The Killer (2023) Movie Review

Solitary, cold, methodical and unencumbered by scruples or regrets, a killer waits in the shadows, watching for his next target. Yet, the longer he waits, the more he thinks he’s losing his mind, if not his cool.

David Fincher once again hits it out of the park with The Killer a film that has a lot of elements of what makes David Fincher so fantastic but also adds a bit as well. 

It should go without saying but Michael Fassbender’s performance is absolutely fantastic, it’s cold, intimidating and hits the viewer right in the chest throughout the film. The narration from Fassbender is equally as cold and haunting, it already makes the incredibly cold and thrilling film, into a quite a dark experience that directly puts you into the mind of an assassin simply known as The Killer (played by Michael Fassbender). Tilda Swinton plays The Expert and she gives a fantastic performance as well, her interactions with Fassbender are top notch, although Fassbender is the main focus here you still feel Swinton’s presence throughout the film.

While being quite cold and dark the film is also quite funny, there’s a bit where The Killer has a bunch of fake aliases which shouldn’t really as a joke given the direction this film is going for….but it oddly works really well! Perhaps it’s Fassbender’s performance or David Fincher’s direction of making The Killer a bit more of a surprise, a very interesting approach is putting the viewer in the mind of an assassin while at work. The thoughts of “what if I miss the shot” “what if the target gets away” and “what if everything completely goes wrong” come up there’s tons of incessant paranoia that makes him overthink all of it.

The filming is incredibly well done, with tons of strong camera angles, the haunting cinematography with some strangely electrifying editing. There’s a whole lot here that really gives The Killer its haunting and thrilling nature. Finally David Fincher’s direction is just outstanding, combining his original roots with some newer ones was quite honestly a fantastic move that really makes the film standout. 

The Killer might not be for everyone, but I still do recommend to give this one a watch! 

The Killer is available on Netflix. 

10/10 A+

Rustin (2023) Movie Review

Bayard Rustin, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., dedicates his life to the quest for racial equality, human rights and worldwide democracy. However, as an openly gay Black man, he is all but erased from the civil rights movement he helped build.

Rustin is directed by George C. Wolfe who previously directed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020). Rustin is a biopic of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, the movie film also tells the true story of Rustin helping Martin Luther King Jr. and others organize the 1963 March On Washington. 

What completely sells Rustin comes down to the performance and the impact they leave on the viewer, Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin is the clear standout and it’s honestly not even close. Domingo gives such a powerful and transformative performance where he completely turns into Bayard Rustin, between his actions and matching Bayard Rustin’s voice. There’s so much to Domingo’s performance that is truly incredible, the movie itself also goes for this old-fashioned prestige biopic framework that really matches what Domingo is going for here. George C. Wolfe much like in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) he does an excellent job of giving the cast extra power to their roles and moving each scene a long at a solid pace.

The rest of the cast are quite solid such as Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King Jr. the interactions between Ameen and Domingo are truly some of the absolute best moments of the film and really go to show just how important this March really was. There’s joy in seeing a large community come together at a huge scale and stand together. 

The dialogue is a huge part where the movie shines, while at times there are some familiar biopic beats with the dialogue, for most of the film it focuses on wanting the viewer to feel the film’s strength. Whether that be through Colman Domingo interacting with the other actors and actresses in the film, or if it’s the film’s focus on standing together and power. George C. Wolfe directs the film in such a powerful and respectful way that makes the film all the more honest and show’s that Wolfe clearly has a lot of passion about the topic. 

Rustin’s main flaw is falling a bit too safe with it’s politics, which if you know the true story of Bayard Rustin you will recognize that immediately, unfortunately Rustin does play it a bit safe when it comes to biopics and can feel a bit too traditional at times. But what makes the film work is the overall approach, where the film might not be saying or doing anything particularly new. But between the cast, Colman Domingo’s powerful performance and the direction from George C. Wolfe there is so much here to absolutely love. 

Rustin is available on Netflix 

8/10 B+

Dicks: The Musical (2023) Movie Review

Two self-obsessed businessmen discover they’re long-lost identical twins and come together to plot the reunion of their eccentric, divorced parents.

Dicks: The Musical is a film on the off-Broadway musical Fucking identical Twins by Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson who are also the leads of the film. The film is directed by Larry Charles who directed Borat, The Dictator, Bruno and a few others, Charles mostly goes into satire with his films and there’s plenty of satire in Dicks: The Musical although it’s not very good. 

Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp are actually quite entertaining here and their singing voices are genuinely pretty entertaining, some of the music has no business being as good as it is the prime example being “No One Understands Us” and “You Can’t Give Up” two songs that are pretty much poking fun of the moments in a musical when the main character is at their lowest point. Both songs are genuinely entertaining and the scenes they are used for matches they completely well. 

Megan Thee Stallion is actually not bad here either, granted she isn’t given a whole lot to do but she does get song “Out Alpha The Alpha” which is another pretty solid song here, the whole sequence of her song is perhaps the most memorable of the movie as well as the most fun. 

Unfortunately that’s where the positives end because everything else in this movie is either not funny, repetitive or falls flat, the humor itself unfortunately is a lot of the same jokes just repeated every 10 minutes. The rest of the songs are incredibly forgettable and while I do get the point that they aren’t supposed to be good, and that would be fine if the rest of the music was entertaining and genuinely funny which is not the case here. 

I’m not sure what really happened here because Larry Charles has made some great satire in the past especially with Borat, so it’s very frustrating to see this movie be this forgettable. 

Dicks: The Musical is available on all VOD platforms. 

4/10 D+

Thanksgiving (2023) movie review

An axe-wielding maniac terrorizes residents of Plymouth, Mass., after a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy. Picking off victims one by one, the seemingly random revenge killings soon become part of a larger, sinister plan.

Every year there seems to be that one horror movie that comes out towards the end of the year that surprises a lot of people Thanksgiving is that movie this year. Thanksgiving is directed by Eli Roth and well this might just be his best film since Cabin Fever (2002) heck it could be argued that this is BETTER than Cabin Fever (2002). 

The cast was actually quite solid here, there were definitely performances that leave a bit more to be desired when it comes to acting. But for the most part everyone nails down the role they are supposed to, Addison Rae is actually one of the stronger performances of the bunch and while does not get a whole lot of screentime or much in the way of development is still quite solid. Nell Verlaque is quite solid in the leading role and does have some decently strong scenes. 

The film itself is an 80s slasher throwback which includes the huge amount of gore and graphic kills. Which I was quite shocked to see actually happen in the film, these are some quite gnarly and brutal kills that are quite shocking and quickly establish what the viewer is getting into. The film takes a lot of inspiration from My Blood Valentine (1981) and Urban Legend (1998) with a dab of Scream (1996). 

The script itself is also genuinely funny at times with the first 15 minutes or so tackling Black Friday and just how absolutely insane it really is, plus the film itself has a bit of dark humor throughout and has some quite solid jokes. The rest of the script does lead into a traditional slasher film path and it doesn’t really do anything quite new. However it really does not need to, Thanksgiving makes it known that it’s a very straightforward holiday slasher film that is a ton of fun to watch and is quite a satisfying slasher film. 

Thanksgiving is available in Theaters. 

8/10 B+

Your Lucky Day movie review (2023)

When a dispute over a winning lottery ticket turns into a deadly hostage situation, the witnesses must decide exactly how far they’re willing to go — and how much blood they’re willing to spill — for a cut of $156 million.

Your Lucky Day is one of Angus Cloud’s (who sadly passed away earlier this year) last performances and he delivers quite a great one. 

The movie starts out as a robbery plan then turns into a cover up type of story and finally turns into this survival movie. It’s a bizarre collection of ideas meshed into one that quite honestly works for the most part, the movie itself is mainly about taking advantage of an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime where even decent or righteous people would think twice before doing it and twisting their morals. It’s a very interesting topic that I did not expect the film to really tackle and credit where credit is due the film does a solid job of tackling it. 

The late Angus Cloud is quite fantastic here and is definitely the standout from the cast, he stole every single scene and his performance really  matched the atmosphere the film itself is going for. The rest of the cast do quite a solid job here as well, even if their characters don’t get a whole lot of development there’s particular moments that do feel the tension of the characters and the situation they are in. 

The dialogue can be a bit messy at times but it’s not quite enough to fully derail the story from moving along or enough to take the viewer out of the tense situation the main characters are in. The film itself might not be anything profound or doing anything new, but between the atmosphere, the tense situation and Angus Cloud’s performance this is an incredibly solid watch! 

Your Lucky Day is available on all VOD Platforms. 

7/10 B

Loki Season 2 series review

Loki works with Mobius M. Mobius, Hunter B-15, and other members of the Time Variance Authority to navigate the multiverse in order to find Sylvie, Ravonna Renslayer, and Miss Minutes.

As much as I have criticized Marvel in recent years (especially this year) I will give them this, they took a much riskier choice to have Loki be the first Disney+ Marvel series to have a second season. They could have easily went with a much safer choice such as Hawkeye or Falcon and The Winter Solider. I will also say that where as my opinions have changed on a lot of the previous Disney+ Marvel shows (not really in a good way). My opinion on the first season of Loki has been consistent, it’s by far my favorite of the bunch and was fantastic. Loki season 2 is quite fantastic and keeps a lot of what made the first season work so well and while it does have a few missteps along the way, for the most part it really is quite great. 

The cast is really what makes this season work mostly, Tom Hiddleston once again shows his master work as Loki and really wraps up the character development Loki has gone through in the MCU. There’s several moments during the final minutes of the season that really shows this in such a beautiful way and quite honestly the most powerful moments I’ve seen from these MCU shows. Owen Wilson returns as Mobius and much like in the first season he is quite great here, his character sort of loses a bit of spotlight towards the end of the season, however during the season’s first few episodes we get to see the bond of Mobius and Loki grow even more. There’s a lot of moments where they are just interacting like regular people it’s a decently grounded approach that was a surprise yet very welcomed one. 

Ke Huy Quan was a very smart addition to the cast, almost immediately when his character Ouroboros shows up the viewer automatically is intrigued by his character. He might not get some deep and rich character development here, but what makes the character work is mostly Quan’s exciting and lovable performance that you really grow attached to. Jonathan Majors is solid as the variants of Kang, granted he’s not my absolute favorite performance because I do think the cast surrounding him is much better. However there’s no denying that he does a solid job here. 

Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie while great gets put into the backseat this season, which is a bit confusing as to why that is. Since the first season really did make it seem like she was going to have a much bigger role later down the line, she really is not given a whole lot to really do here unfortunately and a lot of her strong character traits are seemingly absent here. 

Loki season 2 is much more dialogue than it is action and it definitely works in the series favor, if it was going to be one show that has a season where it would be much more dialogue than action it would be this one. Granted there are moments where the pacing can be a bit too slow and doesn’t really push the show at a great pace, however the show benefits from a lot of decently strong dialogue and acting that captures the atmosphere the show is going for. 

The main criticism here is a lot of the characters take a backseat towards the show’s final few episodes, which I completely get it the show is supposed to wrap up the character development Loki has gone throughout the MCU. Having that said it is very noticeable that the characters start to become more like cheerleaders for Loki (especially Sylvie), having that said that does not take away from the powerful moment at the end where you can really feel just how important Loki really was all of these years. It’s just a bit of a shame that backseats had to be taken. 

Overall Loki season 2 is quite strong, it might not be as great as the first season. But there’s still a real lot to like about the show! 

Loki season 2 is available on Disney+ 

8/10 B+

Good Burger 2 review (2023)

After his latest invention fails, Dex is welcomed back by Ed to his old job at Good Burger, which is once again put in jeopardy when Dex devises a plan to get back on his feet.

I’m not going to sit here and claim Good Burger (1997) was a masterpiece, but it’s the pure definition of 90s fun. It’s a movie that knew what it wanted to be and succeeded in doing just that, now what happens when you make a sequel 26 years later? Well Good Burger 2 is what you get and unfortunately it’s not very good. 

There’s no denying that Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell do a fantastic job as Dexter Reed and Ed once again, there’s a decent amount of jokes that the two make that are genuinely funny. They really try their hardest to keep the movie afloat but unfortunately everything else is a huge problem. 

The supporting cast are nowhere near as strong this time around, sure the supporting cast in the first movie weren’t particularly strong either. But they got the job done and were genuinely amusing, everyone is clearly trying their hardest here but all it really amounts to is some very forgettable characters that the viewer really does not end up caring much for. What really hurts the movie in particular is it does more or less the same thing the first movie did, it’s a very identical plot that is tweaked around a bit with very little effort to make it as fun as the original. 

Then you have random celebrity cameos such as Kai Cenat, Carmen Electra, Al Roker and if those cameos weren’t pointless enough you have a  bunch of other celebrities such as Zoe Saldana and Andy Sandberg in this “Imagine” video parody scene (the famous video that went viral in 2020). It would be one thing if these cameos were actually funny, but that’s not the case here it’s painful and uses a very outdated joke that the internet has already talked about to death. 

Overall Good Burger 2 is unfortunately a disappointment, there was a ton of potential to do something different, but they settled with a lazy and nostalgia bait direction that ultimately hurts the movie. 

Good Burger 2 is available on Paramount+ 

3/10 D-

The Royal Hotel (2023)

Americans Hanna and Liv are backpacking in Australia and take a temporary live-in job in a remote Outback mining town. Soon, they find themselves trapped in an unnerving situation that grows rapidly out of their control.

The Royal Hotel is Kitty Green’s second feature film, the first being The Assistant (2020) which was a very claustrophobic film about sexual assault and predatory behavior in the workplace. The Royal Hotel follows the same sort of theme as her previous film however it manages to be quite different. 

The film itself takes place in this Australian setting which is quite honestly the perfect place for this film, the location itself almost has it’s own character which Kitty Green absolutely nails, you can almost feel like you are right there with the two main characters we are following Hanna (played by Julia Garner) and Liv (played by Jessica Henwick). Garner and Henwick give such incredible performances here, the conversations they have with the other characters are quite raw and the bond between the two feels quite authentic. 

One of the many things Kitty Green excels at is creating character atmosphere and development without needing to use a ton of backstories, that’s the exact case with Hanna, Liv and the rest of the characters. Almost immediately the viewer is felt like they are on the journey with Hanna and Liv. We become invested in the surroundings of the location and it’s different characters just like them, it’s some quite interesting character work that really isn’t seen that often in a lot of films so it’s quite special that it’s done here. 

The film itself goes from being pleasant to extremely uncomfortable and uneasy at a really smart pace, it’s much louder in this approach than The Assistant (2020) was but it makes sense. The Assistant was in a much smaller space and involves actions behind closed doors, The Royal Hotel takes place in a much more open space that the other characters aren’t as afraid (since they think they can avoid getting caught) to show their disgusting actions. It’s a very clever touch that Green really uses here that is felt throughout the film. 

Finally there’s the writing that’s just incredibly well done, there’s a ton of very real conversations in the film that are sadly a reality. The way Kitty Green portrays these conversations is very straightforward but haunting at the same time, it’s done in such a natural approach that the film isn’t afraid to shy away from. 

Overall The Royal Hotel is another fantastic film from Kitty Green, it truly makes me excited to see what she has in store next. 

The Royal Hotel is available on all VOD platforms.

9/10 A

When Evil Lurks (2023)

The residents of a small rural town discover that a demon is about to be born among them. They desperately try to escape — but it may be too late.

Every year it seems there’s at least a couple horror films that seemingly come out of nowhere and quickly gain a following. When Evil Lurks is one of those films and it’s quite well deserving of that following. 

The performances all around are quite fantastic, to the point where there’s some shockingly raw and very effective scenes that bring chills down your spine, the direction from Demián Rugna is also quite fantastic as well. It’s not afraid to be brutal, gnarly and absolutely horrifying, combine that with thrilling cinematography where you feel the evil’s presence in every shot and you have yourself a rollercoaster ride of hauntingly beautiful scenes. 

The main theme here is evil and how it can corrupt anyone men, women or children. It’s a very mean spirited approach to the subject but absolutely works in every single way possible, the use of blood and violence is quite clever they set the bleakness and blood up early on so they quickly build up to the climax which delivers such a huge gut punch. 

It sets itself up as a classic possession story but quickly evolves into madness and turns into such a bloody and violent ride that really excels at telling the character’s story while being brutal. When Evil Lurks does hit a wall a bit during the third act where it starts to become a bit redundant with what happened previously during the film. However the final moments of the film quickly bring it back to it’s glory with a very hard hitting ending that will leave the viewer speechless. 

Without saying much more since When Evil Lurks is the type of film to go into knowing as little as possible, it’s a fantastic film that really hits it out of the park. It’s a disturbing look at evil and what it’s capable of while also exploring the characters and how they react to evil. 

When Evil Lurks is available on Shudder.

8/10 B+

Fingernails (2023)

Anna and Ryan have found true love, and it’s proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem, as Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute and meets Amir.

I get what they are going for here with Fingernails but unfortunately I don’t think it quite works as well as Yorgos Lanthimos’s films or Charlie Kaufman’s films. Despite that however the movie does have it’s positives. 

The main one being the performances, Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Allen White are all quite fantastic and deliver some very solid performances that are what keep this movie afloat. The film is well made and the atmosphere is definitely there with some scenes in particular being quite hard to watch (fingernail scenes) so there’s definitely something there. 

The main issue here is Fingernails lacks a lot of strong character moments and doesn’t use it’s premise to it’s full potential. Throughout the movie we are told things about the characters but we are never given any real strong moments, the chemistry is strong but the lack of doing anything with it is what pushes this movie to the ground. There’s a few ideas here that the movie gets across fine enough but a lot of it really does come off as trying to be Lanthimos or Kaufman. 

It’s a bit frustrating because you would think there would be a lot to say about Fingernails a movie that was clearly trying to say far more than what was presented, but unfortunately that really isn’t the case here. It’s a movie that wants to say something but doesn’t quite know how to really say it. When the cast are given moments to shine they really hit it out of the park, when it comes to everything else it hits a brick wall.

Fingernails is available on Apple TV+ 

5/10 C