While i have only seen three of Luca Guadagnino's films i have to say Bones & All is his best yet. It feels raw, it is creepy, and it's beautiful. Mark Rylance and Michael Stuhlbarg both deliver unnerving performances while Timothee Chalamet and Taylor Russell have a sweet yet fucked up layer of romance. It is probably the best cannibal film since Bone Tomahawk.
I loved The Addams Family growing up, both the TV series and the film. I loved Tim Burton growing up, and many for some reason assume he directed the 90s films. Now we finally get Burton's Addams Family in the form of Netflix' Wednesday. It is probably his best work in 20 years but it still feels very modern Burton in the way that it feels pure Hot Topic. Parts resemble The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina others Harry Potter but overall it is a fun & charming series and Jenna Ortega kills it as Wednesday.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is possibly my favorite piece of the MCU since the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It embraces the Guardians in their rogue glory, is hilarious, has one of the best Christmas soundtracks, has a lot of heart and features Kevin Bacon watching the Christmas movie to end all Christmas movies and of course James Gunn is the one to inject this B Movie classic into the mainstream. Marvel is 2 for 2 with their Specials!
Blood Relatives is possibly the best Shudder film of the year. It is a unique & fresh take on vampire films, with heart, dark humor, and some Near Dark vibes. The two leads have great chemistry and that is needed for this films plot or having a father/daughter relationship. It honestly could have been about 10 or 15 minutes longer, but the short run time works perfect here as it gives subtle hints about the larger world within.
The second season of the wilds is just as gripping as season one. We get a second group of characters but the show still managers to give depth to all of them and the ones we met in season one. This season adds in more mystery, more intrigue and gives us duality of choosing sides. The sides truly bring up some disturbing moments and the show knows how to play with expectations.
Peter Farrelly has delivered a second film with social commentary where a person's perspective changes after hitting the road. The first was The Green Book, now we get The Greatest Beer Run Ever. In which a New Yorker supports the war in Nam while his sister opposes it. He decides to bring beer to his friends serving by sneaking over on a crew ship, then pretending to be CIA and a reporter. He uses the same tactics he accuses the hippies of using, he exploits the war, but all while discovering the war itself is indeed unjust. It is tonally all over the place, sometimes funny, sometimes tense, the acting is solid but it feels so scattered, If this had come out in the 70s i feel it would be a classic. Now it is a damn fine one off viewing, perfect for a lazy holiday!
In my teens i read all about Teddy Hart. The dude could have and should have become the biggest star of the decade. He can talk, he can wrestle, he has a unique look, and by time i started watching his matches on Youtube and DVD, i was too late and the guy was already on his way out. In 2018 he had a resurrection and i was in NOLA to witness it. MLW was taking off and so was he, by time MLW was in Queens for Mania in 2019 i swore he would be signed up by AEW. Unfortunately his personal issues ocne again got the best of him. And alot of his issues are on display in this 3 part Peacock doc. This story is insane, i never watched Tiger King, but this feels like that, only told as a fucked up character study than whatever that way. Poly relations, pot dealing, cat breeding, 4 wheeling, confederate flags, missing women, abuse allegations, hostage situations, this shows how truly fucked Teddy is, and while he wants Bret's approval, after this it might be hard to get anyone's unless he winds up helping out in the case.
There was alot to love in season 2 of Chucky. Characters from the films coming together, Chucky's quips, his kills, but there was also alot to hate. The plot, the acting, the fact that nothing made sense. I loved season 1, it was way better than it had any right to be but season 2 was almost total crap. Will i watch season 3? Perhaps, but i honestly am not sure, the ending here was interesting but not sure if it was enough to stir interest for a third season.
Double hitter of post Burton fantasy films. Slumberland i checked out A) Cause it was free on Netflix, but B) I like Francis Lawrence's Constantine and I Am Legend....but basically hate his other films. This is yet another to be added to the list. It is ugly, boring and quite dumb. The cast seems to be taking this as a joke, and rightfully so, as the film was a joke. Netflix and fantasy do not mix, neither does Lawrence with almost any property.
Let's face it, Paul Feig is not a creative genius, he is basically a hack. I was having trouble sleeping last night so popped on his latest, School For Good & Evil, which is essentially him being the hack years of Tim Burton and making his own version of Miss. Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children. Difference is, Burton has style, Feig doesn't. This film is an ugly mess, but atleast it helped me go to sleep!
I fell in love with the Walking Dead comics in 2007. Went through and caught up on all the comics within months. The next three years by love for it grew and i kept hyping the upcoming TV series. The first few seasons were great, then it started to get a bit cringy at times even though many perceived it as high art. Certain aspects with the Governor, Terminus, & Negan saved the series on multiple occasions, but as soon as Rick left, the show truly went down hill. I caught up during Covid and had a chore of a time until the last few episodes. I have a free subscription to AMC Plus so i watched the last couple early and it got me a little excited for the finale. Not really a finale as 5 of the main characters are being spun off in to 3 other shows, but for what it is worth this finale was a damn fine send off for the other characters, gave Negan, Maggie, Darryl, Rick & Michone their paths and had quite the emotional punch at times. Love & hate this show, but after tonight it ended on a great note.
In 2019 Olivia Wilde impressed me with Booksmart. A female twist on Superbad, it had alot of heart and felt like she had something to say. Now she has Don't Worry Darling, a film that in the wrong hands may have been bland, but with her it had great commentary on social issues and was visually stunning. The acting is great but the plot is a bit of a mess. As i said in the wrong hands it could have been dull but she injected great sex appeal(there are some hot as fuck scenes) and some hyper surreal moments. It feels like a cross between the Stepford Wives, Lost, Blue Velvet, Suspira & Black Swan, but i guess Inception & The Truman Show were her main influences. It is a mess but it is a gorgeous mess, the twist i predicted and glad it happened but that ending, while i respect how open ended it was, was still quite the head scratcher. I hope her next film is more personal again, but keeps this visual style.
Jonah Hill i have been a fan of for a long time, i always wanted to see him direct, and in 2018 he gave us Mid90s. Now he is doing a documentary that he feels passionate about, and one that hits home with many of us, Stutz. It is an interesting conversation piece and feels deep on multiple levels. If Hill can take this type of subject and put it in a script then he is on his way for some nominations in a few years.
Amityville Karen is a film i would not have seen if it were not for Shawn C. Phillips. I watch his Tuesday DVD/Blu hunting videos. The Amityville name has been bastardized so why not target Karens....well maybe cause this is not an Amityville film....as a matter of face i don't know if it even qualifies as a film. There is no plot, terrible acting, horrid sound, it is amateurish as fuck and bellow the bottom of the barrel screeners. I love Phillips but he needs something he can sink his teeth into. The best scenes were ones that involved him!
Slash/Back is a welcome change in Stranger Thingspolitation. A group of girls instead of boys and set on a reservation in Canada must fight off a parasite that is a cross between Night of the Creeps and the Thing. It is full of charm and carries a fun vibe, the acting is quite amateurish and there are some cringe lines of dialogue but with its fast pace there is enough to enjoy! One of Shudder's more enjoyable of the year!
Moonage Daydream feels the way i wish more rock docs would feel, it is experimental and surreal, it is disjointed in a great way yet tells it's story perfectly. I wish i had seen this in theatres, and it feels purely cinematic. A celebration of David Bowie and his connection with fans and his hyperartistic views in life. It doesn't cover new ground but it is acid laced poetry on film!
A Christmas Story Christmas is a fun & light film that feels spiritually like it is seeing the characters from the original decades later, and that is all the film is and all it needed to be. We get familiar sights and shots, some great nods & gags, plenty of easter eggs and winks at the camera(literally & figuratively) . Will it play for 24 hours every year? No but it is a charming sequel with heart!
See How They Run feels like a whodunit directed by Wes Anderson, only without his quirky script or whimsical directing style. I love this genre, Murder on the Orient Express and Knives Out were great but this falls on the side of Death on the Nile, only that one held my interests. With the great cast i was expecting to love this but instead i was thinking See How They Sleep, cause it made me want to pass out.
Smile had some haunting imagery, a smile can indeed be a creepy sight, and it has some great nightmarish images of face ripping....but that is all i enjoyed from this film. The trailer didn't do too much but the plot was intriguing. It felt like It Follows only instead of passing on the demon with sex, you pass i on through trauma essentially. I found the acting to be wooden and the plot was dull. I couldn't wait for this to end. Glad i waited for Paramount Plus.
I have been wanting to read My Best Friend's Exorcism for years but have just not managed to do so. The VHS cover was the driving force. So when the film was announced i hoped it was just as fun as that cover is. In the 80s setting, with it's awesome soundtrack, it sure is alot of fun. Likable characters, and social commentary, help make this a rarity in modern demonic possession films, one that actually doesn't feel dull & cookie cutter, one that actually has heart!
I haven't really enjoyed a Waler Hill film since Last Man Standing(though Bullet to the Head is fun), i haven't really loved a Walter Hill film since Streets of Fire, but him doing a western was a recipe for great success! It has a great cast, some fantastic action sequences but it feels more like a 00s western in tone. The plot was a bit dull but it moved at a fast pace. I love low budget but this here did feel a bit cheap in terms of modern westerns.
I don't know what i expected from Neptune Frost. I saw it was playing at an art house theatre, the still photo was incredible and the plot had me at musical. So i decided to go in blind. I didn't know it was a Rwandan film, but that made the songs that much more impactful. It is a gorgeously lit film with a unique twist on the apocalypse. Needed some trimming for sure but ultimately was a unique experience.
Hallelujah is one of my favorite songs, both Leonard Cohen's and Jeff Buckley's and both are covered here. This doc covers alot of Cohen's upbringing, the origin of the song, the impact of the song, and the take on religion. The talking heads(not the band, as it would make sense here) are great and seem to have a love for him and his music both as peers and fans. It is quite impactful yet light!
Fall is a film that had a decent concept, two girls climb to the top of a tower and get stuck. Think Frozen(Adam Green), but on a satellite tower. Well the tower is 2000 feet......yes 2000 feet, and they climb it like it is nothing. Two unlikable characters and we are stuck with them for nearly 2 hours. There are plenty of eye rolling moments here and possibly the most eye rolling isn't even a part of the film. It is the fact that they deep faked this film to get rid of the word fuck. I'd rather the two leads be deep faked in another way, cause those type of films are far superior to this.
The Rise of the Synths is a charming little doc about the history of synth music, film & gaming nostalgia, finding your people and the passion we all feel. I have always loved this genre of music and that stems from my love of film, in particular John Carpenter, who also narrates this film. It feels more like a Youtube doc but in a way it is perfect for the underground nature that it breathes.
Julius Avery won me over with Overlord in 2018, and now with Samaritan he has delivered another badass punch. A superhero film that is sort of at its core an anti superhero film, a former hero, Sylvester Stalone, that no longer wants to be a hero is pulled back in. It ooses the dirtiness of 80s actioners, the anarchic nature of 90s villains and adds in some Wicksploitation for good measure.
So I really wanted to like the original Goodnight Mommy, i really did, but much like the Babadook i was let down by it, I was bored to tears. With Amazon doing a remake, and me resubscribing to Amazon, i figured, hey, i'll check on the remake. Sometimes remakes are told a different way than the originals, and here....well i feel it was. I found the original more bleak, but this was a bit more enjoyable, with that said, i was still rather bored by it. Naomi Watts as usual, gives a great performance, and the score is quite chilling at times.
Wakanda Forever is a rare sequel in the MCU that feels as if you can watch this right after the first. It pays great tribute to Chadwick Boseman while it becomes its own thing. It is a rather straight forward film, without many MCU jokes derailing it. There are some genuinely eerie moments and some of the MCU's less choppy battle scenes. It could have used a bit of trimming but it moves at a fast pace. It doesn't really feel like it is part of the greater MCU, even though it has other characters, it just feels like a stand alone film, and that is how these should feel.
Emergency is a sharp witted film that tackles social issues both in a humorous way and in a very intense way as the film progresses. It is darkly comedic, yet powerful. It's a college romp but stripped of gross out humor and fueled by reality. We slowly meet new characters and they all serve a purpose, with the story coming of age for most, even flipping the script as far as expectations.
Riots, time loops, being stuck in towns, scavenger hunts, Karens, hallucinations, mockumentaries, monster hunts, shootings, All words to describe Atlanta season 4. This will go down as one of the most brilliant, surreal, hard hitting, and beautiful TV series of all time. This final season is a perfect send off by being itself, by doing it's own thing, by essentially not being a conventional final season, and for an unconventional series, it is perfect. When the core four unite it is a chefs kiss for the characters and the fucked up situations that experienced the run of this masterpiece!
Mandrake has an interesting premise, a probation officer needs to deal with a killer and get him into society. The film is bleak and at times visceral but the visceral nature at times feels forced with slow motion and sound editing, where at the bleakness could very well just be a dull story. 2022 on Shudder is a mixed bad, more miss than hit, but atleast the good films are usually really good, it just feels like skimming through screeners these days.
I was stoked for Henry Selick's latest film, Wendell & Wild, much like i am whenever a new film of his is announced. This here felt very Netflix in tone & production. The characters feel like the fans of Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline that don't know Selick directed Nightmare. It is full of imagery and is quite beautiful but it ultimately feels like a film that is inspired by Selick than a pure Selick film. It picks up alot in the final act and truly becomes Selick unhinged, but the first hour needed more whimsy. It is a entertaining film but one that didn't speak the volumes it could have.
I have always found Marilyn Monroe to be a smoke show. I find Ana De Armas to be a total babe. De Armas playing Monroe? Perfect! This film however is dirty, ugly, bleak, cruel.....and none in a great cinematic way. This is boring, pretentious and seems to want to shit on Monroe. Sure it shows her as a victim, but she deserved a better story than this. It portrays her as damaged but not in a tragic way, more or less in a way that almost breaks what we know of Monroe. I knew she had a past but maybe with a better script & director this would have had some magic & awe, and that is what this film needed. It is hella artsy but overly long and a task to sit through. 20 minutes in i wished it was over. I love the cast but damn this film should have been epic.
Spin Me Round has a rough first act. The characters & situations are insufferable but as soon as Aubrey Plaza & Alison Brie go out on their night of debauchery the film truly begins to pick up. Tale of missing people, "murder", rabid animals, orgies and fine dining. Jeff Baena delivers yet another deadpan yet absurd film!
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, is one of the best bio pics ever produced. Of course it being a bio of Weird Al means that it is a parody of music biographies, and it does so brilliantly. It is over the top, absurd, loaded with cameos and easter eggs, and all around hilarious! Daniel Radcliffe and Evan Rachel Wood are both great and the entire cast seems to be having a blast. It is paced & structured perfectly and the insanity doesn't let up the entire time.
I don't quite know what to make of Significant Other. It starts off great, gets claustrophobic and bizarre, then gets super bonkers.....then it sort of stops making sense.....then it truly totally stops making sense. In all the senselessness it is still beautiful and weird, making you unsure of what is really happening. There is alot to admire here, but i am just not sure how i totally feel. It is almost like a variation of Annihilation.
DC Animation has been quite hit or miss lately. I've never been a big fan of John Stewart's Green Lantern but with it being on HBO i decided to take the Lantern oath. It has some cool action sequences but it feels like all the things people nitpick on DC live action is present here. Everything seems rushed and things happen just to happen. Even with the twist it still felt like the angle was hot shotted. I will say it is more entertaining than alot of their recent films but it is very much style over substance.
Resurrection is one of Shudder's best crafted films. It is one that got rave reviews at Sundance, and it is easy to see why. It has a Hitchcockian and De Palma vibe throughout with sexuality & paranoia. At times it feels like a Giallo film only without the kills. It is a bit long in tooth but it is worth it as it build tension. Rebecca Hall & Tim Roth are both great in this even though half the time you have no idea what is going on(intentionally). Much like the middle, it does drag at the end so some editing was for sure needed but i do hope Shudder puts out for films like this.
Tubi films for the most part are pretty fucking bad. Slasher remakes for the most part are pretty damn good. Terror Train, the new slasher remake on Tubi.....is pretty fucking bad. The plot is close to the original, the kills are trash, the acting is terrible and the characters are insufferable. I wanted to see these characters die, i just wish the kills were actually were actually worth a damn. It is not a boring film, and it has a fast pace but oof, definitely one of the weaker slasher remakes. With it being a Tubi original you get what you asked for though.
Brawling Brutes vs Imperium: Extreme Rules
Gunther vs Sheamus: IC Title: Smackdown
Finn Balor vs Edge: I Quit Match: Extreme Rules
Johnny Gargano vs Austin Theory: Raw
Jordan Devlin vs Ilija Dragunov: NXT
