Twenty Twenty in Film

Hello all. Since I started tinkering away at this blog - back in 2017 - I've endeavored to end the year with a post cataloguing all the year's films that I'd seen, in a personalized order. Obviously, this isn't a new idea by any stretch, year-end lists are a dime a dozen, but the majority of the more well-known ones represent the compiled tastes of a group of people or some kind of Metacritic-like aggregate.

My year-ender is always based entirely on a very slippery personal metric that takes the overall quality of a film and marries it to my personal views on its rewatchability. In that regard, an absolutely flawless film could easily rank below a fun trashterpiece bit of popcorn entertainment. The question of Would I Recommend This to People? is also in there as well as my affinity for novelty, appreciation for originality, and of the creative voice... it's a complex system and the goalposts will absolutely change from year to year.

And there are a number of flicks that I could put asterisks next to for one reason or another. Some are short films - one of which I worked on -, one's a mini-series, some were actually made many years ago but were not previously widely available - or still aren't - in the US, so I'm counting them now as this was the year I saw them.

What can I say?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy it and I encourage you to make your own. Drop me a link in the comments and I'll surely read it.

"HUNTER HUNTER" (2020)

Hunter Hunter (2020)

Written and directed by Shawn Linden
Starring Camille Sullivan, Summer H. Howell, Devon Sawa and Nick Stahl
Running time: 1 hour and 33 minutes
Unrated: contains incidences of violence on the scale from implied to very explicit

by Hunter Bush


Hello there. My name is Hunter and I’m here to talk about the film Hunter Hunter, which I took because of both the repetitive use of my name and the presence of Devon Sawa in the cast. Which do you want me to talk about first?

Well, according to family legend, my mom was going to name me after an actor (or possibly the character) that her father quite liked: Gunnar - a strong, handsome name! -  and then her eye kind of drifted across the page of the baby name book and there was Hunter, just sitting there minding its own business and all of a sudden BOOM! That’s my name. I was made fun of a little bit for it, not as much as you’d think. Most of the mockery was aimed at my physical appearance or interests. What can I say? Children are monsters.

Devon Sawa is a Canadian-born actor who rose to fame doing commercials before breaking into film with roles in pictures Little Giants, Now and Then and, notably, Casper. He aged into some decently well-known teenage roles in films like SLC Punk, Idle Hands and Final Destination, and has been acting consistently, in films and on TV, all along. His most enduring contribution to pop culture will probably end up being his role as Stan in Eminem’s music video of the same name, which codified the name into a term meaning “someone who is an outspoken fan of a thing” which in recent years has become a verb. As in “In this house, we stan Devon Sawa.”

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN, Vol. 22 - December 2020

Everything OId Is New Again
Vol. 22 - December 2020

by Hunter Bush


Greetings, greetings! One and all! Welcome to another installment of EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN, the column where I scan the horizon for upcoming film & TV projects based in some way on previously existing concepts. If it’s inspired by a book, or a modern update of an earlier film, or one of those long gap sequels, then it’s definitely EOINA material! Since we’ve all been spending a lot more time indoors, I’ve also taken to listing the EONIA-friendly titles that will be arriving on certain streaming services. They might not be new releases but hey, in a pinch they’ll do just fine.

Before we move on, I’d just like to take a second to mourn the passing of my local multiplex, the Regal/United Artists Riverview Plaza, a.k.a. The Riverview. I had already seen so many movies there in my lifetime that it would be impossible to keep track and that was before I moved to a place about 15 minutes’ walk away. I attended special screenings, limited engagement showings and organized group outings of friends. I even saw Speed Racer there, high on acid with my best friend and though that may not be “the only way to see it”, it’s definitely recommended. Philadelphia has many theaters. So my options aren’t nearly what I’d call “limited” and there are tons of unsavory stories surrounding the Riverview, but it will nonetheless always have a special place in my heart.

R.I.P. Riverview, you’ll be missed.

"SYNCHRONIC" (2020)

SYNCHRONIC (2020)

Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead
Written by Justin Benson
Starring Jamie Dornan, Anthony Mackie and Katie Aselton
Running time 1 hour and 36 minutes
MPAA rating: R for drug content and language throughout and for some violent/bloody images

by Hunter Bush

I really like those Moorehead & Benson boys. They seem like good people. I first got into them slightly before their previous flick The Endless premiered but their names quickly rose high atop my Pay Attention To -list. Starting with Resolution in 2012, then through Spring in 2014 and The Endless in 2017, they’ve proven to be writers/directors/performers who know how to deliver big ideas on modest budgets. But, though Synchronic shows their production values increasing, their ideas are no less expansive.

Where some of their previous efforts have had that particular Lovecraftian flavor of existential horror, Synchronic reminded me of Phillip K. Dick right out of the gate. Not a bad thing when dealing with the tropes they are here: designer drugs, the nature of reality and how it only exists the way it does because we think it does. But Benson & Moorehead don’t just approach big concepts, but also big issues. For better or worse.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN, Vol.21 - November 2020

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
Vol. 21 - November, 2020

by Hunter Bush


Howdy once again, y’all. This is one of the more difficult intros for me to write in my two-ish years on this column. I’m writing this before Election Day y’see and have no way of knowing what will happen, and it’s twisting up my guts not knowing. I’ve been putting it off and putting it off and now I’m into the final week of October and haven’t done diddly. By the time this comes out, things will hopefully be looking up, but there is the chance that they’ll be somehow even darker than before and that’s a reality that I’ve been chewing on for weeks. More likely that not though, they’ll be in some horrible liminal space where we don’t know what will happen.

So before I get into this month’s column proper, let me just say to you all that I know things have been difficult for a while now and it may be a while longer until they’re, not but I have to believe that they will get better. Whenever I needed a break from what I used to consider stress (oh how naive I was) I’d pop over to the nearest movie theater and see something. Anything really. Whatever was playing next. Obviously current circumstances and concerns make that impossible (or at least staggeringly ill-advised) but I’m here with the latest Everything Old Is New Again to help you keep an eye on what’s coming to screens in the near future.

Hold Me Tight: Callin' from Tobe Hooper's THE FUNHOUSE

"Hold Me Tight: Callin' from Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse"
by Hunter Bush



It wasn't until my second time watching Tobe Hooper's breakthrough horror flick - 1974's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - that it dawned on me that it was nearly a perfect movie. Everything in it works to achieve its ends. In under 90 minutes, Hooper & co. had codified an entire subgenre of horror in such a way that the landscape would never be the same and also created a character in Leatherface (played by Gunnar Hansen) who, though slightly less prevalent in our cultural lexicon than his slasher cousins Freddy, Jason & Michael, is assuredly of their caliber.

That's when I decided I wanted to watch all of Hooper's flicks. I'd seen Poltergeist (though I wasn't at that time aware of the rumors surrounding it which would follow Hooper for the rest of his career) but I wanted to see more. Over the years I've checked a few off of my list, but The Funhouse eluded me. Until now.

PUFF Postscript - 2020

Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival
PUFF Postscript 2020

by Hunter Bush


With the news that Cineworld would be shuttering their theaters until 2021 coming out over the weekend, digital film festivals are looking more and more like the new status quo as opposed to a stop-gap solution. To that end, I sincerely hope you took advantage of the PUFF 2020 screenings over the weekend because things like PUFF - the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival - are important for filmmakers who don’t have studio backing. If you didn’t, you missed out on some great stuff, but we are trying our best to regularly cover similar fests here at Moviejawn.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN, Vol. 20 - October 2020

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
Vol. 20 - October 2020

by Hunter Bush


“Oh hello. I didn’t see you there.”

I love when infomercials have that bit in them, don’t you? But it’s literally true in this case, because I’m actually writing this at least a week before you’re laying eyes on it, because that’s how writing a timed monthly column works sometimes. If you were somehow under the impression that this was shipped over to the internet “hot off the presses”, I’m sorry to ruin the illusion for you.

I’m personally in a very weird place right now. On one hand, I’m extremely pleased that the weather is turning cooler and it’s almost time to carve pumpkins, but on the other hand, as the great sages in Smash Mouth foretold in the infinitely memeable wisdom of their 1999 hit All Star “My world’s on fire. How ‘bout yours?”. Things are bad all around, folks (Please vote in November) but that’s not what we’re here to talk about.

PUFF 2020 - PUFF Preview

Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival
PUFF Preview 2020

by Hunter Bush



Last year, I was privileged to go to the 4th annual Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival with my partner Allison Yakulis and interact with a great group of people who were all passionate about genre films great and small. From the festival organizers to the filmmakers on hand to the audience members. I was even introduced to what ended up being my favorite movie of last year, The Invisible Mother. It is currently, to the best of my knowledge, sadly unavailable (but if you’re reading this Shudder, it’d be right up your alley) but I digress. My experience at PUFF was fantastic! I saw a dozen different pictures (and twice as many shorts), met and interacted with some wonderful people and got to explore a part of the city I’m otherwise rarely in.

Obviously, due to *gestures at viral pandemic* all this, PUFF was forced to go digital this year and has a smaller roster of films at hand, but I’m sure they’re no less interesting. Let’s take a look at the available trailers and see if we can’t find my next favorite movie of the year!

"12 HOUR SHIFT" (2020)

12 Hour Shift (2020)
Written and directed by Brea Grant
Starring Angela Bettis, David Arquette and Chloe Farnworth
Running time: 1 hour and 26 minutes
Unrated: contains drug use, organ harvesting, violence and brief rear nudity

by Hunter Bush



Horror comedies are tough to pull off in a way that satisfies both types of fans. It's even harder to manage with comedy this dark. No one ever really talks about "the hilarious world of black-market organ harvesting", ya know? But writer/director Brea Grant largely pulls it off. Not all the time, but many times I found myself chuckling or out-right laughing at some of the comedic beats here.

12 Hour Shift follows Mandy (Angela Bettis of May) on one disastrous shift at the hospital where she works (guess how long the shift is). We meet a bunch of her co-workers and eventually co-conspirators because, as we quickly learn, Mandy isn’t just a regular-degular nurse, she’s also one of a few middle-women in an organ harvesting scheme for some local criminals. Bettis is fantastic at walking the line between the two genres, at times leaning a little heavier one way or the other to make a joke land or to ratchet up the tension.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN, Vol. 19 - September 2020

‘Sup gang? Let’s start things off with some good news: The Spooky Season has begun! I don’t make the rules, y’all: Shudder has started their 61 Days of Halloween programming block and stores nationwide are rolling out their H’ween wares earlier than ever! Another bit of positivity: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 are getting a remastered double game re release on Sept. 4th! [Or check out the documentary Pretending I’m Superman about the game here. -ed.] If like me, you’ll be spending All Hallow’s Eve at home this year for safety, maybe the kinds of tricks you’ll be treating yourself to will be sick grinds (that’s one’s for you, Ashley Jane!) and general shredding of the gnar! (*)

(*) DISCLAIMER: I haven’t skateboarded in 20-ish years and even when I did, I didn’t speak it.

On that upbeat note: welcome to Everything Old is New Again! My now-monthly column covering the Remakes, Adaptations and Long-Gap Sequel concepts coming to screens in September. Basically, if it’s a movie or series based on a previous idea in any appreciable way, I will endeavor to find out about it, watch the trailer(s) and give you my opinion on what you can expect. That’s why I opened with the THPS news, it’s essentially a reboot.

Fantasia Festival Review - The "HENTAI KAMEN" Films

"Hentai Kamen: The Forbidden Hero" (2013)
"Hentai Kamen 2: The Abnormal Crisis" (2016)
Written and Directed by Yûichi Fukuda
Based on the manga by Keishû Andô
Starring Ryôhei Suzuki, Fumika Shimizu and Tsuyoshi Muro
Running times: 1 hour and 46 minutes (HK) and 1 hour and 59 minutes (HK2)
Unrated - contains Cartoon Violence, Repeated Instances of Teabagging, Panties as a Plot Device, Light Kinkshaming and Near-Constant Use of the Word Pervert As Both a Positive and a Negative

by Hunter Bush

I requested the screeners for both Hentai Kamen films completely accepting of the potential for there to be nothing about them worth writing about. And then the trailer for the new Batman dropped. Now gang, I’m not gonna crap all over the trailer for The Batman, though I am not wildly enthused by it for a variety of reasons because it isn’t The Batman’s fault - and in fact, what I have *heard* about the film is much more enticing than what I’ve now *seen* of it -  it’s almost all superhero films. Even the Marvel movies - inarguably more colorful, fun, and just plain lively than most of DC’s output - have a tendency to get high on their own supply to a degree that I started to get seriously fatigued leading up to that final Avengers. A fatigue that persists, but has grown to encompass most superhero films.

And then, from the rubble of my shattered enthusiasm emerged... Hentai Kamen: The Forbidden Hero. Based on a Japanese comedic manga called Kyukyoku!! Hentai Kamen (literally Ultimate!! Pervert Mask) created by Keishû Andô in 1992, it is the story of a young man who, during a hostage situation involving a schoolmate he has a crush on, uses a found pair of panties as a disguise, inadvertently awakening his dormant “pervert DNA” and giving him super powers. It’s silly, smutty and absolutely laugh-out-loud hilarious at times.

Fantasia Festival 2020 Review - "THE OAK ROOM" (2020)

The Oak Room (2020)
Written by Peter Genoway
Directed by Cody Calahan
Starring RJ Mitte, Peter Outerbridge and Ari Millen
Running time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Unrated-contains salty language, violence both explicit and implied and emotionally upsetting formative childhood recollections

by Hunter Bush

There’s a lot happening in the margins of Cody Calahan’s nested-narrative thriller The Oak Room. For a film with a story tucked inside a story inside a story, a lot goes unstated but while some details never quite coalesce, enough becomes clear for us to infer the shape of things. Adapted by Peter Genoway from his own stage play, on its face The Oak Room is the story of two men in a bar talking about two other men in a different bar, but what it’s really talking about is the power and nature of stories.

The film opens with Paul (Peter Outerbridge) *just about* to close up his bar, The Pool Room, for the night when, in out of the snowy blizzard comes Steve (RJ Mitte), the son of Paul’s best friend. Thing is, Steve hasn’t been home in three years, not even for his own father’s funeral, leaving Paul to pay for everything out of a sense of camaraderie, which means Steve has a debt to settle. Steve, who admits to just “drifting” since failing out of college doesn’t have anything like the money to pay off his debt, but he does have ...a story. A story he thinks may be of interest to Paul.

If you’ve read Moviejawn’s pre-Fantasia Fest 2020 round-up, you may recall I was quite excited for the small-town true-crime aspect of The Oak Room, but that its frequent use of the word “story” in the trailer meant I would be paying special attention to that thread and how that implied importance tied into the film’s themes. The bad news is: I don’t think there’s a real clear through-line regarding the importance of Story. The good news however, is: I still think the film is pretty solid.

A24 Meets d20

 A24 Meets d20: Playing A24’s GREEN KNIGHT Game

by Hunter Bush
With assistance from Allison Yakulis and Krystal T. L. Brackett

Earlier this year, which seems… SO long ago, A24 - production company behind such recent flicks as Uncut Gems, Midsommar, and The Lighthouse - dropped an impressive looking trailer for a new film from David Lowery, director of both well-respected indies - Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013) and A Ghost Story (2017) - and wider release adaptations - The Old Man and the Gun (2018) and the Pete’s Dragon remake (2016). This flick looked to combine Lowery’s independent leanings with his penchant for adaptations, and do so with a healthy dose of the kind of eye-catching visuals that have become synonymous with A24’s output. That film was The Green Knight.

Fantasia Festival 2020 Review - "SANZARU" (2020)

FANTASIA FEST 2020 COVERAGE:
SANZARU (2020)
Written and directed by Xia Magnus
Starring Aina Dumlao, Justin Arnold, Jon Viktor Corpuz, Jayne Taini
Running time 1 hour and 40 minutes
Currently unrated, but contains mild gore, adult themes and brief ghostly nudity



"Sanzaru" is the collective name for the See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil monkeys (who each traditionally have their own names btw). I avoided looking this up until after watching the film for fear of accidentally spoiling a major element of Xia Magnus' sweaty, southern, spookhouse flick. As it is, knowing the meaning spoils none of the plot but exposes some of the themes I thought were most interesting in the film, specifically communication.

Fantasia Festival 2020 Review - "FRIED BARRY" (2020)

Fried Barry (2020)
Written and directed by Ryan Kruger
Starring Gary Green, Chanelle de Jager, Brett Williams and Joey Cramer
Running time: 1 hour and 39 minutes
Currently unrated, but it contains copious drug use, sexual content, violence, adult themes and the birth of an alien/human hybrid

Director Ryan Kruger’s Fried Barry is A LOT. The story of a burned-out, deadbeat dad who’d rather spend his time in bars or shooting up than at home with his family. One afternoon he’s just up and abducted by aliens who possess his body and take it on a whirlwind tour of the city and its seedy underbelly. It’s entertaining and surprisingly well-acted, but ultimately really exhausting.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN 18

Everything Old Is New Again

Vol. 18 - August 2020

by Hunter Bush

Howdy, howdy one and all. How's everybody doing? Dark lord but it is hot out! I dunno how things'll be where you are, or when this drops but as I'm writing it we are heading into the dog days of summer in Philly. Nevertheless I'm back hunched over my laptop, the click clack of my fingers on the keys battling the susurration of a fan and clink of ice cubes in my glass, all to bring YOU, dear reader, the latest installment of Everything Old is New Again!

"ELVIS FROM OUTER SPACE" (2020)

ELVIS FROM OUTER SPACE (2020)
Written and directed by: Marv Z Silverman and Tracy Wuischpard
Starring: Martin Kove, Alexander Butterfield and Frank Cavestani
Running time: 1 hour and 31 minutes
Unrated but contains: salty language, one very tame sex scene, mild violence, porno playing on a TV monitor and aliens that wouldn't stop looking at me!

"No Thank You. No Thank You, Very Much"
by Hunter Bush



How? How did I draw two films to review, back to back, that are so similar? In my most recent previous Moviejawn piece I wrote about Vampire Burt's Serenade, a film made from the bones of an earlier film, re-edited and re-released under a new name; an obvious passion project (what other explanation could there be?) made by someone with seemingly no understanding of the Hows and Whys of filmmaking. The same could be, must be and is right at this moment being said, by me, about Elvis From Outer Space.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN 17

Everything Old is New Again,
Vol. 17 - July 2020

by Hunter Bush



How's everybody doing out there? States are reopening, businesses resuming in some feeble attempt at "normalcy" but I keep getting this sinking feeling... and maybe this is just me but, does anybody else keep feeling like we're in the middle of Jaws when the mayor (Murray Hamilton) refuses to close the beach in the middle of prime tourism season despite the warnings of experts? Ugh. Well, I hope wherever you are you're doing well and staying safe.

As for me, I'm back with your July installment of Everything Old Is New Again, my - now monthly - column where I attempt to keep y'all abreast of upcoming releases that fall under the EOINA purview: Remakes (a movie, but again), Adaptations (used to be a book, TV show, play or what have you but now it's a movie) and Long-Gap Sequels (the last one came out *how* long ago?) and things of that ilk.

Since no one in their right mind is going back to theaters right now, I'm sticking to what flicks and series' are coming to the various streaming services around. The downside of this set-up being that streaming services are kind of difficult to get reliable release dates and/or trailers from. But I did my best and, whenever possible, tried to give my overall impression of the type of movie or series we'll be getting. Appearances *can be* deceiving however, don't forget.

"VAMPIRE BURT'S SERENADE" (2020)

A Vampire Movie with No Stakes

Vampire Burt's Serenade 
Written and directed by Ken Roht
Starring Kevin Scott Richardson, Sharon Ferguson, Brandon Heitkamp, Diva Zappa
Running time: 1 hour 16 minutes
Unrated, but contains graphic language, toothless sexual content, obnoxious drug use, cartoonish violence and instances of mild monsterism.

by: Hunter Bush

When a vampire kills the MC of a popular strip club, the strippers set out to get revenge by surprising the vampire where he'd least expect it: picking up drugs from his dealer. That pretty-well sums up Vampire Burt's Serenade in a nutshell, though there is more than that going on. Much more. Some would say too much more. I am one of them.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN 16

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
VOL. 16 - JUNE 2020

by: Hunter Bush

Welcome welcome, one and all. The quarantine persists and I would hope that if you're reading this, you are still social distancing and taking care of yourself. But - to paraphrase my jr. high sex ed teacher - just because you're playing it safe doesn't mean you can't have fun. And around here, fun means Movies! In EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN it specifically means the movies that are Remakes of older flicks, or Adaptations of some other work or even Long-Gap Sequels to some long ago film that someone was just dying to add to the legacy of.

Since the film world is currently light on premiers, I've expanded the scope of the column to include films meeting EOINA criteria coming to streaming services no matter when they were originally released. BUT, streaming services are notoriously difficult to track down release date info for so... basically I'm doing my best  here, y'all and many many thanks to Allison Yakulis, my partner-in-crime, for helping with the research here.

Without any further ado, let the Quarant-EOINA commence...

"DREAMLAND" (2020)

DREAMLAND (2020)

Written by Tony Burgess & Patrick Whistler
Directed by Bruce McDonald
Starring Juliette Lewis, Stephen Mchattie, Henry Rollins
Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes

by Hunter Bush

Dreamland takes place in a world that's like ours, and yet not. Characters drift through it at an lackadaisical pace that heightens the film's tension by seeming to ignore that there is tension at all, or they get carried along almost nonchalantly by events, like a particularly "chill af" leaf on a river of gangland violence. Choices are made that would make no sense in a world where logic mattered, while here in Dreamland they seem like the only option worth choosing. With a title like Dreamland is it any surprise that this film is, well... dreamlike?

"DANZIG Sings ELVIS" (2020) - Album Review

"DANZIG Sings ELVIS"
Released on Cleopatra Records

Review By Hunter Bush

Track list:

1. Is It So Strange
2. One Night
3. Lonely Blue Boy
4. First In Line
5. Baby, Let's Play House
6. Love Me
7. Pocketful of Rainbows
8. Fever
9. When It Rains, It Really Pours
10. Always On My Mind
11. Loving Arms
12. Like a Baby
13. Girl of My Best Friend
14. Young and Beautiful

<>

In a well-known deleted scene from the 1994 film Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) have a discussion about Elvis and The Beatles. "Beatles people can like Elvis" Mia explains "and Elvis people can like The Beatles, but nobody likes them both equally." Surprising no one, Vincent is an Elvis man. Glenn Danzig, co-founder of seminal East Coast horror punk band The Misfits - and recently director of his first feature film Verotika, based on his line of adult oriented comics of the same name - is also unsurprisingly an Elvis man, having long been known by the potentially self-assigned nickname "the evil Elvis". Now, as the title of his latest record promises: DANZIG Sings ELVIS.

"BATSH*T BRIDE" (2020)

BATSH*T BRIDE

Written & directed by Jonathan Smith
Starring Meghan Falcone, Josh Covitt & Jonny Svarzbein
Running time: 1 hour, 21 minutes
Unrated

Heather (Meghan Falcone) is an event planner going full "Bridezilla". In the days leading up to her own wedding she's cracking the whip on her family, her fiance and the group of friends she's enlisted to help her pull the big day off. What's worse, she's outbidding another young woman for elements from her wedding like the dress and the flowers! Truly cutthroat. Heather is a character you don't like, right from the jump but that's about all that sets Batsh*t Bride apart from any number of bland comedies released in a given year.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN 15

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN, Vol. 15 - May 2020

By: Hunter Bush

Originally published by Moviejawn

Holy hell. How are you all doing out there? I know that the world is a very different place right now and that can be scary and frustrating. And boring. To help combat that boredom, this EOINA is going to be a little different. I'll still be covering Remakes, Adaptations and Legacy Sequels as per usual, just in a slightly different format. Welcome to Quarant-EOINA.

"BUTT BOY" (2019)

BUTT BOY
Directed by Tyler Cornack
Written by Tyler Cornack & Ryan Koch
Starring Tyler Cornack, Tyler Rice & Shelby Dash
Running time 1 hour and 40 minutes
MPAA rated ???


Classic joke structure is as follows: the Set-Up does exactly what the name implies, giving you all the information you should need to understand the joke and the Punchline provokes a laugh, usually through wordplay or by subverting expectations in some other way.

A man goes up to an aerobics instructor and asks "Can you teach me to do a split?". The instructor says "Maybe. How flexible are you?" and the man replies "I'm only available on Tuesdays."

Of course there are as many alternative joke forms as there are variations on that one, though that's generally how it goes: Set-Up = normal, Punchline = wacky.

Based on a short made for the Tiny Cinema youtube channel, Butt Boy attempts to reverse the traditional joke format by having the Set-Up be eye-rollingly silly while playing the aftermath completely straight. As far as execution of the concept goes I'd say they nailed it, though that doesn't make it "good". I can't believe I'm about to say this about a movie where a man sucks objects into a parallel dimension through his asshole: this movie is kind of boring.

Streaming Recommendation: "THE FOREIGNER" (2018)

THE FOREIGNER
Directed by Martin Campbell
Written by David Marconi, based on a novel by Stephen Leather
Starring Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Charlie Murphy
Running time: 1 hour and 53 minutes
MPAA rating: R for violence, language and some sexual material

by Hunter Bush

The Foreigner is a solid espionage/revenge thriller which suffers from some odd choices, the most noticeable being some of the dialogue, and a few instances of really sloppy editing. Jackie Chan plays a London man with a shadowy past whose daughter dies in an IRA bombing. When a government official (Pierce Brosnan) neglects to help him get revenge, Chan sets out on a quest for vengeance. You know, the usual. But with the pandemic induced release of No Time To Die delayed until the end of the year, I thought maybe some of you needed a James Bond-esque fix.

"CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIFTH KIND" (2020)

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIFTH KIND

Written and directed by Michael Mazzola

Starring: Dr. Steven M. Greer, Jeremy Piven, Jeremy Sheehan, Adam Michael Curry, Joe Martino, Jan Harzan and Dr. Russell Targ

Running time: 2 hours

Where do I even start, y'all? In Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind, Dr. Steven M. Greer asks viewers to accept strange truths - that intelligent life exists beyond our planet; that world governments have chosen to cover up most of what they know about the ETs; and that contact between them and us is not only possible but is actively happening, though perhaps not in the way you think. The movies would have us believe that to communicate with other intelligences, we'll have to use some "universal language" like music (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) or mathematics (Contact), but the real mode of communication is both simpler and much more complex. Dr. Greer's hypothesis is that the true universal language is the primary thing binding us to any intelligent life that may be out there: consciousness itself.

"THE HUNT" (2020)

THE HUNT (2020)
Written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindeloff
Directed by Craig Zobel
Starring Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Ike Barinholtz 
Running time: 1 hour and 29 minutes
MPAA Rated R for strong bloody violence, and language throughout

A bit of a disclaimer: Famously, the band on the Titanic continued playing even as the ship was going down and there are moments where writing about movies at this point in time has that feeling. The world is a mess, people are anxious and things seem uncertain, but people need something to take their minds off of it all. Be prepared, stock up on canned goods and for Satan’s sake *wash your damned hands* but beyond that, worrying about COVID-19 isn’t going to help any. So that, to me, is why movies and all we who love talking about them, should keep on keeping on. Like any bad times, we’ll get through it together; us and you and the movies. So now onto my actual review of The Hunt.

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Genre film has dealt with social and political issues for basically as long as there has been genre film, right? Maybe not 100% of the time, but in general if you're looking for a message of some kind, you're likely able to find one. Last September, The Hunt was delayed for ostensibly political reasons: both the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings were extremely fresh wounds to our country's psyche and Universal Pictures didn't feel it was the best time to release a movie where one group of people is hunting another group with guns (among other weapons). Added to that was the rumor that the flick itself was inherently political and you can perhaps understand what all the hubbub was about. Depending on what you might want out of your entertainments, I have either good or bad news: The Hunt isn't a genre flick with political subtext, it's one that uses politics as set dressing; as an excuse to get to what it really is: a brisk, funny, action-forward head-trip revenge story on a large scale. It has laughs, great performances, good-natured gore and sizable body count, and these days, what more could you ask for that something to take your mind off things?

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN 14

Everything Old Is New Again, Vol.14 - March & April 2020

by Hunter Bush


Welcome, welcome, one and all to another installment of Everything Old Is New Again, the column where I talk about upcoming movies that are one of the following: Remakes - movies based on a previous movie; Adaptations - based on some other pre-existing work; or Long-Gap Sequels - a direct continuation from an earlier film, but after an unusual length of time (these are also called Legacy Sequels or sometimes Requels since they're usually intended to gently reboot a franchise without erasing the previous entries).

That all make sense? Good. Cuz that's all you get. I'm trying a slightly different approach to this column, with very little chit-chat up top so we can get right to the trailers I watched and what my overall impression of them is. Then, at the end, I write a little bit more in-depth about this latest crop and etc. So let's get to it, shall we?

NOTE: This is the article as it ran on Moviejawn. Since that time, several of these flicks have been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing quarantines. Okay, on to the article!

"I'm Right on Top of That, Rose!"

"I'm Right on Top of That, Rose!" :

How a Bad Mom's Absence Creates a Better Mom in Her Stead

An alternative POV on 1991's Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead.

When the co-titular Mom (Concetta Tomei) leaves her five kids in the care of the co-titular Babysitter (Ida Reiss Merin) while she's in Australia for a summer, events transpire on a spectrum somewhere between "wacky hijinks" and "unbridled chaos". Broken hearts and bones abound, the matriarchal per diem gets given away and the dishes get "done" only in the most gangland sense of the word. And while this is all presented to the audience as being the fault of unruly kids lacking in supervision, I posit here that it's all Mom's fault. Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) is definitely a Bad Moms Movie.

Thing is, it's presented as a different type of flick altogether: the Kids Minus Guidance Equals Chaos film. While this is a subgenre that has entries from probably all of film history, it really hit its peak in the late 80's early 90's during the rise of Nickelodeon and their "kid power" propaganda. Films like Adventures in Babysitting (1987), Camp Nowhere (1994) and The Goonies (1985) all showcase what happens to a group of kids without "proper supervision" and attempt to cross the aisle between kids and adults by showing all the fun & adventures the kids get into while usually having them get a firm talking-to and maybe a severe grounding in the final reel.

"THE RHYTHM SECTION" (2020)

The Rhythm Section

Directed by Reed Morano

Based onthe novel by Mark Burnell; Screenplay by MarkBurnell

Starring Blake Lively, Jude Law & Sterling K. Brown

Running time: 1 hour and 49 minutes

MPAA rating: R for violence, sexual content, language throughout and drug use

by Hunter Bush

The Rhythm Section hit a lot of sour notes for me. I promise to keep the Gene Shalit-style puns to a minimum, but I had to do at least that one. Honestly though, not much about this flick kept me interested at all. It's riddled with clichés, some of the worst needle drop music choices and bafflingly stifled action scenarios.

Pizza Film Club October 2019

Minutes from the Moviejawn Pizza Film Club meeting, October 2019
By Hunter Bush

  

Welcome once again pizza punks and movie goons, to another installment of MOVIEJAWN'S The Last Slice, where I will be relaying the minutes from the previous month's meeting of the Pizza 🍕 Film 📼 Club ♣ which - if you're not savvy - is our monthly meeting where we watch fun flicks, eat pizza and other goodies and generally socialize together as a group! We publish this newsletter to lead by example: we hope you'll see that we watched a movie or made a snack that perks your ears up and you'll want to get your own bunch of buddies together and host a Pizza 🍕 Film 📼 Club ♣  of your own!

In October, we celebrated another birthday coinciding with our meet-up, this time of P 🍕 F 📼 C ♣ co-founder, Moviejawn matron and host of the Cinematic Crypt podcast, Rosalie Kicks! She and husband Ben hosted (wait til you see the decorations) the group of us for a double feature viewing of The Devil Bat and The 'Burbs!

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN 13

Everything Old is New Again, Vol. 13 - January and February 2020

by Hunter Bush

Happy (nearly) New Year, readers! As we bid a fine farewell to 2019, if you're someone who enjoys a little bit of the bubbly maybe raise your glass to EOINA. Exact date aside, I've been writing this column for Moviejawn for three years! Huzzah and cheers!

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Or wait. No. You can actually go read any of the old EIONA columns here or on Moviejawn. I don't know what I was thinking. (RIP Rutger Hauer).

This year I got to review my first Nic Cage movie (a lifetime high point for sure) and at one point my phone autocorrected part of some rant or another to include the phrase "skunk of a bitch", so I'm just gonna make that mine now. I'm owning it. One thing I'm disappointed in about the past year is that I didn't watch nearly as many new movies as the year before. In 2018 I logged 68 so I spent some of 2019's final days trying to close that gap and ended up around 60. How about you? Any highlights you're especially proud of, let's hear 'em!

Now, looking ahead: This latest Everything Old Is New Again installment will be covering all the Remakes, Adaptations & Long Gap or Legacy Sequels or Requels (there are a lot of terms flying around out there y'all; watch your heads) for January & February of 2020. In this column's crop of flicks, there are a handful of movies that still have not dropped trailers despite their looming release dates, which is always a bummer (I was waiting for Polaroid to drop for about 3 years before it sneaked onto VOD late last year; still haven't watched it).

On the plus size, I noticed a higher-than-average instance of what I think of as Girls To the Front films. Movies with female leads would be considered rare in, I would imagine, almost any subdivision you choose as your data pool, but in the nook I've carved out here they're even more scarce. Yet within these two months, I spotted three instances of ladies leading what would traditionally be male-lead films. I shouldn't have to say this but I'll say it anyway: that's a good thing! Everyone should get the chance to see themselves represented onscreen because movies are for everyone! That's what's so great about them!

With that in mind, let's see what's to be seen.

"STAR WARS - EPISODE IX: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER" (2019)

Directed by J.J. Abrams Written by Chris Terrio, J.J. Abrams, Derek Connolly, Colin Trevorrow Starring Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, with hundreds of other actors, extras, and CG critters Running Time: 2 hours and 21 minutes MPAA Rating: PG-13 for gratuitous space violence and action Hunter Bush and Allison Yakulis 

There may be spoilers, read at your own peril. It’s hard to talk about Star Wars anymore; many movies actually. Franchises have become such sacred cows that people feel personally attacked by any criticisms. Please know that is not our intent. While there are a lot of things in Rise of Skywalker (2019) that are genuinely good or fun or well-handled, it suffers from an overindulgence of fanservice and a general “more is more” sensibility that weakens its impact for even casual viewers. There is just so much stuff crammed into the film that nothing - good, bad or in between - is given enough time to land.