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Being Charlie

Starring: Nick Robinson, Morgan Saylor, Devon Bostick, & Common Director: Rob Reiner - Rating: R - Score: 2 1/2 Stars When legendary Director, Rob Reiner, decided to direct this independent film, it was supposed to be a unique, inside look at what young people face on the road to recovery. Charlie Mills (Nick Robinson) is a young drug addict, who is going into rehab for the first time. Like most young people, he thinks it's a joke, until he meets the other people are hears their stories. Ultimately Charlie decides to be strong for his new friends and love interest, but being Charlie isn't so easy when temptation is everywhere. You can see from the beginning of the film that this is supposed to be some kind of a wake up call to addicts, but as someone whose had very close people in his life who suffer from the disease, I can tell you that much of this film was inaccurate. Rehab is portrayed as this wonderful place, that looks like a hotel, and has people with hearts of g...

Sleeping Giant (2015)

Starring: Jackson Martin, Nick Serino, & Reece Moffett Director: Andrew Cividino - Rating: NR - Score: 2 1/2 Stars Coming-of-age films are amongst my favorite types of films, but they are often tricky to make. A good film, should give you feelings of nostalgia and form a bond between yourself and at least one of the characters, while a bad one can seem to be nothing more than an episode of Jackass. This film has a bit of both. Sleeping Giants is the story of three teenage boys, spending the summer with their families on Lake Superior and as you might expect, circumstances bring them together. There are some funny moments, trouble to be had, and of course a girl who gets in the middle of everything. What this film has going for it, is that the cast was actually teens, ones whom have very limited acting experience. That being said, it seems as though, the writers also have somewhat limited experience, as this film is your very standard, text book, run of the mill story. What you...

On The Inside (2011)

Starring: Nick Stahl, Olivia Wilde, Dash Mihok, & Pruitt Taylor Vince Director: D.W. Brown - Rating: R - Score: 2 Stars Allen Meneric (Nick Stahl) is sent to a hospital for the criminally insane, to be evaluated after he brutally murders his girlfriend’s alleged rapist. As he is introduced to his new surroundings, Allen quickly realizes this isn't a place where he belongs. This particular asylum is filled with evil psychologist, careless guards, and a whole variety of characters who are not as they seem. This was a strange film for me to rate and review, because of how up and down it was. The film, is itself very much like the characters portrayed in it. There are some parts that are absolutely phenomenal, while others very clearly should have been left on the cutting room floor. Going from one extreme to the other left the film, unbalanced, and certainly difficult to watch. Nick Stahl stars and to be honest, he's an actor I've never really cared much about. I'v...

Gotti (2018)

Starring:  John Travolta, Kelly Preston, & Spencer LoFranco Director:  Kevin Connolly - Rating:  R - Score:  1 1/2 Stars Gotti, a highly anticipated new mafia movie centered around the Dapper Don, has been nominated for Worst Movie of the Year and unfortunately, I have to agree. For starters, this film was all over the place! Was this film about John Gotti or his son? ...and who really cares about his actual family, there was a shitty reality show about that, what we really care about is his other family, and not the business side either. For a mafia film about one of it's biggest names in history, there is a distinct lack of violence or for that matter anything substantive. Everyone wanted to see the story of the man, not the story behind the man, and especially in a format of flash-forwards and flashbacks. As for John Travolta, I really don't know what he was thinking with this film. The only thing he has in common with John Gotti is the same first name, and wa...

Bohemian Rhapsody

Starring: Rami Malek, Gwilym Lee, Lucy Boynton, & Ben Hardy Director: Bryan Singer - Rating: PG-13 - Score: 4 Stars I never really liked the rock band Queen, and as far as it's front-man, all I really knew was that he was the first superstar to die from AIDS. Knowing this, I feared that this film would be just another Philadelphia, and I was hesitant to see it. That is until the reviews of Rami Malek's career defining performance were released. To my surprise and delight this film wasn't just about Freddy Mercury's lifestyle nor was it about the way he tragically died. Bohemian Rhapsody is a film that not only parallels the life of Mercury, but it also shows everything that goes into making a successful band. From their humble beginnings to the process of how music is made, what it's inspirations are, what goes into making an album, and finally to the internal conflicts involved with the different personalities in a band. Bohemian Rhapsody illustrates better...

The Preppie Connection

Starring: Thomas Mann, Lucy Fry, Logan Huffman, & Sam Page Director: Joseph Castelo - Rating: R - Score: 4 1/2 Stars The Preppie Connection is a film based on the 1984 drug scandal at Choate Rosemary Hall, an elite private High School in Connecticut. Toby Hammel (Thomas Mann) is a good student who is awarded a scholarship to this elite private high school, but when he gets there, he discovers, as the poor kid, he doesn't quite fit in. In order to make friends, fit in with the popular kids, and get close to the girl his heart desires, Toby tells them that he can get them whatever drugs they desire. The truth is he has no idea how to do that, but someone as smart as he is was bound to figure it out. As with many of these films, some artistic license was taken, and not everything in the film is exactly what happened, however I find films like that make for the best dramas. Think about it for a second, some things in life happen that are just so strange and twisted that even th...

American Bully

Starring: Matthew O'Leary, Marshall Allman, & Jonathan Halyalkar Director: Dave Rodriguez - Rating: R - Score: 1 Star American Bully is one of those film that has a message to tell. What that message was is still a complete mystery to me. This entire film is based on a single act, which wouldn't be such a bad thing had they showed what led up to the act or what the results of the act were. The film is short to begin with, at just seventy-five minutes, but for the material presented, that was still too long. The entirety of this movie features a bunch of high school kids hanging out, getting drunk, and expressing racist views. After an hour of absolutely nothing going on, an opportunity presents itself, something finally happens, and the film is over. I thought with the subject material that this was a film that could have gone in a million different directions, but literally almost nothing happens! Matthew O'Leary stars, and while I consider him to be an underrated ...

Good Kill

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Zoe Kravitz, Bruce Greenwood, & Jake Abel Director: Andrew Niccol - Rating: R - Score: 3 Stars Major Tom Egan (Ethan Hawke) is a decorated Air-force pilot, who after five deployments, has been assigned to a base in Las Vegas, where he conducts drones strikes over Afghanistan. He hates his job and feels like a coward, but things get a whole lot worse, when the CIA commissions his team to start doing questionable jobs. Egan starts to come apart and take it out on his co-workers and family, leading to an uncertain future. IFC films are right at the top of my list right now as the absolute best in independent film. Seldom have they disappointed me, and I wouldn't describe my feelings about Good Kill as disappointed, but rather indifferent. This film, based on a true story, was exceptionally written and features a fantastic director and an amazing cast, but it also moves at a snails pace and is extremely repetitive. It's just drone strike, reaction, in...

Take Me To The River (2015)

Starring: Logan Miller, Robin Weigert, & Ursula Parker Director: Matt Sobel - Rating: NR - Score: 1 1/2 Stars The more things change, the more things stay the same. That is supposed to be the message of this unique Sundance Film Festival winner, however any message the film intended to share was lost by it's sheer disturbing nature. Ryder (Logan Miller) is a Gay California teenager who is going with his parents to a family reunion in Kansas. Knowing that her rural family will never understand, Ryder's mother has kept that little detail from the rest of the family, much to Ryder's chagrin. Ryder rebels in his own way by wearing an outrageous outfit and keeping to himself at the family outing, only spending time with his young cousin, Molly (Ursula Parker) who wants to play in the barn. When Molly comes running back from the barn with an unusual bloodstain, Ryder earns the ire of the rest of his family and wants to tell them he's gay, but apparently being thought ...

The Glades

Starring: Matt Passmore, Kiele Sanchez, Carlos Gomez, Jordan Wall, Michelle Hurd, & Uriah Shelton Seasons: 4 (2010-2013) - Network: A&E - Score: 3 1/2 Stars The story of The Glades is one of consistency, as the show was consistent to a fault. From the series premiere to it's finale, across four seasons, nothing ever changed. When the show went into re-runs, the only way you knew what season you were watching, was by seeing how big Uriah Shelton was, it had become that ridiculous. What could they have done with an episonic police drama that hadn't been done before, not much, but something would have better than nothing, as like most, near the end, I just completely lost interest. Jim Longworth (Matt Passmore) is a homicide detective from Chicago, who doesn't like to play by the rules. He has his own way of doing things and it earned him a ticket out of town. He relocated to the Florida Everglades, expecting quiet days at work and weekends of golf in the sun, but ...

The Phenom

Starring: Johnny Simmons, Paul Giamatti, & Ethan Hawke Director: Noah Buschel - Rating: NR - Score: 1 1/2 Stars Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons) is in a position that every little boy dreams about. He is a star rookie pitcher in Major League Baseball. His numbers and talent are off the chart, when all of a sudden, he can't find the strike zone. There is nothing wrong with him physically, so the team sends him down to the minors and puts him to work with the top sports psychologist in the country. I really don't understand professional critics and what they look for when they rate a film. Take The Phenom for example, this film has got to be the slowest and most boring sports film I've ever seen, yet it has an 80 on Rotten Tomatoes. There was very little sports action in this film and the fast majority of it consisted of this guy sitting in a room talking to a shrink! Yes, the shrink was played by Paul Giamatti, who is an unbelievably talented actor, but why the hell wo...

King Jack

Starring: Charlie Plummer, Cory Nichols, & Christian Madsen Director: Felix Thompson - Rating: NR - Score: 2 Stars Following the unexpected success of Winter's Bone in 2010, these dark, modern, noirish type films have been all the rage in Hollywood. In fact, these types of films have come to define the 2010 generation of film. Mostly set in rural areas, focusing on the lives of less fortunate people, these films tend to focus on some life defining moment. King Jack certaintly fits this model, and much like Winter's Bone, it is also a coming of age story. Jack (Charlie Plummer) is an angry fifteen year old, who has been bullied his whole life and acts out by getting in trouble. After a family issue, his younger cousin Ben (Cory Nichols) is forced to stay with Jack and his family. At first Jack is upset to be saddled with his naive younger relative, until he comes to realize they're in the same boat, and in Ben he may have found a potential ally. I understand that the...

St. Vincent

Starring: Bill Murray, Jaeden Lieberher, & Melissa McCarthy Director: Theodore Melfi - Rating: PG-13 - Score: 4 stars Chemistry can make all the difference in a film, even when the story has been done before. St. Vincent wasn't a great film because the story was out of this world. In fact, it wasn't even all that original, but rather the fantastic chemistry between veteran Bill Murray, and newcomer Jaeden Lieberher made all the difference. After a bitter divorce, Maggie & Oliver have been forced to move to a new neighborhood, where they find their new neighbor is a bitter old drunk named Vincent (Murray). Vincent wants nothing to do with anyone, until happenstance throws him together with Oliver, who he reluctantly agrees to watch in exchange for a paycheck, but what does he know about taking care of a kid? Even though this movie could have been more raunchy, Bill Murray is always funny and paired together with this scrawny, innocent, overprotected kid, made for som...

Spotlight

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, & Rachel McAdams Director: Thomas McCarthy - Rating: R - Score: 5 Stars The truth is always stranger than fiction and that's why it makes for the best movies. Spotlight is the 2016 Academy Award Winner for Best Picture and it was well deserved. This star studded cast comes together to tell the true story of how the Boston Globe was finally able to breakthrough the decades long wall of silence, and expose the Catholic Church's child molestation scandal. Michael Keaton headlines this all-star cast and shows that while he's been out of the spotlight (pun intended) for some time now, he hasn't lost a beat. As the enigmatic leader of the newspaper's Spotlight section, Walter Robinson (Keaton) will not give up the fight for the truth, no matter the personal cost. Even when his own bosses tell him the story is dead and to give up, he refuses to let it go and he shows that one man with a mission really can change the world. Th...

Little Accidents (2014)

Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Josh Lucas, Boyd Holbrook, & Jacob Lofland Rating: 2 out of 5 stars In a small mining town, an accident has killed several workers, leaving a lone survivor, Amos Jenkins (Boyd Holbrook). The townspeople are furious and blame the mines owner, the towns wealthiest resident, a cold, heartless man, who many suspect caused the accident with his shortcuts and cheap business practices. The town is out for blood, but only one of them, literally, as soon after the accident, the mine owners teenage son turns up dead. Little Accidents is yet another example of these dark modern noir type films, that have become so popular the past decade, and normally I am a huge fan of them. This film however, may have had the modern noir feeling, but actually had the old noir story line AKA slow, strange, and confusing. I chose this film because one of it's stars is Jacob Lofland, who at just 21 years old, has only been acting for 5 years, but he is a natural in every sense ...

Cult (TV Show)

Starring: Matthew Davis, Jessica Lucas, Alona Tal, Robert Knepper, Marie Avgeropoulos, Jeffrey Piece, Kadeem Hardison, James Pizzinato, Christian Michael Cooper, & Shauna Johannesne Rating: 4 out 5 stars In the age of streaming, DVRs, and On Demand, networks still aren't getting it! Even the best and most innovative TV show to come along in years isn't going to survive, if you debut it with minimal advertising in the middle of the summer! This is the reason why Cult didn't last and why it isn't currently the top rated show on the CW network.  The wildly creative idea was the brainchild of Farscape's Rockne S. O'Bannon and took nearly a decade to come to television. Cult is a TV show within a TV show, that features a cult, within a cult, I will attempt to explain. The show Cult is centered around a fictitious show called Cult. That fictitious show is centered around an FBI agent (Alona Tal) who lived her whole life in a cult, only to escape and join the FBI...

What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Starring: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, & Juliette Lewis Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Sometimes the best performance come in a film that just doesn't deserve them. Everyone knows of Gilbert Grape, but not because it is a classic film that deserves to stand the test of time, rather it is the film that launched two of the biggest careers in Hollywood. Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is barely old enough to drink, yet he is the man of the house, forced to raise his brother and sisters, and care for his obese mother. Gilbert lives in the middle of nowhere, works a terrible job, and his future doesn't look so bright, that is until a girl, traveling cross-country with her grandmother, breaks down in his town. A relationship blossoms and Gilbert finally discovers that life has been passing him by. The story here is simple and at many points extremely slow moving. This film was just meant to be a backwards love story, but has become so much more, because of Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. ...

J. Edgar

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, & Josh Lucas Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars Clint Eastwood's films are extremely historically accurate. The academy and critics love his work and especially the way he manages to get the best out of his leading roles. That being said, his films also tend to be extremely long and very dry, J. Edgar was no different. J. Edgar Hoover was the man who started the FBI. He is the man solely responsible for creating a fingerprint database, cataloging and investigating forensic evidence at crime scenes, and he was also completely paranoid and spied on just about everyone he could. It was sad to see just how lonely, narrow minded, and repressed this man was his whole life. He was so narrowly focused his entire life, that he didn't seem to ever enjoy anything besides his work. As for the film, Leonardo DiCaprio gives another stunning performance, one that rivals all his other work. People who worked with Hoover, in his later years,...

Chicago P.D.

Starring: Jason Beghe, Sophia Bush, Patrick Flueger, LaRoyce Hawkins, Jon Seda, Elias Koteas, Jesse Lee Soffer, Marina Squerciati, Amy Morton, Brian Geraghty, & Archie Kao Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, made his Chicago series because he wanted to give viewers a separate look at the heroes who make a city run, but beyond that, he wanted to make it as realistic as possible. These shows feel a lot like one of my favorite all-time TV shows, Third Watch, but in that case they were all together in one show. Chicago P.D. focuses on major crimes detectives and shows that unlike Law & Order, the police aren't above reproach and always in control. The unit is run by Hank Voight (Jason Beghe), who while having a soft spot for victims, also runs on pure emotion. If Voight can't get the bad guy legally, he'll get them another way. He's also not the most honest cop around and has a checkered past filled with abuses of power, as seen in his debu...

Cold In July

Starring: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, & Don Johnson Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5 stars For lack of better terminology, these dark, southern, noirish, dramas have become all the rage in Hollywood. Films like Winter's Bone, Joe, and Mud have been highly critically acclaimed and have come to define the 2010 decade in film, but where there is success, there are bound to be copycats, enter Cold In July. Whoever thought that Don Johnson would have any kind of chemistry with Dexter what so ever, must have been out of there mind, as right from the beginning, this film was doomed. A simple man kills a home invader and is stalked by the father of the man he killed. Obsessed with taking a life and wanting to know more about what led to this man become the person he's become, Dane (Michael C. Hall) and his team of misfits, stalk the family right back and uncover an even bigger mystery. While this story had potential, the writers thought it was too dark and decided to have some fun with i...