The Creator

My View: The Creator (2023) PG-13 The Creator depicts an ongoing conflict between humanity and artificial intelligence. Joshua (John David Washington) is recruited to hunt down and kill The Creator, the architect of the advanced AI. The Creator has made a mysterious weapon with the power to end the human race, and it might be the little girl that Joshua has just rescued. I liked this film, but I can’t say I loved it. It’s a big, sprawling film meant to be seen on the big screen. This is a film that covers a lot of ground, and that is why I didn’t connect with it as much as I wanted to. The film deals with AI and how we will treat the robots we create once they start thinking for themselves. With overtones of the Vietnam War, big government gone wrong, and immigration, the film tries to bring all this together in one story told over two hours, and it seems to lose its focus along the way. The film is also about love lost, the guilt of not being truthful, and the actions of the present to make up for the mistakes of the past. I think that sci-fi fans will enjoy the film, but if you aren’t a fan, this film and its complicated plot may be too much to overcome. For this fan, I liked it, but I don’t know if I will ever revisit it.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The Creator Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide.

My View: Dumb Money (2023) R   Keith Gill (Paul Dano) has a Reddit channel about stocks. He tells his followers to buy GameStop, and it goes viral, taking the stock into the stratosphere and making Keith a millionaire almost overnight. However, Keith has made a lot of big-time hedge fund investors mad, and they are out for revenge. This is a film about the little guy who tries to make some money honestly and has the guts to back it up. Dumb Money is a fun film that takes a complex story and makes it enjoyable to follow along. What I love about this film is that it lets us see the stories of other small investors, like the guy working at GameStop and the couple of college students who fall in love while on this investing journey. Paul Dano is perfect as the guy who spoke to a small group of people on his webpage and, somehow, became a crusader who battled the big investors and beat them at their own game. I am not a Pete Davidson fan, but he is perfectly cast as Keith’s brother, who keeps everything real, even much to the annoyance of Keith himself. And I love America Ferrera’s performance as a nurse who invests her money in GameStop and lets it ride on the roller coaster that is the stock market. Dumb Money is a film that is a blast to watch, especially when the big boys start squirming.   My Rating: Full Price  Dumb Money Website  Now playing in theatres.

My View: Saw X (2023) R  Saw X occurs in the past when John Kramer (Tobin Bell) had cancer and was desperate for a cure. He travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure for a miracle cure, only to discover that the entire operation is a scam. They have tricked the wrong person, and it’s time for John to get revenge. A review of the film will be up tomorrow night. The Saw franchise has always been interesting, with a character torturing people while having a strange sense of morality. This is the tenth film, but it occurs between the first and second Saw films. We know who John Kramer is and what he does. And we also know that he doesn’t work alone. This film is a bit different, first with an outstanding performance from Tobin Bell, as our mad torture designer. This film has bloody and gruesome deaths, as you would expect. Interestingly, in this film, John is the hero, not the villain. Oh sure, he still puts people in horrible situations where they have to maim and torture themselves to live, but John is dealing with some very bad people. The latest Saw movie is great for Saw lovers and horror enthusiasts. However, if you didn't enjoy the previous Saw films, this one may not be for you. My Rating: Bargain Matinee Saw X Website  Now playing in theatres nationwide.

My View: Reptile (2023) R Reptile is a story of a real estate agent’s murder. Detective Tom Nichols (Benicio del Toro) tries to find the truth, but everyone he meets is a suspect, and nothing is what it seems. I liked this detective movie about a man who can’t let things go. Everyone thinks Tom is a hero, but he still feels that there is something more to the story, and he keeps digging. I loved the chemistry between del Toro and Alicia Silverstone, who plays his wife. The two have a great rapport going, and it’s fun when his wife keeps giving him facts she has learned from true crime stories. The mystery is a little too easy to solve, and the ending is too tidy, but it is the journey to get there that is the fun part, and del Toro, who co-wrote the script, brings us along on his way to solve a crime that is more complicated than anyone would guess.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Reptile Website Now playing on the Netflix platform. 

Indiefest: Radical Wolfe (2023)   Documentary on the life and writing of Tom Wolfe, the bestselling author of groundbreaking books The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, and The Bonfire of the Vanities. I am a big fan of Tom Wolfe, and I was pleased with how much of Wolfe’s personality and writing style came across in the film. Tom's life and the impact of his writing are well depicted in the movie, starting from his articles in magazines and newspapers to his successful books. Wolfe was a man whose public bought his books in droves even before the reviews came out, making him a household name and favorite of late-night talk shows. He was a writer with his own style, which captured a nation for almost as long as he wrote his stories. I hope that people who see this film will discover the beauty of his writing and how he expertly captured the people and time he wrote about.   My Rating: Full Price  Radical Wolfe Website  Now playing in theatres. 

My View: Fair Play (2023) R  An unexpected promotion at a hedge fund is given to Emily (Phoebe Dynevor), who is in a relationship with another employee, Luke (Alden Ehrenreich). The couple is newly engaged, but this job will test their relationship to the brink and may threaten to unravel far more than their love for each other. I admit that sometimes I have trouble with films where I don’t like any of the characters. This is the case with Fair Play, where I was not too fond of either character from the start of the film. That being said, that’s not my problem with this film. It’s that the character of Luke, who starts as, at least in Emily’s eyes, the perfect boyfriend, quickly goes from that to the rails guy who can’t handle that he isn’t the golden boy he thought he was. I will not give away too much, but I hated two scenes in the film: one that takes place in a bathroom, where Emily succumbs to, I guess, lust or loss, and then the ending, which I found almost comical. The characters are flat and shallow, and the plot becomes ludicrous (how a couple living together can hide that fact from their employer is beyond me). Fair Play wasn’t a film that ever connected to me, and I felt the running time of almost 2 hours was too long to spend with two people I couldn’t care less about.   My Rating: Cable  Fair Play Website  Now playing in theatres and premiering on the Netflix platform on Friday, Oct. 6th.

Sorry I Missed It (A film that I didn’t see in theatres but have seen recently): Honor Society (2022)   Honor (Angourie Rice) is determined to survive her senior year at high school and get accepted in Harvard, and nothing is going to stop her. When Honor discovers she has three rivals for that Harvard spot, she plans to take all three of them down. Honor might be her name, but she isn’t about to be honest, fair, or have integrity when getting her way. I loved this film from the first frame, where Honor talks directly to us, giving us the layout of her life, including her parents, friends, and teachers. If Ferris Buller and Tracy Flick had a kid, it would be Honor. Honor will let nothing or anyone get in her way, and she is a master of concocting schemes to accomplish her goals. Angourie Rice (The Nice Guys, The Last Thing He Told Me) is perfect in the role of Honor, a teen who plays everyone like a master puppeteer, getting them to do exactly what she wants while acting like she is their best friend. Honor Society is if John Hughes had written a film for the TikTok/YouTube gang. It’s full of fun and unique characters, from jocks to nerds, with a dash of not-quite-so-mean girls, making the film a blast.  My Rating: Full Price   Honor Society Info Available on Amazon or Apple TV. 

Forgotten Film: King Creole (1958) PG  Danny (Elvis Presley) has flunked graduation for a second time and needs money to support his father (Dean Jagger). Danny finds a job as a singer at the King Creole nightclub, the only club in the city not run by mobster Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau). How long will Danny and the club’s success be ruined by the mobster who can’t stand anyone making money other than himself? Though I enjoy Viva Las Vegas more (because of the chemistry between Elvis and Ann-Margret), this is the film that shows that Elvis could act if given the right material and a director who knew what to do with him. Legendary director Michael Curtiz, whose career included Casablanca and The Adventures of Robin Hood, directed the film. Elvis was in brilliant company with actors including Walter Matthau, Dean Jagger, Vic Morrow, Paul Stewart, and Carolyn Jones, who plays the woman Maxie sends to seduce Danny over to the wrong side and falls in love instead. I have a feeling the setting reminded Elvis of the small clubs that he used to hang out in Memphis, and that setting meant that he was comfortable in the role, something that wasn’t always the case (i.e., most of the late ‘60s Elvis films). With last year’s Elvis, this year’s documentary Reinventing Elvis, and the upcoming bio-pic Priscilla, now would be the time to see some Elvis magic.   My Rating: Full Price   King Creole Info   The film is available to rent/buy on Amazon and Apple TV.

Weird Credits: From the credits of Dumb Money: Standby Prop

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: Priscilla (2023) R Teenage Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) meets rock and roll superstar Elvis and begins a romance that the world followed until his death. Priscilla tells the one woman who knew Elvis the best in private moments: a thrilling crush, an alley in loneliness, and a vulnerable best friend. Directed by Sofia Coppola, the film won Cailee Spaeny the Best Actress Award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.   Priscilla Website  In theatres on Nov. 3rd. 

Until Next Time!

The Equalizer 3

My View: The Equalizer 3 (2023) R  Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has finally found a home in Southern Italy. That home is being threatened by the mafia and its local crime boss. As the mafia flex their muscle and threaten McCall’s new friends, McCall does what he always does: protect his friends by any means possible. So McCall is having a bit of a personal crisis and finds himself in a sleepy seaside town in Sicily. Of course, bad things tend to follow McCall around; in this case, the village that McCall is falling in love with has a Mafia problem. You can imagine what happens next. Plenty of bad guys getting killed in lots of imaginative ways. I loved the first film of the series and enjoyed the second one. This one works because it’s so much fun to watch Denzel on the screen, doing that Denzel thing of saying something ordinary but giving it special meaning. Dakota Fanning is thrown into the mix as a CIA agent that McCall guides from afar. The plot is a little weak, and the whole Fanning side-plot feels thrown together, though there is a nice payoff in the end. I don’t know if there will be another Equalizer film. I hope there isn’t because I would like to think that McCall is having too good a time with his unfolded napkins and tea to disturb him with more killing.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee    The Equalizer 3 Website  Now playing in theatres nationwide.  

My View: Bottoms (2023) R  Two lesbian high school friends (Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri) decide to start a girls’ club after school. It’s all to impress their crushes, Isabel (Havana Rose Lui) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber), two of the most popular girls in school. What starts as a club for girl power becomes a fight club, and then things get really weird. This is a funny and absurd comedy where the football players wear their uniforms with pads to class every day, and horrible deaths caused by the rival high school are just accepted as normal. I loved this film, and the sold-out advanced screening audience I saw it with did, too. It’s goofy and surreal that utilizes the comedy chops of Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri. Sennott, who was terrific in Emma Seligman’s earlier film, Shiva Baby, is brilliant as PJ, who is always thinking of ways for the two girls to find someone to love or at least make out with. Sennott gives us a smart performance that almost dominates the film, as PJ jumps into any and everything without thinking about the consequences. Ayo Edebiri, as Josie, the more responsible of the two, is willing to go along with PJ’s plans because, frankly, they are nuts and desperate. The film has a great supporting cast, including a remarkable performance by Ruby Cruz as Hazel, someone who desperately wants to be apart of the PJ/Josie gang but isn’t confident enough to speak up. The film also has a hilarious performance by Marshawn Lynch as Mr. G, a laid-back teacher whose concepts of history are, shall we say, challenging. I loved the ending, which is as weird and funny as the rest of the film, and I want to see these characters again at college. Hopefully, one as strange and goofy as this high school.   My Rating: I Would Pay to See It Again  Bottoms Website  Now playing in theatres. 

My View: Choose Love (2023)   Cami (Laura Marano) is a young woman who seems to have it all: a great boyfriend, Paul (Scott Michael Foster), good friends, and a fantastic job. However, when a fortune teller tells Cami she has something missing in her life, and the clock is ticking, she starts to feel like it’s true. Cami soon, two guys come into her life. Rex (Avan Jogia) is a rock star, and Jack (Jordi Webber) is an old boyfriend, and now Cami has some choices to make. So this is an interactive film where Cami will talk directly to you and ask you to decide what she should do. Then, you get to see the consequences of what you picked. The film is very short, but it’s meant for you to go back and choose other choices, including who Cami ultimately ends up with. Choose Love is a very plain romantic film, even when you pick the different options. Which will you choose for Cami? The steady boyfriend, the activist boyfriend from the past, or the rockstar that will give Cami a life on the road? Or will you choose all three?   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Choose Love Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform.

My View: The Good Mother (2023)  Journalist Marissa (Hilary Swank), who, after the murder of her estranged son, forms an alliance with his pregnant girlfriend (Olivia Cooke) to track down those responsible for his death. They are about to travel into a world of drugs, corruption, and danger. This is a film where, once again, the performances are better than the film itself. With a murder that is incredibly easy to figure out, Swank isn’t given much to work with. She is a journalist who has lost her spark, suffering from a death and finding relief only in the bottom of a bottle. When her son, a druggie, is murdered on the street, she and his girlfriend decide to find out what happened. The plot is a cluttered mess as the film loses its way as it tries to be either a whodunit or a sad commentary on how we treat drug addicts, and it doesn’t succeed in either storyline. I liked the chemistry between Swank and Cooke, the girlfriend whom Swank at first blames for her son’s death, but we never get any back story on the girlfriend, and it’s hard to root for anyone in this film. The ending is as messy as the rest of the film, making it feel very unsatisfying.   My Rating: Cable  The Good Mother Website  Now playing in theatres.

Indiefest: Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose (2023) PG-13 The story of Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose takes place in 1935 when a para-psychologist named Nandor Fodor (Simon Pegg) travels to the Isle of Man, where a British family claims that a mysterious entity on their farm has contacted them. That entity, a talking mongoose named Gef. This strange little film starts and ends with two friends discussing the possibility that a mongoose on a farm can not only talk but can tell you secrets about yourself. The film can’t decide if it wants to be a comedy or a drama, and it unfortunately fails at both. I did like the chemistry between Simon Pegg as the stuck-up professor and Minnie Driver as his put-upon assistant. The film jumps between us believing that Gef can talk (we never see him, just bits of hair and tail) or if it is all a big joke put on by a strange little family. The film never finds its footing, and the mystery (based loosely on a true story) is never solved. Unfortunately for us, the tone of the film is never solved either.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose Website  Now playing in select theatres

Indiefest: Slotherhouse (2023) PG-13  Emily (Lisa Ambalavanar) is a senior and is desperate to be elected as her sorority’s president. She adopts a sloth named Alpha as the sorority’s mascot, hoping that it will help her win. It starts out well, but then the sloth becomes the prime suspect in a series of murders. Well, this is one of those films, which I seem to see a lot of lately, that would work much better as a midnight film at a horror film festival, rather than one that will work well in a midday theatre like where I saw this film. The idea is that this sloth differs from the slow-moving sloths of the jungle. This sloth is fast and a killer, as we see in the film's first scene when she is attacked by a crocodile and not only survives but kills the croc. The film is meant to be funny, but the deaths aren’t creative enough, the script is sloppy, and the movie is never scary. Overall, I got bored by about a third into the film. Because of the success of Cocaine Bear, the Sharknado film series, and the Winnie the Pooh horror film, I think we will see more of these animals gone murdering. I just hope they have better scripts.   My Rating: Cable  Slotherhouse Website  Now playing in theatres. 

Forgotten Film: Career Girls (1997) R Two young women, Hannah (Katrin Cartlidge) and Annie (Lynda Steadman) are former college roommates who are reconnecting after being apart for six years. Hannah still lives in the same apartment in London, and Annie is visiting with the idea of moving back. They will soon realize that nothing much has changed in six years, including how their lives are going. This film is from seven-time Oscar-nominated Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year). Leigh likes to give us interesting characters in how they see life, but the stories are more about how they react or talk about their lives than actually live it. In this film, we have two women who come to realize that they may never attain what they thought their lives would become. They aren’t necessarily failures, but neither are they a success. They are just living.   My Rating: Full Price  Career Girls Info Available on DVD. 

Weird Credits: From the credits of Bottoms: Conform Editor

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: The Creator (2023) PG-13   There is a war going on between humans and the forces of artificial intelligence. Joshua (John David Washington) is recruited to hunt down and kill The Creator, the architect of the advanced AI. The Creator has made a mysterious weapon with the power to end the human race, and it just might be the little girl that Joshua has just rescued. The Creator is one of those films creating a lot of excitement for sci-fi fans.  The Creator Website  Arriving in theaters in late September.

Until Next Time!