dani_fz's Reviews

Machete Kills (2013)

8/10

Danny Trejo and Amber Heard make a killing in this hilarious sequel to the 2010 grindhouse cult classic

28 November 2023

It had been years since I watched the first Machete when I recently decided to give this one a watch primarily because Amber Heard is in it. And it was such a pleasant and fun experience watching it that it made me regret not having watched it sooner. It also reminded me why, despite (or because of) its ridiculousness, I enjoyed the first Machete too. What made the first Machete so appealing was its deliberately campy and goofy presentation as well as its exploitative gore-ish scenes, and this is exactly what made this one appealing too. Moreover, the performances and the central narrative and themes in this one give it somewhat of an edge over the first one. I mean, the movie, through comedy, gives a strong socio-political commentary against the racism, xenophobia and corruption that underlie immigration issues within and outside the US, and it does this in a well-performed and palatably comical way that is not so in-your-face yet is absolutely memorable. What is there not to like about this?

Focusing on the performances, you'd think that it's the star-studded cast of the movie that, in itself, made it so fun to watch. You'd be wrong to think this because none of the big names in the movie - e.g. Cuba Gooding Jr., Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Jessica Alba, Vanessa Hudgens, Lady Gaga, Alexa PenaVega and William Sadler - gives anything substantially memorable at all to it, which just shows that their inclusion in it was for marketing optics. Instead, the performances that gave the movie its edge were those of, primarily, Danny Trejo (as Machete) and Amber Heard (as Miss San Antonio). Just as in the first Machete, Trejo does an impressive job with Machete's face, which he makes say so much without Machete having to say anything at all. In fact, it is perhaps Machete's stoic and serious demeanor, largely communicated through his face, that is responsible for most of the laughs in the movie.

Miss San Antonio (played by Heard), on the other hand, is almost the polar opposite of Machete despite the two sharing a lot in common. For instance, what Machete uses silence to express Miss San Antonio uses colorful words to communicate. In no scene is this more apparent than in the scene where the two characters first meet. And yet, both she and Machete are ruthless as they are determined in the achievement of their respective goals. This is on top of the fact that they're both badass fighters that are really fun to watch. Needless to say, it is through Heard's unapologetically direct A-list acting that Miss San Antonio gets to be one of the main unique attractions of this movie compared to its predecessor.

As something of an enthusiast of Heard's career, I think it apt to observe at this point that her role in this movie shows how much she had grown as an actor by that time. Not only is this evident in the fact that she managed to land such a prominent supporting role in as star-studded a movie as this one, it is also apparent in the confidence, authenticity, power and humor that she manages to infuse into Miss San Antonio. In addition, this role showcases her acting range both within the movie and within her career as a whole because, as Miss San Antonio, Heard shows us that she's at home being absurdly funny while at the same time being shockingly badass. And while her role as Vivi Delay in 3 Days to Kill (2014) - a role she probably landed because of how good she was in Machete Kills - is comparable to this one in many ways, Delay is not developed with as much breadth as Miss San Antonio is and so she does not give Heard as much room as Miss Antonio does to display her versatility as an actor. Interestingly, one could describe Miss San Antonio as "Piper (from Drive Angry, 2011) meets Vivi Delay" because she embodies the goofy and carefree badass-ery of Piper, and the intelligence, elegance and ruthlessness of Delay. Ultimately, the performances of Heard in Machete Kills and 3 Days to Kill stand out in her career as having brought her unprecedented mainstream recognition as well as having solidified her brilliance in action movies as well as in comedies. They also underlined Heard's skill in transforming women characters that would otherwise have been reduced to mere sexual objects by their writers and viewers into characters with a depth and autonomy that is as entertaining to watch as it is captivating and thought-provoking.

Aside from Heard and Trejo's performances, Sofia Vergara (as Desdemona) also deserves a mention because she did the best she could do with a highly sexually objectified and underdeveloped character. The job that she did to make Desdemona's presence on-screen be more tangible (in being more than merely a comic relief) is commendable in its own right.

All these positives aside, the movie has several drawbacks that are worth noting. For one, its representation of women is poor both in terms of numbers and in terms of unnecessarily sexually objectifying women and promoting misogynistic content. Similarly, its racial representation (in terms of African-American characters) is problematic. Furthermore, the presence of so many big-name stars in the movie, many of whom are entirely unnecessary (e.g. Elon Musk) and some of whom are abusive bigots (e.g. Mel Gibson and Musk) is also a drawback for me. The fact that the writers killed off Miss San Antonio in the end is also a drawback for me because I would have a loved to see a sequel in which she and Machete go one on one against each other.

Because of these and other problems, I could have given the movie a 6-star rating. However, the presence of Heard and her brilliant performance elevated this to an 8-star rating. I'd recommend the movie to you if you're looking for a light movie that doesn't take itself too seriously with which to unwind. I'd also recommend it if you're a fan of gore and action comedies, especially grindhouse and other kinds of exploitative cinema. Also, if you're a fan of Heard or are curious about her acting career, this is a must-watch because it would be impossible to have a complete portrait of Heard's acting without watched Miss San Antonio in action. In all, I think most people would enjoy this movie because of its absurd comedy and action and the magnificent performances by Trejo and Heard.

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In the Fire (2023)

9/10

Conor Allyn defies expectations with this period thriller filled with engrossing performances and memorable visuals

21 October 2023

I just recently finished watching this gothic mystery thriller and, contra-expectations, I have to admit that it is as good as an indie thriller of its kind could get. The scenery, cinematography, production design, performances, and makeup are impressively well put together to deliver a captivating and thought-provoking product that, in my opinion, has so far been grossly - but unsurprisingly, if you know what I mean - underrated.

At its center, 'In the Fire' is a story about love, human connection, and the struggle to belong and be accepted in a world in which bigotry (xenophobia, sexism, witch-burning) is the rule rather than the exception. It is also a story about how reductive and destructive dualisms such as religion/science or even disease/talent can be in the face of a more complex world that does not readily lend itself to such oversimplifications, especially in cases where human lives and wellbeing are at stake. And both these very human stories are told through the vehicle of a psychological/supernatural gothic thriller that, in many respects, defies the narratives and clichés typical of both the psychological and supernatural thriller genres. This is one of the aspects of the film that I love the most and is evident in how, despite paying subtle nods to some films in these genres, Conor Allyn purposely subverts the formulas and devices they employ in interesting and thought-provoking ways.

Interwoven into the film's central stories are important philosophical questions evoked by, and to some extent addressed within, the film's plot. For instance, the question of human suffering in light of the assumption that the world is overseen by an omnibenevolent and omnipotent creator ("God") is raised in the film, and the lack of a rational answer to this question is made a key feature of the villagers' fear of, and anger towards, Martin (Lorenzo McGovern Zaini). Similarly, the movie tackles the question of whether or not religion and science could co-exist and plausibly invites both religious and non-religious viewers - through Father Antonio (Luca Calvani) and Grace Burnham (Amber Heard) respectively - to reflect on the extent to which they would be willing to bend their own prior beliefs when confronted with a phenomenon that grossly violates them.

Additionally, something has to be said in terms of a complement to the writers (Conor Allyn, Pascal Borno, Silvio Muraglia) and the director (Conor Allyn) regarding how delicately and skillfully they carry the film's central mystery right down to literally the last five minutes of the movie. The film follows Grace Burnham as the very rare 19th century woman alienist (a pre-20th century term for a psychiatrist) that travels to a remote village to attend to the treatment of Martin Marquez - a boy exhibiting atypical behaviors - at the behest of Martin's mother. Once at the village, Grace discovers that in order to treat and care for Martin, she has to contend with the protestations of most of the villagers - led by a Father Gavira (Yari Gugliucci) - who are convinced that Martin's atypical behaviors underlie the misfortunes that have been plaguing the village ever since he was born because, according to them, the boy is possessed. Thus is the mystery at the center of the movie: Is Martin actually possessed or does he, as Grace maintains, merely contain an illness (mental disorders were notoriously pathologized in the 19th century) by the name of Savante Syndrome? The writers and director, aided by Amber Heard's skillful acting, do a great job holding onto this mystery until that point in the movie when it is most rewarding to give it away. And, without giving away any spoilers, I assure you that you likely will not be expecting how the mystery is resolved.

Speaking of Heard's acting, as something of an enthusiast and critical follower of her filmography, I have to say a thing or two about it. For one, anyone familiar with Heard's previous horror and thriller performances will see influences in her acting here from such horror/thriller classics as The Ward (2010) and And Soon the Darkness (2010). On the other hand, 'In the Fire' adds to the evidence for Heard's versatility as an actress because she's never starred in such a period film before (and in as authoritative and scholarly a position as a doctor) yet she nails Grace Burnham's character so well that even most of the negative critics of the movie begrudgingly accept that her performance cannot be faulted. In perhaps no scenes is this skillful performance as evident as in some of the private moments Grace shares with Martin and in the scene in which Grace confronts Father Gavira in front of the church (which leads to events that many viewers would not be comfortable watching). In all, while Heard does display some of her signature elements of performance in this movie, she exhibits a maturity and growth of skill that, in my opinion, should easily market her for similar and not-so-similar roles in future that would, if she's given the chance, land her an Oscar someday. Besides Amber Heard moreover, the other performers in the movie also do the best job they could do for their characters, especially Luca Calvani, Eduardo Noriega (Nicolas Marquez), and Lorenzo McGovern Zaini.

I feel like I cannot conclude this review without singling out the film's makeups (thanks to Helena Rago and crew) for an authenticity that elevates its appearance to that of a big-budget production. I cannot even imagine the work they put in to achieve this look.

The only faults that I could point out with the film lie with its editing (which seems a bit choppy in some scenes) and with the writing of the some of the dialogues (which do not strictly adhere to the 19th century setting). Nonetheless, these are faults that are more than covered by the film's positives and by the fact that the film is low-budget, but I had to remove at least one star from it because of them.

In conclusion, 'In the Fire' is as solid an indie movie of its genre as you can get. I highly recommend it to most people, both horror and thriller lovers and non-lovers alike. This is because while the film does use thrill largely for entertainment value, its underlying stories and themes are drama-based and would thus appeal to those that aren't so much into thrillers. I also specifically recommend the movie to the more philosophically inclined audiences that love their their entertainment smart rather than intellectually empty. Fans of Amber Heard will also have a lot to enjoy in this movie and will no doubt re-watch it multiple times as they wait for her next appearance in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom later this year. In all, I cannot recommend enough that the interested reader give this genre-defying movie at least one viewing as I am confident that they will find the experience worthwhile and memorable.

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Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

9/10

Céline Sciamma and Adèle Haenel collaborate to produce a must-watch feminist lesbian classic that will be talked about for decades to come

9 October 2023

Warning: Spoilers

It may be a cliché to say so but I have to say that this, in many ways, is one of the most beautifully (and ethically) done feminist movies that I have ever seen. Made largely by women, about women, and for women and all those interested in the ethics and politics of gender and human rights, the movie creatively uses art, dialogue, and its period setting to subtly portray and communicate some of the most fundamental issues underlying gender inequality in patriarchal societies. Take this quote by Héloïse (played by Adèle Haenel) to Marianne (Noémie Merlant) for instance:

"Imagine me happy or unhappy if that reassures you. But do not imagine me guilty."

This line embodies one of the primary themes and sources of conflict and tension in the movie and in women's lived experiences, that is, whether or not to rebel against, or to comply to, patriarchal injustices and oppression. Indeed, this is the rarely spoken inescapable position that both Héloïse and Marianne find themselves in throughout the movie and is a question that both women, in the end, have to answer for themselves and for the sake of the bond that they share with each other. And despite the choices that they both end up making, Céline Sciamma (writer and director) reminds us, through Héloïse's words and the latter bond, that one should not be quick blame either of them, or other women in the movie, for those choices because, ultimately, there is no winning for them, no matter the choices. Furthermore, it is noteworthy in this regard to observe that even as Héloïse and Marianne's lives are thrown into undesirable paths by these choices, Marianne, as a kind of protest underlain by love, manages to eventually make a painting of Héloïse - the so-titled 'Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu' - that is a representation and memory of the bond that they share, and that is the socio-political and ethical antithesis of the painting of Héloïse that she is commissioned to paint.

Another example of the movie's unique feminist approach is the "women's bubble" that most of it is set in. By this I mean the isolated island setting in which all of the main characters (and most of the supporting ones) are women dealing with exclusively women issues while also helping other women deal with their own similar issues. While this cosmology established by the movie is not a feminist utopia by any means because the relations between the women in it are still defined by hierarchical patriarchal social structures and misogynistic demands and pressures from the outside world, it is inspiring and unique in the way it communicates the social and political potentials that exist in a world where women work together to uplift each other.

A related important aspect of the movie is its unapologetic advocacy for egalitarian interpersonal and social relationships. An example of this is evident in the "equal" ways through which both Héloïse and Marianne relate with each other, and through the way they both relate with Sophie (Luàna Bajrami), despite the fact that all these women belong to different social classes in the wider patriarchal world order within which they exist. Moreover, one cannot fully talk about the movie's feminism without mentioning the abortion scene in it which, unlike the few other abortion scenes that I've seen in movies so far, is convincingly realistic and quite moving. In egalitarian terms, Sciamma uses the scene to show the viewer the socio-economic disparities between the women in the movie and to show that, despite or because of them, these women still muster enough courage and understanding to come together to the aid of a fellow woman in need of a service that the patriarchal world unjustly suppresses.

An aspect of the movie's egalitarianism that is perhaps most striking is the equality that exists in Héloïse and Marianne's romance. Unlike the hierarchical nature of the romantic relationships typical in most romantic comedies and dramas as often exemplified by one partner being dominant over the other(s), Sciamma, through some great writing and with the help of the magnificent performances by Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant, builds a captivating and almost perfectly equal romance in Héloïse and Marianne's relationship. Indeed, it is the kind of romance that exemplifies Simone de Beauvoir's "authentic love," a kind of love that is "founded on reciprocal recognition of (the) freedoms" of those involved. A corollary of this is that, through this egalitarian representation of Héloïse and Marianne's relationship, 'Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu' ends up avoiding falling into the pitfall that is the "heterosexualization" of lesbian relationships that some lesbian romance movies tend to fall into (e.g. Carol, Blue is the Warmest Color etc).

In connection with this is the movie's avoidance of the male gaze and its prioritization of the female gaze, which are aptly supported by its destruction of subject-object distinctions that are the foundations of the sexual objectification of women, women's bodies, and women's sexualities in the vast majority of romance movies. For instance, Sciamma presents the movie from the perspective and gaze of Marianne and goes to considerable lengths to show us that even though Héloïse poses for her for the portrait, she is not an object in Marianne's eyes but is just as much a subject in them as Marianne is in her own eyes. The writing, direction, and editing of, especially, the painting scenes and the sex scenes best demonstrate this point.

Besides its feminist strengths, the performances of Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant also need be particularly singled out and praised. The two women do a great job in presenting the viewers with a realistic (rather than clichéd and over-romanticized) portrayal of what it concretely likely would be like for two women of their statures to meet each other and gradually get to discover each other and eventually fall in love in the circumstances in which they find themselves in. While the chemistry between Haenel and Merlant is undeniable, they do not exaggerate the attraction between Héloïse and Marianne to fictional standards. Rather, they allow for just the right amount of "strangeness" to exist between them as the plot gradually develops, and they eventually extinguish this strangeness in the inevitable coming together of the two friends-become-lovers. For their captivating yet realistic performances thus, both Haenel and Merlant deserved, in my opinion, Oscar awards.

In conclusion, and speaking as someone who has watched quite a number of her movies (including her famous 'Girlhood-Tomboy-Water Lilies' trilogy) I'd say that this movie represents Sciamma's best work to date and is arguably one of the best feminist films of this century so far. It is also a defining movie for Adèle Haenel, both as an actress and as a feminist and human rights activist. In any case, the movie is one that most women, LGTBQIA+ peoples, artists, film enthusiasts, gender and European history scholars, and human rights activists ought to watch at least once. I cannot recommend it enough to these audiences as well as to anyone else that loves movies that educate as well as they entertain. The only negatives that I saw in the movie include its promotion of smoking and its its slow plot development, which may stress some viewer's level of patience.

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Han Gong-ju (2013)

8/10

A painful but artistic, memorable, and non-exploitative depiction of how traumatizing and harmful rape and its aftermath often are to victim-survivors

4 October 2023

I just finished watching this unique movie and - I have to put this out there before saying anything else - huge trigger warning for sexual assault and related traumatic events.

That said, and despite the trigger warning, one of the major strengths of the movie is its sensitive and non-exploitative treatment of what is, by all accounts, a harrowing and deeply painful subject. The writing, direction, editing, and performances are all commendable in how impressionably but carefully they expose rape culture and the costs it imposes on its victim-survivors. Indeed, the movie does what very few of its kind manage to do: to communicate the horrors and harms of rape and of its aftermath to audiences while avoiding catering to the male gaze and sexually objectifying its female characters, or exploiting its female characters in other ways purely for the male audiences' entertainment.

As a consequence, Su-jin Lee and his crew succeed, in a way that is rarely seen in cinema, to show just how hard coming out with a rape allegation is to victims of sexual assault and/or rape and how existing patriarchal institutions and agents all work together to ensure that this remains the reality for victim-survivors. And this is so, to a large part, due to the centering of the narrative on Han Gong-Ju's mental and social life; the award-worthy editing that shifts between Gong-Ju's present and past often without prior indication; and the emotionally laden performance by Chun-Woo-He (Hann Gong-Ju) who most often does not even have to speak to communicate her motivations and emotions to the viewer. Some would attribute these strengths to the particulars of Korean drama filmmaking in general but, as someone who's watched a number of classic Korean drama movies, I'd object to this and argue that due credit should be given to the creators of this unique and woefully under-watched and underrated classic.

In all, this is a movie that I would recommend to almost everyone for artistic, educational, sociological, entertainment, and moral reasons because, I guarantee, it has something for nearly all viewers, no matter their interests and motivations in movie-watching and in social and educational issues. The only negatives I noted in the movie include its promotion of alcohol and cigarette use and its plot development with regards to how the editing is used as a narrative tool (which takes a while to get used to while watching it).

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Paranoia (I) (2013)

7/10

Amber Heard and Liam Hemsworth do most of the heavy lifting in this otherwise forgettable corporate thriller

13 August 2023

As a general rule, I tend to avoid these kinds of white-male-produced-directed-cast thriller and action films because they're almost always nothing more than cliché-driven superficial and disposable time-wastes that exemplify most of the things that are wrong with the Hollywood film industry. Given that Paranoia very obviously fits this mold, one could rightly wonder why I sacrificed (grudgingly so, if I may add) 106 minutes of my life watching it. The answer is simple: Amber Heard. I watched this film purely because Amber Heard was cast in it and, as an enthusiast of her films who got it in me to go through her entire filmography, I had to watch it.

The movie is a corporate espionage thriller in which a supposedly ordinary worker (Adam Cassidy, played by Liam Hemsworth) for a high-end tech company is used by his boss (Nicolas Wyatt, played by Gary Oldman) to attempt to steal proprietary information from a rival company headed by a former business partner of the boss. Other than a couple of quite predictable twists in the end, this pretty much sums up what the movie is about. As such, the movie's shallow plot, which rides on little but overused cliché's in its genre, is one of its major drawbacks. Another one is its seeming overreliance on the popularity of its cast members to, perhaps, try to remedy this shortcoming.

Even more problems are apparent in the movie's glaring and rather off-putting lack of racial and gender diversity. I mean, come on, 2013 is not so long ago as to "justify" the male "whiteness" of the movie's crew and cast members. This shouldn't be surprising though given that director Robert Luketic has previously been criticized for engaging in this kind of prejudicial casting at least in his 2008 heist drama film 21. In addition, this movie's script suffers from a related problem, which is that while the writers (all white men) seem to pretend to convey a message about the ills of capitalism and corporate greed in which those in power exploit those without it, they nevertheless affirm and try to justify the hegemony of white men over everybody else in the corporate world. I mean, are we to believe that the remedy to the exploitation that Adam suffers at the hands of his old white male employers is, as the movie concludes, just a younger version of these employers? In the end, while the writers pay lip service to happiness and contentment being attainable in the simple life that Adam's father (Richard Dreyfuss) led, they, quite inconsistently and inexplicably, end the movie with Adam still aspiring to living the very life that his crooked bosses led and that was the source of his misery throughout the movie.

Besides these problems with the movie's plot, narrative, and casting choices, its visuals, audio, and acting were largely ordinary and not really outstanding. That is, excepting the performances of Liam Hemsworth and Amber Heard (as Emma Jennings), which were magnificent and just about the only genuinely positive aspects of the movie.

Focusing on Heard, her casting as Emma was a bit unusual, albeit understandable within the trajectory of her career. It was unusual because most of Heard's past major roles before this movie were characters that were more in control of their narrative arcs (i.e. More "agentic") than Emma is. For instance, in Syrup - which is also a corporate drama movie that was released in 2013 - Heard plays Six, a woman that is central to the movie's plot and that stands in opposition to the main male character, Scat. In contrast, Luketic and his writers make Emma to be little more than Adam's muse, puppet, and instrument. Considering that Heard is the leading supporting actress in this movie which means that all other women characters play less prominent roles, Emma's lack of much agency in it is a testament to just how sexist against women the movie's writing and plot is. Nevertheless, Heard can hardly be blamed for having accepted to feature in the movie in such a role because the movie was arguably a landmark for Heard's career as, it seems to me, it was the first time that she played such a prominent supporting role in a major Hollywood thriller alongside as many A list actors as were cast in it.

Still, despite the fact that Emma was written so poorly and so scantily, Heard still manages to play her so convincingly and with such flare that I was hopelessly dependent on her scenes to get me through the grand cliché that the rest of the movie largely was. Indeed, anyone that's seen Heard's previous movies would agree that the confidence and authenticity that she channels into Emma in this movie can only be matched by those that she channels into Six in Syrup, Piper in Drive Angry, and Nikki in ExTerminators. One can only thus lament about the fact that Luketic and his writers' sexism robbed them of the opportunity to broaden Emma's role in the narrative in order to make the most out of Heard's performance of her. If only they'd taken some notes from Aram Rappaport's Syrup.

All in all, Amber Heard (and, to some extent, Liam Hemsworth) are just about the two positive things about this movie amidst an ocean of negatives. As such, all things considered, I was going to give this movie 4 stars but decided on 7 purely because of Heard's (2 stars) and Hemsworth's (1 star) acting. I recommend the movie mostly to fans of Heard and Hemsworth but it could also be enjoyable to many other people as a fun but forgettable past-time that could, if given a generous reading, even be educational and thought-provoking.

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The Playboy Club (2011)

7/10

An earlier version of 'The Deuce'? Despite the feminist problems that it has, this show had great potential and should not have been prematurely cancelled

5 July 2023

While I do believe that there's a lot of stuff in this series to unpack regarding the social and political issues that its narrative touches on, I found it to be quite entertaining and impressively well-done overall. As such, it seems to me that most of the criticisms leveled against it are unjustified with many of them being openly biased. Having watched all the publicly available episodes of the series to date, the things that positively stood out to me the most were: 1. The magnificent and dazzling 1960s set design and the costumes; 2. The performances, especially by Laura Benanti (as Carol-Lynn Cunningham), Amber Heard (as Maureen), Leah Renee (as Alice), and Eddie Cibrian (as Nick Dalton); 3. The musical numbers and; 4. The crime narrative arc.

Regarding the set design and costumes, they are as convincing as they are immersive. They truly make you feel like you're a fly on the wall of an actual 60s Playboy Club in Chicago, even if you've never been in one. And the main actor's performances - coupled with good direction - only reinforce this immersive experience by how authentically they're able to channel the actions, feelings, and ambitions that one would expect of the characters they're playing in such a setting. For instance, Laura Benanti excellently portrays the tension between Carol-Lynn's ambitions as a "Queen Bee" of The Club and the patriarchal and sexist culture, reminiscent of the setting, that she must contend with in order to have these ambitions met. A similar tension - but one based on her queer identity in addition to her gender - is evident in the also well-performed role of Alice by Leah Renee. On the other hand, Eddie Cibrian's embodiment of White male privileges and challenges in the character of Nick as he navigates the criminal and political worlds of 60s Chicago is noteworthy for its allure as it is for its discomfort and air of mystery concerning the question of whether or not Nick is actually the "nice guy" that he seems to want people to believe he is.

But among all the great performances in the series, Amber Heard's stands out in not only reinforcing its immersive experience, but in giving viewers that one character whose life and experiences they'd want to see to the end. Indeed, Heard succeeds in balancing naiveté and vulnerability with agency and strength in Maureen - a new Bunny recruit for The Club - in a manner that is both entertaining and, quite frankly, impressive. For instance, over the course of the three episodes of the series, one notices this balance in Heard's authentically showing that while Maureen is still learning the ropes of her new job and allows herself to be helped by those around her that are willing to help her, she is also the kind of "Bunny" that stands her ground and takes active steps towards solving her problems in the best ways she knows how. By way of example, one would not miss the contrast between the fear and dependence that Heard imparts on Maureen during several scenes in the Pilot episode involving the death of a mob boss with the courage and control that she imparts on her in scenes in which she confronts the mob boss John Bianchi (Troy Garity). Not only does Heard manage to captivate the viewer and keep them guessing as to what Maureen would do next in the series this way, she also manages to do the same by giving Maureen an air of mystery and unpredictability that is not present in the other characters. This brilliant performance by Heard no doubt partly derives from her experiences playing such complex characters as Mandy Lane in All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006) and Christine in The Ward (2010) because these roles demanded such balance and mysteriousness that the Maureen character required in this series. It is no wonder then that the producers and director of the series made Heard's character so central to it that they even titled the second episode with a name she's referred to in the episode. All that said, fans of Heard would also be interested to know that this was her first leading role (albeit in an ensemble) in a crime drama series in her career and that she did not disappoint at all to the extent that she's one of the major reasons to lament that the series was prematurely cancelled.

Besides the performances and the set design, a lot can be said about the musical numbers in all three of the series' episodes released to date. They were all very professionally done and one never really gets used to how glamorous, catchy, and fun they are.

In addition, while the writing is not outstanding for shows of its kind, the crime arc in the narrative is one of the aspects of the series that I'm sure made a lot of people disappointed that it was cancelled the way it was. I also got so personally invested in the burgeoning relationship between Alice (Leah Renee) and Frances Dunhill (Cassidy Freeman) that it felt quite painful to know that I'd likely never get to see how it progressed.

Besides its positives, several negative things about the series are worth mentioning. Firstly, I agree with feminist critiques about it being an inappropriate sugar-coating and excusing of the misogyny, abuse, and assault on women that the Playboy enterprise has always been an embodiment of - despite the few women that it has somehow benefited over the years. The series errs in trying to give a feminist twist to the practices of a company that's notorious for its violation of women's rights, especially in the time period of the series' setting. Secondly, not even the token black woman casting in the form of Naturi Naughton (as Brenda) is enough to rescue the series from what is undeniably a dire racial under-representation. Thirdly, I think that comparisons of the series to Mad Men (2007) by some were blatantly off-mark, which is a good thing. However, it seems to have had the potential to be as great a series as The Deuce (2017) but it failed in that it focused too much on painting a fantasy of what should have been (of Playboy) than in showing what actually was and why it was bad, which is what The Deuce succeeded in doing.

In conclusion, balancing its positives and negatives, I'd have given the series a 6/10 but its inclusion of Amber Heard and her magnificent performance made me settle on a 7/10. I recommend it to all fans of crime dramas and to all those looking for a fun three-episode series that's worthwhile experiencing rather than finishing, with which to kill some weekend time. I also recommend it to fans of Heard as a must-watch testament to how much she'd grown as actress at this point of her career and for the plenty of magical scenes of her that are scattered throughout the three episodes. Those intellectually interested in contemporary representations of the American mid-20th century sex scene in movie and TV would also find plenty of value in this series as well those that love music from that era.

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Drive Angry (2011)

8/10

An underrated grindhouse comedy thriller that has Amber Heard at her best and a lot of action scenes to die for

7 May 2023

I just recently watched this movie and I'm quite confused about why it has such low ratings here and in other places online. I mean, the action and comedy are crazy good, the writing is OK, the special and visual effects are above average, and the acting is out of this world (no pun intended). What's there not to love about it? This movie is literally as good as it gets for a well-done action-packed grindhouse comedy thriller that, unsurprisingly, became an instant cult classic when it was released.

I won't go into the details of summarizing the plot for the reader but what I'll specially firstly point out (because it is absolutely worth doing so) is the fact that Amber Heard kills it - literally and figuratively - in the movie. Amber plays Piper, a down-on-her-luck young Texan woman that catches her fiancé cheating and shortly after gets dragged into Milton's (Nicolas Cage) rage-fueled quest to avenge his daughter's brutal killing and rescue her baby in the process. This was, at the time, Amber's first time playing such a prominent role in such an action-packed thriller; her only other role that might come close to this one was her ensemble role in ExTerminators (2009) but those familiar with both movies would agree that the level of action and violence in Drive Angry is way above that in ExTerminators so the two roles are hardly the same.

Despite it being her first such role, Amber manages to pull off what, in my view, was her best performance to date by seamlessly and entertainingly interweaving comedy with kick-ass no-nonsense bad-assery. And this attests not only to her impressive acting versatility and her tendency to keep growing as an actress (both of which I have noted before), it also, arguably for the first time at the time, undeniably attested to her talent in portraying powerful and independent women in action thriller roles - again, this is notwithstanding her well-played ensemble role in ExTerminators. Indeed, her gritty and confrontational portrayal of Piper gives us a relatively early showcasing of Amber's potential for outstandingly handling such roles; and it explains why it was inevitable that she would eventually land such bigger roles as DC's Mera in Aquaman. That said, I'm also quite pleased that while Patrick Lussier (director) did not hesitate to use Amber's body and attractiveness to captivate his audience, he did not needlessly exploit it as some other directors in her earlier movies tended to do. All of this is to say that if you'll watch the movie for nothing or no one else, watch it for Amber's performance and, of course, for her radiance and beauty. (It's not by accident that they put Amber in the foreground of the movie's official poster you know.)

It would be unfair if I did not also single out William Fitchner's (as The Accountant) performance which, in my view, is second only to Amber's, being better than even Nicolas Cage's. This is not to say that Cage's performance was not good; he does bring his A-game to this one but anyone familiar with his movies in the era would be disappointed by a lack of any unique content from him in it. In fact, it seems to me that part of the criticisms of this movie are simply people's expressions of this disappointment.

Despite its positives, there are several negative elements to the movie that I feel need to be pointed out. One of them is its excessive and sometimes pointless use of nudity and violence (although one may defend this by alluding to its status as a grindhouse film). Another is its poor gender representation and its promotion of negative gender stereotypes. Its racial representation is also very wanting. And although its CGI's are phenomenal, they're also not always convincingly at the level they're supposed to be.

I recommend the movie to all lovers of action thrillers and grindhouse and to fans of Amber Heard, Cage, and Fitchner. Lovers of comedy will also find plenty of laughs throughout the movie although this will come at the cost of them having to take a heavy dose of violence along with the laughs. In all, considering its positives and negatives, I'd have given the movie a 7, but Amber's presence and outstanding performance it led me to settle on an 8 for it.

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4400 (2021–2022)

9/10

An entertaining, educative, funny, scientific, and philosophical family sci-fi drama that's a blueprint for how American TV shows ought to be made

8 April 2023

I just recently finished watching this series and I cannot emphasize how great it was. While the sounds and visuals were pretty average for a show of its kind, I found its plot and the performances far above average - and I say this as a fan of the original 2004 series of which it is a reboot. Perhaps what may be considered the only regret I have having watched it is that it was not renewed for at least another season because the narrative that its writers had built by the end of it was very promising and was filled with numerous interesting and captivating questions spanning science and the philosophies and practicalities of ethics and the solutions of social problems. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the much of the series that I watched for its entertainment and educative values and I do not, overall, regret having watched it.

Besides its entertainment and cinematic positives, the series is especially commendable for its inclusiveness, diversity, and educational content. As such, it is a show that I would highly recommend to especially family audiences and children because there's a dire shortage of shows like it for children and young adults that endeavor not only to mesmerize and hypnotize them but also to impart important human values like community, respect for human rights, non-discrimination, multi-culturalism, inclusivity, humanism etc on them.

Speaking of the show's inclusiveness and diversity, I have little to no doubt that most of the review-bombing of the show on the internet was strategically done by prejudiced reviewers that are more interested in seeing white-led and -dominated shows than in seeing inclusive shows like this one. Indeed, one has only to sample a dozen of the reviews to notice this because it seems rather obvious that most of the reviews - made by people who obviously seem like they never even watched it - are unfair and biased in this regard. Thus, I'd advice the reader to ignore these reviews and just watch the show themselves to the end. That is, unless the reader does not mind letting prejudiced opinions against it solely based on ideological and political narratives than on the show's actual content and merit stand in their way to watching it.

All that said, I feel like this review would not be complete without my pointing out the outstanding performances of Khailah Johnson (as LaDonna Landry), Jaye Ladymore (Claudette. Williams), and Autumn Best (Mildred Bell). If you'll not watch the show for anything or anyone else, watch it for these three, trust me.

Finally, I recommend this show to all fans of The 4400 (2004) as well as to any and all people looking for a fun and exciting family show to binge watch with their loved ones or even alone. I also recommend it to those interested in, and fascinated by, issues of society and social justice looked at through the lenses of science and of the philosophy of ethics and of time travel. There are a lot of deep questions raised along these lines by the show's writers and I sincerely hope that there will be a sequel to the series in future so that it may explore these questions further.

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And Soon the Darkness (2010)

9/10

A slow-paced but tension-filled mystery horror that tells an entertaining and positively cautionary story within the scenic heartlands of Argentina

3 March 2023

Warning: Spoilers

Considering the fact that Marcos Efron (director and writer), Jennifer Derwingson (writer), and Brian Clemens (writer) faced an uphill task in trying to upgrade the 1970s British horror/thriller on which this remake is based and that wasn't much of a success, and with a limited budget in their hands, they did impressively well. They pay due attention to the plot, accurately develop the characters, make some strong positive commentaries on several social issues, subvert some common horror tropes even as they embrace others, give the viewers plenty of magnificent scenic shots of an Argentinian rural village, and deliver a satisfying climax and conclusion to the tension that they succeed in building for a great deal of the first half of the movie. And, their success in all this is aided, and facilitated by, an impressive cast lead by Amber Heard (as Stephanie; also co-producer) and supported by, notably, César Vianco (as Calvo), and Odette Yustman (as Ellie).

There is something to be said, moreover and particularly, for the movie's success in giving its viewers a glimpse into the horrors of human trafficking without falling into the temptation of becoming just another Hostel-like torture-porn horror flick that primarily entertains through the sexualized objectification and dismemberment of women and of women's bodies. This is a commendable improvement to the1970 Robert Fest-directed movie (of which this one is a remake) which, although it too did not fall into the torture-porn blackhole, it nonetheless had no tangible social message woven into its plot like this one does. And while I find this movie's avoidance of falling into torture-port territory to be a huge positive, I think that this may, regrettably, be one of the primary reasons for its low ratings. It seems to me that many horror fans went into this movie expecting "another Hostel" and felt deflated when this is not what they got. Yet, for lovers of horror movies with solid plots that focus on narrative and themes instead of exploitative shock-material, this movie will no doubt be an entertaining, fulfilling, and positive experience. Commendable too is the movie's subversion of its "bad girl" and "final girl" characters where, contrary to stereotypical horror representations, the blonde woman gets to be the "final girl" while the black-haired woman gets to be the "bad girl."

Another noteworthy aspect of the movie - one that may have been missed by most - is its promotion of the importance of women sticking together, especially in foreign and/or strange surroundings (e.g. Stephanie and Ellie's predicaments begin only after they separate and the person that rescues Stephanie in the end is a woman). Related to this is the movie's caution against women trusting strangers, particularly men, especially when they're in vulnerable situations (e.g. Michael, played by Karl Urban, whom Stephanie had grown to trust seemingly largely because he was an American too, trades her in to Calvo).

Also important to mention is that while some may find the movie's plot development quite slow (this is an aspect that it seems to preserve from its 1970 counterpart), this is what, in fact, allows it to effectively build the tension and mystery behind it and, therefore, to effectively deliver its resolution near the end, a delivery which, I assure the reader, is worth the wait. And, important to mention, is that this kind of tension-building within its pace would not have been possible at all without Amber Heard's all-captivating performance throughout.

Speaking of Heard, a great deal of the weight of the movie's entertainment and appeal (not just its pacing and tension-building) derive from her. For instance, the effective communication of its moods (merry but eerie and suspicious in the beginning; increased anxiety and worry as it goes on; and thrilling and horrific in the end) relies almost exclusively on Heard's convincing portrayal of Stephanie in the variety of contexts and problems that she's situated in throughout the plot. And this, it seems to me, is helped in no small part by the fact that Heard was - unlike in most of her earlier movies, with few exceptions like ExTerminators (2009) - given due freedom to play an autonomous, resourceful, intelligent, and strong character, Stephanie, in a manner that does not objectify nor sexually exploit her. The result of this is an authenticity in Stephanie that is apparent in few other characters that Heard had hitherto played. Still, Heard's performance would not have succeeded were it not for the strong supporting performances of, more prominently, Yustman and Vianco.

Besides its host of positive aspects as already discussed, what I found to be a major problem with the movie its rather problematic ethno-nationalistic message that seems to unjustifiably paint countries foreign to the United States as somewhat inherently dangerous and hostile. Another problem would be its use of some few horror movie tropes but this is remedied by, as already mentioned and illustrated, its subversion of some others.

In conclusion, considering its negatives as weighed against its positives, I would have given the movie a rating of 7. But its inclusion of Amber Heard (both as a lead and a co-producer) and her outstanding performance in it inclined me to boost this to a 9. In addition, I recommend the movie to lovers of horror and thrillers that love entertaining and solid plots with points to make instead of senseless gore and random jump-scares. I also recommend it to Amber Heard fans and those interested in studying her acting career, all of whom, no doubt, will find much to enjoy and learn from it because it's among her best performances to that point in time. Odette Yustman fans will likewise want to watch this one. Lastly, I recommend the movie to any and all persons looking for a slow-paced and captivating mystery horror/thriller, with scenic shots and a happy ending, with which to kill some free time on a Friday or Saturday night.

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The Ward (2010)

8/10

With a twist that you'll never see coming, John Carpenter does a great job with this mostly female cast led by Amber Heard

22 January 2023

I just recently re-watched this movie and was as impressed by it as I was when I first watched it years ago. I've never quite understood the low ratings that some critics have given it over the years and I suspect that this is one of those films that will, sooner or later, be re-appraised and everyone will be wondering why it was so underrated when it was first released.

That said, among the things that impress me the most about the movie are its jump-scares and, of course, its totally unforeseeable twist near the end. Although, unlike Carpenter's older classics, this movie is more aptly classified as a psychological thriller, it still succeeds, not unlike those older Carpenter classics, to successfully pack several jump-scares that seem to get me each and every single time. Plus, I'd rank that twist near its end as one of the best that I've seen in any Carpenter movie to date.

In addition, I was impressed by Carpenter's choice to cast Amber Heard in the leading role (as Kristen) because she single-handedly carries most of the weight of the movie's unrelenting grip right up to its very end. Indeed, it is because of Heard's convincing performance - which projects an unmistakable image of "strength-in-vulnerability" - that the viewer is incapable of pulling themselves away from the screen for the entire duration of the movie. And it is her skillful concealment of Kristen's mental vulnerability that makes the twist near the end so unforeseeable and so worth the wait. Arguably, this was Heard's best performance to date at the time of the making of the movie (although her performances in older film classics like All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, ExTerminators, and Remember the Daze are notable counter-arguments).

Carpenter's casting of Heard is also noteworthy for another important reason: That is, that unlike other directors at the time, he avoided sexually objectifying Heard's character. In other words, he avoided exploiting Heard's sexual appeal for entertainment and instead let the camera capture her talent for all its worth. And capture it it did. This is perhaps why Heard's performance in this movie, unlike in others before, comes across as actually Oscar-worthy; Carpenter gave her the space to show it all and show it all she does. In line with this and more generally, I love the way Carpenter never sexually exploited any of the female performers in the movie. This, no doubt, is a commendable feat given how normalized the sexual exploitation of female performers in Hollywood, especially within the horror genre, is. Because of this and because of the majority of the main cast in the movie being women, I give the movie some added points for its relatively fair gender representation (considering that most of the non-cast crew are men).

Despite the afore-discussed positives however, I was unimpressed by the poor racial representation in the movie and some hints of homophobia (albeit arguable ones) here and there in it. I was also unimpressed by the paternalistic power - implausibly made to seem benevolent and just - that White male characters are given in the movie.

In conclusion, I would have given the movie a 7 overall after considering its pros and cons but I give it an 8 for that extra edge that Amber Heard's acting gives to it. And, I definitely recommend it to all John Carpenter fans and enthusiasts as well as to fans of horror and psychological thrillers generally. I also recommend it to the growing fanbase of Amber Heard as a great display of what she could do when directors focus more on her and her talent than solely or mainly on her looks.

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The River Why (2010)

9/10

Philosophy, Life, Love, Fishing, Environmentalism, and Amber Heard: There's Lots to Love About This Coming-Of-Age Classic

23 December 2022

A coming-of-age story philosophically inter-woven into a rather detailed exploration of freshwater angle fishing, this movie is pleasantly unique and, oddly, manages to be both relaxing and thought-provoking. While those into fishing will almost certainly find it particularly enjoyable for its "fishing-talk," I believe that most of those who love contemplating such fundamental issues of human existence as the meaning of people's lives and the place of love and social connections in human lives will also find much to enjoy about it. Personally, I found its emphasis on the importance of human connections in people's lives and its critique of ordinary notions of "success" to be among its major positive highlights. However, I found its pseudo-philosophical attempts at introducing a spiritual/religious dimension to its story to be somewhat under-developed and cringeworthy.

Besides its philosophical themes, I also found the romance arc involving Gus Orviston (played by Zach Gilford) and Eddy (Amber Heard) to be quite captivating. This, to a great extent, is due to the performances of Gilford and Heard, whose chemistry as the two awkward "fishing nerds", Orviston and Eddy, is as heartwarming as it is funny and engaging. At this point, I must single out Heard's performance and say that for those familiar with her movie performances, they will definitely know, after watching this movie, what I'm talking about by saying that Heard breathes into Eddy such agency, authenticity, and beauty that seem almost impossible to imagine would another actor have played her. And, I like that, contrary to what some directors had done to her characters in her earlier movies by that time, Matthew Leutwyler (director) did not oversexualize and objectify her character in this movie even as she was the love interest of the protagonist.

Another thing positive about this movie is its rustic and isolated, yet communal, setting and mood especially as exposed through excellent cinematography and writing. Its positive messages about the importance of protecting the environment are also commendable in their subtlety and significance.

That said and opposed to its positive aspects, are the movies negativities including: Its lack of racial diversity, its poor gender diversity and representation, and its promotion of gun ownership alongside its promotion of harmful gender stereotypes.

In conclusion, I recommend the movie the most to lovers of coming-of-age dramas and romances as well as to fishing and environmental protection enthusiasts/nerds. I also recommend it strongly to fans of Amber Heard because, I assure them, this is a must-watch for anyone interested in Heard's film career. Although less strongly, I recommend the movie to philosophically-minded individuals as well as to anyone else that is looking for a feel-good but thought-provoking movie. In the end, I give the movie a 9 instead of the 7 I would likely have given it for its cons, just because of Heard's magnificent performance in it alongside Gilford.

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The Confessions of Frannie Langton (2022)

9/10

It boggles my mind how this beautiful series is still woefully under-watched

15 December 2022

I just finished watching this series and I'm struck by how underrated it seems to be. I mean, considering how entertaining it is and the strong positive social commentaries that it makes coupled with its decent visual appeal, one cannot help but wonder how so many people seem to not yet have watched it.

To highlight a few things that stood out for me about the series, I begin by noting that the murder mystery aspect of its plot is something that, alone, is enough for me to recommend it to most people. Next, I was taken in by the cast's performances, especially those by Karla-Simone Spence (Frannie Langton) and Sophie Cookson (Madame Marguerite Benham). Speaking of these two, the bittersweet lesbian romantic relationship between them in the series is one of the most compelling and memorable LGBTQ relationships that I've recently seen in a TV series.

There's a lot to be said too by how skillfully Sara Collins weaves the intersectional connections between race, gender, socioeconomic class, and sexuality into the series' plot in a manner that succeeds in being entertaining and in making some positive and powerful social commentaries. Indeed, I was many times throughout the series moved by how impressionably these connections define the characters' behaviors and help move the plot in often tension-inducing but enlightening and educative directions. And the climax of Sara Colin's writing in this regard, I feel I must mention, is the scene in the final episode in which Frannie gives a final bold and fearless speech to a room full of white men that hold the fate of her life in their hands. To say that I was moved by this scene is an understatement and I would recommend the series highly to most people if not for anything else, but for the pleasure of experiencing this scene for themselves.

When all is said and done, this is a great series in entertainment, educational, and artistic terms. I highly recommend it to all those looking for compelling, albeit tragic, lesbian dramas that give more to the viewer than mere titillation. I also highly recommend it to lovers of whodunit murder mysteries that are looking for a story that does not rely on common tropes and cliché's in the genre. Finally, I highly recommend the series to anyone interested in the exploration of the complexities behind how gender, social, racial, and socioeconomic issues intersect in individuals' lives, particularly women, in often inescapable and significant ways.

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Cruel Intentions (1999)

2/10

Other than watching it for Sarah Michelle Gellar alone, avoid this movie at all costs

11 December 2022

It is difficult to put into words just how overrated this movie is. I'd for a long time avoided it because I always had the impression that the praises that some give it are just way out of proportion but I decided to ignore my impressions and give it a watch recently. It turned out to be just as bad as my these impressions had told me, if not worse. For one, the story and the plot are both just as shallow and unremarkable as its audiovisual elements and so, I suspect, this is why the movie tries to improve its appeal by including sex material that, although it may have been titillating in 1999 (the year it was released), does not presently justify wasting 97 minutes of anyone's life braving through the boredom that it is.

Secondly, it has to be said that the white male victimhood complex that is at the center of the plot is not just incredibly unrealistic but it is also off-putting. By this I mean that the victimization of Sebastian (Ryan Phillipe) at the hands of Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Ronald (Sean Patrick Thomas) is a move that is as fantastic as it is distasteful in its misogynistic and racist undertones. Indeed, one cannot help but notice that Sebastian's terrible behaviors go unpunished and are even used to make a martyr out of him - in an endearing way - in the eyes of the audience while Kathryn's equally terrible behaviors are disproportionately and severely punished by the writers and Ronald's innocence, as an African-American man, is used to effect this punishment, tragically. And all this is done in a way that makes it clear to the viewer that Sebastian is the victim-hero of the story to be admired, Kathryn the bully-villain to be detested, and Ronald the gullible pawn in Kathryn's devices to be pitied. This sort of while male victimhood complex at the expense of both White women and non-White characters in this movie is a plot element that needs to be looked at more critically and discouraged for obvious social reasons.

Thirdly and lastly, the movie also has disturbing allusions to child sexual abuse - via the infantilization and aggressive sexualization of Cecile (Selma Blair) - that suggest that it is promoting it rather than criticizing it. Its religious undertones are likewise disturbing as so are its more explicit homophobic dialogues.

In the end, what may be the only salvaging aspect of this movie is Sarah Michelle Gellar's truly award-worthy performance in it. So, if you're going to watch this movie, watch it only for her and, indeed, she is the only reason that I give this movie two stars instead of one. Other than watching it solely for Gellar's performance, avoid it, save the 97 minutes of your life that it would take to watch it, and do something better with your time than to labor through this late-90's misogynistic, racist, and homophobic shallow drama that does next to nothing in its plot and form to rescue it from the annoying dreariness that it truly is.

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Zombieland (2009)

3/10

The only good aspects of this movie are Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, and Amber Heard

4 December 2022

I've just finished watching this movie and I'm really sorry to say that it's disappointed me. It fails on so many levels that it's difficult to put my disappointment into words but I'll try. But before I try, I'll say that the only positive things about the movie are: 1. The brief appearance of Amber Heard (as 406) at the beginning of it. I mean, Heard is as convincing and captivating in her acting as she is stunning in her looks for the brief time that she appears in the movie and; 2. Jesse Eisenberg's acting (as Columbus) is, truly, award-worthy. In fact, I would argue that he alone carries nearly all of the entertainment and cinematic value of the movie. However, Abigail Breslin also does manage to captivate every now and then whenever she's given significant screen time. As for the other performers, including Woody Harrelson, their performances are simply just average.

The positives aside, here are some reasons why the movie disappointed me immensely. Firstly, it itself is one huge cliché of a zombie movie. One may attempt to defend it from this criticism by arguing that it is purposely a cliché because it endeavors to make fun of zombie movies using the clichés that they typically employ. However, this defense would not suffice because the comedy itself is flat plus the clichés themselves are written into the movie in a more or less non-comedic fashion. Secondly, and like I've already implied, the comedic aspect of the movie is not entertaining and convincing. This in large part is due to poor writing that makes most of the attempts at jokes in the movie unsuccessful in the eyes of anyone that's seen quite a number of American horror comedies. Nevertheless, Jesse Eisenberg's magnificent acting manages to score some decent laughs for the movie in several scenes.

Thirdly, the movie fails in its gender representation in that the two major female characters that it features (played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) are drowned out of the movie by the comparably far fewer lines of dialogue that they're given compared to those of the two major male characters (played by Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson). They're also given comparably far less action scenes whereas I'm sure many viewers would have loved to see them in action much more frequently. The movie also fails in this regard through the sexist and negative gender stereotypes that it promotes. Fourthly, racial representation in the film is actually non-existent and, fifthly, the movie unduly promotes negative socio-economic behaviors and drug abuse.

With all that said and for more reasons than the afore-stated, I'd have given the movie a 1 star rating for all the negatives and the disappointment that it put me through but I settled on a 3 largely because of Amber Heard's presence and performance in it and minorly because of Jesse Eisenberg's acting. I recommend the movie only to dedicated fans of unserious American zombie horror comedies that are as shallow in their comedy as they are in their writing. For every other person, I'd advice them against this movie.

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The Joneses (2009)

8/10

A thoroughly entertaining and underrated social commentary into some of the things that are wrong with the present global economy

26 November 2022

In my ongoing endeavor to go through the entirety of Amber Heard's filmography, I gave this movie a watch earlier today. And, like many of the movies she's ever featured in, it shocked me just how much this one is underrated. I mean, the movie has so much to offer in way of both entertainment and education that it baffles and annoys me that its ratings are not higher than just above average in the usual online places.

In way of entertainment, the movie is a great comedy delivering multiple memorable, amusing, and rib-cracking funny moments throughout its approximately 90 minutes run. It also packs its own share of suspense and drama even as it falls into some common tropes prominent in romantic dramas. Notable too are its award-worthy performances delivered by Demi Moore (as Kate Jones), Amber Heard (Jenn Jones), and David Duchovny (Steve Jones). For instance, there's a scene in the movie where Moore's character comforts Heard's character that I'm sure that most people would find emotionally captivating, cinematically beautifully, and absolutely memorable despite the fact that no words are exchanged between the two women in the scene.

In way of education, I loved the movie's social commentary critiquing the present capitalist, profit-driven, and consumer-centered world that we live in. Derrick Borte (writer/director) and Randy Dinzler (writer) do not hold back from showing just how superficial, unhealthy, and sometimes fatal this kind of world is. To the Amber Heard fans and enthusiasts out there, I'll have you know that Heard would later go on to co-star and executive produce a similarly themed movie in 2013 known as Syrup (check it out!). This - when put in the context of Heard's humanitarian, activist, and charity works - suggests that she is certainly not a big fan of the present capitalist world. Another educative aspect of the movie is its showing the struggles, due to homophobia, that young gay men sometimes go through before they come out.

Its benefits aside, the movie had a few shortcomings. A glaring one is its poor portrayal of women as compared to men. For instance, the women in the movie are painted as being semi-neurotic people obsessed with making money (e.g. Summer Symonds and Kate Jones) and satisfying their personal desires (e.g. Jenn Jones) at the cost of their personal relationships while the men are painted as being nothing more but the victims of women and "the system" to the extent that one of these men (Larry Symonds) is even made a martyr and another one (Steve Jones) is made a hero. Another shortcoming is the movie's dire racial representation that is not made any better by its inclusion of a a couple of bit-part token Black characters. Also a shortcoming is the movie's unnecessary sexualization of Jenn Jones and its problematic promotion of sexual relationships between young women and older men through her. I especially find this shortcoming disturbing considering that it seems to me like a pattern among older Hollywood men filmmakers to do this as a way of luring (or grooming) young actresses like Amber Heard into abusive relationships with them or their fellow friends. Think, for example, of Heard's character in this movie as well as in Pineapple Express (2008) and her (Heard's) getting into a relationship with the much older Johnny Depp shortly thereafter.

In conclusion, I could have given this movie a 7 after considering all its pros and cons but I choose to give it an 8 because of the presence of Amber Heard in it. I highly recommend it to all lovers of comedies and lovers of movies that make you think about the present global economy and its plethora of problems. I also recommend the movie to all fans of Heard and those looking for a generally light movie with which to pass some free time.

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ExTerminators (2009)

10/10

Great chemistry, awesome dark comedy, and women's solidarity that you rarely see in movies

11 November 2022

While I went into this movie not expecting much because of how low its ratings generally are online, I'm happy to say that I came out of it having been blown away. From the suspense it creates in its very first scene to the twist it reveals in a sexy and well-shot scene near its end, this dark comedy succeeded in keeping me captivated and laughing for most of its running time. Additionally, it left me with some serious questions and lessons about some serious issues like domestic violence and women's solidarity in the end.

Perhaps what is most positive about the movie is the chemistry between its three main cast members - Heather Graham (as Alex), Jennifer Coolidge (as Stella), and Amber Heard (as Nikki). The three do an excellent job portraying three women who though they could not be any more different in their personalities, are nevertheless united in the their having gone through awful experiences with men and in having ended up on the wrong side of the law for having reacted in violent ways to the experiences. And it's perhaps because of the chemistry between these three women that the movie succeeds in being the entertaining comedy that it is.

Although the three women all gave stellar performances, I have to especially single out Amber Heard for her role as Nikki. I was at first skeptical that Heard would be able to play Nikki well because this was the first time in her career that she was playing a major comedic role. However, she managed to do away with this skepticism in me within the first 15 minutes of the film and she in the end succeeded in entertainingly merging, within Nikki's character, the comedic aspects of the movie with its darker aspects. This attests to Heard's versatility as an actress by that time because she'd already managed to convincingly play characters in horror (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane), thriller (Criminal Minds), drama (Hidden Palms), action (Never Back Down), teen (Remember the Daze), and now comedic roles in the movies she'd done. It's also worth noting here that ever since her performance in North Country (2005), this was more or less the first time that Heard took part in a movie with feminist themes and that had a strong leading female presence. And it was the second time that she was shooting in her hometown (Austin, Texas, USA) in her career - the first time having been her shooting All the Boys Love Mandy Lane in 2006.

Given Heard's great performance and her centrality in the movie's plot, one therefore wonders why she was excluded in the main poster for the movie. Whatever the reason was, her exclusion would have been a massive marketing mistake and it would also have been somewhat out-of-place since her character (Nikki) is more of an "exterminator" in the movie than even Heather Graham's character (Alex).

Besides matters relating to the performances, I found the movie's writing to be impressive in its uniqueness and creativity. Indeed, it is rare to see a movie that has women killing men as part of its major plot that is not overly sexualized and that presents the killings through a woman's gaze rather than through the "male gaze." This movie is, fortunately, exactly such a movie and so it would not be surprising know that it was an independent filmmaker woman (Suzanne Weinert) that wrote it. Contrary to most "woman kills men" movies - which have women's motives for killing men inevitably tied to sex and men's sexual fantasies in one way or another (e.g. Rape, lust, affair gone wrong etc) - Weinert centers the motives for Alex, Stela, and Nikki's killings of men on women's needs, particularly the need for women to free themselves from abusive relationships with the male victims. This, in my opinion, explains why many critics - most of them men - would have related poorly to the movie and thus panned it. And yet it is a strength of the movie rather than its weakness. Consequently, I believe that the movie is highly and unfairly underrated by an audience that is too used to centering women's cinematic violence against men on men's sexual needs to appreciate a movie that centers such violence on women's needs.

Another plus for the movie is that, despite some reviewers here saying otherwise, it actually is a great comedy. Most of the jokes in the movie are well-written and equally well-presented and performed and so I have little doubt that anyone with any sense of humor would be laughing throughout most of the movie.

Also of positive note are the movie's primary messages. One of them is that, often, women in abusive relationships with men are unfairly punished and pathologized for reacting violently to the abuse. Indeed, this is context in which Alex, Stella, and Nikki meet. The other key message is that women should learn to work together and promote other women because women's solidarity goes a long way towards improving women's lives and towards helping them escape abusive relationships. This message may be lost to many by the radical (read: murderous) way through which the three main characters in the movie choose to "solve" their problems but once one realizes that their "solution" is, among other things, merely an instrument for emphasizing how strong the bond between women needs to be, this message will not be lost to them.

All those said, I would criticize the movie's poor racial representation even as I would praise its positive gender and socio-economic representations. Every other aspect of the movie besides these - editing, cinematography, costumes, production design etc - is just so-so, being neither distinguishable nor problematic.

I rated this movie a 10 for all its strengths as discussed and despite its racial underrepresentation (because I did not deem this underrepresentation to take much away from its positives). I recommend the movie strongly to all looking for a light and fun dark comedy with which to pass time while also picking up some life lessons along the way. I especially recommend it to women but also to men who are unafraid of seeing the cinematic dark side to women through women's perspectives rather than men's. Fans of Amber Heard would also really want to watch this movie because she gives one of her best comedic performances in it.

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American Horror Stories: Bloody Mary (2022)

Season 2, Episode 5

8/10

Great episode but watch out for its messages

11 November 2022

Everything about this episode - the casting, performances, writing, visuals, sound, costumes, effects, and editing - are all great except for one thing: Its totally unnecessary and seemingly agenda-driven inclusion of the idea, in the form of a "message", that sexual abuse allegations "ruin men's lives". This idea is false and also dangerous because it implies that society should be more concerned about men's careers than about victims of sexual assault, even children, speaking out. As such, it contributes to propagating a culture in this world in which already most victims of sexual assault do not disclose the assault out of fear of negative reactions for doing so. The lie is also dangerous in that it gives the false impression that false allegations against men are something of a norm when the rate of false rape allegations is lower than 5% and lower than the rate at which proven sexual offenders get convicted.

I felt like pointing this out just to make future viewers of the episode aware of this negative aspect about the episode and to make it clear to them why it's negative. Aside from this, the episode is great in all other aspects and I'd recommend it to most viewers looking for a fun light supernatural horror to entertain themselves with. False rape allegations are not the social problem that this episode tries to make of it as rape victims are always the ones that lose the most for speaking out. Great episode but with one terrible message.

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All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)

10/10

It Is Amber Heard's Performance That Carried This Movie To Its Cult Classic Status

3 November 2022

I have no doubt that Patrick Johnson regretted it when he saw Amber Heard's performance in this movie cause, like I observed after watching it, Johnson's movie SideFX would have done much better if he had cast Amber in the lead role. Indeed, this is the mistake that most directors made in the early years of Heard's career: they mis-cast and underestimated her. Instead of putting her in more agentic and powerful roles, they tried to pigeonhole her into purely sexually objectifying roles and this greatly under-utilized her talent and made their movies suffer. However, Jonathan Levine never made this mistake and the result was the cult classic that is All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.

I mean, even if you don't like Amber Heard, you cannot deny that the weight of this movie's appeal and success is carried mostly by her magnificent portrayal of the seemingly shy and naïve but actually powerful high school teenager Mandy Lane. It is Heard's impressive ability to authentically balance these two aspects of Mandy that ultimately communicates Levine's messages in the movie in a manner that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. And this is all the more impressive given that this was Heard's first ever leading role in a movie. While many have forwarded various reasons, some of them malicious, for why Heard's performance is so good in the movie, I believe, having seen numerous movies of hers, that her performance was great because she is especially talented in playing nuanced women with agency and power as opposed to the less powerful roles that many directors put her in in the early days of her career. She is also an adaptive and hard-working actress that always seems to give herself fully to the roles she plays. These are the same reasons why her performance as Mera in Aquaman is likewise impressive. Next to Heard's performance in All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is Whitney Able's performance as Chloe.

Besides Heard's and Able's performances, another great thing about the movie is its exploration, in an entertaining way, of critical social issues among teenagers in USA. These include body image issues, high school shootings, sexual harassment, bullying, suicide, sexism, and virginity myths. I also found the movie's gender and racial representations to be above average compared to movies like it. The setting, cinematography, editing, sound, and costumes are likewise commendable. I would however point out that the movie has quite a number of continuity errors and this is the one significant problem that it has.

This review would not be complete if I did not mention how Mandy Lane's character is more nuanced than many may suppose form how the movie ends. I mean, I hope that when you watch the movie to the end, you remember how sexually objectified and harassed Mandy Lane was by all the boys and how disturbed and dangerous Emmet is and that when you do, this makes you see Mandy in a more nuanced light than the ending would tempt you to see her in. Speaking of Emmet, I think that it was a wise move by Jonathan Levine and Jacob Forman to mold him around Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine High School massacre shooters. By doing so, they were able to throw some light on the problem of high school shootings in the USA while also reinforcing the fact that Emmet himself is dangerous and disturbed.

Also of note is that despite many reducing this movie to a slasher, it actually transcends the slasher horror genre and fits into several other genres including psychological thrillers, teen dramas, mystery thrillers, and horror comedies. It also has unmistakable elements of a femme fatales thriller.

Ultimately, I chose to give this movie a 10 because despite having some continuity problems, everything else was perfect and the continuity problems do nothing to undermine this perfection. I believe that it is one of those movies that are extremely underrated and that everyone should watch at least once. I recommend it to virtually every single person looking for an entertaining movie that avoids many clichés in movies of its kind. But I especially recommend it to Amber Heard fans and people looking for underrated cult classics to add into their cult movies lists.

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The Informers (2008)

8/10

A deeply misunderstood movie that is made made even better by Amber Heard's presence in it

21 October 2022

I just recently watched this movie as part of my tour through Amber Heard's filmography (I started watching her movies and now I can't stop myself because of how good she is in every single one that I've watched so far). I was very skeptical about it and very critical while watching it because of all the negative reviews I'd seen of it. It turns out that I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Frankly, I think that much of the criticism of the movie revolves around a misunderstanding of what it was intended to be. Many (including myself for a while) seem to look at its loose and open plot as a weakness and thus as evidence of poor screenwriting. But it seems to me that this is part of the movie's nihilistic and open-ended exposition of life and of morality. Indeed, the movie seems to have been designed to show that 'life just happens' and that with no ultimate objective authority on what is good and what is bad and on how, if ever, the complications arising from our actions ought to be resolved, the task of determining what is good and what is right, as opposed to determining what is merely convenient, is a daunting and perhaps futile one. In other words, that there are no references to look to in life and that there seldom are answers or resolutions to many of the events that incoherently litter the uncertain paths that each of our lives as humans take. While I don't personally subscribe to this outlook on life, I appreciate the how the movie was designed to convey it. That said, I can see how the movie's open and loose plot could, on grounds of pure entertainment, repulse many a viewer who is used to tighter plots with satisfactory resolutions.

More than its plot however, I enjoyed the amazing performances of Amber Heard (as Christie), Brad Renfro (as Jack), and Mel Raido (as Bryan Metro). I do think however that Gregor Jordan (director) made the same mistake that most directors in the earlier years of Heard's career made: he under-utilized her talent by excessively emphasizing her sexual appeal by sexually objectifying her rather than putting her talent to good use by centering her in the plot in a more autonomous and agentic capacity. Despite this, Heard's sexual appeal is undeniable and, in the scenes where she has significant presence, she manages to captivate in a way that none of the other women in the movie (excepting perhaps Cameron Goodman) succeeds to. Needless to say, I imagine that it must have been particularly difficult for Heard to shoot this movie given the number of frontal nude scenes that she was required to shoot. Indeed, she had never hitherto shot in any movie or TV show scenes that were as revealing as the ones in this movie. As such, I hope that she was handsomely compensated for this and I hope that as she gains greater prominence in her acting career, greater appreciation for this movie leads to her gaining more benefits from it.

Still on Amber Heard, I noticed an important element in her character Christie's narrative arch that I'm certain many viewers of the movie missed. This is that Christie complains about feeling tired and sick throughout the movie and, to the viewer as well as the other characters around her, it seems like she's just being lazy and entitled. Yet, in the end, we come to discover that she indeed has been sick (you won't guess with what illness) and that if anybody truly cared about her, they would have believed her and offered her help before the sickness had progressed to the level that it had progressed to in that end. Combined with Heard's magnificent performance, Gregor Jordan and Bret Easton Ellis manage, through this, to convey just how callous, uncaring, and exploitative the people in the world that Christie is living in are.

That said, things that were off-putting to me in the movie include: the inclusion of Mickey Rourke in it and his performance; its insensitivity to how it approaches child sexual assault, exploitation, and trafficking and; its extremely poor racial and gender representations.

In all then, I'd have rated this movie with a 6 because of its negatives as expressed precedingly and as weighted against the creative exposition of its main themes as earlier discussed but Amber Heard's presence and performance raise this to an 8. I would recommend the movie to the more philosophically-inclined and critical-minded viewer as well as to those looking for a depressing look into the vacuousness of hedonistic lives. I'd also recommend it to Amber Heard fans and to those interested in her movies and, although not as strongly, I'd lastly recommend it to almost anyone for at least one viewing.

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Freaky (2020)

9/10

A superb example for why horror movies don't have to be sexist, racist, and/or homophobic to work

5 October 2022

I went into this movie a bit skeptical because I'm not really a huge fun of comedies, particularly the kind that Vince Vaughn has featured in in the past (e.g. Wedding Crashers). The trailer was also not very enticing to me. Nevertheless, I decided to watch it because of the body-swapping theme, which I've enjoyed very much in past movies (e.g. The 2016 comedy 'The Swap' by Jay Karas and crew).

I don't regret this decision because I thoroughly enjoyed the movie from beginning to end. Everything was on-point: 1. The horror aspects like its jump-scares and special effects all succeeded; 2. The comedy aspects like the jokes and sarcasms all landed how they were supposed to; 3. The acting, especially by the Celeste O'Connor, Kathryn Newton, and Misha Osherovich trio was authentic and could not have been any better; 4. It avoided numerous clichés and tropes that are typical of horror films while making fun, in genuinely funny ways, of quite a number of them and; 5. Its gender, racial, and sexuality representations were more or less fair, which serves to show that it is possible to make great entertaining movies that adhere to good social justice standards, contrary to what some believe.

The only thing that I could point to as an exception to the positives in the movie was its inclusion of Vince Vaughn. While he did play his part decently well, I felt like the role could have been played better. I mean, his portrayal of Millie was at times not very convincing.

Overall, I cannot recommend this movie enough to all looking for an entertaining and light-hearted movie that, as a bonus, manages to be decent in the its gender, racial, and sexuality representations. I'd have rated it a full 10 (and I don't usually give such high ratings) but I settled on a 9 because of the Vince Vaughn problem mentioned above.

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The Unholy (2021)

3/10

A Walking Cliché with Poor, Bland, and Predictable Writing

3 October 2022

I don't usually like trashing on movies and I often go out of my way to try to find good things about every movie but this movie makes these difficult for me. I mean, I found most of its aspects bland, boring, and off-putting. There is nothing about the movie that distinguishes it in any way as it excels in being one huge cliché in a horror subgenre (possession) that is already rife with movies like it. In addition, the writing (particularly the dialogues) is sketchy and the plot is unbelievably predictable. Indeed, the plot is so predictable that - and trust me on this one - the simplest course that you think it will take after watching it for the first 20 minutes is exactly the course that it takes with no surprises or twists whatsoever.

Besides these, a notable and off-putting aspect of its clichés is its glorification of the "broken and immoral but forgivable and know-it-all white man". I for one am tired of seeing this stock character in Hollywood movies and I lament at the social gender and racial effects that its popularity in these movies have been having. Yet the "The Unholy" forwards one the most prototypical examples of this stock character in its protagonist. In addition, its representation of women is wanting and don't even get me started on its racial representation.

In all, for many reasons, both cinematic and social, avoid this movie at all costs. I'll give it a 3 for the effort that some of its performers (particularly Cricket Brown) put in but I otherwise would have given it a solid 1.

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Le prix à payer (2007)

8/10

A frank and humorous dive into how idiotically and tragically men's toxic beliefs about women can ruin good relationships

23 September 2022

I stumbled upon this movie totally by accident and decided to watch it. I don't regret this decision because it turned out to be a quite entertaining and educative comedy. It has a very good lesson concerning how much some men tend to have toxic and false ideas about women because of their poor communication skills with them. It also shows how such men tend to be ungrateful for the roles that the women in their lives play. It's not surprising then that it is such men, as also shown in the movie, that tend to be abusive to women and to try to paint themselves as the "real victims" instead of the women that they abuse and hurt.

All these priceless lessons are explored in the movie through the marital relationships of Jean-Pierre Ménard (Christian Clavier), a wealthy businessman, and Richard (Gérard Lanvin), a middle-class man that is employed as Ménard's chauffeur. Although both men exist in different socioeconomic classes, the movie successfully manages to show that the toxic gender and relationships beliefs that they bear have similar consequences for the women in their lives. Both men, as a result, end up abusing and hurting these women and, in the end, awaken to the realization that it has always been them, and not the women, that were the problems in their respective relationships. All this may seem abstract and boring but I encourage - strongly recommend in fact - that you watch the movie to see how it's all played out in a funny and entertaining way - except for the abuse parts, which are really sad and somewhat infuriating. The performances are also great from all the cast members and they're an attraction of their own.

That said, a couple of negatives I noted about the movie include its poor racial representation and its not having focused on its women characters more. It also communicates a number of concerning and negative gender stereotypes. Despite these though, I highly recommend this movie to lovers of comedy and to all who are looking for a light but thoughtful movie that they could enjoy watching while unwinding from their daily routines. In conclusion, I could have give this movie a 10 but the aforementioned negatives have lowered it to an 8.

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Never Back Down (2008)

9/10

Great performances from the likes of Amber Heard and Djimon Hounsou give this MMA "boys club" movie its edge

20 September 2022

I've watched a few MMA "boy club" action movies in my past and I'm not particularly a fan of them but this had some positives that actually made me enjoy it more than I ever thought I would. What stood out for me most was the cast. I mean, much of the movie's entertainment for me came form the amazing performances by several of its cast members including, notably, Djimon Hounsou, Amber Heard, Evan Peters, and Cam Gigandet. To begin with, Djimon Hounsou grippingly portrays Jean Roqua, an MMA veteran that's dedicated his life to training young MMA male fighters partly as a means of coping with demons from his past that he's trying to outrun or outlive and partly because he's so good at it and loves it. I cannot imagine any other actor that would have played Jean as magnificently as Djimon did.

As for Amber Heard, I once watched an old interview of hers for the premier of this movie in which it was revealed that she had a hand in making some changes to the writing of Baja Millier, the young intelligent supporting character that she plays in the movie. If this is true, then wow, the changes she made must have been very positive because what we have in Baja Miller and how Amber Heard portrays her are some of the best aspects of the movie that I observed. For instance, we see very early on in the movie an alluring intelligence in Baja that, for reasons that are not revealed till later on, she chooses to keep "hidden" from her classmates during class. This no doubt hearkens to Amber's own high school experiences about which she's noted that she, as is common with many other girls, was not comfortable letting her intelligence show as it ran counter to the prevailing gender stereotypes in which women and girls are expected to be less assertive or "showy" with their smarts. And, as we get to see more of Baja in the movie, we experience the delight of watching her grow more and more confident and secure with showing her intelligence, strength, and beliefs as she time and again challenges Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) to behave better than he's been behaving. Her growing strength is also shown in her courage to confront and even break up with Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet), who had hitherto been her boyfriend and her source of social popularity in her school.

What all these and other aspects of Baja show is a depth to her that would otherwise have not been present or evident were it not for Amber's changes to this character and Amber's magnificent portrayal of her throughout the movie. With Amber, Baja became more than just a sexual object as is often the case with supporting women actresses in such movies. She became a force of her own, an equal match for Jake that is not afraid to call him out on his poor choices and hold him accountable for his bad behaviors borne out of his inability to deal with his own emotions. And, it is entertaining and emotionally captivating watching this assertive and confident Baja and Amber Heard's portrayal of her, especially in scenes involving her and Jake. So, even though someone that has watched several of Amber's movies would agree that her convincing addition of depth to Baja is not unique as she often does the same to her characters, they would also agree that Amber's presence in, and positive input to, this particular movie constituted one of the rare chances that she had gotten to that time to show audiences, in the capacity of a major role, just how good she is in adding depth to her characters. Baja was indeed one of Amber's most definitive roles to date at the time and, among other things, it evidenced that she has the talent to both act and to write authentic and entertaining female characters, even in conditions where her liberties on the characters are severely limited.

Amber Heard aside, I also have to add that Evan Peters' oftentimes goofy and comedic portrayal of the passionate but severely untalented Max Cooperman - a friend that Jake immediately makes during his first day of school and who proves to be instrumental in guiding him through his narrative arc in the movie - is definitely an aspect of the movie that will not fail to entertain most audiences. As an enthusiast of Evan Peters and a budding fan of Amber Heard, I was thrilled that both of them were present in this movie and that they both were incredible in their roles.

Besides the performances in the movie, I would also commend its fight sequences because, with the exception of a scene where Jake fights some guys in traffic, they were all as convincing as such fight scenes could be.

Positives aside, one thing that I did not like about the movie is its glorification of violence. I believe that we're at a point in human history where we should be more invested in discouraging and getting rid of male violence rather than praising it as a solution to whatever problems. I also took issue with the gender and racial representations in the movie. I mean, although Amber Heard did a great job rescuing Baja from the sexual object and submissive role she seems to have been written to fit into, most of the movie's depiction of women does not escape this problem. Similarly, Djimon does all that he could with Jean Roqua to give him a depth that escapes stereotypical racist depictions of such African American characters but, in the end, the movie still underrepresents African Americans and still communicates White supremacist themes through Jake (despite his young age) being the one to convince Jean that his fight is a necessary one and that he (Jean) should confront his past demons rather than seek to escape from them.

Ultimately, I'd have given this movie a solid 10 for its great performances - especially by Amber Heard, Djimon Hounsou, Evan Peters, and Cam Gigandet - and its convincing fight scene but the aforementioned problems lead me to give it a 9. I recommend this movie to all lovers of MMA action movies because this is a movie that, I believe, is a must watch for such an audience. I also highly recommend it to fans of Amber Heard. This is an early work of Amber's that I'm certain none of her fans would want to miss. Fans of Djimon, Evan, and Cam will also get plenty to enjoy in this movie.

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Spin (2007)

6/10

Not So Funny but Somewhat Suspenseful as Katie Cassidy Shines and Amber Heard Grips with Her Brief Presence.

7 September 2022

Can I just, first of all, mention just how hard finding this movie online is? I mean, it's virtually almost non-existent anywhere and I had to dig deep and wide to find a copy of it. If you're searching for a copy of the movie, one hint that I'm sure will benefit you a lot in your searches is to remember that it seems to go by the 'You Are Here' title in most places than it does by the 'Spin' title - and 'You Are Here' does seem to be a more fitting title than does 'Spin' by the way. Also important to note is that the movie exists in multiple copies of varying lengths. Ultimately, I managed to get and watch a copy that is 1 hour, 17 minutes, and 51 seconds long.

That said, I'm not sure that the effort I put in to find a copy of the movie was well worth it from the perspective of the movie as a whole. This is because while it aspires to be a comedy, it's more or less a hit and miss situation when it comes to actually making you laugh. Indeed, most of its "comedic" moments fail to deliver either due to their blandness and/or unnecessary exaggeration or due to their being clichés. I did however enjoy its vignette format and the suspense that it raised and managed to maintain for most of it although the ending was, to say the least, unclimactic.

About the performances, most of them were either average or below average. Notable exceptions to this were the performances by Katie Cassidy (playing Apple) and Lauren German (playing Cassie). Focusing on Cassidy particularly, her portrayal of a confused and somewhat stressed and lonely Apple is golden in its authenticity, emotional presence, and grip. It harkens to Cassidy's memorable performances in some horror notables like When a Stranger Calls (2006), Black Christmas (2006), A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), and Kill For Me (2013).

Besides Katie Cassidy and Lauren German, Amber Heard's brief appearances in two scenes is also noteworthy. She plays Amber, a former actress and the wife of Tony Russo (Michael Biehn), a hitman for a drug cartel. In the two scenes in which Amber appears, it is clear that Tony has been cheating on her. As such, she decides to do the same to him. While these appearances by Amber Heard are too brief to make firm judgments about her performance, the energy and presence that she displays while she's on camera leave no doubt that she would have done a better job than other performers were she given a more primary role in the movie. So, and as I have felt watching some other early roles of Heard's - such as in the pilot episode of Jack & Bobby (2004), in SideFX (2004), and in Friday Night Lights (2004) - I cannot help but lament at how under-utilized her talent was in this movie. I think, for instance, that she would have made a much better match for Cassidy's character than did German. This is especially so given that it is clear from Heard's brief appearances that by that stage of her career, she had grown immensely into a more confident and commanding force of an actress. It is no wonder then that 2007 is also the same year that Heard got to feature as a main character in a TV series (Hidden Palms) for the first time in her career.

Comparing Cassidy and Heard, it's a testament to Heard's talent that while the career trajectories of these two similarly aged actresses have been largely similar and while Cassidy has appeared in many more iconic movies and series than Heard has, Heard has gained more professional recognition in terms of Awards and Nominations than Cassidy and she did manage, unlike Cassidy, to get to feature in a prominent supporting role in a record-breaking blockbuster movie (Aquaman, 2018), a featuring that, by all indications, would have been her breakthrough role into a future Oscar nomination or win had it not been for her ex-husband's abuse of her in their relationship and on the global stage. I for one am looking forward to Heard's resumption of her career and I believe that her talent and character are such that we will get to see more of her on the silver screens for years to come. But I digress.

Lastly, it will also be of interest to some to note that this movie has its own share of sexist tropes, romanticizes Hollywood's drug culture, overly simplifies its female characters, and has a severe under-representation of non-White characters.

Because of its multiple problems as described, I would have rated it with a 3. However, it is Cassidy's magnificent acting together with Amber Heard's presence that have made me settle on a 6 for it. I recommend the movie to comedy buffs with huge senses of humor and to those who love suspenseful vignette-style movies. I would also recommend it to those interested in studying Amber Heard's career and to fans of Katie Cassidy. Besides those among these audiences, I'm afraid that this movie has little to offer to anyone else.

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Prey (I) (2022)

8/10

An All-Round Good Movie Except for Its Historical and Factual Inaccuracies and for Some Poor CGI's

2 September 2022

I wasn't interested in watching this film until someone gave a strong recommendation for it in one of my online spaces. When I decided to watch it, I was still skeptical that I'd like it because my memories of Predators (2010), the last film in the franchise that I watched, were not very encouraging to say the least. However, all this skepticism vanished by the time I got to the second act of the film because I was irredeemably fully immersed by then and was looking forward to more action and entertainment. And this, action and entertainment, is part of what I'd gotten plenty of by the time I finished watching it. I'd gotten it through lots of amazing action scenes as well as through suspenseful and emotional moments that none of the earlier Predator films could match. So, to make it clear, if you're looking for action/thrill and to be emotionally carried away and thoroughly entertained, then you won't be disappointed watching this movie. It's a feel-good movie in every sense of the phrase.

Another plus for the movie was its lead actress Amber Midthunder. She did a memorable and unmatched job portraying Naru, a young Comanche (Native American) woman that's struggling to "prove" herself to her tribe by completing her Kühtaamia - a hunting rite of passage that young men of the tribe typically go through in which they must kill prey that are hunting them i.e. Predators. Predictably but tensely, Naru picks The Predator as her prey for her Kühtaamia and this underlies much of the suspense and action in the film as the viewer cannot help but want to see if and how Naru will complete her Kühtaamia. What I found compelling and educative about Naru, and Amber's portrayal of her, is that even as she's drawn to hunting and engaging in activities in the tribe typical of men, she also is not averse to the activities typical of women of the tribe like healing and cooking. The choice to cast Amber for this role was a great one because she does well to convincingly channel both these aspects of Naru through her looks and actions. It should be noted though that while this embrace of both typically "feminine" and "masculine" activities by Naru may be interpreted positively as a feminist message for women to be unafraid of engaging in typically "feminine" activities even as they venture into typically "masculine" careers or ways of life, it may also be regarded negatively as communicating unfair and excessive expectations on women to engage in both domestic work even as they are occupied with out-of-home work. Whatever the case, Amber Midthunder's portrayal of Naru in this respect leaves no doubt that hardly any other actress would have done a better job. Also important is that Midthunder is a Native American woman, which is something that somewhat protects this movie from the racism and cultural appropriation that often underlie movies where White people are cast to play non-White characters e.g. Johnny Depp in The Lone Ranger playing a Native American character.

More broadly and additionally, I loved this movie for its strong female lead who is very smart in playing to her strengths while using her weaknesses to her advantage. Indeed, it is only through her smartness in these respects that Naru puts up a good fight against The Predator. I also loved the movie for its Native American cultural setting even though there have been criticisms relating to the historical and factual inaccuracies that attend this setting. So, if you love movies with strong and smart female leads and those with non-White cultural settings, this one will more than interest you. But, even if you don't love such movies and are an action/thriller junkie, you'll nevertheless find a lot to enjoy in it. Indeed, the movie is so good that it is hard to imagine that it is only the second time that Dan Trachtenberg was directing a big budget movie of this scale (the other time being his direction of 10 Cloverfield Lane).

Despite its strengths, one of the major drawbacks of the film constitutes the historical and factual inaccuracies relating to its Native American and time period settings as pointed out by several critics online. Another one is its poor CGI use in some scenes, most notably in the scene where Naru faces the mountain lion. Because of these problems, I'll give the movie an 8 instead of the 10 that I would have otherwise given it.

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