Movie Review West Side Story

West Side Story 

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Tony Kushner, Arthur Laurents

Starring Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose

Release Date December 1oth, 2021 

The big question surrounding Steven Speilberg’s big budget adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical, West Side Story was why? Why remake West Side Story? What about this 60’s era paean to 1950s, post World War 2 angst carries any appeal today? What justifies remaking a movie that has a beloved original that is about as good as the material could likely be? Having seen Speilberg’s West Side Story, I still don’t have a good answer for that question. But, I can’t say I wasn’t entertained or moved by the effort on display. 

West Side Story tells the tale of star-crossed lovers, Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria (Rachel Zegler), who find themselves on opposite sides of a turf war in a dying portion of New York City. On Tony’s side is a group of luckless Polish youth being pushed out of their neighborhoods by the creep of urban sprawl, they call themselves The Jets. On the other side are a group of Puerto Rican youths, relatively new to New York City but similarly disenfranchised and being pushed out of their neighborhoods.

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

Movie Review Red Rocket

Red Rocket

Directed by Sean Baker

Written by Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch

Starring Simon Rex, Bree Elrod

Release Date December 24th, 2021

I find the movie Red Rocket loathsome. It’s not a moral objection to the film as some might assume since the movie centers on the relationship between a former adult film actor and a 17 year old girl, though I do understand why moral objections to this movie exist. No, my issue isn’t that I am some kind of prude or I don’t like to have my values challenged by a work of art. Rather, I just find Red Rocket to be unendingly obnoxious. 

From moment one to moment last Red Rocket is annoying in the way that obnoxious people in the real world can be annoying. Simon Rex’s character Mikey is the kind of person I avoid at all costs because he’s loud and obnoxious and I really can’t stand people who seem to inflict themselves upon others. Some see this character as being challenging and transgressive. I see him as the kind of person who makes me leave social situations so I can avoid being thrust into an unwanted conversation with them which will invariably be about themselves.

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

Movie Review The Lost Daughter

The Lost Daughter 

Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal

Written by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Elena Ferrante

Starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson

Release Date December 31st, 2021 

Few movies have triggered my secondhand embarrassment senses like The Lost Daughter. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut stars Oscar winner Olivia Coleman as a college professor on holiday in Rome. Coleman’s Leda is desperately awkward and incapable of relating to other, lesser human beings. We get a sense of Leda in her first interaction with Lyle (Ed Harris), the caretaker of the apartment she has rented for her vacation. Lyle, in his 70s, is struggling while carrying her remarkably heavy bag to her room and yet he still tries to flirt with the near 50 year old Leda, much to her confusion and dismissiveness. 

It’s deeply weird and awkward and a credit to Maggie Gyllenhaal for capturing the feeling of two people deeply NOT connecting in the same way. This pattern will repeat throughout The Lost Daughter as the character of Leda appears incapable of relating to people on a base level. That fact has little to do with the story at play in The Lost Daughter, rather it is just the default mode of the character who seems to carry some sort of childhood trauma through her life that only allows her to interact with a select group of people in any kind of comfortable fashion and only on her terms.

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

Movie Review National Champions

National Champions 

Directed by Ric Roman Waugh

Written by Adam Mervis

Starring Stephen James, J.K Simmons, Alexander Ludwig

Release Date December 10th, 2021

National Champions aims to tell the story of how College Football exploits players. It’s a compelling bit of polemic on behalf of the players as the story gives strong voice to the complaints that many have had regarding the millions of dollars given to coaches and the billions of dollars raked in by universities and conferences that do little to benefit the young men laying their bodies on the line to actually earn that money. 

National Champions stars Stephan James as LeMarcus James, a college football superstar. LeMarcus is set to become the number one overall pick in the NFL draft after he plays in the national championship game. However, LeMarcus has decided not to play the big game. Along with his best friend and teammate, Emmett Sunday (Alexander Ludwig), LeMarcus has decided to use the national championship game as a moment to protest on behalf of unionizing College Football and forcing the Universities and the NCAA to pay players.

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

Movie Review Don't Look Up

Don't Look Up 

Directed by Adam McKay

Written by Adam McKay, David Sirota

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Timothee Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill

Release Date December 24th, 2021 

Don’t Look Up is a savage satire that pulls few punches in calling out those who would deny either COVID-19 or climate change. Playing like a modern Doctor Strangelove, the famously anti-war war movie, Don’t Look Up uses clever caricatures of modern politics to criticize and humiliate those who appear prepared to watch the world burn just to protect some ego born version of their political team, one they believe can’t lose no matter what winning might look like, even if it looks like the death of humanity. 

Don’t Look Up stars Jennifer Lawrence as Kate Dibiasky, a doctoral candidate in Astrology at Michigan State University. As the film opens, Kate is watching the sky through a massive telescope. Here she spots a large comet that is on a track that is bringing it toward Earth. For a doctoral candidate, it’s a huge find so she immediately contacts her professor, Dr Randall Mindy, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. He begins to do the math on the trajectory of the comet and slowly it dawns on him, the comet is headed directly toward Earth.

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

Movie Review Being the Ricardos

Being the Ricardos

Directed by Aaron Sorkin

Written by Aaron Sorkin

Starring Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem

Release Date December 21st, 2021

The talent of writer-director Aaron Sorkin is undeniable. Sorkin is a man of words, of wit, and caustic observation. I have no intention of diminishing Mr Sorkin’s talent but I have to quarrel with his choice of subjects. While Sorkin’s rat-a-tat banter and scintillating discourse on important issues is usually very welcome when providing a voice to good hearted politicians on The West Wing or when creating a recognizable version of a social media titan like Mark Zuckerberg, under the strict direction of David Fincher, in The Social Network. However, having that same style saddled onto the legend of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez feels completely out of place. 

There is a deep disconnect between Sorkin’s style of wordy, fast talking, tete a tete and the fall down funny of I Love Lucy. I’m sure there are parallels between typical Sorkin characters and the staff of I Love Lucy but Sorkin’s picture of Lucille Ball, as portrayed by Nicole Kidman, is shockingly humorless, often cruel, and downright joyless. Even when she’s creating comedy, Sorkin’s Lucille Ball approaches comedy with an architect-like dryness as if she were mathematically constructing comedy that she didn’t particularly enjoy.

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

Movie Review The Novice

The Novice 

Directed by Lauren Hadaway 

Written by Lauren Hadaway 

Starring Isabelle Fuhrman, Amy Forsythe

Release Date December 17th, 2021

Obsessive, compulsive, driven, damaged, out of control, these are some of the ways I could describe the protagonist of the new movie, The Novice. Played by Isabelle Fuhrman, Alex Dall, the protagonist of The Novice, is obsessed with everything she does. Having deemed herself less than others she makes up for her perceived deficiencies by outworking everyone around her with methodical tendencies bordering on insanity. Whether in academics, sex, or sports, Alex’s crazed determination is both impressive and terrifying. 

Having earned a scholarship to college, Alex finds herself in need of something to keep her motivated. She chooses the hardest thing that she can find, the women’s rowing team. If you aren’t familiar with rowing, it’s one of the most grueling and time consuming sports imaginable. The average person doesn’t join a rowing team. Rowing is a calling for people, an obsession that gets passed down from generation to generation.

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

Movie Review Sing 2

Sing 2 

Directed by Garth Jennings, Christophe Lourdelet

Written by Garth Jennings 

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon

Release Date December 22nd, 2021 

Sing 2 is a synergistic brand extension for the Sing I.P owned and perpetuated by Universal Pictures and the animation brand Illumination whose previous brand extensions include Despicable Me and The MinionsI.P. The goal of Sing 2 is to maximize the visibility of the known I.P Sing into a viable franchise for future capitalization. Box office tracking thus far indicates that Sing 2 will be a quick win for Illumination, well above their budget pain point. 

The Sing 2 I.P is being perpetuated further by including the brand of Matthew McConaughey, a well known product who, along with Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johannson, has proven to move the needle in the past for Illumination. In this brand extension, McConaughey returns to the role of music impresario, Buster Moon, owner of the Moon Theater. In the initial brand extension, Sing, Buster held a contest to find new talent. In this further brand extension, Buster is looking to take his new acts on the road.

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

Classic Movie Review Nights of Cabiria

Nights of Cabiria 

Directed by Federico Fellini 

Written by Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pineal 

Starring Giulietta Masina, Francois Perier, Franca Marzi

Release Date September 13th, 1957

The classic on the latest edition of the Everyone’s a Critic Movie Review Podcast is Nights of Cabiria, Federico Fellini's lovely, episodic exploration of a very unique and poignant life. Set in Rome in 1957, the story follows a sex worker named Cabiria as she goes through several days of trials in her troubled life. Nights of Cabiria was recently remastered and re-released in theaters by Rialto Pictures. The film received a new translation and a remastering of that iconic Nino Rota soundtrack. 

When we think of suspense we don’t often think of Fellini and we certainly don’t think of a movie like Nights of Cabiria. Fellini’s reputation is that of an absurdist provocateur and artist following his odd muse to unique and revealing places. Nights of Cabiria meanwhile, feels breezy with an overarching sadness in our empathy for Guilietta Masina’s wonderful Cabiria, a sex worker who is the constant folly of fate.

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

Documentary Review Beanie Mania

Beanie Mania 

Directed by Yemisi Brookes

Written by Documentary 

Starring Colleen Ballinger, Lina Trivedi 

Release Date December 23rd, 2021 

YouTuber Jenny Nicholson, arguably that platform’s best personality, has been talking about doing a video on the Beanie Baby phenomenon for some time now. And that is, in all honesty, the only reason I subjected myself to the new HBO Max documentary Beanie Mania. I am really eager to see Jenny do a video on this unique subject and I thought having a little more background on the topic might enhance how much fun her video will be. That said, there are some fascinating elements to Beanie Mania in and of itself. 

Beanie Mania takes audiences back to the mid-1990s when a small-time toy company executive named Ty Warner struck out on his own and somehow struck gold with socks shaped like various animals and stuffed with plastic beans. It’s a complete mystery as to why this stuffed toy became a worldwide phenomenon and Beanie Mania doesn’t really offer much of an answer for why this product of all products became such a ludicrously over the top fad. A combination of good timing and clever marketing created a one of a kind phenomenon that has yet to be duplicated.

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

Movie Review The Tender Bar

The Tender Bar 

Directed by George Clooney 

Written by William Monahan, J.R Moehringer

Starring Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan

Release Date January 7th, 2022 

George Clooney is the kind of director that actors love. As an actor himself he understands the way actors think and what actors enjoy doing. It’s easy to imagine Clooney encouraging his actors to follow their muse no matter where it takes them. That has unfortunately led to some deeply indulgent performances in Clooney directed movies. From Sam Rockwell’s entertaining but kitsch heavy performance in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind to Matt Damon’s downright weird performance in Suburbicon, Clooney shows himself to be a director willing to indulge his actors to good and not so good extremes. 

The latest actor allowed to indulge in extremes under the direction of George Clooney is Ben Affleck in the new Amazon Prime feature The Tender Bar. In this adaptation of JR Moehringer’s best selling memoir, Affleck plays Uncle Charlie to Tye Sheridan’s fictionalized version of the famed journalist and author. And boy can you tell this is directed by George Clooney. Affleck’s Charlie is a walking cliche of a New Yawk, Lawn Guy-land accent, all broad machismo and brainy posturing. As a fan of Affleck I can’t completely hate it, but even I have to recognize how a different director might have tried to reign in some of the broad aspects of Affleck’s otherwise scene stealing performance.

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

Movie Review The Tragedy of MacBeth

The Tragedy of MacBeth

Directed by Joel Coen 

Written by Joel Coen, William Shakespeare

Starring Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Alex Hassell

Release Date January 14th, 2022

The Tragedy of Macbeth suffers from our expectations. This newest take on the Shakespearean legend stars two of our finest and most respected actors, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth respectively. The film is directed by one half of the most respected directing duo in film history, Joel Coen, working for the first time without his brother, Ethan Coen. To say that the expectations for The Tragedy of Macbeth were high would be a significant understatement. 

Macbeth is a story of the corrupting influences of power and greed. Macbeth (Washington) is a man who gains power through his merciless abilities at war. As we join the story, Macbeth and his best friend, Banquo (Bertie Carvel), are recently returned from war with their reputation for merciless violence preceding them. The heroism of Macbeth and Banquo is announced well before they’ve actually returned from the battlefield and they are credited with killing an enemy leader that may or may not yet be dead.

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

Movie Review American Siege

American Siege 

Directed by Edward Drake 

Written by Corey Large, Edward Drake

Starring Bruce Willis, Rob Gough, Anna Hindman

Release Date December 28th, 2021

American Siege kind of stars Bruce Willis as a lazy, slightly corrupt, County sheriff in some small corner of Georgia. Willis plays Ben, a character so lazily rendered that giving him a last name was too much effort. Reportedly, Willis shot every one of his scenes for American Siege in a single day and boy does it show. Willis acts as if he’s paid by the length of every word, slowly slurring every line. No, Willis isn’t drunk, this is the slur of a man uttering lines he’s reading off a cue card just out of frame and for the very first time. 

Watch Willis’s eyes in American Siege and you can play the 'which direction is the cue card guy' home game. A fun American Siege drinking game might be watching Willis’s eyes searching for the cue card at the start of his scenes. That’s certainly more fun than anything else in this latest late period Bruce Willis paycheck job. American Siege finds Willis at his laziest, hiring his friends and standing around while the action happens around him, seemingly refusing to shoot scenes with the rest of the main cast.

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

Movie Review See for Me

See for Me 

Directed by Randall Okita

Written by Adam Yorke, Tommy Gushue

Starring Skyler Davenport, Kim Coates, Jessica Parker Kennedy

Release Date January 7th, 2022,

See for Me stars newcomer Skyler Davenport, a long time voice actor making their debut as the lead in a feature film. Davenport plays Sophie, a former world class skier who lost their sight. Bitter about the loss of their ability to ski independently, Sophie has found a niche working as a house sitter. This niche has allowed Sophie to dabble in nihilism as they take advantage of wealthy clients by stealing something valuable that Sophie assumes the owners won’t miss and on the assumption that they’d be too ashamed to accuse the helpless blind person of stealing. 

Sophie’s latest gig is somewhere in upstate New York in what, from the outside, looks like a massive ski chalet/hotel. Instead, it’s merely a mansion owned by Debra (Laura Vandevoort). Debra has just finished a nasty divorce and is headed out of town for a few days. Debra has hired Sophie not to watch the house but rather her cat. It’s not an important detail, just one the movie insists upon more than once. Sophie immediately searches for something to steal, using her friend Cam (Keaton Kaplan) over Facetime to locate an expensive wine cellar.

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

Documentary Review American Gadfly

American Gadfly 

Directed by Skye Wallin

Written by Documentary 

Starring Mike Gravel

Release Date January 3rd, 2022 

American Gadfly is one of the most exciting and fun documentaries I have seen in some time. Most political documentaries are so dry that they make great kindling. That’s certainly not the case with American Gadfly which is colorful and engaging while also being intelligent, thoughtful and enlightening. If you don’t know who former United States Senator Mike Gravel was or you think he was just some crackpot who ran for President a couple of times, this documentary sets the record straight about a hero of Progressive Democratic politics and the generation he so unexpectedly enlivened. 

The Senator from Alaska from 1969 to 1981, Mike Gravel rose to fame in the early 1970s when, in the midst of the scandal building from the leak of The Pentagon Papers by government contractor Daniel Ellsberg, Gravel, with help from Noam Chomsky, read a version of The Pentagon Papers into the official record of the Senate using parliamentary procedure to cover the fact that he was releasing top secret information. It was a master stroke that allowed the media to hear what was in the Papers and cleared the legal hurdles that halted the Washington Post and New York Times from publishing the Papers.

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

Movie Review Rucker

Rucker 

Directed by Amy Hesketh

Written by Amy Hesketh, Aaron Drane 

Starring Bobby C. King, Cheyenna Lee, Corey Taylor

Release Date January 4th, 2022

Rucker is an ugly and stupid little movie about truck driving serial killer and a budding sociopath documentary filmmaker. The movie is a pointless and meandering splatter movie that wanders the highways and byways of the United States in search of an ever elusive point. The point is never found and what is in its place is a dimwitted, often deeply confusing movie that pretends to be a boundary pushing horror-comedy. 

Rucker (The Trucker) stars Bobby C King in the title role of truck driver Leif Rucker. Rucker is being filmed for a documentary and for a time the documentarian is off screen and unseen. Eventually however, Rucker draws the young female filmmaker, Maggie (Cheyenna Lee), in front of the camera and learns her in the ways of the trucker, the language, the lore and the lonely, lonely road. Soon enough however, the veneer of respectability falls away to reveal a deeply disturbed man and an equally disturbed young woman.

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

Movie Review King Car

King Car 

Directed by Renata Pinheiro

Written by Sergio Oliveira, Renata Pinheiro

Starring Luciano Pedro Jr., Clara Pinheiro 

Release Date January 7th, 2022 

King Car is a bizarre and fascinating movie. Set in modern day Brazil, the story follows a college student named Uno who, somehow, develops the ability to speak to cars. Uno, actor uncredited, was born in the back of one of his father’s taxis. This, apparently, fostered a bond between Uno and the car. That bond was broken for a time when the car saved Uno from being struck by this car driven by Uno’s mother who was distracted and didn’t know she was about to hit Uno. The car swerved itself to save Uno but was crushed in the effort and Uno’s mother was killed. 

Uno grew up hating cars and only ever riding a bike. He goes so far as to completely reject his father who expected Uno to take business classes and join the family taxi business. Instead, Uno goes to college and learns about Agriculture and Sustainability. Uno meets a young woman named Amora with whom he develops a romance. However, when Uno’s father suffers a heart attack, Uno is drawn back into the family business in very unexpected and strange ways.

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

Movie Review The 355

The 355 

Directed by Simon Kinberg 

Written by Theresa Rebeck, Simon Kinberg

Starring Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong'o 

Release Date January 7th, 2022 

The 355 stars Jessica Chastain as Mace, a contractor for the CIA. When Mace is betrayed during a mission to recover the ultimate, all in one, world ending MacGuffin, she goes out on her own and outside the law to find out who betrayed her. Joining Mace, eventually, on this mission is Marie Schmidt (Diane Kruger), a German operative with the same mission of getting the ultimate, all in one, world ending MacGuffin but claiming it for Germany and not letting it go to the United States intelligence apparatus. 

Also, eventually helping Mace is Khadija (Lupita Nyongo), a hacker turned MI6 Operative who specializes in technology. Finally, there is Graciela (Penelope Cruz), a member of the Colombian intelligence service though not as an agent. Graciela is a mental health counselor who is sent to Paris to bring back an agent who has gone rogue after acquiring the ultimate, all in one, world ending MacGuffin. Graciela winds up in the middle of all of the action surrounding the MacGuffin despite her lack of combat experience.

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

Movie Review Sex Appeal

Sex Appeal 

Directed by Talia Osteen

Written by Tate Hanyok

Starring Mika Abdalla, Jake Short, Fortune Feimster

Release Date January 14th, 2022 

I’m not quite sure what to make of the new Hulu teen comedy Sex Appeal. On the one hand, it’s good to see a sex positive movie with a good message about seeking safe, consensual, and pleasurable sex. On the other hand, the jokes and characters feel lifted from various other teen comedies and sitcoms. Director Talia Osteen has made both a sex positive teen comedy and a movie about as sexy the sex talk you might get from your cool aunt. 

Sex Appeal stars Mika Abdalla as Avery, a straight A student who prides herself on being good at everything she does. However, when her equally intellectually driven boyfriend proposes that they take their relationship to the next level, Avery is thrown for a loop. Since Avery is good at everything she feels the need to be good at sex as well. Meanwhile, Avery will be seeing this long distance boyfriend at an upcoming STEM competition, one where she’s been challenged to develop an app that solves a personal problem.

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