Hi friends! I hope you are doing well. Sorry I’ve been so MIA but I’ve been completely engrossed in my podcasting and work on KSL Movie Show. I’ve been subbing in for Steve Salles and the entire experience has been a dream come true. I hope that you listen each Friday or on the podcast version. Through an error, however, we missed talking about a new release this week. It is from Amazon and it’s called Sarah’s Oil. This is a wonderful based on a true story drama that the whole family can benefit from. Since we didn’t review it on the show I figured I’d do an old fashioned written review (we will probably cover it next week so tune in!)

Sarah’s Oil tells the story of Sarah Rector a real life young Black girl who inherits oil rich land in Oklahoma in the 1910s. In real life she really did sell her land to Rockefeller and was a millionaire by the time she turned 18. It’s a fascinating story well-told with dramatic license of course by director Cyrus Nowrasteh. I am sure a lot of kids will be inspired to see a strong-willed determined child like Sarah and her story on the big screen.

In the film Sarah is played by Naya Desir-Johnson and she has a terrific screen presence and her and Zachary Levi have nice chemistry together. The screenplay perhaps spends too much time on his character named Bert Smith (who is an invention for the film) but it was still a pleasant friendship to see unfold on screen. I also loved Sonequa Martin-Green as Sarah’s mother Rose (she’s always great even in Star Trek Discovery.)

For a small budgeted film the movie looks great with some impressive setpieces involving the oil rig. It all feels historically accurate and is easy to get immersed in the story. Naturally some of the harsher elements of the story involving antagonists against Sarah are kept family friendly but they make the point they need to make without being too traumatizing.

If families are looking for a night at the movies that will inspire their kids Sarah’s Oil is a great choice. It’s playing at theaters right now so check it out

My patrons keep me honest and able to see and review as much as I do. Make sure you check out the patreon for perks, exclusive reviews and to be part of our monthly events and watch alongs. If you value honest criticism check it out. Find out more here.

Hi friends! I hope you are doing well. I know I have basically been abandoning written reviews lately because of my work on KSL Movie Show but I am still reviewing movies. Make sure you check out the show each Friday as it has really been a dream come true for me. I don’t know how much longer it will last but I’m going to enjoy it for as long as I can. I am still writing reviews for theatre so you will want to be sure and follow me on my theatre site.

One of the fun parts of working at the show is it has forced me out of my comfort zone to watch films I might not have normally seen. This has been a net positive and I’ve discovered really good films like the first 2 Conjuring movies and a neat little horror movie from this year called Bone Lake.

With Halloween coming up Manda and I decided to continue this embrace of horror for our Blind Spot entry in October, and we watched the classic Poltergeist for the first time. I think this might be our best episode that we’ve recorded together yet because not only did we both really enjoy the film, but we had a lot of fun talking about the production controversy- mainly did Steven Spielberg actually direct the movie or was it the credited Tobe Hooper. It’s a good listen I would love if you check it out.

As far as the movie, Poltergeist is a horror I would recommend watching as an approachable gateway to the genre. It builds tension well with creepy scenes like when the chairs are all levitating or the silverware is bending. That’s effective and fun. Plus, it does creepy kid better than almost any other horror film I’ve seen. It involves supernatural elements but nothing too upsetting or disturbing and features a kick-butt mother in Diane who will literally dive into an abyss for her daughter so that’s cool.

If you can handle something like The Sixth Sense you can handle Poltergeist. It’s a ton of fun and we had a great time watching and talking about it.

Let me know what you have been watching lately and again sorry for skipping written reviews. Make sure you are checking out Hallmarkies Podcast as we are diving into the Christmas movie season already and everything else I have going on. Happy Halloween!

My patrons keep me honest and able to see and review as much as I do. Make sure you check out the patreon for perks, exclusive reviews and to be part of our monthly events and watch alongs. If you value honest criticism check it out. Find out more here.

Another month has come and gone and that means another blind spot. I’m super sorry I’ve been so neglectful of my written reviews but it’s just been the result of being so busy with my podcasts and KSL Movie Show. The support I have received on the show has been amazing and I’m beyond grateful for it. I am still writing my regular theatre reviews so make sure to take a look at that site.

This month the blind spot was the 1939 classic adaptation of Wuthering Heights. I have seen other adaptations but as I’m not the biggest fan of the book I hadn’t seen this one, and I’m glad I checked it off of my blind spot list. It’s still not my favorite story because Catherine and Heatcliff are both so unlikable but I do appreciate the melodrama in the script as well as the clear animosity between the actors.

This is certainly a beautifully made movie with one of the most memorable scores in a drama in film. Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier evidently hated each other which is just the dynamic you need for Catherine and Heathcliff. The more hate the better! It’s going to be interesting to see how Emerald Fennell’s version turns out next year. It looks like it is going to be a lose adaptation (unlike this one aside from the ending) but will a new interpretation work?

It was interesting to learn in preparation for the podcast about director William Wyler and what he put the actors through. One scene he asked Olivier for 72 takes with little to no feedback of what he needed to do differently. I can’t imagine what that would have been like but that exasperated emotion probably helped Olivier capture Heathcliff’s frustrations and anger so well in the film.

I personally prefer Olivier in Pride and Prejudice the next year but that comes down to story preference more than anything else. What about you? What do you think of Wuthering Heights and this version from 1939? Check out the podcast! I think you’ll really enjoy it.

My patrons keep me honest and able to see and review as much as I do. Make sure you check out the patreon for perks, exclusive reviews and to be part of our monthly events and watch alongs. If you value honest criticism check it out. Find out more here.

 

 

Hi friends! I hope you are doing well and all having a nice summer. It has been a busy time for me but a lot of exciting things happening in the worlds of both film and theatre.

The biggest news is I have been able to fill in for the amazing Steve Salles over at the KSL’s The Movie Show. I have long been a fan of this show and even called in when I was in college so to be a co-host is surreal. Each time I’ve been on the show has been a great learning experience as live radio is not exactly the same as podcasting. I’m not sure how many weeks I’ll be on the show but it will be at least 2 more Fridays (tune in Friday mornings here)

Make sure you are following me on instagram as I do out of theater reactions for all film and theatre I see. Here’s some quick thoughts on everything I’ve been watching

Superman-

I am hoping I will have time for a full review of the new Superman film because I really did enjoy it but I’ve covered it in lots of other ways. I did a fun episode of Hallmarkies Podcast on it and the 1978 Superman: The Movie where we focused on the romance in both movies.

I think what I liked the most about this movie is the humanity it brings to Superman. I know he is an alien but James Gunn has made a character that’s vulnerable and sweet. I liked him so much that it made up for any small flaws the film may have had. He and Rachel Brosnahan have terrific chemistry and I didn’t mind that they skipped over the origin story elements which I often find quite dull.

More thoughts- Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is a film about the Zimbabwean War told from the perspective of a little girl. It is beautifully made and the little girl is good but I don’t think it balances tone well making the brutal scenes extra shocking.

I watched the original I Know What You Did Last Summer to be ready for the remake since I was covering it for the show. The original movie is a lot of fun and captures the sense of anxiety and panic well particularly in Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Helen character (a great scene when she is being chased through town.) The new movie isn’t as good but I found it to be a serviceable slasher with a likeable cast and some grisly kills. Not great but decent for the genre fans.

I also saw Eddington, which is my first film by director Ari Aster. This is a very uneven film that can’t decide what it is trying to say which is strange for a movie that takes on such partisan political topics. I was mixed on it but do recommend watching it because it makes odd choices one wants to talk about with friends.

I saw an indie called Magnetosphere about a girl with synesthesia. One of my favorite movies last year was Musica which is about an adult with synesthesia. While this isn’t as good they both use creative ways to show the heightened senses of the characters and are overall a lot of fun.

Some other releases are the indie comedy Oh, Hi tries to be a romantic spin on Misery and it really didn’t work for me. The behavior of the lead female is sociopathic but the movie treats her actions as normal with other people helping her. It’s ludicrous and definitely not funny.

Fixed is an absolutely dreadful adult animated film with only one joke about horny dogs for 86 minutes. Zombies 4 is an absurd entry in the long-running series for Disney Channel but likeable in a bonkers ridiculous way. Shoshana is a moving love story at the time of the founding of Israel. Finally, Win or Lose is a sweet and underrated series from Pixar.

There you have it! What have you been watching?

My patrons keep me honest and able to see and review as much as I do. Make sure you check out the patreon for perks, exclusive reviews and to be part of our monthly events and watch alongs. If you value honest criticism check it out. Find out more here.

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a great summer and enjoying some fun at the movies. I have a few reviews to catch you all up on but make sure you are following me on instagram and on youtube to catch my out of theater reactions and more.

So let’s get started on the reviews:

Bride Hard

https://youtube.com/shorts/iVIdT_zxHlY?feature=share

I’m a huge fan of the original Pitch Perfect film. I love pretty much everything about it including the cast. The sequels are more mixed especially the 3rd but they had their moments. It is for this reason that I held out some hope for Bride Hard starring Pitch Perfect allums Rebel Wilson and Anna Camp. Unfortunately this lame action comedy wastes its talented cast (and it’s not just Camp and Wilson but Anna Chlumsky, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Sherry Cola and more.) The only real question I’m left with after watching it is why was this deemed as theatrical worthy? It’s so weird.

This movie also earns its R rating with some pretty violent sequences that do not fit the tone at all. At one point a bad guy is skewered with a party platter and it’s played off as a big joke- like look how funny it is this person was skewered through the stomach? Camp and Wilson have nice chemistry and they try (along with Randolph) to save it but it’s a hopeless endeavor. This one is a definite skip.

Frown Worthy

Megan 2.0

Believe it or not I actually enjoyed the first Megan film. It was campy and much like Happy Death Day it balanced horror, comedy and social commentary very well. Now we have M3gan 2.0 and while its definitely weaker than the first film I was entertained enough to recommend it.

The biggest change they made from the first film is to practically abandon the slasher roots it had established. I’m a pretty easy scare so if this didn’t feel like a horror movie in any way than it’s a problem. In fact, M3gan 2.0 is more of a sci-fi  thriller/comedy than it is a horror film.

That said,  M3gan 2.0 not only leans into the camp of the first film but then adds to it.  It is a very silly movie but it owns that cheese and still manages to be entertaining.  Your mileage  may vary.

Smile Worthy

28 Years Later

https://youtube.com/shorts/MlOccoJGdz8?feature=share

It’s always interesting when a new entry in a franchise comes out but I haven’t seen any of the movies in said franchise. This is most likely to occur in the horror genre because I have the most horror blind spots. Usually I ask around if the movie is stand alone enough and if my friends say it is I give it a shot. One example that worked out great this summer is Final Destination Bloodlines, which I’d never seen before and really enjoyed. I took a similar risk in seeing 28 Years Later (a franchise I’ve never seen any of the films before) without as much payoff.

I honestly struggle with what score to give this film as it has some positives. I like how unhinged it can get and that director Danny Boyle isn’t afraid to try different things. It also looks great and his actors are all up for whatever he throws at him particularly young Alfie Williams as Spike and Jodie Comer playing his Mom. Ralph Fiennes isn’t in the movie as much as I thought he would be but he’s very good as a mysterious doctor in the time of zombies.

The problem really comes in Alex Garland‘s unfocused script. The movie starts off being a father/son dynamic and then that is abandoned for a son/mother journey to find the doctor. Then when they find the doctor it’s another story. Plot points are brought up in the beginning that go nowhere, characters are introduced to be nothing but zombie fuel and I’m honestly not sure what Garland is trying to say with this script (good zombie movie should be about something. Right?)

Evidently this is the beginning of a new trilogy of films which should be interesting as the ending of this film is bizarre and makes no sense. It will be fascinating to see what they do with that choice in future films. At the end of the day, 28 Years Later has some compelling elements but it doesn’t quite come together.

Frown Worthy

Jurassic World: Rebirth

https://youtube.com/shorts/ATBebnMDY_M?feature=share

Speaking of unfocused films, let’s talk about Jurassic World: Rebirth. I must admit I was not super hopeful with this film as the sequels to my beloved Jurassic Park have mostly been underwhelming. They just can’t seem to capture that mixture of dino action and compelling characters that you had in the first film- I mean and not even close. Unfortunately Rebirth continues with that trend.

The frustrating part of this film is the main story with Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey could have went somewhere. They are scientists trying to get to the dinosaurs to get DNA for a miracle cure drug that’s going to cure heart disease. Mahershala Ali joins them along with the obvious villain in Rupert Friend. All this could have worked but the movie makes the bizarre choice to cut away from this group to a family that is marooned on a boat with a teenage boy who’s whole personality trait is to be annoying.

It honestly felt like 2 movies wedged together and every time they went back to the family the momentum is sucked out of the story and we couldn’t build up tension or investment in the characters or anything. At least with Jurassic Park 3 you’re with the same characters most of the movie (plus it’s 45 minutes shorter!) There are a couple decent dinosaur scenes but they are less fun than they would be because we don’t care about the characters and the tension hasn’t been built appropriately.

I must admit I hope this movie isn’t a big hit because the franchise really needs a reset. The original film meant so much to me and it’s sad to see it be treated so poorly again and again. Sadly I’m sure it will do very well and so we will just keep getting more of the same. Alas I wish they could spare no expense on the writing (this even has original writer David Koepp at the helm of this one, so maybe it’s just a lost cause?) Nevertheless, a movie with this many mutant dinosaurs shouldn’t be this boring… (Also literally nothing is rebirthed in this film…)

Frown Worthy

This is what I would do if I was given the chance to pitch a Jurassic movie

My patrons keep me honest and able to see and review as much as I do. Make sure you check out the patreon for perks, exclusive reviews and to be part of our monthly events and watch alongs. If you value honest criticism check it out. Find out more here.

 

Since the release of Materialists I’ve had a lot of discussions online and in person about the film. Some people agree and others disagree with me about the problems with the script and characters but the majority seem to agree that it is at the very least not the romantic comedy the promotion sold it it as. There have been some who push back on me (which is totally fine. Love the discussion) and argue it should be included and that we should have a wide understanding for the category. On one hand this is semantics and categories for all genres can be quite nebulous (I’ve yet to have anyone adequately explain to me the difference between a horror and thriller for example) but on the other hand it does matter because far too often traditional romantic comedy fans are left abandoned with nothing to enjoy at the cinemas.

If we were living in a thriving age of cinema where all kinds of comedies and romance were being released on a regular basis I would have less squabbles about whether a film is more a straight comedy than a romantic comedy. Many films have been debated over the years such as Legally Blonde, which is minimally about the endgame romance or Breakfast at Tiffany’s which is definitely a romance but the comedy is a smaller role with the dramatic moments sticking out more prominently.

Again, I wouldn’t complain if the studios were giving everybody what they want at the cinemas but that’s just not the case. Let’s look at 2024. The only romances released in theaters were genre mashups like Love Lies Bleeding, Challengers, Your Monster, and Lisa Frankenstein. The closest we probably got was Fly Me to the Moon but that was arguably more a workplace comedy than a rom-com but it has enough of the tropes of the genre to count in the category.

One movie! There is no more underserved genre. Sure there were other rom-coms released last year like The Idea of You, Irish Wish, Musica, Hit Man. All went straight to streaming.

Here’s where the problem comes in. Hollywood knows the market is there for rom-coms but they aren’t making them. So their solution is to market films that don’t really qualify as being in the genre leaving fans disappointed when they actually see the films. This can be seen in marketing for many films such as Materialists this year and last year’s The Fall Guy. When both films underdeliver on both the rom and the com people feel justifiably let down. Why do you think Materialists had such a low Cinemascore? Cinemascore shows the level of satisfaction audience had with the film they were given. With Materialists audiences rightly went in hoping for a love triangle romantic comedy and instead got a cynical piece with sexual assault at its center.

Some people will say ‘it’s just a phase’ and rom-coms will be back in cinemas and to that I say ‘I hope so… If a movie like the recent Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy can’t get a release I’m skeptical. That’s a franchise with a proven track record at the box office and it couldn’t even get a limited run over Valentines weekend with nothing else in theaters (it still tripled its budget internationally which is amazing so at least other places are acknowledging the genre.) And it’s not like this is just a momentary phase. When Crazy Rich Asians came out in 2018 it was viewed as somewhat of a miracle. Not only did it have a diverse cast and subject matter but a big budget Hollywood rom-com with a wide release was so rare- even then and it’s only gotten much worse in the last 7 years.

And it’s not just streaming vs wide release. It’s that the entire genre has been relegated to television-sized budgets with very little of the fun and spectacle we used to get from the genre. Even reliable filmmakers like Nancy Meyers, who has almost never had a commercial flop, isn’t able to get the budgets and the casts a similar director in another genre would be able to get. Almost all the rom-com directors of the past have been relegated to television or streaming in the last few years. Amy Heckerling, for example, hasn’t made a movie since 2012. All television directing from her lately. It’s just sad.

And the depressing part is they could make money. The rare unicorn of a release with Anyone But You, which wasn’t even that good,  made $220 million on a $25 million budget. You would think this might inspire copycats but nope almost everything since has been straight to streaming even Hit Man starring Glen Powell!

We as genre fans are then left with only Hallmark and Hallmark-sized films and as much as I love Hallmark that isn’t all I want. I want it all!! It’s so discouraging to go to the cinemas and never see the kind of movies we used to get all the time, and when I say never I mean virtually never. Whether the offerings are good on their own outside of the genre disappointment is up for debate but the loss of the cinematic rom-com should be acknowledged.

Pretending like the category hasn’t been abandoned isn’t helpful or productive. This is why I stubbornly fight this fight. The romantic comedy was a genre worthy of saving- a genre that provided a lot of joy to a lot of people especially women. It deserves more than only on our televisions…It just does.

(For the record, something counts as a romantic comedy in my opinion if you can’t remove either the romance or the comedy from the story and it still work. They are fundamental elements to the success of the film, but that’s just me)

My patrons keep me honest and able to see and review as much as I do. Make sure you check out the patreon for perks, exclusive reviews and to be part of our monthly events and watch alongs. If you value honest criticism check it out. Find out more here.