I’ve always been a fan of movies that examine how deaths can affect the ones we love and how it can create a pretty significant ripple. “Suck It Up” is a bit of “Garden State,” and “Ordinary People” mixed with mumblecore here and there. While I appreciate director Jordan Canning’s efforts to create this drama about how the death of one of the more important people in their lives affected them drastically, the script from Julia Hoff seems to be almost bereft of drama to the point where scenes just stretch out in to nothingness. There are a lot of really drawn out moments where almost nothing happens. In brief scenes where Canning tackles the dynamic between our characters Ronnie and Faye, “Suck It Up” presents only slight glimmers of an emotional character study.
Daniel Blake Smith – An Indie Artist
Daniel Blake Smith is an award-winning filmmaker at home in nonfiction and narrative genres. He wrote and co-produced the PBS-aired ”February One,” a documentary about the 1960 Greensboro, N.C., lunch counter sit-in that helped launch the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and two prize-winning documentaries (both narrated by film star James Earl Jones) about Native American life: “Cherokee Legacy: The Trail of Tears,” and “Black Indians: An American Story.” Smith’s documentary biopic about Edgar Allan Poe (“Terror of the Soul”), starring John Heard and Treat Williams with music by Philip Glass, aired on PBS’ “American Masters” series, and his documentary “Kentucky—An American Story” (narrated by Ashley Judd) aired on Kentucky Educational Television. He wrote and produced the 2016 drama “Texas Heart” starring John Savage. In this episode, Dr. Smith (he also has a Ph.D from of Virginia) talks about his distinguished cinema career.
XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017)
Yes, believe it or not, the “XXX” movies now have a mythology. And a back story. And supporting characters. Now that America has officially found the “Jason Bourne” series a bit worn, Vin Diesel makes his return with his clunky and ridiculous “XXX” movie series, reprising his role as the rebellious, bald, smart ass anti-hero Xander Cage. This is a break from playing the rebellious, bald, smart ass anti-hero Dominic Torreto, and the rebellious, bald, smart ass anti-hero Riddick, and–the rebellious, bald, smart ass anti-hero in “Babylon A.D.” After the unwatchable dumpster fire that was “XXX: State of the Union” the studio brings Diesel back to prop up a light reboot and sequel of “XXX” that also opens up a world for more movies of this ilk.
Doobious Sources (2017)
Two pothead slackers running their own “investigative journalism” agency team up with a journalist to take down a prominent political figure and all hell breaks loose. Written by Clif Lord and Tommay Sowards and directed by Lord, the film jumps into the two leads’ investigations without much explanation and just goes for it with the two of them filming everything they do for “behind the scenes” with both of their point of views going back and forth. The way this is written into the story works and so does most of the story, it’s just not all that interesting.
Fucking Bunnies (2016) [Sundance Film Festival 2017]
Director Teemu Niukkanen’s is a dark and demented comedy about living in a place where pretty much anyone can move in next door and how we can rush to judgment too often and brush off some pretty nice people. Thought it’s only a short film, “Fucking Bunnies” could work as a hilarious and twisted feature film about the uneasy friendship between two very different men. Raimo is a middle-aged Finnish man living in the suburbs in an apartment complex in Helsinki. He’s a very settled and tightly wound man who lives his day of monotony joyfully. One day when the new neighbors move in next door, he learns that they are a cult of Satanists that indulge in orgies, and sadism.
The Neon Demon (2016)
Whether or not you like Nicholas Winding Refn, there’s no doubt that he makes art that gets people talking. Surely, his movies are hit or miss, but they are art that spawn emotions that not many directors can incite. Much like Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive,” Winding Refn’s newest masterpiece is a statement about the ills of fame and how Los Angeles can consume innocence and naiveté. Winding Refn makes a statement about how the modeling industry is literally cut throat, while seemingly drawing inspirations from films like “Suspiria.” The women here are assuredly predators intent on committing a devious scheme that revolves around the idea of vanity and self preservation.
Fists of Fury (2017)
The beautiful but deadly Cynthia Rothrock is back with another of Full Moon’s great compilations entitled “Fists of Fury.” At a little over a hundred minutes, “Fists of Fury” features clips to a ton of famous and infamous martial arts films that tackle all kinds of topics far and wide. There’s “Female Fighters,” the funny but awkward “Brucesploitation,” and “Deadliest Weapons,” movies with some of the most unusual and dead weapons in all of action cinema.