Creative Casting Ideas #1: Kathy Bates As The Joker...?

While I have yet to see the new Joaquin Phoenix film, I have been binging American Horror Story: Apocalypse and I gotta say, Kathy Bates would deliver a great take on the Caped Crusader's psychotic adversary...

Faults

Riley Stearn's (he wrote/directed The Art of Self Defense, which I highly reccomend: https://spencesez.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-art-of-self-defence.html) debut feature is a dark, creepy, and incredibly unnerving little motel room thriller. The film bursts out the gate by introducing our warped and erratic protagonist, who is acerbic, eccentric,  and not the leasr bit likeable. An "expert" on cults, he is soon hired to deprogram a couple's young daughter. Things go off the rails from the moment the woman is "kidnapped" and taken to a seedy motel where she is contained in the hopes of being reunited with her parents. The film is played low-key and every character is just a bit off, creating a surreal and disturbing aura. Things move along in a dreamlike state (actually, it's a bit more likea stifling nightmare) with subtle events unfolding in a deliberate pace which serves to keep you off-balance.

Currently streaming on Amazon Prime

RATING: 4/5

RIYL: The Sound of My Voice; The Invitation; Martha Marcy May Marlene 

Monos

Straddling the line between visual tone poem and quasi-non narrative storytelling, this Spanish language film revels in vivid, semi-hallucinatory imagery and a plot saturated in abstruse elements, all of it taking place in an unnamed South American country. Drawing heavily from Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but also tossing in guerrilla ambiguity and what can only be described as “jungle noir”, it unravels as a languid commentary on lost innocence, corrosion of conformity, and the primal human nature surrounding survival of the individual. The strength of the film lies in slow building dread, a feeling that something catastrophic is just waiting to happen in the next frame. The downfall of the film, however, is that nothing really does. But damn if it all doesn’t look like an idyllically off-kilter travelogue as rendered in lush green hues, teeming with fog, mud, and rain forest audio ephemera. Speaking of sounds, the score is a bristling and immersive offering that paints much of the imagery with fairy tale-styled ambiance, but also slips in nuances of nightmarish menace. The ending of the film leaves many questions unanswered as well as requiring the audience to fill in any lingering blanks on their own. On the one hand it feels unfinished, on the other it creates a ripe atmosphere for post-viewing discussion.

Rating: 3.5/5

RIYL: Apocalypse Now (specifically the third act); The Thin Red Line (and pretty much any other Terrence Malick film); The Mission; Apocalypto; Quest For Fire

The Peanut Butter Falcon

Heart-warming.

Sweet. 

Feel good.

I’ve never been a fan of these descriptions when applied to cinema, literature, or art. But, dammit anyway, they are kind of applicable in regards to this little film.

A figurative twist on the Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer mythos (they even name-check the book early on), TPBF is an “exotic” American road trip-cum-quest-cum buddy movie. I say “exotic” since the North Carolina coastal locale is completely foreign to this California native.

Fueled by some beguilingly charismatic acting from Shia LaBouef, Dakota Johnson, and newcomer Zack Gottsagen, the film has a decidedly laid-back demeanor; it just kind of ambles along with a mellow, down home sensibility.

Teeming with After School Special-styled tropes ranging from the loner with a dark past to the wide-eyed social worker and populated with some generic background characters (for example, the villains--John Hawke and Yelawolf(!)--are pretty one-dimensional, yet they serve their purpose well), the film really succeeds due to the wonderful chemistry between the three leads. I’ve always enjoyed Beef Boy’s thespian escapades from Holes on through mediocre action fare like Transformers, Eagle Eye, and Disturbia. Here, he excels as the rambling, emotionally scarred Tyler. The Falcon, his ownself, is wonderfully spot on with comedic timing and an overall sense of naturalism. And the fruit of Don Johnson’s loins continues to showcase a wonderful depth and chameleonic virtuousness when it comes to the roles she takes. It’s mesmerizing every time one of these three graces the screen. There’s a few great cameos, as well. Hardcore wrestling fans will whoop and holler when Mankind and Jake the Snake flick into frame. And Thomas Haden Church should be deemed a national treasure.

If there is one downfall to the film it’s the all too feel-good ending. It looks like there was originally a bittersweet ending that I’m guessing might have tested poorly in trial screenings and as a result the filmmakers decided to tack on a happier ending, one which really doesn’t work with the way the rest of the climactic scenes have been edited; the final minutes just feel clunky. 

Lame ending aside, the bulk of the journey is a hoot. I laughed. I cried. I felt a connection to the characters. So much so that I found myself longing for my younger days and the missed opportunities of open road adventures on the fringes of America.

Rating: 3.5/5

RIYL: Rainman; Stand By Me; Yesterday; Fandango