#that just wrecked me cos don’t you think how Eddie probably sees a younger and carefree Shannon in her rather than the one who left him and

[mazzystar24]

Guys I’m low-key crying because Eddie isn’t just seeing Shannon, his dead wife in Kim

he’s seeing Shannon the girl he grew up with, who was his best friend, who was presumably once carefree and light before everything else happened

And maybe a part of him thinks that this version of Shannon (that he found again in Kim) and him could’ve made it, that their marriage wouldn’t have fallen apart and that she wouldn’t have left and wouldn’t have died with so many issues and resentment between them if they had stayed those light people they once were before life got in the way

(And he’s now gearing up for a rude awakening that not only would it not have worked out but also that Kim is not Shannon and no amount of looking for a mother for Chris will make any other woman Shannon and it’s not healthy for either of them)

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND May 17, 2019  - JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3, A DOG’S JOURNEY, THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR

Well, the summer is grinding along at a rather slow pace. Granted, it’s only the third or fourth official weekend, depending on when you started counting, and if you live in New York City, it doesn’t really feel like summer at all, but as has been the case since starting my beat at The Beat, I hope people will be reading this for the limited releases and repertory stuff, which I try to make fairly comprehensive and complete.

Normally, I wouldn’t be too impressed with Lionsgate’s decision to release Keanu Reeves’ JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM in the summer, but surprise, surprise, I actually liked this one. A LOT! I already reviewed the movie for The Beat, a review which you can read here, but I do think that most of the people who liked the first movie will like this one, too, as it adds the likes of Halle Berry, Asia Kate Dillon  (Orange is the New Black) and Mark Dacascos to flesh out the mythology while sending John Wick on the run as he’s excommunicated from the assassin’s guild.

I don’t have as much an opinion about the doggie sequel A DOG’S JOURNEY (Universal). I mean, I like dogs just fine, but I never got around to seeing A Dog’s Purpose, and I’m not sure I can follow this movie’s high-concept premise without having seen it. Apparently, a dog dies and then keeps coming back as another dog in order to protect Dennis Quaid’s daughter… no, I don’t get how that works either, but I’ll probably never see this.

The other movie I’ve seen which opens Friday is Ry Russo-Young’s THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR (Warner Bros./MGM), based on the novel by Nicola Yoon, starring Yara Shahidi (black-ish,grown-ish) and Charles Melton from Riverdale. If you know me at all, then you can probably guess that I’ve never seen those shows, but I have seen Russo-Young’s other films, and she’s a director that’s definitely grown on me as she’s taken on YA adaptations. I’m not going to write a full review of this one (due to time constraints and illness) but I was generally mixed on it. I thought the two young actors were fantastic, and this was a perfectly nice romantic film that generally used its New York locations well, but there were definitely parts where I was just bored and not that into the story. It’s a shame, because I usually buy into the whole fate and destiny thing, especially when it come to romance, but this one just gets silly at times.

You can find out what I think of the above film’s box office prospects over at The Beat.

LIMITED RELEASES

This is a very busy week for limited releases with a lot of things coming out of the woodwork at the last minute… and honestly, most of what I’ve seen is just okay, at best.

Jack O’Connell plays Cameron Todd Willingham in Ed Zwick’s TRIAL BY FIRE (Roadside Attractions), based on the true story of the Texas man accused of murdering his three young daughters via arson in 1991. He spent 12 years on Death Row before his case found its way to writer Elizabeth Gilbert, played by Laura Dern, who tries to negate the evidence against Willingham. I wanted to like this movie more than I did, because it is an interesting story with a decent script written by Oscar winner Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious), based on an article by New Yorker writer David Grann (apparently all of his articles become movies, so he has a good agent, huh?). The movie is generally okay, mainly due to the fantastic rounded performance by O’Connell but it’s also quite long-winded and didn’t need to be over two hours to get its point across.

Joanna Hogg’s autobiographical British indie THE SOUVENIR (A24) stars Honor Swinton Byrne (yes, that’s Tilda’s daughter) as film school student Julie who encounters and gets involved with a gregarious and opinionated older man named named Anthony (Tom Burke) who turns out to be a heroin junkie who effectively sabotages the film she’s trying to get made. While I can generally understand what Hogg was trying to do with this movie, I found it very long and drawn-out, and I was even more shocked to learn that this was meant to be the first of a two-part movie, but no, I won’t bother with Part 2 even if it does star Robert Pattinson, probably as another dick who tries to derail Julie’s career, cause that’s what men do.

The Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra returns to India for the romantic drama PHOTOGRAPH (Amazon) about Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a man from a poor village who takes a picture of student named Miloni (Sanya Malhotra) and sends it to his grandma, saying it’s his new girlfriend, so she’ll get off his back about marrying. Rafi sends his grandma a picture of Miloni, but then has to convince Miloni to play along and meet his grandmother when she comes to Mumbai. As the two spend more time getting to know each other, a romance begins. It’s a nice movie, maybe not quite as great as The Lunchbox, but a nice date night movie for sure.

Opening at the Metrograph, which is in the midst of a Ryusuke Hamaguchi retrospective, is the Japanese filmmaker’s most recent film ASAKO I AND II (Grasshopper Films), based on the novel by Tomoka Shibasaki. It begins with a romance between a shy girl from (Asako, played by Erika Karata) who falls for a young man named Baku (Masahiro Higashide), who suddenly vanishes on her. She ends up moving to Tokyo and meeting another man named Ryohei, who is Baku’s spitting image – maybe because he’s also played by Higashide. A relationship develops between them until Asako learns what happened to Baku. This is definitely a strange but mostly satisfying romance story that would be a great date night double feature of Photograph.

From Sweden comes Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja’s sci-fi thriller ANIARA (Magnet Releasing), which takes place on the title spaceship which is taking the three-week journey to Mars full of thousands of passengers when it’s knocked off course. The problem is that it might take years to get back on course, which immediately throws everyone on board into a panic. At the center of it is Emelie Jonsson’s woman who runs a “Mima chamber” where people can go to relax, a chamber that gets increasingly more busy until it breaks down and then things just get completely crazy.  If you wondered what Passengersmight have been like if Gaspar Noe directed it then Aniarais the movie for you, but I did like Jonsson’s character arc as she ends up starting a relationship with a woman officer on the ship and where that story goes.

Karen Gillan stars in Collin Schiffli’s ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW (Samuel Goldwyn), which is written by and co-stars David Dastmalchian from Ant-Manand other films. It deals with a couple living in poverty, forcing him to break the law, as they set off to find refuge in Kansas City. I haven’t seen it but it sounds interesting with that casting.

Shirley Jackson’s 1962 mystery novel WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE (Brainstorm Media)is adapted by filmmaker Stacie Passon with an all-star cast including Taissa Farmiga, Alexandra Daddario, Sebastian Stan and Crispin Glover. Farmiga plays Merricat who lives with her sister Constance (Daddario) and uncle (Glover), the only survivors of a poisonic that killed the rest of their family five years earlier. When their cousin Charles (Stan) arrives, asking about the family’s finances, it begins a battle for control as tragedy looms.

Now playingat the Film Forum is The Third Wife (Film Movement), Ash Mayfair’s Vietnamese drama set in the 19th Century about a 14-year-old named May, who becomes the third wife of a much older man. With a mostly female cast and crew, the film has drawn comparisons to Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern and some of the flashbacks in The Joy Luck Club (which I recently rewatched and cried my eyes out, but don’t tell anyone).

Then opening Friday at the Film Forum is Andrey Paunov’s documentary Walking on Water (Kino Lorber), about artist Christo and his late wife Jeanne-Claude, who had built some of the most amazing large-scale installations including the famous “The Gates” in Central Park and their most recent project “The Floating Piers” over Lake Iseo in Italy. The movie will open in L.A. and San Fran next Friday, May 24.

Johnny Depp stars in Wayne Roberts’ The Professor (Saban Films), a movie that seems to be getting dumped into theaters after a DirecTV release. Depp plays Richard, a college lecturer who discovers he has six months to live so he turns into a party animal, much to the shock of his wife (Rosemarie DeWitt) and chancellor (Ron Livingston). Also costarring Zoey Deutch, it opens in select cities.

Kevin and Michael Goetz’s A Violent Separation (Screen Media) stars Brenton Thwaites as Norman Young, deputy of a midwstern town who is forced to arrest his older brother Ray (Ben Robson) for murder. Things get more difficult when Norman gets involved with the victim’s younger sister (Alycia Debnam-Carey). It opens at New York’s Cinema Village and a few other theaters as well as On Demand.

Now playing at the Roxy Cinema in New York is Matt Hinton’s doc Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury (Abramorama) about the small-town band Luxury, whose career almost ended in a wreck, but who continue to make records even as three members become priests.

Another music-related doc out this week is the Cordero Brothers thriller Room 37 - The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders (Cleopatra Entertainment), which as you might guess from the title is about famed rocker Johnny Thunders (Leo Ramsay) and how his trip to New Orleans to get his life together turned deadly.

This week’s Bollywood offering is Aki Ali’s De De Pyaar De, starring Ajay Devgn, Tabu and Rakul Preet Singh in a London-based love triangle.

Opening in New York this Friday, then in L.A. May 24 and VOD June 21 is Eddie Alcazar’s Perfect  (Breaker Films), exec. produced by Steven Soderbergh, which stars Garrett Wareing as a troubled young man sent to a clinic by his mother (Abbie Cornish) to help with his dark visions.

Next up is Rachel Carey’s Ask for Jane  (Level Film) starring Cait Cortelyou in a timely movie set in Chicago 1969 where abortion is punishable by prison and two women try to find a doctor to help a pregnant student at the University of Chicago has tried to kill herself. The two women end up forming the Jane Collective, an organization that helps women get safe abortions.

Asa Butterfield, Finn Cole, Hermione Corfield, Michael Sheen, Margot Robbie, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg star in Crispian Mills’ horror-comedy Slaughterhouse Rulez set in a British boarding school where monsters have been unleashed from a sinkhole. The movie was a hit in England but is barely getting a release in the States even with that amazing cast.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Not much of note on Netflix except Kate Melville’s rom-com Good Sam, a movie about a reporter who is trying to find a stranger who is leaving bags of money all around New York City.

I probably haven’t been paying enough attention to the streaming service MUBU, but in honor of the Cannes Film Festival that started this week, the service is doing a “Cannes Takeover” which includes Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park, Crisi Piu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Alejandro Innaritu’s Amores Perrosand other films that broke out of the French film festival.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Sci-fi author Samuel R. Delaney will be at the Metrograph for Delaneymania, a collection of films selected by him including This Island Earth (1955), Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal  (1957), Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus  (1950), as well as Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil: Director’s Cut  (1958). The series will also include Fred Barney Taylor’s doc about Delany called The Polymath and more. Playtime: Family Matinees is also getting involved into Delanwymania with screenings of The Boy with the Green Hair (1948) on Saturday and Sunday morning. Also this weekend is the firstMetrograph Book Fair of the year with lots of rare and vintage books and magazines on sale.This week’s Late Nites at Metrographincludes screenings of Michael Mann’s Thief  (1981) and more screenings of Gasar Noé’sClimax, which seems to be Metrograph’s new go-to movie. (Sorry, Carol!)

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Weds and Thursday seems double features of Elaine May’s Mikey & Nicky  (1976), starring Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, and Between the Lines (1977), while Friday and Saturday’s double feature is Martha Coolidge’s 1983 film Valley Girl (with Coolidge and special guests on Saturday!) and Sofia Coppola’s 1999 debut The Virgin Suicides.  The Sunday/Monday double feature is two from Dorothy Arzner, Merrily We Go To Hell (1932) and First Comes Courage(1943).Friday’s midnight is Tarantino and Rodriguez’s 2007 anthology Grindhouse, while Saturday at midnight, you have another chance to watch The Love Witch from 2016.  The weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is Agnieszka Holland’s 1993 film The Secret Garden  (which is being remade next year). On Monday afternoon, there’s a screening of Josie and the Pussycats… no, I’m not sure why either.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Sadly, the Trilogies series ends Thursday, but the Film Forum will screen a 4k restoration of Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad (1961), and this weekend’s Film Forum Jr.offering is Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands  (1990), starring Johnny Depp. Dan Streible is back with his eclectic of shorts called More Orphans of New York.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

On Friday, you can catch a “New York Sleaze Triple Feature” (yes, in L.A.) with Fulci’s The New York Ripper (1982),Nightmares in a Damaged Brain  (1981) and Abel Ferrar’s The Driller Killer  (1979). The Cassavetes & Scorsese: Love is Strangeseries continues on Saturday with Goodfellas and Husbands, plus the 1965 film The 10th Victim is showing as part of the Art Directors Guild Film Society Series on Sunday. Also on Sunday, Spanish filmmaker Ivan Zulueta (who died ten years ago) gets a tribute with a screening of 1979’s Arrebato.

AERO  (LA):

This week, the Aero begins the Passion of Pier Paolo Pasolini series (probably in conjunction with Abel Ferrara’s film, which finally gets a theatrical release) with a series of double features: Solo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) and Pigsty (1969) on Thursday, The Decameron  (1970) and Oedipus Rex (1967) on Friday, The Canterbury Tales (1971) and Teorema (1968) on Saturday, and Arabian Nights (1974)and Medea (1969) on Sunday. On Monday, they’ll screen a rare 35mm print of Pasonlini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew(1964). Since I really enjoyed Ferrara’s new film starring Willem Dafoe, I’m bummed I missed the Metrograph’s retrospective of Pasolini last year, but this is a good chance to see this prolific Italian filmmaker’s often-controversial work.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Another great series begins at the Quad this weekend with Fighting Mad: German Genre Films from the Margins, based around Dominik Graf’s two-part documentary A Journey Through German Film. Graf programmed the series with Olaf Müller, who presents a few of the screenings. It’s a pretty rich series with no films that I personally have had a chance to see – I have a couple screeners to watch – but there are sure to be a few gems in there if you have time to see some of the 17 movies.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Waverly Midnights: ParentalGuidance  will screen Roman Polanski’s horror classicRosemary’s Baby (1968) and James Cameron’s Aliens (again). Weekend Classics: Love Mom and Dad screens Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1962 film Mamma Roma, while Late Night Favorites: Spring shows the Coens’ Fargo, David Fincher’s Fight Club and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Black 90s: A Turning Point in American Cinema continues this weekend with Waiting to Exhale, The Five Heartbeats, Fear of a Black Hat, House Party, a 20thAnniversary screening of The Best Man and a lot more. It’s a really good series with a lot of movies worth checking out.

MOMA (NYC):

Abel Ferrara: Unrated continues with 1986’s Crime Story on Wednesday, 1993’s Dangerous Game on Thursday, Welcome to New York  (2014) on Sunday and Piazza Vittorio (2017) and 4:44 Last Day on Earth  (2011) on Sunday. The series will continue through May 31. MOMA is also doing a Jean-Claude Carriereseries, honoring the amazing prolific work of the French screenwriter, including Louis Malle’s Milou en Mai  (1964), Milos Forman’s Taking Off (1971) and many more, which will be screened between now and June 16.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

A new addition! The theater in the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca is showing Joanna Hogg’s earlier film Archipelego (2010), as well as Sally Potter’s 1992 film Orlando in 35mm!

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

On Saturday, MOMI is doing a Filmmaker Memorial for John Singleton, put together by The Black Filmmaker Foundation and the Black Film Critics Circle with BFCC President Michael Sargent and other critics discussing Singleton’s work. Otherwise, MOMI is finishing up Panorama Europe.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This week’s midnight movie on Friday is the Japanese horror filmHouse (Hausu) from 1977.

That’s it for this week. Next week, we get Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin, starring Will Smith; Olivia Wilde’s hilarious Book Smart and the James Gunn-produced Brightburn. Oh, yeah, and it’s Memorial Day weekend!

[lostinyourears]

Masked Matches of May X : Los Brazos vs Rocky Star, Lizmark & Eddie Guerrero, 1988, UWA(?)

Video link to the match over at Lucha Central : https://youtu.be/uD8r4FGiD6A

No Cagematch page for this match/event.

Who’s Who?

Los Brazos(Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata & El Brazo)

All of these men had singles careers, but since they are competing as a team here we will lump them together. A few days ago we talked about Satanico, MS-1 and Pirate Morgan forming Los Infernales in EMLL as a response to trios becoming popular in large part due to UWA group, Los Misioneros de la Muerte being such a hit in the early 1980′s. Well Los Infernales wasn’t the only group that formed to capitalize on the boom. 

In fact there were 3 different brother factions that formed trios : 

Villano brothers who all went by Villano I-V who would be big names in UWA(sons of co-founder and old school talent Ray Mendoza) as well as working with CMLL, because remember UWA/CMLL didn’t have an antagonistic relationship. Some of the Villano brothers would go down as GOAT Lucha Libre talents, particularly 3, while some of them didn’t really do much outside of playing a role in the brothers trios fare. They started as a group in UWA in the latter half of the 1970′s getting into wrestling like their father before them.

Los Hermanos Dinamita, who are a later addition to the brothers trio craze. Starting in the mid 1980′s with just Cien Caras and Mascara Ano 2000 before the addition of younger brother Universo 2000 in the late 80′s. They would start as a EMLL group before jumping ship to AAA in the 90′s when that promotion kicked off and started to get hot. 

Los Brazos, who amongst these brothers teams was the most well traveled. Touring Japan with both NJPW and AJPW in the 1980′s. Being in high demand they were amongst the biggest draws in Mexico for a time and came up basically at the same time as Villano’s team. Also, like Villano’s they were actually more than a trios of brothers. Outside of the 3 in this match you also had :  Super Brazo,  Brazo de Platino and  Brazo Cibernetico. However, unlike the Villano’s who were interchangeable to a degree. Like a trios match might be I, IV and V or II, III and V. Los Brazos as a trios was always the three brothers in this match. All 6 Brazo brothers, are sons of old school lucha talent Shadito Cruz. 

Picture of Shadito Cruz flanked by sons and grandsons in the early 2000′s or late 1990′s.

I bring up the other trios of brothers who aren’t in this match because famously there was a confrontation in 1990 or 1988? Villano Brothers vs Los Brazos in an epic mask vs mask trios match. One that really changed the history of Lucha Libre. You can check it out here, I’m not doing it for the series, cause it’s not very good video quality. Brazos ended up losing their masks in one fell swoop vs Villanos’ who they feuded with over the course of the 1980′s in UWA. 

This is a look at the Brazos at their peak when they were a wrecking ball in the Lucha Libre scene of Mexico. During their 2nd reign as UWA Trios Champions(which they wear coming into the ring for this match) and having held the Mexican National Trios Titles twice before this as well. They were a group not to reckon with unless you wanted to be wrecked on top of being one of the most well known luchador groups outside of Mexico as mentioned touring both AJPW and NJPW before this match in 1988.  

Oh also to tell them apart(I haven’t done this for most matches cause it’s more obvious), let’s look at their 3 names in Spanish.

Brazo means arm.

So.... Brazo de Oro(Arm of gold in all gold/yellow), Brazo de Plata(Arm of silver in all silver/grey) and last El Brazo(The Arm, a mix of both). I’m like 75% certain of this, If I’m off base please feel free to correct me. 

Rocky Star 

Rocky Star is basically a poster child for the lost past of lucha libre. A guy who had at least a 20+ year career. Yet, here is his cagematch.net page career page. I wish I could say more about him, but I just don’t have the information to give him proper credit. I did find that he lost his mask in 1987 so a little bit before this to Cinta de Oro who was unmasking people left and right in the late 80′s before he himself lost his mask to Fishman who we have covered earlier this month. UWA which ran from 1975 to 1995 has lots of lost history and Rocky Star is proof of that. At least some of his career still exists on video like this.   

Lizmark

Lizmark made his debut in 1976, would capture his first title the  Mexican National Welterweight Champion in 1979 and would carry many title before this becoming one of the biggest luchadors in the 80′s. Often teaming with Atlantis, though they wouldn’t get gold together until the mid 1990′s.

In the 80′s Lizmark was capturing many singles titles at this time he was either in his 1st or 2nd NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship reign. He would mostly work with CMLL, but for a short stint he jumped to AAA like many talents did from 1992 to 1995 before making his way back to CMLL and becoming tag champs with Atlantis who had never left CMLL. In 1999 Lizmark would suffer a heart attack and his career slowed considerably though his legacy lived on through his son Lizmark Jr. who he had worked with in the 90′s and would team with in the 2000′s despite showing down after his heart attack. Lizmark passed way in 2015, I highlighted him in last years Masked Men of May series. 

Eddie Guerrero

I could probably assume that you know who Eddie Guerrero is, but lets act like you don’t. Eddie Guerrero got his start in EMLL, which is the same promotion his father Gory Guerrero had been a major star for in the middle of the century. Debuting in 1986 he would have been basically a rookie at this point in 1988. WWA World Trios Champion would be his first belt in 1989, which he captured with his brothers Chavo & Mando. In 1992 Eddie would do a tour of BOSJ III at the time called Top of the Super Juniors. This went so well he was invited back and worked heavily before working there full time in the mid and early mid 1990′s leaving CMLL behind while also being a hot ticket in AAA. Before working with ECW/WCW and then eventually WWE. Where he worked until he passed away in 2005 at the age of 38. 

One of the most well known talents of Mexican descent. Eclipsing his brothers and standing shoulder to shoulder with his father Gory Guerrero who also was a household name in his time. Not to say his brother Mando/Hector/Chavo didn’t have good careers. As Chavo had a pretty great run too and feuded with Roddy Piper in California’s NWA Hollywood promotion before Eddie had even debut in 1986. They all had careers to be proud of even if Eddie had the most widely known and beloved career of the 4 brothers.  

How is the match?

Very good, it’s not a mind blowing trios match. It has it’s spots though and was included more as a spotlight of Los Brazos who were very important in this era and are still very important in Lucha Libre having 3 mainstream lucha libre stars with their sons Maximo Sexy/La Mascara/Psycho Clown with the latter two main eventing Anniversary(Mascara) and Triplemania(Psycho Clown), with Psycho Clown winning the AAA’s biggest yearly main event twice over peer Pegasso and older legend Dr. Wagner Jr. 

Anyways, enough about stuff that happened nearly 30 years after this match. Captains in this match are Rocky Star & El Brazo. It’s a little strange that Rocky Star seems like the tecnico they wanted to highlight here, but the most impressive guy is probably Lizmark. Eddie was a rookie here and works with Lizmark to get a fall in the contest, but is mostly there as a body. I think my favorite part of this match is probably the entrance with the Brazo’s just looking like 600 pounds of badass wearing the belts or the short stint of Lizmark going wild when he is given time to get his shit out. 

Seeing Brazo de Plata(later known as Super Porky) hitting a superkick/thrust kick was pretty wild in the early on. Also, seeing El Brazo bleed like a pig is very much something that just screams classic lucha libre before CMLL banned blood and became more sanitized(this wasn’t in EMLL/CMLL, but at the time you would expect blood in that company as well). I wouldn’t take a bite out of someone’s bloody scalp, but Rocky Star does here. It’s a fun Brazo brawl, but this isn’t an all time classic like the last few days of matches. This will be the last match from the 1980′s and tomorrow we will be moving on to the 1990′s. 

Highlights :

Los Brazos(Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata & El Brazo) vs Rocky Star, Lizmark & Eddie Guerrero, 1988, UWA(?)