June 20, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Emma Stone, Hong Chau, Hunter Schafer, Jesse Plemons, Joe Alwyn, Kinds of Kindess, Mamoudou Athie, Margaret Qualley, Merah Benoit, Willem Dafoe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Yorgos Stefanakos
What a racket! (CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures)
Starring: Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer, Yorgos Stefanakos, Merah Benoit
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Running Time: 165 Minutes
Rating: R for Sexual Nudity, Ritual Nudity, Limb Removal, Petty Animal Cruelty, Etc.
Release Date: June 21, 2024 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: A man tries to break free from the grasp of the controlling boss who micromanages his entire life. Another man who looks just like that man suspects that the woman claiming to be his wife returning from a disappearance isn’t who she claims to be. Members of a cultish group are on a quest to find someone with the power of resurrection. It’s an anthology! And it’s called Kinds of Kindness, but I sure didn’t detect a whole lot of kindness in these vignettes. Maybe writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos and his co-writer Efthimis Filippou have a different conception of what that word means. Anyway, this movie is a real head-scratcher, in the sense that it produces the same sensation as sticking your finger up your nose and poking around in your brain tissue.
What Made an Impression?: O R.M.F., Where Art Thou?: Most of the main Kinds of Kindness cast members have a role in each of the three segments. Their respective roles have vaguely similar personalities, though it’s not clear if that’s how they were directed or if it just happens to be that way because they’re played by the same actors. If you squint, you can probably pick up on some Cloud Atlas vibes in the sense of the same souls existing within different beings. But since each Kinds of Kindness segment appears to take place in the present day, it comes across more as just alternative realities or hypothetical do-overs. The one constant is a guy known only by the initials “R.M.F.,” who serves as the namesake for each chapter despite not doing much of anything. Although, in the last part, entitled “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich,” he does indeed eat a sandwich, so at least one promise is kept.
In the Mood for Vexation: Good movies often teach you how to watch them, but Kinds of Kindness seems intent on doing just the opposite. That doesn’t make it a bad movie per se, but if you don’t want to get frustrated, then you’ll have to adjust your calibrations and accept that you will almost certainly get frustrated. After releasing the most accessible film of his career last year in the form of Poor Things, Lanthimos has returned to the more impenetrable territory of The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. (I haven’t seen his earlier Greek-language flicks, but they have a similar reputation.) I wasn’t expecting a satisfying ending, and I did not get a satisfying ending. I wasn’t expecting a legible message, and I did not get a legible message. There were moments here and there that brought a smile to my face (particularly a world run by dogs set to the tune of Dio’s heavy metal banger “Rainbow in the Dark”), but otherwise, this was a, shall we say, vacation into a land that claims to be speak the languages of English and cinema, and yet it’s not any form of communication that I recognize.
Kinds of Kindness is Recommended If You Like: Constantly opening one of those fake cans of nuts that’s actually a prank snake even though you know it’s going to be the snake every time
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Changelings
June 19, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Arinzé Kene, Daina O. Pusić, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Leah Harvey, Lola Petticrew, Tuesday
Oh, by the way, which one’s Tuesday? (CREDIT: A24)
Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lola Petticrew, Leah Harvey, Arinzé Kene
Director: Daina O. Pusić
Running Time: 111 Minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: June 7, 2024 (Theaters)
I DIDN’T SEE Tuesday on a TUESDAY!!!
I just had to get that out of the way first.
But now that I have seen Tuesday (on a Monday), would I prefer that all days henceforth be Tuesday (even if only metaphorically)? I don’t know, would that mean that a baritone macaw Grim Reaper would always be hovering around? I mean, that sounds cool and all, but it might get a little monotonous. But definitely good on JLD for branching out into dark fairy tale territory!
Grade: 3 Ice Cube Singalongs out of 2 Good Days
June 18, 2024
jmunney
Cinema
Austin Butler, Beau Knapp, Boyd Holbrook, Damon Herriman, Emory Cohen, Happy Anderson, Jeff Nichols, Jodie Comer, Karl Glusman, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Norman Reedus, The Bikeriders, Tom Hardy
Going whole hog (CREDIT: Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features. © 2024 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.)
Starring: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Mike Faist, Michael Shannon, Norman Reedus, Boyd Holbrook, Damon Herriman, Beau Knapp, Emory Cohen, Karl Glusman, Happy Anderson
Director: Jeff Nichols
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Rating: R for Fist Fights, Knife Fights, and a Few Guns
Release Date: June 14, 2024 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: In 1960s Chicago, a man named Johnny (Tom Hardy) starts hearing the Call of the Hog. He then founds the Vandals MC motorcycle club, and pretty soon his motley crew are devoting their entire social lives to the open road and brawl-filled picnics. Threatening to upend it all is a hothead named Benny (Austin Butler), who holds an irresistible pull over the outsider Kathy (Jodie Comer). Everyone tried to warn Kathy away from Benny, but they just can’t help but marry each other. The Bikeriders was inspired by a book of the same name by photojournalist Danny Lyon, so the movie is framed by Mike Faist as Danny interviewing the major players in this subculture.
What Made an Impression?: Just Something to Do: Strangely enough, Johnny never appears to be particularly enthralled by motorcycles. Instead, he seems to have been attracted by what they represent, and even that motivation is rather haphazard. One day, he just happened to be watching the 1953 biker flick The Wild One, which features Marlon Brando infamously uttering “Whaddya got?” when someone asks him what he’s rebelling against. Johnny doesn’t seem particularly constrained by his suburban life as a husband and father (from what little we see of him in that role), but he’s nevertheless inexplicably and unmistakably drawn to the siren song of rebellion. Meanwhile, Benny at least clearly relishes his time cruising down the street, but that love is surely too elemental for him to ever explain where it comes from. At least Michael Shannon as Zipco offers some sort of life philosophy in the form of resenting his “pinko” brother. But that characterization is just as mystifying when you realize that “pinko” to him doesn’t mean “Communist” so much as “attends college” and “doesn’t do enough hard labor.”
No Way to Fathom It: The contrast between Johnny and Benny had me thinking of the yin-yang dynamic between the Salvatore Brothers on The Vampire Diaries. If you’ve never seen that CW bloodsucker series, here’s what you need to know: Damon Salvatore is the dangerous Benny, while Stefan Salvatore is the less frightening Johnny. Eventually, though, in both TVD and The Bikeriders, our initial assumptions get flipped on our head. The analogue is far from a perfect one-to-one match, but the point is that The Bikeriders left me flummoxed by the seeming randomness of its characters’ fates. Some of the Vandals who are perpetually in Death’s crosshairs somehow survive, while others who are ostensibly impenetrable bite the dust, and yet others reform themselves out of nowhere or at least disappear. It’s all fairly believable, but too thoroughly matter-of-fact to leave much of an impression.
The Bikeriders is Recommended If You Like: Laconic conversations, Wild accent swings, Impulsiveness
Grade: 3 out of 5 Motorcycles
June 14, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Adèle Exarchopoulos, Amy Poehler, Ayo Edebiri, Dave Goelz, Diane Lane, Frank Oz, Grace Lu, Inside Out, Inside Out 2, James Austin Johnson, June Squibb, Kelsey Mann, Kensington Tallman, Kirk Thatcher, Kyle MacLachlan, Lewis Black, Liza Lapira, Maya Hawke, Paul Walter Hauser, Paula Pell, Pete Docter, Phyllis Smith, Pixar, Ron Funches, Steve Purcell, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Tony Hale, Yong Yea, Yvette Nicole Brown
You put the Inside Out, you put the Outside In (CREDIT: Pixar/Screenshot)
Starring: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Phyllis Smith, Kensington Tallman, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Liza Lapira, Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Grace Lu, Yong Yea, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ron Funches, James Austin Johnson, Steve Purcell, Dave Goelz, Kirk Thatcher, Frank Oz, Paula Pell, June Squibb, Pete Docter
Director: Kelsey Mann
Running Time: 96 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: June 14, 2024 (Theaters)
I often like to ask if the movies that I watch make me want to be what they are. But of course, what Inside Out and Inside Out 2 posit is that, we are all already inside out. How twisted! Just like Pouchy – what a dynamite addition. Speaking of new characters, I’m already nostalgic for Nostalgia. Damn, that anxiety attack was exhilarating. Don’t spin around with a baseball bat for a dizzy race right before watching this movie!
Grade: 4001 Insides out of 5000 Outs
June 14, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Sports, Television
Always Centered at Night, As It Ever Was So It Will Be Again, Federer: Twelve Final Days, Inside Out 2, John Cale, Moby, Olympic trials, Optical Illusion, The Decemberists, Tonys, Women's PGA Championship
A Screenshot from a Documentary Movie About a Tennis Guy (CREDIT: Prime Video/Screenshot)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Federer: Twelve Final Days (June 20 on Amazon Prime Video) – Documentary about a tennis player.
–Inside Out 2 (Theaters)
TV
-Tony Awards (June 16 on CBS and Paramount+)
Music
-John Cale, Optical Illusion
-The Decemberists, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
-Moby, Always Centered at Night
Sports
-U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials (June 15-23 on NBC, USA, and Peacock) – The Road to Paris
-Women’s PGA Championship (June 20-23 on NBC, Golf Channel, and Peacock)
June 13, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Alicia Vikander, Amr Waked, Bryony Hannah, Eddie Marsan, Erin Doherty, Henry VIII, Jude Law, Junia Rees, Karim Aïnouz, Katherine Parr, Maia Jemmett, Mia Threapleton, Patrick Buckley, Patsy Ferran, Ruby Bentall, Sam Riley, Simon Russell Beale
This queen is on Fire(brand)? (CREDIT: Larry Horricks)
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Jude Law, Eddie Marsan, Ruby Bentall, Bryony Hannah, Sam Riley, Maia Jemmett, Amr Waked, Erin Doherty, Junia Rees, Patsy Ferran, Patrick Buckley, Simon Russell Beale, Mia Threapleton
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Rating: R for Rowdy Royalty
Release Date: June 14, 2024 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Henry VIII is one of the most famous and dramatized kings in British history. That makes sense, as there’s plenty of drama to be mined. He had six wives who met a variety of interesting, often deadly, fates, and he reigned at a time when England was in the midst of world-rearranging religious strife. So there are a variety of potential angles to take if you’re going to make a movie set during his reign. Firebrand focuses on his last wife, Katherine Parr, who finds herself holding court in the midst of daily intrigue and sinister gossip. She ends up caught between her attempts to appease the king and her dalliances with a Protestant preacher who’s deemed a heretic, while also trying to serve as a mother as best she can to her fretful princely stepchildren.
What Made an Impression?: Parr for the Course: For this review, I’m basically going to do a performance analysis for the two leads, because that’s what held my attention. My bet is that most people’s exposure to Katherine in terms of pop culture (if they have any exposure at all) is the musical Six. But of course, that stage show is about all of Henry’s wives as opposed to just Katherine in particular. Either way, Alicia Vikander certainly doesn’t play her like a modern pop star. No, instead her Katherine is in a constant state of dilemma and anguish, fundamentally unable to please anyone she cares about, and with no room to maneuver to allow herself any personal satisfaction. She’s just canny enough to survive, but even that is largely attributable to a lucky twist of fate.
He’s Henry VIII, He Is?: Jude Law would be far from my first choice to play Henry VIII, as he strikes me as a bit too handsome and suave to play the famously rotund king. And in fact, when he first showed up in Firebrand, I had flashbacks to his time as The Young Pope, which had me thinking, “Is this Henry supposed to be… hot?” The rest of the movie quickly disabused me of that notion, as Law’s Henry is mad, brutish, and beset by ulcers. He’s quickly sliding into the grips of the Grim Reaper, and that’s frankly a relief to everyone around him. Law is appropriately devoid of vanity, but this Henry is simply too sick for there to be enough room to make him truly compelling.
Firebrand is Recommended If You’re: Just a big fan of Henry VIII’s wives
Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Heresies
June 13, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Alexander Oliver, Alistair Brammer, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Charlotte Creaghan, Chris Nash, Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, In a Violent Nature, Ishana Night Shyamalan, John Lynch, Lauren Taylor, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Liam Leone, Oliver Finnegan, Olwen Fouéré, Reece Presley, Ry Barrett, Sam Roulston, The Watchers, Timothy Paul McCarthy
Watching Nature (CREDIT: IFC Films/Screenshot; Warner Bros. Pictures/Screenshot)
In a Violent Nature
Starring: Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Reece Presley, Liam Leone, Charlotte Creaghan, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Sam Roulston, Alexander Oliver, Lauren Taylor, Timothy Paul McCarthy
Director: Chris Nash
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: May 31, 2024 (Theaters)
Stomach was knotted (from ice cream)
The Watchers
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Olwen Fouéré, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, Alistair Brammer, John Lynch
Director: Ishana Night Shyamalan
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: June 7, 2024 (Theaters)
More
June 12, 2024
jmunney
Cinema
Adria Arjona, Amy Winehouse, Anne Hathaway, Annie Mumolo, Austin Amelio, Back to Black, Eddie Marsan, Ella Rubin, Ema Horvath, Evan Holtzman, Freya Allen, Froy Gutierrez, Gabriel Basso, Glen Powell, Hit Man, Jack O'Connell, Juliet Cowan, Kevin Durand, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Lesley Manville, Lydia Peckham, Madelaine Petsch, Marisa Abela, Michael Showalter, Nicholas Galitzine, Owen Teague, Perry Mattfeld, Peter Macon, Reid Scott, Renny Harlin, Retta, Richard Linklater, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Sanjay Rao, The Idea of You, The Strangers, The Strangers: Chapter 1, Wes Ball, William H Macy
CREDIT: Amazon Prime Video
There are a handful of movies I saw in May that I haven’t shared any extended thoughts about yet, so here’s a Spring Cleaning-themed review roundup. Typically May is considered part of the summer movie season, but that leaves short shrift to the time of year when it actually is spring. If May 1-Labor Day is Summer Movie Season, and October-December is Fall Movie Season, and Thanksgiving-New Year’s is Holiday Movie Season, and January-February is Awards Holdovers/Winter Dumping Ground Season, well then, we really only March and April for Spring Movie Season, and a good chunk of March is spent fretting about the Oscars! So let’s give some love to the month with the best weather of the year (apologies to those of you with vernal allergies) and check in on the May spring movies.
More
June 7, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Sports, Television
Aurora, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Belmont Stakes, Bon Jovi, Brat, Charli XCX, Fantasmas, Forever, Golf, I Used to Be Funny, The Watchers, Tuesday, US Open, What Happened to the Heart?
Will Fantasmas be fantasmic? (CREDIT: HBO/Screenshot)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Bad Boys: Ride or Die (Theaters) – This is the fourth Bad Boys. The third one was called “for Life.”
–I Used to Be Funny (Theaters) – Rachel Sennott is in this.
–Tuesday (Theaters)
–The Watchers (Theaters)
TV
–Fantasmas Series Premiere (June 7 on HBO) – Starring Julio Torres.
Music
-Aurora, What Happened to the Heart?
-Bon Jovi, Forever
-Charli XCX, Brat
Sports
-Belmont Stakes (June 8 on FOX)
-2024 US Open (June 13-16 on NBC, USA, and Peacock) – Golfing in Pinehurst Resort.
June 4, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Adil El Arbi, Alexander Ludwig, Bad Boys, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Bilall Fallah, Dennis Greene, DJ Khaled, Eric Dane, Ioan Gruffudd, Jacob Scipio, Joe Pantoliano, John Salley, Martin Lawrence, Melanie Liburd, Paola Núñez, Quinn Hemphill, Rhea Seehorn, Tasha Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Vanessa Hudgens, Will Smith
Bad Boys, Bad Boys, what you gonna ride? What you gonna ride, when you ride or die? (CREDIT: Frank Masi/Columbia Pictures)
Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez, Eric Dane, Ioan Gruffudd, Jacob Scipio, Melanie Liburd, Tasha Smith, Rhea Seehorn, Joe Pantoliano, Tiffany Haddish, John Salley, DJ Khaled, Dennis Greene, Quinn Hemphill
Directors: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
Running Time: 115 Minutes
Rating: R for Heavy Artillery and the Dirty Cops That Fire Them
Release Date: June 7, 2024 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Don’t speak ill of the dead, or a couple of flashy Miami police detectives might just start investigating your ass. When the late Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano) is posthumously accused of collaborating with a drug cartel, Detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) set out to clear their mentor’s good name. It seems stunningly obvious that Howard is innocent, but the cartel’s tendrils of influence are inescapable, and their arsenal is bottomless. Plus, it doesn’t help that the best course of action involves transferring Mike’s incarcerated son Armando (Jacob Scipio) so that he can ID the real perp. Adding to the hurricane is the fact that Captain Howard’s US Marshal daughter Judy (Rhea Seehorn) has her own plan to clear her dad’s name that doesn’t involve trusting Mike or Marcus.
What Made an Impression?: They’re Really Getting Too Old For This S-: The last Bad Boys flick came out four years ago, and it was already the sort of legacy action sequel that was majorly about how its main characters are aging out of their high-octane lifestyles. Ride or Die ramps that angle up right from the get-go, with Marcus suffering a widow maker heart attack after indulging in a few too many Skittles and gas station hot dogs. Meanwhile, Mike is having a series of inexplicable panic attacks. As it plays out, though, this is really more about the odd couple dynamic, as Lawrence was never exactly the action star specimen that Smith has been for most of his career. While this thread could have been more meditative, I appreciate that it’s at least occasionally psychedelic, with Marcus going on a rather visually inventive spiritual journey following his heart attack. The rest of the movie is typical gunfire-filled mayhem, but at least there’s room for the leads to occasionally riff about mystical mumbo-jumbo.
Fancy Bad Boys: Sometimes I just want to spotlight one weird specific moment from a movie without covering too many of the most important details. Ride or Die is pretty much a retread of Bad Boys for Life, after all (at least in terms of vibes, if not necessarily plot). But what For Life didn’t have is Mike and Marcus pretending to be Reba McEntire superfans to get themselves out of a pickle. If you’ve seen the trailer, you already know that they’re forced at gunpoint to sing their favorite song by the country superstar to prove their bona fides. And if that moment had you wondering if we get a Reba rendition of the Inner Circle song that serves as this franchise’s namesake, well, then I must say that you are thinking clearly. And that’s what I’m going to choose to focus on whenever I think about this movie.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die is Recommended If You Like: Martin Lawrence being really silly, Will Smith being really annoyed, Rhea Seehorn being really serious
Grade: 3 out of 5 Posthumous Video Messages
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