Documentary Chari XCX Alone Together

Charli XCX Alone Together

Directed by Bradley Bell, Pablo Jones-Soler

Written by Documentary 

Starring Charli XCX 

Release Date January 28th, 2022 

I love fandoms. I love dedicated groups of people who take to an artist and their art and become a community. It’s an online phenomenon that did not exist when I was young and part of various fandoms. I am still a fan of many different artists and their work but I’ve never been part of a fandom and I envy those who have that connection and are able to share their love of pop ephemera with other like-minded people. I’m happy when I see a group of people who get along and are able to find a space to share their dedication to something. 

The new documentary Charli XCX Alone Together is about a pop star coping with the pandemic, the lockdowns, and all that came with the start of COVID-19’s hold on the country. Part of how that pop star, Charli XCX coped with the pandemic and shelter at home was further embracing her fandom, bringing her biggest fans even closer to her via virtual hangouts on Zoom, Tweeting and interacting on social media, and eventually deciding to make an album that was fully part of her online community, one that could organically be attributed to her fans who contributed lyrics, ideas, art and support.

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

Movie Review Cyrano

Cyrano

Directed by Joe Wright

Written by Erica Schmidt, Edmond Rostand

Starring Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison

Release Date February 25th, 2022

Cyrano stars Peter Dinklage as Cyrano De Bergerac, legendary swordsman, soldier and wordsmith. Set in France in the 1600s, Cyrano finds our hero pining for his oldest friend, Roxanne (Haley Bennett) while she pines for a newly arrived soldier in Cyrano’s regiment. Christian De Neuvillette (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is a wide eyed new recruit who spots Roxanne in a crowd at the theater and shares a long romantic glance that each mistake for love at first sight. So powerful is this look that Roxanne arranges to meet with Cyrano to ask her friend to arrange their romance. 

Though it pains him to do it, Cyrano begins to coach Christian on how to woo Roxanne. However, when Christian proves to be foolish with words, Cyrano begins writing love letters on his behalf. The letters are filled with passionate prose dedicated to feelings for Roxanne that go well beyond the kind of first love fascination one has at first sight. Nevertheless, the letters work and Roxanne begins to believe that she has fallen in love with Christian through his passionate letters, even after their first in-person meeting goes horribly.

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

Movie Review Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

Directed by Junta Yamaguchi

Written by Makato Ueda

Starring Kazunari Tosa, Riko Fujitani, Gota Ishida 

Release Date June 5th, 2020 

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is one of the most fun movies I have seen recently. This delightfully oddball science fiction comedy from Japan has a brilliantly odd premise, lovable characters and a wildly inventive spirit that permeates each of its delightfully short 70 minute runtime. Directed by Junta Yamaguchi, who also acted as his own cinematographer and editor, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes isn’t merely entertaining, it’s a marvel of film technique, especially in the incredible editing. 

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes stars Kazunari Tosa as Kato, the owner of a small cafe in Japan. One night after closing, Kato returns to his apartment, upstairs from the café, and has a bizarre encounter. While searching for a lost guitar pick, Kato gets a message from himself from two minutes in the future. He explains to himself how to find the pick and then tells himself to run down to the café so that he can send this same message to himself two minutes later. Kato listens to himself and a loop begins where everything Kato does repeats two minutes later.

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

Movie Review They/Them/Us

They/Them/Us 

Directed by Jon Sherman 

Written by Melissa Vogley Woods, Jon Sherman

Starring Joey Slotnick, Amy Hargreaves, Jack Steiner

Release Date February 1st, 2022 

They/ Them/Us is a modern sitcom crossed with Fifty Shades of Grey. Though the movie has some minor charm it lacks anything to truly make it special. They/Them/Us is another in a surprising yet slow growing trend of sex positive movies that have the appeal of not shaming people over their sexuality but the film also carries the tone deaf quality of a woke dad, trying way too hard to show the kids how cool he is. 

They/Them/Us stars Joey Slotnick as Charlie Goldman, a college film professor recently separated from his wife. Charlie is getting back out into the dating world while also trying to co-parent a pair of obnoxious teenagers eager to blame their parents for every minor inconvenience in their life. For Charlie’s son, Danny (Jack Steiner), that means getting heavily into drugs, first marijuana and then psychedelics. For Danny’s sister, Anna (Shanna Strong) that means complaining that no one is doing anything about Danny.

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

Documentary Review Poly Styrene I Am a Cliche

Poly Styrene  I Am a Cliche 

Directed by Celeste Bell, Paul Sng 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Celeste Bell

Release Date March 5th, 2021

If you aren’t a fan of the British punk rock wave of the late 70s and early 1980s then you may not be aware of the trailblazer known as Poly Styrene. Poly Styrene was the rebellious and distinctive voice of the punk band X-Ray Spex. The band is arguably best known for being banned by the BBC over their song “Oh Bondage, Up Yours,” an anti-authority, anti-patriarchy punk anthem that became a big hit in spite of and because of the BBC ban. 

Poly Styrene was a mixed race teenager growing up in a London suburb with few dreams of becoming a punk rock pioneer. Forming a band was an idea she had while writing poetry and searching for a way to share her poetry. Turning her spiky poetry into songs was a natural extension of wanting a way to speak louder and get heard. Punk was the most influential genre of the time and it happened to perfectly fit Poly’s anarchic style of poetry.

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

Movie Review The Long Night

The Long Night

Directed by Rich Ragsdale 

Written by Mark Young, Robert Sheppe

Starring Scout Taylor Compton, Nolan Gerard Funk

Release Date April 8th, 2022

The Long Night is a remarkably dull and derivative horror movie. This story about a couple trapped in a southern plantation home by some form of powerful demonic cult paints itself into multiple corners that it has no hope of getting out of. The villains have too much power and our protagonists are a bickering couple who have zero chemistry. So that’s fun. Then the movie builds to an ending that features character motivations that shift so fast you may get whiplash trying to keep up with the silliness. 

The Long Night stars Scout Taylor Compton as Grace and Nolan Gerard Funk as her obnoxious boyfriend. While bickering over how bad her introduction to his parents was, a scene that happened off screen, the two travel to the deep south. The plan has the couple going to a southern plantation where the owner has offered to help Grace find information on the parents she never knew; they abandoned her when she was very young.

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

Movie Review The Wolf and the Lion

The Wolf and the Lion 

Directed by Giles De Maistre 

Written by Prune De Maistre, Giles De Maistre

Starring Molly Kunz, Graham Greene

Release Date February 4th, 2022

The Wolf and the Lion is a harmless trifle, a modestly charming family movie with zero edge and occasionally baffling continuity. The heart of the filmmakers is mostly in the right place but you can sense the marketing strings being pulled and tears being jerked with excessive force. Based on the true story of a real life friendship between a baby wolf and baby tiger who grew up together on a Canadian island, The Wolf and the Lion is inelegant but harmless. 

The Wolf and the Lion stars Molly Kunz as Alma, a piano prodigy dealing with the loss of a beloved family member. Alma’s kooky granddad owns an island on the coast of Canada where he worked to protect local wildlife from hunters and other human incursions. Granddad passed away and has left his island to his granddaughter in hope that she will keep up his conservation efforts for the local wildlife.

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

Movie Review Worst to First The Story of Z100

Worst to First The Story of Z100 

Directed by Mitchell Stuart

Written by Mitchell Stuart 

Starring Clive Davis, Jon Bon Jovi, Scott Shannon

Release Date February 11th, 2022

In May of 2022 I will have been in radio for 27 years. Naturally, that means I know and revere Scott Shannon as a legend of my business. I’ve had the privilege of hearing Scott Shannon talk about radio in interviews and in person and it never gets old. The man is an indefatigable proponent of my profession since before I was even born. So, you can imagine that when I heard someone was making a documentary about Scott Shannon’s greatest accomplishment, taking New York’s Z100 from worst in the ratings to first, I was excited. 

That excitement lasted about a minute before disillusionment set in. Looking as if it had been shot on an IPhone on a budget of fifty bucks, the documentary Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 in New York is a dull, fawning, and unremarkable documentary. Opening with a story from Jon Bon Jovi, Worst to First opens with a non-sequitur. The rock legend tells a story about hearing one of his songs on the radio for the first time and what that meant to him.

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

Movie Review Air Doll

Air Doll 

Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda

Written by Yoshiie Goda, Hirokazu Koreeda

Starring Bae Doona, Arata Iura

Release Date September 26th, 2009

The movie Air Doll was originally released in 2009 and it flew completely under my radar. Thankfully, our friends at Dekanalog have rescued this lovely, thoughtful and thoroughly strange melodrama about a blow up sex doll that comes to life. That sounds a little like an inverse take on Lars and the Real Girl and the movies do carry a similar sense of whimsical melancholy. Air Doll is far more absurdist than the sweet Lars but if you liked one you may enjoy the other. 

Air Doll stars Bae Doon as Nozomi. Nozomi is the name given to the blow up sex doll belonging to Hideo (Isuji Itao) and it is a name she keeps when she finds a heart. That’s Nozomi’s narrated explanation of how she came to life, she found a heart. That heart leads Nozomi to venture outside, even as her only clothes are fetish costumes bought by Hideo. Nozomi chooses a sexy maid costume and ventures out into the world.

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

Movie Review Moonfall

Moonfall 

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Written by Roland Emmerich, Harold Kloser, Spencer Cohen 

Starring Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, John Bradley 

Release Date February 4th, 2022 

Moonfall stars the charisma vacuum that is Patrick Wilson, continuing in his astonishing magic trick, fooling the world into seeing him as a movie star. Wilson plays a NASA astronaut, Brian, who, while debating the lyrics of the song Africa by Toto, because random counts as a personality in a movie like Moonfall, sees a massive alien destroy the satellite he’s working on, killing a fellow astronaut. 

Through the necessity of the plot, Brian’s best pal back in the ship, Jo (Halle Berry), was knocked unconscious and did not see the alien Brian claims destroyed the satellite. Brian manages to fly the damaged ship back to Earth but is blamed for the failure of the mission and is left disgraced and broke. This is so he can needlessly play the cliché of someone whose bills all have final notice on them and lay face up on a table in place of an actual character. Jo meanwhile goes on to become the head of NASA and if you want her to have any more personality than simple competence, too bad.

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

Movie Review Cosmic Dawn

Cosmic Dawn 

Directed by Jefferson Moneo

Written by Jefferson Moneo

Starring Camille Rowe, Emmanuelle Chriqui 

Release Date February 11th, 2022

Cosmic Dawn stars Camille Rowe as Aurora. As a child Aurora witnessed her mother being abducted by aliens. She was 5 years old when it happened but her memories are still vivid. Regardless of her account however, people chalk up the alien story to having been traumatized by her mother’s disappearance. Aurora grows up a lost soul always searching for something she can’t quite wrap her mind around. 

Then one night after a rave party, Aurora finds herself drawn by the presence of an older woman to enter a bookstore. Once inside however, Aurora finds that the woman has vanished. The store clerk, Natalie (Emmanuelle Chiriqui), finds Aurora searching for the woman she saw in the supernatural section. While Aurora takes interest in a book about alien abduction, Natalie steers her toward a different book called Cosmic Dawn. A photo of the author reveals that she is the older woman that Aurora followed into the store.

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

Movie Review Catch the Fair One

Catch the Fair One

Directed by Jeff Kubota Wladyka 

Written by Jeff Kubota Wladyka, Kali Reis

Starring Kali Reis, Shelly Vincent, Kendall Morris

Release Date February 11th, 2022 

Catch the Fair One is a bold and uncompromising thriller about the desperate plague of human trafficking. The film stars real life boxing champion Kali Reis as Kaylee, the older sister of Jaya (Kimberly Guerrero). Jaya has been taken and to get her back Kali will offer herself to a human trafficking ring while making plans to get her and her sister out. Written and directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka, Catch the Fair One is not an easy sit but it is one that will haunt you if you give it a chance. 

Kaylee has fallen from grace. Once a world champion boxer, Kaylee ended up in jail and then working a minimum wage job as a waitress following the disappearance of her little sister. Kaylee is on the outs with her mother, and instead of training for her next fight, she’s begun training for a very different kind of fight. With her only friend, Brick (Shelly Vincent), she’s discovered a way into the word of human trafficking and she’s now training to fight her way in and out of this incredibly dangerous world.

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

Movie Review The Other Me

The Other Me 

Directed by Giga Agladze

Written by Giga Agladze

Starring Jim Sturgess, Andreja Pejic

Release Date February 4th, 2022 

The Other Me operates on dream logic. The film starring Jim Sturgess and Andreja Pejic as two halves of the same person may seem obtuse or bizarre but that is intentional. The Other Me is telling a story about discovering trans identity using a divided psyche and the fractured emotional plane of dreams to lay the groundwork for a story about a bartender going blind from an unnamed disorder who finds his sight again when he discovers his mirror self as a trans woman. 

Irakli (Sturgess) may work as a bartender but he has a vision to change the future as an architect. Unfortunately his dreams are upended when he is told that he has a rare eye disorder that will render him blind sooner rather than later. This is not merely a setback for Irakli’s dreams, it’s a death blow for his already struggling marriage to Nutsa (Antonia Campbell Hughes). She’s already secretly sleeping with Irakli’s best friend and boss, Giorgi (Michael Socha). Irakli’s despondency over his blindness is only going to drive them further apart.

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

Movie Review Jackass Forever

Jackass Forever 

Directed by Jeff Tremaine

Written by Jackass 

Starring Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O

Release Date February 4th, 2022 

I understand that the appeal of Jackass is lost on a lot of people. Most people I know, close friends especially, are apoplectic over my appreciation for the silliness of Jackass. Indeed, that is why I am writing a review of Jackass Forever, a movie that really doesn’t need a critical analysis. Either you like Jackass stunts or you don’t and no critic is going to change your mind either way. So, instead, I am going to explore what I enjoy about Jackass and specifically, Jackass Forever and try to help explain the appeal. 

Jackass Forever opens with a sketch in which a man’s penis painted and dressed up as Godzilla attacking a city where our Jackass crew is posed for various forms of stunt carnage. This is par for the course for Jackass Forever as penis related humor is a major part of Jackass Forever. Whether they are squished between plastic and turned into paddle ball toys or being covered in bees for the world’s worst merkin. If you can’t stand the sight of the penis, Jackass Forever is not for you.

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

Movie Review Drop

Drop 

Directed by Christopher Landon 

Written by Jillian Jacobs, Chris Roach

Starring Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Reed Diamond

Release Date April 11th, 2025 

Published April 11th, 2025 

Drop stars Meghann Fahy as Violet, a domestic abuse survivor and single mom, dipping her toe back into the dating pool. As you can imagine, this is not an easy decision but her date, Henry (Brandon Sklenar) has proven to be such a nice and caring guy via their dating app messages, she’s willing to give it a try. They’re first date is set for a fancy restaurant at the top of a skyscraper with an awesome view of the Chicago skyline. Romantic right? 

Unfortunately, Violet is a character in a thriller so the romance is short lived. After arriving at the restaurant a little before her date, someone clones Violet’s cellphone. Whoever did this begins bombarding Violet with ‘Digi-Drops,’ meme messages that contain text asking her to play a game. After Henry arrives and the two are seated for their dinner, the messages become more insistent and frightening. Eventually a message tells Violet to check her home security cameras.

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

Movie Review Marry Me

Marry Me 

Directed by Kat Coiro 

Written by John Rogers, Harper Dill, Tommy Sagher

Starring Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson

Release Date February 11th, 2022 

I went into the new romantic comedy Marry Me, starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, with the expectation of hating the movie. It was a feeling that was not unfair given the track record that Jennifer Lopez has in terrible romantic comedies. Lopez has been party to the decline of the rom-com genre over the last two decades by churning out one horrific example of the genre after another. Movies like 2001’s dreary The Wedding Planner, the abysmal, unwatchable failure that was Gigli, the gag inducing comedy The Back Up Plan, and 2018's regrettable Second Act, in my mind, perfectly justify my expectation to hate Marry Me. 

Lopez’s taste in romantic comedies is a bland, borderline unwatchable example of everything wrong with the genre. Owen Wilson is only slightly more reliable in the genre because he’s made so few genuine romantic comedies in his lengthy career. What a lovely surprise it is to have my expectations proven wrong. Granted, Marry Me benefits from extremely low standards on my part but given the attitude I went in with, it’s impressive to me that I can sit here and recommend Marry Me to you, dear reader.

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

Documentary Review Dunk or Die

Dunk or Die 

Directed by Nicolas De Virieu

Written by Documentary 

Starring Kadour Ziani 

Release Date February 21st, 2022 

Documentaries are a window into a world you may not have known existed. The best documentaries are ones that take you to new places in the world, in existence, in consciousness. Documentaries expand reality, they teach, they inform and they entertain. The new French, black & white, basketball documentary Dunk or Die may seem like a documentary about a basketball player in France, emulating the heroes of the NBA, but that’s just the surface. 

Director Nicolas De Verieu has the specific task of chronicling the life of Kadour Ziane, a superstar around the world for his spectacular mastery of the slam dunk. In the process of capturing Ziane, De Verieu throws a light on the nature of obsession. What drives the obsessive personality? Trauma? Riches? Fame? For Kadour Ziane, obsession means breaking physical, mental and emotional barriers built in a youth filled with the struggles of race and class.

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

Movie Review Strawberry Mansion

Strawberry Mansion

Directed by Kentucker Audley, Albert Birney

Written by Kentucker Audley, Albert Birney

Starring Penny Fuller, Kentucker Audley 

Release Date July 22nd, 2021 

Strawberry Mansion is an almost impenetrable film. The comic drama from the directing duo of Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney follows Audley as James Preble, a man whose job is to audit people’s dreams. In this bizarre reality people pay taxes for things they use in their dreams. Meanwhile, a corrupt corporation is sneaking advertisements into those same dreams without anyone being aware of it, save for Bella played by Penny Fuller. 

The story of Strawberry Mansion picks up inside the dream of James Preble where a friend has brought him fried chicken and soda. We get the sense immediately that this is a rather typical event in James’s dreams, his friend, Buddy (Linas Phillips), brings food and soda and the two enjoy a meal together in James’ oddly purple kitchen, likely something he’s invented in order to save on his dream taxes.

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

Movie Review Pursuit

Pursuit 

Directed by Brian Skiba

Written by Brian Skiba, Andrew Stevens, Dawn Bursteen

Starring John Cusack, Emile Hirsch, Jake Manley

Release Date February 18th, 2022

While Bruce Willis gets most of the attention for his late career paycheck cheapies, John Cusack has been toiling away on the same easy paycheck circuit. Cusack’s recent resume may not be as stunningly inept and lazy as Willis’s output, but it is nearly as disreputable. As evidence I present to you the scuzzy new action thriller, Pursuit. The film stars the ever less reputable Emile Hirsch and someone named Jake Manley with Cusack seemingly allowing a film crew to capture scenes of him puttering around his house to include in the movie. 

Pursuit stars Emile Hirsch as gangster-hacker Rick Calloway. Rick’s wife has gone missing and using the dark web, Rick is unraveling the criminal enterprise that is hiding and torturing her for the sadistic purpose of antagonizing Rick. In his pursuit of the truth, Rick tracks down a drug dealer who happens to be the subject of a sting by undercover NYPD Detectives. Unknowingly interrupting the bust, Rick kills several people and injures a pair of cops including Detective Mike Breslin played by Jake Manley.

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