A woman finds herself in physical rehab after a major skiing accident; there she heals from this accident and from her past relationship with her wild ex. Written by Etienne Comar and Maïwenn with the latter directing as well, the story of “Mon Roi” follows a woman going through a good part of her life led by her love and passion for a man who may very well be quite destructive. As she works on being able to walk again, literally and metaphorically, her past is seen through a series of long flashbacks. This is handled in a way that works perfectly here, showing her life basically from the moment she met him and keeping these long flashbacks in chronological order. This actually leads to almost forgetting that the main character is thinking back on these moments until these scenes at the rehabilitation center become longer.
This Little Light of Mine: The Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer (2015)
Among the many heroes of the civil rights movement, Fannie Lou Hamer stands out as a burst of spirit and power in the face of unthinkable forces. Robin N. Hamilton’s documentary short offers a brief yet effective portrait of a woman who rose from the poverty of Mississippi sharecropping to challenging the Democratic Party’s embrace of racist politics.
12 Deadly Days (YouTube Red)
From Youtube Red and Blumhouse comes, “12 Deadly Days” a limited horror comedy anthology centered on pretty much every element of traditional Christmas. The series overall isn’t perfect, but it’s a good, entertaining horror anthology that works around the format of interwoven stories in a particular universe. “12 Deadly Days” and its formula feel very similar to that of “Trick r Treat” where every story’s end is the beginning of a new tale and situation. The first episode is easily the best of the trio of episodes I was sent, as it’s a fun twist on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Set in modern times, billionaire Scrooge begins getting haunted by a ghost and calls in a pair of ghost hunters known as The Cratchit Brothers.
David Brent: Life on the Road (2016)
What makes David Brent the ultimate creation of Ricky Gervais is that we can all relate to him. We have all at one time in our lives been David Brent. All of us want to be liked, and accepted, and appreciated. We all want friends, and family, and some place to call home. We all have something we want to offer the world, and some kind of unfulfilled desire that we wish we could bring out for everyone to see. Ricky Gervais’ “Life on the Road” is a great sequel to the original BBC “The Office” but thankfully it’s not a movie you have to have seen the show to understand. While there are a ton of mentions of the original series, “Life on the Road” is about Gervais’ anti-hero, the man known as David Brent who has spent most of his life chasing the idea of being liked and accepted, but has no idea how to achieve it.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016)
It’s about time Hollywood started admitting that Nia Vardalos is a one trick pony. After her wildly successful vanilla sitcom romantic comedy in 2002, she returns to the original premise fourteen years later. After many more failed cinematic vehicles, and a really embarrassing attempt to turn her movie in to an actual Television sitcom, Vardalos goes back to the well to deliver what feels like a pitch for another sitcom. Or maybe a TV drama comedy, since sitcoms are so passé and old fashioned. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” is a painfully contrived and moronic sequel that takes everything that was likable about these characters and turns them in to shrill and obnoxious plot devices.
Turnabout (2016)
If Richard Linklater and Neil Labute got together to write a movie, you’d pretty much get E.B. Hughes’ stellar drama “Turnabout.” While E.B. Hughes sums up the film quite simplistically in most of the press materials, “Turnabout” will very much surprise anyone going in to it expecting a drama about a suicidal man and his long lost friend. “Turnabout” feels a lot like Linklater’s “Tape” except so much wider in scope, in the end. While director Hughes starts “Turnabout” like something of a man experiencing a revelation, he injects small doses of menace here and there to completely undercut every expectation we have when the film begins.
Black Christmas (1974): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]
It’s about time the world has caught up with “Black Christmas” and (thanks to Shout!) given it the proper treatment it’s always deserved. What is arguably one of the first slasher films ever made was always out of print and hard to find while “Halloween” was granted various editions of VHS, and DVD. While “Halloween” is a masterpiece, “Black Christmas” is far more superior. It works as a slasher film, a mystery, a dark comedy, and is genuinely spine tingling in a movie draped in Christmas ephemera. It’s surprising since the tone for “Black Christmas” is almost the same tone from his other Christmas classic “A Christmas Story.” Yet director Bob Clark really never misses a beat, offering up a very scary tale about an inexplicable maniac wreaking havoc on a small neighborhood during the holidays.