White Boy Rick

From the moment i saw the trailer for this film i wanted to see it. The VHS style spoke to me but the reviews made me weary, i skipped it in cinema, rented it today, and fuck, i wish i had seen it in theatres. This is a great crime film about the rise of a teenage drug/arms dealer that is an informant for the FBI, set in seedy Detroit. Matthew McConaughey makes silencers but wants to own a video store, his son becomes a powerful crime/cop associate and is has a disco & neon drenched vibe and a grim feel. Video stores, discos, drugs, guns, this is a pure cult crime film.

Monster Party

Monster Party is a film that went under my radar, i saw two people post about it last night and saw that Amazon had it for a buck, so why the fuck, might as well rent it. This was a fun & bloody flick, looked super slick for a low budget film, well acted, well shot, tight script, and as i mentioned blood. It's like a Free Fire but in the world of murderers.

Love, Simon

This was a film i thought looked decent but didn't seek out to see, but a couple trust worthy people highly recommended it so i popped on HBO and gave it a spin...or a stream, whatevs. What a mixed bags of emotions in this film. Happy, sad, cringe, joy, it showed awkwardness and how hard being yourself can be. Cleverly written, well acted, sharp directing, this was a gem of a film that might go under the radar, even if you know about the film. I was really digging it until the ferris wheel scene, i liked how grounded it was but that scene felt like a cligner move, i get standing up for yourself but i don't see someone in his shoes doing that. I mean the scene won me back and made me tear up a bit but still. I loved the red herrings, it had me guessing the entire time, figured one of them might actually be blue, thought one of his friends may have been, or even the cinephile kid before he went full heel, bad cinephile, bad.

The World Before Your Feet

The world is a beautiful place, it is also an ugly place. The World Before Your Feet shows how beautiful the world can be showing the off the beaten paths of New York City, but also how ugly alot of NYC is. It shows trash build up, it shows fucked up roads, it shows 911 memorials which in itself is beautiful & ugly. But it shows how humans love to converse, to learn and teach. I wish it would have shown more of the art & cinema of NYC, but i love nature so i'll accept. It could have gone an hour longer, i hope the dvd will have that much footage for deleted scenes, i mean...6 years, it has to. Super fun doc, the world is gorgeous, travel, we deserve more than work & sleep.

Z Nation

This season of Z Nation was a mixed bag, some was alot of fun, some was torture. Upon reading that SyFy wouldn't renew, i got sad, as i thought the show wouldn't get a proper ending. I was wrong, the finale wrapped things up well, but even if the season wasn't all that, this was indeed a blast of a series. Even their worst episodes were better than Walking Dead's average episodes(not their great ones) . I'll miss this show, thank you for 5 bonkers seasons.

Animal World

Animal World is one of the most visual films of the year. An endlessly entertaining film set on a boat in the world of underground Rock Paper Scissors. It also involved the main character fantasizing about himself as a clown killing monsters while in a video game.........Fuck Yeah!!!! It's on Netflix so skip the hype train that is Bird Box(which i liked) and watch this instead!

Vice

If i can go all Doug Jones for a minute and tell some backstory before giving my thoughts on a film, then i will. Holy fuck  the theatre was cold, someone had a door ajar to the outside. Freezing my nuts off didn't tamper my enjoyment of Adam McKay's latest. Much like the Big Short, Mckay takes what could be boring material and turns it into something interesting & funny. It is shot and edited in a way with meta humor. We get jabs of the Right, we get closing credits midway through, we get a stinger after the real closing credits, the fourth wall is broken several times, all while humanizing Dick Cheney and then making him become the most disgusting individual in the white, well...until now. His rise to power was unmatched, he conned and backstabed his way to the top and committed crimes, we all knew Bush was a puppet but this film puts it in a new light. It is a timely release with the Nazi in office now, but even at his most hardened, Dick still showed respect to his gay daughter(well...sort of) and sort became a monster the further down the rabbit hole he went, by time it was his turn to be VP, he went full authoritarian heel. Great cast, excellent chemistry, sharp script, wicked editing and a genius in the directors chair. This might be about the VICE president but McCay is the DIRECTOR to watch, and one that doesn't forget his roots!

Kindergarten Teacher

Maggie Gyllenhaal is a treasure, she is always knocking out great performances, and this is one of her bests. It has meat for her to sink her teeth into. This is a simple yet creepy film, it pushes boundaries, not only in terms of what to do for your art, stealing, or trying to expand ones talent, kidnapping, but showing how lines gets crossed so easily in schools. For all of us that have joked about "Wishing a hot teacher had boned us" no, this film shows how it is, creepy. Granted  there isn't a sexual undertone on her part, but it does have plenty of inappropriate moments that could be suggested as such. Maggie forgoes some doggy style sex with her husband to talk on the phone to a 6 year old, she takes a 6 year old to a bathroom, and out of class plenty of times, she takes him of of the city twice. I mean, i'd still fuck Maggie, but damn if she wouldn't creep me out, but then again, crazy chicks are my m.o. As far as Netflix movies go,  this is one of the better options from the year.

Bird Box

Enough with the Quiet Place comparisons. Would they play well as a double bill? Yes, but Bird Box is nothing like it. A non linear tale of survivors that are not to open their eyes outside, or look through windows is not the same as don't speak. The cult of viewers was a nice touch and the film has great tension. The scene where shit hits the fan with Sarah Paulson is terrific, the acting is solid. I see plenty of people either bashing it saying it is crap or they refuse to watch it, get off your hipster high horse, i'm up there with you and i aint looking down on the flick, then on the flip side i see plenty of basics saying how great it is, well to them i say go watch more horror flicks. Sometimes it sucks being a cynical optimist.

Bodied

Bodied, the new film from Joseph Kahn, the director of Detention, and produced by Eminem is a fucking great underdog flick set in the world of underground rap battles. Great raps, great acting, funny and full of social commentary. It shows how art can offend yet at the end of the day respect is key.

Anna & The Apocalypse

Anna & The Apocalypse is a pop rock musical that is Christmas wrapped in a zombie film with fun songs, a likable cast, great gore. It looks like an Edgar Wright film at times which works perfectly as it would pair well with Shaun as a double bill. I love musicals, i love zombies, and setting it with Christmas makes this new yearly Christmas viewing! Funny, whimsy, charming & bloody, merry christmas!

Welcome to Marwen

I don't get the pure hated for this film, sure Zemeckis may not have been the right man for the job but the imagination going in to the GI Joe esque scenes was gold, i only wish it was have gone deeper. Now the film somewhat changes the true meaning of the doc. In that it was a man that coped through his figures, in this he copes through it but is portrayed as total loon while doing so, becoming clingy and at times toxic.  Carrel does a great job with all of that said, as does everyone else, but making him a a stalking, pill popper wasn't the best way.  There was alot to love about this film, it made me smile, made me cringe(i don't know if it was intentional, i hope it was), made me connect, especially during this lonely time of the year, but if you want to know the real man, the real events and see the real Marwencol, then i urge you to watch the doc.

Aquaman

After Roman Reigns played Carl Dragon on the hit Cinemax series the Throne Games he quickly signed on to play Aquaman in the sequel to the 1998 classic the Waterboy, starring his bitter foe the Big Show. In Aquaman we get a at times cheesy DC film that can resemble a 90s superhero flick, it starts off a bit eye rolling....and lasts that way for about two acts. it picks up once they get to Italy, which leads to the last act which has a good yet over bloated battle scene. Visually it is a stunning film, and Jason Momoa is a charismatic lead and Amber Heard does a fine job in her role too(Aquababe) and deserves to be a bigger star, hopefully this does the trick. While Man of Steel felt like a restrained Zack Snyder, and BvS was him going all out, Suicide Squad was a cluster of want to be Snyder, DC finally got it right with Wonder Woman, a film that plays it safe. Justice League felt so light that this in comparison felt like the event film, especially coming a year after the last DCEU film. On that note, because of DC's track record this truly didn't feel huge. Most Marvel films feel like media spectacles but don't truly feel like events either, other than the Avenger films, but atleast there is a sense of event in the air. This here felt like, welp, it's a DC winter blockbuster, might as well go. I miss the days where comic films were far & few between they felt important, they may not have felt like events but as a teen i loved for em. This here atleast felt important. DC, release the films far apart, and please keep them in stand alone franchises. WW and this worked, keep it up. It may not have been great, at times it was pretty bad if i'm being honest but it wasn't a cluster fuck.It was fun, the film is a big budget 90s superhero film, i'll see more of this, keep it up.

Revenge

The rape revenge subgenre is a thing of the past, films such as I Spit on Your Grave and They Called Her One I were great, now we get films like the Brave One(while not rape per se) that truly don't deliver the goods. The closest thing would be the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but that all changes with Revenge. What a brutal flick this is, from the rape to the show, the the revenge, to the punishment she receives dishing revenge. This is a bloody film, this is an exploitation film, a down & dirty, gritty and well crafted exploitation film.

Vox Lux

As far as films about high school shootings where the survivor becomes a jesus enthused pop singer only to turn to drugs after falling for an industrial musician and then fast forwarding 20 years and she is now as alcoholic goes, this is pretty decent. Well, it looks decent, it is well acted, and has some good music, but the plot, there is nothing there. Soulless, empty, ugly, sure it has shocks but once the shock value wears off you kind of want the film to end. In a year where a Star is Born, Heavy Trip, and Bohemian Rhapsody were all released, this pales in comparison. It shows how studio music can be stressful but it also paints a stereotypical rocker chick that you'd find at a dive bar or strip club and makes you watch her story. A story that leads no where, there is no real plot, the film is pointless. She's a teen, she is shot, she becomes a singer, she's an adult, she performs, the end. Show us how she got fucked up, show us her conquer her demons, something, anything, i hated these characters.

Bumblebee

I never thought i'd say i enjoyed a Transformers flick. That is harsh, i liked the first one, but i hated the rest, hell the very last one i never even finished on Hulu. Everyone was jizzing over the trailer for Bumblebee, i thought it looked fun but i still doubted i would ever see it, then the buzz for it came in, and you know, this was a fun flick. Gone is the Baysploitation as we enter into the en vogue post modern 80s nostalgia phase, and it works. You have likable characters, including a totes babe in Hailee Steinfeld, a Amblin esque plot, genuine touching moments and a fantastic soundtrack and you get a formula that works for the series. It is funny that this one feels Amblin esque as Spielberg served as an executive producer on the series, yet this one has the most in common. Prequel, soft reboot, whatevs, just glad to enjoy a movie based on a show that was a commercial for toys. Oh and John Cena can still work the heel style by the way, i don't want him to go heel per se, but this flick shows he still can pull heel off.

Room 104

What a brilliant, bizarre & fucked up season this was. I loved season 1, but season 2 was fucking great. Fucked up family members that murder people, creepy ass teacher-student relations, Michael Shannon, cock eating, wall fucking, a musical, a porn for your future child, nightmares, ghost parents, robots, cousin rivalries and dark realizations flood this season, some great, others....good, but most of it is great. True cult TV!

Lowlife

Lowlife is like if Troma produced a Coen Brothers scripted remake of Pulp Fiction but with a non Nazi Nazi, a Luchador & an Accountant as your heroes. The film is funny, bloody and seems like a post Grindhouse grindhouse film without all the forced style choices. It's on Hulu, watch it, another cult film for 2018!

The House That Jack Built

I respect Lars Von Trier, i don't love him ,but i respect him. Hell he made one of the few films to make me cringe in Antichrist. I would have said Melancholia was my favorite film of his, that is until now. The House that Jack Built is a twist on the slasher genre, a character study that feels like Tony or How to Be A  Serial Killer but told with perfection through Von Trier. Moments of super dark humor are tossed in, and it ends with an upbeat vibe....wait what? The closing scene is in hell, the film takes a huge turn in the final act and it is bonkers. This gritty ass slasher with tremendous acting is a weird ass film that truly feels straight from the underground but not cheap. this is true underground, this is true cult, this is true weird, this is true fucked up, this is Lars Von Trier.

Roma

Alfonso Cuaron made me fall in love with him in 2006 with Children of Men, easily the best film of that year. I loved it so much that i watched his filmography and even became a Harry Potter fan. Years went by and i anticipated Gravity, a film that while well crafted, ultimately underwhelmed me. Roma, is his most visually stunning since Children of Men, not in effects, but in cinematography. Gorgeous black & white, beautiful pans, every shot is a portrait. It has the feel of Francis Ford Coppola, especially Rumble Fish, but tonally feels more like modern Coppola. The film as i stated is gorgeous, it is a damn fine film, but a film i ultimately felt was some what bland.  I suggest the film for artistry but i wasn't very moved by it.

At Eternities Gate

I love art, i attend galley openings monthly, quite a few actually, i love Van Gough, i love Willem Dafoe, but like much of modern "art", i found At Eternities Gate to be pretentious as fuck, So pretentious i was bored by it, i wanted it to end, i wasn't captivated at all. Even by great actors like DaFoe and Oscar Issac. The last two weeks of his life were truly important, but it deserved celebration not this dull attempt at art. 

Into the Spiderverse

Into the Spiderverse is a graffiti colored, imaginative, ambitious, gorgeous piece of animation. I don't go to alot of animated films but if more were like this....well i'm glad they're not because while i'd go to more of them, i wouldn't appreciate it as much cause this was sweet. Incorporating the multiverse fits this type of film perfectly, this film is pure comic book, and exactly how comic films should be. Pacing is great, the action rarely lets up yet it knows how to develop characters. The humor actually works, humor in most comic films usually is off for me but it works here. I'd love for this to be the Spidey films Sony focuses on, let Marvel run live action, Sony you take animation, cause Marvel finally has an animated film to go against DC's. Also the stinger is brilliant!

South Park

This season of South Park went back to pushing the envelope, it also maintained the underlining plots of previous episodes. Some for good, some...not. We targeted Black Panther, school shootings, pedophiles, the church, Apu, marijuana, saw the return of a few characters, rentable scooters, Manbearpig(the most cereal threat there is), anxiety, amazon and being easily offended. Yet the season still was rather meh. I love this show, but please end, yet at the same time i will be so sad to see it go.

Flower

Flower is one of the more fucked up and dark romantic comedies in quite a while. Fucked up in situations, dark in humor. Seems highly influenced by the work of Todd Solondz. Fine cast and damn fine chemistry. Zoe Deutch oozes charisma and generally you can't go wrong with Adam Scott. It wasn't the film i was expecting, but i liked it more than the film i was expecting.

Best F(r)iends

So i've yet to see Volume 2, but Volume 1 of Best F(r)iends is exactly what i wanted it to be and then some. Tommy Wiseau & Greg Sestero are back, but this time Sestero wrote the script, and honestly, he is a better writer than Tommy, no big feat. The film looks better than the Room, again, no big feat, but it is actually a somewhat good film, it's like a dramatic troma flick. A drama based around selling gold teeth from cadavers and clown corpses. The film feels pretty much like Tommy & Greg's real life relationship, so it feels personal and it has heart. On top of that the acting is good from all, even Wiseau, basically playing himself, which works for his advantage since all the characters treat him t he way the crew treated Tommy in James Franco's Disaster Artist. I can't wait for Volume 2 on demand next month!

Terrified

The other day i read Guillermo Del Toro was producing a English language remake of Terrified, so i figured it was time i finally watched one of the most buzzed about horror films of the year. This is an effective flick, not just good jump scares, but a tense story and some truly haunting imagery. Alot of what you see feels so much like a nightmare. Not often does alot of horror live up to the hype, this film does!

Mowgli

You can bash Disney for being over bloated, sterilized & safe, but dammit if last years The Jungle Book wasn't fucking magical. This year's  Mowgli doesn't play it safe, it tries something different, even if not playing it safe means to hell with a good structure and plot and likable characters. Even if being different means stripping characters of all charm and flat out making a mean spirited film. I respect this film, but i truly did not like this film.

Illang the Wolf Brigade

Jee Woon Kim is one of the best filmmakers from Korea, I Saw The Devil being his best work, but i've enjoyed all i have seen. His latest, from Netflix, is an enjoyable action film, i liked it but didn't quite love it. Brilliant set design and costume work, produced to a perfect T but the story didn't grab be enough. I still fully this mans work and this fits great into Asian crime cinema & asian action flicks.

F is For Family Season 3

Well damn, i binged seasons 1 & 2 at the same time, i binged season 3 in a 2 day span, shit might have been the best season. Is there a more un PC show on the air? That is one thing to love, the show gives no fucks and unlike South Park, isn't trying to offend and trying to be smarter than it is, for the record South Park is my all time favorite animated series, but this here is pure un pc goodness. On top of all that the plot is great, the episodes are stand alone yet carry more storylines over from other episodes than most cartoons do. The best thing is the character work, you have to love the characters!

Slay Belles

I was stoked for Spooky Dan's film, i am a fan of his and have followed him for over a decade, i partied with him in San Diego. A Christmas film about a semi ghost adventure esque trio of hotties that don't chase ghosts but abandoned places teaming with a drunk Santa to face Krampus? Sign me up! Until you watch it. This makes Nixon & Hogan Smoke Christmas look like Santa Clause Conquers the Martians, this is a piece of shit. Unfunny, uninspired, no good gore, some nice tits but from terrible performances. Especially after watching the excellent Christmas Chronicles. Sorry Spooky, sorry hotties, this this is on the naughty list.

Never Goin Back

After months of waiting i finally saw Never Going Back. A24 has been knocking it out this year, especially with coming of age flicks. This is a coming of age stoner film with gross out humor, dark humor, a great soundtrack and fantastic chemistry. The leads legit feel like best friends, and their fuck up behavior is something most of us can relate too, albeit in a sometimes trashier way, but behind the trash is alot of heart. 

Ash vs Evil Dead

So I love Evil Dead, LOVE it, was toked for the series, and this was before everything became a series. It was great, season 2 was ever better but season 3....is in between i'd say. I binged this over a day, was wanting to see it first run but i lost Starz, but holy hell, what a fast paced series. Funny as fuck, bloody as fuck, Kelly, bloody as fuck, Kelly, Kelly...did i mention Kelly? I'm glad the show has ended. I prefer series to end before they run their course like many shows do. With that said, holy fuck, that finale....i want a film sequel....so bad. On that note, not everything needs to be a series, but this show did it well.

Match of November

1. WaR Games: Takeover Wargames
2. Aleister Black vs Johnny Gargano: Takeover Wargames
3. Tomasso Ciampa vs Velveteen Dream: Wargames
4. Pete Dunne vs Jordan Devlin:UK Title, NXT UK
5. Lowki vs Shane Strickland: MLW Title, MLW
6. Naito vs Zack Sabre Jr.: Power Struggle 
7. Chris Jericho vs Evil: IC title, Power Struggle
8. Pete Dunne vs Danny Burch: UK Title, NXT UK
9. Toni Storm vs Dakota Kai: NXT UK
10. Buddy Murphy vs Mustafa Ali: Cruiserweight Title, Survivor Series

Haunting On Hill House

Haunting on Hill House is a beautiful, masterful and even surreal series. It has less in common with the 1963 version and is more akin to The Shining. This is the show American Horror Story wishes it was. At the core it is a great family drama but outside of that it is an atmospheric tale with a traditional gothic horror elements. At times i was reminded of Hammer films, at other times William Castle productions. I'm glad Mike Flanagan said it is a one off series, though i'm sure that will change.

Madeline's Madeline

In a year where folks jizz over the boring & pretentious Suspiria remake comes a film, a tad pretentious yet not boring at all. This is the film i will bring up to counter Suspiria 2018. Think of Black Swan with the over bearing mother, strip it of alot of the surreal moments and add in a dance troop just being weird and you have the classes from Madeline's Madeline.

You Were Never Really Here

You Were Never Really Here is one of the best thrillers in a long time and one of, if not the most surreal. Take the uses of hammers in Drive or Oldboy insert it into Taxi Driver, but cycle it through David Lynch, and you get the gist of it. I would say this is one of Joaquin Phoenix's best roles, but fuck, i say that about so many of his performances. Dark, brutal, fucked up and gritty. As i said, Taxi Driver, Drive, Oldboy....this is worthy!

First Man

Damien Chazelle first came on to my radar with Whiplash, a great film. Then he knocked it out with LaLa Land, i loved it, i've seen it multiple times, it is the BEST PICTURE of 2016, doesn't matter which moonlight you shine on it. First Man, is not. This film is quite boring, to me it is saved by Ryan Gosling, the scene after he leaves the funeral and is brooding, is pure Gosling and him wanting to be away from people spoke to me. It picks up a bit after that, but not by much. There is a scene where it shows an astronaut  sigh when looking at how many pages is left in their class manual, i connected with him cause i too was bored. I almost wish Damien had directed Bohemian Rhapsody and Bryan Singer had done this.