'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' A Review

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a family adventure movie an adaptation of the video game series. The titular bros stumble into an alternate reality get separated, Mario teams up with Princess Toadstool to face off against the evil Bowser who holds Luigi prisoner.

The voice cast is relatively inconsistent with Jack Black as Bowser the only one who really understands what movie he's in, and to be fair seems the only person/character the writer knows how to write for. Seth Rogan is good as Donkey Kong as is Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, a Koopa sorcerer but the rest of the cast particularly the main three- Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, and Ana Taylor-Joy- all give relatively unformed, listless, generic vocal performance made even more so by the lack of any real depth of character from the script.

It looks slick and plays kind of like an extended video game trailer or watching someone on Twitch but as an actual movie its mostly sizzle and very little steak. It clips along at a tight 90 minutes which is to its benefit, it's colorful, the humor is mild and harmless but consistent There's just not a lot to it as far as narrative, it feels like an AI program amalgamated the narrative of several of the games and spat out the script. It's not terrible, there's some cool sequences, but it is stunningly thin. Who would have thought watching this one would reasonably yearn for the gonzo ambition of the derisive 1993 live-action adaptation. Certainly valuable for parents looking for something mild and diverting for their kids, very little to offer beyond that.

Empty calories.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Stream It.

'Renfield' A Review

Renfield is a horror action comedy about Dracula's titular lackey. The movie opens on a montage of Renfield(Nicholas Hoult) meeting Count Dracula(Nicolas Cage) over a business deal but then becoming his familiar. Flash forward to present day Renfield is in New Orleans with a recuperating Dracula. Renfield attends co-dependent 12th step meetings and tries to come to grips with his unending servitude. When rounding up Dracula's latest meal(with add of his 'gift' - eating bugs makes him strong) he encounters cop Rebecca Quincy(Awkwafina) and gets entangled with the local crime family.

Hoult brings his bizarre, breezy, innocence to this comedic bloodbath in a beautiful way. It's a tight rope in tone and Hoult anchors it perfectly. He's able to sell the excellent, gruesome action with an legitimate emotional journey, it's impressive. This paired with Cage's fresh go-for-broke take on the oft seen character focusing on physicality and humor is really delicious. The two give very distinct turns and have great chemistry. Awkwafina is always a joy to see onscreen but here is somewhat hamstrung by the fact that she operates, in essence, like the straight man. A bit of a bizarre choice giving the highest profile comedian in the cast the least amount of comedy, but she's still great. The other stand out is Ben Schwartz as the bungling crime family scion, he clearly relishes the chance to break bad but doesn't sacrifice any of the humor and doesn't get bogged down with any badass pretentions. The supporting cast are all solid particularly Brandon Scott Jones as the support group leader although a fair amount of his best jokes are pooched in the trailer.

Visually it's very lush, very neon and New Orleans dusk with some impeccable set design particularly in Dracula's and the crime families layers and Renfield's pastel filled apartment. The action scenes are thrilling, propulsive, with genuinely funny flourishes of gore. It all really works.

A fresh fun take on a classic character, an incredible cast having a ball which translates to the viewing experience.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

See It.

Equinox

The buds and the mud
and the sunshine
and the longer days
and the unaccustomed heat
and the inside writhing
the waking up
the wanderlust
the itching impulse

and the changing

the ceaseless, inevitable turning

the circle cycling

the perennials bloom

the trees leaf

the bikers bike

the beachers booze

all around, enlivened

'Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields' A Review

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields is a documentary about the titular celebrity. Split into a two-part miniseries(that is, in essence, a feature) a relatively straightforward, chronological account of her career unfolds through archive images and clips as well as talking head interviews centering around a current interview with Shields herself.

Shields reclaims and recontextualizes her story sharing her experiences and perceptions from her early career where she was sexualized as a child/juvenile in movies like Pretty Baby, Blue Lagoon, and Endless Love as well as a particularly charged Calvin Kline jeans ad campaign into her attending Princeton, later career on Broadway, Suddenly Susan, and advocacy. She also, somewhat, goes into her complicated relationship with her alcoholic mother/manager although the economics involved as well as her mother's culpability are only somewhat acknowledged. She and her childhood friend Laura Dern are very careful about not directly addressing causes, conditions, and motivations. Shields very solidly tells her story her way and that is focused almost solely on her specifically, about progress, hope, and growth(not a bad focus but it feels incomplete). This is somewhat in contrast with some of the expert talking-head interviews as well as the images that director Lana Wilson shows us. Not that this should be a hit-job on her mother or father or the white male directors, casting directors, producers, talk show hosts involved but above and beyond broad criticism of the patriarchy, brief snippets of conjecture and rebuke from the experts, and atrocious talk show clips, there is very little, ultimately, in the way of synthesis.

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields is worth watching, I'm happy to bear witness to Shields story, to see her progress and celebrate her and I have compassion for her but there are only two moments that have real insight. In one scene Shields is informally talking to a producer about her thought processes after a sexual assault, in another Shields teen children challenger her on the artistic merit and validity of her early films and the family has a discussion. These scenes are getting to the heart of the matter. They are impactful. Much of the rest, although interesting, and deserved feels too polished, too manicured. And although, with her editing Wilson seems to condemn Shields childhood sexualization those images and scenes from those movies are presented throughout with very little explicit criticism.

Difficult, challenging, and thought-provoking if lacking a certain type of direct censure that some  might desire.

Currently streaming on Hulu.

Rent It.

A Moment To Remember

As my wife and I
swung our nephew
he closed his eyes
spread his arms

a soft smile
crossed his lips
his hair swirled

as he leaned into the wind

safe and contented.

'John Wick: Chapter 4' A Review

John Wick: Chapter 4 is the latest in the increasingly convoluted Wick-verse. JW(Keanu Reeves) is still running and killing after the events of Parabellum, The Table still wants him dead and now they have a new new new person to manage it, the Marquis(Bill Skarsgård), and a new new super assassin for the specific job Caine(Donnie Yen).

I love Reeves, he's great, but he looks old and tired here, he's slow, and the fight choreography is simply not up to snuff with more CGI than ever before. The rest of the cast come across equally exhausted and weighed down by the inept attempts at world building the series trades in and the extensive and pointless exposition. Aside from Yen, who is virtually the movie's only saving grace, and Hiroyuki Sanada in a too brief appearance, there's almost no characters to really connect with here, almost everyone is on auto-pilot.

The beautiful jet-setting locations have little impact and the action sequences feel tired, rote, and devoid of actual stakes. John Wick has been a clinic in diminishing returns and this is the longest and worst of the lot. The plot is overly complicated, frequently absurd, all of the characters(aside from the two mentioned above) feel like automatons, all the deaths pile up and mean nothing. Even Wick's character(and by extension Reeves) seems to have lost the thread as to what all this was about.

A certifiable slog.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't See It.

'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' A Review

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a fantasy adventure/heist comedy inspired by the tabletop RPG. The film opens on Edgin(Chris Pine) and Holga(Michelle Rodriguez) in a prison, at their parole hearing Edgin provides exposition in a fun, fast paced, flashback sequence- his wife was killed, he met Holga who helped him raise his daughter, in order to make ends meat they formed a little thieving band along with Forge(Hugh Grant), Simon(Justice Smith), and Sofina(Daisy Head) and were busted on a questionable job, hence the prison time. They have to re-group in order to right the wrong.

The cast is stacked with talent and it is clear they all relish the occasionally sincere, mostly over-the-top, and consistently comedic tone. Pine brings all his unblemished movie star charm to the role and it's a delight, he functions kind of as the main character and as the fulcrum of the narrative but each character gets an emotional moment or two as well as a chance to shine with their particular character's ability. It's an incredible balancing act. Rodriquez is always a delight and it's great to see her in a genre picture here. Grant continues his late career renaissance and is delicious as the immoral avaricious heavy. Smith is wonderful, emotional, funny, present, night-and-day from his other big budget outing Detective Pikachu. Head is a great creepy wizard, Sophia Lillis as Doric comes in a bit later but is equally great, the same goes for Regé-Jean Page as Xenk. It's just a wonderful cast who all know what they're doing, have great chemistry, don't take themselves too seriously and take the script serious enough to make it sing. It's a great time.

Visually the film is rich with some nice actual locations, sets, and decent green screen work to make the world feel real and tactile and when the inevitable big CG action sequence comes at the end all the effort to integrate the visuals(and the grounded performance) work together to make it really pay off. The costuming is absolutely exquisite and the music transportive(some songs even diegetic from Pine's bard). Overall the production is just incredibly well considered, fully formed, and effective. 

A fair amount of laughs, a thrilling adventure, and a stellar cast come together to make a film way better than the clunky title indicates.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't Miss It.