Movie Review I.S.S

I.S.S (2024) 

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite 

Written by Nick Shafir 

Starring Ariana Debose, Chris Messina, Pilou Asbaek, John Gallagher Jr., Costa Ronin 

Release Date January 19th, 20024

Published 

I.S.S is a terrific and timely thriller. Set aboard the International Space Station, the story follows a rookie astronaut, played by Ariana Debose, as she joins her first space mission. She's supposed to spend the next six months studying lab rats and seeking cures or treatments for disease. What she gets however is a day or so of acclimating to her strange new home before something on the ground, an international incident involving the United States and Russia, throws her mission into chaos and threatens the lives of everyone on board the I.S.S 

Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana Debose) has worked her whole career toward going to space. When we meet her, her dream is coming true. Foster and Dr. Christian (John Gallagher Jr.) are aboard the Soyuz Space Capsule on their way to the I.S.S. On the space station, they are welcomed by fellow American, Gordon Barrett and the three person Russian crew, Alexey (Pilou Asbaek), Nika (Maria Mashkova), and Nicolai (Costa Ronin). The atmosphere is mostly congenial, though issues of workspace do cause a bit of tension between Kira and Alexey who must work in close quarters. 

The plot kicks in when communication from the station to the ground gets cut off. The internet is down and, as the crew is observing the Earth, they see what appear to be large scale explosions. When communication is restored between the station and Earth, the Americans and the Russians are each advised to take control of the space station, by any means necessary. This leads to a series of ever escalating encounters as each side tries to decide whether they are getting accurate information from the ground and whether or not they are capable of attacking people they have considered their friends and colleagues until now. 

I.S.S is a thrill ride. Directed by documentarian turned feature director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the film keeps amping up the tension in scene after scene all while creating a surprisingly realistic recreation of the famed International Space Station on a relatively modest budget. Cowperthwaite's direction is assured and confident with a masterful control of the tension and suspense. The cinematography by Nick Remy Matthews is superb and the camerawork underlines the growing tension of the plot perfectly. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review He Went That Way

He Went That Way (2024) 

Directed by Jeffrey Darling 

Written by Evan M. Weiner

Starring Jacob Elordi, Zachary Quinto, Chimpanzee 

Release Date January 5th, 2023 

Published January 7th, 2023 

He Went That Way is a deeply misguided movie. Despite a unique true story basis, the movie cannot figure out what it wants to be. Is it a thriller? Is it a road movie? Is it a thrilling road movie? It's deeply unclear and wildly strange but not in a very interesting way. The film stars of the moment star Jacob Elordi as a serial murderer and Zachary Quinto as the trainer of a world-famous chimpanzee named Spanky. No, I didn't make that up, that's the actual character dynamic. A road movie featuring a serial murderer, an animal trainer, and a chimpanzee. Ugh!

Jim Goodwin (Quinto) is slowly losing everything. His marriage is struggling, he and his chimpanzee, Spanky, have lost their television show, and now he's on the road and possibly having to beg someone who owes him money to finally pay him. With his vehicle breaking down, Jim stops at a gas station. There, he meets Bobby Falls (Jacob Elordi), a drifter thumbing a ride on Route 66. Jim offers to take him as far as Chicago, Jim's destination, and they hit the road. 

On their first stop, a roadside motel, Bobby reveals that he's carrying a gun. He threatens Jim, steals his wallet and ring, and demands that Jim take him to Michigan where Bobby claims he has a girl waiting for him. In flashbacks following this scene, we see flashes of some of the murders Bobby has committed. He's murdered several people since coming back from, what we assume is Vietnam, though the movie isn't clear about this idea. The film actually opens with Bobby dumping a dead body out of a car, unrelated to anything to do with Jim and Spanky. 

And from there, Jim spends several days trying to convince Bobby not to kill him and, perhaps return his wallet and pinky ring. Jim also has the tricky task of keeping Bobby from killing the people that they meet along their way, including a pair of teenage girls that Jim picks up for them by introducing them to Spanky the Chimp. This could work, I guess, as a story, if it were played as wildly absurd but Quinto and Elordi play these scenes completely straight and the direction is basic and adds nothing stylistically to underline how bizarre this story is. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Weak Layers

Weak Layers (2024) 

Directed by Katie Burrell

Written by Katie Burrell, Andrew Ladd 

Starring Katie Burrell, Jadyn Wong, Chelsea Conwright, Evan Jonigkeit 

Release Day January 5th, 2024

Published January 5th, 2025 

Weak Layers is a throwback to a time in the 1980s and 90s when comedies set on ski slopes became a mildly popular sub-genre. These movies were all the same formula, a group of slobs battling a group of snobs. The slobs throw wild, over the top parties filled with drugs, booze, nudity, and associated debauchery, before having to learn a valuable lesson that leads to them to clean up their act just long enough to win, or come close to winning, a big skiing competition. The only notable differences in these comedies was whether or not they featured just skiing or skiing and snowboarding. 

It's been a few years since we've seen one of these skiing comedies like Ski School, Aspen Extreme, or Snowboard Academy. As terrible as these movies often were, there was a particular charm to them. Skiing comedies, like the similar sub-genre of Summer Camp movies, think Meatballs, have a breezy, silly, dopey quality that made them very easy to watch. Weak Layers does well in recapturing the silly, stupid, easy to watch qualities of the classic ski-comedy. 

Weak Layers was co-written and directed by Katie Burrell who also stars in the movie as Cleo, a wannabe film director, killing time drinking, partying and skiing. Cleo shares an apartment with her two closest friends, Lucy (Jadyn Wong), and former Olympic skier, Tina (Chelsea Conwright). When the trio parties just a little too hard and end up trashing their apartment, they're forced to live in a friends van while they seek a new place to live and party. 

The trios best bet for getting the money together for a place to live is a longshot. Cleo's video of her friends partying and skiing has recently gone viral and earned her the chance to submit a short documentary to a contest with a $10,000 grand prize. To win, she and her friends will have to clean up their acts and do some of the best skiing of their lives while Cleo captures it all on camera and turns it into an award winning skiing movie. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media