Author Archives: Ron

About Ron

I like to watch movies and share my thoughts on them. I have been writing reviews and distributing them since 2013.

Love and Monsters

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Love and Monsters         4 ½ stars

It’s almost Christmas so what better time to see a movie about the end of the world? In the action comedy Love and Monsters we follow the exploits of Joel, a young twenty something man on a journey to be reunited with his high school sweetheart. The only thing is that most of the human population has been wiped out by giant mutant creatures that have infested the planet after multiple rockets were fired into space to destroy a comet that was on a collision course with earth. But the pollution from the rockets resulted in said mutant creatures. Does this sound completely implausible? Yes, but don’t worry about it. Joel leaves his underground colony of fellow citizens on an 85 mile journey across hostile terrain to find his love, Aimee, who he has not seen in seven years. Along the way he is accompanied by a dog named Boy who aids him as he battles some giant carnivorous creatures. So far this sounds like a very tame variation on A Boy and His Dog. (If you haven’t seen the movie from the seventies you should check it out.) This movie, though is very family friendly due to the personality of the star, Dylan O’Brien as Joel. Like any family oriented movie it has a positive message like learning to gain self confidence and to appreciate those we love. It deserves some special recognition for some impressive effects that bring the monsters to life. I didn’t know what to expect when I started the movie, but found it enjoyable. It seemed odd though that there was a near lack of firearms with the humans relying mostly on crossbows, spears and swords for defense. Along with an occasional hand grenade.

Your Monster

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Your Monster    3 stars

Once again, I had the chance to see a film in the theaters that I missed this year at Sundance. Your Monster by first time director Caroline Lindy is a sort of rom-com horror movie for women coming out of a bad relationship. In the movie Laura (Melissa Barrera of 2021’s In the Heights) is an actor and musical theater geek who has been dating Jacob (Edmund Donovan), a theater director for five years and has been helping him with developing his musical production. That is, until Laura is diagnosed with cancer and the douchebag, Jacob decides to leave her. (It is reported that Lindy came up with the story based on her own experience with a douchebag; hence the movie trailer claim: “based on a true-ish story”). With the help of her only friend, Masie (Kayla Foster), Laura moves into her mother’s house and becomes an emotional wreck (an understatement to be sure). It is there that she discovers that there is a rather fearsome looking monster living in her bedroom closet and that he has been there since Laura was a child. The monster is played by Tommy Dewey who is also the executive producer of the movie. At first, Laura is scared to death of this creature, and he wants her out of the house. But since she has no place to go, they tolerate each other and try to work out a living arrangement. As the two become more familiar, the monster, who sports a beard and has a catlike appearance, encourages her to audition for a part in Jacob’s musical and she gives it a try, landing an understudy role for the part that was originally intended for her. Then as things progress, she finds that this monster also has an interest in literature and theater, so the two become a little too close. Eventually, the monster becomes like an inner voice to Laura, making her realize how she has been wronged by Jacob and should find a way to express her feelings. Naturally, things go a little too far with some brutal and bloody consequences, a requirement of most horror movies even if it is a romcom. Most of the movie though has a light feel to it thanks to the numerous musical numbers that could come out of a forties or fifties musical comedy. I thought it was an interesting take on the comedy horror genre, but I found the monster to be a little too perfect for Laura to really buy it. (If he spends all his time in the closet and under the bed, why should he know so much about the outside world after all.) For a better performance by Tommy Dewey, you should see the movie Saturday Night where he plays the head writer of Saturday Night, Michael O’Donoghue. For a more entertaining comedy horror movie I recommend Ginger Snaps which I reviewed last year.

West Side Story

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West Side Story                5 stars

We’ve had a few movie musicals hit the theaters in the past year to great acclaim such as In the Heights and Tick Tick Boom. But December brought us the big one, Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic 1961 West Side Story. This updated version has all the same memorable musical numbers of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim performed to perfection. Add to it the free flowing dance numbers done by ethnically correct actors and an updated take on the racial tensions between the white gang called the Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks and you have a sure hit on your hands. The Romeo and Juliet story brought to the blighted streets of New York requires a young cast and it was filled out with very talented actors. They include Rachel Zegler as the love struck Maria and Ansel Elgort (of Baby Driver) as her lover Tony who have some great chemistry between them. The gang leaders, Bernardo (David Alvarez) and Riff (Mike Faist) bring their race hating contempt to reality in their roles. Ariana DeBose as Anita, the girlfriend of Bernardo has some very energetic performances in “America” and her preaching to Maria about the dangerous path she is taking. Of course the presence of Rita Moreno cannot be missed with the specially created role of Valentina made for her. She was the original Anita in the 1961 version sixty years ago. At the age of 90 she shows that she has still got it. Other than the music I could not remember that much of the original movie (based on the Broadway musical), but the story of the doomed lovers in the setting of a racially tinged gang war is something that is relevant across multiple eras. I hope it is finding a wide audience.

Being the Ricardos

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Being the Ricardos           4 ½ stars

Aaron Sorkin brings his quick pacing, high drama style to the subject of the TV show I Love Lucy in Being the Ricardos. It’s not a true biopic as most of the story takes place in a one week period in a fictionalized take on the lives of married couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as they and the TV show staff produce an episode of the hit TV sitcom that made Ball and Arnaz stars. Nicole Kidman portrays Ball brilliantly as the woman who was a master at creating comedy with her wit and sight gags and Javier Bardem is convincing as the Cuban bandleader who mesmerizes a crowd and is popular with the ladies. Sorkin, the writer and director uses creative license in bringing the red scare accusation against Lucy at the same time that she announces she is pregnant and she suspects that Desi has been cheating on her. The matter of the pregnancy is most memorable as the two insisted that the pregnancy be part of the show against the will of the network and the corporate sponsor. The accusation from Walter Winchell of Lucy being a communist is a reminder of the time period of this film, when Hollywood was racked by such charges. The best part of the movie involves the interaction of the actors and writers as they engage in heated discussions of how to change the script and action to get the most laughs out of the 30 minute episode. It is made clear that every aspect has to meet with Lucille’s approval. The other actors, William Frawley (J. K. Simmons) and Vivian Vance (Nina Arianda) bring their own character and issues to the show. Frawley with his off screen wisecracks and Vance who is uncomfortable playing second fiddle to Ball. Though most of the action focuses on the single week early in the TV’s show’s long run, we also get plenty of background about how Lucy and Desi met and how the movie studio exec’s treated Ball until she got her chance to break through on “I Love Lucy”. Don’t listen to the critics about the casting. Nicole Kidman is completely convincing in bringing Ball’s character to the screen.

Girl Picture

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Girl Picture                                         4 suns

We end on a positive note with Girl Picture, a sort of coming of age movie from Finland. It features three teenage girls who exploring their feelings about love and sex. Two of the girls, Mimmi and Emma, form a new romance with each other without the knowledge of their parents, while the third, Ronkko, is checking out the teen parties in search of satisfying sex. I thought it was a positive portrayal of female relationships where the girls do not depend on the approval of males and are not in threatening situations that are common in so many teen movies. The three actresses in the lead roles has admirable performances.

Dos Estaciones

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Dos Estaciones                                  2 suns

In Dos Estaciones we go to a rural area of Mexico where a tequila factory is owned and operated by Maria. We see the harvesting of the agave plants and the daily operations done by the plant’s workers. The film is a representation of life in the quiet village and of the beautiful landscape of the area. The story is about the struggles Maria is facing to keep the factory operating in the face of a pest infestation and mounting debts. My problem with the movie is that the points are made in such a subtle fashion that I couldn’t really follow it. In the Q&A we learned that small tequila factories have a hard time competing when the cost of the crops keep rising, a point that would have been good to know in the movie. Instead the actions taken by the lead character left me confused because there seemed to be something that was left out. Besides that this had to be one of the slowest paced films I have seen, which is not something that I usually complain about.

The Janes

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The Janes                                            5 suns

We go back to the late sixties and early seventies with The Janes. This impressive documentary tells the story of an underground group of young women in Chicago whose mission it was to allow women to get access to safe abortions at a time when abortions were illegal in nearly every state in the country. It may be hard to remember now, but before abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court in 1973 desperate women who found themselves pregnant went to mob controlled doctors in unsafe settings to have illegal abortions, often with deadly results. This group of about eight women, mostly in their twenties were active in the civil rights movement and other causes, but found that the male dominated activists cared little about women’s causes. Thus, they formed a group they called Jane to aid young women and girls who needed safe abortions. The documentary interviews the women of the group, now in their seventies and eighties, to get their stories and uses archival footage of Chicago and events of the time, giving us a fascinating portrayal of the story. In the Q&A afterwards three of the women show that they are still active and passionate about the causes they are behind. It is also made clear that this issue is still forefront in their minds and the outcome is very much in doubt.

Something In The Dirt

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Something In the Dirt                                                     2 suns

In this story about paranormal activity, Levi has just moved to a new apartment in the Hollywood Hills where he strikes up an acquaintance with long time resident John. Then the two witness the impossible in Levi’s apartment as objects seem to float in the air and light emanates into the room with no source. The dives into endless tangents involving numerology, the Pythagorean Brotherhood, alien fruit, a perfect ratio and long dead city planners as this weird pair of random dudes try to solve the mysteries of the universe. They come up with the idea of making a documentary about the experiences, but their own incompetence gets in the way. Flash forward scenes with interviews of others linked to the documentary lead us to believe that the plan went awry at some point. This low budget movie was made mainly by three close friends in the apartment owned by one of them. It’s a fairly long movie that just is forever following the rabbit hole. It is silly and in the Q&A we learn that at one point the movie was three and a half hours long. We also learn that Something in the Dirt is the fifth movie created by this group of friends. I will not be seeking out their earlier works.

A House Made of Splinters

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A House Made of Splinters                                           4 suns

In the documentary department we travel to eastern Ukraine for a sad story of children in pain. Many children are forced into orphanages as the courts seek to protect them from broken homes brought on by the plague of widespread alcoholism. This problem has only gotten worse with the 2014 war with Russia and the loss of job opportunities created by it. In this documentary the filmmakers go inside one temporary shelter for these kids where they live and are cared for by the social workers while the courts decide whether they can return to their families or be placed in an orphanage. Despite the circumstances this shelter offers protection and some stability to these children who have been neglected at home. The filmmakers focus on four children, both boys and girls, in particular, following their stories as they try to reconcile matters at home. It is especially heartbreaking to see children whose parents do not even make the effort to call or see them.

The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future

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The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future            4 suns

In this drama from Chile we first see a river that has had a fish kill with hundreds of dead fish on the bank. Then a young woman wearing a motorcycle helmet emerges from the river gasping for air. The shifts as we are introduced to a Chilean family including an older man, Enrique, the owner of a dairy farm who was just admitted to the hospital, his son, Bernardo, daughter, Cecilea and Cecelia’s two children. Details emerge about Enrique’s wife, Magdalena who apparently abandoned the family decades ago and the hurt caused by her absence. The when the young woman from the river arrives without speaking she is recognized as Magdalena returned from a mysterious existence meant to change the lives of her family. Though Magdalena is obviously decades younger than Enrique there is little surprise that she has returned. This movie is my personal winner for the day. The arrival of Magdalena brings the prospect of death and tragedy to this family, but then the promise of hope in the face of environmental catastrophe. And there is really a scene that involves a cow singing!