Movie Review Dumb Money

Dumb Money (2023) 

Directed by Craig Gillespie 

Written by Lauren Schuker Blum, Rebecca Angelo 

Starring Paul Dano, Shailene Woodley, Pete Davidson, Seth Rogen, Nick Offerman, Sebastian Stan

Release Date September 22nd, 2023 

Published September 22nd, 2023 

Dumb Money feels like an unearned victory lap for the proletariat. The story of a group of independent investors, led by a Redditor nicknamed Roaring Kitty, upending the Wall Street system by investing in, of all things, Game Stop, a video game retailer run so poorly that it's an absolute wonder how they lasted as long as they did. By finding a blindspot in the arrogance of a Wall Street hedge fund practice, Roaring Kitty, aka Keith Gill (Paul Dano), made millions and drove one billionaire hedge fund out of business, though realistically, only took Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) from a being a billionaire to being a multi-multi-multi-millionaire. 

It's impossible for me not to be cynical about anything related to Wall Street. In my lifetime I have watched Wall Street grow in strength and wealth all while paying off regulators and lawmakers to prop them up to the point where billions of dollars have flowed from everyday Americans into the hands of Wall Street hustlers just to keep those billionaires from crashing the country into a depression so they can keep buying needless numbers of houses, cars and consumer items that add nothing to the everyday economy. 

Not since the age of Marie Antoinette have we seen rich fat pigs rolling in the filth of their own wealth in public the way we do today. We've literally watched billionaires build themselves rockets to take vacations in space while people struggle to have money for food. Jeff Bezos asks us to stand up and cheer for him when he returned from what amounted to a day trip to space. Meanwhile, a mother somewhere in America was scraping pennies together to buy baby food. So excuse me if I don't' view one minor victory over the greedy pigs of Wall Street as good enough. 

And, I'm sorry, that's all that the Game Stop thing was, a very brief victory of the proles over the privileged. All that the Game Stop thing did was provide other billionaires a cautionary tale. Now they know exactly what doors to close behind them to prevent this from ever happening again. I appreciate what Reddit did to game this system for a short time but there is only so much outsiders can do to fight this system. Game Stop provided the billionaires a road map to how to stay rich in the face of any kind of revolt within their own Wall Street system. 

Find my full length review at Swamp.Media 

Movie Review Relax I'm From the Future

Relax, I'm From the Future (2023) 

Directed by Luke Higginson 

Written by Luke Higginson 

Starring Rhys Darby, Gabrielle Graham, Julian Richings, Janine Theriault 

Release Date September 22nd, 2023 

Published September 19th, 2023 

There are a number of promising elements in Relax, I'm From the Future. The obvious one is star Rhys Darby, a comedy all star with endless comic timing and instinct. He's been a comedy MVP in numerous smaller roles in projects as diverse as Flight of the Conchords and the two modern Jumanji movies. Darby is just simply funny. Seeing him in the lead of a time travel comedy had me excited to see it. Sadly, he's also the reason that Relax, I'm from the Future is such a disappointment. I expected more of Rhys Darby than what we get in this middling, mean-spirited and mostly forgettable film. 

Relax, I'm from the Future stars Rhys Darby as Casper, a time traveler. Casper lives in a future that's actually pretty great. Following a horrible time in which there was strife and war and starvation, the world corrected itself and became a near perfect society. So why go back in time? Well, Casper has a reason but he's cagey about stating exactly why. Meanwhile, we see several more people coming from the future, each met by Doris (Janine Theriault) on the belief that they are terrorists who are trying to destroy the perfection of the future. 

As for Casper, though he doesn't know it, he narrowly missed running into Doris when he arrived. Instead, he escaped and met Holly (Gabrielle Graham). In exchange for making her rich, she will help Casper by buying lottery tickets and placing bets on sporting events. Casper needs money to fund his new life in the past and a partner to help him do it while not altering the future in any important way. Holly wasn't a mistake, in fact, Casper chose her specifically for the complete lack of impact she has on the future. 

If that sounds kind of harsh, well, it is. The movie should maybe make that a dark joke but if that was the intent, it doesn't land. Holly is super likable and thus, this mean joke at her expense doesn't land well. And that is a significant failing of Relax, I'm from the Future. The movie plays at times like a dark comedy and carries some darkly comic moments but the actors, especially the rather sunny Darby, don't seem to get how bleak the premise really is. I'm not going to spoil the reason why Casper chose to go back in time, but it is also kind of dark but kind of funny and yet it doesn't come off nearly as funny as it should be. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Classic Movie Review The Age of Innocence

The Age of Innocence (1993) 

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Written by Jay Cocks, Martin Scorsese

Starring Daniel Day Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder 

Release Date October 1st, 1993 

Published September 2023 

Flower imagery is important for Martin Scorsese in The Age of Innocence. The open credits roll over footage of a flower. The first moving image of The Age of Innocence is an opera singer (Cindy Katz), picking up a flower as she sings. According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, conveying meaning via flowers was something of an elaborate pastime in the late 1800s, the time in which The Age of Innocence is set. The color of the flower, the type of flower, the bow tied to the flower, and the way in which the flower was given all had a specific meaning that was known among those in the Victorian Era. 

For instance, a yellow flower indicates romantic rejection whereas Red is the color of passion. The opera singer in the opening of The Age of Innocence has picked a yellow flower and whether or not you understand the language she is singing in, the flower is an indication that the man who is behind her in this scene, played by Actor Thomas Gibson of Dharma and Greg fame, is receiving a romantic rejection. Daniel Day Lewis' Newland Archer is seen as Scorsese pans over the crowd and is wearing white carnation which, again, according to the Old Farmers, indicates innocence, pure love, and sweet love. 

Newland is newly engaged to May, played by Winona Ryder, and appears happy to be betrothed to young woman from a good and respectable family. His well being however, is upended by the appearance of Countess Ellen Olenska, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Where May is much younger than her husband to be, Ellen is the same age and the two had known each other in their youth. For various reasons, they never became romantically involved. Ellen moved to Europe, married into royalty and is now scandalizing New York City with the notion that she may actually become divorced. The plot truly kicks in when Newland is assigned by his law firm to represent Ellen and encourage her to return to her powerful husband or risk scandal and ruin. 

Nearing the end of the first act we get more flower imagery. Newland, after having visited Countess Olenska, decides to send her flowers but not before he's reminded by the florist that he should send flowers to his wife-to-be, May. Newland sends May her favorite flower, Lilly of the Valley which symbolizes sweetness, tears of the Virgin Mary, and humility. These are lovely and also damning traits. For the Countess, he sends yellow roses. Now, yellow does symbolize rejection but, yellow roses have their own meaning. in this case, they symbolize jealousy, decrease of love, and infidelity. 

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Flora and Son

Flora and Son (2023) 

Directed by John Carney 

Written by John Carney 

Starring Eve Hewson, Joseph Gordon Levitt 

Release Date September 22nd, 2023 

Published September 18th, 2023 

Writer-Director John Carney has the keys to my heart. I know what you are thinking, that's weird, right? But it's true. Ever since his extraordinary film Once, and each movie subsequent to that, I have never felt as much emotional kinship to a filmmaker. I trust John Carney. I am vulnerable to his work in a way that I am not with any other filmmaker. His work speaks to me in a very emotional way, as if we know each other and he specifically knows how to move me. I'm vulnerable to him because I always fall completely in love with his characters. That's a scary thing, what if he takes them in a direction I don't like? What if he decided to kill one of them? It's his story after all. 

I trust him. I trust that when John Carney gives me movie characters to fall in love with, hope for, root for, and cry for, I trust that he's taking care with that. I trust that he's not going to abuse the privilege of having my heart open to his work. I believe with my entire being that I can lose myself in John Carney's romantic universe and that he will take care to make sure I'm okay, that I feel comfortable, at home. And then he tells the story. He unfolds his story via his characters with remarkable care and precise emotion. He crafts romantic fantasy that feels like real life but slightly elevated. He can break my heart but when he does it, he does with good purpose, not to cause harm. 

Flora and Son is the latest John Carney movie to speak directly to my heart. Flora (Eve Hewson) is a loving and dedicated single mother who also likes to party, drink too much wine, and be a little inappropriate. She may sound like a type, but in the hands of Eve Hewson and John Carney, the character becomes a fully rounded human being, flawed and beautiful, angry and loving, a dichotomy of conflicting emotions that come out not always as they are intended to. It's a rich tapestry of a character and empathetic one for sure. 

Read my full length reviews at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review A Haunting in Venice

A Haunting in Venice (2023) 

Directed by Kenneth Branagh 

Written by Michael Green 

Starring Kenneth Branagh, Tina Fey, Kelly Reilly, Jamie Dornan, Michelle Yeoh, Jude Hill 

Release Date September 15th, 2023 

Published 

I want to like A Haunting in Venice, but I just can't. I've written and rewritten this review several times, each with a different take on the movie. I tried to find what I liked about the movie and leaned into that for a while. Then I went hard on the movie and tore it up and erased that. I don't know why I am struggling with a movie that is not really so complicated as to require such mental machinations. But here we are with a film critic having seen a movie and still trying to decide if he liked it or not. Do I like A Haunting in Venice? Yes or No?  

A Haunting in Venice returns Kenneth Branagh behind the camera into the role of famed detective Hercule Poirot. In this adventure, Poirot is several years retired from his experience in Death on the Nile. Now living in Venice, Poirot has hired a former police detective, Vitale (Riccardo Scamarcio), to keep away those that would draw him back into the detective role he's trying to leave behind. And yet, Vitale makes way for one of Poirot's old friends, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) to get in to see him. Oliver is the author who created the legend of Poirot by basing her bestsellers on his cases. 

Naturally, she has an interest in getting her friend back to solving murders and she's got just the thing for him. On this night, Halloween night in Venice, she's attending a seance. She intrigues Poirot by admitting that though she's a skeptic, she can't seem to figure out how famed psychic Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) does what she does. Oliver wants Poirot to help her debunk Reynolds or confirm that there is something real to her and thus a confirmation of something beyond life. Poirot dismisses her notions of the fantastic and agrees to debunk the psychic. 

Attending the seance alongside Oliver, Poirot, and Poirot's security man, are a rogue's gallery of potential murder suspects, per usual for a Poirot mystery. First, there is the host of the event. a former opera singer and celebrity, Roweena Drake (Kelly Reilly). Roweena set up this event on the notion that Reynolds could contact her late daughter, Alicia, who died under mysterious circumstances a year before. She's invited her family doctor, Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dorner) and he has brought his young son, Leopold (Jude Hill). Already on hand is Roweena's maid and caretaker, Olga (Camille Coltin), and uninvited but arriving regardless is Alicia's former fiancee, Maxime (Kyle Allen). 

Though Leopold is excluded, for obvious reasons, the rest will gather in Alicia's bedroom as Reynolds attempts to contact Alicia. In the process, Poirot will expose Reynolds as a fraud, survive an attempt on his life, and then Reynolds will end up dead. Her death is the true catalyst for the film's central mystery, one that will grow to encompass at least one more body and connect back to Alicia's death, tying everything up in a neat little bow. It's all very clean and efficient and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that except, if you're like me, and you guess the plot at hand early on, the fun drains out of the proceedings quickly. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Classic Movie Review Witness for the Prosecution

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Directed by Billy Wilder 

Written by Larry Marcus, Billy Wilder, Harry Kumitz 

Starring Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Elsa Lanchester

Release Date December 17th, 1957 

Published 

The opening moments of Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution set the stage for where we will be spending a good portion of our story, an English courtroom located in the famed, Old Bailey, the name given to the English Criminal Court Building in London. This is important for setting the scene for American audiences as an English courtroom is quite different from American courtroom. Director Billy Wilder chooses specifically to open on this courtroom to disabuse audiences of the notion of an American court proceeding. It's a little thing, a subtle bit of audience manipulation but a crafty choice by a very smart director. 

Our first introduction to our main character, our true protagonist Sir Wilfrid (Charles Laughton), comes in a very charming scene. The comic dynamic of the cantankerous Sir Wilfrid and the bright-eyed optimism of his nurse Miss Plimsoll (Elsa Lanchester from The Bride of Frankenstein), establishes an unexpectedly comic tone for what we are expecting to be a courtroom drama. The colorful performances of Laughton and Lanchester and their unforced chemistry sets the tone for the rest of the movie, a tone that will deepen but never waver from being charming and only modestly mysterious. Our expectations are upended in the best way possible as we are treated to a wonderful comic dynamic. 

The idea that Charles Laughton was only 57 years old when he played the role of Sir Wilfrid is staggering. He looks to be in his 70s or perhaps early 80s. You might be thinking, young actors are often cast to play older characters but, by the timeline of Sir Wilfrid and his association with his assistant Mr. Carter (Ian Wolfe), the timeline has Sir Wilfrid the same age as Laughton, in his late 50s. And the mind reels. Regardless of how old anyone in this movie looks, Laughton is childlike in his enthusiasm. Specifically, Laughton as Sir Wilfrid delighting in his new chair lift in his office is a sight to behold. Laughton's pudgy face and gleaming eyes, so clearly delighting in this new toy that you can't help but giggle. 

This character trait is rather typical of an Agatha Christie character and a Billy Wilder character. Both of these legends enjoyed adding quirky traits to their characters, giving them a depth of personality that extends beyond the story being told. These traits endear them to the audience, bring the audience around to their side with the kind of writing shorthand that too few filmmakers or storytellers take the time for, especially from the perspective of more than 66 years later. We fall for Laughton's charming gluttonous, enthusiastic, personality first and that draws us deeper into the mystery that he will work to uncover. 

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Horror in the 90s Misery

Misery (1993) 

Directed by Rob Reiner 

Written by William Goldman 

Starring James Caan, Kathy Bates 

Release Date November 30th, 1990 

Box Office $61.3 million 

The first images seen on screen in Misery are utterly meaningless. A Lucky Strike cigarette, unlit, an empty champagne glass, and a bottle of Champagne. Visually, you can read into this a celebration about to occur. Indeed, the subject of Misery, writer Paul Sheldon, played by James Caan, is about to finishing typing the final words of his final novel featuring the character Misery Chastain. Paul has decided to end his highly successful franchise and the opening visuals of the movie are an indication of the celebratory nature of this decision. 

But what do these images foreshadow for the remainder of the story? Nothing really. Paul Sheldon will soon be involved in a car wreck. He will be rescued by someone who just happens to be 'his biggest fan.' Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), the fan, finds his novel and is none too pleased to find that her favorite book character is being killed off. Thus, she sets to set the author straight. She will hold him captive and torture him in order to get him to write a different, happier book, one more fitting her vision of Misery Chastain as her favorite book character. 

In the context of a novel, it's very clear that Stephen King is commenting upon the fickle nature of readers and their relationship to authors. King, whether he openly acknowledged it or not, was truly writing about having been pigeonholed and seemingly forced to write to the tastes of his readers rather than to what spoke to him as an author and artist. That subtext is underlined in the novel form. As a movie, it doesn't resonate quite as much. We can get a sense of the commentary occurring, but this is a movie, not a novel, moreover it's an adaptation of Stephen King and not King himself sub textually crying out at his audience to let him choose his subjects. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media