#but I’m intrigued by the missing actors and delayed set stuff

[personinthepalace]

Christmas Carol Goes Wrong - UK Tour 2025!!

Currently the only announced dates are November 25 - 30 at Theatre Royal Bath but hopefully they will add more dates/locations in the future! Find more info and get tix here

Thanks to Vee for the heads up!

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 3/19/21: SXSW, Zack Snyder’s Justice League,The Courier, City of Lies, Happily and More!

Remember a couple weeks back when I stated the plan was to bring back the Weekend Warrior as a regular weekly series again? Yeah, well if you looked for a column last week and wondered what happened, I just didn’t have time to write one. And I also just haven’t been able to get back on the ball in terms of writing reviews. It just takes a lot of time to watch all the movies let alone review them the way I did last year. I honestly have no idea how I did it last year, but things have been busier than ever at Below the Line, which does throw a bit of a spanner into any extracurricular plans.

The big event this week is the annual SXSW Film Festival, which I’ll be taking part in virtually, and somewhat tangentially, watching as much as I can while still doing other things. It’s been a while since I’ve attended SXSW in person, but it tends to have great docs, especially music docs. In fact, this year’s Opening Night Film is the documentary, Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil, about Demi Lovato’s drug overdose from 2018 and its aftermath. Other music docs of interest include Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, about the late frontwoman from early punk band X-Ray Spex through the eyes of her daughter; Mary Wharton’s doc Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free made from archival footage of the late singer making his 1994 record “Wildflowers”; Alone Together about Charlie XCX’s pandemic record; Under the Volcano about George Martin’s AIR Studios Montserrat; and it gives another chance to see Edgar Wright’s excellent, The Sparks Brothers, which was picked up by Focus Features after Sundance. There’s also an amazing doc about Selma Blair’s fight with MS, Introducing, Selma Blair, which is equal parts heartbreaking and inspirational.

SXSW also has pretty solid Midnighters, and there’s a number of those I’m also looking forward to, including Travis Stevens’ Jakob’s Wife, starring horror legends Larry Fassenden and Barbara Crampton, who were so great in my buddy Ted Geoghegan’s We Are Still Here. (No coincidence since Stevens produced that movie.) And I hope to watch a few others like Lee Haven Jones’ The Feast, Jacob Gentry’s Broadcast Signal Intrusion, and Alex Noyer’s Sound of Violence. We’ll see how much I get to see this week, cause it’s a lot of movies over only a couple days, basically from Tuesday through Saturday.

Closer to home at the Metrograph, the still-closed movie theater is doing a virtual series called “Bill Murray X6” which has already shown Lost in Translation and What about Bob? With Rushmore screening until Thursday, and then The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou available through Friday. Become a digital member for just $5 a month! This past weekend I saw a really amazing 7-part doc series called Untitled Pizza Movie by David Shapiro. In fact, I stayed up late on Sunday to watch the whole thing since it was leaving the digital screeners, but it’s a very entertaining, intriguing and personal story about the director, his friend and partner in crime Leeds, who he went around to different NYC pizza shops in the ‘90s trying to find the perfect slice, and then they come across pizzaman Andrew Belluci at the world-famous Lombardi’s in Soho. The project that took over 20 years to make follows what happened to the three men, but mainly Leeds and Belluci as they have ups and downs that ultimately leads to Belluci starting his own pizza joint in Queens. Everything that happens in between is quite fascinating.

I saw a couple other movies this past weekend including Robin Wright’s Land, which I quite enjoyed, and the rom-com Long Weekend, which came out last Friday but I totally missed. Land is a pretty amazing directorial debut that’s mostly a one-woman show with her character alone in the wilderness until she runs into trouble and meets Demian Bichir’s kindly Samaritan and they become friends. Directed by Stephen Basilone, Long Weekend stars Finn Wittrock and Zoe Chao in what starts as a meet cute rom-com and turns into something much deeper with a couple sci-fi-tinged twists, a bit like Palm Springs, but much more grounded. I loved the two leads and how Basilone made a romantic comedy that actually was romantic and very funny, as well. Both movies I recommend.

Getting into some of the streamer offerings this week, ZACK SNYDER’s JUSTICE LEAGUE will hit HBO Max on Thursday, so we can finally see whether or not that extra money and work paid off. I’ll be reviewing this over at Below the Line, so won’t spend too much time here. I figure that anyone who has been waiting for this will watch it, as will anyone who has been curious about it. As you can read from my review, I was quite impressed by the film as an achievement in finishing what is clearly a far superior film to the 2017 theatrical release. Some of the highlights include great stuff between Ray Fisher’s Cyborg and his father, a far more fun introduction to The Flash that was cut from the 2017 release and just some insanely crazy good action. I can’t wait to watch the movie again.

Kicking off on Friday is the anticipated Marvel Studios series, THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney), bringing back the title characters played by Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, who were introduced in one of the MCU’s better movies, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I was sent the first episode and unfortunately, there’s an embargo until Thursday afternoon, but I do think that MCU fans are gonna be thrilled with the first episode, especially with the Falcon’s opening action sequence, which is like something right out of the movies.

Okay, fine, so let’s get to some new movies and some real reviews…

Probably the movie with the widest release this weekend will be THE COURIER (Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions), starring Benedict Cumberbatch, which I’m guessing will be in 1,000 or so theaters. The movie premiered at Sundance way back in 2020 under the significantly worse title of “Ironbark” with plans to release it later in the year, but then COVID happened. I’m not sure if Roadside Attractions planned for this to be an awards movie, but after a few delays, releasing it in mid-March just days after the Oscar nominations, I’m guessing probably not?

Directed by Dominic Cooke (On Chesil Beach) from a screenplay by Tom O’Connor (The Hitman’s Bodyguard… wait, WHAT?), this Cold War spy thriller set in the early ‘60s stars Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne, a British businessman who is coerced by agents from MI6 and the CIA (repped by Rachel Brosnahan) to smuggle Russian secrets from military man Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze). Greville’s trips to Moscow start getting more and more dangerous under the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his wife (the always great Jessie Buckley) wants him to stop taking the trips. It all leads up to a pretty exciting second act as the KGB starts to figure out what Greville and Oleg have been up to and work to put a stop to it.

I have to admit that as much as I enjoy a good spy-thriller, a lot of this reminded me of Cumberbatch’s earlier film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – yes, the John Le Caree adaptation, which I was never a particularly big fan of. This has similarities in that it starts out fairly slow, making me think this might be one of those well-made, well-acted movies that are just plain boring cause the subject doesn’t interest me. I’m sure when this was greenlit, there was probably more relevance to the situation between the U.S. and Russia, although this is obviously a British production and maybe something better to watch on the Beeb than in a movie theater.

In general, the stuff with the two men and their families tends to be the best part of the movie. I wasn’t familiar with Merab Ninidze beforehand, but he’s a really good actor who holds his own in scenes with Cumberbatch. Although Cumberbatch’s performance is significantly better here than in The Mauritanian, that’s definitely a better movie, so even in the last act which sees Wynne in a Russian jail, it just doesn’t compare. This is the second film with Rachel Brosnahan in which she didn’t really impress me much after hearing how great she is on Mrs. Maisel. Even so, the movie did make me want to go back and rewatch the beginning again to see if maybe I wasn’t as focused on it, as it should be.

As far as box office, I don’t have much hope for this making more than $2 or 3 million this weekend, since it seems more like a prestige platform release that would have to build audiences from rave reviews or positive word-of-mouth. Coming out so long after its festival debut (kinda like that Thomas Edison movie a few years back) may have helped people forget about the midling festival reviews. Even so, this movie just doesn’t have much buzz or interest from #FilmTwitter who has had its tongue so far up the superhero movie ass this week between Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to pay much attention to this. (Hey, facts is facts!)

Johnny Depp and Forrest Whitaker star in Brad Furman’s crime-thriller CITY OF LIES (Saban Films), which is about the real-life search for the killer of the Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls with Depp playing Detective Russell Poole, who ended up on the case in 1997, and Whitaker playing reporter Jack Jackson, doing a story on Smalls for the 20thanniversary of the unsolved murder.

Based on the book “Labyrinth” (the movie’s original title), it’s a story that takes place in two time periods, Los Angeles in the ‘90s after the Rodney King beating and L.A. riots and how it’s made the criminal element that surrounds rap mogul Suge Night. It begins with Poole investigating the death of a black police officer named Gaines, shot by a white police officer (Shea Whigham) in what is seemingly a road rage incident. As Poole investigates, he learns about police corruption in the force including a number of officers tied directly to Knight.

As Jackson interviews Poole to try and find out who killed Biggie, we flashback to Poole’s investigation and interaction with some of those corrupt cops and being put into extremely dangerous situations. The movie isn’t bad, especially the scenes between Whitaker and Depp, who gives a far more grounded performance than we’ve seen from him in recent years. Even so, the performance that really impressed me was Toby Huss as Poole’s superior, who just brings something new to the tough head detective role we haven’t really seen.

Regardless of what you think of Depp’s activities off-camera, this is a fairly solid crime thriller (as was Scott Cooper’s Black Mass), and though you never actually get to see Biggie, Tupac or Suge Night, it’s an interesting examination into a period in L.A. that seems so long ago but still rings true to what’s been going on in the last year.

BenDavid Grabinski’s HAPPILY (Saban/Paramount) is a dark comedy-thriller starring Joel McHale and Kerry Bishé as Tom and Janet, a happily married couple who annoy their friends by still having sex on the regular whenever they possibly can. In fact, their friends decide to uninvite Tom and Janet to their planned couples’ weekend because they’re so annoyed by them. One day, a mysterious man (played by Stephen Root) shows up at Tom and Janet’s house, one thing leads to another and they kill and bury him. Thinking that the man’s visit might be part of a friend’s prank, they go to the planned couples’ trip, trying to figure out if the prankster has gotten suspicious about what they’ve done.

For the sake of transparency, I met Grabinski at my very first Sundance ever as he was friends with some of my colleagues, but I never spent a ton of time talking to him. This film impressed me, since it’s a prtty strong debut from him, one that benefits greatly from a strong cast that includes Paul Scheer, Breckin Meyer (who I didn’t even recognize!), Charlyne Yi, Natalie Morales and more, making for a really solid ensemble dark comedy that reminded me of the tone of last year’s The Hunt or Ike Barinholtz’s The Oath or a great lesser-seen movie from last year, Robert Schwartzman’s The Argument. Dark comedy isn’t for everyone, and this is definitely a little mean-spirited at times, but more importantly, it’s very funny and tends to get crazier and crazier as it goes along.

More importantly, I loved Grabinski’s musical choices from Devo’s “Working in a Coal Mine” to not one but two OMD songs, and great use of Public Image Limited as well. The way Grabinski puts this together comes across like a hipper and fresher Hitchcock, and while it might not be for everyone, I could totally see this killing at a genre fest like Fantastic Fest or even this week’s SXSW. It’s clever and original and rather intriguing how Grabinski puts all the various pieces together.

Hitting Shudder on Thursday is Elza Kephart’s horror-comedy SLAXX (Shudder) about a possessed pair of jeans brought to life to punish the practices of a trendy clothing company, which it does by terrorizing the staff locked in overnight. Didn’t get to watch this before getting bogged down in SXSW but definitely looking forward to it.

Another horror film coming out this week is the horror anthology PHOBIAS (Vertical), exec. produced by the filmmaking team “Radio Silence” (Ready or Not) with segments directed by Camilla Belle, Maritte Lee Go, Joe Sill, Jess Varley and Chris von Hoffman. The stories follow five dangerous patients suffering from extreme phobias at a government facility with a crazed doctor trying to weaponize their fears.

Jeremy Piven stars in Paolo Pilladi’s LAST CALL (IFC Films) playing real estate developer Mick, who returns to his old Philly neighborhood and must decide whether to resurrect his family bar or raze it. I actually watched a few minutes of this, but apparently, IFC Films isn’t allowing reviews, so I have nothing more to say about the movie beyond the fact that it’s coming out on Friday.

Opening at the newly reopened Film Forum – currently doing a hybrid of in-person and virtual cinema – is Chris McKim’s doc WOJNAROWICZ: F**K YOU F*GGOT F**KER (Kino Lorber), premiering virtually on Friday. It’s about David Wojnarowicz, one of the loudest voices in the ACT-Up movement during the ‘80s who died of AIDS himself in 1992. (Correction: Film Forum actually isn’t reopening until April 2.)

A few other things this week include Aengus James’ doc AFTER THE DEATH OF ALBERT LIMA hitting Crackle about Paul Lima, a son obsessed with capturing his father’s murderer who has remained at large in Honduras due to a failed legal system. Because of this, Paul travels to the Honduras with two bounty hunters to find and capture the killer.

Lastly, streaming on Topic Thursday, there’s Parliament, directed by Elilie Noblet and Jeremie Sein, about a young man named Samy who arrives in Brussels after the Brexit vote trying to get a job into the European Parliament without really knowing how it works.

That’s all for this week. It might be a while before I can get The Weekend Warrior back into some sort of fighting weekly shape, but I’m doing the best I can right now, so let me know if you’re reading any of this.

[brotherhood-of-okay-reviews-blog]

Tv Blog

Chris' Tv Blog Timeless Episode 15: Public Enemy Number 1 As usual, if you're following along at home, and you want to comment, just alert everyone of the potential spoilers you might be dropping. Thanks. Okay, so I was wrong. Next week's episode is the season finale. And there might be some bad news for us fans. I'll address this later on. On to the blog. Plot Summary Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus have stolen the time machine. They're about to go and get Lucy's sister back but Flynn jumps to the 1930's to meet up with Al Capone. The trio change their minds and go after Flynn instead. Thus giving us one more build up to the actual season finale. Thoughts (Spoilers) Public Enemy Number 1 has dropped the ball. Everything is building up to the final episode and possibly the last episode we'll ever get.... Let's get this out of the way. The bad news is the show might be cancelled after this season. Now, this is just a report that I read. There is no hard evidence to support this possible outcome. The ratings of the show have been a .6 the last few weeks. At the beginning of January, the show was grabbing a .9 to start. So this is going to lead to a couple of things. One, I'm going to slightly rant on why the show hasn't done well. And two, I'll talk about the ending not being satisfying. Let's go. To start, Rufus got shot. At the end of the episode, Al Capone shot Rufus because Flynn wanted him dead and Al owed him a favor. Now Rufus is the only one who can pilot the ship, out of the three. Rufus' girlfriend, Jiya, can possibly pilot the machine, because we saw her learning in one episode, but she's kind of locked up right now. Jiya is locked up because Rittenhouse and Mason suspect she knew Rufus was going to tamper with the computers. Even though she didn't, she can't get out of that one. She also plays an important role in helping delay the virus even longer. So she's becoming more important to the story. There's not a lot to talk about with the trio and Flynn this week. It's kind of the same old schtick. Flynn does something. The team reacts. They go find help. They get caught in a sticky situation. And they usually come away untouched. Except this time, where Rufus got shot. Now Flynn does learn some new information about when Rittenhouse will meet. This material will carry over into the season finale so I'm not really going to talk about it much. I just want to wait and see what occurs. I'm going to do my little rant now, so if you're not interested, you can go to the bottom and finish up from there. Those who are sticking with me, here we go. First point, the show didn't do a proper job establishing it's setting in the early stages of the show. If you want, go back to my first two blogs and you can read up on that. But to continue, the writers went for entertainment over substance and I think it's backfired. People want a reason to care for your mission. They also want to know what's really being changed when the time line is being altered (Well that could just be me but I'm sure some do). Amy, if anyone recalls, is Lucy's sister. Lucy lost her sister in the first episode and that's been the driving force of Lucy's character. But again, the audience doesn't care. Or at least I don't. It's not that I don't feel sympathy for Lucy it's just why is Amy important? The most we get is Lucy telling us a little bit about her here and there. We don't get to see, hear, interact, do anything with Amy. So, how are we supposed to care? That's just one problem. Another is the formula. It's all the same thing. Yes, we do get information about this and that. And yes, the suspense has really upgraded. But for the first 9 episodes, you could just skip those. Because the flashbacks can catch you up. That might be exaggerating a bit but on the day I go back and watch this season again, I bet I can point to you the actual important episodes and I might come up with 5. There's been 15 so far. Again, that might be exaggerating but I don't think I'm far off. A lot of the show has felt like filler. It's only been the last three episodes that have felt like something more. Another issue we come across is Wyatt. He's become a lot better but man, he was so mopey. Jessica this. Jessica that. We get it. You're sad. I'm not saying Wyatt is a bad character. But the depression really didn't any favors for the viewers. Again, the writers didn't feel the need to introduce him very well in beginning but I can let that slide because he's a side main character. And yes, he's been better as of late, it's just a wonder if it was too late for some? The character of Lucy is another problem. She didn't have much use to the show until lately. She would point out the event and that was about it. Now granted, she was very reserved, and she's grown up from that. But when your main lead isn't very interesting from the start, it's hard to get behind that. Rufus and Flynn have been the best two characters. This isn't a knock but they're not leads.... Or are they? Flynn wouldn't be, but would Rufus get nominated in the lead actor category? I never really know for sure. But my point is, how is that we are more attached to Rufus and Flynn than Wyatt and Lucy? It could just be on this but Rufus has grown the most out of the group and Flynn is just the most intriguing. Flynn brings secrets and information that we want to know. Rufus brings development. I shouldn't say that these two are my favorite but they are. I'll cut it off here, the show went for entertainment and forgot the other stuff. The first 9 episodes are merely there to strike your interest. Look, you do learn stuff along the way but the writers must've thought to go ahead with showing off their research and knowledge of history instead of building up characters and establishing it's setting. It's sad because even if you think the first two episodes work, they never fully build off of them. They didn't do flashbacks with Lucy and Amy. They didn't do any flashbacks with Wyatt. Or introduce Rufus' family. Or do a flashback with Flynn. They didn't do anything to help us connect with these characters' lost and current loved ones. And that, that's where they missed the boat. Finally, I don't know how this season will end. I hope they get another shot at finishing up. But they may have wrote an open ending to this season and that would be the worst to deal with. If NBC decides to drop Timeless, maybe another network will pick them up? I know it can happen. It's happened with a few shows in the past. But will it? I really don't know or expect it. Next Episode (End Of Spoilers) The Red Scare is the name. The team heads back to stop Flynn in the 50's I think. Honestly the promo didn't really say much. But it looks like it's going to be a doozy. Hopefully. Overall Public Enemy Number 1 was a solid episode. There was entertainment. Lucy really stepped up this time around. And the conclusion really left us hanging. If I had to rate this episode, I'd go with a 9/10 (Great). Now let's hope the season finale does just the same. As usual, thanks for reading!