REVIEW: “Hunter Hunter” (2020)

February 15, 2021 by Keith Garlington

Shawn Linden’s “Hunter Hunter” wasn’t at all what I expected. Its crafty advertising sells a deep woods thriller about a wolf terrorizing a wilderness family. To be fair that is a big part of the movie. But as the film sets your eyes in one direction it then broadsides you with a story full of deeper human themes. Oh, and it caps it all off with an unforgettable ending that will leave your jaw on the floor. And that’s no exaggeration.

“Hunter Hunter” is about a a family living off the grid deep in an unspecified forest. They live off the land, mostly hunting and trading furs for supplies. It’s a life that suits the father Joe (Devon Sawa) and is accepted by the mother Anne (Camille Sullivan). But their daughter Renee (Summer H. Howell) is born into it and given no choice but to learn how to survive. That weighs on a guilt-ridden Anne who begins to think they would be better off giving up their life of isolation and moving into town. “We don’t run from our problems,” Joe growls.

While out checking traps Joe and Renee find evidence that a ravenous wolf has returned to their area. Joe not only sees it as a threat to his family but to the secluded life he has chosen. He becomes obsessed with the wolf and sets out to hunt it down, leaving Anne and Renee to fend for themselves until he returns. A few grisly discoveries later makes it clear that this is more than a simple ‘man versus beast’ story. And when Anne loses radio contact with Joe, she becomes the one who must protect what matters the most – her daughter.

Image Courtesy of IFC Films

Linden, who serves as both writer and director, carves a surprisingly layered story out of a premise that seems pretty simple on its surface. I won’t dare spoil anything, but let’s just say he introduces some terrifying elements into the story that ups the intensity and adds this unnerving sense of dread that hangs over the final act. Camille Sullivan really emerges in the second half, putting the film on her back and giving a forceful and committed performance. And that ending. Linden goes all-in with an unsettling finish that feels exactly right for what he’s going for.

“Hunter Hunter” is a movie that quietly lures you in by building an interesting family dynamic worth investing in. The characters feel authentic which makes their tense and eventually frightening story resonate. Shawn Linden uses the setting’s beauty to hide something sinister while delving into some unsettling human themes that gives his movie a surprising kick. “Hunter Hunter” is now streaming on VOD.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

REVIEW: “Spontaneous” (2020)

February 12, 2021 by Keith Garlington

A part of me would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when the crazy idea for “Spontaneous” was pitched to the studio heads. “It’s an adaptation of a book about high school students who inexplicably begin exploding in class. And I mean literally blowing up, spraying blood all over their classmates and sending the community into one big panic. Oh, and it’s also a teen love story”.

As nutty as it sounds, nothing in the above paragraph is untrue. “Spontaneous” is based on Aaron Starmer’s 2016 young adult novel about two high school seniors and their unexpected romance during the most unexpected of events. A terrific Katherine Langford plays Mara who is sitting in Calculus class bored out of her mind when suddenly her classmate Caitlyn “pops like a zit“. Not my words, that’s Mara vivid eyewitness description.

After the initial shock the kids from the classroom are quarantined as officials try to figure out the cause and more importantly if it will happen again. When it inevitably does the students must face the reality that any moment could be their last. During this time Mara hits it off with fellow classmate and outcast Dylan. He’s played by Charlie Plummer, so good in 2017’s “Lean on Pete”, solid but fairly ordinary here. Soon an unexpected romance blossoms as the two teens come to realize they must (of course) live for the moment.

Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Before anything else you have to get in sync with the movie’s tonal gymnastics. It’s literally all over the map: a brash teen comedy, a sudsy romance, blood-soaked horror, a coming-of-age story, a family drama, etc. Frankly its attempts at being so many things gets a little exhausting. At its core you can’t help but notice all the ingredients for a really fun and original dark comedy, but then it begins checking off far too many of the usual teen comedy boxes. And rather than coming natural, you can see the movie actively working to come across as rebellious and cool. This is most visible in Mara. Langford gives an eye-opening performance, but her character has so much swagger and attitude that it’s a breath of fresh air whenever she’s allowed to dial it back and be an actual person.

“Spontaneous” is the kind of movie that is sure to find an audience, but it’s skittish genre hopping could just as easily turn some people off. And for everything the movie does that’s fresh and original there is just as much that feels like well-worn ground. The saving grace is Katherine Langford who ably holds together a character who erratically bounces between grounded in the real world and made for the screen. Still, without question she’s a young actress to keep your eye on. “Spontaneous” is now available on VOD.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

First Glance: “Yes Day”

February 11, 2021 by Keith Garlington

Sometimes a likable cast can make an otherwise iffy sounding movie more appealing. Such is the case with the upcoming family comedy from Netflix. The film stars the ever-pleasant Jennifer Garner who makes credit card commercials charming and the talented, often underappreciated Édgar Ramirez. Both will need to use all of their allure in “Yes Day”, a movie that’s built on a pretty shaky premise. But maybe that’s unfair. As the first trailer shows us, all it wants to be is a fun family romp with a little bit of heart. Is that so bad?

Garner and Ramirez play parents in a rut. Tired of always telling their three children “NO”, the couple agree to have a Yes Day. For 24-hours the kids get to make the rules and the parents have to say “YES”. Those of us who are parents know how terribly this would go in the real world. But in “Yes Day” the hijinks-filled adventure brings the family closer together in ways they never thought possible. Now I admit this isn’t my kind of movie meaning I may not be the best judge of such high-energy family chaos. But sometimes happy, fun-loving, all-age-appropriate movies are just what people need.

“Yes Day” premieres March 12th on Netflix. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

REVIEW: “Penguin Bloom” (2021)

February 11, 2021 by Keith Garlington

A seemingly perfect family life is upended follow a harrowing accident in “Penguin Bloom”, the new Netflix family drama from Australian director Glendyn Ivin. The film is based on the acclaimed book from photographer Cameron Bloom and New York Times bestselling author Bradley Trevor Greive. It tells a story so sweet and uplifting you’d swear it was fiction. But it’s actually based on a moving true story and brought to life through the sincere and resonant performances from Naomi Watts and Andrew Lincoln.

Sam Bloom (Watts) lives a fun and adventurous life. She loves to surf, loves nature, and loves to travel. She and her husband Cameron (Lincoln) have passed on their love for life to their three rambunctious but goodhearted young sons. But everything changed during a family vacation in Thailand. While taking in some local scenery from the roof of their hotel, an old wooden guardrail breaks sending Sam plunging 20 feet to the hard ground below. As a result of the fall Sam broke her back and was left paralyzed from her chest down.

Image Courtesy of Netflix

Back home following a long rehabilitation, Sam struggles to adjust to life in a wheelchair. Ivin along with screenwriters Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps make sure their film doesn’t sugarcoat Sam’s physical and emotional challenges. Watts, an Academy Award nominated actress, makes every aspect of it real for us, whether its something like her inability to roll over in bed or in visualizing the tortuous psychological toll which leads to a deep depression. Watts is too good of an actress to let her character sink into sentiment. Even as the movie hits us with its non-intrusive yet very familiar emotional cues Watts keeps her character grounded, never losing sight of the human element.

Hope comes in the most unlikeliest of places when their oldest son Noah (Griffin Murray-Johnston) finds a baby magpie alone on the beach. He brings it home and names it Penguin. The family instantly warms up to Penguin except for Sam. But over time an unexpected attachment forms between the two. Soon Sam is caring for the young bird which in a thoughtful way represents her longing to be a mother for her own children the way she once did. And as Penguin overcomes her own adversity and learns to fly, Sam begins to realize that maybe she can too.

Image Courtesy of Netflix

While subtlety isn’t the movie’s strength it gets the family dynamic just right. Lincoln’s low-key performance makes for a nice fit. His character fills in the cracks of the story by offering a look at Sam’s struggle from the family’s complicated point-of-view. And young Murray-Johnston has a lot of appeal playing a boy trying to adapt but missing his mother terribly. “It’s like mom was stolen from us,” he says in narration. He also battles guilt, blaming himself for his mother’s fall since he’s the one who wanted to go up to the roof. Jacki Weaver is great but underutilized playing Sam’s overbearing but well-meaning mother Jan who often speaks without a filter.

“Penguin Bloom” is a life-affirming story about overcoming adversity and rediscovering the love for life. It’s biggest problem is that everything is pretty much by-the-book. Don’t expect any original ideas or big surprises. It follows a tried-and-true feel-good formula that hits the normal beats and ends right where you expect. Yet it still makes for good viewing because of the heart-warming true story and the wonderful performances that bring it to the screen. They make us care, feel empathy, and root for this family to not only cherish their old adventures but find new ones as well.”Penguin Bloom” is now streaming on Netflix.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

First Glance: “The Devil Below”

February 10, 2021 by Keith Garlington

Really bad decisions and horror movies go together like peanut butter and jelly. There are countless examples: reading the blood-inked Necronomicon, attempting to tame a zombie, reaching down to pull the mask off a downed serial killer, saying Candyman’s name five times to a mirror. In the upcoming “The Devil Below” a group of amateur (key word) explorers visit an old Appalachian mining town that was abandoned 40 years earlier following a mysterious coal mine incident. After seeing the first trailer that proves to be another bad decision.

The film is directed by Bradley Parker who did the not-so-great 2013 horror flick “Chernobyl Diaries”. Much like that film, “The Devil Below” has a good setting and a potentially cool premise. Our first look shows miner Will Patton losing his son to what appears to be a subterranean creature. A few decades later our foolhardy adventurers arrive in the name of ‘research’ only to encounter a grizzled Patton who tries to warn them away. Guess how that goes. I admit, I’m kind of a sucker for these types of movies and I’m rooting for Parker to pull this one off.

“The Devil Below” opens March 5th in select theaters and on VOD. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

REVIEW: “French Exit” (2021)

February 10, 2021 by Keith Garlington

Gazing over her forty-plus year career and considering the fifty movies to her credit, I’m not sure Michelle Pfeiffer has ever been handed a role this juicy. In the new dark comedy “French Exit” director Azazel Jacobs and screenwriter Patrick deWitt give Pfeiffer a deliciously surly lead character and a script that allows her plenty of room to unearth the character’s well hidden layers. It’s an odd and snarky concoction with a stabbing sense of humor and that ultimately stays afloat thanks to Pfeiffer’s fun performance.

For the unrefined (apparently such as myself), a ‘French exit‘ is when someone up and leaves an event or gathering without formally saying goodbye. The film’s title alludes to several things, all of which come into focus as the story moves forward. It’s something Frances Price (Pfeiffer) would know all about. The Manhattan heiress has soaked herself in New York City’s high society, blowing through her late husband’s fortune against the warnings of the family accountant. Now he hits her with the news that the money’s gone. “What did you think was going to happen? What was your plan?” the exasperated accountant asks. “My plan was to die before the money ran out. But I kept and keep not dying and here I am.” It’s a very Frances-like response.

Image Courtesy of Sony Pictures

As most of us do, Frances has a friend with an spare apartment in Paris. The friend named Joan (Susan Coyne) offers it to Frances so she can get away, clear her head, and have a place to stay until she can get back on her feet. Frances breaks the news to her son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) that the well has run dry and they’re moving to France. Malcolm is inexplicably hitched to his mother’s side despite being secretly engaged to a young woman named Susan (Imogen Poots). Frances doesn’t care for Susan and Malcolm doesn’t have the guts to tell his mother they’re getting married.

All of that sets up a story full of unusual turns, wacky encounters, and a final act that’s both head-scratching and slyly funny. Frances and Malcolm cross paths with a motley crew of side characters including a shady fortune teller (Danielle Macdonald), a neurotic neighbor in Paris (Valerie Mahaffey), and a private detective (Isaach de Bankolé) who’s hired but ends up sticking around. Oh, and a black cat named Small Frank who adds an ever stranger layer to the story. In some ways all of these characters give Frances a crash-course on how people live outside of her former social circles. They’re people she would have never spent a moment with in her former life, but now finds them enlightening in an unusual way. Or does she? It’s hard to tell.

Image Courtesy of Sony Pictures

It’s all a bit of a farce that doesn’t always work but it’s held together by Pfeiffer. Fashionably dressed to the hilt with her strawberry blonde locks sitting on the shoulders of her slender elegant frame, Pfeiffer embodies the defiant fading socialite. She’s brutally honest to a fault, impulsive, and also a bit twisted. Case in point, we learn that she’s the one who discovered her husband’s body after he died. But instead of immediately reporting it to the authorities she took a weekend shopping trip and called them when she returned. It’s a wacky little character detail that somehow fits Frances even though it doesn’t make much sense. And that emphasizes one of the film’s weaknesses. Several things in the movie’s back-end doesn’t make a lot of sense.

But back to Pfeiffer, what keeps her performance so compelling is the underlying sadness that she finds in Frances. Despite her icy could-care-less exterior, Frances is carrying more emotional baggage than she lets on. Jacobs and deWitt smartly latches onto their leading lady who is the film’s one constant. Both Pfeiffer and Frances fit right into the movie’s chief goal of addressing privilege and upper-class entitlement with a wry satirical bite. I just wish the rest of the movie fit as nicely. “French Exit” is set for a limited release February 12th before opening wide on April 2nd.