Category: Reviews

  • Uncut Gems – Review

    Uncut Gems – Review

    Although I wouldn’t call myself an Adam Sandler fan, I was nonetheless drawn to the trailer for Uncut Gems when I originally saw it in theaters. I immediately wanted to see what he would do with a serious role that was tailored specifically for him. The psychedelic visual motifs in the trailer and the fact that the directors were relatively unknown all but secured my ass in the theater seat to see this flick.

    What I thought was going to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of gambling addiction and stealing from the mob seemed to be more in favor of the protagonist’s behavior than not by the end of the movie. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Uncut Gems has a lot of anti-intellectualist vibes. An obvious clue would be the fact that the movie’s plot is centered around the idea that a fictionalized version of Kevin Garnett thinks that a rock will give him magical basketball powers. 

    If reveling in the lives of skeevy con men and superstitious imbeciles doesn’t make you uncomfortable, then the borderline pretentious cinematography gimmick of zooming in on subjects until they are out of focus certainly will. This isn’t the say that the film isn’t self-aware enough to effectively convey the morale of the story that gambling is bad, but rather that it spends so much of its run time focused on that idea that it fails to mention the other elephants in the room.

    Ultimately, Uncut Gem’s main selling point pays off in spades, both in Adam’s ability to slip into such an interesting character and in his supporting cast’s ability to bring life and believability to an otherwise comically ridiculous bunch of characters. Julia Fox’s acting is superb, especially given that this is her first role in a feature film. I suspect that Mr. Sandler will receive most of the praise for his performance in Uncut Gems, but Ms. Fox shows that you don’t have to make three decades worth of bad movies first before putting on a killer showcase of raw acting talent.

    As I sat on this review, I began thinking about how the marketing and trailer specifically affected my expectations going in, my thoughts during the film, and my opinion on it after the fact. There is a powerful scene in the movie that was mined for Uncut Gem’s marketing campaign where Howard says “This is how I win!” If this were a more traditional movie, I would expect that line to cap off a redemption arc for an otherwise unlikeable anti-hero who is down on his luck.

    While the trailer presented Howard’s “winning” scene as an example of his prowess and confidence, the actual movie portrays it very differently. What comes off as a self-congratulatory brag without any context is actually Howie awkwardly floundering as he explains how he conned Kevin Garnett and himself out of a significant amount of money over a stupid rock. In fact, Howard doesn’t win in the end at all. 

    What left me with a sour taste in my mouth after immediately leaving the theater has now turned into an appreciation for clever marketing more than anything. Sure, the movie could have been an extra thirty minutes longer with a redemption arc for Howard in which he regains control over his finances and fixes his life. In the end, I don’t think I would have seen that movie, however. The ending left me with a Seinfeldian sense that the plot ultimately didn’t matter, but that may very well be the point. Maybe Howard was doomed from the start and watching his rapid downward spiral is enough of a thrill ride by itself without having to manufacture a happy ending for him.

    I’ve had a lot to say about this movie, but I would absolutely recommend seeing Uncut Gems even if it’s just to witness the movie first hand for yourself. I didn’t enjoy the flick half as much as I’ve enjoyed talking about it, but that’s still enough of a pro in my book to warrant a recommendation. Seeing Adam Sandler enjoy acting again is worth the price of admission alone, but you’ll also enjoy the claustrophobic cinematography, a variety of interesting side characters, and an ending that you both see coming from a while away and still gasp at when it finally hits you in the face like a brick.

    Uncut Gems could be an incredible movie with a few adjustments (namely punching up the pacing a bit and letting Trent Reznor compose the soundtrack), but on its own, it’s still a pretty damn good movie with a lot of great actors and a plot that will keep you pulled along for the ride. It does all this despite the fact that its foundation is pretty flimsy under further inspection and you definitely could have gone to see 1917 instead.

  • Knives Out Review

    Knives Out Review

    Rarely am I as excited for a whodunit murder mystery as I was after watching the trailer for Rian Johnson’s latest film, Knives Out. As revealed in the trailer, the story loosely revolves around the death of a famous murder mystery writer after his 85th birthday. His family was visiting over that night, leaving each of them as a potential suspect. To make things more interesting, the detective who is on the case has been hired by someone anonymously to find the killer.

    With a star-studded cast, including Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Chris Evans, Knives Out takes a slightly lighter heart approach to the genre, leaving you laughing just as much as trying to piece together the puzzle or watching the legendary Detective Blanc at work. The characters are perfectly cast, giving added credibility to each of them as potential killers.

    Although the genre is known for its twists and turns as clues are discovered, Knives Out takes this formula to whole new level and managed to thrill me despite my best efforts to stay ahead of the plot and potential foreshadowing. This is the kind of script that caused me to spend much of Knives Out’s run time wishing I was clever enough to write it.

    Without spoiling too much, Knives Out knows exactly what you think it is and will pull you along for a wild ride that borrows cues from several other types of stories to create something surprisingly unique and memorable. I’d suggest a watch, even if you’re not the biggest fan of whodunit stories to begin with. You will not be disappointed.

    Check out the trailer below:

  • The Boys – Season 1 Review

    The Boys – Season 1 Review

    (The Boys – Amazon Studios)

    As apprehensive as I was to give Jeff Bezos another dollar, Amazon’s marketing campaign for their latest origin series, The Boys, worked like a charm. After watching the trailer (where a Flash-esque superhero accidentally runs into a citizen at Mach-speed, turning her instantly into jelly), I was immediately intrigued. The theme of superheroes pushed to the brink and forced to contend with real-world consequences may not be new, but The Boys treads familiar ground in a way that both pays homage to classic comic book stories while also exploring lots of new ideas due to a significant change in perspective and a much darker tone. That same tone and focus on adult situations may also be a deal-breaker for a few, but anyone who can wince through the gory special effects is in for a thrilling and thought-provoking ride.

    The Boys quickly introduces us to its main character, Hughie, who is as goofy and awkward as his name suggests. A traditional fish out of water story quickly ratchets up the stakes as our protagonist’s girlfriend is accidentally killed right before his eyes (remember that girl I mentioned earlier?), which sends him on a quest for revenge against the most popular superheroes of the city, The Seven. Hughie ends up joining a group of criminal vigilantes called the Boys who collectively seek justice against the superhumans. This comic book adaptation could have easily been another “what if Superman was bad?” story beat-for-beat, but instead, it took plenty of opportunities to explore just how brutal and bizarre the world would actually be with superheroes flying about.

    Like any good ensemble superhero story, the characters are the core of the plot in The Boys. There is no giant laser beam in the sky or evil alien empire menacing Earth. It turns out that superheroes would be total dicks if they were real, and The Boys pulls no punches in explaining just how corrupt they would become in modern-day corporate-run America. The fact that this series was released in 2019 is no accident, and the political and philosophical overtones are both pertinent to today’s issues and expressed eloquently enough to not be patronizing. 

    Homelander, this story’s amalgamation of Captain American and Superman, is a perfect poster boy for a series intent on exploring complex topics such as nationalism, morality, war, religion, sexism, and corporate greed. He’s the asshole that you love to hate, but that doesn’t mean that our protagonists are much better off. Hughie’s mentor, played by Kyle Urban, is the quintessential foul-mouthed anti-hero. We’re clearly meant to cheer for the namesake group of vigilantes, but The Boys rack up quite a body count as well. Frenchie and Mother’s Milk round out the rest of the crew, making for a large range of interesting characters who each get their own room to breath in the complex world that the show presents. Out of all of them, however, Hughie ended up being my favorite given his propensity for transforming his own incompetence into a form of superpower when things start to go south.

    As is expected of a modern show with significant financial backing, The Boys doesn’t wrap up all of the questions it poses by the finale, expecting the story to continue through for another season. What we do get, however, is a satisfying ending that made me want to rewatch past episodes to find any clues I might have missed. If the goal of the show was to make me want to immediately read the comics, it’s done its job in spades. The fact that I was already knee-deep in Wikipedia articles before I finished the last episode should tell you something about how far I’ve fallen into the rabbit hole.

    If you’re looking for a raunchy, gory, thoroughly adult-themed superhero show to binge and you already have an Amazon Prime subscription, I recommend you take the time to watch the series from beginning to end. The Boys won’t be for everyone, but those who can stomach what it has to offer will enjoy its complex and dynamic characters, thrilling plot, and twists and turns that will keep you smashing “Next Episode” after every shocking cliffhanger.

  • Zombieland: Double Tap – Review

    Zombieland: Double Tap – Review

    (Zombieland: Double Tap – Columbia Pictures)

    Rarely does a sequel so accurately leave me with the same feeling as its predecessor as I’m walking out of the theater. In Zombieland: Double Tap, Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Littlerock are back, albeit a little older, and ready to take on the undead hordes that have laid waste to the contiguous United States of America. In similar fashion to the Terminator franchise that it so often references, this second romp through the apocalypse treads familiar ground while deviating only slightly from the core elements that made the original so popular. Instead of going on a road trip to Hollywood, our survivors decided to turn the White House into a zombie-fortress and visit Graceland to fawn over Elvis memorabilia. The pattern is perfectly apparent as the opening credits roll, once again matching slow-motion zombie battles with Metallica except with slightly crappier CGI and editing.

    What Zombieland: Double Tap does well is deliver on a simple, comedic zombie road trip movie. Butchering the undead is as entertaining as ever and the survivors are just as charming as they were nearly a decade ago, but if you were expecting an evolution on the formula, Double Tap offers more of the same. In that way, the sequel actually improves on the foundation that the original Zombieland set. While the first film abandoned the zombie survival rules gimmick about halfway through its runtime, Double Tap doubles down on the idea by keeping it going throughout the film, even going so far as to introduce a second character that also obsesses about a set of commandments for staying alive.

    The new characters this time around are all welcome additions, especially given how homogenous the original cast was, but like everything else in this series, they aren’t left with much to do or say that’s of much consequence. If The Big Lewbowski was a movie about nothing, Zombieland and its sequel really want to be about something but, either due to budget restraints or severely limited scope, fail to create characters or plot arcs worth caring about. Double Tap makes up for this somewhat by keeping me laughing throughout, regardless of whether I’m laughing with the movie or at it.

    Verdict: Definitely worth seeing if you enjoyed the first, but otherwise forgettable.

  • Joker – Review: A Film About Everything And Nothing

    Joker – Review: A Film About Everything And Nothing

    (Joker – Warner Bros.)

    SPOILER WARNING

    If you haven’t seen Joker yet, there are potential spoilers ahead.

    To tell you the truth, I almost didn’t want to see this movie. With all of the media attention that Joker got prior to its release, I was already tired of the discourse by the time October 4th rolled around. Thankfully, good friends of mine invited my girlfriend and me out to see the film in addition to going to our favorite Mexican restaurant, so needless to say, I was sold.

    It seems like Joker is already a lot of things to a lot of people. For some, it’s a clumsy origin story of a psychotic killer clown from the director that brought you The Hangover 3. For others, it’s a tragedy of how a man with serious mental illness is driven to violence and villainy by a city that neither cares about his wellbeing nor acknowledges his humanity. As for myself, I’m having a hard time coming up with a concise explanation of how I felt given how much was going on during the film. Ultimately, I wasn’t as impressed with Joker as I would have liked, but Joaquin’s performance was nearly worth the price of admission alone and it managed to gain my seal of approval after a solid third act.

    Despite acting as an homage to both Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, Joker falls short of its inspiration in more ways than one. The idea that it deserved the supposed eight-minute standing ovation Joker got during its initial screening is silly at best, but that being said, it succeeds in exactly what it was meant to do and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. What might be more interesting, however, is how the film played with my expectations and left me questioning a lot of the assumptions I had made about it beforehand.

    I would be remiss to continue without mentioning that the acting, casting, costumes, set design, and photography for Joker was fantastic. The dark, comic book-inspired 1980s setting helped ground the otherwise comical character firmly in reality. Although it manages a much darker tone than most comic book stories, Joker isn’t without its own laughs sprinkled throughout the otherwise tense and dramatic film.

    It’s hard to say exactly what I expected out of Joker besides a grittier, more realistic take on the Joker’s origin story. Instead of a vat of acid, Arthur Fleck falls into the realization that not everything about his life is as it seems, which combined with severe mental illness, transforms him into the criminal clown that we all know and… love?

    What I wasn’t expecting, however, was just how much time we would end up spending with Arthur Fleck as opposed to his evil alter-ego. Most of the scenes from the trailer show up in the film but reveal something very interesting about Warner Bros. marketing: the trailers want you to believe that the Joker will appear in the film and cause havoc. However, the film shows a different side of the character as Joaquin triumphantly stomps down a flight of stairs only to interrupted by shouting policemen, causing him to skitter away with all of the grace of a looney tune. The Joker we see just doesn’t match up with the genius criminal we’re made to believe he is. In fact, I would say that this Joker feels a lot more like Arthur Fleck playing the Joker than him coming into his own as the Clown Prince proper.

    Once again, spoilers ahead.

    One of my primary issues with the film relates directly to a major plot point. After Arthur Fleck murders three wall street suits on the subway, Thomas Wayne, who is running for Mayor in the film, vaguely compares the downtrodden of Gotham to clowns, which ignites political upheaval as protesters don plastic clown masks and riot. Although the film starts off by establishing the trash strike going on in Gotham, it takes a generous leap of logic to suggest that heaps of trash in the streets, a crappy mayoral candidate, and the random slaying of three businessmen would start a political movement. This shakey connection only helps to muddy the overall message of the film. The riot scenes in Joker felt more like progressive political anti-establishment sentiment filtered through the lens of an aging filmmaker who didn’t really get what all the kids marching on Wall Street were up to years ago but really admired their gumption.

    The twist of fate at the end of the movie where, despite announcing that he was not affiliated with the political riots going on at the time, the Joker is saved from police custody by the protesters rioting in the streets caught me off guard and left me with a lot of questions. Do the protesters recognize Arthur from the television broadcast that was happening simultaneously to the riots? If they do, I can see how killing Robert DeNiro’s character could be taken as a strike again Gotham’s 1%, but I find the the whole connection difficult to believe. Is the ramming of the police vehicle just a random act of violence that happens to result in a crowd forming around a man who was just in a car crash?

    Talking about twists, I wish Joker’s big reveal that his relationship with his girlfriend from the first act was all in head was executed less clumsily. Instead of recognizing the “strange” scenes for what they were, I chalked it up to bad film making rather than an unreliable narrator. Once the idea that what appears on the screen may not be what is actually happening was introduced, things started to make a lot more sense. I’d go so far as to say that the movie should have played with that a bit more. For example, my issues with Joker being retrieved from the police car as a symbolic figure for revolution could be easily explained by the theory that the character we see in “Joker” isn’t Joker himself, but instead Arthur Fleck playing the character from time to time, drifting in and out of his more sinister persona.

    What if we never see Arthur fully become the Joker in this film?

    I don’t know what it says about Joker that I’m having more fun speculating about how it could all make sense given some pretty specific hypothetical fan theories, but hear me out. What if we never see Arthur fully become the Joker in this film? What if, like Fight Club’s unreliable narrator, we only get to see one side of the story? What if Arthur Fleck is to Joker as “The Narrator” is to Tyler Durdan? That might explain how Arthur, a frail, pathetic man transforms into a genius criminal capable of bringing Gotham to its knees. Or, you could believe the fan theory that the director has at least directly mentioned, that Arthur isn’t actually the Joker but a proto-version of the character that inspires the one we know and love. I’d feel cheated if that was the case, given how much marketing went into hyping us up to see the Crown Prince of Crime.

    Unfortunately, this movie doesn’t give me any reason to believe that Arthur would be capable of the kind of mental and physical gymnastics that Joker is most known for. Every event that the populace of Gotham attributes to the Joker is actually caused by Arthur accidentally causing havoc as he flails about, barely managing to stay standing half the time. The slayings that set off the initial protests aren’t some sinister plot to sow seeds of unrest among the people of Gotham. The riots at the end of the film aren’t caused by an insane clown mastermind; they happen because Arthur hides from the cops on a busy subway train. If the goal of this origin story was to subvert our expectations that Joker’s most valuable asset was his intellect, then job well done.

    With all of that in mind, I’m still glad that they tried something different this time around. I was definitely not expecting the approach to the character that they decided on, but it undoubtedly provides a fresh and intriguing look at one of America’s most beloved and feared supervillains. Top it all off with an outstanding performance from the leading actor and you have a movie that’s hard to ignore despite its sometimes sloppy execution.