'Blow The Man Down' A Review

Blow The Man Down is a black comedy thriller about two sisters in a small Maine port town dealing with the aftermath of their mother's death. The film opens on a stirring and vibrant scene of fisherman singing the titular song, it cuts to a woman fleeing a man with Enid(Margo Martindale) watching from her window, then cuts to the memorial for Mary Margaret the mother of Mary Beth(Morgan Saylor) and Priscilla(Sophie Lowe) presided over by town Matriarchs Susie(June Squibb), Gail(Annette O'Toole), and Doreen(Marceline Hugot). That evening Mary Beth meets up with local criminal Gorski(Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and gets in over her head.

Across the board the cast is stupendous, relative newcomers Saylor and Lowe have great chemistry and an addictive frenetic energy that make both performances really sing. It's wonderful to see Squibb, O'Toole, and Hugot together, almost in an archetypal Fates role, three astounding character actors in concert. But the pièce de résistance, no surprise, is Martindale giving an incredibly delicious performance with a couple really revelatory operatic scenes as the town's madam and the defacto heavy. Easily an Oscar worthy turn that will no doubt be overlooked come awards season. She has a wide ranging career but rarely gets to exert her full potential in film(see her joyous turns on TV in Justified season 2 and The Americans) so it's a pleasure to see her here and she clearly relishes the opportunity. There's also a very effective figurative, and literal, fishermen as chorus that underscores and weaves throughout the film.

Visually the film is sharp, transportive, and immersive conveying this small regional town with beauty as well as menace. The near ever-present pumping score paired with the diegetic chorus elevate the film and viewers pulse to great effect. A stunning, authoritative, and assured debut from writer/director pair  Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy.

Currently streaming on Amazon.

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Badlands Boots

A good pair of boots
can take you anywhere
firm but pliant
function over form
waterproof but
breathable,
a good pair of boots
paired with
a steady, even stride
can glide you over miles
through dunes and desert
caves and canyons
mountains and marshlands
the keystone of adventure.

I say goodbye to another pair of boots
that served me well over miles and years
purchased at Wall Drug outside The Badlands
when my fiance and I rode West.

'My Darling Vivian' A Review

My Darling Vivian is a documentary about Vivian Liberto the first wife of musician Johnny Cash, compromised of archival footage and exclusive interviews from her four daughters Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy, and Tara.

Although in a conventional talking-head form the extensive personal footage, in addition to regular historical footage, as well as the limited and personal interview subjects make for a particularly moving portrait of a woman mostly relegated to the background in the life and legend of Johnny Cash. Positioned in counterpoint to her portrayal in the 2005 biopic her daughters given Vivian voice and dimension. Necessary viewing for any Cash fan but perhaps more engaging as an investigation of the personal and familial cost of fame and addiction.

Her daughters obviously take issue with Walk The Line, some more than others, although the film in and of itself shows not a hectoring wife but someone at the worst ignored by a drug addict womanizer at best completly justified in their behavior. Towards the middle of My Darling Vivian we see repeated footage form the 70's and 80's where June Carter Cash claims the four daughters as her own and the press ignores or outright demonizes Vivian and perhaps this is more where this resentment comes from rather than the limited, if fair in this critics opinion, portrait in Walk The Line. Whatever the basis there are many layers to this complex familial entanglement with various daughters recalling and interpreting the past differently especially when it comes to the subject, their mother. All the daughters have engaging and interesting perspectives but Rosanne seems to have the most impartial view and seems to have done the most internal work to grapple with all the fallout of their childhood.

Although ostensibly about Vivian Liberto the film is a fascinating look at memory, trauma, and how the past informs who we become. It's also, perhaps unintentionally, a pretty compelling recommendation for programs like Al-Anon.

Currently streaming on Amazon as part of the digital SXSW festival.

See It.

'Extraction' A Review

Extraction is an action/thriller about a tortured pill-popping booze-slurping former special forces mercenary Tyler(Chris Hemsworth) who gets hired to extract a kidnapped drug dealers son from a rival drug dealer being held in Bangladesh. An extravagant body count ensues.

Like many straight-to-Netflix action movies the cast has more talent than the project warrants or has any right to have. This is the type of movie that, before streaming, would have been permanently shelved or quietly dumped in January. Hemsworth's charms and charisma or muted to the point of non-performance, casting him in this if the intent was for an emotionless terminator style performance is kind of baffling. The supporting cast are all fine actors but the derivative script, brutally violence, and unrelenting(pointless) pace leave little room for actual entertainment.

It attempts to hit a lot of the same notes as Tony Scott's brilliant Man On Fire but with none of the artistry in production, the exciting action with actual stakes, or the heart it fails virtually any cinematic signpost other than "something to watch". Which, I guess, right now is at least something. Unfortunately there are many many movies of a similar mold that have done this substantially better like Man On Fire mentioned above or the 1987 adaptation of the same name or Equalizer or Taken or The Transporter.

Hurtles past negligible to forgettably banal. Now streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

Frost Quote

Our great American poetry daddy
Bobby Frost once said
"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense
of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness."
which is true by not all-inclusive
a poem can also begin during a shit,
the tortuous limbo before sleep,
a sticky post-coital embrace,
the onset of hypothermia
or meditative mise en place
a poem can begin from nothing at all
coaxed and cuddled
kneaded and nudged
it's ambition need not be so grand
as love and death and the promised land
but what it must be is true
whether it begin with God or stew.

Social Media

Our Great Grandparents knew quiet,
knew stillness, knew solitude
even were they city dwellers
there was a boundary to their scope
life has since accelerated, entwined
broadened in it's reach and ambition both
but perhaps it's time to think back
to the lives who have gone before
and emulate a simpler course
in order to foster grace and growth.

'Tigertail' A Review

Tigertail is a family drama about the life of Pin-Jui(Tzi Ma/Hong Chi-Lee) a Taiwanese boy who immigrates to the United States as a young man making personal sacrifices to make a better life for his family. The film opens on Pin-Jui as a young boy living with his grandparents in rural Taiwan, the film flashes forward to Pin-Jui as an old man being picked up at the airport by his estranged daughter Angela(Christine Ko). The story cuts back and forth throughout Pin-Jui's life as he reflects in old age and attempts to connect with his daughter.

Given the structure and multiple actors playing the central characters none of them are given quite enough time to really dig in. Ma is wonderful as the oldest Pin-Jui but many of his scenes are simply set up for flashbacks where he sits silently reserved. Chi-Lee as young adult Pin-Jui comes across a little green and isn't quite able to get to the nuance required but part(if not all) of that is a result of the scope of the narrative which clips through a lifetime. Both Kunjue Li and Fiona Fu as young adult and older Zhenzhen(respectively) Pin-Jui's wife-by-necessity are both wonderful and have more of an arc to play but both essentially exit the film right when their performances start to bloom. Pin-Jui's first love Yuan is played by Joan Chen and Yo-Hsing Fang who are also dynamic but again constrained by the amount of the story that's being told. The cast sound confusing? It isn't but it does hamstring the emotional umph of the film by having 8 actors play 3 characters across 60 plus years.

Alan Yang's directorial debut(also writer and producer) has scope and ambition and heart but unfortunately it's not particularly cohesive. In attempting to encompass the entire life of the main character it almost falls into the trap many biopics fall into, it becomes formulaic. Yang's talent isn't in question and here's hoping he's already working on a sophomore film. Tigertail doesn't offer much in the way of innovation or surprise but it is a thoughtful, affirming look at the Asian-American immigrant experience.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Stream It.

'Code 8' A Review

Code 8 is a science fiction movie set in a recent future where powered individuals have become a disenfranchised minority. Connor(Robbie Amell) is an underemployed electrokinetic who turns to illicit jobs in order to pay for a life saving medical procedure for his ailing mother. He joins the team of Garrett(Stephen Amell) a telekinetic and they pull various jobs. Connor enjoys his new power and position but is conflicted about the extent of his criminality.

Cousins Amell and Amell are both decent actors, have a solid, uncomplicated but still compelling presence, and the supporting cast is filled out with some intriguing Canadian actors but there's not much character or emotion to be mined. The narrative is diverting enough but more a hodge-podge of existing ideas and tropes(X-Men+future drug+heist+terminally ill parent) and story is sacrificed for pacing and plot. The movie moves but lacks any convincing heart.

For an indie sci-fi movie the production across the board is impressive. Transportive and alluring, dark, with enough action set pieces to keep the momentum going when the dialogue stumbles. Not amazing or particularly innovative but inarguably entertaining.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Stream It.

The Swamp

Perhaps there are people
who have always acted rightly
chosen correctly
lived virtuously
who perpetually sleep well
who do not toss and turn
plagued by past mistakes
who do not prematurely wake
drowsiness banished by bitterness
certain of their innocence
who do not strive each day
to reduce their karmic debt
convinced of their decency.

I am not one of those.

'Never Rarely Sometimes Always' A Review

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a drama about a young woman in small town Pennsylvania who deals with an unwanted pregnancy. The film opens on Autumn(Sidney Flanigan) performing in her high school talent show and being heckled by one of her male classmates. The day after she visits a crisis pregnancy clinic where although she wants to terminate the pregnancy she is given adoption pamphlets and shown an anti-aborition video. With her cousin Skylar(Talia Ryder) she travels to New York City to visit a Planned Parenthood.

Flanigan gives an incredibly nuanced, layered performance, conveying both strength and maturity but also youthful petulance and humor. The day to day threats and obstacles she faces are staggering in their quantity and seeming mundanity. Flanigan is remarkably assured given the sheer complexity of the role coupled with the minimal dialogue. Ryder also is stunning in the solidity of her presense and in her mostly wordless but totally clear and compelling chemistry with Flanigan. Both performances hinge on both actors exceptional ability to convey extensive information and emotion through physicality and implication as the dialogue is sparse to the point of non-exsistence for extensive sequences. The supporting cast are equally effecting but the story and it's focus are on Autumn and Skylar and other than a bravura scene featuring real life social worker Kelly Chapman, which is mostly Flanigan in a close up, none of the supporting cast are given much screen time.

Shot in mostly immersive hand-held style the film transports you into Autumn's perspective and world, the cinematography convey's a sense of anxiety and fear, even claustrophobic at times that echo's it's lead. The score is minimal and melancholic, the production elements synchronize with the performances and script beautifully to create this authentic harrowing but ultimately empowering tale of survival and strength.

At times difficult but absolutely essential viewing. A painful but affirming story of courage and perseverance.

Available on most VOD platforms.

Don't Miss It.

Zoom

It's fine.

Beats By Marcie

I think my downstairs neighbor
is taking this unique time
to learn the Elektron Digitakt
and produce their EDM EP
exclusively from midnight to 2am.

We all need a project right now.

'Love Wedding Repeat' A Review

Love Wedding Repeat is a romantic-cringe-comedy that is mostly cringe. The movie opens on space and a baffling voice over then transitions to an awkward date between Jack(Sam Claflin) and Dina(Olivia Munn) in Rome which is cut short by a chance encounter with Jack's old college roommate. Three years later Jack's sister Hayley(Eleanor Tomlinson) is getting married and Dina is in attendance but so is Jack's ex-girlfriend, Hayley's ex-boyfriend and a slue of other unlikable mostly unfunny characters.

Claflin and Munn have chemistry and give charming performances within the heavily contrived, derivative, and mostly uninspired conceit in which they find themselves. Claflin tries a bit too hard to channel 90's era Hugh Grant but mostly succeeds and Munn is surprisingly wonderful it simply makes you wish she'd been given a better part or a better movie to put it in. Tomlinson is likable enough, the various talented supporting cast are unfortunately at the mercy of their mostly dour and despicable characters, all in all the cast almost categorically goes to waste.

The rom-com as a genre is mostly formulaic, and that's fine, even comforting but the tropes in Love Wedding Repeat are so tired and the characters almost all cringe/no comedy that it has little to redeem it. The most egregious flaw of the movie though is it's absolutely squandered use of the Groundhogs Day device which it's title is a reference to a recent wonderful film with the some device Edge Of Tomorrow subtitled Live Die Repeat. Instead of having one of the characters relieve the wedding the entire first act is once way in which it plays out, the 30 second second act where other permutations play out in confusing montage, and the third act being another way it plays out with some resolution. It's confused, ineffective, and a truly bewildering use of this typically knock out device.

Perhaps a comfort watch for some but startlingly lacking in quality. Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

'Trolls World Tour' A Review

Trolls World Tour is an animated jukebox musical, a sequel to 2016's Trolls. Queen Poppy(Anna Kendrick) happily reigns over the pop-Trolls only to discover there are other(musical genre) types of Trolls and the hard rock Trolls lead by Queen Barb(Rachel Bloom) have set out to conquer them all hegemonizing the Trolls to be exclusively hard rock.

A wonderful voice cast led again by Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, as Branch, bring not only the catchy soundtrack to life but also this lovely techno-colored very strange but family friendly world to life with electricity. The entire cast, with a laundry list of playful and notable cameos, are able to ground the absurdity and broadness with humor and emotional sincerity. There are some very bizarre diversions along the way of what is, essentially, a hero's journey but like it's predecessor the film is able to find a surprising balance that makes for a unique family feature.

A great soundtrack, inventive visuals, and solid performances make this worth watching but some of the freshness is lost from the original. The plague of any sequel is that it rarely reaches the heights of its predecessor, this is no exception, although it is not a retread it is perhaps a bit more formulaic. Despite that a definite pleasure.

Available to rent on most VOD platforms.

Rent It.

'Bloodshot' A Review

Bloodshot is an superhero movie based on the comics of the same name. The movie opens on Ray Garrison(Vin Diesel) on a military mission, he succeeds then returns home to reunite with his wife, they vacation in Italy only to be kidnapped and killed. Ray aka Bloodshot awakens in a lab to be informed his blood is filled with microscopic nanites which make him neigh on invincible. He leaves the facility to avenge his wife's death. But things aren't quite what they seem!

Diesel puts in another garish lead performance, mumbling and roaring through an uneven script. Diesel has presence and with the right role he can really shine, unfortunately this is not one of those times. Guy Pierce as the genius scientist with dubious motivations is woefully underutilized. The only real stand out is the two opposing programmers played by Siddharth Dhananjay and Lamorne Morris who have humor and display actual humanity. The rest of the cast unfortunately are so thinly drawn and give such stilted performances it plays like filler barely considered between action sequences.

Visually the movie has some style, some of the action and the "powers" of Bloodshot rendered pretty imaginatively but it cannot overcome the sheer banality of how the story and the performances are stichted together. There is a great idea in here, a decent action movie, but Bloodshot fails to reach beyond passing interest.

Currently available on most VOD platforms.

Stream It.

We Are The City Of Broad Shoulders

We have never had the brashness of The Big Apple

Or the eclecticism of The Big Orange

But we endure

not through attitude or activism

but Midwestern determination

tempered by blasting cold

fostered by humidity

We the city of Broad Shoulders

We proud Chicagoans

take one step and then another

quiet, purposeful, unflinching

armed with humor

fortified by kindness

despair not in our lexicon
the wind took it long ago

there is only persistence, hunger, and hope-

A resilience yet untapped.

We've endured two hundred years

and we'll endure two hundred more.

'The Platform' A Review

The Platform is a science-fiction horror-thriller set in a vertical multi-leveled tower prison/experimental facility where a large and lavish feast descends through the various numbered levels once a day. Each of the levels has two inmates and a limited time to eat, if in fact there is any food left. The film opens on Goreng(Iván Massagué) awakening on level 48 confused, his roommate Trimagasi(Zorion Eguileor) explains how the structure operates and the two form a rough companionship. Every month the residents are shuffled around to different levels. When Goreng awakens on level 171 things begin to change rapidly.

Massagué gives a wonderfully emotional, varied performance full of vulnerability and strength, a delightful weave of contradictions. Equileor is jovially menacing, his physical appearance short and squat almost gnome-like, grandfatherly belies the startling corruption of the character, the supporting cast is populated by various other inmates who all give terrific turns. For such a limited location and simple conceit, with many of the characters having very little screentime, the cast flushes out the world beautifully.

Stark but immaculate production design creates a simple but absolutely terrifying contained world. The minimal score and diegetic sound makes the film incredibly visceral as do the periodic sequences of lurid consumption and extravagant violence. As an allegory the ideas are evocative, as a piece of genre its incredibly clean and thoughtful, the pacing is near perfect, and although there are certainly some similarities one can draw to existing work ultimately it's feels if not totally unique then absolutely fresh.

Available to stream on Netflix.

Don't Miss It.

'Onward' A Review

Onward is an animated family fantasy movie about a Ian Lightfoot(Tom Holland) and his quest with his brother Barley(Chris Pratt) to complete a spell to bring their deceased father back for a day. The movie opens with an overview of a recognizable fantasy world that through the difficulty of magic and ease of machines becomes one similar to ours. On his 16th birthday Ian receives a spell and staff to bring his father back but is only able to bring back his dad's lower half. Him, his brother, and their dad's pants go on a quest to complete it and maybe learn something along the way!

The voice cast isn't bad but it is mostly uninspired, with the casting of Holland and Pratt it almost seems to be constructed from a Disney algorithm rather than a creative project- Marvel stars check, fantasy creatures check, parental tear jerking ending check. There is certainly significant fault from the script but other than a few moments of brill animation(the concrete dragon, cheeto boat) the movie is a mish-mash of elements sewn together with the clear intent to capitalize on various tropes and trends rather than create something particularly entertaining or original.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Ian and Barley's mother and Octavia Spencer as the Manticore are the real bright spots of the story but they are relegated to the B-plot and not given much to do. There's also a wonderful cameo from Tracey Ullman as a pawn broker which is great but those moments of actual excitement and flashes of uniqueness mostly function to cast the more rote aspects in sharper relief.

A very resounding 'meh' from Pixar. Available on most VOD platforms for purchase, available on Disney+ to stream.

Stream It.