Beau is Afraid is a masterfully crafted dark journey.

Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.

Ari Aster has very quickly made a name for himself over the last few years, both Hereditary and Midsommar being both some of the best films from the 2010s it was only natural that I would be really excited to see what he does next, Beau is Afraid is a very different film, it throws a lot of curveballs that you wouldn’t really expect but knowing that Aster does something completely different with his films it was wonderful to see.

Let’s get the performances out of the way, they are all truly fantastic some being very intimidating right out the gate Joaquin Phoenix is quite fantastic. Phoenix has always been an actor who shows how much range he really has an actor and he continues to show that here. The journey his character Beau Wassermann goes throughout the film is truly fascinating, there’s a lot of character moments where we get glimpses inside his head and what he’s thinking especially when the film gets to one particular long scene that is truly some of the best moments Ari Aster has ever done. Patti LuPone is another standout who gives quite a scary performance that while she doesn’t show up until way later in the film you can still strangely feel her presence.

The atmosphere of the film is anxiety inducing there’s always this feeling that Beau is being watched or not completely alone in certain scenes it really builds tension and horror masterfully, the many different locations that Beau travels to is truly beautiful yet haunting. There’s so much attention to detail with each of the locations and with some of the more haunting moments. Between an apartment in the city, a house with a family, a forest and finally his mother’s house they each set up their own story. My favorite being the forest as I hinted at earlier there’s a long scene that is truly some of Aster’s best, it’s animated scene that is truly beautiful and really brings in more of the “what the hell am I watching” atmosphere to the film. Sure bizarre moments did happen before but this is where the film kicks it up a notch.

The third act is very divisive among a lot of people, some people absolutely love it some absolutely hate it, however I really loved it! The final act wraps everything up quite well and really shows a lot of Beau’s character in the final moments in particular where we see his character completely break and everything comes crashing down. There’s also one particular scene that is very bizarre but the symbolism is quite clever as well.

Overall Beau is Afraid is another masterful film from Ari Aster, he continues to show that he brings new ideas to the table and executes them perfectly. I truly can’t wait to see what he does next!

Beau is Afraid is available in theaters.

10/10 A+

Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret is a masterful coming of age film.

When her family moves from the city to the suburbs, 11-year-old Margaret navigates new friends, feelings, and the beginning of adolescence.

Kelly Fremon Craig who previously directed The Edge Of Seventeen is back with another coming of age film called Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, I didn’t know what to really expect going into the film. I haven’t read the book so the only knowledge I really had was Kelly Fremon Craig was directing and I loved The Edge Of Seventeen so I gave this one a go and wow this is definitely a fantastic film.

I can’t really put into words how incredible the acting is in the film, it’s truly some of the best acting so far this year there’s so many standouts that truly nail each and every scene. Abby Ryder Fortson is truly incredible, she’s a star who’s going to go really far in her career and the film really shows that. She gives such a raw and nostalgic performance, what I mean by that is she truly feels like a childhood friend you might have known. If you remember the days where you had a big neighborhood when you were a kid and several other kids were there, you use to go outside and hangout together, go to each other’s houses and such. It’s such a rare type of performance that I truly appreciate, Fortson also really does capture the spirit of the coming of age film, through her character the film explores womanhood and change which the film does masterfully.

Kathy Bates is as fantastic as always, she’s always been one of my favorite actresses and here is no exception, she absolutely captures the spirit of a grandparent who absolutely loves their grandkid, yet can be a bit too pushy when it comes to wanting their grandkid to become something. She obviously means well but it’s a very real flaw that we don’t often see depicted in films (or done well at least). Finally there’s Rachel McAdams who gives one of the best performances of the year, she completely captures a mother who’s daughter is changing, she does everything to support her daughter all while having a few struggles of her own. There’s so much power to her performance especially with her interactions with the other characters is truly phenomenal.

Which leads into my next point the interactions between the characters, it’s very real and is incredibly down to earth. The way Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) interacts with her friends and family is truly fantastic, there’s comedic moments, there’s serious moments, there’s quiet moments you name it. There’s so much balance between them all that it really paints such a beautiful picture.

Finally there’s the direction from Kelly Fremon Craig who once again nails the coming of age genre, it’s a genre that a lot of attempted some more successful than others. But Kelly Fremon Craig is one of those successes by far, much like she did with The Edge Of Seventeen she creates a very realistic picture that many people can relate to, it combines so many ideas and elements that all blend together to create something truly honest and special. This is an absolute must see.

Are You There God? It’s Margaret is available in theaters.

10/10 A+

Ghosted (2023) is a disaster

Cole falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie, but then makes the shocking discovery that she’s a secret agent. Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world.

I said in my review for You People (2023) that over the years I’ve been much more positive when it comes to bad movies especially in my reviews. And I still stand by that (even if that was just a few months ago) I can recognize that there was some level of attempt in a lot of movies that I reviewed not favorably…however Ghosted is one of those movies where it truly breaks the camel’s back because this is quite honestly one of the worst looking movies I’ve seen in a very long time.

Let’s start with the acting Ana de Armas and Chris Evans have no chemistry at all, it’s completely dull has no personality to it, tries way too hard to balance some serious moments and comedy but completely falls flat on it’s face. The performances are not good either Chris Evan’s is for whatever reason trying to be Ryan Reynolds 2.0 and Ana de Armas is given very poor material to work with.

The writing absolutely does feel like it was written by an AI, it honestly baffles me that someone read the script and gave the okay, there’s cameos that are incredibly pointless, humor that insults the viewer’s intelligence and a bunch of plot points that have been done far better elsewhere. What really kills this movie however is the action scenes and the camerawork, there’s so many unconvincing shots of Ana de Armas and Chris Evans together it truly looks like they weren’t on set together at all. The level of just not caring is truly incredible with this movie, heck the fact this was directed by Dexter Fletcher director of Rocketman is truly beyond parody.

Ghosted goes through every single predictable plot point you can think of and executes them in the worst way you can think of, what makes this even worse is that the movie itself is incredibly dull and devoid of any personality. At least with some bad movies they do have a personality where you can somewhat be entertained by them, but here? Nothing at all!

Ghosted is available on Apple TV+

Disgrace To Cinema F

Renfield is a flawed horror comedy that could have been more.

Renfield, the tortured aide to his narcissistic boss, Dracula, is forced to procure his master’s prey and do his every bidding. However, after centuries of servitude, he’s ready to see if there’s a life outside the shadow of the Prince of Darkness.

Renfield immediately got me very excited once I saw that Nicolas Cage was casted as Dracula a role in which he was born to do, but how does the overall movie fair?

Well let’s start with the positives, as I hinted at earlier Nicolas Cage knocks it out of the park as Dracula. While his screentime could have been a lot more whenever he absolutely takes advantage the role when he shows up, it’s classic Nicolas Cage at his finest and his performance honestly shows why he’s such a fun actor to watch on the big screen.

The same can be really said for Nicholas Hoult like Cage he’s a lot of fun and when you combine the interactions between Hoult and Cage you truly do get some entertaining results, the Mortal Kombat like kills are quite incredible as well. They were quite unexpected given that the trailer made the movie come off as just another horror comedy, but there are actually some quite brutal kills here that are quite exciting and combine it with some really solid action scenes as well.

With that said the movie does have it’s flaws that do ultimately hurt it, the humor mostly just doesn’t work here unfortunately. There’s a lot of parts with Cage that work well but just about everything else especially with Awkwafina who gives a very forgettable performance doesn’t quite work. The chemistry between Hoult and Awkwafina is just not there at all, they really tried to shoehorn this whole love interest subplot that really doesn’t fit well at all here.

That also leads into the main problem with Renfield as the movie goes on it starts to become a mess, there’s a lot of ideas floating around that the movie barely touches on or does absolutely nothing with. There’s this whole family plot with Camille Chen’s character Kate and Awkwafina’s character Rebecca that once again is just sort of there, a lot of the third act throws stuff at the wall to see what sticks.

Despite the review sounding negative I did have fun with Renfield, it’s a fun movie for what it is. It just could have been a whole lot better had the script been much more focused.

Renfield is currently in theaters.

6/10 C+

Quasi is a complete and total mess.

A hapless hunchback yearns for love, but finds himself in the middle of a deadly feud between the Pope and the King of France when they each order the misfit to kill the other.

Quasi is a satirical comedy based on the 1831 novel The Hunchback Of Notre Dame and wow this is horrible.

First off the movie is clearly trying to be Monty Python and the Holy Grail but one of the main things this movie forgot to do that made Monty Python so great was you know actually be funny? Because right from the beginning the humor is dreadful and never improves as the movie goes on, what you are going to get is a bunch of sex jokes, disabled jabs, a bunch of horrible accents, poop jokes and even some modern jokes despite taking place in a period setting the main one being a selfie joke.

The acting is horrible and quite honestly some of the worst to come out of this year, Adrianne Palicki is definitely the only one who seems to be trying to work with what she’s given but even then it’s not enough to save this movie. Steve Lemme and Jay Chandrasekhar in particular are dreadful, there is absolutely no comedic timing with them combine that with the material they are given it just leads to an overall disaster.

The writing is horrendous and it’s by far the biggest problem with this movie, a lot of it heavily relies on funny jokes or trying to be completely bizarre for the sake of being bizarre and not in a good way. The weird amount of incest humor towards the end is also just disgusting as well, heck there’s even a drawn out incestuous sex scene that’s supposed to be this one giant joke but completely misses in every single way possible.

Overall Quasi is incredibly unfunny, poorly acted and an absolute pain to sit through. This is one I definitely recommend to skip.

Quasi is available on Hulu.

1/10 F

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a huge celebration of the source material.

The story of The Super Mario Bros. on their journey through the Mushroom Kingdom.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie was one of my most anticipated films of 2023, I’ve been waiting for another attempt at a Mario movie for the longest time. While I have grown to enjoy the Super Mario Bros Movie from 1993 it is very far from the source material and I definitely thought that another attempt should happen.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is more than just following the source material, it takes the material and does the absolute most it can with it in 92 minutes. I will admit that the plot is paper thin and there are moments where the movie most definitely could have done a lot more with, however that does not stop this movie from being a complete a total blast.

The voice cast really does a fantastic job of bringing these characters together, Chris Pratt does a pretty solid job as Mario, Charlie Day is also really solid as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser is incredibly entertaining and really captures the character of Bowser surprisingly really well. There’s been instances where Bowser in the games has had a very comedic side (Paper Mario series) and that really shows here so I really have to give credit where credit is due. Keegan-Michael Key as Toad is a lot of fun as well, finally there’s Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach who absolutely nails the character. I especially enjoyed what the film did with Peach, despite the common belief that Princess Peach is always captured (I mean she does get captured in a lot of games but she’s been playable in quite a few of them over the years) and the film really balances that out quite well.

I didn’t particularly care for Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong or Fred Armisen as Funky Kong, while I did enjoy seeing the characters on screen the performances were just not very good and left a lot more to be desired. The animation was absolutely stunning, it does an incredible job of building the Mushroom Kingdom as a world and really leads to some really striking moments that leave you in a state of wonder. There’s so much attention to detail that really gives the viewer so much to look at and is quite pleasing to see.

The little easter eggs are wonderful and awhile I am usually against films putting so many easter eggs into a film to the point where it takes away from the story that doesn’t happen here luckily. While there are a lot of easter eggs it actually does make a lot of sense, quite a few of the games do a similar thing where they do put a lot of easter eggs throughout the game. So in a way it did feel like the viewer was in one of the video games, whether that was intentional or not it was an interesting way to approach it.

If you are a fan of Mario you absolutely know what to expect from this film, even if you are just a casual Mario player I still recommend giving this a shot, it’s a wonderfully done film that had so much effort put into it that is such an exciting film to watch.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is available in theaters.

8/10 B+

Rye Lane is a witty and beautiful romantic film about two strangers.

Following two youngsters reeling from bad breakups who connect over a particularly eventful day in South London.

One major thing I love about film is every once in awhile you get that film that is so unexpectedly incredible and comes out of thin air…Rye Lane is definitely an example of that.

For starters David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah are both incredible as the leads, the chemistry between the two is compelling and very raw. The conversations between the two is truly sweet, romantic and brings the viewer into their conversation. When you combine that with the camera movement and the angles the film uses you get a personal type feel while also feeling invited to the conversations the two have.

The blend of humor, romance, heartwarming moments and a bit of drama is all incredibly well balanced that really paints a beautiful story that’s straightforward but at the same time very compelling, Rye Lane definitely has some elements from Before Sunrise and the other two movies of the trilogy. But the film makes them it’s own by presenting tons of witty dialogue and combining that with character driven moments that ask a lot of questions about ourselves and love.

Rye Lane is such an engaging film that really hits you in the right spots when it discusses love, it puts the theme of love in the spotlight and shows how two strangers can connect and really fall for each other. The film itself is handled with so much care and heart that you can’t help but smile, it’s truly a beautiful film that I absolutely recommend giving a watch.

Rye Lane is available on Hulu.

9/10 A

Mafia Mamma has a solid cast but lacking execution.

An American mom inherits her grandfather’s mafia empire in Italy. Guided by the firm’s consigliere, she hilariously defies everyone’s expectations as the new head of the family business.

Mafia Mamma was the Regal Mystery Movie on April 3rd and well it wasn’t good.

Mafia Mamma does have it’s positives the main one being Toni Collette who is having the time of her life while on screen, she completely steals the show and has such fantastic screen presence. Her chemistry with the rest of the cast is quite good as well, Monica Bellucci is pretty solid as well and much like Collette is a lot of fun.

There’s definitely some decent shots here that are pretty neat mainly due to the location being in Rome, Italy. The movie does a surprisingly decent job using the location at times and compliments the movie well enough, the humor isn’t completely a dud as there are some decent jokes here and there that did get some laughs out of me.

Having all that said the rest of the movie acts like the equivalent of a Netflix comedy just with a higher budget, a lot of the jokes are a miss (they make Godfather jokes too many times) and the movie strangely gets brutal with violence at some parts. There’s this one scene in particular that goes on for far too long and gets into the territory of being over the top but in a bad way with it’s violence.

The final act of the movie tries to be this action type of movie but falls flat mainly due to the camerawork and being overall a bit on the forgettable side, it’s a bit of a shame because Mafia Mamma had the right ingredients to be quite campy and a lot of fun. While it’s not horrendous it is very forgettable.

Mafia Mamma releases in theaters April 14th.

4/10 D+

Mummies is a forgettable time

Three mummies leave their underground secret city in ancient Egypt and end up in present-day London to search for a ring that was stolen by a greedy archaeologist. However, their mission might prove to be a little difficult.

Mummies has Nickleback’s song Far Away as the credits song..yeah I got nothing to start with for this one to be quite honest.

Mummies is not offensive but the movie really lacks charm and creativity, the characters are about as well written as a piece of cardboard. The jokes are the usual type of humor that constantly pops up in some of these animated movies.

The world itself in the movie is poorly explored and really doesn’t lead into anything memorable at all, the voice acting I guess is fine enough the voice cast get the job done but none of it is very noteworthy or memorable.

Honestly the main problem with Mummies is that it’s not memorable at all, there’s nothing here that brings the viewer into the movie or there isn’t anything that the viewer leave remembering the movie. This is the sort of movie you have on in the background and just completely ignore it.

Mummies releases on VOD Platforms April 7th.

2/10 F

Followers is a movie not worth following

Four very different students move into a house with all the usual social, financial and sexual anxieties that come with this exciting experience. They soon realize they are sharing their flat with a vengeful ghost from the 1990s called Dawn. Dawn wins them millions of followers on social media. The big-money sponsorship deals soon follow and greed becomes more powerful than fear. But the media attention awakens an old evil far more deadly than any ghost and the students must face the horrific consequences of their actions.

Social Media based horror/thriller films is a sub genre that I enjoy quite a lot, however there comes a time where some of these movies have very little to offer and recycle ideas from previous movies. That’s unfortunately what Followers does.

Followers can be boiled down to “man is obsessed with earning followers so he does whatever he can to get a following” this was done far better in Spree (2021) and Deadstream (2022), I’ll give the movie credit for some decent shots every once and awhile but everything else here is just horrible.

The acting combined with the writing is dull and has very little going on, it’s obvious this movie wanted to be some sort of social satire that makes fun of millennials and the whole idea of social media popularity. Mainly due to the characters being written as celebrity cliches and ignorant, which I guess the movie does that fine enough. The problem is during the second half when it tries to take itself serious and be a full on horror movie.

None of the horror elements work at all..The jumpscares are very tiring, there’s no atmosphere and tension plus the movie throws in a few twists that make very little sense at all.

if you want social media based horror movie that has very similar ideas and is executed far better I recommend Spree (2020) or Deadstream (2021).

Followers is available on all VOD platforms.

2/10 F