Sundance Log 2021 Day 5 (At the Ready, First Date, Land, Misha and the Wolves, Life in a Day 2020, Judas and the Black Messiah)

| Rachel's Reviews

Good evening friends! I just finished up day 5 of the Sundance Film Festival and I am here to give you another log of all of the films I watched. With the 2 shorts packages I saw I have actually beaten my record of last year’s festival with 26 movies seen and soon to be reviewed! I’m proud of this accomplishment because the festival is half the length of last year so even being virtual 26 movies is pretty good!

Anyway, here’s some thoughts on today’s movies:

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At the Ready

Some people will no doubt be mad this documentary doesn’t take more of a stand for or against the criminal justice program in El Paso it is profiling, but I admire it for that. It really lets the teenagers tell their story. Some of the students become border patrol agents and are serving honorably. Others make changes and go to college, start speaking out against the wall and other injustices. That’s what a good documentary does. Director Maisie Crow stays out of the way of subjects and let’s them tell their story and I admire her for that. The parents and teachers are also given time but I could have had even more from them. I would also have been interested to hear more stats about the program and what kinds of officers it ends up recruiting.

7.5 out of 10

Smile Worthy

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First Date

The new comedy First Date is not without laughs but most of them are small moments of levity in the script and in the performance by lead actor Tyson Brown. Indeed, the basic concept of a teen buying a used car to impress the girl he finally asks out, only to discover it’s a drug car, is funny. The problem is what they do with that concept gets old quick. The violence and other shenanigans is too much and it distracts from the jokes. Also aside from Brown, all the acting is amateurish. I know they are on a small budget so I want to be encouraging but it just didn’t end up working for me in the end.

4.5 out of 10

Frown Worthy

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Land

The fact Robin Wright both directs and stars in Land is a big selling point for the movie and a big reason it was probably chosen to premiere at the festival. She is an actress who has been solidly turning in good performances for years and it is exciting to see what she will do behind the camera. Now that I’ve seen it what’s my review? It’s fine. The story is basic with the woman coming to find herself in nature and recovering from past trauma. (Want to see a version of this watch Virgin River on Netflix!). However, I liked each of the cast of 3 (Wright, Demian Bichir and Kim Dickens), it is beautiful to look at and surprisingly hopeful and positive. It’s also a blessed 93 minutes! With all these positives I didn’t mind the predictability and overall enjoyed watching it for what it is.

6 out of 10

Smile Worthy

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Misha and the Wolves

This documentary is definitely the biggest surprise of the festival. I went into it literally knowing nothing about it but a friend told me to watch it and I’m so glad I did. Look out for it on Netflix and avoid spoilers. It reminded me of the great documentary 3 Identical Strangers from a few years ago. That movie shocked me and so does this! It’s also so well paced and put together. It all makes it a great time at the movies. This might be this year’s Dick Johnson is Dead and make it to my Top 10!

9 out of 10

Smile Worthy

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Life in a Day 2020

I don’t know if the youtube Life in a Day counts as a movie but it is 90 minutes and it is on rottentomatoes so I guess so…It feels more like a instastory clip reel than a feature film and it’s fun enough to watch. It feels like opening up a time capsule except from just last year! The conceit is on July 25, 2020 a bunch of people sent in their “days” into youtube and honestly it felt like everyone had a different 2020 than I did. I was surprised how many group scenes they still had. There were even some concerts and lots of parties. There weren’t very many masks. It was strange but I’m happy to see happy people so it was harmless. I don’t really feel like I can give it a review. It’s not a movie. It’d be like me giving the camera gallery in your phone a number grade. No.

(If you think I should give it a score let me know in the comments).

Smile Worthy that 2020 is Over!

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Judas and the Black Messiah

Most film fans have undoubtedly started to get hyped for Judas and the Black Messiah. Oscar buzz is high for the film and especially the performances by Daniel Kaluuya as Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and Lakeith Stanfield as undercover operative William O’Neal. The movie paints O’Neal as a traitor or rat and yet Hampton is both electrifying and terrifying as a leader.

For the most part I agree with the hype for the film especially with the 2 lead performances. Both men live and breathe the roles and there are many raw and visceral moments. The production design, costuming and music is all also excellent.

However, the film is hurt a bit by a wandering protagonist. It keeps flipping between both men to the point I didn’t feel I got to know either well. There is also moral ambiguity about both men. Do the moviemakers think O’Neal is a rat and traitor? I’m not sure. If you are someone who thought The Trial of the Chicago 7 was too bombastic and simple you may like these more morally confused heroes.  However, I think the script could have drawn the characters out better and given us more about who they are and why they are making the choices they do.

Also it might have just been my home setup but there were times the scenes were very dark and I struggled to see what was happening.

Still, I recommend seeing Judas and the Black Messiah for the great performances and absorbing moments. Let me know what you think. (The intense scenes reminded me of Detroit)

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

So there you go! That’s my moviegoing for today. Have you been able to attend the festival? I would love to hear your thoughts on these films and any you have seen I may have missed.

 

Sundance Log 2021 Day 4 (Ailey, Marvelous and the Black Hole, Together Together, Taming the Garden, Jockey, Fire in the Mountains)

| Rachel's Reviews

Hello readers! It is the end of the day at that means time for another one of my Sundance Film Festival viewing logs. Here I give my mini reviews for every film I saw at the festival. Yesterday I gave all positives but today was more mixed.

Here goes!

Ailey

This film is a documentary about famed dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey. Going into watching this I had never heard of Ailey so this was a great chance to become acquainted with an important person to the arts. And to its credit Ailey does a good job introducing the man and his incredible dancing using both archival footage and some more recently taken. The fluidity of the dance is beautiful and I can see why it touched so many. There’s not much else to this movie. It’s a standard biopic done well. I’m surprised Neon bought this one because I think it is going to American Masters on PBS.

6 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Marvelous and the Black Hole

Marvelous and the Black Hole is a good example of when being close to friends at the festival pays off. I had missed this one in my planning but my friend Kristen Maldonado told me to check it out and I ended up really enjoying it. You readers also know I don’t normally like teenage angst movies and in this movie the lead girl is a lot to deal with. She drove me crazy but the movie doesn’t try and justify her behavior. All it takes is a bubbly magician played by Rhea Perlman to save the day. Marvelous and the Black Hole has a huge heart anyone with teenagers or who has been a teenager will enjoy. It reminded me a little bit of Eighth Grade from a few years back.

8 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Taming the Garden

I am sure there is someone who can explain to me why watching a tree for nearly 2 hours is brilliant but I am not that person. I assumed this would be an expose of types about the people who move these trees across the ocean but it wasn’t. It was literally a whole movie of watching construction crews work. No story,, characters. Nothing. It reminded me of when my Brother was 2 or 3 he had a movie of just construction workers doing their thing and he loved it. Maybe this movie is made for them? As for me I need more!

2 out of 10

Frown Worthy

Together Together

Every year at Sundance there is a quirky rom-com that everyone falls in love with. Together Together is probably that movie except it’s not about a love relationship but one based on friendship instead. It stars Ed Helms as a single man who has decided to have a baby via a surrogate played by Patti Harrison. As they work on this unusual project they genuinely become friends. I really appreciated the movie was about platonic friendship and that they didn’t have it turn romantic towards the end. As a single person I related to both characters quite strongly. In addition, I liked both of the actors and the script was charming. Some people have complained about the ending being abrupt. I was fine with it.

8 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Jockey

I have a feeling Jockey will end up being the underdog film of the festival because it’s very understated and simple but I liked it. It stars Clifton Collins Jr as an aging jockey who doesn’t have many races left and Moises Arias as a boy who may or may not be Clifton’s son. Finally Molly Parker stars as a possible love interest for Collins. The highlight of Jockey is a dancing scene in the middle of the train tracks. It was random but beautiful

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Fire in the Mountains-

My last film comes from India and it is one I am not going to give a review. I liked it ok but I found it tough to read the subtitles which were in a white that blended in with everything else. Sometimes I can get an idea what the story is from the images on screen but not here. I was mostly confused. It looks pretty though. If any of you saw it what do you think of it?

So there you have it. My reviews for the Sundance Film Festival day 4!

Sundance Log 2021 Day 3 (Street Gang, Prime Time, R#J, Rita Moreno, The Sparks Brothers)

| Rachel's Reviews

Hey everyone! Today I watched 5 movies at the Sundance Film Festival and could have watched a 6th but I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open to write this vlog so another movie was out of the question. Needless to say I am going to make this short and sweet.

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street

This documentary continues the tradition of the childhood nostalgia docs found in films about Big Bird, Elmo and most expertly done with Fred Rogers in Won’t You Be My Neighbor (the gold standard). In that tradition this film does its job. I particularly liked the early parts about the creation of Sesame Street as a show for kids in urban areas with Black and Latino kids. Most of the later stuff I already knew from the Big Bird documentary. If you grew up watching Sesame Street than you will enjoy this one!

6.5 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It

In another documentary we get a bio-pic of EGOT winning actress Rita Moreno. This doesn’t break the mold but it is a perfectly entertaining piece on the actress.

6 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Prime Time

Next up is a film from Poland called Prime Time. This is a short film at 93 minutes and it does a good job building all the tension that would come with a hostage situation of a TV news station on New Years Eve. The only thing I was unsure on is the man’s motivations for doing what he did. They could have fleshed that out better. Still worth seeing.

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

The Sparks Brothers

This documentary is done by Edgar Wright and tells the story of the Sparks Brothers Band who started in 1967 and are still working together to this day. For 53 we’ve managed to stay both relevant and under the radar musicians that are not afraid to challenge convention. The Sparks Brothers is definitely way too long at nearly 2.5 hours but the brothers are charming enough to keep me engaged. I also enjoyed the animated sections in between the live action segments. It made me want to look them up on Itunes and get to know their cool sound better.

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

R#J

In what is most likely to be the most divisive film of the festival R#J left me torn on how well it was able to execute its vision. Basically through social media it tells the classic story of Romeo and Juliet. I appreciate the experimentation and it fits in most of the original play with a lot of the language. But…it does feel gimmicky and its hard to get into the heart of the couple via social media. Still I found it fascinating and appreciate the risks taken. It’s a bold experimental take on a classic.

6 out of 10

Smile Worthy

So all fresh today!! Nothing but smiles. What about you? Did you catch anything at Sundance?

Sundance Log 2021 Day 2 (President, Cryptozoo, Bring Your Own Brigade, Playing with Sharks, Coda, One for the Road)

| Rachel's Reviews

Hi friends! Another day of virtual Sundance Film Festival attendance has come and gone. And as much as I miss the comradery of physical attendance the virtual experience has its appeal and they have done a great job organizing everything. Not only do they have a wide selection of movies but they still have the director introductions and post movie QandA’s available for you to enjoy.

Today I managed to see 6 movies and they included the usual hits and misses of Sundance but that’s part of the fun of going to the festival. Here are my quick thoughts on what I’ve seen:

President

President is a documentary by director Camilla Nielsson chronicling the 2018 presidential election in Zimbabwe. She has incredible access to both candidates and the aging long-ruling dictator Robert Mugabe (a press conference he gives on a literal throne is particularly memorable). Unfortunately the movie felt dry and almost too detailed for its own good. When watching movies like this I always ask myself if I’d rather be reading an article on the topic and the answer here is definitely yes. There’s an art to making documentaries cinematic and this one didn’t do it for me.

4 out of 10

Frown Worthy

Cryptozoo

Some people will find Dash Shaw’s sophomore film to be a brilliant trippy exercise. In fact, I was a big fan of his first film My Entire High School is Sinking Into the Sea. It was weird with raw animation but it was also quite funny so it worked. Unfortunately, this effort did not work for me. It might have been successful as a short but as a feature there isn’t enough meat on the bone narratively to be successful. It felt like utter randomness and the nearly constantly nudity feels gratuitous. While I appreciate the experimentation the director must meet the audience half way and give some satisfactory story to gnaw at in order for it all to pay off. Despite some cool animation this is a definite skip.

3 out of 10

Frown Worthy

Bring Your Own Brigade

I always appreciate a documentary where the director is open to being surprised. Lucy Walker does this in her film Bring Your Own Brigade and it makes for a fascinating watch. The film chronicles the various wildfires in 2018 California. From the Camp Fire in Northern to the Woolsey Fire in Southern, Walker immerses you in the events of the horrible fires and then dives into how these fires happened and what is or isn’t being done to prevent them from happening again. Each step of the way she is surprised by what she finds and what the people who have become her friends say. It’s probably about 30 minutes too long and perhaps has too much detail but I still thought it was a terrific documentary.

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Playing with Sharks

Playing with Sharks is a light and fun bio-pic documentary about shark expert Valerie Taylor. I’m a big fan of sharks, Jaws and Shark Week so I’m amazed I hadn’t ever heard of Taylor but she’s an engaging presence on screen (very helpful in a profile piece). She opens up to her mistakes as a spear fisher early in her career and is honest about the damage Jaws may have caused to the shark population. The beautiful ocean cinematography made me long for the ocean. Someday! In the end, this is a pleasant watch about a seemingly lovely person.

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Coda

Coda is the kind of movie I live for at the festival. What some might brush off as a crowd-pleaser I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s no wonder it has inspired the first big bidding war of the festival. It’s such a sweet lovely movie. (It reminded me of Blinded By the Light, which I also saw at Sundance and also adored). It is about a teenager named Ruby (Emilia Jones) who’s family is all deaf but she has dreams of becoming a singer and going to Berkley. Marlee Matlin is terrific as Ruby’s mother and Eugenio Derbez steals the show as her eccentric choir director. We even get to see Ferdia  Walsh-Peelo from Sing Street fame as her love interest. This is a lovely film that will make you want to reach out to your family and tell them you love them. A real winner.

9 out of 10

Smile Worthy

One for the Road

This Fall I started my first deep dive into the world of kdramas with my friend Suey from the KPOP Konverters. It was a really fun experience but there is a pacing to the brand of melodrama that took some getting used to. I felt the same way watching One for the Road. It’s from Thailand instead of Korea but if you are a kdrama fan I bet you’d enjoy it. One for the Road is directed by Baz Poonpiriya and it is produced by Wong Kar-wai who made the classic In the Mood for Love.

The film is about 2 friends who go on a journey to say goodbye to their past loves before one dies of leukemia. For the first hour this sentimental bromance was working for me. It was sweet along the lines of something like 50/50. Unfortunately the last hour really pulls it down with a story change that drags. They decide to dive into the non-sick man’s past love life and it is not very interesting. I kept wanting them to get back to the 2 friends which I had been enjoying. One for the Road looks nice and has it’s moments but I can’t recommend it.

5 out of 10

Frown Worthy

There you have it! What a day of movie watching. I should have an equally busy day tomorrow. Did any of you attend Sundance? What have you seen? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments section.

Sundance Log 2021 Day 1 (Shorts, FLEE)

| Rachel's Reviews

Hello from the Sundance Film Festival…inside my house! Yes this is my 5th time attending the festival, my first time as approved press. As can be expected they are doing an all virtual festival this year and it honestly has its pluses and minuses. Gone are the long lines (especially if you don’t have the locals pass like last year) It’s also admittedly nice to be able to take breaks, tweet while watching and other such obnoxious behaviors you can’t do in a screening.

However, obviously I miss out on the group-feel of the festival. They are trying their best to mimic that with chatrooms and even gave directors and some critics (not me) VR sets to increase the realism. Still, nothing is quite the same as being there and chatting with folks, finding out what they’ve seen and going to see it. The festival is a great experience and I can’t wait until it is back in full force.

Today I saw 3 programs as part of Day 1 of the festival. This includes 2 shorts programs and my first feature film. Here are my mini reviews:

Animation Spotlight

Despite being a massive animation fan I must own I am not usually a big fan of the Animation Spotlight at Sundance. Often it has felt like a lot of Don Hertzfelt copycats and one of him is enough for me thank you very much! However, I don’t know if it is because I am interviewing all the animators for Rotoscopers but I feel like this is a better batch than normal this year.

The highlight of the 9 shorts is GNT which is very vulgar and foul-mouthed but funny short about group of catty friends trying to win points on social media and The Fourfold by Alisi Telengut which uses paint and paper with stop motion to tell a story about the earth. The rest were all good and worth watching.

8 out of 10

Smile Worhty

Shorts Program 1

Next up we have the first of 2 live action shorts programs. This a very different group of shorts with about the only thing connecting them being their length and being in live action. My favorite is called BJ’s Mobile Gift Shop which  is a charming short about a man who carries a red suitcase around town that is a go-to lifesaving gift shop in a bag. You spill coffee on your shirt? He’s ready to help. You lose power to your phone? He’s got a charger to help. He also challenges his stuffed suit friends to think outside their boxes in some great scenes.

However, I did not like the last short Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma. It was really long and was attempting to portray Black America but felt like scripted randomness, which I really hate in documentaries. Not for me.

6 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Flee

My first feature film of the festival is an animated documentary about a man named Amin who tells his story to his friend director Jonas Poher Rasmussen. This is not the first animated documentary I’ve seen. Waltz with Bashir and the incredible Tower come to mind. However, it’s an uncommon enough format to feel fresh and exciting. It also is ambitious in its scope taking you from Amin’s life in Afghanistan when his father is taken away, to him fleeing to Denmark, to his coming to terms with his sexuality and getting married. That’s a lot for one film to take on!

I was particularly moved by the ending when Amin receives acceptance from someone whom he expects rejection. It is very moving. Some of the animation could be smoother but it does the job we needed it to do. I really enjoyed watching Flee.

7.5 out of 10

Smile Worthy

So there you have it. Day 1 is done! Did you get to watch anything at Sundance today? Let me know in the comments section.

[REVIEW] ‘The Little Things’ or Average Isn’t Good Enough for 3 Oscar Winners

| Rachel's Reviews

Hey everyone! I have a quick review for you today of the new film from Warner Bros entitled The Little Things. This is a new police crime thriller directed by John Lee Hancock and starring Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto. With such an all-star cast you’d think The Little Things would be a slam dunk but it ends up being thoroughly average and bland.

Washington plays Duke a small town sheriff who returns to the big city to get some evidence for his boss only to be brought back into a serial killer investigation by Malek’s young officer Jimmy Baxter. Duke is known as a legendary detective but something in his past made him give up on the career. I wonder if this new case will unearth some of his daemons from the past? No spoilers but it might just happen.

Jared Leto plays the serial killer of the film and he’s a  little over-the-top but for the most part he’s fine. Malek does a good job with what he is given but his character doesn’t always make sense. Especially towards the end I was puzzled by his character’s choices.

Again, with no spoilers, the ending, is difficult to predict  so some people will like that but it didn’t all come together or feel believable. In fairness, this type of police procedural is not my favorite to begin with but it didn’t win me over. Even Denzel’s performance, while decent, feels a little phoned in compared to what we know he can do in films like Hurricane, Glory or Malcolm X

However, the biggest problem with The Lille Things is its pacing at 127 minutes the story really drags and I struggled to stay engaged. I actually think edited for TV it might work better and be a little snappier. That’s the only way I’d recommend it is as a filler movie on a Saturday night on TBS. It’s fine for that but nothing to go to the theater in covid to see or to watch on HBO Max right away.

5 out of 10

Frown Worthy

 

Blind Spot 61: SELENA (1997)

| Rachel's Reviews

As a film critic I watch at least a movie almost every single day. And yet somehow there are films that still slip through the cracks and I haven’t seen despite them being quite popular and even iconic. This is the whole purpose behind this blind spot series. Well, a couple of months ago I was talking to my friend Larry and he was shocked I haven’t seen the musical biopic Selena. This is a favorite film of his (see his review above) so I knew I must put it on my blind spot picks for 2021.

Selena tells the story of Tejano singing star Selena Quintanilla-Perez who shot up into fame on the Mexican charts (even winning a grammy in the category) before being tragically killed by an employee at the age of 23.

Jennifer Lopez shines playing Selena. First of all, she looks so much like her that there really was nobody else who could have played the role. Also the film lives and dies in the staging of the musical sequences. Some of the more dramatic sequences feel a little weak in the acting departments but the film knows this and gets quickly back to the music. We get to see Selena’s charisma on the stage and how she could truly captivate an entire stadium.

Director Gregory Nava smartly frames the film around her final breakthrough show at the Houston Astrodome. With a story with such a sad ending it gives her a moment of triumph which helps it feel rewarding while also of course being still sad. We at least know she got her moment.

The script also gives most of the meatier dialogue to veterans like Edward James Olmos who plays Selena’s father Abraham Quintanilla. I particularly liked a speech he gives about the Catch-22 of being a Mexican American:

“We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time! It’s exhausting”

Some may complain that Selena doesn’t drift far away from the music bio-pic formula. However, perhaps because Selena is so young we are spared many of the scenes of rebellion with drugs and partying we typically get in these kind of films. About the worst we get is her wearing revealing clothing, wanting to get married and her band-mates messing up a hotel room. Pretty tame in the musical bio-pic world.

Mostly we get to know a sweet young woman with a beautiful voice who’s life was cut far too short. The film decides to leave the shooting off screen, which perhaps was best since it was all so fresh (she died in 1995 and the film was released in 1997). Still, I wish we could have gotten one more scene with Yolanda to try and understand why she did what she did. It all feels a little rushed at the end.

Nevertheless, I am glad I finally saw Selena. I can understand why it is a favorite of Larry and many others. It captures the appeal of Selena singing and Lopez is fantastic in those scenes. Olmos backs her up with a great performance as her father and the whole experience is respectful and uplifting. If you haven’t seen it I’d say it is worth checking out.

I’ve heard from all of my friends that the new Netflix series is not good. Here is my friend Kristen’s review:

I give the 1997 film Selena

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

[REVIEW] ‘Effigy: Poison and the City’

| Rachel's Reviews

Anyone who has read this blog for long knows I have a soft spot in my heart for period piece dramas. I even recently enjoyed the glittery and not-at-all true to life series Bridgerton on Netflix. Today I want to share my quick thoughts on something entirely different in the world of period films. This time it is Effigy: Poison and the City and it is a grisly tale by way of Germany about one of Europe’s first female serial killers.

Director Udo Flohr does a lot on a small budget and crafts for us the story of real-life murderer Gesche Gottfried (or the Angel of Bremen) played by Suzan Anbeh. They do a very good job of making Gottfried a morally ambiguous character. At times she seems to be a Kevorkian type character who is helping people who want to die. Then she seems to be out for revenge. At other times she’s an outright crazy person. We don’t really know what version of Gottfried we are going to get next. All we know is that we need to keep the poison or ‘mouse butter’ away from her.

The story is told from the perspective of a female law clerk Cato Bohmer (Elisa Thiemann) who is assigned to help a senator (Christoph Gottschalch) investigate the ever illusive Gottfried. She deals with her own discrimination as a female in mostly a male world of politics and law. There is a side of her that seems repulsed but also fascinated (maybe even attracted) to Gottfried. Again, the movie leaves the relationship ambiguous in a way most domestic films wouldn’t. We are allowed to wonder what the characters are thinking and yet their choices and motivations are clear. I wish more American dramas had a similar trust in their audience.

There are times the budget is obvious in Effigy and it feels more like a TV movie than a feature film but if you are interested in a Dateline from the 1820s with some good performances it’s a small film worth checking out.

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

 

[REVIEW] TULSA or A Modern-Day Pollyanna

| Rachel's Reviews

I’ve said it many times on this site but faith-based films are perhaps the toughest genre of films to pull off. What is a pure and powerful testimony to one may come off as cloying and preachy to another. So often the ministry gets in the way of telling a good story. It is this difficulty that makes me happy whenever there are well done Christian films on the market. The new movie Tulsa is such an example. While it isn’t perfect, it is a sweet story about the good a little girl and God’s grace can do.

The title Tulsa actually comes from our lead character a little girl named Tulsa (if they explained why I must have missed it). A child of foster care she is reunited with her father Tommy who is a struggling addict who is hiding from his broken pass. Much like Pollyanna in the Disney classic cheers up all around her, so does Tulsa but she is also a little girl of faith who knows her Bible inside and out.

For some people this will be too cloying, but I think it struck a nice balance of a redemptive message with real-world problems. Nothing felt too unbelievable or pentacostal in its presentation. It also helps that little Tulsa is played by newcomer Livi Birch and she shines in the role. If she wants to be an actress she definitely has the raw natural talent to do it. Scott Pryor does a good job as Tommy but his role is more basic. The movie lives and dies on the back of Branch’s charisma and warmth.

There are definitely moments you can feel the budget in Tulsa particularly in the supporting performances. Also a plot-point involving an angry employee at Tommy’s auto-shop feels unnecessary and distracting (pretty much anytime Birch is off screen the movie suffers but luckily those are few and far between.

There are some weightier themes of addiction, suicide and death explored so not for young children. But adults and teens of faith will enjoy Tulsa and in particular love Livi Birch’s wonderful performance. It will be available on all the streaming services 2/1/2021

Overall Score 7/10

Smile Worthy