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Reviews
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023)
I really wanted to love this!
I really did. The cast is uniformly very good to excellent. The lead (the "angry black girl" if you will), Laya DeLeon Hayes, gives a performance that is warm, human, funny, intense; her range is there. The rest of the cast was great with particular props for. Denzel Whittaker, Tracie Frank, and. Chad L. Coleman as standouts for me.
Now for the rest. The direction was spotty but decent. The cinematography was bizarre - the outdoor shots were often actually gorgeous; however, the indoor shots were awkward and sitcom-y, often to the point of taking this viewer out of the moment. Now for the script. This group of extremely talented, mostly young actors deserved so much more. There was no explanation for why anything happened (can't say too much without spoiling the plot). The dialogue started strong but kind of fell flat about halfway through. It's possible editing is to blame for some or even most of that.
All in all, it's a not-unpleasant but disappointing way to blow off some time, but it will leave you wishing for what could have been - because it could have been great.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Baggage (2009)
this one's extra bad.
The level of police brutality and violations of rights in this episode is truly epic. I cannot imagine what was going through the minds of the writers.
Eli Stone: Praying for Time (2008)
I actively despise
Loretta Divine. She's a one-note performer whose note is "sassy" and it's horrible. I would have fired her years ago for her rudeness and lack of professionalism, neither of which are even remotely funny, cute, or charming.
She distracts from the other performances, the majority of which are good to excellent. Her moments onscreen are an outright insult to admin professionals everywhere.
Gon-ji-am (2018)
Skip it
If you've seen Session 9, The Blair Witch Project, The House on Haunted Hill (remake), The Shining, The Ring, and every other "ghosthunters go to a scary place" found footage movie, save yourself some time and watch season 2 of Evil again. Or something. This movie possesses not a grain of originality but I guess it at least steals from good ones. Entire scenes were lifted directly from other movies, Blair Witch in particular. Gave it 2 stars because the acting and production values were surprisingly good. And if you haven't seen the movies listed above, watch one of those instead, with Session 9 being most highly recommended.
Horror in the High Desert (2021)
Brilliant if you like your dogs shaggy
I love and vigorously love indie horror. I wanted to live this movie. I did not. It was painfully slow. There were probably 19 minutes at the end where something sort of happened, but not much. It really is a shaggy dog story - and not a fun one.
Most Dangerous Game (2020)
This was ... not good.
Honestly, I'm very generous. I love movies and if a genuine effort has been made I'm the first one to champion your creativity, however limited it's expression may be due to budget constraints, etc. This clearly had plenty of money, the cast was reasonably competent to good, the action was awkward, graceless and sad, the script was pure, unadulterated garbage, and it might have been directed by a fairly talented 12 year old. I watched this with my daughter and we laughed ourselves silly throughout so there's that.
Sweetheart (2019)
Decent
I give this 7.5. The lead is very good, particularly as there is literally no dialogue for the first half of the movie. Emory Cohen is his usual charming, moderately miserable self, and Hannah M. Lawrence is lovely and perfectly fine. The monster isn't great, but is gorgeous in the underwater shots. I liked it. Perfect for a gloomy afternoon.
Dead to Me (2019)
Finished in a day
Started watching and could not stop. Brilliant performances from Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, and James Marsden was wonderful, as expected. Every aspect is first-rate. Lord I hope there's going to be a season 2.
Prodigy (2017)
Wow.
This movie is genuinely awful. Stilted acting, terrible script, predictable from the first minute. Even the camerawork is fourth rate. It does get two stars for reminding me that I liked the infinitely superior Morgan (2016). Watch that instead.