Geez & Ann: Movie Review

A leisurely romantic drama that has its charms.

Geez & Ann is an Indonesian teen romantic drama. It starts out very sweet and charming and cute, but before the half-way mark drama takes over, weighs it down and really slows it down. However, these characters have a fairly unique path and take the film in a different evolution than usual for the genre even though it feels very familiar.		2021 Directed by: Rizki Balki Screenplay by: Cassandra Massardi, Adi Nugroho Starring: Hanggini, Junior Roberts

Promising Young Woman: Movie Review

Entertaining with a dark truth and tragic emotional edge.

Promising Young Woman is a polished, original, wild ride of revenge, but at its heart, it’s an impassioned story of a young woman with a fractured psyche and an astute examination of society that needs a harsh reckoning to come to terms with its treatment of sexual abuse. This is writer-director Emerald Fennell’s directorial debut and is best summed-up with one-word: Wow.		2020 Directed by: Emerald Fennell Screenplay by: Emerald Fennell Starring: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham

Minari: Movie Review

The American dream, as it tries to tear apart one family.

Minari is a curious film as it tackles small issues with a big brush. It feels like a movie that is going to explore racism in middle America in the 1980s, but instead spends most of its time on the family dynamics of Korean immigrants. Originally settling in a city in California approx. a decade earlier, a husband and wife and their two kids have moved to a farm in rural Arkansas.		2020 Directed by: Lee Isaac Chung Screenplay by: Lee Isaac Chung Starring: Steven Yeun, Yeri Han

Namaste Wahala: Movie Review

Chaotic energy with wild shifts in tone.

Namaste Wahala is my first Nollywood film (Nigerian film industry) and they seem to have taken a lot of cues from Bollywood; it’s bright and colourful, with massive shifts in tone and a few random song breaks. Based on Netflix’s advertising, I think it was supposed to be their foreign entry for Valentine’s Day, but the many shifts in tone take it far from a romantic comedy.		2020 Directed by: Hamisha Daryani Ahuja Screenplay by: Temitope Bolade, Diche Enunwa Starring: Ini Dima Okojie, Ruslaan Mumtaz

Squared Love: Movie Review

Rom-com with the lowest common denominator.

It feels like there should be a good movie somewhere in Squared Love – a combination of romance and thriller which plays more in line with a rom-com than something dark or sinister. However, it’s “thriller” plot is so childish it’s really surprising that it’s meant to be for grown adult humans. I like the playful nature, but they aimed way too low. Betting on the lowest common denominator for your audience is not cool.		2021 Directed by: Filip Zylber Screenplay by: Wiktor Piatkowski, Marzanna Polit Starring: Adrianna Chlebicka, Mateusz Banasiuk

Fear of Rain: Movie Review

Good characters pulled in too many directions.

There are a few different ideas at play in Fear of Rain, all revolving around the struggle with schizophrenia and not being sure what is real and what is not real. That’s certainly not new territory for a movie, especially not a thriller, but the movie does have a lot of calm moments in the middle with some thoughtful drama.		2021 Directed by: Castille Landon Screenplay by: Castille Landon Starring: Madison Iseman, Harry Connick Jr.

The Right One: Movie Review

A different kind of rom-com with a unique character.

What we have here is a good premise with a bad title masquerading as a romantic comedy. I get the desire to market it as a rom-com, certainly an easier sell than a drama about grief and mental illness. The Right One is also sort-of half and half. Two lead characters from very different movies combining to give us something unique.		2021 Directed by: Ken Mok Screenplay by: Ken Mok Starring: Nick Thune, Cleopatra Coleman