Author: BRWC

How To Ruin The Holidays: Review. By Richard Schertzer.

This was not the Happy Holiday welcome that I had in mind.

With this movie out, we not only know how to ruin the holidays but also ruin the structure of a good movie. Writer and producer Kevin Gillese tries to weave a Christmas tale of joy and togetherness, but the film cannot be saved.

In this yuletide slump, Michelle, a struggling comedian, comes back home for Christmas to her elderly father, mentally challenged brother Mark and slightly annoying sister Andrea. Michelle is waiting on a call back to be signed on for Saturday Night Live as a cast member while she attempts to hold her family together, or at least what’s left of it.

The film tries to juggle family drama and comedic timing but doesn’t seem to have any handle on either subject, as it isn’t dramatic enough to be considered soulful and not funny enough to maintain any consistent laugh. The tone of the film is almost as uneven as the gravel on a dirty street. In some scenes, I don’t know whether or not to laugh or be sad as the writing doesn’t seem strong enough to emote either emotion.

Moreover, the cast seems almost mismatched as if the filmmakers threw a group of names in a jar and randomly picked out and cast those specific actors without giving it much thought. There is no denying that the actor’s certainly gave it their best shot but it just doesn’t seem to translate into something solid.

At times, the film feels like a melodrama and at other times, the movie feels like a youtube sketch video that was made for a very small and niche audience, which just adds to its jumbled execution.

For a movie that’s all about the holidays and family, it seems to miss the marks on all fronts. I’m not sure if Freeform will be having something like this on their platform.

Suitable Flesh: Review. By Alif Majeed.

For nostalgic horror fans, there is a lot to expect in Suitable Flesh. Based on an HP Lovecraft short story, it also serves as a writing comeback for Dennis Paoli. Having written some classics of the B-horror genres from the 80s, it is interesting to see his take on the tale. Also costarring scream queen legend Barbara Crampton, who has also co-produced the movie, you might expect the movie to be a send-up to the Stuart Gordon horror movies of yore. But even with all the incredible ingredients to come up with a new-age classic, it comes across as a what-if movie that looks like it was in desperate need of a bigger budget.

As a horror movie, it brings nothing new to the table. Coming off the heels of The Exorcist Believer, another recent movie involving procession and the occult, it treads territory that is very familiar to horror fans. 

Heather Graham portrays Elizabeth Derby, a psychiatrist who is accused of murder, and the movie unfolds largely from her perspective. With a framing device where she is narrating her predicament to her colleague Daniella (Barbara Crompton), she narrates the strange tale of Asa and his grandfather, played by Jadah Lewis (The Babysitter) and Bruce Davison (X Men), and how demonic possession has a part to play in all of this. Fans of horror movies won’t find it hard to figure out the beats as it does not stray too far away from the template.

Despite the predictability of the plot, you get a sense of the danger lurking around and would be curious to find out what happens next. Joe Lynch, the director, has assembled a talented cast of actors for the movie and they stay committed throughout despite the limitations placed by the low budget. 

Sometimes you wish the actors had a bit more fun as despite being in a B-movie, they play it a bit more straight than you might expect them to. Even in the scenes where the actors are possessed, they play it straight, even if the easy way out is to ham it up.

Again, the low-budget trappings also hinder the proceedings as you wish they had a bigger budget to play with. For example, scenes portraying the possessions involve jerking the camera around and the actors twitching their fingers to show something in them that has changed. 

Personally, I was hoping for the movie to be a bit more like Paoli’s collaborations with Stuart Gordon, like the beloved Re-Animator, and From Beyond, which were also based on HP Lovecraft’s works. But that is an unfair comparison to make because it will end up disappointing if looked at from that perspective. 

It is not as memorable as those aforementioned movies, but it is possible that they were not attempting to make it so. Though you are likely to not remember much of it beyond the initial viewing, the cast made it worth a watch. 

Killers of the Flower Moon – Review. By Daniel Rester.  

Legendary director Martin Scorsese is about to turn 81 and he is still going strong as a visionary filmmaker. He has had quite the run lately, with his last three narrative films The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Silence (2016), and The Irishman (2019) being among his best work in my opinion. His latest picture Killers of the Flower Moon, based on the gripping 2017 nonfiction book of the same name by David Grann, isn’t quite up there with those three films. However, it just goes to show how great Scorsese is when I am saying that and yet Killers of the Flower Moon is still one of the best things I have seen this year.    

The film mostly takes place in the 1920s and explores the real-life murders of many Osage people in Oklahoma. The Osage in the area had become wealthy due to finding oil on their land. It didn’t take long for the snakes to show up in the form of white people trying to take what wasn’t theirs. This included cattle rancher William King Hale (Robert De Niro) and his dimwitted nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), who married an Osage woman named Mollie (Lily Gladstone) and helped Hale eliminate her family members. Eventually a BOI agent named Tom White (Jesse Plemons) helped solve the case. 

Killers of the Flower Moon finds Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth mixing elements of the crime drama and Western genres together as the film explores this horrific tragedy in American history that hasn’t had quite the attention it deserves. It was a huge case for the BOI (later FBI), and Grann’s book focuses on White and the investigation much more than Scorsese does here. While Scorsese doesn’t dismiss the BOI’s involvement, he smartly reins in the story to a more personal level by primarily focusing on the relationship between Mollie and Ernest and Hale’s manipulation of those around him. 

Bringing DiCaprio and De Niro together in a Scorsese film has been something dreamt of by cinefiles for years as the two have been acting muses in different phases of Scorsese’s career. The pairing doesn’t disappoint. DiCaprio plays foolish and selfish quite well as Burkhart while De Niro commands every scene he is in as the subtly evil Hale. This is a man who pretended to be friends with the Osage people, and even spoke their language, but sneakily destroyed their lives. De Niro’s work as Hale is maybe his best performance of the past two decades.

The heart of the film belongs to Mollie as she struggles with her family collapsing around her. Gladstone is a revelation in the role, though the second half of the film does give her less to do as Mollie becomes ill. The actress does a lot with just her deep eyes throughout the film.  

Cara Jade Myers also shines as the hot-tempered Anna Brown, one of Mollie’s sisters. Tommy Schultz deserves mention as well. He plays Blackie Thompson, a robber-turned-witness who becomes key to the BOI investigation; Schultz perfectly matches verbal fire with DiCaprio in one memorable scene. The rest of the lengthy supporting cast is strong too, with people like John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser even showing up. 

Scorsese’s creative collaborators are on top of their game. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s camerawork is fluid throughout as he moves us through the brilliant settings crafted by production designer Jack Fisk. Editor Thelma Schoonmaker finds a nice rhythm and makes the 3 hour and 26 minute runtime feel less than that. The late Robbie Robertson’s music score aids Scorsese’s staging and Schoonmaker’s flow as well as it manages to be both tense and soothing in many scenes. 

I do wish that Scorsese and Roth’s screenplay focused on some of the Osage supporting characters – or at least Mollie – a bit more since the Osage are the victims here. Even so, the film does better at representing the Osage than the book did. Scorsese tells the main story well even if some of those supporting players get lost along the way. 

Killers of the Flower Moon is another triumph from one of our greatest living directors. It’s a long film and not every single choice works, but it’s still very informative and entertaining. Even in his eighties, Scorsese is telling fascinating stories and taking risks. 

Rating: 9/10

The Miracle Club: Review. By D Cherry.

Past demons take centre stage in this story set initially in Ireland in the late 1960s.  Centred around a group of strong women (Laura Linney, Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, Agnes O’Casey), who set off on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, it deals with challenging themes such as forgiveness, faith, lies and trauma.  The emotion is the drama and it’s sensitively covered with grace and humour.   

Chrissy,(Laura Linney), is a local who was banished by her mother to the USA forty years previously.  She returns for her mother’s funeral, and all the old wounds of the past are opened up again.   

The characters are endearing and well-portrayed.   While slightly predictable, the story has you invested in what happens to these women and if and how they will work out their differences.  

It’s a sentimental and nostalgic look back at the Irish culture of the time. The portrayal of the husbands left behind seems unrealistic.  Presumably their role was to add to the humour of the film, rather than a sense of realism.  The priest (Mark O’Halloran) is a strong and sensitive type who has some great one-liners conveying wisdom and kindness.  He orchestrates the women being thrown together. 

The film is directed by Irish film-maker Thaddeus O’Sullivan, and based on a story by Jimmy Smallhorne.  If you like films that are more about people than action, you may well enjoy this and find yourself wondering if Chrissy can and indeed does forgive her mother.   

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial: Review. By Daniel Rester.  

The great William Friedkin passed away in early August of this year. He is the director behind such classics as The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973). Ironically, this weekend offers releases for both Friedkin’s final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, and a legacy sequel to The Exorcist by David Gordon Green titled The Exorcist: Believer. 

Friedkin’s picture is launching on Showtime and Paramount+ while Green’s film will be showing in thousands of theaters across the world. While more audiences will likely see Green’s shallow studio sequel due to this, I still urge people to seek out Friedkin’s final effort as it is a good farewell piece from the director. Plus, no sequel or clone could ever possibly come close to Friedkin’s The Exorcist.  

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is scripted by Friedkin and based on the 1953 play of the same name by Herman Wouk, which is itself based on the 1952 novel The Caine Mutiny by Wouk. There have been a few adaptations of the work before, including a 1954 Best Picture Oscar-nominated film with Humphrey Bogart starring and a 1954 made-for-TV version helmed by Robert Altman. Despite the material having been around a while and having had these interpretations, Friedkin shows there is still power and relevance in Wouk’s words. 

Jake Lacy portrays Lieutenant Stephen Maryk in Friedkin’s film, which brings the story into the present day. Maryk faces a court-martial after he took control of a Navy minesweeper ship called the U.S.S. Caine, claiming that the captain, Phillip Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland), had become mentally unstable and risked the safety of the crew during a storm. Barney Greenwald (Jason Clarke) reluctantly defends Maryk as the courtroom’s members question whether Queeg really was unfit or if his men turned against him because of past disagreements. 

None of the The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial shows the actual events on the ship itself. This forces the audience to use their imagination and makes it harder to choose a side as Friedkin paints the courtroom characters in gray instead of black and white. The film unfolds primarily in the courtroom, though it occasionally moves to other locations like a hallway or a hotel. 

Despite the limited sets and wall-to-wall conversations, Friedkin still manages to keep the film gripping. He allows his actors moments of rapid-fire dialogue and other moments where a scene gets just the right pause in order to breathe or build tension. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is never visually magnificent, but it also doesn’t look stale. Freidkin handles the blocking well, especially with Clarke and Monica Raymund (as the prosecutor), with the two actors’ characters constantly moving and drilling witnesses with questions. Cinematographer Michael Grady’s camera floats through the courtroom in a smooth manner while editor Darrin Navarro finds a nice rhythm most of the time. 

Friedkin’s understated direction is admirable as he mostly steps back and lets the actors and the writing do the work, never trying to get too flashy or push the actors into melodramatics. Clarke gets the best role as Greenwald both takes his task seriously and questions the trial’s implications. Sutherland is no Bogart, but he does make Queeg a colorful character and he expertly uses body language (especially through his hands). The late Lance Reddick also does well as the judge while Lewis Pullman does a lot with little screen time as Thomas Keefer.  

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial occasionally drags and some of the minor supporting players as the various witnesses can be weak. The film is still a solid swan song from Friedkin though, featuring strong lead performances and passages that make audiences think about what they would do; the material certainly has a place for discussion in the modern climate of “cancel culture.” In a time with soulless sequels like The Exorcist: Believer, it’s nice to find comfort in being guided by a true craftsman through a drama like The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Friedkin will certainly be missed.     

Rating: 7.7/10