Moonage Daydream is a beautiful tribute to David Bowie.

A cinematic odyssey exploring David Bowie’s creative and musical journey. From visionary filmmaker Brett Morgen, and sanctioned by the Bowie estate.

Moonage Daydream is yet another beautiful documentary that’s entirely made up of archival footage, this year has already had a decent amount of those including The Princess (Princess Diana documentary), Fire Of Love and Riotsville USA. The documentary shows a lot of concerts from David Bowie as well as some very interesting interviews that the film goes over in great detail, the editing combined with the film’s style is truly fantastic. It completely matches David Bowie’s style and what made him so recognizable what’s even better is despite simply showing archival footage the documentary still has a large goal, which is to give compelling insight in Bowie’s career what he thought of certain times of his career, and his path as an artist. David Bowie was a major influence to several people and film is very aware of that, Bowie share’s his experiences through his career as well as his goals. The music is fantastic as always reminding us of Bowie’s talent which really dives head first into entertaining the viewer, Brett Morgan does a fantastic job creating a journal like film for David Bowie. It’s one of those documentaries where it’s a lot more personal, like David Bowie’s narration at times feels like he’s having a direct conversation with you. It’s truly a beautiful showcase of never before seen footage combined with excellent visuals both of which blend so well together to create a stunning portrait.

Moonage Daydream is available in theaters.

9/10 A

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On is a beautiful and meaningful film filled with themes.

Marcel is an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie and their pet lint, Alan. Once part of a sprawling community of shells, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. But when a documentary filmmaker discovers them amongst the clutter of his Airbnb, the short film he posts online brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and a new hope at finding his long-lost family.

For a film about a talking shell wearing a pair of shoes Marcel The Shell With Shoes On is one of the most beautiful and meaningful films I’ve seen so far this year. There’s so many themes that this film talks about in 89 minutes that truly feel impactful to the viewer. For starters Jenny Slate as Marcel is truly brilliant the amount of heart and soul she put into the performance is truly inspiring and captures a very human as well, the filming combined with the stop motion is masterful with every sense of the word. It’s absolutely stunning and really connects the real world setting with Marcel brilliantly, then there’s the themes such as a ton of family themes which lead to some very touching moments that are very relatable to viewer. There’s the theme of loneliness living in a huge world looking for the people that you love in this case Marcel is looking for his family. The theme of feeling small is also present one that can feel overwhelming, we all live in a huge world beyond our comprehension which is why some people rightfully want to feel big and explore the world, that’s what Marcel sets out to do in the film. There’s also the theme of finding oneself through a journey you often find out new things about yourself and that’s explored perfectly here, at the end of Marcel’s journey there’s a completely touching ending that Marcel reflects on and learns so much about himself. This is all backed up from the flawless script that will make you both cry and put a smile on your face, it’s such a strong and diverse of emotions type of script that really captures what the viewer could be going through. Overall Marcel The Shell With Shoes on is a powerful film that truly needs to be seen, it’s a very moving film that you will absolutely love.

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On is available on all VOD platforms.

10/10 A+

Benediction is a powerful of the life of Siegfried Sassoon.

The turbulent life of WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden). The writer and soldier was a complex man who survived the horrors of fighting in the First World War and was decorated for his bravery but who became a vocal critic of the government’s continuation of the war when he returned from service. His poetry was inspired by his experiences on the Western Front, and he became one of the leading war poets of the era. Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London’s literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality. At the same time, broken by the horror of war, he made his life’s journey a quest for salvation, trying to find it within the conformity of marriage and religion.

Benediction has a lot of strong parts about it, for starters the acting is very well done from everyone involved Jack Lowden as Siegfried Sassoon was quite fantastic, the end of the film is truly powerful and leaves with a very strong note in hand. The direction from Terrance Davies is very raw and quite powerful as well, the best part about the film is the film’s exploration of Sassoon as a poet and him as a person. Which leads to some quite fascinating moments that truly capture the 1920s during World War I, what mostly helps it feels like Davies’s direction feels a bit personal here. Which isn’t a first time occurrence as he sometimes does put some personal type elements in his autobiographical films, whether that be camera angles that really standout and are up close, parts of the writing that instantly connects the viewer to who the film is about in this case Sassoon, or the very raw acting that completely builds some of the strongest moments in his films. The pacing and the running time do slow the film back a bit, however it isn’t nearly enough to stop this film from being beautifully done and told.

Benediction is available on all VOD platforms.

8/10 B+

Goodnight Mommy (2022) a watered down remake.

Twin brothers arrive at their mother’s house and begin to suspect that something isn’t right.

The trend of America remaking disturbing foreign films has always been a bad idea (outside of Funny Games but that’s a shot for shot remake) 99% of the time the end result is a very watered down and completely butchered version. Prime examples are the remakes of Old Boy, Martyrs and Inside, Goodnight Mommy is the newest one and luckily it’s nowhere near as bad but once again it’s a very watered down version of the original. Goodnight Mommy came out in 2014 (2015 for America) and was a pretty disturbing film that had tons of atmosphere. The movie is definitely not for everyone but I like it quite a lot, fast forward to the remake and it just sort of exists. Naomi Watts is of course really solid she’s hands down the best part of the movie and at times captures what made the original disturbing. The filming combined with the setting are also pretty solid and once again do capture the spirit of the original, the problem comes in with the movie being heavily watered down such as taking away torture scenes that are very important to the story especially during the final act. It’s a key part of what made the twist of the original so great without it the movie doesn’t have the atmosphere or disturbing nature that the original did, the rest of the remake fails to justify it’s existence outside of a few moments where it seems like the movie is going to attempt to try and capture what made the original great but ends up falling short. The movie ultimately ends up being a very watered down version of the original that might not be terrible as there is some level of attempt to get the spirit of the original in here. It’s also definitely better than the other watered down foreign disturbing movie remakes I mentioned earlier, but that is really not saying much unfortunately. If you are going to watch one version of Goodnight Mommy watched the original.

Goodnight Mommy is available on Amazon Prime Video.

5/10 C

Drifting Home is filled with Anime tropes.

Follows two childhood friends who drift into a mysterious sea with an entire housing complex.

Drifting Home suffers from almost the exact same problems that Bubble did (also released by Netflix earlier this year), once again the main flaws come down to the characters, writing and pacing. The animation does a pretty decent job of telling some of the story as well as helping build the world. There’s a few touching moments that are filled with heart and well written, the characters however are way too annoying. I get they are kids but there’s tons of anime films or even shows that have kids as the main characters and they are nowhere near as annoying, it doesn’t help that Drifting Home is a very typical “a bunch of kids get themselves into situations they shouldn’t” type anime which is such a common trope when it comes to anime. The character development is just not there outside of a few scenes that really just end up being very traditional character development that’s not going to get the viewer invested, it didn’t help that the movie’s pacing was way too slow and the 2 hour runtime was ridiculous. There’s been half an hour episodes of some anime that have done a plot similar like this before and have done it far better, Drifting Home is overall very forgettable and is just another movie to add to the “Netflix original movies that will quickly be forgotten about” pile.

Drifting Home is available on Netflix.

4/10 D+

I Used To Be Famous (2022) Film Review.

Follows Vince, a desperate former popstar who dreams of making a comeback. An impromptu jam session with autistic young drummer Stevie sparks an unexpected friendship between the two misunderstood musicians.

I’ll give credit where credit is due, they actually casted an autistic actor (Leo Long) Long does quite a great job here and is definitely what holds the movie together, Ed Skrein isn’t too bad either. The rest of the movie is a very simplistic feel good story that you could guess how it will play out within the first 15 minutes, there really isn’t anything bad here a lot of it is just very okay writing that is surface level at best. There’s a handful of heartfelt moments that you can’t help but smile at, the rest of the performances are quite great and actually give some raw moments. Although the writing is surface level at least the movie knows what it’s trying to accomplish and for what the movie is it did that pretty okay, sure it’s predictable but it’s decently inspiring story that is a quick and easy watch!

I Used To Be Famous is available on Netflix!

6/10 C+

Fall is a decent survival thriller.

For best friends Becky and Hunter, life is all about conquering fears and pushing limits. However, after they climb 2,000 feet to the top of a remote, abandoned radio tower, they find themselves stranded with no way down. Now, their expert climbing skills are put to the ultimate test as they desperately fight to survive the elements, a lack of supplies, and vertigo-inducing heights.

Reading the plot of Fall is exactly what you are going to get. It’s a very basic 127 hours style survival movie, at the very least it’s a decent one, the atmosphere is definitely there with lots of thrilling moments that will absolutely push your fear of heights if you have that. The performances from Virginia Gardner and Grace Caroline Currey are both quite strong and definitely push the movie to the finish line. Lastly there’s the filming that’s quite effective with the whole theme of being stuck on a tower, which is largely where the suspense and atmosphere kicks in. You never know if something is going to go wrong and the worst could end up happening, the characters are what hurts this movie unfortunately. They are not the most well written characters in the world and there’s a twist at the end that completely felt tacked on for no reason other then for the sake of putting one in. Fall is a serviceable survival movie but it’s not something that’s going to standout among the genre.

Fall is available in theaters.

6/10 C+

Pinocchio (2022)..completely misses the point of the original

A puppet is brought to life by a fairy, who assigns him to lead a virtuous life in order to become a real boy.

Pinocchio is the newest of the Disney Live Action Remakes and is by far one of the absolute worst ones, it’s truly baffling to me how badly they messed this up. The original Pinocchio is one of Disney’s absolute best films they have ever done, it’s a story that was both dark but also very charming as well. This remake however takes everything the original did perfectly and completely misses on what made it so well done, the only positive I can give here is Cynthia Ervio as The Blue Fairy and her performance of “When You Wish Upon A Star” she did a beautiful job and has a tremendous singing voice that captures the magic of the song. The rest of the movie is missing a key element that the original had a lot of…heart and magic, the original movie despite the dark nature of some of the story was also filled with so much heart in it that made the characters so lovable. In this movie Geppetto (Tom Hanks) and Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) have absolutely no connection between one another, which was a key part of the original movie. So that really defeats the purpose of the story the movie is trying to tell, the CGI is bafflingly cheap some of the movements from the characters are either delayed or just don’t match. Monstro was done horribly with this movie, which again brings this back to Geppetto and Pinocchio. Monstro was an important part of the original Pinocchio serving as bridge to Geppetto’s and Pinocchio’s chemistry, in this movie it is so poorly done and has no passion put into it at all. Which is the main issue here this movie has the biggest “we don’t care” attitude to it, nothing here other than Cynthia Ervio has no energy, heart or passion put into it. Which is exactly the problem with a lot of these remakes (outside of a few) they heavily rely on cheap nostalgia and don’t even do justice to the original movies, what’s unfortunate is this could have been decent, Robert Zemeckis who despite his last couple movies not exactly being that great. Is still a very talented filmmaker who’s given us tons of classics (Back To The Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump) I only have to assume that he wasn’t given the creative freedom because this a lifeless movie that is so horribly written is not the thing you think of when you think Robert Zemeckis.

Pinocchio is available on Disney+

1/10 F

My Son Hunter….why?

Hunter (Laurence Fox) finds himself doing all the wrong things in all the wrong places with all the wrong people, when he meets a young naïve stripper. Grace Anderson (Emma Gojkovic) doesn’t know much about politics, but gets a crash course as she gets closer and closer to the son of President Biden (John James). “My Son Hunter” puts the lens squarely on Hunter, his corrupt business dealings, his relationship with his father, and a lifestyle that would make rock stars jealous. But through the haze of a crack pipe and above the din of the parties and the outbursts…somewhere lies the truth.

Oh man….where to begin? So My Son Hunter is distributed by Breitbart and from the trailer I was actually hoping this movie would fall into the category of “it’s so bad it’s hilarious” territory that’s not what happened here, putting aside politics there is so much you can criticize Joe Biden on and at the same time make it hilarious movie, the problem is this movie takes itself seriously and the jokes it makes are completely unfunny. A lot of the movie is if you took the complete bad parts of Adam McKay and made them even far worse, the first couple jokes include a bit about Black Lives Matter and Pronoun jokes. A certain genre of jokes that is heavily used on Twitter, which is exactly the problem those types of jokes are complete and utter embarrassment anywhere outside of Twitter (not that they are funny to begin with but you get the point). Oh yeah and Gina Carano talks about how she was cancelled another completely overused joke what fun. The acting, writing, filming and so on are all completely terrible, there’s a lot of editing decisions that I’m completely baffled passed the beginning phases. There’s a long drawn out scene of Hunter Biden (played by Laurence Fox) and Joe Biden (played by John James) sitting in a car and talking which would be investing if there was any life to this movie. But why bring life into the story when that’s not what your audience is going to want? This movie spends way too much time taking itself so seriously and has this whole narrative of “the movie the media doesn’t want you to see” which is just flat out ridiculous, let’s take away the politics away for a moment…the movie is still complete and total garbage, at a filmmaking perspective it’s dull, ugly to look at, bizarrely edited for all the wrong reasons, poorly acted and very poorly written. As I said earlier there was definitely something here where they could have had made an entertaining satire while also criticizing Biden. But that just doesn’t happen here.

My Son Hunter is available to stream.

Disgrace To Cinema F

End Of The Road is a huge bump in the road.

In this high-octane action thriller, a cross-country road trip becomes a highway to hell for Brenda and her family. Alone in the New Mexico desert, they have to fight for their lives when they become the targets of a mysterious killer.

Queen Latifah and Ludacris deserved a far better movie because what was this? End Of The Road is another terrible Netflix original thriller movie, granted Queen Latifah, Ludacris and the rest of the cast at least make this one watchable but that doesn’t mean much when the rest of the movie has absolutely nothing in it. End Of The Road is a prime example of the over saturation there is in the thriller genre, it does nothing that hasn’t been done before, the atmosphere is completely missing due to how ridiculous the character decisions really are to the point where it becomes more of a comedy than a thriller. There’s also some very strange stylistic choices such as neon lights for whatever reason and it even tries to use similar styles that Mad Max Fury Road used, but it just doesn’t work here as it’s a completely different context.

End Of The Road is available on Netflix!

3/10 D-