Shorts from The Screening Room – June 2020

From the Video Store Shelf:

Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020 / DVD) – This Margot Robbie led “Suicide Squad”-semi-follow-up is a typically mixed bag. Meaning, it’s brightly colored, humorously vulgar and juvenilely entertaining, while delivering a standard ration of unsurprisingly thin and poorly defined characters.

It’s hard to wonder just what exactly the film was aiming for as its main title suggests an introduction to, and supposed franchise for, the Birds of Prey crime-fighting team; which in the film consists of Black Canary, Huntress, Cassandra Cain (an eventual Batgirl), and police detective Renee Montoya. The film does this, but then doesn’t really give audiences a whole lot of reasons to care about them. Choosing instead to focus on the sub-titled character, and main draw, Harley Quinn.

Harley herself is dealing with the breakup of her relationship with the Joker and is therefore no longer under his protection. As such, she becomes free game for a city full of revenge/notoriety seekers. Notable among them is Ewan McGregor’s, Roman Sionis.

Margot Robbie and Ewan McGregor are well suited to the material of the film, but make no mistake, this is Robbie’s vehicle, as the sub-title suggests. And while she’s certainly fun, she’s also the only character with a significant story arc. The film plays at making McGregor’s, Roman Sionis/Black Mask, a more complicated bad guy, but in practice, he’s little more than a narcissist with an alter ego that is without definition of any sort.

My Admission - $4.50
One Line Review – “Robbie’s Great, But the Movie Itself…”
MPAA Rating – R for strong violence and language throughout, and some sexual and drug material

Blinded by the Light (2019 / DVD) – Using a lyrical and thematic connection to the songs of Bruce Springsteen, this inspiring little movie explores the practical and ideologically-connective identification of a 16-year-old Pakistani boy, living in Luton, England, with the famed New Jersey artist.

The film is fun, enlightening, and emancipating in ways that not only feel natural and right, but also feel good. This is not some “angry teen” film where “Youth” if fighting “The Man”. Instead, it’s a film about a Pakistani teenage boy, who under identifiably conflicted circumstances, connects with the stories of a musician from America, and in doing so, finds himself, his voice, and the worldly stage he’s meant to stand upon.

My Admission - $6.50
One Line Review – “Wrapped Up Like A Deuce, Another Runner in the Night”
MPAA Rating – PG-13 for thematic material and language including some ethnic slurs

Da 5 Bloods (2020 / Netflix) – Four Vietnam veterans return to the scene of “their” war 40+ years after originally leaving it behind. There, they will remember the past, come to terms with the present, and attempt to retrieve a stash of gold they squirrelled away those so many years ago. What could possibly go wrong?

The film, from the incomparable Spike Lee, is peopled with such a strong talent base, including Chadwick Boseman, Delroy Lindo, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Norm Lewis, Calrke Peters, Johnathan Majors, and Jean Reno, that it’s hard to have low expectations. That’s a bit of a bummer as the film delivered plays out as a just-above average post-war film.

There’s much familiar content here and seeing it through new eyes is worthwhile. There’s some decent action and some important conversations, but there’s not a lot of great depth. There are moments in the film that feel curtailed, and a few too many others that actually feel hollow. That’s not to say that it’s a bad film, but at times it feels contrived or as though it’s expecting you to believe/accept actions and occurrences without effectively supporting an emotional connection for the audience to do so.

My Admission - $6.00
One Line Review – “Back in Da Saddle, Again”
MPAA Rating – R for strong violence, grisly images and pervasive language

Hired Gun (2017 / AMAZON) – This documentary explores, through host of fantastic musician interviews, what it means to be a paid supporting member, a hired gun, of a successful musical artist’s band. These are musicians/artists you know but are also people you’ve probably never heard of.

Hired Guns are singers and instrumentalists known in the music industry as the “best of the best,” but that doesn’t mean that they’re treated like the best. The film covers multiple angles of a hired gun’s personal and professional life including ability, commitment, contribution, money, and ultimately respect. It’s this last one that gets you as the film takes a deeper dive into the conditions of Billy Joel’s career band members, Liberty DeVitto, Russell Javors, and Doug Stegmeyer.

The film also explores the working careers of a score of artists including bassist Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot) and guitarist Brad Gillis (Ozzy Osbourne, Night Ranger) both before and after the death of legendary guitarist, Randy Rhodes. Jason Newstead (Metallica) after the death of bassist Cliff Burton. Vocalist Derek St. Holmes (Ted Nugent) discusses what it’s like to sing iconic songs you’re not recognized as singing, while drummer Kenny Aronoff shares the story of the creation of his iconic drum fill in John Cougar’s “Jack and Diane”.

Not to be unilaterally upstaged (pun, Yo!), “Hired Gun” also, hilariously, discusses life as a studio musician with producers David Foster and Bob Ezrin, guitarists Jay Graydon (Steely Dan), Steve Lukather (Toto), and John 5 (Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie). Before finally tackling what it’s like to be the popular artist actually hiring this pool of talent, with interviews from Pink, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper and a number of their rotating band members. One of which is executive producer, Jason Hook who charts his career through both Mandy Moore and Hillary Duff, before joining Alice Cooper’s band, and ultimately achieving his own musical dream with the band Five Finger Death Punch.

Look, this is one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. The stories are eye-opening, personal, humbling, self-reflective, and emotionally powerful, all the while delivering some mix of funny, heartwarming, and/or disheartening context. Maybe I should call it “my favorite documentary”, because I so obviously connected with the material, but I’ve got to give props to the film’s delivery for bridging the reach. I mean, I knew at least two-thirds of the interviewees, and significant portions of their stories already, but I still couldn’t wait to hear them again and, like a great song, could emphatically listen to them being delivered over and over and over.

My Admission - $10.00
One Line Review – “Musicians Are People Too”
MPAA Rating – NR – Strong language

The Hole in the Ground (2019 / AMAZON) – The film, set in Ireland, concerns a single mother, her young son, and a sinkhole that resides in the woods behind their home. The film is surprisingly small, sparsely lit, and scarier than expected.

Drawing visual comparisons to “Evil Dead” (location, location, location) and the original “Pet Sematary” (fear the child), director Lee Cronin, in his feature film debut, manages to squeeze every last drop of tension and fear from the film’s situations and locales; while never entering the murderous, campy, or bloody state of the two semi-comparable films. The film is notably slow and sparse on details, but while it fails to fill in significant histories, it absolutely succeeds on creating a tense and realistically frightening environment.

Seana Kerslake (“Dollhouse” “A Date for Mad Mary”) is utterly believable as the questioning mother, while James Quinn Markey is no slouch himself as her, possibly imposture-d, son.

Note: Lee Cronin has been tapped by Sam Raimi himself to write/direct a new installment in the “Evil Dead” franchise. And, after seeing Cronin’s work here, I’m not surprised and, I can’t friggin’ wait, Yo!

My Admission - $6.00
One Line Review – “When Your Feature Film Debut Lands You An ‘Evil Dead’ Movie, People Take Notice”
MPAA Rating – R for some disturbing images

The Invisible Man (2020 / DVD) – This modern-day reimagining of the Universal classic, sees a woman attempting to escape the mental and physical clutches of her narcissistic scientist boyfriend. Written and directed by Leigh Weinell, and starring Elizabeth Moss, the film is a small, but no less tense, and effective thriller.

It’s just not what you expect when you think of the classic Invisible Man. The film does wonders for the haunted Moss (or is it the haunted Moss who does wonders for the film?), and the trauma inflicted upon her by the titular character. It does a medium job on the science behind the film’s invisible conceit. But unfortunately, it does next-to-nothing for the titular character, effectively leaving him a shell of a single note antagonist. Perhaps that’s not all bad, as far as effective frights go, the film just switches the focus from the man to his victim.

My Admission - $6.00
One Line Review – “Can You See Me Now?”
MPAA Rating – R for some strong bloody violence and language

Two Night Stand (2014 / DVD) – This largely run-of-the-mill romance has a few nice surprises, the best of which is the more adult conversations the pair are having. Those conversations may be more sexually related than expected, but I found that profoundly refreshing in a genre that looks to speed bump past the occasionally difficult conversations to focus more upon the happily ever after. “Two Night Stand” doesn’t shy away from the happily ever after, but the film gives you characters that an audience might believe have a chance of communicating enough to actually get there; if their actions don’t kill them first.

My Admission - $4.00
One Line Review – “A Somewhat-Mildly Refreshing Retread”
MPAA Rating – R for sexual material, language and some drug use

The Wailing (2016 / AMAZON / DVD) – This beautifully photographed tale of fright is rich in character, locale, and drive. The story sees a South Korean police officer personally effected by a series of bizarre murders affecting a small local village. Murders that suspiciously began after the arrival of a Japanese immigrant.

Occasionally funny and almost always tense, the film is rich with character and scenery. The narrative slowly takes control of the audience and does an incredible job of putting them into the frustrating position of the film’s protagonist. Succumbing to this loss of perspective, the audience, much like the characters in the film, begin reacting from a place of fear and complete self-centeredness; if they have the ability to react at all. This culminates in an ending that, while it might not make complete literal sense, is paralleled by the fact that neither do all of the decisions you make in your own life. But when the ordeal is over and the audience’s perspective is restored, hopefully they’ll see what a journey it was to get there.

My Admission - $7.00
One Line Review – “Losing Your Mind Is A Journey, Not A Destination”
MPAA Rating – TV-MA for frightening and intense sequences, violence and gore, brief sexuality, smoking, drinking and language throughout

Yesterday (2019 / DVD) – A largely endearing fantasy that sees an injured musician waking to a world where the Beatles have never existed. In this new reality, he does what any self-respecting starving artist would do, he performs and records as many Beatles songs as he can remember, claiming them as his own.

Springing from the mind of writer/director Richard Curtis (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”, “Love Actually”, “Bridget Jones’ Diary”), and making the jump to screen under the guidance of Oscar director Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”, ‘Trainspotting”), “Yesterday” is a warm and fun reminder of not only the songs and band that moved the world, but of the message that “all you” (really do) “need is, Love”.

I won’t spoil the film other than to say that it isn’t perfect; at times being favorably effective while at other times being overly simplistic. Be that as it may, the music and performances are solid, and the film is a guaranteed pleaser.

Casting-wise, Himesh Patel (“EastEnders”, “Tenet”) is fantastic as musician Jack Malick; incidentally, that’s really him playing guitar and singing. Lily James (“Cinderella”, “Baby Driver”) is emotively wonderful as his small-time manager, Ellie, in a film that asks more from the actress than from her character.

Support-wise, musician Ed Sheeran delivers solidly as himself, while Joel Fry (“Game of Thrones) shines as the bumbling-ly endearing roadie, Rocky. Props go to Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”), whose performance is perfectly rotten; I hated every minute of her character’s screen time. And to Robert Carlyle (“Trainspoting”, “The Full Monty”), who delivers the absolute surprise performance of the film; I actually screamed in my chair when he first appeared on screen.

My Admission - $6.50
One Line Review – “Maybe You Can’t Buy Me Love, But Apparently You Can Wake Up To It”
MPAA Rating – PG-13 for suggestive content and language

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