How to Make a Killing review

HOW TO MAKE A KILLING: 

GLEN POWELL CHARMS AND KILLS AND IS EXCELLENT AT BOTH!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

A24

Glen Powell in How to Make a Killing

 

            Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Twisters, Hit Man) brings his charm to a more devious role in How to Make a Killing, a new black-comedy film from A24 and director John Patton Ford (Emily the Criminal). I was onboard for this movie when I first saw the trailer. I think Glen Powell is one of the most charismatic actors working today, and I have enjoyed him in various movies, even the recent version of The Running Man. I realized I’m one of the few people who actually really liked his Running Man film. 

            So, his first venture into A24 filmmaking caught my interest regardless of how it turns out, and this might be a hot take, judging by critical reactions to it, I dug the hell out of this movie. I was very entertained by How to Make a Killing and found it incredibly funny and a consistently wild ride, maybe not quite Marty Supreme or Uncut Gems, Safdie Brothers chaos, but I was laughing and on the edge of my seat during my viewing. 

            The film follows blue-collar Becket Redfellow (Powell), who was disowned at birth by his wealthy family and is now determined to reclaim his inheritance. How? By murdering his relatives while outsmarting an FBI detective who’s investigating the Redfellow murders, and his childhood friend Julia (Margaret Qualley-Drive-Away Dolls, The Substance, Blue Moon) coming back into his life. 

            The film also stars Jessica Henwick (The Matrix Resurrections, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Cuckoo) as Becket’s girlfriend Ruth, Bill Camp (Lincoln, 12 Years a Slave, Molly’s Game) as Warren Redfellow, Zach Woods (The Office, Silicon Valley, The Afterparty) as Noah Redfellow, Topher Grace (That 70s Show, Spider-Man 3, BlacKkKlansman) as Pastor Steven J. Redfellow, Ed Harris (Apollo 13, A History of Violence, Top Gun: Maverick) as Whitelaw Redfellow, Bianca Amato (Isidingo, The River, The Kissing Booth 3) as Cassandra Redfellow, Raff Law (Twist, Masters of the Air, Kill Jackie) as Taylor Redfellow, Sean Cameron Michael (24: Redemption, Lost Boys: The Thirst, Black Sails) as McArthur Redfellow, and James Frecheville (Adoration, The Drop, Masters of the Air) as Lyle. 

            Overall, How to Make a Killing is gleefully twisted fun with a pitch-perfect Glen Powell guiding the way. He really is what makes the movie work because even though he’s killing off his relatives to claim the family fortune, he is very charming, and you do understand his motives to the point where you root for him. 

            It works in a similar way to Dexter, where you end up rooting for the killer, and his victims are complete douchebags. Ultimately, I did want him to get his long-overdue money, even if he was essentially murdering his estranged wealthy family one by one. 

            The movie also starts with him in a prison cell talking to a priest and telling the entire events of the film to this priest, which is a brilliant hook for the movie and makes you think, “Okay, something is going to go south that will land him in prison, what is it, and when/how does it happen?”. Yeah, it does that whole “You’re probably wondering how I got here” trope, but I think it works well in this type of film, and Powell narrating does add a lot. 

            Margaret Qualley is a standout as this femme fatale-like character who starts off as Powell’s childhood friend and then becomes more integral to the plot as it goes on. I found the banter between her and Powell to be very funny, especially when you start to realize what she actually wants from him. 

            The dark comedy is quite funny, with most of it coming from Glen Powell and his inventive and outlandish ways of axing off his family members. The very first time he kills a relative is so quick and anticlimactic made me laugh hard, and every time it quickly cuts to a character’s funeral after a death. 

            The film’s humor is definitely not for everyone, and I can easily see this type of dark comedy not being someone’s cup of tea, but if you know what you’re getting into and like dark humor, you should get some laughs. Maybe that’s why the reactions for this film are so mixed, which I guess is fair because of how subjective comedy is, especially dark comedy. 

            Yeah, I quite enjoyed How to Make a Killing and will gladly put it among my favorite Glen Powell films. It’s bursting with charisma, dark humor, and tightly written dialogue. I should stress, your enjoyment of this film will depend on your tolerance of very dark humor and a main character who’s essentially committing murder, for me, though, it was a hoot and a crazy ride. 

Psycho Killer review

PSYCHO KILLER: 

IF YOU SEE THIS “KILLER” PLAYING AT A THEATER NEAR YOU, RUN AWAY, RUN FAR AWAY!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: * out of 4

20^TH CENTURY STUDIOS

Georgina Campbell in Psycho Killer

 

            A cop goes on a mission to hunt down a notorious serial killer after her husband was murdered in Psycho Killer, a slasher thriller film by Gavin Polone (8mm, Secret Window, Zombieland 1 and 2) in his directorial debut from a script by Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en, Sleepy Hollow, The Killer) and produced by Roy Lee (Barbarian, Weapons, The Long Walk). I didn’t have any expectations going into this. I saw the poster in a movie theater lobby a few times, and I only saw the trailer once in theaters in front of Send Help, barely thought about it until its official release. 

            Well, I didn’t have any expectations with Barbarian when I went to see that, and it became one of my favorite films from 2022, so maybe Psycho Killer would do the same…IT’S SHIT! Yeah, I’m not sugar-coating this review. Psycho Killer is a terrible movie despite tons of talented people working on it. The film is a very standard slasher movie that gets even stupider and more absurd as it progresses. 

            The film follows State Trooper Jane Archer (Georgina Campbell-Barbarian, The Watchers, Cold Storage), who witnesses her husband get murdered by a serial killer known as the Satanic Slasher (James Preston Rogers), who has very bizarre and frightening methods of killing his victims and leaving his mark. Jane goes rogue to hunt the Satanic Slasher down, and as she gets closer in her journey, she begins to realize the killer’s motives and agenda are more terrifying and demented than anyone could have imagined. 

            The film also stars Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Halloween 1 and 2 (2007/2009), Metalocalypse) as Mr. Pendleton, Logan Miller (Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Love, Simon, Escape Room 1 and 2) as Marvin, Grace Dove (The Revenant, How It Ends, Alaska Daily) as Agent Becky Collins, and Nigel Shawn Williams (The Famous Jett Jackson, John Q., The Jane Show) as Jane’s father. 

            Overall, Psycho Killer is a lazy, by-the-numbers slasher film with absolutely nothing going for it…outside of pure lunacy with its plot. I cannot believe the writer of Se7en and The Killer wrote this movie because it feels like the script was generated by computers and AI, hits all the genre checkmarks, and doesn’t do anything unique or special with them. 

            Aside from Georgina Campbell’s Jane, there are barely any characters in this film that she can work off of or interact with, many of which are just cameos with no real development. Hell, the movie doesn’t even develop its protagonist that well outside of “Well, her husband got murdered, so I’m supposed to feel something.” even though Georgina Campbell mostly plays her role fine, there’s just nothing about her character to keep you invested in her hunt for her husband’s killer. 

            Even the killer isn’t anything special; he’s just some big, dirty guy with tattoos, a voice that sounds like a voice changer someone would do, but it’s just his natural speaking voice, and a mask that makes him look like the miner from My Bloody Valentine or the killer from Heart Eyes minus the light-up eyes. Conceptually, the Satanic Slasher could have been a new horror icon as a killer who’s a Satanist and overall motive is to “Open the Gates of Hell” to appease Satan via causing a large-scale murder-suicide with a nuclear power plant, but because of how the film is executed, he fails to leave an impression and just looks like any other Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers killer. 

            Malcolm McDowell as this Satanist cult leader is kinda fun when he’s introduced because he is hamming it up and having a ball; it’s not much, but at least I’ll remember him and his completely insane cult. McDowell is so good, he can even make a film as awful as Mr. Magoo a little more credible because of his involvement (This movie is technically better than that in case anyone was wondering). 

            I was even let down by the kills in this movie; not a single one was impactful, despite the film being rated R and having blood and gore. The problems are CGI blood, shitty lighting, and unnecessary uses of slow-motion to the point where I started questioning if Zack Snyder took over as director for a day to direct this particular sequence. Leave it to this film to completely fail at the one thing people look for in a slasher movie, and this one wasn’t even watered down to PG-13. 

            There actually were two deaths that I found hilarious, and I don’t know whether or not they were intentionally funny, one involving a truck that was so outlandish and cartoony I laughed my ass off and another in a church confession booth where the killer stabs a priest in the neck with a sharp pipe and starts slurping his blood as it gushes through the pipe. Absolutely ridiculous shit that got a couple laughs out of me, not enough to excuse the rest of the film. 

            The plot is your typical rogue cop VS serial killer storyline and hits all the tropes of that kind of narrative. But then the film decides to make death metal music the driving point of the killer’s antics with an in-universe metal band’s albums, song titles, and lyrics as clues for his motives, which might have been clever in a more competent movie, but it’s so stupid here, and they don’t even go all-out with it. 

            If you ask me, the film should have taken the Korn Halloween episode of South Park route and actually have the metal band in the movie helping the police officer take down the killer, even my dumb ideas are sounding better than any of the shit projected on the screen. 

            Yeah, Psycho Killer is a wretched, uninspired slasher movie and a miserable directorial debut for Gavin Polone. Hopefully, his next film, whenever that may be, will finally showcase his true talents as a director and completely blow this waste of time out of the water because at this point, you’re better off just doing a double-feature of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and David Fincher’s The Killer. 

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die review

GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE: 

GORE VERBINSKI MAN VS AI FILM IS VERY GOOD FUN INDEED! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

BRIARCLIFF ENTERTAINMENT

A man from the future travels back in time to prevent AI from destroying humanity in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

 

            Sam Rockwell (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Moon, Marvel Cinematic Universe) travels from the future to save humanity from an AI apocalypse in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, the new film from director Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3, Rango) in his first directing effort since A Cure for Wellness in 2016 (The film was released widely in 2017). I don’t recall ever seeing a trailer for this movie in theaters, but I saw the poster many times and knew it was coming out, and that Verbinski was helming it; that’s about it. 

            But literally right before going to see it, I watched the trailer on YouTube to get a better understanding of what kind of film it is, and it looked wild. It seemed to have a Mitchells VS the Machines meets Terminator vibe, even right down to it being about a person from the future traveling back in time to prevent the machines from taking over, except now with a lot more relevance given how far artificial intelligence has come. 

            So, I gave the film a watch and…yeah, this was a lot of fun, I thoroughly enjoyed Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, and found it very funny throughout while also having a very thought-provoking message about humanity’s overreliance on technology. If you ask me, this is what that Y2K movie from a couple years ago should have been like,  a wild, darkly comical movie about machines and technology attacking with something clever to say and characters who aren’t complete douchebags like in that film. 

            The film follows an unnamed man from the future (Rockwell) arriving in a present-day Los Angeles diner to save the world from an artificial intelligence that will destroy humanity and needs volunteers to join him. A group of the diner’s patrons consisting of high school teachers Mark (Michael Peña-End of Watch, Ant-Man 1 and 2, The Martian) and Janet (Zazie Beetz-Atlanta, Deadpool 2, Joker 1 and 2), single mother Susan (Juno Temple-The Dark Knight Rises, Venom: The Last Dance, Roofman), Uber driver Scott (Asim Chaudhry-Greed, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3, The Actor), and a woman with a bizarre literal allergy to technology named Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson-Shake It Up, The Edge of Seventeen, Split) accompany the man on a wild chase throughout the city to find the AI’s source and plug in a security protocol that will contain it thus saving the human race. 

            The film also stars Tom Taylor (The Dark Tower, The Kid Who Would Be King, House of the Dragon) as Tim, Dino Fetscher (Now You See Me 2, Paranoid, Fool Me Once) as Blaise, and Anna Acton (Family Affairs, EastEnders, Topsy and Tim) as Jillian. 

            Overall, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a gleefully dark and hilarious sci-fi comedy with a thought-provoking and serious message at its core. Despite the film itself being very fun and entertaining, it’s actually a cautionary tale about what might happen to our society if we get too wrapped up in our computers and phones, and with AI evolving at an exponential rate, how much is truly enough? 

            However, what’s so brilliant about this movie is that it isn’t about destroying AI, it’s about securing and controlling it to keep the human race safe, which I actually found a lot more fascinating and compelling than what James Cameron’s message(s) in his first two Terminator films…Yeah, I just said that! Nothing against those films, as those are some of the best sci-fi movies around, but it portrays the technology as the bad guy that’s going to destroy all life, whereas this movie is trying to figure out how to exist in a world where artificial intelligence is prevalent. I thought it was more powerful and bolder, especially in today’s times. 

            Despite this, it is still a sci-fi comedy at its heart, and it is quite funny as a film that throws verbal jokes, visual gags, subtle jokes in the background, or just plain weird shit, and the majority of them hit bull’s eye; the theater I was in was cracking up hard. If a movie can somehow look at something as tragic and serious as school shootings with a tongue-in-cheek point of view and pull it off well, it’s clearly doing something, and there actually is a character’s origin story involving the clone of a dead teenager from a school shooting who verbally says an advertisement like it’s a YouTube video. 

            Sam Rockwell himself is extremely funny as the man from the future, though Rockwell steals the show in just about anything he’s in, even very average films like Iron Man 2. He stole the show as early as the first scene, where he’s in the diner, destroying people’s phones and warning them about the AI attack on humanity, but they don’t listen. His dry, sarcastic humor really works for this movie; it was a delight seeing him in this. 

            Other people like Michael Peña and Haley Lu Richardson are also standouts throughout the film, especially the latter, who plays a woman who works as a birthday party princess and has a mysterious condition where she bleeds from her nose every time technology is around her. It adds to the weird nature of the film, and saying more would have to require going into spoilers, but I really liked Lu Richardson’s Ingrid in this and found her entertaining and funny. 

            The movie is also very gory and the action sequences are pretty creative whether it’s Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz blasting teenagers like they’re zombies with blasters that resemble Mars Attacks rayguns (The film even references that) or Rockwell and Temple getting tangled up in computer wires as they find the source of the AI to plug the USB drive into, it was giving me Kaneda from Akira vibes a little. 

            Yeah, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is easily the most entertaining movie released over the weekend and outshines GOAT, Wuthering Heights, and even Crime 101. It’s a wildly original, darkly funny, and thought-provoking film that takes the Man VS AI plot trope to the most absurd extreme, resulting in a consistently fun and wild ride that ranks among Gore Verbinski’s best work. What more can I say but “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die”? 

Crime 101 review

CRIME 101: 

CHRIS HEMSWORTH, MARK RUFFALO HEIST FILM IS ONE COOL RIDE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

MGM

Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, and Mark Ruffalo in Crime 101

 

            Chris Hemsworth (The Cabin in the Woods, Rush, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) and Mark Ruffalo (Collateral, Spotlight, Poor Things) are back together, this time outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Crime 101, the new crime thriller from director Bart Layton (Banged Up Abroad, The Imposer, American Animals) based on the 2020 novella of the same name by Don Winslow. I mean, with leads like that, is it really a shock that I would end up seeing this film? One of them I even met in person, for God’s sake. 

            I’m not all that familiar with Bart Layton’s work outside of American Animals, but it seemed like he was giving us a cool, tense thriller, and yep, Crime 101 is that. I enjoyed this film quite a bit and found it an entertaining and gripping ride, though it isn’t constant action throughout; it’s a slow burn with a 2-hour and 20-minute runtime, and I was never bored during any of it. 

            The film is set in Los Angeles and follows elusive jewel thief Mike Davis (Hemsworth), whose string of heists on the 101 freeway has mystified police. When he eyes the perfect score, he crosses paths with insurance broker Sharon Combs (Halle Berry, X-Men franchise, Monster’s Ball, Die Another Day), and a relentless police detective, Lou Lubesnick (Ruffalo), is closing in, thus raising the stakes even higher. 

            The film also stars Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Saltburn; who previously worked with Layton on American Animals) as Ormon, Monica Barbaro (Top Gun: Maverick, FUBAR, A Complete Unknown) as Mike’s love interest Maya, Corey Hawkins (The Walking Dead, Straight Outta Compton, Kong: Skull Island) as Det. Tillman, Jennifer Jason Leigh (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, The Hateful Eight) as Lou’s estranged wife Angie, Nick Nolte (48 Hrs., Hulk, Tropic Thunder) as Money, and Tate Donovan (Hercules, Good Night, and Good Luck, Argo) as Steven Monroe. 

            Overall, Crime 101 is a solid crime thriller and the far superior 2026 movie from Amazon MGM after the abysmal releases of Melania and Mercy. It’s a crime thriller that doesn’t focus entirely on action or intense violence (Though there are moments of that for sure), but its main focus is on the characters, and each one of them is interesting and compelling in their own rights particularly Hemsworth, Ruffalo, and Berry. 

            What I love about this movie is that it doesn’t paint any of the leads as the bad guy, not even Chris Hemsworth’s Mike, his character reminded me of Channing Tatum from Roofman where he is a criminal and stealing things, but he has a lot of charisma, is nonviolent during his crimes (Just like Tatum in Roofman), and just trying to make it in a shitty world while also having romantic interests in Monica Barbaro’s Maya, both have very good chemistry. 

            Mark Ruffalo as the police detective might actually be my favorite character in the film because he’s this man who’s clearly going through some shit, he’s separated from his wife, he’s a total shlub, taking up yoga coincidentally with Halle Berry, and is hellbent on solving this complicated string of crimes caused by Hemsworth. I was genuinely invested in his story arc throughout and wanted to see him bounce back in the end. The fact that it’s Mark Ruffalo playing him is just an added bonus because his charm fits perfectly with this character. 

            Halle Berry is also very good as the insurance broker who gets roped into Hemsworth and Ruffalo’s situations. She’s very witty and cunning while also adding a lot of credibility to this otherwise chaotic game of cat and mouse. Whether her side of the story intertwines with either one of them or she’s in the meeting room dealing with her shitty boss (I actually thought back to Send Help, which I reviewed recently as this was going down), Berry brings her A-game in one of my favorite performances of hers in a long time. 

            The performances around the board are great. Monica Barbaro as Hemsworth’s love interest, as mentioned earlier, Nick Nolte is hamming it up as an old underworld fence while managing to be both funny and threatening during his screen time. Jennifer Jason Leigh, who I absolutely adored in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, is given a pretty tragic role as Ruffalo’s ex-wife, with them trying to make this adjustment work, nowhere near as over-the-top and funny as her Hateful Eight character…and speaking of over the top. 

            Barry Keoghan is a fucking treasure in the film as this psychotic young biker criminal; he is having such a ball going crazy, hamming it up even more so than Nolte, and is absolutely relentless with his crimes. I’m actually starting to see him more and more as the Joker in the upcoming sequel to The Batman (2022). I think we’ll be in for a real treat if this is anything to go by. 

            The movie isn’t a constant shooty shooty bang bang with non-stop action scenes and car chases, and is more focused on the protagonists’ lives and the events leading up to the big heist, which is exhilarating in the last third. While there were timewhenre I did feel the runtime a bit, I was never taken out of the film because it is interesting and the characters are endearing. 

            But when there are action scenes, they’re pretty adrenaline-pumping, especially when there’s a car chase, these raw, shaky, and tense chases, whether it’s Hemsworth being chased by police or pursuing Keoghans’s Ormon’s motorcycle later on in the film. It’s not really trying to be a straight-up action film, but these sequences are very exciting to watch, especially in a theater. 

            Yeah, Crime 101’s a good time,e though it likely won’t be remembered nearly as much as something like Michael Mann’s Heat. I still highly recommend checking this out if you’re a fan of the genre or any of the film’s cast members; it’s one sleek, tense, and entertaining ride. 

GOAT review

GOAT: 

A STYLISH AND SLICK GAME ON THE COURT! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES AND SONY PICTURES ANIMATION

Will Harris and his team of anthropomorphic animals are going to change the game in GOAT

 

            An aspiring roarball player goat is determined to become the “Greatest of All Time” at the sport in GOAT, the new animated feature from Sony Pictures Animation, Tyree Dillihay in his directorial debut, and produced by NBA player Stephen Curry. I’ve been very impressed with Sony’s animation catalog and how they really stepped up their game and began producing more experimental projects after 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. 

Sure, not every one of them was a big hit, but the studio has since come a long way since their Emoji Movie, Smurfs, and Open Season days. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel, Across the Spider-Verse were cinematic game-changers in film animation, The Mitchells VS the Machines was a laugh-a-minute and charming road trip that also had a robot apocalypse, and last year’s KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix was a full-blown phenomenon…so, they decided to follow all that up with an animated movie about a goat playing basketball…yay? 

I was not enthusiastic about the movie when it was first announced as I initially thought the concept was a huge step back from what Sony had been putting out recently. But then, the trailer came out and it actually looked pretty good with Sony essentially using that Spider-Verse, Mitchells, and KPop art and animation style on the basketball court. 

Well, I have to say this was a pretty enjoyable game on the court, I don’t think GOAT is nearly as good as the Spider-Verse films, Mitchells VS the Machines, or KPop Demon Hunters, but I was entertained throughout during my viewing even if the plot isn’t exactly original. It’s the classic “There ain’t no rule saying a *Blank* can’t play *Insert Sport Here*!” setup that we’ve seen a million times before especially during the 90s and 2000s with Air Bud, Ed, MVP: Most Valuable Primate, etc., but as long as the film gives a new creative spin on the formula I’m all for it, this certainly does that. 

The film is set in a world of anthropomorphic talking animals and follows Will Harris (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin-Stranger Things, The Book of Clarence, The Deliverance), a goat who aspires to be a professional player in a basketball-like sport known as roarball ever since he was a kid. However, there is one problem holding Will back from pursuing his dream “Smalls Can’t Ball” so, when he signs on to play for the Vineland Thorns team, he’ll need to prove to everyone that anyone no matter how big or small can follow their dreams thus changing the game forever. 

The film also features the voices of Gabrielle Union (10 Things I Hate About You, Bad Boys II, Strange World) as Will’s idol and black panther Jett Fillmore, Aaron Pierre (Krypton, Old, Mufasa: The Lion King) as Will’s rival and horse Mane Attraction, Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton, Barbie, Seize Them!) as ostrich Olivia Burke, David Harbour (Stranger Things, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Violent Night) as rhinoceros Archie Everhardt, Nick Kroll (Kroll Show, Sausage Party, Sing 1 and 2) as Komodo dragon Modo Olachenko, Curry himself as giraffe Lenny Williamson, Jenifer Lewis (Sister Act 1 and 2, The Preacher’s Wife, Cars trilogy) as warthog and Thorns owner Florence “Flo” Everson (I just now realized she voiced 2 Flos in animated films), Patton Oswalt (Reno 911, Ratatouille, Freaks of Nature) as proboscis monkey and Thorns’ coach Dennis Cooper, Jelly Roll as grizzly bear Grizz, Sherry Cola (Turning Red, Good Fortune, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants) as aardwolf and Will’s friend Hannah, Eduardo Franco (Stranger Things, Booksmart, Hoppers) as capybara and Will’s other friend Daryl, Jennifer Hudson (The Secret Life of Bees, Sing, Respect) as Will’s mother Louise Harris, Ayesha Curry (Hannah Montana, Good Luck Charlie, Charming) as llama and diner owner Carol, and Wayne Knight (Seinfeld, Space Jam, Toy Story 2) as gerbil and Will’s landlord Frank. 

Overall, GOAT may not change the game in terms of storytelling compared to the Spider-Verse movies or any of Sony Animation’s other recent projects, but it’s such a dazzling and kinetic game of basketball that makes it worth seeing on the big screen that effectively balances its chaotic energy with a ton of heart. I’m not kidding about the film’s energy being chaotic, the animation is incredibly fast-paced and stylized with that Spider-Verse-inspired style, but there are times where it even gives those films a run for their money in terms of animated madness. 

The animation and designs especially during the games are so crazy and imaginative with constant speed and angles that I was both in awe and overwhelmed, it’s like a really hyper motion comic version of a basketball-focused graphic novel with very few moments to breathe. The film gets very creative with the kinds of courts the characters play on such as an icy arctic court and one that’s volcanic with earthquakes happening, I loved seeing all these different kinds of basketball courts and how they worked, they’re a feast for the eyes. 

The characters are pretty stock and fit the genre architypes, but they do carry the film well enough and bring heart and emotional weight to the story particularly the goat and the panther. It’s the typical underdog (or goat in this film’s case) and veteran player who was once the best and is now jealous of the new player rivalry turned friendship, but the voice actors really sell it and make their characters endearing so you want to root for them. 

The humor is pretty hit-or-miss with some jokes not quite landing, but some are so bizarre and come out of nowhere that they made me laugh hard whether it’s a verbal joke, visual gag, or a very subtle laugh in the background. It isn’t Mitchells VS the Machines quality where I was constantly laughing, but I laughed a fair amount during this film. 

As mentioned early on, the plot is very formulaic and derivative of other sports movies, we’ve heard this kind of story several times before in other films both good and bad, but GOAT’s execution of it and the fact I had never seen this story told in such a crazy and chaotic way made it work for me. If it was any other movie, I’d call it lazy, but I think the film is aware and trying to make a flashy and kinetic throwback to those kinds of sports movies and it does it very well. 

Yeah, I enjoyed my time with GOAT and is an example of the kind of stuff I want to see from Sony Pictures Animation, the experimental, thinking out of the box, and the animators and filmmakers in their zone even if the end product is only “Good”. Honestly, I might just skip Hotel Transylvania 5 and wait for Sony’s next bonkers and/or groundbreaking animated film because if this, Spider-Verse, Mitchells, and KPop are anything to go by, creative visions and filmmakers going all in on their craft are the keys to a glorious win. 

Wuthering Heights review

WUTHERING HEIGHTS: 

A BEAUTIFUL BUT MESSY ROMANCE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights

 

            Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street, DC Extended Universe, Barbie) and Jacob Elordi (The Kissing Booth trilogy, Priscilla, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein) join forces to bring Emily Brontë’s classic romance novel to the screen in Wuthering Heights, the new film from director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) in her third directing effort. I was interested in seeing this when I first saw the trailer though I had never read the book nor seen any previous adaptation of it. 

            No, I just thought the film looked incredible from a production design and cinematography standpoint and I really like the two leads, Robbie and Elordi. I didn’t like A Big Bold Beautiful Journey very much last year, but I thought Robbie was great and had charming chemistry with Colin Farrell, she delivers the goods even when the movie itself doesn’t so mad props to her. 

            Emerald Fennell I think is an interesting and very ambitious filmmaker, I enjoyed her first film, Promising Young Woman quite a bit and while I didn’t love her follow-up movie, Saltburn, I admired her going all-out and crazy with it especially in the last third. I didn’t really have any expectations with her version of Wuthering Heights and…oh boy, this was certainly a movie. 

            I don’t think this film is terrible or anything and I’ll gladly take this over the shitty Fifty Shades of Grey movies in terms of a Valentine’s Day date movie, but despite a lot of amazing aspects of it, I found it to be a mess with the narrative and pacing. Also, I heard that if you’re a huge fan of the book, you may not like how Fennell handles the source material. 

            The film is set in 18^th century England and follows Cathy Earnshaw (Robbie) and Heathcliff (Elordi) who have been pretty much inseparable since childhood after the latter was taken in by Cathy’s father. But when Cathy marries a wealthy suitor known as Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif-Spooks, Penny Dreadful, Star Trek: Discovery), Heathcliff disappears from the village only to return sometime later causing massive tension and eventual tragedy between Cathy, Mr. Linton, and Heathcliff. 

            The film also stars Hong Chau (Downsizing, The Menu, The Whale) as Nelly Dean, Alison Oliver (Conversations of Friends, Saltburn, Christy) as Edgar’s ward Isabella Linton, Martin Clunes (Men Behaving Badly, Shakespeare in Love, Doc Martin) as Cathy’s father Mr. Earnshaw, and Ewan Mitchell (The Last Kingdom, House of the Dragon, Saltburn) as Joseph. 

            Overall, Wuthering Heights as with Fennell’s other projects is certainly ambitious and an absolutely beautiful film to look at on the big screen, but despite that and Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi giving very strong performances, this romantic-drama is all over the place and left me feeling rather empty by the end. 

            As mentioned before, I never read the book, but from what I heard is Emerald Fennell took the basic premise of Wuthering Heights and crafted a kinky, softcore porn fan fiction version of it that literally starts off with a man with an erection being hanged. Well, to Fennell’s credit, I was never bored during this movie because of how chaotic and weird it gets, but it probably does a huge disservice to the book as a first impression.

            I admire Fennell for having such a wild vision and essentially going for broke with this adaptation, but I feel like she would have been a lot more comfortable and have more creative freedom with a Wuthering Heights-inspired film instead of an actual adaptation with marketing that calls it “The Greatest Love Story of All Time”. I’m sure the book is significantly better as a love story, but if we’re going by this movie, this is NOT “The Greatest Love Story of All Time” because Robbie and Elordi even though they give good performances as Cathy and Heathcliff, they’re terrible fucking people in this! 

            Elordi’s Heathcliff is an obsessive sadist who goes to extreme lengths to get what he wants and one scene in particular involving a relationship between him and Cathy’s half-sister Isabella is one of the most twisted, sexual tension-filled scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie that makes the Fifty Shades a Grey movie look…even more softcore than it actually is. It’s honestly pretty hard to root for him and to get back together with Robbie’s Cathy after that. 

            Margot Robbie as Cathy once again is very well-acted by her, but her character is a lying, cheating bitch who constantly rejects every opportunity she gets to do the right thing. There were times where I thought she would walk a similar path as Barry Keoghan’s Oliver Quick from Saltburn and go on a killing spree, she is so fucking cruel and cold to the people around her in this film though Robbie seems to be enjoying going over-the-top. 

            However, despite my complicated reactions towards the movie itself, Wuthering Heights is freaking gorgeous and is worth seeing on the big screen on the cinematography and production design alone. The cinematographer is Linus Sandgren who also worked with Fennell on Saltburn and worked on several other films like American Hustle and La La Land, Sandgren covers Wuthering Heights itself in bleak darkness and drowns the village in fog while making Cathy’s other home, Mr. Linton’s castle very vibrant with color, it often reminded me of the kind of stuff Tim Burton would do. 

            The landscape shots are breathtaking and the set and costume designs are superb, I was in constant awe with the look of the film and between this and the animated film, GOAT, this Valentine’s Day weekend is chocked full of visual dazzle, style, and slickness. It easily deserves Oscar nominations next year for Best Cinematography, Production Design, and Costume Design because it is an absolute marvel to look at even if the film itself is just mid. 

            Wuthering Heights continues Emerald Fennell’s ambitious streak for better and for worse, it’s a gorgeous film in terms of the cinematography and production design and Robbie and Elordi are clearly giving their all. But Fennell’s handling of the source material and downright bizarre choices made really hamper its potential whether as a legit adaptation of the book or an Emerald Fennell erotic romantic-drama that’s inspired by Wuthering Heights, watch it if you know what you’re getting into. 

Scarlet review

SCARLET: 

MAMORU HOSODA’S DAZZLING TAKE ON SHAKESPEARE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

The titular revenge-seeking princess in Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet

 

            Anime filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children) brings his take on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet to the screen in his latest film, Scarlet, a gender-swapped epic fantasy inspired by the Shakespearean tragedy. This really has been the time for Hamlet-related movies, isn’t it? We had Chloé Zhao’s drama, Hamnet about Shakespeare himself and what influenced him to make Hamlet which is currently nominated for 8 Oscars and now we have this anime feature about a princess avenging the death of her father and seeking revenge on her devious uncle. 

            Using Hamlet as the basis for crafting a film storyline is nothing new, Disney most famously retold the story in their 1994 animated feature, The Lion King (I’d like to pretend the 2019 photorealistic remake never happened). That’s what makes a timeless story when it can be retold as many times as possible and feel fresh and new just about every time and Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet certainly adds its own unique spin to the story. 

            I admire a lot that Hosoda has done, I think The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and Wolf Children are among some of the best anime films ever made that rank up there with the likes of Studio Ghibli and Akiraand despite 2021’s Belle gaining divisive responses from anime enthusiasts, I thought it was an interesting take on Beauty and the Beast but in the cyber world. 

            So, I was definitely intrigued when I first heard about Scarlet’s release and after seeing the trailer. I don’t know if this is a hot take or not, but I actually kinda dug this movie though I wouldn’t say it’s one of Hosoda’s best films. 

            As with all Mamoru Hosoda projects, the film is absolutely gorgeous especially on the big screen (I saw it in IMAX), the story while convoluted towards the end is very engaging, the action is slick and stylized, and the lead characters are endearing and have solid chemistry. I’m not sure if this film will click with everyone, but it clicked with me. 

            The film follows Scarlet, a medieval-era princess who embarks on a dangerous quest to avenge her father after he was killed by her uncle, Claudius who now rules her kingdom. She ultimately fails her mission and finds herself fatally injured in a surreal world known simply as The Otherworld where she meets a young man from the present day named Hijiri who not only helps her heal but shows her the possibility of a world free from bitterness and rage (Can I live in that world, please? This one sucks!) thus forcing her to confront her greatest battle, can she break the cycle of hatred and find meaning in life beyond revenge? 

            Overall, Scarlet is a gorgeously animated, gripping, and compelling take on Shakespearean-inspired cinema with a Mamoru Hosoda twist. This might be a hot take considering how a lot of people were disappointed by Belle and even some of the reactions for this aren’t super glowing and sure, I don’t think it’s as good as some of his previous movies, but there were some awe-inspiring visuals and scenes that I won’t be forgetting about anytime soon. 

            I’m not kidding about the animation; this is a beautiful looking movie and looks fantastic on the big screen with this very painted style look to the character designs and overall blending of 2D and 3D animation. I’m not exactly a huge fan of CG anime that tries to replicate hand-drawn animation, I didn’t think it fully worked in the last Dragon Ball Super movie that came out a few years ago, but for something like this I thought it worked well and gave the film a unique visual style. 

            The animation also brings out the size and scope of the film whether it’s an intense battle sequence or a simple scene of the evil king looking at his gathered subjects from his castle promising them he’ll take them to the Infinite Land (Essentially Heaven) if they catch Scarlet. It’s a consistently epic film on an equally epic scale, there’s even this crazy sequence involving a song that was so creative (albeit so unexpected as well) and bursting with dazzling visuals that it alone makes it worth going the extra mile to see in IMAX, the best way I can describe the scene is Japanese La La Land and if you’ve seen the film you know what I’m talking about. 

            I enjoy the dynamic between Scarlet and the modern day medic Hijiri which is sort of like a fish out of water story for both of them in a way with one person from medieval times and the other coming from the present day and are trapped in this in-between world before the afterlife. Both characters have very strong chemistry together and I loved seeing them interact with and learn from one another, they carried the film for me. 

            For the most part, I found the plot captivating even if it is basically a gender-swapped Hamlet retelling with time travel, an afterlife, and star-crossed lovers. I found the idea of a person from a time long ago meeting someone from modern days introducing a perspective on a world without violence, hate, and revenge which contrasts with the titular Scarlet’s mission. 

            However, despite me really getting sucked into the film and its premise, I do have some gripes with the Otherworld and the passages of time, I often forgot that the characters were in an afterlife where the dead just hang out on medieval Earth as there’s no major difference between the Otherworld and the world of the living and the film doesn’t always make it clear who is alive and who is dead, that didn’t always make sense to me. 

            Despite a few bumpy parts, I actually really liked Scarlet and thought it was a solid entry in Mamoru Hosoda’s filmography. Yeah, it’s not an emotional rollercoaster or a game-changer like some of his other films, but if you’re the least bit curious about an anime film about a genderbent Hamlet story where a person from medieval times befriends someone from the present day in an afterlife and learn lessons about changing the world for the better while on a revenge path or an anime enthusiast, I’d say check it out and see if this Otherworld is right for you. 

Dracula review

DRACULA (DRACULA: A LOVE TALE): 

LUC BESSON CRAFTS A DECENT CREATURE OF THE NIGHT! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT

Caleb Landry Jones is Dracula

 

            Director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Léon: The Professional, Lucy) brings his take on the iconic vampire to the screen in his film version of Dracula or known as Dracula: A Love Tale in other territories. There have been countless adaptations of Bram Stoker’s novel over the past several decades with easily the most famous one being the classic 1931 Universal Monsters film version starring Bela Lugosi. 

            However, other film adaptations of Dracula have become icons in their own rights such as Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1992 with Gary Oldman portraying the titular vampire and was closer to the book than other versions. I guess Luc Besson felt the need to throw his hat into the ring in terms of Dracula reimaginings especially after Guillermo del Toro’s masterful reimagining of Frankenstein last year or Robert Eggers’ adaptation of Nosferatu with this being my first review of a Besson movie since 2017’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets if you could believe it. 

            So, how does this imaginative and ambitious albeit hit-or-miss filmmaker do on bringing Dracula to life…it’s not bad! I don’t think this is a great film or one of the all-time best Dracula adaptations, but I admire a lot of what Besson put into it. 

            When a 15^th century prince (Caleb Landry Jones-X-Men: First Class, Get Out, The Florida Project) witnesses the brutal murder of his wife (Zoë Bleu-Battle for Terra, The Institute, Gonzo Girl), he renounces God and damns heaven itself resulting in him being cursed to become an eternal bloodthirsty creature of the night known as Count Dracula. As Dracula begins a blood-soaked crusade to bring his love back from the dead, he is hunted by a relentless priest (Christoph Waltz-Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, Big Eyes) who is sworn to end the Count’s immortal rage. 

            Overall, Dracula doesn’t really add much new blood to the classic story, but it’s a decently crafted retelling with impressive production design and solid performances by Jones and Waltz. However, unlike other Dracula adaptations, this one focuses more on the love story than the horror…normally I would call this unique if Bram Stoker’s Draculadidn’t already do this in 1992, Hell, Caleb Landry Jones even looks like Gary Oldman’s Dracula early on in the film. 

            Okay, it’s not a new idea, but I’m willing to let that slide if it’s done well and for the most part it is. I was invested in what was going on and didn’t fully know where the film was going even though it does hit a lot of the same beats as other Dracula adaptations with Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula being the obvious inspiration for it in terms of look, style, and tone. 

            What kept me intrigued was the introduction of a woman 400 years after the prince renounces God who looks exactly like his dead wife (Also played by Bleu) whom Dracula sets his eyes on. Throughout the movie, I wasn’t sure what angle or approach they would take with this if she would just be a doppelganger or a reincarnation of the deceased princess, kind of like when Patricia Velasquez played a reincarnation of her Mummy character in the sequel to that. 

            The production design is very impressive and dripping with gothic atmosphere, the scenes set either inside or outside Dracula’s castle are my favorites as I was relishing in the craftsmanship and scale of those scenes. Bottom line, Dracula’s castle looked great on the big screen…can’t say the same for the green screens and CGI gargoyles though! 

            Dracula’s gargoyles were computer generated and they look awful in both animation and design. With this gritty and dreary Dracula movie and all of a sudden there are cartoon gargoyles that look like they’re ripped straight out of Disney’s Gargoyles series or even their film version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I get this isn’t a major Hollywood production and from an independent distributor but look at A24’s Ex-Machina, indie film with a smaller budget compared to big blockbusters yet it still has far more convincing CGI than this. 

            The movie is also too long and there are times where it drags and takes a long time to get to the point. It’s a 2 hour and 9 minute movie, but you can easily shave 30 minutes off of it and fix up the pacing. 

            Despite its shortcomings, Caleb Landry Jones and Christoph Waltz are great as Dracula and the Priest (Essentially the Van Helsing stand-in). Jones gives a solid performance as Dracula and brings that tragic angst and sophisticated charm you’d associate with the character even if his portrayal does come off as an imitation of Gary Oldman from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, he’s good in the movie but the comparisons to Oldman are kind of a disservice to him despite his efforts. 

            Christoph Waltz as the Van Helsing-type character was THE reason for me to go see it, he is one of my favorite actors and I got excited the moment I saw him in the trailer. I thought he was perfectly cast in the role as this cool and confident priest who’s determined to uncover the vampires’ lore that’s been hidden in the world for 400 years. 

            Luc Besson’s Dracula is a perfectly fine take on the vampire that probably won’t sit among the all-time best adaptations of Dracula, but if you’re curious about it (Like I was), I’d say it’s worth sinking your teeth into at least once. However, if you’re looking for a really unique take on Dracula that takes the story in new directions, might I recommend Dracula 2000 or The Last Voyage of the Demeter? 

Anime Washington/Washington State Gaming Expo 2026 Recap