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Mike Schulz was over the moon with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about how many films he was able to watch and review (five) and still visit his mother in Chicago. Good job, homie.
Here, now, the reviews:
- Arthur the King, directed by Simon Cellan Jones and starring Mark Wahlberg, Simu Liu, Juliet van Kampen Rylance, and Nathalie Emmanuel. Still can’t get that running sketch on Saturday Night Live of Mark Wahlberg talking to animals out of one’s head (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjpUdjYR6s). Wahlberg’s attempts at sincere emotion regarding his canine comrade elicit tears of laughter, as one is reminded of how spot-on Andy Samberg was so many years ago. . .
- One Life, a 2023 bio-drama directed by James Hawes and starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Flynn, Lena Olin, Romola Garai, Alex Sharp, Jonathan Pryce, and Helena Bonham Carter. “It’s good, it’s solid,” says Schulz. Half the film is set in the Forties, with Flynn portraying the young Sir Nicholas Winton as he undertakes the rescue of Jewish children in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, and half in the Eighties, where Hopkins conveys a man haunted by what he wasn’t able to accomplish — all those lives he couldn’t save. Sir Winton gets a reminder from those he did that his efforts weren’t all for naught by way of the British program That’s Life! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqqbM1B-mPY) Very affecting material that one would have to be monstrously incompetent not to get right.
- Love Lies Bleeding, directed by Rose Glass and starring Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco, and Ed Harris. “A really weird movie,” according to Schulz. Set in New Mexico in 1989, Bleeding starts out a Forties-style noir drama, and then, forty minutes toward the conclusion, the film gets slapstick in its goofiness. Which is not necessarily a bad thing — just that, tonally, Bleeding is a bit of a bleedin’ mess.
- The American Society of Magical Negroes, directed by Kobi Libii and starring Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan, Drew Tarver, Michaela Watkins, Aisha Hinds, Tim Baltz, Rupert Friend, and Nicole Byer. Schulz doesn’t understand the nasty reviews this one has been getting, as he enjoyed both the concept (an ancient order of African-Americans who endeavor to preserve the warm, fuzzy feelings of white people) and its execution. Schulz thought the satire better than American Fiction, and he laughed much harder than that Oscar-pleasing underachiever.
- Snack Shack, directed by Adam Carter Rehmeier and starring Conor Sherry, Gabriel LaBelle, Mika Abdalla, Gillian Vigman, David Costabile, Nick Robinson, and JD Evermore. Schulz really liked this one. Think Meatballs, but with profanity straight out of a David Mamet script. Reminded him of Adventureland and Dazed and Confused. It wasn’t the genre-parody of a Wet Hot American Summer, which was Schulz’s first impression, but not every comedy has to be, right? Certainly, the producers would agree. . .
Concerning the previews:
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, directed by Gil Kenan and starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Atherton, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Celeste O’Connor, and Logan Kim. After the first sequel, one would have thought it would have killed off any desire for follow-ups. Well, the 2021 sequel (to say nothing about the 2016 reboot — which nobody talks about) failed to quell such sensations, no matter how blasé the results. Levora’s itching to see it; Schulz, not so much. . .
- Late Night with the Devil, a found-footage horror film directed by Cameron and Colin Cairnes and starring David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli, Rhys Auteri, Georgina Haig, and Josh Quong Tar. Looks very promising. The reviews one has read are hesitant to give away the ending — that’s a quality side. Like potatoes au gratin.
- Immaculate, directed by Michael Mohan and starring Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Benedetta Porcaroli, Dora Romano, Giorgio Colangeli, and Simona Tabasco. Another horror film that’s been raved. The juggernaut that is Sydney Sweeney’s career continues, despite her participation in Madame Web, a film that’s made every critics’ worst-of lists, but has nonetheless drew viewers curious as to how bad “bad” can possibly be.
- Shirley, a bio-drama about the 1972 presidential run of Shirley Chisholm, directed by John Ridley and starring Regina King, Lance Reddick, Lucas Hedges, Brian Stokes Mitchell, André Holland, Terrence Howard, Christina Jackson, Michael Cherrie, Dorian Missick, Amirah Vann, W Earl Brown, Brad James, and Reina King. Looks fascinating; the era under review certainly was. . .