Some Dude Reviews Movies

I'm a Rian Johnson fan. I have been since his noir pastiche,  Brick (2005). I've seen all of his films, and I've enjoyed every single one of them. So it stands to reason that, as soon as a new Rian Johnson joint drops in theaters, that I'd be there, soda and popcorn in hand. But to be gifted a star-studded whodunnit romp over the Thanksgiving holiday? That's an embarrassment of riches. I. What Is It? This is the story of Thrombey clan, and their dead patriarch, and his unassuming nurse. And the last of the gentlemen detectives. And a possible conspiracy. II. Subversion and Celebration Rian Johnson clearly loves the whodunnit genre of mystery. He is very clearly a fan of Agatha Christie and the grand tradition of a consulting detective. With Knives Out (2019), Johnson both sends up the elements of those stories and celebrates them. We have a deep-fried southern detective in Benoit Blanc (replete with a silly, alliterative name); we h...

I have long been a fan of the blaxploitation film Shaft (2000) remake (the first one, I guess) in theaters. And subsequently ran to Blockbuster to rent all of the originals. I grew up on I'm Gonna Get You Sucka (1988). Black Dynamite (2009) blew my mind. genre. I remember seeing the Just after college I found a film called Dolemite  (1975). I used to talk blaxploitation with a coworker, and he had suggested the film. His descriptions of it were out of this world, and I rushed out to find a copy of it. And I did, at long last, in the bargain bin, as a multi-film compilation, at Wal Mart. And what a film it was. It was gloriously low-budget, and terribly acted, but it was possessed of the kind of spirit and earnestness that all so-bad-they're-good movies have. So when the trailer for Netflix's latest, Dolemite is My Name (2019), dropped earlier this year, my attention was immediately piqued. When I realized that it was the story of how Dolemite  was c...

Isn't sad that we live in a world where we need a movie to remind us that Nazis are the bad guys? That empathy is more powerful than hate? I. What Is It? This is the story of Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) and his mother (Scarlett Johansson). Jojo is a young recruit in the Hitler Youth. But when he discovers a Jew (Thomasin McKenzie) hidden in his attic, his whole world view will be called into question. II. Timely and Timeless Waititi's film offers us a reminder of the necessity and power of empathy. Jojo is nearly lost to the absurd hate of Nazism, but empathy brings him back from the brink. His mother's loving example and the humanizing effect of actually meeting a Jew spark kindness and understanding in Jojo that is sharply at odds with the propaganda he's been ingesting in the Hitler Youth, undergirded by the presence of Jojo's imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler. Love really is the only thing that can defeat such hate, and Waititi has crafted a ...

Mike Flanagan is one of my favorite filmmakers working today. Stephen King has long been one of my favorite authors. One adapting the work of the other? I was always going to be in. Flanagan adapting the sequel to King's towering horror achievement, The Shining  (1977), and marrying it to Stanley Kubrick's seminal genre film, The Shining  (1980), was a gamble that I couldn't wait to see play out. You see, King, famously, hates Kubrick's adaptation. In many ways, Doctor Sleep (2013) was a way for King to take back ownership of his own work. To have the last say on the characters. To reinforce his own vision, and version, of events. So Mike Flanagan was always going to be in a tough spot. How'd he do? I. What Is It? This is the story of Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor), a man with a special gift and a traumatic past. It's the story of Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), a young girl with the same gift, who needs guidance. And it's the story of ...