Shook (2021) Movie Review!


When Mia, a social media star, becomes the target of an online terror campaign, she has to solve a series of games to prevent people she cares about from getting murdered. But is it real. Or is it just a game at her expense.


I have said this before but I love the internet horror genre/thriller genre you know like Searching, the two Unfriended movies, CAM, PVT Chat, The Den, Spree, Host and a few others. So I was naturally excited for Shook and maybe this could be like Host where it was a very early favorite of the year…..that was most certainly not the case unfortunately. Shook doesn’t even come close to the movies I mentioned before, it tries to combine the slasher genre with the internet horror genre and ends up being a complete and total mess in the end. The only praise I can give it is some decent shots at times but that’s really not enough to save the movie. The characters feel very cliched, the setup has been done before in several other movies and the movie heavily relies on combining genres but keeps forgetting the purpose of why it’s doing that. For whatever reason Shook has a fascination with dead dogs as well which is a very cheap tactic to use in your movie especially when it’s placed solely for shock value and that’s definitely the case here. Don’t even get me started on the writing, I genuinely want to understand what the writers were going for here because none of it worked, I mean yes social media influencers get stalked quite often and dangerous things do happen to them. However I feel like Spree did a far better job at showing that, heck The Den which wasn’t even about social media influencers I thought did a far better job than Shook did as well. It’s a shame because I did go into Shook being quite excited…I recommend checking out any of the movies I previously named instead of this one.

1/10 F

Film Twitter’s Racism Problem.

I. Introduction

Hello again, I hinted at this being the next topic I was going to talk about when I talked about Film’s Pedophillia and sexual abuse problem. This is a topic I’ve wanted to talk about for awhile now but what was holding me back was the loss of how many people have been outed as racists. That alone should tell you how many racists are unfortunately plaguing Film Twitter, I apologize in advance if I don’t explain every single situation, luckily I did have some help by someone who helped me out quite a bit! The main reason why I decided to write this article is to call out Film Twitter’s hypocrisy. A lot of people on there want you to believe they are not racist at all and have never done a racist thing in their life! When in reality they themselves have took part in it. The layout is going to be the exact same as last time, only this time I’m going to start with the more straightforward cases and work our way up.

II. Gina/LonelyFilms and Muriel/Ptanderstan

I grouped these two together mostly because they pretty much did almost the exact same thing, I’ll start with Gina because I honestly had no idea who she was until I saw that she got exposed for it. Basically what happened was somebody found her using the n slur in several instances while at the same time claiming how much of an “ally” she is. Spoiler alert that’s going to be a recurring theme throughout this whole article, at first she deactivated her account but now. It’s a empty account on private. Maybe someone took her username who knows. Muriel was pretty much the same case, she claimed she was an ally, but someone found her using the n slur several times. I remember this one actually pretty well due to the fact that I use to follow her. Her half ass apology did not help her case at all, in fact that’s what did her in the most. She basically gave the whole “I didn’t know the full effect of the word” which is not an excuse if you didn’t know the “full effect of the word” then why say it? I’m pretty sure we were taught in Elementary School to not use words we have no idea what they mean (even if she knew the meaning she STILL should not have said it) She should have educated herself and realized why the word is terrible and why she should not have said it. Not just say it without doing any research. As far as I know Muriel is no longer on Twitter.

III. Khoi/bongjoonwhores

Khoi is another straightforward one he made a slavery joke what the joke was I’m not entirely sure, I really didn’t know too much about Khoi, he’s no longer on Twitter all that’s left is a few mentions of his name.

IV. Jay/UncutJays

Jay was a very popular user on Film Twitter, he was another example of someone who claimed to be an ally but was later exposed of xenophobia. Keep in mind he made plenty of xenophobia comments yet for whatever reason his fans told people “to give him a pass” or “he didn’t mean it” Jay took no responsibility for it at all he made no apology and deleted his account.

V. Caterina/ Caterinacmrg

Apparently this person is still on Twitter, basically what they said was that she wants to see Jojo Rabbit as a theme park, they apparently rebranded and pretended this never happened.

VI. Robert Storms

I don’t think Robert Storms counts as Film Twitter but I feel this needs to be addressed again since Storms apparently wants to talk about how good of a person he is. If you don’t know who Robert Storms is considering yourself very lucky, he’s basically The Quartering if he had far less subscribers and followers. Same idea as The Quartering you know “go woke for broke” or another idiotic Anti-SJW. Robert Storms went on a Xenophobic rant about how Parasite won best picture and pretty much “criticized” the film without even seeing it, most of what he said was just xenophobia no actual criticisms. That event alone pretty much killed his YouTube career while yes he still does have 26.3K subscribers his reputation has gone down the tubes and is now known as “The Parasite Guy.”

VII. Jason Lei Howden

*Trigger warning suicide attempt mentioned*

This is a huge one so let’s start at the beginning, Dilara Elbir was pretty popular on Film Twitter, she founded the site Much Ado About Cinema, in mid -February of 2020 a leaked DM of Dilara and a friend surfaced which showed Dilara using the n slur very causally. After the DM was leaked Dilara apologized some people accepted it others thought it was too little too late. The entire staff of Much Ado About Cinema all left the site (understandably as most of which were POC). Dilara then attempts suicide mostly because well Twitter is Twitter and some people (who were not involved with the situation to begin with) are going to take advantage of the situation, luckily she did not end up killing herself. Barry Jenkins and Lulu Wang even expressed concern for Dilara. I want to make it clear that it was trolls and people who wanted to take advantage of the situation who sent the death threats, there was a lot of genuine criticism towards Dilara for using the n slur. After that the situation seemed like it was over….at least you would think. Enter Jason Lei Howden who made the situation 100x worse than it already was, if you don’t know who Howden is he’s the director of Guns Akmibo (which at the time was coming out in one or two weeks) and Deathgasm. Basically what happens next is Howden attempts to make this whole situation about “woke culture” and felt Dilara had no reason to be criticized despite being white and using the n slur. He then starts attacking a bunch of the Mucho Ado staff blaming them for Dilara’s suicide attempt when they had nothing to do with it and even tried to help Dilara not hurt herself. What Howden did next was what really set this whole situation into a blaze, he focused his attention on two black writers Valerie Complex and DarkSkyLady he accused the two of cyberbullying and “attempted murder” which is bullcrap because neither of the two had anything to do with Dilara. Both Valerie and DarkSkyLady got harassment from people who agreed with Howden. Howden also tweeted out a list of every writer who left Much Ado About Cinema opening them to get harassed.

It’s worth noting that Howden never gave a full apology, he never acknowledged the damage he had done or the pain he gave people. Howden currently isn’t directing any films and rightfully so, the fact Howden turned a situation that could have been resolved on it’s own to a whole “woke culture!!!” Narrative is gross to be quite honest. Let me make one thing clear calling out someone’s use of the n slur is not “woke culture” Dilara is a white woman who should not have used the word. The worst part about all of this is people were actively trying to minimize the situation, “be kind” Twitter started telling people who were giving genuine criticism to Dilara to “stop” or “you are spreading hate and it’s not the time” “be kind” Twitter wanted to make the narrative that the death threats outweighed the genuine criticism when that wasn’t the truth. The death threats were the minority, a bunch of them were trolls who were suspended from Twitter after the situation. There were far more people giving genuine criticism, it doesn’t help that “be kind” Twitter did absolutely nothing about Howden, not once did they call him out they just wanted to police black people on when it’s okay to criticize someone for using the n slur. Completely messed up if you ask me.

VIII. Film Twitter’s attacks on Chloe Zhao

Finally we come to the most recent example of Film Twitter’s racism, as always let’s start from the beginning. Chloe Zhao is a Chinese film director who directed The Rider, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, Nomadland and is going to direct The Eternals. I’ve expressed how much I love Chloe Zhao and how she’s one of my favorite directors working today. Anyway a few days ago when Nomadland released there was a screenshot floating around that claimed Chloe Zhao was a billionaire, the screenshot claimed that her father is a billionaire and that she has the money as well. Spoiler alert the screenshot was debunked by Zhao herself who disproved the screenshot, what angers myself and many other people is that Film Twitter believed this rumor with no evidence. All they went off of was one screenshot and thought it was real, no research, no actual evidence no nothing. Film Twitter talks about wanting more WOC directors in the film industry but the moment they are given the opportunity to they will destroy their character. I’ve noticed they have never actually gone after white directors who are well known billionaires. Gee I wonder why that is? This was a pathetic attempt to kill Zhao’s character because she’s currently the frontrunner for the Oscars, what disgusts me even more is that Zhao herself had to come out and debunk the rumor. Even if she was a billionaire….so what? She made a film that shows what life is like for the nomads she is using her platform for actual good unlike many other directors people often praise.

IX. Conclusion

Film Twitter has a lot of cleaning up to do when it comes to racism, a lot of people on Film Twitter want to believe that “racism is no longer in our community” but that’s just not true. A lot of people on Film Twitter want to go into the film industry at some point which is great, the problem is a lot of these people who were exposed of racism also wanted to go into the film industry. Film Twitter pretending to be progressive is just laughable, if some of these very same people grow up to be part of the film industry. Racism in the film industry is not going to change we are going to be back at square one repeating an endless cycle. So what can we do about it? Well if you see racism taking place call it out, use your voice to combat against it. Even if your a small account somebody will hear you or see you speak out. Thank you for listening and I hope I helped out by bringing this to people’s attention. Because this is a conversation that needs to be talked about.

Quick Reviews Speed around: Body Brokers, Blithe Spirit, Silk Road and The Violent Heart (2021)

This is a segment where I give you short reviews of movies that I couldn’t come up with full reviews for. I try to avoid doing this but sometimes it’s just necessary.


Brought to Los Angeles for treatment, a recovering junkie soon learns that the rehab center is not about helping people, but a cover for a multi-billion-dollar fraud operation that enlists addicts to recruit other addicts.


Body Brokers has a lot of interesting ideas the problem is it’s not executed very well, it tries to show the dangers in drugs and many communities however the problem is the movie really doesn’t explain all that much. You get the basics and that’s it, it doesn’t really expand on anything which is a shame, it’s very surface level at best when it comes to the information told through the characters. I will say that the acting was actually not too bad Jack Kilmer and Michael K. Williams did a very solid job in their roles, the writing again had some interesting ideas but a lot of the time they missed. The few times the film’s ideas did hit were quite great and we got a few character moments, outside of that it really did not do much. Body Brokers is certainly not a bad movie but could have been a lot better.

5/10 C


A spiritualist medium holds a seance for a writer suffering from writer’s block but accidentally summons the spirit of his deceased first wife, which leads to an increasingly complex love triangle with his current wife of five years.


I hope Judi Dench was payed good money for this, because Blithe Spirit felt like a chore to sit through. It was funny for about maybe 10 minutes before the movie started to beat jokes and the whole premise to death. I get it’s a remake but come on now, production design is quite great and there are a few decent scenes. Outside of that I really don’t have much else to say.

3/10 D-


Fifteen years after the murder of his older sister, Daniel finds himself falling for Cassie, a vivacious high school senior.

The Violent Heart suffers from being way to predictable, you can guess what’s going to happen within the first 10 minutes of the film. With that said it’s not necessarily bad as it is just very below average. There’s some good bits and I am glad this movie isn’t another Fatale Attraction clone as the film’s plot might suggest. Acting and writing wise it’s not too bad although there is some badly done dialogue, this is something to only put on if you have absolutely nothing else to watch. Really don’t have much else to say..

5/10 C


Philosophical twenty-something Ross Ulbricht creates Silk Road, a dark net website that sells drugs, while DEA agent Rick Bowden goes undercover to bring him down.


Silk Road is what happens when you take a interesting real story and turn it into a very uninteresting movie, outside of performances from Nick Robinson, Jason Clarke, Paul Walter Hauser and Alexandra Shipp the movie is incredibly lacking when it comes to tone. The movie has no idea what it wants to be at all, it does try copy off of The Social Network at times but it forgets what made The Social Network good…you know good writing? That’s where Silk Road ultimately fails, the writing is way too below average and completely fails bring the viewer into the film. It’a not a terrible movie but it is one of the most forgettable I’ve seen so far this year.

5/10 C

Sundance Review: Knocking (2021) Movie Review!


A woman leaves a psychiatric ward after a nervous breakdown, only to start hearing mysterious knocking sounds in her apartment.

Knocking was definitely one of my most anticipated films at Sundance, I heard some talk about it prior to the festival. I’m really glad this did not disappoint, Knocking may not work for everyone but there is just so much to absolutely love about this movie. It’s a very straightforward horror/thriller that has a very effective atmosphere, one that is very thrilling and that will have you at the edge of your seat at all times. Cecilia Milocco does a fantastic job in the leading role and gives a very raw performance that is actually quite haunting at times as well, combine that with some magnificent direction from Frida Kempff who shows a ton of talent and the results are quite great!! Knocking is one of those horror movies that doesn’t rely on jumpscares, it uses it’s atmosphere and it’s subject matter to be creepy. It’s effective mostly due to how grounded the film really is, there are moments that are definitely not as grounded but even those moments are still effective. Knocking also does a fantastic job of using it’s setting in a very clever way, as I said earlier Knocking isn’t going to work for everyone but it’s one that highly recommend checking out once it releases!!

8/10 B+

Willy’s Wonderland (2021) Movie Review!

A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Wally’s Wonderland. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-out fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash — and only one side will make it out alive.


Willy’s Wonderland has been on my radar for some time now, so when I heard it got a February 2021 release date I was very excited! Willy’s Wonderland is exactly what I expected and I couldn’t be more happy, Nicholas Cage doesn’t actually talk in this film, which you would think would not be a good idea that could prevent him from giving a lot of the over the top performances we all know and love. However he still manages to play an absolute hilarious and quite fantastic role as well, there’s some incredibly badass fight scenes between Cage and the animatronics. Really incredible kills as well that are actually quite well done as well, I also do like Emily Tosta and Caylee Cowan as well! I can definitely see the both of them going on to be in several other horror movies. Willy’s Wonderland is also Incredibly silly which is expected, it’s a whole lot of fun and knows what it’s set out to do. The animatronics designs I actually thought were pretty interesting as well, sure they may not be unique but it was trying to capture the 80s/90s when these things were popular. So they did a pretty great job with that. Willy’s Wonderland is overall a very straightforward slasher film that’s quite solid, there are some areas that could have been better (mostly the first act) I highly recommend giving this one a watch!

7/10 B

Sundance Review: I Was A Simple Man (2021) Movie Review!


A family in Hawai’i faces the imminent death of their eldest as the ghosts of the past haunt the countryside.

As I said with my first reaction I may need to rewatch I Was A Simple Man to really have the film sink more into my mind. But from my first watch I really liked what I saw! The film itself is very meditative, it has that type of vibe throughout the film and it’s actually pretty relaxing as well. When you combine that with some absolutely gorgeous filming of the location which is Hawaii it really makes the film standout on it’s own, Steve Iwamoto and Constance Wu both give incredible performances, they both add so much to the film and really deliver very raw moments. I Was A Simple Man is a slow burn that remains haunting from beginning to end you just can’t help but feel something is there that could happen or appear at any given moment. The score and cinematography are both haunting in their own right and deliver on so many levels, I will say I Was A Simple Man is not going to be for everyone, it starts out very slow and does take some time to get going. So you have to be patient with the film to fully appreciate it for what it is. I do highly recommend checking this one out when it comes out (hopefully later this year)

7/10 B

Sundance Review: Mother Schmuckers (2021) Movie Review!


Issachar and Zabulon, two brothers in their twenties, are supremely stupid and never bored, as madness is part of their daily lives. When they lose their mother’s beloved dog, they have 24 hours to find it – or she will kick them out.


I’m seriously going to try my best to keep this as short as possible because as horrendous as Mother Schmuckers is, there is actually not a whole lot to say about this movie. Mother Schmuckers I only decided to see at Sundance because I heard how terrible it was when it had it’s premiere showing. As they say curiosity killed the cat which in this case the cat being myself. Mother Schmuckers is what happens if you convince a couple of edgy YouTubers from the early 2000s that they could make a movie filled with disgusting, edgy, bathroom and slight animal abuse jokes. The whole entire film is like watching someone rambling on and on about a bunch of nonsense for 70 minutes until the movie ends. Trust me those 70 minutes go by INCREDIBLY slow, the acting and writing are worthless just simply worthless. None of the jokes are smart, clever or funny it’s not even a “it’s so bad it’s good” type funny. It’s so poorly made and feels like somebody made this as a troll and Sundance for whatever reason accepted it. The movie is also very repetitive if you thought maybe they change up their humor during the movie think again, they keep doing the same tired jokes over and over again. Even one of the moderators who introduces the film that’s about to be shown and tries to hype up the movie had a very hard time trying to find good things to say about Mother Schmuckers. Which I think that sums up the whole movie words can’t describe how bad and how much of a mess this movie truly is, do not see this once it releases (who knows when that will be.)

Disgrace To Cinema F

Sundance Review: The World To Come (2021) Movie Review!


Somewhere along the mid-19th century American East Coast frontier, two neighboring couples battle hardship and isolation, witnessed by a splendid yet testing landscape, challenging them both physically and psychologically.


Let’s do another Sundance review! The World To Come is what Ammonite really wanted to be, going into this movie I was very worried this movie was going to follow in the same footsteps as Ammonite. However that is not the case here, mainly due to many factors. One being the acting and chemistry from Katherine Waterson and Vanessa Kirby, both of them have this beautiful chemistry of them slowly discovering each other and how each other feels. There’s tons of genuinely raw scenes that are quite powerful, the hypnotic score combined with the beautiful cinematography also really helps out this movie quite a lot. The score creates a certain mood for the film and makes it known throughout the film, there’s a lot of passion with the filming especially when you combine it with the landscapes. It creates tons of beautiful yet eerie moments that are fascinating, The World To Come does a far better job of being a forbidden love film than Ammonite in every single way possible. The writing feels much more grounded, the acting all around is fantastic and the film itself really drags you into itself. I highly recommend checking this out when it comes out on VOD March 2nd!

8/10 B+

Sundance Reviews : Marvelous And The Black Hole and Mayday (2021) Movie Reviews!


A teenage delinquent teams up with a surly children’s party magician to navigate her dysfunctional family and inner demons.

When it comes to Sundance 2021 films Marvelous And The Black Hole always seems to be missing from the conversation, it’s a very underrated film from the festival that really has a lot of heart! Marvelous And The Black Hole might be familiar in some ways, but what makes the film is as I said in my reaction the heart and soul of the film. Miya Cech and Rhea Pearlman bring so much to their performances and the chemistry between the two is just incredibly sweet. It’s a very heartwarming movie that shows a lot of talent and displays tons of emotions, there are sad parts, hilarious moments, dark moments and so much more. So the film does have a variety which is quite great to see, the writing is pretty clever sure it does fall into some familiar territory but for the most part it does come up with some clever tricks and brings in some very interesting scenes. The coming of age aspect is quite interesting, it’s a different take on the coming of age movie genre that is familiar yet tries things a little different. Overall Marvelous And The Black Hole is incredibly solid, I really hope this one releases soon!!

7/10 B


Ana is transported to a dreamlike and dangerous land where she joins an army of girls engaged in a never-ending war along a rugged coast.

I probably should have reviewed Mayday earlier given that there really isn’t a whole lot to say about it but oh well. Mayday sounded interesting in concept which is why I watched it at Sundance, however the film itself is just very very okay. There are things to really like about Mayday such as the atmosphere it was actually pretty great, it definitely tries to stay throughout the film and does capture the mood it’s going for. Mia Goth continues to show that she’s a criminally underrated actress she’s definitely the best part about Mayday by a lot. What kills Mayday is the second act, it never fully recovers and just continues till it ends, the second act is just nowhere near as interesting or compelling as what the film set it up to be. Which is very unfortunate because the filmmaking is quite great such as the cinematography capturing the beautiful landscape. Mayday really could have been something great but that’s sadly not the case here, this may work for some people but unfortunately it didn’t work me.

5/10 C

PVT Chat And Fear Of Rain (2021) Movie Reviews!


Jack is an internet gambler living in NYC who becomes fixated on Scarlet – a cam girl from San Francisco. His obsession reaches a boiling point when fantasy materializes in reality and Jack sees Scarlet on a rainy Chinatown street.


PVT Chat was definitely a surprise, Julia Fox is by far the best part of the film and probably the reason to watch the movie, but what I do like is it does try to be authentic as possible. The plot is pretty interesting it’s sort of one of those internet thriller/horror movies that tend to be interesting. Parts of it reminded me of CAM, but there are plenty of the movie’s own ideas which it mixes in quite well. Acting and writing are pretty decent as well, as I said it tries go for a more authentic approach which to the film’s credit it does a decent job at it. Some scenes do feel weaker than others in some areas, it does take a bit to get going but it’s overall a fun ride that I recommend.

7/10 B


A girl living with schizophrenia struggles with terrifying hallucinations as she begins to suspect her neighbor has kidnapped a child. The only person who believes her is Caleb -a boy she isn’t even sure exists.

If this is the type of quality that After We Fell and After Ever Happy then…oh boy we are in for a ride and a very bad one. I really do not have a whole lot to say about Fear Of Rain, the acting and writing are terrible, outside of a few decent moments. Within the first 10 minutes you can already predict the twist of the movie. Directing wise it’s all over the place, also the way that schizophrenia is being portrayed in this movie is very stereotypical. It’s a shame because this could have been interesting if it were better written and had people involved who actually care about the film.

1/10 F