Thursday, October 29, 2020

The Wolf of Snow Hollow: Movie Review




Idiosyncratic comedy with the makings of a thriller/horror and a character study.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow is a curious little movie. Part comedy, part horror, part thriller, part murder mystery, part character study, and all within a sub-90-minute runtime. The dialogue, primarily where the comedy comes in, is great; and the set-up for the murder mystery/thriller is good. The meshing of all the themes together got very muddled by the end and the conclusion is not wholly satisfying.   2020

Directed by: Jim Cummings

Screenplay by: Jim Cummings

Starring: Jim Cummings, Riki Lindhome, Robert Forster

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Holidate: Movie Review





A romantic comedy missing that crucial element of humour.
Emma Roberts has built herself a nice career. A long string of comedies – some hits, some nots, but peppers them with roles that have a real bite to them like Scream Queens and American Horror Story. Such that when she returns to a typical romantic comedy, it feels like home. There’s a comfort level to casting Roberts and Luke Bracey in a holiday-themed romantic comedy, and that’s why Holidate will get its audience.   2020

Directed by: John Whitesell

Screenplay by: Tiffany Paulsen

Starring: Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey

Sunday, October 25, 2020

An Imperfect Murder: Movie Review



Lacking a narrative, purpose, intrigue and everything that comes with that.

Whatever this movie was supposed to be, or whatever it once was, it’s not that. Originally titled The Private Life of a Modern Woman and playing the Venice Film Festival in 2017, it gets released three years later and renamed An Imperfect Murder. Never a good sign. I have no idea what made somebody dust this film off the shelf, but it should have remained buried.   2017

Directed by: James Toback

Screenplay by: James Toback

Starring: Sienna Miller, Alec Baldwin

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Shithouse: Movie Review



A true-to-life college experience with heart and vulnerability.

Cooper Raiff is a first-time filmmaker with Shithouse. It’s a small story, but one that is told with a lot of heart and a knack at hitting the awkward truths of college life. Alex (Cooper Raiff) is struggling. In general, struggling with everything about college. He’s not going to classes, failing when he does, he has a roommate who is actively awful to him and he has no friends. His only companionship is his mother and a stuffed animal.   2020

Directed by: Cooper Raiff

Screenplay by: Cooper Raiff

Starring: Cooper Raiff, Dylan Gelula, Logan Miller and Amy Landecker

Friday, October 23, 2020

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Movie Review




Make Borat great again.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan seemed like lightning in a bottle. Something that can’t be repeated and the humour wouldn’t translate to another year. Oh, how wrong that was. Sacha Baron Cohen and his fellow Borat writers and producers have made a true comedy sequel. One that picks up where the original left off and made it funnier and more relevant to today.   2020

Directed by: Jason Woliner

Story by: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Nina Pedrad

Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Don't Read This on a Plane: Movie Review




Slow moving and bizarrely plotted, but Jovana has her charms.
Don’t Read This on a Plane borrows its title from the book at the center of the film. And yes, it is named that for a reason. The protagonist is Jovana (Sophie Desmerais) this is her third novel, but her publisher has abruptly gone bankrupt and left her stranded on her book tour. This is very slow, and very bizarrely plotted, but builds to a strangely satisfying story.   2020

Directed by: Stuart McBratney

Screenplay by: Stuart McBratney

Starring: Sophie Desmerais

Saturday, October 17, 2020

The Trial of the Chicago 7: Movie Review




A fascinating period of time, molded into an entertaining movie.
Aaron Sorkin has a way with words. I love his dialogue which always has this natural rhythm and tempo in line with the importance of what the characters have to say, that the audience just falls in sync. I was expecting it to be enlightening, but the suspense and tension is also notable and builds to a very captivating experience.   2020

Directed by: Aaron Sorkin

Screenplay by: Aaron Sorkin

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Jeremy Strong

Monday, October 12, 2020

She's In Portland: Movie Review



Awful characters who don't have anything worthwhile to say.

She’s In Portland suggests there’s a mystique to this titular girl who gets an entire movie made around the journey to see her. But after all the girls we meet on the way to Portland, I really have to question how many girls do the filmmakers actually know? Do they think all girls are manic pixie dream girls? The use of that term will die down once filmmakers stop employing them.   2020

Directed by: Marc Carlini

Screenplay by: Patrick Alexander, Marc Carlini

Starring: Tommy Dewey, Francois Arnaud

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Seberg: Movie Review




Tense, enlightening and heartbreaking.
Seberg is a sublime mix of biopic and FBI thriller. Set in the 1960s, Hollywood and European actress Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart) is on a flight back to LA from Paris and meets Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie), an outspoken civil rights activist, and Jean watching blatant racial discrimination right in front of her eyes, decides she can’t be silent anymore, and joins in a simple protest.   2019

Directed by: Benedict Andrews

Screenplay by: Joe Shrapnel, Anna Waterhouse

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Jack O'Connell

Saturday, October 3, 2020

Misbehaviour: Movie Review




Gratifying entertainment in the hands of talented women.
There have been a lot of recent period pieces that seem just as timely and relevant today. Misbehaviour fits very nicely in that category. A story of activists centered around the 1970 Miss World competition tackling misogynism and racism. It’s led by a really fun group of actresses and hits all the right notes even if it’s not as big a film as others would like.   2020

Directed by: Philippa Lowthorpe

Screenplay by: Rebecca Frayn, Gaby Chiappe

Starring: Keira Knightley, Jessie Buckley,
Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Rhys Ifans

Friday, October 2, 2020

You've Got This: Movie Review




A nicely photographed dramedy with immature contrivances and one-dimensional characters.
You’ve Got This is a Mexican romantic dramedy. The production value is high, filled with some nicely photographed locales. The emotion in the romantic drama aspect is earned as the film gets deeper. However, apart from a few funny lines, the humour was mostly filled with immature contrivances, and despite some solid effort from the actors, the characters are mostly one-dimensional.   2020

Directed by: Salvador Espinosa

Screenplay by: Tiare Scanda, Leonardo Zimbron

Starring: Tato Alexander, Moises Arizmendi