"We're not critics. We're professional fan-girls." --- This blog is dedicated to movies and the entertainment industry. We use random selection to bring into light the best and worst of streaming films and entertainment news.
Streaming Service: Disney+ Movie Name/Year: Marvel Studios’ Special
Presentation: Werewolf by Night (2022) Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy,
Horror Length: 52min Rating: TV-14 Production/Distribution: Marvel Studios, Disney+ Director: Michael Giacchino Writers: Heather Quinn, Peter Cameron,
Gerry Conway, Michael G. Ploog, Roy Thomas, Jean Thomas Actors: Gael García Bernal, Laura
Donnelly, Harriet Sansom Harris, Leondardo Nam, Eugenie Bondurant, Kirk R.
Thatcher, Al Hamacher IMDb Blurb: Follows a lycanthrope superhero
who fights evil using the abilities given to him by a curse brought on by his
bloodline.
Cat’s Point of View: When Disney and Marvel announced that they were releasing a
Halloween Special this year, I was rather over the moon. (No pun intended…this
time.) As I was growing up, you could count on most shows to have a bonafide “Halloween
Special” air separately from their usual storylines. These days you don’t see
that as often. Sure, productions will give a nod to the season with set
dressing; but more often than not, it feels like an afterthought rather than
the drive of the narrative. Werewolf by Night
was exciting to me from the get-go because it felt like the equivalent of
Marvel Studios and Disney+ teaming up to give us a full-size candy bar in our
trick-or-treat bucket, just as the Halloween season is really beginning to ramp
up. While not a standard-length movie, the 52-minute runtime of
this lycanthropic lark was just the right length to give a satisfying story for
this stand-alone special. It was packed solid with mystery, action,
shenanigans, and enough horror elements to delight genre fans.
While Werewolf by
Night has a TV-14 rating, parents should be cautious about letting younger
kids partake in this particular monster flick. If the production had been made
entirely in color, rather than the throwback black and white, it would have
received a TV-MA rating for the bloody action. We’re talking dismembering and
worse, here. I loved the monochromatic choice, though. While it might have
made some of the violence more palatable for a wider range of audiences, it was
all about the ambiance for me. I could just envision this as one of those
classic monster movies of yesteryear. There are even quite a few Easter eggs
sprinkled throughout that pay homage to those very cinematic forbears. While I love comics, I have to admit that I wasn’t really
that familiar with the Marvel characters introduced in Werewolf by Night. Admittedly, I am now significantly more curious
about Ted, Elsa, and Jack… but I didn’t need to have knowledge of their
respective comic runs to really appreciate this special. That’s really the
beauty of these MCU productions – there are so many characters available for
them to pick from that you never know what corner of the comic verse they’re
going to mine for material.
That being said, it reinforces the point that the
monumental volume of stories out there, it affords the perfect opportunity for
Marvel to cherry-pick the moments to spotlight for specials like this. I would
absolutely watch the hell out of as many stand-alone specials as they want to
throw at us. Let me just say yes please, in advance, for regular seasonal-specific
one-offs, please. I digress… I’m hoping that we’ll see these characters again somewhere
else in the MCU moving forward. Just because they decided specifically not to
provide a post-credits scene to keep this story self-contained doesn’t mean
they couldn’t waltz into another franchise later as supporting characters. There really wasn’t anything I found negative about Werewolf by Night. The cast was amazing;
led by Gael García Bernal (Mozart in the
Jungle, Old, Maya and the Three), Laura Donnelly (Outlander, Tolkien, The Nevers), and Harriet Sansom Harris (Phantom Thread, Atlantic Crossing, Licorice
Pizza). The production quality was on par with any other MCU offering, as well.
It was an impressive directorial debut for Michael Giacchino
(Monster Challenge, Star Trek: Short
Treks). Though, that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. He’s been in the
industry a while now, though as a musical composer. He got his start in the mid-90s
working with video games before transitioning to cinema. Everyone has heard his
work before in productions such as Doctor
Strange (2016), Jurassic World
(2015), and even TV shows such as Lost
(2004-2010). Composing movie scores is a bit like directing in and of itself.
Music is so intrinsically tied to the experience of film and people’s emotions.
Creating something to evoke the right feeling at the appropriate story moment
is a very similar process – at least in my opinion. I’m looking forward to
seeing what his creative vision will bring us in the future for MCU projects or
elsewhere. Werewolf by Night
was an awesome addition to our Ominous October and I would recommend it for
classic horror fans looking for a fun, if brief, experience.
Streaming Services: Netflix Movie Name/Year: Malcolm & Marie (2021) Genre: Drama, Romance Length: 106 minutes Rating: R Production/Distribution: Little Lamb, The Reasonable
Bunch, Netflix Director: Sam Levinson Writer: Sam Levinson Actors: John David Washington, Zendaya Blurb from IMDb: A director and his
girlfriend's relationship is tested after they return home from his movie
premiere and await critics' responses.
Selina’s Point of View: I was not
surprised by Malcolm and Marie at all. Between Assassination
Nation (2018) and Euphoria (2019- ), I have high expectations of Sam
Levinson (The Wizard of Lies, Another Happy Day, Operation: Endgame). He’s
got an artistic mind and something big to say with everything he does. In this case,
there’s a scalding review of critics that I can’t disagree with. I went into it
a bit with my Chaos Walking (2021) review. It’s one of the biggest
reasons Cat and I don’t like to be called critics. We like to write as if we
were friends to our readers and just throwing out suggestions. We’re not here
to cater to the minority of film-goers that only care about a flick if it fits
their film-school perspectives of cinematic perfection. Sometimes it’s
about the meaning of a film, sometimes it’s the immersion. Most of the time, it’s
the sheer entertainment value that gets us.
Malcolm and Marie was amazing. I’ll admit, my mind trailed off a few times while watching, but it’s not the film’s fault. I’m having a low focus day and the toned down – more realistic – quality of the film wasn’t the kind of thing that could hold my concentration during an episode. If you’re neurodiverse, like me, you may want to hold off on watching this one until you have a good day.
Even with my
personal issue, I found myself unable to look away from most scenes. The
micro-movements of Zendaya (Euphoria, Spider-Man: Far from Home, The
Greatest Showman) and John David Washington’s (BlacKkKlansman, Tenet,
Ballers) faces as they argued were outstanding. I’ve been in
heated arguments like what was portrayed, and I felt those movements. Some of
it was shit you can’t fake; like the barest tremble of a cheek muscle while trying
to hold back tears. The actors truly
brought the story to another level, which is impressive because the script was
one of the best-written pieces I’ve seen in a long time. Every moment of
discourse felt so natural that it was almost as if I was watching something I
shouldn’t have access to. Like every private moment was being seen through the
eyes of someone standing in the room with them. As much as I
loved this movie, it’s not going to be for everyone. I’d still recommend it.
Cat’s Point of View: As the credits rolled
for Malcolm and Marie, I sat stunned for a moment. It was complicated to
unpack everything that just happened. I have to say
this is one of those rare times that I know I have watched something really
profound, and I’m struggling to put actual words to the experience. Powerful. Raw.
Those are the first two descriptors that would come to mind. The word
‘authentic’ gets bandied about within the context of the movie, and it’s only
too fitting to describe it as well. It’s almost a meta experience - a movie
about a couple having it out in the wake of a movie premiere. The
cinematography was absolutely stunning. I loved the fluidity of the location
they shot and how it was maximized through the angles of indoor and outdoor
scenery. The black and white helped drill down focus to the story unfolding. I
found it easier to laser in on the couple – and it spoke volumes in symbolism
as well.
I felt like I was
watching something real, and it occasionally made me uncomfortable as if I was
an interloper in the room of something very private happening. The story was so
stripped down and visceral with dialogue that felt genuine and flowed almost
like a dance of words. There were so many little nuances that offered moments
of levity as well as heartbreak. It’s hard as hell
for a cast of two to carry an entire, nearly two-hour, movie, but John David
Washington and Zendaya made it look effortless. I can’t say that
I will ever watch this film again, however. Intense hardcore drama isn’t
usually my thing. I am glad that I did experience Malcolm and Marie all
the same; and I would recommend it in a heartbeat.
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 57% Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 67% Metascore – 53/100 Metacritic User Score – 6.1/10 IMDB Score – 6.7/10 Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 4.5/5 Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4/5 Movie Trailer:
Movie Name/Year: We
Are Young. We Are Strong. (2014)
Tagline: None
Genre: Crime,
Drama, History
Length: 123
minutes
Rating: NR
Production Companies:
UFA Fiction, Das Kleine Fernsehspiel (ZDF), Arte, Cine Plus
Producer: Leif
Alexis, Brukhard Althoff, Frank Evers, Olaf Grunert, Michael Jungfleisch,
Jochen Laube, Helge Neubronner, Sarah Neumann
Director: Burhan
Qurbani
Writer: Martin
Behnke, Burnhan Qurbani
Actors: Jonas
Nay, Trang Le Hong, Devid Striesow, Joel Basman, Saskia Rosendahl, Paul Gabler,
David Schutter, Jakob Bieber, Gro Swantje Kohlhof, Mai Duong Kieu, Aaron Le,
Larissa Fuchs, Axel Pape, Thorsten Merten, Enno Trebs
Stunts: Jan
Bohme, Daniel Helbig
Blurb from Netflix:
In 1992, three radically different residents of Rostock, Germany, became
entangled in a violent xenophobic riot that rocks the beleaguered city.
Selina’s Point of View:
Considering the state of things recently, this movie was
fucking terrifying.
We Are Young. We Are
Strong. concentrated on riots that were protesting foreign asylum seekers while
the government mostly ignored it and that the people involved weren’t really Nazis.
I’m sorry, I can’t talk about this film without going into
the social weight of it. It sounds too familiar. It was horrific to watch,
nerve-wracking, sickening, and so well done that it’s almost insane.
The movie starts out in black and white, so for a while it’s
very easy to look at it as if it’s describing something in the past. Like it’s
just another World War II film with updated fashion and technology. At the climax,
however, the film bursts into color. Suddenly, you’re in the present and you
can’t ignore the parallels anymore.
It tells you this is our world and that it happens in our
time.
The absolute manipulation of the audience’s emotions and
perspective was outstanding. In fact, it’s something I’ve never seen before.
The closest thing I can think of would be the films that are largely in black
and white, but feature red to accentuate blood. Although those films do get
their point across, this was much different, much better, and much more affective.
My family is Jewish. I grew up learning about the holocaust,
Nazis, and the atrocities of that time. One of the first comics I read cover to
cover (other than Archie) was Maus. As graphic as that comic was, I
read it in middle school.
When you grow up in a Jewish family, you don’t wait until
Junior High or High School to learn about hate. It’s in our past. Our
grandparents and great grandparents were more than just targets, they were
barely seen as human in many places during their time.
Movies that involve Nazis, and a level of hate that chooses
victims from birth, make me a little ill. I watch them because I owe it to my
ancestors to never forget what they went through. Films that are based in World
War II are easier to watch because I can remember, but still acknowledge that
it’s in the past. This film was based in the 90s and reminded me of shit
happening now, in my country. The terror factor was much higher with this
movie.
I don’t throw the word ‘Nazi’ around. It’s a powerful word.
I don’t call every right-wing person a Nazi. I don’t used the term feminazi. I
look at people who do as if they’re dumb. However, when confronted with a group
of people who use the ‘sieg heil’ salute and chant racist things, of course I’m
going to use that word – because that’s what they are. You can give them a
different name if you want, but a rose by any other name will smell as sweet.
This film is from a different country and made years ago.
The picture it paints, however, was not an unfamiliar one.
Furthermore, this film was very good at showing all the
sides of what was happening. You got to see the point of view of the Nazis, the
victims, and the politicians. You got to see the danger of not taking sides, of
hate, and of trying to just block out the bad. I think that’s very important.
I won’t continue on. I want to, this is a very important
subject to me, but I won’t.
This film won’t be for everybody, but it is a phenomenal work
of art, and I do recommend it.
Cat’s Point of View:
Ugh.
It sounds like an ominous word to open with. It’s well
earned by this exceedingly dark and heavy movie.
That being said, it wasn’t bad. It was haunting. The film
was a visceral gut-punch repeated from beginning to end. One of the most
chilling realizations while watching was that this is based on a true
historical event in Germany. Part of me feels rather badly that I don’t
remember it. I don’t recall if it hit the news here in the States or not.
Everyone that was around and old enough to remember things
in 1989 remembers the Berlin Wall coming down – but for 1992, this doesn’t jog
my memory.
Fear of the unknown and different is still a problem today.
Xenophobia still survives even in the modern age we live in – but I don’t have
to tell you that. What I can tell you is that it makes me ill to think about.
Watching a whole cringe-inducing movie full of neo-Nazi propaganda, even as a
cautionary tale, was hard to do.
There were moments I held my breath, and others that I
scolded the screen. There were times that I fervently wished that characters
made different choices – alas, my role could be no more than an unwilling
bystander… unlike the mobs that gathered to denounce refugees back in the
summer of 1992.
There are some eerie similarities to some of the political
rhetoric I’ve heard bandied about in recent times; and that is a very chilling
revelation.
Back to the movie.
I loved the black-and-white as a cinematic choice. It likely
was meant to be metaphorical – and it worked brilliantly.
This is one of those movies that stirs something inside you
and leaves you changed once you’ve watched it – and then you never want to see
it again. That’s where I am right now. The roll of credits found me in solemn
and silent awe. I didn’t like the feeling I was left with.
The film was very effective getting its message across.
I doubt that school boards would allow it, but this movie
quite possibly would be a good teaching tool to highlight mob mentality as well
as a number of other societal issues; not to mention the inherent history
lesson.
The film was powerful and I hated it – in the best way.
Languages
Speech Available:
German, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, French
Subtitles Available:
English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Spanish
Actors: Roy
Abramsohn, Eli Jane, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Jack Dalton, Danielle
Safady, Annet Mahendru, Lee Armstrong, Kimberly Ables Jindra, Trey Loney, Amy
Lucas, Alison Lees-Taylor, Jakob Salvati
After Jim loses his job on the last day of a family vacation
in Disney World, he begins to get paranoid and depressed. That’s when things
from his point of view begin to go a little haywire.
I have never in my life seen a movie so completely pointless
as Escape from Tomorrow. It was like
something straight out of The ABCs of
Death. It was creepy, disgusting and borderline unbearable. I can’t say
anything else about it.
I get the social commentary, I do. I just don’t understand
why the message couldn’t have been said in an even semi-entertaining way.
Although I’ll never forget this film, I’ll always wish I
could.
