A few weeks ago, at MoPA in San Diego, a group of filmmakers working under the production banner of 2AM Burrito and their friends gathered to screen their most recent shorts. It was an evening with red carpet and cast and crew in attendance. Without further ado, here is what I thought of each short presented.
Michael Dougherty is brilliant at completely rethinking and reformatting our image of popular holidays and the lore the masses have subscribed to for centuries. After doing an amazing job with Halloween, Dougherty tackles Christmas with what is easily one of the most demented holiday horror films ever made. “Krampus” is an intelligent horror comedy based around the lunacy of the holiday and how the hollow rituals and traditions practiced can build a sense of cynicism and pure hatred for what is supposed to be a fine time of year.
It’s very satisfying to see a director who understands Superman and gets the ideals and goals he strives for. Sure he’s a super man with god like abilities, but it’s not his place to bend humans to his will and make them follow his desires. At the end of the day, Superman understands the fragility of humanity, and he also comprehends that despite being a hero that’s taken on gods, and aliens, even the smaller problems count from time to time. Sarah is on her way out of the city set to venture out on her own and isn’t intent on going back home any time soon. While sitting in the park, she’s approached by a seemingly mundane bespectacled man in a blue suit who explains he’s a reporter.
She can’t understand why she’s so important, but the reporter is insistent and is abler to charm her enough to where she can open up to him for his “interview.” Director and writer Thomas spends the majority of the short film defining Superman and exploring common questions and themes that have alluded many people for decades about the character. Who else to understand Superman than Metropolis’ ace reporter Clark Kent? Soon enough, the pair are discussing the idea of beings with powers, humanity, and how we all matter in the scope of life, no matter how minute our problems may seem in the long run.
Erin Brown Thomas and John Nagle perform very well, providing fantastic chemistry and conveying the dynamic of wayward youth and wise hero well. John Nagle is the perfect Clark Kent and might even be a bang up Superman, presenting an excellent amount of humility and empathy to make him a noble crusader, even when he’s simply sitting around in a suit and tie. Thomas has a small budget to work with but aspires for larger than life storytelling, emulating the awe inspiring more misunderstood traits of Superman and conveying that it doesn’t take an actual superhero to change someone’s life and steer them in to promise and success. I hope we see more from Jake Thomas very soon. Hell, I’d even love to see him tackle Superman yet again.
JJ Abrams has a lot of work to accomplish with “The Force Awakens,” removing the stigma and stench the series has accumulated over the years with the release of the “Star Wars” film prequels, the constant re-editing and changes to the original films, and so much more. “The Force Awakens” actively works as a rebuttal to the aforementioned legacy set, unleashing a film that’s very down to Earth and celebratory of the original trilogy as a whole. It not only musters up a lot of the tropes from the original trilogy, but acts as a launch pad for a massive movie series that Lucasfilm and Disney are planning for a very long stretch. While some have criticized the film for recycling some elements from “A New Hope,” Abrams fully understands what he’s working with, and working on, and uses “The Force Awakens” as a massive doorway accessible to literally anyone.
Once again DC Comics advertises a throwdown between titans that doesn’t totally deliver. True, the two teams of old and young battle, but it’s under wild circumstances, and it’s only a two minute bout at best. Sam Liu’s film should have been called “Teen Titans” and been done with it, but how else to cash in on “Batman v Superman,” I guess? The film is primarily centered around the building of the Teen Titans and their dynamics as a whole. The movie channels both the original animated series, and the cult classic “Young Justice” to offer up a movie that I wish would begin a new series of more exciting movies, showing how these teens have to work and fight in a world dominated by basic gods. That said, “Justice League vs. Teen Titans” isn’t a bad film, despite the criticisms and observations. It’s a very fine action adventure that focuses on the interesting interplay between Robin and Raven.
Say what you want about Bob Balaban’s horror comedy “My Boyfriend’s Back,” but it’s one of the more pleasant and twisted films to ever come out of the nineties. This was a decade where horror almost died, and what horror there was was deadly serious. “My Boyfriend’s Back” is a funny and sometimes demented take on acceptance with Andrew Lowery giving a bang up performance as Johnny Dingle. Dingle is a love starved high schooler who has the deepest affections for his lifelong love Missy McCloud. To win her heart, he stages a fake grocery store robbery to save her, but things go awry when an actual robbery ensues, and Johnny is murdered. Mysteriously, he comes back from the dead and is told that he can lurk around, but only in the confines of the town cemetery.
It’s going to be a long wait until season three of “Star Wars: Rebels,” my friends. And if you had to peg where the finale falls under, I’d say this is the “Empire Strikes Back” of all “Star Wars Rebels” season finales as it is an amazing close to what has been a turbulent sophomore season. Not only have our heroes experienced a massive loss, but the empire is more certain than ever, there might be a female sith lord, and our young hero Ezra has no lightsaber and is strongly considering becoming a sith lord. It’s almost too easy for Ezra to be seduced to the darkside because, like Anakin, he’s desperate to prove himself and feels his master Kanan doesn’t have confidence in him.