Film Reviews
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Spree (2020)
Rewatched on June 27, 2022
Directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko
Distributed by RLJE Films
My rating: 5/5
CONTENT WARNING: discussion of murder
"If you're not documenting yourself, it's simple: you just don't exist". This is the principle that protagonist Kurt Kunkle, a driver for a rideshare app, follows religiously. Throughout the film, the audience watches through a streaming platform as Kurt's Internet-based insanity plays out.
The film begins with an intelligently placed "Draw My Life", a video method used by popular YouTube creators to show how they got to where they are. Kurt, however, has amassed few subscribers throughout several years of posting. Kurt's lack of success leads him to carry out a plan he deems "The Lesson" to go viral on the Internet. This "lesson", it turns out, is murdering people who enter his car. The key to his success is a boy he used to babysit, Bobby BaseCamp, who has become famous by exploiting homeless people for content on a popular video platform (equivalent to YouTube). Kurt arrives at Bobby's house, promptly murders him, and takes over his stream. This gets him thousands of Bobby's viewers. His murder streak continues through the night, and Kurt becomes more thirsty for blood as his viewer count continues to rise.
Not only was this a great concept, but it was clear that the director was either in touch with Internet culture or worked with people who were. The genius of this movie comes from the stream's ongoing chat, filled with messages like "this is soooo fake" and "show us how it's done or gtfo!". At any point of Kurt's spree, one look at the chatbox made everything scarily realistic.
The most chilling part of the movie, however, came at the end. After Kurt has died and his story hits the national news, the viewer is transported to the cesspool that is 4chan. There, Kurt's horrific actions are glorified and a fanbase for the deceased man develops. This ending shows just how scarily vast and disturbing the Internet can be. Overall, Kotlyarenko commented astutely on the desperation that can result from social media. Joe Keery brought it to life perfectly, and continues to display Kurt's madness on Instagram (@kurtsworld96).
On the Count of Three (2021)
Watched on August 20, 2022
Directed by Jerrod Carmichael
Distributed by United Artists
My rating: 4/5
Jerrod Carmichael's directorial debut has made a deep impression in the world of independent film, introducing many viewers to a deeply dark comedy without being flat-out offensive. The film centers two childhood friends who have both led difficult lives in different ways; Val (Jerrod Carmichael) continues to deal with an abusive and closed-off father, while Kevin (Christopher Abbot) is severely depressed and a victim of sexual assault by his therapist as a child. Throughout On the Count of Three, Carmichael's most impressive directorial ability is crafting a number of spit-your-water-out bits despite the weight of these lingering issues.
After Val breaks Kevin out of the psych ward where he stayed after a suicide attempt, Val suggests a suicide pact, effective immediately. At the last second, however, Kevin backs out because he feels that he must live for one more day. Val's reaction matches that of any viewer: "You just tried to kill yourself three days ago! Don't tell me suicide's not the answer". Kevin's reasoning for staying alive, the film slowly reveals, comes down to his existential beliefs: he feels that he must not let his abuser win, so he wants to kill him first.
As Val and Kevin grow closer to the prospective homicide, they get in a physical altercation with Val's abusive father, threaten an inattentive cashier with a gun, and fall off of dirt bikes like they did in the old days. These events all played out hilariously and fit the theme of the dark comedy, but they felt like nothing more than a slow buildup to the main event. This is my main problem with the film, but it had little effect on my overall enjoyment.
Kevin and Val are nearing the therapist's office when a new ethical dilemma presents itself: Val's girlfriend has informed him that she's pregnant. Suddenly, Val envisions a new life, a new purpose, as a father. Carmichael pries at the question of why we choose to stay alive. Is it ourselves, is it our relationships with others, or is it both? In the end, though, Carmichael ends up getting out of the car and shooting the therapist himself. Val shows the strength of his character here, as he now knows the options are prison or suicide.
The decision for Kevin to commit suicide was a bold one, and the viewer can't help but feel for Val. But by the end of the film, Val seems to be satisfied with his life in prison, where he is occasionally able to see his newborn. Carmichael leaves us with this: life has as much purpose as you give it, but this purpose can easily be altered by uncontrollable events.
Cha Cha Real Smooth (2021)
Watched on July 11, 2022
Directed by Cooper Raiff
Distributed by Apple TV+
My rating: 4/5
Cha Cha Real Smooth tells the story of Cooper Raiff's character, Andrew, as he becomes the newest bat/bar mitzvah party starter on the block. Don't be fooled by this ridiculous premise, because Raiff packs a punch with this one.
Andrew meets Domino (Dakota Johnson) and her daughter, Lola (Vanessa Burghardt). Through Andrew's charisma, Domino's interest, and Lola's willingness to put up with the two, there's an instant connection formed. They dance the night away at Lola's classmate's bar mitzvah and Domino offers Andrew to be Lola's sitter in addition to his party starting gig.
Over time (in this movie, time is measured by bar/bat mitzvahs), Domino develops a romantic interest for Andrew, even though she's engaged to a man closer to her age who has his life far more put together. However, Domino decides to marry her fiancée rather than pursue Andrew because he's simply a "possibility". Also, he's 22. The film ends beautifully, with Domino at her wedding and Andrew at the club, having fun as a normal college graduate should be.
Some of the best acting in this movie came from Vanessa Burghardt. She is an autistic actor playing an autistic character, and also helped write her own lines. However, her character only acts as a vehicle to move Domino and Andrew's relationship forward, which was one of the movie's biggest flaws.
Cha Cha Real Smooth has such an intimate feel that it seems like Raiff wrote it from personal experience. The existential dread of where one's life is headed, or supposed to be headed, after college looms over Andrew as he desperately tries to find a new job. Raiff is also able to capture the tension between kids at bar/bat mitzvahs, which was simultaneously hilarious and horrifying. Raiff still has a lot to learn as a director, but Cha Cha Real Smooth shows great potential. Plus, he just graduated from college, right? Right??
Tangerine (2015)
Watched on June 2, 2022
Directed by Sean Baker
Distributed by Magnolia Pictures
My rating: 5/5
"LA is a beautifully wrapped lie", says a mother frantically searching the streets of the city for her son. She is soon to find him mixed up in the mixed-up story of two transgender sex workers, a "fish" named Dinah, and a cheating boyfriend.
Clearly, Tangerine is messy. Baker digs deep into the simple story of Sin-Dee seeking revenge, blending narratives together that leave each character crushed by the harsh streets of Los Angeles.
Baker displays LA's grit using an iPhone 5 for the entirety of the film and a saturated orange filter. I could not get enough of how real this entire film felt. Adding to the iPhone footage and the coloring was the fact that all of the people in the background were not actors, they were real streetgoers unfazed by the camera of an iPhone.
After Alexandra and Sin-Dee had horrible days in their own ways, they were able to convey an incredible amount of forgiveness towards one another just by sitting in silence. In a laundromat. These two actresses deserve so much more recognition for the talent they exhibited in Tangerine.
Turning Red (2022)
Rewatched on June 21, 2022
Directed by Domee Shi (first Disney film directed by an Asian woman)
Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
My rating: 3/5
If you've ever been on an app called Wattpad, this movie is the embodiment of your typical story on there: a 13-year-old girl who could easily pass as a fan-fiction author gets her first period, trying to deal with hormonal changes while trying to please her mother with perfect grades and perfect behavior.
This film felt like a time-warp back to middle school; it was easy to relate to Mei's obsession with a made-up boy band. There was an utter awkwardness of the dynamic between an obsessive mother and a middle schooler desperately trying to fit in that could make anyone cringe in a good way.
Disney's decision to tackle menstruation has to be one of their boldest choices yet; representation tends to come at a risk, especially with a company with an audience as big as Disney's. Ultimately, I think the depiction of periods was probably able to open up a lot of conversations between parents and children about menstruation. This contributes to the reduction of the shameful stigma that unfortunately surrounds talking openly about bodily functions of those with uteri.
North Hollywood (2021)
Watched on June 6, 2022
Directed by Mikey Alfred
Distributed by Illegal Civilization
My rating: 2/5
North Hollywood is Illegal Civ leader Mikey Alfred's directorial debut. It centers a kid named Michael and his problems with balancing what he wants to do after high school; this is different from what his dad wants him to do after he graduates. Unfortunately, the plot does not go much further than that.
Michael wants to be a professional skater, but his dad wants him to either go to college or join him in working construction. Nevertheless, Michael tries to squeeze himself into the corporate skateboarding industry through a friend (Angus Cloud) that somehow knows all of the pros. This friend was one of the most poorly placed characters; no offense to Angus Cloud, but his skating is shown at the beginning of the film and he has no business skating with the Baker team.
Michael is shown to be a shallow person time and time again, ditching his friends to skate with pros in the hopes of getting sponsors so he can make a bunch of money and buy a big house like Rachel's (Vanessa Hudgens) dad. Anyone who knows anything about professional skating knows that pros don't skate to make money, they just love it so much that they are able to make a career off of the sponsor money they do get.
What this film had going for it was the skating itself. Illegal Civilization has grown exponentially in popularity since people found out that the cast of Mid90s hangs out in real life. Because of this, Alfred has multitudes of connections in the skateboarding industry that present themselves throughout this film; the cameos ranged from Louie Lopez to Andrew Reynolds. With this kind of a cast, the montages where the film focused solely on skating were great (and filmed nicely). However, these are skaters, not actors, and this quickly reveals itself.
After watching North Hollywood, I think that Mikey Alfred would be better off continuing to work on skate parts for Illegal Civilization rather than trying to scrape together narratives that connect back to skateboarding (and are full of product placement for Illegal Civilization).
A Little Game (2014)
Watched on July 12, 2022
Directed by Evan Oppenheimer
Distributed by NBCUniversal
My rating: 1/5
A Little Game follows the story of Max Kuftinec, a young girl living Greenwich Village and a frequent passerby of Washington Square Park. When she moves to a new, fancy school, her teacher recommends that she take up chess, and Max finds a mentor, Norman, in the realm of WSP street chess to learn how to beat a bully.
I love watching the few movies out there about chess, but this one fell flat for me. Naming this film "A Little Game" is apt because there is only one game of chess played throughout the entire runtime. Instead of actually playing chess, Max's mentor makes her go through the city and find out how each piece moves by herself. It quickly became clear that this was simply Oppenheim's way of lengthening what could have been a short film. Not to mention, some of the comparisons of chess pieces to real life don't really work: Max learns that horses race in ovals, and Norman tells her that the knight piece moves in "half-ovals". Strange comparisons, indeed.
Another minor element that Oppenheimer incorporated was the death of Max's grandmother and her subsequent visits to her dreams. In these dreams, Max's grandmother says nothing of substance, but doles out cheesy quotes instead. This seems to give Max some kind of existential crisis about not wanting to die, which was quite confusing to follow. Like the quotes, there is no essence to these subplots.
At the end of the first and only game, Max decides to let her opponent win because they made a bet: if Max lost, she had to go back to her old public school. At the end, Max is shown returning to school and everything is just as it was at the beginning of the film. I can't say I was expecting that, but that's not necessarily a good thing. I wanted there to be more of a lesson learned than that private school kids are meaner than public school kids.
Oh, and one last thing. Rachel Dratch plays the possibly tipsy aunt. That made this whole watch worth it.
The French Dispatch (2021)
Watched on August 28, 2022
Directed by Wes Anderson
Distributed by Searchlight Pictures
My rating: 4/5
It's difficult to find someone that neither hates nor loves the work of Wes Anderson. No matter what side of the polar spectrum one is on, Anderson excels in finding eccentric topics and digging far down into them. The French Dispatch does just this; it is a story of a satellite publication of the Kansas Evening Sun deep in France. Whereas The Grand Budapest Hotel gives the feel of reading a book, The French Dispatch more overtly makes you feel like you're reading a particularly interesting Sunday newspaper.
At first glance, The French Dispatch seems like the peak of Wes Anderson's collection of films. Studded as always with an incredible cast of characters, pastel colors, and characters with individual quirks, directorial self-awareness, and acutely-placed, bizarre humor, The French Dispatch is the most Wes Anderson film of all Wes Anderson films. However, this quickly becomes overwhelming, at least for a first-time viewer.
The film follows three different storylines, each one being an article from the publication. The first is the story of an imprisoned man's artistry and how it becomes globally recognized after he is exploited by a family of wealthy art dealers. The second is about a student uprising and how the interconnection between journalism and revolution can clash. The third is a ransom-and-rescue story with cuisine becoming the most important part of the narrative.
All three stories are captivating in their own ways, but there are many plot points and characters jammed into ~30 minute intervals. This may create a disconnect with the viewer's focus the first time around, but perhaps Anderson intended for The French Dispatch to be a film so rich with minute details that rewatch(es) are needed to fully appreciate the work.
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