A young boy and his mail-order bride mother emigrate from Russia to Seattle, where he struggles with his sexuality.
There’s definitely some interesting ideas in here, the first half is a lot like JoJo Rabbit and actually does that pretty well. The acting is overall solid enough and the movie has plenty of bizarre moments to keep you invested…that is until the last half that’s a very generic coming of age story, the film definitely feels like it was supposed to be two completely different films but got combined into one. Granted there are still some solid moments and emotional ones such as connections with family, but that isn’t enough to push this movie beyond being passable. Still there is fun to be had with this movie just not anything you will ever go back to.
Potato Dreams Of America is available on all VOD Platforms.
Four generations of Darling women deal with the aftermath of their adventures with Peter Pan in Neverland. Like her grandmother and her mother Jane before her, Wendy must escape Pan’s hold on her and the promise he desperately wants her to keep. As her daughter, Berry, comes into Peter’s orbit, Wendy must fight to save her relationship with her daughter while reconciling her legacy.
For a movie that’s supposedly inspired by Peter Pan you would think this would get far more advertising but instead it very quietly gets put on to VOD platforms and I can see why. I honestly couldn’t tell you what exactly happens during the movie because it’s a huge mess filled with bad writing, a horribly constructed story and very poor acting outside of Iain Glen and Louis Partridge (which I’m questioning how on earth they got him to be in this). The main issue that hurts The Lost Girls basically sums up to “seen that and it’s been done way better before” you are better off watching any other Peter Pan related movie or just watch an actual adaption.
The Lost Girls is available on all VOD Platforms.
1/10 F
The story is described as a poignant look at a young man’s difficult entry into adulthood.
If you went by the poster you would probably expect another teen romance movie, that isn’t what this movie is luckily. Instead it’s more about bonding with family, Hero Finneas Tiffin is actually not that bad here (miles better than he was in After movies) Sydney Park is also pretty solid here as well. There’s a lot of touching moments that work mainly due to the cast having decent chemistry between one another, what sort of stops this movie from being even better is there are moments where the pacing feels way too long and also rushed at the same time. The movie starts to lose focus towards the end and just crashes before it can finish with it’s ideas. Overall not exactly bad just not enough meat on it’s bones to make it worth while.
A couple moves into a forgotten ghost town with big plans to restore it, but soon discovers the town has an evil secret.
Honestly A Town Full Of Ghosts isn’t the worst super low budget found footage movie I’ve ever seen, but it has a lot of the same problems that comes with the genre. Takes way too long to get to the actual plot which is even worse in this case since it’s only 67 minutes long, very dull characters despite the cast trying to work with what their given and just overall very predictable. I’ll give the movie credit that the setting they chose was quite nice and actually has the atmosphere to make this work, it’s just a shame everything else really misses the mark.
A Town Full Of Ghosts releases tomorrow on all VOD Platforms.
Actors Beatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg are gradually pushed into the chaos of witchcraft after they decide to make a film about witches, plunging the two into a world of technical problems and psychotic outbreaks.
Lux Aeterna might be only 52 minutes but don’t let that fool you because this is one hell of an acid trip. Gasper Noé who’s made plenty of disturbing films at this point the films being Irreversible, Enter The Void, I Stand Alone, Climax and Love (kind of it’s at least upsetting) and while Lux Aeterna on the surface might seem like the least disturbing once the themes of the film really start to connect and you digest it….it becomes very horrifying. For starters the film like in Noé’s other films has very authentic acting, Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg both do an excellent job here and really keep the film as grounded as possible. They both play caricatures of themselves who are on a film set that are about witch burnings, slowly but surely the film studio loses control and everything goes haywire. Then suddenly once the film starts to get under control the color turns red and enters into a hellish like phase, from the 39 minute mark all the way until the movie ends lights constantly flash (so if you get Epilepsy seizures I highly recommend either not watching this one or being very careful). The disturbing part mostly has to do with the atmosphere, the flashing lights that constantly move have this aura to them that’s complete hell like. There’s definitely some cleverly put together themes of how sexism in the film industry or how the industry treats women, it has a large hellish and abandonment feel that pretty much says “nobody is helping you and letting the filmmaker’s do what they want” it’s truly horrifying and the type of film that really hits you hard. I don’t want to say much more because this is truly something that needs to be experienced, Gasper Noé truly knows how to take a film and make it absolutely insane as well as disturbing.
Global superstar Jennifer Lopez reflects on her multifaceted career and the pressure of life in the spotlight.
It honestly pains me to give the rating I’m going to give Halftime, I’ve always been a fan of Jennifer Lopez even if a lot of her performances are misses. Her music has always been enjoyable and lately her performances (Hustlers and Marry Me) have been quite great. I will say that a lot of articles are flat out lying about what this documentary is about, it’s not some “Jennifer Lopez attacks Shakira because of the Halftime show” situation that articles would have you believe. In fact Lopez herself does not blame Shakira at all, most of the documentary is about the NFL and the 92nd Academy Awards aka the Oscars. Anyone who remembers the huge discourse about The Oscars that year would tell you how badly the Oscars dropped the ball with some of the nominations, so many people got snubbed for ridiculous reasons Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers) and Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems) being the main two. It was nice that Jennifer Lopez told how she felt about the situation and the message of wanting to be taken seriously as an artist only for people to flat out laugh at you definitely sticks with you plus can feel quite relatable. The main problem is this documentary is it feels like it’s trying to say something much more before ending abruptly, it also doesn’t help that it doesn’t fully connect the viewer to Jennifer Lopez. Some of the last few celebrity documentaries such as the Billie Eilish one and The Blackpink one were successful because they connected the viewer with Billie or Blackpink, it felt like we got to know them more as people and saw their day to day life. You don’t get that same freedom in Halftime, it feels much more closer which is unfortunate. The only people who are going to instantly connect are fans of Jennifer Lopez, which is fine but it’s such a shame to try and included a bigger audience. Overall Halftime isn’t a bad documentary and as I said before it’s nice Jennifer Lopez told her story and how she felt. It’s just a documentary that needed a lot more power to it and deserved a lot better.
The Crawley family goes on a grand journey to the South of France to uncover the mystery of the dowager countess’s newly inherited villa.
Like I did with my review for the first film I’m going to keep this short since I haven’t seen the series, but for a quick recap I found the first film to be a great introduction for anyone who wants to get into the series. Since it does introduce each character pretty well and gives each of the characters a moment to shine, my same feelings for the first movie can be applied to A New Era. In terms of quality it’s about the same which is a good thing in this case (probably has to do with the same writer Julian Fellowes who wrote the first movie returning), the acting is once again very solid as well as the writing. Giving each character a moment or two to shine, some of the humor is genuinely funny with some clever jokes written in as well. There’s a lot here that even people who want to get into the series would enjoy!
Downton Abbey: A New Era is available on all VOD Platforms.
As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. Accompanied by his partner, celebrity performance artist Saul Tenser showcases the metamorphosis of his organs. Meanwhile, a mysterious group tries to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.
Crimes Of The Future is David Cronenberg’s newest film since 2014 and while this might not be his most gory or disturbing film, it still is disturbing in a few interesting ways. For starters the film has the classic Cronenberg style that is so loved from his films and it’s excellent to see it back in full force, it’s the dark and mysterious atmosphere that compliments the world the film is taking place in. With this world surgery is the new sex and the world itself compliments that with a lot of architecture that actually tells the story of the world. While some might argue that there wasn’t enough world building, the film builds the world visually in a more non traditional way, there’s tons of shots here that really speak for themselves. The cinematography tells a lot of the story with some gorgeous shots that are captivating, plus you have the characters who really represent the film in quite interesting ways. The performances from the cast are some of the best so far this year, Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux have great chemistry between one another and give both terrifying yet raw performances as well. But the standout here is Kristen Stewart who most definitely represents the film’s world, she gives this hauntingly beautiful performance that is truly hypnotic in every single way possible. Whenever she appears on screen she takes full advantage of her time on screen and goes all out, especially combined with Cronenberg’s direction and the mysterious atmosphere it just adds more to Stewart’s character and performance. Cronenberg’s direction is masterful with every sense of the word, he paints a picture that is both mysterious and unsettling. Finally there’s the body horror scenes that are truly fantastic and very well designed as well, Cronenberg does something completely different here with the body horror which is make it connect to the people of the film’s world and why they are so into it. Crimes Of The Future is also the perfect film to start with if you want to get into disturbing cinema or Cronenberg’s work! Overall Crimes Of The Future is incredible and is something that you absolutely must see knowing as little as possible, hands down my favorite film so far this year.
Crimes of The Future is currently in theaters, it will release on all VOD Platforms June 21st!
Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live and hunt alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.
Jurassic World: Dominion is the final film of the Jurassic World trilogy, while Dominion is definitely better than Fallen Kingdom by a lot that is really not saying much at all. The few positives come from DeWanda Wise and Jeff Goldblum (who’s actually a main character unlike in Fallen Kingdom) who try to give this movie as much life as possible, lastly there’s a few fun chase/action scenes that are serviceable but nothing to write home about. The rest of the movie however is one gigantic mess that is a very weak way to close the trilogy, the performances from everyone other than Wise and Goldblum are either terrible or soulless, it’s nice to see Laura Dern and Sam Neil return but they are restricted to a very weak script that becomes a gigantic mess and strangely don’t feel as important as they did in the first Jurassic Park. The “villain” is played by Campbell Scott who is honestly very forgettable, the villain serves little to no purpose outside of being included for the sake of being included. We know very little about him and the I guess twist of him being the villain is so predictable that the movie doesn’t even try to hide it from the first scene he’s introduced. The performance Scott is terrible and way too over the top, I’m not exactly sure what they were trying to go for here but whatever it was it did not work. Another huge issue with Dominion is that it’s an unfocused mess that can’t decide what it wants to be, does it want to actually be about the dinosaurs or does it want to be about these collection of characters rescuing Maisie? Which leads into my next point the movie is very formulaic as in it basically runs down like this…chase scene, dialogue, chase scene, dialogue until the movie decides to wrap things up and end. The writing combined with it being formulaic is incredibly tiring and becomes way too repetitive for it’s own good, overall Jurassic World: Dominion is a very weak movie to close the trilogy with. Between being way too unfocused and forgettable there’s nothing here that comes together and is just another addition to the terrible sequels of this series.
After a down-on-his-luck basketball scout discovers an extraordinary player abroad, he brings the phenom back without his team’s approval.
Hustle is a huge surprise, I was ready for it to be another generic sports drama that would be forgettable almost immediately after watching. While Hustle does follow certain familiar beats from other movies of the genre, it’s the attention to detail and the overall craft that makes this one standout. First off Adam Sandler’s performance is quite fantastic, he plays an NBA scout who discovers a fantastic player who is played by Juancho Hernangómez who is actually an NBA player in fact the film is filled with NBA players! Giving the film a more raw approach and making this sort of a celebration to basketball fans, Sandler and Hernangómez’s chemistry is quite fantastic here and really gives the film more power and a very grounded approach. The same can be said with the writing, it’s such a raw and beautiful approach that captures several interesting moments between the players and Sandler’s discussions. There’s tons of heartfelt moments that you can’t help but love, sure the outcome is predictable but the film is incredibly well crafted and Sandler’s performance invests you into the film. Overall Hustle is a very solid sports drama that even if you aren’t a fan of basketball I still highly recommend checking this one out!
A group of queer best friends gather in the Fire Island Pines for their annual week of love and laughter, but when a sudden change of events jeopardizes their summer in gay paradise, their bonds as a chosen family are pushed to the limit.
What makes Fire Island so great is that it’s just a blast of fun, it’s about a bunch of friends just hanging out together and having normal conversations with one another. While going through situations friends normally do, the cast really makes this movie particularly Joel Kim Booster and Conrad Ricamora who have fantastic chemistry and really do a great job of making their conversations feel grounded. In fact the chemistry between everyone in the cast is really strong, some characters definitely could have used a bit more development but from what was given there was a chance for earth character to get some moments to shine. There’s some really strong humor that works well, especially when combined with Joel Booster’s writing that really creates a humorous as well as a meaningful piece!
Jerome Reviews... 