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Hot Take: A showcase for Keira Knightley’s talents in a provocative role. You know it’s a period piece but it feels so fresh at the same time.

If you don’t know who Colette is (I didn’t), it won’t make this period biopic from writer/director Wash Westmoreland which showcases the talents of Keira Knightley and Dominic West any less interesting. Actually, it might add to the intrigue. Having little exposure to previews of the film, the provocative nature of the story of a young French girl who marries a successful Parisian writer who then becomes one of his ghostwriters and launches a series of sexually explicit novels around Claudine, a young country girl who ventures to Paris. The film digs into issues of gender equality and expectations around sexual proclivity which continue to remain relevant today despite the film’s period setting. It’s Knightley though that shines more than the story in one of the more impressive performances of her acting career. It’s likely not quite Oscar worthy but it is a reminder of what a talent Knightley is. For her performance alone, the movie is worth seeing and the biopic’s ability to rise above the standard expectations of the typical nature of a biopic isn’t a bad secondary reason to check it out.Read More →

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Hot Take: Fan service to the nth degree. It’s your average horror sequel with a shot of nostalgic reverence to the horror film that started it all. 

The reviews for Halloween are almost glowing. For clarity’s sake, that’s the 2018 Halloween. It’s not the original Halloween from 1978 nor is it one of the film’s 4 sequels. It’s not the 20th anniversary follow up which this film largely ignores. Nor is it either of the two reboots and it’s definitely not the sequel to the second reboot. It is, however, the 11th film in the venerable and lucrative franchise. As previously mentioned here, you’re not getting the point of view of a person who necessarily enjoys horror films here but I did respect the ’78 original which brought the Michael Myers character and essentially a genre of slasher films to life. One could argue that without Michael Myers, there’s likely no Jason Vorhees or Freddy Krueger. Despite all of this and despite the efforts of this Halloween to show reverence to its predecessor by bringing back Jamie Lee Curtis, Nick Castle (the original Michael Myers) and John Carpenter (as executive producer), for this viewer, the story felt like a retread, the paranoia of the main character all too striking in our current political state and the scares just too pedestrian for Halloween to really excite me about this latest effort to keep the franchise afloat. Now, the box office results share something different (the film had a monster $77.5 million opening weekend, the largest of any slasher film according to Box Office Mojo) and it’s likely we won’t have to wait another 20 years for a follow up based on the financial success as plans were already in the work for a sequel if the film performed well.Read More →

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Hot Take: An authentic, “ripped from the headlines” look at the shooting of an unarmed black man by a white cop and the ripple effect of its impact.

Debut filmmaker Reinaldo Marcus Green has done an excellent job with his first film Monsters and Men. Green manages to take a hot topic and apply various points of view to it giving us three different characters and their perspective on a routine police action gone wrong where a black man beloved in his community in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood is shot by a white officer. From the young kid who filmed the shooting to the black police officer who questions whether or not his fellow officers have a racial bias to the young high school athlete who must decide on whether or not to get involved in his community’s uprising. All three tales have a weight to them and Green is effective in his ability to weave the characters together. It’s never frivolous and hardly wastes a second of its 95 minute run time. It speaks to current events and the escalated climate we face due to social media’s ability to make incidents such as this such a relevant and necessary topic to discuss.Read More →

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Hot Take: It’s alright… if you’re looking for a Quentin Tarantino cover band.

There was a time when Quentin Tarantino first showed up that everyone thought it would be cool to cop his style. It’s less frequent these days but rarely has it been more obvious than with Bad Times at the El Royale, the latest from Drew Goddard. With a robust 141 minutes of content, the ensemble cast featuring Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Lewis Pullman, Dakota Johnson, Chris Hemsworth, Cailee Spaeny and Jon Hamm has so many Tarantino-esque moments that harken back to his most recent work in The Hateful Eight but also Four Rooms, Pulp Fiction and others. Essentially, for this viewer, I spent too much time comparing Goddard’s work to Tarantino’s and not enough enjoying what happened to be unfolding on screen. For some, it might not be that big of a deal but it lost something and felt more imitation than homage.Read More →

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Hot Take: There’s a lot going on here. Within the chaos, there’s a message but the film may be too bonkers to figure it out. Instead, you just might feel like it’s a smarter version of The Purge and that’s not the worst thing you could say about a movie.

If The Crucible, The Purge, Kill Bill and Mean Girls had an orgy, Assassination Nation would be it’s lovechild. Maybe that should have been my Hot Take but I chose to lead with it as it’s more than just a Hot Take when it comes to this film. Writer/director Sam Levinson has an interesting piece of work on his hands here with Assassination Nation. Personally, it didn’t completely hit the mark but it’s impossible to say it doesn’t hold your attention for 110 minutes. One part satire, one part young women’s anthem Assassination Nation takes a wide look at what happens when the shame of our private affairs becomes public and the public can’t handle it and then puts a laser focus on what that does to young women when they become the target. Doing too much may be Assassination Nation’s biggest drawback as it’s buckshot approach makes it feel hazy at times but if you hang with it long enough, it becomes more clear… and angry as hell in the process. Read More →

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Hot Take: Today’s news cycle is more like an AR-15 than a .44 Magnum which causes Fahrenheit 11/9 to land with more of a thud than a whack. 

I’ve been waiting for the oxygen mask to drop from the overhead since January 2017. Back then, it was photos of the Inauguration we were obsessing over. There were the real ones, the doctored ones and the claims from every direction of what it all meant. Depending on what side (Yes, it’s now sides. There’s no more ideology or leaning, it’s now pick a side.) you’re on, the last 22 months have been, well, interesting, I guess. There are plenty of other words to describe it but this isn’t a political blog nor is this the place to go down that rabbit hole. However, it’s important to set the stage for the climate for which Fahrenheit 11/9, documentarian Michael Moore’s latest, faced when entering the box office fray. Unlike Fahrenheit 9/11, the film which discussed the 9/11 attacks and subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how George W. Bush and his administration manipulated the media to exploit those attacks, Fahrenheit 11/9 despite being more timely (Fahrenheit 9/11 was released nearly 3 years after the attacks), already felt a bit outdated. Even Moore’s documentary Bowling for Columbine which was a response to the mass shooting at Columbine but came 3 years after the incident felt more timely than this most recent release. It’s impossible to keep up with the speed and ferocity of our current news reporting with the limitations of the cinema. Fahrenheit 11/9, while interesting, is a stark reminder of that.Read More →

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Hot Take: I’m not a dog lover but even I couldn’t help but adore the story of 5 puppies groomed to potentially be service dogs for the blind. An adorable, inspiring story.

2018 has been an amazing year for documentaries. While Won’t You Be My Neighbor? gave us some insight on one of the icons of child edutainment and Three Identical Strangers told the remarkable, shocking story of triplets separated at birth, there was something about Pick of the Litter, the story of 5 puppies — Patriot, Primrose, Poppet, Potomac and Phil — born and bred to be guide dogs for the blind, that elevated the documentary just above those impressive documentaries. Maybe it was the adorable, fluffy pups but it was more the remarkable effort put in by everyone involved to get these puppies to the point where they can help their blind beneficiary enjoy a more fulfilled life as the fully trained and certified pups take away some of their blind owner’s walking limitations. Pick of the Litter starts at birth and shows the rigorous and unforgiving process which eliminates the dogs who can’t make the cut (relegating them to civilian life) and leaves only the best to help their human counterparts.Read More →

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Hot Take: Kind of fun, sort of funny and even a little spooky. An unexpected surprise from director Eli Roth.

It’s the time of year where we’re treated to a run of horror flicks out to scare the crap out of you. The trick is to find that rare Halloween flick which manages to celebrate the Halloween season without relying on hacking and slashing its way to frightening the audience. Every year, we get at least one and this year, The House With A Clock In Its Walls is the Halloween entry which aims to accomplish that feat. Surprisingly, the film is directed by Eli Roth who has previously gone down the path of blood and gore with films like Cabin Fever, Hostel, Hostel II, Knock Knock and The Green Inferno. Moving in a different direction in 2018, Roth previously directed the remake of Death Wish starring Bruce Willis. The results weren’t the best but it was good to see Roth take a different route to attempt to entertain the audience as the director clearly is talented. Roth’s second step away from his normal shock horror is The House With A Clock In Its Walls. Still more of a horror movie than anything, it’s a different kind of horror film. More family friendly, the film is fun and funny even if it does run out of steam as it reaches its third act. There, the special effects take over and if you’re invested by then, you’ll forgive the film’s faults and overall, The House With A Clock In Its Walls successfully delivers an entertaining 105 minutes in the theater.Read More →

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In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: If you loved the trailer, you’ll wonder what the heck movie you’re watching. Tell me why I’m supposed to feel sympathy for a crack dealer again?

Earlier this year, one of the worst films of 2018 hit theaters when Gotti rolled in to remind us that John Gotti wasn’t all that bad of a guy… even though he was a murderer, loan shark and ran illegal gambling through the mob. They didn’t spend much time on that side of things and all I can remember is John Travolta’s ridiculously poor over-the-top portrayal at this point but it was one example how the filmmaker can control the narrative and attempt to portray an unsavory character in a more positive light. Then there’s White Boy Rick. Set in the 1980s, the mostly true story of Rick Wershe, Jr., also known as “White Boy Rick” who was an FBI informant in his early teen years and later became a cocaine dealer before he turned 18. The depressing tale details Rick’s ascension to power, money and women before eventually the world comes crashing down on him. It’s told in such a way that seeks sympathy for Wershe as if he were a victim and while there are reasons to feel sorry for Wershe who was manipulated by the FBI at a young age and used by his father to help with moving illegal guns, for the most part, Wershe had opportunities to take a different path and didn’t.Read More →

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Hot Take: A Simple Favor never really allows itself to be cornered into a specific genre which is what makes it so much fun. It’s more about Lively and Kendrick though and they’re both great in Paul Feig’s first directorial effort sans Melissa McCarthy since 2006.

A Simple Favor is an easy decision and here’s how to make it: Are you okay with a less than adequate story overshadowed by two talented performers obviously having a blast with the material that’s more style than substance? You are? (I was.) Then A Simple Favor should be right up your alley. (That’s a figurative alley, by the way. Not everyone has their own literal alley.) Director Paul Feig sheds his Melissa McCarthy security blanket to bring to life the 2017 novel with the same name which essentially feels like a Gone Girl knock-off and considering A Simple Favor‘s $20 million budget is 1/3 of Gone Girl’s that comparison holds true financially. The result is something a little closer to a less sexier version of 1998’s Wild Things though Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick have their moments, too. (They’re not quite as memorable as Denise Richards and Neve Campbell’s escapades in the 1998 thriller.) If it needed to be defined into a genre, the best description would be noir comedy which doesn’t necessarily seem like it’s a thing but A Simple Favor is able to get there though it’s not completely funny or totally dark but has enough elements of both to make it work.Read More →