'Abigail' A Review

Abigail is a horror movie loosely based on Dracula's Daughter. A group of criminals are hired to kidnap a tween ballerina heiress only to discover she is more than she seems.

The cast is excellent- Melissa Barrera as Joey the medic and defacto lead, Dan Stevens as Frank the former cop, Kathryn Newton as Sammy the tech wiz, Alisha Weir as the titular Abigail among others. Its a lot of talent and they do a good job imbuing the story with some immediacy, humor, and stakes. The script is simply not as strong as the cast and there seems to be some tension in tone. The movie can't quite decide if it wants to be a pedal-to-the-metal horror comedy romp or something with legitimate emotional stakes, in trying to do a bit of both it dilutes the impact of both approaches.

Visually slick, mostly set in one location(a haunted house!), with an eerie score and some cool Victrola diegetic songs. It works and it works on what now would be considered a "small" budget($30M). The action scenes are effective, the wire work by Weir and her dancing and bloody decapitations and dismemberments are really fun. The script simply needed to be punched up(who knows if the production timeline was expedited), its a great idea, and a decent execution, but it falls a bit short from being a homerun, a solid double.

Diverting but not ecstatic.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Rent It.

'Sasquatch Sunset' A Review

Sasquatch Sunset is a fantasy/drama about four sasquatches in the Pacific Northwest. The film follows the four over the course of a year in a series of vignettes, following their mating, eating, and sheltering habits as they contend with challenges and the encroachment of humans.

Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough, Christophe Zajac-Denek, and Nathan Zellner all put in intricate, interesting, non-verbal performance(yes, there is zero dialogue). At times it does play as an experiment, a theatrical exercise, but other times as a surprisingly impactful exploration of community and behavior. There is a lot of truth here, some laughs, and some things that go to far but overall its refreshingly unique and displays a pretty profound courage on the part of the actors.

Visually the film is patient, evoking the natural world and these sasquatches living in it. It feels rich and peaceful and when the sasquatches encounter a road or trees marked for lumber we, along with them, feel the affront. The score is subtle and helps bolster the filmmaking's intentions, filling out what is a relatively sparse audioscape.

There are some particularly gross scenes, some of them work some of them don't, but they are ambitious, brave. Similarly the comedic moments are a bit hit-or-miss and yet overall the tone is one of honesty and adventurousness. If still, lets not mince words, incredibly bizarre.

Certainly not for everyone but the first truly singular piece of US cinema in 2024.

See It.

Perennials

Like the tulips
the daffodils

the grape hyacinth

we emerge

after a period of repose

of dormancy

we are enlivened

restored, revived, refreshed

Spring

in all its possibilities of promise

of fragile and fleeting beauty

of sunshine and sociability

of risk and reward

fertility

in all its implications

once again

the land and its denizens awaken

we are renewed.

'Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver' A Review

Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver is a SFF epic a sequel to the Rebel Moon - Part 1: A Child Of Fire released in December of last year. It picks up right after the events of the previous movie and delivers on the Seven Samurai premise with the first part being mostly set up for the battle in the latter half. It in no way stands on its own and both parts only together deliver a full narrative.

Much like the previous installment the lead Kora played by Sofia Boutella doesn't have enough to do or enough edge. The supporting cast, similarly, are underdeveloped and feel like undergrad aspiring screenwriter fumblings than actual characters. There is a ton of deadening exposition laden dialogue and scenes where characters painfully and explicitly set up flashbacks we are about to see. Its offensively juvenile writing but the actors do their best to breath some life into it to a modicum of success.

Visually the movie looks great, costumes are great, soundtrack is great, fight scenes are mostly great(if there is the standard Synder overuse of slow motion). And the idea behind it and the worldbuilding aren't half bad it is simply the characters and the dialogue, as written, are woefully boring, flat, and robotic.

Mildly diverting eye candy but no real substance.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Stream It.

Transmutation

We look at the damage of the past
we don't ignore it, we don't fixate upon it
we move through it

we clean and bandage the wound

and we let it heal

then comes the leveraging of this experience

to benefit others

in doing so the healing continues

in perpetuity

and in this way are we made whole

'Monkey Man' A Review

Monkey Man is an action thriller about a country kidin India who's village is destroyed and taken over by the government at the behest of a corrupt religious figure. Years later he(Dev Patel) is surviving in the city working as an underground fighter plotting his revenge.

Patel has moments of brilliance but overall his performance is overshadowed by the overstuffed script and production(his other duties as writer and director). There is just straight up too much going on in the film and Patel as a first time director is doing too much. The supporting cast has some wonderful folks in it but the focus is all over the place, the influences and ambitions so bloated it doesn't allow for any of the actors to really distinguish their characters outside of the relentless tone.

The dark saturated visuals paired with the shaky came quick cuts create a clipped momentum and a distinct mood(although it never really relents which in a 90 minute runtime would be perfect but at two hours is not as successful). The soundtrack has a couple on-the-nose needle drops but some decent scoring with one stand out training sequence with diegetic drumming. The action seems to be well choregraphed but follows the Paul Greengrass school of close up, hand held shooting which makes the fights incredibly difficult to actually see.

The are so many big ideas and themes in the film- class, religion, gender, capitalism- to name a few. It wants to be John Wick but it also wants to be political and also wants to be a modern day myth. Which is all great and a great start is made on a lot of the above but it never comes together, it doesn't coalesce, so what you are left with is something that is assuredly entertaining but not altogether satisfying. In attempting so much it is unable to fully deliver on any one thing.

Its reach exceeds its grasp.

See It.

Organizing Principle

For me its The Program
my day, my perception, my worldview
all codified around and within recovery

it is not a series of dictums

or some kind of prescriptive morality

what it is is an attempt

to dispel the erroneous notion

that we are separate beings

beholden to suffering and otherness

that we are, in fact

parts of a collective whole

a Fellowship

at first of addicts

but upon investigation

of humanity in its totality

in which there is pain

but never despair.

'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire' A Review

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a fantasy, the continuation of the monsterverse and a sequel to 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong. Kong is settled in Hollow Earth but lonely, Godzilla is on regular Earth but powering up on radiation for an unknown threat. Kong discovers a group of large apes like himself after an avalanche reveals a here-to-fore uncharted section of Hollow Earth. That group is lead by the tyrannical Scar King who Kong must face, with some help of course.

The human cast is full of talent but they don't have much to do and quite frankly their inclusion is virtually unnecessary. This is ultimately a story about Kong and the CGI rendering of Hollow Earth and all the principle monsters is pretty excellent. Devoid of the human dialogue the story is actually a pretty archetypal Hero's Journey and it works. Kong the forgotten son, the disgraced prince, returns to find his kingdom under the rule of a villain and he must usurp him for the good of the apes. At first attempt he is defeated but after receiving a Magic Weapon, a powerful mechanized gauntlet, and enlisting the aid of his former nemesis Godzilla, he returns to triumph. Simple and effective.

Most of the movie is CGI and especially on the big screen it looks great. There are some great needles drops, the pacing is quick and breezy, and the art design is good and for once doesn't have the sameness that a lot of contemporary CGI has. Is it an amazing piece of cinema? No. But an enjoyable, easy to follow, adventure building off of lore set up in the franchise but not really beholden to or bogged down by it.

A surprising popcorn success.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

See It.

Eclipse

It makes it easy
to understand our insignificance
tiny detritus amid Titans
but also
in the cultural interest
not only now
but back millennia
our togetherness
in that insignificance
our collective connectedness

Southern Illinois

Down south for a couple days to see the eclipse in the path of totality and do some hiking.

Sober (Insert Month Here)

As an addict

I can say truthfully

and unequivocally

if you feel compelled to engage

in a social media "challenge"

regarding your substance use

you have some kind of problem.

'Road House' A Review

 

Road House is an action movie, a remake of 1989 cult classic. Elwood Dalton(Jake Gyllenhaal) is a disgraced MMA fighter scrapping by hustling underground fighting rings. Frankie(Jessica Williams) the owner of a road house named Road House in the Florida Keys hires him to keep her rowdy clientele in line. But everything isn't as it first appears! You guessed it, a shady developer needs the land the road house is built on to make a resort.

Gyllenhaal gives a painful, confused performance. Earnest in all the wrong ways, clearly a lot of effort went into his physique and on a 43 year old man it looks weird bordering on grotesque. He's not charming, he has no real chemistry with any of his castmates, he's not funny, there's virtually nothing that he brings to the role that is effective. Similarly Conor McGregor in his acting debut, is terrible. Awkward physically and stilted verbally he looks and sounds like a middle school drama club member who's excitement about participating far exceeds any sliver of talent. Excruciating to watch. Williams is wasted in the underdeveloped role as Frankie and her comedy chops aren't factored in. The sole person that's able to carve out an actual character is Arturo Castro as Moe one of the toughs, he plays him with a befuddled good-naturedness that's genuinely fun and funny and is pretty much the only character that resembles an actual human being.

The production elements are equally objectionable. CGI is liberally used to spruce up the fight scenes and the action sequences in a glitzy transparent way that undermines them. The soundtrack is full of treakley pop with the capper being an unsettling Sublime cover. There was clearly issues with the sound mix because over half the dialogue is disturbingly ADR'd. Like the performances, the production design and execution is profoundly uneven. The script(clearly doctored by half a dozen screenwriters) is beyond predictable with attempted one-liners that land like lead balloons, with a bad mix of action and(attempted) story that do justice to neither.

A total miss on virtually every level. Lifeless. Offensive, not in its content but in its quality.

Currently streaming on Prime.

Don't See It.