Synopsis: Two old friends reconnect at a funeral and decide to get revenge on the widower who messed with them decades before. Stars: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Roundtree, Sarah Burns, Catherine Dent Director: Paul Weitz Rated: R Running Length: 85 minutes TMMM Score: (7/10) Review: When something works, you stick with it, and obviously, the chemistry between stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin hasn’t waned since they (re)joined forces in 2015 for their popular Netflix show Grace and Frankie. Not long after that show finished its run in early 2022, the two were on to 80 for Brady, bringing Oscar winners Sally Field and Rita Moreno along for the ride. That film was the low-grade hit it was intended to be, especially among its target audience (matinee crowds). Those same viewers will likely be interested in what shenanigans Tomlin and Fonda are up to now.
It should be noted that Moving On is being marketed as a much different film than it is, and that’s too bad. To look at it, a paying customer might think it’s a comedy with an edgier premise allowing the duo to play to their usual schtick when in reality, it’s more of a darker drama the women approach with a far more serious stance. Of their collaborations from the past decade, this denotes their best work together (as flimsy though it may be) and, in the case of Tomlin, some of her most resonant screen representation in decades.
Attending the funeral of her best friend from college she hasn’t seen in years, Claire (Fonda, Peace, Love & Misunderstanding) has come to do more than grieve. She has a score to settle with Howard (Malcolm McDowell, Bombshell), the late woman’s husband, and she believes the only way to make him pay is to murder him. As she’s working out the finer details of her plan, Evelyn (Tomlin, Admission), another college friend, also appears with a revelation of her own. It’s from shared grief that Evelyn and Claire pick up where they left off years ago, alternatively planning Howard’s murder while evaluating their lives and missed opportunities.
Writer/director Paul Weitz has had quite the rollercoaster career. Starting by co-directing American Pie with his brother Chris in 1999 and recently directing Tomlin in her award-worthy performance in 2015’s Grandma, I’d be willing to bet he wrote Evelyn with her in mind. How else would it feel perfectly tailored to Tomlin’s strengths as both a wry comic and an actress able to draw deep emotion from unique line readings? Fonda’s role is a nice change of pace (but not a nice change of wig, I must say), even if it’s once again mainly centered around her relationships with men. It’s frustrating to see Fonda still playing roles that have her sitting around figuring out why her marriages don’t work out. Her scenes with an ex-husband (Richard Roundtree, Shaft) are pleasant enough but feel like distractions.
When the film takes wild shifts in tone (earning its R rating with some out-of-left-field blue dialogue), the viewer can feel like they are getting whiplash, and the last half of Moving On is hard to nail down. Weitz loses the thread when trying to tie everything together, but at least Fonda and Tomlin are there to do what they can with the pattern that’s been woven so far. It’s a nice image if overall incomplete in design.
Synopsis: An aging actress travels to a remote retreat in Scotland to recuperate from an operation. Once there, she discovers the dark history of the land and, in doing so, unravels her past with vengeful consequences. Stars: Alice Krige, Kota Eberhardt, Malcolm McDowell, Rupert Everett, Jonathan Arias, Daniel Lapaine, Olwen Fouéré, Jack Greenlees, Layla Burns Director: Charlotte Colbert Rated: NR Running Length: 95 minutes TMMM Score: (9/10) Review: Often, the best kind of horror side effect is the cold tingle that slowly creeps up your spine, starting at your lower back and traveling up up up through every vertebra until it reaches the base of your skull. She Will had barely begun, but a shiver went through me, almost as an early reaction to the eerie and elegantly spooky delights director and co-writer Charlotte Colbert would deliver during the next 95 minutes.
Faded actress Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige, Sleepwalkers) is in pain, but her stiff resentment over being so vulnerable prevents her from showing it. Traveling by midnight train to a private wellness retreat in Scotland with her new nurse Desi (Kota Eberhardt) to recuperate after undergoing a double mastectomy, she’s haunted by memories of her recent illness. Heart brittle and body broken, Ghent is angry at everything and everybody, especially at the director (Malcolm McDowell, Bombshell) who made her famous as a child and is now trying to do the same for another young, vulnerable girl.
Arriving to find the set-up much different (read: kooky and not so private) than she imagined, Ghent is, however, entranced by the land which is fertilized with the ashes of women burned as witches in the early 1700s. Almost instantly her health starts to improve, right around the same time thick mud oozes from the ground (and out of her), and then…things get stranger. Falling into deep trances instead of sleep, she is seemingly able to harness a new power that allows her the opportunity to reach out past her physical plane into something far more dangerous and deadly.
Colbert and co-writer Kitty Percy offer a script with a #MeToo bent and give it a hell of a supernatural twist, laying it at the altar of Krige, who does phenomenal work. An expressive actress that’s well-respected but has never quite received her full due from the industry, there’s just no describing the contributions Krige makes to the success of this film. Watching the movie for a second time recently after seeing it at Fantastic Fest back in October 2021, I found it even more sinewy and disturbing.
Aside from Krige, the cast is an interesting mix of styles. The put-upon assistant is a well-traveled archetype, yet Eberhardt (X-Men: Dark Phoenix) resists the inclination to play it with much vinegar. Instead, she opts for the caring route, which works to her advantage as the story unfolds. At first, I didn’t even recognize Rupert Everett (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children) as the loopy leader of Ghent’s frou-frou retreat, but the broad strokes of his artistic hedonist remind of you the variety of genres he’s played with throughout his career. There are also minor but still memorable appearances from Jonathan Aris (Vivarium) as a TV reporter who comes under Ghent’s influence, Daniel Lapaine (Muriel’s Wedding) going saucy as a Ghent devotee that can turn on a dime, and Olwen Fouéré (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) who does more with mere presence than pages of dialogue.
Though it has mystic undertones because of the history of the land Ghent starts to bond with, She Will is not a “witch” movie per se but one dealing with psychic power coming into the hands of those without other recourse. Ghent has stared death down and sees her new gift perhaps as a reward for her strife, and that’s how she finds the will to move on from a haunted past. How she uses that strength is what the movie must contend with and what Ghent herself battles back. Is revenge worth it or is it simply enough to have health restored and move on?
Colbert has a grand feature debut under her belt in an all-together handsomely made production featuring a dynamic sound pulsing underneath (the great Clint Mansell turned in a shivery score of chirping voices). She’s also given Krige a real feather in her already well-adorned hat. It’s a moderately paced film at times but doles out its shivers in the right places, primarily as She Will builds to its eerie finale. With the bold visuals, it would be great to catch this one in theaters, if possible, but keep your eyes out for this wherever it pops up.
Synopsis: The greatest cult horror and science fiction films of all-time are studied in vivid detail in the second volume of Time Warp. Includes groundbreaking classics like Night of the Living Dead, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and sci-fi gems such as Blade Runner, and A Clockwork Orange.
Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Sean Young, Joe Morton, Malcolm McDowell, Bruce Campbell, Roger Corman, John Sayles, Mary Woronov, Ed Neal, Rob Zombie, Joe Dante, John Waters, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Pollak
Director: Danny Wolf
Rated: NR
Running Length: 83 minutes
TMMM Score: (8/10)
Review: It’s fitting that horror and sci-fi are the subject of the second volume of the documentary Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All-Time, seeing that the genre was so prone to sequel-itis over the years. Yet many of the titles featured in this shorter follow-up to Volume 1 are stand-alone entities, which surely have contributed to their unique followings over time. From the obscure but not quite forgotten Liquid Sky to the oft-mentioned importance of the original Night of the Living Dead, these were usually shoe-stringed budgeted kitchen-sink endeavors that caught on over time.
Joined again by the strange panel of moderators consisting of Joe Dante (Matinee), John Waters (Pink Flamingos), Illeana Douglas (Cape Fear), and Kevin Pollak (Indian Summer), director Danny Wolf moves away from the general ‘Midnight Madness’ theme from the preceding chapter. For his follow-up, he centers on a more specific genre that produced a bevy of cult titles throughout the last several decades. Not all the choices are obvious ones and though a number of quips and factoids presented over the 83 minutes are what you could glean from a trivia track off of a special edition DVD, it’s the delivery of said bits that make this such an enormous treat for film fans. Even if horror/sci-fi isn’t your bag, there are enough familiar faces that float by, either as stars reflecting on their earlier work or fans commenting on the importance of the title on the medium, that I think you’ll get a kick out of this.
I mean, you can hardly go wrong when you have interviews with Jeff Goldblum cheekily riffing on his experience making The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension and straining to remember the illegible plot. Or an actress from The Human Centipede reflecting on the casting process and attempting to find nobility in the acting that went on while filming a movie where the mouth of her character was sewn to the business end of a companion. I thought Mary Woronov recounting her time on Death Race 2000 was a hoot, proving again she’s one of the best interview subjects for these kind of documentaries. Special mention goes to Sean Young who pulls no punches when discussing her time on the set of Blade Runner – say what you will about Young’s antics over the years but she definitely speaks up for herself.
Along with critical hot takes throughout, this is another well put together look into movies that started off the beaten path and have generally found their way into a lasting conversation. They may not have had A-list talent (well, not at the time) but they’ve garnered a name for themselves through longevity and staying power that other titles in their genre haven’t found. This covers a nice swath of tastes too, from the pomp of A Clockwork Orange to the worms and all grotesqueries found in The Evil Dead and Re-Animator. It’s just long enough to cover more than the basics but doesn’t slog on to encapsulate additional titles that don’t quite fit the bill. While the oeuvre might not be your completely cup of tea, there’s a little something for everyone from laughs to trivia.
Review: I’m sure it’s because I’m a lifelong MN but I still recall that night in 1989 when Gretchen Carlson from Anoka won the Miss America pageant after impressing the judges with her talent (violin), poise, and that aquamarine gown. I always felt that MNs should stick together and since I rooted for her so vehemently to win I obviously thought we were best friends so I was dismayed when Carlson turned up on the Fox news network in a morning show that routinely spoke out against issues that I felt strongly about. Now I didn’t follow Carlson’s career closely, mind you, but the station was always in the media for something and she seemed to be at the center of attention – so when she was fired it wasn’t just big national news, it was buzzed about in the local press as well.
Carlson is one of a handful of familiar Fox faces that are featured in Bombshell, a true-ish account of the lawsuit Carlson initiated against her former boss and how it turned into a media frenzy that topped a once-solid empire. Yet from the outset it’s hard to view Bombshell and not address the elephant in the room: Fox News was and is a hugely problematic news outlet with anchors known for stirring the pot, making uninformed statements, introducing unsubstantiated facts, and orchestrating countless take downs of anyone that doesn’t share the agenda they’re pushing. An already uneasy world has been made more dangerous by the untruths they perpetrate – and now we’re supposed to sit in a theater for two hours and watch beautiful female employees at Fox sob about internal misconduct without also examining the fuel they added to their company bonfire? It’s a hard place to get to for some, but I found my way into this world thanks to stellar performances, a sharp script, and assured direction.
As the primary elections are ramping up in 2015, anchor Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron, Atomic Blonde) prepares for the Republican Party presidential debate and doesn’t shy away from asking then-candidate Donald Trump about his poor history with women, welcoming a firestorm of criticism but drawing huge ratings for her network. This pleases her boss Roger Ailes (a sublimely slimy John Lithgow, Pet Sematary) but makes life with her children and husband (Mark Duplass, Tammy) fraught with anxiety. In the same period, on-air reporter Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman, The Goldfinch) struggles with her own show, thought of to her as a demotion from her prime spot as the third member of Fox and Friends. Seeing the writing on the wall, she engages with lawyers to discuss her options on suing Ailes for harassment should he fire her, willing to bring up his sordid history of propositioning female employees for sexual favors.
It seems Ailes has a long reputation of harassment that is popular knowledge among the staff, save for fresh face Kayla (Margot Robie, I, Tonya) who falls into his trap fairly quickly, with her co-worker Jess (Kate McKinnon, Yesterday) unable to warn her in time. When Carlson is ousted and brings her lawsuit into the public, will the other women at the network stand with her or stay loyal to the powerful man that holds their jobs in his hands? Played out over a span of a year and a few months, the case develops into something bigger when respected people like Kelly stay silent instead of picking a side – leading some to ask if Kelly wasn’t another victim of Ailes, benefited from their relationship…or both.
Working from a script by Oscar-winner Charles Randolph (The Big Short), director Jay Roach (Trumbo) uses some clever ways to introduce us to the behind the scenes happenings at the network. A guided tour of the building by Megyn is a good way to give us a lay of the land, separating the executives from the anchors and the anchors from the assistants, etc. etc. Roach and Randolph aren’t above having actors stop and address the camera directly, though they wisely use that oft-employed tactic sparingly so when it happens it has a greater impact. Key people are identified by name throughout and the movie takes considered steps to let us know these are actors playing real people…there is a message before the studio logo, before the cast list in the closing credits, and again at the end of the movie — so they mean business.
It’s the casting where Roach really hit gold. As Kelly, Theron has again gone through a transformation right before our eyes into a completely different person. It’s admittedly harder to see at the beginning when Kelly’s hair was longer but when the short style arrives, watch out, because Theron is on the money with Kelly’s voice, mannerisms, and, with the assistance of Kazu Hiro’s (and Oscar winner for Darkest Hour in 2018) expert prosthetics, an uncanny ringer for the real person. Though she never met Kelly before making the movie, Theron seems to understand her and what motivated her forward, giving her complexities that maybe are a bit generous at times. Kelly was always a slight enigma, that’s partly why she struggled when she moved to NBC news, and failed to connect with a broader audience…Theron perhaps warms us up to her too much. Kidman doesn’t look much like Carlson but with her big hair and pursed lips she has the determined look of a woman smart enough to get her ducks lined up in a row and so resourceful no one even knew the ducks were there to begin with.
Robie’s character is a composite of several different producers at Fox News so she has a bit more leeway to create the role from the top down. After scoring high marks with a fantastic dialogue-free scene earlier this summer in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, she tops that one with a hard to watch passage with Lithgow as Ailes. Watching her face go through a range of emotions is gut-wrenching but Robie doesn’t overplay it, it’s devastating enough as it is. Her best scenes, though, are with McKinnon who finally shows up in a movie ready to take things seriously. By far her best work to date, McKinnon leaves her goofy shtick at the Saturday Night Live studios and works hard to be a part of the success of the film rather than being the source of the problem.
Roach has filled the rest of the cast with a truckload of amazing character actors playing a number of familiar faces from the network and the world of entertainment. I won’t spoil them all but special mention just has to be made for Allana Ubach’s (Gloria Bell) incredible work as Judge Jeanine Pirro – it’s so close to the real thing your skin starts to crawl until you realize it’s just Ubach under all that makeup.
I still struggled with the whole Fox News of it all, though, and it took me until my second viewing and a lengthy discussion with my partner afterward to lock into what the film was missing that would have helped it along a bit more. There’s no character present that stands in opposition to Fox News or its anchors before all of this happens, only people that turn against the women after they come forward. So we never know if they are shunning the women themselves or the women because they work at Fox News. Having some semblance of accountability for actions before all of the harassment business came to light would, I think, ease some of the discomfort people are feeling after seeing the movie.
Hard to deny, though, that Bombshell isn’t a slick piece of entertainment with an important, but not uncommon story to tell. Closing with a dynamite new song from Regina Spektor, “One Little Soldier”, that sadly didn’t make the Oscar shortlist, my hope is that audiences (even the MN ones!) can put aside their differences of opinion and take the movie for what it’s trying to say. It’s not about politics, it’s not men vs. women, it’s about saying something. Or, as Carlson says, ‘Someone has to speak up. Someone has to get mad.’
Synopsis: In this erotic remake of the 1942 classic, a young woman’s sexual awakening brings horror when she discovers her urges transform her into a monstrous black leopard
Stars: Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, Annette O’Toole, Ruby Dee, Ed Begley Jr.
Director: Paul Schrader
Rated: R
Running Length: 118 minutes
TMMM Score: (6/10)
Review: The 1942 film Cat People was one of the more successful thrillers of the day that didn’t feature Dracula or Frankenstein. Its box office built and built…eventually running so long that it’s said many of the critics that originally hated it went back and loved it. The topic of sexuality was pretty taboo for the early 40’s which is at least one reason why the film was so intriguing to moviegoers. It was followed by a less successful sequel (The Curse of the Cat People) and then remade/re-envisioned as an overly psycho-sexual thriller of the mid eighties.
Director Schrader has been involved with some of the more memorable films out of Hollywood in the 70’s and early part of the 80’s. Acting as the screenwriter for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, he also directed a landmark film showcasing steely 80’s obsession…American Gigolo. Two years later came his re-do of Val Lewton’s Cat People and it’s a curious film that is sometimes intriguing but often times exasperating.
In the 1940’s, some sexual references had to be toned down but in the era of films that showed anything you wanted to see the 1982 Cat People was drenched in flesh and blood and mined for all it was worth. The metaphor that one’s sex drive/desire was linked to animalistic behavior comes through loud and clear as siblings McDowell and Kinski transform into leopards whenever they get hot to trot.
No one plays a skeevy creep-o like McDowell (witness Caligula…or better yet…don’t) and he’s smarm-factor is on level 14 as he leers at his sister but stops short of licking his lips anytime she walks into the room. When the long estranged siblings are reunited in New Orleans, McDowell takes his sister into the house he shares with a voodoo-ish woman named Female (that’s Fhem-Ah-Lay just so we’re clear). Kinski finds herself drawn to the zoo and a well-meaning zookeeper (Heard) who just so happens to be called in when McDowell in leopard form attacks a prostitute.
As the co-workers of Heard’s zoologist, O’Toole and Begley Jr. can only watch on the sidelines and Heard is strangely drawn to the mysterious woman that feels a connection to the leopard that is now caged and under surveillance. O’ Toole’s character may have had something good to contribute but Schrader seems only interested in getting her clothes off and putting her in danger as she’s stalked by a beast while doing laps late at night.
In his first (and only) foray into the horror genre, Schrader does create a more adult feel to the typical slasher fare that was out at the time. It’s as if he wanted to give the adults that go to the movies something to blush at and yet not be ashamed to be seen going into. While it does have its fair share of flowing blood and a lushly seedy vision that only could be provided by the steamy streets of Louisiana, Cat People seems to turn its nose up at the very genre it’s trying to fit into. It’s too refined to be dopey teen horror but not interesting enough to be true art-house fare.
It’s safe to say that you don’t need to see the original Cat People to take this one in as well. Both films are different enough in tone and narrative that they operate as separate movies that share the same title. Schrader’s blunt-nosed sexualized take on the material won’t be for everyone and it didn’t win me over on the whole, but there’s some decent work here from all involved that may keep this one out of your litter box.
Synopsis: Two female vampires in modern-day New York City are faced with daunting romantic possibilities.
Release Date: November 2, 2012
Thoughts: Oh dear. Well, being a big Amy Heckerling fan (even National Lampoon’s European Vacation!) I had been waiting for this one for a while. Long delayed for a theatrical release, Vamps was recently announced as going direct-to-video. After viewing the silly trailer I can see why. Featuring a nice supply of actors that know how to do light comedy, I’m a bit surprised this looks as bad as it does. Who knows, perhaps this one will be a guilty pleasure but I’m guessing it’ll be a toothless comedy lacking bite.
