Firestarter

My View: Firestarter (2022) R   As a result of a secret government experiment, a young girl, Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), has gained the power to start fires with her mind. Subsequently, Charlie is now being hunted by a group named The Shop, but Charlie isn’t going without a fight. It’s sad when the only positive thing you can say about a movie is that the film's score was enjoyable (by Halloween director John Carpenter, no less). The 1984 film starring Drew Barrymore and a host of early 80s icons (with a rare motion picture appearance by Heather Locklear) was a lousy film, and this remake doesn’t improve on the storyline one bit. The plot is pretty much the same (there are a few changes to try to update it) that don’t make any difference to us caring about any character in the film. Ryan Kiera Armstrong does, from time to time, looks a little like Barrymore, but that doesn’t help her center a picture where we don’t care if little Charlie gets found or not. The bad guys of the film, Gloria Reuben as the Captain (of what, I don’t know) who chews up the scenery at a regular interval and Michael Greyeyes, as a mysterious bounty hunter who kills without any plan, are toothless and not at all scary. Firestarter is supposed to be a horror film, but it comes off as even more boring than the original film, which was, I thought, impossible. There is a reason why the studio did not give film critics a screening and only offered screener access after it had premiered on the Peacock platform. I would light a fire to burn this film to the ground, but I am all out of lighter fluid, much like the film.  My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again    Firestarter Website  Now playing in theatres nationwide and on the Peacock platform.

My View:  Senior Year  (2022) R   Stephanie (Rebel Wilson) is a high-school student who, after a cheerleading accident, is left in a coma for 20 years. Now she is awake and ready to return for her senior year of high school…as a 37-year-old. I like Rebel Wilson, and as a side-kick in films like Pitch Perfect and JoJo Rabbit, she has been hilarious and scene-stealing. As a lead actress in such duds as Isn’t It Romantic and The Hustle, she hasn’t shown that she can handle the main spotlight. After taking a few years off to remake herself, now comes Senior Year. Unfortunately, Wilson has picked a film that is dull and unfunny right from the start. The film continually mines the ‘fish out of water’ premise, constantly bringing up horrible references to what was essential to teens 20 years ago with lines about MTV videos or mistaking Lady Gaga for Madonna. The film feels every bit of its hour and fifty-minute runtime taking forever to get going with the plot and running some jokes into the ground(like the fact that the high school is constantly making sure no one is offended by anything, including positive message cheers). I had high hopes when I saw the trailer, but now, I wish that Stephanie had stayed in the coma a bit longer for the writers to work on the script.    My Rating: Cable   Senior Year Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform.

Indiefest: Happening (2022) R   Anne (Anamaria Vartolomel), a student in 1963 France, is about to finish her studies when she finds out that she is pregnant. Consequently, she decides to abort the baby against the law and goes on a journey to do so in a society that censures women’s rights and desires. I won’t lie to you; this is a tough film to watch as we follow Anne through the weeks of her pregnancy that she is desperate to end with some scenes that will be upsetting to watch. This is a painful and sometimes very graphic and chilling story about a woman who can’t see her future with a baby in tow and finds that everyone, including her friends, abandon her in her time of need. Anamaria Vartolomel is mesmerizing as Anne, letting us see her every emotion on her face, even when trying to be stoic or lying (especially in her moments with her unsuspecting mother). Truly a painful and full of despair look at the plight of a woman whose society has put up so many obstacles to overcome that it seems to be doomed from the start. Happening is an amazing movie that will be talked about for a long time and maybe, just maybe, open some hearts and minds to this complex issue. My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again Happening Website   Now playing in select theatres.

My View: Operation Mincemeat (2022) PG-13   In order to try and fool Germany during WWII about the planned Allied invasion of Sicily, a group of intelligence officers come up with a plan to take a deceased man, dress him up as an officer, and place fake plans about an alternate invasion and place him via submarine on the coast where German soldiers can find him. This is based on an incredible true story that saved countless Allied lives by tricking the Germans into thinking Greece was the next invasion target instead of Sicily. The plan is a fantastic bit of deception that worked only because of the brilliance of the people who planned it and then kept working on it, even when others doubted it would succeed. I loved the secondary story of Colin Firth’s character, Ewen Montagu, a married man whose marriage is in trouble and starts working with a brilliant and funny woman, played perfectly by Kelly Macdonald, who is attracted to the dashing Ewen. I also loved that Ian Fleming, the creator of the iconic James Bond books, is a character in the film that always seems to be in the right place at the right time to collect material for his future books. Operation Mincemeat is a spy film where the main spy is a dead man, a remarkable tale about a group of people who created one of the greatest spy tricks of all time.   My Rating: Full Price     Operation Mincemeat Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform.

Indiefest:  Monstrous  (2022)  PG-13   Laura (Christina Ricci), traumatized and fleeing from an abusive relationship, who takes her 7-year-old son, Cody (Santino Barnard), to a remote house in the woods. The two should be safe; however, there is something in the pond, a bigger, more terrifying monster than an ex-husband. This is a fun little horror movie that is bolstered by the performance of Christina Ricci and the 1950s setting. Ricci plays a woman who has taken her son to an isolated home in a small town. Her son begins saying that a monster is in the pond and is coming for him. Laura thinks, at first, that Cody is just scared, settling into a new environment, but Laura starts experiencing troubling feelings and sights herself. Like many fifties horror films, there is the conflict of thinking that everything is good and safe in a small town, but as always, there is something evil lurking behind the petticoats and the commercials for dishwashers built with the housewife in mind.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee   Monstrous Website  Now playing in select theatres and On Demand.

Forgotten Film: A Month in the Country (1987) PG   In the summer of 1919, a battle-scarred veteran, Tom (Colin Firth), comes to a small village to work on restoring a mural that is believed to be hidden inside the thick walls of a medieval era church. While working on finding and repairing the mural, Tom befriends a fellow vet, John (Kenneth Branagh), an archeologist working on a dig nearby. The two develop a friendship, and the two friends begin a long road to recovery with the help of their work, the village, and a vicar’s wife (Natasha Richardson). A Month in the Country is an enjoyable movie about healing and coming to terms with the past. Very early in their careers, the three stars show why they all went on to make their mark on cinema.   My Rating: Full Price   A Month in the Country Info

Weird Credits: From the credits of Firestarter: Fire Stunt Safety

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)   Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is an outsider in her community. Kya is called the ‘Marsh Girl’ by the locals since she was abandoned in the marshlands of North Carolina and raised herself to adulthood. Kya begins to explore outside the world of her marsh when a young man she has befriended is found dead and is immediately cast by the community as the main suspect. Now Kay’s life will be under the microscope, and many secrets of the marsh are about to be revealed. Based on the best-selling book by Delia Owens and an up-and-coming star in Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People), this has the makings of a really cool movie to see this summer.     Where the Crawdads Sing Website

Memory

My View: Memory (2022) R   An assassin-for-hire, Alex (Liam Neeson), becomes a target himself after he refuses to complete a job for a notorious criminal organization. Now Alex must hunt down the people who hired him. However, Alex is hampered by a memory that is beginning to falter, blurring the lines between right and wrong. We have all seen this plot before; an aging hitman wants to quit but decides to take one last job, then decides not to go through with it because it involves killing a kid. The twist in this film is that the hitman is suffering from the onset of Alzheimer’s. Neeson has, of late, been doing the hitman done wrong in quite a few films lately, and it's getting really old. Sure it has a nice twist where our hero is having such trouble with his memory that he writes stuff on his arm with a sharpie to help him on his hits, but this film drags on and on. There is so much exposition with characters explaining every detail of what they find out (or don’t) that it probably makes this film last 15 minutes longer than it should. What could have been an interesting look at an aging hitman becomes a dull story of revenge that just seems to go on and on.   My Rating: Cable   Memory Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide.

My View: Crush (2022)    Page (Rowan Blanchard) is a talented art student in her senior year of high school. In order to be close to her ‘crush,’ Gabby. Page joins the track team. Although Page stinks at track, she is about to discover that love can be complicated when she finds that she is falling for someone else, Gabby’s sister AJ (Auli’i Cravalho). It’s fun to see a film where ‘coming out is not the main subject and is even used a couple of times as a source of jokes. Instead, being gay is just a part of the high school way of life. This is a pleasant and funny look at high school crushes and romance with a cast that has fun with it. Rowan Blanchard is delightful as Page, a slightly goofy, clumsy girl who has a crush on a fellow high school student. Page joins the track team to be close to Page, but instead of being paired with Gabby, she seems always to be paired with Gabby’s twin, AJ. I had fun watching this film, and while it’s not anything to get excited about, it’s still a blast to watch Page try her best to get close to Gabby, all the while, we know that she will end up with AJ in the end.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee   Crush Website  Now playing on the Hulu platform.

Indiefest: Anaïs in Love (2021) R  Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) is a 30-year-old woman floundering in life. She meets Daniel (Denis Podalydes), an older man who almost instantly falls for her. However, Daniel lives with his long-term girlfriend, a writer named Emilie (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). Anaïs becomes obsessed with Emilie and makes it her mission to have Emilie fall in love with her. Anaïs is a young woman you will fall in love with despite being impulsive, self-centered, and flighty. She is the type of young woman who thinks nothing of letting a boyfriend know that she is pregnant and will have an abortion while breaking up with him. She gets by because she is beautiful and is full of life, the kind of young woman who can talk her way out of owning back rent or taking off at the last minute to go to a conference that she hasn’t been invited to. Anaïs is floating by in life until she meets Emilie, an older woman who is a distinguished writer. It doesn’t matter that Emilie is involved with Daniel, a man that Anaïs has had an affair with. She has set her sights on Emilie, and nothing will get in the way of getting close to her. Anaïs Demoustier is perfect in the role, an actress that fills the screen with life and self-confidence, something that Anaïs, the character, is abounding with. Anaïs in Love is a fun and lovely film that makes you want to fall in love and have that excitement and thrill of seeing a person who makes your world go around.   My Rating: Full Price   Anais In Love Website  Now playing in select theatres.

Indiefest: Charlotte (2021)   Charlotte is a young German-Jewish painter who comes of age in Berling on the eve of the Second World War. Charlotte has dreams of becoming a famous artist but realizes that her world is changing quickly and dangerously, and she leaves Berlin for the safety of the South of France. She finds new love and begins painting again, but a family secret threatens her work and life. This is an animated story of Charlotte Salomon, an artist who died in a concentration camp but not before creating 1000 paintings that told her life story. Charlotte is a gorgeous film that lovely tells her story and gives us an insight into many of her paintings. It’s a sad story but one that is also full of love and beauty.   My Rating: Full Price   Charlotte Website  Now playing in select theatres.

My View: The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes (2022)    The life and death of Marilyn Monroe has fascinated the world. Now a documentary explores the end of the icon with unheard interviews with both Marilyn and her inner circle. Will these previously secret tapes uncover the mystery of Marilyn? The life and death of Marilyn is probably one of the world’s most documented lives. Marilyn continues, even after so long to fascinate us, and her death has always been shrouded in mystery and conspiracy theories. Does this film give us much more insight into her life and her untimely death at age 36? Not really. I didn’t learn much more about Marilyn than I already knew. There certainly isn’t anything shocking or revealing about what was most likely an accidental overdose or a suicide. We do get to hear interviews with some somewhat shady individuals, but mostly they only confirm that Marilyn had affairs with both the Kennedy brothers while John was the President and maybe long before. Overall, if you don’t know much about Marilyn’s life, it’s a good primer, but will you learn anything new? The answer is no as I think the mystery has long been solved.    My Rating: Bargain Matinee   The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform.

Forgotten Film: The Art of Getting By (2011) PG-13   George (Freddie Highmore) is a high school kid who just doesn’t try to do anything in life. He is proud of the fact that he has never done anything in high school because George doesn’t see why he should. Then he meets two people, Sally (Emma Roberts), a fellow student who suddenly takes a liking to him, and his art teacher (Jarlath Conroy), who thinks that George has talent and could be an artist if he just found some inspiration. George has a lot of people in his life that want him to apply himself, but until Sally, there was never a reason to do so. I love this movie because of the chemistry between Highmore and Roberts, who work incredibly well on screen. The plot is a little predictable, and I am not totally happy with the 2nd half of the film, but Roberts and Highmore make it a movie worth watching.   My Rating: Full Price   The Art of Getting By Info

Weird Credits: From the credits of Crush: Mural Scenic

Coming Soon to a Screen Near Your:  Senior Year (2022) A cheerleading accident left her in a coma for 20 years. Now she is awake and ready to return for her senior year of high school…as a 37-year-old. Senior Year stars Rebel Wilson, and that’s enough for me to see it.    Senior Year Website

Until Next Time!