An aspiring art intern is invited on a last-minute work trip to London, where she meets a handsome stranger.
Upgraded is directed by Carlson Young who previously directed The Blazing World (2021).
I’m one of maybe like thirty people who saw The Blazing World (2021) and ended up really liking it so I was excited to see what Carlson Young would do next and I’m glad to see her explore a different genre. While yes when you really get down to it Upgraded is a weaker The Devil Wears Prada there’s a level of charm here that actually works quite well in the movie’s favor.
Camila Mendes gives a solid performance that actually shows a lot of her talent, I’m glad to see she’s given another script that actually gives her a lot to work with. It helps that Mendes’s character Ana is genuinely fun to watch, Mendes’s chemistry with Archie Renaux is also quite great and the two work quite well together. Marisa Tomei just seems like she’s having a blast in her performance which is genuinely funny whether it was unintentional or not.
The third act does stumble a bit with a lot of the usual cliches that ultimately make the movie feel a lot longer than it really is and the huge lie of this movie can be a bit too much for some people to really buy. But the movie is a silly romantic comedy that isn’t trying to take itself too seriously, there’s a decent amount of fun moments that make the movie work.
Overall Upgraded isn’t really anything new to the genre but it’s a fun time that works just enough to recommend to fans of the genre. This is probably something I’m never going to go back to but I can’t say I did not have fun with this movie.
The thing Orion fears the most is the dark. When the embodiment of his worst fear pays a visit, Dark whisks Orion away on a roller-coaster ride around the world to prove there is nothing to be afraid of at night.
Orion And The Dark is directed by Sean Charmatz who previously directed a few Dreamworks animation shorts both of which are from the Trolls series (Trolls Holiday in Harmony and Tiny Diamond Goes Back To School)
When I first heard that Charlie Kaufman was going to be a writer for a Dreamworks and Netflix collaboration I was honestly expecting a very watered down film, however to my surprise Orion And The Dark works quite well and is genuinely a really fun film.
The voice acting is incredibly strong here across the board Jacob Tremblay gives a genuinely touching performance, Paul Walter Hauser does a really fantastic job of building the character of Dark and really making the viewer get invested into the character. Angela Bassett is also quite solid here even if she isn’t given the most to do, she still turns in a great performance as always.
The animation is quite beautiful, there’s a really creative mix of 2D and 3D animation tricks that are captivating and help build the world of the film, it also helps the movie move at a steady pace. The writing from Charlie Kaufman is very child friendly yet isn’t afraid to remind the viewer that the film is written by Kaufman, there’s some genuinely sweet messaging that is executed quite beautifully.
I definitely think the film fumbles the ball a bit towards the end that does away with a lot of the simplicity the rest of the movie was building, it sort of overcomplicates itself when it really did not need to. I do appreciate what the movie was trying to do with it’s final act as it was going for something a bit different, but it unfortunately doesn’t completely work and when compared to the rest of the movie it definitely sticks out like a sore thumb.
Having that said Orion And The Dark is a very sweet film that’s a quick and easy watch, it gets the job done for the most part and while not one of Dreamwork’s absolute best work. It’s miles better and far more investing than some other movies in their catalog.
Two romantic burnouts, Jane and Will, are immediately drawn to each other at a mutual friend’s wedding. After a disastrous hook up in the coatroom, they spend the next 24 hours trading candid confessions of messy histories and heartbreaks on the off chance that this fling could be the real thing.
Which Brings Me To You is directed by Peter Hutchings director of The Outcasts (2017), Then Came You (2018), Rhymes With Banana (2012) and The Hating Game (2021).
Really don’t have a whole lot to comment on, Which Brings Me To You is one of those “falling in love for a day” type of movies it’s very much like Before Sunrise (1995) granted it’s the not worst clone but it is a very unspectacular one.
Nat Wolff and Lucy Hale do a fine enough job here and actually have some decent chemistry between one another, there’s some genuinely cute moments that really do make you buy that the characters are into each other. But that’s where the movie really ends, the rest of the movie is very generic romantic comedy beats that tell a story we have seen countless times before as well as being done far better elsewhere.
The several stories the two share to each other aren’t very investing and ultimately lead up to a very predictable final act, having that said I wouldn’t say the movie is awful. There was definitely some level of attempt to make this work, as I said before Nat Wolff and Lucy Hale completely make this movie and even though the final act is on the very predictable side it is genuinely cute. I just wish the movie surrounding it was far better.
Which Brings Me To You is available on all VOD platforms.
A down-on-his-luck man struggles to find a better life for his family while fighting to free himself of debt. Captivated by the power and glory of the rising Messiah, he risks everything to carve his own path to a divine life, ultimately discovering that the redemptive power of belief may be his only way out.
The Book Of Clarence is directed by Jeymes Samuel who previously directed The Harder They Fall (2021).
The Book Of Clarance is the third movie I’ve seen this month that I appreciate more than I like or dislike it (the other two being Destroy All Neighbors and American Star) there is so much to like with this movie so it’s such a shame that it really does not come together in the end.
The acting is by far the best part about the movie, LaKeith Stanfield while starting off a bit rough does eventually really capture his performance quite well, Omar Sy, Anna Diop and many others do a solid job as well. It’s just such a shame that Clarence/Thomas (played by LaKeith Stanfield) is the only fully fleshed out character, everyone else is either forgotten about or not given a whole lot to work with character development wise.
The biggest problem here is the movie tries to do so many things at once, it’s very clear that it wants to be a parody of biblical epics, the Bible or an even a satire. It constantly switches and really starts to stick out like a sore thumb halfway through the movie, there’s a couple jokes here and there that are decently funny. But unfortunately most of the movie is just not really funny, I can definitely see what they were going for with the humor but due to the writing and comedic timing it just does not land.
Having that said I do think the movie is well made, Jeymes Samuel absolutely does have vision especially when it comes to capturing some really good shots that compliment the story being told. The movie has a stylistic look to it that at the very least gives the movie its own personality.
Overall The Book Of Clarence isn’t a bad movie, but it’s one that could have been so much better. It’s frustrating because with better writing, a more clear goal on what it wants to do and better jokes I think this would have went on to be something of a cult hit.
Jaycen Jennings, a former NFL superstar, agrees to coach a youth football team to avoid serving time in prison.
The Underdoggs is directed by Charles Stone III director of Drumline (2002), Lila & Eve (2015), Step Sisters (2017), Uncle Drew (2018) and a few others.
I’m a bit surprised, The Underdoggs isn’t anywhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. There is genuine heart put into this that does get lost throughout the movie due to issues I’ll get into in a moment. The concept of the movie comes from The Snoop Youth Football League which was founded by Snoop Dogg it still continues to this day, C.J. Stroud who is the quarterback for the Houston Texans played in The Snoop Youth Football League which is really neat.
Snoop Dogg is quite great here, a lot of his jokes do end up being just saying “mother fucker” over and over again, but he gives a genuinely solid performance and there were moments that got a few laughs out of me. Mike Epps is also not too bad here he gives some decent laughs but unfortunately doesn’t have a whole lot to work with as the movie goes on.
The main flaw here is while the movie does have heart, it’s basically if you took any of those sports movies like Mighty Ducks and made the kids say piss and fuck over and over again, it’s something we have seen so many times before only with extra cursing. Which is kind of the movie’s only joke cursing a bunch of times and hope the viewer laughs. Which ultimately hurts the heartfelt moments and sort of puts into this weird mix of this sports movie that wants to have this heartfelt message and be good for kids but also wants to curse as much as possible.
I will admit some of the back and forth between the adults and kids were genuinely hilarious and is arguably where the movie shined the most, as I said before The Underdoggs is not as bad as I was expecting but that doesn’t mean it’s a good movie. It’s very heavily flawed and repeats a lot of the same beats a lot of sports movies do (minus the swearing) but I do think this isn’t the worst way to spend 96 minutes. There’s some fun to be had here and I do think there is an audience for this one.
The Underdoggs is available on Amazon Prime Video.
A struggling rock musician finds himself in a living nightmare when he accidentally kills the neighbor from hell.
Destroy All Neighbors is directed by Josh Forbes who previously directed Contracted: Phase II (2015).
I honestly had no idea what to expect with Destroy All Neighbors and after watching I’m very stumped on if I liked it or not, but I think I appreciate the movie more than I like or dislike it. There’s absolutely no denying that the makeup which has this 80s throwback feel to it is phenomenal Alex Winter as Vlad is very unrecognizable and truly does a fantastic job, the practical effects are a lot of fun combine that with a ton of gore and it’s quite a wild ride.
The first bit of the movie is what slows it down a bit, a lot of it is the tradional main character suspects the neighbor of being evil type of plot, but with a not very interesting main character. Jonah Ray gives an okay performance (bad a times) but his character is very lacking in anything to really like about him. The second half of the movie is when things get insane, the movie goes from being a bit dull to something bizarre.
Which is the movie’s secret weapon..be as bizarre as possible and for the most part that works, however that does sacrifice a lot of the writing and acting which outside of Alex Winter is very okay at best. The movie tries to use a lot of humor and while there are a few chuckle worthy moments the movie is not nearly as funny as it makes itself out to be.
I definitely think Destroy All Neighbors is one of those movies where you are either going to love it or it does nothing for you.
Tommy receives an invitation to win $1 million by playing a game where he must outwit hunters attempting to kill him. He realises the hunters can only attack him when he’s alone, but none of his friends and family believe the game is real.
Lots of streaming films came out this week, Netflix released Lift, Amazon Prime Video released Role Play, Shudder released Destroy All Neighbors and Hulu released Self Reliance. Luckily Self Reliance is a lot better than Lift and Role Play.
For one thing Self Reliance is actually trying to say something, even if that something and its ideas don’t fully come together in the end due to a very rushed and unfocused ending. The performances are actually quite solid Jake Johnson who is also the director, writer and one of the producers of the movie gives a charming performance that’s actually quite funny at times. Anna Kendrick is also charming and while not one of her absolute best performances she does really make it work, her chemistry with Johnson is very solid leading to some strong moments where the two bounce off of each other quite well.
As a director Jake Johnson shows a lot of promise here, there’s some genuinely funny moments that uses the movie’s main premise quite well and the characters actually do feel like a group of friends at times. The movie on the surface has a thrilling sounding premise but the movie’s main focus is the humor which works most of the time, I definitely think if some scenes were more thrilling they would work far better than the end result.
Unfortunately Self Reliance is held back from the final moments of the movie, it’s a very weak ending that honestly feels rushed, the movie builds itself to be a lot more than it really is in certain scenes only to end on a whimper of ending. It’s unfortunate because this was very close from being something really solid, everything else that came before the ending was genuinely fun and while not anything to write home about still manages to keep the viewer’s attention.
Overall Self Reliance isn’t a bad movie it’s just one that could have been so much better with more time in the oven.
A master thief is wooed by his ex-girlfriend and the FBI to pull off an impossible heist with his international crew on a 777 passenger flight from London to Zurich.
Lift is directed by F. Gary Gray director of Friday (1995), The Italian Job (2003), The Fate Of The Furious (2017), Men in Black: International (2019) and a few others.
Lift is yet another addition to the long line of an overproduced Netflix Original movie that does absolutely nothing throughout it’s runtime, this is basically if you took Ocean’s 11 or any of the other movies in the series for that matter and made it unengaging, dull and horribly written. Plus when you throw in every single heist movie cliche in the book and doing absolutely nothing fun with them you have yourself a very forgettable movie.
The performances are serviceable but there is absolutely nothing to the characters, they are incredibly one dimensional with little to no personality. Kevin Hart is bland in the leading role, Hart’s comedy isn’t very funny to begin with but somehow the script gives him even less to work with than usual. The best performance is Gugu Mbatha-Raw who while not anything noteworthy at least tries to bring some sort of development and the chemistry between her and Hart isn’t bad it’s just very underdeveloped.
The team of characters as I said get very little in the way of development, we are given a few facts about them and a few scenes of them interacting with each other which of a lot of the time is little quips that are trying to be funny but completely fall flat. Much like some of Netflix’s other overproduced action movies such as Red Notice and Heart Of Stone, there is absolutely nothing here that hasn’t been done before. This is the very definition of a movie that’s put on a streaming platform that the viewer watches and completely forgets about within a few hours.
Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
Poor Things is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos a director who has constantly shown time and time again that he can deliver some absolutely fascinating films such as Dogtooth (2009), The Lobster (2015), The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017), The Favourite (2018) and a few others. Lanthimos is absolutely one of the best directors working today and he shows that even more with Poor Things.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way that you have probably already have heard by now, but it can’t be understated how incredible Emma Stone’s performance as Bella Baxter. It’s the very definition of a career best performance that is incredibly striking, humorous and truly captivating. Stone’s acting brings so much life to Bella Baxter that truly makes her one of the best written characters from a film this year. This is easily a type of performance that could have easily went wrong in a lot of ways, but the way Stone naturally builds the character from the ground up throughout the film as Bella goes through in evolution is truly fascinating and hits every single note storywise. Bella is a character who easily wins the viewer over the very second she is introduced and want to see her explore the world she’s in as well as wanting her to reach her goals.
Mark Ruffalo who plays Duncan Wedderburn also gives a career best performance, he’s absolutely hysterical and gives so many memorable moments that take his acting talent and combine it with his comedic timing incredibly well. He does such a fantastic job of playing this buffoon who wants to be taken seriously but ends up being hilarious and I mean that in the best way possible because that’s ultimately what Duncan is as a character.
Willem Dafoe and Ramy Youusef are also pretty strong here as well, although Dafoe who plays Dr. Godwin Baxter or “God” is missing through a huge portion of the film he still plays a very important part of the story and is still fantastic. You can never go wrong with having Willem Dafoe in your film and he absolutely feels like a natural fit in Lanthimos’s strange world. Youusef works incredibly well with Willem Dafoe when they are on screen together and actually do have a couple hilarious lines between one another, Youusef is also really charming and fits quite well with the rest of the cast. His character Max McCandles and his bond with Bella is really nice to watch and is actually quite comedic.
The film itself is this unhinged gothic fairytale type Frankenstein story that has so much creativity and imagination all over it, it definitely goes without saying that the film itself is beautiful. The amount of attention to detail is insane, every single frame of this film has this dreamlike look to it that you never want to wake up from due to how fascinating it looks. The film makes you want to explore each and every corner of its world, it’s truly mesmerizing and absolutely captivating to the eye. It’s a beautiful yet haunting world due to some of the creatures we see walking around which is fitting since this is directed by Lanthimos.
Speaking of which Lanthimos has directed some disturbing and quite weird films in the past, Poor Things is definitely on the more weird side of things, it’s much more abstract and the humor is definitely one of the center focuses, but it has everything that Lanthimos’s previous films had. The way Lanthimos tackles many different themes in each of his films is what makes you keep coming back to them and here is no exception. Poor Things has so many metaphors that are about Bella’s self discovery and sexual liberation that we see throughout Bella’s journey and it all ties together to present such a chaotic story that is truly beautiful and absolutely exciting. The way Lanthimos is able to grab the viewer’s attention with Bella’s journey is truly fascinating and manages to do it quite effortlessly. He’s able to do this in the most chaotic ways with tons of sex scenes that really act as character moments of their own, it’s part of how Bella slowly starts to discover herself and what she wants in the world.
I don’t want to say much else, because this is absolutely the type of film that you really need to see for yourself to really get the full impact. But just know that Poor Things is masterfully acted, written and directed. There’s so much layers to this film that I’m sure more people will slowly realize in years to come.
A family man finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. However, when his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, he’s forced to navigate the consequences of his newfound stardom.
Dream Scenario is directed by Kristoffer Borgli a director who’s work I’m a bit unfamiliar with but after watching Dream Scenairo really makes me want to look at his previous films because this was definitely a surprise.
I’ve heard a little about this film but really did not know what to expect, I’ll watch pretty much anything Nicolas Cage is in and this turns out to be one of my favorite performances by him. Nicolas Cage absolutely captures the humorous and imaginative atmosphere the film is going for. He even does such a fantastic job with the more emotion bits towards the end which really just shows how easily he can blend in with the atmosphere with each scene. The rest of the cast are quite great as well Julianne Nicholson has great chemistry with Cage, Tim Meadows and Michael Cera are great in the supporting cast.
What I find most interesting about Dream Scenario is how it progresses, it starts out presenting this very silly idea that even explaining this to someone would make them laugh. The idea that Paul Matthews who is played by Nicolas Cage randomly enters your dreams and just stands there is just hilarious. And for the first half of this film that’s exactly what it is, a crazy idea that works so well and it’s genuinely funny. But then the film takes a hammer and smashes the viewer’s heart into pieces with the satire on social media culture and cancel culture.
I was very worried when the film presented this idea, mostly due to how films as of late have tried to tackle cancel culture it’s often done in a way that feels like the writers have no idea what they are talking about or it’s just done in a way that’s incredibly lazy. However Dream Scenario takes a character in this case Paul Matthews who the viewer wants to succeed especially now since he’s getting popular due to appearing in everyone’s dreams and makes him the target. It’s very effective and really shows that blindly going after someone is incredibly idiotic. Despite the sci-fi and fantasy elements this is shockingly quite grounded.
Paul Matthews’s family starts to get effected by the whole situation much like in real life when mobs go after people the family of said person is often targeted as well, it’s a very surprising addition that a lot of films that try to tackle cancel culture often forget so it’s a breath of fresh air to see it being done here. The writing is truly fantastic here, while there are a few bumps in the road during the final act that don’t quite land, that’s not nearly enough to stop the movie from being surprisingly well written and genuinely funny. The moments with Cage interacting with his family are truly some of the best of the film and actually feel quite real.
Overall Dream Scenario is a clever satire that’s well written, humorous and executes its premise very strongly.
Jerome Reviews... 