May 2022
Inside Out 2022: ‘Stupid For You’
Stupid For You, a sophomore effort from musician-turn-filmmaker Jude Klassen, is an awkward movie. Sometimes deliberately, and sometimes unintentionally so.
The Middle Man
By: Jeff Ching The Middle Man takes place in the fictional town of Karmack, USA. Of every fictional city I’ve seen in the movies, Karmack is the last place I would ever want to live.
Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company
There’s no denying how uncompromising Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company is with its recap of the ongoing legal battle against agriculture company Monsanto (now owned by Bayer). The struggle for justice after Monsanto’s glyphosate was discovered to be extremely hazardous was an exhausting process for the plaintiffs, and documentarian Jennifer Baichwal does not want to skip over any details. But, does this integrity affect the documentary? For me, it did.
Pleasure
Pleasure is an incredibly explicit movie about the porn industry. The filmmakers and the cast are allegiant to the movie’s cause and, by doing so, allow boundaries to be crossed in terms of what a movie can usually show. The results are eye-opening, thought-provoking, absurd, disturbing, and sometimes too hard to watch. However, I can’t imagine a “clipped” or “watered down” version of Pleasure. Without its mature assurance and commitment, Ninja Thyberg’s movie wouldn’t strike…
Firestarter
Firestarter is not only a disappointment, it’s a strange disappointment. It promises to deliver on multiple levels and, yet, fails at every attempt. It’s billed as a horror, but it’s not scary. It’s billed as a thriller, but it doesn’t pull the viewer towards the edge of their seat. It’s also billed as a family drama and science fiction, which it certainly sports elements of, but neither genre is interesting or exciting in this movie….
Senior Year
Senior Year has an outrageous premise that, surprisingly, feels minor in the hands of its filmmakers.
Nitram
Nitram is by no means an easy watch, but I do implore readers to go into the movie knowing very little about it. The movie is outstanding in its own right, but to have limited knowledge of the Australian drama makes it more powerful. I’ll do my best to provide as much interest as possible with this review, but it’s no spoiler to mention Nitram starts as a character study and ends in a real-life…
Quickening
A young woman is caught between the expectations of her Pakistani family and her growing independence in writer/director Haya Waseem’s haunting coming-of-age drama, Quickening.