Blumhouse has found a little niche market in taking classic comedies and turning them in to bonafide horror movies. After “Happy Death Day 2 U,” they take the creaky Disney classic “Freaky Friday” and add a slasher twist to it. Shockingly, it works more times than it doesn’t. Christopher Landon doesn’t just embrace the classic narrative, but he tops it off with a gory slasher movie, and even injects so many LGBTQ overtones that it wouldn’t surprise me if it picked up steam as a LGTBQ classic very soon.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]
David Mamet and James Foley’s adaptation of the stage drama is a remarkable and intense look at a room full of men in various stages of a job where the clock is consistently ticking down. As a salesman, you begin as Al Pacino’s Richard Roma, a slick and swift salesman who is absolutely cut throat. Then the time begins running out and you invariably turn in to Shelley Levene, a man who is desperately trying to keep his job, clinging to one big deal that may or may not save his job.
If Anything Happens I Love You: The Stellar Short That Became an Internet Meme
One of the bigger more interesting memes at Tiktok right now is the “#IfAnythingHappensILoveYouChallenge.” This particular meme involves a person or people filming themselves before and filming themselves after watching “If Anything Happens I Love You” on Netflix. Every video so far has shown each viewer beginning the movie with a nervous smirk and closing the video with teary eyes. Some of the users are nearly inconsolable afterward. If you didn’t think a short film could legitimately derive so many emotions from viewers, well them you probably have never seen “If Anything Happens I Love You.”
The Adventurers of Modern Art (2015) [Blu-ray/DVD]
The modern art movement took root in early 20th century Paris among a motley collection of iconoclastic personalities who sought to expand on the Impressionist breakthroughs of the late 19th century with bold, eccentric and often outlandish visions that gave birth to Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. This mix of visual artists, poets and intellectuals worked their way out of poverty and obscurity, supported along the way by energetic art dealers, collectors and gallery owners who put value in their works.
The Wind Rises (2013) [Blu-Ray/DVD]
It’s apropos and yet somewhat inexplicable that Hayao Miyazaki would end his career on one what is easily his most divisive film. Miyazaki has spent so much of his career delivering masterpieces of animation that discuss the horrible fall out of war, destruction of the environment, and war machines. So it’s absolutely confounding that Miyazaki takes a more objective approach to Jirô Horikoshi and his creation of what would become certified weapons of war.
The Orange Years: The Nickelodeon Story (2020)
If you have to ask, then you’ll never understand how big and important Nickelodeon was, once upon a time. For many, “The Orange Years” from Scott Barber and Adam Sweeney might feel like yet another bit of 90’s nostalgia for Millennials, but the documentary is a look at television, its history and how Nickelodeon blazed a trail for a massive industry, and set a precedent that many studios would aspire to topple.
Girl (2020)
Director/Writer Chad Faust really knows what he’s doing in “Girl,” as he places a lot of the film’s weight on star Bella Thorne. Thorne is an underrated actress that’s been stuck in a lot of terrible movies, but when she’s paired with the right director, she gives performances like the one we see in “Girl.” Star Thorne carries what’s just an okay movie that feels like it aspires too eagerly to be held in the class of other backwoods dramas like 2010’s “Winter’s Bone.”