By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week delivers another mix of recent and theatrical releases and the obligatory serving of documentaries.
281. Hoppers
Pixar’s latest original film has me a bit conflicted. It’s often quite funny and manic in a very specifically Turning Red (which I adored) sort of way, and the plot is, if not chock full of absolutely original ideas, at least not a sequel or adaptation. It still feels like a very conscious assemblage of parts that have received audience approval before somewhere else, though- calculated and constructed into something bound to be successful (which it has been). There’s a bit of that Pixar spark missing still- but that’s not to say you’ll come away unentertained. Just unsurprised. Three Beers.
282. They Will Kill You
It’s unsurprising Kirill Sokolov has made the jump to Hollywood action filmmaking. Like Timur Bekmambetov or Ilya Naishuller before him, he’s shown a real facility for inventively kinetic filmmaking and a love of gnarly violence. Here he directs a kind of Rosemary’s Baby meets The Raid, in which the Satan-worshipping residents of a very suss New York high rise try to sacrifice the new maid, but she’s not having it (and has a few ulterior motives of her own). Zazie Beetz is eminently credible as bone-crunching angel of vengeance, and while the story is basically all setup, Sokolov brings bizarre frills to it like a particularly ambulatory eyeball that make it something different and never dull. Three Beers.
283. Hunting Matthew Nichols
It’s surprising more horror films haven’t used the now quite solidified Netflix-style documentary filmmaking conventions of True Crime as a way into their stories. They’re relatively cheap to produce but professionally slick, and able to bring an air of credibility to any kind of mystery. Director Markian Tarasiuk, who obligatorily plays himself as the filmmaker of this “documentary” about a young woman investigating the disappearance of her teen brother and his friend a decade ago, does an excellent job recreating not just the feeling of those films, but also of the explicitly name-checked and clearly influential Blair Witch Project. While this film clearly won’t make the same cultural imprint, it’s perhaps the best of that film’s many children- the last act will have you clutching those seat arms. Three Beers.
284. Oh, Hi!
This romantic comedy of sorts co-written by (with director Sophie Brooks) and starring Molly Gordon certainly doesn’t work in all its facets, or even really at all when taking a 10,000 foot view at the story and where it lands. And yet, there’s a real charm in this story of a young couple (Gordon and Logan Lerman) on a nice trip together to the countryside that shatters when she, mid-kinky sex act, discovers he doesn’t believe he’s in the same exclusive and serious relationship she does. So she leaves him handcuffed to the bed to think it over, eventually enlisting her friends (Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds) to help when it’s been long enough to pretty clearly become a kidnapping. Just roll with it, despite the clear irreconcilable issues- it’s still kinda fun. Three Beers.
285. I Am Martin Parr
This brightly colored documentary profiles famous British photographer of the mundane Martin Parr, who had a real facility to eye-popping color himself in the pictures he took (he sadly passed away last year) for decades. It’s a winning portrait of a seemingly perfectly average man, who nonetheless was able to find shocking beauty and amusing juxtaposition in the daily lives of his neighbors and countrymen. Two Beers.
286. The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson
This Netflix true crime documentary investigates the tragic murder of world-class cyclist Moriah Wilson a tragedy on so many levels as the film shows in many family and friends in her life who testify to what a bright light she was. This was a senseless crime, one driven by jealousy and perpetrated by someone who went to extreme yet ultimately unsuccessful lengths to escape justice. This is a slick and well-structured documentary as is pretty much a given with Netflix these days. Two Beers.
287. Trust Me: The False Prophet
This Netflix series tells the story of the taking down of Warren Jeffs successor Samuel Bateman, who proved to be every bit the sociopathic child molester his former LDS splinter sect “prophet” was once given the chance. While the crimes may be depressingly familiar, cult expert Christine Marie and her filmmaker husband Tolga Katas’s infiltration of his community and evidence-gathering against it sure are exceptional. The amount of footage of Bateman and his many adult and child wives is incredible, he’s clearly enamored of being on film. He also seems just so goddamn stupid- not because of tolerating the trojan horse in his midst, but just a general deep slowness in speech and apparent thought that it really boggles the mind he was able to get away with his crimes for so long. Credit to Jeffs, I guess- he created a system of abuse so effective even an idiot could do it. Two Beers.
