After an impromptu week off, Chloe and I are back with a bunch of new films as well as a homework pull. Some Mark Wahlberg mafia cosplay, Ridley Scott immersing us in an RFK Jr. American post-human future and the most murderous kid’s show host you’ll ever see is on the slate this week to chat about.
First up is By Any Means with Wonder Man’s Yahya Abdul Mateen II taking on an off-the-books FBI investigation into the murders of civil rights workers in Mississippi in the mid-sixties. It’s off the books because a tough mob hitman played by Mark Wahlberg with a prosthetic nose is busting knees and filling people full of lead. Is this something fresh and new or is this the same cliched mismatched based on a true story action drama that has been repackaged for years?
Then we move to The Dog Stars, the new Jacob Elordi film based on a best-selling novel. Directed by “legendary” filmmaker Ridley Scott, this is a quiet and sort of hopeful film set in a world wiped out by a flu. With Scott whiffing and missing on his last couple of films, in my opinion, does this adaptation land on the positive side of his filmography, or is it another total misfire from a director who needs a new nickname?
Then, and this one is exciting for me, because I get to talk about more weird horror released in this pretty banner year for horror. Buddy is an immersion into a kid’s show you’ve never seen where the big colorful unicorn gets his way, or you make an offscreen exit from the show. Done in a way that makes Buddy’s world seem frighteningly tangible, Too Many Cooks creator Casper Kelly has made something really memorable here.
After doing my homework last week, I’m finally able to give my thoughts on the newest installment in a James Wan/Leigh Whannell-created franchise with Insidious: Out Of The Further. Now separate from the Lambert’s establishing story, we explore a new character that has the ability to take demons out of the Further and into our reality. Are we returning to the form of the first two films or did this bore me like the last one?
Then, finally, Chloe and I get to bring a foreign biopic that we saw at the Vancouver International Film Festival LAST year, Franz. Now playing at the lovely VIFF Theatre, this is a mesmerizing biopic that expounds on everything you thought you knew about the uniquely iconic creator, Franz Kafka. Agnieszka Holland does a hell of a job with this one, a film that I thought Chloe would completely check out of.
The last of my reviews this week seems like a throwback from a couple of years ago, but I assure you, this 4K edition is brand new. Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret has been an iconic coming-of-age story for girls since it was published in 1970 by Judy Blume, and she’s held fast to it never being adapted. That was until Kelly Fremon Craig wrote a golden script, and now we have a fantastic film that deserves a lot more than it received.
To end off the episode, Chloe brings some homework I assigned her and, gotta love her, she picked the most brutal of the three I gave her. The Zone Of Interest was an unforgettable experience when I saw it at the Vancouver Playhouse as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival, and now Chloe gives her thoughts on this Academy Award winner as well as her regrets about not seeing it in theatres.
Coming up next week:
Practical Magic 2
The Uprising
Hope
Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger
Onslaught
The Sun Never Sets
Mayday
New episodes of What The Hell Should I Watch? drop every Friday at 9 a.m. Pacific.
Steve Stebbing 