On the final episode of 2023, I give my thoughts on the ending of the DC Cinematic Universe, Zack Snyder’s new universe launch on Netflix, two new legacy horror films and the great disruptor of my “best-of” list for 2023. I’ve got big new ideas for Best Actor this year!
This week I give my full thoughts on Wonka, Five Nights At Freddy’s is on 4K, a Chinese epic sci-fi that completely outdoes anything Roland Emmerich can come up with, a handful of remastered films from the 90s and more. Also, where is your bar set for Aquaman?
For this episode, I join Shane for some Mutant Mayhem as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles newest adventure lands on 4K and Blu-Ray, along with Gareth Edwards’ new sci-fi epic The Creator and the Aussie thriller Mercy Road. I give my thoughts on the new Chicken Run, landing on Netflix twenty-three years after the original and a preview of my upcoming review of Timothee Chalamet in Wonka.
This week I talk about Sam Esmail’s Leave The World Behind on Netflix, the 4K releases of Titanic, some sci-fi television, both new and classic on Blu-Ray, Spongebob Squarepants and murderous sloths.
Welcome to the first episode of What The Hell Should I Watch, now a visual podcast. This week I give you the lowdown on the new and sure-to-be Academy Award-nominated Alexander Payne ode to Hal Ashby, The Holdovers, Emerald Fennell’s wild second film, Saltburn, the star-studded thriller on Netflix, Leave The World Behind, the Blu-ray release of Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny and a preview of John Woo’s first American film in twenty years, Silent Night.
New Releases:
Silent Night – A gritty revenge tale of a tormented father who witnesses his young son die when caught in a gang’s crossfire on Christmas Eve. While recovering from a wound that costs him his voice, he makes vengeance his life’s mission and embarks on a punishing training regimen in order to avenge his son’s death.
Expectations: It’s been a long time since legendary Hong Kong action filmmaker John Woo made an American film, two decades to be exact, with Ben Affleck’s Paycheck in 2003. Needless to say, I’m excited. Yes, the storyline feels very Death Wish adjacent but I’m on board for a high-octane actioner from one of the best in the genre behind the camera and The Killing actor Joel Kinnaman in front of it. I have some high hopes.
May December – Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, Gracie Atherton-Yu and her husband Joe (twenty-three years her junior) brace themselves for their twins to graduate from high school. When Hollywood actress Elizabeth Berry comes to spend time with the family to better understand Gracie, who she will be playing in a film, family dynamics unravel under the pressure of the outside gaze. Joe, never having processed what happened in his youth, starts to confront the reality of life as an empty-nester at thirty-six. And as Elizabeth and Gracie study each other, the similarities and differences between the two women begin to ebb and flow. Set in picturesque and comfortable Camden, Maine, May December is an exploration of truth, storytelling, and the difficulties (or impossibility) of fully understanding another person.
Review: I feel like kids of a certain generation know the case of Mary Kay Letourneau, a Washington state teacher who was caught in a relationship with one of her underaged students. Well, Todd Haynes’ new film plays in that sandbox with a filter of twenty years past on it and it works so well, his best since the Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett drama Carol. Natalie Portman gives one of my favorite performances of her career and Charles Melton solidifies star-making talent as well. This film is constantly evolving and engrossing the whole time, easily one of this year’s best offerings.
Candy Cane Lane – Eddie Murphy stars in this holiday comedy adventure about a man on a mission to win his neighborhood’s annual Christmas home decoration contest. After Chris (Eddie Murphy) inadvertently makes a deal with a mischievous elf named Pepper (Jillian Bell) to better his chances of winning, she casts a magic spell that brings the 12 Days of Christmas to life, and wreaks havoc on the whole town. At the risk of ruining the holidays for his family, Chris, his wife Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross), and their three children must race against the clock to break Pepper’s spell, battle deviously magical characters, and save Christmas for everyone.
Expectations: Eddie Murphy is an undenied comedy legend who has a filmography of classics going back into my childhood through the nineties but in the last couple of decades? Not so many. He tries the holiday route this time, teaming with
Godzilla Minus One – Post-war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb.
Expectations: With a new series on AppleTV+ and a new Godzilla and Kong film on the horizon for 2024, the big Toho-created Kaiju is on the lips of current pop culture and the originators want another crack at it with this new prequel. Leave it to the creators to do their best as the reviews for this film are phenomenal, ramping up the spectacle big time that makes these movies work. Of course, human melodrama is always a main piece but the monsters are where it all excels. A great watch in tandem with the current AppleTV+ product I think.
Monster – A suburban town with a large lake. A single mother who loves her son, a school teacher who cares about her students, and innocent children lead a peaceful life. One day, a fight breaks out at school. It looked like a common fight between children, but their claims differed, and it gradually developed into a big deal involving society and the media. Then one stormy morning, the children suddenly disappear.
Review: This is one of the big films of the Vancouver International Film Festival for me, the latest film from writer and director Hirokazu Koreeda, the man who made my favourite film of the previous year’s festival, Broker. Knowing nothing going in, this is a fascinating story about different perspectives that evolve the film through many different filters and quasi-genre feels to end with a message that is both poignant and imperative to our current times. Koreeda reminds me a bit of the director who kicked off this year’s VIFF, Ken Loach, as they both have a good hold on the human condition.
Blu-Ray:
A Haunting In Venice – In post-World War II Venice, Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to uncover the killer again.
Expectations: Kenneth Branagh returns both behind the camera and in front of it as Agatha Christie’s iconic sleuth Hercule Poirot in the third film he has done with the character to varying degrees of satisfaction. I enjoyed his Murder On The Orient Express but Death On The Nile was a bit of a mess in multiple places so that’s the energy I brought into this one. It served me well as, even with a genre tone shift, this movie is a bit of a mess as well. It struggles to lean into a message and dismisses and embraces those supernatural plot devices to a frustrating degree. I love Branagh’s Poirot but not the end results sadly.
Eye For An Eye: The Blind Swordsman – Blind Cheng, a registered bounty hunter of board of punishments, meets Ni Yan, a restaurant daughter who suffered family massacre and personal rape. Onlooking Cheng is then involved into a struggle with darkness forces and steps on the road of justice seeking and revenge.
Review: A new and bloody Chinese martial arts film arrived and, immediately, I was shocked at how short it is. Usually, an epic like this would be at least two hours long but this one clocks in at just over an hour and ten minutes which is unheard of for any film really. The film has some great fight sequences throughout but doesn’t really go down any unexplored avenues in the genre. I will say that there was a very inventive kill that got an audible response from me and kept me in for the endgame.
The Sandman: Season 1 – When the Sandman, aka Dream, the cosmic being who controls all dreams, is captured and held prisoner for more than a century, he must journey across different worlds and timelines to fix the chaos his absence has caused.
Review: Before this show even saw release on Netflix it was seeing immediate hatred from comic book gatekeepers and Netflix production haters alike but I would like to point out that the subject matter is already heady with deep lore so it would have been divisive anyway. I would liken it to The Witcher which felt like it was dripping with an already established and fully built world right from the beginning but at least The Sandman tries a bit of back story with its first episode. Based on the popular Vertigo comic from creator Neil Gaiman, I have to say that this show looks gorgeous, the cross-pollination of Warner Bros. DC Comics television division and Netflix has made a giant of a potential mountain. I love Gaiman’s writing style and have been impressed with the page-to-screen transition of it so far.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
NCIS Hawaii: Season 2 – The world’s most successful television series continues on the seductive shores of Hawai’i as the first female Special Agent in Charge of NCIS Pearl Harbor takes command. She and her team balance duty to family and country, investigating high-stakes crimes involving military personnel, national security, and the mysteries of the island itself. This NCIS: Hawai’i team is a skilled mix of mainland transplants who’ve relocated to the tranquillity of the Pacific and wizened locals who know their mahalo from Kapu.
Review: With New Orleans and now Los Angeles ending its NCIS run and now Australia joining the fray, we also still have a crime-solving unit located in the same place where the Five-O reigned and the Magnum continues to roam on the procedural powerhouse that is CBS. Vanessa Lachey is the only known star that I can recognize but it’s all about the culture, the seaside locations and, of course, the terrorist acts that need to be taken down. For cut-and-dry procedurals like this, you are either into the criminal of the week type storyline or you’re not. There isn’t really an in-between on this.
Blue Is The Warmest Color – Adèle is a high school student who is beginning to explore herself as a woman. She dates men but finds no satisfaction with them sexually, and is rejected by a female friend who she does desire. She dreams of something more. She meets Emma who is a free spirited girl whom Adèle’s friends reject due to her sexuality, and by association most begin to reject Adèle. Her relationship with Emma grows into more than just friends as she is the only person with whom she can express herself openly. Together, Adèle and Emma explore social acceptance, sexuality, and the emotional spectrum of their maturing relationship.
Review: A Criterion Collection entry that I went out and got myself, this is one of my favorite French films of the last twenty years, featuring two of the most gorgeous actresses working today, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos. The story of a hidden love awakening is palpable in every moment and writer and director Abdellatif Kechiche commands every moment of it with such deft beauty to mirror his players on screen. This purchase was a long time coming and I’m so glad to have it.
The Flash: The Final Season – Barry Allen is a forensic scientist and crime-scene investigator at The Central City Police Department with a reasonable happy life, despite the childhood trauma of a man in a bizarre red-and-yellow costume killing his mother and framing his father for it. All that changes when a massive particle accelerator created by visionary physicist Dr. Harrison Wells and his team at S.T.A.R Labs causes a malfunction creating a freak storm, killing many people and causing Barry to be struck by lightning in his lab. He wakes up after a coma nine months later. He and his new friends at S.T.A.R Labs discover that he has superhuman speed and can run on both land and water. He can move, think and react at light speeds. He can also vibrate so fast that he can pass through walls, travel through time and lend or borrow speed. He heals more quickly than an average human. Later, he learns that he is but one of the many affected by the incident, most of them who are using their powers for evil. Determined to make a difference, Barry dedicates his life to fighting such threats as The Flash.
Review: The final piece of the Arrowverse for the CW network drew to a close and , besides the fun of DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, this series was the most consistent with its tone and characters. This isn’t a knock on Arrow but it seemed to meander a bit during its run. I will also say, now that we’ve gotten the full resolution, Grant Gustin’s Flash and Barry Allen might be my favorite live action interpretation. It was so good that the movie should have been scrapped, Ezra Miller fired and Grant should have been the golden child. It is all such a massive missed opportunity.
Television:
Obliterated (Netflix) – An elite special forces team who thwarts a deadly threat to Las Vegas. After their celebratory party, filled with booze, drugs and sex, the team discovers that the bomb they deactivated was a fake. The now intoxicated team has to fight through their impairments, overcome their personal issues, find the real bomb, and save the world.
Review: Douche-bros crossover with special forces mercenary mission in this new series from those two guys who brought Harold and Kumar into the stoner zeitgeist and if you can dull your comedy senses more than those films commanded, you will be ok. The excessiveness of the partying gets a bit much but that is all set up so our players can be ultimately brain scrambled in order to save the world and it kind of works. Former What I Like About You star Nick Zano is doing a full on Brad Pitt impression here but he does a solid job in bringing the action as well as some good line deliveries. This probably won’t see a second season but this one is entertaining enough I think.
Slow Horses: Season 3 (AppleTV+) – Slough House is a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who’ve screwed up: left a service file on a train, blown a surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They’re the service’s poor relations. The slowest horse and most bitter among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations. But when a young man is abducted, and his kidnappers threaten to behead him live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. But is the victim who he first appears to be? And what’s the kidnappers’ connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone involved has their own agenda.
Review: It is probably best for any Gary Oldman fan to get into this AppleTV+ series because the Academy Award-winning actor has declared that once the show has made it’s run, he will most likely retire from acting. Yes, I’m panicking too but the great news is this show is really solid and definitely worth going out on his shield. This is one of those sleeper hit shows and one of the better releases from AppleTV+ but unfortunately got dwarfed in its first and second-season releases by shows like See and Ted Lasso. For those people who have the streaming service and have gotten through the more notable shows, this one should be next on your list.
New Releases:
Napoleon – An epic that details the checkered rise and fall of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine.
Expectations: In what seems like a biopic that was a long time coming, Ridley Scott finally gets his take on this piece of history with Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix leading, in a Gladiator reunion. The film is getting blasted a bit for historical inaccuracies, one which Scott has said “who fucking cares” about but I’m in it for Vanessa Kirby’s performance as Josephine and the volatile and cuckolding relationship he had with Napoleon. Ever since I saw the trailer, I knew she’d be the draw for me.
Wish – This film is an all-new musical-comedy welcoming audiences to the magical kingdom of Rosas, where Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force–a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe–the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico–to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen.
Expectations: Celebrating its one-hundredth anniversary, Disney is really hoping for a win here at the end of the year as box office wins have been few and far between in 2023. It looks beautifully made and features the tried tested and true voice of Alan Tudyk as another animal character so it looks all on the up and up. The audience is more finicky these days so being the only kid’s film in theaters may not be enough to give it the boost it needs and the reviews are middling right now.
Dream Scenario – Hapless family man Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. But when his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom, in this wickedly entertaining comedy from writer-director Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself) and producer Ari Aster.
Expectations: Yes, I know I have a penchant for celebrating everything Nicolas Cage but the rest of the critic contingent agrees with me on this one as it is a Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. This is the side of Cage I really love too, the weird one where he takes huge leaps with his ideas and they work out. This movie is so deliciously odd and I’ve heard such amazing things about it. Can’t wait till I can finally see it.
Good Burger 2 – Dexter Reed is down on his luck after another one of his inventions fails. Ed welcomes Dex back to Good Burger with open arms and gives him his old job back. With a new crew working at Good Burger, Dex devises a plan to get back on his feet but unfortunately puts the fate of Good Burger at risk once again.
Expectations: There are many kids of the Nickelodeon television of the nineties generation that have been waiting more than twenty-five years for this sequel to the cult 1997 hit and now, here we are on Paramount+. Kenan Thompson has been a long-serving cast member on Saturday Night Live but Kel Mitchell has been relatively quiet so it’s great to see these two return to something that made them so popular. I also love that Jillian Bell is the villain of the film as I’m a huge fan of her.
Blu-Ray:
Oppenheimer – The story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in developing the atomic bomb.
Review: Your chance to see one of the best films of the year is a lot easier now as the film has made its way to home viewing. Easily the front runner for many Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor Cillian Murphy, Best Supporting Actor Robert Downey Jr., Best Supporting Actress Emily Blunt and a slew of technical categories, yes, this film is a total masterpiece. Smart, awe-inspiring and with an incredible score to match, this is a film that boldly says that big-time cinema is alive and well.
Saw X – John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is back. The most chilling installment of the Saw franchise yet explores the untold chapter of Jigsaw’s most personal game. Set between the events of Saw I and II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer — only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable. Armed with a newfound purpose, John returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through a series of ingenious and terrifying traps.
Expectations: After Chris Rock resurrected the Saw franchise a bit with the last film, Spiral, we now get a full-on resuscitation of the once-popular horror franchise with a prequel here and I’m sure that more are to follow. This is a franchise that was always directed to a very focused torture porn fanbase and this one is definitely no different but there is a box office reception twist. This movie got great reviews! That’s right, the first since the first film! . Blood, guts, gore and so much more are certainly on display but something just clicked with this one and people really liked it. I know! Even as a fan of the genre, I’m just as surprised as you!
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 – After traveling to Greece for a family reunion, a woman attempts to locate her deceased father’s childhood friends.Expectations: I don’t think I’m the only one calling this one an unnecessary sequel and not only that, this film that is the second “Why did you make this?” in the franchise. Nia Vardalos is charming and I enjoy her on screen but all these movies do is try to capitalize on a remarkable first movie by diminishing the returns every time. I like and even own the first film but this is where I stop and, hopefully, it’s where the studio stops too because no one is even talking about this one.
The Fugitive 4K – Wrongfully accused of murdering his wife, Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) escapes from the law in an attempt to find her killer and clear his name. Pursuing him is a team of U.S. marshals led by Deputy Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones), a determined detective who will not rest until Richard is captured. As Richard leads the team through a series of intricate chases, he discovers the secrets behind his wife’s death and struggles to expose the killer before it is too late.
Review: This has to be one of the greatest thrillers in the last thirty years and it’s ignited by fantastic performances from both Ford and Jones. I have early memories of seeing this film in theaters, possibly with my dad, and I know that this informed me of exciting cinema, especially on a bigger adult blockbuster level. The film still holds up too and looks amazing on the 4K picture upgrade, another bonus about the rereleases of Warner Bros. treasured catalogue as part of an anniversary year. I love this movie still, a must see if you’ve never experienced it.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
Cocaine Bear 4K – 1985, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia. When a duffel bag crammed with cocaine bricks falls from the sky, a massive American black bear eats $14 million worth of nose candy. And as a pair of drug dealers comb the tangled woods to retrieve the goods, the coked-up beast goes on a rampage for more white powder, carving a bloody path of destruction along the way. In the next few hours, the black-haired mountain of muscle and razor-sharp claws will be the most dangerous apex predator on any continent. Do the intruders have what it takes to confront the unstoppable Cocaine Bear?
Review: In a Tarantino-esque romp through a Georgia state park with a myriad of characters, this movie manages to be entertaining, bloody and pretty damn funny, a complete surprise from director Elizabeth Banks who has seemed to find an interesting storytelling stride in the big studio B-film department and I am totally ready to see her do more of them. Multiple actors have scene-stealing moments in it, like The Wire’s Isiah Whitlock Jr. and one-time Han Solo actor Alden Ehrenreich who prove their importance every time they are on screen. I had such a fun time with this movie in theatres and am so happy that it got the push up to the next level in 4K.
The Exorcist 4K – A visiting actress in Washington, D.C., notices dramatic and dangerous changes in the behavior and physical make-up of her 12-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, a young priest at nearby Georgetown University begins to doubt his faith while dealing with his mother’s terminal sickness. And a frail, elderly priest recognizes the necessity for a show-down with an old demonic enemy.
Review: Yes, I know it’s almost Christmastime and the scary should be put away until the end of the year I guess, but I received this one a few weeks back and I couldn’t not say anything about it. It is one of the greatest horror films of all time, a masterpiece from top to bottom all orchestrated by the late and truly great director William Friedkin. This is special movie magic here and an experience I can always get behind and take in all the thrills and chills it has to offer with the same effect.
Yellowjackets: Season 2 – Part survival epic, part psychological horror story, and part coming-of-age drama, this series is the saga of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the unlucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. This series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team, to savage clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together twenty five years later, proving that what lies in the past is never really past, and what began out in the wilderness is far from over.
Review: Mere episodes into the first season of this series and you know why it was called one of the best shows of last year and hit Twitter like fandom wildfire. I was already a huge fan of actresses Christina Ricci, Melanie Lynskey and Juliette Lewis and now Jasmine Savoy Brown from Scream and Scream VI but even I was unprepared for the awesomeness of this show. The show definitely has a sort of Lord Of The Flies seasoning to it but the originality and depth of character blew me away. Both the young and older cast are fantastic and the intrigue of the storyline gives me a Lost level feel. This is the must see series right now in my opinion.
Television:
Fargo: Season 5 (FX) – Various chronicles of deception, intrigue, and murder in and around frozen Minnesota. All of these tales mysteriously lead back one way or another to Fargo, North Dakota.
Expectations: It may have started with a brilliant mid-nineties comedy thriller from the Coen Brothers that netted Frances McDormand her first Oscar but television creator Noah Hawley has taken the ball and ran with it for four great seasons and now a fifth. As always, the cast is deep with this season featuring Jon Hamm, Juno Temple, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stranger Things actor Joe Keary and many more and moves the story into a modern era after the seventies set previous season. I feel like it’s been a while since the last installment on FX and I know people have been waiting for this glorious return.
New Releases:
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes – The story of Coriolanus Snow, years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem. He is handsome and charming, and though the Snow family has fallen on hard times, Coriolanus sees a chance for a change in his fortunes when he is chosen to be a mentor for the 10th Hunger Games only to have his elation dashed when he is assigned to mentor a girl tribute named Lucy Gray Baird from the impoverished District 12.
Expectations: I can’t say that the bar I have set for my levels of excitement on this prequel is very high as the last two Hunger Games films, the Mockingjay two-parter, left me bored and looking for the exit. The job once again falls on franchise staple Francis Lawrence to bring it together again and, funny enough, the advance reviews are pretty solid for it so far. The film has a solid cast of character performers including Viola Davis, Jason Schwartzman and Peter Dinklage so I do have some interest in seeing it pan out. I am a little leary of its runtime which is over two and a half hours. I feel like there might be some bloat there.
Trolls Band Together – After two films of true friendship and relentless flirting, Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) are now officially, finally, a couple (#broppy)! As they grow closer, Poppy discovers that Branch has a secret past. He was once part of her favourite boyband phenomenon, BroZone, with his four brothers: Floyd (Golden Globe-nominated electropop sensation Troye Sivan), John Dory (Eric André; Sing 2), Spruce (Grammy winner Daveed Diggs; Hamilton) and Clay (Grammy winner Kid Cudi; Don’t Look Up). BroZone disbanded when Branch was still a baby, as did the family, and Branch hadn’t seen his brothers since. But when Branch’s bro Floyd is kidnapped for his musical talents by a pair of nefarious pop-star villains–Velvet (Emmy winner Amy Schumer; Trainwreck) and Veneer (Grammy winner and Tony nominee Andrew Rannells; The Book of Mormon)–Branch and Poppy embark on a harrowing and emotional journey to reunite the other brothers and rescue Floyd from a fate even worse than pop-culture obscurity.
Expectations: I mean, what can you really expect from any of these movies as the last one released was during the pandemic theatre shutdown? They took a classic toy and made it a vehicle for catchy musical movies that usually push a new Justin Timberlake single. Well, the only difference this time around is JT has reformed N*SYNC for a new single to drive this film and possibly get caught in the Top 40 hits until you hear it ad nauseam. So far, that’s only been true of the first film though. Nicely animated but not memorable if you are an adult.
Next Goal Wins – Story of the American Samoa soccer team, who suffered the worst loss in World Cup history, losing to Australia 31-0 in 2001. With the 2014 World Cup approaching, the team recruits a down on his luck, maverick coach (Fassbender) to help turn their fate around.
Expectations: The internet has seemed to tire of the works of New Zealand filmmaker and actor Taika Waititi but his charm still has an effect on me and I have been looking forward to the next non-Marvel enterprise from him and it happens to pair him with the brilliant Michael Fassbender, just a week removed from the fantastic Fincher flick he did on Netflix, The Killer. All of his films in his native country have been fun and memorable and I don’t really see him messing up his own tried tested and true formula. His last one, The Hunt For The Wilderpeople is one of my favorites from the past ten years so I’m excited for this one.
Thanksgiving – After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts — the birthplace of the holiday. Picking off residents one by one, what begins as random revenge killings are soon revealed to be part of a larger, sinister holiday plan. Will the town uncover the killer and survive the holidays… or become guests at his twisted holiday dinner table?
Expectations: This is a cool one to me because it joins Machete in the club of films made from the fake trailers in the Grindhouse double feature of Planet Terror and Death Proof and it was made by a filmmaker who very much is a student of the game, writer and director Eli Roth. Granted, films like the remake of Death Wish make me less inspired to praise him but this movie looks like an 80s slasher and the gore will definitely be present, something this director is known for.
Rustin – The architect of 1963’s momentous March on Washington, Bayard Rustin was one of the greatest activists and organizers the world has ever known. He challenged authority, never apologized for who he was, what he believed, or who he desired. And he did not back down. He made history, and in turn, he was forgotten. Directed by DGA Award and five-time Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe and starring Emmy Award winner Colman Domingo, Rustin shines a long overdue spotlight on the extraordinary man who, alongside giants like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Ella Baker, dared to imagine a different world, and inspired a movement in a march toward freedom.
Expectations: A story of this importance should be elevated and celebrated, much like Selma was a handful of years ago, but, much like Mudbound from a few years back, when released on Netflix, they get buried. Colman Domingo, known for his major role in Fear The Walking Dead, is gunning for an Academy Award in this film and may find himself in the running as his performance as Bayard Rustin is raw and charged, driving the film with great direction from George C. Wolfe in his follow up to Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom which, sadly, was Chadwick Boseman’s final performance. If you’ve seen and enjoyed that one, you’ll like this one even more.
The Stones And Brian Jones – Featuring revealing interviews with all the main players and unseen archive released for the first time, The Stones and Brian Jones explores the creative musical genius of Jones, key to the success of the band, and uncovers how the founder of what became the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world was left behind in the shadows of history.
Review: I’m a sucker for a good music documentary, nothing shocking if you follow this blog at all, but when it’s put in the hands of filmmaker Nick Broomfield, the writer and director of Whitney Houston in Whitney: Can I Be Me and Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, well, the excitement grows because I know the quality will be there. Being a Beatles guy my whole life, it took my adult years to appreciate the Stones but my knowledge about them with Jones leading them is hazy so this film fills in the blanks beautifully. I will still say that Exile On Main Street is my forever Stones record, one that had no touch of Jones inclusion to it.
Albert Brooks: Defending My Life – Since the late 1960s, Albert Brooks has been a major force in American comedy with his smart, sometimes absurdist, and truly unique sense of humor. From stand-up, to acting, to writing and directing short films, to his seven, iconic, original motion pictures, including “Modern Romance,” “Lost in America,” “Mother,” and more, Brooks has paved the way for future generations and remains a comedic force in a league of his own. With testimonials from some of the brightest comedy talents and serious thinkers, as well as family and friends, This film chronicles Brooks’ very early work all the way to present day. In this deep and personal conversation, Reiner and Brooks explore the origins and evolution of Brooks’ career, the impetus for his creativity, and the impact he has had on the world of comedy.
Expectations: I feel like I’m getting biopic gifts this week because I got a music one and now a comedy one, focusing on an absolute legend and, like the Stones, one that I had to get more mature to enjoy. Albert Brooks is a really special talent that has formed many of the comedic minds you see today, through his films and brilliant writing and the guy has deserved his flowers for years. Now, with the help of director, fellow legend and best friend of Albert, Rob Reiner, he gets them and it really is a phenomenal film that fans should get into immediately.
Blu-Ray:
The Equalizer 3 – After giving up his life as a government assassin, Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has struggled to reconcile the horrific things he’s done in the past and finds a strange solace in serving justice on behalf of the oppressed. Finding himself surprisingly at home in Southern Italy, he discovers his new friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become his friends’ protector by taking on the mafia.
Expectations: As a big fan of the first Equalizer film, I have to preface my thoughts on this third one by saying that I really disliked the second installment and don’t really see this follow-up being earned. Still, Denzel is always a great presence on the big screen and sequels are definitely not his regular jam as Equalizer 2 was the first one he ever did. He must love doing this Robert McCall role and dispatching bad guys effortlessly. Those parts are really cool to see, super gory and violent and are probably the highlight of each film. I also like that there is a Man On Fire reunion in this film with Denzel and co-star Dakota Fanning.
The Nun II – A follow-up to the enigmatic gothic horror about a strong evil that haunts and causes supernatural harm to everybody it comes into contact with. After the events of the first film, the said powerful evil begins to spread in 1956 throughout a town in France as word gets out that a priest has been violently murdered. A finished contemplative in her novitiate, Sister Irene, begins to investigate the murder, only to find a demon behind it — the same evil that terrorized her in the original film as a nun — Valak, whom she once again soon comes to encounter.
Expectations: Time to get that pre-Christmas horror chill on at home. We all know that this film only serves to further the expanded universe of James Wan’s Conjuring universe as Bonnie Aaron’s Valak character first appeared in the second of those films. I will say that the first film benefited from a great creepy monster performance from Aaron and I love Demian Bechir a lot but it is now up to Taissa Farmiga to carry the franchise and she is pretty capable of doing that, much like her mom does with the mothership franchise. I also find it interesting that Aaron is suing Warner Bros. when this is being released for profiting off her likeness without compensation. Sounds like one of those issues that the strike that just ended was about to me. I hope Bonnie really stuck it or sticks it to them.
The Fog Of War – Former corporate whiz kid Robert McNamara was the controversial Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, during the height of the Vietnam War. This Academy Award-winning documentary, augmented by archival footage, gives the conflicted McNamara a platform on which he attempts to confront his and the U.S. government’s actions in Southeast Asia in light of the horrors of modern warfare, the end of ideology and the punitive judgment of history.
Review: Famed documentarian Errol Morris made his crowning achievement with this film, a documentary that should be required viewing in schools. Winner of the Best Documentary Academy Award that year, beating out another great film, Capturing The Friedmans, this film is an incredible look at the unspoken callousness of navigating the Cold War while also bringing to light just what made McNamara such a polarizing figure in his tenure for both administrations and just how different both approaches were. This is the definition of a must-see film.
Guarding Tess – Doug is a Secret Service Agent who has just completed his stint in charge of protecting Tess Carlisle, widow of a former U.S. President, and close personal friend of the President. He finds that she has requested that he not be rotated but instead return to be her permanent detail. Doug is crushed. He wants off her detail. She is very difficult to guard and makes her detail crazy with her whims and demands. Doug returns with no idea of how to continue dealing with her.
Review: Heck yes, another Nicolas Cage entry on this blog! It’s also not just a classic Blu-ray release but one of Cage’s endearing roles in his career alongside an absolute legend in Shirley MacLaine. I remember seeing this film originally on VHS with my dad and really loving it. The chemistry between the stars plays to both of their great qualities, with Cage’s suave charm and Shirley absolutely glowing with every line. The film comes from writer and director Hugh Wilson who was so prevalent in Hollywood films from the eighties, with Police Academy and Burglar, and with only one other great film in the nineties, Blast From The Past. This one should really go in that underrated bucket I think.
Short Circuit 2 – Having rescued robot Johnny Five (Tim Blaney) from being destroyed by the military in “Short Circuit,” Indian scientist Ben Jahrvi (Fisher Stevens) moves to New York City to become an American citizen. After struggling to sell a few toy replicas of Johnny, Ben must scramble to make more when Sandy Banatoni (Cynthia Gibb) orders 1,000 for her department store. With Johnny’s help, Ben begins making the gadgets, but his plans are endangered when thief Oscar Baldwin (Jack Weston) steals Johnny.
Review: As a kid, I was totally obsessed with both of these movies, watched the first film endlessly and even caught this one in theatres back in 1988 at the age of six with my mom. I loved them then but I can definitely recognize how they haven’t aged very well, especially with white actor Fisher Stevens essentially doing brown face to portray East Indian character Ben Jahveri. These films are so much fun, Johnny 5 was a kid’s icon at the time which would have sold a million units easily if he was real and to experience it all over again on Blu-ray at home in 2023 is kind of special.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
Kiss The Girls 4K – Alex Cross, a Washington D.C. cop and forensic psychologist learns that his niece who is going to college in North Carolina is missing. So he goes there and learns that the police think she’s among the victims of someone who kidnaps young girls and holds them captive and kills them who dubs himself Cassanova after the great lover. Later Kate, one of his victims, escapes and tries to help Cross find his niece.
Review: James Patterson is a fantastic author with many great mysteries under his belt and a solid investigative character in Alex Cross but sadly only one good adaptation has come out of his work, within the four that have been made, and this is that one. Morgan Freeman is so commanding in the role of Cross and the twists and turns of the Cassanova mystery work so well on the big screen and now in 4K. It’s also my favourite film in director Gary Fleder’s career, with Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead, his previous film, as a runner-up. This is another great opportunity to relive this great thriller or to take it in for the first time. It’s absolutely worth it.
George & Tammy – The limited-series chronicles the country music power couple, Tammy Wynette and George Jones, whose complicated (but enduring) relationship inspired some of the most iconic music of all time. Remembered as the “First Lady of Country Music,” Wynette’s most successful song “Stand by Your Man” remains one of the most iconic and best-selling country singles by a female artist. George Jones’ song “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” is still widely called the greatest country song of all time. With over 30 number-one country songs between them, including duets “We’re Gonna Hold On,” “Golden Ring” and “Near You,” George and Tammy’s legacy, both musically and romantically, remains one of the greatest love stories ever told.
Review: Jessica Chastain seems to be forming a collection of real like Tammys because, after winning an Academy Award for playing Tammy Faye Bakker, she is now turning her sights on Tammy Wynette, this time in series form. She is in good company though again as Michael Shannon co-stars with her as one of the greatest country superstars of all time. With over 30 number-one country songs between them, I definitely can say that I’m not super familiar with them, not being a fan of the genre at all, but I recognize their mark on it and it is interesting to see how it’s told and that they don’t hold back on some of the vitriol in their disagreements, to put it mildly.
The Black Phone 4K – North Denver, 1978. As the dreadful infamy of the stealthy child abductor known as The Grabber spreads across the city, terrorising its residents, tight-knit siblings Finney and Gwen live in fear of two things: the masked serial killer and their abusive father. When the monstrous Grabber kidnaps yet another defenceless boy, two local detectives embark on a time-sensitive mission to shed light on the knotty child disappearance cases, trying to piece insubstantial evidence together. However, the disconnected black rotary telephone on the wall of the deranged kidnapper’s well-soundproofed basement keeps ringing. But who’s on the other end of the line?
Review: A pandemic rescheduled film for theaters, this horror from writer and director Scott Derrickson was on my most anticipated movies list for a long time, ever since I saw the trailer, and it is rooted in the uber-creepy performance from a masked Ethan Hawke. It also is because Derrickson is a master of scaring you out of your seat, as is evident in one of the scariest films of all time, his chiller Sinister. Adapting the work of acclaimed writer Joe Hill, the son of the master of horror literature, Stephen King, Derrickson and co-writer Robert Cargill have cooked up something special and wildly original that consistently sends shivers down your spine in story reveals and twists with scares that don’t feel forced and contrived. I also have to praise all of the kid actors who are just phenomenal in this film, as the youth can sometimes be a make or break to these horror thrillers.
Television:
The Crown: Season 6 (Netflix) – This show focuses on Queen Elizabeth II as a young newlywed faced with leading the world’s most famous monarchy while forging a relationship with legendary Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. The British Empire is in decline, the political world is in disarray, but a new era is dawning. Peter Morgan’s masterfully-researched scripts reveal the Queen’s private journey behind the public façade with daring frankness. Prepare to see into the coveted world of power and privilege behind the locked doors of Westminster and Buckingham Palace.
Expectations: The beginning of the end is here as we draw to a close on this biopic series of the Winsors with a definite focus on Princess Diana but more notably the romance of her oldest child, William and his future wife Kate Middleton. The question is, with the death of the Queen within the last year, something that shut down the show’s production out of respect, will this series close in that same way? Will we cover the whole Harry and Megan aspect of the royals’ scandals? It is all so fascinating to me and I’ve loved every episode of the show so it is a bittersweet thing for me to see it end.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix) – The titular slacker and in a garage band named Sex Bob-omb with his friends. His life is turned upside down when he meets Ramona Flowers, an American girl who is recently single. But before their love can blossom, Pilgrim finds himself challenged by his love’s seven previous relationships, and must defeat them in over-the-top fashion.
Review: This is the reunion I never knew that I wanted but here we are, with a companion animated series to one of my favourite films of all time and one of the best comic book adaptations ever made. Now completely under the eye of original creator and Canadian Bryan Lee O’Malley, we get an expanded and wholly new take on the romance of slacker Scott and dream girl Ramona Flowers as well as expanded roles from the rest of the fantastic cast involved. I have loved every moment I have watched and I know it is something I will return to again and again. I’m not just a fanboy when I say it’s that damn good.
Julia: Season 2 (Crave) – Inspired by Julia Child’s extraordinary life and her show The French Chef, which essentially invented food television.
Expectations: I feel sad that an HBO show has entered its second season this week and I’m just hearing about its existence. I’m especially sad because the show is way better than I had initially thought it would be and Sarah Lancashire is the big reason why. Known for her years of work on Happy Valley, she is an incredible Julia Child and totally outdoes the performance that Meryl Streep gave in 2009, one that earned her an Oscar nomination. I also love that both David Hyde Pierce and Bebe Neuwirth are in this, deep Frasier connection. They are both fantastic in this too.
Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters (AppleTV+) – After the world-shattering revelation that monsters are real, two siblings follow in their father’s footsteps to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch.
Expectations: I have been waiting for this series to land ever since it was announced and now, after taking in the first episode, I can officially say that I love it. Spread across a splintered timeline, we see the discovery of these titan creatures, the throws of the battle between them and the aftermath of living in their destructive wake. The special effects are awesome and make you want to turn your stereo system to eleven for every boom, immersing yourself in the story. I also love that Wyatt Russell and Kurt Russell play the same character, decades apart, something I’ve wanted from the father and son ever since Wyatt took up acting. I’m now calling for a continuation of The Thing with Wyatt as McCready.
A Murder At The End Of The World (Disney+) – In Retreat, which puts a new spin on the classic whodunit, Darby and 11 other guests are invited by a reclusive billionaire to participate in a retreat at a remote and dazzling location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must fight to prove it was murder against a tide of competing interests and before the killer takes another life.
Expectations: A Gen Z murder mystery featuring a young sleuth played by The Crown actress Emma Corrin? Yes, count me in because my Veronica Mars sense is tingling and I believe this may be a darker take on that style of a murder investigation. The show also features actor Harris Dickinson, known recently from the wild comedy Triangle Of Sadness but will probably be involved in awards talk when the wrestling biopic The Iron Claw hits theatres, I have all kinds of excitement for this show as it comes from creators Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling who did The OA for Netflix. This is going to be awesome I think.
New Releases:
The Marvels – Carol Danvers AKA Captain Marvel has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau.
Expectations: Clearly, the shine and lustre has been coming off of the Marvel Cinematic Universe these days but I’m still in and I’m excited for Canadian actress Iman Vellani to get her big screen debut after the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel. The storyline looks like a lot of fun, with each hero’s powers being directly connected to each other and I relish at the chance of more Nick Fury because Sam Jackson just owns this role. I also have a feeling that the mutants, A.K.A. the X-Men, may have something to do with this film.
The Holdovers – Nobody likes teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) — not his students, not his fellow faculty, not the headmaster, who all find his pomposity and rigidity exasperating. With no family and nowhere to go over the Christmas holiday in 1970, Paul remains at school to supervise students unable to journey home. After a few days, only one student holdover remains — a trouble-making 15-year-old named Angus, a good student whose bad behavior always threatens to get him expelled. Joining Paul and Angus is head cook Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph)-an African American woman who caters to sons of privilege and whose own son was recently lost in Vietnam. These three very different shipwrecked people form an unlikely Christmas family sharing comic misadventures during two very snowy weeks in New England. The real journey is how they help one another understand that they are not beholden to their past-they can choose their own futures.
Expectations: I am a huge fan of writer and director Alexander Payne’s work and especially of his previous film with Giamatti in the lead, Sideways, one of the best films of 2004. This film seems to lean into the best thing about the actor, his ability to command an unlikable character and with Payne’s biting scripts, this seems like a great union. It’s great to see this brilliant filmmaker get back to what we loved about his work after the pretty out there comedy Downsizing from 2017.
The Killer – A man solitary and cold, methodical and unencumbered by scruples or regrets, the killer waits in the shadows, watching for his next target. And yet the longer he waits, the more he thinks he’s losing his mind, if not his cool. A brutal, bloody and stylish noir story of a professional assassin lost in a world without a moral compass, this is a case study of a man alone, armed to the teeth and slowly losing his mind.
Expectations: Michael Fassbender plays a world class hitman in the new David Fincher film and you best believe I am angry that I didn’t get to see this film in a limited release in theaters or get an advance look at it before going on air. That said, I am so excited for the first new thing since Mank and the reviews are glowing for this thriller, being called the “Fincher-est Fincher film yet. Yeah, I’m damn excited.
Blu-Ray:
Gran Turismo: Based On A True Story – Based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough, the film is the ultimate wish-fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional racecar driver.
Review: I went into this film with lowered expectations as it was a Playstation-produced film and the latest from Neill Blomkamp who had been on a downslump before its release. I was absolutely blown away by it, a fun and exhilarating action ride with an immersive style of depicting the races and characters we could actually root for. David Harbour is a gem as always and Archie Madekwe really arrives as a great leading actor. I really didn’t know the true story behind all of this and I thought it was totally awesome, highly recommended.
It Lives Inside – Sam, an Indian-American teen, lives in an idyllic suburb with her conservative mother and her assimilated father. Sam’s cultural insecurities grow due to her estranged friend, Tamira, who mysteriously carries around an empty mason jar all the time. In a moment of anger, Sam breaks Tamira’s jar and unleashes an ancient Indian demonic force that kidnaps Tamira. Sam searches for Tamira, following the trail of a young man who performed a deadly ritual, until the demonic entity starts targeting her, murdering her boyfriend and shattering her reality with terrifying visions. Sam must band together with her parents and a sympathetic teacher to save Tamira and put an end to the terror of the demon.
Review: Shot in Vancouver, this has Blumhouse horror written all over it but when the “bump in the night” starts to reveal itself, the scares become scarce. This isn’t to say the film is overly scary in it’s entirety and makes for a good beginner horror as it has minimal blood to it as well. I have to praise actress Megan Suri, who I also liked in the Netflix series Never Have I Ever. She plays the horror lead quite well.
Scrapper – This vibrant and inventive father-daughter comedy follows Georgie (Lola Campbell), a resourceful 12-year-old girl who secretly lives alone in her flat in a working class suburb of London following the death of her mother. She makes money stealing bikes with her best friend Ali (Alin Uzun) and keeps the social workers off her back by pretending to live with an uncle. Out of nowhere, her estranged father Jason (Harris Dickinson; Triangle of Sadness, Beach Rats) arrives and forces her to confront reality. Uninterested in this sudden new parental figure, Georgie is stubbornly resistant to his efforts. As they adjust to their new circumstances, Georgie and Jason find that they both still have a lot of growing up to do.
Review: Smart, funny and full of charm, Campbell and Dickinson absolutely shine in this sweetheart of a drama. Debuting writer and director Charlotte Regan makes such textured characters here that you want to get behind them immediately and are rooting for them from the get go. I will say that there were some emotional beats in the end that totally got me.
Scrooged 4K – Francis Xavier Cross is a cynical, mean spirited television executive, he treats his loyal assistant with contempt. He just sacked a member of staff on Christmas Eve for simply disagreeing with him, and he’s alienated himself from his brother who still insists on inviting Frank to Christmas dinner despite him refusing to go every year. However, Frank is forced to learn the true meaning of Christmas when he’s visited by three ghosts.
Review: I haven’t revisited this film in years but this 4K is an early Christmas gift for sure because it reminded me that it is possibly one of the greatest holiday films ever made. It’s my favorite version of the Dickens classic, exudes cinematic charm like only Richard Donner could and is one of Bill Murray’s best performances. I could also go on and on about the supporting cast, including a scene stealing performance from the iconic Bobcat Goldthwait. This movie is an absolute gem.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
The Fastest Gun Alive – Whenever it becomes known how good he is with guns, ex-gunman George and his wife Dora have to flee the town, in fear of all the gunmen who might want to challenge him. Unfortunately, he again spills his secret when he’s drunk. All citizens swear to keep his secret and support him to give up his guns forever — but a boy tells the story to a gang of wanted criminals. Their leader threatens to burn down the whole town, if he doesn’t duel him.
Review: A based on a true story western from writer and director Russell Rouse, a genre chameleon who also made the noir thriller The Thief and the classic romantic comedy Pillow Talk, I think I geeked out more on the fact that major Twin Peaks player Russ Tamblyn plays a main role. It’s also fascinating that lead star Glen Ford, a known drunk at the time who alongside co-star Broderick Crawford would get blackout drunk every night after filming, went full method on the fastest gun draws and got quick and accurate as the days went by. Alec Baldwin has stated that this is one of his favorite performances of all time.
Helen Of Troy – Prince Paris of Troy, shipwrecked on a mission to the king of Sparta, meets and falls for Queen Helen before he knows who she is. Rudely received by the royal Greeks, he must flee…but fate and their mutual passions lead him to take Helen along. This gives the Greeks just the excuse they need for much-desired war.
Review: This film became notable when I read up on it and saw that legendary filmmaker Sergio Leone was one of the second-unit directors, five years before his directorial debut The Colossus of Rhodes and a good experience on this American film because he was able to communicate directly with director Robert Wise since both could speak French. As for the movie itself, I feel like I was spoiled by Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy because I kept thinking about it while I watched this one. It is notable for being the first film to get what was termed a “global premiere” as it premiered in fifty six countries.
The Last Time I Saw Paris – Charles Wills returns to Paris to reminisce about the life he led there after it was liberated. He worked then for “Stars and Stripes” when he met both Marion and Helen Ellswirth. He soon married and was happy staying in Paris after his discharge. While working for a news organization, Charlie began to write the great novel that would come between him, his wife, and his daughter.
Review: Rolling out some young Liz Taylor in this brand new blu-ray edition of a classic 1954 romantic drama but not only that, it is also the theatrical debut of future James Bond, Roger Moore. Interestingly enough, like a handful of MGM films in the 1950s, this movie is actually public domain and could be distributed by anyone who made a copy of it. THe film itself is clearly built around the star and is a bit shallow, given the aging of it over seventy years. One this is clear though Taylor was the definition of a star.
Television:
For All Mankind: Season 4 (AppleTV+) – In an alternative 1969, the world, and especially the United States, watch in shock as the Soviet Union successfully manages to land men on the Moon before the USA does. With that defeat, NASA is presented with a renewed challenge in the space race that they never expected to face. Now, the cold war rivalry takes on a new intensity and grander ambition to reach far further than ever dreamed and with more diverse resources than ever before.
Expectations: As usual with a lot of AppleTV+ programs, I find myself playing catch up when a series is unexpectedly good and entering its second, third and fourth season but this is one that friends online have been really loving. It is right up my alley because I love a good alternate reality and the idea that the Russians beat the Americans in any kind of world race is fascinating, especially given our current times. I also love the cast because I’ve been a big Joel Kinnamen guy since The Killing and Nate Cordrry was an original podcast guest of mine. I’m slowly making my way through the backlog but I will say the show gets better and better plus it was created by Battlestar Galactica’s Ronald D. Moore.
The Curse (Paramount+) – The series is a genre-bending drama series that explores how an alleged curse disturbs the relationship of a newly married couple as they try to conceive a child while co-starring on their new HGTV show.
Expectations: Starring Nathan Fielder, Emma Stone and Benny Safdie, this co-production between Showtime and A24 is getting some stellar reviews and I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. Combining Fielder’s awkward and cringe inducing style with the known talents of his co-stars is a recipe for brilliance and I love that it crosses into horror as that is my jam. I’m hoping this is the breakout hit to close 2023 and I don’t think I’m far off base with that.
New Releases:
Priscilla – When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend. Through Priscilla’s eyes, Sofia Coppola tells the unseen side of a great American myth in Elvis and Priscilla’s long courtship and turbulent marriage, from a German army base to his dream-world estate at Graceland, in this deeply felt and ravishingly detailed portrait of love, fantasy, and fame.
Expectations: I was bummed out to have to miss this film at the Vancouver International Film Festival as it was one of the closing ones but I really didn’t have to wait long to see it. Following up on last year’s Baz Luhrman-made Elvis biopic, this one has Sofia Coppola focusing on the woman behind the King. The estate didn’t allow her to use Elvis’s music so French pop group Phoenix, led by Coppola’s husband, has stepped in to score it, giving me the Marie Antoinette feeling, a film I appreciated more in retrospect. I have no real history with either of the lead actors, Cailee Spaeny or Jacob Elordi, so I’m not sure what to expect but I’ve generally enjoyed all of Sofia’s works.
Nyad – A riveting chapter in the life of world-class athlete Diana Nyad. Three decades after giving up marathon swimming in exchange for a prominent career as a sports journalist, at the age of 60, Diana becomes obsessed with completing an epic swim that always eluded her: the 110-mile trek from Cuba to Florida, often referred to as the “Mount Everest” of swims. Determined to become the first person to finish the swim without a shark cage, Diana goes on a thrilling, four-year journey with her best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll and a dedicated sailing team.
Expectations: I’m an easy sell for anything starring Annette Bening as she will forever be one of my favourite actresses on the planet and this one has a bonus as it also stars Jodie Foster in an increasingly rarer appearance on camera in the co-leading role. I’m really intrigued by this swimmer’s biopic film as well as it comes from the directing duo of Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi who almost gave me a heart attack with their Nat Geo documentary Free Solo. Lots of good words about his movie are being bandied around right now so I doubt my recommendation is really needed on this one.
Quiz Lady – Anne, a tightly wound game-show-obsessed woman, must team up with her chaotic sister Jenny to help pay off their mother’s gambling debts. When Anne’s beloved dog is kidnapped, they set off on a cross-country journey to get the money they need; to do so, they must tap into Anne’s skill set by turning her into the game-show champion she was always meant to be.
Review: Goofy, fun and with a real sweetheart to it, this is the kind of uplifting comedy you watch when you don’t want something heavy. The viewing public maybe getting sick of Awkwafina and Sandra Oh becoming the clear face of mainstream Hollywood films featuring Chinese leads but they work really well here as very different sisters. I also really loved Will Ferrell’s Mr. Rogers meets Alex Trebek approach to his quiz show host character which made it really endearing.
Sly – For nearly 50 years, Sylvester Stallone has entertained millions with iconic characters and blockbuster franchises, from Rocky to Rambo to The Expendables. This retrospective documentary offers an intimate look at the Oscar-nominated actor-writer-director-producer, paralleling his inspirational underdog story with the indelible characters he has brought to life.
Review: This biopic documentary was close to my heart as I was an eighties action kid and Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris were my guys. Stallone provides a deep and personal reflection of his life which includes his battle through some serious family issues to carve out his own piece of a Hollywood that tries its best to keep him on the outside. It really makes you appreciate the fact that we even got the Rocky and Rambo franchises as we see them today. A really fascinating watch about a person who carries a lot of misconceptions on his shoulders.
Fingernails – Anna (Jessie Buckley) increasingly suspects that her relationship with her longtime partner may not actually be the real thing. In an attempt to improve things, she secretly embarks on a new assignment working at a mysterious institute designed to incite and test the presence of romantic love in increasingly desperate couples.
Expectations: This movie has everything going for it for a movie fan like me, starting with the main cast of Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Alan White. These are three stars that can do no wrong on the big screen at this point and the fact that Apples director Christos Nikou wrote and directed this sci-fi romance only sweetens the deal. AppleTV+ has really lucked out with this acquisition I think and hopefully, it catches on with an audience on there looking for something different.
Wingwomen – Alex and Carole, friends since childhood, are now (literal) partners in crime. But the heist to steal the Ingres painting The Grande Odalisque from the Louvre in Paris is too much for the duo to handle, so they bring in Clarence, a bureaucrat’s son with a price on his head by a Mexican drug cartel and, more importantly, an arms dealer. Next is Sam, a stunt motorcyclist and boxer by trade, who proves trigger-happy with tranquillizer darts. Using soda can smoke bombs, rocket launchers, and hang gliders, Alex, Carole, and Sam set off a set of circumstances that results in a battle with the French Special Forces and their partnership, which was on the rocks, will never be the same again.
Expectations: On the outside, this French actioner looks a little cliched, following a ragtag group of thieves planning a big game-changer heist but just on the surface there are three reasons to watch it immediately. The film stars Possession’s Isabelle Adjani, Blue Is The Warmest Color’s Adele Exarchopoulos and Inglourious Basterds actress Melanie Laurent who pulls double duty by directing the film as well. Shot by Antoine Roch, the cinematographer on one of my favourite romantic dramas of all time, Love Me If You Dare, this is a hidden treasure to be discovered in my opinion.
The Delinquents – Bank employee Morán schemes to steal enough money to never work again, then confesses and serves prison time while his colleague hides the cash. Soon under investigative pressure, accomplice Román meets a woman who transforms him forever.
Review: Argentinian writer and director Rodrigo Moreno has been making films since 1998 but it took this heist comedy twenty-five years later that got my attention. The film plays so off-kilter and subversive that it never feels predictable and leaves a lot on the table to suss out in the end. The film is tight and deadpan in its execution and it hits me in the weak spot of being a heist flick, I just love those.
Blu-Ray:
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One – Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan’s past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission — not even the lives of those he cares about most.
Review: It bums me out a lot that Sound Of Freedom stole Tom Cruise’s thunder at the box office after Top Gun: Maverik’s success last year because this fantastic film is now considered a bomb, the first in the franchise. This movie is incredible intrigue and action from the start as Tom and company throw everything at you in a spy story that just seems to get better and better. I love these movies so much and for me, the momentum isn’t slowing anytime soon.
Blue Beetle – Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself possessing an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armour capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero, the Blue Beetle.
Review: This is the projected start of James Gunn’s reboot of the DC cinematic universe so of course the internet threw all of its bile behind a smear campaign but I will say that this movie surprised me. Xolo does a great job of giving us a fresh and almost Peter Parker-like character to get behind and the atmosphere around his first outing is really fun and colourful. The Latin flavor is all over the feel of the film and it works really well to engage with the audience. Now that it has landed on streaming and home release I hope that viewers really give it a chance because it’s worth your time.
Strays – They say a dog is a man’s best friend, but what if the man is a total dirtbag? In that case, it might be time for some sweet revenge, doggy style. When Reggie (Will Ferrell), a naïve, relentlessly optimistic Border Terrier, is abandoned on the mean city streets by his lowlife owner, Doug (Will Forte; The Last Man on Earth, Nebraska), Reggie is certain that his beloved owner would never leave him on purpose. But once Reggie falls in with a fast-talking, foul-mouthed Boston Terrier named Bug (Oscar® winner Jamie Foxx), a stray who loves his freedom and believes that owners are for suckers, Reggie finally realizes he was in a toxic relationship and begins to see Doug for the heartless sleazeball that he is. Determined to seek revenge, Reggie, Bug and Bug’s pals–Maggie (Isla Fisher; Now You See Me, Wedding Crashers), an intelligent Australian Shepherd who has been sidelined by her owner’s new puppy, and Hunter (Randall Park; Always Be My Maybe, Aquaman), an anxious Great Dane who’s stressed out by his work as an emotional support animal–together hatch a plan and embark on an epic adventure to help Reggie find his way home… and make Doug pay by biting off the appendage he loves the most. (Hint: It’s not his foot.)
Review: After seeing the trailer for this R-rated comedy for months and then a few months delay due to industry strikes, I was quasi-looking forward to what looked like a take on Superbad but from the point of view of some dogs. What we got instead was something that may have been better off as a YouTube short and not a stretched-out feature-length film will the odd chuckle here and there that didn’t pad up the trailer. All the voices are likeable but everything about this film really feels like it’s overstaying its welcome.
The Good Mother – From the three-time Academy Award®-nominated producer of The Wolf of Wall Street, The Good Mother follows journalist Marissa Bennings who, after the murder of her estranged son, forms an unlikely alliance with his pregnant girlfriend Paige to track down the killers. Together they confront a world of corruption and drugs in the seedy underbelly of a small city in upstate New York. As they get closer to the truth, they unearth an even darker secret. Starring two-time Academy Award®-winner Hilary Swank, Olivia Cooke and Jack Reynor.
Expectations: I can’t say I’m a massive fan of Hilary Swank’s work but there are a few movies that come through here and there that make me take notice of the actress and having Cooke and Reynor in the cast gives me more desire to check this one out. The film comes from writer and director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte in his follow-up to Dreamland, a dusty depression-era thriller starring Margot Robbie that deserves some attention. As far as it looks, the movie has some great burgeoning talent as it was shot by Charlotte Hornsby who did the Prime Video chiller With Regina Hall, Master. This one could be pretty solid.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
The Broadway Melody – Hank and Queenie Mahoney, a vaudeville act, come to Broadway, where their friend Eddie Kerns needs them for his number in one of Francis Zanfield’s shows. Eddie was in love with Hank, but when he meets Queenie, he falls in love with her, but she is courted by Jock Warriner, a member of the New Yorker high society. It takes a while till Queenie recognizes, that she is for Jock nothing more than a toy, and it also takes a while till Hank recognizes that Eddie is in love with Queenie.
Review: Going way back in time for this Warner Archive recent Blu-ray release as this film is almost one hundred years old. Let’s put it this way, this movie was MGM’s first all-talking picture, and the first sound film to win the Best Picture Academy Award. All of that aside, this isn’t exactly a film but more of a showcasing of the glitz and glam represented by the stage musicals and that kind of pales on a first time watching close to a century later. The advertisement feel of it got old with me pretty quickly.
Cimarron – When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his family there from Wichita. A newspaperman, lawyer, and just about everything else, Cravat soon becomes a leading citizen of the boom town of Osage. Once the town is established, though, he feels confined again and heads for the Cherokee Strip, leaving his family behind. During this and other absences, his wife Sabra must learn to take care of herself and soon becomes prominent in her own right.
Review: Moving ahead just two years, we hit a more concrete genre of the Western adventure and a film that would be the first of its kind to win the Best Picture Academy Award. This film was lauded for a massive land rush sequence which took a week to film, using five thousand extras, almost sixty cameramen and assistants and six still photographers. The scene is so iconic that, three decades later, when MGM remade the film, the camera angles for the land rush sequence remained almost identical to the original. Speaking of the remake, that film held my interest more than this original piece did, a Glenn Ford starter that got two Academy Award nominations itself. Granted, the remake I saw first so I may be biased.
Du Barry Was A Lady – Hat-check man Louis Blore is in love with nightclub star May Daly; she is in love with a poor dancer, but she really wants to marry for money. When Louis wins the Irish Sweepstakes, he asks May to marry him and she accepts although she doesn’t love him. Soon after, Louis has an accident and gets knocked on the head, where he dreams that he’s King Louis XV pursuing the infamous Madame Du Barry.
Review: We finish off this week during wartimes with this Lucille Ball and Red Skelton period comedy musical which was the creation of Ball’s signature redhead look and a role that she only got because the original actress Ann Southern had to drop out after getting pregnant. Lucille’s singing voice was dubbed for the film but it was a big stepping stone for her career. From my point of view, the film is a bit boring and tedious but I can certainly see the star qualities of its star as it kind of felt built for a launching point. Would Southern have become a sitcom star if she had been able to do this film? It’s an interesting question.
Television:
All The Light We Cannot See (Netflix) – Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them, they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
Expectations: With a showrunner team of Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and Shawn Levy, this new World War II set drama would have some substance to it, especially with Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie in supporting roles, but it’s just.. so… corny. Every character seems to be painted in broad strokes in tropes that feel recycled and I feel like I can see what’s coming next in this very paint-by-numbers plot. I will disclose that I’m only two episodes deep but it’s not going great.
Black Cake (Disney+) – Set aside their differences to deal with their mother’s death and her hidden past a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake. In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking journey Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child, challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their family, and themselves.
Expectations: This series debuted on Hulu a few weeks back and now Canada is receiving it but I have to admit that I really haven’t seen any buzz around it. The show is hugging the line between period pieces and modern mystery which is intriguing if they do it well but it won’t rely on star power unless there are big Rupert Evans fans out there. I will say that I loved lead actress Stephanie Jacob when I saw her in Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers but that was over a decade ago and I haven’t seen her in much since. Maybe this series will gain some momentum through word of mouth but given that the Americans weren’t doing backflips over it, the jury’s kind of out on that.
Invincible: Season 2 (Prime Video) – The son of Earth’s most powerful superhero is about to become something greater than himself: something bold, something universal, something – Invincible. From the comics to the screen, Invincible follows Mark Grayson’s journey of becoming Earth’s next great defender after his father, Nolan Grayson: also known as Omni-Man.
Expectations: I have been waiting not so patiently for this new season to show up and, look, I know animation takes its time to be processed so my gripes were quiet. You can’t really blame me as the ending of last season was absolutely insane and I was dying to see what the fallout was between Mark and his father, Omni-Man. I will say that the first episode relishes in swerving the viewer quite a bit but it all plays into riveting action and story that will keep the fans drooling for more.
The Gilded Age: Season 2 (Crave) – Old New York in the 1880’s. Old Money and New Money are the opposites that create a post-Civil War-era New York society. The Who’s Who of society is carefully orchestrated by the Old Money folks who can’t help but be fascinated and seduced by the “nouveau riche” folk. The lives of the characters are also merged with people from all walks of life.
Expectations: For anyone who wanted to love Downton Abbey but felt the stuffiness of it a little too unbearable, I implore you to try this HBO series as it has so many good things going for it but Carrie Coon is an absolute revelation every time she is on screen. A varied cast of some of the best character actresses including Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski keep the drama flowing and I’m so happy to see that the film isn’t a limited series like I thought it would be. It’s also really unpredictable in its scope of story so I can’t even gauge where this show will go but I will be veraciously waiting for every episode.
Steve Stebbing 