Author: Caillou Pettis

Birds Of Prey: The BRWC Review. It’s open season on Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) when her explosive breakup with the Joker puts a big fat target on her back. Unprotected and on the run, Quinn faces the wrath of narcissistic crime boss Black Mask (Ewan McGregor), his right-hand man, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), and every other thug in the city. But things soon even out for Harley when she becomes unexpected allies with three deadly women — Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez).

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is not only one mouthful of a movie title, but it was one of my most anticipated movies in years. It was most certainly my most anticipated comic book related film since last year’s Avengers: Endgame, which I ended up really adoring. I know that later on in the year, May to be specific, we are getting the new Black Widow movie which many Marvel fans have been waiting years to see, myself included, and while I am definitely excited for that, Birds of Prey just seemed more enticing to me.

The eighth film in the long-spanning DC Extended Universe (DCEU), Birds of Prey truly looked like completely different from any other installment in the franchise to date. Not only that, but it looked like it could be one of the most unique comic book films of all time.

It may be a controversial opinion, in fact, I am sure it is, but I truthfully enjoy every single DCEU movie to date. For the most part, people enjoyed Man of Steel, but on the other hand, its sequel Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, not so much. I personally loved it. However, the film in the franchise that perhaps gets the most hate, is none other than David Ayer’s 2016 feature Suicide Squad. Many people watched the trailer and got extremely excited and ended up being incredibly disappointed in the final product. While I certainly agree that the film could definitely have been better, overall, I had more positives with that movie than I did negatives.

But the thing that critics and audiences all around the world seemed to agree upon with that movie was that Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn was absolutely amazing. She embodied the character perfectly, and so many people were excited to see what adventures her character would go on in the future. The character is without a doubt one of the most beloved in all of comics, and has been featured in many different forms of media.

Now, let’s go back to Birds of Prey. I vividly remember watching that first official “See You Soon” teaser trailer that was released over a year ago and getting extremely giddy over seeing the return of Robbie’s Harley Quinn and the introduction to plenty of new faces such as Huntress and Black Canary. Plus Ewan McGregor as the villanious Roman Sionis / Black Mask sounded like an absolute dream. Honestly, all of the promotional material for this film was top notch, and I’d even argue that the film was marketed better than its predecessor too, which was hailed for its posters and trailers even though many did not like the final product as I mentioned earlier.

If anybody knows me, you know that I greatly enjoy comic book movies. I have been an avid comic book and superhero fan ever since I was a young kid, and so getting to see all these characters that I grew up loving on the big screen in live-action format is always a ton of fun to see. However, as a film critic, I have to make sure to never go into any movie with bias. I couldn’t just walk into Birds of Prey and say it was amazing simply because I love Harley Quinn or something like that. I have to watch this film, and every film, with a critical viewpoint. I have to look out for things that just don’t work. Plot holes, continuity errors, script problems, etc.

Now that all of that is out of the way, let me say what I have been wanting to say for a long time now. Birds of Prey is one of the best comic book films of all time. I would even argue that it is top three of all time. This is a movie that is so bold and in your face and so unapologetically weird and it is all the better for it.

From the opening scene alone it is evident that director Cathy Yan had an extraordinarily fresh and exciting vision for this film. She was not setting out to make just another generic and forgettable superhero story. She does things with these characters that we have truly never seen done before and she ensures that there is always something exciting happening on screen whether it is character wise or visually.

Her direction is some of the best there is to be found in the genre. The way she crafted Birds of Prey is honestly inspiring, especially considering that she is a woman. Not too many superhero/comic book movies are directed by women, which is a shame. But Yan has a powerful voice and she uses it with this film.

Birds of Prey‘s script is written by Christina Hodson, who previously wrote the screenplay for the 2018 Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, another movie that I ended up greatly enjoying. The thing that Bumblebee did the best was show its heart. It proved that even a Transformers movie could make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, and Birds of Prey made me feel the same way. Hodson’s script here is so wild and insane that it is actually kind of interesting to think how she went about writing this movie. There is truly never a wasted moment here. There’s never a scene where there is a bit of down time. Every single scene has something of meat and interest happening, and the dialogue is pitch perfect, too.

She writes the character of Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn in a way that has never been done before. Harley Quinn has always been a character that has primarily been seen as the Joker’s girlfriend. His sidekick. The Clown Prince of Crime and the Cupid of Crime. Even in the aforementioned Suicide Squad, Harley was almost always involved with Jared Leto’s Joker in one way or another. But Hodson aimed to change that seemingly for good in this cinematic universe, and it worked tremendously well.

Never did I ever think that the character of Harley Quinn would make me emotional and almost inspired. She is a character that does a lot of crazy things and she is not typically seen as a hero or anything. She is a villain by nature. She even does some villainous things in this movie. But Hodson’s script gave her such a great character arc and developed her as a character so much. She actually found a way to bring Harley Quinn down to Earth and make her relatable to us all. Like I said, yes, she does do villainous things in the film. But she also does some great heroic stuff too, and by the end of the story, you are rooting for her all the way.

Speaking of this character, Margot Robbie yet again delivers an absolutely show-stopping performance. Robbie was born to play this beautifully chaotic character, and after watching Birds of Prey, I truly cannot see another actress playing the role as well as she does. Whether it is dancing around, doing crazy acrobatics or even bringing a tear to our eyes, Margot is one of the biggest reasons why Harley Quinn is so lovable this time around. She genuinely delivers in my opinion, her greatest performance of all time and this film further cements her as one of the most talented actresses not only of this generation, but of all time.

But let’s take a moment to talk about the other members of this team. Huntress is a character that was deeply funny at times, but also had a tragic and depressing backstory that makes you feel for her and understand her plight. She wants to set out and do something and you understand why completely. Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a terrific job in this role and she gets plenty of scenes to truly shine.

Another excellent addition to this cast was Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Dinah Lance / Black Canary. She is probably one of the characters that gets the most screen time, besides Harley Quinn. Canary is fleshed out perfectly here, just like the aforementioned Huntress. We always understand what her mission is, what she wants to do, and why she wants to do it. There is also one scene involving her that honestly left me with my mouth dropped in complete shock. It was such an amazing scene.

In addition, Rosie Perez portrays Renee Montoya, one of the lead protagonists in the story. Her character was one that seemed fairly normal at first. But as the film progressed, the more lovable and hilarious she became too. This is without a doubt one of the best performances of Perez’s career. Finally, Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain is brilliant. Her character is absolutely pivotal to the overall storyline here, and so casting the right child actress for the part was surely a hard task. The casting team did a great job at picking an amazing Cain. Basco has not acted in much as of now, but with this great performance now under her belt, I expect that to change soon.

Throughout the course of the past decade, ever since the release of Man of Steel, one of the biggest complaints with the DCEU is its color palette. Many people have complained that almost all of the movies look extremely bland and watered down, with the exception of the excellent Wonder Woman. Even though I do enjoy these movies like I said, I have to agree that the previous films in the franchise look quite dull. Luckily, the same cannot be said about Birds of Prey. This is without a doubt one of the most colorful and visually eye-pleasing comic book movies of all time. Every single frame is bursting with beautiful colors with many of diverse colors in the palette being used. There was truly never a scene that looked ugly or boring.

What also helps these colors shine through is the superb cinematography by Matthew Libatique, who has previously served as the director of photography on other superhero films such as Iron Man 2 and Venom. This is definitely Libatique’s best work in the comic book world to date. The way he frames certain shots was utterly brilliant and is one of the most well shot films in the genre.

Something that I have seen a lot of people take issue with in Birds of Prey is its editing style, with many comparing it to Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. Both films have had many people complain and say that the storyline is hard to follow and is incredibly confusing because of its editing, but I have to disagree completely. Actually, I found the editing to be extremely fresh and exciting, with many of the edits being fascinating.

As this is a comic book movie, I expected Birds of Prey to contain some wild and intense action sequences, but even still, I was blown away by how well done the action and fight choreography was handled here. Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick franchise, served as a stunt coordinator on this film, and it is so easy to tell. All of the action scenes look beautifully crafted. All of the fight sequences are in camera and there is no shaky cam utilized. We can always tell who is fighting who. The entire stunt team found ways to do some incredibly impressive things here and their work needs to be praised.

Birds of Prey is going to get some comparisons to Tim Miller’s 2016 Marvel feature Deadpool. In fact, I have already seen the comparisons. But, truthfully, I enjoyed Birds of Prey a whole lot more than I did Deadpool. Keep in mind that Deadpool is a movie that I adore. The main reason why these two films are getting compared to one another is due to its wacky sense of humor and its use of fourth wall breaking. Deadpool constantly talks to the camera in his film, and Harley does the same in this film and even narrates the entire story.

But like I said, I think that Birds of Prey handled its humor and self-awareness better. The humor here is gut-bustingly hilarious with every single joke landing flawlessly. I kept waiting for a joke to come and fall flat, but that never happened. It is one of the funniest movies in years which is all the more impressive when you consider that it is a superhero movie.

As a whole, this movie floored me. Rarely do I get this giddy to talk about a film, but when a movie like this comes around, that excitement happens. This is the type of film that will inspire me and many others around the world to make movies. It’s a movie that means something to me and I cannot wait to see it a second time. Then a third time. Then a fourth time.

Birds of Prey is an unapologetically bonkers and beautifully colorful comic book adventure and is one of the genre’s all-time best. It also boasts stellar performances all across the board, namely from Margot Robbie who perfectly encapsulates Harley Quinn.

Hulu’s High Fidelity is yet another retelling of a classic film from many years ago. The film in question is the 2000 film of the same name directed by Stephen Frears. However, this new television adaptation developed by Veronica West and Sarah Kucserka not only aims to change things up storywise a little bit, but aims to give its viewers a deeper connection to its main characters.

That is definitely an added bonus for television shows. There is so much more room for character development in a series than there is in a movie. A movie only has about two hours or so to get you deeply invested and wrapped up in the protagonists, whereas a television season has multiple episodes and multiple hours to get you to care. And High Fidelity really gets you to care about its characters.

Zoë Kravitz portrays lead character Rob, a young woman living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn that really loves music. She has created specific playlists on her phone to listen to for certain moods she is feeling. Some of these playlists are even inspired by past relationships she has been in, and she listens to them as a way of coping with the breakups. Not only that, but she owns a record shop in the city too, where her friends Clyde (Jake Lacy) and Cherise (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) work as well.

Kravitz is an actress that has immense range and has proven herself to be one of the most promising talents of the past decade. She is usually great in everything she is in, but this is without a doubt her best performance to date. As Rob, she delivers an emotionally nuanced and powerful performance. She is a character that you feel sympathy for, laugh with, and just get to know throughout the course of the season. Seeing her day to day life was not only a riveting experience, but a greatly comedic one too.

But perhaps the best comedic actor in the series is Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Cherise. There are so many moments with her that will make you doubled over in laughter. She says some downright hilarious things that were not only so surprising, but so well delivered in terms of comedic timing.

Naturally, with a show like this that is so fueled and inspired by music, you would probably expect it to have a killer soundtrack, and it surely does. You will often hear a couple of songs each episode playing in the background during certain scenes, and every single song choice was phenomenal.

The writing on display throughout the entire show is also superb. It is incredibly strong, often moving, and profoundly insightful. Although episodes three and four drag significantly due to not a lot happening in terms of story progression or character development, the rest of the show manages to be a remarkable achievement.

High Fidelity is a remarkably strong effort that contains a stellar performance from Zoë Kravitz and a deeply comedic and emotional script.

Pop singer Taylor Swift reveals intimate details of her life while showcasing backstage and onstage concert footage.

Reviewing a movie like Miss Americana is something that seems extremely difficult for me to do. Why is that? Because it is a documentary all about pop star Taylor Alison Swift. You might be thinking “So what?”. Well, in short, it is because that Swift herself has interacted with me on the internet a few times in the past, and has served as one of my all-time biggest inspirations. She is my idol.

For those who are unaware, in January 2015, I wrote a post on social media service Tumblr, opening up about my experiences with being bullied while attending school and in my life in general. In my post, I explained how Taylor Swift and her music genuinely helped me to overcome my bullies and to keep my head up high. I thanked Taylor for her music, her personality, and for just being her.

Never in a million years did I expect to get a response from her. “She is Taylor Swift”, I thought. She is a megastar. One of the most popular and influential celebrities in the world. But, much to my surprise and immense delight, she did exactly that. On January 23, 2015, just two days after my post went up, she posted a long reply just to me. I could not believe it. In the post, she supported me and comforted me and told me so much helpful advice. To this day, I still think about that post and how much it means to me. In that moment, I felt like Taylor was actually my friend, and that was the best feeling in the world.

But as I am a film critic, I have to be careful not to go into any movie with bias. No matter who is in it or what it is about. I may like Taylor Swift but I didn’t like Cats. So I went into Miss Americana careful not to just say it was great because it’s a movie all about Taylor and I love Taylor so it must be great. I had to watch the film under a critical viewpoint and so that is what I did. Now that I have seen it, I can happily report that it is the first truly amazing movie of the new year and the new decade. Finally, a great movie. It felt like one would never come. But alas, here we are.

Taylor Swift has never been more open and honest as she is in Miss Americana. As a lifelong fan of hers, watching this film was extremely eyeopening as I got to learn more about her personal life more than ever before. Even if you are not a fan of her or her music, I think this movie has something for everybody. It is a fascinating film, that, at its core, is a movie about a woman who, for her whole life, has been told she has to be restrained. She has to be the “nice girl” and she has to do and say whatever people want her to say. With Miss Americana, Taylor is finally saying enough of that. She is no longer going to be controlled by people. She is going to be who she is, and she is going to share her opinions and thoughts. Taylor Swift felt restrained for years. For her whole life, really. But now, she feels more alive than ever before. She feels like she finally has a voice, and she definitely does, and she wants to use it, which is so great.

Watching this story is so inspiring. Like I said, I truthfully feel like you don’t have to be a Taylor Swift fan to really enjoy this movie and get an amazing experience out of it. Not only is it an incredibly uplifting and feel-good movie, but it is one that is going to speak to a lot of people, especially her fan base. This movie is going to mean a lot to so many people and that is such an exciting thing.

Something that I never expected however, was the emotions I would be feeling. Miss Americana has some scenes that hit me so hard in my emotions and I never saw it coming in a million years. I don’t know why I didn’t see it coming either, to be honest. The film was being marketed as an open and honest film about Taylor and we would get to see her like we have never seen her before. Surely I should have expected something emotional to happen, but I just didn’t.

There is one scene in particular in the film that honestly left me with tears rolling down my face. It’s a genuinely sad and emotional scene that left me in complete and utter awe. Those who have already seen the movie probably know exactly what scene I am talking about.

Plus, it is terrifically directed by Lana Wilson, who has previously directed the two features After Tiller and The Departure. Her direction here is incredible and I truly hope she continues to make films because it is incredibly evident that she is a raw talent.

Something that I wished was different about Miss Americana was its running time. Clocking in at just eighty five minutes in length, it does feel like it’s over before you know it, and it would have been nice to have had the running time extended just a little bit, that way the film could have felt more grand as a whole.

It’s also a film that has some genuinely amazing editing. There are some moments where we will see behind the scenes footage of Taylor and her producers thinking of lyrics for new songs on her new album, and we will cut to her actually singing the final version of the song on stage. Edits like that feel powerful and bold and I loved it.

Also, yes, the music here is phenomenal, because almost all of the music used throughout the film is Taylor Swift’s music from various different albums. From the likes of Lover, Reputation, and even her self-titled debut studio album.

But, like I said earlier, this movie is not great solely because it has some of Taylor Swift’s best hit songs playing throughout. It is not great solely because it is a film all about Taylor Swift. It is great because it is an open, honest, raw, and emotionally powerful look at one of the world’s biggest celebrities. It’s an inspiring story of finding your voice and finally using it when you wanted to for your whole life. It brought me to tears and it will stick with me for an incredibly long time. It’s not just for Swifties, it’s for everybody.

Miss Americana is an emotionally powerful and raw look at Taylor Swift, and is an incredibly inspiring story of finding and using your voice.

The Turning: The BRWC Review. A young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after the deaths of their parents. A modern take on Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw.

If you know me, then by now you probably know that I get extremely worried about January-released films. Horror films in particular. It genuinely seems as if movie studios release their worst films in the beginning of the year in hopes that audiences will have long forgotten about it by the time the end of the year rolls around, and that is most often exactly what happens.

Don’t get me wrong though, over the years, there have been some exceptions when it comes to January films in which I have ended up liking them. For example, last January we had M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass, which was one of my favorite movies of that entire year. But The Turning is no Glass, in that it is not a good movie. It seems like the curse of January is continuing.

Floria Sigismondi’s The Turning is an extremely weird movie, but not in the way that the filmmaker had hoped for. It is weird because it shows us an endless series of events that lead to absolutely nowhere and are only there in the hopes that general moviegoers will get scared.

This is not a long film either, with a running time of only ninety four minutes. Usually when a film is that short, the film’s pacing should feel relatively quick, but The Turning feels like it constantly builds up to something that we never get. There are no payoffs here and in some ways, it truthfully betrays its audience. If you were a fan of the movie leading up to its third act, I am confident that you won’t be by the time the credits roll. I thought that the ending to the recent Grudge film was bad, but this was somehow even worse. It’s a bunch of mindless and thrill-less sequences one after another that don’t do anything for the story, nor does it do the trick to entertain us.

When it comes to the performances, they range from okay to just straight up bad. One of the decent performances in the film gratefully comes from its lead Mackenzie Davis, who portrays Kate. Although she is not spectacular in the film, she does a decent enough job at playing the main character in this story and I do think she is a greatly talented actress, but I just wish that she chose a better script to showcase her acting talent. Also decent in the film is Mackenzie Prince, who is featured heavily on the film’s posters and other marketing material, and she does an okay job at being the traditional “creepy kid in a horror film”.

But Finn Wolfhard, who portrays Miles, delivered one of the weakest performances of the film and perhaps his weakest performance to date. He not only doesn’t get a whole lot to do here, he overacted immensely which was disappointing cause I usually am a big fan of his work.

The movie does have some good cinematography though. David Ungaro has a ton of gothic and mysteriously creepy shots throughout the film and his camera work here was probably my favorite aspect of the film. But that really isn’t a good thing when the cinematography is the best part of the movie overall.

It’s just that this film is so trope-filled, jump scare ridden, and pointless, that it is extremely difficult to enjoy anything in the film, really. This could have been a much better film with a different script. This script entices viewers with a story that goes absolutely nowhere. We are shown numerous scenes that are supposed to be creepy but just aren’t, and they feel like they are only there to hopefully spook viewers, but that’s it.

The Turning drastically fails at adapting a beloved horror tale, as it is filled with tropes, weak acting, and has a story that ultimately leads nowhere.

The Gentlemen: Another Review. Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) is an American expatriate who became rich by building a marijuana empire in London. When word gets out that he’s looking to cash out of the business, it soon triggers an array of plots and schemes from those who want his fortune.

If I am going to be one hundred percent completely honest with you, I wasn’t really all that excited for Guy Ritchie’s latest feature film The Gentlemen, and by all accounts, I should have been. Throughout the years, I have greatly enjoyed some of his films, most notably 2019’s Aladdin, which was met with mixed reviews, but I found myself genuinely enjoying it, and I was the one that thought it was going to be extremely bad. Blue CGI Will Smith genie? No thanks. But it turned out great.

But a lot of Ritchie fans absolutely adore his older films such as 1998’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and 2000’s Snatch, and I admittedly do too. What was turning me off from The Gentlemen was the trailers and the rest of the marketing. It just looked so bland and generic to me.

The trailers were not clear in what type of movie that was going to be, really. It seemed like a bunch of movies mashed into one. Plus, the posters did not help all that much either. I vividly remember when the first official teaser poster was released for this film, I thought it was a Kingsman spinoff film because the marketing was just that similar.

But now I can happily report that The Gentlemen is most certainly not a Kingsman clone, and it is also not a bunch of movies mashed into one; it is a refreshingly fun and often greatly funny story that has quite a bit of things to enjoy for almost everybody.

Something that Ritchie has always been great at doing is writing, and it is extremely evident that he wrote this film because it definitely has that Ritchie sense of style with its screenplay, and that is such a good thing. A ton of the writing is whip-smart and although it does kind of feel scripted and sometimes the dialogue doesn’t feel like things real people would actually say, a large portion of the writing was smart and often wild.

Speaking of the writing, I was surprised by how funny The Gentlemen was. The trailers did not make me laugh one bit, yet the actual film had a bunch of funny moments that had myself and many others in the theatre laughing. While most of the humor works quite well here, there are unfortunately some jokes that do not land whatsoever and actually come off with bad taste. Sometimes the jokes come across as offensive and whenever those kinds of jokes were told in the film, I actually cringed a little bit.

But the thing that I enjoyed the most about The Gentlemen is its world, sense of style, and overall story. This world feels so grimy and lived in and it felt like a place that I would not want to go to. All of the characters feel dangerous and vile. The style is not Kingsman and it is not even James Bond either. What it is, however, is somehow a bold and exciting new style that doesn’t borrow from either of those films. This does certainly feel like a crime/spy movie at times, but a unique one.

The story spans multiple characters, locations, and time periods and while it does get extremely muddled (especially later on), it was still a lot of fun to watch. The way everything ultimately played out was greatly satisfying, but I do wish the story progression was handled better, because it did often feel incredibly messy.

Also, all of the actors here do a terrific job in their roles, most notably Charlie Hunnam as Raymond and Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Pearson. Both actors completely disappeared into their roles and did an excellent job at portraying characters that seemed really difficult to play. Their natural comedic talents worked great here.

As a whole, this was a good, fun time at the movies that does have some genuinely good twists up its sleeve that I truly never saw coming. I think that there is something for everybody to enjoy with this film, and it is one that I don’t think you should miss out on.

The Gentlemen offers a bold and stylish story with fun performances, great twists and turns, and humor that works for the most part.