Movie Review: Violent Night

Violent Night (2022) 

Directed by Tommy Wirkola 

Written by Pat Casey, Josh Miller

Starring David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Leah Brady, Alexis Louder

Release Date December 2nd, 2022 

Published December 2nd, 2022 

I've long had an aversion to Christmas themed horror movies. I'm a big fan of the innocence of Christmas. I love that I was part of maintaining my Goddaughter's belief in and love of Santa Claus which has continued long after many other kids lost their sense of magic. Santa Claus is sacred to me and thus I have a strong distaste for movies that score points on making Santa look bad. It's one of the rare places in popular culture where I become a pearl clutching media watchdog. I worry about little kids who might see Santa portrayed as a murderer and lose their sense of his magic. 

Thus, my initial reaction to hearing about the new movie Violent Night, was a pit in my stomach. Here is a completely mainstream movie that was set to place Santa Claus, played by Stranger Things star David Harbour, an actor beloved among a relatively young audience, in a bloody, violent, horror movie context. I was more than just skeptical of Violent Night, I was worried that it could be a watershed moment in the horror portrayal of Santa Claus. That makes this review a bit of a catharsis for me as my worries have been allayed by seeing the movie. Violent Night may place Santa in a violent and bloody story but at least he's the hero in this story. It's a little thing, but it made it easier to take and even enjoy. 

Violent Night introduces us to a Kris Kringle who has lost his smile. As we meet Santa on Christmas Eve, he's getting very, very drunk before heading out for his night of delivering presents to kids. Meanwhile, the gears of the story begin to turn as we meet the Lightstone family. Dad, Jason Lightstone (Alex Hassell), and mom, Linda (Alexis Louder), are spending Christmas together for the sake of their daughter, Trudy (Leah Brady). Mom and Dad have split up but Trudy is hopeful they can be reunited. In fact, mom and dad are at the center of Trudy's Christmas wish for her family to be whole again. 

The family is reuniting for one final Christmas with the uber-rich Lightstone family. Jason is planning to abandon the family business and has concocted a convoluted plan. Also attending the Lightstone family Christmas are Jason's greed addled sister, Alva (Edi Patterson), Alva's airhead, movie star boyfriend, Morgan Steele (Cam Gigandet), and Alva's influencer son Burt (Alexander Elliott. Overseeing the whole Christmas get together is the imperious mother of the Lightstone clan, Gertrude (Beverly D'Angelo), a corrupt businesswoman who may or may not have $300 million in cash stored in her basement. 

That would explain why the Lightstone Family Christmas is overtaken by terrorists led by Jimmy Martinez (John Leguizamo), codename Ebenezer Scrooge. Jimmy and his team infiltrated the family Christmas under the guise of caterers and are in place for a violent takeover once the family is all in the same room. What they don't know is that someone else is crashing Christmas, a drunk Kris Kringle is has dropped in and it's no surprise that Jimmy and his entire team are on Santa's naughty list. 

Read the complete review at Geeks.Media 

Classic Movie Review Jeanne Dielman 23 Commerce Quay 1080 Brussels

Jeanne Dielman 23 Commerce Quay 1080 Brussels (1975) 

Directed by Chantal Akerman 

Written by Chantal Akerman 

Starring Delphine Seyrig, Jan Decorte, Jacques Doniol Valcroze 

Release Date May 14th, 1975 

Published Unknown 

Jeanne Dielman stars Delphine Seyrig as the title character, a housewife, mother and sex worker named named Jean who lives in Brussels. Jeanne's life consists of a very specific routine. She has sex with anonymous men in the afternoon, for exactly the length of time it takes for potatoes to properly boil. The men pay her and leave and she cleans up in the shower before finishing the preparation of dinner just in time for her son, played by Jan Decorte, to arrive home. The following day we see more of the routine as Jeanne wakes before her son, makes breakfast and shuttles him off to school. She makes the beds, cleans up around the house and for maybe an hour, she watches the baby of her chatty neighbor. 

Then Jeanne runs errands. She may stop for a cup of tea but then it is back home for her client, her shower, dinner and a clipped and brief conversation with her son. And on, and on, and on, the routine is laid out with some of the most mundane tasks of Jeanne's life, such as her shower routine or the peeling of potatoes, or the attempt to have one nice cup of coffee. These scenes play out in real time, of sorts and you are asked to either observe the mundane nature of these actions or let your mind wander into these scenes and find a story or a way to amuse yourself. 

Through the forces of visual filmmaking director Chantal Akerman tells us that the protagonist of Jeanne Dielman is a sex worker. We see her with an older man, they are familiar but not particularly intimate. He says he will see her next week as he hands her a handful of bills. There is no need for us to have seen them have sex or make the arrangements for the sex act, a hand full of bills and minor pleasantries, in the hands of a great filmmaker, can be all it takes to tell a story that introduces a character. 

Then it is off to the bath. This isn't presented in a way that caters to the male gaze, Jeanne is seated in the tub, mostly obscured, this about the act of cleaning, not eroticism. This extends to a jump cut when it is time for Jeanne to get out of the bath. The jump cut from Jeanne seated in the bath, to Jeanne nearly finished dressing is visually important here. The jump cut prevents ogling or fantasizing. The way Jeanne cleans up after work is intended to show you how this is just an aspect of her job, the lack of specific nudity, the jump cut, are a visually dynamic reminder that this isn't intended as anything other than part of a work a routine.  

Jeanne's life is an example of the expectation of extreme patriarchy, the expectations placed on a woman in an extreme idea of patriarchy, one where a woman's life is dedicated to what men want or expect. The casual misogyny of this idea is portrayed in a conversation between Jeanne and her son, Sylvaiin (Jan Decorte). He says, "If I were a woman, I could only make love with someone if I were deeply in love." She replies, How could you know? You're not a woman." Sick burn. He doesn't appear to know that his mother is a sex worker, he's reacting to the rather matter of fact way she referred to her late husband, his father. He doesn't understand yet that men like him have dictated to women like his mother who their sexual partners should be, how a woman is intended to cater to the needs of men, regardless of their desires. 

Click here for my full length review

Movie Review Darby and the Dead

Darby and the Dead (2022) 

Directed by Silas Howard 

Written by Wenona Wilms, Becca Greene 

Starring Riele Downs, Auli'i Cravalho, Chosen Jacobs 

Release Date December 2nd, 2022 

Published November 30th, 2022 

Darby and the Dead posits the story of a child being able to speak to the dead as something non-traumatic. By the logic of this movie, Darby gained the gift of speaking to the dead following a near-death experience as a young child. That same day she also lost her mother though she didn't get to talk to her after death. Since that young age, Darby has made it her mission to help the dead move on to the afterlife by wrapping up their unfinished work on Earth. 

This entails talking to living family members and facilitating reconciliations or resolving disputes. A final goodbye or an I'm sorry or an I love you, is often all it takes to help the dead to their final resting place. But, what if someone dies and has no idea what their unfinished business on Earth is? That's the case for High School Queen Bee, Capri (Auli'i Cravalho) dies in truly stupid fashion while bullying Darby. As a ghost, Capri has no idea what her unfinished business is supposed to be. 

This means that she must convince Darby to help her, despite Capri having treated her poorly while she was alive. Her first idea is that she needs a spectacular Sweet 16 party. Capri is convinced that if she has an epic party in celebration of her that this will send her off to the afterlife. However, for Darby to pull this off, she will need to convince Capri's popular girl entourage, still mourning their Cheer Captain and friend, to throw this amazing party. 

Obviously, these popular girls are not about to listen to dorky Darby tell them to have a party for Capri. So, Capri sets about turning Darby into a popular girl. This includes a makeover montage and convincing Darby to become a cheerleader, something she used to do before her mother died. After a lot of convincing, involving annoying the heck out of Darby with insistent yakking, Darby agrees and the plot of Darby and the Dead works through the gears of teen movie clichés. 

Click here for my complete review of Darby of the Dead at Geeks.media

Documentary Review: Immediate Family

Immediate Family (2022) 

Directed by Denny Tedesco 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Waddy Wachtel, Steve Postell 

Release Date Unknown

Debut DOCNYC 

Published November 18th, 2022 

One of my favorite concert experiences of recent memory was traveling to Milwaukee to see The Funk Brothers, the band of session musicians who played on nearly every song produced by Motown Records in the 1960s and early 70s. It was amazing, a terrific show. And I got to go backstage and shake hands with a man who played on every record that Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, and The Supremes made at Motown. It inspires awe in me just thinking about the music history that man was a part of. It also says something that I don't remember his name. That's the thing about session players, they rarely received the credit they deserved when the record came out. 

The players that make up the similar touring session band, Immediate Family are among the few who can relate to The Funk Brothers. Immediate Family is comprised of the most in demand session players in 1970s Los Angles, another rich vein of wildly talented musicians capable of expanding on the sound of just about any performer. Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Waddy Wachtel, and Steve Postell are not household names but if you love Jackson Browne, James Taylor, and Carole King, you can thank the Immediate Family for helping create their sound. 

The documentary Immediate Family is a lovely trip through the history of early 1970s music. Players such as Jackson Browne, James Taylor and Carole King had each explored being in bands and even had played together. But, with their songwriting prowess and their star making charisma, the call for them to become solo acts was made by record companies who saw the potential of them as individual superstars. Watching Immediate Family however, you will learn that they themselves never saw themselves as solo artists. They credited the Immediate Family band members for their success as much as any record company. 

The structure of the documentary is terrific as director Danny Tedesco cross cuts from recorded performances of some of the most famous songs of the early 1970s and in-studio modern recording of the members of Immediate Family playing the parts that they helped make into hits. Thus you hear Carole King's epic hit, I Feel the Earth Move and you get to see and hear Danny Kooth Kortchmar in perfect sync, play the part he played in the original recording. 

And the documentary proceeds like that with cool stories being told by the various session players and superstars involved and these beautifully edited scenes of these men playing with all of the timing and skill they exhibited as session superstars of the early 1970s all the way through the 1980s and to now where these session players have now carved out a niche playing the music they love together, for the first time, as an official band. 

My favorite of the many, many brilliant, funny, and eye opening stories about some of the greatest songs in music history comes from guitarist Waddy Wachtel. He relates a very fun story about how he essentially rescued the Steve Perry hit 'Oh Sherrie' by riffing out an iconic guitar solo. It's more fun hearing Wachtel relate the story, he's so much fun, I will only reiterate how amazing it is to think that that song would never have made number 1 on Billboard or remained a staple of classic pop radio to this day if Waddy Wachtel hadn't called an audible in the studio in 1984. 

Click here my for my review at Beat.Media

Movie Review Glass Onion A Knives Out Mystery

Glass Onion A Knives Out Mystery (2022) 

Directed by Rian Johnson 

Written by Rian Johnson 

Starring Daniel Craig, Janelle Monae, Edward Norton, Kate Hudson 

Release Date November 23rd, 2022 

Netflix Release Date December 23rd, 2022 

Years ago, movies were home to terrific detective characters. For whatever reason, the character of the independent investigator fell out of favor. Perhaps its because independent detectives have rarely been relevant in real life since the days of Humphrey Bogart, or the rise of television gave detectives a more generous home, movie detectives had been in decline for years until 2019 when filmmaker Rian Johnson reminded us how much fun the detective genre can be with his ingenious mystery, Knives Out. 

With the release of Glass Onion A Knives Out Mystery, we have proof positive that the detective genre is back with a vengeance. This mystery finds the world's greatest detective Benoit Blanc languishing in the boredom of the pandemic before having his intellect revived with a new case that gets him back into the world. Delivering another career best performance, Daniel Craig gives Benoit Blanc a life and charm that echoes through the history of detectives on film, a brand new colorful icon for this beloved sub-genre. 

A group of 'friends' have received an invitation to the private island of a billionaire named Miles (Edward Norton). All of the guests are Miles' long time friends but they are also people whose livelihoods and financial well being are linked to the benevolence of Miles and his bank roll. In this group is a regularly cancelled former model, Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), a superstar Twitch Streamer turned Mens Rights Advocate, Duke (Dave Bautista), his model girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline), a liberal Gubernatorial candidate, Claire (Kathryn Hahn), and a boundary pushing scientest, Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.) who may have completely solved our environmental crisis or may be about to blow up the planet. 

Interestingly, and quite unexpectedly, another guest for this murder mystery party is Miles' former business partner and best friend, Cassandra (Janelle Monae). This is quite surprising as Cassandra had just sued Miles after ending their business partnership. Miles stole her idea and used his vast army of lawyers to destroy Cassandra while convincing their mutual friends, the other guests at this party, to lie for him in court. So that's awkward. 

Even more interestingly, who invited Benoit Blanc? Benoit received the same strange puzzle box invitation that everyone else did and yet, Miles did not know that the world's greatest detective had been invited to his murder mystery themed weekend. This adds to the layers upon layers of mystery and intrigue that writer-director Rian Johnson has built into this exquisite mystery. But this is no mere mystery, Glass Onion A Knives Out Mystery is also hilariously funny. This group of brilliant actors get laughs effortlessly and organically, never too broad or unrealistically. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review The Son

The Son (2022) 

Directed by Florian Zeller 

Written by Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton 

Starring Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby 

Release Date November 25th, 2022 

Published November 29th, 2022

The Son stars Hugh Jackman as business dad, Peter Miller. Peter is a business dad who does business things like staring pensively out of a window, wearing nice suits, and ignoring his family. Peter's business dad persona is shaken when his ex-wife, played by Laura Dern, turns up at his door one evening. The ex-wife, Kate, informs Business Dad Peter that their teenage son, Nicholas (Zen McGrath), whom Peter has dutifully ignored per the rules of being a Business Dad, has been skipping school and she can no longer keep track of him. 

Kate tells Business Dad that Nicholas wants to live with him and after consulting with his new wife, the brilliant, and completely wasted here, Vanessa Kirby, he agrees. Now he can truly be a Business Dad and ignore his son directly. No surprise then that Nicholas immediately begins skipping school again. New wife catches him hanging out in a park instead of going to school. Business Dad tries talking to his son and crying but it doesn't work, and Nicholas becomes ever more despondent until he attempts to kill himself because Business Dad is always business-ing.

Where director Florian Zeller made a genuinely thoughtful and insightful film about mental health and aging in The Father, he has crafted a dramatically inert and lacking in insight film in The Son. Hugh Jackman does his best cry acting since The Fountain and the result is a movie that even Laura Dern and Vanessa Kirby cannot lift to a level of being watchable. The problems are evident in a story that has nowhere to go. Business Dad is bad and wrong and should not be a Business Dad is the level of insight we get in The Son. 

It's all dad's fault that his son has severe mental health problems. It's his fault for working too much, for breaking the norms of society by, shock of shock, leaving his wife for a younger woman. He's wrong for being too rich and successful and for traveling too much. That's the surface level critiques that The Son appears to be lobbing at this Hugh Jackman character and his response is to cry or to sulk in his big corner office, staring wistfully out of high rise windows. 

Truly, I am trying to understand the purpose of The Son other than pure misery porn. The film crafts a character in Nicholas who has no way forward, he's a boulder rolling down hill toward tragedy. That's not a bad place to start with a character but the movie gives him no nuance, there is no insight into who Nicholas is or what drives him. The journey from introducing this unpleasant teenage child to the inevitable tragedy seemingly coming at the end is a series of miserable scenes that do explain why the kid is a trainwreck in progress but there is simply nothing else happening here. 

Attempts to give the movie something beyond Business Dad bad, sad teenager wants to die, involves introducing a character played by Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins plays Business Dad's own Business Dad, a true prick, a hateful, bitter man, who also happens to see right through Jackman's Business Dad. When Hopkins' character mocks Jackman's character for seeming to blame him for his failure as a father, it's cruel and lacking in empathy and self regard, and it is the single most honest moment in an otherwise  phony movie. 

Hopkins is unquestionably supposed to be a villain here and yet, he makes the character seem cruel but with a purpose. He's the first character who does something other than sulk, cry, or run to another room to avoid the drama. I don't want to say that Hopkins' openly cruel, arrogant, and bitter character is refreshing, but I am struggling to describe it as anything other than that when compared to everything else in this mind-numbing melodrama. 

How does a movie have the brilliant Vanessa Kirby and relegate her to leaving the room when the drama kicks in. Her character exists to be called away to check on a baby. That is until she gets shuffled offscreen permanently with the excuse that she needs to protect her baby from all the drama. This is not how you use your Vanessa Kirby. Kirby is a brilliant actress, having her constantly leaving the room to check on an unseen baby is a weird choice for how to use her. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review She Said

She Said (2022) 

Directed by Maria Schrader 

Written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz 

Starring Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson 

Release Date November 18th, 2022 

Published November 23rd, 2022 

She Said takes cues from All the Presidents Men and Spotlight and turns a spotlight on the abuses that led to the #MeToo social media movement. The film stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as New York Times journalists Jodi Kanter and Megan Twohey who spent several months crossing the country, conducting interviews and uncovering information about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, a criminal, rapist, creep who is currently in jail for the crimes he committed. 

It's important to say that Weinstein is a convicted criminal as there are people who attempt to minimize what he did and brush away criticism of powerful men by hand waving sexual harassment as being a product of the time it was committed. It's a bizarre bit of mental gymnastics but there are numerous media figures who are willing to stand up for the Harvey Weinstein's of the world and excuse their behavior because these powerful men didn't know what they were doing was a crime. I

In the years before the Women's Rights movement and the increased representation of women in the workplace and in the halls of power, it was commonplace for powerful men to abuse women, to make demands of women sexually, and to go even further than that in forcing themselves onto unwilling women. By the logic of Harvey defenders, men of a certain age should be forgiven for their behavior because that's just how they grew up. Pro tip, if you think this way, you're part of the problem, you're wrong and please stay away from women. 

Part of the strength of She Said is how the movie demonstrates what these reporters were up against. They were battling not one villain, though Weinstein is undoubtedly a villain who occupies a large space in this story. No, they were battling an entire mindset. They were up against a culture that, at the time, treated terms like Casting Couch as a punchline. Women have been degraded for years by people who thought it was funny that a woman had been 'riding the casting couch' to get where they are. 

The behavior of Harvey Weinstein, aside from when it rose to the level of actual criminal behavior, was treated as normal. Asking a woman for a massage, asking women to remove their clothes, asking women to watch him take a shower, these actions were normalized and convincing the world that these behaviors were more than just wrong, they were worthy of punishment, was a massive boulder that these reporters were pushing up a steep hill. 

Then there were those who eagerly blamed the victims of people like Harvey Weinstein. She Said benefits from the use of names we recognize such as Rose McGowan, a victim of Harvey Weinstein who was degraded for speaking out when her assault actually happened. Here is a question for you, what made you think Rose McGowan wasn't telling the truth when she spoke about Harvey Weinstein assaulting her? What about her made her any less credible than any other person alleging an abuse of power? 

If you are planning a rebuttal to my question in the comments then ask yourself this, why do you know any of what you think you know about Rose McGowan? Why are you so invested in the idea that she may not be telling the truth? Why does it matter to you? You aren't Harvey Weinstein, you aren't his defense attorney. If you're wanting to turn this around and make this about me, ask yourself why you are so eager to argue about something with someone who also has no vested interest in what happened? Before you write your rebuttal, truly examine your life and perhaps consider moving on. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media.