Not very often do audiences receive a biopic as pointless and embarrassing as Creation Stories. Then again, the filmmaker could still benefit from a turkey like this. If they believe their biopic holds valuable nostalgia or fan service, ham-fisted qualities can be forgiven by movie goers, allowing the movie to even win Oscars. It worked for Bohemian Rhapsody.
Zola, to an extent, is experimental with its narrative. While it flows coherently, the film is very much still in tune with its source material – a series of tweets explaining a story that’s “strange yet true” – and presents itself as someone spinning you a wild yarn (intercut with tangents and outbursts).
Following up on my horrible time watching (and trying to keep up with) The Boss Baby: Family Business, I prepared for Peter Rabbit 2 with trepidation considering I hadn’t seen its predecessor and I wasn’t sure what would be in store. But, to my surprise, Peter Rabbit 2 was breezy and amusing. Absolutely innocuous, but it’s a cute children’s film that maintains its momentum and sets up some great slapstick and sustains its heartfelt themes.
I find it strange that Blumhouse Productions would continue with The Purge series. Financial returns and core fanbase aside, The Purge had just about explored all of its themes, politics, and ideologies – and all of it was practically satirized in jet black manner with Blumhouse’s The Hunt. It’s almost expected that a new Purge movie would just be going through the motions, which is exactly what The Forever Purge does.
Musician Ahmir Thompson (better known as “Questlove” from The Roots and Jimmy Fallon’s in-house band) perfectly applies his expertise and passion for multifaceted harmony to his filmmaking debut Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised), a concert documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 and its significance.
Blame it on naivety or over-confidence, but I thought I was going to be okay watching The Boss Baby: Family Business without watching The Boss Baby. Somewhere within the first act, I surrendered and desperately looked online for a rundown of the first movie. However, even though I was brought up to speed and given an idea of how bizarre The Boss Baby was, I still wasn’t prepared for how relentlessly loud and strange this…
Long Weekend is a good rom-com, but a victim of unfortunate timing. Without revealing too much, the film switches gears and invites another genre into the mix. It’s an interesting wrinkle in the story and writer/director Steve Basilone handles it well. But, it’s so comparable to last year’s crowd-pleaser Palm Springs that Long Weekend’s almost feels like old news upon arrival.
As we slowly, yet optimistically, rise up through the COVID-19 pandemic and take each day as they come, it’s hard not to suppress our anticipation for theatre re-openings and the current drive-in season. While movie releases seem like small potatoes when compared to the overall economy, it’s been really interesting watching the film industry rearrange titles to gauge at-home audiences, while also preparing for a gradual, blossoming theatrical experience.
Is a movie still a success if it didn’t come through on its initial promise, yet still left an effective impression? I had a similar reaction earlier this year to Saint Maud, and here I am again with Censor, a horror from writer/director Prano Bailey-Bond that moved me even though I was never truly scared.
In the same spirit as the Austin Powers sequels, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is almost an exact replica of its crowd-pleasing predecessor that repeats similar jokes and plays on a heightened version of the dynamic that made the first film so memorable. And while a sequel can usually be grilled on repeating itself, this second round is strictly here for entertainment value; knowing exactly what it wants to set out to do and still delivering…