Category: Film Review

For those who complain about the death of originality in filmmaking these days, here’s “The Professor and the Madman,” which explores the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Now there’s a tale that’s rarely explored, with the production taking inspiration from a Simon Winchester book to bring such specificity in invention to the screen. It’s a strange subject matter, but one worth investigating, bringing in actors Mel Gibson and Sean Penn to dramatize an unlikely partnership forged by a mutual love of words and obsession. “The Professor and the Madman” has screenplay issues, messing around with tonality one too many times, but there’s something interesting in the central crisis of language, with the production capturing the fever of research and breakthroughs. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There are not a lot of sellable elements for “Tater Tot & Patton.” It’s a low-budget movie set in South Dakota, missing any sort of traditional cinematic polish. One of the picture’s main stars in Jessica Rothe, who recently watched her star rise after participating in two “Happy Death Day” features, making her beloved in genre circles. Beyond that, the production has to rely on emotional textures and gorgeous imagery, and thankfully there’s both. While the title suggests something poppy, “Tater Tot & Patton” is more reminiscent of early 1970s filmmaking, where initial unease, slightly comedic in tone, is only masking abyssal pain and addiction, with writer/director Andrew Kightlinger (“Dust of War”) using the stillness of his locations to mine some real heartbreak, finding interesting drama along the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The softening of Seth Rogen hasn’t been easy for Hollywood. He’s not the cuddly type, and while his forays into romantic and domestic comedies have been limited, a few have scored, including 2007’s “Knocked Up.” For “Long Shot,” Rogen attempts to play a more traditional leading man role, tasked with making screen magic with co-star Charlize Theron, with hopes to mute his usual tomfoolery and sell the part with more wit than nonsense. “Long Shot” gets most of the way there, and while Rogen doesn’t stray too far from his comedy crutches, he finds a way to develop a performance while dealing out his usual stoner jokes and penis references. Perhaps chemistry with Theron is a bit of a reach, but Rogen dials down some wackiness in an effort to allow the feature a chance to reach the heart along with the funny bone. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“The Intruder” is not a film that requires a tight respect for logic. It’s a PG-13 thriller for the mass audience, with screenwriter David Loughery showing little interest in normal human behavior when dealing with a feature that’s primarily out to make viewers squirm and scream. However, there’s a breaking point for this type of entertainment, and “The Intruder” quickly finds it, delivering a small-scale chiller that’s obsessed with keeping its characters dumb, almost to a point where a medical explanation should be required to properly identify some of their choices in the film. Loughery has already made this picture, several times in fact (also scripting “Obsessed,” “Penthouse North,” and “Lakeview Terrace”), and he’s no closer to mastering the formula. He’s proudly offering a low-wattage viewing experience, while director Deon Taylor gives the material a bland VOD rhythm, extending the nightmare long past its expiration date. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

2019 appears to be the year where attention returns to the exploits of Ted Bundy, one of the most savage and recognizable of serial killers from the 20th century. In January, director Joe Berlinger debuted “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,” offering viewers a chance to see the murderer work through his own thoughts and delusions, presenting a clear view of a madman trying his best to deflect attention away from his inner evil. And now Berlinger returns with “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile,” which dramatizes Bundy’s life with girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall and his experiences in and out of custody while dealing with mounting legal issues. The helmer provides an abundance of Bundy material for consumption, but with “Extremely Wicked,” he aims to slip inside the skin of a lunatic, with star Zac Efron perfectly matched to the charms and impatience of the monster, submitting an impressively nuanced performance that often single-handedly carries the feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I’m sure when most people think of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the image of a short, heavily accented woman with defined opinions on the ways of sexual response comes to mind. She achieved the peak of her fame in the 1980s, becoming a hot accessory to any television program, happily sharing her unique personality with the world. While it seems Dr. Ruth Mania has died down in the intervening years, director Ryan White hopes to reignite interest in the subject with “Ask Dr. Ruth,” a documentary that charts the now 90-year-old woman’s turbulent life and her rise to pop culture dominance, leading with a sincere mission to educate viewers and listeners about the wonders of their genitalia. White is also determined to reestablish Dr. Ruth’s credentials, making clear points about her authority and groundbreaking ability to offer direct advice concerning the critical needs and desires of those searching for guidance. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After making her mark with comedies in the 1990s, actress Lin Shaye found a fresh way to keep her career going in 2000s, becoming a fixture of horror entertainment, especially through her involvement with the “Insidious” features, making a franchise initially about other actors her own. She’s been terrific in these haunted house experiences, but “Room for Rent” isn’t looking for Shaye to stand still while nightmarish visions do all the heavy lifting. Director Tommy Stovall wants to keep Shaye active here, providing her with a meaty role as a seemingly simple woman who loses all contact with reality while managing a bed and breakfast. “Room for Rent” doesn’t ride off the rails like the best psychological thrillers, but it has Shaye, and she’s excellent here, supplying raw emotion and a credible nutso factor to help buttress the production when it eventually runs out of ideas. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is “Avengers: Endgame,” acting as a culmination of all the hard work that’s been put into these diverse superhero stories, taking some characters to their natural conclusions, while offering supporting players a chance to shine in future installments. It’s the second half of an adventure that began with last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” which arranged an apocalyptic showdown between the Avengers and Thanos, offering faithful audiences an exciting and surprising sequel that was littered with questions of mental scarring and mortality, offering a cliffhanger conclusion to best lathered up viewers for another battle between good and evil. “Avengers: Endgame” works hard to give fans exactly the type of epic experience they’ve been waiting patiently for, but screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely come up a little short in the satisfaction department. They provide compelling character business and powerhouse emotionality, but as a continuation of the risk-taking Thanos saga, the feature isn’t quite as daring as expected. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“Family” uses the world of the Insane Clown Posse to explore the nature of belonging and connection. It’s not exactly the first example that comes to mind with considering the warmth and dependability of community support, but writer/director Lara Steinel enjoys the extremity, wisely throttling ICP involvement as she examines a tale of a woman and her niece trying to figure out their place in the world when so-called normality just doesn’t fit their needs. Steinel invests in jokes and heart, and she makes a frequently hilarious movie with “Family.” Perhaps it’s a little undercooked in some areas of the screenplay, but Steinel gets to the point with the effort, also using star Taylor Schilling in a previously unseen way, with the actress exploring newfound deadpan silliness in what turns out to be one of the best performances of her big screen career. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Fred Wolf must be a fantastic person to meet. As a filmmaker, he’s been responsible for two of the worst pictures of the last decade (“Mad Families” and “Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser”), but he always manages to find work, with his career basically supported by his association with the two “Grown Ups” movies, partially responsible for the saga’s depressing fixation on DOA humor. Wolf gets another at-bat with “Drunk Parents,” trying to cash-in on a trend concerning tales of withered guardianship, highlighting the antics of adults tasked with responsibility getting into tremendous trouble with R-rated antics. Wolf’s a dreadful screenwriter and an abysmal director, and while I’m sure he’s a nice enough guy, “Drunk Parents” is an additional stain on an already blackened resume, delivering another round of grim jokes and desperate performances trapped inside a farce that has no discernible movement. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Josh Lobo doesn’t have many professional credits to his name. He’s a newcomer who’s taking the same path as many first-time helmers, turning to horror to figure out his big screen vision, trusting in a genre that’s typically very kind to such low-budget ambition. Thankfully, there’s little to forgive about “I Trapped the Devil,” which is accomplished work from Lobo, who bathes the feature in mood and style to dress up traditional suspense in different ways, pulling up a handsome effort with pockets of genuine unease. Labeling the movie slow-burn is being kind, but Lobo on a mission to make his contractually obligated run time, moving through the Christmastime nightmare inch-by-inch, making sure every corner of the endeavor is tended to. “I Trapped the Devil” takes its sweet time to get where it’s going, but the reward is a chance to see an obviously talented director take his first step with an eerie endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy was a literary persona created by thirtysomething Laura Albert, who built a backstory concerning an abused teen who found his voice through writing, detailing his experiences with homelessness, drugs, and depression. Albert needed someone to embody LeRoy for publicity purposes, finding help from Savannah Knoop, who was ready to play the part. The resulting fraud and general media mess managed to make both participants known beyond their original desire for fame, and now the pair have separate movies to help defend their reputations. Albert was the subject of the extremely suspect 2016 documentary, “Author: The JT LeRoy Story,” handed substantial screen time to directly address the controversy she created. And now Knopp has “JT LeRoy,” which uses their memoir to inspire a rebuttal of sorts, with the new film offering tremendous compassion for Knopp’s participation in the chaos. Both projects claim to be rooted in truth, but neither feature seems to be honest about what really went down between Knoop and Albert. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The “Conjuring” Universe has been going strong since 2013, with the original James Wan picture spawning a slew of sequels and spin-offs, with each production warmly received by audiences craving big scares from the supernatural unknown. The quality of a few of these titles is up for debate, but as proven with last fall’s “The Nun,” viewers aren’t exactly expecting much more out these endeavors than the basics in jump scare gymnastics. Understanding that, “The Curse of La Llorona” doesn’t really bother with a plot or a backstory, charging full steam ahead as a fright machine, working in as many shocks, jolts, and booms as possible while offering a tenuous connection to the world of “The Conjuring.” It doesn’t do much, and perhaps that’s all it needs to do, but “The Curse of Llorona” gets tiresome in a hurry, trying to skate by on the bare minimum of dramatic effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2015, writer/director David Robert Mitchell made an impression with “It Follows.” A tale of horror and paranoia, the picture managed to slip out of release obscurity and make some money, acquiring a fervent fanbase along the way. For his follow-up, Mitchell wisely stays away from replicating his lone hit film, trying something different with “Under the Silver Lake,” which is something of a valentine and a warning concerning the secret avenues of Los Angeles. But how different is too different? It’s a question that often comes up during the viewing experience, with Mitchell trying too hard to be strange and cryptic with his latest endeavor (which was shot nearly three years ago). “Under the Silver Lake” welcomes interpretation and decoding, but it’s less invested in interesting storytelling, with Mitchell taking 140 minutes of screen time to fumble along with tedious humor, mysteries, and west coast quirk. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Red Joan” knows exactly how to play to its target audience. This is not a procedural spy thriller or a dissection of World War II political gamesmanship. There’s nothing particularly edgy about the production. Instead, screenwriter Lindsay Shapero takes a more soap opera-ish approach to the subject, turning this tale of secrets and lies into acts of heartbreaking exposure to all-consuming love. For some, such mushiness is going to be a turn-off, with director Trevor Nunn (who hasn’t helmed a big screen feature since 1986’s “Lady Jane”) creating a softer push of melodramatics to buffer a tale of treasonous behavior and patriotic confusion. For others, “Red Joan” will be cat nip, especially for older art-house crowds who enjoy their global conflict reduced to areas of romantic indecision, blended with some mild espionage action. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have been a lot of movie about American poverty and addiction in the heartland and there will be many more to come. Filmmakers are naturally drawn to the distress of an open world populated with people unable to keep their heads above water, and “Little Woods” is no different, with writer/director Nia DaCosta examining the atmosphere of a North Dakota boomtown and the residents who can no longer afford to live there, trying to scrape by as drugs offer numbness, and basic needs, such as healthcare, strip them of money and dignity. DaCosta doesn’t dwell on the hardscrabble life, providing attention to character with a slight thriller edge, keeping “Little Woods” gritty without the verte feel. It’s an accomplished picture, even when manipulations begin to take command of the screenplay in the third act, with DaCosta trying to keep her effort emotionally authentic but also tense enough to hook in an audience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenwriters Carlyle Eubank and David Frigerio apparently loved Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” and wanted to update the 1987 picture for today’s audiences. “Crypto” doesn’t have the sinister feel of Stone’s endeavor, but it basically follows the same arc of moral and financial corruption, offering viewers a new playground of cryptocurrency and encrypted dealings featuring global criminal syndicates. The writing provides a deep dive into terminology and restless participants trying to make a fortune with digital loot, and “Crypto” isn’t half-bad when focus turns to online detective work. Even some mild family dramatics are understood, but the material faces an uphill battle when transitioning from a cyber-thriller to a violent one, forcing director John Stalberg Jr. into helming stress positions that shut down the movie entirely. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Mike Leigh is not one to get all riled up for his screen endeavors. He’s quick to anger, certainly, but his features mostly take a humanistic look at behavioral failures and interpersonal connections, while his last film, 2014’s “Mr. Turner,” was a bio-pic about a painter. Primarily drawn to domestic dramas, Leigh aims for a grander scope with “Peterloo,” which depicts an 1819 event where the ruling class, in an effort to stop a peaceful demonstration, ordered violence to silence the needy, resulting the wounding of hundreds and the deaths of many. “Peterloo” isn’t a precise picture, with Leigh once again indulging himself with an unnecessary run time (155 minutes), but there’s fury here, at least in spurts, with the normally placid helmer bulging a few veins as he mounts a historical drama featuring a multitude of characters and a political backstory that’s never completely committed to being educational. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Musicals are back in style thanks to the likes of “La La Land” and the inexplicable success of 2017’s “The Greatest Showman.” Audiences are in the mood for grand displays of singing and dancing, whisking them away to areas of fantasy and emotion that can only be reached through the majesty of Hollywood magic, boosted with some old-fashioned star power. “Stuck” doesn’t have much pixie dust, offering viewers a small-scale tale of personal connection among strangers trapped in a subway car. There’s not much room for movement or epic showcases of style, but writer/director Michael Berry (adapting a musical play by Riley Thomas) is determined to make something meaningful with the little material he has, aiming for heartfelt exchanges over splashy entertainment, laboring to make “Stuck” matter where it counts the most. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Stop-motion animation studio Laika has focused intently on the creation of artful endeavors for a family audience. They’ve rarely compromised, which has limited their box office appeal, but it’s resulted in a string of gorgeously crafted, adventurous tales of fantasy and beyond, reaching a sort of creative pinnacle with 2016’s “Kubo and the Two Strings.” Their latest effort is “Missing Link,” which plays like a reaction to the tepid financial response to “Kubo,” with Laika slipping into Aardman Animations territory, dialing up comedic appeal and cartoon design to reach an audience that’s been hesitant to spend their matinee dollars on semi-challenging work. “Missing Link” is a charmer and features the company’s exquisite attention to frame detail, but it can’t shake the traditional coldness of Laika’s output, often caught straining to be whimsical in a largely laugh-free endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com