I’m back!

Hey folks!

I want to apologize for the absence, I was having technical difficulties with my old phone (the top of the screen was broken) plus I had a lot more going on as well. I’m back luckily and will resume doing reviews starting tomorrow, I’ve watched quite a lot while I was gone so get ready!

Twitter Activism and why it is harmful and is not useful.

The last few days of on Twitter have been some of the worst I’ve ever seen and that’s saying a lot given how bad the app can really be. So what started this? Well let’s go back to Sunday March 27th. If you have been on the internet the last couple days chances are you have heard about the situation about Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars. I’m not going to do a in depth analysis on the whole situation as that’s not what this piece is going to focus on but I’ll give a quick rundown. Chris Rock is about to present best documentary, he makes a joke about Jada Smith and calls her G.I. Jane when Jada has Alopecia (it’s unclear if he knew in advance or not). Will Smith gets up, slaps him in the face and says “leave my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth”. A little after the Oscars end the Academy announces that they are going to have an “investigation” on if Will Smith will lose his Oscar or not. People were mad about this because to quote some people “this is the same academy that’s awarded rapists, racists and pedophiles and now they want to take action over a slap?” It’s also worth noting that Chris Rock declined to press charges against Will Smith.

So what does any of this have to do with Twitter activism well ever since the academy made their announcement some celebrities started taking sides either calling out Will Smith or Chris Rock, then people would proceed to show either racist, misogynistic, ableist and so on behavior said celebrity did. At first it was perfectly fair Alec Baldwin, OJ Simpson (yes you read that right) and Jim Carey who have done very garbage things that are well documented were among a few that got called out. Which is perfectly fine, as long as you have sources to back up your claims it’s all fair game…unfortunately what started out as something that meant well got completely hijacked by people who wanted to take advantage of the situation.

For starters people accused Euphoira Star Maude Apatow of racism because of a tweet she wrote back in 2011 when she was just 12/13 years old, where she says “I’m at that age where everything you say is either incredibly racist or extremely inappropriate” she later clarified what she meant “I meant that everyone at my age was terrible!!!” And pretty much most people let the situation go, but why was she brought into this? Because Judd Apatow said something incredibly ridiculous about how Will Smith could have “killed” Chris Rock with a slap, so I guess some idiots thought Maude must be guilty as well.

I wish this is where the story ends but so many other celebrities who didn’t say a thing against Will Smith got brought into it such as Andrew Garfield who was called out for the massive crime of working on a film with Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge), Sydney Sweeney and Alex Demie were accused of being pedophiles because Sweeney was in Everything Sucks and Demie being in Mid90s and Robert Pattinson being accused of saying the n slur (while he did say it there was a whole lot of context missing oh yeah and it was from 2010).

So with that out of the way let’s talk why Twitter Activism is so harmful, well for starters it minimizes actual cases of pedophilia for example. Let me take Sydney Sweeney for example, with the way idiots on Twitter were discussing about her it would give you the impression that she actually did something terrible….but no it was acting for a show that nobody ever talks about, it’s the same case with Alexa Demie although Mid90s is much more well known than Everything Sucks. Heck Mid90s isn’t even that old it’s a film from 2018 directed by Jonah Hill. And the film didn’t try to hide the fact that it wasn’t controversial it wanted to be the next Larry Clarke‘s 1995 controversial film “Kids”. Heck this is almost the exact same thing when people complained about Licorice Pizza only that Alana Haim was not called a pedophile (at least from what I’ve seen). This might be a hot take for some but acting does not mean your doing it in real life, Alexa Demie and Sydney Sweeney are not pedophiles and it’s disgusting that people are trying to minimize the effect of it. Pedophilia isn’t something to joke around about it, it’s a serious and dangerous effect that damages kids well into adulthood. And the fact you have some numbskulls on Twitter calling actresses pedophiles for acting sickens me and is a slap in the face to victims.

And it’s not just pedophilia people are reducing to for brownie points, Robert Pattinson was apparently this violent racist all because of one clear as day misleading screenshot that people took at face value. Quickly after however it was proven that while Pattinson did say it there was a ton of context missing and the interview was done in…..2010. Something people conveniently forgot to mention, we have actual bigots running around twitter who run their mouth daily but I guess this was somehow more important. It also doesn’t help that this was brought up entirely with bad faith, all because this person was salty that Ben Affleck (which is hilarious because Affleck has sexual misconduct accusations) isn’t Batman anymore. So no Pattinson is not a violent racist, should he address it? Probably? But people took this way out of proportion and as usual did very little research before commenting.

Regarding Andrew Garfield’s case this is going to be another hot take for some but I think guilt by association sets a very bad precedent, think about it say you were friends with someone who turned out to be a complete and total asshole and even though you didn’t do anything and you are the nicest person in the world. People want to have nothing to do with you, do you think that’s fair? If you answered no why would you want to set a dangerous example? For some quick internet clout that you will lose in a day because people will realize how idiotic this is?

I want to be clear that I am all for combating hate, I like to think I do a pretty decent job of calling it out when I see it. I think we as a society have work to do when it comes racism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, antisemitism and so on. But this is definitely not how we are going to accomplish it, we can’t just throw around these terms like candy it minimizes actual situations I know I bring this situation up a lot but it fits my point here. The whole Sia situation with her ableist film Music is a prime example of everyone being on the same page and actually combating hate, so that tells me people are capable of combating hate. There’s just a lot of people on Twitter who don’t care about accountability and will call the most minor stuff that either is completely out of context, lies or just misinformation. I’ll end this here by saying PLEASE do research before you make a claim, check and see if posts you see are accurate and aren’t random screenshots from some obscure website that aren’t reliable. And if you truly want to help victims of hate please stop minimizing words and expecting brownie points for doing less than the bare minimum.

Music and why it’s not only the worst movie of 2021 but one of the worst movies ever made.

This definitely shouldn’t be a surprise, the writings were right on the wall as soon as this movie released. Not a single movie in 2021 held a candle to how horrible Music really is. We should start right from the beginning of why this movie is such a failure, first and foremost the casting. When the first trailer was released for Music there was a lot of concern and backlash when it was shown that Maddie Ziegler plays an autistic person…this was just the tip of the iceberg. When Sia was asked about this she made a ton of different excuses and stories that didn’t add up, now instead of you know taking the criticism like any person should. Sia decides to tell an autistic actor who gave very fair criticism “maybe you are just a bad actor” and not only does Sia say that. She goes on a rant and responds with “Grrrrrr. Fuckity fuck why don’t you watch my film before you judge it? FURY.” Gee Sia I wonder why people are reacting this way, maybe it’s because you are acting so unprofessional and bashing the very community you supposedly made this movie for?

What made this situation even worse was Sia’s fanbase who rather than actually listen to autistic people (such as myself) about how this movie is dangerous and not representative of Autistic people decided to attack, send death threats and try to take people’s Twitter accounts down over criticism. It really showed that not only stan culture is a huge problem but it also shows how normalized ableism really is. When I wrote my piece about Music I got my fair share of messages saying disgusting garbage that I don’t want to repeat here, when Music finally did release it was completely destroyed across the board and rightfully so. I don’t like rooting for a movie to fail, but this was an exception.

Now let’s talk about the movie itself, for starters as I hinted at before Music was not made to be representative of Autistic people it was made for Neurotypical people who like to boast about how they sat with an autistic person at a lunch table once and never spoke to them again. Then they proceed to share this movie and say how “powerful it is.” Heck sometimes these said people flat out bully autistic people but swear up and down they care. Music is inspiration porn and it doesn’t even try to hide it, let’s talk about the acting..it’s dreadful there isn’t one performance here that feels genuine, Maddie Zegler looks like she doesn’t want to be there (and given the fact she was pretty much forced into this role I don’t blame her.) Kate Hudson is dreadful and Leslie Odom Jr’s performance is very awkward. The direction from Sia is quite honestly some of the worst I’ve ever seen from a director, there isn’t any amount of care, talent or interest shown. I also don’t care if Sia claims she did “years of research” because her directing or the movie doesn’t show that at the slightest. For starters the “meltdown” scenes are played as entertainment it straight up mocks real situations like this and there’s no lesson learned. Then there’s the prone restraint scene, when I first watched this movie back in February I had to pause the movie for a good five minutes because I was so angry about this scene. Prone restraint has KILLED autistic people and has been proven time and time again that it shouldn’t be done, so what does the movie do? It basically says “this is what you do to autistic people when they are going through trauma or a bad episode.” What this tells me is Sia didn’t bother to do any research, or didn’t bother to make her direction into something that could be learned.

Finally there was also no excuse

Run released in November 202 which starred Kiera Allen a actress who uses a wheelchair, it was met with very positive reviews (one of my favorite films of 2020)

A Few months before The Sound Of Metal was released and that had deaf actors plus Riz Ahmed was actually taught sign language for his part in the movie. Sound Of Metal went on to getting nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars!

Best Summer Ever was released 2 months later in April which actors and actresses who have disabilities the film was reviewed very positively and is one of my favorites of 2021! (I highly recommend checking it out it’s quite amazing)

CODA which was released in August 2021 had def actors and is a film that was met with so much love and care that it could end up in the Oscar’s best picture lineup (its doing very well this award season)

So it’s amazing to me how Sia miserably failed at doing research, it just leads back to my main point about this movie….a lack of research and caring. From it’s acting, writing and directing Music is by far the worst movie of 2021 and is something I truly hope nobody ever repeats again.

This might not have damaged Sia’s career but this movie sure did destroy not only her credibility but her reputation as well. And that is why Music is the worst movie of 2021..

Most Anticipated Films Of February 2021!!

It’s a new month!! January surprisingly flew by rather quickly, February is going to be very busy film wise! We have the last few movies from 2020 getting their wide releases (Minari, The Father and Nomadland) plus we have a lot of potential award season films (Judas And The Black Messiah, Malcolm & Marie, I Care A Lot, Falling, Billie Holiday (Actress wise) Land and The Mauritanian) and much more which I’ll go over briefly about each movie and how they are getting released! One more thing I despite already seeing Malcolm & Marie, Minari, Nomadland, The Killing Of Two Lovers, Land and The Night Of Kings I have still put them all on the list. Because I am still excited to see them again (I’ve been dying to rewatch Killing Of Two Lovers, Nomadland and Malcolm & Marie) plus I do want to give the films the attention they deserve! With that said let’s take a look at the list!

Let’s start out with the noteworthy releases

Nomadland which is the front runner of this year’s Oscar’s season is being released in select theaters AND on Hulu February 19th I will be doing another review of the film once it comes out! Make sure to see this one!

Minari is being released in theaters February 12th and then being released on demand February 26th, this is another one you must see. It’s doing pretty well nomination wise and will more then likely be nominated for best picture at the Oscars!

The Father is being released February 26th in Theaters which is the last film I need to see and review before I finalize and post my Top 100 Best Films of 2020 list! I’ve heard it’s a very heavy film Anthony Hopkins has been getting nominated across the board for best actor! Definitely excited to see this one!

Saint Maud is finally being released, it’s had several delays but it’s finally coming out on Epix February 12th I’m assuming other streaming services will follow. From what I’ve heard it’s incredible, it’s been on my radar for so long so this raises my excitement.

We have a few films from January getting their VOD release dates. Supernova which releases February 16th on VOD and Wrong Turn which releases February 26th on VOD!

Malcolm & Marie is my number one most anticipated mostly due to how much I loved the film when I saw it January, it’s truly an incredible film that I think audiences are going to love. It’s my favorite film (not counting the Sundance films just yet) of the year so far! Zendaya I’m almost sure will snag a best actress nomination!! It releases on Netflix February 5th!

Speaking of Netflix let’s talk about all the streaming service exclusive films on the list going from the top to the bottom.

Judas And The Black Messiah releases on February 12th on HBO Max and in theaters as part of Warner Bros 2021 HBO Max deal! Which will be the second film, it’s getting a lot of award buzz as I briefly mentioned! I’m actually seeing it at Sundance early tonight! So I’ll definitely have a review out before then!!

Billie Eilish The World’s A Little Blurry releases on February 26th on Apple TV+ I’m a huge Billie Eilish fan so it is sort of biased that it’s high up on the list. But it does look genuinely great!

I Care A Lot releases February 19th while To All The Boys: Always and Forever releases February 12th on Netflix! I Care A Lot has Rosamund Pike that alone gets me excited!

Shudder has two releases on this list Nightmare Wakes which is out February 4th and Shook which is out February 18th!

Hulu is releasing The United States Vs Billie Holiday February 26th

Finally HBO Max is releasing their third film of the 2021 deal Tom and Jerry which is out February 26th looks like fun!

The Killing Of Two Lovers is out February 23rd in theaters. I saw this back in December and let me tell you it’s fantastic!! Truly one of the best films you will see so far this year!!

Land I saw yesterday at Sundance it’s releasing February 12th in theaters. It’s a film I definitely recommend checking out! I’ll have my review out for it soon!!

There’s a few films that are getting limited releases this month and then VOD/streaming dates next month which are Night Of Kings which is releasing February 26th in theaters and virtual cinemas) and on VOD March 5th. Then there’s Cherry which is releasing in limited theaters February 26th and on AppleTV+ March 12th

Everything else!

Dead Pigs February 12th (Mubi)

The Reckoning February 5th (VOD)

The Glitch In The Matrix February 5th (VOD)

Little Fish February 5th (VOD)

Willy’s World (Nicholas Cage time!!!) February 12th (VOD)

PVT Chat February 5th (Theater) and February 9th (VOD)

Falling February 5th (Theater and VOD)

The Vigil February 26th (VOD)

The Mauritanian February 19th (Theater)

Jumbo February 19th (VOD)

And that’s all!! February is going to be a busy month between writing Sundance reviews and other releases such as Palmer, The Little Things and a few others!! I hope this list helps and something interests you!!

Sundance Film Festival 2021 Watches so far Part II

As I promised yesterday here’s in update!! I saw plenty of films yesterday and I also have one film (R#J) that I saw this morning. I still got 7 films left for today, 8 films tomorrow and possibly a few on Wednesday. Anyway here’s what the ranking looks like at the moment.

I’m really happy with what I’ve seen so far, a few noteworthy ones like On The Count Of Three I’m especially happy about, truly a fantastic film that I recommend when it comes out. Prisoners Of The Ghostland is incredible, Nicholas Cage is great! It’s been on my radar for the longest time and I’m really happy with the way it turned out.

We now have some terrible films on the list which are the last 3 John And The Hole, R#J and Mother Schmuckers.

Don’t even get me started on Mother Schmuckers, I wasn’t expecting to give a disgrace to cinema rating but here we are! I’ll go more in depth in my review but if you are participating at Sundance please be sure to avoid it at all costs it’s not worth the 70 minutes of disgusting, edgy and repulsive humor.

As I said full reviews will be starting to come out once I finish Sundance! Which I’m really looking forward to writing all the reviews!!

Keep an eye out later for my most anticipated films of February 2021!

Sundance Film Festival So Far!

Hey everyone!! The reason due to lack of reviews is because I’m currently doing Sundance and so far I’m really enjoying it! It’s my first time participating, I’ve seen quite a few fantastic films (at the time this was written I’ve only seen one bad film)

I will be posting full reviews of each of the films I’ve seen throughout the festival!! Here’s my ranking as of right now!

By the end of the festival (last day is February 3rd) I should be somewhere between 30-35 films!!! Which is going to be loads of reviews! So definitely stay tuned!! I’ll post another update in the middle of tomorrow!!