No Okay is a smart commentary about social media with brilliant performances.

A misguided young woman who is desperate for friends and fame fakes a trip to Paris to update her social media presence. A terrifying incident takes place in the real world, which becomes a part of the imaginary trip and offers all she wants.

Not Okay is a really solid film that’s a commentary about social media, such as activism and how being held accountable is actually pretty important. The film is mostly strong the performances department with Zoey Deutch who gives a well done performance that is both charming and quite hilarious as well. Mia Isaac (who was in Don’t Make Me Go) steals every single scene she’s in, there’s particular moments here that she really shows her talent and actually give the viewer some goosebumps, when Deutch and Isaac are on screen together it’s truly amazing. The combination of both talents takes the film to a new level and truly captures a range of emotions as well, the direction from Quinn Shephard is truly well done. It’s energetic, raw and actually sums up what a lot of people on social media act like (and to this day still do). Although there’s some parts the movie could have elaborated a bit more on, for a majority of the movie it was very well written, acted and directed!

Not Okay is available on Hulu!

8/10 B+

Honor Society is a charming high school movie with a great cast!

Honor is an ambitious high school senior whose sole focus is getting into an Ivy League college, assuming she can first score the coveted recommendation from her guidance counselor, Mr. Calvin.

Honor Society is definitely a surprise and it’s a shame Paramount really did not advertise this movie, because this is definitely one of the better high school movies. Angourie Rice and Gaten Matarazzo both do a really solid job here, they are both charming and actually make the movie work quite well. The writing is decently well done and while there are familiar notes played in the movie, Rice’s performance along with the story are very charming and you can’t help but enjoy it all the way through. The premise is actually well executed and actually leads up to some heartfelt moments that really work in the film’s favor, overall there might not be a whole lot to Honor Society but it’s a charming little movie with a great cast that makes it work.

Honor Society is available on Paramount+

7/10 B

The Reef: Stalked a sequel that goes horribly wrong.

Hoping to heal from a tragedy, a woman and her friends embark on a kayaking and diving adventure in tropical waters. However, the fun soon turns to terror when they find themselves fighting for their lives against a great white shark.

I have to say I’m quite impressed on how they took The Reef (2010) one of the rare actual good shark movies and made a horrendous sequel and by the exact same director as well. The Reef Stalked Is more less the exact same thing from a lot of other bad modern shark movies, there’s a very dull start that introduces the characters who are very poorly written (the decision making in this movie is baffling). Which I can look over bad decision making in films but when it’s one decision after another and distracts from the movie that’s when it becomes a problem, that’s definitely the case here plus the kills aren’t even great either so they couldn’t even deliver on that. The worst part about it is even the shark attack scenes aren’t well done, a lot of it has a shaky camera or strangely enough bubbles cover up what happens. There’s some fine enough acting at certain points but are nowhere near enough to say that the acting was great. The most entertaining bit of this movie is the writing there’s some truly unintentionally hilarious lines here that gave me a few laughs. Overall The Reef: Stalked is a terrible sequel, everything the first movie did right this one did wrong, luckily this is a forgettable one so at least there’s that.

The Reef: Stalked is available on Shudder.

2/10 F

Purple Hearts is a mixed bag romance movie.

Despite their differences and against all odds, an aspiring singer-songwriter and a soldier fall hopelessly in love.

Part of the reason why it’s so hard to review these types of Netflix movies is because they all start to blend in with one another. Purple Hearts is no exception, outside of Sofia Carson who is really trying with such a limited script to make this work, a few of the songs she sings which I have to say are pretty decent and a few moments that actually are strong enough to stand on their own. The movie feels like an extended Nicholas Sparks movie despite not being one, I have no idea why this is 2 hours and 2 minutes long because a lot of these scenes could have easily been trimmed down. The writing starts out as a trainwreck throwing a bunch of liberal and conservative stereotypes that at one point become unintentionally funny, the writing definitely gets a lot better as it goes on and actually explores Cassie’s (Sofia Carson) and Luke’s (Nicholas Galitzine) relationship. The plot goes exactly how you think it’s going to go, it’s pretty much everything you have seen before in a very mixed bag of a movie.

Purple Hearts is available on Netflix.

5/10 C

Quick Review: Bring Him Back Dead (2022)

A violent gang of criminals is ordered, after a botched heist, to track down and eliminate the man who betrayed them and ran off with their loot.

Bring Him Back Dead is a very nothing special about it low budget action movie, there’s some fine enough action scenes that are at least fun. But that’s all there really is, the acting isn’t as bad as you would expect but it just mainly comes down to “seen that and it’s been done better” really not a whole lot here.

Bring Him Back Dead is available tomorrow on all VOD Platforms.

4/10 D+

Most Anticipated Films Of August 2022!

Another month in the books! August is up next and has quite a few films that have a lot of potential to be really fun and fantastic. As always I’ll quickly list films I’ve already seen that I highly recommend checking out!

Resurrection – August 5th (VOD)

I Love My Dad – August 12th (VOD)

Emily The Criminal – August 12th (Theaters)

Girl Picture – August 12th (Theaters)

Breaking (formally known as 892) – August 26th (Theaters)

Now for the list!

18. Maneater – August 26th (VOD)

17. They/Them – August 5th (Peacock)

16. 13: The Musical – August 12th (Netflix)

15. Allegoria – August 2nd (Shudder)

14. Glorious – August 18th (Shudder)

13. Orphan: First Kill – August 19th (Paramount+)

12. What Josiah Saw – August 4th (Shudder)

11. When I Consume You – August 16th (VOD)

10. Samaritan – August 26th (Amazon Prime Video)

9. Thirteen Lives – August 5th (Amazon Prime Video)

8. Beast – August 19th (Theaters)

7. Fall – August 12th (Theaters)

6. The Invitation – August 26th (Theaters)

5. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero – August 19th (Theaters)

4. Both Sides Of The Blade – August 23rd (VOD)

3. Prey – August 5th (Hulu)

2. Three Thousands Years Longing – August 31st (Theaters)

1. Bodies Bodies Bodies – August 5th (Limited Theaters) August 12th (Wide)

And that’s the list!! Which films are you excited for?

RRR the most chaotic 3 hours in all the right ways put into film.

A tale of two legendary revolutionaries and their journey far away from home. After their journey they return home to start fighting back against British colonialists in the 1920s.

Before I start I want say flat out that I’m not very knowledgeable about Indian cinema, so I may miss some important themes here but let it be known that I absolutely love this movie and everything about it.

RRR I heard from word of mouth, and was very excited based on what I heard. Simply put RRR is the most insane three hours I have seen from a film in a long time, there’s so much to this film to the point where every shot has at least so many different types of elements. The film is the story of actual Indian freedom fighters Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, the film makes it into a what if story. It’s a fictionalized account of both these men and what they could have accomplish had they met. Taking a concept as big as that is very hard to get right but the cast and crew do it effortlessly here, for starters Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. are absolutely fantastic in the leading roles. Both have incredible chemistry between another and absolutely steal each and every scene they are in, the film is such a huge spectacle as well. As I said earlier there’s so much going on in each and every scene to the point where every scene feels like a huge spectacle to the eye, especially when combined with Charan and Rao Jr’s performances (which are some of my favorite of the year) but what really makes this film extraordinary is the balance of entertainment, humor and dramatic moments one doesn’t out do the other it all blends so well together. Two scenes in particular standout of being some of the best scenes I’ve seen in a film this year…The Naacho Naacho dance scene a truly huge blast of entertainment that really shows the main leads talent and the Tiger scene which is just pure and utter chaos that is truly top notch. The Tiger scene really shows what I love about film so much creativity combined with going all out and that’s what RRR did. Overall RRR is truly an incredible experience that I highly recommend giving a watch!!

RRR is available on Netflix!

10/10 A+

The Innocents is a terrifying and striking horror film.

During the bright Nordic summer, a group of children reveal their dark and mysterious powers when the adults aren’t looking.

I’ve had The Innocents on my watchlist for quite sometime and I’m glad I finally sat down and watched this! Director Eskil Vogt (writer of Worst Person In The World and Thelma) immediately establishes the atmosphere right when the movie begins, it has the sense of abandonment that is really striking to the viewer, the performances all around are fantastic each of the cast gives natural and very powerful performances that like the atmosphere strike the viewer. The film slowly but surely becomes more and more shocking as the plot starts to become more clear and the mystery of it all starts to appear in the viewer’s face. The child actors in this film are absolutely brilliant, they play some genuinely terrifying characters who get under the viewer’s skin as soon as events unfold. There’s some really neat camera tricks that just add to the film which gives a classic mystery type feel with some very quick editing and emotion from the characters such as sadness and rage. That really make this film all the more powerful as I said before the performances are naturalistic which really benefits the movie as it goes on, there’s truly a ton of dark moments that don’t rely on jumpscares or gore to be disturbing, it’s the film’s own natural ideas that fully come together. The Innocents will not be for everyone as it is a slow burn horror film but if it sounds interesting to you I highly recommend checking this one out!

The Innocents is available on all VOD Platforms.

9/10 A

Anything‘s Possible is a genuinely sweet directorial debut from Billy Porter!

A high school student with a crush summons the courage to ask a transsexual teen out on a date, knowing the drama it could cause.

Anything’s Possible is directed by Billy Porter and wow this was a surprise, from the trailers it looked like this was going to be another high school comedy. While it does follow beat by beat plot points what makes this one standout is mainly the cast and that it is a genuinely lovable film, for starters credit must be given for casting Eva Reign a trans woman to play a trans woman. Reign’s performance is truly fantastic here it comes off as very raw and really captures the high school like feel that a lot of other high school movies have failed to do. In the fact the movie itself does a really good job in that aspect, the writing is actually really well done here and gives Kelsa (Reign) and Khal (Ali) some really strong character development. Speaking of which the chemistry between Eva Reign and Abubakr Ali (who is also quite great) is really strong and feels really natural, it’s such a sweet and lovable bond that really gives the movie a sense of realism. The movie does have a few jumping the shark moments, I truly don’t think the movie needed a mean girl type character Courtnee Carter is decent in the role but the whole subplot didn’t need to be there. Outside of that the rest of the movie is very lovable and really feels very down to earth, it’s a fun movie that shows a lot of talent from Billy Porter as a director and Eva Reign (who I cannot wait to see more from) plus Abubakr Ali as actors!

Anything’s Possible is available on Amazon Prime Video!

8/10 B+

Brian And Charles is a genuinely hilarious movie of a man and his robot.

Brian is a lonely inventor in rural Wales who spends his days building quirky, unconventional contraptions that seldom work. Undeterred by his lack of success, he soon attempts his biggest project yet. Using a washing machine and various spare parts, he invents Charles, an artificial intelligence robot that learns English from a dictionary and has an obsession with cabbages.

Brian And Charles is a genuinely funny little movie about a man and his robot, the performances are all really strong here David Earl and Chris Hayward have this strong chemistry that really matches the character’s bond. The novelty is what makes the movie worth it, it’s such a simple but fascinating idea that it becomes lovable. Sure the movie does run out of steam during the third act as it does start to repeat itself a tiny bit, but that doesn’t stop the movie from having a handful of quiet moments that really let you absorb both Brian and Charles conversations. How they act, feel and tell about each other is truly fascinating and leads to a handful of laughs.

Brian And Charles is available on all VOD Platforms

7/10 B