'Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie' A Review

Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie is a documentary about bodybuilder and performer Shelley Beattie, aka Siren from American Gladiators. Narrated by and featuring Marlee Matlin as she and director Irene Taylor interview people from Beattie's life, cut with archival footage, home movies, and animations of Beattie's journals and artwork.

Beattie's life, career, deafness, and struggles with addiction are explored with a thoughtfulness and depth this kind of celeb profile doesn't usually have. She was a trailblazer, an inspiring figure, but she also had a darkness and rage, all of which is shown, this is not a curated pick-and-chose portrait like Taylor's previous I Am Celine Dion which was more entertainment than documentary. There's sorrow here as well as hope, success as well as despair. A complete, compelling and human story.

A feature that has a necessary vitality to it, Beattie deserves to be remembered, her story to be known, and this accomplishes that with grace and insistence. A shame this didn't get theatrical distribution.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

See It.

'Mayday' A Review

Mayday is an action comedy set in the cold war, pilot Troy(Ryan Reynolds) crash lands in the Russian wilderness after he is shot down during a black op. He's rescued by Nick(Kenneth Branagh) America obsessed disgraced KGB, and the adventures and jokes ensue!

Reynolds deploys his patented schtick and it's not ineffective but it doesn't totally fit. His wise-cracking veneer is never penetrated and it just feels like something we've seen over-and-over from him especially the past 5 to 10 years. By comparison Branagh is a revelation, he's so funny and also emotionally present and authentic. In this kind of buddy action flick his unflinching commitment is what really sells it. The support cast is not really germane as they don't have much to do, other than, kinda, Marcin Dorociński as the heavy who's fun.

Writers/directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein can make movies, no question, it looks good, soundtrack is banging, pacing is relatively tight, got a good mix of heart and jokes. It's no Game Night but it's not bad. Surprising that Apple dumped this on streaming really. The only real hiccup is the casting of the lead, Reynolds just kinda washes out what could be a fun 80's throwback.

Diverting enough with an inspired Branagh.

Currently streaming on AppleTV.

Rent It.

I Need Some Gas

An old hustle
a classic

up there

with

could I get change for this $20

dependable

because it's human

plausible

At the Belvidere oasis

I stop to fill my tank

and a boisterous broken-english

man comes upon me

he asks me

if I speak Arabic

asks me to fill him up

he's on vacation

from Canada

with his family

and lost his cards

offers me

an unopened pair of Airpods

as payment

A grift

is my first instinct

the old I-need-gas chesnut

but I was coming from

watching my niece and newphew

perhaps more amenable

than my usual Chicago edge

isn't it possible this could be true?

this goofy, loquacious, Canadian(maybe) immigrant

who told me in response to saying I had no kids

but isn't that the whole point of all this?

who thanked God and shook my hand several times

who at least seemed convincingly genuine

isn't it possible he made some mistake and actually needed help?

I wasn't and remain not totally convinced

but

should there not be room for kindness and generosity in this world?

especially now with divisiveness and decay run rampant

should we not, when we can, where prudent

toss what small compassions we can onto the rising tide of humanity?

Today, for me the answer was yes. Even if it was a shuck and jive.

'Onslaught' A Review

Onslaught is an action horror flick about veteran sniper Celeste(Adria Arjona) who is confronted by a trio of rabid super soldiers who have escaped from a black ops site headed by Nazi scientist Hans(Dan Stevens).

Arjona does a good job as the lead, you believe the toughness, she's clearly doing some/most of her stunts, physically it's a compelling performance. Emotionally it's a bit more shaky, the PTSD, the divorced mom stuff is a bit rote, she does what she can with it but it's more a result of the pulpy underwritten script. Stevens is having a ball and he's always a pleasure to see especially in genre fare where he can cut loose. The supporting cast is stacked full of talent with some inspired bits of casting- Reginald VelJohnson(absolute joy to see him in a wide release), Michael Biehn, Rebecca Hall, and Eric Wareheim to name a few. Just all around eclectic talent, interesting actors, and it makes for a really punchy ensemble.

Shot on location in New Mexico on a budget, visually the film has a quantifiable look and tangible feel with some really engaging flourishes at various points. The soundtrack is absolutely stuffed with diegetic and non-diegetic needledrops that really create a propulsive and thrilling atmosphere but at points it becomes a bit much, encroaching. But the only real issue is the script, lot of good ideas, just doesn't quite come together and the big climax peters out, makes it seem like the production just kind of ran out of steam. Still a solid, original piece of entertainment.

A decent B-movie, grindhouse throwback. 

Currently in theaters.

Rent It.

Hustlers

I saw a man

on the train

with two phones

You can't trust
a person

who needs two

One

is bad enough

'Late Fame' A Review

Late Fame is a drama about NYC poet turned mailman Ed Saxberger(Willem Dafoe) who is "re-discovered" by a trust-fund would-be artist Meyers(Edmund Donovan) and his affluent group of friends that includes the mysterious actress Gloria(Greta Lee).

Dafoe is always watchable(as he is here) but the character is so kind of obvious, oblivious, and thin, the script so upper-class arts-school thesis-project there's nothing he can do. Donovan is both interesting and funny as is Lee but neither can really contend with how bludgeoningly undergraduate the whole affair is.

Shot on location in NYC the place at least feels authentic, unfortunately seemingly every other aspect does not. For a movie about a poet there's very little poetry, for a movie about artists there's very little art, the whole thing just feels very flat, uninspired, and predictable. It comes across as written by someone who's lead a privileged life trying to tell a story about a struggle they have only fantasized about.

An insult to poetry and poets.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.

'By Any Means' A Review

By Any Means is a period thriller, based on a true story, about an FBI agent Wayne Strider(Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who is assigned an off-the-books mob enforcer Gregory Scarpa(Mark Wahlberg) to investigate the murder of civil activist Vernon Dahmer(Giancarlo Esposito) by the KKK in 1966 Mississippi.

Both Abdul-Mateen and Wahlberg are great, they just don't seem to be in the same movie tonally. Abdul-Mateen grounded, emotional, and real, it's his Just Mercy ie something that is in the ballpark of awards worthy. Wahlberg is big, operettic, violent and funny in his performance, Tarantino-esk. Separately, they're objectively good performances, together they don't really mesh not so much their fault as the script which can't decide if it wants to be grindhouse entertainment or an Oscar contender.

Visually the film is slick, profesh, but mostly takes no risks as far as how it looks. Production is solid, good period costumes, cars, locations. It all works really well especially on a smaller budget. It just fails to come together in it's tone, it asks us to really invest in the emotional and racial reality of the period but also asks us to delight in Wahlberg gleefully tuning up on some gangly klan members while wearing an absurd prosthetic nose and talking in a stereotypical NYC accent. Don't get me wrong, it's incredibly fun, but this is not Django Unchained, there's just no consistency in what it's trying to do, the story it's ultimately trying to tell, and you get whiplash as a result scene-to-scene.

Several compelling scenes fail to coalesce into a cogent feature.

Currently in theaters.

Rent It.

Americana

A splash
of fiery pastels

across the sky

cast the park

in a timeless gloam

the biting flies

courtesy of standing water

from summer storms

become lethargic

and are consumed

by the welcome swarms

of dragonflies

Meredith 

cracks a Miller Lite

-tchick-fsssshh-

and we appreciate

the grass

the fading light

the cooling night