Category: 2024

REVIEW: ‘Emilia Perez’ is an awful, misguided Netflix entry

Wow, we got two crime drama musicals in 2024, and the one with the comic book clown was better.

Zoe Saldaña stars in “Emilia Perez” as Rita, a lawyer working for a defense attorney firm who’s unsatisfied with her career. After a recent major case, she gets a call from Juan Del Monte, the head of a cartel who is seeking her assistance. The kingpin is seeking to transition and wants gender-affirming care, before starting a new life and faking her death.

The path to becoming who she wants to be, Emilia Perez (Karla Sofia Gascon), is one Rita decides to help manage and plot in return for a big payout. But even once everything is set up, the future remains complicated for the two characters. Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Emilia Perez’ is an awful, misguided Netflix entry”

REVIEW: ‘The Substance’ shocks, thrills and satirizes

French women are on a roll with body horror films lately with Julia Ducournau helming “Titane” in 2021 and CoralIe Fargeat crafting this flick in 2024.

The newer picture, “The Substance,” centers on actress and aerobics instructor Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore). Once a major player in the Hollywood scene, Sparkle’s career has faded a bit over the years and things get worse when she finds out her time as host of a morning aerobics show is coming to an end.

Through a series of events, though, she comes in possession of a serum that claims to create a younger, more beautiful version of the person she is. She ends up taking it and it works, creating another version of herself to live through (Margaret Qualley). However, as time goes on, the needed balance between her two selves begins to deteriorate.

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REVIEW: ‘The Brutalist’ is a monumental film about the American dream

You know those expectation Vs. reality memes? Well, the two halves of this movie is kind of like that in relation to the immigrant experience in America.

This movie is just a tad bit more complex than a meme, though. “The Brutalist” is an epic three-and-a-half-hour character study about an architect, László Tóth (Adrien Brody), who arrives in the U.S. from Hungary just after World War II.

A Holocaust survivor, Tóth comes to America with hopes of a new start for him and his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), who is still in Europe. Eventually, Tóth gets an opportunity to put his experience in architecture to work. However, he learns over time that there are new hardships in the States he has to face.

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REVIEW: Superb cast lifts ‘A Complete Unknown’

Hey, they finally made a movie about the guy teased at the end of “Inside Llewyn Davis!”

That guy, of course, is Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet), who gets the big screen biopic treatment thanks to director James Mangold. While not showing the entire decade, “A Complete Unknown” follows Dylan’s life through most of the 60s, showing his musical evolution in a changing world.

The film picks up in 1961 with the Minnesota musician arriving in New York City. Dylan made the trip to the Big Apple to visit a musical hero of his, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), who’s suffering from Huntington’s disease. While meeting Guthrie at a hospital, he also runs into fellow folk singer Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), who helps Dylan launch his career.

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REVIEW: Gothically gorgeous ‘Nosferatu’ is good, not quite great

The last month of 2024 brought us a new tale with the classic vampire Dracu… oh, excuse me. A new tale with the classic vampire Count Orlok.

More than 100 years after the release of the legendary German horror film, a new “Nosferatu” is in cinemas. Like the original from 1922, this remake centers on the married couple Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) and Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) Hutter. The movie picks up with Thomas, a real estate agent, being sent to Transylvania for a sale.

There, Thomas meets Count Orlock (Bill Skarsgard), a nobleman (and secret vampire) who’s seeking a relocation to the German city where the Hutters reside. His reason for wanting to do so is a sort of mental connection the vampire has with Ellen.

Continue reading “REVIEW: Gothically gorgeous ‘Nosferatu’ is good, not quite great”

REVIEW: While not as good as predecessor, ‘Sonic 3’ still sizzles

So, the film “Sonic 2” was based on the games “Sonic 2” and “Sonic 3,” but the movie “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” is based on “Sonic Adventure 2. That doesn’t get confusing at all.

Regardless, the third movie installment picks up with Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba) living peacefully with their adoptive guardians. What’s not so peaceful is what takes place at a GUN base where hacked systems cause the release of Shadow (Keanu Reeves).

Another hedgehog, Shadow is an immensely powerful being and proves it quick. Team Sonic is recruited to stop him and he makes quick work of the trio. Things get more dire when Shadow partners with Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), who’s tied to the hedgehog through a past connection.

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Ten Worst Films of 2024

It’s New Year’s Eve and 2024 is almost out the door! But before we say goodbye to the year, it’s time for one last look back at the worst the past 12 months had to offer in cinema.

As with most years, there are some usual suspects on the list (“Madame Web”), but there’s also those where I seem to be in the minority. However, I’m willing to accept that because sometimes a movie just doesn’t work for yours truly. 

Check out what made my list below.

Continue reading “Ten Worst Films of 2024”

REVIEW: While not Guadagnino’s best, ‘Queer’ is a quality drama

Luca Guadagnino has helmed several well-made romantic dramas over the last few years, and now adds one more to the growing list.

Like other pictures he’s done, Guadagnino’s latest, “Queer,” is inspired by a book. The novel in this case has the same name and is a semi-autobiographical piece by American author William S. Burroughs. In the film, the author is the inspiration for the lead character William Lee (Daniel Craig).

William is a man residing in Mexico City during the 1950s and lives a life of addiction. He is an alcoholic, a heroin user and seeks casual sex regularly. It’s clear he’s looking for some sort of fulfillment in his life, and he may just find it in a new relationship he begins with another man, Eugene (Drew Starkey) early in the film.

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REVIEW: ‘The Fire Inside’ stumbles due to plotting and pacing

Claressa Shields is a two-time gold medalist and currently the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. Now, she rightfully gets her story told on screen.

The film opens with her as a young girl interested in the sport of boxing and finding an outlet at a small gym in her home town of Flint, Michigan. After she begins a bit of training, the gym’s coach, Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry) sees her potential and starts preparing her to begin an amateur career.

The movie then picks up with an older Shields (Ryan Destiny) who has some wins under her belt and is now aiming for a bigger prize: the 2012 Olympics in London. As the movie shows, Shields has the talent to go the distance, but there are other roadblocks standing in her way to success.

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REVIEW: Ronan can’t boost tonally off ‘Blitz’

The Battle of Britain was a harrowing period of conflict for London during World War II and is ripe for good drama. Unfortunately, “Blitz” falls short.

As the name implies, the film takes place during the Blitz, a period of attacks on the United Kingdom by Germany toward the end of the Battle of Britain. That campaign was fought in the air, and included multiple bombing raids which had British residents seeking shelter.

Saoirse Ronan plays Rita in the film, a mother trying to keep her son George (Elliott Heffernan) safe during the bombings. Eventually, Rita decides to send George to the countryside where it will be safer. However, George desires to stay in London and leaps from the train he’s riding in an effort to get back home.

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