By: Trevor Chartrand Based on a short film of the same name, The Climb was written and performed by Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin. Covino also directed the film, which chronicles the life and times of a dysfunctional friendship over the course of many years. In the film, Kyle (Marvin) and Mike (Covino) are long-time best friends who slowly drift apart – and then back together again – after Mike admits to sleeping with…
Recently, I reviewed the hilariously spot-on holly-jolly spoof Cup of Cheer. The comedy did such a good job calling out tropes, clichés, and lazy writing found in Christmas movies. What it didn’t do, and what I realized after watching My Dad’s Christmas Date, is that Cup of Cheer didn’t poke fun at deceptive movies that bait viewers with seasonal qualities to dress up an otherwise dismal story. If My Dad’s Christmas Date didn’t occasionally show…
In an unremarkable directorial debut from actor Nicol Paone, and randomly produced by The Heartbreak Kid co-stars Ben Stiller and Malin Akerman, Dinner with Friends features pals Molly and Abby (Akerman, Kat Dennings) hosting a small Thanksgiving that gradually becomes more outrageous as the night progresses. The guest list grows, and the entertainment evolves the get-together into more of a party where magic mushrooms and sexcapades become a primary topic of discussion. There isn’t much…
The Kid Detective has done the best job, in recent memory, explaining why a mystery’s leading sleuth is such a sad sack. The enigmatic and eccentric personality has become such a cliché in the genre, that the audience just expects and accepts the detective to be grizzled, or unhappy, or an unpredictable hot head. In The Kid Detective, Abe Applebaum (Adam Brody) carries those traits, but writer/director Evan Morgan provides compelling motivation which fuels Brody’s top-form…
By: Trevor Chartrand The Cuban explores the burgeoning friendship between a pre-med nurse, Mina (Ana Golja), and the elderly man she’s assigned to take care of (Louis Gossett Jr.) after she takes a job at a retirement home. Her charge turns out to be a stubborn, guarded man named Luis Garcia; a man plagued by Alzheimer’s, with a side order of dementia to boot. As the two spend more and more time together, Mina discovers…
How do you satirize a genre that’s become a spoof of itself? It isn’t an impossible trick but, to pull it off, it takes a keen eye for detail and a filmmaker who can thread the needle between appreciation and cynicism. 2014’s They Came Together, a comedy from the creators of Wet Hot American Summer that hilariously destroyed the rom-com genre, is the bellwether for me, and this year’s clever seasonal spoof Cup of Cheer…
Written and directed by Jon Garcia, Love in Dangerous Times is among the first of what is sure to be a plethora of pandemic-themed projects that will emerge over the coming months, and even years. Written and filmed entirely in lockdown, the film follows Jason (Ian Stout), a struggling playwright searching for love in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
In Ravers, a bad batch of energy drinks are cracked into during a night-long party at an abandoned factory. Once consumed, the partiers begin twitching, “bugging out”, and eventually become violently belligerent with superhuman strength. Given that everyone is already shoulder-to-shoulder, with some who are already high on street drugs to begin with, the danger escalates quickly as our main heroes (including Becky, a germaphobic journalist) fight for survival.
By: Trevor Chartrand Defying All Odds is an inspirational documentary that takes a hopeful, optimistic look the possibilities of contemporary medical studies and research. In the climate of the pandemic we’re currently faced with, a positive outlook is a much needed breath of fresh air.
