In 1972, the first-ever Black congresswoman, Shirley Chisholm, launched a trailblazing campaign to become the president of the United States.
Shirley is directed by John Ridley who has directed Cold Around the Heart (1997), Jimi: All Is by My Side (2013) and Needle in a Timestack (2021).
Shirley tells the story of Shirley Chisholm an American politician who became the first Black woman to be elected into the United States Congress in 1968. She also became the first Black candidate for a major party nomination for President of the United States. The film documents the 1972 presidential run of Shirley Chisholm.
There is absolutely no denying what Shirley Chisholm did broke many barriers and was truly inspiring, a lot of that is felt throughout the film, sadly however the movie does have a flaws that hold it back. The main one being this is yet another incredibly safe biopic that goes about as deep as a Wikipedia page, this is sadly a common trend among a lot of biopics and Shirley is no different.
Having that said there are positives which mostly comes from the performances. Regina King plays Shirley Chisholm and as usual knocks it out of the park, even with a lacking script Regina King is able to really turn a lot of the movie around and make certain scenes genuinely powerful. She nails down the accent, actions and mannerisms of Shirley Chisholm which truly is fascinating. Her commanding the screen at any moment she’s given is truly powerful and once again fascinating to watch.
Lucas Hedges returns (his last film performance was in 2020) he plays Robert Gottlieb which while he doesn’t have a whole lot of screentime, Regina King and Lucas Hedges work incredibly well together and actually deliver some charming moments. Hedges also really nails down his portrayal of Gottlieb quite well. The late Lance Reddick plays Wesley McDonald Holder (one of his last performances, there’s still three more film performances after this) does an excellent job and again shows how incredible he was as an actor. He works incredibly well with the rest of the cast and much like Regina King, he’s able to take a lacking script and turn into something really fascinating.
As I said before unfortunately Shirley is a very by the numbers biopic, the directing style is played very safe and falls in line with a lot of other biopics. Which is a shame because Shirley Chisholm’s story is very fascinating and deserves to be told with so much more power.
The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who make history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports
The Iron Claw is directed by Sean Durkin director of The Nest (2020) and Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011). The film is based on the life of wrestler Kevin Von Erich and the Von Erich family.
I’ve said this before but I’m not a wrestling fan, but reading about the story of Kevin and his family is incredibly sad stuff. Between 1984 and 1993 3 of the five brothers Mike, Chris and Kerry died by suicide and another of the five David died of acute enteritis although this is heavily debated. There was another brother Jack Jr. who died in 1959 by drowning after an electrical shock long before the other brothers deaths. I bring Jack Jr. up because when people talk about the Von Erich deaths they are mostly talking about Mike, Chris, Kerry and David so I figured it’s worth pointing out.
The film itself mentions Jack Jr. In one scene which I thought was sweet and is admittedly one of the film’s very emotional moments. The film doesn’t include one of the brothers Chris, the reason given by Durkin is he was worried the film would be way too depressing and would never get made. To make up for Chris’s absence he incorporates his death with Mike who in real life Chris looked up to and ended his life because of Mike’s death effecting him so much. Some people might not like Chris’s absence and that’s completely understandable, I do think the film makes up for it with large amount of emotion capturing the absolute tragedy of this story.
The performances are all incredibly top notch nobody here gives a bad performance, Zac Efron plays Kevin Von Erich and gives one of the most touching performances I’ve seen from a film this year. It’s a devastating performance that captures the incredibly sad story of Kevin Von Erich, there’s so many moments here where you can absolutely feel the pain in his voice and body language. There’s another scene where Kevin Von Erich is having such a good time being married and dancing with his wife Pam Adikisson (played by Lily James) and his brothers Kerry (played by Jeremy Allen White), Mike (played by Stanley Simons and David (played by Harris Dickinson) this scene in particular is the finale of the happy moments of the film. And the way Zac Efron is able to capture both these times where Kevin is living a much happier life and when he’s surrounded by tragedy which he even goes as far as to consider that the “Von Erich curse” is real (which you really can’t blame him for that) is absolutely incredible and truly shows Efron’s talent as an actor.
Jeremy Allen White, Harrison Dickinson, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany and Lily James are all fantastic here. White, Dickson and Simons do a phenomenal job of capturing the pain and tragedy of the brothers. They all bounce of each other well making this incredibly more sad to watch as the bond all the brothers have here is incredibly grounded. Holt McCallany plays Fritz Von Erich which again much like everyone else here he does such a fantastic job, although the film is much more focused on the brothers and less on the abuse Fritz caused on the brothers. It’s still very much implied through the brother’s facial expressions of clearly not wanting to do something but they want to make their father proud so they do it. Although Lily James isn’t a huge focus, she is still quite incredibly here and naturally fits incredibly well with the cast.
The way the story is told here combined with the acting is what really makes this film, it’s told in such a focused and emotional way that quickly grabs the viewer’s heart. Right from the beginning there’s little subtle hints as to what’s going to happen, even if you haven’t heard the story of the Von Erichs you still have this feeling something is going to really hit you like a truck and that’s absolutely the case. Durkin does such as great job of making this as grounded as possible, which is important since this is based off of a true story. With a sad story like this you want to tell it in the most grounded way possibly and luckily that’s the case here.
The wrestling scenes are quite powerful and whether this was intentional or not in some ways really fit together with the tragedy of the story. The wrestling scenes have this extra gut punch where you can really feel and hear the impact, in a lot of other wrestling movies you can tell they are just action scenes. But here you really feel the brutality of it all it’s so well directed and the sound is incredibly sharp.
The final moments of the film is what absolutely got me to cry, I’m not going to spoil what’s said because it’s something you must hear for yourself to get the full impact. But the moments really sum up this film and really wrap up the film in such a beautiful and touching way. The ending is on the hopeful side with the film mentioning Kevin Von Erich having grandchildren and they constantly meet up, it’s truly touching and moments like this that really bring the viewer to tears.
Saúl Armendáriz, a homosexual amateur wrestler from El Paso, Texas, rises to international stardom when he creates the character Cassandro, the `Liberace of Lucha Libre.’ He upends not just the macho wrestling world, but also his own life.
Biopics in recent years have become far more frequent, in some ways it’s a positive since audiences are introduced to people who they might have never heard of. On the other hand biopics being pushed out the door leaves room for some studios to really skim through said person’s story. Unfortunately that’s what happened here with Cassandro.
Cassandro is a biopic about Saúl Armendáriz who became a wrestler and used the stage name Cassandro, he is a former NWA World Welterweight and UWA World Lightweight Champion.
Reading Armendáriz’s story it’s a very interesting one, a gay amateur wrestler slowly but surely climbs his way to international stardom, who along the way has a journey of expressing his sexual identity, going through loss, poverty and such. It’s an aspiring story that really deserves to be told in great detail but sadly that’s not the case here unfortunately.
Cassandro is told as if someone was skimming a book they have to study for a test and declares that’s enough to pass, but in reality you are missing a lot of key details that are important. I will say that the performances all around are quite great the standout being Gael García Bernal who plays Cassandro, there’s a few moments where the movie clearly has it’s heart in the right place and has a few emotional moments that really do shine. Bernal’s performance is incredibly charming and really keeps you rooting for him throughout the film. The filming and score are also quite decent as well, they fit the tone for what the movie is going for especially towards the end.
The main issue here is we really don’t get to see Cassandro overcome obstacles in a lot of detail, heck by the second fight he’s already a runaway star which really leaves the viewer puzzled as there is so much to his story not being told very well or just flat out missing. The movie takes the form of less then a biopic and more of a traditional underdog story that plays incredibly safe. I’m not saying the movie needed to include every single thing about Cassandro’s life but at the very least give more details and don’t leave out parts that could make this movie impactful.
The New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor publish a report that exposes sexual abuse allegations against powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. The shocking story also serves as a launching pad for the #MeToo movement, shattering decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault and harassment.
Making a film about sexual harassment and abuse is a very hard task, it’s a very heavy subject that you have to really nail down to get right and luckily She Said nails it. From the trailers it did seem like another case of Hollywood patting themselves on the back despite sexual abuse and harassment still being a huge ongoing problem in the industry. She Said tells the events of Harvey Weinstein one of the biggest Hollywood producers being finally exposed for his disgusting crimes, I do want to note that She Said is not just about Harvey Weinstein it’s about Sexual harassment and assault happening in the workplace being covered up in general. The cast is very strong here particularly Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan who truly deliver some powerful and honest performances that really bring a lot to the film, both of which play real journalists which only add to the power of their performances. The film is also claustrophobic and quite disturbing at times which it accomplishes that by never showing any of the sexual assault or harassment instead it uses it’s atmosphere combined with it’s writing to put the viewer into the victims shoes. It might be a bit disturbing yet the film is empathetic and approaches the heavy topic with a lot of respect and that has a lot to do with Maria Schrader’s direction who really nails down a huge issue that is still going on in Hollywood, she makes some very strong decisions such as letting survivors tell their stories and show tons of emotion while talking to the journalists. It creates a brutally honest experience that is very real, combined that with Kazan and Mulligan blending incredibly well together with their two very different personalities and you have a honest film that approaches a heavy subject with tons of respect.
An account of German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon living in the south of France between 1941 and 1943.
Charlotte definitely has the right ingredients to b a really strong movie, there’s just many parts about it that hold it back from doing so. The voice acting is quite great particularly Keira Knightly who really tries the best she can with the script she’s given, the story itself is interesting and tells the true story of German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon during World War II. The film itself is quite dark particularly the ending which is very sad and is very effective, there’s footage at the end of a small interview of Salomon’s parents it’s incredibly touching and quite powerful as well. The problems with the movie are the script being way too weak and the animation, the animation isn’t something I would call terrible. But it really doesn’t capture the life of Charlotte Salomon and what she was going through very well, the script lacked powerful moments which is something a film like this needs. There’s the ending yes but a lot of the movie’s script was very undercooked and was very rushed as well. Charlotte isn’t a bad movie just one that could have went a lot deeper than it did.
An intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.
The Eyes Of Tammy Faye is interesting and sort of surprising, right from the beginning it gives this bizarre style to it that I had no idea what to make of it. There are very standard biopic bits during the first half that aren’t too exciting but not anything really bad, Jessica Chastain gives one of her best performances here and is more than likely going to get nominated when the award shows start. And as she should she becomes Tammy Faye, she nails every single thing about her from how she acted and spoke to her style of singing. Speaking of which the songs were very great, despite Christian music certainly not being my type of music I still found myself singing along and have actually listened to a few of the songs since I saw the film. Andrew Garfield is also pretty great as well, while he isn’t as good as Jessica Chastain he still delivers a fantastic performance and was very believable as Jim Bakker. There are moments when he even becomes Jim Bakker it gets pretty scary, Cherry Jones who plays Rachel LaValley deserves to be talked about more for her performance. She’s hilarious, she gives this sarcastic yet loving performance that really makes you smile. The major flaw with The Eyes Of Tammy Faye is skimming over certain subjects. Especially with her connection to the LGBT community sure it’s shown in the film a few times and it does show she genuinely cares about the community, however it doesn’t feel like it’s discussed very much. I would have also loved to see the film dive a bit deeper on the shadiness of televangelist, but for what the movie did talk about it did a solid job. The writing definitely improves as it goes on, it starts out good enough but just very strange for the sake of feeling strange, but as the movie reaches its 30 minute mark it improves quite well. Overall The Eyes Of Tammy Faye is quite great, it does feel like a very standard biopic at times but there is a lot to like about this one, I recommend watching this one solely because of the performances!
An attorney in Washington D.C. battles against cynicism, bureaucracy and politics to help the victims of 9/11.
Worth is a pretty solid movie that tells the true story of lawyer Kenneth Feinberg who battles a ton of obstacles to help the victims of 9/11. Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci both give very solid performances, Worth is at it’s best when it focuses on the victims of 9/11 particularly the interview scenes. It has a lot of human interaction during those scenes and has a huge sense of rawness to it as well, that ultimately make this movie an emotional ride at times. I do wish the writing could have been a bit stronger in some areas, particularly the first act that does take a bit to get going. Worth is overall a solid enough movie that is quite interesting and delivers the emotional moments quite well.
The true story of a small town, working class father who embarks on a solo walk across the U.S. to crusade against bullying after his son is tormented in high school for being gay.
Joe Bell is a movie where at first glance it seems like it’s trying to be meaningful and heartwarming but when you actually sit down and take a closer look at it that’s just not true at all. The only thing I can give this movie is Mark Wahlberg gives a fine enough performance and trust me when I say that isn’t enough to save this movie, my biggest issue with this movie is that it really tries to hammer in this idea that “at least I’m not AS homophobic as those guys” look I’m all for redemption stories, people can change it’s part of the human nature. However this feels like a very ignorant and a tasteless way of doing that. It doesn’t help that the writing is terrible and is a complete and total mess, the LGBT character is sidelined in favor of the father who’s homophobic. It feels like another inspiration porn but this case this movie was made for some straight people to pat themselves on the back. What makes this even more tasteless and honestly very uncomfortable is that this is based on an actual suicide, so not only is the movie just bad in general due to poor direction that has nothing to it at all. It completely fails at treating the true story with care, as for the rest of the movie it’s honestly shocking of how cheaply made despite a $33 million dollar budget (according to Deadline) I’ve seen films with a much lower budget that don’t feel anywhere near as cheaply made as this. As I said before the writing is a complete and total mess, it feels like nobody looked this over and just went with it. Overall Joe Bell is one of the worst movies of the year, it’s a complete mess, it’s tasteless and it just flat out fails on what it’s trying to do.
The complicated relationship that formed between the FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier and serial killer Bundy during Bundy’s final years on death row.
I really wouldn’t blame someone if their first reaction hearing about another Ted Bundy movie being released was “another one?!?” Because quite frankly there has been a lot of them at this point, however Amber Sealey’s No Man Of God manages to be far different from the other films. For one thing the film isn’t only about Ted Bundy it’s also about FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier which is story I feel like completely goes unnoticed at times. The performances here are quite fantastic Luke Kirby does a fantastic job as Ted Bundy, he’s intimidating, acts like him and so on this is definitely one of the best if not the best portrayal of Ted Bundy in recent memory. Elijah Wood plays Hagmaier and he does an incredible job as well, the chemistry between Wood and Kirby is fantastic and feels very real. It’s disturbing but at the same time very fascinating as to what was going on between their discussions, which is where the writing comes in. Which I truly feel is the best part about this film, the writing really shares the thoughts and discussions they shared with one another. It’s a dark film that truly delivers in every single way possible, if your a fan of true crime you are going to love No Man Of God!
H, a cold and mysterious character working at a cash truck company responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles each week.
Wrath Of Man is a very decent action thriller movie and nothing more, Jason Statham does a solid job in his role, it’s the type of role that at this point Statham is use to and he does just as good as he always has here. Guy Ritchie does a pretty good job with the directing sure this might not be as good as some of his other movies but at least with Wrath Of Man it has that Guy Ritchie spirit in it where’s movies like Aladdin and King Arthur did not. The main criticisms are the other characters who are just not that interesting and the movie tries a little too much to give the villains a backstory, when it quite honestly didn’t need to. The running time definitely did not need to be almost two hours long, luckily the action scenes do help this movie out by making the movie move at a good pace. Wrath Of Man is definitely not bad, it’s a very serviceable action movie that gets the job done and for the most part knows what it’s sent out to do. Just don’t expect anything completely groundbreaking.
Wrath Of Man is now in theaters and on VOD!
6/10 C+
The true story of Dream Alliance, an unlikely racehorse bred by small-town bartender Jan Vokes. With very little money and no experience, Jan convinces her neighbors to chip in their meager earnings to help raise Dream and compete with the racing elites. Their investment pays off as Dream rises through the ranks and becomes a beacon of hope for their struggling community.
Filmmakers definitely love horses don’t they? Dream Horse is the newest horse movie and there really isn’t a whole to be said here, it’s a true story of Dream Alliance which is a interesting enough story! Toni Collette does a pretty good job in her role and is easily the best part of the movie, I would say watch this one because of her performance, the filming is actually quite nice with some beautiful shots as well. What does ultimately stop Dream Horse from being anything other than a decent crowd pleaser and nothing more is it really doesn’t do anything new. It’s a very typical underdog (or underhorse in this case…I know I’m not funny) that follows a pattern like a lot of other underdog stories do. It’s a very charming little movie that also has some decent dialogue and a few meaningful moments but that’s all there really is to this movie. It’s a very decent watch if your looking for something to just put on but it’s really nothing more than that.
Dream Horse is now available on VOD!
6/10 C+
In 1984 a Russian research team goes below the surface to find out what secret the world’s deepest borehole is hiding. On their expedition, something unexpectedly gruesome awaits the researchers.
The Superdeep is basically Underwater and The Thing, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What’s not good is how the movie executes it’s idea which is really lacking, I like the idea of it but between a ton of characters who really aren’t written well all, the pacing which really drags towards the end and a story that becomes incredibly predictable especially towards the end. The Superdeep is really nothing more of a movie that you would put on in the background for noise, sure it does have it’s fun moments but it isn’t quite enough to save this movie.
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