Classic Movie Review Harold and Maude

Harold and Maude 

Directed by Hal Ashby

Written by Colin Higgins

Starring Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Charles Tyner

Released December 20th, 1971

Well, I did it, I watched Harold & Maude for the first time and the magic is lost on me. I think I get it, the message, no one can tell you who to love or how to love or how to live. It makes sense, and it’s a fine message. And Hal Ashby is a very good director. Harold & Maude is a great looking movie, it’s filled with quirky characters and a strong anti-establishment attitude that I do admire. However, other, quirkier, aspects of the movie simply left me cold. 

Harold & Maude stars Bud Cort as Harold, a depressed young man in his early 20’s who fills his days by attending funerals and faking his death by suicide. Harold is a deeply morbid young man. His strained relationship with his mother, Mrs Chasen (Vivian Pickles), has reached a bizarre breaking point. Basically, Harold is repeatedly faking his suicide death specifically to provoke his mother. Mrs Chasen, meanwhile, appears entirely unfazed by Harold’s performances, aside from when he bloodied her bathroom.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Classic Movie Review Shivers

Shivers 

Directed by David Cronenberg

Written by Written by David Cronenberg

Starring Paul Hampton, Lynn Lowry, Barbara Steele 

Released October 10th, 1975 

Director David Cronenberg’s debut feature, Shivers, is about the loss of bodily autonomy. It’s about what happens when an outside force enacts itself upon someone and robs them of their agency. Sure, in this case, it’s a slug like parasite but the meaning, at least in a modern context, could not be more symbolic of governmental interference. Given that bodily autonomy is a top headline in the battle over abortion in America today, it’s an interesting time to look at Cronenberg’s 45 plus year old take on the idea behind Shivers. 

The symbols of conformity are what we first recognize in the opening scenes of Shivers. A disembodied, soothing, oily voiceover tells us about the self-contained amenities of an island apartment complex called Starliner Towers. It’s the picture of perfection. There is no need to ever leave as the building has doctors, dentists, grocery stores and pharmacies. All of that plus the serenity of living more than an hour away from the teeming masses in urban centers. Naturally, Cronenberg is here to splash blood all over this multi-dwelling Eden.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Benediction

Benediction

Directed by Terence Davies

Written by Terence Davies 

Starring Jack Lowden, Peter Capaldi, Simon Russell Beale

Release Date June 3rd, 2022 

Benediction is a movie that is indirectly about empathy. Creating empathy is what director Terence Davies intends but the film has a main character who defies our desire to empathize with him. Siegfried Sassoon, the famed ‘War Poet,’ whose work aimed to expose the human cost of war, isn’t interested in our empathy. Sassoon's arc in Benediction is from nearly dying a martyr, to bitterness, and finally to a man seeking the illusion of comfort in religious salvation.

Benediction is directly about the life of Siegfried Sassoon. And Benedictionis indirectly about how Terence Davies builds the case for Sassoon’s late in life search for salvation. Having spent his life as a disillusioned hedonist and then a self-closeted homosexual, you might think that the Catholic Church is the last place Siegfried Sassoon might turn. That is unless you see Benediction which makes the case for how a lifetime of bitterness pushed Siegfried toward spiritual salvation as a last resort.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Bob's Burgers The Movie

Bob's Burgers The Movie 

Directed by Loren Bouchard, Bernard Derriman

Written by Loren Bouchard, Nora Smith 

Starring H. Jon Benjamin, Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman, Kristen Schaal, John Roberts, Kevin Kline

Released May 27th, 2022

Loren Bouchard’s animated series, Bob’s Burgers, has been a consistent delight for 11 seasons on Fox. Now, Bouchard has brought the fun to the big screen in Bob’s Burgers The Movie. And while, we must admit, a Bob’s Burgers movie is deeply inessential, that doesn’t stop it from being funny and endearing. Those familiar voices and the quirky characters they bring to life would be hilarious in any context even as a big screen effort isn't necessary. 

The Bob’s Burgers Movie tells a harrowing story for our beloved Belcher Family. Bob (H Jon Benjamin), is frantically preparing a burger to take to a meeting with a bank manager. The family is behind on an important loan and he hopes a burger will grease the wheels a little for an extension. Linda (John Roberts) is her usual optimistic self, she’s convinced that everything will work out just fine with the bank. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Top Gun Maverick

Top Gun Maverick

Directed by Joseph Kosinski 

Written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie

Starring Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell

Released May 27th, 2022

I walked into Top Gun Maverick highly skeptical. My experience of the original Top Gun was as an overly polished, jingoistic, cold war era male fantasy. Despite Tom Cruise’s magnetic performance and Anthony Edwards’ terrifically funny performance, I was not a fan of Top Gun. So imagine my surprise when the sequel Top Gun Maverick began getting terrific reviews from critics that I greatly admired. It didn’t completely cure my skepticism but it created a modest optimism. 

That modest optimism was then met and exceeded when I finally saw Top Gun Maverick. This is one terrific action movie. High flying suspense, incredible camera and stunt work, flawless special effects, everything you’d hope for on a more than 150 million dollar budget. But what really surprised me was the strong characters. The original was a shallow examination of cocky flyboys and the women trying to save them from themselves. This film smartly spends time with Peter ‘Maverick’ Mitchell and reveals his vulnerability, his empathy, and humanity.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Prometheus

Prometheus

Directed by Ridley Scott

Written by Joe Spaihts, Damon Lindelof

Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Charlize Theron

Released June 1st, 2012

I really liked Prometheus when I watched it in theaters for the first time. I was bowled over by the technical virtuosity of Prometheus and the wonderful performances of stars Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender. Unfortunately, upon revisiting Prometheus I discovered the emptiness of Prometheus. The hedging of bets over the existence of God versus the proof of science is the realm of the coward.

On first blush, Prometheus seems like a bold exercise in questioning where we came from and who we are as a people. The film offers a pair of scientists as the lead performers in Noomi Rapace as Shaw and Logan Marshall Green as Holloway. Rapace's scientist is also a woman of faith whose ever-present cross is also a reminder of her father and a longing to see him and her mother again someday. Green's Holloway is more pragmatic. Following the discovery of alien drawings in different caves around the globe has led him to believe that human beings were engineered by aliens and he aims to find them and ask them why, thus solving the great question of why we're here.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Bloody Oranges

Bloody Oranges

Directed by Jean-Christophe Meurisse

Written by Jean-Christophe Meurisse 

Starring Olivier Saladin, Lorella Cravotta, Alexandre Steiger 

Released July 8th, 2021

Bloody Oranges promises a subversive good time and mostly delivers. This French black comedy is at times bleak, other times surreal, and always strangely intriguing. Directed by Jean Christophe Meurisse, Bloody Oranges has shock value that is matched by an oddball group of characters whose stories you can't help but get caught up in. Some of these people are despicable villains and some are naïve innocents caught up in a system that doesn’t care about basic human decency. 

The story begins at a Dance Contest. A group of judges are debating who should win the grand prize. Eventually, the group settles on a lovely elderly couple named Laurence (Lorella Cravotta) and Olivier (Olivier Saladin). The couple is delighted to win and excited to have a chance at real prize money at the next regional contest. The couple desperately wants the prize money as their bank is about to foreclose on their home.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here.