Licorice Pizza is a masterful film from Paul Thomas Anderson!

The story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.

Paul Thomas Anderson once again does a successful job of bringing the viewer into his world and the film’s world. In this case 1970s San Fernando Valley it instantly draws you in with beautiful filming and incredibly well done shots. The film itself feels very dreamlike but at the same time feels very real once it starts to get down to the meat of the film. Alana Haim gives one of the best performances of the year, this is her debut role and her talent is on full display. She goes all out with her performance and truly delivers. She plays Alana a character who is still trying to figure herself out in the world, then there’s Cooper Hoffman (the son of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who is absolutely fantastic as well, he plays Gary Valentine a teen who’s very charismatic. Gary is 15 and Alana is 25 it’s story about how said relationship can’t happen (due to obvious reasons) but tells that in a interesting way, both capture the mannerisms of a teen and adult and show how completely different each one is. The style of the film is truly beautiful, it’s shot on 35mm film while using older lenses in order to create the film’s 1970s texture or give it that type of feel. The film at times feels like a fairytale mainly due to the style of the film and the brilliant screenplay from PTA, the writing truly reflects the 1970s and goes for an incredibly raw feel that’s all the more powerful. The editing is spot on, it helps create a ton of character moments that give the viewer a lot of information about the characters, how they feel, what they are thinking and so on. It’s one of the strongest cases of character study I’ve seen in a film this year, Bradley Cooper is also an incredibly fun addition to the cast. He truly brings a lot of energy and humor to the film that truly captures the film’s mood, the use of color is masterfully done. So many scenes pop out to the viewer and many more scenes just stick with you, Licorice Pizza is one of the best crafted films of 2021 and it’s easy to see why, from the filming, editing, color, story, acting and so on. PTA truly creates a film that is truly special, it’s the type of filmmaking that truly makes you proud to be a fan of film!

Licorice Pizza is playing in theaters!

10/10 A+

Don’t Look Up is a satire that misses it’s mark.

Two low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.

Let’s just get right into it, Don’t Look Up is a film that is just a complete and total mess. A few things I actually do like include, Jennifer Lawrence’s performance which it’s great to see her get back into acting it’s just such a shame the movie itself isn’t good. I liked the more quiet moments between the characters, during those moments it felt like the movie was trying to say something meaningful but then goes right back to being a unfunny satire. Lastly there’s the final 20 or so minutes that were genuinely interesting with actual decent writing and character moments….it’s too bad the rest of the movie couldn’t had been like that. As for the rest of the movie it’s a complete and total mess, I understand that the movie isn’t trying to be subtle at all, but this just goes beyond that. It treats the audience like they are dumb and explains way too much meanwhile trying to be a satire that isn’t funny at all. Most of the performances are terrible, while some are definitely better than others a lot of them feel either phoned in or just reach the line of coming off as very annoying. Lastly it feels way too long with such dreadfully slow pacing, there’s a ton of scenes that could have easily been cut and feel like nothing more than to act like it’s somehow having a hidden meaning. Overall Don’t Look Up is a complete and total mess, which like Being The Ricardos I have no idea why this is being celebrated when it comes to the award season.

Don’t Look Up is available on Netflix!

4/10 D+

Silent Night is a entertaining Christmas horror movie!

A couple invite their closest friends to join their family for Christmas dinner at their idyllic home in the English countryside. As the group comes together, it feels like old times — but behind all of the laughter and merriment, something isn’t quite right. The world outside is facing impending doom, and no amount of gifts, games or wine can make mankind’s imminent destruction go away. Surviving the holidays just got a lot more complicated.

I like to think Silent Night is this year’s version of “Better Watch Out” a surprising Christmas horror movie that came out of nowhere. The premise itself is very interesting which is facing an environmental apocalypse, you know the stuff you would NOT want to happen ever especially during Christmas. Keira Knightley does a solid job in her role she ends up being one of the stronger parts of the movie, Silent Night unfortunately doesn’t really explore it’s themes thoroughly as it does lose steam towards the end with being a little bit too predictable. However the movie is genuinely funny and the cast makes it work pretty well, some jokes are going to be a hit or miss depending on the viewer. But it’s a overall decent Christmas horror movie that I recommend giving a watch.

Silent Night is available on all VOD Platforms!

6/10 C+

Rumble is a very forgettable underdog story.

In a world where monsters are tame and monster wrestling is a popular sport, Winnie seeks to follow in her father’s footsteps as a manager by turning an inexperienced monster into a contender.

Rumble is exactly what you think it is, another beat by beat story of the main character wanting to be just as good as their parent, I feel like the release history of Rumble is far more interesting than the movie itself. Rumble was supposed to come out this year but then got switched to February of next year and finally at the last second got switched back to this year and released a few days ago. As far as the movie itself as I said earlier it’s very generic, if you watch the first 15-20 minutes of it you are going to know exactly what happens. I guess the movie has a nice message and the animation is not bad as there were a few moments I found to be quite solid. And for a movie that WWE Studios was involved in this is definitely one of the better ones. Will Arnett is easily the best part of this movie and it’s really not even close, he brings a lot of character and energy to his role and actually works pretty well with what he’s given. Writing wise Rumble is once again exactly what you expect, there’s a few jokes that are okay but a lot of it is just very standard kids movie type of writing. Overall there really isn’t much else to say about Rumble, it’s a completely harmless kids movie that’s entertaining at times by way too generic and predictable to recommend. It truly feels like a case where Paramount wanted to put something on their streaming service around the holiday season so they settled with this movie.

Rumble is available on Paramount+

5/10 C

Mixtape is surprisingly heartwarming coming of age movie!

In 1999, 12-year-old Beverly discovers a broken mixtape made by her late parents. She sets out to find the songs — and learn more about her mom and dad.

Mixtape is a very solid coming of age story that while does feel familiar actually hits you hard towards the end of the film with heart warming messages. The acting is overall pretty strong, Gemma Brooke Allen does a really solid job in the leading role and is definitely one of the better child performances I’ve seen this year. What makes this movie is the music and the movie’s theme of tying the music to the story in a way that isn’t particularly new yet still charming, “The Wrong Song” in particular really hits you hard and really does a good job of fitting into the movie and the scene it appears. The main flaw with Mixtape is the writing, while most of the movie is written decently with some very effective moments there are a number of scenes with jokes that feel very out of place and don’t work very well. Mixtape does fall into a very standard coming of age film path, but the movie makes up for it with it’s charm and characters are surprisingly quite great! Overall Mixtape is a flawed but very decent coming of age movie that’s worth a watch!

Mixtape is available on Netflix!

7/10 B

Shaun The Sleep: The Flight Before Christmas is a short and sweet Christmas special! Diary Of A Wimpy Kid animated is forgettable.

Shaun’s seasonal excitement turns to dismay when a farmhouse raid to get bigger stockings for the Flock inadvertently leads to Timmy going missing.

Just a few short thoughts mainly because it is essentially Shaun The Sheep but a Christmas special. Everything what makes Shaun The Sheep in general so great is here, the characters, the humor, the fast pacing and so on. It’s a 30 minute special that does a wonderful job of getting it’s message across in a very Shaun The Sheep type of way. I do feel the last 10 or so minutes are on the weaker side as it does fall in familiar territory. However that isn’t enough to stop this special from being incredibly solid and a very fun time! If you are a Shaun The Sheep fan you will definitely love this one!

Shaun The Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas is available on Netflix!

8/10 B+

Greg Heffley dreams of becoming famous while surviving middle school with his best friend, Rowley.

I’m not going to pretend that Diary Of A Wimpy Kid is this legendary source material, but having that said for a movie that felt like it was trying to follow the book more closely it really doesn’t work nearly as well as the live action movie that came out in 2010. I thought the first three live action movies were overall really fun movies that know what they are trying to be and do that very well. We don’t ever discuss the Long Haul so let’s just move right along to this movie, I was under the impression that this animated movie was going to be longer than 58 minutes. So it really took me by surprise however that isn’t the major problem, the major problem is that it’s the exact same movie as the one in 2010 but animated and with different actors. While that isn’t a necessarily a bad thing because what else are you supposed to do? What hurts this new one is the lack of charm. The 2010 one had a lot of charm and was genuinely funny mostly due to how well the cast worked plus it’s very memorable. You just don’t get that here, sure the animation is nice at times and did a decent enough job with getting the main events from the book in. But none of it feels really charming or fun at all, it feels very manufactured and lifeless which completely goes against what the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid books are about. Which is a shame because I do think an animated Diary Of A Wimpy Kid movie could have worked they just really did not try all that much with this movie. I hear they are coming out with a sequel (Rodrick Rules) so I do hope they learn their lesson and try to make it more charming and more memorable. Overall this version of Diary Of A Wimpy Kid really does not have much to it, you are better off watching the 2010 version. I’m sure kids will absolutely eat this movie up but for everyone else I don’t recommend.

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid is available on Disney+

3/10 D-

8-Bit Christmas is a familiar yet charming Christmas Family Movie, Black Friday is a missed opportunity.

In 1980s Chicago, a ten-year-old sets out on a quest to get the Christmas gift of his generation – the latest and greatest video game system.

8-Bit Christmas definitely surprised me, although there really isn’t a whole to discuss here since the movie pretty much is A Christmas Story but with Nintendo. The movie still manages to be a whole lot of fun and actually hits pretty hard at the end as well, the performances are what you expect however Steve Zahn gives such a fun performance that it was worth bringing up (think of his performance in Diary Of A Wimpy Kid it’s pretty much the same here!) the movie also has some surprisingly decent jokes. Sure not all of them hit but there was definitely effort to make this movie actually pretty funny, which I can’t say the same for a lot of Christmas family comedies. Then there’s the heart of the film which I genuinely thought was very touching, it doesn’t come off as very tacky or forced it actually feels genuine. Which is what separates it from a lot of the clutter, also the style of the film was surprisingly pretty decent. It doesn’t have that cheap feeling a lot of these Christmas family comedies have, overall 8-Bit Christmas is familiar but still a very fun time to watch!

8-Bit Christmas is available on HBO Max!

A group of toy store employees must protect each other from a horde of parasite infected shoppers.

Black Friday desperately wants to be Krampus (2015) but fails to recognize what made Krampus actually pretty solid. For starters while the movie has a very fun premise it’s executed in such a lazy way that it’s almost surprising. Bruce Campbell and Michael Jai White are the best parts about this movie and easily give some good laughs, what mostly hurts this movie is the terrible writing, the characters feeling almost identical to each other and the humor almost never working. The humor has it’s moments towards the beginning but quickly wears off as it goes on, it’s another one of those horror comedies that tries to do way too much at a time. The characters really don’t bring anything interesting to the table as most of them are cliched characters with little to no personality, with that said there are fun moments to be had with Black Friday but it’s an overall a misfire that really shouldn’t had been.

Black Friday is available on all VOD Platforms!

3/10 D-

The French Dispatch is another strong addition to Wes Anderson’s career!

A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in “The French Dispatch.”

The French Dispatch is Wes Andreson’s newest film and it’s a very strong addition to his line of work, it’s anthology film so I’ll talk a little bit about each segment and then give my overall feelings towards the movie! First up is The Cycling Reporter which is the shortest out of the bunch, Owen Wilson does a pretty solid job here. He’s hilarious and brings a lot of clever humor to the segment, it’s pretty much Wilson saying what’s changed what hasn’t of each place he discusses. It’s straight to the point with some nice humor thrown in very solid. Next is The Concrete Masterpiece which after thinking about the entire film I’m definitely leaning towards this one being the strongest, for starters the acting is very strong Adrien Brody, Benicio Del Toro and Léa Seydoux all give very good performances. The humor is quite great with a lot of clever writing that really pulls you into the segment, Tilda Swinton giving commentary and presenting the segment itself as art lecture when describing the art gallery which was made by Benicio Del Toro’s character Moses Rosenthaler is really clever and results in some pretty hilarious moments. The next segment is Revisions to a Manifesto which is about a student protest that breaks out into the streets of Ennui. Frances McDormand and Timothée Chalamet both do an incredible job here, this segment is a little more serious than the others but it still has some humor that does work really well. The segment itself has great pacing and overall a very strong script that really invests you into the story! Lastly there’s The Private Dinning Room of the Police Commissioner, which Jeffery Wright absolutely shines here even if I felt that this segment was on the weaker side. It has a rough start getting off the ground, but by the middle of the segment it starts to get really interesting! What I do like however is how the film wraps up all the segments and the film itself, it’s actually very touching and talks about journalism and the ideas of it! Overall The French Dispatch is a very strong film with fantastic acting and clever writing! Give this one a go!

The French Dispatch is currently in theaters!

9/10 A

Home Sweet Home Alone is a unnecessary sequel/soft remake to the original.

A married couple tries to steal back a valuable heirloom from a troublesome kid.

I really have to give Home Sweet Home Alone some credit, it somehow managed to have some of the worst writing I’ve seen all year, so what’s this movie’s deal? Well apparently it’s a sequel/sort of soft remake (I say soft remake because there is one character from the past that does make a cameo appearance) outside of Home Alone and parts of Home Alone 2 I never cared for the series at all. But this was just a pathetic attempt to cash in on a popular name, a lot of the jokes already feel dated as a good handful of them are memes. I’ve said this before in the past but putting memes in your movie is something you should absolutely not do, not only does it make the movie in question feel outdated but it shows a lack of creativity. The acting here was horrendous, there wasn’t one performance where I feel there was any attempt of trying to be good, especially when combined with the writing that I’m shocked someone looked over and said “this is acceptable send it out!” Overall I just don’t have any more words to say, Home Sweet Home Alone is as bad as you think it’s going to be, it’s another prime example of a very pointless sequel/remake of a series that should be left alone at this point.

Home Sweet Home Alone is available on Disney+

Disgrace To Cinema F

Clifford The Big Red Dog is a harmless and fun movie for kids!

A young girl’s love for a tiny puppy named Clifford makes the dog grow to an enormous size.

Not a whole lot to say but Clifford The Big Red Dog honestly surprised me, from the trailers this looked like another terrible movie where they take a classic cartoon character and turn them into CG. However unlike a lot of the other movies this one manages to be surprisingly entertaining at times. There are a handful of moments where the writing feels like it’s still living in the early 2000s, however there are some genuine charming moments between Darby Camp, Jack Whitehall and Clifford. The acting is actually not too bad, Darby Camp does a pretty decent job with what she’s given. I feel like this movie is a rare instance with a lot of these family movies where the side characters are actually funny, I actually wanted to see more of them so at least the movie has that going for it. Overall Clifford The Big Red Dog is a very traditional family movie, it ends exactly how you think it’s going to but is a ton of fun for kids!

Clifford The Big Red Dog is now available on Paramount+

6/10 C+