Movie Review ~ Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Robert Englund, a classically trained actor and director, has become one of our generation’s most revolutionary horror icons. This unique and intimate portrait captures the man behind the glove.
Stars: Robert Englund, Lance Henriksen, Lin Shaye, Tony Todd, Bill Moseley, Eli Roth, Heather Langenkamp, Monica Keena, Miko Hughes, Amanda Wyss, Dennis Christopher, Tammy Lauren, Jill Schoelen, Andrew Divoff, Kane Hodder, Kelly Jo Minter, Mick Garris, Adam Green, Tuesday Knight, Dwight H. Little, Gary Sherman, Jeffrey Reddick, Kenneth Johnson, Nathan Baesel, Corey Taylor
Director: Gary Smart & Chris Griffiths
Rated: NR
Running Length: 120 minutes
TMMM Score: (6.5/10)
Review: Certain names in the horror genre become synonymous with a singular character. Merely mentioning Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Brad Douriff, Jamie Lee Curtis, Doug Bradley, Christopher Lee, Neve Campbell, Tony Todd, or Peter Cushing will likely conjure up an image of their iconic contributions to the fight flicks that have kept audiences up at night over the decades. One name is missing from this list, and it’s one of the most recognizable and beloved of them all: Robert Englund. 

The actor who brought scarred dream killer Freddy Krueger to life in eight Nightmare on Elm Street films and over fifty other appearances in separate movies and television programs has amassed a bevy of additional credits in his six-decade career. Yet his freaky villain remains his calling card and most known-for work. In a new documentary, Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story, directors Gary Smart and Chris Griffiths crack open Englund’s history, going above and beyond to show new shades of the classically trained, well-respected actor behind the prosthetic make-up. 

Before making his film debut in 1974’s Buster and Billie, Englund had already spent much time exploring a full range of characters on stages nationwide. Playing summer stock and professional theaters in traveling troupes allowed the actor without the typical leading man looks to get experience creating different personas from the ground up. As he began to get minor roles in grindhouse films and more familiarity in the movie industry, Englund proved to be a dedicated professional that impressed his co-stars and important figures within studios, many of whom would go on to their own celebrated careers.

Movies like 1978’s Big Wednesday showed solid dramatic chops, but it was his ability to turn small supporting/cameo roles in weekly television series (or movies like 1981’s Dead & Buried) that were early indicators of Englund’s talent for standing out in a crowd. Securing a pivotal role in the landmark 1983 miniseries V was his first solid step on the ladder to mainstream success, and it was also what led him to an audition for Wes Craven’s tiny horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. That film and its numerous sequels would keep Englund busy (and wealthy) for a decade, allowing him to play Freddy almost yearly while making various other genre offerings that capitalized on his Nightmare on Elm Street success.

With his Freddy days behind him, Englund has taken a page from the horror actors of the past and became a valued salt-of-the-earth performer, appearing in films from major studios and established directors down to low-budget productions with first-time filmmakers. This provided breathing room for the actor to continue to work and offer his unique presence while sharing his bounty of history within the business. Not every project is top-tier, but no one expected much from A Nightmare on Elm Street when it was in production either. 

As a documentary on Englund’s life and career, Smart & Griffiths’s movie is standard and straightforward as an examination of the trajectory of how Englund has gotten to where he is now. Interviews with family, friends, and co-workers offer the expected insights and platitudes without much conflict, and the star himself is shown at length to be a gregarious and friendly subject. There is a strange edge to the film at times, though, where it can feel like it’s out to prove that Englund has somehow been overlooked or undervalued throughout his career, and that starts to become more evident as things progress. 

Coming in at a solid two hours, there is room for the doc to be cut down, and it wanders around a bit early on, delaying as much as possible before getting to the Freddy of it all. That’s understandable, in a way. Most audiences will likely be tuning in to get tidbits on A Nightmare on Elm Street, and there’s a palpable impression that those involved want to keep a balance between Freddy and the rest of Englund’s career. I enjoyed learning about Englund’s early life on the stage quite a bit, but even I thought it started to drag as 1984 on the timeline drew closer.

Every horror icon deserves their day in the sun, or the full moon if you will, and I’m glad we now have a complete picture of Robert Englund’s life before, during, and after Freddy. Fans will find joy in Englund’s recollections of making A Nightmare on Elm Street and its sequels and will likely spark to other discoveries found in Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story.

HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES: THE ROBERT ENGLUND STORY
will be On Screambox and Digital on June 6, 2023.

Movie Review ~ The Boogeyman (2023)

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The Facts:

Synopsis: When a desperate patient unexpectedly shows up at the home of a widowed therapist and his two daughters seeking help, he leaves behind a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on families and feeds on the suffering of its victims.
Stars: Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivian Lyra Blair, Marin Ireland, Madison Hu, LisaGay Hamilton, David Dastmalchian
Director: Rob Savage
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 98 minutes
TMMM Score: (1/10)
Review: Originally published in 1973 as a short story in an innocuous magazine, Stephen King’s ‘The Boogeyman’ is more prominently known to readers as a selection in King’s 1978 short story collection, ‘Night Shift’. That first amassing of King’s tiny terrors holds some mighty famous doozies which would go on to inspire film adaptations that ranged from the spooky (‘Jerusalem’s Lot’ became the 1978 TV movie Salem’s Lot, a remake is finished and waiting on a release date) to the silly (King himself would adapt ‘Trucks’ into infamous turkey Maximum Overdrive in 1986) to the freaky (1984’s Children of the Corn) to the icky (1990’s Graveyard Shift…those rats!). A solid story produced the one genuinely good movie; strangely, it is often the least mentioned, 1991’s Sometimes They Come Back. 

It would have been great to report that The Boogeyman is as scary as the preview makes it out to be, a balm for King fans that have suffered countless inequities with lame adaptations of the author’s work. I was encouraged by early reports that test screenings had gone so well that 20th Century Studios and Hulu scrapped plans for a direct-to-streaming debut and opted for an exclusive theatrical release. Sadly, with its patchwork script and frequent lapses in common sense, The Boogeyman leaves audiences aimlessly wandering in the darkness as much as it does its characters. Meeting its quota for jump scares and only just, it’s a cash-gobbling theater filler for a studio and filmmakers that can do much better.

In fairness, calling King’s original story flimsy is putting it mildly. Written during a time when King favored ugly words spat out by backward people, it’s the kind of tale you read now and wonder when the author will get to the inevitable point. How it took three respectable screenwriters, Scott Beck (A Quiet Place), Bryan Woods (Haunt), and Mark Heyman (The Skeleton Twins), to come up with such a pithy story to wrap around King’s initial treatment is mystifying. There’s so little happening (or explained) in the final project that it’s…frightening.

The Harper family has suffered a terrible loss and is struggling to put the pieces of their life back together. Dad Will (Chris Messina, I Care a Lot) is a therapist seeing patients out of his home, doing work for them that he ignores for himself. Teenager Sadie (Sophie Thatcher, Yellowjackets) is finally ready to return to school and face her (incredibly b***hy) classmates, another hurdle in a long healing journey. At the same time, her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) prefers to sleep with an array of lights on in her bedroom. Little hints are sprinkled initially, but it honestly takes a solid twenty minutes for the script to reveal their mother was killed in an accident (I’m guessing car, but the way Messina drives with his back facing oncoming traffic, he’s clearly not attentive to the rules of the road) and even then, the mother barely functions as a character. However, she factors heavily into the emotional beats of the plot.

As if this grief wasn’t enough, in walks Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian, The Suicide Squad) to see Will for an emergency session. (This entire sequence makes up the source short story.)  During their time, Lester tells Will of an evil that infiltrated his family, with a horrible fate that took his children. Disturbed by Lester’s behavior, Will leaves to “use the bathroom” (code for call the cops) and, in doing so, lets the man wander freely around the house. Will doesn’t know that Sophie has returned early from school after a disastrous first day and will face Lester, setting off a wicked chain of events that unleashes a similar lurking danger in the Harper house. At first targeting Sawyer before turning its attention to Sophie, the sisters must work together to beat back a creature that feeds on grief too raw to shake entirely.

I’m not dismissing that there’s a nugget of good story here. Evil that feeds on unbridled emotion (especially in children who often cannot control it) is a frequent theme in King’s work. With a more sophisticated production, The Boogeyman could have been something special. In the hands of its adaptors, it’s a confusing blob of scenes that don’t align with what came before. It’s as if each of the three writers took an assigned number of sequences and just mashed them all in a lump without cross-checking with one another what’s happening. That’s why you’ll have three people in one house being attacked by a creature, but no one hearing their family member is in trouble or coming to their aid. Multiple times throughout the film, Sophie or Sawyer screams a high-pitched wail, and Will is nowhere to be found. Where has Will vanished to? Often the scariest thing in the film is realizing the girls are left alone so often during an increasingly violent period. It’s obvious there’s been late-stage editing done to tone down parts of the movie to get it to its assigned PG-13 rating. So not only is it rarely scary, but there’s also little bang for your buck in the way of a typical horror payoff.

Director Rob Savage was responsible for one of the best pandemic projects, the terrifying Zoom marvel Host (as well as the creepy 2021 Dashcam), so it’s surprising his name is on such nonsense. His talent for well-timed jump scares and its jittery aftershock is evident, but it’s the time between those ingenious moments when the film is just the absolute pits. It doesn’t help matters the actors look as confused as the script…when we can see them, of course. For a movie about a creature that hunts in the darkness, it becomes enormously funny that characters who know the rules will willingly walk by light switches and lamps without flipping them on or, at the very least, using their cell phone. 

Ending with an Elvis Presley music cue that is the most foolishly on-the-nose needle drop I’ve ever heard is simply the sour cherry on top of this sloppy sundae of a film. The Boogeyman is one of the worst Stephen King adaptations audiences have been treated to, a mostly scare-less drag that’s been smartly marketed as a terror-filled nailbiter. Save your money and gnaw your nails at one of the classic King novels that have received the big screen treatment.

Series Review ~ FUBAR

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Luke Brunner and his daughter Emma have lied to each other for years, neither knowing that the other is a CIA operative. Once they both learn the truth and are forced to work together to take down an international terrorist, they realize they know nothing about each other.
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Monica Barbaro, Milan Carter, Gabriel Luna, Fortune Feimster, Travis Van Winkle, Fabiana Udenio, Barbara Eve Harris, Aparna Brielle, Andy Buckley, Jay Baruchel 
Director: Phil Abraham, Stephen Surjik, Steven Adelson, Holly Dale
Running Length: 8 Episodes (~55 minutes each)
TMMM Score: (8/10)
Review: Once the king of the summer blockbuster, it’s been a bit touch and go for Arnold Schwarzenegger over the past decade. Without the sizable hit the A-lister used to knock out on the regular in the late ’80s through to his semi-retirement when he became governor of California in 2003, the actor’s resume has been all over the map. Since his return to acting, it’s hard to predict where he’ll pivot next. One minute he’s trying out deeper acting chops in thrillers like 2015’s Maggie and 2017’s Aftermath, and the next, he’s returning to familiar oft-trod territory like 2019’s shoulda-been-bigger Terminator: Dark Fate. 

Before falling victim to a similar trajectory as many of his peers from the same era (think Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis) and either going entirely into self-parody or cheapie shoot-em-ups filmed back-to-back-to-back in Slavic locales, Schwarzenegger has been thrown (or found) a lifeline in Nick Santora. A respected showrunner, writer, and executive producer on several crime series for network and basic cable, Santora is the creator of Schwarzenegger’s new 8-episode Netflix gamble FUBAR, and it’s a fast-moving, rollicking roll of the dice that has paid off handsomely for everyone involved. 

Feeling at times like a reworking of True Lies, Schwarzenegger’s 1994 collaboration with James Cameron in that it juggles the personal and professional life of a government agent, FUBAR expands on that film’s scope to incorporate more characters, subplots, and mini adventures that stretch across eight hours of entertainment. I don’t often review series because there’s pressure in that long of a binge, but I burned through FUBAR with minimal interruptions (sleep, the need for sunlight), and I easily could have sat through another few hours with Schwarzenegger and this well-assembled team. 

After years of dedicated service, undercover CIA agent Luke Brunner (Schwarzenegger, Terminator Genisys) is ready to hang up his spy gear and focus on winning back his ex-wife (Fabiana Udenio), who divorced him years earlier in part because of his lack of follow-through on promises to show up when his family needed him the most. His adult daughter Emma (Monica Barbaro, Top Gun: Maverick) is the apple of his eye, excelling at anything she sets her mind to and currently doing humanitarian work in underprivileged countries while her kind-hearted boyfriend (Jay Barucel, Blackberry) waits at home. Son Oscar (Devon Bostick, Words on Bathroom Walls) knows Emma is the son Luke always wanted but is trying to make something for himself with a app that is ahead of the curve.

Before Luke can officially sign out, he and his tech-savvy handler Barry (Milan Carter) are brought back in based on intel received that an agent stationed in Guyana is in grave danger of being found out. The agent is working with a rising extremist (Gabriel Luna, Bernie) Luke has a history with but never broke cover for, so it makes the most sense for him to go in and whisk the agent away before anyone is the wiser. Along with Barry and fellow operatives Aldon (Travis Van Winkle, Friday the 13th) and Roo (Fortune Feimster, Office Christmas Party), they high-tail it to South America, where Luke gets the surprise of his life.

If you’ve seen even one promo for FUBAR (which stands for, well, this), it’s no spoiler to reveal that the agent Luke has been sent to rescue is Emma, and the bulk of the series will revolve around the trust issues that spring up between father and daughter as they reconcile years of deception on both of their parts. Recruited out of college, Emma plays the nice and sweet girl for her family but is an expert agent that often exceeds her father’s capabilities. However, she doesn’t always possess his experience or expertise in diffusing a high-stakes situation. That friction yield results, though, and that, in turn, becomes a strong catalyst for agency leader Dot (Barbara Eve Harris, People Like Us) to insist the two work together to finish this last case.

Though written by a team of scribes and directed by several filmmakers, the eight episodes of FUBAR have a remarkably consistent tone throughout. It’s got all the makings of a summer blockbuster, just in an extended format that is only available through a delivery service like Netflix. Each episode ends on a solid cliffhanger, and while all are available on the same date, it would have been nice to see this series get the weekly release treatment that other streaming sites have been trying lately. I believe audiences would willingly chomp at the bit for the next episode to drop to see how things turn out.

Schwarzenegger the action star was always welcome, but I enjoyed it when the star would turn on his charming talent for wry comedy. He gets a fair shot at both and lands some terrific jokes. Yes, some of the action sequences feature an apparent stunt double, but you can’t fake quality line readings, and there were a few choice Schwarzenegger comebacks or deadpan reactions that I had to rewind to watch again. Surrounding himself with good comedians like Feimster (talk about knowing how to deliver a line!), Carter, Scott Thompson, Andy Buckley (Jurassic World), and Adam Pally (The To Do List) also help in that department.

FUBAR is a perfect series to binge over the Memorial Day weekend, a supercharged return to form for Schwarzenegger. By allowing the star to stretch his considerable muscles in a role that allows him time to play in the action sandbox but pauses long enough to provide him ample amounts of comedy, the creator and filmmakers have given viewers a surefire winner. 

Movie Review ~ You Hurt My Feelings

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The Facts:

Synopsis: A novelist’s long-standing marriage is suddenly upended when she overhears her husband giving his honest reaction to her latest book.
Stars: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Michaela Watkins, Arian Moayed, Owen Teague, Jeannie Berlin, Amber Tamblyn, David Cross, Josh Pais, Deniz Akdeniz, Zach Cherry
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Rated: R
Running Length: 93 minutes
TMMM Score: (10/10)
Review: I don’t want to be this kind of critic (or person?), but I think I have to say it. To fully appreciate You Hurt My Feelings, to really understand why it bites down so hard on nitpicks and nagging, to get why audience members around you may laugh at lines that don’t have a punchline, I think you need to have been in a serious relationship for a significant amount of time. It’s from that human experience to know someone so well and intimately that it will only take one glance from them, or lack thereof, to give you satisfaction or send you on a shrill spiral to your perception of super doom where you truly, wholly, feel the perfection of writer/director Nicole Holofcener’s film.

That’s not to say you singles or mingles out there aren’t going to love this sharp comedy, too, a cool breeze of a film arriving at the beginning of summer to air out the stink of the last few months. Holofcener’s script has plenty of valuable takeaways, her first since working on 2021’s The Last Duel with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (She was also nominated for an Oscar for writing 2019’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?). Flying under the radar for years, when she does surface, Holofcener almost always has something interesting to say, even if it may not be aiming to please all comers. Reteaming with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the star of her 2013 feature Enough Said, Holofcener crafts a story for this modern era of big, easily bruised egos.

Riding the marginal success of her memoir to a teaching position at an NYC college, Beth (Louis-Dreyfus, Onward) is putting the finishing touches on her new work of fiction. Years in writing and revising, her agent thinks it needs more work but encouraged by her husband’s positive feedback, she is going out on a limb and bringing it to a new agent to see if he can get it sold for the right price. At the same time, her husband, Don (Tobias Menzies, Casino Royale), is experiencing a staleness in his job as a therapist and couples’ counselor. His regular patients (real-life couple David Cross and Amber Tamblyn) bicker viciously during their sessions, and a new referral (Zach Cherry, Isn’t It Romantic) is passive-aggressively hostile toward him. Then there’s his tendency to mix up the maladies of one patient with another – he’s adrift.

After visiting their mother (a caustically hysterical Jeannie Berlin, The Fabelmans), Beth and sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins, Paint) spot Don shopping with Sarah’s husband Mark (Arian Moayed, Spider-Man No Way Home) and decide to surprise them. That’s when it happens. Sneaking up on her husband, Beth overhears him telling Mark his honest thoughts about her completed work…and it’s not the same positive critique he’d been passing on to her for years. This revelation creates a fissure between the two, opening a deep well of trust issues having more to do with a lack of general communication in their marriage than with one opinion not being shared. Amid all this, their adult son, Eliot (Owen Teague, Montana Story), returns home with relationship difficulties crushing his world too. 

While the plot summary and general idea of You Hurt My Feelings revolves around this supposed betrayal by Don, it’s not the true epicenter of the story Holofcener is conveying. That would be far too simple of a message for a writer/director who has always made what could be a trivial situation into a meaningful look at reactive relationships. Most of our stable relationships are just waiting for a glass of milk to be spilled to drum up a conflict that has nothing to do with the puddle in the center of the table, right? Here, Holofcener takes Don hiding behind an oft-used excuse, “I was trying to be supportive,” to allow a more significant discussion about relationships.

Did I mention the film is wildly funny too? If I’m making it all sound like a gloomy Bergman exploration of betrayal in NYC, it’s not that. I found every scene perfectly constructed and well-tailored to each actor, down to the minor supporting role. As interesting as Beth and Don were, I would watch an entire film about Sarah and Mark’s relationship or revisit Beth and Sarah’s acerbic mother if she took a trip somewhere. Holofcener gives these characters function and purpose in a short time and casts extraordinary actors to bring them to life.

Already triumphing on television, it’s time for Louis-Dreyfus to start practicing her red-carpet walk for even more prestigious award shows. I thought she delivered so well in Enough Said that she could have been on the shortlist there. However, in You Hurt My Feelings, she goes further, portraying a complicated (i.e., not always likable) person but never letting the audience want to root against her. Her work here is unlike anything I’ve seen her in, and intense scenes with Menzies and Teague could be career high points. Watkins could also be in on some excellent recognition for a fascinating performance. A frustrated interior decorator married to a struggling actor (Moayed is excellent, resisting the urge to lean into that sallow thespian trope), she has a spiky edge. Still, she recognizes and then appreciates how different her relationship with her husband is compared to her sister. 

Holofcener has written and directed many strong films over her career, but You Hurt My Feelings is the first one I’d call perfect. The script is tight, and each scene is a little masterclass in comedy or high-stakes drama. Cross and Tamblyn’s crossfire fighting is bulletproof comic gold, just as a quiet, dialogue-free exchange between Louis-Dreyfus and Berlin is lovely to watch unfold. That’s the beauty in what Holofcener does for film and those who love it – she brings some of the real world, warts and all, into the open.

Movie Review ~ Blood & Gold

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Desperate to return home to his daughter in the final days of World War II, a German deserter finds himself caught in a battle against SS troops on a mission to uncover hidden gold.
Stars: Robert Maaser, Alexander Scheer, Marie Hacke, Jördis Triebel, Stephan Grossmann, Florian Schmidtke, Petra Zieser, Gisela Aderhold, Jochen Nickel, Simon Rupp, Roy McCrerey
Director: Peter Thorwarth
Rated: NR
Running Length: 100 minutes
TMMM Score: (8/10)
Review: As summer draws near, it’s not uncommon to find movies with similar themes competing for the attention of a target audience. From Deep Impact and Armageddon to Volcano and Dante’s Peak, studios have shown they aren’t willing to blink when standing behind their features and hoping their project will emerge victorious for box office totals. Making money is one thing, but it’s sticking in the mind of viewers that counts. Plenty of people remember Armageddon over its crashing comet rival, while I’m not sure if anyone is rushing to defend with Volcano or Dante’s Peak (tough call…I give the edge to Dante’s Peak, though, for the love of Linda Hamilton). 

There’s a new face-off happening in 2023, albeit on a smaller scale, but it’s interesting to look at the similarities in subject matter between the two. After all, who could have predicted two riffs on the spaghetti western emerging from the foreign market set in the final days of WWII, pitting a gold-hungry evil Nazi SS squad against an opponent they initially underestimated? Barely a month after the gonzo glory of Finland’s Sisu zipped into theaters, another punchy action film is arriving on Netflix via Germany. While Blood & Gold may lay out a familiar mission, it goes about things in its original way.

Strung up from a tree and cruelly left for dead by a group of Nazi soldiers led by von Starnfeld (Alexander Scheer), German deserter Heinrich’s (Robert Maaser, 1917) last thoughts are of his wife and son killed in the war and the young daughter he was trying to get back to. Before the lights can completely fade, he’s saved by Elsa (Marie Hacke), who lives on her family farm close by with brother Paule (Simon Rupp) while they wait for the war to cease and her fiancé to return. 

As Elsa tends to Heinrich’s wounds, the Nazis continue toward a neighboring town they have targeted for a specific reason. They have intel that leads them to believe a significant stash of gold has been hidden, left behind by a Jewish family that the Nazi-sympathizing town leaders ousted before they were sent to the concentration camps. As the war concludes and allegiances are sketchy, amassing riches is the priority for the greedy, disfigured von Starnfeld and his wicked Sergeant (Roy McCrerey, All the Money in the World). There’s one problem; no one knows where the gold is. Or if they do (and they do), they aren’t going to give it up so easily. 

The next ninety minutes of Stefan Barth’s twist-filled script has plenty of surprises for the viewer, with the unpredictable subplot of the missing gold being the frothy icing on top of this German chocolate cake. Whereas Sisu primarily showed how one man could take on many, director Peter Thorwarth keeps numerous plates spinning simultaneously as Nazis and corrupt townsfolk get what’s coming to them in gruesomely staged battles. Even more than Sisu, Blood & Gold draws much inspiration from the tone and style of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds without becoming an outright copy of what that much-cited film achieved. 

A former stuntman, Maaser isn’t always the most compelling lead dramatically but does make for a solid knuckle-crunching action star, and that’s what he’s called on most to do. The dramatic heft of the movie rests with Hacke as a woman who survived the war, saw further trauma, and isn’t about to let these Nazi infiltrators make off with any reward for their crimes. Balancing hard-edged action with sensitivity keeps her performance and others around her grounded most splendidly. Several supporting characters that fill out the town are either comically arch or mustache-twirlingly evil – and both approaches work for the mood. 

Thorwarth’s last film was the deliriously good and impressively cinematic Blood Red Sky which could have quickly been released in theaters. That vampire on a plane movie kept building and building to a gnashing, gnawing frenzy, almost to the point where it was too much to take without standing up and pacing around (maybe it was good to watch it at home, after all?). Still, Blood & Gold takes a more metered approach to its suspense and lets things rise at a more natural boil. It manages to peak at the right moments, and while I thought it had one or two more endings than it needed, it’s impossible to leave unsatisfied.

Movie Review ~ The Starling Girl

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The Facts:

Synopsis: 17-year-old Jem Starling struggles with her place within her Christian fundamentalist community. But everything changes when her magnetic youth pastor Owen returns to their church.
Stars: Eliza Scanlen, Lewis Pullman, Kyle Secor, Claire Elizabeth Green, K.J. Baker, Jessamine Burgum, Jimmi Simpson, Wrenn Schmidt, Ellie May, Austin Abrams, Chris Dinner, Paige Leigh Landers
Director: Laurel Parmet
Rated: R
Running Length: 116 minutes
TMMM Score: (6/10)
Review: Over the last several years, there have been several documentaries and limited series across streaming services that have taken eager viewers behind the scenes into religious communities, unveiling practices that may seem foreign, strange, or wrong to an outsider. Removing the judgment that comes with a lack of understanding and putting aside some of the shock and awe meant to accompany these programs, I’ve appreciated getting these glimpses into a different way of finding a path forward in spirituality or family. 

One of those paths is through belonging to a church where the literal interpretation of the Bible is observed, like the one fictionalized in The Starling Girl. Correctly understanding and following God’s Word is the only way to your final reward, and those who stray are doomed to lead a cruel life after death.   It’s in this community of devoted faith that we meet Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen, Little Women), a 17-year-old of good intentions who has reached a point in her adolescence where the world seems incredibly small when staring straight ahead at the mirror but also temptingly large if she glances over her shoulder at what might be waiting just out of reach. 

As she approaches her 18th birthday, her parents (Jimmi Simpson, Fool’s Paradise, and Wren Schmidt, Nope) are preparing for the courting tradition to begin, likely with preacher’s son Ben (Austin Abrams, Do Revenge), a strange boy Jem has no inclination toward. Ben’s older brother Owen (Lewis Pullman, Top Gun: Maverick) has recently returned to town with his wife to continue his youth ministry and learn the ways of the church from his father. Drawn together through some indescribable pull, Owen and Jem are surprised at how the other has changed while Owen was away. They begin a flirtation (already considered taboo and not just because of their age-difference) before giving in to an illicit interaction that threatens to derail their lives and families. 

While ostensibly a work of fiction, it wouldn’t be hard to squint your eyes and see writer/director Laurel Parmet’s The Starling Girl being a dramatized version of a story that came out of one of these fundamentalist sects that operate along the Southwestern Bible belt. That’s partly where Parmet’s inspiration originated, with the filmmaker using her lived experiences and research within similar Christian communities. That authenticity in tone helps Parmet’s film through a few of the slower and more repetitive passages, bridging the gap between its fiery high points when you can’t look away even though you feel you should.

Aiding that pull is Scanlen’s immensely controlled work as Jem. As a coming-of-age story, The Starling Girl is already firing on all cylinders showing a young woman learning the hard way that first love isn’t without pain, but Scanlen’s deep well of feeling gives it an extra kick of grief. It’s tough in the final act when Jem faces an imbalance of consequences that will likely frustrate most viewers as much as it did me. Parmet manages to handle both sides of the agreement without ever coming down harshly on either, it’s clear something terrible has happened, but Parmet is not here to tell audiences about the inequalities that exist in the world.

While the film is often quietly riveting, it’s often just too quiet to gather much momentum for longer than a few scenes at a time. Scanlen is in nearly every scene of the movie, but she can’t be in multiple places at once, so it’s up to others to carry some of the burden. Pullman is a good partner for Scanlen, and the two have an electric chemistry that feels dangerous from the start. Richards also has a few solid passages as Jem’s devout mother, forced to make decisions based on faith instead of maternal instinct. Several supporting characters and side plots are trite, causing the film to go flat at critical junctures.

Likely to find more of an audience when it flies onto streaming/on demand, The Starling Girl is a respectable debut for Parmet as a writer/director. Teaming with cinematographer Brian Lannin (Somebody I Used to Know) for some gorgeous views of Kentucky at several gauzy moments, you can tell Parmet has a voice and a viewpoint we’ll get more of.  

THE STARLING GIRL will be exclusively in theaters

Movie Review ~ The Wrath of Becky

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Becky has been living off the grid for two years. She then finds herself going toe to toe against the leader of a fascist organization on the eve of an organized attack.
Stars: Lulu Wilson, Seann William Scott, Denise Burse, Courtney Gains, Matt Angel, Michael Sirow, Aaron Dalla Villa, John D. Hickman
Director: Matt Angel & Suzanne Coote
Rated: R
Running Length: 83 minutes
TMMM Score: (7/10)
Review: Back in 2020, I gave two major thumbs down to Becky. While I found it to be an overall ugly film that played too deep into violence against the vulnerable, it nevertheless became a small cult hit and pleased enough critics and audiences to warrant a sequel three years later. Considering my little regard for the original, I wouldn’t have given much thought to going back for seconds. Still, something told me to give The Wrath of Becky a fair shake because sometimes, not often, a follow-up to an iffy beginning can be the true test of the potential for a franchise in the making.

My gut instinct was correct because The Wrath of Becky is a leaner, meaner experience that trades in the awkward bad taste of the first film for a cheeky revenge-pulp fun vibe that goes a long way to entertain. Led by a powerhouse performance from Lulu Wilson, returning as the titular character, and overseen by a new directing duo, it may lack the intense bite of its predecessor but lands on the appropriate skewed tone that was missing in the first bloody round. The result is a movie that barely stops to catch its breath, let alone allow its viewers to pause for a breather.

In the years following the horrific attack that left her orphaned, Becky (Wilson, Annabelle: Creation) has bounced in and out of foster families accompanied by her dog Diego. Never staying in one place too long, she acts the part of a dutiful ward of the state until the authorities are out of sight, and then she’s off and running again. When co-writers/directors Matt Angel & Suzanne Coote (Hypnotic) find her, she’s staying with elderly Elena (Denise Burse, Vacation Friends) and working at a roadside diner. The older adult prefers to keep to herself and doesn’t ask much about Becky’s life, a perfect set-up for the two that have pasts they don’t speak about.

Things might have gone along that way longer were it not for a trio of right-wing extremists rolling through town (and Becky’s diner) on their way to meet local leader Darryl (Seann William Scott, American Reunion) at his secluded lakeside cabin. Tough-as-nails waitress Becky doesn’t suffer these fools, and her disrespect angers them enough to pursue her, leading to a dramatic confrontation that finds Becky again forced first to defend herself and then enact deadly revenge on the men and anyone in her way.

Coote and Angel (who plays one of the more passive extremists) have wisely given The Wrath of Becky more layers, turning over several surprising stones along the way. That has to be why Wilson is also on board as an executive producer; she’s helping to shape this character into something more than what was originally on the page in the first film. This added depth pushes the sequel into territory that builds our heroine up but still doesn’t address Becky’s delight in bloodlust, though it’s less gleefully enacted here. 

The new members of the cast, Scott so perfect as the smarmy slick villain, Michael Sirow (Disturbing the Peace) as a nasty P.O.S. pursuing Becky, and veteran character actors Jill Larson (The Taking of Deborah Logan) and Courtney Gaines (Queen Bees) are all finely showcased in the brief runtime, showing that the directors capably can move their players around without losing their threads. I enjoyed Burse as a cranky bird that feels like a grown-up Becky staring back at her younger self. She’s sadly not in it as much as I would have liked, but when she’s on-screen with Wilson, the two share pleasant moments. 

A late-breaking appearance from indie tv and film horror genre favorite Kate Siegel (Gerald’s Game) hints that the world created by the two Becky films is about to get a little bigger, and based on this superior sequel, I’m back on board with finding out what’s next. Keep Wilson engaged with the material and treat the audience with respect, and this might turn into a small franchise that more people will discover in the third or fourth film. I still loathe recommending the original, but a double feature may be in order because it’s a building block for The Wrath of Becky.

THE WRATH OF BECKY will be exclusively in theaters
May 26, 2023. 

Movie Review ~ The Little Mermaid (2023)

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The Facts:

Synopsis: A young mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince.
Stars: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Melissa McCarthy, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Noma Dumezweni, Javier Bardem
Director: Rob Marshall
Rated: PG
Running Length: 135 minutes
TMMM Score: (9/10)
Review:  Of all the live-action remakes the Walt Disney Studios had announced, I was most apprehensive about The Little Mermaid. It’s not so much that I had been holding the library of Disney animated classics close enough to my heart that I couldn’t see the vision of transforming them for a new generation; it’s that I didn’t want a new audience to be robbed of the magic I felt when I saw the original in 1989. It was Thanksgiving, and my mom had taken a few friends and me to the Southtown, formerly one of the few Cinerama houses in MN before it was twinned. I’ll never forget being in that audience and seeing Disney’s take on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale for the first time.

Of course, the rest was history. Going on to become a multi-Oscar-winning lifesaving hit for Disney and ushering in a second golden era for the studio, there wouldn’t (couldn’t) have been a Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin without the blockbuster red carpet The Little Mermaid laid out. The film would get poor-quality direct-to-video sequels, a truncated theme park show at what was then MGM Studios in Orlando, and a full-scale ride/attraction in the Disney theme parks. A Broadway musical was well-intentioned, but with mermaids floating around on Heelys and the dimensions not quite right, it felt like a more expensively priced version of the show you could have seen as part of your day at the park.

A partially live-action version was presented on television in 2019, with filmed portions interspersed with the animated film. In that eye-rolling endeavor, Queen Latifah played Ursula, ’90s musician Shaggy was Sebastian, and Moana breakout Auli’i Cravalho was Ariel. Yet in the multitude of Disney big screen adaptations, there was a noticeable gap The Little Mermaid had yet to fill. In truth, any success has been spotty, with 2015’s Cinderella the high point and 2022’s straight to Disney+ Pinocchio the absolute dregs. Landing somewhere in between, you have Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, Dumbo, Mulan, Lady and the Tramp, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book.

Could it be that The Little Mermaid was waiting this long to surface because it was going to, like its cartoon inspiration, signal a turning of the tides for the simple remakes that have come before it? Or maybe Disney Studios has taken enough queues from what didn’t work in their previous attempts and vowed not to make the same mistakes again. Either way, The Little Mermaid emerges as the studios most assured and shimmering live-action revision to date, one that takes the original off the shelf, lightly dusts it off, and puts a shine on it for the viewer of today without forgetting about the audience that made it a classic to begin with.

Crashing waves and a ship unwilling to yield to a thundering sea determined to swallow it whole are the first images we see in director Rob Marshall’s (Into the Woods) interpretation. Here, Prince Eric (dreamy Jonah Hauer-King, who often looks strikingly like his animated inspiration) is the adopted son of a country dependent on its export business and grieving the loss of its King. It’s now time for Eric to return home and get serious about the responsibilities bestowed on him by his Queen (Noma Dumezweni, Mary Poppins Returns). Yet, he longs to explore other territories of the ocean not mapped out, wild undiscovered waters they only sing about in sailor songs (and one he power ballads about in a new tune).

Gliding just below the water’s surface is a young mermaid, Ariel (Halle Bailey), who is also struggling with living up to the expectations of life in royal service. As one of the daughters of the seven seas, her father, King Triton (Javier Bardem, The Good Boss), demands that she participate in the duties assigned to her at birth. Her curiosity couldn’t be contained in any number of oceans, though, and she can’t help but wonder about the world above the water, hiding away any object that falls into the sea in her secret cave of treasures. Accompanied by sidekick Flounder (Jacob Tremblay, Doctor Sleep) and the King’s servant Sebastian (Daveed Diggs, DC League of Super-Pets), she occasionally gets (wrong) advice from dotty bird Scuttle (Awkwafina, Renfield) about the items she happens upon.

Watching Ariel from afar, and clocking her desires for something more than what she has, is Triton’s sister Ursula (Melissa McCarthy, Spy). A tentacled sea witch with a fishbone to pick with her brother that banished her years before, she’s found a vulnerable spot in his impenetrable armor in the form of his youngest daughter. When Ariel saves Eric from drowning and quickly falls in love with him, dreaming of a life out of the sea, Ursula exploits Ariel’s plans for her gain. She entices her to strike a deadly bargain, bringing about a tidal wave of danger for all swept up in the churn.

Purists will find that not much has changed between the 1989 movie and the 2023 adaptation from David Magee (The School for Good and Evil). The story is essentially the same, with a few tweaks here and there to remove dated references and smooth out passages that even the most ardent viewers would admit were growing a bit stale. It hasn’t been woke-ified but has made it even more of Ariel’s story of reclaiming her voice in a literal and figurative manner during the film’s highly stylized final act. Whereas the finale of the new Pinocchio found the filmmakers committing the grave mistake of making a change they thought the audience wanted, here the studio has trusted that the original story has stood the test of time and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. 

I’m not going to comment on the nasty debate that has gone on over the casting of Ariel because none of those people had seen the film yet. I have seen Bailey’s performance as Ariel and can attest that it gives the Disney princess a beautiful new face and, if possible, an even more gorgeous voice. Unlike the original, it takes a while to get to Ariel’s first song, ‘Part of Your World’, but it’s a build-up worth waiting for. Time freezes for a bit the higher Bailey gets up in her dynamic range, creating a goosebumpy ride for a song we’ve heard hundreds of times before but never sung so stirringly. There’s more lovely singing as the film goes on, but this initial intro sets the bar high for everything that follows.

Another surprise I wasn’t prepared for was how good McCarthy is as Ursula. When I first heard of her casting, I felt it was…oh…too expected? Couldn’t Marshall/Disney dig a bit deeper into their creative wells and find a name that would be more exciting? As it happens, McCarthy is a spitfire as the villain, largely eschewing her usual schtick and instead tipping her tentacle to Pat Carroll’s original take on the role. McCarthy can add some of her own shade to the part with her skilled line readings, and her singing is solid, but the overall mood of the interpretation works like a charm.

Marshall fills the rest of the cast with solid actors and good singers. Diggs is a scream as Sebastian, as is Awkwafina, who takes a usually annoying role and makes it memorably funny. Diggs and Awkwafina are saddled with the wackiest of several new songs (written/contributed by Lin Manuel Miranda…still desperate to EGOT by hook or crook) but make it singular because of their delivery. 

More than anything, this new version of The Little Mermaid retains the spirit and soul that has kept the original playing on repeat in homes for the last three decades. It’s swoon-worthy romantic when it is called upon to do so and a five-hanky weepie when the time comes to shed a tear. I should also say that the scary moments back in 1989 (i.e., the shark and the Big Ursula finale) are extra scary here – this leans heavily into a strong PG at times. See it on the most giant screen possible to catch the expressive creatures brought to colorful life by the Disney effects team and hear those earworm Alan Menken tunes at the maximum volume possible.

Movie Review ~ Master Gardener

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Narvel Roth is the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens, a beautiful estate owned by wealthy dowager Mrs. Haverhill. When she orders Roth to take on her troubled great-niece Maya as his apprentice, his life is thrown into chaos, and dark secrets from his past emerge.
Stars: Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell, Esai Morales, Victoria Hill, Eduardo Losan, Rick Cosnett, Amy Le, Erika Ashley, Jared Bankens, Cade Burk, DJames Jones, Matt Mercurio
Director: Paul Schrader
Rated: R
Running Length: 107 minutes
TMMM Score: (2/10)
Review: In his sixth decade working in motion pictures, writer/director Paul Schrader has seen his ups and downs in the movie business. From the early high of a one-two punch in 1976 of Taxi Driver and Obsession to the struggles in the early ‘90s to regain his voice, Schrader regained some traction in 2017, landing his only Oscar nomination with First Reformed. He followed that in 2021 with the well-received The Card Counter and has completed the triumvirate of stony-faced men giving major side eye in the posters with Master Gardener. 

To say that Schrader’s latest finds him in the weeds is both a cheap pun and a thorny bouquet way of stating that this drama fertilized with thriller elements is a withered mess. Dry and brittle, it features the director pandering to his worst, most self-indulgent instincts and bringing down a good cast with him. It’s the type of film where a supposedly respectable, eloquent woman utters the phrase ‘tit cancer’ in the same breath she waxes poetic about an old black lab she’s named ‘Porch Dog’ because, you know, he sits on the porch. I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, however…

The opening of Master Gardener suggests that Schrader is back to his First Reformed ways of internalizing the emotional arc of a troubled soul and inviting the audience to watch how repressed feelings seep out in small doses over two hours. Sadly, that blasted ‘tit cancer’/ ‘Porch Dog’ scene happens (lines only Schrader would dare to write), and the illusion is broken almost as soon as it has begun. By that time, we’ve established Joel Edgerton (Boy Erased) as Narvel Roth, an enigmatic horticulturist employed on the estate of Norma, a mannered woman (Sigourney Weaver, The Good House) who has invited Roth into her gardens and, as we find out awkwardly, her bed.

Roth lives on the massive acreage, all the better to stay close to the plants, and keeps detailed journals about the precise interaction between flora and fauna – some that will parallel the twisty entanglements to come. Norma asks Narvel to take on her orphaned grand-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell, Black Adam) as a new apprentice, teaching the inexperienced teen how to make the garden grow. It isn’t long before the teacher becomes more than a little interested in the student, first taking on the role of protector from an abusive boyfriend, then an interventionist, and ultimately (cringe!) her savior.

The relationship between Narvel and Maya (as played by Edgerton and Swindell) is painfully chemistry-free, so when the script thrusts them together as lovers (not precisely a spoiler because you can see it coming a mile away) and tells you they have found a weird sort of affection you can’t fully accept it. Narvel is clearly the two decades older the actor Edgerton is over Swindell, and throw in some issues Narvel has with his absent teen daughter, and you have something gross to sort out on your own time. That’s the only fast-moving plot point in Schrader’s meandering film, which takes longer to get through than a stroll through an actual botanical garden.

Huge plot problems aside, the acting is disappointing too. Edgerton was on a roll with parts that allowed the Australian actor to push past the typical Hollywood leading action star mold and expand into something different. You can see where the appeal was to work with Schrader on a character with Narvel’s complexities (I’m deliberately leaving out a significant character detail that informs much of his actions). Still, it doesn’t fully come through in the execution. As a wealthy shrew who uses her money to control others, Weaver fares better because she’s adept at circumnavigating parts for women who tend to dismiss them outright. However, even she can’t acquit Norma from some very odd dialogue that sometimes makes her sound like she’s in 1920s Maryland and others as if she’s slumming it in 1997 Hoboken. 

Schrader gets fed up with the Hollywood machine every few years, throws his hands up, and goes silent. Perhaps it’s time to take a breather again and sort out some of the problematic elements of Master Gardener that take it so awry. The icky romance (for real, so gross), the non-starter thriller aspects, and the dull flashback drama told in pieces that never come together to form a complete picture. It’s nothing shocking considering that Schrader has gone back to this older man/younger woman concept now dozens of times. Still, it is staggering that the director keeps writing the same film over and over again but can’t ever validate it as a worthwhile idea. This comes across as a first draft that no story editor got to before filming began. Skip it and go plant a tree instead.

Movie Review ~ White Men Can’t Jump (2023)

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Juggling tenuous relationships, financial pressures, and serious internal struggles, two ballers–opposites who are seemingly miles apart–find they might have more in common than they imagined possible.
Stars: Sinqua Walls, Jack Harlow, Teyana Taylor, Laura Harrier, Vince Staples, Myles Bullock, Lance Reddick
Director: Calmatic
Rated: R
Running Length: 101 minutes
TMMM Score: (6.5/10)
Review: It can’t be stated enough what a huge impact 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump had on the careers of stars Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, and Rosie Perez. Without the success of that film, who can tell what the rest of the ’90s would have looked like for the trio. Would Snipes have drawn such huge crowds with Passenger 57 later that year, the first of a dozen routine action thrillers he would elevate thanks to his blend of easy-going machismo and take no guff beatdowns? It’s hard to call if Perez’s Oscar nomination the following year for Fearless after many thought she’d get one for her breakout role here, would have been a sure bet. Then there’s Harrelson, jumping from a dopey sidekick role on Cheers to costarring with Snipes and sharing top billing a year later with Demi Moore and Robert Redford in the much-discussed Indecent Proposal. For all three, the film was a gateway to their future success.

And you know what? They deserved it. Revisiting the original film (like this remake, available on Hulu) shows that it holds up remarkably well three decades later, aside from the hysterically dated attire (those with an aversion to neon, spandex, and puffy shirts have been warned). It’s as fast and funny as ever, with the undeniable chemistry between Snipes and Harrelson being the de facto lynchpin in making writer/director Ron Shelton’s basketball buddy film a slam dunk. If that weren’t enough, you have Perez stealing the movie from under her male costars as Harrelson’s Jeopardy! obsessed girlfriend that loves her man but doesn’t love his terrible ways of being hustled for money. Perez is the rock-solid core of the film, while the men provide the flash around her. 

My first thought when I heard they were remaking White Men Can’t Jump for a modern audience was: how will they ever replicate what Rosie Perez brought to the original? Finding two leads that could dribble a ball and strike up believably chemistry isn’t that hard, but to bottle up that lightning for a second time would be rare. Screenwriters Doug Hall and Kenya Barris have sidestepped that challenge altogether for better or for worse and not even attempted to find another Perez, centering their script around the two leads (Sinqua Walls and rapper Jack Harlow) and short-shifting the women. The result is a remake in name only that may have longtime fans crying foul initially but does get easier to warm up to the longer you keep your head in the game.

Although once a promising high-school basketball star on the road to playing professionally, a brush with the law ended the dreams of Kamal Allen (Walls, Nanny) before they could even begin. Playing pick-up games with his friends and working to pay off mounting expenses to help his wife Imani (Teyana Taylor, A Thousand and One) launch her hair salon, he carries guilt for disappointing his dad (the late Lance Reddick, John Wick: Chapter 4) struck down by ALS and isn’t up for being challenged on his home turf. That’s just what entrepreneur Jeremy (Harlow) does, though.

Always working some angle, Jeremy is currently pushing his detox drink while trying to train other rising talent players. Hampered by an injury that has kept him from reaching his potential, he isn’t above taking a hot-headed player like Kamal for a few bills when the player tries to get under his skin. Kamal recognizes talent when he sees it, and while Jeremy’s girlfriend Tatiana (Laura Harrier, The Starling) wants him to give up playing and devote all attention to starting a life with her, he can’t resist taking Kamal up on his offer to play in a series of tournaments for major money. Of course, the two must get used to their different styles and get over personal hang-ups to position themselves to win. 

It takes a solid twenty minutes for a viewer familiar with the original White Men Can’t Jump to acclimate to this new environment and understand that the remake isn’t working with the same set of rules as its predecessor. I’m not even sure why it retained the title, it’s established early on that the notion of white players not being able to sink a basket is old-fashioned, and that’s about all the reference we get. Why Hall and Barris wanted to remake the property is puzzling; the story they’ve outlined is so different, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have its compelling narrative at the same time. Walls and Harlow aren’t ever trying to copy what Snipes and Harrelson put on film, creating new characters and being given some slack by director Calmatic (of the terrible 2023 House Party remake) to do so. This is Harlow’s first foray into acting, and while he acquits himself nicely, you get the feeling Walls is holding back a bit not to act quite so many circles around him. 

In Shelton’s original film, there was more equality between the two players. While there is an attempt to find balance, the new White Men Can’t Jump always feels like it’s more in Kamal’s court than Jeremy’s. Walls has a more well-rounded storyline (and supporting cast), so that’s fine, but I wonder what it would have been like had the film been filled with a more robust roster. This is a minor nitpick, but there is consistent talk about Jeremy not having much money and he’s wearing clothes meant to look raggy, but you can tell they are carefully chosen works that cost a pretty penny. A quilted name-brand hoodie? And he has trouble paying for hourly parking? I don’t think so.

I wish the women in White Men Can’t Jump were treated as well as the men. Taylor’s role is indeed more significant than Tyra Ferrell’s was in the 1992 film, but I don’t know what is going on with the creation of Harrier’s part. Jeremy’s girlfriend is such an unlikable bore; when he professes such devotion to her after she’s spent much of the moving putting him down, you wonder if he’s perhaps taken a few too many basketballs to the head. It’s not helped that Harrier is far from a compelling actress, but then again, she is standing in the shadow of Perez, which no one wants to be in. At least we have another chance to see Taylor in a strong supporting role a month after wowing us in A Thousand and One.

Skipping theaters and debuting on Hulu, the remake of White Men Can’t Jump may not have the same lasting strength on the cinematic court as its source inspiration. Still, it also doesn’t significantly damage the name either. Walls and Harlow make for a friendly pair. If they were to team up again (hey, it worked for Snipes and Harrelson on several unrelated films, I’m looking at you, Money Train – where they were also often eclipsed by a supporting female…newcomer Jennifer Lopez), it could capitalize on the building blocks they’ve put in place here.