God's Waiting Room

Let's do a 180 from "The Gray Man" to a small indie film from a first-time director, Tyler Riggs. I'm far more excited to write about this film. Like "American Honey," "Honey Boy," "Zola," "The Florida Project," and "Red Rocket," (I could keep going!) "God's Waiting Room" shares an intimate and candid portrait of its subjects in an almost documentary style. In all of these films, we are dealing with working class to impoverished people, substance abuse, and people hustling to get out of their horrid situations. In this case we have Rosie (Nisalda Gonzalez) who is living with her single dad, Nino (Ray Benitez) who works doing interlock driveways for wealthy homeowners in central Florida. Rosie wants to be a song writer/singer. Her dad wants her to go to school. Rosie has been hanging out with Jules (Matthew Leone) - a small time hapless drug dealer - to the disapproval of her friends and father. The story also follows a young man just released from prison after serving 12 years for murder, played by Tyler Riggs. Tyler Riggs - what a talent this guy is! He wrote, directed and stars in this movie and it's really good. I'm not sure if the songs that Rosie sings were also written by Tyler Riggs but they are truly special and Ms. Gonzalez sings the shit out of them. These kids, these people, they felt real to me and you could feel the sticky humidity of Florida on your skin. Films like "God's Waiting Room" are why I love going to the movies - there is beauty and tragedy at play here and it would well be worth your time to have a seat in "God's Waiting Room." Catch it at your local rep cinema, if possible, or on streaming services. 

The Gray Man

Looking for a big, dumb, fun, action film? This year's "The Gray Man" with a reported 200 million dollar budget, is the James Bond-like, hail of bullets, over-the-top car chases, ridiculous ride you want to handcuff yourself to your couch for. The Plot, (like it matters) is about Six (Ryan Gosling) who was offered a get-out-of-prison deal (basically a "La Femme Nikita" ripoff) if he became a hitman for the CIA. Fast forward twenty years or so and Six has become a lethal machine. When his latest assignment turns out to be killing one of his own, things change. His target is carrying proof that the CIA is abusing it's power! What? No way? Who could be behind such abuses? Why it's Captain America with a moustache! (Chris Evans) Billy Bob Thornton play Six's CIA mentor and segregate father figure. When Bad Captain America captures him and his niece, Six has to rescue them and bring the information of abuse to light. It's all ridiculous but hey, I enjoyed myself. I only regret I didn't see it on the big screen. Catch this CIA agent on the run, on Netflix. 

Nope

Okay, I admit it, I was disappointed. What a way to start a review about films I recommend! But wait, hear me out. So, when Jordan Peele released "Get Out," I thought it was good but I didn't love it the way some reviewers did. I watched it again at the Mustang Drive In in Prince Edward County and liked it much more the second time. Then came "Us." I really liked it - it made the blog! So I had high expectations for "Nope," largely due to the trailer. I think Peele is just as an important film maker for black culture as Spike Lee has been, and Peele is as good creatively on the horror front as M. Night Shyamalan. So Peele has raised the bar high. I think I set it too high in my mind. This is Peele's third film and he swung for the fences. He almost made it - and for that, he makes the blog. "Nope" is one of the most interesting films of 2022 and it's full of great imagery which has stuck with me long after the movie ended. What's it all about? It's about OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer) who runs a horse business for Hollywood. There is something in the sky and Emerald wants to get it captured on film - get rich off of it. At the neighbouring ranch, Ricky Park (Steven Yeun) also has a similar idea, but he wants to sell tickets to see the thing in the clouds, make it a show - sell alien toy dolls and slushy drinks. Well it doesn't work out well for anyone. There is also a back story about a chimpanzee named Gordy. It was my favourite part of the film and I won't say anymore about it. I suspect I will like "Nope" more the second time I watch it. Catch this sci-fi Western in theatres while you can. 

Hustle

Adam Sandler. There hasn't been a lot I've loved. There has been a few films I really enjoyed; "The Wedding Singer," "50 First Dates," "Click," "Spanglish." I loved him in "Uncut Gems." He followed that up with a Netflix Halloween film, "Hubie Halloween" - I didn't watch it because it looked dreadful. This is Sandler's latest, "Hustle." I'm sure I've told you a bunch of times, I'm a sucker for underdog sports films. So here we go again. Sandler plays, Stanley Sugerman, a man who's sports career was sidelined by an injury and now he travels the globe as a talent scout for the Philadelphia 76ers. His secondary dream of coaching also gets sidelined, forcing him back out on the road to find a prospect. He finds Bo Cruz (Juancho Hernangomez) sitting around in Spain hustling pick-up basketball for money in a grimy working class neighbourhood. This kid is Stanley's ticket back to the NBA and for Bo Cruz, this is his "Rocky" golden-ticket chance to change his life. Yes, the film has a training montage. Yes, just when you think it's going to be okay, back to the bottom you go. You have seen it all before but "Hustle" has got a few fresh moves and it's one of Sandler's best roles to date. Catch this three pointer on Netflix. 

Terror on the Prairie

 

Well if you enjoyed my recommendation of "Old Henry" last year, you will enjoy this. It's essentially the same film, except you replace Tim Blake Nelson with Gina Carano (Hattie) and a crying baby, and you replace Stephen Dorff with Nick Searcy (The Captain), and you get Gabriel-Kane Day Lewis to play the son (Daniel Day-Lewis's real son), and switch up the plot to be a revenge tale of a group of confederate soldiers, post civil war, looking for those responsible for the death of the Captain's daughter. Hattie has to defend herself and her two kids from those evil doers who have encircled her home - you have seen this story a hundred times before but trust me, this is a great version of it. If I controlled awards shows, Nick Searcy would get a nomination for best supporting actor - he makes a great villain. It you like Sam Peckinpah movies or you like your Westerns served bloody with a shot of whiskey, then mosey up on over and find this little beauty of film (it really is a handsome looking movie with pretty mountains - everyone likes pretty mountains and artistic shots!) on streaming services now. 

Official Competition

An aging billionaire wants a legacy to leave behind - let's build a bridge and name it after him! Better yet, let's make a movie! And in Trump like style, let's get the best people and make the best movie, like ever! That is the premise of "Official Competition," a film which ridicules the wealthy, pretentious and narcissistic actors, and pokes fun at art/artists as a whole. Does that sound fun? Well let me tell you, it is! It stars Penélope Cruz as Lola, the hot "it" director (the best!) hired to make the billionaire's dream come true. Antonio Banderas plays the hunky sex star and Oscar Martínez plays the classically trained actor with whom each is paired against as brothers in conflict in the movie's plot. Lola, who scrapbooks her scripts with taped cigarette butts and other nonsense, puts them through absurd acting exercises - run lines under a giant suspended boulder to induce feelings of stress; Saran-wraps the pair together and destroys their acting awards in front of them for some sort of imagined artistic liberation. It's basically a series of outlandish absurdities, one after the next. I found myself laughing aloud at times. If you enjoy film (said in the most pretentious way possible), you will certainly enjoy this. Catch this movie about the making of a movie in a rep theatre near you.

The Black Phone

"Stranger Things" seems to have opened a door, a gateway I suppose, to Gen-Xers' nostalgic hunger of 70s and 80s horror films. We have had a splatter of very recent examples; "Fear Street: 1978," "American Horror Story: 1984," and "X" (set in 1979) to name a few. Now we have "The Black Phone," set in 1978 in a Colorado suburb. Kids are disappearing and the only clue left behind, a sinister black balloon. Meanwhile Finney (played by the wonderful Mason Thames) is being picked on in middle school by bullies - Finney needs to learn to stand up for himself, like his younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) who also is having dreams about the missing kids. The film is based off of a short story by Joe Hill and it has similarities to his even more famous father's work, "Carrie." Ethan Hawke plays the mask wearing, child abducting, creep-o (I think he will get a best supporting Oscar nod for this one) and he is terrifying. Oh and if you didn't guess already, Finney gets taken by old creep-o and some ghosts, by the way of a broken phone, help Finney out. Sounds ridiculous, however it's extremely well done - that's how it got on the blog! Only good stuff here people. I don't scare easily but there were a couple of jump scares that got me good. Well done. Answer the call and see this one in the theatres while you can.  

Stranger Things

"Stranger Things" was released on Netflix on July 15, 2016. In the show, the year was 1983. The main character, Eleven was about the same age as the actress playing her, Millie Bobby Brown, who was 12 (Eleven was 12 years old - confusing I know). The same age as my daughter at the time. My son was 10. The fourth season of the show has now aired in 2022. In the show, it's now 1986. The characters have only aged three years but the actors have aged six. My kids were were 10 and 12, now 16 and 18. Big years for them, big for the kids in the show. We have watched them grow up in parallel. It's been a family adventure and one which I have cherished because the creators of the show, The Duffer Brothers, tapped into my childhood - a montage of 80s films referenced: "E.T.," "The Goonies," "Carrie," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and John Carpenter's "The Thing" all figured prominently in the first season. Now we are into the epic fourth season, films like "Nightmare on Elm Street," "House" (1985),"Alien," "Sixteen Candles," and "Lifeforce," pepper this season's imagery - darker and more mature, like our teens.

If you haven't watched it, it's about a small town called Hawkins and they have a government facility, a lab, and they are performing secret experiments on kids. A teen has gone missing. Turns out he was trapped in an alternate world just below the town itself - The Upside-down. I won't bother to explain more. It's a science fiction/horror show likened to the films I previously referenced. There is a heavy nostalgia factor for me and it's been a joy to share with my own kids. It's smart, it's fun, and it's one of the best things on TV. Take a trip to the Upside-down on Netflix, Kate Bush will meet you there in season 4.

Men

I've been an Alex Garland fan since he penned the screenplay for "28 Days Later." His first writing/directing debut was "Ex Machina" and he followed it up with "Annihilation" (think of an all female version of John Carpenter's "The Thing" but in the tropics Vs. the Antarctic). The men (or a good chunk of them) of "28 Days Later" and "Ex Machina" are portrayed as sex crazed evil doers. In Garland's latest film, "Men," he has done nothing to elevate the stature of the male gender in any way. In fact, the men in "Men" seem to be violent, emotionally needy, and likely sex crazed. I hypothesize Garland's view to be: men equate sex with love and if the sex is lost, so too are the men. What's it all about? Jessie Buckley plays Harper, a woman who has gone on holiday in the English countryside after the suicide of her husband James. She is haunted by the memory of James and physically haunted by some strange man in the woods - although all the men around her cottage-house are creepy as fuck. The film has a superb sense of unease, dreed, and horror. It becomes surreal in the end and this horror/meditation about the weight women bare is brought out in some of the most disturbing, deranged, and dreadful imagery I have every seen. The images have haunted me. It's extremely well done. Catch this horror show at your local rep cinema or on streaming services.

Elvis

In a world where there are literally dozens of Elvis impersonation festivals held around the world, meaning thousands upon thousands of people, every year, dress up and sing like the King of Rock and Roll, Austin Butler, the young man who plays Elvis Presley in the new movie "Elvis" had a giant rhinestone jumpsuit to fill. Let me tell you, Austin Butler will no doubt be nominated for an Oscar, I also believe he will win. The kid knocked it out of the park - I was looking at Elvis Presley for close to three hours. As my friend Edward told me, (and I'm paraphrasing) "You can't capture somebody's life story in two or three hours." I agree. However "Elvis" does a great job of giving us a history lesson of the black culture Elvis grew up in, the gritty dirty blues and the gospel church singing - gyrating to the point of enraptured ecstasy. This music so powerfully influenced him, the result was it gave 'Black' music to white conservative audiences. The music in the film occasionally transitioned to contemporary rap - felt almost "Moulin Rouge!" at times - bringing that musical history some weight (some people might not like it but I loved it). The movie has a breakneck pace and holds its foot on the pink Cadillac gas pedal to the floor. Tom Hanks (with an accent that might be the movie's only flaw) plays Elvis's manager, the Colonel. He helped bring Elvis to super stardom but also prevented him from becoming something potentially even greater. The Colonel exploited Elvis and was the cause of the great singer's demise. Catch this likely to be Oscar nominated film in theatres before it leaves the building.