My journey as a writer of screenplays, novels, poetry, and more. films as I see them. Enjoy!
Metaphorical
Rocks should not determine your
Future life of crime
Click on pic for TRAILER:
If the director had
Made it a comedy, the
End would have made sense
Jealousy runs deep
You’ll kill with peaches – or knives!
why the Oscar buzz?
Exploding toilets
Flooding poor houses, why must
privilege smell worse
Shhh. Hold your breath. Don’t make a sound. Don’t scream or the monsters will eat you.
A family fighting to survive creates a world signing in silence on a farm after carnivorous aliens with heightened hearing threaten to wipe out all life on earth.
John Krasinski wrote, produced, starred in, and directed this his first full-length feature film. It’s both terrifying and oh so satisfying. Felt silence frames every scene. I’ve never been so aware of the audio work on a film.
His wife in real life, Emily Blunt, read the script and asked for the role despite the harrowing ordeals she knew she’d undergo as the pregnant wife in this silent scary movie. Blunt delightfully becomes her roles, memorably, believably.
The children also performed their parts surprisingly well, especially Noah Jupe who played the best friend in last year’s heartfelt hit Wonder.
Krasinski also wisely chose to cast deaf actress Millicent Simmons in the role as the daughter. She offered her experience and expertise with ASL to the the cast so the sign language would look realistic and would convey the emotion in each unspoken word or phrase. Impressive for its lower budget, memorable without words, the Quiet Place is a worthy watch.
Don’t watch it alone. Or in the dark. It’s a horror film, but it’s also one of the sharpest and most poignant social commentaries to date.
Just as SNL can tackle any political joust adeptly through comedy, so somehow this innocent seeming horror flick lays out an eerie Lottery-esque (a la Shirley Jackson) satire and allows a unique look at perceptions from the eyes of black Americans regarding common stereotypes around interracial coupling, police brutality, economic status levels, even physical make-up.
The entire film builds smoothly and thoughtfully to its absolutely terrifying finale. Know the genre and the rating going in, as it is rife with hard R language and frightening content – including a few jump scares.
Throughout, the bread crumbs are there to be found. (Without spoilers), watch for a reference to picking cotton, parallels between the gorgeous photographs in the beginning and the layers of dialogue, and my favorite: the famous slogan (look up its origin) “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
A veritable cavalcade of specters parade New York’s busy streets, and “who you gonna call?”
The new generation of Ghostbusters are equally as bumbling and goofy as their predecessors. But these spirited hunters have Ph.Ds and new talents and toys to help them take down the prevailing spirits. They “ain’t afraid of no ghosts.”
These SNL favs and friends know how to get a laugh. They are made to entertain. They laugh at themselves first, and it works. These funny women of New York have taken Hollywood by storm and come back to town with bigger names and top billing. They’ve earned it. Chris Hemsworth also runs havoc as the team’s dimwitted receptionist and top poltergeist target.
Whether or not it works in the box office, it pays proper homage to fans and original stars. The script works and the team gels. It’s funny, playful, sarcastic, and fun. In a cultural twist, it’s the female ensemble that consistently objectifies men. Well, one man. Just Chris. And who can blame them for that? Not I.
I give it a 7.5 / 10 and I’ll see it again!
10 Cloverfield Lane, obviously an address and subsequent spinoff to Cloverfield (2008) when monsters took Manhattan ala shaky Blair Witch hand cam.
Almost everything about this movie is scary: the writing, the directing, the blatant lack of content disguised in faux mystery.
The heart was right. But the execution…abrupt and ill-conceived.
The actors, however, proved themselves professionals. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (best as Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim) and John Gallagher Jr. (from the beloved short-lived HBO series Newsroom and the perfect indie Short Term 12) cared that their roles were believable and strong. John Goodman obviously enjoyed playing the crazy bunker-builder. They seemed eager participants in what felt like an experimental suck-up film, each shot an attempted homage to JJ or Spielberg. But even that would have been nice had this not felt more akin to Shayamalan’s more recent tragedies.
If you go in expecting monsters and aliens and jump scares and limited plot, I’m afraid…even with such low expectations, you too could be disappointed.
It all felt forced, and left too many unsolved mysteries about the characters themselves: like the unsolved main issue of Michelle’s backstory and serious relationship on the rocks. Any real details about her Emmett in the hatch, oh sorry the bomb shelter. Man, good thing they barely had to redecorate the Lost set after Desmond set the place up. Aren’t they supposed to be hitting a button every 108 minutes?
The opening shots seem sincere, but pointless: big cardboard boxes in a small apartment and a girl feverishly packing. An earthquake that she dismisses. Then they zoom in on a set of keys and a wedding ring. Double zoom. Just so we don’t miss it. I despise forced focus. The director wants you to know she’s sad, so you zoom in on her face, then zoom in again on the tear itself. Single tear close-ups do not force empathy when the backstory is loose and limited. They attempt to build human connection through lengthy exposition. “When I was a kid…
Questions that keep you watching remain unanswered. What was she running from? Is that guy who he says he is? What was the back up plan if she hadn’t been there to climb through the vent shaft? Do any of those book / song titles mean anything?
If you wait for breadcrumbs to lead you to truth in this one, you’ll go hungry. They mean nothing in the end. (Wait. Maybe this IS another Lost finale.)
I don’t know. Maybe people don’t go to the movies to think. Maybe I’m alone in blaming sloppy writing / directing. Sure JJ may have paid for it, but his MO is to support up-and-comers. He’s walking in the footsteps of his mentor Steven (Spielberg) and helping the fledgling directors take wing. Unfortunately, this Icharus not only flies too close to the sun, he flies into it inviting strangers from outerspace back with him to take over our planet. After this film, you’ll wonder which is worse: crazies on earth or crude angry aliens.
Sadly, this film felt a little too Room (2015) minus Brie Larson, meets War of the Worlds (2005), meets 5th season Lost. It’s a mess.
I’m not sure why I felt slightly unprepared to see this film. I had seen the play. My friend Steve played one of the princes when we were in high school. It was so funny. The show is meant to be overdone and overly dramatic.
This film did achieve that properly over-the-top flair with wild vaudevillian acting, hard singing, and full-blown costumes and effects.
There were, however, those elements that would make anyone agonize wondering how much longer it could possibly go on. It’s an operetta, meaning they sing almost every line and the songs rarely find resolve. So, it feels like one very long song. So, in that vein, I attempted to write new lyrics to the film’s soundtrack below, expressing my disgust at points and over all true feelings for this film:
It’s too dark.
It’s one long song.
The themes are pushed.
What themes are those?
The themes of love conflicting with independence;
The theme of wishing for dreams but dealing with consequences.
From bloody toes, to moments with Johnny Depp.
They turned him from wolf… to zuit suited pedophile. He’s a zuit-suited pedofile.
Yes.
Then Emily Blunt.
She sings so well,
but who could believe she’s a pauper’s wife.
She’s baking and singing, the baker’s wife.
The one whose attractions, temptations could end her life.
But oh, Chris Pine, I’d fall hard too.
I’d fall for you.
I’d bake you a cake, be the baker’s wife,
if it wasn’t for Anna Kendrick.
The film was set on just one set.
I can see right now how they could afford the make-up alone for Meryl Streep.
In so many scenes and always the same,
Yes, but she’s Meryl Streep.
She’s a wunderkind.
Agony.
They run faster, stare harder, scale walls, headbang, stick around for a quick bite, and have no feelings. Sound like your last relationship?
This zombie apocalypse has a new face. In our world, the slow moving, cannibalistic, “Walking Dead” reign. However, director Mark Forster, a favorite since his Finding Neverland (2004) and Stranger Than Fiction (2006), and WWZ‘s producer Brad Pitt have reinvented the franchise.
Some criticized the action zoom in at minute 5 or so in the film initiating the continuous conflict, but character development, schmaracter development, right? Pitt and Jolie have laid the foundation for Pitt’s trustworthy, fatherly character by adding a new child to their brood each year. We buy that he is the hatchet-wielding family man with a heart of gold whose war-shredded past shows in each line of his face and in his stringy beard. He is apt for the task, a believable and beautifully clever team player father figure rushing to save the world.
Back to nuts and bolts. To see or not to see. Despite its furious filming foibles and over budget fear-driven rewrites, they succeeded. Zombie flix can easily ring cheesy, but true to genre, it is scary. Rental was a good call for me. I can’t do gore or 2 hours of breathless intensity. So, the catchy bird-like zombie squawk that introduces each toothsome attack became my cue to get up and fold some laundry or send an email. The Zombies weren’t skip-trudging toward their next human meals; they rushed for the bite to turn the next victim. Anxiety comes in ocean waves, then pulls back long enough for audiences to breathe.
Don’t miss Jimmy Fallon’s “Yodel” interview with Brad Pitt: (linked below)
Infantile cravings, though innate, can overcome and potentially destroy if unrestrained by maturity and self-control. The hunger pangs of this film by Darren Aronofsky grow beyond craving to obsession. As with any drug, a lingering pleasure, a momentary satistfaction is reached. One exhales only to take in new air, new breath of disappointment in a high as yet again unfelt, unreached. Intake. In. Take. Take. Take. Take in.
Seizing. Seizing again. This film is a seizure-worthy kaleidoscoping journey through addiction and self-destruction.
Four stories intertwine, lifting and falling, hushed then screaming. They emote, but are guarded. They lie so constantly that they can’t decipher truth. Jared Leto, son front and center, dreams of a middle-to-upper class life and believes that selling drugs can get him there. It’s his get-rich-quick scheme. That’s all. His best friend can help him get there, as he’s well connected. His girlfriend, Jennifer Connolly, loves him dearly, but when push comes to shove, will offer her body in exchange for the drug she loves more. Leto’s mother, played by Ellen Burstyn , finds herself possessed with a vision of television fame, which claims her as she tries a simple prescription weight-loss drug to melt away the ever-present desire for food. She is always hungry, and her constant need to feed is quickly replaced with pills. If one works, more must work better. If one hit works, more must be better. Just try a little. But more is never better. Cravings replace longings and turn to obsession in each story. All four end as they came into the world: in fetal position clutching all that they have left and believing the lie that they are going to be okay.
If our lives are our personal requiems, we require many voices. The music crescendos with conflict and slows to harmonious tinkles when peace returns, if peace ever returns.
This film is one of dissonance and hunger. Death, the innevitable outcome. Methods in this case involve meth, heroine, loneliness, pride, and greed. See this film if you are ever tempted by drugs. You’ll hate the idea, the constant craving pains, the need on replay, the ache for more. This film exhausts, distresses. I can’t watch it again. I had to watch some of it in fast forward. No amount of love can replace the gutteral instinct to use. And this film makes drug use of every kind despicable with only one outcome: suffering. Beware: the journey is very real and disturbing. Violence, drug use, sex, nudity – all in the rating and possibly underplayed by the “R.”
Reality TV becomes social political commentary in the 2012 film Hunger Games. It’s a bruital Truman Show with show hosts, sponsors, and producers ruling like a mythological godhead. Then like in the Gladiatorial arena, the thumb lifts selecting life or death.
No. I haven’t read the books. Now I don’t think I can. I almost walked out of the theater three times. There I sat, knowing conceptually that the games were a Shirley Jackson-esque Lottery ending in murder, but the promise of a “bloodbath” was sure to be fulfilled and suddenly more than I could take. It felt like seeing Clint Eastwood‘s Million Dollar Baby. I knew it was about boxing, but I’d forgotten until I was sitting there in the theater that girls would be punching each other in the face. Certainly, the director handled the carnage in Hunger Games like a Bourne or Bond film with fast hand-held camera shaking around the action followed by a montage of dead children. Dead children. Children murdering children. That’s what this film is about. I’m wrecked, disgusted, befuddled. Why the hype? Why the encouragement? Why will we all take time to see this? From concept to box office, however, this has not been a hard sell. Why?
It released at midnight, and I saw it less than 24 hours later. As I’d hoped, the theater was full of fans, the best and worst crowd to see a movie with because they know what is coming and because they know what is coming. I heard anticipatory sobs before pivotal deaths happened.
Okay. So, it’s brilliant. It’s a could-be post-apocalyptic America. It’s the French Revolution. The commoners must rise up against the aristocracy. Big Brother must not win despite his sci-fi magic dogs and hallucinogenic killer bees. So, the people must fight. Sacrifices will be made. A hero must rise up. The chosen hero is Katniss Everdeen. She will be a symbol of relief and freedom. She cheated the games – a true tribute. I love that she only fights defensively and ever out of mercy. We love her first for breaking small rules, for showing skills with a bow, for loving her sister, for parenting her family, for surviving. We love her would-be boyfriend for loving her, for his beauty. Oh, that Hemsworth family…
Casting is possibly perfect. Woody Harrelson endears himself like he hasn’t since Cheers. His character redeems the story – a true mentor who knows well the special world of the arena, a true coach and friend. I like that his character is messy, honest, crude, and trustworthy.
Lenny Kravitz steps in as the stunner with heart.Stanley Tucci, as usual, can do no wrong. Wes Bentley‘s facial hair stands alone. I love him. Well done, costuming and make-up.
Even young Josh Hutcherson stands out as a precious Peeta. I believe that he loves her and always has. Lovely. And, Jennifer Lawrence remains the new it girl.
Donald Sutherland, as always, gives the cast credibility. I’d cast him as F.D.R. someday, the beloved father and strong politician. These characteristics make Sutherland a viable villain as well. He calmly tends his roses as we figure out that he‘s the thumb calling life or death. He’s the dictator offering a socialist hope while disguising a communist regime. 
The quintessential line of the film is his. He comments that the only weapon greater than fear is hope. Katniss represents the hope for the common people, those still starving to death in prison camps beyond the gates of the golden city. War will be the inevitable outcome of these Hunger Games, but I hope the war doesn’t manifest off-screen in evermore gratuitous youth violence.
Scarecrow Video, just off of Roosevelt & 50th in the U District in Seattle has EVERY title! Ask any one of the employees as you walk in for any new release, genre, director, obscure indie or international title and their degree in film studies will register beneath the lenses, and a pointer finger will raise to the exact location of that movie. Beware. When I say EVERY movie…I mean it. Many are not for young eyes…or mine. But go.
If you remember seeing The Hunt for Red October on an old gigantic lazer disc and you’ve ever wanted to relive that experience, you can rent players there. Even VHS players (what are those, right?), and projectors for that backyard film fest. Remember that one that you saw with your mom on Turner Classics when you were little that just haunts you? They’ve got it. What’s that one Wes Anderson movie? It’s there, and they know.
So, go! Visit Scarecrow Video and support a local legend. If you have out of town guests coming in, show them Seattle and take them to Scarecrow. Let them pick the movie or take them to the Italian film section and rent Life is Beautiful for a lovely and memorable evening. Say Hi to Kevin for me while you’re there. Shake his hand. He’s a good man.
I heart Scarecrow Video!
Splatter: on FILM 