When a powerful spell turns her parents into giant monsters, a teenage princess must journey into the wild to reverse the curse before it’s too late.
Spellbound is directed by Vicky Jenson who co-directed Shrek (2001) and Shark Tale (2004) she directed Post Grad (2009) by herself.
I think if Spellbound came out 10-20 years ago it would be a lot more acceptable, but due to the bar being raised over the years with animated films this movie falls flat.
The positives mostly stem from the message being told and Rachel Zegler, the message of how adult problems or broken homes can affect kids is a beautiful one and for the most part it’s executed decently. Combine that with Zegler’s performance that is genuinely sweet and quite fun and you would think you would have solid movie.
Unfortunately the rest of the movie is just very standard kids movie elements blended into one, why this was musical I will never understand. The songs were not horrendous or anything they just had no real reason to be there, none of them are memorable at all either. They songs felt like they were there to draw out the running time, none of the characters outside of Zegler’s character Ellian aren’t particularly interesting and don’t quite get enough character moments they really need.
Finally there’s the animation which is just okay, there really isn’t anything groundbreaking going on here. But at the same time there isn’t anything particularly bad here either. It’s nice and colorful and does tell parts of the story well enough but that’s really about it.
There really isn’t much else more to say about Spellbound it’s fine distraction for children but for everyone else this is a bit of a snoozefest.
After the death of her best friend Izzy, Anna focuses all her attention on Booger, the stray cat which she and Izzy took in. When Booger bites her, she begins to undergo a strange transformation.
Booger is directed by Mary Dauterman which is her directorial debut.
A body horror film in which a cat bites a woman and she slowly goes through a transformation. A very straightforward premise that while doesn’t really do all that much, is still fun to watch unfold.
Grace Glowicki gives a decent performance, it’s not anything mind blowing or anything but you do feel the emotion of her grieving the loss of her best friend. Which is the center focus of the movie, the movie itself doesn’t really go into too much depth. But from the quick snippets on Glowicki’s character Anna’s phone of her best friend we can gather the information we need.
The body horror elements are fun, they don’t go incredibly far with them and instead opt to use it more as symbolism for trauma or grief. Which at times works but could have went a lot further, the twist at the end is pretty fun and does leave the viewer with questions in a good way.
Overall Booger may not have a whole lot going on, but it is a decently fun body horror movie that I do recommend and of course Booger the cat is cute!
Soulmates Eric Draven and Shelly Webster are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Draven returns to seek bloody revenge against the killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.
The Crow is directed by Rupert Sanders director of Snow White and The Huntsman (2012) and Ghost In The Shell (2017). The Crow is a reboot/reimagining/remake of the 1994 film of the same name and is the fifth film in the franchise.
The Crow (1994) is a film Hollywood studios have wanted to remake for years now, it’s become a classic over the years and there was even a time when three sequels of it were made none of which managed to capture what was so incredible about the first film. All those sequels were varying levels of terrible. Apparently this movie has been in development since 2008, many directors, actors and even writers were attached at various points in time until it landed on Rupert Sanders in 2022 and well this is about as unimaginative and terrible as you would expect.
The cast tries to give it their all but none of them can land at least a decent moment here. Bill Skarsgård an actor who usually delivers really strong performances even when the material he’s working with is on the weak side completely falls flat here. His portrayal of The Crow is a Jared Leto Suicide Squad (2016) Joker clone especially with the tattoos, it completely takes away from any of the mystery or darkness from the character and instead gives this edgy kid vibe that’s just not what The Crow is about at all.
FKA Twigs could have been decent here if the chemistry between her and Skarsgård was interesting, unfortunately that’s not the case here. We get a very long and drawn out story of how the two met which I get the movie was trying to build emotion for the eventual death of Shelly (played by FKA Twigs), having that said the buildup needs to at least be investing and not incredibly dull. Heck the movie tries to explore Eric before becoming The Crow but that is even uninteresting and never leads into anything of note, it takes 60-70 minutes just for him to become The Crow…this movie is 111 minutes long.
As far as writing goes, as I said before the movie attempts to explore the backstory of Eric before Shelly’s death and before he became The Crow. Between the performances and acting it’s absolutely rough and a slog to get through and doesn’t give this character any depth at all, it’s the very definition of a terrible revenge story that takes so much away of what made the original film so great. There’s no mystery, intrigue or atmosphere instead there’s characters standing around with terrible acting, a majority of the gothic horror elements that made the original film so recognizable are gone and replaced with such a weak atmosphere that doesn’t even come close to what the original was going for.
The only positives I can give this movie is the gore and the opera house scene towards the end of the movie, it’s a really satisfying scene that actually does have some neat camera movements and is admittedly shot quite well. The gore is also quite great combined with this scene, it shows the brutality of it and actually does measure how much Eric wants revenge, it might still not really match the gothic horror tone of the original but it’s a well done scene that I must give credit where credit is due. It’s a huge shame the rest of the movie couldn’t use what made this scene so great and share it with the rest of the movie.
Overall The Crow is terrible, it’s a complete and total misfire and fails to understand what made the original so great. Outside of one admittedly neat scene and some great gore this is very forgettable.
Three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River after an unexpected family tragedy. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life soon gets turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter discovers a mysterious portal to the afterlife. When someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times, the mischievous demon gleefully returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is directed by Tim Burton director of Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Mars Attacks! (1996), Beetlejuice (1988), Corpse Bride (2005), Frankenweenie (2012) and many others! Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a sequel to Beetlejuice (1988).
A Beetlejuice (1988) sequel was inevitable, the first film became so popular incredibly fast over the years that there just had to be one. Especially when it hit the video market, the original film is still talked about to this day and is among many people’s favorites (myself included.) on the other hand Tim Burton a once excellent director who was quite consistent wasn’t doing so well, his last couple films such as Dumbo (2019), Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016) and a few others were not so great and just felt like Burton did not have the magic he once had. But then Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was born and showed he still has it!
There’s so much to talk about here and how this film is just incredibly exciting but as always I’ll start with the performances, which is important since I do think the performances and characters really bring this film together.
I’ll start off by saying everyone here does a fantastic job, they each bring something to the film even if their screentime is limited. Starting with Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice his performance is just incredible to see again after all these years, he completely matches the same tone, humor and actions as he did in the first film. There’s so many great line deliveries here that are genuinely hilarious, he also does seem like he’s having the time of his life and you just can’t help but smile at that. Much like in the first movie he doesn’t appear until a bit later but also like the first film that works incredibly well and sets up for some incredibly entertaining moments, jokes and other plots. As the film goes on he amps it up with Beetlejuice and the more he amps it up the more entertaining the character really gets.
Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz is fantastic and it’s great to see Ryder on the big screen again, her bond with the cast is absolutely beautiful and quite humorous as well. But some of Ryder’s best moments is her bond with Jenna Ortega who plays Astrid Deetz the daughter of Lydia, the heart of the film comes from these two’s mother and daughter bond that really builds their characters incredibly well. Seeing their bond build over the course of the film is incredibly heartwarming and truly touching, even the little moments with the two not really saying anything to each other is meaningful.
Catherine O’Hara and Willem Dafoe are both excellent here and make for so many fantastic comedic moments. Although Dafoe gets limited screentime he makes the most of it and really goes all out with his character Wolf Jackson, there isn’t exactly a whole to his character but I’m still glad he’s here. Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz delivers the film’s funniest moments, she’s also incredibly fantastic with tons of excellent moments with Ryder and Ortega, as well her having moments where she stands on her own.
Lastly Jenna Ortega as Astrid Deetz is a fantastic performance, I’ve said this about Jenna in the past but she is one of the best actresses of her generation, an actress who even competes with veteran actresses. Her performance here is so well done and her passion for the role can easily be seen here. Her facial acting and body language truly shine here, it’s something Jenna Ortega has always been absolutely great at as an actress but it’s especially shown here front and center. She’s a natural fit to the world of Beetlejuice and easily connects with the rest of the cast, as I said before her bond with Winona Ryder is the heart of the film and is so beautiful to watch. Astrid Deetz on the surface might seem like a familiar sort of character at first, however that quickly changes over the course of the film as we learn more and more about her.
The writing is so much fun, there’s so many clever jokes, touching moments and it’s done in a fun way to wrap the story together. While there are some subplots that aren’t as interesting as others I do think that leads to the incredibly bizarre final moments of the film, the dance scene is truly a lot of fun and really sums up this film’s energy in a nutshell. A chaotic ride that you really do not want to ever get off of!
The practical effects are absolutely stunning especially combined with the absolutely stunning look at the afterlife and you have yourself such a beautiful looking film which is quite refreshing to see after so many blockbusters seemed to have had this issue. The film’s use of guts and blood is both exciting and hilarious, it’s obviously not anything brutal but it’s such a fun way to work these things into the film, Tim Burton really did not hold back at all with the designs and his direction. This is absolutely a return to form for him and it’s incredibly fitting.
Lastly the film itself is just a ton of film, you can absolutely tell there was so much passion and heart poured into this film, watching interviews of Tim Burton and the cast (particularly Jenna, Winona, Catherine and Michael) you can easily tell they are proud of this film and how much heart they really put into the film. Sometimes that can really make a film and that’s most certainly a case here, without their passion for the film I don’t think Beetlejuice Beetlejuice would have been nearly as good as it is.
Overall Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a very worthy sequel to the original film, it’s some of the most fun I’ve had in a theater this year and is one of the very best of the year as well! Give this one a watch, especially if you’re a fan of the first film!
A mother and her daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.
Tuesday is directed by Daina O. Pusić which is her directorial debut.
Tuesday is a very strange case where the trailer is completely misleading on what the film actually it is. It’s not this slow and steady take on grief that is going to completely break the viewer down. It’s much more fairytale like and has quite a lot of bizarre moments that while I do admire and think it was a very bold move, don’t always work in the film’s favor.
To start out with I do think the performances are overall quite great Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Lola Petticrew are both really solid here. The two work incredibly well together and some very beautiful bonding moments, there’s some talk about grief here that’s done in a much different way…that’s through Arinzé Kene who voices Death in the form of a parrot. This is just one of the many bizarre ideas this film uses and it’s the one which works best, Kane really does such a great job at voicing the bird and actually bringing some powerful moments. It’s very similar to Paul Dano’s performance from Spaceman (2024) which had him voice a spider and while I do think Dano’s performance is more successful. Kane’s performance is still very great and does bring you into the film’s world.
As far as the narrative goes that’s when the film has missteps, the first half of the film being about a mismatched pair that has interesting conversations about loneliness, loss and grief all of a sudden goes to this fantasy like world that the film unfortunately doesn’t build up all that well. Which is in large part due to how much the pacing really throws the viewer off, it honestly feels like two completely different films were written and then at the last second meshed together.
But in the end I still think Tuesday is an interesting little film that while is heavily flawed, still has its charm and the performances to back it up.
In a world hit by a wave of mutations transforming humans into animals, François does everything he can to save his wife. As some of the creatures disappear into a nearby forest, he and their son embark on a quest that will change their lives.
The Animal Kingdom is directed by Thomas Cailley who previously directed Love at First Flight (2014).
The Animal Kingdom is definitely an interesting one for sure, the film takes place in a world where humans gradually transform into animals. We follow François (played by Roman Duris) and his son Émile (played by Paul Kircher) who go on a journey together which becomes quite an experience.
Going into this movie I did not really know what to expect, but the movie delivers quite well, for starters the performances from both Kricher and Duris are fantastic. The father and son bond works incredibly well and the two share a lot of heartwarming moments between one another, the body horror elements are quite neat as well with some neat looking visuals. The theme of change is present throughout the film and how the characters have to go through it, although this isn’t something new as many films before have explored this before. The way the film goes about it with the whole animal transformation element makes it much more interesting and in a way sort of sad.
If there’s one major criticism it’s most definitely the running time which is 130 minutes long, the ideas of the film start to lose steam towards the end due to just how long the film goes on and it starts to repeat itself a bit. It also does lose its focus towards the end as well, like it almost forgets what it’s exactly trying to say.
However that really is not enough to stop the film from being quite beautiful, it’s a beautifully told film with a mix of great makeup and visual effects that do a really great job of telling the story. Some of the film’s strongest moments is Émile interacting with the animals, you can tell through the expressive visual effects and makeup the feelings and actions of the animals and what they are thinking. Which really fits for this movie!
Overall The Animal Kingdom might not be saying anything incredibly new but it is a very interesting film that executes its ideas quite well for the most part!
The Animal Kingdom is available on all VOD platforms.
A young woman agrees to marry a handsome prince — only to discover it was all a trap. She is thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon and must rely solely on her wits and will to survive.
Damsel is directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo director of Intact (2001), 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Intruders (2011).
The frustrating thing about a lot of these Netflix action movies is they have the ideas and talented people involved they just for whatever reason always fall completely flat. That’s sadly the case here with Damsel a movie that is another attempt of flipping the fairy tale narrative, despite The Princess (2022) coming out 2 years ago I still had hope this would be fresh…unfortunately not the case.
Millie Bobby Brown and Angela Bassett are really solid here and are easily the movie’s strongest parts, the first bit of this movie I will say started out promising. While there wasn’t anything groundbreaking the movie explored the world decently well and we got to know the characters even if they were basically talking fantasy movie cliches. Unfortunately the rest of the movie happens and it ends up being no different than any other fantasy movie that has come out in the last several years.
I will give some credit for is being a surprisingly brutal PG-13 movie, there are some quite satisfying action scenes that I can’t deny are pretty surprising to watch from a PG-13 movie. However that’s where the praise really ends because you need more than some great kills to stick the landing, writing wise it’s very blandly written. Think of any fantasy movie trope and it’s more than likely somewhere in this movie, there’s some similarities to Ready Or Not (2019) which I actually thought they were going to do more with but instead is used for more blandly written story telling.
It doesn’t help that the ending feels very rushed, which is unfortunate because I do think what they went with for the ending is interesting. But there’s just such a lack of character moments and strong writing throughout the movie that by the time the ending rolls around you already checked out of the movie and just waiting for it to be over.
I really do wish Damsel was a better movie, the performances and ideas are there. The writing is just incredibly lacking and leaves a lot more to be desired.
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.
Mahito, a young 12-year-old boy, struggles to settle in a new town after his mother’s death. However, when a talking heron informs Mahito that his mother is still alive, he enters an abandoned tower in search of her, which takes him to another world.
The Boy and the Heron is directed by Hayao Miyazaki a director who absolutely does not need any sort of introduction, he’s a fantastic director with so many films that went on to be a huge impact on the animation genre such as Spirited Away (2001), Princess Mononoke (1997), My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and many many others. With each new film he introduces new ideas or takes ideas from one of his previous films and makes it fresh. The Boy and the Heron is a prime example of just how creative, powerful and emotional Miyazaki’s storytelling really is.
For starters the cast absolutely knocks it out of the park, everyone here does such an incredible job and matches the imaginative and emotional tone the film is going for. But the couple that really standout are Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh and Dave Bautista. Bautista plays the Parakeet King who doesn’t show up until the later half of the film, but when he does show up he truly captures the wackiness of the character. It’s a performance that should not work at all, but Bautista’s performance is genuinely hilarious it’s probably due to the Parakeet species in this film’s world being genuinely funny while a very emotional and serious plot is going on. It works strangely well and even if Bautista doesn’t stay for very long he remains as a very memorable part of the film.
Florence Pugh plays Kiriko both the young and old version, her performance is truly incredible and actually unbelievable when it comes to her voicing the old Kiriko. Her character is a huge highlight of the film, a character that we are introduced to at the very beginning who might seem like a comedic relief character at first but later becomes important. The young version of Kiriko helps Mahito Maki and points him into the right direction of his journey to rescue Natsuko, she’s a classic mentor type character that you can’t help but love. Pugh’s performance really sells the character well and almost immediately makes the character quite lovable.
Robert Pattinson as The Grey Heron is my absolute favorite performance from an animated film this year and I don’t think it’s even close, when the trailer for this film dropped I instantly thought the Heron was Willem Dafoe which while yes Dafoe is in this film he’s not in it for very long but still gives a haunting performance. I don’t know how Pattinson did it but this performance is truly unbelievable and truly effective right from the Heron’s first appearance, Pattinson completely matches the tone the film is going for and mixes it with a bit of humor and the Heron himself as a character has fantastic character development. It’s a classic case of not getting along with someone at first in this case not getting along with Mahito, but slowly but surely their bond builds and it’s truly delightful to see. The Grey Heron is such a fun character that balances humor and the more serious moments and Pattinson’s performance only adds on to that.
The writing much like other Miyazaki films is truly incredible, there’s a large theme here of grief and mourning the loss of someone very close to you. In this case Mahito losing his mother. There’s a lot of moments in this film that really tie it together, the world building of the world we are introduced to can be a bit confusing at first. But as the film goes on it starts to piece itself together and tell the viewer the full story about this world, it’s visually some of the absolute best Miyazaki has ever done, that’s something that consistently gets better and better with each film and this felt like a natural build up all of these films later.
Something that really stands out with this film is the masterful balance between humor, wackiness and the dramatic moments of the film. A film that’s about loss and dealing with grief has scenes where funny looking Parakeets want to eat people and their leader the Parakeet King is a presented as a serious but goofy boss voiced by Dave Bautista…yet it all strangely works. It comes down to just how beautiful the storytelling really is, it combines so many anime elements and genres we have seen throughout the years and presents it so well. From the classic adventure genre to the goofy villains who actually have a quite serious side to them it’s all here and delivered in such a fascinating, emotional and hilarious way that puts a smile on your face.
Overall The Boy and the Heron is yet another homerun for Hayao Miyazaki and one of the absolute best films of the year. It’s such a creative film with so much to say that it will surely go on to be a classic.
Jerome Reviews... 