I didn’t know why this movie was titled Slapped: The Movie, until I looked up the YouTube web series the stars created. Before, I thought there was a Slapped: The Television Series or a Slapped: The Album that the filmmakers didn’t want to be associated with. But, I still don’t understand why Slapped: The Movie is two hours long when this half baked, body-switching, gross-out comedy has barely enough juice to fuel a 22-minute sitcom.
The Joke Thief is the latest released feature in Frank D’Angelo’s rapid filmography. This time, the writer/director/actor takes a break from cops-and-robbers and, instead, delivers a subdued story about a flamed-out stand-up comic, Simon (played by D’Angelo), looking for purpose as he reflects on his past during a car ride through the streets of Toronto…erm…New York City.
Not to be confused with 2014’s brilliant ode to Roger Ebert, 2018’s Life Itself is a time-spanning family drama from Hollywood screenwriter and This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman. Fogelman has taken the clout he’s earned from his award-winning hit television show and he’s made a movie only an ambitious storyteller could make with a team of producers who trust his reputation.
There’s been a modest resurgence of oddball, family-friendly fantasies. We were reminded of it with Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and now with Eli Roth’s The House with a Clock in Its Walls. While I’m more of a fan of how the former balanced all of its supernatural factors, I still really liked and admired Roth’s kooky flick about an uncle teaching his nephew the tricks of the trade to sorcery.
New Yorker Nina is a stand-up comic with a blunt repertoire. Her material is R-rated in a competitive way; as if she’s trying to out-disgust other comedians at the open mic. The truth, however, is her jokes are stale. They’re not worthless, but Nina’s routine is on autopilot. However, it’s what she has to do to survive in a world dominated by daunting masculinity and crass jokes.
An adventure is difficult to endure when it’s lacking thrills or fun. A film made by unenthused people is hard for an audience member to get wrapped up in. Antidote, a supernatural thriller starring mixed martial arts powerhouse Randy Couture, is an example of both unsavoury moviegoing situations.
The House That Jack Built has a lot to unpack, so thank goodness it’s two-and-a-half hours. Movie goers can compain about long runtimes but if this movie gave us anything shorter, the film would feel cut off at the knees – a fitting analogy for a viscerally grotesque feature.
By: Trevor Chartrand Director Ethan Hawke’s country music biopic Blaze leaves a lot to be desired – with a lot of atmosphere and not much narrative, this film is meandering and weak. To some, the film could perhaps be considered an abstract poem, akin to the music stylings of the late Blaze Foley, which I suppose should be commendable. However, given the more obscure nature of this film’s subject, the storytelling gaps will leave audiences…
Searching for Ingmar Bergman, a new documentary from renowned German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta, is an intimate portrait of the famed Swedish filmmaker’s life and legacy, focusing both on his voluminous oeuvre (Bergman’s first film credit as a screenwriter in the early 1940s to his last film, Saraband, in 2004) and his family life.
