Category: Film Review

Writer/director Jonah Feingold is trying to bring back the vibe of 1989’s “When Harry Met Sally” for “Dating & New York.” However, a lot has changed over the decades when it comes to human beings connecting and confessing their feelings, challenging the production to update the formula without losing its emotional power. It’s a world of dating apps and texting pressure, with Feingold trying to make sense of special friendships and unspoken desires, doing so with focus on the magic of New York City, where love sparks to life around piles of garbage. “Dating & New York” doesn’t match the perfection of “When Harry Met Sally,” as Feingold wrestles with pacing for much of the second half of the movie, but it has the right idea with the material, which hopes to highlight the frustrations of attraction with heavy doses of neuroses, giving the cast room to feel around nervous performances and shape these itchy personalities. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It all started with 2011’s “Jamie: Drag Queen at 16,” a BBC documentary about Jamie Campbell and his struggle to chase his dreams of performance, living his life on his own terms while the world around him disapproved of his actions. Jamie’s experiences were turned into a theater event, with the musical, “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” making its debut in 2017. The production was well-received by critics and audiences, inspiring multiple touring shows and a live cinema presentation, building a passionate fanbase along the way. Offering a quick turnaround to a cinematic adaptation, “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” hopes to build on such popularity, with director Jonathan Butterell in charge of giving the material a big screen presence, generating an up-close examination of flamboyance and heartache, looking to sustain the charm of Dan Gillespie Sells’s music and Tom MacRae lyrics and story (he also handles screenwriting duties), giving audiences old and new a reason to remain with a 16-year-old dreamer and his quest to be himself. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It seems like every year, the Halloween season begins a little earlier, offering fans of the holiday a chance to turn the event into a lifestyle for several months. Emerging as the first spooky offering for upcoming Halloween countdown lists is “Bad Candy,” which hopes to bring a little terror to viewers hunting for a high during the post-Labor Day week. It’s an anthology film from directors Scott B. Hansen and Desiree Connell, who try to pack a lot of ghoulish events and demented characters into multiple stories. The picture is filled with macabre events, creepy lighting, and tales of abhorrent behavior, but “Bad Candy” often plays like a feature that wasn’t rigidly worked on in the editing room. It’s frustratingly random at times, with a limited sense of dramatic position when dealing with various tales of misery. Atmosphere is here, but so is a chaotic feel for storytelling, with the helmers frequently just throwing scenes at the audience to see what sticks. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Coke Daniels doesn’t appear to be sincere with “Karen,” which takes a look at rising hostilities in an elite community when a black couple moves into the neighborhood. Daniel is chasing a meme, with the name “Karen” synonymous with entitled white women trying to either push their demands or ruin lives with confrontations that are usually racial motivated. The whole concept of the nickname is strange, making light of mental illness and weaponized bigotry, and Daniels tries to turn such misery into a clunky blend of dark comedy, social commentary, and exploitation filmmaking. Unfortunately, the movie is a crude endeavor that doesn’t even try for a sophisticated understanding of the world’s ills, preferring to pander to its target audience with broad villainy and a painful miscasting, with star Taryn Manning showing no signs of life in the eponymous role. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

What is life worth? It’s the central question posed in “Worth,” with writer Max Borenstein venturing into the depths of decision making with the material, which is based on the battle of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, where lawyers were brought in to decide how much money was required to appease those who lost loved ones in the terrorist attack. It’s a brutal position of morality and legality that’s superbly handled by Borenstein, who manages to shape a compelling story out of a quest that carried on for years, while lacking the usual rounds of personal vices to keep things centered on the lead characters. “Worth” is a film about an education, with light Dickensian touches and a layered performance from Michael Keaton, who generates a compelling emotional through line for the effort, which involves various supporting characters and different battles of representation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There are going to be adaptations of “Cinderella” for many lifetimes to come. The folk tale has been a constant source of family entertainment, with many productions over the last century trying to refresh the magic of the story. For 2021, writer/director Kay Cannon (“Blockers”) gets the call to something with the source material, and she returns to her roots to reimagine “Cinderella,” with the “Pitch Perfect” writer returning to the land of jukebox musicals to hip-up ancient material. It’s a pop music world for this endeavor, which also boasts a decidedly more progressive screenplay and a new vision for the Fairy Godmother, reworked here as a “Fabulous Godmother,” who represents the overall drive for representation in the feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Superhost” isn’t just another horror tale about the dangers of dealing with Airbnb-style vacation rental homes. It eventually reaches a point of no return with a demented homeowner, but writer/director Brandon Christensen is more interested in the ways of social media vloggers who value clicks over sincerity, trying to maintain online fame in increasingly desperate ways. “Superhost” is no condemnation of the YouTuber lifestyle, but it uses this specialized mania to inspire a clash between show hosts and the landlord who is determined to land a positive review. The picture isn’t an aggressive example of genre entertainment, but the film builds with confidence, and it helps to have strong performances selling the creepy atmosphere of the endeavor, creating a believable divide between the real world and tireless video-making ambition. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman” is the second film about the serial killer that’s been unleashed this month (or the third, if you’re including the Blu-ray release of 1978’s “Killer’s Delight). There have been numerous movies made about the murderous ways of Bundy, but this one is written and directed by Daniel Farrands, a helmer with a deep affection for horror pictures from the 1980s. He’s been trying to transform real-world crimes into slasher entertainment, recently hitting Ten Worst lists with “The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” and “The Haunting of Sharon Tate.” This is the only kind of feature Farrands makes, and he’s back to his routine with “American Boogeyman,” which not only doesn’t understand the definition of “boogeyman,” but reaches a new low of tastelessness, transforming Bundy’s barbaric ways with female victims into bottom-shelf schlock, reveling in the violence the serial killer lived to cause, while the writing makes a ghastly last-minute attempt to turn crass exploitation into a celebration of police procedure and survival instinct. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“We Need to Do Something” is based on a novella by Max Booth III, who also provides the screenplay for the feature adaptation. He’s not here to deliver a thundering offering of horror, preferring to use a claustrophobic situation to monitor a family breaking down into madness, toying with thinning patience and long-simmering hostilities. “We Need to Do Something” occasionally teases outbreaks of “Evil Dead”-style goodness, but Booth III and director Sean King O’Grady don’t go all the way with their more macabre ideas, preferring to make a puzzle instead, and one that deals with black magic, self-harm, and frayed family ties. The picture is a slow-burn endeavor, which periodically works against the production, but there’s a minor sense of doom brewing in the effort, which keeps it involving, and blasts of gruesomeness certainly help the cause. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Zone 414” is for viewers either looking to huff some “Blade Runner” fumes or are searching for similar material that’s simplified, without all the pesky artistry that often competed with the core detective story. The production doesn’t hide its love for “Blade Runner” (or its sequel), but it also doesn’t have enough imagination to find its own way, with screenwriter Bryan Edward Hill coming up short as he cooks up a character study that’s wrapped in a futureworld mystery, and one that’s loaded with synthetic humans, corporate overlords, and questions concerning what it means to be alive. A lot is missing from “Zone 414,” including excitement, with the picture more about head games played by uninteresting characters, and there’s not enough money in the budget to really go wild with locations and technology. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In a case of strange release timing, “Mogul Mowgli” hits screen less than a year after the debut of “Sound of Metal,” a feature about the primal need for musical release hitting the cruelty of physical impairment, forcing the artist to understand a different future for himself. The picture offered actor Riz Ahmed the role of a lifetime, giving his all to the part, and he was rewarded with critical accolades and a trip around the awards circuit. Now there’s “Mogul Mowgli,” which also examines the burning frustrations of a musician trying to make sense of his life when everything he’s worked for is suddenly stopped by illness. The films are remarkably similar, which might create a feeling of déjà vu for some, but the emotional volatility contained within both endeavors can’t be denied, with “Mogul Mowgli” offering more attention to trials of family and faith to go along with its understanding of bodily submission. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Michele Civetta almost finds a dramatic path worth taking in “The Gateway.” It’s hard out there for low-budget movies, and almost all of them turn to action and crime to capture the attention of potential audiences. Sadly, “The Gateway” follows suit, but it also strives to understand difficult character histories and behaviors, at times getting dark with its study of a decent man fighting his demons and the world around him. Civetta commits to a certain level of understanding in the writing, but he doesn’t take it all the way, turning down the potential of a gritty drama, diluting the endeavor with criminal antics involving drugs, gangs, and bad dudes. Perhaps there isn’t much to the effort, but in a sea of similar underworld examinations, this feature has certain scenes that promise a more sincere and realistic tale to come, but Civette doesn’t try hard enough to preserve the human aspects of the screenplay. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It was a small Miramax release crafted expressly for teen audiences, released over the Super Bowl weekend. 1999’s “She’s All That” wasn’t meant to be much, but it found success with its “TRL”-approved casting, a lay-up premise involving young love, and a soundtrack that made “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer a staple of school dances and pop radio countdowns. The feature isn’t a classic, but it’s remembered fondly by those who were there in the moment and rented the picture a thousand times afterwards, reconnecting with its cartoon highs and lows. A remake has taken a surprisingly long time to surface, but “He’s All That” is here to revive tingly feelings, though it’s designed for a generation that’s probably never even heard of the original film, once again working through the saga of a cruel wager that turns into attraction, with the production strictly aiming this thing at social media-obsessed pre-teens. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Vacation Friends” follows marketplace trends, emerging as yet another comedy that’s trying to be as crude as possible to inspire laughs. The screenplay (credited to five people) doesn’t aim high, comfortable with formula and simple characterization, trying to remain as digestible as possible while still loaded with rough language and shock humor, keeping up with R-rated interests. And yet, while there’s nothing original about it, “Vacation Friends” manages to sneak in plenty of charm from its engaged cast, and co-writer/director Clay Tarver launches a few clever sight gags, trying to have as much fun as possible with dreary writing. There’s nothing here that’s revelatory, but this isn’t a mean-spirited endeavor, remaining cheery and occasionally strange enough to engage. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Candyman” began life in a Clive Barker short story, which was adapted by writer/director Bernard Rose in 1992, who expanded on the author’s ideas and conjured a delicious gothic mood, landing a minor hit with horror audiences. Sequels followed, but few viewers cared to follow the exploits of the eponymous ghost, leaving the brand name dormant for decades. “Candyman” has been resurrected by co-writer/producer Jordan Peele and co-writer/director Nia DaCosta, who hunt for way to return the nightmare to screens, but with a more defined take on racial injustice. They’re making a direct sequel to the first film, and one that’s more interested in feeling the brutality of the black experience than providing genuine scares. DaCosta makes a handsome picture, and Peele’s social concerns are present, but Rose offered a special level of cinematic pressure with his initial offering of Candyman, which this follow-up lacks. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A full sensorial immersion appears to the be the creative goal of “Mosquito State.” Co-writer/director Filip Jan Rymsza creates an itchy nightmare realm for the feature, filling it was insects and insanity, using claustrophobic audio and visual elements to make sure viewers are pushed all the way back into their seat. The material is unusual (think a cross between David Cronenberg and Adam McKay), presenting horrors of mind, body, and the American financial system with a distinct lean toward the mysteries of unreality. “Mosquito State” offers a fascinating look at various forms of control and the mental illness such command inspires, and while it doesn’t offer frights, there’s a level of unease to the work that’s keeps it involving, even when Rymsza gets a little carried away trying to make an art-house version of a disaster movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Siobhan Fallon Hogan has been acting for decades, perhaps best known for her stint on “Saturday Night Live” and movies such as “Men in Black,” where she played a highly confused farmer’s wife dealing with a sugar-swilling alien. Along the way, Hogan made contact with Lars von Trier and his Zentropa Films, opening the door to a semi-dramatic career in offbeat and sometimes violent features. Channeling that energy for her screenwriting debut, Hogan reteams with Zentropa for “Rushed,” which takes a look at deadly hazing practices at U.S. fraternities, using headline news to provide inspiration for a unique take on a mother’s anguish. The European backing for the endeavor immediately conjures expectations for a stark exploitation effort with screaming participants and bladed weapons, and while Hogan eventually gets raw, she doesn’t start there, managing a more emotional odyssey for the writing, offering an original take on the mourning process. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Filmmakers have repeatedly returned to the story of Ted Bundy, a serial killer executed in 1989. Bundy presents a particular psychological puzzle to dramatize, emerging with a cool demeanor of superiority, only to contain a burning sense of madness within. “No Man of God” is the first of two Ted Bundy movies released this month, and director Amber Sealey and writer Kit Lesser (a pseudonym for C. Robert Cargill, who’s taken his name off the picture) try to make a respectable, dramatic offering of character examination, using the true story of Bundy’s interactions with F.B.I. profiler Bill Hagmaier to inspire a theatrical two-hander concerning the monster’s denial and eventual confrontation of his heinous acts of savagery. “No Man of God” is not a thriller, sticking with conversations and confrontations as years pass, making the endeavor about fine acting as it struggles with sluggish pacing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Together” joins a growing number of movies that dramatize the experience of living through the COVID-19 pandemic, presenting viewers with a reminder of the way things were and how they are now, but with help from the sharpness of screenwriting and power of performance. What screenwriter Dennis Kelly basically offers here is a theatrical experience, using the two-hander format to analyze the changing mood of society and the growing medical emergency as a couple manages their flailing relationship smack dab in the middle of a hellish event. “Together” is a simple staging of anxieties and hostilities, but Kelly brings depth to impossible feelings of frustration and grief, also having an enjoyable time dreaming up arguments for actors Sharon Horgan and James McAvoy to play with as they go head-to-head for 90 minutes of screen time. It’s an outstandingly acted offering of confessional fury, but it’s difficult to understand who the audience is for this cathartic endeavor, and why it’s being produced now, when this global battle for stability is far from over. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To many, Alan Moore is a legend in the comic book business. He’s been the driving force behind such famous works as “Watchmen,” “Batman: The Killing Joke,” and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” His contributions to the art form and his deconstruction of the superhero experience has inspired generations of artists, but he’s been very outspoken about the movies adapted from his own material. Critical of “Watchmen” and “V for Vendetta,” Moore is more than happy to share his opinion about way the film industry treats his material, but “The Show” provides a rare opportunity to watch him manufacture an original tale for the big screen. Moore isn’t straying far from what he knows about corrupt and troubled human beings, but he also doesn’t have the budget to do much of anything with “The Show,” which is basically a T.V. pilot for an English version of “Twin Peaks,” dealing with eccentrics, lunatics, and the puzzling ways of dreamscapes. Moore is no David Lynch, leaving the picture quite an endurance test for those who don’t worship the comics industry deity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com