Honey Girls: Movie Review

Cute and likable with no drama or comedy.

Honey Girls has an odd dichotomy – a huge popstar hosting a reality competition with a larger-than-life opportunity, but with no real stakes or obstacles. The drama is minimal, the comedy is minimal, it’s just a nice story about three girls becoming friends with good singing. The music is the main star, and you can definitely see the movie’s appeal to young teen girls.		2021 Directed by: Trey Fanjoy Screenplay by: Sharon Price John, Mike Mariano and Cindy McCreery Starring: Ashanti, Ava Grace, Aliyah Mastin and Frankie McNellis

The Wedding Trip: Movie Review

Romantic indie that eventually finds its footing.

Lisa and Murray are getting married, but The Wedding Trip isn’t about them. Making a road trip to the wedding, groomsman Jack (Bart Blachnio) has been told to give a ride to bridesmaid Samantha (Sydney Bakich). Jack arrives, meets Samantha and realizes she was the other half of a really bad date he went on years ago, so he leaves her alone in her driveway, except you really can’t say no to Lisa and Murray.		2021 Directed by: Sean King Screenplay by: Sean King Starring: Bart Blachnio, Sydney Bakich

Zola: Movie Review

Unique, compelling and entertaining.

Settle in and let Zola tell you a story, but don’t get comfortable. It’s a story about why she and “this bitch here fell out.” It’s a mostly true story (more on that later) based on the tweets by A’Ziah King, and we’re just going to go ahead and assume this is the first movie to be based on a viral tweet thread, but an epic tweet thread in which Zola tells her side of a story which really should be going in court documents.		2021 Directed by: Janicza Bravo Screenplay by: Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris Starring: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough

Boyfriends of Christmas Past: Movie Review

Enjoyable lead couple, frustrating drama.

Two years ago, the Hallmark Channel aired and then promptly pulled a commercial which included a lesbian wedding. They knew their White brand and it did not include homosexuality. Boyfriends of Christmas Past is a surprising and refreshing change for the company with gay couples, interracial couples, and featuring two Asian-American leads.		2021 Directed by: Don McBearty Screenplay by: Lisa Parsons, Edie Grace Starring: Catherine Haena Kim, Raymond Ablack

Clairevoyant: Movie Review

A painfully accurate mockumentary.

Clairevoyant is poised to become the next little indie that could by how accurately it satirizes the social media “influencers” teaching the world about spirituality and enlightenment. In this Christopher Guest style mockumentary, Micaela Wittman is Claire, a girl who is so convinced she’s on the ultimate spiritual path to enlightenment (“a super-human” in her words) that she has to make a documentary about her journey.		2021 Directed by: Arthur De Larroche, Micaela Wittman Screenplay by: Arthur De Larroche, Micaela Wittman Starring: Micaela Wittman

The Guilty: Movie Review

A tense tale of past crimes, current crimes and atonement.

It’s just Jake Gyllenhaal and a few hours in a 911 operating center. A large budget movie with a very simple set-up. It’s Joe vs the world. Joe (Gyllenhaal) is an LA cop, who has been jettisoned to answering 911 calls. He hates it there, his colleagues aren’t super thrilled that he’s there, and he has an ex-wife trying to keep him away from their daughter.		2021 Directed by: Antoine Fuqua Screenplay by: Nic Pizzolatto Based on the film Den Skyldige Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal

The Alpines: Movie Review

A little convoluted and slow, but an ending which really fits the characters.

Seven friends have gathered in a remote log cabin. They’re going to drink, flirt, and rehash their good old college days. But before you get too comfortable, The Alpines is most definitely not a simple dramedy or rom-com. Something sinister has brought them together – a demon, a ghost, or psychopath stalker from college? The friends identify early on that none of them are nice enough, cool enough or interesting enough to inspire outside hostility.		2021 Directed by: Dante Aubain Screenplay by: Mally Corrigan Starring: Aaron Latta-Morissette, Mally Corrigan, Daniel Victor, Jesse Mac, Michael Taveira, Katrina Diehm and Nigel Quinn