  When this first released I brushed it off as another mediocre horror film amongst the mass influx of releases over the past few years. Even dismissing Ethan Hawke's inclusion, which admittedly did excite me. Finally during a horror binge years later I flipped it on and was surprised. This isn't just a run of the mill horror film. It's got style and class. I don't think it had any jump scares, which are the crutch of a bad horror movie. The horror of Black Phone lies only within the context and situation of the story. A masked kidnapper titled "The Grabber" by the small town has been successfully kidnapping teenage boys. Played by Ethan Hawke, this new age horror icon is disturbing because he's completely grounded in reality. There's no super power or incredible feat he pulls off. He's potentially your neighbor's alter ego. You would never know. The other great thing about this movie is the leading child stars, who manage to carry a performance heavy horror plot on their backs. Finney played by Mason Thames and his sister Gwen played by Madeleine McGraw are our stars. They are both young but strong, having to take care of their alcoholic father, and having already lost their mother to suicide. They've already got emotional baggage at the start of the film and the young actors do a great job diving into those characters. Overall, Black Phone isn't a ground-breaking movie, but it's definitely stuck it's head out far past the other genre slop releasing so often.
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  Nightmare Alley caught my eye in the first few minutes with it's distinct visual style. Think Shape of Water, but more sinister. The weight of this dreadful tale is first delivered through it's visuals. Though it's not long before darkness creeps into the story. Bradley Cooper plays Stan, the classic man running from his past trying to blend in set up works here thanks to the colorful cast he's merging with. Dafoe, Collette, Perlman, and of course Mara, create a dynamic setting for us as a traveling circus crew. Their personalities range from delightful to insane with Dafoe leaning more towards insane. He's the leader of the crew. The business man who "trains" geeks to be shown off as beastmen. He explains the process. You take a homeless drunk, one real bad off, and you offer him a job with a shot of alcohol - drugged with morphine. He thinks he's in heaven for a minute and a week later he's locked up in a cage half mad and eating chickens raw for entertainment. Unfortunately, its way more detailed in the film. Stan doesn't act on anything so foul, but he takes advantage of the human heart in another way - Mentalism. Through this stage act he gains power over people's emotions leading him down a dark path of his own. The film feels split down the middle. The first half being this circus spectacle that makes you feel grimy just by watching. The second focuses on Stan's scheme to get rich through his mentalism act. I enjoyed the first half way more with all the different characters. Bradley was great but I didn't find Stan to be well fleshed out and when he took the spotlight it only served as aggravation for me. He's not someone you're going to root. There is plenty of foreshadowing to the end of the film and by the time it got there I was happy for it to end. This is a very well acted and brilliantly shot film that will make you feel sick to your stomach by the credits. I appreciate it. I even recommend it, but I don't see myself watching it again.
  Adam Mckay made another comedy to watch while you're stoned. Not a stoner-flick because that would insinuate that its about potheads. No, it just has one pot head in it. You just won't really want to watch this film sober. I happen to be kind a stoned right now and don't really want to write about this film, which is sad. I was really looking forward to taking a break from anime to watch a highly anticipated film that would then launch me into another insightful binge of films. Nope. We got a 150 minute film that doesn't take itself seriously at all. It's got serious talent behind it, seriously big names starring, and it's about a really serious matter that will end the world - but it manages to do very little and in result makes you feel nothing beyond a few laughs.   "If I could live any place and any time, I'd live here, in London. In the '60s."
Edgar Wright's newest film is a brave departure from his typical structure. Instead exploring a genre of horror known as giallo, which originated in the same time and place that Last Night in Soho is so fond of - the swinging '60s. At first, this is a film about a fashion student who moves from the countryside to the big and overwhelming London to pursue her dream. It's not everything she wanted it to be. That is until she starts experiencing a second life while sleeping, as a showgirl in the 60s. Wright's biggest fans will notice the small details that callback to his other works, but otherwise it's a very refreshing film from the seasoned director. It doesn't always work for me - but when it's in full swing it's a sonically and visually impressive work of art with a killer cast and one hell of a twist. There's also an important lesson to be learned from this story. The good ol' days is a fallacy.   Jim Halpert's (aka Krasinski's) highly anticipated sequel to the 2018 hit horror film is finally here. He successfully got audiences to flock to the theaters for the first time this summer and that alone is a huge success for the movie industry. Experiencing A Quiet Place Part II in a packed theater reminded me why I hated packed theaters so much. Much like our restless audience the pacing of this film is also restless. Part II is quality fan fare pushing the limits of the first film's audible tension to a point where the whole quietness isn't even a big deal anymore. There's a lot more dialogue, aliens, and action. This will please fans of action packed sci-fi thrillers as well as fans of the original. Though, it will slightly disappoint anyone hoping for more world-building or development in the over-arching plotlines. This is crowd-pleasing and thrilling action that serves no more purpose than to entertain. For me it wasn't everything I wanted, but I know others with less expectations will be perfectly pleased. Krasinski is obviously a talented filmmaker and I hope he takes a more ambitious step with the next chapter.
  Zack Snyder never ceases to amaze me with his self-indulgent style as he continues to think outside-the-box with his uniquely ultra-violent concepts. He's possibly the most active filmmaker of dawn of the Covid era with two big budget streaming releases. I've only watched one of them. I won't be watching his Justice League unless someone pays me to. Army of the Dead's runtime was almost pushing it for me landing at nearly 3 hours. Though admittedly, his plot follows typical structure and doesn't feel overly hashed out never lingering in one spot for too long. On the other hand, the script is often terrible enough to make any screen time unfavorable. The characters here are copy and paste with less development then you'd expect from a video game character. Each character has one or two quirks and that's all we really know about them. So when they start falling prey to the vicious, goretastic zombies there wasn't any tears to follow. But this is exactly what the film does right. The zombies are a ton of fun to watch and the headshot hunting action heroes give them one hell of a fight. Thanks to streaming I was able to rewind a few of the most badass moments and relive there glory. If there's any reason to watch this movie it's the epic nature of it's violence, but you probably already knew that. Don't expect anything deeper. Even if the Snyder diehards are trying to add conceptual depth to this plot where none exists.
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