Movie Review: That Night

July 10, 2023 By Leave a Comment


That Night
Director: Zachary Trussell
Writer: Zachary Trussell
Stars: Julio Alexander, Oscar Mansky, Julie Gester, Maureen Azzun, Boogie Williams, Kendall McCarthy, Michael C. Hyatt, and Alexander Louis
Rated: 3 Stars (6 stars on IMDB)
Review by: Astilbe

THAT NIGHT tells the story of a young unknown artist who is forced to confront his career ambitions and win back his ex-girlfriend during a drunken night in Chicago with his irreverent friends. Any night out in a big city has the potential to be a good night, the risk of being a bad night, and typically ends up somewhere in between, but only some nights can claim to be “That Night”—the night where little choices lead to big decisions, chance encounters to second chances, Uber drivers keep themselves busy in the strangest of ways and taking the wrong pill can be really bad for the upholstery. For STACY, an artist with one eye on the future of design and the other stuck looking hopelessly at his ex-lover, that night is tonight—and the city, Chicago. So yes, there will be drinking.

Anything can happen overnight.

I loved this film’s varied sense of humor. There was something here for everyone, whether you like jokes about the pitfalls of accidentally taking the wrong medication or how one should properly milk an almond. All of the characters had a good sense of humour and weren’t afraid to gently poke fun at themselves or others if the conversation warranted it. There is definitely something to be said for that!

It would have been helpful to have more character development. I don’t mind watching stories about people who may not be terribly likeable at first glance as those can often be the most interesting characters of them all, but I was hoping to see everyone mature a bit more as a result of their wild night. There were a few signs that the protagonist was going to work on his flaws, and I appreciated that. Had I seen it in his friends, too, I would have happily chosen a higher rating.

The romantic storyline was fresh and realistic, and I’m saying this as a viewer who was honestly not that impressed with it in the beginning. It’s always nice to be proven wrong, especially with something as creative as this. I loved the way the director included little hints about where he was going with the romance early on while still leaving space to interpret them in multiple ways. That’s a fantastic way to foreshadow the conclusion without spelling things out too directly, and it makes me want to see more from these characters and this crew.

That Night kept me guessing.

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Movie Review: Sunset

May 29, 2023 By Leave a Comment

Sunset
Director: Jamison M. LoCascio
Writers; Adam Ambrosio, Jamison M. LoCascio
Stars: Austin Pendleton, Suzette GunnJuri, Henley-Cohn
Rated: 3 Stars (6 stars on IMDB)
Review by: Astilbe

A diverse group of people grapple with the imminent probability of a nuclear strike on the east coast.

What would you do differently if you thought your life might be in danger?

Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that showed how complex relationships can be. For example, an offhand remark can really sting even if the person saying it was trying to be funny, and someone’s childhood experiences can still affect them decades later. The director and writers did a good job of exploring these topics in ways that also tied into the main storyline even when I didn’t originally think there would be much of a connection between them at all.

I would have liked to see more character development in this film, especially when it came to their pasts and how they all met. There were a few scenes that lightly touched on this subject, but I was still left with many questions about why certain characters behaved the way that they did. For example, Chris’ rough childhood seemed like it could have provided a lot of fodder for both the troubled relationship he had with alcohol that was obvious from the very first scene to how he ended up living with Henry and Patricia as their surrogate child.

The dialogue was fast-paced and topical. It was especially interesting to see how everyone reacted to the possibility of their neighbourhood being attacked by a nuclear weapon. Planning an evacuation is more complicated than it may seem, especially for people who are physically disabled or have other things going on in their lives that make it difficult to travel. The opening scene did a particularly good job of using dialogue to introduce everyone and share hints about what they were openly, or sometimes quietly, struggling with in their lives before the public service announcements began.

Sunset was a thought-provoking story.

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Movie Review: Know Fear

May 22, 2023 By Leave a Comment

Know Fear
Director: Jamison M. LoCascio
Writers: Adam Ambrosio & Jamison M. LoCascio
Starring: David Alan Basche, Amy Carlson and Mallory Bechtel
Rated: 5 Stars (10 stars on IMDB)
Review by: Astilbe

After the possession of his wife, Donald Capel and his family activate a dangerous ritual in a book used to identify and banish demons, a ritual forcing each member of the family to communicate with the demon in their own unique way: to see it, hear it, or speak to it.

If you’ve ever wondered what weird or even terrifying things the previous owners of a house might have gotten up to, this might be right up your alley.

I enjoyed the fast, plot-based storyline. All of the characters were given just enough time to introduce themselves to the audience before mysterious things began happening. The quick pace also helped to explain why the characters remained in a house that was possessed by such a dangerous entity. They simply didn’t have the time to consider other options, especially once things really began to escalate.

One of the many reasons why I chose a perfect rating for this film had to do with how it handled the demon. It left no room for doubt about just how malicious this creature was or how much peril all of the characters were in while it still remained in our world. There were a few scenes I had to watch out of the corner of my eye because of how much they made me shudder. That’s exactly what I love to see in the horror genre, and I only wish I could go into much more detail about it without giving away spoilers!

The ending couldn’t have been better. Not only did it tie all of the loose strings left over from earlier scenes together nicely, it made me go back to some earlier scenes and think carefully about how they were shared with the audience. Yes, many of the twists and turns were tropes that most fans of this genre would expect to see, but they were combined in ways that made them feel fresh again. It takes a lot of hard work to pull something like that off, and I tip my cap to the cast and crew for doing so well with it.

For readers who are sensitive to blood or gore, there were a few scenes that included both of them. I liked the fact that most of the focus was placed on the demon itself, but the storyline did need those elements to thrive.

Know Fear was deliciously scary.

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Movie Review: Adam & the Water

May 8, 2023 By 1 Comment

Adam & the Water
Director: Matthew Appleby
Writer: Matthew Appleby
Starring: Qado, Elisa Alemparte, and Laine Korn.
Rated: 3 Stars (6 stars on IMDB)
Review by: Astilbe

Adam is stuck. Anxious. Alone. Trapped in a nine to five. Lost without purpose, he meets Eva. As she enters Adam’s life, something changes, and a new reality awakens him.

Daydreaming is harmless, right?

The fantasy elements of the storyline were subtle and hard to pin down. Adam sank so deeply into some of them that it wasn’t always possible for me to tell where the line was between his vivid imagination, real life, and the possibility that some of the things he experienced might be too surreal to be explained logically. This is the sort of storytelling I’m immediately drawn to, and I appreciated how much nuance the director included in every twist and turn. Not everything in life needs to be explained, and those scenes were stronger because of how much freedom the audience was given to come up with our own interpretations of them.

With that being said, I struggled with how ambivalent the ending was. It could be interpreted in so many different ways that I was never quite sure which ones the director hoped his audience would choose even after I watched the ending multiple times. The protagonist was someone I grew to care about quite a lot about, so it was a little disappointing for me as a viewer to say goodbye to him while so many of my questions about what he’d decided to do with his life remained unanswered.

It didn’t take me long at all to like Adam. I empathized with how difficult it was for him to cope with his mental illness when he didn’t seem to have a strong support system or the emotional energy to seek professional help. Circumstances like that can make it even harder than usual for someone to recover, especially when they’re also as introspective and intelligent as Adam was. He knew he had a problem, but taking even the first step to finding a solution to it was almost more than he could do. Some of the best scenes in my opinion were the ones that showed his reactions to this dilemma and how mental illness can make even the smallest nudges in the right direction like asking for help feel impossible in that moment.

Adam & the Water was a thoughtful exploration of mental illness and how technology affects modern relationships.

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Movie Review: My Apocalyptic Thanksgiving

November 14, 2022 By Leave a Comment

Movie Review: My Apocalyptic Thanksgiving

Director: Charles B. Unger

Writer: Richard Soriano

Stars: Joshua Warren Bush, Ray Chang, and Chris Wu

A zombie-obsessed, special needs adult searches for his absent mom while a Korean family and gang compete to be his family.

Rated: 4 Stars

Review by: Astilbe

 

It’s hard to change the future when you can’t remember the past.

Just like Marcus, I was once obsessed with zombie movies. Some of the most memorable scenes were the ones that explored his interest in this topic and how the lessons he learned from that genre bled over into real life for him. I also loved seeing how his race, age, and disabilities influenced his understanding of that genre. Zombie flicks are so often written from the perspective of white men who don’t have any disabilities, so it was refreshing to see those same tropes play out for someone outside of that group.

Marcus’ inability to safely live on his own was such a major portion of the storyline that I was surprised to see how little time was spent explaining his backstory or diagnoses. His social worker and group home owner briefly discussed the fact that both his mental illness and developmental delay were the reasons for this, but they never went into anymore detail about that. I found myself wishing that they’d have either given him specific diagnoses or spent a scene describing his strengths and weaknesses when it came to why he needed to live in a group home. These labels were an important part of understanding later plot developments, and the storyline would have been tighter if the audience was given more direction here.

I loved the mishmash of genres in this film. Sometimes I couldn’t quite tell what was genuinely happening versus what Marcus’ vivid imagination wished would happen next. That not only fit his personality well, it also gave the comedy, drama, holiday, horror, and light speculative fiction genres a chance to rub up against each other in ways that I don’t see too often. As much as I want to dive deeply into this topic, it’s best if other viewers go into the first scene with as few assumptions about what will happen next as I did.

My Apocalyptic Thanksgiving was a thought-provoking, funny, and rewarding film.

 

 

 

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Movie Review: Howard Original

April 22, 2021 By Leave a Comment

Movie Review: Howard Original

Director: Natalie Rodriguez

Writer: Kevin Michaels and Natalie Rodriguez

Stars: Kevin Michaels, Natasha Galano, Katt Balsan, Jasmine Richards, Ivon Millian, Alessandra Mañon, and Iliyana Apostolova.

Due to recent tragic events in his life – particularly with MULTIPLE failed relationships – a screenwriter named HOWARD begins to question his life and the meaning of it. He escapes to a cabin, in hopes to find closure from both his writer’s block and hysterical, yet painful past. Only, HOWARD finds himself in a state of reality and an altered universe when he finds an abandoned cat named BLUE while reflecting on his personal and work relationships.

Rated: 3 Stars

Review by: Astilbe

He’s not a good guy, but he is an interesting one.

Howard was an argumentative, crass, and deeply prejudiced character whose profound lack of self-awareness made me shake my head. He was the last person I’d ever want to spend time with in real life, and yet I found myself fascinated by his repeated refusals to learn from his mistakes or listen to the feedback he was given about his abhorrent behavior from many of the women who crossed his path.

Other films on this topic would generally shown a small crack in the main character’s persona early on as evidence that he knew what he was doing was wrong and that he was at least theoretically capable of changing. The fact that this one gave the audience no hints about him learning the error of his ways or even admitting he had major issues relating to other human beings only made me more curious to see how such a belligerent and stubborn character would react to all of the plot twists that were being thrown his way.

I was often confused by the flashbacks in the storyline. While some of them were necessary in order to understand the deeper meanings of the plot, they happened so regularly that I struggled to keep the timeline in order in my head. Once or twice I paused this film in order to write down how I thought everything fit together and then checked it later to see if I was correct. It would have been helpful if more of the most important scenes had been shown in the order they actually occurred. There were times when I was totally wrong about how they should have fit together, and that only puzzled me more.

Blending the satirical and dreamlike elements of the plot together was a good choice. This was especially true during the portions of it near the end that would have been easy to take literally if they’d been shot in a more straightforward manner. I appreciated having these reminders to dig more deeply into what was happening and think critically about what I was watching. They did a good job of tying up some loose ends for me.

Howard Original kept me on my toes. I’d recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for something genre bending and thought provoking.

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Movie Review: Candy Jar

January 4, 2021 By Leave a Comment

Movie Review: Candy Jar

Director: Ben Shelton

Writer: Chad Klitzman

Stars: Christina Hendricks, Uzo Aduba, Jacob Latimore, Sami Gayle, and Helen Hunt.

Rated: 4 Stars

Review by: Astilbe

Dueling high school debate champs who are at odds on just about everything forge ahead with ambitious plans to get into the colleges of their dreams.

Anything is possible if you work hard enough at it, right?

Lona and Bennett would have been loathed to admit it, but they truly were two peas in a pod. They were both intelligent, hardworking, and stubborn teens who knew their many hours of studying and carefully-selected extracurriculars like debate club were going to get them admission to their dream colleges. There was nothing that was going to stand in their ways, not even each other. The acting was so well done that I kept forgetting this was a fictional story. That was how convincing both of these actors were at playing competitive and nerdy high schoolers.

I must admit that their strong personalities overwhelmed me a little at first. They were both so determined to be right about everything that neither of them was very good at listening to others. I admired their strong work ethics, but they both seemed like people who would be exhausting to spend a lot of time around in real life. They never took a break!

Luckily, those character flaws in these two characters provided plenty of fodder for both the dramatic and comedic moments in this film. Their personalities were so similar to each other that they were often on the same wavelength. This lead to moments of friction when they disagreed, but it also brought them of opportunities to find the funny side of their high-pressure lifestyles.

There’s something amusing about watching two characters realize just how much they have in common and what a good couple they might make. This was obvious to the audience from the very first scene, and it made me wonder if or when these characters would figure it out as well.

Candy Jar was a lighthearted romp that I’d recommend to viewers of all ages who love teen romances, dramas, or, better yet, both of these genres!

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Movie Review: The Boonies

December 2, 2019 By Leave a Comment

The Boonies

Starring Cody Ko, Andi Matichak, Calum Worthy and J.J. Nolan

Rated: 4.5 stars

Review by Astilbe

On the eve of graduation in Boone, Texas, five disparate seniors – once childhood best friends – are united by a dead classmate’s cryptic video directing them to embark on a treasure hunt inside the halls of Boone High School.

The Boonies is what happens when you throw a treasure hunt, a teen comedy, and a murder mystery into the same storyline and mix them up together thoroughly. 

Pay close attention to the beginning. There are six main characters here and a few dozen minor ones. I ended up needing to rewind once or twice to make sure I caught everyone’s names. While I did figure out who they all were eventually, the characters were introduced so quickly that I did have take notes about who was who until I got to know everyone. It would have been nice to have a little more time for an introduction in the beginning, although I did soon come to see why that info dump was necessary. 

As fast as the pacing was in the beginning, it only sped up from there. This treasure hunt was serious business, and the characters didn’t have much time to figure out all of the clues before time ran out. I liked the fact that they were working with such tight deadlines. It made the plot even more exciting than it already was, especially when I factored in the time needed to explore why the victim was dead and who might have killed him. 

The twists and turns were a great deal of fun as well. All of the characters had grown up together and attended the same school for years, but that was the least important thing that tied them together. Figuring out the many other connections between them was a treat. I didn’t see half of them coming in advance! This is one of the major reasons why I’m not referring to anyone by name in this review or talking about what their relationships were with the other students. Even simple details like those will give away too many clues about what happens later on, and this is definitely the sort of thing that should be watched without any hints in advance about what’s going to happen. 

There were mature themes in this film involving sex, relationships, and all of the funny ways bodies change when you’re a teenager, so this is probably the best fit for a high school aged audience and older. 

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Movie Review: Ostinato 

November 18, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Movie Review: Ostinato 

Director: Luke Luoh

Writer: Paul Deichmann and Luke Loh

Stars: Barret Coates, Alina Levyz, Kyle Line, Paul Deichmann, and Daniel Wang. 

Rated: 5 Stars

Review by: Astilbe

The first step is admitting you need help—but getting it kills. In this psychological horror short, John Fields dies by the hands of his “friends”, over and over… or does he?

There’s more than one side to every story. 

John’s character development was handled amazingly well. He had very little dialogue to work with, and yet he managed to show the audience dozens of hints about who he might be. No, I can’t go into any detail about what sort of person he was. This is something best discovered by each new viewer on their own. The clues are there for anyone who pays attention to subtle things like how he speaks to the audience or what facial expressions he makes. 

I’ll admit to being confused by what was going on in this film for the first half of it, but that turned out to be the best possible thing I could be feeling at that moment. This is the sort of storytelling that requires a puzzled audience in order to get its point across because we don’t know anything about who John is when we begin watching and the things he shares about his life don’t quite seem to fit into a coherent picture of who this guy was before violent things began happening to him. 

Speaking of the violence, this was definitely a horror flick from beginning to end. There was a psychological element to what John was going through, but the story had its fair share of gory elements as well. As with the other questions about who John was and why anyone would want to hurt him,  the film left a lot up to the viewer’s active participation and imagination. My interpretation of what was really going on could be wildly different from how someone else pieced together the same snapshots of this characters life. This was a good thing! 

Anyone who loves horror or tales that can be interpreted multiple ways as much as I do should definitely give Ostinato a try. 

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TV Movie Review: A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi)

September 23, 2019 By Leave a Comment

imageA review of the movie “A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi)”.

A young man is ostracized by his classmates after he bullies a deaf girl to the point where she moves away. Years later, he sets off on a path for redemption.

I’ve been a fan of animation all my life.  It was only natural to move from after school cartoons to more sophisticated anime as I got older.  Although, to be honest, not all anime is sophisticated.  A lot of it – and a lot of the stuff I choose to watch – is flat out silly.  This, however, is not the case for A Silent Voice. 

To the contrary, A Silent Voice is a much different, more serious sort of anime.  Which brings me to some content warning: this movie deals with bullying as well as suicidal ideation.   Although it is handled well, it can still be upsetting at times.

Shoko Nishimiya is the new girl in school and while she looks as normal as everyone else, she has one major difference – she’s deaf.  Unfortunately, this sets her up for bullying by her classmates, leaving her feeling ostracized and alone.  Despite this, Shoko never stops trying to make friends and to be a part of the group.  Things escalate and Shoko is eventually transferred to another school in hopes of giving her a better experience.  Sadly, this is all too common in our schools these days.  Kids can be the cruelest of people at times.  Brutal honesty at its harshest.

tumblr_adc5b77edfeece1f62f24f54eae05045_ef4852d1_400Fast forward to high school.  Shoya Ishida, formerly one of Shoko’s biggest tormentors, finds himself on the other side of the fence.  After helping another loner being harassed by a bully, Shoya decides to search out Shoko in an attempt to redeem his past self.

He has a long road ahead of him because he was quite awful to Shoko in elementary school.  However, years of being a social outcast have changed him.  Shoya’s no longer able to look others in the eye and has no one he can call a friend.  Reuniting with Shoko changes everything for both himself and for Shoko and her family.  Slowly, they begin to build a lasting friendship that they never had the chance to start in elementary school.

ASF_01Beautifully animated, A Silent Voice is mesmerizing both visually and emotionally.  I often found myself laughing one moment at one of Tomohiro Nagatsuka’s antics and sobbing the next.  Every time a red x fell from someone’s face, I felt my heart skip with joy for Shoya.  Dark, and yet full of hope, this is a movie for families to watch together, or for friends to share with one another.  It’s all too true to reality which only makes it more of a must-see movie.  I saw so much of my own high school days in these characters, making me connect even more to them all in one way or another.  Parent or not, teen or not, I think most of us will be able to relate to the story of A Silent Voice.

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