Author Archives: Felix Vasquez

Bugs’ Nemesis Daffy: Daffy Duck’s Five Best Shorts

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Yankee Doodle Daffy (1943)
One of my favorites as a child, this Daffy short was featured on a VHS compilation I watched often. This is, yet again, Daffy tormenting Porky Pig; Porky is a show business agent who goes on vacation and Daffy storms his house with his client Sleepy Lagoon, desperate to convince him to represent him. Despite Porky’s protests about not working, Daffy makes it painfully clear he’s not taking no for an answer. He soon begins chasing him around, stalking him, and even engaging him in a hilarious Carmen Miranda impression. With all the antics, the short ends on a high note with Sleepy fumbling his big solo for Porky. It’s a hilarious high note to end on. 
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Talk to Me (2023)

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Danny and Michael Philippou’s “Talk to Me” really is one of the crowning horror achievements of 2023. It’s one of those horror movies that doesn’t just scare you, but it also leaves a stain on you. That’s because while “Talk to Me” is very much a demonic possession movie, it’s deeply rooted in the concept of the urban folklore that taps in to not only our obsession with death, but our need to know if there’s anything after we’ve died. That’s essentially what fuels pretty much everyone in “Talk to Me”; the twisted porcelain hand reaching out for a grip becomes the sort of Monkey’s Paw or Ouija Board that everyone begins to center their lives on.

It grants them an amazing ability, but one that is easily misused and one that can be exploited. It’s almost a phone extension to the other side where anyone can mine souls for some sort of contact. The problem is we’re never quite sure what kind of souls they’re conjuring up. What becomes such a fascinating drive for these characters is that the use of the film’s mysterious porcelain hand is a plot device that is powerful, but also ambiguous until the very end. Whose hand is it? How old is it? Where does the power come from? Is it meant for good or pure evil? Can it filter out demons?

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The Dark Tower (2017)

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“The Dark Tower” spends ninety minutes telling a story while doing almost nothing but dumping exposition on the audience. And yet, when the movie was over I knew as little about this world coming out than I did going in to it. With films like “Lord of the Rings,” and “Star Wars,” the creators manage to disseminate information and world build while also giving audiences an experience. “The Dark Tower” feels so under-developed and poorly developed, almost feeling like a truncated idea of what kind of movie series “The Dark Tower” was intended to be. I still don’t know what the Dark Tower is. I still don’t know who Roland Deschain is.

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Sorority Row (2009)

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“I Know What You Did Last Homecoming” is the more apt description for “Sorority Row.” It’s a slick horror movie made in 2009 that feels like it was dropped right out of 1998 and I mean that mostly as a compliment. As someone that’s had almost no faith in horror movies centered primarily on nepo babies and flavors of the week, Stewart Hendler’s “Sorority Row” is a shockingly good and entertaining slasher and whodunit that, while not the most thematically faithful remake, still manages to carve out its own niche in the massive library of remakes accrued in the early aughts.

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Jackpot! (2024)

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Now Available for Streaming on Amazon Prime.

Paul Feig’s “Jackpot!” is that horrible, malt-o-meal garbage movie meant mainly to be as edgy as possible without ever really intending to offend anyone. It disguises itself as social satire when really in the end it has zero to say. It’s just a flaccid hundred minutes drag through nonsense and emptiness. No one at any point in this movie seems to be mentally present, including John Cena who often looks a lot more like a walking action figure than anything else. With Feig’s premise you just assume you’d be in the market for a blood soaked science fiction film. At the very least, you’d expect a darkly comic if mean movie about greed and the way the economy has driven in to rabid dogs.

It’s actually a vanilla coming of age story with a premise that’s gradually pushed in to the background over the course of the narrative.

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Interview with Director Spencer Jamison, of “At Capacity”

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Hello, Can you introduce yourself to our readers?
First, thank you for engaging with me and my work.

You’re welcome!

I am Spencer Jamison, a filmmaker born and raised in Richmond, VA. I am the writer, director, and lead of “At Capacity.” I started working professionally as an actor and singer in the theater and film/television as an undergraduate at James Madison University. At my core lives an inner child who found solace in Black sitcoms from the 90s, movie musicals, political action thrillers, and classic romantic comedies. My biggest hope is that the work I create inspires the same kind of wonder and encouragement I received from watching my favorite films, plays, musicals, songs, and television series.

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The Crow (2024)

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I’ve heard of this certain technique Hollywood usually uses as a means of pulling a fast sequel; it’s by taking a script with a similar concept to an already established IP and turning it in to a sequel. “The Crow” feels a lot like that. It feels like a simultaneous cash grab, exploitation of the art of James O’Barr, and downright lazy attempt to maintain the license for “The Crow.” At thirty minutes in, I wondered if at any point anyone on this movie were even trying. At all. This is a non-move. It’s a movie without a presence, or any kind of a soul, or any kind of self awareness. “The Crow’s” only purpose is to gentrify what should have and could have been a touching, eerie, and heartbreaking movie.

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