Movie Review Scream 6

Scream 6 (2023) 

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett 

Written by James Vanderbilt, Gary Busick 

Starring Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Courtney Cox, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding 

Release Date March 10th, 2023 

Published March 9th, 2023 

After having seen Scream 6 I can now confirm that there are only two possible truths in this franchise. One possible truth is that no one in Scream has any vital organs. Or, second possible truth, Knives are capable of malfunctioning. It has to be one or the other. There are no other rational explanations as to how human beings can survive so many, many stab wounds. Characters in Scream movies now are basically a series of blood balloons tied together to form human beings. No vital organs, just places where they can be stabbed and partially deflate. That's it. 

Stabbing someone in movies used to be far more effective than it is today. In Psycho you did not see Marion Crane getting up and sharing witty banter with anyone after being stabbed repeatedly by Mrs. Bates. Heck, even in the original, 1996 Scream movie, Drew Barrymore died in the opening minutes from a number of stab wounds. Granted, it was the first indication of the growing overall ineffectiveness of knives in horror movies, but she did die from her wounds, eventually. 

I'm being petty. It's just a matter that I have been able to suspend disbelief in previous entries in the Scream franchise. Scream 1,2,4, and 5, feature such good scares and such great characters that the implausibility melted into the background. Writer Kevin Williamson, aided by the skilled direction of horror veteran Wes Craven, was able to distract us with wit and charm while Craven's camera blocking and old school approach to building suspense, carried us over the harder to believe ideas about how many times Sidney Prescott was going to survive a serial murderer. 

Now however, without the wit and with greatly lesser character and direction, the seams of the franchise are beginning to wear away. There are only so many times that Ghostface can be knocked on the head and walk away. There are only so many times we can see someone have most of their vital organs punctured and live that such a thing remains effective. With Scream 6, for me, the franchise has pushed beyond my ability and willingness to suspend disbelief. With nothing to elevate the movie above the horror tropes, we're left with a downright comical number of stab wounds that people manage to survive. 

Picking up the story from Scream 5, the Carpenter sisters, Samantha (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega), survivors of the most recent massacre in Woodsboro, are now living in New York City. Tara is attending college, along with old friends Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and her fraternal twin brother, Chad (Mason Gooding). And, of course, they've picked up strays including new roommate Quinn (Liana Liberato), and Chad's new roommate Ethan (Jack Champion). Samantha has also picked a secret boyfriend, a neighbor named Danny (Josh Segarra), who, naturally, will become an immediate suspect when Ghostface returns. 

Indeed, Ghostface is back as a pair of film students appear to be trying to finish the story that Randy Kirsch (Jack Quaid) and Amber Freeman (Mikey Madison) tried to tell in Scream 5. That story centered on Sam being the big bad due to her history as the illegitimate daughter of original Scream killer, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). These dorks want to finish Randy and Amber's movie by killing the Carpenter sisters and framing them for all of the murders from Woodsboro to New York City. Before they can accomplish that however, they too are killed and a new story of revenge begins to unfold. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media 

Movie Review IMoredecai

iMordecai (2023) 

Directed by Marvin Samel 

Written by Rudy Gaines, Dahlia Heyman 

Starring Judd Hirsch, Carole Kane, Sean Astin 

Release Date March 10th, 2023 

Published March 9th, 2023 

It seems to happen year after year after the Oscar nominations are announced. One nominee with a chance of winning one of the biggest prizes in acting will have their chances of winning torpedoed by the release of another movie, one terrifically embarrassing and using the Oscar attention for the star as a marketing tool. This year, legendary character actor Judd Hirsch earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Steven Speilberg's The Fabelmans. Whether or not Hirsch could be considered a frontrunner for the award is debatable. What's not debatable is that he must be hoping voters don't notice his other awards season starring role in the embarrassing product placement based comedy, iMordecai. 

Judd Hirsch stars in iMordecai as Mordecai, a wacky holocaust survivor living the retired life in Florida with his longtime, long suffering wife, Fela (Carole Kane). When we meet Mordecai he is taking a sledgehammer to his apartment bathroom with the intent of building a new bathroom. Did I mention that Mordecai is in his late 80s? Perhaps building an entire new bathroom might not be within his capabilities? That's certainly what Mordecai's son, Marvin (Sean Astin) thinks. He's stunned when his mother calls him to try and get Mordecai to not destroy the bathroom. 

Marvin is struggling to keep tabs on his dad, especially because Mordecai is still using a nearly 20 year old flip phone as his main source of communication. Marvin is desperate to get his father a more reliable phone and finally is able to rope dad into a trip to the mall. There, Mordecai is introduced to a young genius named Nina (Azia Dinea Hale) who is teaching a class on how draw using your Iphone. Nina and Mordecai strike up a friendship over their shared love of art, Mordecai was a painter years ago, and Nina offers to teach Mordecai how to use the new Iphone Marvin is buying for him.

There is a major complication in Nina and Mordecai's friendship that lingers through the second act. What we know and Mordecai will come to know, eventually, is that Nina's grandfather was a Nazi officer at a Jewish Extermination Camp in Germany during World War 2. Nina only recently became aware of this and initially keeps this information from her new friend. Naturally, the truth will come out but, strangely, not much will come from this. One of the hallmarks of iMordecai is the introduction of heavy topics that get shuffled aside for more discussion about how great Iphones are. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Pinball The Man who Saved the Game

Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game (2023) 

Directed by Austin Bragg, Meredith Brag 

Written by Austin Bragg, Meredith Bragg

Starring Mike Faist, Crystal Reed, Dennis Boutsikaris, Christopher Convery

Release Date March 17th, 2023 

Published March 11th, 2023 

Pinball The Man Who Saved the Game is a wildly inessential look at a piece of history so inconsequential that it boggles the mind. For reasons that don't bare a need to be repeated, Pinball, the game so righteously lauded by Roger Daltrey in an equally inessential but kind of awesome song, was banned in many big cities in the 1970's. Then, one man, one weird, weird, man, by the name of Roger Sharpe set about to change everything. Forget fighting for equal rights, or battling systemic injustice, Roger Sharpe was going to use his time to rescue pinball. And so incredible is his story that people felt there needed to be a movie about it. 

In a needless device, actor Dennis Boutsakaris plays a modern conception of Roger Sharpe. He's being interviewed by the makers of this film, presumably, about how he saved pinball. To tell the story, Roger must go all the way back to 1971 when he met the magical Jesus of Pinball who gave him the gift of a phrase that he would carry forward into the world: 'I can't let it drain.' Pinball Jesus, handing down the commandments of Pinball to the Moses who would save the game was referring to having Roger take over his machine and not allow the game to end, Pinball Jesus presumably having to inspire others to pinball glory. 

Cut to 1975 and we apparently need to know how sad Roger's life is. Roger worked a soulless job in advertising in New York City while nursing the failed dream of all 1970's male movie characters, the dream of writing 'the great American novel.' Roger's failed dreams have led to a failed marriage and soon the loss of his job. Desperate for a place and a purpose in a cruel and remorseless world, Roger happens to hear the siren call of bumpers and bells coming from inside a porno bookshop. Having not played pinball since college, Roger took this as a sign and spent the next several weeks playing pinball while sex workers and perverts plied their trade behind a nearby curtain. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media. 

Protecting the Finisher: Storytelling Devices in Professional Wrestling

What is a Finisher? 

A finisher is the move that a professional wrestler uses to end a match in victory. After a hard fought contest of trying to incapacitate an opponent with a series of blows and maneuvers, a wrestler will begin to look for an opening where they can hit a maneuver that will end the match. This move is typically devastating and when struck, it means that the match is going end with the referee slapping the mat three times to signify the victory of one competitor over another. 

Perhaps the most mainstream famous finisher or finishing maneuver is the RKO, the finisher of one Randy Orton of the WWE. For a time, Orton's finisher became a popular meme as it could be hit, outta nowhere. Kids playing around swimming pools would run and grab a friend around the neck and pull them into pools outta nowhere. Memes of Orton grabbing his opponent around the neck and slamming them to the mat as their chin rested upon his shoulder began to pop up in animated GIF form in the mid to late 2010's in ubiquitous fashion.

In the parlance of professional wrestling, the RKO is a well protected finishing maneuver. What does that mean? Well, as a storytelling device, the RKO was the end of a story for whatever opponent stood across the ring from Randy Orton. For a time, no one, not even the biggest stars in the company were allowed to 'kick out' of the RKO. Once the blow was struck, the match was over. Kicking out is another kind of wrestling storytelling device, one key to some of the best drama in professional wrestling. Kicking out when it appears that you are about to lose a match is a big moment, it's a storytelling crescendo, a moment of breathless wonder for fans rooting for a hero to overcome the odds and come back to win or for fans hoping that a hated foe had finally been vanquished. 

Thus, the fact that no one ever kicked out of the RKO, built the importance of the move. In terms of long term storytelling, if a finishing maneuver like the RKO is never kicked out of, it means that if someone ever did kick out of it, that person would gain a particular level of prestige. Only the most valiant and resilient of babyface heroes or the most dastardly of hated foes could ever come close to kicking out once Randy Orton hit the RKO Outta Nowhere. It's a storytelling device so well established in WWE lore that when Randy goes to the biggest shows of the year and competes in the biggest matches of his career, whether or not he can hit the RKO is a major part of the story of the show and the match he's competing in. 

Find the full length article at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Caught

Caught (1949) 

Directed by Max Opuls 

Written by Arthur Laurents, Libbie Block 

Starring James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan

Release Date February 17th, 1949 

Published March 13th, 2023

Caught tells the story of Leonora (Barbara Bel Geddes), a woman who dreams of being a model. To achieve her dream, she attends a Charm School. This takes her to a job working at a department store as a living model for Mink Coats. While doing this, she's approached by a man to attend a private party aboard a yacht. She's dubious about the idea but is convinced by a friend that she should attend. It's a fateful choice as before she can even reach the party, she meets the man for whom the party is being thrown, multi-millionaire named Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan). 

Ohlrig is handsome and he decides to sweep young Leonor off her feet using his vast resources. After doing so however, he's immediately resentful of her. He's long assumed that any woman who would want to be with him is only there to take his money. Leonor insists that her feelings are genuine, despite them having a very, very limited courtship. She asks for his time, and he refuses, leaving her home alone. In a particularly telling and cruel moment, he tells her to simply spend his money as that is the only reason she's there anyway. 

Nothing about the Leonora that we've met to this point indicates she is a gold digger but that's the label he's given her. It's clear that this marriage is a mistake and one that is headed to a tragic ending. That is until Leonora makes an unexpected choice. Having tired of Ohlrig's absence and cruelty, Leonora leaves the comfort and security of being a rich man's wife for the life of a lower middle class working girl. Leaving Smith's compound in Long Island for a small tenament in the City, Leonora takes a job working for $25.00 a week in the office of Dr. Larry Quinada (James Mason). Eventually, a romance begins between Dr. Quinada and Leonora but a complication looms over the romance, one that may force Leonora to return to Ohlrig. 

Caught demonstrates the elegance of the direction of Max Ophuls. The German director's camera sweeps and flows from scene to scene beautifully, seamlessly marrying rooms in single locations, rarely breaking shots without the absolute need to do so. The style of Max Ophuls is rarely distracting or flashy, it's distinctive only if you are truly looking for directorial style. A trained eye may take note of Ophuls' work while a more casual audience may simply find his style appealing for its crisp beauty and how rarely jarring his edits are. This could be said about a number of directors but Ophuls has a particular skill that stands out when you know what you are looking for. 

Take for instance Ophuls simple yet skillful framing of characters. When one character has an advantage of information over another, that character is foreground, looming larger in the frame. When this character then give their advantage away, the framing subtly changes to equalize the characters in the scene. It's a remarkably subtle visual cue that an important piece of information has been shared, information that may shift the narrative. Ophuls is visually equalizing his characters to draw you closer to the disadvantaged character. If you weren't looking for that, you might not notice it and that is the hallmark of a terrific piece of direction. 

Movie Review 65

65 (2023) 

Directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods 

Written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods 

Starring Adam Driver, Arian Greenblatt, Nika King, Chloe Coleman 

Release Date March 10th, 2023 

Published March 12th, 2023 

65 does little to justify its own existence. The sci-fi action movie starring Adam Driver is an incredibly basic and repetitive action movie that happens to include space travel and people from a planet other than Earth. The core story is about a man trying to protect a small girl from a perilous and uncaring world, a story reflected in his personal life where he has a daughter who is sick and dying from an unspecified disease. Saving this small girl in the context of a mission on a foreign planet is intended as commentary on protecting the man's daughter from an illness that may kill her. 

That sounds like it has potential and perhaps it does but nothing really comes from that potential. Adam Driver plays Captain Mills. Mills has been offered three times his salary to take a group of people in cryo-pods from one side of the universe to another. It's a trip that will take two years to complete. This means spending two years away from his wife, (Nika King), and their sick daughter (Chloe Coleman). Why do this? Because the family needs the money to give their daughter a chance to survive. 

The plot of 65 kicks in when an unexpected meteor shower shatters the calm of an otherwise mundane space trip. This field of meteors seemingly came out of nowhere, Mills was asleep when it happened, demonstrating just how unexpected this was. The ship crashes on a nearby, seemingly uninhabited planet. Uninhabited by intelligent life forms anyway. Instead, the planet is populated by giant monsters that we recognize as dinosaurs, though Mills doesn't seem to know what they are. 

Mills must then find an escape pod which is about 12 kilometers from where his part of the ship crashed. His journey is complicated when he learns that one of his cryo-pod passengers is still alive. Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), is foreign to Mills. She doesn't speak the same language and this communication barrier will provide further complication as they attempt to navigate the 12 kilometers of lush jungle, low and dangerous open space, and a mountain range. 

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review The Boston Strangler

The Boston Strangler (2023) 

Directed by Mark Ruskin 

Written by Mark Ruskin 

Starring Keira Knightley, Carrie Coon, Chris Cooper 

Release Date March 17th, 2023

Published March 16th, 2023 

The Boston Strangler takes the perspective of the two real life reporters who put together the story of the killers behind The Boston Strangler. Keira Knightley stars as Loretta McLaughlin, an experienced reporter tied to the Lifestyle section of her paper. When her mother mentions the murder of an elderly woman in her neighborhood, Loretta's instincts take over and she begins to investigate, even before she's managed to get herself assigned to this story. In order to keep the story once it starts to get bigger and more complicated, Loretta is teamed with Jean Cole (Carrie Coon), a more experienced and connected Crime Reporter. 

Together, the duo of reporters follow disparate leads to multiple suspects all the while watching as the Boston Police Department fumbles the investigation. How bad are the cops on this case? The lead detective, Detective Conley (Alessandro Nivola) begins telling Loretta how poorly his bosses are handling the case. The film avoids making it appear that the reporters are better at investigating the case than the cops by simply being honest about the challenges that the cops were facing and the politics behind the awful decisions they were making. 

One cliche the movie cannot avoid is the spouse who gets upset when their successful wife/husband is spending too much time at work. Loretta's husband begins as an incredibly supportive and forward thinking, for the 1960's, guy. Then, when the movie needs to force some drama and deal with the fact that Loretta's marriage did end in real life, the script resorts to scenes that feel deeply forced and perfunctory about Loretta not being home for dinner a few times or missing a bedtime or two for their kids and blows these things up into world ending dramas. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media.