Author: Caillou Pettis

Written and directed by Jon Stewart, Irresistible is a comedy about what happens when a small Wisconsin town becomes the main attraction of our political circus. After the Democrat’s top strategist Gary (Steve Carell) sees a video of a retired Marine Colonel (Chris Cooper) standing up for the rights of his town’s undocumented workers, Gary believes he has found the key to winning back the Heartland. However, when the Republicans counter him by sending in his brilliant nemesis Faith (Rose Byrne), what started out as a local race quickly becomes an out-of-control fight for the soul of America.

Politics are a touchy subject, now more than ever. We live in a crazy and scary world, and ever so often, you may feel the urge to watch a somewhat goofy, over-the-top political satire, and if that’s the case, Irresistible should do the trick.

This is an extremely breezy and highly enjoyable movie. It presents its topics and arguments in a way that is easily digestible, almost to a fault though. It’s definitely the biggest issue with the film as a whole – it doesn’t really leave you feeling anything major. For a film with a synopsis like the one I mentioned above, you would think it would be a decently engaging story, but instead, its a rather linear story that is full of enough jokes and good acting along the way to make it enjoyable.

There are moments of greatness here, especially in the first act. It seemed like for a while it would actually tell a compelling story of a close race between two political parties with a satirical edge to it, but ultimately loses its grip a little while into the second act.

But that doesn’t mean this is a bad film, however. It may not have the most enjoyable plot, but it is quite hilarious. It’s an expertly-paced film with barely any time for a breather, and that’s a good thing. There are plenty of jokes around each corner here, and nearly all of them put a big smile on my face, and some even caused me to laugh out loud.

What makes these jokes even funnier is the way Steve Carell delivers them. He is without a doubt, in my opinion, one of the greatest comedic actors of all-time. There is just something so oddly enjoyable at watching him say anything, really. At times, his performance here does feel what would happen if Michael Scott from The Office dabbled into politics, but it’s amusing and comforting to watch nevertheless.

Carell has terrific chemistry with all of his co-stars too, namely Chris Cooper and Mackenzie Davis, who also deliver great performances. There truthfully isn’t a weak link amongst the entire cast. They all come together to deliver remarkable comedic performances that are infectious to watch unfold.

On a technical level, Irresistible is also quite the treat. It’s one of the best looking comedies I have seen in at least a year. Director of photography Bobby Bukowski managed to bring to life the fictitious town of Deerlaken, Wisconsin beautifully. The town feels so alive and bustling with happy, passionate citizens during virtually every scene. The clear blue skies and the impressive architecture of the buildings will surely put a smile on your face.

Could this movie have done a better job of telling the satirical story of a small Wisconsin town caught in the middle of a close election? Yes, absolutely. But it’s still a deeply funny, beautifully-shot, and well-acted comedy that should put a smile on your face as it did me.

Irresistible‘s satirical storyline often feels a bit underdeveloped, but it’s saved by the wonderfully funny jokes and comedic timing of Steve Carell.

Theo Conroy (Kevin Bacon) is a successful middle-aged man whose marriage to his much younger actress wife, Susanna (Amanda Seyfried) is shredding at the seams, frayed by her secretiveness, his jealousy, and the shadow of his past. In an effort to repair their relationship, Theo and Susanna book a vacation at a stunning, remote modern home in the Welsh countryside for themselves and their six-year-old daughter, Ella (Avery Essex). What at first seems like a perfect retreat distorts into a perfect nightmare when Theo’s grasp on reality begins to unravel and he suspects that a sinister force within the house knows more than he or Susanna have revealed, even to each other.

A friend of mine sent me the trailer for You Should Have Left and said to watch it and tell him what I thought about it. Usually, I don’t like to watch trailers for movies too much anymore, as I find that they can give away a lot of details about the plot and show some of the best scenes in the film, lessening the impact and surprise of the actual film. But, I figured I would give it a watch and see what I thought.

After watching it, I had to admit that I found it to be genuinely intriguing and looked like a return to form for Koepp. Best known for his script work on excellent movies such as Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, and Panic Room, I was hoping that this latest film of his, which he also directed, would be a return to form for him after the less than stellar Tom Cruise-lead The Mummy film back in 2017. Well, in a massively disappointing twist, You Should Have Left was awful. It’s without a doubt his worst film in many years.

It starts off decent enough with a creepy atmosphere that is built up right off the bat as we watch a young girl seeing weird things happening in her bedroom, with the ominous title card popping up shortly afterward. Long, dark hallways and the cold of the night is captured beautifully by cinematographer Angus Hudson, making for a chilling feel.

Where the movie falters mainly, however, is its screenplay. It’s a film with a running time of just ninety-three minutes including credits, and forty minutes of that running time is wasted. We see many scenes of Kevin Bacon’s character Theo and Amanda Seyfried’s character Susanna settling into their massive new home and getting accustomed to things.

Susanna will take their young daughter Ella out for walks while Theo stays back in the house and writes journal entries. Theo eventually suspects Susanna of cheating on him after he discovers that she has two cellphones, which leads him to discreetly look at her messages while she is in the bath. Scenes like this happen back to back with no story progression. After a while, it became incredibly frustrating when I realized that the entire film was essentially building to nothing.

After the forty minute mark, it felt as if Koepp finally realized that he had to do something of interest with this story before it was over, so he made the third act feature Kevin Bacon hallucinating and walking around seemingly never-ending corridors. It’s not only headache-inducing, but it’s just boring to watch. Not to mention the actual ending itself barely makes any sense. It’s one of those endings where you can tell the filmmaker’s thought it was much deeper and thought-provoking than it actually is.

This is not a wholly terrible movie though. The performances are actually quite strong, namely from Bacon and Seyfried. I personally found Seyfried to have the strongest performance in the film. She is asked to act with just her facial expressions at times and pulls it off greatly. She almost makes it look easy. It was great to see her deliver her all here, but I just wished that this great performance was in a movie deserving of her talent.

Plus, as I mentioned earlier, the opening few scenes were a little bit interesting and started out promising enough. It has some atmospheric and clever cinematography at times, but when you boil it all down, those two positives aren’t nearly enough to form a great movie. At the end of the day, all movies need to tell great stories, and this one simply didn’t.

You Should Have Left is a boring and convoluted mess due to its bland and uneventful screenplay that wastes its strong cast and ultimately leads nowhere.

Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger’s Love, Victor focuses on a new student at Creekwood High School, Victor Salazar (Michael Cimino). The series follows his journey of self-discovery: facing challenges at home and struggling with his sexual orientation. He reaches out to Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) when it seems too difficult for him to navigate through high school.

One of the biggest surprise hits of the summer of 2018 was that of Greg Berlanti’s sweet LGBTQ coming-of-age tale, Love, Simon. It was a movie that swept me away and impressed me greatly. It’s a breezy watch but is packed full of tons of emotion and heart that will make even the most hardened of film watchers get teary-eyed during certain scenes.

That’s why I was a little bit curious when it was announced that there would be a spinoff television series in the future that would focus on a new student at Simon’s high school that goes through similar issues that he did. On one hand, I had high expectations since the original film was so good and had faith that the minds behind the show would do a good job. But on the other hand, I recognized that I should keep my expectations in check just in case something went wrong in the script or storytelling department.

Thankfully, I can say that Love, Victor is an exceptionally fun show, although it doesn’t come anywhere near the levels of greatness that the film it’s based on achieved. This series does play things a little bit too safe, and for a little while, the show feels like it loses its focus a little bit. There were some episodes that felt like they really didn’t need to even exist because they felt like filler. The story that they are telling doesn’t warrant a ten-episode series. Although I did have fun along the way for the most part, I have to admit that I think it would have worked better as an actual film.

By far the biggest praise that I can give this show is its character development and its performances. Victor Salazar was a kid that I genuinely felt like I knew by the time not even the fifth episode was over. He obviously gets the most development and it was nice to see how well the screenwriters did with making every single character come alive and feel real.

Something that the creators of this series did excellently though, was make Victor’s family feel grounded and have issues. In Love, Simon, many people pointed out that Simon’s family felt picture-perfect like they didn’t have even the slightest flaw. They heard you loud and clear. Victor’s family goes through quite the rocky relationship throughout the course of ten episodes, and they don’t shy away from getting a little bit dark and depressing at times.

But, to be truthful, this whole thing was not perfect. It has some excellent character development, especially for a show aimed towards teenagers, in particular, it can often be quite funny, but its story was just not as interesting as it could have been.

One last point I want to make is that our lead protagonist Victor goes to the exact same high school that Simon went to in the 2018 film, Creekwood High School. Despite the setting being the same, we practically see none of the same locations from the film in this show, prompting me to think that Love, Victor was shot in an entirely different studio/school. There were some moments where I was questioning how this was the same place that Simon attended. The layout doesn’t look similar at all. It’s a nitpick for sure, but it’s something that I couldn’t help but notice during my binge.

If you’re a fan of the movie, you should give this a shot. It probably won’t blow you away like you may have hoped it would, but it’s still a cute and fun adventure to go on, even if its story isn’t the most interesting.

Love, Victor makes up for its familiar and safe story with cute romantic beats and a fun cast of characters that feel alive and grounded.

A teenage girl named Nola (Sabrina Carpenter) grew up living out of a van with her charismatic father, Clint (Steven Ogg); two nomads against the world. When tragedy strikes, Nola must confront the reality of life on the road alone. She’ll need to take the wheel for the first time learning to own her grief, her past, and her new destination.

Ani Simon-Kennedy’s The Short History of the Long Road starts off simple enough as we see Nola and her father Clint going on road trips with one another. They stop by a local movie theatre, get pizza, and just live their lives the way they want to. If you were to tell me that within the span of an hour and thirty minutes, this film would take me on an emotional rollercoaster, I am not too sure I would have believed you. But alas, The Short History of the Long Road is the greatest film I’ve seen in a long, long time. It’s so full of life and wonder and deals with themes such as family and love in ways that were equal parts touching and heartbreaking.

Not only does Ani Simon-Kennedy direct the film excellently, but she also pens one of the quietest and thoughtful scripts in years. The development that is given to lead protagonist Nola is truly outstanding. Throughout the course of the film, we really do get to know who she is, and after watching it all, I genuinely felt like I knew her in some way.

This is a movie that, for some, will be considered boring because there really isn’t any big scene that propels the plot forward as you would expect. We often watch scene after scene of Nola working on fixing up her van, or her interacting with people she meets during her journey, and seeing the little steps were deeply appreciated. Some filmmakers would have told the story of this film in a much different way. Seeing what the movie was eventually building to caused me to get teary-eyed and swept away completely.

But without a doubt, my favorite aspect of the already excellent film was definitely Sabrina Carpenter’s lead performance as Nola. I have been a massive fan of Carpenter’s music ever since the release of her album Singular: Act I. Her music has meant something to me for a long time now. Apart from her singing career, Carpenter has previously starred in Disney shows such as Girl Meets World and other, more serious ventures like 2018’s The Hate U Give.

This is not only Carpenter’s best work as an actress yet, but one of the greatest performances of the year thus far. She feels one-hundred percent invested in this character and brings absolutely everything to the table. It would honestly be a massive shame if she doesn’t get tons of recognition come awards season. She needs to get an Oscar nomination.

Thanks to her wonderous work here, as well as the outstanding screenplay and direction from Ani Simon-Kennedy, The Short History of the Long Road is a captivating coming-of-age tale unlike anything you’ll ever see. It will keep you invested from the beginning all the way to the end of the road. Pun intended.

The King Of Staten Island: Review – Scott (Pete Davidson) has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He’s now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach. As his ambitious younger sister (Maude Apatow) heads off to college, Scott is still living with his exhausted ER nurse mother (Marisa Tomei) and spends his days smoking weed, hanging with the guys–Oscar (Ricky Velez), Igor (Moises Arias) and Richie (Lou Wilson)–and secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley). But when his mother starts dating a loudmouth firefighter named Ray (Bill Burr), it sets off a chain of events that will force Scott to grapple with his grief and take his first tentative steps toward moving forward in life.

Judd Apatow’s filmography has been quite rocky these past few years. He has made some genuinely funny and investing films throughout the years such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, but in recent years he has put out duds like Trainwreck and This Is 40. All in all, though, he is a talented filmmaker and can do a lot of good when it is obvious that he cares about the script and the story, and this is one of those movies. The King of Staten Island is exactly that movie for him. It’s his best movie in over a decade without question.

Filled with an infectious sense of energy and heart, it’s a comedy-drama film that is full of life and laughs. It’s genuinely hard to not smile widely at many of the scenes here. The screenplay is by far one of the funniest of the entire year thus far, with a lot of the jokes making me laugh out laugh, which is something that I don’t always do. The screenwriters, Apatow, star Pete Davidson, and Dave Sirus write hilarious situations for our lead characters to get into that were equal parts funny and stressful.

But aside from all of that, the best aspect to the entire picture was definitely Pete Davidson as the titular character himself, Scott. Just a couple of months ago, Davidson starred in an excellent coming-of-age film Big Time Adolescence where he delivered a terrific performance that was both serious and comedic. I was impressed greatly by his work there, but his work as Scott was even better. Here he feels totally in control of the screen and it almost feels as if this character was built for him. After watching the film, I truly cannot imagine another actor stepping into this role thanks to Davidson’s extreme energy and charisma. He also works extremely well with his co-stars, namely Marisa Tomei and Bill Burr. All of the cast come together to deliver some of the best performances of the year so far.

But as with any movie really, The King of Staten Island is not without its faults. For one, the running time is a little bit too long. It’s not every day that you see a comedy-drama film such as this with a total length of one-hundred and thirty-six minutes, and here, you will definitely feel the length. For the first hour and a half or so, the pacing felt relatively smooth and fluent, but from that point onward, it felt as if it had outstayed its welcome.

In addition to that, I found that the comedic aspect of the film had taken a backseat towards the third act. It was nowhere near as funny as the two acts proceeding it, but it’s not a massive issue or anything. The third act favors more dramatic elements and while the tonal shift was uneven, I did ultimately appreciate the dramatic shift. This is easily Judd Apatow’s best movie since Knocked Up. He feels totally confident this time around which is something that we haven’t seen from him in a while.

The King of Staten Island showcases a wonderful performance from Pete Davidson that is further boosted by the greatly comedic and mostly well-paced screenplay.