‘The Life of Chuck’ Reveals All the Lives Within That Life of Chuck

June 4, 2025

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The Spontaneous Choreography of Chuck (CREDIT: NEON)

Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay, Chiwetel Ejifor, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, Annalise Basso, Mia Sara, Matthew Lillard, Carl Lumbly, Samantha Sloyan, Harvey Guillén, Kate Siegel, Nick Offerman, Q’Orianka Kilcher, David Dastmalchian, Rahul Kohli, Heather Langenkamp, Violet McGraw

Director: Mike Flanagan

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: R for Language, Apparently (Nothing Overly Outrageous)

Release Date: June 6, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Told in three acts unfolding in reverse order, Act Three of The Life of Chuck opens on a future on the verge of apocalypse: the internet is becoming ever more unreliable, natural disasters are an everyday occurrence, and soon enough the stars are being wiped from the sky. Everyone is despairing, and the only sign of hope are literal signs popping up all around town thanking some guy named Chuck Krantz for his 39 years of service. But nobody has any idea who Chuck is! But then we step back to Act Two, taking place on one of the most memorable days of Chuck’s (Tom Hiddleston) life, when he spontaneously decides to start dancing in front of a busking drummer and quickly draws an enraptured crowd. And finally, Act One introduces us to a middle school-age Chuck (Benjamin Pajak), who’s living with his grandparents (Mark Hamill and Mia Sara) following the tragic death of his mom and dad.

What Made an Impression?: The King’s English: Mike Flanagan is currently our foremost adapter of Stephen King, with The Life of Chuck based on a novella that was published in 2020. I’ve never read a single story written by King, but it’s impossible to avoid him if you’ve been watching movies for the past 50 years. While I’ve enjoyed plenty of those big screen versions, they’ve never made me want to dive into the source. There’s something that’s just a little bit uncanny about the worlds that King weaves. It’s like he’s speaking a language that’s ever so slightly different from the one I’m speaking. And when that language is filtered through the lens of someone who’s clearly as much of a fan as Flanagan is, that uncanniness is a rather strong flavor.
Voice Overlord: I’ve enjoyed the narration in plenty of movies that feature it, and I’ve also enjoyed Nick Offerman in pretty much everything he’s ever done. But the narration narrated by Nick Offerman in The Life of Chuck? Well, that had me going “Huh.” It’s blunt, literal, and near-constant. But it also felt completely necessary if this movie was going to be the movie that it wants to be. Does that make sense?
One Life: The whole idea underlying The Life of Chuck seems to be that there’s an entire universe living within Chuck’s brain (and by extension, everyone else’s brain). To get mildly spoiler-y, he’s dying of cancer, and that universe is dimming in his final moments. Is Chuck truly worthy of this biographical treatment? Yes, insofar as every single individual is worthy of such treatment. If The Life of Chuck didn’t fully work for any of us, well, then perhaps we could respond by crafting our own The Life of (Whoever the Hell We Want).
All He Wants to Do Is…: Despite all my misgivings, I’ve got to give it up for that dance scene. Actually, there are multiple dance scenes, but I’m talking about that busking one right in the middle. Damn, Hiddleston-as-Chuck gives it his all. And you know what else this scene underscored me? I really love drumming. Taylor Gordon just pounds away on the skins, and it goes straight to my core. And then Annalise Basso plays Chuck’s impromptu partner, who’s wearing the perfect dress to accentuate all of their spins and dips. It’s one of the best scenes of the year.

The Life of Chuck is Recommended If You Like: Hanging upside-down while reading a book all day until the sun sets

Grade: 3 out of 5 Chucks

This Is a Movie Review: ‘Nostalgia’ Makes Some Obvious, Occasionally Affecting Points About Nostalgia

February 15, 2018

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CREDIT: Bleecker Street

This review was originally posted on News Cult in February 2018.

Starring: Jon Hamm, Catherine Keener, John Ortiz, Ellen Burstyn, Bruce Dern, James LeGros, Nick Offerman, Amber Tamblyn, Patton Oswalt, Annalise Basso, Mikey Madison

Director: Mark Pellington

Running Time: 114 Minutes

Rating: R for Language Apparently, But It Should Otherwise Be Rated PG

Release Date: February 16, 2018 (Limited)

Nostalgia, the 2018 film directed by Mark Pellington, would like you to know that nostalgia, the sentimality for the past, is a feeling that exists and that people experience. It does not treat this as some big revelation, as this is a common human emotion and the film does not pretend otherwise. But it is so simplistic and obvious, but also matter-of-factly profound, in its explication of the definition that there is this weird mix of pretension and lack of ambition. Mostly, Nostalgia glides along in a quiet, unfussy groove that is occasionally enlivened by tragedy and committed performances.

This is one of those anthology-style, “we’re all connected” movies with multiple discrete-but-actually-closely-connected(-at-least-thematically) storylines. Instead of cross-cutting between each vignette and having them dance around each other, they take their turns and then hand the ball (one time quite literally) off to the next one, with at least one shared character per section. At first it looks like Nostalgia will follow the travails of an insurance agent (John Ortiz) and the people he encounters. That’s a justifiable enough premise, but the execution is strikingly mundane.

The film eventually shakes out instead to more broadly be a series of sketches of people dealing with loss and holding on to and/or letting go of sentimental objects, which is even more nondescript than the insurance agent setup, but there are some dynamic moments. In particular, there is the scene with Ellen Burstyn as a widow selling her late husband’s autographed baseball to a professional collector (Jon Hamm). His appraisal delivers exactly the sort of human touch you want when parting with an item with such high monetary and emotional value. Hamm’s entire section, in which he and his sister (Catherine Keener) are hit with a great loss in the midst of cleaning out their father’s old stuff, is filled with understated power. Its setup is just as lightweight as the other storylines, but it delivers enough poignancy to make Nostalgia just worthwhile enough.

Nostalgia is Recommended If You Like: Jon Hamm swooping in to save the day, Emotional gut punches

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Verified Ted Williams Signatures

This Is a Movie Review: Ouija: Origin of Evil

October 24, 2016

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , 1 Comment

ouija-origin-of-evil

A bit of fanfare has been made director Mike Flanagan’s use of split diopter shots and insistence on inserting cigarette burns in the corner of the screen in Ouija: Origin of Evil. These techniques work with the retro vibe in this ’60s-set horror prequel, but this is more than just aesthetic fetishism. They speak to the great care given to constructing the whole film. You’ll see the denizens of the spirit world lurking around the corners, and occasionally bursting into the foreground, but only when you are damn well supposed to.

The fact that Ouija: Origin of Evil is so thorough might lead viewers to make some faulty conclusions and connections, which may just be intentional, and even if they are not, they are still disorienting in a way that great horror often is. One of the main girls is played by Annalise Basso, who was previously in the underrated Oculus, also directed by Flanagan. As Ouija becomes increasingly trippier, it almost feels like Basso is playing the same character she did in (the very trippy) Oculus. Of course, Origin of Evil is actually a prequel to another Ouija movie, but not very many people saw that and I imagine those who did promptly forgot about it.

Much of the success of Origin of Evil rests on the little shoulders of Lulu Wilson, who plays the younger and more possessed of the two main girls. She continues a long and vaunted tradition of creepy horror kids, establishing her own place in this hall of fame by adding hints of nonchalance and ace comic timing. There is one moment when she replaces the second half of an oft-repeated mantra with “blah blah blah,” which is liable to floor viewers with an unexpected chuckle. This film does not reinvent the supernatural genre, but it never lets you take it easy.

I give Ouija: Origin of Evil 8 Skeletons out of 10 Crawlspaces.