#tangential but when i learned they were originally trying to produce this film in the 00s......god delayed that

[unproduciblesmackdown]

fury road. when furiosa has one evening of downtime for the first time in two days and also two decades and goes blankie mode

[onimiman]

Halloween 2018 Film Retrospective (no major spoilers ahead)

Throughout the entirety of the month of October 2018, I had watched a movie everyday that was, in at least some tangential way, related to Halloween. I can't really call all of them horror films (and to find out why, please see below), although I will say that many of them were unfortunately films that ranged from mediocre to downright unwatchable; had I not been forcing myself to watch these movies for the month, I would have given up ten minutes or so in. And I know I'm a bit late to the party since I'm only posting this on November 3rd, but fuck it, here's the list anyway. So without further ado, let's begin this retrospective with not the first film I watched this October, but the last film I watched for September, which I will call Film #0.

#0: The Babysitter (2017)

The plot: A twelve-year-old boy still hangs out with his babysitter when his parents are away, and just as he is developing deeper feelings for her, he learns a dark secret about her and her friends. This prompts him to undergo a night of survival that forces him to grow up and move on from his own feelings of inadequacy.

My thoughts: This movie feels like it was somehow a holdover script from the 1990s; when the film brings up an element from 1996's hit movie Independence Day, a movie that no one gives a shit about anymore (see how its sequel, 2016's Independence Day: Resurgence, flopped hard at the box office), it serves as only one piece of evidence for that claim. However, I did find the movie to be quite fun nonetheless, even if not all of the jokes in this horror comedy quite landed the way they intended to, but to me, it did have a stable story structure and everything storywise paid off with what was established early on. It's an easy less than 90 minutes to kill on Netflix and I recommend it even if you're not a horror fan.

#1: Leatherface (2017)

The plot: In this prequel to Tobe Hooper's seminal 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, we see the birth of the cannibalistic Sawyer family's iconic member turn into this film's titular villain.

My thoughts: By all means, this was a stupid and unnecessary film that shouldn't have been made. But I went into this expecting to simply be entertained by the violence and gore that was to come about. And was I? Yes, I was, and admittedly, the film did make me feel stupid in misleading me as to who Leatherface was going to be, even though there was a piece of evidence in the movie that did make me think, “Naw, it couldn't be.” So, for that, I can't completely shit on this film. If you're not a fan of gore, you'll despise this movie, but for me, it's a guilty pleasure by far.

#2: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

The plot: In this remake of Tobe Hooper's seminal 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre... pretty much the same shit from that film occurs in this one with only a few slight differences.

My thoughts: Having watched this not long after watching Leatherface, I knew that I was going to get something significantly more conventional, and boy did I get it. It's as boring and unmemorable as most other horror films from the 2000s are, and if I wasn't doing this retrospective, I would have forgotten this one altogether. And moreover, the kills in this are so much more disappointing than in Leatherface, with little to no gore here, so I can't even watch this from the POV of basic primal enjoyment. Skip this one whether you're a horror fan or not.

#3: Goosebumps (2015)

The plot: What starts off as a boy-meets-girl story turns into a spooktacular tale of adventure that involves stopping an army of monsters that come directly from the mind of children's horror author R.L. Stine.

My thoughts: This is a movie that I imagined that I would have enjoyed watching as a kid every now and then, especially during Halloween, but as it stands, it's a little too dull for me and it makes me question what kind of threat do any of these monsters pose to our characters if they never actually kill anyone. It's still fun, if even in a standard way, and Jack Black as R.L. Stine, while incredibly hokey in the role, is obviously having a lot of fun here, so for that, I guess I can recommend this one if you have kids. There's nothing in here that'll actually scare them (unless they're a young Justin Bieber type who'll have nightmares over fucking Scooby-Doo) so you won't have anything to worry about showing them this.

#4: Silent Hill (2006)

The plot: When a young woman takes her adopted daughter to a ghost town called Silent Hill to solve the mystery of the girl's nightmares, they are quickly separated from one another and plunged into a dark demented world with hints of a core secret that must be solved.

My thoughts: I heard about how bad this one was for years, but as I was watching it once the characters actually reached Silent Hill, I found myself enjoying it and finding it to be a legitimately scary movie. The problem? The payoff at the end. I don't know if this is the payoff in the game, but the solution somehow felt a little too mundane and I kind of eye-rolled at the film's jabs at religion (and I speak as someone who's not religious at all). Decent movie for the most part, but I can't really recommend it on account of where it all leads.

#5: Venom (2018)

The plot: When disgraced San Francisco journalist Eddie Brock sneaks into the lab owned by the business magnate who ruined his career, he is bonded to an alien parasite who gives him extraordinary abilities and the antihero persona of Venom. Together, Eddie and Venom must work together if they are to take down business magnate Carlton Drake and the symbiote that he bonded to, Riot, before they can unleash a symbiote invasion upon Earth.

My thoughts: Okay, I know this is kind of cheating because it's not really a horror film in a conventional sense, but since the movie deals with a man being bonded to something that can kill him from the inside if they are both not properly fed, I thought I'd include this movie in this retrospective. Now, with that being said, I found this movie to be pretty standard for a superhero film, and in the year that films like Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Deadpool 2 came out, Venom looks kind of subpar in comparison. However, as standard as the story and action scenes were, I still enjoyed it for what it was, and as cliched as it is to say this now, Tom Hardy as both Eddie and Venom have some magnificent chemistry that makes me want to see more of them in a sequel. I'd recommend it, but with this stipulation: Only if you're not too versed in superhero films.

#6: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

The plot: A pair of mysterious death leads a medical doctor and the daughter of one of the victims to investigate a conspiracy in a Halloween mask-producing factory that can have far-reaching consequences.

My thoughts: I regret seeing this movie for only one reason: That this wasn't the film I saw for October 31st, because this is, by far, the most Halloweeniest movie I have ever seen. Otherwise, I enjoyed this movie more than I did the original 1978 Halloween or any of its sequels or remakes (which I'll get to later in this retrospective). While not exactly having the best atmosphere, Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a very interesting movie that is draped in its titular holiday, with a unique premise to boot, that is kind of suspenseful, even if it doesn't have a real resolution. It's a film I wouldn't mind rewatching for next year, especially if it's a rainy day.

#7: Final Girl (2015)

The plot: A teenage girl is trained in rigorous self-defense techniques by a mysterious man for the purpose of combating those who seek to wrong others.

My thoughts: As trite as that premise may sound, it's still very interesting in execution, especially if one is familiar with horror movie tropes like the defenseless teenage girl who wins at the end despite all odds against her. It's decently acted and directed, it runs at just the right length, and if I have any complaints about it, I just wish we went into this movie with our killers believing that this was just going to be another of their victims so that we could be surprised at the turn of events. Other than that mil critique, it's a quaint, simple film that you could watch on Netflix on a rainy day like the previous movie above.

#8: ThanksKilling (2008)

The plot: A 500-year-old talking turkey is brought back to life via dog urine on his grave and intends to kill the nearest people nearby.

My thoughts: This movie was an abominable piece of shit that's as unbelievable in every way as the premise that I laid out above. I'm not even joking about the dog piss thing either; that's how the killer comes back. The filmmaking here is student-level amateurish, the acting in it is jaw-droppingly bad, and this film's attempts at trying to be humorous make me want to punch a cat. Never watch this movie ever.

#9: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

The plot: Ten years after his killing spree in 1978's Halloween and 1981's Halloween II, Michael Myers has returned (as the title would indicate). With his sister Laurie Strode having died in a car accident in between films, Michael's new target is his niece, Jamie Lloyd, and his titular return renews the carnage that his psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis, must stop.

My thoughts: A fairly dull film that's only half as decent as the first two films and nowhere near as entertaining as the third. The acting on the parts of Donald Pleasance as Dr. Loomis and Danielle Harris's turn as Jamie Lloyd were the bright spots in this film, and the ending is famous for being one of the most shocking things in this series that is never followed up on. Unfortunately, I can't recommend anyone watch this, whether you're a normie or a Halloween fan, especially considering what follows...

#10: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

The plot: Pretty much the same shit as the last movie only with more self-aware corniness this time around and a shittier Michael Myers mask.

My thoughts: Ditto from what the plot described. I feel bad for Pleasance and Harris here, they are way too good for this movie.

#11: Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

The plot: Michael Myers finally kills his niece Jamie Lloyd, but now must go after her child as per instructions from the Cult of Thorn. But not if Dr. Loomis, Kara Strode, and Tommy Doyle have anything to say about it!

My thoughts: If you thought that how I delivered this plot wasn't exactly all that Halloweeny, believe me, this movie doesn't deserve to be treated with that kind of respect. I honestly don't want to say anything more about this movie except for these two things: what an awful last movie for Donald Pleasance to go out on before he died, and for a first movie, who woulda thought that Paul Rudd could be so damn boring?

#12: Halloween II (2009)

The plot: Director Rob Zombie takes one last shit on the Halloween franchise after his 2007 remake of the first movie debacle. Is it sad that this movie gets less of a respectful plot synopsis than the last three Halloween movies discussed on this list?

My thoughts: I saw Rob Zombie's 2007 Halloween remake in the theater, and it was one of the worst movies I'd seen on the big screen. I'm so glad I missed out on this one when this came out in theaters because holy fuck, this one makes Zombie's first Halloween look like a masterpiece in comparison. I could go on to explain why for those of you haven't seen these movies, but all I have to do is point you to Phelan Porteus's reviews of Rob Zombie's Halloween movies; he'll explain it all.

#13: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

The plot: Deranged child murderer Fred Krueger returns from the dead in the form of a dream demon to kill the teenage offspring of the people who murdered him through those teenagers' dreams.

My thoughts: Finally, a legitimately good movie on this list that I don't have to dismiss as just mindless fun or even scary but with a bad payoff at the end like with Silent Hill. This movie is good even if you're not a horror fan; I whole-heartedly recommend this. And if nothing else, it's interesting to see how young Johnny Depp was, what with this being his first movie, and I could see just what the ladies saw in him back then.

#14: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

The plot: Freddy's back! And this time, he intends to enter the real world through the form of a troubled teenage boy who may or may not have some repressed feelings about himself...

My thoughts: This movie is about as subtle in its homo-eroticism as a series of Michael Bay explosions (not that I'm against homo-eroticism, since I'm a bisexual myself, I just think that this movie was a little too on the nose with that kind of stuff). And while I did find this movie to be surface-level enjoyable for the creative kills, I can't help but think that this was kind of dull, especially in comparison to the first film and as we move forward with the other sequels. The worst part about this is that I find myself scratching my head as to why this is a Nightmare on Elm Street movie when, in spite of the use of dreams here, this doesn't really feel like the Freddy Krueger we know from the first movie nor does this hold up with the character we see in the subsequent sequels. I don't know how to explain it, but somehow, Freddy's characterization seems off in this one. In spite of this film's inclusion of homo-eroticism, something we seldom see in movies like this, I have no problem saying that you can skip this one.

#15: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

The plot: Nancy Thompson, the sole survivor of the first Nightmare on Elm Street, returns with Freddy Krueger this movie, and this time, she intends to help his intended victims fight back. In a sanitarium for suicidal teens with sleep disorders, Freddy intends to kill the last of the Elm Street children. But Nancy intends to utilize the help of one of the teens, Kristen Parker, who has the special ability to unite people into a single dream space and allow them to develop their own dream powers to counter Freddy.  But Freddy isn't as easy to defeat as one may think.

My thoughts: Honestly, this is as good of a sequel as the first Nightmare on Elm Street deserved, as it's a unique take that manages to continue the story of the first in a natural yet unorthodox way, not unlike what Aliens did with Alien. The horror of the first film may be toned down significantly here, but at least the story was interesting, the characters were fun to watch, and Freddy is so much fun here. I recommend it for how Inception-y this movie can get, even if this doesn't have the same level of intelligence as that movie did.

#16: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

The plot: Despite his defeat at the end of the previous film, Freddy Krueger is resurrected and he finally accomplishes his goal of murdering the last of the Elm Street children, accomplishing his goal once and for all. However, Freddy isn't so satisfied; he wants more children and teens to kill, and he will get more, through Kristen Parker's friend, Alice Johnson, to whom Kristen gave her dream-sharing ability. So unless Alice can find a way to stop Freddy, the latter's fun could continue...

My thoughts: I think it's safe to say this is the point in the franchise when all the horror in Freddy Krueger is pretty much gone and replaced with fun schlocky Freddy. And you know what? I'm okay with that, because it's always great to see Robert Englund have fun in this role. And in spite of the writing not being as strong as it was in the first and third films, I still find myself caring about our characters like Alice, and I was genuinely saddened when the last of the Dream Warriors died. It's rare when I can actually feel that kind of sadness for dead meat characters like these. Fun watch, would recommend, but be prepared to look at Freddy in a different light. And stay around after the credits, as Freddy sings a hilarious rap that just made me smile.

#17: A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

The plot: Freddy just can't stay dead, for now he has a new dream master to kill people through: Alice Johnson's unborn child, who spends 70% of his life in a dream state in his mother's womb. So how can Alice defeat Freddy this time without having to sacrifice her dream child in the process?

My thoughts: “Faster than a bastard maniac! More powerful than a loco-madman! It's Super-Freddy!” If you don't know what that scene is, I urge you to look it up, as it's the best scene of the whole movie and it really capitalizes on just how much of a joke Freddy Krueger has become at this point in the series. However, unlike the bastardization of a character like Michael Myers in, say, one of Rob Zombie's Halloween movies, Freddy is still an enjoyable enough character where even one who despises the Nightmare sequels overall can still find little jewels like the aforementioned line. Give it a watch if only for just that one scene.

#18: Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

The plot: Freddy Krueger has all but run out of kills in his hometown, and now he wants to expand nationally. But not if his daughter has anything to say about it!

My thoughts: This has become pure comedy at this point. But my God this is golden. When one of this movie's kills is an extended scene of a guy jumping around with cartoonish sound effects to boot while dreaming that he's in a video game being played by Freddy, you know that the filmmakers know what kind of movie they're making. And I enjoyed this as one of the most guilty pleasure films I'd ever seen. I do think that the film ended on a somewhat anticlimactic note, but alas, the film was an interesting end to Freddy's evolution as a character of horror to a character of dark comedy, and for that, I recommend this one.

#19: Halloween (2018)

The plot: Forty years after he terrorized Haddonfield, Michael Myers has once again escaped from Smith's Grove Hospital to return to where his reign of terror all started. But this time, the one who got away, Laurie Strode, is ready for him... but her daughter and granddaughter may not be.

My thoughts: Aside from Jamie Lee Curtis's fantastic performance in this film, I thought this was just a run-of-the-mill horror film that's competent enough and has its moments but is otherwise forgettable if you forget that this is a Halloween film. If you're a Halloween fan, I think you'll be satisfied; it's certainly better than the majority of its sequels (especially The Curse of Michael Myers and Resurrection) but that's all.

#20: Meet the Blacks (2016)

The plot: During the Purge, the Black family (yes, that's their last name, and yes, the film does make several racially inappropriate jokes about it) move into an upper class white neighborhood where they are confronted by their patriarch's past in the forms of those he's financially wronged in some way or another.

My thoughts: This is only the second worst movie I've seen for this retrospective (yes, ThanksKilling is number one). Aside from all the racist jokes going on here, this movie is just a failure of a comedy and as a spoof/satire of the Purge franchise. It doesn't say anything new or fresh or in any interesting ways, and in fact, some of the “comedy” here just doesn't make any sense (then again, I just might be missing out on a reference, as if that's supposed to justify bad comedy). This movie may have been less than 90 minutes, but my God, it felt like an eternity having to slog through this piece of shit. Do I honestly even need to say skip this one?

#21: The Rezort (2015)

The plot: Years after the cancellation of the zombie apocalypse, the remaining zombies have been rounded up to an island owned by a private company where people can come and pay as tourists to shoot zombies. But when a conscientious objector sabotages the island's systems, the zombies quickly take over and many people die. So a small group of tourist survivors must reach a rendezvous point at the end of the island if they are to escape not only the zombies but also a strafing bombardment meant to eliminate the zombie outbreak.

My thoughts: For a movie that was obviously conceptualized as Jurassic Park (or Jurassic World since this park is actually running) but with zombies instead of dinosaurs, this movie ain't half-bad. The characters are nothing to write home about, although there is a Dirty Harry-type I was routing for the entire movie, and the action and plot are pretty standard for a zombie flick. Still, it's a mildly fun time and I recommend you give it a go.

#22: Scream (1996)

The plot: A mysterious serial killer who is savvy in the ways of the slasher subgenre of horror is gradually killing off various people around high schooler Sidney Prescott. So who could it be?

My thoughts: Talk about a standard slasher flick elevated by the principle of being meta. I enjoyed it, yes, and with the way the film is constructed as a whodunit, it certainly manages to stand out as above average overall. I could see how this was revolutionary back in the 1990s, but now, with pretty much every single genre movie being self-aware in some way or another, I just kind of shrug my shoulders at it as an experience. I think it helps if you're familiar with the slasher subgenre if you're to watch this, but I think it's a good enough film to stand on its own to someone who hasn't seen a slasher flick their whole lives, if only for the story.

#23: Hush (2016)

The plot: A woman with an instinctive writer's mind who is both deaf and mute in a cabin in the woods is thrust into a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a deranged serial killer who wants to toy with her before he kills her.

My thoughts: This is a movie that squeezes every bit of tension and suspense it can in the eighty-something minutes it has, and it makes good use of that tension and suspense in conjunction with its expert pacing. At no point did I think anything was dragged out; everything here was just as long as it needed to be, and it was all resolved in a satisfactory (and quite bloody) way that left me feeling, “Yep, that was a good time.”

#24: The Bye Bye Man (2017)

The plot: There is a demonic entity known as the Bye Bye Man who will psychologically torture you before he kills you if you think or say his name. And he's doing that to three young adults who are all living together in a haunted house. Yeah...

My thoughts: A very forgettable, subpar horror film with an antagonist with an awful name and no memorable appearance. Skip.

#25: Scream 2 (1997)

The plot: One year after the Woodsboro killings, Sidney Prescott is once again haunted by the return of Ghostface as she is attending college this time around. But who could Ghostface be this time? And what meta-commentaries could this movie bring forth about the slasher genre and sequels both?

My thoughts: This is a film that feels like it was planned out from the beginning as a companion piece to the first film; by that, I mean that it feels like writer Kevin Williamson always intended to have this movie be made after Scream had come out. And considering that this movie was released only a year after its predecessor, I think that theory may be true (then again, I haven't done any research for this movie, so for all I know, Williamson and Wes Craven didn't even intend for there to be a sequel in the first place). Regardless, this feels like a natural progression of the first film and while not necessarily surpassing it in terms of quality, I feel like it lives up to the first Scream in a satisfactory way.

#26: Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

The plot: After years of killing horny teenage counselors at Camp Crystal Lake, Jason Voorhees is finally blown away into literal bits and pieces by the FBI. However, his spirit lives on as his essence is passed on from person to person until he can find a permanent new body through a living blood relative, and all the while, his killing spree resumes.

My thoughts: As a movie that was intended to be the finale to Jason Voorhees, this did have some silly moments in it like Freddy's Dead but not nearly as over-the-top. And it is a little disappointing to not have Jason in his prime form like he was in Friday the 13th Part VI to VIII and, again, it was a little bit more disappointing than Freddy's Dead (which is far more entertaining), especially since this movie retcons so much of Jason's mythology that it feels like no one who worked on this movie has ever seen a Jason movie. So, yeah, I can't recommend this one unless you're a Friday the 13th fan (and even then, I don't think you'll like it).      

#27: Terrifier (2016)

The plot: A mute man in a creepy clown costume stalks multiple victims in a condemned apartment complex with ruthless killing methods that make him worthy of the moniker Terrifier.

My thoughts: Holy shit, this movie was fucking creepy... and I fucking loved it. Of course, I can't recommend it to everyone, as this movie was also ridiculously over-the-top with its violence and gore. I don't want to give anything away, but as an example, there is a scene that involves our killer, Art the Clown, with a saw and a woman's who's upside down that's one of the most shocking things I've seen... and, again, I fucking loved it. It was an unnerving film that's worthy of having been watched for this month.

#28: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)

The plot: Take Jane Austin's feminist classic Pride and Prejudice and then shoe-horn a half-baked zombie plot into it. Okay...

My thoughts: I'm not familiar with Pride and Prejudice, so I went into this completely blind. But with that being said, I still thought that this was one of the most pointless, unfunny and unexciting parodies I've seen. The action scenes aren't all that good and it makes me wonder why this was adapted to the big screen. And as for the parts that are actually in Pride and Prejudice (at least as far as I can guess), I thought they were competently done, but they're just not for me. I guess someone who really Pride and Prejudice might like it, but that's only if they have a taste for zombie violence, too. Otherwise, skip this one; it's just dull.

#29: Zombeavers (2014)

The plot: A container of radioactive waste falls from a truck and floats down a river to infect a number of beavers that are nearby a cabin where a bunch of horny teenagers are. And those beavers become zombie beavers, or zombeavers.

My thoughts: I thought I was going into a movie that was going to be on the same level of bad as ThanksKilling, but thankfully, while the comedy isn't anything to write home about, the acting is at least competent and I was amused by the events that were going on. It was interesting to see what would happen if a zombeaver infected a human, and there were decent amount of subverting of expectations as to who was going to die first and who would live (and not in a Rian Johnson way either). I could see this movie not working for everyone, but it's fun enough as a creature feature with a supernatural element to it.

#30: Event Horizon (1997)

The plot: In 2047, a spaceship dubbed the Event Horizon mysteriously reappears near the edge of Earth's solar system and a salvage team is sent to investigate what happened. But as they arrive, they find that the ship may be more than just a ship now...

My thoughts: As much as I'd love to see what this movie would have looked like had the filmmakers not toned back on the violence and gore, I was still satisfied by what we got here. Sam Neill delivers a deliciously evil performance once Dr. Weir goes to the dark side that it practically borders on Tim Curry territory, and I thought the movie was a good space horror film that was just original enough to be its own thing and not be a knockoff of, say, Alien. Give it a watch; the violence you do see here ain't that bad.

#31: Halloweed (2016)

The plot: A couple of stoners move to a small town so that one of them can get away from the reputation of being the son of a now-dead serial killer. But what these stoners don't know is that they've arrived just in time for a slew of killings to start as Halloween approaches.

My thoughts: I'm mentally kicking myself for having this be the movie I ended the month of October on. This was one of the lamest comedies I've ever seen in my life; I can't remember laughing at all in this bland turd. And it could hardly qualify as a slasher film since the slasher killings don't start until there's about 49 minutes left in the film, and even then, it's barely focused on for the rest of the movie until it's resolved at the end. Skip this and don't let it be anywhere on your viewing block for next Halloween.

And that's it. Those were all 31 of the films I'd seen for the month of Halloween, one for each day. It was quite a venture, but one worth the time if only for bragging rights if not for entertainment (especially since very few of these movies were any real good). So please leave a comment, let me know if you saw any of these movies, if not for this past Halloween, then if you have seen any of these at all, and if so, let me know if you agree or disagree. Until then, here's to better films next Halloween!

*This post has been paid for and sponsored by Silver Shamrock, Inc. When you want quality masks at affordable prices, and a guarantee that they won't unleash killer insects and snakes that will trigger a potential apocalypse, look no further for a Happy Happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock!

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 3/19/21: SXSW, Zack Snyder’s Justice League,The Courier, City of Lies, Happily and More!

Remember a couple weeks back when I stated the plan was to bring back the Weekend Warrior as a regular weekly series again? Yeah, well if you looked for a column last week and wondered what happened, I just didn’t have time to write one. And I also just haven’t been able to get back on the ball in terms of writing reviews. It just takes a lot of time to watch all the movies let alone review them the way I did last year. I honestly have no idea how I did it last year, but things have been busier than ever at Below the Line, which does throw a bit of a spanner into any extracurricular plans.

The big event this week is the annual SXSW Film Festival, which I’ll be taking part in virtually, and somewhat tangentially, watching as much as I can while still doing other things. It’s been a while since I’ve attended SXSW in person, but it tends to have great docs, especially music docs. In fact, this year’s Opening Night Film is the documentary, Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil, about Demi Lovato’s drug overdose from 2018 and its aftermath. Other music docs of interest include Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, about the late frontwoman from early punk band X-Ray Spex through the eyes of her daughter; Mary Wharton’s doc Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free made from archival footage of the late singer making his 1994 record “Wildflowers”; Alone Together about Charlie XCX’s pandemic record; Under the Volcano about George Martin’s AIR Studios Montserrat; and it gives another chance to see Edgar Wright’s excellent, The Sparks Brothers, which was picked up by Focus Features after Sundance. There’s also an amazing doc about Selma Blair’s fight with MS, Introducing, Selma Blair, which is equal parts heartbreaking and inspirational.

SXSW also has pretty solid Midnighters, and there’s a number of those I’m also looking forward to, including Travis Stevens’ Jakob’s Wife, starring horror legends Larry Fassenden and Barbara Crampton, who were so great in my buddy Ted Geoghegan’s We Are Still Here. (No coincidence since Stevens produced that movie.) And I hope to watch a few others like Lee Haven Jones’ The Feast, Jacob Gentry’s Broadcast Signal Intrusion, and Alex Noyer’s Sound of Violence. We’ll see how much I get to see this week, cause it’s a lot of movies over only a couple days, basically from Tuesday through Saturday.

Closer to home at the Metrograph, the still-closed movie theater is doing a virtual series called “Bill Murray X6” which has already shown Lost in Translation and What about Bob? With Rushmore screening until Thursday, and then The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou available through Friday. Become a digital member for just $5 a month! This past weekend I saw a really amazing 7-part doc series called Untitled Pizza Movie by David Shapiro. In fact, I stayed up late on Sunday to watch the whole thing since it was leaving the digital screeners, but it’s a very entertaining, intriguing and personal story about the director, his friend and partner in crime Leeds, who he went around to different NYC pizza shops in the ‘90s trying to find the perfect slice, and then they come across pizzaman Andrew Belluci at the world-famous Lombardi’s in Soho. The project that took over 20 years to make follows what happened to the three men, but mainly Leeds and Belluci as they have ups and downs that ultimately leads to Belluci starting his own pizza joint in Queens. Everything that happens in between is quite fascinating.

I saw a couple other movies this past weekend including Robin Wright’s Land, which I quite enjoyed, and the rom-com Long Weekend, which came out last Friday but I totally missed. Land is a pretty amazing directorial debut that’s mostly a one-woman show with her character alone in the wilderness until she runs into trouble and meets Demian Bichir’s kindly Samaritan and they become friends. Directed by Stephen Basilone, Long Weekend stars Finn Wittrock and Zoe Chao in what starts as a meet cute rom-com and turns into something much deeper with a couple sci-fi-tinged twists, a bit like Palm Springs, but much more grounded. I loved the two leads and how Basilone made a romantic comedy that actually was romantic and very funny, as well. Both movies I recommend.

Getting into some of the streamer offerings this week, ZACK SNYDER’s JUSTICE LEAGUE will hit HBO Max on Thursday, so we can finally see whether or not that extra money and work paid off. I’ll be reviewing this over at Below the Line, so won’t spend too much time here. I figure that anyone who has been waiting for this will watch it, as will anyone who has been curious about it. As you can read from my review, I was quite impressed by the film as an achievement in finishing what is clearly a far superior film to the 2017 theatrical release. Some of the highlights include great stuff between Ray Fisher’s Cyborg and his father, a far more fun introduction to The Flash that was cut from the 2017 release and just some insanely crazy good action. I can’t wait to watch the movie again.

Kicking off on Friday is the anticipated Marvel Studios series, THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney), bringing back the title characters played by Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, who were introduced in one of the MCU’s better movies, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I was sent the first episode and unfortunately, there’s an embargo until Thursday afternoon, but I do think that MCU fans are gonna be thrilled with the first episode, especially with the Falcon’s opening action sequence, which is like something right out of the movies.

Okay, fine, so let’s get to some new movies and some real reviews…

Probably the movie with the widest release this weekend will be THE COURIER (Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions), starring Benedict Cumberbatch, which I’m guessing will be in 1,000 or so theaters. The movie premiered at Sundance way back in 2020 under the significantly worse title of “Ironbark” with plans to release it later in the year, but then COVID happened. I’m not sure if Roadside Attractions planned for this to be an awards movie, but after a few delays, releasing it in mid-March just days after the Oscar nominations, I’m guessing probably not?

Directed by Dominic Cooke (On Chesil Beach) from a screenplay by Tom O’Connor (The Hitman’s Bodyguard… wait, WHAT?), this Cold War spy thriller set in the early ‘60s stars Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne, a British businessman who is coerced by agents from MI6 and the CIA (repped by Rachel Brosnahan) to smuggle Russian secrets from military man Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze). Greville’s trips to Moscow start getting more and more dangerous under the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his wife (the always great Jessie Buckley) wants him to stop taking the trips. It all leads up to a pretty exciting second act as the KGB starts to figure out what Greville and Oleg have been up to and work to put a stop to it.

I have to admit that as much as I enjoy a good spy-thriller, a lot of this reminded me of Cumberbatch’s earlier film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – yes, the John Le Caree adaptation, which I was never a particularly big fan of. This has similarities in that it starts out fairly slow, making me think this might be one of those well-made, well-acted movies that are just plain boring cause the subject doesn’t interest me. I’m sure when this was greenlit, there was probably more relevance to the situation between the U.S. and Russia, although this is obviously a British production and maybe something better to watch on the Beeb than in a movie theater.

In general, the stuff with the two men and their families tends to be the best part of the movie. I wasn’t familiar with Merab Ninidze beforehand, but he’s a really good actor who holds his own in scenes with Cumberbatch. Although Cumberbatch’s performance is significantly better here than in The Mauritanian, that’s definitely a better movie, so even in the last act which sees Wynne in a Russian jail, it just doesn’t compare. This is the second film with Rachel Brosnahan in which she didn’t really impress me much after hearing how great she is on Mrs. Maisel. Even so, the movie did make me want to go back and rewatch the beginning again to see if maybe I wasn’t as focused on it, as it should be.

As far as box office, I don’t have much hope for this making more than $2 or 3 million this weekend, since it seems more like a prestige platform release that would have to build audiences from rave reviews or positive word-of-mouth. Coming out so long after its festival debut (kinda like that Thomas Edison movie a few years back) may have helped people forget about the midling festival reviews. Even so, this movie just doesn’t have much buzz or interest from #FilmTwitter who has had its tongue so far up the superhero movie ass this week between Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to pay much attention to this. (Hey, facts is facts!)

Johnny Depp and Forrest Whitaker star in Brad Furman’s crime-thriller CITY OF LIES (Saban Films), which is about the real-life search for the killer of the Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls with Depp playing Detective Russell Poole, who ended up on the case in 1997, and Whitaker playing reporter Jack Jackson, doing a story on Smalls for the 20thanniversary of the unsolved murder.

Based on the book “Labyrinth” (the movie’s original title), it’s a story that takes place in two time periods, Los Angeles in the ‘90s after the Rodney King beating and L.A. riots and how it’s made the criminal element that surrounds rap mogul Suge Night. It begins with Poole investigating the death of a black police officer named Gaines, shot by a white police officer (Shea Whigham) in what is seemingly a road rage incident. As Poole investigates, he learns about police corruption in the force including a number of officers tied directly to Knight.

As Jackson interviews Poole to try and find out who killed Biggie, we flashback to Poole’s investigation and interaction with some of those corrupt cops and being put into extremely dangerous situations. The movie isn’t bad, especially the scenes between Whitaker and Depp, who gives a far more grounded performance than we’ve seen from him in recent years. Even so, the performance that really impressed me was Toby Huss as Poole’s superior, who just brings something new to the tough head detective role we haven’t really seen.

Regardless of what you think of Depp’s activities off-camera, this is a fairly solid crime thriller (as was Scott Cooper’s Black Mass), and though you never actually get to see Biggie, Tupac or Suge Night, it’s an interesting examination into a period in L.A. that seems so long ago but still rings true to what’s been going on in the last year.

BenDavid Grabinski’s HAPPILY (Saban/Paramount) is a dark comedy-thriller starring Joel McHale and Kerry Bishé as Tom and Janet, a happily married couple who annoy their friends by still having sex on the regular whenever they possibly can. In fact, their friends decide to uninvite Tom and Janet to their planned couples’ weekend because they’re so annoyed by them. One day, a mysterious man (played by Stephen Root) shows up at Tom and Janet’s house, one thing leads to another and they kill and bury him. Thinking that the man’s visit might be part of a friend’s prank, they go to the planned couples’ trip, trying to figure out if the prankster has gotten suspicious about what they’ve done.

For the sake of transparency, I met Grabinski at my very first Sundance ever as he was friends with some of my colleagues, but I never spent a ton of time talking to him. This film impressed me, since it’s a prtty strong debut from him, one that benefits greatly from a strong cast that includes Paul Scheer, Breckin Meyer (who I didn’t even recognize!), Charlyne Yi, Natalie Morales and more, making for a really solid ensemble dark comedy that reminded me of the tone of last year’s The Hunt or Ike Barinholtz’s The Oath or a great lesser-seen movie from last year, Robert Schwartzman’s The Argument. Dark comedy isn’t for everyone, and this is definitely a little mean-spirited at times, but more importantly, it’s very funny and tends to get crazier and crazier as it goes along.

More importantly, I loved Grabinski’s musical choices from Devo’s “Working in a Coal Mine” to not one but two OMD songs, and great use of Public Image Limited as well. The way Grabinski puts this together comes across like a hipper and fresher Hitchcock, and while it might not be for everyone, I could totally see this killing at a genre fest like Fantastic Fest or even this week’s SXSW. It’s clever and original and rather intriguing how Grabinski puts all the various pieces together.

Hitting Shudder on Thursday is Elza Kephart’s horror-comedy SLAXX (Shudder) about a possessed pair of jeans brought to life to punish the practices of a trendy clothing company, which it does by terrorizing the staff locked in overnight. Didn’t get to watch this before getting bogged down in SXSW but definitely looking forward to it.

Another horror film coming out this week is the horror anthology PHOBIAS (Vertical), exec. produced by the filmmaking team “Radio Silence” (Ready or Not) with segments directed by Camilla Belle, Maritte Lee Go, Joe Sill, Jess Varley and Chris von Hoffman. The stories follow five dangerous patients suffering from extreme phobias at a government facility with a crazed doctor trying to weaponize their fears.

Jeremy Piven stars in Paolo Pilladi’s LAST CALL (IFC Films) playing real estate developer Mick, who returns to his old Philly neighborhood and must decide whether to resurrect his family bar or raze it. I actually watched a few minutes of this, but apparently, IFC Films isn’t allowing reviews, so I have nothing more to say about the movie beyond the fact that it’s coming out on Friday.

Opening at the newly reopened Film Forum – currently doing a hybrid of in-person and virtual cinema – is Chris McKim’s doc WOJNAROWICZ: F**K YOU F*GGOT F**KER (Kino Lorber), premiering virtually on Friday. It’s about David Wojnarowicz, one of the loudest voices in the ACT-Up movement during the ‘80s who died of AIDS himself in 1992. (Correction: Film Forum actually isn’t reopening until April 2.)

A few other things this week include Aengus James’ doc AFTER THE DEATH OF ALBERT LIMA hitting Crackle about Paul Lima, a son obsessed with capturing his father’s murderer who has remained at large in Honduras due to a failed legal system. Because of this, Paul travels to the Honduras with two bounty hunters to find and capture the killer.

Lastly, streaming on Topic Thursday, there’s Parliament, directed by Elilie Noblet and Jeremie Sein, about a young man named Samy who arrives in Brussels after the Brexit vote trying to get a job into the European Parliament without really knowing how it works.

That’s all for this week. It might be a while before I can get The Weekend Warrior back into some sort of fighting weekly shape, but I’m doing the best I can right now, so let me know if you’re reading any of this.

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 6/4/2021 - THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT, SPIRIT UNTAMED, CHANGING THE GAME, ALL LIGHT EVERYWHERE, GULLY and More

So yeah, I can happily say that the Weekend Warrior is back to where it began and where I like it to be, which is primarily a weekend preview about box office. I’ll still do a number of reviews each week, but that was never the plan when I started this column… are you sitting down? Nearly twenty years ago, this coming October, in fact.

Anyway, this past weekend, the extended Memorial Day one, ended up being quite a boon for the box office, which had been struggling ever since theaters slowly reopened last Fall, joined by New York City and Los Angeles this past March.There had been a couple strong weekends, but it took the might of the sequel, A Quiet Place II, and Disney’s prequel, Cruella, to really kick things into overdrive and mark the start of a real summer movie season where we finally had a box office where the top 10 grossed more than $100 million for the first time since March 2020.

With that in mind, we come into June with two new wide releases, both of them franchises, but one of them a much bigger and more lasting one. THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT (New Line) is the third movie following the case files of supernatural investigators Ed and Larraine Warren, as played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. The first two movies were directed by James Wan before the series branched off into a number of spin-offs, including three movies about the haunted doll, Annabelle. This is the first movie with “The Conjuring” in the title in five years after The Conjuring 2 also opened with over $40 million and grossed $100 million total domestic.

The third movie in the initial franchise branch follows another case of Ed and Larraine Warren, this one involving a young man in Brookfield, CT named Arne Johnson (Ruairi O'Connor) who becomes possessed by a demonic presence while helping the Warrens with an exorcism on the 8-year-old brother of his girlfriend. When he brutally murders a friend, he’s sentenced to the death penalty, and the Warrens need to find out how he got possessed and prove this to the court to spare his life.

This one is directed by Michael Chaves, who also directed The Curse of La Llorona (which was sort of tangentially connected to the series), and I’ll write more about the movie in my review below, but if you like exorcism movies and the Conjuring movies, then this is a good one.

There are a couple things in play with the latest “Conjuring” movie, the first one being the fact that it’s opening on the second weekend of the super-strong A Quiet Place Part II. While John Krasinski’s horror sequel should continue to do strong business with probably $25 million or more, the question is whether strong word-of-mouth might take away from potential business for the new “Conjuring” movie. At this time, it’s hard to imagine there isn’t enough theaters and screens to handle two big horror sequels, although people who finally got out of their house to see A Quiet Place Part II might feel more comfortable about returning to theaters, and a “Conjuring” sequel is a good follow-up.

On the other hand, the “Conjuring” is a franchise that has started to peter out with only 2018’s The Nun, which tied directly into the events from The Conjuring 2, actually opening even better than the original two movies with $53.8 million. It was followed by the less-connected The Curse of Llarona and Annabelle Comes Home, both which grossed less than $100 million domestic. And those were both in the “before times.” Although A Quiet Place Part II should still be going strong, it’s likely to drop from the people rushing out to see it last weekend. Another problem this Conjuring faces is that it is available to watch on HBO Max, which to many, could be the way to see it, essentially cutting into its opening weekend potential.

I think The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It should be able to capitalize on the return of theaters and the popularity of other movies about demonic possession in general to make just a little over $26 million this weekend, although it’s likely to be a very close race for the top spot at the box office against A Quiet Place’s second weekend, depending on how far it falls.

Mini-Review: I have to admit something before getting into this review. I actually lived not too far from where the original true story on which this movie was based took place when I was 16. Being quite an impressionable teen at the time, I was fairly familiar with the actual case. Because of that, this Conjuring probably connected with me in more ways than the others, but also, I think that having had experience directing the first two movies allowed James Wan to step back and just act as producer (and co-plotter) in order for Chaves to really shine as a director.

The movie starts with the Warrens in the midst of an exorcism for 8-year-old David Glatzel (Jullian Hillard), who has been possessed and is violently tearing up the house before Ed and Larraine do their thing. David’s older sister Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook) is dating Arne, who bravely calls for the demon to take him instead. In the midst of being attacked by the possessed David, Ed has a heart attack that puts him in a coma, so he’s the only one who realizes that Arne has been possessed. Days later, Arne repeatedly stabs and kills a friend of his.

I don’t want to go too much further into where the movie goes from there, other than it’s almost like a procedural mystery movie where the Warrens end up investigating another case of a missing girl that might tie into what’s happening with Arne. The film cuts between Arne in prison and the Warrens trying to solve that other mystery.

Wilson and Farmiga are great as always but they really up the game of everyone around them including 8-year-old Hilliard, who is already a genre superstar, but really creates a lot of the terror in the opening sequence, which ties closer into the overall story than other prologues in the previous movies. I especially liked how the Warrens are clearly older now and much more vulnerable to the demons they’re trying to beat. Farmiga even gives Larraine an older woman’s hairstyle, more akin to a woman of her age in the ‘80s.

But the real selling point for this new “Conjuring” movie is that it once again uses everything possible to create some insanely great scares, and not just the hokey jump scares we see in far too many horror films. As with Wan on the first two movies, director Chaves and his team brilliantly use sound and lighting to create the eeriest situations for the Warrens to enter, and boy, is it effective at making you wonder when the next scare is coming.

As much as I enjoyed the first two “Conjuring” movies and appreciated them for the amazing work Wan and his team did in creating scares, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It offers new layers and levels to what Ed and Larraine do, including a particularly apropos nemesis that makes me that there might be a lot more cases to be explored in such a manner.

Rating: 8.5/10

The animated SPIRIT UNTAMED (DreamWorks/Universal) is more of an anomaly, because it’s a new movie in a series that began with the early DreamWorks Animation movie, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron from way back in 2002 (back in my first year doing this column!). It opened over Memorial Day weekend against the second weekend of Star Wars Episode II and the fourth weekend of Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man, and yeah, it got demolished. The movie opened with $17 million, which isn’t really bad for 2002, but it also went on to gross $73 million domestic, which is great. In 2017, DreamWorks Animation brought the animated horse back for the Netflix animated series, Spirit Riding Free, and obviously, that did well enough that they wanted to return Spirit to theaters.

I’m not going to review Spirit Untamed, because honestly, it’s not really my kind of movie, but I did enjoy it, and I think a lot of younger girls who dream of having their own ponies will love it as well. It’s just a very well crafted film, directed by Elaine Bogan that goes into a lot of nice places while staying away from some of the typical animated movie tropes -- i.e pratfalls and body humor for the youngest of kids. It’s just a sweet and exciting young person’s adventure that I would recommend to parents for sure.

This is an extremely hard movie to gauge in terms of the interest that might bring families out to theaters. Presumably, the Netflix series is popular enough, but people are learning that movies like this will eventually be on VOD and streaming. In fact, DreamWorks Animation’s NEXT movie, a sequel to the hit The Boss Baby will be both in theaters AND on Comcast streamer Peacock at the same time. Spirit Untamed will probably be available on VOD in 18 days as is the case with most Universal films post-pandemic.

I’m not sure how many theaters this will get (maybe 2,000?), so I think Spirit Untamed might still be able to pull in $4 million this weekend, but maybe it’ll surprise me and do better. Even though little girls still love horses, I’m not sure it’s enough for their parents to buy tickets rather than wait until this is on streaming.

Oh, you know what? It’s a new month, and that means that I might as well bring back a section that has lapsed in the past year …

REPERTORY!

Yes, a lot more movie theaters in New York and L.A. have now reopened, so I’ll see if I can fit in some repertory offerings in the column each week.

Exciting news at my own local theater, the Metrograph, as they’ve just announced a Metrograph TV APP, available on Fire TV, Apple TV and others. This means that you can now become a Digital member ($5/month; $50/year) and you can digitally stream Metrograph programming directly to your TV set. (Me, I’ve been using mirroring from my computer for the past year.) If you’re a member you can watch Lisa Rovner’s fantastic doc, Sisters with Transistors, which I wrote about before. If you get on board now, you’ll be able to watch the Metrograph’s upcoming “Whole Lotta Herzog” series, which features two months of the German filmmaker’s work including some quite obscure little-seen offerings as well as a number of true classics like Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Nosferatu The Vampyr . If you’ve missed some of Herzog’s great work, now’s a great time to be a Metrograph member. Oh, yeah, and the theater will be reopening its theaters to in-person audiences in September!

Uptown at Film at Lincoln Center, they’re finishing off “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2021” and showing JIa Zhangke’s latest film, Swimming Out Til The Sea Turns Blue, in its theater. Okay, fine, neither is repertory but we’re glad to have FilmLinc back!

Back downtown, Film Forum is showing Jacque Deray’s 1969 thriller La Piscine, starring Alain Delon & Romy Schneider, and Fellini’s 8 ½ only in its theaters, and similarly cool stuff streaming, so yeah, nice to have them back as well. Also, a new 4k restoration of The Ladykillers, starring Alec Guinness will open at Film Forum this Friday.

A few blocks away, the IFC Center continues to show George Romero’s long-lost 1973 film, The Amusement Park, which is also available this week on Shudder.

Okay, I think that’s enough repertory. Let’s get back to the new movies.

This week’s “Chosen One” is Michael Barnett’s documentary CHANGING THE GAME, which is now playing on Hulu, a full two years after it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019. This is an amazing and quite timely film about a trio of teen student athletes. First up is Mack Beggs, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Dallas, who by Texas rules or law has to compete in the girls’ wrestling division, because he was born female. Part of his transition involves taking steroids, so he quickly becomes the state champion, beating all the teen girls he takes on, although he’d much rather be wrestling boys, because he is a boy. Living in Connecticut, transgender runner Andraya Yearwood is allowed to compete against other girls, but even that is deemed unfair (mostly by the parents of other girls) since Andraya is much bigger and stronger than her competition. Lastly, there’s transgender skier Sarah Rose Huckman whose state of New Hampshire requires student athletes to get gender confirmation surgery in order to compete in the class of her choosing. The catch is that one has to be 18 to get said surgery.

These are three really interesting entries into the ongoing debate about whether transgender youth should be allowed to play sports. Beggs is a particularly interesting case because he WANTS to wrestle against boys but isn’t allowed to. Sarah Huckman doesn’t have quite the challenge of Andraya, because she is diminutive and better at passing as female. She’s also pretty amazing as an activist, fighting against the discriminatory laws of her state, in such a way that she really creates some inspirational moments even if Beggs gets a lot of the attention in Barnett’s film.

But the way Barnett tells these three stories is what makes it such an important one about a very complex issue, including interviews with the three kids’ parents and immediate families, all of whom are quite supportive even as their kids garner ridiculous amounts of hate from other parents.

This is the thing. Transgender boys and girls should have equal rights with their peers, and that includes playing sports. They’re already forced to go through a lot due to their gender dysphoria, so to have to, on top of that, deal with scorn and derision from jealous over-competitive parents whose own kids aren’t able to achieve the same level of competition, I mean it’s just bullshit. This movie really hit me hard in the gut, because I have close friends who have transitioned who are constantly dealing with hatred and scorn and to have politicians in states like Texas and Florida and other places making their situation worse, it just kills me. THESE ARE KIDS, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!

I’m quite shocked that it took so long for someone to release Barnett’s film, but this also couldn’t be better timing to add to a conversation where there’s just too many people in this country who do not or will not try to understand what trans kids are contending with on a daily basis. Changing the Game is the perfect conversation starter, and a great way for people unable (or unwilling) to understand the trans struggle to see it from a fresh, new perspective.

One of the fairly high profile docs out of this year's Sundance Film Festival was Theo Anthony’s ALL LIGHT, EVERYWHERE (Super, LTD), a really intriguing movie that seems like science fiction at first but actually is an in-depth look into surveillance cameras, taking a particularly detailed look at the Axon body camera system used by many police, cameras triggered by the use of officer’s weapons.

It takes a little time to understand what Anthony is trying to achieve with what is essentially a thesis paper done via cinema verité-style documentary (not my favorite), but it pulls you in with its look at the history of surveillance and footage that might seem disparate at first but comes together as the movie comes along.

I found this to be a particularly compelling film, especially with the music, which is a bit of a musical cacophony, though it seems to work with the robotic female voice-over that tells us what we’re watching. (Something that tends to lack in most cinema verité films.) As you can tell from the image above, the film is fairly avant garde with a lot of gorgeous images that might not necessarily fit in with the subject, but it does add to the overall narrative about surveillance and vision. I thought it was funny that my first reaction to this was similar to my reaction to last year's Oscar-nominated Time, because I went into both movies not realizing they were documentaries.

Ultimately, the film does become kind of scary because we have heard so much about the importance of body cams on police, but Anthony’s film shows how unreliable that footage is as evidence in a case. While All Light, Everywhere is a very different movie from what I was expecting, it shines a focused light (sorry for the pun) on a piece of technology that we’ve become so reliant on to achieve justice but is still clearly quite flawed.

A couple other docs that I wasn’t able to find the time to watch, both involving sports, are Graham Shelby’s CITY OF ALI (Abramorama) and Chase Ogden’s SUPER FRENCHIE (Greenwich). The first one is pretty obviously about boxing great Muhammad Ali, but it deals specifically with the week after his death when the people of his Kentucky hometown and the rest of the world came together to celebrate the greatest boxer of all time. Super Frenchie is about professional skier and base jumper Matthias Giraud, who takes on bigger challengers and more dangerous stunts just as he is about to start a family. These both sound great, and I’ll do my best to watch and write about them once I do.

Actually, I watched Super Frenchie just as I was finishing up this column, and it’s pretty great if you love amazing footage of fantastic skiing stunts. I’ve seen quite a few great docs in this vein -- Free Solo comes to mind -- and I generally liked this one, too, especially since it covers quite a long span in Giraud's life and gets into him becoming a father. I actually would have loved to see this in a movie theater, but you can, since it’s opening in theaters Friday as well as Virtual Cinema and TVOD, so lots of opportunities to watch it.

Next up is Nabil Elderkin’s GULLY (Paramount Home Entertainment), which hits theaters on Friday but then will be on Digital and VOD on Tuesday, June 8. This one also premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019, oddly enough, and it ALSO follows a trio of teenagers, but this is a narrative film, not a doc, but it very well could be a doc with the honesty it handles its subjecet.

It follows three young L.A. friends -- Kelvin Harrison’s mute Jesse, Jacob Latimore’s Calvin and Charlie Plummer’s Nicky -- kids who are constantly getting into serious trouble and in danger of ending up in the system. As we watch them committing crime and complete chaos, it’s counterbalanced by Jonathan Majors’ Greg, a longtime friend of the boys’ families, who himself is being released from jail and trying to stay out of the life that put him there. There’s also Terrence Howard as an enigmatic street poet, who doesn’t seem to serve much purpose until the end, while Amber Heard plays Nicky’s mother, who seems to be a stripper or prostitute of some kind, I couldn’t really figure it out.

I can definitely tell why critics might not like Elderkin’s work, because he comes from the world of music video and has a kinetic style of filmmaking that keeps things moving, which might not be the case in normal indie dramas, which might involve a lot of dialogue vs. just showing these three kids and their lives. These are all kids that have been damaged by familial relationships and society as a whole, who have pretty much been left to fend for themselves. The thing is, and this might be another issue that other critics had with the film, is that Calvin and Nicky are especially unlikable due to the violent crimes they get up to, and at one point, the movie reminded me a bit of a modern-day real world A Clockwork Orange. By the way, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time.

What Elderkin has going for him is this amazing cat. This is earlier work by Harrison, an actor who is quickly becoming the dramatic actor to keep an eye on, and the same can be said for Jonathan Major. I’ve long been a fan of Plummer and this is a very different role from the nice guys he’s played in the past. Latimore also gives a really exciting performance, as well, and the only one who disappointed me a little was Heard, who at times gets a bit out of control with her performance.

Gully is a tough and challenging film, but it’s one with such a strong message delivered so well by Elderkin and his cast, that it bums me a little this might not be seen by a very big audience, competing with so much other content right now. Maybe it’s not quite as strong narratively as other films of its ilk -- Monsters and Men comes to mind as an improved version of this -- but it’s a compelling character study that ultimately delivers what’s intended.

Hitting Shudder on Thursday is Damien McCarthy’s Irish horror film CAVEAT (Shudder), starring Jonathan French as Isaac, a drifter who is hired to look after a psychologically troubled woman whose husband committed suicide in an abandoned house on an island. Once he gets there, he learns that he’s forced to wear a chain securely fastened to the basement floor to prevent him from going into certain rooms, but he soon finds out that there’s a lot more to that one simple “caveat.”

I’m always excited for a new weekly Shudder movie, and this one looks quite fantastic with a tone that makes it feel sort of period while in fact being quite modern. The way the premise is set-up is certainly quite compelling, and I wanted to see where things go, especially after the opening where we see a sullen woman walking through the house with a toy rabbit that bangs on its drum mysteriously. For some reason, I assumed that this movie would involve ghosts or spirits or something similarly scary, but no, it’s just a guy chained to the basement trying to solve some mystery of the house’s dead inhabitants. This ended up being quite disappointing even though it started from such a good premise, but it’s one that never goes quite far enough in terms of scares.

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Dominic Cooper star in Michael Haussman’s EDGE OF THE WORLD (Samuel Goldwyn Films), a period drama set in 1839 with Rhys-Meyers playing Sir James Brooke, whose adventures in 19th century Borneo were the inspiration for films Lord Jim and The Man Who Would Be King. When Brooke’s ship is attacked by pirates, he teams with local princes to seize a rebel fort, agreeing to be crowned Rajah, as he joins his new allies.

I’m not going to review Haussman’s film at this time, because I wasn’t able to give it the full attention that it deserves, but it’s a pretty gripping film on par with James Gray’s The Lost City of Z and other films about explorers. It’s a beautiful film with some great action and an amazing score, and honestly, I wish I had more time to give it the attention it deserves, but that’s what happens when you’re trying to run a site full-time and continue to write reviews for this column. Some things just slip past me or don’t get the time they deserve.

It will be available on Digital and On Demand starting Friday, but honestly? This would be a great visual movie to see in theaters.

Other movies (and new series) out this week, include:

UNDER THE STADIUM LIGHTS (Saban Films/Paramount) FLASHBACK (EONE) BAD TALES (Strand Releasing) MONUMENT UPHEAVAL (Abramorama) SWEET TOOTH (Netflix)

That’s it for this week. Next week… In the Heights and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway!