Selah and the Spades

My View: Selah and the Spades (2019) R  At a prestigious east coast boarding school, five factions run the underground life of the school. At the head of the most dominant faction, The Spades is Selah Summers (Love Simone). During her senior year, Selah is challenged by a protege, Paloma (Celeste O’Connor), and must fight for control of The Spades. Selah and the Spades is a stylish high school drama where power is what everyone wants. Selah is bound and determined to keep her control over the boarding school with an iron hand. This isn’t a ‘90210’ style film where everyone is hooking up, this is all about how the boarding school is decided into factions, and everyone is out to keep their interests going, even if it means stabbing someone in the back to do it. Love Simone gives a powerful performance that doesn’t always make us like her, but you have to respect her character’s win at any cost attitude. Selah and the Spades gives us a fascinating look at a school where the inmates defiantly run the asylum.   My Rating: Full Price    Selah and the Spades Website   Currently available on Amazon Prime.

Indiefest: Saint Frances (2019)   A young woman, Bridget (Kelly O’Sullivan) life is falling apart, and she decides to take a new approach, she becomes a nanny to a six-year-old girl who will change her life. O’Sullivan wrote and stars in this delightful story of a woman who feels life has passed her by. Bridget kind of falls into a nanny job for a lesbian couple, taking care of their 6-year old girl, Frances (Ramona Edith-Williams), while Frances’ mom, Maya (Charin Alvarez0 takes care of Frances’ newborn baby brother. What I found amusing in this film was that the relationship between Bridget and Frances isn’t perfect. In fact, both are kind of misfits. Bridget isn’t the best of nanny’s (she loses Frances at one point), and Frances is a pretty horrible acting kid, but by the end of the film, both have become best buds and are better off for knowing each other. Bridget is also bad in relationships with men, and we see her continually make mistakes in her personal life. This is a film that isn’t always warm and fuzzy, but you will fall in love with Bridget and ‘Saint Frances.’   My Rating: Full Price    Saint Francis Website    Available for rent on participating on-demand services.

Indiefest: Chichinette: The Accidental Spy (2019)   Documentary about Marthe Cohn, a French-Jewish woman who during World War II, was a spy in Nazi Germany. Now 98, Marthe has decided after years of silence, to tell the world her story. You will fall in love with this little fireball of a woman who single handily saved thousands of Allied lives delivering intelligence on the whereabouts of the Nazi army hiding in the Black Forest. The Allied army was able to avoid the trap the Nazis had set, and the war against Germany ended earlier due to her heroics. As we slowly learn Marthe’s story, we follow her and her husband, Major, on a speaking tour in Europe. What I enjoyed about this film, besides Marthe’s unbelievable story, is the relationship between Marthe and her husband, who is always by her side (almost always holding hands) and letting his wife take the spotlight (which he proudly does). Watch this beautiful documentary and wonder how someone hasn’t made this into a narrative feature film.   My Rating: Full Price    Chichinette: The Accidental Spy Website   The film is available on the Kino Now platform and available for rent on iTunes, Vudu and other TOVD platforms.

Forgotten Film: The Man from Snowy River (1983) PG   In the rugged, often harsh country of 1880s Australia, a young cowboy, Jim (Tom Burlinson) inherits his father’s ranch and only the young woman, Jessica (Sigrid Thornton) who falls in love with Jim thinks he can handle running the ranch. To complicate matters, Jessica’s father, Harrison (Kirk Douglas), will do anything to not only break up the relationship, but he is also hell-bent on taking Jim’s land. While the storyline is predictable and Kirk Douglas, in a dual role of also playing Harrison’s wacky brother, chews a little too much scenery, the landscape and cinematography is gorgeous and Jim’s relationship with a wild horse is moving, making this an enjoyable film to sit on the couch and watch on a rainy afternoon.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee    The Man from Snowy River Info

Weird Credits: From the credits of Selah and the Spades: Taylor

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You: A Trip to Greece (2020)   The fourth and possibly final movie of the ‘Trip’ series with actor Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan as they follow the footsteps of the Odysseus. This is sure to hit the funny bone as the other three films did.    A Trip to Greece Info  

Until Next Time!

Bad Boys for Life

My View: Bad Boys for Life (2020) R   The Bad Boys (Will Smith, Martin Lawrence) are back together for one last ride. The guys have to confront possible career changes and midlife crises, as they join a new task force named AMMO to take down a ruthless leader of a Miami drug cartel. If you are a fan of the first two films in the Bad Boys series, then you will have a good time watching this film. Is the plot stupid and the ending pretty unbelievable? Yes. Are there a lot of high-speed car chases and numerous things blowing up (sometimes for no reason)? Yes. Is the chemistry between Smith and Lawrence still there? Yes (but barely). I didn’t quite have as much fun as the audience I saw the film with, but if you know what you are getting into (watch the trailer), you will probably have a good time watching this ‘popcorn’ movie.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee     Bad Boys for Life Website

Familyfaire: Dolittle (2020) PG   Seven years ago, the famed doctor and veterinarian of Victorian England, Dr. John Dolittle (Robert Downey Jr.), lost his wife and has been sequestered behind the walls of Dolittle Manor with his menagerie of animals for his only company. When Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley) falls ill, Dr. Dolittle sets out on an epic adventure to find a cure. Dolittle is an unfunny and rather stupid film that only young, and I mean really young, kids will enjoy. Downey has some sort of Welsh accent that I have no idea what he was saying about a third of the time. The plot is predictable, and the only fun animal in the whole bunch is a squirrel (voiced by Craig Robinson) that thinks people are out to kill him. The CGI is unimpressive, with some of the animals looking like they were drawn by eight-year-olds. I hope the paycheck was huge for Downey because he isn’t going to live down this film for quite a while.    My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again    Dolittle Website

Indiefest: The Song of Names (2019) PG-13   Thirty-five years after his close childhood friend, a violin prodigy, disappears on the eve of his big solo concert, an Englishman travels throughout Europe to find him. I wish this was a better film than what it turned out to be. It is intriguing at first, with the mystery of why the violinist disappeared without a trace. Unfortunately, the film takes too long to solve that mystery, and I became rather bored with the movie as it moved back and forth from the past to the present. When the mystery is solved, it’s quite a letdown, making the film feel a little shallow. Tim Roth plays the adult who is looking for the long, missing violinist, and Clive Owen is the man he finds. Both actors aren’t given much to do in this film, and the big, emotional moment just doesn’t deliver.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee     The Song of Names Website

Indiefest: Les Miserables (2019) R   A cop (Damien Bonnard) transfers to the 93rd district (where Victor Hugo wrote his 1962 novel ‘The Miserables’) so that he can be near his son after his divorce. He is assigned to the local Anti-Crime Brigade, where cops try to keep the peace between residents. Les Miserables is a gritty, down, and dirty cop drama about the hard streets of a low-income Paris neighborhood, where the cops are constantly harassing the people of the community. What I loved about this film is there are a number of different characters in the movie, all with interlocking stories that all come together at the end of the film. Nominated for an International Feature Film Academy Award, this film is a hard look at a harsh life in the street.   My Rating: Full Price     Les Miserables Website

Indiefest: Weathering With You (2019) PG-13   A high-school boy, Hodaka, runs away to Tokyo, where he meets and befriends a girl who seemingly can manipulate the weather. The animation in this film is beautiful and sometimes a bit haunting. The film is a love story between a 15-year-old boy and a mysterious 18-year-old girl, Hina, who he discovers is called ‘The Sun Girl.’ Tokyo is in the middle of a record-setting weather event, it won’t stop raining. Hina, it seems can through prayer, stop the rain from falling for a short time. They start up a business, selling sunshine for events like a wedding or a ball game. Weathering with You is a love story, and the film is aimed at teenagers (think a Young Adult novel) where we wonder if Hodaka is ever going to get up the nerve to tell Hina just how he feels about her. Hina has a secret, and this love affair could be doomed. I enjoyed this film, and I loved the soundtrack that had a number of Japanese pop songs that perfectly captured the feelings of the characters.   My Rating: Full Price     Weathering With You Website

Forgotten Film: Lady in White (1988) PG-13   Frankie (Lukas Haas) is an 11-year old kid who one night is lured into the school cloakroom by some kids and is left behind, the door locked and Frankie realizes that no one knows where he is. He is visited by a ghost, a young girl who looks sad. As he tries to communicate with the spirit, another figure appears, a masked man who is looking for something in the cloakroom. The masked man decides to spare Frankie, leaving Frankie to figure out if he was visited by one or two ghosts. Lady in White is an excellent ghost story as our hero sets out to discover why he was visited by the young ghost, and if the masked man had anything to do with her death. I loved the fact that the film perfectly captures the look and feel of a small town as it deals with a ghost and a possible murderer. The film has a few nice twists and turns to make this a movie to watch. My Rating: Full Price    Lady in White Info

Weird Credits: From the credits of Bad Boys for Life: Elk Set Production Assistant

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You: Saint Frances (2019)  A young woman (Kelly O’Sullivan) life is falling apart, and she decides to take a new approach, she becomes a nanny to a six-year-old girl who will change her life. The star of the film, O’Sullivan wrote the screenplay, and the trailer looks like this film could be a lot of fun to watch.     Saint Francis Website

Until Next Time!