You may have noticed that the last few weeks have been missing a review post from me. Well, I had a personal tragedy happen for my family (I’ll elaborate more on that in a future post), and I just didn’t feel like taking time out to do reviews. So, now that I am back in a sort of normal place in my life, it’s time to get back on track. The issue I have from the last couple weeks is there are quite a few films to catch up on, and I don’t want this to be a really long post, so we will do this lightning round this week. Some might reviews might be super short, and some might have some more substance to them. This week is just finishing up some house cleaning before we get too far into June. So, on to the reviews!
The extent of the plot I will say is what the logline is: A brother and sister uncover a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster home. I have made it very clear I am a wimp with horror movies, and this one almost broke me. Sally Hawkins was fantastic in this. From the moment the siblings in put in her care, you can sense something is wrong, and something is up with the kid already there. The film does a great job of slowly building the story and getting to the big idea. This is an unsetting watch for someone like me, and when it gets gross and “crunchy”, I was not the only one squirming as things went on longer than you want it to. This a dark, unsettling film that is no fun at all. It’s a film that is about what lengths people will go to when they just can’t let go. It’s why this is such a great film. I just will never watch it again. Some of the things in here still haunt me.
I like a long film, and I could watch a 7 hour Mission: Impossible film if it existed. However, this one was too long. Did we need a montage of the franchise’s greatest hits at the beginning? No. Did we need so much exposition to things already explained in the previous film? No. This entry still really worked for me, but it also felt the most that you needed to do homework to understand some things. This is reportedly the final entry, and I think that might not be a bad thing. You can kind of see that they are running out of ideas, and it might not be a bad thing to end on a good note.
Guy Richie’s newest film for Apple this film is about a pair of a string siblings who team up and embark in a journey to find the fame Fountain of Youth. Said siblings are played by John Krasinski and Natalie Portman. Of the two, Krainski is the only one who really knows what type of movie he’s in. This is a film that wants to be a fun world crossing adventure movie, and for most parts, it is. It just is inexplicably over two hours long. It might’ve been a good thing that went straight to Apple TV+ and not into theaters..
Another film probably did the right move by going straight to us streaming. This is Jesse Armstrong’s follow up to Succession, and it reportedly took under six months to produce, which is really short time. Filming for it only took around five weeks. So what does this film about? In the film, we followed to billionaire friends on a secluded we can retreat as a world goes through major turmoil. The four friends are played by. Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef. I don’t think you’re really supposed to like any of the characters, just like you’re not supposed to like any of the characters in Succession.
This film centers on Aman named Craig (Tim Robinson), a socially awkward marketing executive who yearns to be friends with his new neighbor Austin (Paul Rudd), a charismatic but unfulfilled weatherman. This is partly a demented version of 2009’s I Love You, Man (which Rudd in), all mixed with Tim Robinson’s awkward cringe humor, and for the most part, it worked. I just wanted more from it. It isn’t as great as I Think You Should Leave, but I wasn’t really thinking I was going to be. Robinson and Rudd are really good together, so that really wasn’t the problem for me. I honestly don’t really know why some of the jokes didn’t work for me. On paper, this should’ve been one of the best movies of the year for me, but it just didn’t happen.
As the winner of the People’s Choice Award at TIFF last year, this was definitely on my radar. Having now watched it, I get the hype. This film follow Charles Krantz, whose life is chronicle in reverse-chronological order and is seemingly having an impact on the world universe surround him. There is one thing about this film people need to know about: Tom Hiddleston is only in about 20 minutes of the film. Some people might not be happy about that, but after watching the movie, it really works. I’ve heard some people don’t really like the first act (or “Act 3”) because it it’s so different from the other two acts, but once you get to the end of the film, everything else makes sense. If it was told the other way starting with him as a kid to the end, the film just doesn’t work. Once it just clicks for you, it is so easy to just enjoy the rest of the ride. Mike Flanagan made such a beautiful adaption of a small Stephan King story, and this is a film that I will come back too many times because it just feels used with the feeling that life is so fleeting, and it really is important to just find the thing you love, and just go for it.
Wes Anderson’s newest film, his 12th (and only one not part of this week’s tournament on my social media pages), is a rather simple one when you compare it his previous films. There really isn’t a large group of characters we are following this time. Primarily, we are just with Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro), his nun daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton, in her first feature film), and Korda’s tutor/administrative assistant Bjorn (Michael Cera, who was born to be in an Anderson film). That isn’t to say there isn’t a huge cast though. This is a Wes Anderson film after all. They are just left at the edges of the story until the plot needs them, then they go back in the shadows. There is just something about the film that keeps me from loving it like I do for Fox and Budapest. It could be the plot is not easy to understand as much as his other films. The main focus is Korda’s need to “cover the gap”, but the film doesn’t seem to explain just what that means. Issues like that though might be explained by future rewatches. I do think this is a very good film. It just isn’t one that I think is among his best yet. I also felt that was after seeing Asteroid City the first time. I have since watched that a few more times, and I do think that has gotten better over time. Perhaps that will be the case with this one too. Please though, help yourself to a hand grenade. 
This one could have been better, but I’m not sure by how much. The plot is pretty thin. Jai Courtney plays a man named Tucker who takes tourists on trips to see sharks. The problem for the tourists is that Tucker likes to feed them to said sharks. That is basically all this one is. Our main protagonist is a young American named Zephyr who travels to Australia to escape our life she had in America. She meet a local name Moses and they hit it off but her issues lead her to just try and go surfing that around. That’s where Tucker finds her. So really for the rest of the film. We just see Tucker basically mentally torturing her as he prepares to video tape her being fed to sharks. What really makes us film watchable and not a complete bore is Courtney. He is on one in this film and it is fun to watch him.. this is just a film where you just you know how it’s gonna end and you just wonder why it’s taking so long to get there. I usually advocate for people to see movies in the theater, but really, just wait for this to be on streaming. It isn’t bad, but it may not be good enough to warrant you going out and seeing in the theater.
I love the John Wick movies. They are right in my wheelhouse so when they announced, we’re getting up spin off of the series based on the ballerina assassins that we saw in 2019’s Chapter 3, and Ana de Armas was going to be the protagonist, I was so in. This film had all of the key points that the John Wick film should have. There are some impressive fight sequences, the highlight being one involving flamethrowers. We also get added layers for the mythology of the franchise of as a whole. Plus, it’s never bad to see Keanu. Still it’s a little unbelievable to see Eve in these fights against enemies that Wick would have had problems with. We also do get characters that seem like they’re going to be important, but they really aren’t 20 minutes later. I also don’t see how the story can continue in future installments. They do kind of in the movie the way that Chapter 2 ended, so that’s a little lame. I’m never going to be mad that we get a cool action movie, and I don’t know how this would have been any better. This was one of two movies we’re getting this month that originally was going to be released a year ago. With the delay for this film, reportedly there were reshoots that added a lot of the John Wick characters we know into the story to try and help it fit in. Considering those are parts we did enjoy. I think that delay might’ve been a good thing. In the end, though this really doesn’t meet the level that the John Wick films did. It’s close, but the first hour really doesn’t help things. If this as well enough and Lionsgate decides to do a chapter 2 for this spinoff, that could be a stronger movie. The problem is I know we are getting a John Wick Chapter 5 (somehow) and a spinoff of Caine, Donnie Chen’s character in Chapter 4. So there might not be room for a Ballerina Chapter 2.
This next weekend is not a hard one to guess who will be the winner. The question really is how much will How to Train Your Dragon make in the opening weekend.
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Lilo & Stitch
- Karate Kid: Legends
- Ballerina
- Materialists
The plan this week is try and finish up the films I missed in May, so Karate Kid and Lilo & Stitch are up. In terms of the new releases, it’s HtTYD and Materialists. Two films that are so alike. The non-review thing to watch is the Wes Anderson tournament that will begin tomorrow on my Instagram page. That tournament will carry through until next Sunday’s championship round.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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