#sorry for the terrible quality lawd

[abitterlifethroughcinema]

Three Movies You Should Have Watched by NOW! WOKE! Film Reviews               by Lucas A Cavazos

Bohemian Rhapsody ###…or How I learned to execute the perfect imitation! Rami Malek has come to fame over the last half-decade as star of the wonderfully inventive series Mr. Robot. And with this big budget effort recounting the life of Freddie Mercury, his star is sure to only increase. Here’s the thing…Bohemian Rhapsody is an entertaining retrospective on a rock legend that is easily, and at once, fun yet terrible at the same time. It is only the hardest of music biopic snobs (is there really such a thing? God, I hope not!) that would abhor the film for its musical touches and merit, as every song heard from Mercury IS Mercury, but any film critic who finds the film a bit MEH! could also be understood, and here’s why. The superficiality and then-this-happened factuality in the film plays well for the cinema goer, and by adding the tense if fun interpretations of the actors playing Queen’s main band members, it’s easy to digest this palatable fluff. Now, director Bryan Singer (yes, The X-Men guy) is not someone I like to spend too much time speaking about, as his allegations of male-on-male sexual abuse/harassment are too numerous to deny, but like any on-the-fly, all too knowing director, here is where the film fails. It is a complete, painting-by-numbers piece of celluloid that establishes and follows Mercury from his younger days living between his Parsi family while also dealing with the call of 1970 London’s city streets…fine. But what comes across as forced is the last half of the film, after the first half has languidly dripped by with details stuffed all over the place. As this is the piece Singer made after all the hidden brouhaha of his personal life came to, well if not light, to a flicker, as well as, his stepping away from the X-Men franchise so as to not taint its name, it would make sense that this movie be high in theatrics and lower on content quality. When detailing the highs and lows of a musical great, a certain touch is necessary. Singer does not have it, and the film displays that in full. When we’ve had fare that deals with sticky situations in musical biopics like Ray or Sid&Nancy or What’s Love Got to Do With It, the semblance of reality just oozes through the script and screen. Sorry, dears, you’re not going to find it here. Like a day eating cotton candy and chocolate, it’s fun and usually implies a day-out but you can’t live off it, Lawd knows.

BlacKKKlansman ####

This is my first time critiquing a Spike Lee Joint. Let’s get started. This is, without a doubt, his finest work in all too many years, and he takes no prisoners in letting you know that the spilled essence of blaxploitation all over this celluloid is to egg you into knowing that this story is 100% true…and crazy as all hell. The mere fact that David Duke is literally cheerleading for the current President of the United States should scare us all and wake those who are not. Watching actor John David Washington portray Ron Stallworth, the real-life cop who slyly infiltrated the inner workings of the Klu Klux Klan 40 years ago when I was in my mummy’s tummy. After signing up for the Colorado Spring PD, he realises the lack of trust in the 98% Anglo-Saxon workforce, as he’s thrown into monitoring the goings-on of any Black Panther student situations. Eventually, he takes up with a guy on the force that he can dig called Flip and played to skilled excellence by the oddest of lookers Adam Driver, aka Han Solo’s son. Basically, the plot follows the twosome, as they tag team the aforementioned white supremacist movement, Ron being the voice and Flip being the wingman as they start an investigation on grand wizard bastard himself David Duke, played to troubling perfection by Topher Grace, evoking all of the calmness and utter sociopathic tendencies of a man reviled by most yet revered by still too many. And watching this taut film and how it rolls through such a daunting story with comedic aplomb and vicious realness gives you goosebumps. That said, as the film gets toward its ending, is when Lee gives you the goods when he flashes to scenes from the crazy Charlottesville, Virginia, riots, AntiFa protesting and subsequent death of Heather Heyer, may she rest in peace. These last moments are the ones that touch the reality of the situation and hit the hardest on the soul, revealing that even despite “advancements,” racism is alive and flaring like never before in modern history. God Save the World...and Amerikkka.

Overlord ###-1/2

Premiering at this year’s Sitges Int’l Film Fest, Overlord just happened to be one of the fave films that I screened, and from its get-go, we were besieged by prods of the ’You-Have to-Love-This’ variety. Before the film began, producer J.J. Abrams came on by video to greet the viewers in the audience and let them know that everything that they were about to see was based on history. This, of course, piqued the history major and scribe within, so out came my note pad, and so did the film. It starts with an insane aerial combat mission on the night of D-Day, one which goes awry and sees only a handful of paratroopers surviving the drop when enemy fire rains hell. Where they land is anyone’s guess but provincial France is where it ends up being, and after the intense opening that we undergo, that is only the commencement of some exciting, graphic, and all-too-contrived-from-reality mayhem that hooks you the viewer, at once. The plot is to detail some of the inner workings of the Third Reich in reference to the insane, gruesome experiments done on captured Jews and Europeans. Those stories you’ve heard about turning these poor people into guinea pigs for super soldier intent using potent, injected serums…yeah, those? They’re true. Are they as utterly brutal and horror/zombie film-like as displayed here? I sure as hell hope not. This is the perfect horror/war picture for fans of history, gore and the macabre mixing together like oil, vinegar and dijon. Mmmm…delish!