Movie Review Quiz Lady

Quiz Lady (2023) 

Directed by Jessica Yu

Written by Jen D'Angelo 

Starring Awkwafina, Sandra Oh, Will Ferrell, Jason Schwartzman, Holland Taylor

Release Date November 3rd, 2023 

Published November 7th, 2023 

Quiz Lady is a curiously boring movie. Despite having a spitfire star in comedian and actor Awkwafina, Quiz Lady sputters and drags its way through a dimwitted plot on the way to an unearned happy ending. As someone who is a huge fan of Awkwafina's work, Quiz Lady is uniquely disappointing. Playing against type as a grumpy, frumpy, afraid of the world shut-in, the typically appealing qualities of Awkwafina are dialed back to nothing. Why would anyone want to make a live wire like Awkwafina into a wet blanket? It makes no sense. 

In Quiz Lady, Awkwafina plays Anne Yum, an office worker who is obsessed with a Jeopardy-style quiz show, Can't Stop the Quiz. Hosted by Terry McTeer, the show became a life preserver for young Anne when her parents broke up. Since then, Anne has never missed an episode. She's memorized the questions, and is so familiar with the trivia and tropes, she can reel off the answers to any question right off the top of her head. No one knows yet that she can do this, she doesn't get out of the house much.

Naturally, that state of affairs will change. Anne's ordered, shut-in, life is upended when her mother goes missing from her nursing home. The disappearance leads to the return home of Anne's tornado of a sister, Jenny (Sandra Oh). Jenny is homeless and jobless, couch-surfing while she waits for what she claims will be a big payout from a lawsuit she filed against a chain restaurant. Jenny is coming home to stay but not long after arriving, she puts her sister on a path to get out of the house. 

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Classic Movie Review Quiz Show

Quiz Show (1994)

Directed by Robert Redford 

Written by Paul Attanasio 

Starring Ralph Fiennes, John Turturro, Rob Morrow, Paul Scofield, Christopher McDonald, David Paymer, Hank Azaria, Martin Scorsese 

Release Date September 14th, 1994 

Published November 7th, 2023 

The erosion of public trust was not simply something that happened as a result of Watergate. The erosion of public trust can be traced to several different historic flashpoints that include such events as the assassination of President Kennedy, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, the McCarthy hearings, and, less historically well known but of a similar importance in tracking the erosion of trust between the public and the media, the public and government, and the public and the intelligentsia, is the Quiz Show scandal of the 1950s. 

Director Robert Redford lays out a strong case that the growth of cynicism toward public institutions began not just with the rebellion of the 1960s. It began with a simple Quiz Show called 21. The game was rigged. Though the venerable NBC network and uber-rich sponsor company Geritol, presented the show as a legitimate competition between everyday folks who happened to be remarkably well versed at memorizing facts, the shows were, in fact, scripted so that certain people would win. When ratings started to fall, that person would lose and be replaced by someone who might raise the ratings once more. 

It's a deeply cynical approach but, one that enthralled an America that was very early into the honeymoon phase when it came to television. It was an innocent time when people wanted to believe they could trust the people whose faces were beamed into their home everyday. People like Jack Berry (Christopher McDonald), the well dressed and affable host of 21 carried a public trust, not unlike a newsman. His integrity and that of the show mattered to the public. The show even played that integrity as a marketing gimmick. 

In the opening moments of Quiz Show we open on a bank where a safe deposit box is being opened. Armed guards remove a package. One guard passes the package to another who climbs inside of an armored car. That armored car then receives a police escort to 30 Rockefeller Center, the television home of NBC and the Quiz Show 21. Inside the package being carried, again, by armed guards, are the vaunted questions, a guarded secret even from host Jack Berry. 21 traded on the supposed integrity of the game. 

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Movie Review Freelance

Freelance (2023)

Directed by Pierre Morel 

Written by Jacob Lentz

Starring John Cena, Alison Brie, Martin Csokas, Christian Slater, Juan Pablo Rana

Release Date October 27th, 2023 

Published October 30th, 2023

Freelance stars John Cena as an ex-special forces military man turned suburban-lawyer-dad. Miserable, and on the verge of divorce from his wife, played by Alice Eve, Cena's Mason Pettits' decides to re-enter the world of military security. With the help of his friend, played by Christian Slater, who Wikipedia credits as 'Mason's Boss,' Cena gets a 5 figure paycheck for what should be a cakewalk of a security job. Mason will accompany a disgraced journalist, Claire Wellington (Alison Brie), to some made up South American dictatorship and keep her safe while she interviews the legendary dictator Juan Venegas (Juan Pablo Rana). 

Venegas hasn't given an interview in 10 years and he hopes that this interview will allow him to show how his country is changing. Meanwhile, Mason is no stranger to this country. He was here some 10 years earlier when he and a few fellow soldiers were nearly killed doing a mission. Naturally, Mason assumes it was the dictator who killed several of his fellow soldiers so his role here is a little tense. He has a grudge against Venegas and now he will be in close proximity to him. And hilariousness ensues. 

Oh how I wish hilariousness would ensue. Freelance is a witless action comedy of a very stale variety. If you cannot predict every beat of this deeply derivative movie you have either never seen a movie before or you are just not paying attention. There is nothing remotely original or interesting in Freelance. Bad guys try to overthrow the government, Cena ends up protecting not only the journalist but also the dictator he hates. But surprise, the dictator isn't a bad guy. Indeed, it wasn't even him who ordered Cena's helicopter to be shot down 10 years ago. 

You might be thinking that here is where Christian Slater's character comes back but no. Instead, the movie employs Martin Csokas as the bad guy. Csokas is all sneering malevolence and zero fun as the leader of a rival mercenary gang. Freelance has some grand ambition of being about South American resources being stolen by corporate interests via private armies but it lacks conviction on the issue. The filmmakers simultaneously want credit for mentioning corrupt corporations while also defending the idea of private military contractors as being nothing but heroes picking up paychecks that may or may not be covered in the blood of the oppressed. 

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Movie Review Showdown at the Grand

Showdown at the Grand (2023) 

Directed by Orson Oblowitz 

Written by Orson Oblowitz 

Starring Terrence Howard, John Savage, Amanda Righetti, Dolph Lundgren, Piper Curda 

Release Date November 10th, 2023 

Published ? 

An evil developer threatens a beloved old movie palace in the new action thriller, Showdown at the Grand. It's an old trope and it's perfectly fitting for this old school B-Movie. Written and directed by Orson Oblowitz, Showdown at the Grand celebrates classic B-Movies while embodying all of the things we love about classic B-Movies. It's a wonderfully meta-action flick with a big beating heart and deep love for the kind of drive-in classics that made cult heroes of Roger Corman, Russ, and stars like Ken Foree and Shannon Tweed. 

Showdown at the Grand stars Terrence Howard as George Fuller, the solo proprietor of the Warner Grand Theater, a southwestern staple of B-movie presentations. Fuller has grown up at the Grand, inheriting the business from his father who sank the family's entire fortune into rescuing the Grand after George's uncle nearly ran it into the ground. Now, George is facing a reckoning of his own. A wealthy and duplicitous developer named Lynn (Amanda Righetti), is buying up properties around the Grand but she needs the land where the grand stands to complete her development. 

Aiding Lynn in her hostile takeover of the area are a pair of thugs, Reed (Mike Ferguson) and Burton (Jon Sklaroff). Burton, though he is purely malevolent, happens to be a fan of the Grand, matching George movie quote for movie quote during their multiple encounters. That won't stop Burton from trying to kill George and destroy the Grand. Standing alongside George and the Grand are his longtime best friend, Lucky (John Savage) and George's only employee Spike (Piper Curda). 

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Documentary Review Holy Frit

Holy Frit (2023) 

Directed by Justin S. Monroe 

Written by Justin S. Monroe, Ryan M. Fritsche, Gillian Fritsche 

Starring Tim Carey, Narcissus Quagliata 

Release Date November 10th in Los Angeles, California 

Published October 28th, 2023 

"In your gut, how think the window is going to turn out?" the director asks artist Tim Cary. Cary responds "I don't really trust my gut about anything." And that's the arc of Tim Cary in Holy Frit, a man who will have to learn to trust his gut and make gut wrenching decisions about his art, his massive multi-million dollar stained glass piece, and the future of his career and family. None of these decisions has an obvious answer and Tim is going to be forced to trust his choices are right without knowing what the outcome will be, trusting the gut, the instinct, as he's not done before. 

What is Frit? That is probably the first question anyone would ask, based on the title of the documentary, but it's not that special, in and of itself and the answer is passed on to us in passing. Frit is very small pieces of broken glass. Frit is the innovation of an artist named Narcissus Quagliata, a larger than life personality who innovated in the world of glass art in a way that no one had before. I can't tell you exactly how Frit works, but when dusted onto other forms of stained glass, it creates a remarkably colorful design, unlike anything you've seen before. 

The fact that Tim Cary had never worked with Frit before when he pitched his employer, Judson Stained Glass, as the company to create a 4000 square foot stained glass window for a Kansas City Mega church is just one absurd fact about how this massive stained glass work of art came to be. Judson didn't have the technique, the staff, or the space to do a project as massive as a 4000 square foot stained glass window. Oh, and the design that Tim Cary pitched to the church, is the kind of design that, at the moment he pitched it, didn't appear to be possible. 

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Classic Movie Review After Hours

After Hours (1985) 

Directed by Martin Scorsese 

Written by Joseph Minion 

Starring Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, Cheech and Chong 

Release Date September 13th, 1985

Published 

The tracking shot that opens Martin Scorsese's black comedy, After Hours, is relatively meaningless. It's just a neat visual way to end up with the camera pointing to our protagonist, Paul Hackett. This is a valid cinematic choice, no criticism there. That said, as a student of opening scenes, I am a little bummed out. In my last exploration of a Scorsese classic, The Age of Innocence, Scorsese's camera opened on flowers under the credits and in the opening moment, a flower given from a performer on stage to another. The flower imagery in The Age of Innocence was the underlying theme of the movie. 

Perhaps, the vacuousness of the tracking shot in After Hours is a reflection of Paul's own vacuousness. Under the credits, we're hearing Mozart's Symphony in D Major No. 45. The symphony has little to do with the story either but it is beautiful and Paul is a handsome guy so, if I am going to read too much into every second of After Hours, perhaps these two surface level observations combined with the meaningless tracking shot crashing on Paul's face, is all to add up to how empty the character of Paul is and how his descent into a world of madness will only underline how Paul prefers being an empty vessel of capitalist exploitation to the alternative of actually living a life, as messy and problematic as that can be. 

As Paul Hackett's (Griffin Dunne) co-worker, played in a brief cameo by Bronson Pinchot, prattles on about how he doesn't plan on doing this job that Paul is teaching him in this scene, Paul is struck by the co-worker's words. He stops listening almost immediately, this man having a plan and goals in life, has Paul searching the world around him for a meaning. As the co-worker goes on about getting into publishing, Paul's eyes fall on everyday office stuff before finally landing briefly on a shot of a birthday calendar, and a picture of a child on a co-worker's desk. The story of a person with a family, a life away from work, is what jars Paul back to reality and the reality that his new co-worker doesn't realize he's hurt Paul's feelings a little, just enough to make him not pay attention before awkwardly excusing himself. 

The deck is beginning to stack. The conversation with Paul's co-worker is underlying a theme that will become clear, Paul doesn't have a life outside of work. He has no family, no girlfriend, he doesn't even seem to have friends, or, at least, he doesn't make it plain that he has anyone he can call on a Friday night. As Paul leaves work, he's just another lonely face in the crowd, so insignificant that the gates closing his office nearly close on him, and he narrowly slips through as men are closing them. All the while, another, more melancholic classical music piece plays on the soundtrack. The giant golden gate doors close, and Paul is made smaller by their massive size in a striking visual. 

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Movie Review Killers of the Flower Moon

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) 

Directed by Martin Scorsese 

Written by Martin Scorsese, Eric Roth

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro

Release Date October 20th, 2023

Published October 20th, 2023 

To say that Martin Scorsese is a master of the cinematic form is an understatement. The man has directed epic master works; some of the most iconic works of cinema in last 50 years. He's the Pope of Hollywood, the director that other directors look to for guidance and inspiration. As years pass, Scorsese's mastery of form only seems to grow and gain depth. With age has come patience and maturity that has taken his work from some of the most gut-wrenching and visceral to some of the most thoughtful, elegant, and instructive films ever made. It's an evolution but not a particularly overt one. Scorsese is no longer a Hollywood rebel eager to shake up the world with his cynical vision of urban violence and gritty inter-personal connections. In place of rebellion, Scorsese has embraced his place as one of Hollywood's foremost thinkers, a conscei

For his latest film, Martin Scorsese is not taking it easy but his restraint, patience, and graceful, thoughtful direction is on full display. Taking on the case that provided the foundation of the modern FBI, Scorsese takes us to the heart of Osage Country in Oklahoma. Here, a group of Native Americans happened to strike oil and as the money flowed, the Osage thrived. Then came a group of leeches, con artists and hardened criminals with a taste for both blood and money. As much as racism has a major part to play in what came next, greed is also at the rotting, curdled core of what happened to the Osage people. 

We open on a ceremony. A group of Native Americans are in a tent and delivering exposition in a rather unique way. Via this ceremony, we are drawn into the time period, just after the discovery of oil rich land and just before murderers, thieves, and parasites came looking to rob the Osage people of their newfound wealth. In this ceremony, the elders share a peace pipe that they are laying to rest, it's taught them all it can teach and it is to be symbolically buried. This is at once a warning of the violence that is coming as well as a symbol of the end of the old ways and the birth of a new, unpredictable and reasonably frightening new way of life. 

It's a brilliant opening and it sets the stage for everything that we will see going forward in Killers of the Flower Moon. From there we leap ahead to a train where a man is coming home from the first world war. Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio), could not possibly have a more appropriate name. With his lack of education and naïve willingness to take things at face value, Ernest is earnestness personified. Ernest has come to the Osage country on the invitation of his Uncle Bill (Robert De Niro, though he know him as King. Ernest's Uncle welcomes him with open arms and immediately sets about manipulating the simple young man in the ways of his con. 

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