Shameless Self Expression

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) runs a laundromat with her meek husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). Her lesbian daughter (Stephanie Hsu) is fed up with her mother’s criticism, embarrassment, and disapproval. With the business undergoing an audit, the Wang family venture to the office of frumpy IRS auditor Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis) and that’s when things get weird. Waymond is overtaken by what he says is another version of himself in what he calls the multiverse and has come to tell Evelyn that all hell has broken loose in the multiverse and only Evelyn can put a stop to it. James Hong plays the Wong family patriarch, who has become largely senile.   For this 2022 Best Picture Oscar winner, writer-director team Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert have taken elements of “Donnie Darko” , “Parasite” , author Douglas Adams’s books, “Being John Malkovich” and combined them (among other influences) to create something wholly different and completely bonkers. Yes it’s overlong, flawed, and per...

  Widowed Annette Bening meets an artist (Ed Harris) who she believes looks identical to her deceased husband and is drawn to him. Robin Williams plays Bening’s concerned long-time neighbour (and fellow widower), Amy Brenneman is Harris’ friendly ex.   A good cast nearly gets you through the lumps and bumps in this 2013 romantic drama/fantasy from director Arie Posin ( “The Chumscrubber” ) and co-writer Matthew McDuffie ( “A Cool, Dry Place” ). I didn’t even know the film existed until now, and now having seen the film I suppose I can understand why it flew under the radar despite the Oscar-calibre cast involved. For a while I was mostly on board with it in spite of one bit of unconvincing casting (which I’ll get to in a minute). However, after a while it starts to crumble and become too silly and contrived.   The idea is interesting and the combined efforts of Annette Bening and Ed Harris carry it a fairly long way, but the execution is ultimately wobbly. I...

After the death of their father (Keith David in a useless cameo), Daniel Kaluuya and his irresponsible sister Keke Palmer take over his ranch and business, providing horses for the film and TV industry. When that hits a snag, Kaluuya sells some of the horses to former child star Steven Yuen who has his own Western theme park. Meanwhile, some weird events have been happening in the skies. Something is up there. What is it? What does it want? Michael Wincott (solid as ever) plays a cinematographer who becomes involved in the mystery.   Calling your film “Nope” is just asking to be mocked. Writer-director Jordan Peele came out of the gates strong with “Get Out” , but his second effort “Us” was a muddled and unsatisfying film, and now with this 2022 alien invasion film he’s gone entirely off the rails. A horror-tinged version of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” might sound like fun, but the execution here is murky, unfocused, glacier-paced and dumb. How dumb? The whole id...

Set two days before Christmas at a small local English bank managed by the fastidious Fordyce (Peter Cushing), who runs a tight ship with little room for warmth or Christmas cheer. As we meet him Fordyce is chewing out the chief clerk (Richard Vernon) over his supposed bookkeeping errors that the man has nonetheless fixed later. In the midst of all this a rather charming man named Col. Gore Hepburn (Andre Morell), a supposed insurance investigator arrives at the bank to check their security. However, he’s not really an insurance investigator, and Fordyce’s stress levels are about to go through the roof before the jolly fat man comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve.   One of the very finest films from Hammer Studios, this 1961 heist-thriller from director Quentin Lawrence (a veteran of British TV) is little-known but absolutely worthwhile. Based on a play by Jacques Gillies (a Kiwi-born writer of mostly British TV) and scripted by David T. Chantler (Hammer’s adaptation of “S...

On Halloween a few years ago, young Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) babysits a young child and it turns tragic when Corey is locked in a room and the kid subsequently takes a terminal fall. Corey is later found with a bloody knife. The entire town of Haddonfield seems to think he’s guilty but a court acquits him. Cut to the present day and Corey has stuck up a relationship with Allyson (Andi Matichak) the granddaughter of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Allyson isn’t aware of the fact that Corey’s recently become acquainted with Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) who spares the young man’s life. Will Patton and Kyle Richards briefly reprise their roles as Frank and Lindsey, respectively.   I should’ve expected this. It’s the third in the modern “Halloween” franchise, so of course this was going to be the “ Season of the Witch” entry (even though technically the original “Halloween” is connected so this is technically the fourth film…but I’d rather not think about that...

  Devon Sawa plays a tattooist suspected of a series of killings of hookers, including a sex worker Sawa happened to have met in a bar before her demise. A cigarette lighter with his business name inscribed on it is also found at the scene of that crime. There’s also the matter of Sawa being an ex-con who served time for accidental manslaughter. Seeing that he’s in deep shit, Sawa sets about investigating things himself to find out the real culprit. Bruce Willis and an aggressive Luke Wilson are the investigating detectives on the case, Sufe Bradshaw plays a singer named ‘Eleanor Rigby’, an associate of the deceased hooker Sawa met. Kenny Wormald turns up as an actor associate of Sawa’s, who owes Sawa a favour.   In spite of a few issues, this 2022 film from director Edward Drake isn’t bad, and for a latter-day Bruce Willis film ‘isn’t bad’ is actually pretty good comparatively. Make no mistake, it’s not a good film, but it’s competent and watchable and after a slew of ...

White, social reformer Adam Cramer (William Shatner) waltzes into a small town in the American South that is about to follow the recently introduced law of racially integrated schooling. It’s not long before the opportunistic, manipulative Cramer is feeding on the ignorance of the predominantly white townsfolk, whipping them into a racist, hate-filled frenzy. A local newsman (Frank Maxwell) however comes to oppose Cramer and the hateful sentiment he is espousing. Leo Gordon plays another townie who starts to catch on to Cramer’s true nature when finding out that Cramer’s been spending alone time with Gordon’s spouse (Jeanne Cooper).   One of the best films director/producer Roger Corman ( “A Bucket of Blood” , “Tomb of Ligeia” ) was ever involved with, this 1962 racial drama is shockingly unknown in the mainstream. If you don’t think William Shatner can act, this is a must-see experience. A mixture of “Night of the Hunter” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” this is a very ...