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Movie Review: ‘Golden Years’ Shows That Personal Growth Doesn’t Stop With Age


Director: Barbara Kulcsar
Writer: Petra Biondina Volpe
Stars: Esther Gemsch, Stefan Kurt, Ueli Jäggi

Synopsis: A retired couple is getting ready to enjoy their life as pensioners on a cruise trip through the Mediterranean. The spouses end up going on separate journeys of self-discovery and finding unexpected ways of how to spend their golden years.


There is a certain tendency amongst particular groups to sneer at the “grey-rinse” comedy. Especially if that comedy is written about people of a certain middle-class and relatively affluent background. Barbara Kulcsar’s Golden Years is precisely the kind of film that will raise those hackles because a journey of self-(re)discovery for privileged white Swiss people is ultimately going to be read as unimportant fluff. What this reading elides is that we are all on the inevitable march towards death. Some of us are most certainly in a better position to cope with it than others, but it is coming, no matter what. It’s highly unlikely that Barbara Kulcsar and screenwriter Petra Biondina Volpe are making a film with universal appeal. However, they are making one with a particular appeal and charm.

The film begins twice. In the first scene we see Alice (Esther Gemsch) grimacing in a dance class for seniors. The next scene is her husband, Peter (Stefan Kurt) at his low-key retirement party. He’s sixty-five and he can stop working. His job isn’t even going to be filled. He’s redundant in so many senses of the word. He steps outside and lets the red party balloon float off into the sky. Here’s to the “bright horizons” of his future.

Alice and Peter have been married for over forty years. They have two adult children, Susanne (Isabelle Barth) and Julian (Martin Vischer). Susanne is eyeing her parents’ large house for herself and her family as she has decided they don’t need all that space now they are old. Julian doesn’t want the house as he’s happy(ish) living a more bohemian permanently single life elsewhere. The siblings bicker perhaps more than their parents do. Yet, there is a sense that Alice and Peter have little in common except the familiarity of a pair of comfortable shoes. 

Alice believes that now Peter finally has leisure time, and she is no longer bringing up a family, it’s the moment to reinvigorate their relationship. Whereas Peter really just wants to do nothing much at all. They both believe they’ve earned something from life and each other but what that actually is, neither can properly articulate.

The sudden exercise-related death of Alice’s best friend Magali (Elvira Plüss) puts them both into a form of crisis mode. Peter suddenly becomes a fitness fanatic and Alice discovers an entire life Magali was hiding from her milquetoast husband, Heinz (Ueli Jäggi). Magali had a secret lover named Claude in Toulouse for fifteen years. Peter’s goal is to extend his life (“What for?” Alice asks), and hers it to find something as passionate as whatever was going on between Magali and her once yearly lover.

A cruise ship holiday through the Mediterranean crystallizes just how far apart they have drifted in love and life philosophy. Peter is more interested in early morning workouts with accidental third-wheel, Heinz, than he is in sex with Alice. Alice meets Michi (Gundi Ellert) a divorced woman from Basel who tells her that she finally feels free to do what she wants – her deliberate unfettering somewhat shocks Alice, but also intrigues her.

A luxury cruise might seem like the least auspicious place for a radical marriage breakdown – but in a way it makes perfect sense. Everyone on board is told to have “fun” – all their material needs are catered for. They just have to sit back and relax and enjoy the ride. So, Alice essentially jumps ship in Marseilles to go on her own journey which will eventually lead her to Toulouse where she can tell the mysterious Claude that Magali has passed away. Peter can’t believe Alice would ever do something that reckless without first consulting him and immediately flies into tantrums and panic-based hypochondria. Realizing he can’t get the ship to stay in port to find Alice (a real the world doesn’t stop just because you want it to moment for him), he eventually flies home with his new “wife” figure, Heinz.

Alice’s journey is very much her down the rabbit hole experience where she comes across a bunch of colorful characters. She meets some mushroom dosing grey nomads, buys new dresses because she just feels like it. Gets admired by men and women alike. Gets lost and found by a series of people. She finally reaches Claude and the revelation of who Claude actually is both shocks and satisfies her. It might not be at all shocking for the viewer, but for Alice and her quiet and restrained existence, it’s a rewiring of what she thought was possible in life.

On the home front, Peter moves into a cozy domesticity with Heinz. Essentially, he replaces Alice with a man who seems as uncomplicated, if a little morose. His daughter Susanne is having a nervous breakdown and is drinking too much and arguing in front of her kids who know what’s going on better than Peter does.

When Alice finally returns to her home she finds she doesn’t have one. Peter has thrown her out for leaving him on the cruise. Susanne doesn’t want to deal with her because she thinks Alice was selfish for leaving Peter. Only Julian has some sense of what is happening to his mother and takes her in, but even that won’t work with his Tinder Hook-up lifestyle. At some point, everyone is going to have to sit down and work stuff out.

There is of course a whiff of “first world boomer problems” in the film. Yet, the humor and general good-naturedness of the film mostly overcomes its flaws. Barbara Kulcsar is pointing out that love and working out life is difficult for every generation. No one is truly settled and sorted out as long as they’re alive. Their levels of fiscal ease may vary; but when one is looking at the so called “last stretch of life” in their sixties, Mary Oliver’s poetic question “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” comes into play.

Golden Years is breezy, silly, and often frustrating. It commits to its more serious themes through comedy and sometimes that lets it down. Barbara Kulcsar’s “senior comedy” does have enough unpretentious pathos to allow the audience to connect with characters who seem insufferable. As Mary Oliver wrote, “Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?”

Grade: B-

Op-Ed: The Ouroboros of Modern Film Distribution

When the trailer for Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire came across my path, I had no idea what it was or where it came from. I watched the trailer and was awestruck by the visuals. The film has some incredible CGI, it looked so immersive and beautifully realistic. At the end of the trailer, though, I sighed with disappointment. I saw the Netflix logo appear with a date for when it will be on the site. I did a little research afterwards and saw that there wouldn’t even be an attempt by Netflix to release it in theaters. It’s a shame Netflix didn’t, because while my television, and likely yours, is high definition, this film deserved to be on a big enough screen that the sound and the impact of each scene could blow you back in your seat.

There could have been a number of factors as to why Netflix kept this one just for themselves. It saw the other original sci-fi film of the Fall, The Creator, not quite bomb, but not quite live up to domestic box office hopes. It didn’t want to try and compete with the IP crowded theaters grasping for the eyes of winter break viewers. They might have just realized that a film with three credited writers couldn’t make a story that didn’t play exactly like space opera Mad Libs, that’s a flimsy rip off of Seven Samurai

Yet, in Fall of 2023, Apple TV+ did what Netflix couldn’t or wouldn’t attempt and broke through with two films that couldn’t have been less geared toward the current state of the movie theater audience. Both Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon, like Rebel Moon, boasted hefty runtimes, hefty budgets, and megawatt directors. The difference is Apple TV+ sought a partnership between the new and the old. Killers of the Flower Moon was produced with the help of Paramount and Napoleon with the help of Columbia/Sony. 

These partnerships made these films more than just a streamer breaking from format, it guaranteed a theatrical run that wasn’t mired in the idea that people could just wait a week for the film to drop onto the streamer. Not only that, but the films as co-productions could take advantage of the VOD rental and purchase market, opening up a deeper revenue stream before they found their forever home. Even with modest domestic success, their added international grosses boosted them much closer to recouping their cost. Napoleon, according to BoxOfficeMojo, more than doubled its domestic box office in the international markets.

Amazon Prime, too, found a bit more success, or at least word of mouth to drive people to their streamers after a theatrical run. When the tech giant bought MGM, one of the oldest movie studios around, it looked like it was just buying a library. It also felt like Amazon Prime was really just buying the James Bond franchise, much like when Disney bought LucasFilm so it could produce a galaxy of far, far too many Star Wars properties. But it was doing something much more stealthy. Amazon Prime was buying a brand they could use to generate content for their streaming service, and subsequently an unnecessary additional streaming service, MGM+, in order to release things theatrically, then pluck them for the streamer when the time was right. Also, like Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, under the MGM and associated smaller studio labels, added several of these types of films to VOD platforms for additional revenue.

Disney,on the other hand, has been straddling multiple strategies to try and boost its lagging properties. Its streaming platforms, Disney+ and Hulu, have exclusives, shows and movies that one cannot find anywhere else. Its studios, Walt Disney Pictures and 20th Century Studios, are able to put tickets in hands and butts in seats at least two weekends of every month. Yet, it’s finding neither one to be enough as the quality or enthusiasm for the studio’s output has waned. 

Marvel Studios, a Disney property, isn’t  bombing spectacularly, but the studio is finding that the once golden goose of a formula is laying some eggs, which means a scaled back 2024. There is only one Marvel property scheduled for theatrical release this year, Deadpool 3, and it’s a legacy property of which they had no hand in the prior successes of. 

Disney’s emotion churning, family friendly, animated film juggernaut Pixar has also had a few less than stellar moments lately. In an attempt to try and bring back some of the money it’s lost on the Disney+ venture, Disney has a plan to release those Pixar films stymied by the pandemic, which premiered on Disney+, into theaters the first three months of this year. 

The studio also pivoted on their streaming exclusivity by going to their old standby of home physical media. Several Disney+ shows are releasing as collector’s editions on blu-ray. It’s a gambit that may pay off for them, but it’s also a clear sign that the streaming revolution may never be total.

So, why are streamers flailing and studios failing? These entertainment juggernauts don’t realize that by creating so many options, building so many platforms, and releasing so much content, they’re creating a paradox. The paradox being that they need to create content to keep viewers, but the more content they create without waiting for the first batch to recoup their cost means they spend far more than they could ever make and in making more, more, more, they create the burden of choice on their viewers.

These companies have no real way out of this mess. The only way they can try is an almost tried and true method of failure, attempting to repeat something spontaneously and genuinely successful that happened not because of their influence. Yeah, I’m referring to Barbenheimer.

There is no way anyone at any studio could have predicted that the counter programming pairing of a film based on a toy line with a storyline that includes existential dread and a dense, lengthy film about a divisive scientist, also filled with existential dread, could have been as lucrative as it has. Barbie and Oppenheimer became the number 1 and number 5 highest grossing films of 2023. They toppled records and brought people into the theater the way only a Marvel or other IP behemoth could have. What’s more, these films stayed in theaters. According to data on BoxOfficeMojo, Barbie played on over 1,000 screens across the US for 77 straight days. On the 78th day it dropped to a “mere” 808 screens. The last data point for Barbie on BoxOfficeMojo has it that it was playing in some theater, somewhere in the U.S. for 185 consecutive days. The site hasn’t updated with information on Barbie’s rerelease after its eight Oscar nominations.Oppenheimer during that same period lasted 70 days at over 1,000 screens and has had a bump back to 254 screens in its 185th day, with several hundred more added in the wake of thirteen Oscar nominations. It still gains theatrical momentum as it mows through the competition at awards shows like a…. well… like a very well made film should.

Unfortunately for us, the studios are going to try and recreate this. They will force something into being without letting it take the natural course. They will probably pay influencers far too much money to gain word of mouth. They will parse through dozens of reviews to find one critic who types the phrase “one half of this year’s Barbenheimer” to paste the phrase on all their posters regardless of the context in which the critic uses the phrase in their review. They’re going to try because they can’t imagine the simple truth that they’ve stretched themselves too thin.

In the beginning of the studio system, studios found a niche. There would be the occasional foray against type, Warner Brothers would eschew a gangster picture for a drama, Universal would try out a comedy rather than another creature feature, but they knew what they were known for and generally tried to stick with it. This system eventually broke down, much as sound replaced silent, color replaced black and white, and digital replaced film. It seemed for a while there like the next big shift was that movie theaters would be replaced by home streaming. Yet, even after a global pandemic that nearly destroyed movie theaters as an industry, there seem to be hints that the projection booths have a little more life in them yet.

The studios seem to have found a way to strike a bit of balance between their streaming ambitions and the movie theater ecosystem. The Super Mario Bros. Movie lasted several months in theaters and Universal, the studio that released it, waited until there were only a few showings a week and the money was trickling in slower to announce the film’s premiere on Peacock, the studio’s streamer. Alternatively, Amazon Prime, guiding MGM, did a slow release of Saltburn into U.S. theaters and as the anticipatory indie crowds began to fade during the deluge of prestige at the beginning of December, the streamer quietly placed it among the offerings for members a few weeks after its theatrical run began.

It’s always a risk trying to build an audience for original films. It’s even more of a risk to stay in a niche. Just ask beloved indie studio/cult A24 as they attempt a pivot toward IP, action, and profitability. But with a built-in buffer in place of both the booming VOD market and streamers that belong to the studios themselves as well as Netflix purchasing the rights to back catalogs and Sony releases, the film ecosystem could actually begin to evolve into a model that benefits a diverse array of offerings at movie theaters and a more egalitarian distribution model. They just have to take several steps back, stop stampeding toward something that’s the same as everything else, and create quality not quantity.

History shows that movie studios will find a way to survive and evolve. Typically by piggybacking off of one of the other’s better ideas to diminishing returns. Their greed for influence, market share, and being first knows no bounds. We can only hope that they understand the power of the movie theater, that exclusivity is only as good as the overcrowded platform that claims it, and that while we hungered for nostalgia for a time, we leave our houses more and our navel gazing has turned to wanderlust, a searching for the unknown and radical.

Before I got around to actually watching Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire, I stumbled on the trailer for Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was seeing some plot threads I was not supposed to know going into the first film. It didn’t really matter as I predicted each and every major plot point from, about, the opening narration and developed a theory for the finale that I’m pretty confident I’m right about. But it doesn’t change the fact that I wanted to be in a dark room with surround sound and a screen that takes over my entire vision while watching it. It made me want to have seen and to have experienced They Cloned Tyrone, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, and Nimona with an audience. 

Films are better with other people, not just your friends, roommates, or immediate family who walk by the TV and loudly interrupt with questions about the plot or what’s for dinner, but other people you can’t predict, strangers who might also have tears in their eyes, or laugh at what you laugh at. Maybe one day Netflix will find that they don’t hate making money in addition to their subscriber base. Maybe the next Knives Out will get an actual theatrical run because a five day theatrical run is ludicrous and completely, embarrassingly incomprehensible when the original film grossed over $150 million dollars domestically. 

The theatrical experience has changed, but it can always swing back to bring audiences to something unique again. All it took was a woman trying to find herself and a scientist succeeding at turning theory to fact and immediately regretting it to get people to wonder if there is a world out there beyond shared universes, reboots, requels, sequels, and legacyquels. We learned in 2023 what we’ve known since grade school, homework sucks. Here’s hoping the studios and streamers take the lessons of the past year to heart and let us have class outside the box more often.

Movie Review: ‘Force of Nature: The Dry 2’ Meanders Through Mystery


Director: Robert Connolly
Writers: Robert Connolly, Jane Harper
Stars: Eric Bana, Anna Torv, Jacqueline McKenzie, Deborra-Lee Furness, Robin McLeavy, Sisi Stringer, Richard Roxburgh

Synopsis: Five women participate in a hiking retreat but only four come out the other side. Federal agents Aaron Falk and Carmen Cooper head into the mountains hoping to find their informant still alive.


The huge Australian box office success of Robert Connolly’s The Dry is, to excuse the pun, due to optimal clear sky conditions. The primary reason it was a money maker for Screen Australia was timing. Australia was in between various COVID lockdowns. Many major overseas releases had been rescheduled. It was based on Jane Harper’s bestselling novel which spoke to the impact of climate change on a rural community after the in real life Australia had suffered devastating bushfires in 2019. And finally, it starred one of Australia’s most bankable and likeable stars, Eric Bana as the detective Aaron Falk.

Prefacing why The Dry was a homegrown hit is not devaluing the film which is a solid piece of Outback Noir (sometimes termed “yeah, noir” based on idiomatic Australian language usage). 

It followed a familiar formula. Big city detective returns to hometown to attend a funeral and gets caught up in what could be related cases. One coming straight from his guilt ridden past. With two timelines working through the film, Falk as a teenager when his girlfriend drowned in a local swimming hole, and Falk as an adult, when, due to drought, the entire riverbed is dry, and the small farming community is a tinderbox waiting to ignite.

The setting of rural Victoria did as much storytelling as Falk did detecting. Unravelling his past and the present of the town he left behind. The psychological state of a mostly office bound Federal police detective working in financial crime needs to have something to anchor it. Remorse and redemption were Falk’s motivations.

Cut to 2024 and a strike which delayed the Australian release of Force of Nature: The Dry 2 and we are witnessing a perfect storm of why the film is not going to garner as much attention. Before one even looks at the quality of the film, which in no manner matches the first, there are too many other movies it’s up against. People are investing their attention in potential major awards contenders.

Context aside, Force of Nature: The Dry 2  is simply not as compelling nor competent as its predecessor. Falk’s role in Harper’s novel is functional, not particularly personal. He’s there to find an asset he’s been pushing to help bring down a corporate money laundering scheme.

Aaron Falk is back in his high-rise office in Melbourne. He receives a distressed call from Alice Russell (Anna Torv) who is acting as his informant against BaileyTennants, a conglomerate run by Jill Bailey (Deborra-Lee Furness) and her sneeringly arrogant husband Dan (Richard Roxburgh). The company has been using charitable donations to clean money from organized crime.

A corporate retreat for BaileyTennants employees in the Giralong Ranges (fictional) in the Victorian Alpine region becomes fraught when four of the women hiking through the dense winter forests are found traumatized but alive, but Alice is not with them. No one can genuinely say they know exactly where she is.

Falk and his partner Carmen Cooper (Jacqueline McKenzie) join in the search for Alice as she was carrying vital data taken the morning of the retreat. The local police force doesn’t appreciate the Feds stepping in, especially as they appear to be glorified forensic accounts. It’s up to Falk and Cooper to work out what happened during the hiking trip where the group went missing for days in order to possibly find Alice alive before a storm front sets in.

Time is of the essence for Falk and Cooper as they question the four women who made it back to the luxury accommodations. Jill, younger siblings and new employees Bree and Beth McKenzie (Lucy Ansell and Sisi Stringer), and Alice’s childhood friend and co-worker Lauren Shaw (Robin McLeavy). Before everyone can lawyer up, something that Daniel reminds Falk he might want to consider before questioning his wife and himself; Aaron and Carmen have to get clues as to Alice’s possible whereabouts from four confused and dissembling women with conflicting stories.

By rights, Aaron Falks should be the least interesting character in the mystery. However, Robert Connolly working in conjunction with Jane Harper, realized that one of the biggest draw cards for the franchise is Eric Bana. Interspersed with the present timeline is a thinly excused hunt for the very likely deceased serial killer Martin Kovac who was active in the area years ago. The local copper Sergeant King (Kenneth Radley) is more invested in finding Kovac’s base of operations; a shack where the women sheltered one night, as he is with finding Alice. Relatives of the dead are searching for the bodies of those who were lost.

Connolly and Harper decide this is a good opportunity to make the case a part of Falk’s past. Flashing back to years ago when he, as a child, was hiking with his parents in the same area. A momentary distraction on behalf of Aaron led to both he and his father Erik (Jeremy Lindsay-Taylor) losing sight of Aaron’s mother Jennifer (Ash Ricardo). She vanishes, possibly at the hands of Kovac and Aaron along with Erik searching for her for days.

Four timelines begin to emerge. The present-day search for Alice. The lead up to Alice agreeing to work with Falk and Cooper, and why. Aaron’s childhood, and the most interesting which is what happened during the hike.

Alice more than likely is already dead in the present – something for personal reasons Falk refuses to accept. The audience needs to know what happened over those days where the “Executive Adventures” hike went terribly wrong for the quintet of women so they can find a possible murderer.

According to Jill, Alice was meant to attend the team building exercise because she was a workplace bully. Something both Beth and Bree can attest to. Lauren seems so deeply disconnected and traumatized that she just stands atop a waterfall staring into the distance. She defends her friend. After all, Alice got her the job and covered for her when she was making mistakes during her divorce. Their daughters Margot (Ingrid Torelli) and Rebecca (Matilda May Pawsey) attend the same exclusive Grammar school. 

“Executive Adventures” tour guide and organiser Ian Chase (Tony Briggs) explains that everything was business as usual when he sent the five out. They had everything they needed for their hike. Supplies were set out. They had a map and compass. They made it to the first checkpoint where they were greeted with luxury hampers and drinks. Plus, the men from BaileyTennants who were doing their own version of the hike and met up with them on the first evening.

The theme, which should revolve around five women going into feral survival mode akin to Lord of the Flies, gets watered down to a “a bunch of incremental bad decisions led them to get lost,” both in the past and present. As the curtain is pulled back on what occurred, the focus is on decisions each woman makes. Going down the wrong path by presuming they are reading the map correctly, only to wind up lost. Jill berates Alice for being too harsh on Bree who was guiding them and tells her it’s symptomatic of her bullying. The confrontation leads to more mistakes happening. The map is lost. Lauren almost drowns. Beth and Bree start to distrust each other due to Beth’s past as an addict. Jill has presumed Alice is having an affair with Dan. Lauren remains mostly passive until she realizes Alice not only has a phone, but she’s planning on abandoning them all.  Yet somewhere in all of that there is a strange kumbaya moment where they sit and talk about stars, life, and love.

Jill with her fake thick and fashionable brows is the kind of woman for whom a lack of luxury is anathema. Lauren simply drifts and tries unsuccessfully to be a peacemaker. No one really cares what she thinks. The siblings aren’t strangers to difficult situations; but they’ve never been lost in a seemingly endless forest where roots can trip you, the ground is uneven, the canopy of trees rarely allows light, and it’s sodden and freezing. Only Alice seems to have a plan and that’s “my way or the highway.”

The sheen of civility is what has kept BaileyTennants from being fully investigated before. The company’s multiple donations to charitable funds is what makes them near untouchable. The parallel is that civility only works in controlled environments. There’s nothing controlled about “the force of nature that reveals us all,” when you are lost in a forest and no one is searching for you.

There is precious little to engage with beyond Andrew Commis’ cinematography of the region and a smattering of effective set pieces. Mostly this comes down to the uneven drip feeding of essential information to make the plot seem plausibly tense. 

Aaron Falk already had his trauma, redemption, and hero moments in The Dry. Rehashing the same ground for Force of Nature is a mistake. No one really wondered all that much about Jennifer Falk, so it wasn’t necessary to insert her into the place specific backstory. 

It is okay for the film to admit Aaron’s just a serious, somewhat damaged man with no outside life and a sense of empathy. It isn’t necessary to relegate his partner Carmen to a “We will get it no matter who it hurts, they’re all guilty of something” foil to make Falk more human. He doesn’t have to be the film’s most righteous feminist. Women can, and do, behave badly to each other. Psychological bullying is a specialty. Violence can happen between the “girls and ladies.” Privilege and social class aren’t erased by “sisterhood.”

What Force of Nature excels at is showing another side of the Australian landscape. Already the outback noir has its definitive detective in Jay Swan created by Ivan Sen. Ray Lawrence (Jindabyne) and Cate Shortland (Somersault) gave us versions of the Snowy Mountains. We have seen beaches and tropical locations more times than it is possible to list. But the inherently eerie, and at times deeply dangerous, winter forest doesn’t often get a big budget film to showcase it. 

Force of Nature: The Dry 2 mostly limps along as a mystery because it doesn’t decide where the audience should look. Usually, some obfuscation is what makes a mystery compelling. A few red herrings, and people with enough motive to want someone gone. Instead, the audience is given a stoic sad sack “hero” detective who resembles supermarket white bread. It’s a shame because Eric Bana is generally a fantastic actor. So are two Australian screen icons Jacqueline McKenzie and Deborra-Lee Furness. Richard Roxburgh’s performance seems to be just “We need a slightly extended cameo by a big name who can do menacing.” At least Anna Torv is given some gristle to chew and she dominates every scene she’s in with her changeable demeanour. It is also good to see Robin McLeavy on the big screen again after her breakout performance in Tasmanian horror comedy The Loved Ones from 2009. Sisi Stringer is a cast stand out. Her twitchy, guilt ridden Beth is the best performance outside of Torv’s.


If the thematic idea of the film is that the force of nature forces us to reveal our true natures is to work, then more time is needed to be given to the people central to the mystery. Force of Nature: The Dry 2 jettisons character backgrounds to the point where the audience is working overtime to infer meaning and proper motivation. It renders the work featureless and lacking teeth. Aaron Falk is neither the hero the film needs, nor deserves because there aren’t clearly enough defined villains except corrupt capitalism and keeping up appearances. A more apropos title would be Sodden: The Dry 2.

Grade: C

Movie Review: ‘Argylle’ is All Twists and Turns, Leading Nowhere


Director: Matthew Vaughn
Writer: Jason Fuchs
Stars: Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell

Synopsis: A reclusive author who writes espionage novels about a secret agent and a global spy syndicate realizes the plot of the new book she’s writing starts to mirror real-world events, in real time.


I imagine that during the studio pitch, director Matthew Vaughn and scribe Jason Fuchs sold Argylle as a fun spy adventure with twists at every turn. I’m almost certain that the words “spectacular,” “stunning,” and “remarkable” were never uttered and were intentionally left out because there is simply nothing surprising about any of the curveballs it tries to throw at the audience. Any spy cliche or trope you can think of, Argylle has it in spades. The result is a jam-packed film overstuffed with so much utter nonsense that you could call it an attack on the senses with diphenhydramine.

And that’s a shame because anyone who loves a good spy novel or movie should love Argylle. You have a great cast where Bryce Dallas Howard plays a socially reclusive author, Elly Conway, who spends too much time with her cat, Argylle, and not enough trying to find someone to share her life with. That’s her mother (the irreplaceable Catherine O’Hara) talking, who also adds the fifth book in the Agent Argylle series, which doesn’t have an ending that will appease her fans. However, her novels have hit too close to home.

At least, that’s what a stranger on a train named Aiden (Sam Rockwell) tells her before defending her against a couple of dozen armed assassins. Confusingly, Howard’s Elly keeps trying to run away from Aiden, the one man not trying to kill her, but we will get into that later. Aiden helps her escape and then tells her about a secret rogue organization called The Division, led by Director Ritter (Bryan Cranston), who wants to abduct Elly (and not her cat) to find out how she unwittingly knows so much about their dirty deeds that she puts to paper.

The film slogs along at 134 minutes. To put that in perspective, that’s on par with the last three of the Fast & Furious franchise, and some of the things that happen in Argylle are just as ludicrous. It’s hard to tell you just how much that’s true with facts because we cannot ruin it with spoilers. As much as I try to keep things cautious, most of this involves laying parallel narratives with Elly’s previous four Argylle novels, the current one she is trying to write, and the real-life mystery that places it all together. Frankly, Fuchs’s script thinks it’s smarter than it is.

Much of the film’s plot relies on red herrings or implausible common-sense connections. Not to mention the endless montages of a one-note joke comparing Henry Cavill’s Argylle to Sam Rockwell’s Aiden. When the film makes its big reveals, it’s more of a cheap trick where, if you look back, significant character decisions feel like filler and vain attempts to move the story forward. Vaughn tries to distract most of this with big names, handsome faces, the charm of its leads, and a cute cat. And to his credit, he nearly does.

Rockwell brings the type of mixed lunacy and folksy charm that has made him a household name. I could see the pairing of Henry Cavill and John Cena in a real-life buddy action comedy. I will admit the film’s best scene, involving a ridiculously goofy song and dance ballet of bullets, did put a wicked grin on my face. It’s so out of place but so entertaining that I almost forgave everything that came before it. 

Samuel L. Jackson’s cameo is a head-scratcher. He plays a former head of the CIA with a man cave filled with sports memorabilia, a ticker for stocks and sports betting, and a movie-sized screen for espionage and Lakers games. Personally, I was hoping this was Jackson’s real-life office, and he made the filmmakers bring the cameras to his doorstep in a power move built off his legendary Hollywood swagger and gravitas.


And that’s how distracted I was with the relentless onslaught of Hollywood nothingness that Argylle is (or maybe that’s just my crippling case of ADHD). Even the final scene and mid-credits scene are head-scratching. While I enjoyed the endless charm of Rockwell, you’ll be asking yourself, “Who cares?” until the final credits roll.

Grade: D+

Movie Review (Sundance 2024): ‘Will and Harper’ is an Essential and Honest Documentary


Director: Josh Greenbaum
Stars: Will Ferrell, Harper Steele

Synopsis: In this intimate portrayal of friendship, transition, and America, Will Ferrell and his best buddy of thirty years decide to go on a cross-country road trip to explore this new chapter in their relationship.


Legendary comedian Will Ferrell walks into an interview to appear as a talking head. Immediately, he begins to poke fun at the very style of documentary he is in the midst of making. From there, he details the relationship between himself and once SNL head writer, Harper Steele. The two met almost forty years ago, and in that time, have impacted countless lives through comedy. Ferrell comedically points out that if you’ve ever wondered why he would make a certain film or commercial, it’s because Harper was involved. An early champion of Ferrell’s comedy, the two have brought to life some of the most iconic SNL characters ever. Will and Harper are both such funny individuals, and together, they make a fierce duo. And with this new documentary, aptly titled Will & Harper, they are most certainly going to impact countless more lives. Harper is a trans woman, and having transitioned so late in life, she details her worry of renavigating, or possibly even losing, the friendships she has had for the majority of her life. Having not seen each other in quite some time, the two decide to take a road trip with one another. From New York to California, they travel down memory lane, but also down a new path; one in which the next stage of their friendship begins. And it’s absolutely beautiful.

Discussing the trans experience may seem daunting to some. Those with good intentions may feel nervous about hurting somebody they care about. Will & Harper pretty much avoids that entirely. Having been friends for so long, Harper makes it clear that she knows Will would never say anything with the intention of harming or offending her. So immediately, there is a tension lifted, and it makes way for an honesty that is essential to teaching others about Harper’s trans experience. Obviously, the trans experience is varied for countless individuals, but this documentary feels as if it’s a good baseline understanding of some common fears, worries, and joys. The levity among the two is a delight that will keep the viewer laughing consistently. It’s those moments which make the more vulnerable ones all the more impactful. 

For example, Harper goes through her journals from prior to her transition. She details the fact that her then therapist completely discredited the idea that she could be trans. If we can’t even turn to professionals in our time of need, what are we to do? This is one of the many situations in the documentary which emphasizes the essential nature of having a rock-solid support system in your daily life. Will Ferrell has always been beloved by many for his comedy, but the way he uses his fame as a platform to help Harper along her journey makes him that much greater. To think that many would spew venom and hatred both his and Harper’s way is utterly disgusting. At one point, Harper reads some of the vitriolic tweets directed at them upon partaking in a Texas food challenge. This moment, while glossed over a bit, feels essential in the disparate journeys the two are taking on this road trip. For Harper, comments like those aren’t necessarily easy to avoid giving any credence to. 

Personally, I feel that the documentary does a fairly good job of addressing the notion that Will’s fame is used as a bit of a shield. To clarify, that isn’t a bad thing! It’s just easy to imagine a scenario wherein some strangers they meet may mask their true feelings simply because they see Will Ferrell and cameras nearby. But notably, the duo at one point addresses this notion flat-out, and the documentary is all the better for it. The two admit this road trip is not the standard, and is controlled to some extent, but nevertheless, the emotional journey they take is as real as it can get. The two make many stops along the way, but one of the most moving is Harper’s stop back home in Iowa. It’s clear that she had a support system in her sister, who provides such a beautiful statement when Will asks what her reaction was to Harper’s transition. If only more of the country could be so accepting.

Harper spent much of her life traveling cross-country. Either hitchhiking or stopping her truck in the middle of nowhere, she would experience many parts of the country most people on either coast don’t think of or even know about. Unfortunately, many of those parts of the country may think differently of Harper. On their road trip, one wonders if Harper will still be able to feel comfortable, and safe, doing what she loves most: drinking a cheap beer in a dive bar. In interviews after the premiere, Ferrell admitted to having “zero knowledge” of the trans community prior to Harper coming out. While Will & Harper may not leave its audience with a complete understanding of the trans experience, one can only hope that it will leave them with two essentials: to remain a steadfast support for both our loved ones and even those we don’t know. And to not be afraid to ask questions and admit our lack of knowledge or experience, if only to better inform ourselves and improve as people. 

Will & Harper celebrated its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the Premieres section. It was recently acquired by Netflix.

Grade: B+

Interview: Wim Wenders

Now nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, we have been fans of Perfect Days (review can be found here) for quite some time. It is certainly one of the most beautiful films of the year, and deserves to be seen by the masses. When given the chance to speak with director and co-writer Wim Wenders, we jumped at the opportunity. Below, you can find the transcribed interview wherein Wenders discusses the concept of repetition, how this film is different from the other films in his legendary career, and what he feels is a perfect day.


Alex Papaioannou: How are you doing today Wim?

Wim Wenders: I’m fine, Alex. And yourself?

AP: I’m doing well!

WW: Where are you sitting exactly? Where are you?

AP:I’m in my bedroom in my apartment in New York.

WW: In New York. Okay. Okay.

AP: So, the most pressing question. I have to know, did you have a favorite toilet when filming?

WW: I couldn’t help but love the toilet by the architect Shigeru Ban the most. They’re the ones that are transparent, and when you go inside and lock the door, they’re opaque. I really love those. In the beginning, I was a little scared of them. Then, when we started shooting, I loved what you could do with the light, and how the sun going through the trees reflects on all the glass windows. We loved shooting in them. And luckily, there were two of them with two different colors. So, I must admit, we spent more time in them than in the others because, visually, they were just mind-blowing. At first, the idea of a transparent toilet was just a little too much. In the beginning, you’re scared to enter. Then you realize that you feel so good in it, and it’s really a great experience. So that became a favorite.

AP: They’re beautiful, as is all the photography in this film. It’s gorgeous. And one thing I loved in particular is how it’s very repetitive by design. There’s beauty to be found when looking at the same image multiple times. So do you find life to be repetitive by nature? Or is that something you found while filming?

WW: [He pauses]. Well, repetition is an incredible thing in our lives because most of us go through a lot of repetitions in our daily routines. Of course, Hirayama does have a routine. And routine, for most of us, is a word with a negative taste. And a routine is something you want to get through as quickly as possible, or get rid of it, or not have to go through it in the first place. But Hirayama has a very positive approach to routine because he very much lives in the here and now. So the routine is always something new for him, and each time he cleans the toilet, he does it as if it was the first time. And like any good actor, an actor creatively is meant to look like he’s doing things for the first time. So Hirayama lives it very strongly, and he looks at his work very much like a craftsman. And a craftsman is the sort of person par excellence to deal with routine or to deal with repetition. A potter makes the same pot 100 times, but each time is anew. And if he’s a good potter, his whole morale is that each time, each thing is unique, and only exists once. So in all these ideas about acting and about crafts, people went into the idea of how Hirayama lives in the moment, and how he lives a simple service job like he does, and how he makes it something much bigger, and much more transparent.

AP: The film was shot in 17 days, right?

WW: Yep.

AP: That’s deeply impressive. So with that, one thing about Hirayama. Like you said, he’s incredibly meticulous day in and day out, even sometimes multiple times on the same toilet. But when you’re shooting something in such a short timeframe, did you find that there was the ability to be incredibly meticulous? Or did you have to go with the flow more on this type of shoot?

WW: One thing if you shoot fast, you know, there is not much slack. So for a character and for the actor, it’s perfect. The actor doesn’t have to get in and out of his trailer. There’s no coming back out and needing to find his character again. He’s always in it. We never stopped shooting. And actually, we had a trailer for Koji [Yakusho], but he never saw it. [Laughs]. Only on the last day at the end of the last shot of the film he said, “Wim, is it true that you have a trailer? Can I see it?” I said, “What do you mean can you see it?” And he said, “I’ve never been inside, let me just see. I just want to catch a look inside.” So if you are working so fast and so relentless, you do come into a great, great flow. And you’re with your actor more than usually. And then you realize, you have to do something that’s already in the script. And that is part of the essence of his character. He’s reduced his life tremendously, he is living with only the most necessary things, and he doesn’t have more than he actually uses. His apartment is pretty empty, and he only has the essentials. So we realized as a film crew, we had to also just reduce ourselves to the essentials. So we eliminated all the fancy things you normally have at your disposal. No tracks, no Dolly, no crane, no Steadicam, no gimbal. Just nothing. Just a camera on the shoulders of the DoP [Director of Photography Franz Lustig]. And that’s how we made the film. And because we’re shooting so directly, and because Hirayama was always on set, Koji became the character so radically. So in the end, we also became radical, and after a few days, we started to shoot the rehearsals. No more rehearsing and then shooting. So more and more, we actually made a film with documentary methods about a very fictional character. And that is something I’ve never done in my life. And that’s one of the reasons why we could actually get away with a schedule like 17 days.

AP: Incredible. One more thing I’m also curious to know about involves the soundtrack. It’s phenomenal. It’s also a bit of a tongue-in-cheek play on the song “Perfect Day [by Lou Reed].” So I’m curious: in your eyes, what is a perfect day?

WW: A perfect day is certainly a day in which you’re not too lazy. [Laughs]. Laziness is a beautiful thing, but I’m just not good at it. I like doing things, and I like it if a day is full of things that you are happy to do, and you’re able to do them with your full concentration. That gives you a certain satisfaction. A good day and a perfect day is a day in which you see things that satisfy you. And a good day is certainly a day in which you have some time to listen to music and read a book. A good day is basically a day full of work that, at the end of the day, you have done what you wanted to do. You have met people and you have been in contact with them. You also know how to be alone. A good day is a day where you’re alone sometimes, and sometimes you’re with others. And those go with each other. And Hirayama is good at being alone. But he’s also good with others. He’s there. He sees them. For him, I mean, he sees more than others. He sees the homeless guy who’s invisible to everybody else. He sees them.

AP: That’s about as beautiful an answer as we can get, and I think it perfectly sums up the film. I think there’s no better way to end the discussion.

WW: Thank you, Alex. That’s very sweet of you. I wish you all the best.

Podcast Review: Four Daughters

On this episode, JD and Brendan discuss the Oscar-nominated documentary from Kaouther Ben Hania in Four Daughters! Not only is this incredible documentary recognized by The Academy, but it was also represented at this year’s InSession Film Awards as well. It was nominated by both JD and Brendan, with JD giving it the award for Best Documentary.

Review: Four Daughters (4:00)
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Writers: Kaouther Ben Hania
Stars: Olfa Hamrouni, Eya Chikahoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui

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InSession Film Podcast – Four Daughters

Podcast Review: Afire

On this episode, JD and Brendan discuss Christian Petzold’s latest film Afire, starring Thomas Schubert and Paula Beer! We’ve always been huge Petzold fans, so it’s a little saddening that we’re getting to the film later than we’d like to, but it was worth the wait. As usual, there is a ton to talk about here.

Review: Afire (4:00)
Director: Christian Petzold
Writers: Christian Petzold
Stars: Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel

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InSession Film Podcast – Afire

Movie Review (Sundance 2024): ‘Kneecap’ Examines Talent Vs. Timing


Director: Rich Peppiatt
Writer: Rich Peppiatt
Stars: Naoise Ó Cairealláin “Móglaí Bap”, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh “Mo Chara”,  JJ Ó Dochartaigh “Dj Provaí”, Josie Walker, Fionnuala Flaherty, Jessica Reynolds, Adam Best, with Simone Kirby and Michael Fassbender

Synopsis: Explores the birth of Kneecap, a hip and naughty Irish rap group.


Kneecap begins and immediately sets the tone for its audience. Voice-over narration dictates how every Irish story begins the same way. The narration is laid over second-hand footage of bombings committed throughout Ireland. In what amounts to a blatant record scratch, the voice lets us know this isn’t the typical Irish story. Instead, we’re taken to a forest where Naoise (Móglaí Bap) was brought as a baby for a traditional ceremony. The baby and his family are treated to the bright lights of a helicopter breaking up the ceremony, and it’s immediately made clear that Rich Peppiatt’s film is one still inherently interested in the politics of post-Troubles Belfast. If Naoise’s life began with those around him cursing at and flipping off the helicopters looking to impose their traditions on Ireland, the narrator asks the viewer a simple question: “What chance did he have?”

The political urgency and manic energy of Kneecap never stops from that point forward. It’s injected with massive amounts of levity and creativity. All the while, it remains steadfast in its messaging and ideologies. It’s a deeply impressive debut which fires on all cylinders and never stops being wildly entertaining. A major part of the film’s success most certainly relies on the titular trio, which are all portrayed by the actual members of the group. Peppiatt briefly goes over their childhood to set the stage of how the two friends, Naoise and Liam (Mo Chara), met DJ Próvaí and began rapping. By the time the three have met and recorded their first track, Kneecap has set the stage for what the remainder of the film will revolve around. While it never loses its comedic edge, the film becomes all the more stirring in how it captures what makes hip-hop not only special, but important.

Hip-hop is a genre that was born 50 years ago with the very intention to resist the powers that be. It has been, and always will be, an inherently political form of music when it’s at its purest. And both Kneecap the film and Kneecap the trio clearly understand and respect that foundational building block. We see Naoise and Liam as children, having fun with Liam’s father (the always excellent Michael Fassbender). The unreadable stares he delivers are frightening, but there’s a deep seeded pride that remains ever so hidden. It’s a performance with not much screen time, but he delivers all that’s needed, usually through silence. He instructs the duo to watch American Westerns on the television, but from the point-of-view of the Native Americans. This film is intrinsically interested with the notion of anti-propaganda, while also using your voice and mind as a means of empowerment. The film is obviously loads of fun, and for rappers who are turning in their first acting performance, it’s quite impressive. One gets the sense that, even in sequences that are a bit more cliche than others, the raw authenticity they have in their on-screen personas carries the film where it needs to go.

Peppiatt’s script does not stop there when it comes to pulling from real life either. There are countless sequences where police, news reporters, and sometimes both, are openly speaking about and advocating for censorship. It’s deeply reminiscent of anti-rap language against even the most prominent and celebrated rappers of contemporary music, such as Kendrick Lamar. Far too often are artists labeled as the cause of societal issues rather than taking aim at the policies the artists are criticizing in the first place. Admittedly, the group in the film is shown to engage in antics that range from dangerous at worst to highly controversial at best, so it’s not the most apt comparison. But their reasoning for making music primarily in Irish appears to be a noble one. The film even goes so far as to address how indigenous languages around the world are destroyed incredibly often. It may feel like much of Kneecap is a lot of throwing creativity at the wall to see what sticks, but Peppiatt’s belief in saving a dying language is clear.

Finally, Kneecap finds itself very wrapped up in the notion of talent versus timing. In an age where seemingly anybody can become famous through virality, what does it mean anymore? One of the group members asks if it was their talent that got them there, or if it was simply their time? If the fans of the group are any indication, it appears to be their time. Back to hip-hop being a genre that will always be, at its core, political. With a massive rise in younger individuals wanting to stand up and make their voices heard, Kneecap feels as if all that pent-up anxiety and desire has become personified. This is due to the authenticity felt through the very DNA of this film, from the rappers portraying themselves to the way in which Peppiatt captures Belfast, the culture feels represented in a beneficial manner. This will likely be a favorite of the fest to most fans of cinema that remains consistently exciting without sacrificing a ton of substance.

Kneecap celebrated its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the NEXT section, and is being distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.

Grade: B+

List: Jaylan Salah’s Top 10 Overlooked Movies of 2023

What’s an overlooked movie? There are things with no solid definition, but an overlooked movie in an already too crammed a season is one that went unseen and forgotten, swept under the rug, or took a somewhat repulsive discourse that turned people off until further notice. Some people might have seen it but it didn’t garner that much hype or get the attention it deserved. For movies, 2023 was a spectacular year, balancing the perfect mix of the mainstream and art-house. Even with all the critical acclaim and box office successes, some movies were made with love and hope to find the right audience at the right time. I was the right audience for all the ones mentioned below, so bear (or enjoy) with me as I fawn over them.

10. Passages directed by Ira Sachs

If this movie doesn’t redefine the modern love triangle, then I don’t know what would. We’re in a new era, new times, and new definitions for everything pop out every minute. What’s a husband, a wife, a lover, a man, or a woman? These are all rigid concepts that need to be knocked to the ground. Passages reconstructs what it means to be chic, to be loved, to be unfaithful, to be the boy dancing in the club, to be the girl stealing someone’s husband, to be a husband, to be the center of a love triangle, and to be truly loved. Franz Rogowski is magnetic, dancing his way swiftly between genders and emotions. The scene when Adèle Exarchopoulos sings to him is sensual and beautiful, with a sublime connection to Mia Hansen-Løve’s or Claire Denis’s cinema.

9. Reality directed by Tina Satter

A claustrophobic, intense piece of realist cinema, Tina Satter derived her movie from the actual transcript of an FBI interrogation with Reality Winner, a 26-year-old former Air Force linguist and intelligence contractor who leaked top-secret government information. Sydney Sweeney played Reality with such masterful emotional and muscle control. Throughout the movie, Satter confined the audience to an empty, unused bedroom in Reality’s house, enduring the pauses, the muscle twitches, and the casual, filler conversations between the FBI agents and the young girl. The movie is one rollercoaster ride of a film. It will trap viewers in one sitting, never letting them go. The film is a masterclass in psychological analysis of how an interrogation goes, as well as the work that Sweeney put into having her face in front of a camera throughout the runtime, with every visible and invisible emotion drawn on it.

8. Theater Camp directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman

I love theater kids and that spirit of people coming together to create art. Theater Camp had a cozy, feel-good-movie vibe I hadn’t witnessed in any film last year. Yes, the directing wasn’t perfect, and it felt a bit rushed, and a bit chunky at times, but the loveliness of Ayo Edebiri, Molly Gordon, Amy Sedaris, Owen Thiele, and Jimmy Tatro made up for all the shortcomings. We need more films like that, making people feel like they belong. Movies like Dead Poets Society and Pride don’t exist anymore, but Theater Camp came and reignited that feeling of having a fictional group of friends and supporters. It’s a great film on a rainy day.

7. Priscilla directed by Sofia Coppola

Like many films directed by and about women, this movie has taken a strange discourse, one that buried its ulterior motive underneath tons and tons of misinterpretations or manipulating the narrative to be around the men. Priscilla has garnered multiple reviews, analytical videos, and think pieces, but the main conversation centered around comparing Sofia Coppola’s Elvis to Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. Coppola’s anti-fairytale was doused in perfume and pink wallpaper to zoom in on a woman at the heart of manipulation, gaslighting, grooming, and possessive love. But it works, a great companion piece to Coppola’s filmography of trying to understand the transition from girlhood to womanhood. I know this movie had its share of exposure last year, but something deep inside me tells me it’s been dismissed at a certain point, forgotten like a sad Christmas light.

6. Bottoms directed by Emma Seligman

Every single woman I knew has been dying to watch something like Bottoms. Yes, the movie is primarily directed at a much younger female audience, but seriously a fight club for girls started by two outcast lesbians? I’m in! Everything about Bottoms is en pointe, from the funny, tongue-in-cheek dialogue, to the cast of some of Gen Z Hollywood powerhouse names (Edebiri, Gerber, Galitzine, and Sennott) not to mention Seligman’s deliberate and catchy directing style, taking us into a world of young girls not just fighting each other, but jumping and grinding at each other. The result is a sexy, awkward, enjoyable mess.

5. Showing Up by Kelly Reichardt

Some movies feel made for a particular person. Showing Up was made for me. It’s a small movie about people living small lives. Yes, they are artists with vivid imaginations and eccentricities but they’re going with the flow, like traveling pollens. Michelle Williams plays a scowling, reclusive artist while Hong Chau breathes air into her role as the fun and quirky artist, always hopping in and out of the arts community like the pigeon she saves. The movie is slow-paced, and nothing much happens on screen, but if someone wants to see a bond blossom between two completely different women in the most tangible of ways, this is their movie.

4. Monster directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu

When I want to watch something that encapsulates the heart of the real world, with a touch of tenderness, I run to a Kore-eda Hirokazu movie. He made some of the best films of the 2010s, such as After the Storm, Shoplifters, Our Little Sister, and Like Father, Like Son. He mixed his empathetic gaze with the minute details of the everyday lives of Japanese people, their struggles, and their familial interactions. Monster is a mother’s journey to uncover the insides of her son, and why his torment is so palpable. It’s a great movie about sexual awakening, coming-of-age, and how confusing the feelings between children could seem in the eyes of adults. It is a brilliant script by Yuji Sakamoto with great performances from the child actors.

3. Scrapper directed by Charlotte Regan

After the success of Aftersun, the father-daughter pairing of a hot twentysomething dude and a smarty pants girl is becoming a sensation. Harris Dickinson is a new face that attracts attention wherever he goes. His screen presence is dominant and grounded in both mystery and cool. Here, Dickinson teams with child actress Lola Campbell to play a father and daughter duo grappling with grief and acceptance of their presence in each other’s lives. Scrapper is kitschy in bubble-gum hues and weird camera work, but it mainly works for Dickinson and Campbell. Indeed, the Xavier Dolan-esque jump cuts and the intersecting video game sequences are a (satisfying) distraction from the heart of the film, but they are still enjoyable to watch.

2. Io Capitano directed by Matteo Garrone

Io Capitano has that color palette that would make Sean Baker proud, and that active mise-en-scène very distinctive of Italian cinema, a frame brimming with color and movement, the perfect actor blocking and scene composition. There are many points that the film misses about the reality of situations for migrants in European countries, but what matters is this modern retelling of a hero’s journey, through the eyes of two riveting characters, ones that audiences find easy to root for and care about. A film for the senses and a story to tell around the fire, even if the ending is too beautiful a fairytale to believe.

1. Asteroid City directed by Wes Anderson

The internal beauty of Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City made me fall in love with it. I loved it more when I found it on some Worst of the Year lists. A certain flaw made it shine. Anderson made it for someone who can handle the heat and the strong 1950s pastel palette, while still reveling in the performances. One that sparkled like a diamond was Scarlett Johansson’s Midge Campbell, a glamorous lonely movie star self-obsessed and faux-poetic. Jason Schwartzman was a delight to watch, and his three girls were an insane girl power magnet that stole all the scenes they were in. Asteroid City is a poetic, bright-colored mess, but it’s a mess that attracts people like me, and that’s sufficient.

Movie Review (Sundance 2024): A Selection of Shorts

The Rainbow Bridge begins with a comedic homage to 90s late-night ads selling the latest scam to anybody vulnerable enough to fall into the trap. The lunatic “scientists” in Dimitri Simakis’ short film may be onto something this time around. Promising to provide their customers with the ability to say goodbye to their beloved pets, Simakis baits the hook of the short with a premise that most audiences will be able to easily latch onto. Whether you’ve had a pet or not, such an opportunity clearly functions as an exciting possibility. Upon seeing the facility though, it’s apparent just how ramshackle this faux-operation actually is. Credit to the production design, because in all the vibrant props and set decoration is a ton of visual flair, that also feeds into the idea that, once again, these “scientists” are actually quite crazy.

The Rainbow Bridge was a part of the Midnight Short Film Program at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Yes, Say Hi After You Die is ridiculous. But then again, grieving comes in all shapes and sizes for anybody and everybody who experiences it. And Kate Jean Hollowell’s short film gets at that exact idea. There is no “correct” way to grieve. Instead, there’s just living one day at a time. And if one day you happen to feel that your friend who has passed has taken on the form of a porta-potty, who is anybody else to judge? This is a very fun short, with a musical sequence that makes me really want to see what a full-blown music video from Hollowell would look like. Come for the wacky premise and stay for the creative rumination on what we go through during some of the darkest days of the human experience.

Say Hi After You Die was a part of the Short Film Program 4 at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

There’s so much static and extraneous nonsense in our lives due to technology that it’s a miracle anything gets done anymore. Ben Gauthier’s Flail is a frenetic short film that may as well be a cinematic panic attack come to life. Allie (Allie Levitan) is driving all across Los Angeles running errands for her boss’ birthday celebrations. But rather than just capture the usual concept of an assistant who is severely overworked, Flail displays the contemporary reality. From Tinder updates to various spam emails and push notifications for apps we likely used once and never again, Allie, and in turn the viewer, is inundated with countless pings. It’s a frightening experience that simply doesn’t let up, and all we can hope for is just a peaceful moment of quiet. This is a stressful watch, but it’s an incredibly tightly wound piece of filmmaking.

Flail was a part of the Short Film Program 4 at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Thirstygirl is able to both beautifully and silently capture the ways in which our internal battles control our every waking moment. Writer/director Alexandra Qin is able to depict Charlie (Samantha Ahn) as a woman both out of control yet completely able to slip a mask on when with her sister, Nic (Claire Dunn). It’s a short that flies by, really only featuring three or four sequences, but they do what great short films do best: effectively convey a central idea while leaving a thought-provoking kernel behind for the viewer to contemplate even further.

Thirstygirl was a part of the Short Film Program 2 at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

1994: A Year Of A Cinematic Rainbow That Shaped The World

There are landmark years in the history of cinema that define the direction of movies and shake up the status quo of these movies. The year 1994 is a special one. Hollywood, independent, and global cinema found themselves with a slate of films that remain classics to this day, thirty years later. Oscar-winning or not, a stake was claimed by various directors and actors that changed the course for good. As some would say goodbye, others would become world-renowned and the year would never be forgotten. It isn’t just a chapter from a book, but a year worthy of being written as a whole (probably is, but I haven’t found it), and to look back on it is to recognize how much creativity was released that has made a cultural impact today.

Hollywood Banks It In

The first film that stands out is Forrest Gump, which went on to win six Academy Awards including Best Actor (Tom Hanks), Best Director (Robert Zemeckis), and Best Picture. The crowd-pleasing film of a man who talks about his life in the middle of major historical moments while finding his lost love earned $677 million at the box office and made “Life is like a box of chocolates” a part of the cultural lexicon. Disney, in the middle of their Renaissance going back to 1989, released The Lion King, a safari version of Hamlet. It may not have Alan Menken doing the score, but Hans Zimmer’s music, along with an incredible slate of original songs, seemingly continued to be unstoppable and topped itself once again.

In September that year, Warner Brothers released the Stephen King prison drama, The Shawshank Redemption. Starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, the film received positive reviews and would get seven Oscar nominations, but not win any of them. Plus, it seemed to be almost missed out on as it failed at the box office. However, director Frank Darabont’s film would get the legacy it deserved through cable as continuous replays of the film brought in more viewers, making it one of the most revered films post-theatrical release. 

Outside of Oscar winners, the thriller Speed, True Lies directed by James Cameron, the Farrelly Brothers’ comedy Dumb & Dumber, and Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers would make a big splash, the latter of which was co-written by Quentin Tarantino. Jim Carrey had three films that would cement his status as a comic A-lister; along with Dumb & Dumber, he was the lead in The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Miramax’s Year

After the success of releasing The Crying Game and The Piano in the previous years, Miramax was about to have their most successful slate ever. At that year’s Cannes Film Festival, they put out Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and won the Palme d’Or. The film became the sensation of the festival with its mix of homage, punchy dialogue, mixing narratives, and creative camerawork, all by someone not even thirty years old. Its success carried into awards season whenit was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture and won Original Screenplay for Tarantino and his writing partner, Roger Avary. 

That same year, Miramax released one of Woody Allen’s most successful films, Bullets Over Broadway, as an ode to the screwball genre mixed with the mob. John Cusack, Chazz Palminteri, Jack Warden, Jennifer Tilly, Rob Reiner, and, in her second Oscar-winning performance, Dianne Weist starred in Allen’s 1920s-themed comedy of gangsters involved in Broadway. Another comedy released by Miramax was a self-made film bought from Sundance that introduced the world to Kevin Smith. Clerks, which he made while working at a convenience store, was backed heavily after the NC-17 rating for the never ending explicit sexual dialogue which had no nudity or violence. On appeal, it would be reduced to R, and a trilogy, plus an extensive career continuing today, was born. 

Also released by Miramax was Robert Altman’s fashion comedy ensemble Ready To Wear (Pret-a-Porter), the historical drama Tom & Viv, Bernardo Bertolucci’s drama Little Budha, the action cult classic The Crow (where star Brandon Lee was killed on set by accident), and the true story drama Heavenly Creatures. From New Zealand, it would be the breakthrough film for director Peter Jackson. It starred Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet in their film debut as two high school girls who develop an obsessive friendship which leads to a violent climax. Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, would receive an Oscar nomination for Original Screenplay.

Intercontinental Comedies

Across the pond in the UK, Mike Newell’s Four Weddings And A Funeral, written by Richard Curtis, became a surprise box office smash. Hugh Grant won a Golden Globe for his performance and became a massive star with his infectious charm and proper Brit attitude as a man late for weddings who falls for a lusty American, played by Andie Macdowell. Across the other direction to Australia, another comedy that became a cult hit was made. Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert follows three drag queens who travel by bus cross-country meeting various people along the way. The film was acclaimed for its pro-LGBTQ themes and positive look at the backgrounds of each character. Also from Australia that year was Muriel’s Wedding, which introduced Toni Collette to an international audience.  

International Storm

The last two films of his career were part of a trilogy that solidified Krzysztof Kieślowski’s legacy with universal acclaim at the three major international film festivals: Blue (Venice, 1993), then White (Berlin, 1994), and finally, Red, at Cannes. Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors Trilogy wrapped up an amazing career as it became the biggest talk of the art film world with its connecting stories on love, loss, betrayal, and unique fraternity. He scandalously lost at Cannes (Tarantino thought Kieslowski was going to win the Palme d’Or), but was rewarded with three Oscar nominations for Red, including Best Director. From North Macedonia, Before The Rain by Milcho Manchevski co-won the Golden Lion at Venice that year and would be nominated for an Oscar, telling a story set in the then-current, turbulent Yugoslav wars that had torn the former nation apart. 

In Russia, its post-communist form allowed stories from Stalin’s infamous purge to be told and Burnt By The Sun follows a Red Army officer whose former lover visits him and his family while on vacation. The film would win the Best International Film Oscar. Ang Lee received his second consecutive nomination in the category for Eat Drink Man Woman before being hired to direct his first Hollywood film, Sense And Sensibility, and Cuba found itself also competing for the Oscar with the comedy Strawberries And Chocolate, one of the last films directed by Cuban legend, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. One more film, from Italy, was Il Postino (The Postman) starring Massimo Troisi, who died one day after filming was completed. It would make its debut at the Venice Film Festival that year, but receive critical acclaim from the United States the following year. 

In a year where countless cultural and world events were happening – FIFA World Cup fever in America, OJ Simpson and the Bronco chase, the suicide of Kurt Cobain, apartheid in South Africa officially ending – cinema had its watershed moments also. Many figures were introduced, others finally crowned, and others were given a farewell to their career or their lives. Along with Troisi, Burt Lancaster, John Candy, Derek Jarman, and Jessica Tandy also died that year. 1994 seemed a very special year across all subjects in the world, especially for cinema on what debuted in that time. And just like that, we’ve already reached thirty years since that period. 

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Movie Review: ‘Night Swim’ is a Suburban Nightmare with a Twist


Director: Bryce McGuire
Writers: Bryce McGuire, Rod Blackhurst
Stars: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amelie Hoeferle

Synopsis: A family moves into a new home, unaware that a dark secret from the house’s past will unleash a malevolent force in the backyard pool..


There’s something cathartic about films like Night Swim, the audience member comes out of the movie theater feeling slightly disappointed but not holding grudges against the filmmaker who stole their money. Watching Night Swim in the movie theater was the kind of late-night activity practiced to get the mind off things, such as debt and unpaid bills. It served its purpose. It entertained me and gave me 98 minutes of airhead horror; a favorite genre of mine, where horrific things happen on screen as the plot and the writing don’t necessarily enrich the visuals, the cinematography, and the buildup, the pacing is decent and camerawork is stunning.

Proper introductions first; Night Swim is a horror film released in January 2024, directed and written by Bryce McGuire, and produced by the ever-polarizing James Wan and Jason Blum.

Ray (Wyatt Russell) –a baseball player- and his wife Eve ( Kerry Condon) and their two forgettable children move into a new home with a spacious swimming pool after Ray’s MS diagnosis. They soon discover that the swimming pool, which originated from an underground spring, had previously been the scene of sinister events. In all truth, the swimming pool sans the sinister events parts could have been a source of joy to any average house buyer, but for the doomed Waller family, things went downhill from here as they learned that for the spring to function, human sacrifices should be made *shudders*.

Night Swim is a film about the fear of the familiar. How bad can a swimming pool in your backyard be? What kind of danger can you expect from it? Fear of drowning, even if someone is a spectacular swimmer *coughNayadcough* and knows their way around the deepest, darkest bodies of water? Water is a source of a myriad of fears, from hurricanes and flooding to a simple apartment complex submerged in dark water while Jennifer Connelly frantically tries to save her daughter.

Despite too many buildup scenes that lead to nothing and the supposedly frightening but laughable CGI creatures, the movie creates a harrowing presence of a house with a swimming pool –every middle-class family’s dream. There’s something poetic and eerie about Night Swim. It plays a lot on the internal fears of normalcy and domesticity. All this could have been forgiven, however, if not for the major disappointment.  McGuire could have taken the film in a completely different direction if she focused on what water meant to an ailing body, that of Ray’s. 

As a viewer, he was the more interesting character, the one with a disabling neurological disease who had to come to terms with his illness as well as a dying career. He was the one with the intense connection to the pool. I didn’t see any reasoning –or an interesting enough storyline- to shift the narrative so that the boring wife gets all the potential and the credit. The script didn’t spend enough time making her interesting, and suddenly by shifting the main narrative to include her character arc, rather than her husband’s, the whole movie fell short of what it initially (at least for me) promised; a tale about a man with a disabling disease coming to terms with his diagnosis, the loss of his career and dreams, but also the water that calls out to him, and a house haunting. The film would’ve been male-centric of course, but if the screenwriters wanted viewers to root for the wife character or have any interest in her, at least give her something to chew. Let the body horror/pool horror part revolve around her instead of giving her too much to do with too little.

So what is the takeaway of Night Swim? Not the graphics, nor the characters to care about, not the plot or the climax scenes, but the fact that horror suburbia is a spectacular genre that needs to be re-explored and tackled.

Night Swim was a decent PG-13 suburban horror movie about the fear of the familiar, but also about the beauty of these massive bodies of water, and what secrets and mysteries they can hold for us.

Grade: C+

Movie Review (Sundance 2024): ‘Good One’ Interrogates Why We Escape Into Nature


Director: India Donaldson
Writer: India Donaldson
Stars: Lily Collias, Sumaya Bouhbal, Valentine Black

Synopsis: During a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam navigates the clash of egos between her father and his oldest friend.


Why do some people feel the need to escape into nature? With her debut feature, Good One, India Donaldson examines the curious drive people have to get away from the harsh realities of everyday life into the calm beauty of the outdoors. But if this film is any indication, it’s that our problems don’t just stop at the edge of the forest we enter. On the contrary, they mask themselves in vague comments and upsetting remarks. We just handle them in a slightly different manner. And in the case of Sam (Lily Collias), she is forced to be stuck with her father, Chris (James Le Gros), and his friend Matt (Danny McCarthy), as they grapple with their own issues in the Catskills during a hiking trip. A quiet reflection on the experience of young womanhood, Sam is deemed “too young to be so wise” at one point in the film. What that character doesn’t realize is that women are more inclined to be, considering all they have to put up with from older men feeling they can say or do whatever they please.

One gets the sense fairly quickly that trips like these are a common tradition. The only difference, at least at first glance, is that Matt’s son bailed at the last minute, leaving Sam to fend for herself in terms of socializing. While she clearly enjoys hiking with her father, a last-minute father/daughter/unprepared friend trip is an entirely different experience in its own right. And before the trio even begins their 3-day hike, it seems as if this is a tradition that has become warped over time. What may have begun as a brisk reminder of the beauty of nature has now become an obligation. A yearly reminder that, even though their lives appear to be falling apart outside the woods, there’s a cohesion holding it all together. It’s a shame to think of beautiful memories that were made, becoming slowly bastardized by this sense of feeling as if you’re unable to turn down the trip.

A light, airy score opens up the film as we’re treated to lush woods and beautifully lit sights of the forest. It sets the stage for an experience where it feels as if anything could happen. We’re then suddenly whisked away to a New York apartment where the final preparations are being made. With it being New York, of course there’s a sense of everything and everybody feeling on top of one another. Sam might hope that a trip like this will allow her to feel freer than ever, but when Matt’s son drops out, she finds herself sharing a room with two grown men. The hum of the hotel bathroom fan is mere feet away, and that sense of being on top of one another is once again perfectly encapsulated without ever directly addressing it. Once the trio are actually in the woods, there is a sense of freedom… at least somewhat. It’s evident that Chris is very much a man who revels in his role of being a father, and all that comes with that title.

Whether he’s exclaiming “For crying out loud” or triple checking the location of an incredibly unnecessary item, Le Gros plays the role with just the right amount of cheesiness. There’s no question that, at least for him, these trips still mean something special. That’s not to say that Sam and Matt both don’t appreciate these hikes in their own way, but it wouldn’t be a massive stretch to imagine he would be the most hurt if the trip fell apart. So, his actions and reactions make complete sense, especially when you begin wondering if this trip is a last-ditch attempt at an escape from the troubles of reality. His job appears to be incredibly demanding, and over time, marital troubles reveal themselves. For Matt, Donaldson subtly hints that his marriage is falling apart until she quickly and abruptly confirms it. This is a film that revels in the serene beauty of the outdoors, but is also unafraid to remind us that any pain and fragility we showed up with will follow us along the hiking path. Yet, these three are on a hike where the goal should be to promote observation and understanding. Instead, it feels as if there’s a regression. Sam feels the most capable and comfortable in her own skin. And of course, leave it to a set of gross third act sequences to ruin the beauty and peace she is looking for.

As far as a debut goes, Good One is remarkable at holding its hand for as long as possible. It consistently upends you, albeit with subtlety. The beauty of nature should not exist merely to cover up our ugliness. To treat it as such on a yearly weekend trip feels a bit disgraceful. It’s almost as if, through this trip, Sam is beginning to see the harsh realities of the people around her and how they have warped what should be something beautiful. And after two brisk but patient acts, Donaldson all but razes the woods in service of her thesis statement. It’s a beautifully realized film, signaling the entrance of a filmmaker who not only has something compelling to say, but a fresh and powerful way to say it. While the very final moments may leave a bit to be desired, the way in which Donaldson leads us there is beautiful. Let’s hope that audiences don’t take that beauty for granted.

Good One celebrated its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section, and is currently seeking distribution.

Grade: B+

Movie Review: ‘Molli and Max in the Future’ is an Intergalactic Rom-Com Space Opera


Director: Michael Lukk Litwak
Writer: Michael Lukk Litwak
Stars: Zosia Mamet, Aristotle Athari, Erin Darke

Synopsis: A sci-fi romantic comedy about a man and woman whose orbits repeatedly collide over the course of 12 years, 4 planets, 3 dimensions, and one space-cult.


Take a lot of When Harry Met Sally and a bit of His Girl Friday and set it in a retro-futuristic world filled with post and present millennial angst and you have some idea what Michael Lukk Litwak’s Molli and Max in the Future is doing. An intergalactic rom-com space opera and social satire with its heart firmly on its virtual and real sleeve. 

It’s “The Future” and Molli (Zosia Mamet) meets Max (Aristotle Athari) when their spaceships collide. He’s piloting his own “custom model” ship and she’s driving her Honda Civic of spaceships. He has no insurance, and she shouldn’t have been out there trying to harvest magic crystals. The meet-cute formula is absolutely as familiar as it should be. First, they are annoyed with each other. Then, they grudgingly become friends. That friendship becomes essential to both of them. But somehow, they never manage to turn the romance into a romance because their lives continually diverge. And yet, Molli, our earnest and sometimes naïve heroine constantly finds Max, our cynical and also naïve hero, and reunite over the years.

Molli and Max are quite literally from two different worlds. She’s from Megalopolis, the bustling NYC styled planet, and he’s from Oceanus – a place where the persecuted “Fish People” live and work in the mines. Max wants to escape the family business of the Rock factory (not exactly what you’d think it is, but a delightful reveal) and become a Mecha fighter. Molli wants to save the universe through interdimensional healing and worshipping the Gods in a battle between the Passionaughts and Conformsteins. He’s the aspirational working class to her new-age activist.

When they next meet it’s in a cab. Max, now MAKS, is a star in the Mecha world and is promoting Glorp Soda. He’s dating MAR14 (a sentient program he created, played with verve by Erin Darke) who can spin anything. Molli is becoming a space witch in the very obvious sex cult run by Moebius (Okieriete Onaodowan). How are they doing? Fine, thank you very much… and don’t even question it. Of course, they do question each other which leads to some home truths landing eventually when they meet again, and she has left the Passionaughts and he has been widely cancelled after selling out to the corporate overlords.

Life didn’t work out as either Molli and Max expected, and they are constantly having to re-invent themselves. What they do have, ostensibly, is each other. Molli gets involved with the dull and pliable ex-cult member, Walter (Arturo Castro) who she thinks she can change. Max has a relationship with Cassie (Paloma Garcia-Lee) a “modded” human who is consistently connected to every digital platform and doesn’t have a clue what she should be doing with any of the information.

Add to this mental health issues, menial jobs, toxic poisoning, dating apps, impending global doom via Turboschmuck (Michael Chernus) a Trumpian demon from the trash dimension who wants to commit genocide. Plus, angry pong playing as therapy while being dressed in outfits inspired by TRON and everyone just sleepwalking because Cheese Corp is keeping them in a Baudrillardian nightmare. Oh, and an Escher inspired dimension where Max becomes Schrödinger’s cat.

Molli and Max in the Future was filmed entirely against green screens and uses both digital and practical effects (gorgeous handmade models, repurposed obsolete tech). The 8- and 64-bit arcade game aesthetic melding into gloopy hand-crafted sex tentacles. There isn’t a trick that Lukk Litwak and his frantically inventive crew don’t try. From the make-up by Sara Plata, to the production design by Violet Overn, through to the cinematography by Zach Stoltzfus – every piece of the film is assembled to match the sensibility of the script.

“Love is the answer to everything” is one line we are fed consistently through our lives. It really isn’t. Even the Goddess of Love herself, Triangulon (Grace Kuhlenschmidt), is befuddled by what people do in her name. She’s also a bit of a bitch. Every decision that Molli and Max make have both potential cosmic repercussions and make not one iota of difference to anyone’s lives. The galaxy will be sucked into a black hole, maybe. Entropy might be the default setting of everything, maybe. Late-stage Capitalism exists in any configuration human beings come up with (Fish People, too). 

Michael Lukk Litwak knows everyone is tired and stressed. People overlook the very thing in front of them because they’re scared to confront what they feel deeply. Distraction is panacea and hope is vestigial. Molli and Max in the Future features excellent comic talents. Matteo Lane and Aparna Nancherla have parts, of course Aristotle Athari is an SNL alum, and Zosia Mamet starred in Girls and dozens of other touchstone film and television comedies. Combing the performances with a devotion to both the science fiction and romantic comedy genres generates sincerity via the surreal.   

Molli and Max in the Future is charming from its opening moments all the way to the brilliantly conceived ending which speaks to the circular nature of how the parts of ourselves we think we dispose of can be the very things that save us. The film is precisely the kind of energetic shove some audiences require to imagine just slowing down for a bit. Love is about choosing to embrace your messy self so you can choose what you deserve in life. Choose Molli and Max. Down with Turboschmuck!

Grade: A-

Movie Review: ‘The Peasants’ Nearly Revels in Darkness


Director: DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman
Writers: Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont, DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman
Stars: Kamila Urzędowska, Miroslaw Baka, Robert Gulaczyk

Synopsis: Jagna is a young woman determined to forge her own path in a late 19th century Polish village – a hotbed of gossip and on-going feuds, held together, rich and poor, by adherence to colorful traditions and deep-rooted patriarchy.


One difficult process in filmmaking is, essentially, matching. Certain styles match certain stories. One cannot, or should not, simply recreate a style, simply because it worked for a previous film. Some of our most popular filmmakers make this mistake. Do all of Quentin Tarantino’s movies need to be told out of order? Probably not. But that stylistic choice is expected at this point. Same with M. Night Shyamalan and twist endings, until relatively recently. And that brings us to a lesser known directing duo, DK and Hugh Welchman, creators of the Academy Award nominated, for Best Animated Feature, Loving Vincent.

The particular techniques used, creating animated frames using oil painting, was, for obvious reasons, a perfect fit for a film about the life, trials, and tribulations of painter Vincent Van Gogh. The Peasants, as you will likely be aware, is not about a painter. It is based on the book of the same name written by Wladyslaw Reymont. To briefly summarize, The Peasants is the story of Jagna Paczesiówna (Kamila Urzędowska), a stunningly beautiful peasant girl who, despite rumors of sexual behavior, is desired by men in the village. The dark story takes place over four seasons and tells a difficult truth about the dangers of a woman being desired, in more ways than one.

Now, although I said that this is a bad match, it does not mean that there is nothing to be gained visually from this particular style of animation. There are numerous sequences that are literally worthy of a gasp of appreciation. One absolutely cannot deny the craftsmanship and the amazing amount of time and effort that clearly went into The Peasants. Specifically, there are three segments that truly work with this style. As mentioned, the movie is split into four chapters, or seasons. These moments, as we watch the land literally change and move are breathtaking to witness. Additionally, the wedding and dance sequence are both stunners. This animation allows us to almost feel the texture and weight of Jagna’s dress and it is wildly effective.

Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between. The rest of the action, such as it is, is much more static. As such, there are many times in which the animation distracts from what is happening on screen. Given the darkness, almost impenetrably so, of the story, The Peasants is strong enough to stand on its own without said distraction or what sadly feels gimmicky. This is even more galling because the story itself is not gimmicky or standard in any way. Given Jagna’s forced wedding to Maciej Boryna (Miroslaw Baka), audience expectation is that the man that she loves, Boryna’s son, Antek (Robert Gulaczyk), would be much more kind, a romantic hero of sorts. These ideals exist within Antek, but he is also a married man with children who sells out Jagna’s good name at a moment’s notice. And this is the least of his crimes against the innocent. 

The Peasants does a wonderful job of having the audience root for Jagna, even as she is acting in a way that we know is inherently dangerous. Much of this has to do with Kamila Urzędowska stunning facial expressions and openness. But it must be noted that the directors pick and choose the perfect moments to focus on her and when to move outside to the judgmental townsfolk. This is another strength of the film. Upon introduction, both the women and the men of the village gossip and talk viciously about Jagna. They note her beauty and desirability, but also maintain that she is not to be trusted, both because of this beauty and rumors of her promiscuity. This promiscuity is mostly unfounded, but we all know that doesn’t matter. If it is believed to be true, it is as good as true. 

The ending of The Peasants will not be a surprise, though I won’t spoil it here. We all see it coming, because we know the trap of beauty for women in our culture and throughout history. We may wish for it to be different, but it would ring hollow if there was a white knight swooping in to save Jagna. She is pushed and pulled by the whims of a patriarchal society and, through our own anxiety, it comes crashing down exactly as we expect. It is a defeat, but a realistic one, sadly. The Peasants, if you can move past the beautiful yet distracting visual style, is a powerful and depressing story that hints at the dangers of beauty, the power of public opinion, and our own fear of female freedom and sexuality.

Grade: B

Movie Review: ‘The Underdoggs’ is a Mixed Bag, but Full of Heart


Director: Charles Stone III
Writers: Isaac Schamis, Constance Schwartz-Morini, Danny Segal
Stars: Snoop Dogg, Tika Sumpter, Mike Epps

Synopsis: Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings is a washed-up ex-professional football star who has hit rock bottom. When Jaycen is sentenced to community service coaching an unruly pee-wee football team, he sees it as an opportunity to turn his life around.


Streaming services are rapidly recycling movies to keep up with the streaming wars. Yes, the studio system and theatrical releases experience the same thing. However, the process is becoming commonplace due to its inherent competitive nature. The goal is to target a younger generation with classic stories as old as time. Now, telling stories from a different point of view is part of this. Yet, The Underdoggs exemplifies an exercise in AI plagiarism that lacks thought or care in the process or final product.

The film follows Jaycen Jennings (legendary rapper and actor Snoop Dogg), a former NFL superstar and self-proclaimed “top five” wide receiver of all time. After he retired early for slapping the you-know-what out of a tiny white kid who was heckling him, Jennings has fallen on hard times. He spends most days in his mansion tweeting at loudmouths like Skip Bayless, Jim Rome, and Stephen A. Smith-type sports show hosts (played by Chip Collins) because they’re low-hanging fruit.

After spending most of the day trying to get a hold of his agent, who won’t return his calls, he shows up at the office. After they turn him away, he berates a working man employed as a valet. Then, tight end Tony Gonzalez takes exception to Jennings’s treatment of the man. He tells the Hall of Famer to go, you know what, and talk to him when he gets a Super Bowl ring. He then drives his sports car into oncoming traffic and rolls the vehicle, becoming GIFs, memes, and daytime fodder for sportscasters everywhere.

Charles Stone III (Mr. 3000) directed The Underdoggs, working with a script from Grown-ish scribes Isaac Schamis and Danny Segal (based on a pitch by Constance Schwartz-Morini and Snoop Dogg himself, which means they likely didn’t do much). Their film rehashes almost any coming-of-age plus arrested development comedy we see when a man-child not only teaches kids about life – wait for that big lump in your throat – but Goddmit, they teach him! Of course, nothing as manipulative happens here in the sophomoric comedy, but it’s implied, and the sentiment falls short of being earned. 

Of course, it’s not that serious. Think of Hardball, The Mighty Ducks, and The Bad News Bears with lots of weed, bad manners, and even worse grammar. The script falls into the same cliche of taking a man who should never be around children to begin with and sentencing him to community service to avoid jail time. What’s his punishment? Teaching a bunch of foul-mouthed adolescents how the game is played. I can’t imagine any judge signing off on something so bizarre after at least anger management and drug counseling, but this is the world of make-believe, where child welfare and safety are never a matter of importance for those in charge of that sacred responsibility.

Most of The Underdoggs’ jokes fly as wide as a Buffalo Bills placekicker. When they do work, they are more amusing, yet forgettable. Mike Epps does have some buddy chemistry with Snoop. Schultz’s Chip Collins makes borderline racist comments that are insensitive. (I’m guessing the character’s show is on Fox News.) The issue is that they are played for laughs, so the ignorant won’t know better. I’ll admit, the one joke that made me chuckle was Jenning’s driving around with a podcast microphone hanging from the ceiling of his SUV for live podcasting to his fans.

The film is predicated on your love for the film’s star. If only Snoop Dogg had chemistry with his love interest, played by the talented Tika Sumpter, who has little to do here but get angry at anything said by the coach or her child. Perhaps, the biggest issue you can have with The Underdoggs is how uneven it can be, considering there is some positive messaging. 

There are moments when the main character misbehaves, yelling at children and grabbing their masks like no one should with anyone younger than a teenager. However, there are teachable moments for kids, between all the lewd comments and cursing, where Jennings will calmly and thoughtfully teach them how to be respectful teammates in their community. This is why it’s important to have films, especially in genre cinema, for populations with characters that can be relatable outside white middle-class America. 

I would love to say something snarky about The Underdoggs. Like, “Ultimately, the best advice this film can teach is what Snoop Dogg’s Jennings says: You must have a short memory. I assume the rapper forgot he signed up for this movie because of a smoke-filled memory. Please excuse me while I head down to the local cannabis dispensary while I try to wipe The Underdoggs from my memory.” However, it has its heart in the right place. That’s because it’s not bad, and it’s okay to enjoy the movie based on some of the positive attributes above.

You can, however, without guilt, wish the jokes were consistent and less repetitive, and the themes would come together for a more cohesive narrative.

Grade: C-

Movie Review: ‘Love and Work’ is a Labor of Love


Director: Pete Ohs
Writers: Stephanie Hunt, Will Madden, Pete Ohs
Stars: Stephanie Hunt, Will Maden, Frank Mosley

Synopsis: Diane and Fox love to work. Unfortunately, they live in a polarized world where having a job is illegal.


Pete Ohs is a director whose work should be on anyone’s radar if they are seeking out quietly subversive and philosophical stories delivered with sincerity and more than a dash of absurdist comedy. His love/hate relationship with Americana comes to the fore in films such as Youngstown (also starring Stephanie Hunt) which acts as both a comedy and commentary on rust belt towns. Originally raised in Ohio, Ohs blends genres to speak about how we make connections and why we do what we do. Teaming once again with Stephanie Hunt, Alexi Pappas, and Will Madden, and bringing on the excellent Frank Mosely – Love and Work is a labor of love about the love of labor.

In an alternate timeline, county ordinances have decided that the world simply has too much “stuff.” It’s now considered illegal to manufacture anything. Having a job which leads to a completed product is an offense that can see people be forced into coerced rehabilitation. People who want to work are part of an underground network who use specific code words. Diane (Hunt) is a serial offender who has crossed state lines to avoid prosecution. She ends up in what seems like a ruined industrial town with the sounds of trains and whistles haunting the background. She gets a job in a “factory” run by manager Hank (Frank Mosely). Their job is to assemble shoes. They are made of scraps of other shoes and don’t require to be wearable or in a pair. There she meets Bob Fox (Will Madden), and they develop a tentative romance.

The factory is raided by the productivity police and Vik (Alexi Pappas) lets Bob and Diane go with a strike warning. Hank is not so lucky – it’s his third strike and he’s out. Ohs, with co-writers Hunt and Madden, utilize both “employment speak” and “law and order” speak. Employees often operate under a three-warning rule before termination. Famously, America has implemented the controversial and often reductive habitual offender law across several states. Although the law can be used for keeping serious criminals incarcerated, it more often punishes those involved with petty theft or drug related incidents. In the timeline where Love and Work occurs wanting to work is akin to being a junkie (something Frank Mosely’s Hank displays with alacrity). 

Filmed in black and white in and around Corsicana, Texas and using 100W – Corsicana Artists & Writers Residency as the main stage, Ohs creates a timeless “sleepy town” which modernity passed by. The film is set both in the past, the present, and a possible future. It is truly a utopian dystopia (see also Everything Beautiful is Far Away). Losing their jobs as cobblers, Diane and Bob see a graveyard filled with the occupations which have been corporatized in some manner or turned into artisan pursuits. “The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker,” of nursery rhymes are a dead class. 

The question arises if Diane and Bob’s relationship can continue to work if work is their primary focus. The pure joy of getting a job leads them to a drinking session where Diane cries out, “We’re getting hiiiiiiiiiired!” Of course, getting hired can also lead to getting arrested because people act as undercover narcs. Eventually, one of them will end up in a “time out,” being forced to relax and take up a hobby that ostensibly doesn’t contribute anything to society (although considering some of them are learning an instrument and making music, the idea of what contributes to society is deliberately skewed).

Stephanie Hunt is an immensely talented comedic performer and writer, and her Diane is nigh on perfect. Casting Will Madden (known for playing annoying “creepy guys”) as the romantic hero is a stroke of genius. Ohs is playing with the audience but has something specific to say about how we have all lost our ability to balance our time. To create the work/life balance and have let go of the satisfaction of doing something well. There is too much “stuff” around. We have become consumers on a granular level. It isn’t just the miles of landfill where fast fashion and discontinued Funko Pops end up causing a pollution crisis no one knows how to reckon with. It is also how we perceive creativity and work itself. 

People constantly laugh about mid-level-management, but what if your goal is to be someone who creates opportunities to work in an environment where unemployment is skyrocketing, and the wealth gap is baked into generational experience? Imagine telling a Nana that knitting a sweater for someone is a crime because there are already enough sweaters out there. Some parts of work are fuelled by the necessity to keep the lights on, others exist because they are acts of genuine grace. 

With the elegance and wit of Jacques Tati and a complex lacework script which points to where humanity is in their overworked, underpaid, and often not appreciated quotidian lives, Ohs has once again captured how hard it is to just “be” in a world where your job could be taken at any second by an algorithm and how hard it is to keep one’s personal relationships alive when the focus is on career and success.

The maxim “Work to live not live for work” is so often repeated it has become almost meaningless. People imagine not having to do anything. To have a chance to just stop and smell the flowers. Or a reversion to the idealized childhood state where, in the best circumstances, someone else took care of your basic needs and gave you the opportunity hang out in a playground and cry out “wheee!” on a swing set. It’s why there seems to be a collective amnesia about the fact that so far, no form of political or economic governance has come up with the solution for any society to function without labor. Late-stage Capitalism is bad, but serfdom was worse. 

Maybe, as the narrator of the film suggests “Wondering is a lot like working,” and maybe the solution exists in something that was instituted years ago. Ohs’ breezy and glorious romantic comedy is a trojan horse. He doesn’t want the audience working too hard to enjoy the film, but he has put in the work to make you love it and maybe you will take a second to just go do something you want to do for the sake of doing it. Or you can take a well-deserved nap.

Grade: A-

Movie Review: ‘Wanted Man’ Slogs Through Everything


Director: Dolph Lundgren
Writers: Dolph Lundgren, Michael Worth, Hank Hugues
Stars: Dolph Lundgen, Kelsey Grammer, Christina Villa

Synopsis: Follows a police officer who must retrieve an eyewitness and escort her after a cartel shooting leaves several DEA agents dead, but then he must decide who to trust when they discover that the attack was executed by American forces.


There’s been a real paradigm shift in American action movies lately, where A-list filmmakers/actors star in vehicles that harken back to the good ol’ days when Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus ruled the 1980s action sphere with their low-budget B-movies when all audiences had to do was sit down in front of a screen, turn their brain off, and enjoy the mind-melting maximalism on display. It put actors like Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, and Michael Dudikoff in stable vehicles where all they needed to do was walk on screen and blow stuff up, delivering risible, reactionary dialogue in such a stilted, unengaging way it’s almost incredible that they would even lead a movie. 

Dolph Lundgren became a leading man through the Cannon Group pipeline with Gary Goddard’s Masters of the Universe. While his previous role in Rocky IV didn’t require him to utter many lines, the world saw Lundgren’s He-Man as a towering physical force but an actor who mumbled through serious dialogue as if he had a gun pointed at his head. In 2015’s Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, Lundgren remarked that he “felt a little stupid doing it.” Perhaps he did, but its ramifications for his career were huge. With each subsequent effort, whether starring in Showdown in Little Tokyo, Universal Soldier, John Woo’s Blackjack, or even his numerous direct-to-video efforts in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lundgren has seemingly tried to chase the same kitschy feel of a Cannon Group production. 

It’s no surprise, then, that his directorial efforts have the same feel, with Missionary Man, Command Performance, The Defender, and, most recently, Castle Falls, harkening back to the Golan-Globus days of mindless action pictures with a brutal action star at its forefront delivering justice to the ones who need it. His latest movie, Wanted Man, sees Lundgren direct himself as Mike Johansen, a veteran cop who has been caught in an accident where he hurled racist slurs at a Mexican immigrant. While Johansen believes he had it coming, considering the man was transporting trafficked women in his truck, his chief doesn’t think his actions were appropriate and forces him to go back to Mexico to perform a job for him, or he will lose his badge. 

The mission sounds simple enough: retrieve two eyewitnesses who have key information on the assassination of two DEA agents during a cartel bust from jail to the United States border. However, it goes predictably wrong, with corrupt police officers from Mexico looking for the two and Johansen, who shoot their car in a drive-by. Johansen ultimately gains the upper hand but is shot in the spleen, requiring medical attention. The setup is formulaic enough but gets the job done from point A to point B, and the audience knows it won’t be a simple witness retrieval. 

However, what comes after grinds the film’s pacing to an unbearable halt when Johansen is handcuffed to a medically supervised bed in Rosa Barranco’s (Christina Villa) family home. For a good chunk of the runtime, he sits on the bed and discusses his next steps with Rosa, when we know exactly how it’ll go down: the American cops can’t be trusted, even if they are Johansen’s partners, and will be revealed as the ones who killed the DEA agents in an attempt to save face. Of course, one has to figure out who. It’s quite simple: if Kelsey Grammer is in your film, it’s probably him. 

There are virtually no surprises in Wanted Man. Everything is laid out in front of us: from the reactionary dialogue from Johansen knowing that he will ultimately have a change of heart once he realizes that all of us are different and deeply human to the partners who absolutely are bad guys, it doesn’t take long to figure out exactly where the film is going. In fact, if you’ve seen a Cannon actioner where a [white] protagonist saves someone of a different ethnicity from bad [white] guys, Wanted Man takes the same template but has little more to offer. 

It’s a bit crazy to see the similarities laid out, with Johansen fully trusting the American justice system and only believing the bad cops are on the other side of the border while American ones serve their country. That’s a fairly conservative way to view things, but at least Lundgren attempts to give his protagonist a redemption arc, where Johansen finally sees the weight of the problem through Rosa’s eyes. And credit where credit is due: Lundgren directs himself quite well and shares a somewhat palpable chemistry with a charming Christina Villa. 

But the rest of the film is a complete wash: the grittiness of Lundgren’s earlier directorial efforts seem completely removed from action scenes that have little emotional and cathartic impact. You would think someone who worked with Sylvester Stallone, Roland Emmerich, John Woo, John Hyams, and, most recently, James Wan, would know a thing or two about directing action, but Lundgren’s action direction is almost non-existent, with many scenes breaking key notions of photography, almost as if he just wants to get the shoot over with and move on to the next project. 

Of course, one can’t blame Lundgren for wanting to do so if that is the case, as the actor recently revealed he has been battling kidney cancer since 2015 and was told by his doctors that he had two to three years left to live in 2020. You can feel his exhaustion both in front and behind the camera, which makes the release of Wanted Man not just commendable for Lundgren’s passion for entertaining the masses, but as a testament that he still wants to be here, making movies for all of us. It’s just a shame it’s not worth our time, but at least it continues the hopeful trend to finally resurrect The Cannon Group brand once and for all. If Orion Pictures rose from the dead, anything’s possible. 

Grade: D-

Movie Review (Sundance 2024): ‘Ibelin’ is a Touching Ode to the Legacy of a Gamer


Director: Benjamin Ree
Stars: Zoe Croft, Kelsey Ellison, Ed Larkin

Synopsis: Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer, died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life, when they started receiving messages from online friends around the world.


Ibelin, the documentary by filmmaker Benjamin Ree, feels like one of, if not the, most moving odes to video gaming imaginable. The reason being is that it is based around a deeply moving story about a young man named Mats Steen. Mats had Duchenne muscular dystrophy and sadly passed away at the age of 25. Yet Mats was also Ibelin Redmoore in the incredibly popular video game “World of Warcraft.” Whereas his parents thought Mats lived a lonely life isolated to his video games, Ibelin proves otherwise. With a massive archive of in-game chat logs and Mats’ blog to pull from, Ree enlists the help of animators and narrators to recreate moments in Mats’ life. It is a deeply touching documentary for a myriad of reasons, perhaps none more so than the simple fact that the impact simple gestures can have on the lives of those around us is truly unimaginable.

A majority of the documentary is actually recreated via animation in “World of Warcraft.” It struck a personal chord in me as this harkened back to the days of when Machinima was becoming immensely popular. Within it, there was an entire new artform that was paving a way for a variety of new stories to be told. And it all happened within the medium of video games, which, in my opinion, have always been an artform that has been belittled and unfairly ridiculed. Many of the individuals (Mats’ guild members) interviewed admit that people in their lives couldn’t comprehend the notion that there were actual friends to be made in the game. It’s an immensely reductive outlook on video games that has existed since the very creation of online gaming. To think that people you know through online means cannot have an impact on your life is wholly upsetting. The greatest success of Ibelin is in how clearly it dispels that myth.

Upon Mats’ passing, countless individuals he had met in “World of Warcraft” reached out to his parents recounting the experiences they shared with Mats. To see and hear from members of his guild all these years later is so touching. It’s a reminder that, even though the Internet (or more specifically social media) feels like it pulls us further and further apart, genuine connections can be made that will forever leave a mark on the life of a person. One needs to look no further than the connection between a mother and son that Mats helped foster. Having done so without meeting in person, or even using voice or audio chat, it’s a testament to the immeasurable spirit and good-heartedness of Mats. The real-life impact of helping others is felt in both directions, as Mats not only did all he could to help those beside him, but it allowed Mats to feel part of a community and to experience all the things he thought he’d never be able to. Love, freedom, even drinking at a bar! The in-game footage is so much fun, and delicately crafted to elicit emotions in the viewer in a way that feels real. Because to all those players, their emotions and feelings unequivocally were.

Another wonderful element of the documentary, albeit one that could have, and in my opinion, should have, been explored more, are the essential tools Mats used to play “World of Warcraft.” In the last few years of Mats’ life, he only had the ability to move his hands. As such, a set of accessibility tools were used in order for him to continue playing. While there were some shortcomings in the technology at the time, some gaming companies have sought to make their consoles and technology all the more accessible. The Xbox Adaptive Controller released in 2018, and is beloved by many for its accessibility customization and price to ensure that anybody who wants to find themselves in, in Mats’ words, “A gateway to wherever your heart desires,” will have the ability to do so. While there’s still a long way to go in the world of making gaming more accessible and more understood by the world at large, Ibelin is a beautiful stepping stone in the right direction.


Ibelin celebrated its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition category. It was acquired by Netflix, and will presumably release later this year.

Grade: B-