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  • Charm City Kings: The BRWC Review

    Charm City Kings: The BRWC Review

    HBO Max is still in its infancy, though the streaming service already seems to be finding its groove. Alongside a bevy of adored classics, the service has started a promising library of original content, including accomplished films like Unpregenant and Class Action Park. The latest film to join that lineage is Charm City Kings, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival (it was originally purchased by Sony Pictures Classic, but was sold once COVID began). Painting a deeply authentic portrait of Baltimore’s impoverished community, director Angel Manuel Soto crafts one of the year’s most assured features.

    Charm City Kings follows Mouse (Jahi Di’Allo Winston), a precocious teen growing up in the streets of Baltimore. Still mourning his older brother’s death, Mouse spends his days idealizing the Midnight Clique, a biker gang that imbues life into their community with lively stuntwork. When Mouse gets an opportunity to work under a former member Blax (acclaimed rapper Meek Mill), he’s introduced into the allures and dangers of the crew’s lifestyle.

    Several films have confronted the circular reality of the gangster lifestyle, often initiating members when they are at their lowest financially before being trapped after incurring run-ins for the law (As Blax aptly puts, “you don’t get second chances in this life”). Instead of merely conveying this reality, Charm City Kings observes these conditions with an empathetic eye, imbuing a sense of confliction and self-reflection into the central subjects. Sherman Payne’s screenplay enhances this focus with a character-driven approach, centralizing his effort on lived-in personas over-familiar plot dynamics.

    It certainly helps that Charm City Kings bolsters two accomplished acting showcases. This film rides or dies with Jahi Di’Allo Winston’s performance of Mouse, with the 16-year old being up for the tall task. Exhibiting unheralded poise and nuance for his age, Winston allows audiences to feel the character’s every joy and pain through his dedicated conviction. Meek Mill’s acting debut is perhaps the biggest standout, taping into a potent sensitivity that harkens to the Mahershala Ali’s breakout performance in Moonlight. His arc represents the tight-wire act between living a prosperous life and succumbing to the dangers of the character’s environment, with Mill unearthing a potent paternal strength as Mouse’s supportive role model. Young stars Kezii Curtis and Donielle Hansley Jr. also leave a strong impression as Mouse’s personable friends.

    In lesser hands, Charm City Kings could’ve landed as a run-of-the-mill detour into a community’s lingering pains, but director Angel Manuel Soto thankfully invigorates his film with finite precision. His technical ability propels the narrative forward with a pressing sense of agency, incorporating dynamic framing to convey the character’s unease and personal demons. Soto also has a blast portraying the Midnight Clique’s stylish daredevil act, including a tense bike chase that ranks among the year’s most exciting sequences (the film was originally based on a documentary about Baltimore’s bike gangs).

    Charm City Kings unearths its timeless ruminations with precision and verve, throttling forward a narrative that is equally impactful and enthralling. I can’t wait to see where Soto, Payne, Winston, and Mill go with their already-prosperous careers.

  • Matthew Postlethwaite: A Quick Chat

    Matthew Postlethwaite: A Quick Chat

    Matthew Postlethwaite: A Quick Chat. By Eleanor Klein. – Today we had the pleasure of catching up with British Peaky Blinders Actor Matthew Postlethwaite.

    Thank you for speaking with us today! First of all, where did you grow up?

    I grew up in the north of England, in the Lake District, surrounded by mountains and lakes. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world!

    What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?

    Be patient – it is a long journey!

    Be kind to yourself – this was the biggest lesson I had to learn-It’s out of your control – sometimes you don’t get a role, because of 1000 other things other than your performance 

    Relax – it makes you a better actor if you are truly present – Find a good group – in Los Angeles, it took a while, I always tell people it takes around three years.

    Find a group that supports you, with no jealousy. Jealousy has no place in my life, cut it out from your life immediately.

    Finally, lift your friends up when they are winning. It makes you a better person & friend.

    What projects are you currently working on?

    I am currently focusing on my latest profect, “The Great Artist”, it pushes the boundaries of mental health, which I can tell you first had we as a population do not talk enough about. Sexuality, racism, genders… these are very important aspects of my life. The dehumanizing and putting down of another human because they are not like you  has to stop. I feel a strong need to use the voice I have been given to eradicate the  senseless brutality for minorities. It stems from people’s ignorance, socialism, exposure. Film and art have the power to change believes for the better.

    You can follow Matthew on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/matthewpostlethwaite/?hl=en

  • Let’s Watch The Paranormal Activity Franchise: Part 2

    Let’s Watch The Paranormal Activity Franchise: Part 2

    I Dislike Paranormal Horror Films…So Let’s Watch The Paranormal Activity Franchise: Part 2

    Every Halloween, I always make sure to watch specific horror films: ‘Saw’, ‘Trick ‘r’ Treat’, ‘Jeepers Creepers’ and ‘Tusk’ are all watched every year to the point where I probably know the script by heart. However, I wanted to do something different this year, and step out of my comfort zone a bit.

    One of the horror subgenres that I dislike the most are Possession films. Films like ‘Devil’s Due’, ‘Amityville Horror’ and ‘The Last Exorcism’ never seem to hold my interest, and even a classic like ‘The Exorcist’ took me a few days to finish because I kept losing interest. So, I want to give myself a challenge: at the end of each week this month, starting today, I will be watching all of the ‘Paranormal Activity’ films, with the last four acting as a double upload on the last two weeks of October.

    ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ was released in 2010 and takes place before the first film. After they’re convinced someone broke into their home, the Rey family install security cameras around, and outside, the house hoping to catch the perpetrator. However, what they encounter is anything but human.

    The three-year gap between the two films implies that ‘Paranormal Activity’ was supposed to be a one-off film. However, due to its unexpected success, Paramount Pictures were scrambling to find a way to continue the paranormal success.

    After I surprised myself by enjoying the first film, I was ready to continue the tension and shocks. But, while the first film had good pacing and displayed a slow progression that made it feel like the events were getting worse, this film felt like a chore to get through. The pacing was extremely slow, and any interesting events occurred in the last 15-20 minutes. While this is a prequel, so the story is going to be a little slow paced, the film was promoted as a ‘terrifying’ follow up. And terrifying it is not. The film can be summed up by an hour and 10 minutes of waiting for something to happen and being disappointed that nothing happened. If this film served as a prequel, it should’ve been released before the first film, because it would’ve felt like an actual story progression.

    Because this is a prequel, Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat make an appearance and serve as the interesting plot point, revolving around Katie and sister Kristi’s grandmother making a deal with a demon and dealing with the consequences of that. This particular story arc appears in the third act and is the most interesting part of the film because it explains how Katie got possessed by the demon. The ending where, after the events of the first film, Katie comes back for Kristi’s infant son, Hunter, is also interesting. Hopefully the third film continues this plotline.

    Another aspect of the film that I liked, once again, is the motivation behind the way that it’s filmed. This time, security cameras are set up around Kristi’s house after their house gets partly destroyed. It makes sense that this would be the family’s response to this dangerous scenario, since they think someone broke into their house. As well as this, there are more characters that appear. Like previously mentioned, Hunter is Kristi’s infant son, and their dog, Abby, also features mainly during the nights scenes where we see footage from the security cameras. It is often said that dogs and young children can sense or see things that adults can’t, so these two characters are interesting additions that do give its audience some tense moments. Unfortunately, one of the characters that could’ve been taken away or replaced was Kristi’s teenage daughter Ali. Her only purpose in the film is to see the strange happenings on the security cameras and find out why they’re happening.

    While this is an arc that must happen in some form with these types of films, this particular arc could’ve been given to the nanny Martina, who believes in the good and bad spirits to begin with. Whether this would’ve worked or not is arguable, but the film should’ve gone in this direction. Either that, or remove Ali from the film altogether; it’s a bad sign when an exposition, and main, character isn’t onscreen much!

    Overall, ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ was a boring prequel. It’s placement in the franchise is completely wrong and should’ve been the first film. If there was anything to recommend, it would be the last 20 minutes, as that is the important part of the story.

  • Tatev: Review

    Tatev: Review

    By Thomas White. 

    Following the death of her father, a young woman, Tatev (Sona Burnham), ties up loose ends in her current life before planning to return to her native Armenia for the funeral. The film depicts the difficulties of navigating bureaucracy and bereavement in a foreign country, while about to embark on a new chapter in her life. 

    It is not without its faults, most of which are down to a lack of technical refinement and narrative flow. Visually it is attractively composed. Numerous shots of the countryside sit alongside the more urban landscapes and we get a sense of an integrated, ordinary and fairly nondescript suburban environment. 

    Writer, director and cinematographer Tomas Gold chooses to film in stark monochrome with a lilting, high contrast exposure. However, as pleasant as the scenery is to look at, the shots often linger far too long. It’s a distraction, one which could easily cause the audience to lose interest. Whether these shots were held for too long, or if there were simply too many of them, on too many occasions it held back the story, making it feel stagnant when it would have been enough just to keep the narrative moving along. 

    Another downside to this languorous choice of cinematography was that it did very little to indicate or enhance any particular mood or tone. Had there been a clearer sense of rhythm to the camerawork it would perhaps have communicated its intentions more successfully. 

    It was these moments in particular which benefited from the accompanying soundtrack, an ambient score which played underneath from time to time, in addition to the natural sounds of the wind and rustling leaves. With such a sparse script it helped to create a reflective and even regretful atmosphere, echoing Tatev’s despondency and mourning for her recently departed father. 

    https://vimeo.com/388029068

    The music could in fact, I felt, have been used even more frequently. It would have given an effective emotional bed on which the story could have rested. One other technical gripe, which was less easy to overlook, had to do with the dialogue track itself, which was considerably lower in sound level to the rest of the soundtrack and score. As there was considerably little speech anyway it seemed like an oversight which could and should have been easily rectified. 

    Mournful and elegiac, Tatev is a sensitive portrait of introspection and melancholy. Admirably presented though ultimately flawed by its confused and inconsistent technical elements. 

  • Billy Crudup, Spidey, Resident Evil: Weekly Round Up

    Billy Crudup, Spidey, Resident Evil: Weekly Round Up

    Billy Crudup, Spidey, Resident Evil: Weekly Round Up – Alright, folks, I get this one out of the way because I’m not sure a) how surprised I am by it and b) how much I actually care. Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast in the upcoming third outing for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This news, of course, is coming out a week after we learned that Jamie Foxx could very well be reprising his role as Electro from the Andrew Garfield starring The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

    Does this suggest alternate dimensions are at play? It wouldn’t be too much of leap, considering the next installment of Doctor Strange is subtitled In the Multi-verse of Madness, and, of course, Endgame introduced us to the idea of timey-wimey alt-dimensional travel. Of course, this could also lead to an explanation as to how the head honchos over at Marvel Studios intend to introduce the X-Men, who Disney are now the owners of thanks to the Fox merger.

    It’s worth noting as well that the recent WandaVision trailer also suggests some kind of multi-verse or alternate dimension shenanigans, so it’s highly likely that this is where all this seems to be headed. I’m sure the guys over at DC are feeling the frustration, since they have been busy planning their own alt-reality story arc in the upcoming Flash movie, which will feature, alongside Ezra Miller as the titular speedy superhero, Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton as their respective versions of Bruce Wayne/Batman.

    The Flash dropped its own piece of tantalizing news this week, with the revelation that Billy Crudup has been cast to play Henry Allen, the father of Barry Allen. Crudup is actually reprising the role, as he shot scenes for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but was cut out of the final product when the now infamous Whedon Cut became a thing. Whether or not Crudup will appear in the fabled Snyder Cut remains to be seen, although it’s a good bet that he will, which also leads to speculation that The Flash could very well be following on from Snyder’s vision of the universe as opposed to Whedon’s much maligned take on the property.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj0l7iGKh8g

    And while we’re on the subject of superheroes, it’s perhaps surprising how few “spoof” takes there have been of the genre given its popularity. But that could very well be set to change with this week’s announcement that New Line Cinema have won the rights to superhero/stoner comedy mashup Super High.

    The film will star Andy Samberg, Craig Robinson, and Common, and will take place in a world where smoking a certain type of weed gives you super-powers. The screenplay to the film is written by Adam Mansbach, which is intriguing given his previous output includes the critically acclaimed Barack Obama drama Barry and the hugely popular books Go The F**k To Sleep, You Have To F**king Eat, and F**k, Now There Are Two Of You.

    So, anyway, now we’ve got all that out of the way, let’s talk about some horror!

    First up we have news that a Don’t Breathe sequel has actually already been filmed. Steve Lang, the star of the original Don’t Breathe, which was directed by Fede Alvarez, took to his twitter account to reveal that he had wrapped filming on the film in Belgrade, Serbia.

    This film feels a long time coming, as it wasn’t too much time after the release of the original movie, way back in 2016, that we first learned a sequel was in the works. It was only this year a director was finally brought onto the project, Rodo Sayagues, who co-wrote both the first Don’t Breathe and the Evil Dead remake with Alvarez. What this sequel is about is anyone’s guess at the moment, but I’m pretty excited for it anyway.

    Continuing on the horror train, this week we also learned about the characters and cast we could be seeing in the upcoming Resident Evil reboot. Mila Jovoich starred in the first Resident Evil films, which were overseen by director Paul W S Anderson, beginning way back in 2002. But this new take will head right back to the beginning, telling a sort of origin story for the initial outbreak that leads to the events of the video games.

    The film seem to be drawing heavily on the video games for its choice of characters as well, with the liked of Jill Valentine, played by Hannah John-Kamen, and Leon Kennedy, played by Avan Jogia, among the list. Also appearing will be Chris and Claire Redfield, played by Robbie Amell and Kaya Scodelario respectively, Albert Wesker, played by Tom Hopper, and William Birkin, played by Neal McDonough.

    Of course, video game movies don’t have the greatest track record, but this could be a lot of fun. The Resident Evil franchise has always drawn on movies for inspiration, so there isn’t really any reason why a lot of the concept can’t be translated successfully to the screen.