Film and TV Reviews and Podcasts
Yes, God, Yes is not an outright teen sex comedy; it’s much more nuanced because its ultimate goal is more than just seeing its protagonist get laid. At a lean 78 minutes, the film just wants Alice to gain a better understanding of herself and her sexuality. Funny but critical, biting but not mean-spirited, Yes, God, Yes is a promising work for all involved.
This week, Mike joins me to review IFC Midnight’s new releases Relic and The Rental. We also chat about Mike’s recovery from nose surgery, the newly announced Scream Factory Friday the 13th Blu-ray collection, and the ill-advised Days of the Dead convention.
In our inaugural Ebert’s Great Movies Review Series episode, our contributor and friend Ben Sears joins me to discuss the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup (1933) and Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (1985) from Ebert’s “Great Movies” list. For Potpourri, we discuss the documentary The Painter and the Thief and the first handful of episodes from 13 Reasons Why’s final season.
Greyhound bears a striking similarity to last year’s 1917, in that there’s a clear endpoint objective at stake, and the characters we spend the most time with are frustratingly opaque. But whereas 1917 took time to reflect and add at least a little characterization between its video game-like checkpoints, Greyhound only stops and pauses for a scant few moments.
Relic, the feature debut from writer/director Natalie Erika James, takes the fragility and fear of caring for a mentally ailing loved one and packages it into an overall enticing thriller with the effectiveness and confidence of a seasoned filmmaker.
With only one “season” under its belt so far (and hopefully more to come), Homemade has shown that there will surely be no lack of original stories to be told as a result of the pandemic.
By transposing a high stakes political arena onto a small town rural America setting, Jon Stewart’s Irresistible takes a relatively low key approach to its ribbing of the world of campaign finance. It is not simply a “fish out of water” story. Nor does it attempt to romanticize the quaint small town it occupies. Instead, Stewart uses this juxtaposition to call attention to the absurdity of campaign fundraising in a fairly unique manner.
This week, our contributor and friend Ben joins me to review the retro sci-fi film, The Vast of Night and the new Judd Apatow film The King of Staten Island. We also talk about drive-in movies and AMC’s plans to reopen. For Potpourri, we discuss the Netflix films Da 5 Bloods and The Wrong Missy.
Da 5 Bloods is clearly a project that only Spike Lee could tell, and the way he tells it makes it one of the highlights of the year so far.
Fans of Joseph Gordon-Levitt won’t be disappointed by this intimate thriller. His commitment to the material, the character, and his craft itself, is on full display in 7500. Despite being methodical in its dialogue and a slower burn narratively than a more conventional fare, 7500 is a solid thriller centering around a strong lead performance.
This week, Mike joins me to review the new thriller on VOD, Becky and the Shudder exclusive documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street.
There are no talking heads, no title cards (save for the occasional running clock to show the passing of the day), and no opening crawl giving the history of the bar or who these people are. Some stay throughout the entirety of the film, some try to stay and end up drinking too much, and some we only meet halfway through, but each one the Ross brothers feature makes a memorable impression.
The Invisible Man Returns may not be as engaging and thrilling as 1933’s The Invisible Man. But it does have the pedigree of having Vincent Price’s first horror movie performance and what a performance it is. Price enters the shoes of the Invisible Man well and embodies what it means to be this potentially tragic character even if the character beats are a bit muddled on the page.
In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Kyrsten joins me to talk about Community Seasons 2-5 and for a feature review of The Lovebirds, both are currently available to stream on Netflix.
It’s a tale as old as time: man buys a secondhand deerskin jacket. Man falls in love with said jacket and begins talking to it as if it’s a real person. Man begins converting his entire wardrobe to 100% deerskin. Man’s jacket tells him that it’s so great that it wants to be the only jacket left in the entire world.
The Obsessive Viewer 