Author: Allie Loukas

Ready Or Not: The BRWC Review – For Grace (Samara Weaving) marrying into a wealthy family was never her intention. Growing up in foster homes all she ever wanted was a real family, so tying the knot with her boyfriend Alex (Mark O’Brien) was important to her emotional stability.

We meet Grace and Alex on their wedding day in “Ready or Not;” and, aside from a small plot preview flashback of Alex and his brother Daniel (Adam Brody) during the opening credits, these two seem like a nice couple. They were totally in love and hot for each other, and I quickly found myself really rooting for them to be together.

Well, as fate would have it, or as Alex’s family would have it, after the nuptials, Grace is forced to play a game to become an official member of the Le Domas family, who, unironically, made their fortune in gaming. There is a catch though, this isn’t just any game. This is a game that can quickly turn sinister if deceased family overlord Le Bail decides it to be so. Unfortunately for Grace, Le Bail decides she is to play Hide-and-Seek, but not in a traditional way, in a human flesh sacrifice way, with Grace being the Le Domas family target.

Co-Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett cleverly infused both horror and comedy into this wickedly fun treat. It’s almost a marriage of “Scream” (1996) where we get the campy blood, guts, and horror, and “The Cabin in The Woods” (2011) where we get more of the fun and humor. 

Samara Weaving was perfectly cast as Grace, her looks are a unique marriage of sweet and sinister which worked well in the first movie I saw her in, “The Babysitter” (2017) and even more so here. The Le Domas family was also cast incredibly well though I don’t have a stand out side character I thought was really unique, it was more of an ensemble with each family member feeding off the other. 

The Le Domas house was also almost a character in and of itself which gave me some fun memories of watching “Clue” (1985) when I was a kid while simultaneously painting the perfect backdrop. The lighting is impeccable as is the cinematography by DP Brett Jutkiewicz, it was the perfect blend of fire oranges, yellows, and browns which really gave the mansion a hell pit look, and made me feel confined and as breathless as Grace was as she ran away from the family hunting her. 

I have to say I was impressed with this piece, the horror was so over the top and matched the crazy humor. Hunting bridal human flesh on her wedding day was a devilishly fun ride, and I had an equal amount of good laughs and scare jolts. I have not seen many directors with a natural ability to commercialize horror so well and with such care and attention to detail since Wes Craven.

I am so looking forward to what this directing duo does next. I’m also pretty sure the shot of Grace smoking a cigarette on the back steps of the mansion was a nod to Winona Ryder as Veronica in “Heathers,” (1989) and there’s nothing I love more than a good “Heathers” reference.

WORTH (wert): Review – Throughout history there has always been a stigma attached to a woman’s period. The topic of a woman bleeding monthly is still largely taboo, so much so that many women are too ashamed to talk about it, thus the invention of the relatively new phrase “period shaming.”

“Worth” is a short film that follows two women, one who struggles with pain and excess blood loss during her period, and one that misses it entirely. The film shows the emotional journey the two women go on and how they are affected by it.

I appreciate the filmmaker, Alejandra Jenni, taking a huge risk by centering her entire short film around periods, and it makes sense to bring this topic up in the current climate. Trying to erase the stigma associated with periods will likely take a long time to correct, as the topic of a woman’s monthly flow is still not socially accepted. Period shaming is something that has simultaneously both fascinated and infuriated me.

It is no secret that both women and men alike are brought into this world because of a woman’s period, it is literally how mankind appeared upon the earth, yet somehow it is seen as something gross or weird by society, and, furthermore, any man who period shames should be more embarrassed of himself and his own behavior than the woman should be of her period.

That being said, I’m not entirely sure what the deeper meaning was in terms of the film’s storyline, and although I do appreciate this as the film’s central topic, the journey the two women went on were isolated, and I think the film would have been much easier to follow if the storylines had a more marked intersection at some point.

The editing left something to be desired as one woman’s voice overlapped into the other’s shot, which left me wondering how these two were further connected to one another. Yes, they were connected by the struggles with their periods, but I was waiting for a deeper emotion to come out of it. I think the film would have benefitted from an additional scene or flashback of somewhere they shared a further, perhaps unexpected connection. This would potentially give the piece a more unique and entertaining flare, and could be something to explore if Jenni wanted to expand Worth into a feature.

I also wanted to understand where the period pains came from for one of the women, if they were associated with a medical condition, or why her monthly period seemed more abnormal. It would be important to show how and why this happened to her, and it could hopefully help others. My hat is off to the filmmaker for addressing this topic, and I hope to see more of this in all forms of cinema.

Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron co-star as an odd couple in “Long Shot.” The film follows an awkward, foul-mouthed drug loving journalist Fred Flarsky (Rogen) and United States Secretary of State Charlotte Field (Theron.)

When Theron’s Field recognizes Fred from her childhood through a chance encounter at a media conglomerate party where Fred takes a violent fall down the stairs in front of Boyz II Men they, oddly enough, reconnect. Field, who has a secret killer sense of humor, subsequently reads some of Fred’s articles. Admiring his witty, yet edgy journalistic style she unilaterally hires him as a speechwriter, much to the chagrin of her campaign manager who is steering her image in a bid to become the first female President.

As unique of a premise as this is, and as much as I individually enjoy both Theron and Rogen as actors, the pairing was awkward for me. When they were simply co-workers it was an uncomfortable watch, but when a romantic comedy element was added about halfway in it really made me cringe and seemed grossly out of place. It wasn’t about looks either, so much as it was their contrasting demeanors. Although Theron executed a nice performance, maybe it was her icy look that didn’t add that fun element comedies so desperately need in the lead female character in order to make the romance believable between them and an awkward, less attractive guy.

Though a beautiful blonde, Katherine Heigl, worked so well for Rogen in the classic 2007 comedy “Knocked Up” he simply did not have the same chemistry with Theron and her looks aren’t as friendly. Not to mention Rogen’s character easily influencing her to take molly, after which a wasted and high Theron secured the release of a hostage. I don’t know, that part was just not funny to me. When I think of political hostages I think of innocent Americans like the late Otto Warmbier and poking fun at, or making light of a Secretary of State trying to secure a release for people who are basically tortured was weird and pretty gross to the point where I’m surprised that scene made it past the cutting room floor.

The rest of the plot was confused throughout, it’s almost like this film didn’t know what it wanted to be and was trying to say too many things. It tried to make a political statement, show men and women as equals, show successful women and random, idiotic men as pop-in characters; including Bob Odenkirk playing the President of the United States and Andy Serkis as media billionaire Parker Wembley.

I can’t really put a finger on what exactly went wrong here, but it was almost like someone wrote a bunch of skits and separate scenes and then tried to stitch them together and make it into a feature. 

Putting every negative aside, sorry, there are a lot; one element of this piece I enjoyed was the power structure between Charlotte and Fred. It was nice to see Fred willingly take a back seat to Charlotte’s success. Seeing a man support a woman in a film and not mind stepping behind her was a breath of fresh air, it’s just too bad the movie wasn’t. If it were it could have been a groundbreaking step for women in comedy, and romantic comedy in particular.

In classic coming-of-age fashion indie flick “Crshd” follows the life of a college Freshman, Izzy (Isabelle Barbier,) entering her first summer break still being a, you guessed it, virgin. Izzy and her two friends Anuka (Deeksha Ketkar) and Fiona (Sadie Scott) attend a “Crshd” party at their college where everyone gets an invite by their name being submitted as a crush who was chosen by a classmate.

When Izzy finds out she is invited, her main goal ends up being to finally lose her virginity. Where Anuka and Fiona seem to have an easier time discovering their sexuality, Izzy struggles with endearing awkwardness. She has her eyes and heart set on her classmate Nolan (Abdul Seidu,) but ends up fumbling around making unsuccessful attempts at getting his attention when all Nolan really seems interested in is his music and DJ-ing. 

Writer and director Emily Cohn obviously took some notes from “Superbad” (2007) and “Booksmart” (2019) when constructing “Crshd” which is her first feature and a selection from the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. The film follows the same general plot line as the aforementioned, a friendship trifecta and a virgin amongst them, and I even sensed a small hint of “Can’t Hardly Wait” (1998) mixed in. That being said, this piece really lacks in originality. As a viewer who enjoys teen movies and coming of age stories, and understands there is a certain formula they all follow, this one just doesn’t stick.

The characters are all pretty stereotypical, and there isn’t really any depth here. The actors are young and mostly miss the necessary gravitas to carry an actor driven piece, there wasn’t really a strong anchor that kept the film interesting to watch. The script could have used polish, and the plot fell especially limp in the middle. Izzy never reached an ultimate character arc or had a clear resolution or lesson her character learned, it ultimately left me with a what’s the point feeling.

Regardless, Cohn cleverly interlaces the use of dating app swiping and social media in “Crshd” which I found refreshing. All teens are plugged in in the modern age, and weaving in the fact that teens have their phones nearly glued to their hand at all times is usually distracting and difficult, but Cohn found a way to make it work.

That aspect and the bright neon color grade reminded me of the film “Nerve” (2016) where the phone worked as its own character against a Miami vice splashed palette. The cinematography from DP Saaniya Zaveri was a treat, it really fit the overall vibe of the film and gave it a fun feel.

Though Cohn has potential as a filmmaker and will hopefully have a superior sophomore venture, I’m not sure where “Crshd” can go from here. It could have hit a stride with the youth, but I think the lack of a unique actor, the muddled script, banality, and slow pacing will wither away the potential it had to reach them.