Canter's

bread. meat. mustard. pickle.
simple.
perfect.
Sandwich.

Travel

I've become less and less interested
in other places
and more and more interested
in my own
its trials and textures
its problems and peoples
for first and foremost
I must know myself
and keep my house in order

our capacity to influence

has not grown

with our ability to know

Schwa

And trust
and commonality
and understanding
and community
and united purpose

within this circle of protection

these confines

safety

boundless freedom

'Love Hurts' A Review

Love Hurts is an action romcom about Marvin(Ke Huy Quan) a retired hitman turned real estate agent who is pulled back into his former life on Valentine's Day by the return of the woman he was meant to have killed as his final assignment Rose(Ariana DeBose).

Quan is his usual charismatic self and deploy's his martial expertise to great effect but the script isn't really on par with his talent and he valiant tries but mostly fails in resting anything coherent from it. DeBose is miscast, the twenty year age difference between her and Quan is apparent and makes the feints at romance between the two particularly cringe. She's a bit lost in the role and has yet to really meet the promise she showed in West Side Story. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty stacked- Sean Astin shows up and it's wonderful to see the two Goonies share the screen again, Mustafa Shakir as Raven a rival hitman, Lio Tipton as Ashley Marvin's co-worker going through an existential crisis(and who has an actually engaging romantic subplot with Shakir's character), boba tea slurping villain Daniel Wu- other than DeBose it's great casting and they all do something with their roles but both the direction and the script prevent any of them from really soaring.

Shot in Winnipeg the "Milwaukee" setting is kind of insulting, it looks like nameless, faceless suburbia rather than any actual place. The action sequences are thrillingly choregraphed and occasionally extremely graphic which is great but it's also pretty incongruous with the other attempted themes. Tonally it's ambitious, you have to give it that, but it's not successful, part John Wick part Gross Pointe Blank, it careens from heartfelt to broad comedy to brutal gore with little to no management, control, or intent. As a result all the genre's they attempt to meld come up short. There are little islands of great scenes but what surrounds them just frustrates. Despite the considerable powers of Quan it never really takes flight.

Destined to underperform in theaters and become a "hit" once streaming.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Stream It.

The Cost

What they don't tell you
is that sobriety

requires sacrifice

desire, ambition, righteousness

these must

be subordinate

to staying clean

every day

day after day

in perpetuity

they don't tell you

because they don't need to

whatever the cost

it's cheap

'Kinda Pregnant' A Review

Kinda Pregnant is a romcom about Lainy(Amy Schumer) a teacher who becomes jealous of her best friend Kate's(Jillian Bell) pregnancy after she breaks up with her long term boyfriend. She begins to wear a pregnancy belly for the attention but when she meets Josh(Will Forte) while wearing it and sparks fly she has to keeps up the lie.

Schumer is off her game, it's been several years since I Feel Pretty and Trainwreck, and she just doesn't have the same kind of presence, magnetism, or comedic timing here. Jillian Bell is pitch perfect and in the scenes they share it's clear Bell would have been better cast as the lead. Urzila Carlson brings a lot of energy and effort, props to her, but it just doesn't work and you can't help but think she was the third choice after Rebel Wilson and Rachel House declined. Will Forte is great, Alex Moffat brings some heat in too brief a role, Brianne Howey works well with what she has and Lizze Broadway is a welcome jolt of electricity any time she's on screen but overall it just feels like a hodgepodge cast, none of them totally sure what movie they are in, each doing there own thing to varying degrees of success. Some of the fault is on the script which oscillates wildly from broad blue and physical humor to attempts at genuine commentary about pregnancy in the modern age, and as esteemable as the intent may be those two objectivities really clash in the execution. Not to mention the central conceit is an astronomical hurdle, like what Lainy does is pathological, and the movie never really acknowledges that.

Director Tyler Spindel has some talent in this space(straight to Netflix comedies), The Wrong Missy and The Out-Laws weren't great but they were entertaining, this is a step below that. He's never had a particularly strong aesthetic, his movies pretty generic in how they look and are shot, and the script from Schumer and Julie Paiva doesn't give him much to stand on, it feels if not out-of-touch exactly than at least dated. Like it's a script Schumer had laying around from her sketch show days ten years ago that she reworked. Babes from last year which is very similar, although by no means a homerun, is much more successful at getting at the same themes. For that film's faults at least it feels modern. This feels retro in bad way, like Enchanted 2.

Part of the self-fulfilling prophecy of comedy films not getting theatrical releases.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

'Companion' A Review

Companion is a scifi thriller about Iris(Sophie Thatcher) a companion robot who's taken to a secluded weekend away by her "boyfriend" Josh(Jack Quaid) but things are not what they seem and danger is on the horizon!

Thatcher's star continues to rise and her performance is by far the most compelling element of the movie, she gives Iris incredible depth and dimension, executes the action panache, and translates some of the deeper themes as best as can be expected with the uneven script. Quaid is serviceable but other than The Boys has yet to show he's got the talent or range to be at the top of the call sheet, he's not able to really play any levels here, his 'turn' is profoundly unsurprising, the character is flat and he doesn't do much to bring it to life. The limited supporting cast have talent, it's especially great to see Harvey Guillén playing against type, but they don't have enough to do.

Visually the film looks good, shot mostly at one location, it's slick, evocative, and mostly effective. The soundtrack is uneven and at times serves to undermine or work against the established tone, there are a couple diegetic needle drop moments which clearly intend to be impactful but oddly fall flat. But mostly the problems stem from the script, discordantly paced the movie either needs more action or more AI philosophizing, as is the momentum starts and stops and allows the audience to easily get ahead of what's happening. The whole idea is relatively derivative(Ex Machina being the closest cousin) and ultimately there's just not enough new or fresh about this to hold that much interest. There's a good movie in here but as is it's relatively rote and feels more like a bloated Black Mirror episode rather than a feature.

A consummate Thatcher can't quite elevate this middling fare.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Stream It.