#did I get the book on the off chance pedro might have been casted - yes

[mando-abs]

Guys, I’ve read the Wild Robot

And let me tell you, if I hadn’t recently taken a Children’s Literature class in college, I would’ve said this was the best middle-grade book I’ve read since elementary/middle school. I almost read this book in one night (I was sleepy 😴) like I couldn’t put it down.

The heart behind this book is astounding and it never shies away from showing complex and difficult concepts. You will fall in love with Roz and her gosling son along with all of the other animal on the island.

If you’ve got younger ones, I highly recommend reading this to them or having a little book club moment with them. However, be prepared for whatever hard questions may come your way (i.e. circle of life and climate issues). You know your child and how much they can handle/understand. If you’re like me and much older, it’s a quick read and a great way to finish off a long day. It’s a part of a trilogy and you bet I’m patiently waiting for my hold on a copy at the library.

If the movie is anything like the book (which, given a rewatch of the trailer, it’s looking like so), we are in for a special treat.

[deliverydefresas]

we know the start, we know the end, masters of the scene

here you have it my friends, part 3. shout out to my baked goods for helping me in this long and boring process xD 

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AU: Matteo Balsano is a famous singer who has been crushing on this one girl he saw every day behind a window many years ago, back when he first started recording his debut album and inspired his first big hit, “Princesa”. Luna Valente, professional Olympic skater turned actress is at a local (and very popular) talk show to promote her breakout movie. This is where it all starts.

BENSON VS SMITH: LOVE RIVALS?

After a couple of weeks of the stars of SHATTERED WINGS being photographed together with Matteo Balsano in what appeared to be a heated discussion, sources to the off and on couple conformed by Smith and Balsano, confirm it was all caused by Smith’s jealousy.

The actress was apparently ‘incredibly upset’ when she learnt what had really happened in JA JAZMIN’s dressing room minutes prior to their cast interview in the show, more so after in said interview Mexico’s ‘Little Sun’ hinted the incident to its international audience.

However, as their promotional tour around the globe for their very acclaimed movie continues, the duo has done nothing but deny all rumors regarding their rivalry; with Smith going as far as calling Balsano ‘an idiot I wouldn’t fight over for’. Benson affirms it’s a matter taken out of context by the fans and media.

The SHATTERED WINGS stars are set to return to the city after two months on the road two days from now, bringing home numerous ticket records from all around the world, as well as the critic’s overruling acceptance.

For more scoop on these three, click here!

Had it really been two months?

They hadn’t even able to finish their conversation, much less his apology from coming off as a creep. Now it’d been two months, and probably wouldn’t have the chance to see her again. Ámbar had warned him she’d kick his balls if he even dared to ask about her when she came back, and his relationship with Simón was anything but close to ask such manner.

Basically, he’d be stuck in her mind as a creepy memory. He didn’t like it, but he might as well accept it until he found a way to clear the water; not only for her sake, but for his too.

“You keep track of the media, now? We have a PR team for that, y’know?” his manager asked from over his shoulder, not missing the open article on his phone.

“I’m not. It was just a suggested article, that’s all.”

“Suggested means you’ve read articles like that one more than once.” Delfi arched her brow, questioning him while she sat on the chair next to his. Maybe citing her in his apartment wasn’t a good idea, he had no way to evade her questions in his own home.

“Maybe Gastón has.”

“From your phone?” He didn’t have an answer for that. “Hey, it’s okay, I’m not judging you. There’s nothing wrong with keeping personal tabs about what the world has to say about you. Just don’t get too fixated on with it, it’s not healthy.”  

“It’s not even an article about myself.” He admitted. There were no secrets between them, and he’d learnt that the cleanest they were between each other, the less problematic it’d get when it came to talk about and planning his career moves. Plus, Delfina knew how to keep everything confidential, which was the reason he’d chosen to take Ámbar’s advice so many years ago when she suggested Delfi to work with.

“Let me guess, this is about the Sol girl?”

“Luna.” He corrected quickly, not even realizing he’d done it until Delfi gave him ‘the look’. She didn’t comment on it, though.

“Luna, right. What worries you in that matter? You were the one who told me not to release any statement.”

“I guess I just – I don’t know, she’s new to this world.”

“Are you worried she can’t handle it? I wouldn’t, I know her team, she’s in good hands. And from what Pedro has told me, Simón warned her about everything that’d come her way, so she wouldn’t walk in blind.”

He’d forgotten she was seeing Simón’s best friend. “Still, I haven’t apologized yet.”

“Is this the reason of your writing block?” she asked suspiciously, folding her arms. Her tone wasn’t accusative, nor was her face annoyed, but he still felt bad it was that noticeable.

“Is it that obvious?”

“You’re not subtle, buddy, but don’t worry because no one else has noticed.” Yet. “You got time, the deadline isn’t for another year, there’s no pressure from the label.”

“But?” he knew better than to think there wasn’t one.

“But you know post-production is long AF, and your perfectionist ass will drag it as much as your brain can… if you don’t hurry with the base songs it’ll only make it longer.”    

He groaned lowly, “I know.”

“I’m going now. I’ll call you tomorrow to schedule another time, okay?” She told him as she stood from her seat to grab her purse. Their meeting had gone nowhere, but then again, he had no progress in his songwriting and he was on a break until his next album released, so there wasn’t much to discuss to begin with. “I’d advise you to go and try to find yourself a muse, though.”

“Yeah, I’ll-” Wait. A muse. He needed to find his muse. Matteo called for her before she could get out of the apartment, startling the even more confused girl.

“I need you to help me find her.”

“Are you excited to be back?”

“Aren’t you excited to be back? This is huge for you Nina!” she told her friend excitedly, holding onto her arm while they walked through the airport to wait for Simón, who was picking them up. “A new book! That’s not an everyday thing!”

“It’s just a photography book, Luna. Not a big deal.”

“Just? What have I told you of selling yourself short? The book and the quotes are beautiful and it’s definitely a big deal!”

Nina beamed at her, “thank you. I’m nervous, what if people don’t like it as much as the others? I would die if it flops, or if they question why I’m even still coming out with these.”

“Nonsense! Felicity’s fans are loyal, and they’ll love your work no matter what, have more faith in them!” she bumped her shoulder against her lightly.

“You never answered me.”

“About what?”

It was Nina’s turn to bump her shoulder. “I asked you if you were excited.”

“I’m so happy I’ll finally be in my bed again. I hate sleeping in unfamiliar places.”  

“You got to sleep on your house in México, though.”

“I almost didn’t leave.” She admitted with a giggle.

Both fell into a comfortable silence afterwards, in no hurry to keep the conversation flowing. Travelling together, living together, and knowing each other after so many years made it easy to stay in silence without it being awkward. Simón joked all the time that they were a married couple, and the only thing they needed now was a dog (mostly because he wanted one, too), and Luna could swear they’d have one already if it weren’t for Nina being strongly allergic to pets.

That, and that their time was mostly spent travelling between competitions and cool places for Nina to take photographs for her blog or her books.

She sighed silently when she remembered the competitions. Now that her ties with the movie were almost over, she needed to get her thoughts straight and decide what she was going to do next. Will she be able to compete again after the break? Did she even want to? Everyone had warned her already that everything in the skating community would change for her after this. More exposure usually meant double the pressure; and she wasn’t sure it’d sit well with her. She skated because she loved to, not because she wanted to be the best, or have everyone thinking she was. Juliana had told her that was why she fought so hard for her to play her in her movie, why she reminded her of herself.

But, did she want to change her career? She loved the experience of acting, loved how fun it was to pretend to be someone else for a while every day, but she didn’t love it the way she’d seen Ámbar do it. For the blonde, you could see, hear, feel how much she loved what she did. The girl poured everything into what she did, and she succeed marvelously. The thing all critics agreed on from all over the continents was exactly that: Luna glowed the most when she was skating, and when she spoke about how much the sport meant for her; yet, Ámbar shone in all of hers because she made you believe them, which made up for her lack of experience in the sport.

So, now she had to pick what exactly to do. If she wanted to go to the next Olympics she’d have to start her training as soon as possible, even if she was on a technical ‘break’.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

“Huh?”

Nina smiled, “you seemed to be lost – even more than usual- in your thoughts. What’s up?”

“Nothing, just… the future, I guess.” She sighed again. Luckily, her friend knew her better than anyone and gave her a short, but strong, hug.

“You still have some time to think about it, don’t go crazy.”

“Time flies, though.”

“Aren’t you the first to say time isn’t real?” Nina joked, mocking her accent a little.

“I don’t speak like that!”

Both laughed, ignoring the annoyed looks some – probably jetlagged- people threw their way.

“But, for real, Luna, you don’t even have to choose between the two. You can always pick something else; some people will be disappointed, yes, but it’s your choice. Do what makes you happy.”

“What would I do without you, Watson?” she half joked, half seriously questioned. Nina beamed at her once more.

“The same thing I’d be without you – be my less great self.”  

“True that.” Luna pretended to cheer with her imaginary cup, her friend being quick to follow her suit. “Now, call Simon. He’s late and Felicity can’t be late for her own book release.”

“Aye, aye, capt’n!”

He wasn’t going to lie, he was nervous. (He also could almost hear Gastón’s voice in his head correcting him to nervous-wreck – he kinda agreed).

Delfi, bless her, hadn’t even bait an eye when he asked her to ask Pedro about Luna’s possible whereabouts in the city. He felt like a total stalker, so he ruled out her house and the rink she skated at, as well as the gym and Simón’s apartment. Thankfully, Delfi was able to get him last-minute invitations to an event she was going to be at.

Originally, he’d thought about going solo, so the possible – or most likely, probable- embarrassments would be for him only to know. However, as soon as Gastón heard the event was Felicity For Now’s newest book launch he’d made him ask Delfi for a plus one pass (God forbid his friend asked his ex for a favor). And, since Pedro was apparently a close friend to Felicity herself, she tagged along too. She was a lot more considerate than Gastón, though, because she promised not to cross him while his ‘apology’ took place.

“I can’t believe we’re going to see Felicity’s real identity.” Gastón gushed beside him, now at the party, careful to keep his tone low. Not because he didn’t want to embarrass him, but himself.

“Calm down, fanboy. We still have the whole party to look forward to.”

Matteo, on his own, was more worried about making himself look like a fool. He knew he’d already stood out – his black suit was a lot more formal than everyone else’s semi-formal attire- but if that wasn’t enough, the way he kept glancing around like a lost puppy made more than person stare at him for a moment.

He was too concentrated on finding her on the crowd.

Not that the crowd was too big – it was rather small, actually- but still, he didn’t want to miss her; if she was there at all.

“Do you know how long I’ve wondered who she was or how she looked like? Years! I’ll finally put a face to the character!”

“Character? I thought her book was consisted only of pictures.”

“Well, yeah. They’re pictures but they’re ordered in a sequence that tells you about her life and short quotes to help you understand the concept. It’s like a photographic journal of herself.”

“Yet she never shows her face?”  

“Nope, it’s always shadowed or blurred out.” Gastón sounded bummed out by this. He must’ve really been wondering about this mystery girl longer that he knew about. Matteo felt almost bad he wasn’t aware of this, even if his best friend never really told him about his fanboy life.

He palmed his back lightly, “cheer up, bud. Tonight’s your night.”

“Matteo, Gastón!” he knew that voice. When he turned to the direction of the call, he wasn’t surprised to see Simón. Matteo should’ve figured out that if not only Luna, but Pedro were here, then he would too.

“Hi, man.”

The guitarist threw him a smile. “What a surprise! I’ve never seen you two in events like these before.”

“Yeah, well, Gastón here is a big fan of hers.” He pointed to his friend, “and I was free from songwriting, so I came too.”

“How’s that coming along? Wrote another hit yet?”

Matteo grimaced slightly, “I’m blocked, so no. How’s your album?”

“Ouch, man, that sucks.” Simón patted his shoulder sympathetically, “we’re still editing ours out, gotta choose the right songs before we pass the final demo.”

That brought back memories. Hadn’t they been in the same exact situation six years ago, the same day he saw her for the first time? He, staring on a blank music sheet, desperately trying to find inspiration for his debut album, while Simón – and her- were on the room across listening and trying to choose which tracks to pass?

He mentally sighed. Everyone was right, he was a creep.

Simón must’ve not noticed his momentary train to his memories, because he continued talking, “- she’s not here yet, if she’s the one you’ve been looking for the past hour. Felicity is arriving with her.”

“Who?”

The guitarist was amused. “Luna. She’s arriving with Felicity in ten minutes.” His heart almost busted with this information. However, when he realized what Simón was probably thinking, he went into denying mode.

“Oh- no, no, no. I wasn’t- I didn’t- she’s not why-” Simón laughed.

“Don’t worry, man, Delfi explained to us you came to apologize to her for the headlines. It’s chill.”

He was so firing her for this (no, he wasn’t). “She did?”

“Getting last-minute invitations for this is hard, if not impossible. Especially since Ni- Felicity handpicks her guests for privacy reasons.”

“I didn’t know Delfi was that close with her.”

“She’s not, Pedro is. I gave my five cents in your favor, too.”

“Thank you.” He meant it. Simón just patted his shoulder once more and reminded him of the time, pointing to the entrance before leaving to mingle with other guests. A question popped in his head, “are they always late?”

Gastón, who’d remained quiet during his exchange with Simón, chuckled, “you really went to la la lunaland, didn’t you?” Matteo flipped him off, “Simón said he was late to pick them up at the airport, so they went behind schedule because of this.”

His friend went quiet after this, anxiously waiting for the main door to open. Matteo sipped on his forgotten drink, trying to calm his own nerves. Five minutes later, it happened.

The door opened, and in came Luna and her friend – Felicity, as his friend had mumbled beside him, smiling and hugging everyone that came to greet them. He noticed how Luna would fall a couple steps back from the photographer, letting her take all the attention.

He wanted to go there and say hi, he really did, but it was as if he was glued to his spot. Watching her laugh, smile, and talk to others from afar was the sight he was used to, and to get closer, on his own (Gastón had fled to Felicity as soon as she’d entered) was something he wasn’t sure he was ready for.

Just jail him already, really. His creepiness was scaring him too.

In the end, he waited until the whole book introduction was made, the food was eaten, drinks were drunk, to go ask her for a minute (or twenty). When she saw him, he could see she was taken aback; no one had told her he’d be there, however, she still smiled at him.

“Hi.” Gosh, was he lame.

“Hi!” she managed to sound somewhat excited to see him. Surprising, really.

“Do you think I could steal you for a couple minutes? I still haven’t apologized.” He got closer, being careful not to step into her personal bubble, and offered her his hand.

She didn’t even hesitate to take it, leading him to a quiet place to talk. They ended up in the terrace, sitting down on a bench near a lit – and warm- candle arrangement.

He wasn’t sure how to begin his apology. Should he just say sorry? Should he explain why he knew her? Why he knew she liked to be called Luna instead of Sol? Should he pretend he was star-struck that day?

“I’m sorry.”

That wasn’t his voice speaking for him.

“What?”

Luna sighed quietly, posing her bright green eyes on his own, “I know it’s my fault our names – and Ámbar’s- have been on the headlines lately. I’m sorry I put you in this situation, it must be very annoying, since you’re on your break from it.”

He shook his head, “no, no, no, no. It’s my fault. I was the one who dragged Ámbar with me and the only one who should be apologizing for my actions the night we met.” He didn’t add that his creepiness was an on-going thing, “you have nothing to apologize for. It’s all on me.”

Her face scrunched up. It was cute. “I was the one who answered wrongly with Jazmín. Had I not, the media would have no idea, or perhaps would write a different story.”

“That’s on Jazmín, not on you, Luna. She lives for making other people gossip about their lives.”

“Still, I feel bad and I apologize for it.”

Matteo sighed, “I told you, you have no reason to do so. I, on the other hand, am sorry I came off like I did. I just, well, you remind me of someone I met many years ago.”

She smiled, “do I?”

“Yeah. She was just as tiny and pocket-sized.”

“Okay, now you’re pulling my leg.” Luna laughed, her bright eyes shinning even more as the laughter reached them.

“Jokes aside, I’m sorry I made you feel uncomfortable.” Her smile remained.

“Apology accepted; but only if you accept mine.”

“Oh, but I can’t do that. Such a beautiful miss like yourself shouldn’t be apologizing for nothing.” He could see her compliment affected her in the light pink shade that now covered her cheeks, “besides, you seem to be forgetting I’ve been on the headlines longer than you. This is nothing, really.”

“But you’re on a break.”

He sighed, “yes, but like it or not it’s still publicity. It helps me stick around for a little longer.”

“So, you don’t mind being in the headlines even if they’re lies?”

“They have an image of me already; it’s not a lie, and it’s not a truth, but it’s still a part of who I am.” He had confused her now, he knew it. The small frown was proof of it. “If you choose to stick in this job you’ll understand.”

“I’m not sure I will.”

He guessed so. “Going for another gold, then?”

“Not sure of that, either.” That surprised him. Partly because he was sure she’d stick to skating, and partly because he couldn’t believe she was being this open. There was a reason he spoke in riddles sometimes, just like Ámbar, Simón, or literally any ‘famous’ person he knew. Privacy, and sometimes inner thoughts had to remain for close and trusty people only.

She’d just admitted something he knew she’d been avoiding in every interview he’d watched of her, and she’d done it freely. Was she this open always? Or did he give her the vibe that he could be trusted? Maybe she didn’t think it was as big of a deal as he did?

“Oh.”

“Yeah. I still have time, though. Not a lot, but there’s some.”

“There’s no bad in what makes you happy. I’d go for that.”

“Is that why you chose music? Because it makes you happy?” she questioned him, sincerely curious. He nodded.

“It’s the only constant thing that has made me happy since I was a kid. I fought hard for it, and I’m lucky it’s worked out this well.”

“Hmmm.”

“I’m glad I bore you.” He joked, when she seemed to be lost in her contemplating after a moment in silence. She laughed, shaking her head and making a couple ringlets fall around her neck.

“You don’t. You’re actually a quite good companion, I’d like to keep you as a friend.” She shot him a quick smile, “creepiness aside, you’re pretty cool.”

His heart did a flip. “Friends, huh?”

Luna offered her hand, beaming. “Friends.”  

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior September 25, 2020 – New York Film Festival, THE WAY I SEE IT, KAJILLIONAIRE, STUNTWOMEN, MISBEHAVIOUR and Lots More!

A mite bit late this week, but it’s another busy week of movies though considerably less than usual in terms of ones I have any interest in watching. Oh, wait, did I say that out loud? Yup, we’re getting to that point after six months, even though I did go out to Jersey City to see The New Mutants on Saturday. It was fine. I didn’t hate it. Josh Boone didn’t rape my childhood.

Before we get to the new releases, we’ll start with the New York Film Festival (NYFF), since that just kicked off on Thursday night with Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, which is one of five relatively shorter movies he’s made as part of his “Small Axe” anthology that will eventually air on Amazon Prime. Maybe they’ll get some kind of theatrical release then but who knows? I’ve always kind of been up and down on McQueen’s work, loving his early movie Hunger, but then being mixed on his next few films (including the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave) but then loving Widows from a couple years back. There is no question that McQueen is a true auteur in terms of filmmaking, although sometimes he loses track of the storytelling in order to get artsy, and that’s the case with Lovers Rock. It essentially takes place in and around a “Blues Night,” basically a rowdy house party fully of music and dancing and singing, but as much about the meeting of Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn’s Martha and Micheal (Blue Story) Ward’s Franklyn at this party. It’s a fairly short “film” of just over an hour that beautifully captures the music and dance of the time, although it also gets a little too “arty” as tends to be McQueen’s wont. I don’t want to spoil too much about what happens, but I think mileage will vary on this one.

There are two more chapters to be shown at NYFF, spaced out by a week each-- Mangrove and Red, White and Blue – and I’m interested enough in what McQueen has to say about this West Indies heritage and some of the stories he’s telling within the series.

Other movies that have screened for critics already including Sam Pollard’s doc MLK/FBI, which as one can probably can figure out is about the FBI’s attempt to discredit King and take him down as leader of the protesting that led to the eventual passing of the Civil Rights Act. I feel like I knew a lot of what was in this movie from other films, and I didn’t really find that this added much towards my appreciation of King than what already existed. Honestly, I liked Pollard’s other film, Mr. Soul!, which he co-directed with that subject’s daughter.There just feels to be something more personal there compared to the rather clinical MLK/FBI.

At least that has a much stronger narrative than Song Fang’s The Calming, starring Xi Qi, which is the type of movie I almost definitely would have walked out of a press screening annoyed that I was dragged up to Lincoln Center, because it’s very much like some of Hong Sang-Soo’s worst work or some of the work of Zhangke Jia, both who regularly play the New York Film Festival. Sure enough, Zhangke produced this film, so that explains that.

I decided not to even bother with Cristi Puiu’s three-plus hour period piece Malmkrog. I was a fan of his earlier films The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Aurora, but there just isn’t enough time in the day to see if this one goes anywhere. It’s the kind of thing that I could oddly justify sit in a movie theater and watch, but sitting at my laptop? No, thank you.

I also ended up watching Pedro Almodovar’s English language debut, the short film The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton as a woman who buys an axe at a hardware store and walks around a colorful and elaborate set with a dog, and then she gets into a long dramatic conversation (mostly yelling) over the phone with her lover or ex-lover. So yeah, basically a great showcase for Swinton, who we already know as a fabulous actor, and for the movie’s production design and cinematography. I guess I’m a little mixed on this. At least it’s only 30 minutes long?

There are a number of other festivals going on, including IFP Week in New York, which used to be one of my go-tos in terms of screening more obscure stuff between TIFF and NYFF – it’s where I saw Barry Jenkins’ Medicine for Melancholy one year and a few other cool movies since. But over the past few years, it seems to have less and less of interest, and I’ve barely paid attention to what’s in the cards with its shift to virtual. Either way, it’s going on now and through Friday.

Texas has two film festivals starting up this week, the more prominent one probably being Celebration of Fantastic Fest, which as can be expected is a virtual version of the annual Fantastic Fest, which I’ve heard is one of the best genre festivals in the country, showing some of the best of previous fests’ midnight tracks as well as many premieres.  It will kick off on Thursday with Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor, which Neon will release a week from Friday, and then there’s a combination of new and vintage genre and horror films. You can see the full schedule here, as it runs for one full week and then through October 8, closing with Jim Cummings’ The Wolf of Snow Hollow. The opening and closing night films are at the Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane, but all the other movies being offered free to anyone in the country, and then there are a few events like the annual Fantastic Feud, which is available to watch worldwide. Some of the film’s to try to catch include Chad Faust’s Girl, starring Bella Thorne; French filmmakers Ludovic Boukherma & Zoran Boukherma’s Teddy, and Amelia Moses’ Bloodthirsty.

Not too far away in Waco, Texas, the Deep in the Heart Film Festival runs for the next couple weekends. Nothing really jumped out from this year’s line-up, but only because I haven’t seen any of the movies being streamed. What’s great about regional film festivals like this one is that they’re “discovery fests” where you can go and watch a lot of smaller indies by filmmakers who you may not hear about since they don’t have “ins” at the big festivals where they’re guaranteed placement.

Before we get to this week’s new movies, I wanted to draw special attention to a movie from last week, I didn’t get a chance to watch before posting the column, and that’s Dawn Porter’s THE WAY I SEE IT (Focus Features), an amazing doc about former White House chief photographer Pete Souza, whose amazing career working in the White House under Presidents Reagan and Obama led him to becoming a conscionable objector to the current Trump regime by using social media to throw shade. In fact, Souza’s most recent photo book is called Shade, and it collects his social media posts and tweets of some of his amazing photos of Obama during his 8 years in the White House. This is just an amazing film from the director of John Lewis: Good Trouble, which came out earlier this year, and this one does just as much to show Obama’s humanity (and actually, the fact that Reagan had a lighter side we rarely saw in public) but also to contrast those two Presidents with the monster we have in the White House now. I immediately bought Souza’s book after seeing it, and I’m hoping more people will learn about him through this film. This might already be gone from its limited theatrical release by the time you read it, but it will air on MSNBC on October 9 at 10PM.

Because I like to start or continue with the good, I will follow up one great doc with another one, and that’s April Wright’s STUNTWOMEN: THE UNTOLD HOLLYWOOD STORY (Shout Studios), which is fairly self-explanatory. It builds on the ideas in Mollie Gregory’s 2015 book and has interviews and anecdotes from some of the youngest and newest in the stunt field to some of the legends, like Jeannie Epper from the Wonder Woman and Bionic Woman TV shows, and Donna Keegan, who has been almost all of the coolest ‘80s and ‘90s action movies including Robocop, True Lies and others. Narrated by Michelle Rodriguez, the movie mixes the actual stuntwomen like Amy Johnston, Jennifer Caputo, Debbie and Donna Evans and Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez with a few directors like Paul Feig and Anne Fletcher. (Before you ask, Zoe Bell is mentioned but doesn’t actually talk about herself or her career on camera.) I just really enjoyed hearing these stories and learning more about a profession I really don’t know much about.  I definitely recommend this doc to anyone who wants to know more about film history and the behind-the-scenes stuff. (I also wrote a feature on this movie with interviews with three of the stuntwomen from the movie over on Below the Line.)

Focus Features is also releasing Miranda July’s new movie KAJILLIONAIRE, presumably at one point on PVOD but now theatrically as well after picking it up at Sundance where there were rave reviews for it. It stars Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger (yes, that one) and Evan Rachel Wood as a family of thieves who are always planning their next grift to get the $1,500 for their overdue rent. It’s then that they meet Gina Rodriguez’s Melanie, and bring her into their plans, much to the chagrin of Wood’s “Old Dolio,” (Yes, that’s the name of her character – don’t ask!), who already has issues with her parents not showing her the love a child usually expects.  

You know, I absolutely loved July’s earlier Sundance film You and Me and Everybody We Know, so hearing that she was making a heist movie and one with such an interesting cast definitely made me curious about Kajillionaire, which got absolute raves out of this year’s Sundance. It just sounded like it could be very cool, and I genuinely have been a fan of both Evans and Jenkins for a long time. I wasn’t nearly as familiar with Rodriguez’s work on Jane the Virgin, but I definitely became a bigger fan of her after this movie.

If you’re familiar with July’s other work, you know that she’s first and foremost an artist and maybe can be considered a bit of a performance artist with film being just one of her mediums. Being familiar with some of her past work might prepare you for how strange Kajillionaire is, especially in the set-up when we meet the Dyne family – Robert, Theresa and “Old Dolio” (ugh) – and we learn about their suitably quirky lifestyle of trying to con people out of money in order to pay their aggravated landlord Stovik (Mark Ivanir).  When we meet them, they’re three months past due, and Stovik has had enough, so they have to come up with a quick scheme. “Old Dolio” has an idea to scam an airline, and during this plan, they meet Rodriguez’s bubbly Melanie, who is keen on joining this strange family, for one reason. Robert seems more interested in Melanie for sexual reasons.

Going into Kajillionaire realizing how strange July tends to go with her material – whether it’s the Dyne’s living space or their general behavior – I still had trouble getting past not only the name of Evans’ character but her entire dour, emotionless and ultimately monotone performance. (Imagine Evans auditioning for the role of Bill or Ted in a female remake, and that’s her character.)  Evans is such a vibrant performer and maybe she wanted to play down her looks that are played up on HBO’s Westworld, but this character goes so far into the world of July’s headspace that I’m not sure who could possibly relate to her. As with much of July’s work, there are elements that people can relate to, possibly the way Evans’ character doesn’t feel the love from her parents that they immediately give to Melanie, as well as the sapphic bond that develops between the two younger women, but it’s all wrapped up in the most cockamamie attempt at a weird remake of The Grifters possible. Except that the Dynes are really bad scam artists, and the movie as a whole never really goes anywhere.

On the other hand, Rodriguez is almost the polar opposite of Evans, being vibrant and with a big personality and so many more layers, and she almost saves the movie at times. Otherwise, I had high hopes for Kajillionaire and was extremely disappointed, because July has yet to deliver on that earlier film I loved so much, and this is no different.

Honestly, I have no idea why Brad Pitt’s Plan B, let alone Focus Features, shelled out money for this movie thinking it might make them money, as there’s just nothing sellable about it… not the cast, not the premise and certainly not the overall tone. I guess this will be one I will never figure out. (Even so, if you like Jenkins, at least there’s another movie with him out this week, but that one isn’t much better unfortunately.)

On the other hand, one of the nice surprises of the week was Philippa Lowthorpe’s MISBEHAVIOUR (Shout! Factory), starring Keira Knightley as Sally Alexander, a young woman going to university who falls in with the Women’s Liberation Movement of London and their plots to disrupt the 1970 Miss World competition due to the way it depicts women. The movie also stars Jessie Buckley as one of the pluckier young women trying to take down the “patriarchy,” Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Miss Grenada, Rhys Ifans as Eric Morley, who runs Miss World with his wife Julia (Keeley Hawes) and… here’s where it gets weird… Greg Kinnear as Bob Hope.

As far as the latter goes, the movie opens with Kinnear’s Hope performing for the troops in Vietnam for the USO, and I honestly had no idea it was Kinnear, nor did I realize it until about Hope’s third appearance and I finally looked it up and realized it w as him.

But Hope is a very small part of the movie that focuses on three specific women, all real people, as played by Knightley, Buckley and Mbatha-Raw.  Alexander is a divorced young woman with a daughter who is trying to get through life with some help from her disapproving mother, but she’s also adamant about being able to break through the glass wall and meeting Buckley’s Jo Robinson and her group of rebellious young women gives Alexander the motivation to do something.

On the one hand, Misbehaviour is a quaint British period piece, much like a lot of Knightley’s previous films, but it’s also another important story from the struggle of women to get equal rights that seems appropriately-timed to current times. It’s as pretty amazing story what the Womens Lib movement got up to in terms of trying to hijack the Miss World competition – watch the videos, this really did happen, though slightly modified – where young women were literally treated like eye candy or meat. What I particularly enjoyed was that the movie didn’t just focus on Alexander or Robinson, but actually oscillated from the various characters in the story as they would come together on the fateful night.

I was already a fan of the three female leads, so seeing them in a movie together was quite grand, and while Kinnear may have been oddly-cast as Hope, the movie isn’t really about him. I actually liked seeing Ifans playing a very different character, more boisterous and with a different accent, as he adds to what ended up being a fairly entertaining movie that deals with a lot of different things, including the controversy over having a white and black contestant from South Africa decades before Apartheid was abolished.

Philippa Lowthorpe, best known for The Other Boleyn Girl, does an amazing job pulling all of these pictures together but never losing sight of the real women who are being portrayed and the amazing story they had to tell. Misbehaviour is a great example of how a message movie can be done in a thoroughly entertaining way without putting off potential male viewers.

On Wednesday, Netflix begins streaming ENOLA HOLMES, an adaptation of Nancy Springer’s Y.A. book series about Sherlock Holmes’ sister, played by Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things. Her brothers Sherlock and Mycroft are played by Henry Cavill and Sam Claflin, their mother is played by Helena Bonham Carter, and it’s directed by Harry Bradbeer, director of Fleabag and other British series. Methinks that Netflix is hoping this will be another franchise for the streaming giant. The film takes place in 1884 England with Enola waking on the morning of her 16th birthday to find her mother having vanished. Her brothers choose to send Enola to a finishing school but instead, she goes looking for her mother in London and falls in with a young runaway named Lord Tewksbury (Louis Partridge) to unravel a great conspiracy.

I never really became a fan of Stranger Things – more due to the lack of time than interest – so I haven’t really been generate much of an opinion for Millie Bobby Brown except for her role in Godzilla: King of Monsters. That said, I DO have an opinion on Sherlock Holmes, as I’m a huge fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, and that’s partially what drove my interest in this adaptation of Nancy Springer’s Y.A. twist.

Enola Holmes begins with a rather strange whimsical tone, as Enola constantly breaks the fourth wall and talks to the viewer, but it eventually falls into a steadier rhythm that’s much more palatable. If you’re into the mystery aspects of the Holmes lore, you may be a little disappointed by some of the simple word games concocted for this Holmes’ investigation, but it more than makes up for it with some fun fight and action sequences that made me think this would have been great as a theatrical release. (Just by being on Netflix, I’m sure it won’t have a problem finding an audience.)

All in all, I generally liked Brown in this role; she reminds me a little bit of a young Saoirse Ronan, so she clearly has a lot of potential. I wasn’t as crazy about some of the other casting, including Cavill as Enola’s older brother, nor the cutesy romance stuff with Partridge, but I know I’m also not the primary target audience for the film either. Still, coming so soon after Armando Ianucci’s David Copperfield adaptation, this generally pales in comparison. Probably the biggest bummer is that Helena Bonham Carter barely appears in the movie at all, which seems like such a waste of talent, although her scenes with Brown are some of the best in the movie.

Enola Holmes will find its fanbase for sure, and while it might not be the best or strongest iteration of Holmes, as much as a fun girl-friendlier spin on it, there’s no doubt that it’s perpetually entertaining.

Lena Olin and Bruce Dern star in Tom Dolby’s THE ARTIST’S WIFE (Strand Releasing) in which Dern plays crotchety artist Richard Smythson, whose poor beleaguered wife Claire (Olin) is now living in the shadow of her celebrated artist husband, giving up her own art career, but now having to deal with his memory losses and deteriorating behavior.

Claire (Lena Olin) lives a quiet domestic life in the Hamptons as the wife of celebrated artist Richard Smythson (Bruce Dern). Once a promising painter herself, Claire now lives in the shadow of her husband’s illustrious career. While preparing work for his final show, Richard’s moods become increasingly erratic, and he is diagnosed with dementia. As his memory and behavior deteriorate, she shields his condition from the art community while trying to reconnect him with his estranged daughter and grandson from a previous marriage. Challenged by the loss of her world as she knew it, Claire must now decide whether to stand with Richard on the sidelines or step into the spotlight herself.

Watching this, it’s almost impossible to not be reminded of the excellent The Wife, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce, but this is a different film from The Wife despite having similar themes of a woman who has allowed her own life and career to come second to that of her husband.

This is first and foremost a showcase for Olin, who at 65 years old, still looks amazing but also gives a fantastic performance, one unlike any we’ve seen from her in quite some time. A lot of the film deals with her character reuniting with her husband’s estranged lesbian daughter (her stepdaughter) Angela (Juliet Rylance) and her son Diego, who is being taken care of by a hunky manny named Danny (Avan Jogia). They all get together for Christmas, and Richard’s behavior just gets worse and worse as Claire vacillates between worrying about him and being infuriated by him.

Sure, it’s a little predicable at times but still a decent little film from Dolby that includes a number of incredibly touching and even some weepy moments. I ended up liking this film way more than I thought I would from the premise and my own preconceived notions of what this movie would be.

The Artist’s Wife is a really nice movie – and honestly, another one I’m shocked isn’t being distributed by Sony Pictures Classics! It’s far better than The Leisure Seekers, for instance, not only in dealing with early-stage dementia but also in the way women often have to put aside their own aspirations to help their elderly spouses through it.

Richard Jenkins also stars in Andrew Cohn’s THE LAST SHIFT (Stage 6 Films) playing Stanley, who has worked at the fast food restaurant Oscar’s Chicken and Fish in Albion, Michigan for over 35 years, but he’s planning to leave to go take care of his mother in Florida. Hired to replace him is a younger lad named Jevon (Shane Paul McGhie), who has just been let out of jail and needs the job to fulfill his probation.

I’m not really sure who this movie is intended since Jenkins plays such a sad sack slacker that I’m not quite sure who might be drawn to his character, and other than his relationship with Jevon, which definitely falls into the Finding Forrester school of movie cliches, I’m not sure that the film offers much else. Ed O’Neill does appear in the film as Stanley’s best friend, but he seemed to be playing down his role as to not steal any of Jenkins’ spotlight.

Much of the movie deals with the odd characters and situations Stanley and Juvan experience on the job, but it feels like such a hodge-podge of ideas thrown together without a suitable and conclusive arc for either character. Also, Stan is kind of a jerk, and there were only so many jokes about his mother’s bad memory – probably due to dementia -- I was willing to put up with. It’s just hard to fathom what Jenkins saw in this role or movie other than to allow the lesser-known McGhie shine a bit.

The Last Shift is a movie that tries to be a comedy without ever being particularly funny, and it just comes across like a flat and rather mundane attempt that never really goes anywhere. (Note: Days after this review was posted, I was informed that the screener link I watched did not have the final music cues and mix that the filmmaker intended. With that in mind, I will make an effort to rewatch the film when I have the film’s final version.)

A few docs of interest this week (other than the ones mentioned above) include Laura Gabbert’s doc OTTOLENGHI AND THE CAKES OF VERSAILLES (IFC Films), which follows Yoam Ottolenghi as he puts together a huge gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the opening of an exhibit about Versailles. Ottolenghi decides to bring together a number of pastry chefs from all over the world, including Dominique Ansel (inventor of the Cronut), Dinara Kasko and more to recreate the look and feel of Versailles through a series of pastries and desserts. Honestly, I really don’t have that much to say about the movie, which is only about an hour 15 minutes and still feels long. It basically just documents the preparation for the event and the event itself, and the whole thing just seems rather pretentious and high-falutin’, and more like the movie that might play at Lincoln Center than anywhere else. It will be playing in theaters (but probably not Lincoln Center) as well as on digital and cable VOD. (I told you I didn’t have much to say about it.)

Premiering on HBO (and presumably HBO Max) on Wednesday (today!) is the first part of Alex Gibney’s AGENTS OF CHAOS, a two-part documentary by the Oscar-winning documentarian about the Russian interference in the 2016 election. Another example of a movie that just wasn’t something I cared to watch right at this minute, despite being a big fan of Gibney’s excellent investigational skills in terms of getting to the bottom of a subject. The first part airs tonight (9/23) and the second part airs tomorrow night (9/24).

There’s also Ric Burns’ doc OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE (Zeitgeist Films), which will premiere exclusively as part of Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema on Wednesday (today!). I really tried to get to this, but there’s only so much time in the day especially with NYFF, and everything else going on in my life right now. I do hope to get to it, and maybe it will be like The Way I See It or Mr. Soul! and I can talk more about it in a future column.  Burns’ doc essentially covers the work of a neurologist and storyteller called “the poet laurate of medicine,” who talks about his struggles with drug addiction, homophobia and a medical establishment that only began to appreciate him decades after some of his work. Sacks is also known for writing the book on which the Robin Williams movie Awakenings is based, but otherwise, I never had really heard of him before or any of the people interviewed. Again, I’ll try to get to this soon, because he sounds like an interesting man for sure.

If the title of Mike Gunther’s ROGUE WARFARE: DEATH OF A NATION (Saban Films) makes it sound like it would be as a video game, then you probably aren’t aware that this is actually an action trilogy with Stephen Lang playing “The President,” who I guess is the villain of the piece. Will Yun Lee plays one of a team of elite soldiers who must put a stop to detonate a deadly bomb in 36 hours. No review screeners for this one, which will be in theaters, on demand and digital this Friday.

Oddly, advance screeners were also not available for Tate Taylor’s action-thriller AVA (Vertical Entertainment), starring Jessica Chastain, which is a movie I was curious about since I’ve generally liked most of Taylor’s previous films – The Help and Get On Up more than Ma or The Girl on the Train. This is the spy thriller he’d been talking about making for a while, and it costars John Malkovich, Common, Geena Davis, and Colin Farrell. What it doesn’t have is screeners for review. It must be fantastic!

Again, lots of movies this week, but I just don’t have the time or mind to spend nearly as much time watching some of them before writing this. There’s many more docs, including Jay Sebring…Cutting to the Truth (Shout! Studios), the Netflix doc Kiss the Ground, yet another doc called Red, White and Wasted (Dark Sky Films), We Are Many (Area 23 Films), Myth of a Colorblind France (First Run Features) and Public Trust (Patagonia Films). There’s also even more non-docs in I’ll Be Around (Indie Rights), LX2048, Foster Boy and Shortcut (both also from Gravitas Ventures), The Swerve and Dead (1091). See what I mean? A ridiculous amount of movies this week and even more next week. Who can possibly watch, let alone review them all?

If there’s one thing I truly miss in this pandemic is being able to go over to my local movie theater, the Metrograph to catch whatever they’re showing, but they’ve still been killing it with their Live Screenings digital series. Tonight, the Metrograph is screening Shona Lynch’s debut political doc, Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed, which follows Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy rep Shirley Chisholm, who became the first person of color and first woman to seek a major American’s political party’s nomination for President, as she fought ridicule and racism. On Monday, Metrograph will present “Matador Records - Revisionist History,” which is a celebration of the artist on the indie label that kicked off in 1989 and released records by the likes of Liz Phair, Yo La Tengo, Pavement and Sonic Youth. Monday’s premiere will include introductions by Matador’s Gerard Cosloy and Chris Lombardi and Yo La Tengo and will be made up of a series of short films and videos. Friday, the Metrograph starts a Robert Kramer retrospective with his 1969 film Ice, and honestly, I don’t really know much about Kramer so not sure what else to say.

Next week has so many frickin’ movies that if I start watching them all without sleeping for the next week, I probably won’t get to all of them. Either way, there’s no Wonder Woman 1984, so you can blame Governor Cuomo and the assholes railing against movie theaters reopening for that one.

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior September 18, 2020 – MR. SOUL!, THE GRIZZLIES, MY NAME IS PEDRO, ANTEBELLUM, THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME, THE NEST, ALONE and More!

Usually, I’d be using this weekend in September to wrap-up my usual week in Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), though I haven’t gone the past two years and this year, I couldn’t get credentials because… well, who knows? You would think a virtual festival would allow more press, especially since there wouldn’t be the cost for attending, but the demand was greater than the capabilities of TIFF’s video streaming service, I guess. Either way, there are just way too many movies to talk about this week, so let’s get to it.

After sharing some stuff about TIFF… how’s that for a big-time fake-out?

Despite not getting credentials, I did get to watch a few of the movies, including the opening night film, Spike Lee’s movie based on David Byrne’s American Utopia; Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, reviewed here; Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s new doc Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds; and I Care a Lot the new film from The Disappearance of Alice Creed director J. Blakeson, starring Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza Gonzalez and more.

Starting with American Utopia, I wasn’t sure if this Broadway musical would be for me, despite being a life-long Heads fan. It seemed like it could be the definition of a jukebox musical with Byrne just playing his greatest hits and maybe talking in between. That’s exactly what it is, in fact, but it turns out that Byrne is quite a storyteller on stage as he is in music and books. The way that some of the Heads’ oldest tunes have been repurposed for the stage leads to a lively show where everyone on stage is playing an instrument while also singing and dancing. No, there’s no actual narrative or story tying all of the songs together as might normally be the case but the music and stage show more than makes up for it, and Spike Lee (as always) does a grand job capturing it. This will be on HBO on October 18.

Herzog’s latest doc is an interesting one, and a weird one, and one that’s chock-full of eccentric nerds speaking on the topic of meteorites, as Herzog fills the role of narrator and allows Oppenheimer to take center stage in front of the camera, as the duo travels around the world talking to experts on meteors and meteorites, accompanied by gorgeous cinematography and a beautiful score. I’m not sure this may be as immediate as some of Herzog’s Antarctica docs, but it’s another bonafide experience you’ll be able to see on Apple TV+ from November 13.

And that brings me to Blakeson’s I CARE A LOT, a dark crime comedy with an impressive ensemble cast but most of the focus put on Rosamund Pike’s Marla Grayson, a professional guardian and caregiver who has made a fortune preying on the elderly and putting them into retirement homes before cleaning them out of money. Her partner in crime, Fran, is played by Eiza Gonzalez, and things are looking good for them as they are given a “cherry,” in Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), an old woman with no known connections who just happens to have a fortune in diamonds in a safe deposit boss in the bank. Oh, those also might belong to her estranged son, a crime-boss played by Peter Dinklage, who is outraged by what’s been done to his mother and swears revenge. Listen, these kinds of dark comedies aren’t always for everyone, because it’s really hard to root for Pike’s character, who is about as close to a “hero” as this movie comes. Either way, Blakeson has found a way to milk a rather untapped source in terms of a unique environment for this crime-comedy that ends up working far better than last year’s The Laundromat by Steven Soderbergh, maybe because it’s more about creating interesting characters rather than trying to give audiences a learning moment. (Also, Chris Messina is fantastic in this movie as Dinklage’s lawyer who first confronts Marla, and I’m really starting to see him in a better light as an actor. No idea what’s planned for this one, although it’s distributed by Elevation Pictures in Canada, and they seem to be making a foray into U.S. distribution. (See below)

Also, the New York Film Festival starts this week both virtually and in local drive-ins with opening night being one of three new Steve McQueen films that act as part of his “Small Axe” anthology with Lovers Rock being available to rent for just $25 via the Virtual Cinema starting Thursday. I still haven’t watched anything, as of this writing, but I hope to rectify that soon, so look for some reviews soon.

Before I get to this week’s movies, I do want to say that every once in a while (or maybe twice), I miss a movie or two. Very seldom do I have a chance to write about said movie while it’s still available to watch in theaters (or in this case, digitally), but not this time!

MR. SOUL! is a doc by Melissa Haizlip (co-directed by veteran Spike Lee editor and doc director Sam Pollard, who directed the excellent Two Trains Runnin’) about her uncle Ellis Haizlip, who produced and hosted the semi-long-running PBS show “Soul!” from 1968 to 1973. It was a touchstone for black communities throughout the country for those years, helping to break so many musical artists and poets and other personalities. I found the movie to be quite amazing, mainly since I had never heard of it. I didn’t move to the tri-state region until well after it was off the air, and honestly, I had never even heard of the show or of Ellis Haizlip, so watching his story being told in such a compelling way with so much archival footage, I was pretty blown away. I feel like what Ms. Haizlip and Mr. Pollard did with this movie is as groundbreaking and as important as the James Baldwin doc, I Am Not Your Negro, from a few years back in terms of helping modern-day people, both black and white, understand the black experience of he ‘60s and ‘70s. Mr. Soul! Is now available through Virtual Cinema across the country, and I hope those who enjoy learning new things will give it a look.

Let’s get to all of the new releases… because there’s a TON!

First, I’m gonna start with this week’s “Featured Flick” and yes, that might be considered Mr. Soul!, but the reason I write this column is to call attention to movies you might not have seen otherwise. That’s why I want to draw equal attention to a movie called THE GRIZZLIES (Elevation Pictures), which played at Toronto two years ago and is just now finally being released.

The directorial feature debut by producer Miranda de Pencier, The Grizzlies stars Ben Schnetzer as Russ Shepard, a recent graduate of McGill, who is sent to Kugluktuk at the very Northern ridge of Canada to teach a bunch of Inuit kids, as part of a program to pay back his college tuition. There, he learns that few teens even bother to show up for school, either kept away by their families’ traditions or just their desire to drink and do drugs. This kind of lifestyle inevitably ends to many suicides. Shepard has a hard time getting through to the kids until he realizes that maybe they just need a hobby, so he puts together a group of boys (and one girl) to play lacrosse.

My first year at the Oxford Film Festival (where I saw Sam Pollard’s Two Trains Runnin’), I also saw another excellent doc called Children of the Arctic about the teens from Barrow, Alaska, which is on a similar Northernmost part of the continent where this based-on-a-true-story takes place. Because I’d seen that doc, I was already interested in the setting for what might have otherwise been a typical teacher helps troubled students, not too unlike last week’s John Leguizamo film, Critical Thinking. What differentiates this from many previous movies like this (besides having lacrosse as its white savior sport, rather than chess) is that the setting is so unique, and it allows director Miranda De Pencier to work with a lot of really talented young indigenous actors, many who probably have never acted before. One exception is Boo Boo Stewart as Kyle, one of the kids dealing with domestic abuse from his drunken father.

I also liked Ben Schnetzer, who I wasn’t even remotely familiar with before seeing this, maybe because he had been doing mainly supporting roles; he proves himself to be perfectly capable of being the type of everyman lead we’ve seen other actors to portray. (Ben Affleck in The Way Back from earlier this year comes to mind.) More importantly, Schnetzer is just great with the talented younger cast. Sure, there are a lot of the normal cliches that come with this type of movie including the rousing coach speech to get the team motivated, but there’s no denying that this is one of the better iterations of a what has been a sadly overused movie genre.

I was kind of surprised to learn that this premiered at the Toronto Film Festival two years ago, and it’s just been sitting dormant waiting for someone to pick it up and release it. Actually, I found it quite shocking, because this is an absolutely wonderful and inspirational story that offers some hope in a world that’s gotten so dreary and depressing over the past few months. If you want to see a movie that can get you out of the doldrums, this is definitely one I’d recommend highly. If you can imagine a cross between The Bad News Bears (or even Slapshot) with Whale Rider, then that’s what The Grizzlies delivers.

Another wonderful and equally inspirational film to seek out is Lillian LaSalle’s doc MY NAME IS PEDRO (Sweet 180), which looks at the life and career of South Bronx resident Pedro Santana. The young Latino came from his own troubles going to school in the Bronx to becoming a beloved educator trying to help others using his unique personality and skill set. There’s no denyhing that Santana’s enthusiasm is quite infectious, so he’s quite beloved by everyone he encounters. Unfortunately, he runs into problems, including being systematically booted from his position at the Ramapo school district due to his lack of credentials. He then spends some time teaching in Haiti and gets a job in Dubai but then gets diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer. I won’t say more because it’s a movie that, while not particularly ground-breaking in terms of technical aspects, it is indeed quite an inspirational and heartwarming film in the way it tells Pedro’s amazing story. My Name is Pedro will open at the Maysles Center’s Virtual Cinema in New York on Thursday, and then the Laemmle in L.A. on October 2, and then more cities on October 9.

There aren’t a ton of other prominent docs this week, although one of the more high-profile ones is Dawn Hudson’s doc THE WAY I SEE IT (Focus Features), which unfortunately, I received too late to watch and review. (Partially my own fault, to be honest.) It takes a look at two Presidents, Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan as seen through the eyes and lens of renowned photojournalist Pete Souza, who was the official White House photographer and had an unprecedent access to the country’s leaders. The movie will open in select theaters but then will be on MSNBC on Oct. 10 at 10pm Eastern.

Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s thriller ANTEBELLUM (Lionsgate) is a movie that’s being released this weekend via VOD after being delayed since April. Honestly, I’m not sure what I can say about it, because it relies so much on its rather ludicrous twist that anyone who watches the trailer can probably figure it out in 15 minutes or less. But I’ll play along. Janelle Monáe plays best-selling author Veronica Henley, who has been having dreams about being back in the Confederate South, working and being abused as a slave by racist soldiers.

We probably should get out of the way that Bush & Renz’s movie actually opens in the Antebellum South on a plantation where we watch a number of slaves being tortured and killed, including Monáe’s Eden and a fellow slave played by the always wonderful Kiersey Clemons from Dope. Jack Huston plays the particularly loathsome Confederate captain who is so awful to them.  About 40 minutes into the movie, we meet Monáe’s Veronica Henley as she wakes from a dream of going through that ordeal we just watched. Got it? So it was all a dream, right? And I bet you really believe that. Again, I promised not to give away the “big twist” but after watching Veronica and her friends (including Gabourey Sidibe from Precious) attending a book conference and Veronica dealing with all sorts of weird people (including Jena Malone in a deliciously evil role) and other strange things, the movie quickly gets tiring. It just takes so long to get to how and why Monáe and the others are on the plantation, and there had to be a better way of making that happen in a more interesting way.

At least the film’s last act turns into a bonafide revenge-filled action thriller, and by then, you’ll be ready to see anything that gets your pulse above a 5. The last 20 minutes are so good you wonder why the filmmakers didn’t seem to care that they were likely to lose people from walking out of theaters – or I guess their homes -- long before the movie gets anywhere worthwhile.

I didn’t watch the trailer for Antebellum until after seeing the movie, but it’s a particularly deceptive piece of work because it says it’s from the “Producer of Get Out and Us,” so you assume (as I did) that this is a movie produced by Jordan Peele or Jason Blum, but neither is involved with it. The trailer also inserts a number of scenes that do not appear in the movie to try to make it seem eerier, and frankly, this being sold as a “horror movie” is probably its biggest infraction. Instead, Antebellum is a weak “Twilight Zone” episode that’s handled so poorly you’re not sure whether to be offended by figuring out the twist almost immediately or offended that these two filmmakers thought they might have you fooled for longer than that. Again, Antebellum is skipping a theatrical release entirely and being released straight to VOD, which is probably for the better.

Antonio Campos, director of Simon Killer and Christine, returns with his adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME, which will be streaming on Netflix actually right now! Set in 1957, it stars Tom Holland as Arvin Russell, the son of a religious father (played by Bill Skarsgård) who has come home after seeing all sorts of horrors in World War II. The expansive story follows both father and son but also the residents of a small town called Knockemstiff in Southern Ohio and how they’re all connected through a series of incidents.

Narrated by Pollock himself, Campos has created a brilliant Southern Gothic thriller that’s far more of an ensemble piece than some may expect because the biggest name stars, Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson, don’t appear in the movie for a good 40 minutes! Instead, we follow the story from Arvin’s father Willard and the incidents that lead to Arvin becoming an orphan, living with his half-sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen). Years later, Arvin finds himself having to protect Lenora from the lecherous young preacher, Preston Teagarden (played by Pattinson), who is preying on the town’s young women. The movie also stars Jason Clarke and Riley Keough, as a couple who pick up hitchhikers for evil intentions, and Sebastian Stan as the latter’s sheriff brother who gets dragged into all the evil-doings in town. It also has Mia Wasikowska and Haley Bennett in smaller roles as two of the beleaguered women caught up in the story.

I went into The Devil All the Time knowing full well that I’m rarely a fan of most Southern-based dramas with a few exceptions, like Dee Rees’ Mudbound. There have been just as many that just didn’t connect with me like Hounddog. Either way, this is a similarly complex tale for Campos to tell because there are so many characters, and it spends quite a bit of time in the past before we finally meet Holland and Pattinson’s characters. This will most definitely annoy some people, but I was intrigued enough by how everyone was being slowly introduced that it didn’t bother me so much.

I’ve always been quite aware how talented a filmmaker Campos is but like with Rebecca and Michael C. Hall in Christine, he also benefits from having one of the strongest ensemble casts put together, as well as great craftspeople -- like cinematographer Lol Crawley -- helping to realize his vision.

It takes its sweet time getting to the point where things start to get interesting, which for many will probably be when Pattinson shows up as Preston Teargarden. At first, I didn’t like Pattinson’s character or performance much, but it certainly grew on me and it’s not the only solid performance of note. Campos has created a movie that gains so much from a second viewing once you know the true nature of the characters. Make no mistake that Campos has kept all the complexities of Pollock’s book for a movie that kept my attention in ways that few other movies have this year with a number of scenes that really shook me up. Besides streaming on Netflix today, The Devil All the Time will actually be opening theatrically in a few cities so check your listings! I interviewed Campos over at Below the Line, and you can read my interview with Cinematographer Lol Crowley over there later today.

As excited as I was to watch a new film from Campos, even MORE exciting, in some ways, is that we’re getting a new movie from his (former?) Borderline Productions partner Sean Durkin, whose Martha Marcy May Marlene was one of the breakouts from Sundance the year it premiered all the way back in 2011. Durkin has returned with THE NEST (IFC Films), a movie starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon as Rory O’Hara and his wife Allison, a married couple with two kids who move back to England for his job, taking up residence in an opulent mansion before things start to fall apart.

I went into The Nest (i.e. I hit play on the screener on my computer) thinking that it was going to be one of those old school British thrillers from the ‘60s and ‘70s, especially once it gets to the giant eerie mansion that reminds you of something from The Omen (one of my favorite horror movies, incidentally). In fact, the movie is more of an intense family drama where we watch Law, Coon and their kids pushed to the edge by circumstances, which one might assume is something being caused by some toxic aspect of their new house, but actually, nope, it’s just everyday life stuff.

For Law’s Rory, it’s a huge deal that falls through as he tries to bullshit his way through it, yet he keeps turning to his wife for money. She has her own problems to deal with including her rebellious stepdaughter Samantha (Oona Roche) and younger son Benjamin (Charlie Shotwell), neither of whom are adjusting well to the move. Her hobby is riding horses, and just bad things keep happening to all of them that all collides on one fateful night that includes Samantha having a crazy house party.

Although The Nest wasn’t nearly as much of a genre movie as I hoped it might be, one thing that really jumps out and makes it worthwhile is Carrie Coon’s performance. There’s no denying she’s just one great role or movie away from being in the Oscar game. Sadly, this one is is not it.

Like the film by Durkin’s producing partner, The Nest takes its own sweet time getting anywhere as Durkin goes for a slow roll approach, but that also allows him to embellish the images with a great score that includes quite a bit of ‘80s music. (I wasn’t sure if the movie actually was taking place in the ‘80s or not.) Although the influence of Stanley Kubrick seems fairly present in Durkin’s The Nest, it’s really more Eyes Wide Shut Kubrick than The Shining, and that might dismay those who are seeking the film’s horror potential. But if you like Eyes Wide Shut and go in expecting that, you won’t be as disappointed.

Another really solid thriller worth seeking out is director John Hyams’ ALONE (Magnet Releasing), which actually played as part of the Fantasia Film Festival a few weeks back. It’s true that there have been way too many movies with that title, but this is a fairly compelling thriller that starts as something that might seem fairly obvious and then goes into so many amazing and unexpected directions. The movie stars Jules Willcox as Jessica, a widow who is moving to a new place when she encounters a creepy guy on the road (played by Marc Menchaca), who seems to be following her. Pretty soon, it’s obvious that he is following her and has bad intentions for her by trapping her in his basement.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Alone, because it starts out so much like The Hitcher or even the recent Unhinged with a woman being plagued by a creepy guy, and it’s hard to watch at times because it gets pretty violent.  I was definitely uncomfortable watching this, since it felt like there was a voyeuristic aspect akin to torture porn that made me not to watch any more of this poor woman's torture and abuse. Fortunately, she does escape only to have to survive while trapped in the woods surrounding the cabin.

I wasn’t familiar with Jules Willcox before seeing this movie, but her performance and all the places it takes her in terms of fear and desperation is fairly impressive, as is Marc Menchaca, who does a great job playing one of those psychopaths who somehow can behave normal whenever it calls for it. (Think more Ted Bundy than Jeffrey Dahmer.) You combine these two amazing performers with a cat-and-mouse situation that combines their acting with some brilliant sound design work and cinematography, and you have a movie that goes far beyond what I expected from the premise.

Even so, Alone successfully explores the real fear women must face every day when they’re alone and feeling defenseless, and it shows Hyams to be an incredibly skilled filmmaker when dealing with a lot of elements. The last act where all of these skills come together, including some amazing stuntwork, is what takes what’s a thriller with an overly used premise and makes it something that’s far more unique and memorable. It will be available to watch in some theaters as well as On Demand.

Speaking of movies with unfortunate title choices, I’m guessing that director Kurtis David Harder was well into making his movie SPIRAL, on Shudder beginning Thursday, when it was announced that the next “Jigsaw” movie from Lionsgate would be called that. Fortunately, this Spiral has nothing to do with that one, the only thing in common is that they’re both horror. (This Spiral actually played at least year’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and a few others, in case you weren’t convinced.) In fact, this one is probably more in the vein of Get Out or even Hereditary, as it follows a same-sex couple, Malik and Aaron (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Ari Cohen), who move to the suburbs with Aaron’s teen daughter Kayla (Jennifer Laporte) and begin to experience weird occurrences and behavior from their new neighbors. Of course, Malik thinks it’s homophobia, something he’s experienced in his past when he was put through a horrific experience during his early years exploring his sexuality.

I was pretty impressed with what Harder did with this premise, but just as much due to the performance by Bowyer-Chapman than I was of the director’s ability to build the tension as we learn more and more about the couple’s new suburban neighbors. Spiral is just a really well-done thriller in every regard, because it keeps things rather enigmatic, so you’re never quite sure if Malik’s paranoia is justified or not. Combine that solid premise with a terrific score – definitely one of the themes of this week’s movies – and Spiral is another fantastic offering from the horror streaming network that keeps blowing me away with the movies they pick up that you really can’t see anywhere else.

As luck would have it Harder also produced and co-directed (with Noah Kentis, directing under the pseudonym “Lankyboy”) Summerland, a coming-of-age comedy which I didn’t have a chance to see. (Actually, I did, but from the trailer, it didn’t seem like I’d like it, plus I’ve seen WAY too many coming-of-age movies the last few weeks and I’m getting burnt.) Anyway, this queer coming-of-age indie stars Maddie Phillips (Teenage Bounty Hunters), and it’s a road trip comedy that involves social media (if you remember my review of Spree and read one of my reviews below, that’s another warning sight for me), and it’s available on Demand on iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay and Amazon right now!

And here’s the trailer!

Noomi Rapace and Joel Kinnaman star in Yuval Adler’s THE SECRETS WE KEEP (Bleecker Street), a thriller set in the late ‘50s with Rapace playing Maya, a Romanian woman living in the suburbs with her doctor husband Lewis (Chris Messina), who thinks that their new neighbor (Joel Kinnaman) may be the Nazi soldier that assaulted and killed her sister during the war, so of course, she kidnaps him.

There’s something very familiar about this dramatic thriller, partially because it takes a similar approach as Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil, but I feel there were other movies like this that I’m forgetting. The title basically comes from the fact that Maya has kept her past a secret from her husband, who gets involved in the grilling of Kinnaman’s character, who has kept his own past a secret from his wife, played by Amy Seimetz. Even while Kinnaman is tied up in her basement, Maya tries to befriend his wife to see if she can get some information that will prove that her captor is who she thinks.

I’m a pretty big Noomi Rapace fan, and I’m always excited to see her in movies because she tends to be give very dramatic performances, and that’s certainly the case although sometimes, the emotions go a bit overboard. The good thing is that here’s another movie where Chris Messina has really surprised me, just like he did all the way at the top of this column in J. Blakeson’s I Care A Lot. I always found him to be a rather bland and very vanilla actor, but he seems to be doing something to change that, and I fully approve.

There were certainly aspects and moments of The Secrets We Keep I liked because Adler is not a bad director, but there are also aspects that made me feel this would have worked fine or even better as a stage play. As a movie, it’s just kind of drab and predictable as the characters spend almost the entire film yelling and hitting each other. When you compare this to some of the movies above, there just isn’t enough mystery about where it might go, so more like Antebellum than Spiral or Alone despite being a more grounded and less genre-based thriller. Ultimately, it just fails, but it will be in theaters and on VOD starting today.

I knew I was in trouble with Will Wernick’s NO ESCAPE (Vertical)  -- not to be confused with the Owen Wilson-Pierce Brosnan thriller – when I realized that the film’s main character Cole (Keegan Allen) was another one of those social media wannabe stars like the kid in Spree. Surprise, surprise, he is JUST as annoying. The concept for this one is that Cole does all sorts of crazy stunts on his feed to prove he’s not scared of anything, but then he and a group of friends (including his girlfriend Erin, played by Holland Roden) are invited to Russia to take part in the “scariest escape room ever” by a guy named Alexei (Ronan Rubinstein). Bad stuff happens.

There are a few rare times when I watch a movie and wonder how on earth a filmmaker was able to put together what seems like a pretty hefty budget for a movie as bad as this one turned out to be, and stuff like that just leaves me shaking my head. The premise itself isn’t so bad, even if it isn’t particularly original. (Imagine my surprise when I looked at Wernick’s IMDB page and his previous movie from 2017 was called “Escape Room” and not the Sony one either. It makes it pretty clear that this guy is the definition of a one-trick pony. Oddly, he ALSO has a movie called Alone.)

The problem is that Keegan Allen and most of his friends – including his best friend Thomas, played by Denzel Whitaker, who seems to have been doing so well in his career up until this movie – are so effin’ annoying, you never care one bit what happens to them, whether they get beat up in fight with Russian mobsters or end up in a series of death traps, many that are swiped directly from the Saw movies. In fact, that’s basically what this movie turns into once the friends are locked into a Russian prison and Cole has to try to save them. It basically becomes a cross between Saw and Hostel, but with Cole so flippant with his jokes and asides to his watchers, it completely takes away from any tension or scares. By the time the movie starts to get serious, it’s just far too late, because just when you don’t think the movie can possibly get stupider, it gets stupider.  (And seriously, if I have to watch ONE MORE MOVIE that has people commenting or clicking on hearts in a way that’s so unbelievable and unrealistic, I’m gonna be even MEANER to that movie.)

The title of this movie may be No Escape, but there is a perfectly reasonable way to escape this time-waster, and that’s just not to watch it. It’s just another exploitative and predictable movie that lacks anything even remotely approaching originality.

There are a few other movies out this week that I either didn’t get to watch or I watched and just didn’t have enough to say to write a review. Listen, you have nearly 13 reviews above, so is that not enough for you?

Susan Sarandon leads an amazing ensemble cast that includes Kate Winslet, Sam Neill, Mia Wasikowska and more in Roger Michell’s BLACKBIRD (Screen Media), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and is finally being released. After a Fathom Events release over the last couple days, it will be released in more theaters this Friday. Sarandon plays Lily, a woman who has been battling ALS who has decided to end her life on her own terms, so she and her husband (Neill) summon their daughters (Winslet, Wasikowska) and extended family for one last goodbye to celebrate Lily’s life before she’s gone.

Kieron J. Walsh’s THE RACER (Gravitas Ventures) was supposed to premiere at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year, but that didn’t happen. It’s set during the summer of 1998 during the early stages of the Tour De France where Belgian rider Dominique Chabol, played by Louis Talpe, has been one of the team’s better support riders on the tour for the past 20 years, his job being merely to set a pace and never to win. When Dom is dropped from the team (for doping), he has to see if he can accept a civilian life after meeting a pretty Irish doctor, played by Tara Lee.

Next up is Steve Collins’ absurdist comedy, I’VE GOT ISSUES (Gravitas Ventures), which includes an amazing cast that includes Macon Blair, Claire Titelman, John Merriman and Byron Brown, with Jim Gaffigan narrating. I knew almost immediately while watching that this movie wasn’t going to be for me, and that’s all I’ll say.

A few of the movies I wasn’t able to get to include Last Call (available through the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema), The Last Laugh (High Octane), Film Movement’s God of the Piano and from Kenya, Sam Soko’s doc Softie about photojournalist Boniface “Softie” Mwangi, which won a Sundance Special Jury prize for its editing. There’s a thing called Google if you wanna know more about them.

My beloved and sadly shuttered local theater, the Metrograph, are continuing their digital live screening series with their Ulrike Ottinger retrospective that will debut her film Joan of Arc of Mongolia  (1989) tonight at 8pm. Friday, they’ll be screening Eric Rohmer’s The Aviator’s Wife (1981) and then continuing the “Nan Goldin Selects” series on Saturday and then Ottinger’s Exile Shanghai (1997)  son Sunday.

Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema will add Jan Oxenberg’s Thank You and Good Night (1991) today and then Jan Swankmaier’s Faust (1994) this Friday.

Next, we’ll look at some streaming stuff. The latest from Ava Duvernay’s Array deal with Netflix is Merawi Gerima’s Residue, which follows Obinna Nwachukwu as aspiring filmmaker Jay, who returns to his home in Washington, DC, to find his neighborhood being gentrified and finds himself being alienated by his old friends. It will debut on Netflix Thursday as well as be available in select virtual theaters. A number of series are starting up on Netflix his week, including Ryan Murphy’s Ratched, starring Sarah Paulson as the Nurse Mildred Ratched character from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this series being a prequel to that Oscar-winning film. Netflix is also launching the four-episode docuseries Challenger: The Final Flight, which features interviews with the engineers and crew’s family members from the 1986 shuttle disaster. Lastly, there’s Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, an all-ages animated series based in the world of the beloved movie franchise.

Over on Hulu, I’m super-psyched for the second season of Pen 15, starring Maya Erskine and Anna Konlkle, which I discovered well after the hilarious first season debuted.

No idea what’s going on next week, but Gerard Butler’s Greenland certainly isn’t! I guess you’ll just have to come back and find out.