Starring Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba

Release Date August 26th, 2022 

I wish to be in love. I wish to love and be loved. This is not to say I have never been in love or felt the comfort that comes with being loved. I have felt loved all my life by parents, lovers, and friends. On that front, I’ve been lucky. No, my wish is simply to be in love, to feel romance and desire, the excitement of discovery, and that feeling that can only come when two people pledge to only love each other. Marriage? Not necessarily, though I am not opposed to the idea. 

I wish I could tell someone that I love them and they tell me that they love me, in the romantic sense of love, and that I was capable of believing it, embracing it, trusting it to be true. I wish for the kind of certainty of love and romance that, realistically, doesn’t exist in any tangible sense. For me, to love is to trust, to invest who you really are in another person and for them to do in kind. That’s love, it’s a foundation of trust, of wholehearted faith.

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

Movie Review The Woman King

The Woman King (2022) 

Directed by Gina Prince Blythewood 

Written by Dana Stevens 

Starring Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, John Boyega 

Release Date September 16th, 2022 

Based on a True Story 

The Woman King is a lightning bolt of a movie, it strikes fast, it's searing, and when it hits you, you won't forget it. Based on the true story of the Agojie Warriors of Dahomey, the film stars Viola Davis as General Nanisca, leader of a group of female warriors ordained by their King, the recently anointed King Ghezo (John Boyega), as the protectors of the kingdom. Under the leadership of General Nanisca, the Agojie train and prepare for war as much as they prepare for defense. Our first look at the General and her warriors in action is a brutal and fast moving fight as the Agojie take over a village in order to free captives from Dahomey. 

This is a clear act of aggression toward the ruling Oya tribe to whom Dahomey has been indebted for years. The Oya have kept a brutal stranglehold over this region of Northern Africa, profiting from selling slaves to Europeans. The Oya practice of conquering villages and selling captives has given the Oya such advances as guns and horses and made them a deathly adversary. Nevertheless, General Nanisca is encouraging her King, King Ghezu, to challenge the Oya and especially to give up the slave trade himself, something he and his kingdom have profited from the Agojie have become a conquering and capturing force.

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

Classic Movie Review Singles

Singles (1992) 

Directed by Cameron Crowe

Written by Cameron Crowe 

Starring Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Matt Dillon 

Release Date September 18th, 1992 

"I was just... nowhere near your neighborhood" - Steve Dunne (Campbell Scott) Singles 

My first conception of romantic love was shaped by Cameron Crowe and the movie Singles. I was 16 years old and, like every 16 year old, I thought I knew everything. I'd had a girlfriend and we had played at what it is like to be an adult couple. But it was just play. We had no actual concept of what we were doing and were far too immature to understand what was at stake when you are toying with emotions and saying 'I love you' without really knowing what that meant. 

Then I saw Singles and I suddenly realized that what I thought was love was just the chaotic lust of being young. I saw a romance on the big screen that made sense to me for the first time. I had the broad strokes idea of what romance was, but far from a whole picture. Then I heard that line, 'I was just nowhere near your neighborhood,' and it clicked for me. The idea of romance and lust, love and reality, all came together in this linear puzzle in my mind. I was still an immature, headstrong child, but Singles had shown me that relationships were more than just make out sessions on a couch and that getting to know someone, struggling with them, meeting them on a truly emotional level, that was the goal, that's where fulfillment was. I've chased that feeling ever since.

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

Movies of Angelina Jolie

1995 Hackers 

1995 Without Evidence 

1996 Love is All There is 

1996 Foxfire 

1996 Mojave Moon 

1997 Playing God 

1998 Hell's Kitchen 

1998 Playing by Heart 

1999 Pushing Tin 

1999 The Bone Collector 

2000 Girl Interrupted Click here for my review

2000 Gone in 60 Seconds 

2001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 

2001 Original Sin 

2002 Life or Something Like It Click here for my review

2003 Lara Croft Tomb Raider The Cradle of Life Click here for my review

2003 Beyond Borders 

2004 Taking Lives Click here for my review 

2004 Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Click here for my review

2004 Shark Tale 

2004 Alexander Click here for my review

2005 Mr. and Mrs. Smith 

2006 The Good Shepherd Click here for my review

2007 A Mighty Heart Click here for my review

2007 Beowulf Click here for my review

2008 Kung Fu Panda Click here for my review

2008 Changeling Click here for my review

2008 Wanted Click here for my review

2010 Salt Click here for my review 

2010 The Tourist Click here for my review

2011 Kung Fu Panda 2 Click here for my review

2014 Maleficent 

2014 Unbroken Click here for my review

2015 By the Sea 

2016 Kung Fu Panda 3 

2019 Maleficent Mistress of Evil Click here for my review

2020 Come Away 

2020 The One and Only Ivan Click here for my review

2021 Those Who Wish Me Dead 

2021 Eternals Click here for my review

2024 Maria Click here for my review

Movie Review Girl Interrupted

Girl Interrupted (2000) 

Directed by James Mangold 

Written by James Mangold, Lisa Loomer, Anna Hamilton Phelan 

Starring Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg, Brittany Murphy, Elisabeth Moss, Clea Duvall

Release Date January 14th, 2000 

I have seen the movie Girl Interrupted before. I saw it when it was released theatrically in January of 2000. I recall admiring it and new, rising star, Angelina Jolie, who would earn a much deserved Oscar nomination for her work. Thus, it came as quite a shock to me, when I watched the film for the first time since the theatrical release and was shocked at how bad it was. The opening two minutes of Girl Interrupted features one of the most obnoxious movie tropes on the planet. 

Let’s set the scene: Interior some dingy, unused portion of a 1960s mental hospital. Four young women are in the room and it appears that something awful has happened. The scene is narrated by our leading actress, Winona Ryder who delivers this wildly melodramatic voiceover monologue:

“Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you had the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train was moving while sitting still? Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the 60s.Or maybe I was just a girl… interrupted” Turn to camera, look directly down the lens.

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

Movie Review Blonde

Blonde (2022)

Directed by Andrew Dominik 

Written by Andrew Dominik 

Starring Ana De Armas, Adrian Brody 

Release Date September 23rd, 2022 

Netflix 

You know what might be nice for us all as a culture? If perhaps we could stop propping up the corpse of Marilyn Monroe for the world to gawk at. Wouldn't that be nice? I realize, for many in Hollywood, especially those at Netflix, profiting off of the life and times of one of the world's most famous people is a cottage industry but it's getting very sad and ugly now and I for one would like to see it come to an end. Really, there is no better ending to this ugly period of Marilyn-sploitation than the deeply troubled and off-putting, Blonde. 

From the reductive and pretentious title to writer-director Andrew Dominik's forceful attempts at artiness, Blonde is a miserable and stultifying film experience. Now, I want to be kind, for a moment, Ana de Armas, is working wonders trying to make this movie work. Sadly, the makers of Blonde are determined to drown de Armas' elegant talent in a lot of visual nonsense while exploiting her naked form as much as possible. Yes, some will argue that exploitation is the point and that Marilyn was THE subject when it comes to the concept of the Male Gaze, but Blonde only pretends toward the idea of examining any ideas related to how men informed the life and demise of Marilyn Monroe.

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

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.