Babylon

Babylon (2022)

Written and directed by Damien Chazelle

Stars: Diego Calva, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jin Li, Lukas Haas, Olivia Wilde, Tobey Maguire, and Flea

After the miserable experience of watching La La Land earlier this year, my expectations for this movie were very low. Hearing the mixed reception of the movie during TIFF, I believe. People either loved the movie or hated it. I was in the middle with it.

Touted as the love letter to the movies like Empire of Light or The Fabelmans did before it, this completes that unexpected trilogy. Taking place during the waning times of the silence film era Hollywood. Drugs, booze and hedonism was in full effect. The most unlikely of people; an aspiring filmmaker, Manny (Calva), an actress Nellie (Robbie), and an aging silent film star, Jack Conrad (Pitt) lives intersect with hilarious, disastrous results.

Seeing the movie is like you are in a fever dream. I kept thinking, did I just see that? Did that happen? What am I looking at?

The first half of the movie is like a roller coaster ride. You bolt out like a bat out of hell. Your head is spinning. Everything is a blur. Then, the second half of the movie slows way down. You are returning back to the starting position. That's where the movie lost me. I thought the movie was going to be nonstop debauchery from start to finish. It was not.

It felt confused to me. It seems that Chazelle threw everything at the wall to find something to stick. Not all of it did. A couple of characters in the movie could have been cut from the movie.

Out of the performance that have been nominated for awards so far, I have enjoyed Calva's performance more that Robbie's. He was hell of lot better than Pitt's.

The movie looked good, but it was not cohesive enough for me to recommend people watch it.

Rating: 7/10

Women Talking

Women Talking (2022)

Directed by Sarah Polley

Screenplay by Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews

Based on the novel by Miriam Toews

Stars: Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, Kate Hallett, Liv McNeil, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, and Frances McDormand

There is a lot of buzz surrounding this movie since TIFF. Those Oscar movies really want to go hard in the last week of December. Seeing the movie, I can see why people are loving this.

It is 2010. A small colony is rocked by the realization that most of the men in the community have raped the women in the middle of the night. It has been going on for years. A perpetrator has been caught and sent to jail. While most of the elder men leave to bail the suspect out, the women must decide to either forgive the men for what they have done, stay and fight the men or leave the colony.

I am not familiar with the story of the women in this particular story. The decision that they made must have been incredibly hard to do. Your whole world is turned upside down by the actions of awful people in your community.

There was a lot of buzz with Jessie Buckley as Mariche, Claire Foy as Salome and Ben Whishaw as August. Seeing the movie, I believe that Buckley will probably be the sole acting nomination in the movie. I am not discrediting the other actors. The Academy loves to nominate a performance where a lot happens to them. Mariche goes through it in this film.

This is a visceral experience to witness. This makes me want to read the book.

Rating: 10/10

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert (2022)

Directed by Michael Showalter

Screenplay by David Marshall Grant & Dan Savage

Based on the book, "Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies" by Michael Ausiello

Stars: Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge, Sally Field, Bill Irwin, Nikki M. James, Sadie Scott, Jason Gotay, Brody Caines, Braxton Fannin, and Tara Summers

Watching the trailer of the film, I wanted to see the film. The trailer was very forthright that the movie is a love story, but a different one. I know of Michael Ausiello, but I did not know about his life with his husband, Kit. This is a sweet movie that will tug at your heartstrings.

The movie covers the romance between Michael (Parsons) and Kit (Aldridge). Meeting in a club in 2001? or 2002?, Kit getting to know Michael's smurf collection and them falling in love with each other. Signs of things to come began to show themselves with the fainting spells.After being together for over a decade, Kit learns that he has cancer. The movie shows us the true love shown between Michael and Kit as they battle this new obstacle.

I was thinking that the movie was going to be exploiting the cancer story to make people cry. It was handled well. It wasn't manipulative. 

This is not a feel good movie by any means. It does make you feel that love is the strongest drug to have.

Rating: 8/10

Weekly Rewind

This weekly rewind is going to be combing two weeks of movie watching. The holidays and moving. It's craziness around here. Buckle up, buttercup.

The Northman (rewatch): I haven't seen the movie since the beginning of the year. I did not know that this story was the basis of Hamlet. I still enjoyed it. Bloody, muscley men naked. Yep. 9/10

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: After a sleepless night, I watch this special. Zoe Saldana was probably busy with filming five Avatar sequels. I liked the special even though Chris Pratt is getting on my last nerves. 7/10

Cannibal Holocaust: This is supposed to be the most controversial movie ever. This movie is disgusting to watch. It is very bad. The acting was awful. The shock factor wore off, then the movie became a boring slog. 2/10

Avatar (rewatch): I have not seen this movie since I saw it in theaters. I think I was bamboozled with the visuals and seeing it in 3D. The story is not great. Imperialism and a White Savior story line is not a good look. 7/10

Moulin Rouge! (rewatch): Seeing that Elvis is getting a lot of Best Picture nominations, I wanted the revisit this movie to see if I had rose colored glasses on. Turns out that I did not. I love the movie. Does it have problems? Yes. Having the actor sing live. Mistake. The last act of the movie took a turn. 8/10

Matteo Lane: The Advice Special: It was a nice fluffy comedy special on Lane's YouTube channel. We never knew what happened to that first guy who having sex with his married super. Oh, well. 7/10

Glass Onion (rewatch): Watching the movie on Netflix. I love it as much as I did in the theater. 10/10

Empire of Light: I could not care less about a movie so much as this. Don't fuck your co-workers. 4/10

The Holiday Sitter: This is a cute Christmas movie with gay leads. There is some cringe dialogue here, but it was nice to see that the gays were not treated like zoo animals. 7/10

Must Love Christmas: Here is the typical Christmas movie. A shitty one. Holy fuck. I hated the male lead so much. I did want the couple to get together. Fuck this movie. 1/10

The Noel Diary: This is a real movie about Christmas. Well, the movie was based on a book.There is that. Adoption, broken families. It's not a fluffy movie, but I appreciate the effort in making something different. 6/10

White Christmas: This is a holiday classic. Never seen it. The movie is a bit too saccharine for me. The movie felt long. It was two hours, but the pacing was killing me. I stopped paying attention in the last thirty minutes. 5/10

Holiday Inn: I have heard about this movie. I also heard about an unfortunate sequence of blackface for the Abraham Lincoln's birthday celebration. Other than that, I enjoyed the movie. I wonder if the stage musical changed that in subsequent revivals. 8/10

Christmas Bloody Christmas: I wanted to see a Christmas horror movie. Oh, boy. I hated this movie so much. There was a shit ton of cuss words. It was overflowing with them. Fuck this, fuck that... The movie was not good. It was like a computer AI mixed The Terminator, Chopping Mall and Krampus into a blender and spat out the script to this. 2/10

Silent Night: I wanted to end Christmas with a dark comedy. This movie was not for me. I watched twenty minutes of it and shut it off to go bed. DNF

The Banshees of Inisherin

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Written and directed by Martin McDonagh

Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan, Pat Shortt, Jon Kenny, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Gary Lydon, Aaron Monaghan, and Sheila Flitton

I have been waiting on bated breath to watch McDonagh's latest movie. It has been getting Colin Farrell a lot of Best Actor awards from various film critics societies. I can see why. This movie is mature dark comedy from McDonagh.

During the Irish Civil War in 1923, a simple man, Pádraic Súilleabháin (Farrell) thinks its a typical day in Inisherin when he wants to have a pint with his buddy, Colm Doherty (Gleeson). Things change when Colm doesn't want to be in the presence of Pádraic anymore. Pádraic doesn't understand why the sudden animosity. He goes out of his way to find some reconciliation that leads to disastrous results.

Seeing all of McDonagh's movies, I have to say that this is the most subdued film for him. It's refreshing to see that he is not going for the shocking amounts of violence. There is some here, but it's visceral. It's that 'holy shit' moment when things get real. There are consequences to people's actions. Setting a movie in the early 20th century with no guns, no political incorrect language in it. It's very restrained. I appreciate the film more that McDonagh chose to tell this story.

Ireland is beautiful to behold. The cinematography by Ben Davis capture the lush rolling fields and vast landscapes.

I didn't know what to make of this film. It was getting a lot of praise and I was afraid that the movie wasn't going to live up to those expectations. I'm glad it did. The performances were stellar across the board with Farrell and Gleeson. There is Kerry Condon as Pádraic's sister, Siobhan. She was a breath for fresh air. She was the audience trying to get the craziness of this story together. Barry Keoghan's performance as Dominic Kearney had subtlety and nuance. You would think that he was playing a dimwitted guy, but he had layers to him.

This was an enjoyable experience. I have a nitpick with the movie. There was a part with the bartender and a patron of that bar that got on my nerves. If you have seen the movie, then you know what I talking about. I hate it when a character becomes an echo.

Rating: 9/10

Bones and All

Bones and All (2022)

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Screenplay by David Kajganich 

Based on the novel, "Bones & All" by Camille DeAngelis 

Stars: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Michael Stuhlbarg, David Gordon Green, Jessica Harper, Chloë Sevigny, and Anna Cobb

People have been raving about this movie on film Twitter. I needed to be in the right headspace to watch a cannibal love story. Today is the day. I am slowing warming up to Twinky Timmy and his acting. It's not there yet, but I have hope. This movie could have been great, but falls short.

Maren (Russell) is trouble young woman who had to move from place to place because of her insatiable hunger for human flesh. Her family cannot deal with it anymore and leaves her to her own devices. Maren sets out on a quest to find her birth mother that abandoned her when she was little. During her journey, Maren meets people just like her such as the eccentric Sully (Rylance) or the loner, Lee (Chalamet). Lee and Maren form a bond. They found their tribe.

The first hour of the movie was fascinating. I wanted to delve into Maren's world. Her hunger. I wanted to see more of the raw visceral nature of cannibalism. It was touched on here, but I felt it was lacking. The last forty minutes of the movie derailed so hard that it was hard to recover. Revelations and character motivations come out of left field. It had me scratching me head. What the hell was happening?

I have seen two Guadagnino films now. I have noticed that his movies either look pretty, but lack substance or they have the bones -- no pun intended-- but the story suffers from poor pacing issues or underdeveloped characters. This movie could be have been good with cutting a couple of scenes here and there.

Rating: 7/10

Fresh

Fresh (2022)

Directed by Mimi Cave

Screenplay by Lauryn Kahn

Stars: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan, Jojo T. Gibbs, Andrea Bang, Dayo Okeniyi, Charlotte Le Bon, Brett Dier, and Alina Maris

I didn't hear about this movie when it was released earlier this year. I guess with hubbub of the Oscars might have been overshadowing it. This movie was in a top twenty horror movies of this year. I wanted to see if the movie is gonna go there or is it going to be like Raw. It doesn't go fully there.

Noa (Edgar-Jones) is tired of the dating scene, especially dating losers. One night, she goes to the grocery store and meets Steve (Stan). He is charming and a breath of fresh air. Noa takes a liking to him. They agree to go to Steve's house in the county. Things are not what they seem when it turns out that Steve is a cannibal.

When I was watching the movie, I kept thinking if the movie was going to be like The Black Phone or Get Out in its overall plot. It turns out to be both. It's not a bad thing, but I wish that the we delved into the world more. Who are these secret cannibals? How do they get in touch with each other?

Did the movie go where I thought it was going to go? Yes. Did I wish that the ending of the movie wasn't a fucking mess? Also, yes. It was a nice ride.

Rating: 6/10

Weekly Rewind

The reviews are going to be infrequent in the coming weeks as I am in the process of moving. Be aware my fives of followers out there.

Bullet Train: I wanted to see a dumb action movie. This one fit the bill perfectly. So much so that I didn't care what was going on. I had no desire to review it, because I was barely paying attention. 4/10

Troop Beverly Hills: I don't know why it took me so long to watch this camp classic. Is it a great movie? No. Is it fabulous? Yes. 6/10

Another rewatch of Bros because I was under the weather.

The Northman (rewatch): I wanted to revisit this movie since reviewing it earlier this year. I didn't know that the story of Hamlet was inspired by this tale. 9/10
 

The Eternal Daughter

The Eternal Daughter (2022)

Written and directed by Joanna Hogg

Stars: Tilda Swinton, Carly-Sophia Davies, Zinnia Davies-Cooke, August Joshi, Joseph Mydell, and Alfie Sankey-Green

This movie recently came out on VOD. I wanted to see what the mood of the movie was. Coming out of it, it feels like something that I have seen before that was better.

Julie Hart (Swinton) goes to a remote hotel with her mother and dog, Louis. The property used to belong to the family a long time ago. Julie is trying to finish a manuscipt about her and her mother. During her stay, she starts hearing things from the other rooms that are currently unoccupied. Julie feels hat something is not quite right.

Watching the film, it felt that the mod was going to be quiet and atmospheric. It was. There wasn't much dialogue. Cool. I have seen plenty of movies to know what was going to happen throughout the course of the runtime. I was waiting to the obvious reveal. It doesn't happen until fifteen minutes before the movie ends.

It is not breaking any new ground. It's the same derivative concept regurgitated out. I cannot recommend this.

Rating: 5/10

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro & Mark Gustafson 

Story by Guillermo del Toro and Patrick McHale

Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins

Based on the book by Carlo Collodi

Featuring voices by Gregory Mann, David Bradley, Ewan McGregor, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton

Did you know that there have been four Pinocchio films that have been released in the past five years? I did. I have only seen the original film and this movie. My final verdict is that I think I don't think I like the story of Pinocchio.

Cricket (McGregor) recounts the story of Gepetto (Bradley) who mourns the loss of his "son," Carlo in WWI. Gepetto was devastated by the loss and goes through bottles of booze. One day, he makes a wooden boy named Pinocchio (Mann), a rambunctious being. You know the story.

I understood that del Toro wanted to make his version of the story different from the Disney version or any other version that has been released. Cool. It was nice to see a different storyline with the character. My main problem was the character of Pinocchio. He is very absent-minded and annoying that I wanted him to die. Seriously. The storyline with the fascists was weird.

The only redeeming thing about the movie was the end.

Rating: 6/10

Emancipation

Emancipation (2022)

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

Screenplay by Bill Collage

Stars: Will Smith, Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa, Gilbert Owuor, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Aaron Moten, Michael Luwoye, Steven Ogg, Grant Harvey, Mustafa Shakir, Paul Ben-Victor, Jesse C. Boyd, and David Denman

There was not a mention with this movies for months after the incident at the Oscars. Rumors were swirling that the film was pushed to 2023. Turns out not to be true. There was some Oscar talk with Smith here. I am judging the film on merit only. It's fine.

During the Civil War, a slave Peter (Smith) hears that President Lincoln has implemented the Emancipation Proclamation. Hearing this, he has an idea to escape from his slavers toward freedom.

The first moments of the film I could tell that the movie was either shot in black and white or in color with heavy saturation on it. Turns out that it was both. This immediately took me out of the experience.

It seems that the movie was trying to be tough to watch to invoke some sort of response for the audience. I don't think that Fuqua succeeded in this regard. The film was too long for it own good. The central story line has been done before with The Revenant, The Odyssey or Cold Mountain. This is nothing new. It tried, but it failed to hook me.

Smith's performance is solid. I didn't know that Peter was supposed to be Haitian. He had moments in an uneven movie.

Rating: 5/10

Morbius

Morbius (2022)

Directed by Daniel Espinosa

Screenplay by Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless

Stars: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Tyrese Gibson, and Al Madrigal

I was not intending to see this movie. Since it was pushed its release date back five times, I knew it was going to be awful. I wanted to see how bad it was. It's not good at all.

A world renounced scientist, Dr. Michael Morbius (Leto) is trying to cure his rare blood condition. He travels to Costa Rica to try to find vampire bats to get their DNA to try to make artificial blood to make him a test subject. When this happens, he turns into a living vampire.

The movie felt like a episode of Lost where you follow the Smoke Monster around for almost two hours. The special effects were laughable. Every time Michael or Milo (Smith) Morbed out, I laughed. It was so stupid, but I loved it.

Leto has a reputation of going method on and off set. It didn't need to be that deep for this movie.

The other actors of the movie were either over being there like Tyrese Gibson or knew exactly movie they were in like Matt Smith. It doesn't make the movie an enjoyable watch. It feels that the Sony Marvel movies don't get it. At all.

Rating: 3/10

Weekly Rewind

During this time of the year, a lot of Oscar movies are coming out left and right. This list is from two weeks of viewing or rewatching.

Smile: I tried to watch this movie to see what the fuss was about. Umm... no. I think I had my fill with horror movies where a woman with insurmountable trauma is dealing with it and the people around thinks that she is crazy. I was done. I didn't finish it. I don't care. DNF

Knives Out (Rewatch): I watched this movie again to prepare myself for Glass Onion when it was released theatrically. It is still a solid whodunit. The right wing to borderline MAGA scenes made me uncomfortable. 8/10

Benediction: People were talking about this movie online. 'It's so great. You should watch it.' I tried to watch it. I was bored out of my mind seriously. I don't a flying fuck about a wartime poet in one of the World Wars. I was yawning at least six times during the forty minutes that I spent with this movie. I did not care to finish it nor will I. DNF 

Bodies Bodies Bodies (Rewatch): After seeing the movie nominated for a couple Indie Spirit Awards, I have decided to revisit this movie. I guess when a certain character dies, I was checked out. It turns out to be a very pointed dark comedy/horror/satire about privilege. Original rating: 1/10. Now: 7/10

Triangle of Sadness (Rewatch): I wanted to see if I see think that the first act was still awful, the second act was better and the third is best. Still true. I still cannot believe that thirty minutes into the movie is dedicated to four separate fights about a fucking bill. Shaking my head. 6/10

The Bear (Season 1): Taking a break from watching mediocre movies, I wanted to see this series. People were saying that it was really good. They were right. A guy throwing to save his family sandwich shop is riveting TV. 9/10

Confess, Fletch: Back on the mind numbingly boring train again. Here is this movie. Yeah, Jon Hamm should not do comedy movies. This movie is like Mr. Bean, but he is talking unfortunately. The characters were bland. The plot was uninspired. It was background noise. I manage to finish it, but I didn't care to review it. Why bother? 2/10 

Aftersun (Rewatch): After seeing the awards buzz with the movie, I wanted to revisit this movie. I didn't understand what was going on the first watch. Maybe I was in the wrong headspace for it. After doing some reading online, watching the movie the second opened my eyes like I have never seen before. Being someone who has social anxiety disorder and depression, I would have recognized that in the Calum character. Sophie is trying to figure out who her father was with the 'mask off." I did not not give it a fair chance. Original rating: 4/10. Now: 10/10

Violent Night

Violent Night (2022)

Directed by Tommy Wirkola

Screenplay by Pat Casey & Josh Miller

Stars: David Harbour, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Leah Brady, John Leguizamo, Cam Gigandet, Edi Patterson, Alexander Elliot, and Beverly D'Angelo

The trailer of this movie is wacky. Santa Claus kicking ass and taking names. Okay. I can get with that. I wanted to have a movie that entertained me without much thought. It mostly succeeded.

It's Christmas Day. Santa Claus (Harbour) is cynical, boozy Saint Nick that has to deliver toys to ungrateful kids. One particular family, The Lightstones needs their help when their compound is invaded by Scrooge (Leguizamo) and his henchmen to steal money from a secret vault.

I thought that the movie was going to be like Bad Santa. It has some elements with that shitty Mel Gibson Santa movie. Wacky, cuckoo shit.

Was the action good? Yes for the most part. It was the middle of the movie when everything grinds to a halt to have a conversation between Santa and a little girl, Trudy (Brady). The motivations for the some of the characters were weird.

It's a fun time. Nothing spectacular with it.

Rating: 6/10

Amsterdam

Amsterdam (2022)

Written and directed by David O. Russell

Stars: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldaña, Mike Meyers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Rami Malek, and Robert De Niro

I made a promise to myself that I will no longer support David O. Russell after he admitted to sexually assaulting his own niece a decade ago. He is not getting a single penny from me. Ever. I stand by that.

The story revolves around a trio of friends; Dr. Burt Berendsen (Bale), Harold Woodsman (Washington) and Valerie Voze (Robbie) who met each other at tale end of WWI. Jump to 1933 where a young socialite, Liz Meekins (Swift) asks for their help to find out what happened to her father who ends up dead after coming back from Europe.

The originally title of this movie was supposed to be Canterbury Glass. When you watch the film, it makes more sense than the final title. The action does not take place in Amsterdam. That's where the trio met and lived for a time.

Before I lambast this movie, I will say that I enjoyed the costumes for this movie. It looked gorgeous. That's it. The mystery at the center was very convoluted. Not convoluted. It was lazily done. I knew who did it halfway through the movie. Knowing that fact, the movie dragged so long. It took forever for anymore to get their light bulb moment.

The performances for the most part are wooden and lifeless. Some people were trying to elevate the material, but you can only do so much. The acting was The Happening levels of bad. Everyone was going through the motions. I felt bad for them to have to spend any time with this godawful material.

Rating: 4/10

Fire of Love

Fire of Love (2022)

Directed by Sara Dosa

Written by Shane Boris, Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput, and Sara Dosa 

Stars: Maurice Krafft, Katia Krafft with the voice of Miranda July as the narrator

Documentaries seem to be harder to find and watch. There are lots of them in contention for Best Documentary this year, but there is no way to watch them. People mostly have to wait for it to come to streaming services. It's a shame.

This is a found footage documentary about French volcanologists, Maurice and Katia Krafft. They fell in love with their mutual fascination with the beauty and horror of volcanoes. In over 20 years they have flew across the world to study over 100 of these natural wonders.

Personally for me. I never want to be near a volcano. Watching the documentary, I can see that the Kraffts see the beauty in seeing the lava erupt and flow like rivers. Seeing the rocks and dust they leave behind. I get it. The couple were very popular in the 70s and 80s in France.

They thing that bothered me about the documentary is that they categorized volcanoes between red and gray. Red ones are more predictable with the eruption patterns and the way the lava flowed. Gray ones are more unpredictable and deadly. They are like a ticking time bomb. I wonder why they want to study the gray ones, when they knew the risks that led to their demise in 1991.

Rating: 8/10