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.

Backrooms

Backrooms          2 ½ stars

I went to see the new horror film Backrooms after seeing the trailer and have to say it is one of the most unusual horror movies I remember seeing and maybe the most unsettling. It’s amazing how scenes of empty rooms or hallways with a few ordinary objects can cause terror but the maker of the movie, Kane Parsons somehow pulls it off. We meet Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)), the owner of a discount furniture store in 1990 who has a temper and is going through a difficult time after his wife has kicked him out of the house. He has sessions with his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value, The Worst Person in the World)), who is trying to help him through his anger issues. Clark has been having electrical problems with the lights in the store turning on and off. An electrician has found some mysterious switches in the store’s lower level that should not be there. One night while sleeping in the store Clark discovers a hidden doorway below ground level and falls through it. There he finds a lit-up room that contains a pile of various furniture that looks very haphazardly arranged. He ventures further and finds hallways and rooms that seem to stretch endlessly, some lit and others dark. The walls are constructed in a way that makes no sense and in places the floor is slanted up or down to a small opening that a person can only crawl through it. In places there is furniture and other objects embedded in the floor or walls. Some places appear clean while others appear to be decaying and dirty. At one point we get a view of a man monitoring Clark on a closed-circuit TV without explanation. Eventually, Clark makes his way back to the doorway and tells others about the mysterious discovery. Among them is Mary who only halfway believes Clark after he sketches out what he thinks he saw. (Now, Mary has had her own problems having grown up with an unfit mother who kept her from going outdoors, so she has issues herself.) Later, when Clark doesn’t show up, Mary goes looking for him at the furniture store only to discover the secret door herself and enter this strange world. I won’t go into what happens to both of them, but what follows can be described as equally troubling and terrifying. There are more than inanimate objects down there. There are beings that may not be entirely human. We never find out what this place is about, but it is described as a minimized version of what places are. The place is like having a dream where you can only halfway remember what is there. Don’t expect there to be any resolution to the situation. I think the point is to make something beyond creepy for the viewer. If that is the point, it succeeds, but the movie is short on plot at best. The director, 20-year-old Kane Parsons, has never made a movie before and is known for making creepy YouTube videos as a teenager. Somehow, he got the backing to make this movie with studio A24 using A-list stars. Given the lack of resolution, I can’t say I enjoyed it. It is more like an extended version of a Twilight Zone episode than a movie. I will say that the production design team must have had a ball designing the sets for it. They outdid themselves at every turn. There is talk of Parsons making this into a series of movies in the future. I am sure he is full of more ideas.

Selah and the Spades

Selah and the Spades.      4 stars

One movie that was something of a surprise is Selah and the Spades. It was written and directed by a very young filmmaker named Tayarisha Poe who is probably all of 28. She was present for the Q&A afterwards. The story takes place is an exclusive boarding school where the students are self divided into 5 different factions that each perform their own illicit activity. Selah, a seventeen year old African American girl is the leader of the Spades, the faction that supplies the illegal drugs to students. Since she is a senior she needs to find her successor before graduation. She finds Paloma, a new student who has transferred into the school and believes she is good material for a Spade. There is plenty of mean girl activity and power plays and betrayals in the time that follows that culminates in a conflict at an unsponsored school prom that will test the characters` loyalty and trust to one another. For someone that is so young I was very impressed by the quality of the final product. The director had been working on the idea since she was in college. I only hope to hear more of her work in coming years.

Velvet Buzzsaw

Velvet Buzzsaw.     4 stars

Of the films I saw today the one that probably has the widest audience appeal is Velvet Buzzsaw. This is a satire thriller that absolutely skewers the art world with its representation of the pretensions of artists, critics, buyers and museum curators and the greed infecting these people. The film seems like a big budget Hollywood movie with its A list stars and big sets in Los Angeles. Cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, Billy Magnussen and John Malkovich. Since it is a satire, I am not sure how many people might like it. Some of the comedy is a bit high brow, but at the same time it’s also a silly comedy. I can’t go into detail on why it’s so silly without giving away the plot, but suffice it to say the greed of many of the characters gets the best of them in highly unusual ways. The satirical nature of the movie can be compared to The Death of Stalin and Vice, two recent movies that if you liked might mean you would like Velvet Buzzsaw. It was one of the better comedies I have seen at Sundance. I hope it will do well in theaters.

Give Me Liberty

Give Me Liberty.      3 1/2 stars

Give Me Liberty is a comedy that I saw on the first night of Sundance. This film by a Russian-American follows a young Russian-American man through a single day as he drives a van for elderly and disabled people. His job has to be one of the toughest jobs there is as he personally has to move people, move obstacles and sometimes persuade his customers to cooperate. On top of that he has an impatient boss and there is a riot going on in his normal route. He faces many challenges that have a comedic quality and also has to deal with problems from his own family. At the same time that the story is unfolding, the film shows us issues of life including life for the disabled and the racial divisions that are the reality of urban living. It was filmed in Milwaukee and uses many untrained actors who are local residents of the area. It was not one that was on my must see list, but I am glad for having the chance to see it.

Always in Season

Always in Season.        4 stars

Always in Season is a documentary about the lynchings of black people in America both in the past and present day. The African-American filmmaker has been developing the documentary for the past ten years that follows the history of these lynchings over the past hundred years or more. By chance a seventeen year black boy was found hanged in a rural area of North Carolina in 2014. The incident was classified as a suicide by the local investigators but it had all the signs of a murder.  Most of the film focuses on this case where Lennon Lacy, a football player nearing graduation said goodbye to his mother, stepped outside and was found hanged only two hours later. The film includes interviews with his mother, Claudia and his brother who are not satisfied with the ruling of the local authorities and want answers. The filmmaker gradually puts together more facts about the case that just beg for more investigation. The film continues with background on past lynchings from the 30’s and 40’s that have gone unsolved. One town in Georgia now has lynching reenactments of an incident where two young couples were murdered including a pregnant woman. The involvement of the Ku Klux Klan figures prominently in the movie. Racist views are expressed by some white figures, but others are committed to telling the truth so that these practices are not forgotten. The filmmaker, other staff and Lennon`s family were present for the Q & A, so the pain of the case still feels raw.  Always in Season makes clear that racism in alive and well in America.

I Love Boosters

I Love Boosters                 4 stars

When I saw that the new film, I Love Boosters, was written and directed by Boots Riley, I knew that I had to see it. His first film Sorry To Bother You was at Sundance in 2018 and was a big hit. It was an absurd comedy starring LaKeith Stanfield that attacked the corporate structure of America and our class society. His second film is equally absurd and takes on the high fashion industry while glamourizing aspects of our criminal society. It stars Keke Palmer (One of Them Days, Nope, Alice) as Corvette who while out clubbing one night meets a man (LaKeith Stanfield (Judas and The Black Messiah)) and invites him back to her place. He doesn’t get what he is expecting though, since Corvette isn’t interested in sex. She wants to sell him some expensive clothes. (He does get some new shoes for his trouble.) You see, Corvette is in the business of Boosting. She, along with her two partners Sade (Naomi Ackie (Sorry, Baby and The Thursday Murder Club)) and Mariah (Taylor Paige (Zola)), (known as The Velvet Gang) seek out high-end fashion stores, steal expensive clothing and shoes and resell them to their customers at a deep discount. They have a particular interest in fashion magnate Christie Smith (Demi Moore of The Substance) who has a chain of stores for her fashion designs. Corvette sees herself as a fashion designer and wants revenge on Smith for stealing one of her designs, an outfit that has flaps on the arms and legs. The gang comes up with a plan to get jobs at one of Smith’s stores where they will rob the entire store on their lunch break. The store manager (Will Poulter) is very self-obsessed, talks down to his employees and makes them pay for their uniforms. But then someone else beats them to it and instantly removes the entire inventory of the store. This is where the movie becomes absurd. The gang catches up to the new robber, Jianhu (Poppy Liu of Hacks) who is Chinese and in possession of a transporter device developed by the Chinese government that she has stolen and has been using to transport the clothes back to China where they were originally made. Jianhu is doing this to stand up for the Chinese workers in the garment plants and against the owners and Christie Smith. So, Corvette realizes that they can all work together against their common enemy. After this point things get increasingly bizarre as it turns out the transporter can also transform things and people into an exaggerated form of themselves, leading to some very strange occurrences. There is also a skyscraper built at an angle creating slanted floors, making walking very difficult. There is a line of clothes from Smith called the hundred-thousand-dollar suits or skin suits that requires the wearers to have their skin removed to wear them and then there is the demon who is an expert in cunnilingus. Riley puts all this in the form of absurd comedy while also making a statement about workers’ rights and the injustice of the corporate culture of the fashion industry. This is the second movie I’ve seen this year attacking the high fashion world, the other being Mother Mary. The dialogue of the movie is very street urban and along with the type of comedy, bordering on slapstick, may not be for everyone. The name of the movie, I Love Boosters, was actually from a song written by Boots Riley a few years ago that sang praises to people who steal clothing and sell it to the less fortunate, portraying them as a modern Robin Hood. Obviously, Riley has had issues of race and social inequality on his mind for a long time. He has put them on display here in some very funny and odd set pieces.

Flamin’ Hot

Flamin’ Hot         2 ½ stars

A few years ago, we saw the release of Flamin’ Hot, a movie about the inventor of a new flavor of Frito Lays Cheetos, matching the name of the movie. Although I had heard of the film at the time I hadn’t seen it until now. It tells the story about Richard Montañez, a poor, young Mexican-American man trying to support a family who snagged a job at the local Frito Lay plant in the early eighties as a janitor and then had and sold the idea of making a new, spicy flavor of Cheetos that came to be known as Flamin’ Hot. This is another of the corporate success movies that have shown up in recent years, like Air, Tetris and Blackberry that tell of the people behind a successful product. It is also the directorial debut of Eva Longoria who you may recognize from TV shows like Only Murders in the Building and Desperate Housewives. There are appealing things about Flamin’ Hot like the enthusiasm of the main character, Richard (Jesse Garcia) and his never say quit attitude toward his mission to save the jobs of those who work in the factory and his love of family. His story is inspirational as he goes against the protocol of the corporate structure to try to sell his idea of a product that would appeal to the Hispanic community despite his being just a janitor. Unfortunately, according to a few sources the story is mostly untrue with events in the movie being exaggerated. Parts of the movie I found corny like the narration that Garcia gives and scenes where the executives speak like Mexican fighting cholos voiced by Garcia. Though parts of the movie were entertaining, I couldn’t lose sight of the fact that it was selling a story of identity consumerism that apparently is not quite true. The movie earned an Academy Award Nomination for Original Song for “The Fire Inside” in 2024.

Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil                       5 stars

I recently viewed Orson Welles’ classic film about an ethical lawman facing off against a corrupt police captain, Touch of Evil, starring Charton Heston as Mike Vargas, the Mexican drug enforcement officer, and Welles as Hank Quinlan, the corrupt American police captain. It is a film full of notable performances but is equally known for Welles’ inventive ways of filming shots and for its labyrinthine plot. It’s important to note that I saw the restored version that was made in 1998 based on the extensive notes that Welles wrote after his disappointment with the edited version that the studio released in 1958. The story takes place in and around a Mexican-American border town with rundown storefronts, hotels and brothels. In one of Hollywood’s best known long takes we follow a doomed car with a planted bomb driven by a wealthy American through the streets of the town for 3 minutes and 20 seconds before it finally explodes. (In the restored version we hear the sounds of the street and background music instead of the theme music the studio used.) The investigation is led by the very heavy and alcoholic Quinlan with bystander Vargas inconveniently inserting himself into the case. Vargas’ new American wife, Susan (Janet Leigh) is accompanying him and eventually finds herself the subject of attention of a local gang. The story becomes rather complicated but basically involves Quinlan trying to frame the car bomb crime on a local Mexican boy with Vargas getting in the way, then Quinlan getting revenge by setting up Vargas and his wife to take the blame for murder and drug crimes. With the longer restored version the plot becomes easier to follow than in the original studio version. As the plot progresses, the drunken Quinlan, who has a history of faking evidence, becomes more obsessed and reckless with a scheme to stop Vargas. Toward the end of the movie in a scene with a fortune-telling madam (Marlene Dietrich), Quinlan asks, “Come on, read my future for me.” She responds prophetically, “You haven’t got any.” Quinlan is racist and has contempt for the local Mexicans he encounters. My only criticism is that Heston does not make a convincing Mexican. He has only a couple of short lines spoken in Spanish. Otherwise, Touch of Evil is a masterpiece by Welles and his cinematographer, Russell Metty. They implement multiple tracking shots with a moving camera in Welles’ innovative style. Two other notable appearances are Zsa Zsa Gabor as a strip club owner and Dennis Weaver as a very odd night clerk at a seedy motel. The film was named the best picture at the 1958 Brussels World Fair, but got even more recognition much later from film critics in the late 1990’s. If you can find it be sure it is the 1998 restored version. You will be pleased.

The Edge of Democracy

The Edge of Democracy.   Five suns!

The most interesting film of the bunch had to be The Edge of Democracy,  by a young Portuguese director,  Petra Costa that covers the political conflicts that have plagued Brazil over the past couple of decades.  She covers the rise of the Labor movement that challenged the military dictatorship in the seventies and succeeded in many reforms that lifted much of the population out of poverty,  followed by a backlash that now finds the contractors and oligarchs back in control of the government.  Costa has close connections to both sides of the conflict as her grandparents were among the contractors that benefited from government connections and both her parents were active revolutionaries that opposed the ruling elite and sought to change things through political pressure. The film gives us a dramatic picture of the polarization of the politics of the country that mirrors that of many countries including especially our own.  And it leaves us wondering where is it all going to lead.  Petra benefited from much access to both presidents Lula Da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, who were of the labor party and have been removed from power by questionable legal means. The movie gives us the stark message that the rich and the powerful will always seek and find ways to advance their own interests at the cost of the working people.

Vice

Vice                                       4 stars

In what has to be one of the zaniest movies of the year screenwriter Adam McKay and actor Christian Bale take on a biopic of Vice-President Dick Cheney, following him from a drunk and college drop out to becoming the most powerful man in the world as the VP to George W. Bush.  Bale does an amazing job of immersing himself in the part, gaining over 40 pounds to become the short speckles wearing Cheney.  He has the speech patterns and mannerisms down perfectly.  The film takes us through many decades as Cheney takes an assignment working for Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell), becomes Chief of Staff for President Ford, Secretary of Defense for President George H. W. Bush and finally the VP to George W. Bush (Sam Rockwell in another great performance)  The film does an outlandish take on everything you may remember from the Bush administration, the Iraq war, the surveillance of US citizens, the enhanced interrogation techniques and the black sites for holding prisoners.  We see how he took control of the situation during 9/11 while Bush was still on Air Force One.  Cheney’s brashness is sometimes shown in comedic fashion as he doesn’t hesitate tell others what needs to be done.  Especially enlightening is his conversation with Bush before he accepts the nomination when he suggests that the Vice President take care of mundane things like foreign policy, intelligence, budgetary matters and defense leaving the president take handle the important things.  The film also takes time to show a softer side of him in the moments with his wife Lynne (Amy Adams, which you have to see) and his two daughters.  He even handles Mary’s coming out as gay well.  Though it is mostly a comedy, it leaves us something to contemplate as it alludes to the current administration and how it is that we have reached this point in history.  Look for Vice to get substantial attention this awards season.