Author: Caillou Pettis

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness: Another Spoiler Free Review.

Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary. Oh, Marvel. Why do you always have to one-up yourself every single time I think there’s no possible way you can do exactly that? The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) – first created in 2008 with the release of the very first Iron Man movie – now consists of twenty-eight movies. I don’t need to be the one to tell you that’s a lot.

And while they all sort of share the same formula/recipe for success, they’re each different in many ways. For example, it would be bizarre to compare Ant-Man to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, just as it would be bizarre to compare Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to literally any other superhero movie in existence. Is it the best superhero film ever created? No. That title still goes to Matt Reeves’ The Batman in my book, but I will say that it is certainly in my top ten favorites, and it is without a doubt the best “solo” outing in the entirety of the MCU to date. The latest entry in Phase Four is a daring, bold, innovative, creepy, exciting, and emotional blast and easily the best time you’ll have at the movies this summer.

Before going to see this movie, I was worried about something. I couldn’t help but wonder how much of the WandaVision storyline would be continued here. Still to this day, WandaVision is my personal favorite of the Disney+ MCU shows – it made me laugh, cry, scream, and pump my fist with excitement all at the same time. I genuinely wanted this film to explore more of what the aftermath of that show would look like for Wanda, but I really didn’t think the film would show too much of that, mainly because in a recent interview, Raimi has admitted that he actually hasn’t seen the show, but rather, just key moments.

Watching Multiverse of Madness, you honestly wouldn’t be able to tell because the film serves as a fantastic follow-up to WandaVision while also still being a Doctor Strange movie at its core. But although the film does feature Strange as the lead character, don’t be mistaken – this is still very much so Wanda’s movie too. And in fact, she’s kind of the core of the story here. Of course, I won’t go into any spoilers whatsoever, but the things the film did with her character legitimately took me by complete surprise in all the best ways. By the time the final act was playing before me, I was absolutely riveted. I feel like it would be impossible not to be thrilled by this film’s story if you’re a massive fan of Strange or Wanda.

Speaking of the two characters, their respective actors deliver career-best performances here as well. Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange has always been one of my personal favorite casting decisions in the entirety of the MCU. He perfectly embodies the wittiness, sassiness, and the wisdom that this character needs. He may quip a few jokes along the way, but he’s always a serious character that cares about the fate of the world and will stop at nothing to help those in need. He definitely is a bit arrogant as we’ve seen in the past, but his heart is always in the right place and he will overcome any obstacle that life throws his way.

However, the best performance in the entire film is without a doubt delivered by Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch. When I first watched Avengers: Age of Ultron in theatres back when it was released all the way back in 2015, I would never have guessed that she would be so integral to the MCU, but alas, here we are. Here, Olsen is legitimately terrifying. No, seriously. Olsen is always able to portray Maximoff with such likability and charm while also being totally badass when the time is right. She’s the perfect choice for this role. Up to this point in the MCU, we’ve never really seen Wanda as someone who could be genuinely terrifying… until now.

There are a handful of scenes in this film that actually creeped me out revolving around Wanda, which is definitely something I didn’t expect going in. I heard from other critics that the film was creepy, but I wasn’t prepared for how unsettling certain scenes truly were. A lot of people are inevitably going to want to see this movie solely because Raimi is in the director’s chair this time around, and if you’re one of those people, I don’t blame you. Raimi is not only a well-known and beloved horror director (see The Evil Dead), but he also helped shape a generation of superhero lovers with the first three Spider-Man movies back in the 2000s starring Tobey Maguire.

However, we all know that sometimes, studio interference can be a massive problem. You could have a legendary director behind a certain film, but if a studio gets in the way, a lot of the time, you won’t even be able to see that director’s footprint on the film which is always a huge shame. And I have to admit – before going to see Multiverse of Madness, I was extremely worried that the folks over at Marvel were going to toy around with Raimi’s vision because, let’s face it, he’s an incredibly unconventional filmmaker and he doesn’t exactly fit the mold that the MCU has so carefully crafted.

As I touched upon earlier, this franchise has a tone and feel. It has a formula/recipe for success, and it seems like Marvel is finally trying to break out of their comfort zone a little bit by trying new things, which is coming as a massive shock to me, but in a good way. Eternals was highly different than anything we’ve seen in the MCU thus far, and although many people hated the film (excluding myself), the film barely even felt like it belonged in the Marvel catalogue. Say what you will about the movie, but you have to admit how refreshing it is to see a Marvel film not follow the rules.

Thankfully, with Multiverse of Madness, Raimi is in complete control. There are so many sequences in this movie that are 100% Sam Raimi and it had me grinning from ear-to-ear. There’s a certain period in the film where the tone shifts from being a fun, light-hearted galaxy-hopping superhero extravaganza into a full-on horror film with superheroes involved. When that shift happens, it’s glorious to behold.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is an outrageously entertaining, emotional, and thrilling superhero blockbuster, and one of the best entries in the MCU to date.

In my opinion, Robert Eggers is one of the greatest filmmakers working today. He first cemented
himself a promising new voice with the release of his feature directorial debut The Witch, which
was a carefully crafted descent into madness set in 1630s New England. He then followed up
his career in 2019 with The Lighthouse, a claustrophobic horror about two lighthouse keepers
that get more and more insane with each passing day.

There’s something so incredibly discomforting and cold about his movies but you can’t help but
keep your eyes glued to the screen. Although Lighthouse is a difficult and uncomfortable movie
to watch, it’s easily one of the best modern horror films. Ever since those two films, I’ve been
eagerly awaiting Eggers’ next project to see what else he has up his sleeve. Now, we have The
Northman, an epic historical action film – something I honestly never would have predicted he’d
make, but alas, here we are.

I do want to get it right out of the gate and say that The Northman is without a doubt the
weakest movie in Eggers’ career thus far. It doesn’t have that creepy, lingering sense of dread
feeling that The Witch and The Lighthouse have. It’s also not a horror film. This is a sprawling
historical epic, and it’s a rather amazing one at that. From the moment it begins to the moment it
ends, The Northman is an enthralling revenge tale, and one that will keep you on your toes.

The first act of the film is brilliant. It feels unlike anything Eggers has done before while also
feeling exactly like the type of stuff we’ve seen from him before. It’s a warm welcome to the rest
of the story to come, and I feel like it’ll be even better upon rewatch. It’s in this act where things
get truly crazy and it’s going to be nearly impossible for you not to get invested after watching it.

Sadly, though, the second act is where things take a bit of a turn for the worse because here, the
film gets a little bit boring and the story comes to a strange halt. Things don’t move as smooth
and quick as they did in the first act, and there’s an awful lot of talking here that didn’t all need to
be included in the final, theatrical cut of the project. I’d say that a good twenty minutes could’ve
been removed from this movie and it wouldn’t have made a difference in the story at all.

Thankfully though, during this rather boring second act, we do have some things to be
entertained by, namely the performances all across the board. Alexander Skarsgård is
absolutely phenomenal in the role of Amleth, the protagonist of the story. All you have to do is
take one good look at his character to be intimidated and afraid of him. The entirety of the film
follows him on a quest to avenge his father, which is why it’s amazing that they cast Skarsgård
in this role. Just looking into his eye feels risky. He’s almost too good for the role.

There’s also Anya Taylor-Joy who gets a rather interesting role here, and one that gets fleshed
out extremely well. She previously worked with Eggers on the aforementioned Witch, where she
served as the lead actress. She doesn’t get as much screentime here, but it was certainly nice to
see her partner up with Eggers once again. But easily one of the most surprising performances
in the film comes from Nicole Kidman, who portrays Queen Gudrún.

Long story short – her role is shocking. I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil anything,
but the things that the film does with her character took me by complete surprise and in all the
right ways. Seriously, I would be campaigning hard for Best Actor and Actress nominations for
Skarsgård and Kidman, respectively. Will it happen? No. But one can certainly hope and pray.

The film also looks truly marvellous, shot by the incredible Jarin Blaschke, who shot both of
Eggers’ previous films. Every single frame on display here looks stunning, and at the very least,
this movie should be nominated for best cinematography. It’s definitely the second best looking
film of the year for me, right behind Matt Reeves‘ The Batman.

Is The Northman a perfect movie? Absolutely not. It’s a bit too long, has a slow second act, and
some plot points are straight-up confusing, but it nevertheless remains a visually striking,
pulse-pounding revenge tale brought to life by Eggers’ impressive mind.

Choose Or Die: The BRWC Review.

A broke student who plays an obscure 1980s survival computer game in pursuit of an unclaimed $100,000 prize. After a series of unexpectedly terrifying moments, she soon realizes she’s no longer playing for the money, but for her own life.

There’s something so oddly fascinating about movies that are centered around some sort of ordinary technology that suddenly turned deadly. One of my most anticipated movies of 2019 was Countdown, which turned out to be a complete dumpster fire which was a shame because the premise of a phone app that told you when you died was quite interesting. There have been other movies with similar premises and yet almost none of them are good.

This is why I was seriously hoping that Toby Meakins‘ Choose or Die would finally be the one to impress me – it wasn’t. Although it isn’t nearly as bad as Countdown, this film is still a muddled, lazy, and shockingly boring horror with a plot that honestly goes nowhere. By the time the end credits roll on screen, you’ll probably feel just as confused about the whole thing as you did when it started.

Simon Allen‘s script doesn’t do anything new for the genre and feels like it’s trying to pay homage to 80s horror films, without bringing anything new to the table. There’s also far too much exposition here and too many scenes of characters droning on about nonsense and not enough actual character development. And for a horror movie about a deadly video game, we see a staggering low kill count here.

I’m not saying this movie needed a dozen kills to be fun or exciting, but when your whole film is about this deadly game, you’d expect there to be at least a good chunk of kills throughout, but that’s simply not the case. And even the kills that are in the movie are quite lame and unimaginative, except for maybe two.

Asa Butterfield is easily the best part of the whole movie. I’ve been a massive fan of his ever since watching him on the Netflix series Sex Education, and once again, he is charming and extremely charismatic in the role of Isaac. His co-star Iola Evans is also quite great in her role, as well. As mentioned earlier, though, the character development here is practically non-existent which was a shame because these two could have gotten some truly great, fleshed-out characters that were deserving of their acting talents.

But sadly, these two great lead performances can’t save Choose or Die from being an unbelievably bland and uninspired horror film. With an extremely muddled script and a story that goes absolutely nowhere, you’d be forgiven for choosing not to watch this mess.

We’re All Going To The World’s Fair: Review. By Caillou Pettis.

Late on a cold night somewhere in the U.S., teenage Casey (Anna Cobb) sits alone in her attic bedroom, scrolling the internet under the glow-in-the-dark stars and black-light posters that blanket the ceiling. She has finally decided to take the World’s Fair Challenge, an online role-playing horror game, and embrace the uncertainty it promises. After the initiation, she documents the changes that may or may not be happening to her, adding her experiences to the shuffle of online clips available for the world to see. As she begins to lose herself between dream and reality, a mysterious figure reaches out, claiming to see something special in her uploads.

I definitely consider myself to be a horror film aficionado seeing as how I watch perhaps one hundred of them or more every single year. It is hands down my favorite genre of any type of entertainment whether it’s film, television, or books. So, because I have been subjected to so much horror content throughout the course of my life, it’s genuinely tricky to surprise me, and it’s even trickier to get under my skin, because I’ve pretty much seen it all.

Horror films – while amazing – don’t necessarily bother me like they would most people because, well, I’m just used to them. So it should really speak volumes when I say that Jane Schoenbrun‘s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair terrified me. It’s an unbearably unsettling film that touches upon not just the dangers of the internet and who you might meet online, but the dangers of becoming consumed by it.

The script here by Schoenbrun is extremely clever and multi-layered. It delves deep into Casey’s dependency on the internet and most notably, her fixation on playing the “World’s Fair Challenge” which is horrifying to say the least. Throughout the film, we see videos uploaded by other individuals who participated, and, sure enough, some weird things start to happen.

One video showcases a man running on a treadmill, occasionally slapping himself across the face, completely unbothered. Another one features a young woman whose entire body is slowly transforming into shiny plastic. The videos featured in this movie alone are enough to give anybody nightmares.

And don’t even get me started on Anna Cobb’s terrific lead performance. The fact that this is her feature film debut is crazy to me, because in every single scene, she comes across as a seasoned veteran in the industry. Sometimes even just a facial expression she makes is scary.

But this film is certainly not going to be for everyone. It’s extremely strange in tone, similar to something along the lines of Midsommar, and the film doesn’t spoon-feed us answers. It leaves it up to us, the viewer, to decide what happened throughout the course of the film.

Theories are going to run rampant on the internet among those who have watched it, and I can happily say that I will definitely take part in the theorizing process because We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is one of the scariest movies I have seen in years.