Sci-fi & horror fuse to dulling effect in underwhelming "Affection"

A woman (Jessica Roth) living in an isolated house in the country experiences seizures while questioning the identity of her husband (Joseph Cross) and her daughter (Julianna Layne). When her existence is further disturbed by horrific visions, she begins to connect the dots.

BT Meza's film reeks of low budget limitations: three actors (in total) limited to one vast, unimaginative location. Given those restraints, his screenplay really needed to be spectacular. The problem: it isn't. Not even close. Convoluted, poorly cast, and directed without a single flair for true horror, the movie feels way too long, even at 89 minutes. It's the kind of project that gives independent filmmaking a bad name. 

At length, Affection is so half-baked and uninspired that its greatest feat is that it was made at all. As to what audience it's actually for, that remains to be seen.

☆1/2
 

"Masters'" charms do not lie with its extravagance - but with characters and wit

 

It took me a while to finally figure out that it was Jared Leto who voices the sadistic villain Skeletor in this new remake of mattel's Masters of the Universe. Well, I didn't really figure it out; I kind of googled it, at the last minute. Oh well. Either way, Leto is having a lot of fun in the role, and it shows. Luckily for us, he isn't the only one.

Newcomer Nicholas Galitzine dons the prince Adam role. He not only looks the part, but embodies all the charm and warm persona that defines the character as we who've grown up with the original cartoon and line of toys have come to know. Ironically, this version of Masters of the Universe is best when the characters - Duncan, Teela, King Randor, Queen Marlena, to name just a few - are engaged in banter that embodies adventure, coming of age implications, and a surprising wit. It's an overstuffed experience, at times - but ultimately a fun one.

It's unfortunate that the movie bombed at the box office; this clearly indicates there won't be any follow ups, despite the narrative potential available. Let's at least hope it becomes a cult classic, remaining in the movie loving audiences subconscious for decades, via midnight screenings and special underground presentations.

☆☆☆

Unconvincing "Caroline" treads familiar territory with few surprises

 

A beautiful, small town young woman, Caroline (Samara Weaving), is charmed by a passing swindler, Oliver (Kyle Gallner), whose conniving ways beguile her naivete. Soon, they are roaming the southeast United States, in search of her long lost mother. Along the way, they con and thieve and - ultimately - commit murder, like a poor man's Bonnie and Clyde. 

Yet despite the chemistry of its two leads, Carolina Caroline feels redundant. Its plot has been recycled countless times (Wisdom, The Town, Baby Driver), offering few surprises along the way. Even the ultimate fate of the character(s) is foreseen way in advance. In addition, Weaving, although appealing, appears miscast. Her teeth are too perfect, her face too gorgeous, her body too much like a supermodel's to come across as a hopeless small town Americana beauty whose life options are limited to working in a grocery store. As for Gallner, his transformation from a two bit scoundrel into murderer is swift and somewhat unearned. 

At a time when there are numerous better choices in the criminal robbers genre, Carolina Caroline is three and a half decades late to the prom.

☆☆

"Pressure" delves into uncommon aspects of warfare

 

As Dwight D. Eisenhower, Brendan Fraser embodies the famous general's personality perhaps more than his looks. He appears genuinely dejected when watching slain American soldiers lie on a blood stained beach, smokes a lot of cigarettes, questions the predictions of his expert meteorologists (Andrew Scott, in particular), and growls when the unappealing weather thwarts his war plans. He is larger than life - and also somehow just as humane as thousands of soldiers and service men and women he oversees.

Pressure is a unique war movie, one whose focus lies in accurately predicting the weather for D-Day, originally planned for June 5, 1944. Scott and Fraser make for fitting adversaries, two men driven towards excellence in their respective fields of expertise, which often clashed amidst the complex implications of a grand world conflict. And at barely 100 minutes, it packs a lot of punch, and barely any war brutality for a movie promoted as a WW2 drama. That's quite an accomplishment in and of itself.

☆☆☆1/2

Creepy "Backrooms" is undermined by a convoluted third act 'explanation'

 

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Backrooms is that its director, Kane Parsons, was born in 2005. By my calculations, during the production of this blockbuster hit, he must've been... merely 20 years old. That is an anomaly indeed - and a good one. The fact that his horror/sci-fi/speculative movie has become a world wide phenomenon is even a greater story.

The film's protagonist, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a man working at a vast furniture store, discovers a secret basement at his workplace. The titular space is odd, ambiguous, and at times, terrifying. Clark eventually brings others into this secret labyrinth, and things quickly go from bad to worse. By the time his shrink, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve) finds herself lost in the otherworldly maze, the audience (at least yours truly), expected some answers to the enveloping mystery.

Unfortunately, we get little of anything sensical. The movie, ultimately, is a mixed blessing. Containing an exciting, gripping first act, it slowly crumbles into incoherence in its final stages. When Dr. Kline is eventually met by Phil (Mark Duplass), a scientist wise to the backrooms' nature, their conversation is staler than a week old bagel. What is this mysterious place? Why does it exist? And what is its purpose? Phil says a few things, none of which registered as anything rational with me.

Backrooms is a great idea whose genius is merely half-assed. If only the last twenty minutes were worthy of its first forty five, we could've really had something here. Perhaps the planned sequel will answers some long sought after questions. Forgive me if I don't hold my breath.

☆☆

Spielberg tackles his favorite topic in intense "Disclosure Day"

 

In recent years, Emily Blunt seems to have reinvented herself in the last twelve years. In that span, she's spawned well rounded characters in films like Edge of Tomorrow, A Quiet Place, and Sicario. In Steven Spielberg's latest sci-fi mystery, Disclosure Day, Blunt outdoes herself again. Playing Margaret Fairchild, a mid-city market weatherwoman, she speaks Russian like a true Soviet, engages in a Korean conversation like a natural, and is able to read people's emotional states and the reasons behind them.

Disclosure Day starts out mysteriously, with a Dr. Kellner (Josh O'Connor) threatening to release top secret information that he's stolen from his company to the American public. Slowly, each layer is slowly unpeeled, until the final act goes a little overboard in revealing a bit too much (did we really have to see all that we saw? Wouldn't it have been ok just to save something for our imagination? Meh). Nevertheless, the movie is a thrilling ride,;at times exciting, at others engrossing, with surprisingly impressive performances - especially by Blunt. It's also Spielberg's best movie in years (possibly since 2005's Munich), and that's saying something.

☆☆☆

"Boosters" takes Riley into the preposterous - and unfunny :/

 

In I Love Boosters, the socially conscious rapper-turned-filmmaker Boots Riley creates a unique urban sci-fi fantasy of a universe not unlike Big Trouble in Little China and Attack the Block. Just like the aforementioned pictures, this one takes place in an alternate universe where portal travel and aliens exist side by side with humanity. To speak in detail about the plot would be fruitless; there are too many characters, both real and otherwise, who keep getting in each other's way, with fashion being their shared element. But one thing is consistent: Riley's uncompromising criticism of modern, unchecked capitalism. 

2018's Sorry to Bother You (Riley's debut feature) was a more clever and timely satire about exploitation of workers in the telemarketing industry. In contrast, Boosters is at times convoluted, overwritten, and overstuffed. By the third act, when the skinless men appeared, I was scratching my head as to what Riley was thinking. Of course, it all would've been forgiven if the movie was actually funny; but alas, it isn't. Not nearly enough, anyway. 

☆☆

Nolan's "Odyssey" is a worthy adaptation of Homer's epic

 

Like the most majestic dark fantasy, Christopher Nolan's adaptation of Homer's foundational poem, The Odyssey, satisfies the eyes and the ears in newfound ways. It is a magnificent production of enormous scope, spanning various landscapes and different seasons of its protagonist's - Odysseus' - soul. Filmed entirely in IMAX film format, it is best if experienced on the big screen.

Matt Damon portrays Odysseus unapologetically - physically and spiritually. He's a man broken by war, by the anger of the gods whose rules he continuously breaks, and the two decade absence from his family. Damon's wear and tear occurs at the hands of a gigantic cyclops monster, a devious witch who turns gluttonous men into pigs, and alluring sirens whose songs lure weak men towards doom - among other obstacles. Odysseus' hair and beard whiten over the years, his memory fails, but his cunning remains intact, in a final showdown with scoundrelous suitors who've tormented his wife and son in their Ithaca home.

The Odyssey deserves to rank among Nolan's best movies. It is not necessarily something that will be watched repeatedly, but everyone who values good cinema should see it at least once.

☆☆☆1/2

"Obsession" sets new standard for low budget extravagance - not to mention terrifying horror

 

Curry Barker's Obsession is the stuff that nightmares are made of. A tale about an average loner, Bear (Michael Johnston), who makes a wish that finally grants him the girl of his dreams, Nikki (Inde Navarette). What he soon realizes, along with the audience, is that Nikki's devotion comes at a price.

Obsession is a darkly twisted, highly imaginative trip into the terrifying and the grim. The plot, I'm sure, you've already figured out. The most notable aspect is that Navarette delivers a performance of a lifetime. Her face twists and grimaces in ways I didn't think possible. When angry, her voice goes up and down, often imitating a foolish ghoul from the depths of the underworld. And throughout it all, her Nikki is fighting internal battles we can not imagine, for the uncursed, 'good' half periodically shows herself. If she's not at least nominated for an Oscar next spring, the award show will have turned into a parody of itself.

If Ari Aster's nightmare and It Follows had an offspring, I imagine it would look something like Obsession. It's setting a new standard for the horror genre, something unseen since 2018's Hereditary.

☆☆☆☆