'A Glitch In The Matrix' A Review

 A Glitch In The Matrix is a documentary about simulation theory, through archival footage, talking head interviews(where the subjects are depicted as CG avatars), CG renderings, and as the back bone a 70's interview with author Philip K. Dick the theory is thinly explored.

For those not already interested, maybe even obsessed, with the subject this offers little beyond what one could learn from a quick Google search or having read Allegory Of The Cave/ watched The Matrix. It becomes clear relatively quickly that the majority of the interviewees discoursing on the theory all come from varying degrees of traumatic back grounds and suffer from mental health issues which isn't acknowledged till the very end. The one British scholar who's specialty is the subject is woefully underutilized. And through all the ramblings and digressions it is never clear what the movie is about, what conclusions or insights it's meant to impart, or basically anything beyond the basics on what simulation theory is. As a result it comes across as a frustrating waste of time.

Ultimately, at every turn, the viewer is left with a so-what, the ideas being grappled with here are the same humanity has struggled with since civilization began and which Religion has attempted to tackle all along. Presenting some of these existential ideas as new, or cutting edge, is quite frankly insulting. And the reality of why this idea grabs many conspiracy theorists, namely unaddressed/undiagnosed trauma/mental health issues which provide them with a feeling of belonging with an "elite" group(other conspiracy theorists) and superiority(they are the only ones who know the "truth") is shelved for the very end, unsatisfyingly.

Presumably the filmmakers are interested in the subject, fair, but it does not seem as if they actually have an opinion on it and as a result A Glitch In The Matrix is more like so many meandering conspiracy theory videos on YouTube but with a higher production value.

Currently available for rent on most VOD platforms.

Don't See It.

'Kid 90' A Review

Kid 90 is a documentary about the teen years of child star Soleil Moon Frye, directed by her, featuring talking head interviews as well as extensive footage, audio, and journals she recorded during that time.

There is certainly some odd nostalgic appeal the movie offers particularly(or almost exclusively) for a certain Gen X demographic but this feels more like a vanity project, or a collage of all this raw material rather than an actual movie. There is certainly pain and trauma within but that is not investigated beyond the superficial and what were left with is a vague, thin, cursory gesture toward self-love. For the various child stars that share this very specific coming of age I'm sure this has a lot to offer but the experience is too insular, the privilege on display unaddressed and virtually unacknowledged, and ultimately the whole experience is layed out in too cursory a manner to offer much in the way of a message, perspective, or any real insights.

This fails considerably if compared to last years Showbiz Kids which showed both the darkness and the triumphs of that experience much more clearly and completely. On it's own it comes across as nostalgia-bait fluff, a piggy-back on the Punky Brewster reboot, which is a shame as there is clearly fathoms below the surface that we see. There are some baffling choices particularly when a montage is shown of all of Frye's friends/peers who died untimely, which is presented with virtually no context or editorializing from Frye(or any other interview subject).

Ultimately it seems Frye is still on her journey of acceptance, of coming to grips with her past and what it means, good for her, but it does not a movie make.

Currently streaming on Hulu.

Don't See It.

'Tina' A Review

Tina is a documentary about the life and career of legendary icon Tina Turner. Told in five acts through archival footage, talking head interviews, live performances, some sparing recreations, and expansive audio the star's life is tracked through her present day recollections as well as audio from a 1981 People magazine interview.

The intimate, powerful, tragic, inspiring story is layed out here in stark and loving clarity. On paper the construction seems typical of the rock-doc formula but exquisite editing and insightful production take this film to another level. Turner's story is compelling enough but such care and attention has clearly gone in to the research, the live musical numbers play out in their entirety, the breadth of contributors is wide but Tina, rightfully, always has the last word either from her current vantage point or from the various interviews culled from the past forty years. 

There's a rhythm and melody to the film, a syncopation, that pairs perfectly with it's subject. The yearning, the contrast of freedom and suffering, the undeniable contagious exuberance of Tina is perfectly conveyed. A comprehensive, exciting, absolutely magnetic portrait for Tina fans but also a compelling unarguable history of a rock legend for those who aren't. The abuse Tina endured and overcome has it's focus and that theme resonates today, you can't help but realize Tina is in some ways a godmother of the Me Too movement, but her story, her as a person is so much more and that too is clearly articulated within. Her spirit, her impact is what comes through, not her trauma.

A moving, fascinating investigation of one of the 20th centuries greatest entertainers.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

Don't Miss It.

Down Among The Muck And Mire

Down in the muck
the sucking mud
the earth is rich
in peaking buds

Turtle shell

armadillo carcass

detritus left

by winter's tarnish

Thorns and brush

rot and swamp

birds afloat

on Spring's big dump

Southern Illinois

Spent a couple days in Southern IL to do some hiking and generally recharge. It was pretty wet but a lot of green and richness. You could feel Spring. Really beautiful part of the state, tons of parks, tons of history. Will be going back.

Foxhole Prayer

gods above
gods below
fill me up
and let it flow

'Minari' A Review

Minari is a semi-autobiographical drama from writer/director Lee Isaac Chung about a Korean immigrant family that moves from California to rural Arkansas in order to trade up their factory jobs for a farming. Jacob(Steven Yeun) is the one with the dreams for the farm while his wife Monica(Han Ye-ri ) has signficant reservations which cause near constant tension and fighting between the two. As his work on the farm progresses, with inevitable set backs, Monica's mother Soon-ja(Youn Yuh-jung) comes to live with them to help take care of their two children David(Alan Kim) and Anne(Noel Kate Cho).

Yeun and Ye-ri put in dynamic performances but their are somewhat limited by the overly ambitious scope of the script which has multiple plot lines going throughout but doesn't focus on anyone in paritcular, the result is although the two actors have undeniable talent what we see is mostly arguments and the characters inability to communicate. Yuh-jung is the real starburst, utterly confident, absolutely immersed in the moment, and utterly charming able to transcend what can be a relatively predictable domestic drama. Her chemistry with Kim is wonderful and it is somewhat confusing that this relationship isn't given more focus. Cho does a good job but her role is given relatively short shrift in favor of other the other themes and ideas. The other bright spot in the cast is Will Patton, going pretty big all things considered, but his character, an eccentric veteran who's a neighbor and helps out on the farm, brings some much needed variety.

Beautifully shot with a somewhat overly done score, the period costumes, vehicles, and the limited, simple, but highly effective locations make for an solid production. The fault lies predominately with the script, it is perhaps too ambitious, it lacks focus, and as a result it is not entirely clear what were meant to take away from it. In the third act there are a series of events the border on Oscar-bait cliche, and other than Yuh-jung and Patton, the veterans of the cast, none of the other characters come across as particularly dimensional, a result not of the actors or the script being in and of itself poor but of time/focus management. Is the film about David and the summer of his youth he won't forget? Is it about the marital struggles of the two leads? Is it about the Korean American experience in 70s/80s? Is it a comment about farming and agriculture? Is there some kind of religious allegory? The film shoots for all of these but in so doing fails to deliver completely on any of them.

Colossal work by Yuh-jung makes this worth watching in and of itself let alone the other, impressive, cast members even though in total it is somewhat limited by its ambition.

Currently available to rent on most VOD platforms.

Stream It.

Taking Action

Think small-

make the bed
shower
pay the electric

get the mail

eat

empty the septic

These acts compound

to steady the ship

the ensuing years

become a viable trip.

'Judas And The Black Messiah' A Review

Judas And The Black Messiah is a drama/thriller quasi-biopic about Illinois Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton(Daniel Kaluuya) and the Party member/FBI informant Bill O'Neal(Lakeith Stanfield) who was key in Hampton's assassination. The film takes place in the two years(or so) prior to Hampton's murder, with equal focus on Hampton in his journey to expand the scope and breadth of the Black Panthers and their struggle and O'Neal as he gets deeper into the FBI's pocket and works his way into and up the Black Panther organization.

Kaluuya puts in a truly marvelous turn as Hampton, confident and grounded, driven but relentlessly positive, sweet and emotional at times and at others fiery, passionate and unwavering, like the real Hampton, he's incredibly inspiring and clearly singular. It underscores the absolute tragedy of his murder and further highlights the repugnant, illegal, anti-American acts of the FBI during that time. Stanfield's job is much more complicated, his motives, his feelings, his loyalties are opaque for basically the entire film, whether that was acting choice or determined by the script its somewhat bewildering. With how much time is spent on Stanfield's character, presumably to play up the crime/thriller aspect of the story(a la The Departed) and to elucidate the other side of the situation ie the pressure/threat of jail time leveled at him in order to force him to inform it still doesn't pay particular dividends because we never actually get to know the character and therefore his internal/external machinations don't carry much weight. Additionally O'Neal himself was 17 when he was entrapped by the FBI and both Kaluuya and Stanfield are basically playing their ages(signficantly older than their characters) which further muddles the waters as far as motivation. It's a solid supporting cast particularly Dominique Fishback as Deborah Johnson Hampton's girlfriend, it makes you wonder what a straight-up Hampton bio-pic would look like with more time given to Kaluuya and Fishback, the big issue in the cast is Martin Sheen's make-up as J. Edgar Hoover.

A solid production doesn't quite make up for the gross oversight of it's shooting location, subing Cleveland, OH for Chicago, IL, which seems particularly egregious given Hampton's influence, legacy, and connection to the Windy City. But that's a digression probably easily overlooked by non-Chicago residents. Visually it's rich, an effective score raises the tensions but doesn't dominate, and subtle period costumes immerse you in this world and struggle. Overall inspired casting and an excellent production work to tell a story that needs to be told and resonates deeply in our current cultural moment. But the limited temporal focus and splitting that between Hampton and O'Neal still leaves a void for a focused Hampton-centric biopic.

An inspiring, relevant, tragic story with a powerhouse performance from Kaluuya.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

See It.

'Boss Level' A Review

Boss Level is a time-loop/action movie that follows Roy(Frank Grillo) an ex-Delta Force soldier who gets put in a time-loop by his scientist ex-wife Jemma(Naomi Watts) in order to save her, their son, and the world from the evil machinations of her boss Ventor(Mel Gibson).

Grillo, probably best none for his supporting part in the MCU, a solid working character actor, is given his first high profile lead and he makes the best of it. He doesn't have the shine of an outright movie star but his dogged charm, straight-forward voice over, and commanding and capable physical presence make for a surprising connection. And as sincere and perhaps rote as his emotional transformation may be(given that seems to be a pre-requisite for most time-loop movies) is effective. Gibson and Watts both in relatively small supporting roles but they bring much needed star-wattage to this action vehicle. The real(and much needed) playfulness comes in with the bizarre and quite fun broad supporting cast in the form of a rag-tag group of assassins sent to off Roy each day, Will Sasso as a Hulk Hogan inspired head of security for Ventor, Ken Jeong as the owner of a restaurant Roy visits, and a brief virtual cameo from Michelle Yeoh as a sword master who trains Roy. It's eclectic and terribly fun because everyone presents these flushed out eccentric characters and we see them in flashes depending on the various ways Roy goes through his day. If no one is doing any particularly sophisticated acting they are having, what seems, to be a lot of fun and that's contagious.

Kinetic cinematography, propulsive action, plausible if not totally seamless CGI, and a wry score all come together to make a solid production. If the script isn't air-tight it's serviceable, the time-loop premise is almost a given homerun and here they take full advantage for humor and for action. If the emotional part of the story is a bit on the noise perhaps a bit derivative, who cares, it's entertaining and it works. Especially now with award season in full blush and almost predominantly "heavy" dramas being released in the lead up to the Oscars and in a time when action movies are typically being held for when they can reep the most box office Boss Level is a welcome diverting treat.

Unpretentious fun for the action movie fan.

Currently streaming on Hulu.

See It.

Poo On The Floor

My niece called for help
and my sister was busy

so I came to the bathroom

prepared for anything

or so I thought

"I had an accident" she said

and I was confronted

by a piece of poo on the floor

a lil fun size Snickers

stark against the green tiles

she looked at me with caution

perhaps anticipating judgement

indicating nothing, I scooped it up

scrubbed it out, crisis averted

and shortly after

we were back to drawing.

'On The Rocks' A Review

On The Rocks is a dramedy about an affluent NYC writer/housewife Laura(Rashida Jones) who suspects her husband Dean(Marlon Waynes) of having an affair with a co-worker. Laura turns to her sexist unfaithful dad with her problem and the two go on a series of outings in the city to drink and eat and sometimes spy on Dean but proof of Laura's suspicions never quite materialize.

Jones is terribly hamstrung in the role as this reserved, superficial, defacto housewife(the story states she's a writer but she basically never writes). Jones's natural charisma and personality are damped down to a degree that the character is almost a non-entity. It's actually a delight to see Waynes who comes across as the only normal functioning human in the whole cast but his part is regrettably small. And Murray is interesting, I guess, but his patently regressive "men vs. women" constant hectoring seems to have been lifted straight out of When Harry Met Sally which, no surprise, doesn't age well. His charm is apparent in a couple scenes but its rendered mostly ineffective given that the character comes across an old, gross, goat spouting 40 year old "observations" about gender and romance. And it's never really clear why Laura puts up with him at all aside from maybe his(and every other characters') apparent wealth.

Shot in mostly shadowy NYC interiors you have to watch this at night or with all the lights off or you won't actually see anything. Despite that the production is slick and competent, no surprise writer/director Sofia Coppolla is a pro but her craft is irrelevant given her wildly out of touch, derivative, regressive script. Who cares about these rich NYC peoples non-issues? What is the point? The whole thing is about a suspicious wife and her shitty dad and it all basically comes to nothing. This is like a Woody Allen homage 30 years after he was relevant and 10 years after he was a valid reference point. It's baffling.

A tone-deaf, throw-back NYC walk-and-talk, lacking character insight and basic socio-economic awareness.

Currently streaming on Apple TV+.

Don't See It.