Review: Idris Elba and the Lion Be Beastin' in "BEAST"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 65 of 2022 (No. 1877) by Leroy Douresseaux

Beast (2022)
Running time:  93 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)
MPA – R for violent content, bloody images and some language
DIRECTOR:  Baltasar Kormakur
WRITERS: Ryan Engle; from a story by Jaime Primak Sullivan
PRODUCERS:  Baltasar Kormaku, James Lopez, and Will Packer
CINEMATOGRAPHERS:  Philippe Rousselot and Baltasar Breki (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Jay Rabinowitz
COMPOSER:  Steven Price

THRILLER

Starring:  Idris Elba, Iyana Halley, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Sharlto Copley

Beast is a 2022 wildlife thriller film from director Baltasar Kormakur.  The film focuses on a widowed father and his two teenage daughters who must fight for survival after they are attacked and stalked by a rogue lion.

Beast opens in South Africa.  Recently widowed Dr. Nathaniel “Nate” Samuels (Idris Elba) and his teenage daughters, Meredith “Mare” Samuels (Iyana Halley) and Norah Samuels (Leah Sava Jeffries), travel to South Africa for a vacation.  They arrive at the Mopani Reserve where Nate reunites with his old friend and dear family friend, Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), a biologist and manager of the Mopani Reserve.

Nate was recently widowed when his wife, Amahle, died of cancer, and he is somewhat estranged from his daughters.  Mare is argumentative and rebellious, and Norah is sensitive.  Both girls are bitter about the separation of their father and late mother prior to the latter's death.  Nate hopes that this trip will help him to reconnect with his daughters.

On the second day of the trip, Martin takes the Samuels to the reserve's restricted areas.  Along the way, they encounter an injured man that has apparently been mauled by a lion.  That same lion attacks again, and suddenly, Nate and his daughters are trapped in their vehicle.  Stranded in a remote area inside a damaged vehicle, Nate must find a way to save himself and his daughters from a bloodthirsty rogue lion that does not stop stalking its prey until it they are dead.

First, I wish that I'd seen Beast on a movie theater screen.  Secondly, the mini-melodrama between Nate and his daughters did not interest me.  I found Mare and Norah to be often irritating, and more than once, they made their plight against the lion worse.  Beside that subplot, the film is well written.  There are certainly enough death-defying moments to keep the viewer's attention on the film.

Still, Beast is very well directed and edited.  As soon as Martin, Nate, Mare and Norah leave Martin's home, director Baltasar Kormakur begins turning up the heat.  Before Beast becomes a full-on survival thriller, Kormakur makes it a riveting suspense thriller as the story moves about the reserve, visiting a local pride and moving on to a small village.  That's where the movie explodes, and the rest of the way, Beast is a gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller.  Honestly, I feel like the film mesmerized me, and I certainly didn't think that I would end up liking it as much as I did … and still do.  I can see myself watching it again.

In addition to having a great monster – the rogue lion, Beast also has a great actor and true movie star, Idris Elba, as its lead.  Elba has that kind of big screen magic that can make the viewer want to vicariously experience a movie through him.  I certainly found myself following his every step, living through the obstacles and threats to Nate Samuels' very life.  Elba also convincingly plays a medical doctor and a loving and patient father, especially to two stubborn daughters.  So Beast has a lion of an actor and movie star to go along with its killer super-lion.  Both will make you feel as if you need to catch your breath, dear readers.

7 of 10
A-
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Friday, October 28, 2022


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Review: In "THE BLACK PHONE," the Children Answer the Call

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 52 of 2022 (No. 1864) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Black Phone (2022)
Running time:  103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPA – R for violence, bloody images, language and some drug use
DIRECTOR:  Scott Derrickson
WRITERS:  Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill (based on the short story “The Black Phone” by Joe Hill)
PRODUCERS:  Jason Blum, Scott Derrickson, and C. Robert Cargill
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Brett Jutkiewicz (D.o.P.)  
EDITOR:  Frédéric Thoraval
COMPOSER:  Mark Korven

HORROR/CRIME/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring:  Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, E. Roger Mitchell, Troy Rudeseal, James Ransone, Miguel Cazarez Mora, Rebecca Clarke, Tristan Pravong, Brady Hepner, Jacob Moran, Banks Repeta, and Ethan Hawke

The Black Phone is a 2022 supernatural horror, mystery,and crime thriller from director Scott Derrickson.  The film is based on the short story, “The Black Phone,” from author Joe Hill.  The story was first published in the The 3rd Alternative No. 39, the Autumn 2004 issue of the former British horror magazine.  The Black Phone the movie focuses on a teen boy who is abducted by a child killer and imprisoned in a basement where he starts receiving phone calls from a disconnected phone.

The Black Phone opens in North Denver, 1978.  A presumed serial killer, nicknamed “The Grabber” (Ethan Hawke), has been prowling the streets of a particular Denver suburb and abducting teenage boys.  Shortly after the film begins, a boy named Bruce Yamada (Tristan Pravong) disappears and is presumed a victim of The Grabber.

Teen Finney Blake (Mason Thames) lives in this North Denver suburb with his younger sister, Gwen Blake (Madeleine McGraw), and their abusive, alcoholic, widowed father, Terrence Blake (Jeremy Davies).  At school, Finney is frequently bullied and harassed, but he has struck up a friendship with a classmate, Robin Arellano ( Miguel Cazarez Mora), who fends off the bullies.  Then, the Grabber gets Robin.

Meanwhile, Gwen, who has psychic dreams like her late mother, dreams of a masked man who drives a van and kidnaps Bruce, leaving black balloons in his wake.  Then, Finney has a violent encounter with the Grabber.  Finney awakens in a soundproofed basement where the Grabber has imprisoned him.  On the rear wall is a black rotary phone that the Grabber says does not work.  The black phone is supposedly disconnected, but later, the phone rings.  When Finney answers it, he here's a familiar voice – a voice of one of the Grabber's victims.  Now, Finney must rely on the instructions of ghosts, his own shaky bravery, and (unknown to him) the dreams of Gwen if he is going to survive the murderous plans of a maniac.

I have not read the short story, author Joe Hill's “The Black Phone,” upon which this film is based.  [I have read Hill's 2013 novel, NOS4A2, and his 2019 short story and novelettes collection, Full Throttle.]  Not reading the short story did not stop me from enjoying The Black Phone the movie, for the most part.

It takes a bit to really get into the nonsensical scenario:  a guy drives around in a pitch black van, snatching kids in the middle of the day, practically right out in the street, and no one sees a thing.  However, co-writer/director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill thrive on generating scares out of ridiculous scenarios, such as in their 2012 creepy horror film, Sinister.  Truthfully, horror films should not necessarily make sense; whether the film is driven by a killer, demonic possession, or haunting, horror films are a fantastic scenario.  Scary movies should not be logical or perhaps, be somewhat illogical.  Still, until the Grabber grabs Finney, I was not invested in the film, although I was already feeling some fear.

That said, the children are the stars of this film, especially the siblings, Finney and Gwen Blake.  Finney tries to find answers in the mysterious phone calls he receives on the disconnected black phone.  Gwen battles her own doubts even as she deals with an abusive father who is afraid of what will become of her and her abilities, to say nothing of the two police detectives who must come around to believing her visions.

The Black Phone is one of those times when both a boy and a girl come of age and undergo the heroic journey at the same time in the same movie.  That makes the struggle and victory all the more satisfying.  Mason Thames as Finney and Madeleine McGraw as Gwen are convincing as both the heroes and as the sensible ones.  They make The Black Phone's last act visceral and invigorating, and dear readers, you will vicariously fear for your life, which makes the resolution so, so satisfying.  It is rare that I cheer the end of a horror movie, but I did it for The Black Phone.

7 of 10
A-
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, September 10, 2022


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Review: "JURASSIC WORLD: Dominion" Ends Trilogy with its Best Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 50 of 2022 (No. 1862) by Leroy Douresseaux

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Running time: 147 minutes (2 hours, 27 minutes)
MPA – PG-13 for intense sequences of action, some violence and language
DIRECTOR:  Colin Trevorrow
WRITERS:  Colin Trevorrow and Emily Carmichael; from a story by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly (based on characters created by Michael Crichton)
PRODUCERS:  Patrick Crowley and Frank Marshall
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John Schwartzman (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Mark Sanger
COMPOSER:  Michael Giacchino

SCI-FI/ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER

Starring:  Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Isabella Sermon, Campbell Scott, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, Omar Sy, Scott Haze, Dichen Lachman, and B.D. Wong

Jurassic World: Dominion is a 2022 science fiction and action-adventure and dinosaur film from director Colin Trevorrow.  It is the direct sequel to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and the final film in a trilogy that began with the 2015 film, Jurassic World.  Dominion also ties up the story line that began with the 1993 film, Jurassic Park.  Dominion focuses on the heroes of two film trilogies as they try to stop a corporation's genetic experiments from endangering the world.

Jurassic World: Dominion opens three decades after the events depicted in Jurassic Park and four years after the cataclysmic volcanic eruption on Isla Nublar and the incidents at Lockwood Estate (as seen in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom).  Dinosaurs, no longer extinct, freely roam the Earth, causing ecological problems and the deaths of numerous humans – 37 in just the past year.  International corporation, Biosyn Genetics, has won the sole rights to collect dinosaurs, and it has created a dinosaur sanctuary in the Dolomite Mountains of Italy.

Meanwhile, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), former employees of the disastrous “Jurassic World” theme park, are still working to protect dinosaurs.  Claire works with a dinosaur protection organization and investigates illegal dinosaur breeding sites.  Owen works as a wrangler, relocating stray dinosaurs.  They live together in a remote cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where they secretly raise 14-year-old Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the granddaughter of the late Benjamin Lockwood and the granddaughter who turned out to a clone of Benjamin's late daughter, Charlotte Lockwood.  Living nearby is Blue, one of the Velociraptors (raptors) that Owen once trained at Jurassic World.  She is a mother, having given birth to a baby raptor that Owen named “Beta.”

It turns out that Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott), the CEO and owner of Biosyn, wants to possess both Maisie and Beta for the goldmine of information that their genes are.  Meanwhile, the original Jurassic heroes:  paleobotanist, Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern); paleontologist, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill); and chaos theorist, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), are also investigating Biosyn's dark plans.  But can they infiltrate Biosyn and avoid a hoard of hungry dinosaurs?

A few months ago, I read a review of Jurassic World: Dominion in which the reviewer said that the presence of the star trio of Jurassic Park:  Ellie, Alan, and Ian, diminished the presence of Jurassic World's star couple, Claire and Owen.  I disagree.  Actually, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard make the most of every minute in which their characters are on screen.  In fact, I believe that the film is more about Claire and Owen than it is about Ellie, Alan, and Ian, although they are a huge part of the film's narrative.  I see the union of Jurassic Park's biggest characters and Jurassic World's biggest as the best of both worlds.  Frankly, this union should have happened in the first Jurassic World film.

In addition to the stars, Dominion sees the return of previous franchise supporting characters.  Omar Sy returns as Barry Sembene, Owen's fellow animal trainer from Jurassic World.  BD Wong's Dr. Henry Wu only appeared in the original Jurassic Park, but has appeared in all three Jurassic World films.  Dominion offers Henry a chance at redemption.  Dominion also offers two killer new characters, DeWanda Wise's Kayla Watts, a pilot who could be straight out of yesteryear's adventure serials – except Black women were not pulp fiction heroes.  Mamoudou Athie is espionage-cool as Ramsay Cole, the head of communications at Biosyn Genetics.

However, Jurassic World: Dominion is not really about stories or characters.  Yes, there is a lot going on; the movie is essentially a … park full of subplots, all around a basic (thin) plot – which is to stop Biosyn.  Dominion is really a science fiction action-adventure movie filled with action scenes.  There must be about twenty or so action set pieces:  a race to escape illegal breeders; a stop the poachers fight; run away from the giant, killer locusts; and running away from the dinosaurs in the forest, on a frozen pond, in plane, in a cave, etc.

And it all works.  The cast, director, writers, and crew of editors, sound, cameras, stunts, visual effects, assistants and everyone else.  They all come together to make a thrill machine of a movie with action scenes that keep the viewer too occupied to notice the lapses in logic and common sense.

In the first trilogy, the films that followed Jurassic Park were inferior to it.  In the Jurassic World trilogy, the final film is the best of the lot.  Bringing in so many characters from previous films is a good idea.  Putting them in a series of well-staged action scenes is another good idea.  Giving us a happy ending full of happy endings and heartwarming resolutions is an even better idea.  Jurassic World: Dominion is not a great film, but it is a very satisfying conclusion to what started back in 1993, when Jurassic Park made us believe that its dinosaurs were real.

7 of 10
B+
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, August 27, 2022


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Review: Steven Spielberg's "Duel" (Countdown to "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 46 of 2022 (No. 1858) by Leroy Douresseaux

Duel (1971) – TV movie
Running time:  90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR:  Steven Spielberg
WRITER: Richard Matheson (based on his short story)
PRODUCER:  George Eckstein
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jack a Marta (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Frank Morriss
COMPOSER:  Billy Goldenberg
Primetime Emmy Award winner

THRILLER/ACTION

Starring:  Dennis Weaver, Jacqueline Scott, Eddie Firestone, Lou Frizzell, Lucille Benson, and Carey Loftin

Duel is a 1971 action-thriller and television film directed by Steven Spielberg.  The film is based on the short story, “Duel,” which was first published in the April 1971 issue of Playboy Magazine.  It was written by Richard Matheson, who also wrote this film's teleplay (screenplay).  Duel the movie focuses on a business commuter pursued and terrorized by a driver in a massive tanker truck.

Duel was originally a “Movie of the Week” that was broadcast on ABC November 20, 1971.  Duel was the first film directed by Steven Spielberg, and it is considered to be the film that marked young Spielberg as an up and coming film director.  Following its successful air on television, Universal had Spielberg shoot new scenes for Duel in order to extend it from its original length of 74 minutes for TV to 90 minutes for a theatrical release.  This extended version of Duel was released to theaters internationally and also received a limited release in the United States.  The theatrical version is the subject of this review.

Duel focuses on David Mann (Dennis Weaver), a middle-aged salesman.  One morning, he leaves his suburban home to drive across California on a business trip.  Along the way, he encounters a dilapidated tanker truck that is driving too slow for David.  He drives his car past the tanker, but a short while later, the tanker speeds up and roars past David's car.  After David passes the tanker again, the truck driver blasts his horn.  That sets off a cat and mouse game in which the tanker's seemingly malevolent driver pursues David's car and terrorizes him.  And nothing David does can help him to escape the pursuit.

I think that the mark of a great film director is his or her ability to get the most out of his or her cast and creatives and a maximum effort from the film crew.  Duel is a display of excellent work on the stunt performers and drivers.  Together with the camera crew, sound technicians, and film editor, they deliver a small screen film that offers a big cinematic duel between a small car and relentless tanker truck.

Dennis Weaver delivers a performance in multiple layers as David Mann.  Weaver makes Mann seem like a real businessman type, a cog-in-the-machine and ordinary fellow just trying to make it in the world.  Weaver does not seem to be acting so much as he is living and fighting for survival.

Behind all this is the young maestro, Steven Spielberg.  It is not often that TV movies get the cinematic treatment, but I imagine that the original production company, Universal Television, was quite pleased when they first saw this film.  It is genuinely thrilling and unsettling, and the truck driver (played by stuntman Carey Loftin), who is unseen except for his forearm and waving hand and his jeans and cowboy boots, can unnerve like the best horror film slasher killers.  The way that dilapidated tanker truck moves makes me think that it was a precursor to the shark in Jaws, which would become Spielberg's first blockbuster theatrical film just a few years (1975) after the release of Duel.

Richard Matheson's script for the film seems to want to make the viewer really wonder about the driver.  Is he evil... or a maniac... or demented prankster?  Why does he focus on David Mann?  Has he done this before?  What is his endgame with David?  Does he want to kill him or just punish him.  Does he want to torment David before he crushes him and his car beneath his tanker truck's wheels?

Steven Spielberg brings those questions to fearsome life on the small screen and later big screen.  He makes Duel work both by scaring us and David with the big bad truck and by fascinating us with all these questions concerning the trucker's motivations and David's fate.  Hindsight is just as accurate as foresight in the case of Duel.  Steven Spielberg was great, practically from the beginning.

7 of 10
A-
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Friday, August 12, 2022


NOTES:
1972 Primetime Emmy Awards:  1 win: “Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing” (Jerry Christian, James Troutman, Ronald LaVine, Sid Lubowm Richard Raderman, Dale Johnston, Sam Caylor, John Stacy, and Jack Kirschner – sound editors); 1 nomination: “Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for Entertainment Programming – For a Special or Feature Length Program Made for Television (Jack A. Marta)

1972 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination “Best Movie Made for TV”


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Review: Yep! Keke Palmer Steals Weird and Scary "NOPE"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 44 of 2022 (No. 1856) by Leroy Douresseaux

Nope (2022)
Running time: 135 minutes (2 hours, 15 minutes)
MPAA – R for language throughout and some violence/bloody images
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Jordan Peele
PRODUCERS:  Jordan Peele and Ian Cooper
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Hoyte Van Hoytema
EDITOR:  Nicholas Monsour
COMPOSER: Michael Abels

HORROR/SCI-FI/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring:  Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, Steven Yeun, Wrenn Schmidt, Donna Mills, Eddie Jemison, and Keith David and Jacob Kim

Nope is a 2022 science fiction horror film and mystery-thriller written and directed by Jordan Peele.  The film focuses on two siblings who witness something uncanny and terrifying on and around their family's ranch.

Nope introduces Otis “OJ” Haywood, Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya) and his younger sister, Emerald “Em” Haywood (Keke Palmer), who own and operate “Haywood Hollywood Horses,” on their family's ranch where they train horses to perform on film and television.  Things have been difficult since their father, Otis Haywood (Keith David), died several months earlier in a mysterious accident in which random objects fell from the sky.

Since then, uncanny occurrences – strange sounds and odd sightings – have been happening in and around their isolated town with increasing frequency.  When OJ and Em begin to suspect they have an idea of what the abnormal events happening on their ranch are, they decide to capture video evidence of an unidentified flying object.  A local tech store employee, Angel Torres (Brandon Perea), injects himself into the siblings' situation.

However, the involvement of Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun), the owner of a local amusement park, “Jupiter's Claim,” takes the mystery to a new level.  Now, OJ, Em, and Angel may come close to filming their own demise.

I am a big fan of the first two films Jordan Peele wrote and directed, the Oscar-winning Get Out (2016) and Us (2019).  I am also a fan of the 2021 sequel/reboot, Candyman, which Peele co-wrote and co-produced.  Nope isn't quite as good as his early directorial efforts, but it is not like them, nor is it like any film I have ever seen.

Nope is scary and thrilling, but also offbeat and really weird.  I want to emphasize weird, especially because the mystery the Haywoods are chasing is and isn't what they (or we) think it is.  I found myself trying to unravel the weirdness and the mystery as much as I found myself being scared.  Jordan Peele is so imaginative and inventive that he fills Nope with enough ideas and subplots for four movies.  That is something of a problem, as Nope often feels unfocused.  But I find it brilliant anyway.

Attentive viewers will notice that Nope has similarities to a number of films.  I noticed elements of two Steven Spielberg classics, Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Kind (1977).  There is a touch of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs (2002).  Thematically, Nope brushes against Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993), and Peele mentioned the influence of The Wizard of Oz (1939) on him while writing Nope's screenplay, which I don't see.  The last act does recall Alien 3 (1992) for me.

Nope does feature the kind of great characters and superb character writing that defined Peele's earlier efforts.  All the characters, especially OJ and Emerald, feel like characters that have a long history before this film and will have a life beyond the confines of Nope's narrative and run time.  Daniel Kaluuya does intense and laid back with equal aplomb; in this quasi-Western film, he makes OJ Haywood a true cowboy hero.  However, I think the actress and character that get the most mileage out of this film are Keke Palmer and Emerald Haywood.  This is the first time that I have seen Palmer play a real adult woman who has lived a life that is complex in its tribulations, but is also filled with good times, even some wild times.  Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, and child actor, Jacob Kim, are quite good in their roles, but Nope is the Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer show.

Nope has a lot of lovely cinematography, especially involving the open sky and clouds.  The sound design is also absolutely good and frequently gave me a feeling of unease.  I think that in some ways Nope is trying to make us uncomfortable, and it proves that Jordan Peele is the master of making films that get at the fault lines of America.

However, in his bid to mystify us and to get at us, Peele might have gone a bit too far this time.  Nope is a brilliant work that is as weird and obtuse as it is thrilling.  With Nope, Jordan Peele is like Denis Villeneuve (Dune: Part One); he is too good for the own good of his film.

8 of 10
A
★★★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, July 22, 2022


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Review: "HALLOWEEN KILLS" is the Best "Halloween" Sequel in Decades

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 3 of 2022 (No. 1815) by Leroy Douresseaux

Halloween Kills (2021)
Running time:  105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody violence throughout, grisly images, language and some drug use
DIRECTOR:  David Gordon Green
WRITERS:  David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, and Scott Teems (based on the characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill)
PRODUCERS:  Malek Akkad, Bill Block, and Jason Blum
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Michael Simmonds (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Tim Alverson
COMPOSERS:  Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, and Daniel Davies

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring:  Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Jim Cummings, Dylan Arnold, Robert Longstreet, Anthony Michael Hall, Charles Cyphers, Scott MacArthur, Michael McDonald, Kyle Richards, Nancy Stephens, Diva Tyler, Lenny Clarke, Brian Mays, Sr., Michael Smallwood, Carmela McNeal, Jibrail Nantambu, and Omar Dorsey

Halloween Kills is a 2021 slasher-horror film from director David Gordon Green.  It is the twelfth installment in the Halloween film series and is a direct sequel to the 2018 film, Halloween, and to the original Halloween, the 1978 film that was the first in the series.  

Halloween Kills opens on October 31, 1978 in Haddonfield just after the events depicted in the original Halloween (1978) film.  Michael Myers failed to kill Laurie Strode, but he survived being shot by Dr. Samuel Loomis.  Now, the sheriff's department is desperately searching for Michael.  While searching for him in the ruins of his childhood home, Deputy Frank Hawkins (Thomas Mann) accidentally shoots his partner, Peter McCabe (Jim Cummings), dead while trying to save him from Michael.  Hawkins also prevents Dr. Loomis from executing Michael.

Forty years later, on October 31, 2018, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis); her adult daughter, Karen Nelson (Judy Greer), and Karen's daughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), have escaped Laurie's fortified house.  They believe that they have defeated Michael Myers who had returned to do what he had not forty years earlier – kill Laurie Strode.  They believe that Michael will die in Laurie's now-burning house, even as they see firefighters responding to the blaze.

While the medical staff of Haddonfield Memorial Hospital try to save the badly injured Laurie's life, survivors of Michael original rampage celebrate the 40th anniversary of Michael's imprisonment.  Two of them are the adult Tommy Doyle (Michael Anthony Hall) and the adult Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards), the two children Laurie Strode was babysitting back in 1978 the night Michael attacked.   When Tommy learns that Michael Myers has returned to Haddonfield, Tommy forms an every-growing mob of vengeful Haddonfield residents to hunt down and kill Michael.  Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Laurie and an older Deputy Frank Hawkins (Will Patton) wonder if Michael can really every be stopped.

Halloween Kills is the sequel to Halloween 2018, which is both a direct sequel to Halloween 1978 and a reboot of the entire franchise.  Halloween 2018 literally made all the sequel films to the 1978 film irrelevant.  Halloween Kills, however, takes elements from one of those sequels, the excellent Halloween II (1980), and rewrites them to explain what happened to Michael immediately after the events of the 1978 film.  In Halloween II, Michael escapes the police and stalks Laurie to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital.  In Halloween Kills, the sheriff and his deputies and Dr. Loomis capture Michael before he ever makes his way to the hospital to attack Laurie again.

In fact, Halloween Kills pretty much keeps the now-elderly Laurie Strode in the hospital and out of the fight this time around.  Halloween Kills is the first Halloween film that pits Michael Myers against the residents of Haddonfield rather than having him stalk Laurie Strode, a version of her, or a descendant, while killing anyone who happens to be connected directly or indirectly to his target.

I like that.  It refreshes the franchise in a way that Halloween 2018 did not.  Halloween Kills is honest, in a way.  Michael Myers won't be killed off because, as a movie character and as intellectual property, he is a cash cow.  In the world of the film, Michael suffered injuries in Halloween 1978 and 2018 that should have caused his death.  The very nature of his violence creates the atmosphere and conditions that keep him alive and returning to kill more.  Michael can't be killed, even in the world of these films.

I like Halloween Kills much more than I liked Halloween 2018.  The inventive script and David Gordon Green's aggressive and confrontational directing style result in two good things.  First, the actors' performances are individualized, so no one is the same.  Thus, when Michael kills a character, it feels like he is killing a real resident of Haddonfield rather than a generic victim in a horror film's typically high body count.  Let's be honest, dear readers, the main problem with the Friday the 13th horror film franchise is that the vast majority of the victims seem like the same people.

Secondly, Green and company offer some of the most creatively brutal kills that the audience will find in a slasher horror film.  No one killing is the same, and they all seem well thought out even when they happen quickly.  I really enjoyed Halloween Kills, and several times, I caught myself cheering and whooping it up.  I will say that Halloween Kills is a near-masterpiece of the genre, and it is a more worthy successor to Halloween 1978 that Halloween 2018 is.

8 of 10
A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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Review: New "SCREAM" Will Entertain Scream Fans

[Fans will want to see the entertaining new “Scream” film in movie theaters – right now.  But for everyone else, there is nothing here worth a trip to the local theater.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 2 of 2022 (No. 1814) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scream (2022)
Running time:  114 minutes (1 hour, 54 minutes)
MPA – R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references
DIRECTORS:  Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
WRITERS:  James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick (based on characters created by Kevin Williamson)
PRODUCERS:  Paul Neinstein, William Sherak, and James Vanderbilt
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Brett Jutkiewicz (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Michel Aller
COMPOSER:  Rich Delia

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring:  Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Mikey Madison, Marley Shelton, Dylan Minnette, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Sonia Ammar, Kyle Gallner, Chester Tam, Skeet Ulrich, and Roger L. Jackson (voice)

Scream is a 2022 slasher horror film directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.  It is the fifth film in the Scream film series, which began with the 1996 film, Scream.  In Scream 2022, a new series of murders forces familiar faces to return to Woodsboro, where they will confront a horrible legacy.

Scream opens twenty-five years after high school pals and serial killers, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu Macher, terrorized the town of Woodsboro as the killer known as “Ghostface.”  Now, Ghostface (voice of Roger L. Jackson) has returned and high school student, Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), is the first victim.  

Informed of the attack on Tara, her estranged sister, Samantha “Sam” Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), returns to Woodsboro with her boyfriend, Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid), reluctantly along.  Sam is not only troubled by the attack on Tara, but she is also dealing with her shocking connection to one of the original Woodsboro murderers.  With this new Ghostface adding to the body count, Sam turns to an original Woodsboro survivor for help, the reclusive, Dwight “Dewey” Riley (David Arquette).

Although he is initially reluctant to get involved, he contacts two other survivors, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), and his ex-wife, television host, Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox), to inform them that the killings have started again.  Although she is the center of the new killing spree, is Sam Carpenter willing to stay and fight the killer, or will she simply run away from her past, again?

I'll start of my critique of the new Scream by repeating what I said of 2011's Scream 4.  As a slasher film, Scream 2022 is entertaining.  Ghostface remains a terrific and terrifying horror movie villain, although in the new Scream, he does lots of slashing and stabbing, whereas Scream 4's Ghostface slaughtered his victims to the point that they seemed like butchered meat and offal.  Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette are still the “old reliables,” of this franchise, no matter how old they look or how much plastic surgery they may have had done.  Scream's new cast is, for the most part, pretty good.  As Sam Carpenter, Melissa Barrera seems like she could carry this franchise going forward – at least for two more films.  When the new Scream plays it straight, it is a better-than-average slasher horror film.

Scream 4 was the work of the franchise's original writer, Kevin Williamson, and original director, the late Wes Craven (to whom the new film is dedicated).  Scream 4 was a sequel and essentially a remake of the original 1996 film, but it was critical of two huge cultural changes that had occurred since the first film – Internet celebrity and social media culture.  [Williamson is only an executive producer on the new film.]

The writers and directors have offered in Scream 2022 a film that is a sequel and also a reboot.  This film is intimately connected to the original film, but it essentially reboots Scream with a new cast of both victims and survivors.  The original Scream was self-referential and was also steeped in pop culture, especially concerning horror films.  The new Scream essentially mocks both the idea of film sequels and the fan culture that is obsessed with sequels, prequels, reboots, and every detail concerning their making.

I thought Scream 4's rant against social media and celebrity seemed like the creation of two guys whose aging was putting an every widening gap between them and the core audience for the kind of films they made.  The new Scream seems like the work of dudes who don't appreciate the kind of fans they attract with the kind of the films they make.  In a way, if they can't stand the fan heat, they should get out the slasher film kitchen.

Anyway, I think the motivation behind the Ghostface of the new Scream would have worked better for the Ghostface of Scream 4.  So, I'll say about the new Scream what I said about Scream 4: it is best when it focuses on its great villain (Ghostface) stalking his victims.  For the most part, hardcore fans of this franchise will want to see Scream 2022 in movie theaters.  Anyone else who is interested can wait for on-demand and streaming.

6 of 10
B

Friday, January 14, 2022


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Review: "THE CONJURING: The Devil Made Me Do It" is Crazy and Scary as Hell

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 1 of 2022 (No. 1813) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Running time:  112 minutes (1 hour, 52 minutes)
MPAA – R for terror, violence and some disturbing images
DIRECTOR:  Michael Chaves
WRITERS:  David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick; from a story by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and James Wan (based on characters created by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes)
PRODUCERS:  Peter Safran and James Wan
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Michael Burgess (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Peter Gvozdas and Christian Wagner
COMPOSER:  Joseph Bishara

HORROR

Starring:  Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ruairi O'Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, Julian Hilliard, John Noble, Eugenie Bondurant, Shannon Kook, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Keith Arthur Bolden, and Sterling Jerins

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is a 2021 supernatural horror film from director Michael Chaves.  The film is a direct sequel to 2016's The Conjuring 2 and is the third film in The Conjuring series and also the eighth film in “The Conjuring Universe.”  Once again, actors Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga play fictional versions of real life, American paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren.  In The Devil Made Me Do It, the Warrens investigate a murder linked to demonic possession.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It opens on July 18, 1981 in Brookfield, Connecticut.  Noted paranormal investigators, Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga), are assisting in and documenting in the exorcism of eight-year-old David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard), which is being performed a Catholic priest.  The exorcism is also attended by David's parents; his sister, Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook), her boyfriend, Arne Johnson (Ruairi O'Connor).  During the exorcism, the demon transports itself into Arne.  Ed witnesses this, but suffers a heart attack and falls into an unconscious state before he can warn anyone.

The following month, Ed wakes up at the hospital and reveals to Lorraine that he witnessed the demon enter Arne's body.  Meanwhile, Arne and Debbie have returned to their apartment located above Brookfield Boarding Kennels where Debbie works.  After feeling unwell, Arne murders the kennel's owner, Bruno Sauls (Ronnie Gene Blevins).  Arne is facing a capitol murder charge that could earn him the death sentence.  The Warrens insist that Arne's attorney defend him by claiming demonic possession as a defense.  Meanwhile, the Warrens have to find evidence that helps prove that Arne was possessed when he killed Bruno.  However, Ed and Lorraine are about to discover that in this investigation, they have both a human and a demonic adversary.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is based on the events surrounding the real life murder trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson in Connecticut in 1981.  The film's narrative may also correspond with The Devil in Connecticut, a 1983 book about the trial written by Gerald Brittle.  Brittle is currently suing Warner Bros. and other parties, claiming they infringed upon his 1980 book about the Warrens, The Demonologist.

One thing that I have found is that The Conjuring film series is super-scary even when I don't focus on the Warrens' real-life investigations in which these film are supposedly based.  And The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is no less scary than the previous films in the series.  In fact, The Devil Made Me Do It may be the darkest entry in the series because it deals with horrendous human evil.  Director Michael Chaves wrings bone-chilling, heart-stopping terror from the horrific set pieces that make up The Devil Made Me Do It's narrative.  There is a sequence in a funeral home that had me glued to my chair, but I won't say more.  The fewer spoilers I offer, the more terror you will feel, dear readers.

Once again, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson give excellent performances as the Warrens.  They have the gift of making the Warrens seem like two eccentrics who are not only a loving couple, but are also ass-kicking demon fighters.  The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is the kind of supernatural horror film that is as frightening as the best slasher horror films – with less bloodshed.  I hope The Conjuring series returns for a fourth time... and many more after that.

8 of 10
A

Tuesday, January 11, 2022


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Review "OLD" is a Crazy, Entertaining, Thrilling Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 69 of 2021 (No. 1807) by Leroy Douresseaux

Old (2021)
Running time:  108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for strong violence, disturbing images, suggestive content, partial nudity and brief strong language
DIRECTOR:  M. Night Shyamalan
WRITER:  M. Night Shyamalan (based on the graphic novel, Château de sable, by Pierre-Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters)
PRODUCERS:  Marc Bienstock, Ashwin Rajan, and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Micheal Gioulakis (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Brett M. Reed
COMPOSER:  Trevor Gureckis

FANTASY/THRILLER/HORROR

Starring:  Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Aaron Pierre, Kathleen Chalfant, M. Night Shyamalan, Alexa Swinton, Thomasin McKenzie, Embeth Davidtz, Nolan River, Alex Wolff, Emun Elliot, and Kylie Begley, Mikaya Fisher, and Eliza Scanlen

Old is a 2021 horror-thriller and fantasy film from director, M. Night Shyamalan.  The film is based on the 2010 French-language, Swiss graphic novel, Château de sable (2010) by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, which was published in English as “Sandcastle” in 2011.  Old the movie focuses on a group of people trapped on a secluded beach where they age rapidly, reducing their entire lives into a single day.

Old introduces husband, Guy Cappa (Gael Garcia Bernal), and his wife, Prisca Cappa (Vicky Krieps).  They are going through a difficult time and decide to take their two children, 11-year-old daughter, Maddox (Alexa Swinton), and six-year-old son, Trent (Nolan River), on a family vacation to a tropical resort.  On their second morning at the resort, the Cappas get an offer from the resort's manager for a trip to a secluded beach.

Although the Cappas initially believe that they will have the beach to themselves, they soon learn they will not.  They meet a surgeon, Charles (Rufus Sewell); his wife, Chrystal (Abbey Lee); their six-year-old daughter, Kara (Kylie Begley); and Charles's elderly mother, Agnes (Kathleen Chalfant).  The late arrivals are the close-knit couple, Jarin Carmichael (Ken Leung) and his, wife Patricia Carmichael (Nikki Amuka-Bird).  Trouble starts when they meet someone who was on the beach before them, the recording artist and rapper, Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), and then, discover the corpse of his female companion.  Accusations fly, but no one is really paying attention to the fact that the three children are changing … rapidly.

The film's of writer-director M. Night Shyamalan can be both sublime, such as his Oscar-nominated breakthrough, The Sixth Sense (1999), or ridiculous like 2004's eye-rolling The Village.  Sometimes, his films can be both, to varying degrees, such as 2000's Unbreakable.  Or his films can be surprisingly inventive and mostly entertaining, such as 2013's After Earth, 2016's Split, and now Old.

People once called Shyamalan the next Steven Spielberg, although his films seem closer to Alfred Hitchcock's.  At the heart of most Shyamalan films is a mystery, and that mystery holds the audience in suspense.  The problem can be that when the mystery is solved in one of his films, sometimes the suspense turns to befuddlement, but that doesn't really happen with Old.

After the first twenty minutes or so of introduction, Old offers about forty minutes of the best mystery and suspense that audiences have gotten in the last two years or so of American films.  Shyamalan builds this killer thriller by depicting his characters' varied reactions to their crazy and increasingly unbelievable situation.  Watching some of them revert to their old melodramas, others fall into to their mental challenges, and some approach their situation with a sense of curiosity and wonder can be invigorating.  Through these characters, Shyamalan offers so many intriguing points of view.

The film's last forty minutes is a mixture of science fiction and horror that is captivating, even when it seems a bit over-the-top.  At this point, Shyamalan turns to the Cappas' domestic drama in a way that bounces between being poignant or edgy or stock melodrama.  There is a happy ending, but it is best, in order to avoid spoilers, that I allow you to decide whether that happy ending is plausible or appropriate, dear readers.

I have never read the comic book, Sandcastle, that inspired Old, but from what I understand, the comic's narrative is a bit more ruthless with its characters.  Still, I found Old satisfying because of Shyamalan's seamless filmmaking and because of the way his uses the characters' aging to keep things hopping in the narrative.  I don't know if M. Night Shyamalan's Old will age well, but I do believe that it will always find an audience willing to be enraptured by its mystery and thrilled by its suspense … to one extent or another … like me.

7 of 10
B+

Thursday, December 9, 2021


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Review: "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum" Will Help You Get Your Keanu On

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 56 of 2021 (No. 1794) by Leroy Douresseaux

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
Running time:  131 minutes (2 hours, 11 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive strong violence, and some language
DIRECTOR:  Chad Stahelski
WRITERS:  Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten and Chris Collins & Marc Abrams; from a story by Derek Kolstad (based on characters created by Derek Kostad)
PRODUCERS:  Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Dan Lausten (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Evan Schiff
COMPOSERS:  Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard

ACTION/THRILLER

Starring:  Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Anjelica Huston, Said Taghmaoui, Jerome Flynn, and Randall Duk Kim

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is a 2019 action and crime-thriller starring Keanu Reeves and directed by Chad Stahelski.  It is a direct sequel to 2017's John Wick: Chapter 2 and the third film in the John Wick film series.  Parabellum finds John Wick on the run with a price on his head and assassins everywhere looking to claim the reward for killing him.

As John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum opens, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) makes his way through Manhattan.  John is on the run because he is just about to be labeled “excommunicado.”  His crime was the unauthorized killing of “High Table” (the ruling entity of the assassin's guild) crime lord, Santino D'Antonio, on the grounds of the New York Continental Hotel, a “consecrated” space where killings are not allowed.  At 6 PM Eastern Standard Time, when John is officially “excommunicado,” there will be a 14 million dollar bounty on him, and hit men and hit women everywhere are going to target him.

John turns to a few old acquaintances for help on his way out the city.  He travels to Morocco where he hopes to find the “Elder,” the boss (more or less) of the High Table, whom John believes will restore his status.  In Casablanca, John seeks help from Sofia (Halle Berry), a former friend and manager of the Moroccan Continental, but an old grudge might stand in the way of her helping him.  Meanwhile, the High Table has sent an “Adjudicator” (Asia Kate Dillon) to deal with everyone who has helped John, including the Continental's manager, Winston (Ian McShane), and the crime lord, “The Bowery King” (Laurence Fishburne).

A few weeks ago, a cable television listing reminded me that I had not seen  John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, so I turned to “DVD Netflix” for help.  In my reviews of the earlier John Wick films, I wrote that I had been a fan of Keanu Reeves since I first encountered him the 1980s in films like Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and River's Edge (1986), although I am not a fan of his popular 80s film, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989).  I also wrote that I had never thought of Reeves as a great or even as a good actor; he is either way too stiff or too wooden as a performer.  Still I have enjoyed and even loved Reeves in films like the original Point Break (1991) and in The Matrix film trilogy.

Reeves' star had dimmed for several years, but the John Wick films' success and an appearance in Toy Story 4 saw people feeling that Keanu love again.  And we're supposed to get The Matrix: Resurrections in December 2021.  What can I say about John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum?  The truth is that if you enjoy Keanu Reeves' films, you will enjoy Parabellum.

I can't fake it and say that this is about the love of cinema.  I love seeing Keanu in this film's violent fight scenes and bloody shootouts, with their gunshots to the head and blood spurting and ejaculating from bodies and heads.  Parabellum gives us the added joy of marital arts sword play, with Mark Dacascos as the character “Zero.”  He is Japanese assassin leading a team of ninja-like assassins, slashing and stabbing many other characters, but their ultimate goal is John Wick.

Keanu Reeves is one of my favorite movie stars, and John Wick is one his roles that I love the most.  Yes, Parabellum's main ambition is to present itself as revenge-thriller with a little wit, a little more style, and even more stylized ultra-violence.  And I like John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum enough to give it a fairly high grade and to also eagerly await a fourth installment in this thrilling franchise.

7 of 10
B+

Thursday, September 16, 2021


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Review: "PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN" Rocked Me Like a Hurricane

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 29 of 2021 (No. 1767) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Promising Young Woman (2020)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence including sexual assault, language throughout, some sexual material and drug use
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Emerald Fennell
PRODUCERS:  Tom Ackerley, Ben Browning, Emerald Fennell, Ashley Fox, Josey McNamara, and Margot Robbie
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Benjamin Cracun (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Frederic Thoraval
COMPOSER:  Anthony Willis
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/COMEDY/THRILLER

Starring:  Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Chris Lowell, Connie Britton, Adam Brody, Max Greenfield, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Sam Richardson, Alfred Molina, and Molly Shannon

Promising Young Woman is a 2020 black comedy and suspense thriller film from director Emerald Fennell.  The film focuses on a young woman who takes revenge for a traumatic event in her past on the unwary young men who cross her path.

Promising Young Woman introduces Cassandra “Cassie” Thomas (Carey Mulligan), a 30 year-old medical school dropout who lives with her parents, Susan (Jennifer Coolidge) and Stanley Thomas (Clancy Brown), in Ohio.  Seven years earlier, something terrible happened to Cassie's best friend, Nina Fisher, at a party, and it led to both Cassie and Nina leaving the medical school they attended, Forrest University.

Now, Cassie spends her nights feigning drunkenness in clubs, and allowing men to take her to their homes.  Then, she bluntly and forcefully reveals her sobriety when these men try to take advantage of her by having sexual relations with a woman who is too inebriated to give consent.  Things begin to change when Cassie is reunited with a former classmate, Dr. Ryan Cooper (Bo Burnham), a pediatrician.  When another classmate reveals a lurid secret, Cassie resumes her mission of revenge, but can she survive her own mission.

Of the many shocking things about Promising Young Woman, one of them is actress Carey Mulligan.  She completely buries herself in this role, and the waif-like persona she adopted in some of her early films disappears in the storm of the force of nature that is Cassie.  Mulligan's performance as Cassie recalls classic Clint Eastwood movie characters like “Dirty” Harry Callahan and “Preacher” (from 1985's Pale Rider).  I also have to give a shout out to Promising Young Woman's makeup department for its work in creating Cassie's look, which, spiritually, recalls the those vengeful dead girls in such Japanese horror films as Ringu (1998) and Ju-On: The Grudge (2002).

I can't help but be impressed by the debut directorial effort of writer-director Emerald Fennell.  Her film is straight to the point.  Fennell is not being allegorical, metaphorical, or symbolic.  Fennell delivers stunning entertainment that is both a timely message movie and a timeless cinematic film, a mainstream spin of the spirit of The Last House on the Left (1972) and I Spit on Your Grave (1978).  She may or may not be talking to you, sir, but there is no doubt about what Fennell is saying.

In a way, Promising Young Woman is the Get Out of 2020.  Like Jordan Peele's Oscar-winning film, Promising Young Woman is a game changer.  Whereas Peele's Get Out was a revelation in its message about white people's violence against African-American bodies, Fennell's Promising Young Woman is the clarion call to the reckoning for the way men objectify and enact sexual violence on the bodies of women.  Hopefully, Fennell's film is the cinematic earthquake that leads to a Hollywood tsunami.

And yes, Promising Young Woman is entertaining.  It simply manages to also blow your mind, chill your blood … and make some men reflexively cover their jewels.

9 of 10
A+

Monday, March 22, 2021


NOTES:
2021 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Original Screenplay” (Emerald Fennell); 4 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell, and Josey McNamara), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Carey Mulligan), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Emerald Fennell), and “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Frédéric Thoraval)

2021 Golden Globes, USA:  4 nominations: “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Emerald Fennell), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Carey Mulligan), “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Emerald Fennell), “Best Motion Picture - Drama”

2021 BAFTA Awards:  2 wins: “Best Screenplay-Original” (Emerald Fennell) and “Outstanding British Film of the Year” (Emerald Fennell, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, and Josey McNamara); 4 nominations: “Best Film” (Ben Browning, Emerald Fennell, Ashley Fox, and Josey McNamara), “Best Editing” (Frédéric Thoraval), “Original Score” (Anthony Willis), and “Best Casting” (Lindsay Graham and Mary Vernieu)


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#28DaysofBlack Review: "LITTLE WOODS" Introduces an Up and Coming Director

[The independent film, the crime drama and quasi-modern Western, “Little Woods,” made noise at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018.  It was released theatrically in the United States in April 2019.  The film marked writer-director Nia DaCosta as an emerging director and earned her the job of writing and directing Universal's update-sequel to the classic 1990s horror film, “Candyman.”  Later, Marvel Studios chose DaCosta to direct the sequel to its billion-dollar hit, Captain Marvel (2019).  Candyman's release was delayed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so while audiences await its release, they can watch DaCosta's directorial debut, Little Woods.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 22 of 2021 (No. 1760) by Leroy Douresseaux

Little Woods (2018)
Running time: 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and some drug material
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Nia DaCosta
PRODUCERS:  Rachael Fung, Tim Headington, and Gabrielle Nadig
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Matt Mitchell
EDITOR:  Catrin Hedström
COMPOSER:  Brian McOmber

DRAMA/CRIME with elements of thriller and western

Starring:  Tessa Thompson, Lily James, Luke Kirby, James Badge Dale, Lance Reddick, Jeremy St. James, and Charlie Ray Reid

Little Woods is a 2018 drama and crime film from writer-director Nia DaCosta.  The film focuses on two sisters who work outside the law to fix bad situations in their lives via the Canadian–U.S. cross-border drug trade.

Little Woods introduces a young woman named Oleander “Ollie” King (Tessa Thompson), who lives in Little Woods, North Dakota.  Ollie is on probation because she had been bringing prescription medicine illegally across the border between Canada and North Dakota.  With eight days left on her probation, Ollie is determined to reinvent her life.  With the help and encouragement of her probation officer, Carter (Lance Reddick), Ollie has applied to find work in Spokane.

However, Ollie is getting numerous requests to return to her old life, which included illegally selling prescription medicine, as she scrapes by on odd jobs.  And Ollie might have a reason to return to a life of crime.  Her estranged sister, Deborah “Deb” Hale (Lily James), is barely surviving, living in an illegally parked trailer with her young son, Johnny (Charlie Ray Reid).  Deb is barely getting any help from her bum baby-daddy, Ian (James Badge Dale).

Worse still, Ollie, who has been living in the home of her and Deb's recently deceased mother, Bridget Sorenson, has discovered that a local bank has begun foreclosure proceedings on the house.  There is a payment of 5,682 dollars due to the bank in one week.  Desperate to make a place for Deb and Johnny, Ollie may jeopardize her future by selling and running drugs again.

Little Woods is the directorial debut of writer-director Nia DaCosta.  The subject matter and setting may seem like strange choices for an African-American director, but the story is a familiar one of familial obligations; the up-and-down relationship between bickering, but loving sisters; and the desperate day-to-day lives of the poor and struggling people of small town America.  DaCosta offers a riveting family drama that is part crime thriller and modern Western – that also has an excellent soundtrack full of plaintive songs that set the appropriate mood.  This is an engaging and sometimes haunting film that holds one attention.

However, the character writing is not as strong as it needs to be.  The screenplay relies on familiar conflicts between loved ones, friends, and acquaintances.  Bill (Luke Kirby), the local pill kingpin, barely registers as a character, and Ian's relationships with both Deb and Ollie, which are obviously, rich with potential, rely on familiar indie drama tropes.  Still, Tessa Thompson and Lily James deliver urgent and edgy performances of their respective characters.

My reservations aside, Little Woods is a necessary film because Nia DaCosta presents a side of the American experience, a side that need that needs to exist more in American popular culture.  DaCosta expertly details the lack of affordable housing, inadequate heath care, and shitty jobs that make ordinary people make choices that often hurt them or land them in jails and prisons or on parole and probation.  Little Woods is not a pretty film, but it exemplifies the power of film drama, and it makes me expect big things of Nia DaCosta.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, February 26, 2021

NOTES:
2020 Black Reel Awards:  1 nomination: “Outstanding Emerging Director” (Nia DaCosta)


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#28DaysofBlack Review: Heroes Abound in "MARSHALL"

[The year after he first played Marvel Comics superhero, Black Panther, the late Chadwick Boseman played real-life hero, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, early in his career when he was a defense attorney defending oppressed African-Americans.  There is something about playing both Thurgood Marshall and the Black Panther that makes an actor special.  That is why some of us both mourn Boseman's passing and celebrate his work.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 15 of 2021 (No. 1753) by Leroy Douresseaux

Marshall (2017)
Running time: 118 minutes (1 hours, 58 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for mature thematic content, sexuality, violence and some strong language
DIRECTOR:  Reginald Hudlin
WRITERS:  Michael Koskoff and Jacob Koskoff
PRODUCERS:  Reginald Hudlin, Jonathan Sanger, and Paula Wagner
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Newton Thomas Sigel (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Tom McArdle
COMPOSER:  Marcus Miller
Academy Award nominee

BIOPIC/DRAMA/HISTORICAL/THRILLER

Starring:  Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, James Cromwell, Sterling K. Brown, Keesha Sharp, John Magaro, Roger Guenveur Smith, Ahna O'Reilly, Jeremy Bobb, Derrick Baskin, Jeffrey DeMunn, Andra Day, Sophia Bush, Jussie Smollett, and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas

Marshall is a 2017 biographical film, period drama, and legal thriller directed by Reginald Hudlin.  The film's lead character is Thurgood Marshall (1908 to 1993), the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.  Marshall the film focuses on one of the first cases of his career, the State of Connecticut v. Joseph Spell, which concerns an African-American chauffeur accused of raping a white woman in 1940.

Marshall opens in 1941.  Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) is an attorney for the “NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund,” which he founded.  Marshall travels the country defending people who are accused of crimes solely because of their race.  Upon his return to his New York office, Marshall finds more work waiting for him.  Walter Francis White (Roger Guenveur Smith), Executive Secretary of the NAACP, sends Marshall to Bridgeport, Connecticut.  There, he will defend Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), a chauffeur accused of rape by his white employer, Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson), in a case that has gripped the newspapers.

In Bridgeport, insurance lawyer, Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), is assigned by his brother, Irwin Friedman (John Magaro), to get Marshall admitted to the local bar, against Sam's will.  At the hearing for Spell, Judge Carl Foster (James Cromwell), a friend of the father of prosecutor Lorin Willis (Dan Stevens), agrees to admit Marshall, but forbids Marshall from speaking during the trial, forcing Friedman to be Spell's lead counsel.  Now, Marshall must guide Friedman through the trial via notes, but is this case a lost cause when Thurgood and Sam discover that it is rife with lies – on both sides.

Marshall is technically a biographical film, focusing on a specific period in the life and career of future Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall.  Early in the film, however, it is obvious that director Reginald Hudlin has his mind on making Marshall a film that resembles a 1940s film noir with elements of a legal drama and a crime thriller.  The audience can hear that in Marcus Miller's lovely film score and in the way Hudlin stages the action, uses space, and places the actors.

In one of the film's early moments, when Marshall has his back to the camera and is ironing a shirt, I immediately thought of my favorite actor, Humphrey Bogart, and one of his most famous roles, that of Sam Space in director John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941).  From that point, there is hardly a setting in which Marshall's life does not seem to be in danger.  Hudlin races his audience through a movie that seems to be shorter than its almost two hours of run time.  Is Marshall a courtroom drama?  Yes, and it is also a courtroom thriller with a mystery at its center.

I do wish the father-son screenwriting team of Michael Koskoff and Jacob Koskoff had given the script  more depth, as the narrative is mostly style and genre.  There is also a lack of depth in the  characterization, and the characters are a bit shallow.  As hard as actor Sterling K. Brown tries, he can't seem to really draw anything from the well of defendant Joseph Spell's soul.  Spell comes across as more of a stand-in than an actual portrait of a man whose life is on the line.

The very talented Josh Gad is able to give a lot of color to Sam Friedman, playing as a subtly wily man who is able to navigate his way between conflicting sides.  Kate Hudson, mostly known for romantic comedies, shows some serious dramatic chops as the trapped suburban wife and alleged victim, Eleanor Strubing.  As usual, Roger Guenveur Smith is spry, this time as the real-life Walter Francis Wright.

Of course, in the wake of his 2020 death to complications of colon cancer, Chadwick Boseman as Thurgood Marshall will be the center of attention in the film, Marshall, going forward.  Despite a lack of characterization in the film's script, Boseman turns Marshall into a relentless paladin, traveling the countryside fighting the forces of white bigotry and racism.  His field of battle is the courtroom, and black men falsely accused because they are black are the people he defends.  Boseman makes me believe that he is a stubborn attorney and hero in an old-fashioned courtroom drama.  He also makes me believe that he is a superhero, almost a year before he became the beloved Black Panther of Disney/Marvel Studios' Oscar-winning film, Black Panther.

Marshall convinces me that Thurgood Marshall was both a heroic lawyer and a superhero.  The film also convinces me that Boseman was the best at bringing the most famous African-American men to life on the big screen.  Plus, Marshall is a really good movie.

8 of 10
A

Monday, February 15, 2021


NOTES:
2018 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Song” (Common and Diane Warren for song “Stand Up for Something”)

2018 Black Reel Awards:  7 nominations: “Outstanding Motion Picture” (Jonathan Sanger, Paula Wagner, and Reginald Hudlin), “Outstanding Actor, Motion Picture” (Chadwick Boseman), “Outstanding Director, Motion Picture” (Reginald Hudlin), “Outstanding Ensemble” (Victoria Thomas-Casting Director), “Outstanding Score” (Marcus Miller-Composer), “Outstanding Original Song” (Andra Day-Performer, Common-Performer, Writer, and Diane Warren-Writer for the song “Stand Up for Something”), and “Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Male” (Sterling K. Brown)

2018 Image Awards (NAACP):  5 nominations: “Outstanding Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Chadwick Boseman), “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Sterling K. Brown), “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” (Keesha Sharp), “and  “Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture” (Reginald Hudlin)

The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Terminator: Dark Fate" Tries... Lawd, It Tries

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 3 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Running time:  128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence throughout, language and brief nudity
DIRECTOR:  Tim Miller
WRITERS:  David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray; from a story by James Cameron, Charles H. Eglee, Josh Friedman, David S. Goyer, and Justin Rhodes (based upon characters created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd)
PRODUCERS:  James Cameron and David Ellison
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Ken Seng
EDITOR:  Julian Clarke
COMPOSER:  Junkie XL

SCI-FI/ACTION/THRILLER

Starring:  Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna, Diego Boneta, and Fraser James

Terminator: Dark Fate is a 2019 science fiction and action-thriller from director Tim Miller.  The film is the sixth in the Terminator film franchise, but Terminator: Dark Fate is a direct sequel to the original film, The Terminator (1984) and its sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), both of which were directed by James Cameron, who is a co-writer and co-producer on this new film.  In Dark Fate, a soldier from the future arrives in the present day to protect a young woman marked for termination by another kind of soldier from the future.

Terminator: Dark Fate opens in 1998 when events that began fourteen years earlier come to a close... of sorts.  The story moves forward to the year 2020 when two fighters from the future (the year 2042) arrive separately in Mexico City.  One is Grace (Mackenzie Davis), a cybernetically-enhanced human soldier.  The other is an advanced Terminator model, the Rev-9, (Gabriel Luna), sent by “Legion,” an A.I. (artificial intelligence) built for cyber-warfare that threatens the existence of humanity in the future.

Their target is a young Mexican woman, Daniella “Dani” Ramos (Natalia Reyes); Grace wants to protect her, and the Rev-9 wants to kill her.  Grace is able to temporarily fend off the Rev-9 in order to protect Dani, but she cannot defeat the Terminator.  To do that, Grace and Dani will need the help of a mysterious woman named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and an old T-800 Terminator that calls itself “Carl” (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and even they may not be enough help.

Ten years ago, Warner Bros. attempted to reboot the Terminator film franchise with the film, Terminator: Salvation (2009).  I really liked that film and thought that it had saved the franchise, which seemed rudderless in the wake of the entertaining, but superfluous Terminator: Rise of the Machines (2003).

Ten years later, we get Terminator: Dark Fate, and I think this entertaining sequel, reboot, re-imagining can revive the Terminator franchise, as far as the larger narrative is concerned.  Can Dark Fate save the franchise financially and in terms of popularity?  Outside of a few studios (Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm) and one genre, superhero films, predicting box office success of big-budget, “tent-pole,” event films, is a crap-shoot.

That aside, I really like Terminator: Dark Fate.  Most of the film is a series of impossible-looking action sequences.  The fate of Dark Fate is in the hands of sound editors, sound mixers, CGI artists, and film editors.  Dark Fate is an extended thrill ride, a giant thrill machine, a breathtaking race, a heart-stopping chase, etc.  The airplane duel and the entire waterfall/hydro-power battle are jaw-dropping sequences.  Dark Fate gives its audience second, thirds, and fourth servings when it comes action and thrills.

However, in terms of drama and character, Terminator: Dark Fate is skimpy.  Most of the characterization and personalities are copied or are leftovers from James Cameron and Terminator co-creator Gale Anne Hurd's work on the first two films.  Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor is good here, but she could have been better.  Dark Fate's story material is so underdeveloped that Hamilton seems forced to overact.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the rest of the cast does its best being really intense.  I must note, however, that Gabriel Luna does a wonderful job being creepy, chilling, and cold-freaking-blooded as the Rev-9 Terminator.  If this film has an actor having a star turn, it's Luna.

My quibbles aside, I think Terminator: Dark Fate points to an interesting and intriguing new direction for the Terminator films.  I found myself enjoying it so thoroughly, it wasn't until I started writing this review that I even gave a thought to the character and drama writing.  Let's be honest, what you feel immediately while watching a movie is what really counts in terms of entertainment value.  And Terminator: Dark Fate is the real fucking deal when it comes to action movies.

A-
7.5 of 10

Saturday, November 2, 2019


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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