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Reviews
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)
Made me cry, impressive accuracy
I saw this film with a panel discussion with the real hero of the story, Chickie Donogue, and the director/writer Peter Farrelly. I thought the movie was beautiful and funny and moving, and I cried quite a bit. A fresh take on the war with an almost Alice in Wonderland feel, as this civilian finds himself in the middle of battle, in a world he could never have conceived, and his convictions are smashed by the truth of what was going on. The characters, all based on real people, seem ultra-authentic. Great acting, great directing. A great small-but-impactful performance by Bill Murray as the bar owner.
During the discussion they mentioned that almost everything filmed really did take place (with the exception of one dramatic scene, which was inserted to show the true scope of CIA war crimes) and the costuming and sets were made to exactly match Vietnam in 1967, the military uniforms, etc. Much care went into the production, and it shows.
The story is incredible, and this is a welcome addition to the roster of Vietnam war genre films, holding its own with the best of them.
I was surprised I had not heard of this until hearing about the panel discussion (on a college campus). An overlooked film that I hope gets its due eventually.
Hillary (2020)
It's all true
An entertaining doc that moves quickly and is a master class in how the public can be duped over and over and over. That's the real theme.
Anyone can fact check this doc pretty easily. It's all true. Should be required viewing for all Americans.
Content aside, it's extremely well done and an enjoyable watch. With each episode I was eager to start the next one.
The Invisible Man (2020)
Superb horror/thriller
This is a near perfect horror/thriller, with little excess and an intricate plot that fits its pieces together perfectly. Beautifully acted, a great score, real scares.
Anyone bashing this movie must be on the same page as the invisible man: narcissistic sociopaths who hate how this movie plays out.
F Is for Family (2015)
As bad as it gets
No jokes. Cliche storylines. Horrible drawings. Terrible animation.
There is no way the high ranking on this is real. More Hollywood illusion.
Mister America (2019)
A portrait of psychological pathology
This film is a part of the "On Cinema at the Cinema" universe (podcast, Adult Swim series, many spin-offs), but it holds its own even without the background stories. (For those interested, there is a primer called "Road to Mister America - 10 Minute History of On Cinema" on YouTube.)
The mock documentary covers a run by Tim Heidecker (in character) for the office of D.A. in a small town, almost entirely for the purpose of taking down the D.A. who attempted to prosecute him for murder, for which he was let off by a hung jury.
The genius of this film is the exquisitely drawn portraits of characters drowning in their neuroses. In the case of the two stars, Heidecker is the overt narcissist (we are talking textbook), Gregg Turkington the almost-sweet covert narcissist-cum-middle-age-incel. Like all great comedic portraits of psychological pathology (Eric Cartman, the Bluth family, Fleabag) the performers thread the needle that has the audience not only wanting to hang out with these guys, but feeling great affection for them despite the awfulness of it all. Terri Parks, as Toni Newman, fits right in as she matches the subtle awkwardness of Heidecker and Turkington's fumbling human interactions that make up much of the humor.
Like "Nathan For You" and "Between Two Ferns," series that also ultimately produced great movie-length projects, this is small-scale, ultra-human humor, and if you don't recognize these characters all around you or see them in yourself (I myself am part Gregg), the humor may zip over your head. Shout-out to the movie critics they are lambasting!
Bitter Moon (1992)
Cheesy and cringe-y
This movie is as cheesy as a house-band on a cruise ship covering Lionel Richie's "Hello." The sex scenes are supposed to be daring but are eye-rolling, Peter Coyote can't act his way out of a wet paper vomit bag, and the story is told at the level of a made-for-TV movie.
Proof that others had a big hand in Polanski's better works. No great director (think Kubrick, Scorsese, even Spielberg) could come out with something as low-quality as this.
The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011)
Insulting AND sloppy
This is the kind of early film that gets one into the big time in Hollywood, apparently. See "Burning Palms" for another. Be offensive to the extreme but shield yourself with a thin veil of demented comedy and/or a supposed altruistic message.
The writer/director is trying to flip the roles of family abuse, but giving it a veneer of winking comedy (so odd) and choosing to make the family black when the writer/director is white are both choices that should insult and offend. I'm not PC, but this is ridiculous. WHY use black actors for such a humiliating story, knowing the climate in Hollywood and lack of good all-black storytelling? Why, as a white guy, would you do that?
There is something sadistic underneath the making of this film that bleeds through. You can feel the director getting off on this under the guise of being a brave truth-teller. The average person who is not a Weinstein-like Hollywood exec is not buying this.
And P.S., it is not well executed anyway. Sloppy, badly directed.
Hereditary (2018)
Overrated, natch
There was something around the hype of this movie that seemed fake, and you knew the critics would fall in line, scared to be wrong. There are so many useless film critics out there, it's predictable. This is not a terrible movie, it's just very flawed and shamefully undercooked.
The good: The special effects scares are great, the daughter is great but underused, the story has potential and is somewhat interesting.
The bad: The director threw in everything but the kitchen sink as far as plot, the film needs editing (not just cuts, but an entire re-edit), the son is totally miscast and his physical differences from the rest of the family take you further out of the movie, some mediocre acting by son and father that brings the film down. The whole film needed tightening up. Maybe make sure these young guys (who all look the same, you may notice) get a bit more experience in movie production before you hand them a multimillion dollar project, movie execs?
Burning Palms (2010)
Bad in every imaginable way, everything that's wrong with Hollywood
Let's start with: Two caricatured gay men adopt an extremely young little black girl, and she ends up making tribal sounds and chucking a spear at an animal out of "instinct." They also joke about fingering her. BONUS: She is left for hours in a car on a hot day and ingests crystal meth, all in the name of comedy.
And there is so much more! So if you find that funny, this is for you. If you are older than eight and have more than a few neurons firing, you will hate this movie.
It's not even just the content. The directing is bad-TV-movie level stuff, the pace is off, the music is low rent, the dialogue is as bad as it gets.
That this writer/director (son of a person who used to be famous, natch) was then given future projects is everything that is wrong with Hollywood. It is impossible to imagine that Landon has accumulated much taste or talent, and no doubt qualified people collectively working on his films are carrying his career. Pathetic.