Shaun of the Dead Review

        I’m back. It’s almost crazy to think that we’re almost done with this decade. A lot has changed that’s for sure. In case you haven’t been following me for a good while, every January is when I talk about a franchise. Typically varying with a trilogy, series, or sequels of films that I’ve already talked about. Most of them are mixed and some that I talked about are beloved in a sense that it’s interesting to see how a story continues in a sequel or series. This year I’ve decided to spice it up by talking about an unorthodox trilogy. By unorthodox, meaning that there’s nothing really connecting them aside from the cast and director having a hand in making the film. 

1. Shaun’s Zombie Odyssey

        I feel that the film came at a time when the zombie sub-genre was at its peak with the release of 28 Days Later. Whenever a genre is popular, you have the obligatory parody where it mocks genre by pocking holes at the overall story and plot. It’s rare to execute a parody where it pays tribute to the sub-genre while also being hilarious when having the characters deal with something as serious as a zombie outbreak. This was also the time when the parody movies where in a decline with the overabundance of the “Movie” Movies. 

        The name itself is just perfect as a comedic parody of the movie. Additionally that it’s not just a basic zombie movie but a character driven one where the main guy has his name plastered on the title and poster. It’s ironic since he’s not buff or just covered in blood and guts, but a basic guy who’s trying to survive alongside his friends and family. And that’s the kind of thing that the film has going for it, being ironic while also being a movie about an everyday guy being confronted with something that disrupts his usual day in the life. 

        We follow Shaun, as he lives with his friends Ed and Pete in the English neighborhood. Shaun is a bit of a slouch who puts up with Ed’s uncleanliness and not being a good boyfriend to his girlfriend Liz. We see how his life is as uneventful as it is as an electronic salesman. Shaun lacks being able to take the lead and try to have any authority in his life. I just love the moment where Shaun goes about his day when getting his drink at a corner store. All the while being completely oblivious to what’s happening around him. 

        What I admire about the film is that the characters play it completely straight when we see the outbreak progressively get worse. Shaun is totally oblivious as he’s a slacker that it’s only worried about himself and his girlfriend. Like we slowly get moments in the background of people coughing or just being attended to by the paramedics. There are moments where we get scary stinger sounds but it mostly contrasts with something ordinary that spooks Shaun or is just not ordinarily scary. 

        What makes the film work is Shaun. Just him being completely oblivious with the zombie infestation with him thinking it’s just a regular day is perfect. We really do get the same shot of him going to the store, albeit with damaged cars, zombies and the obligatory running survivor. It’s both him and his friend that try to learn how to beat the zombies with conventional tools that make the comedy work. Like, the whole film works like a sort of film a couple of friends make but making it engaging and believable. 

        Might also talk about the zombies and the juxtaposition of regular people. I love how from the very beginning there’s really not much difference between the living and the reanimated. I love the montage that was used to show the people existing in a zombie like state of utter boredom or contentment. It harkens back to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead by having a not-so-subtle statement how regular people going about their lives as a zombie. Albeit this one takes it to a ridiculous degree of absurdity. The kills are great too as both Shaun and Ed start off small to kill them. Then it really ratches up as the best kill doesn’t involve the zombies but Shaun’s girlfriend’s male friend as he gets ripped to shreds. 

2. Edgar Wright

        This will be the third film that I’ve talked about that Edgar Wright directed. He’s not so much a mainstream director but one where he has a particular style when it comes to making his movies. He’s an auteur for the most part and a very niche one since most of his craft doesn’t cater the mainstream but is something different for anyone that is curious. This isn’t the first film that I’ve watched of his, but this is the one where he made a name for himself due to it’s success and surprise. 

        If you were to really understand how and why the film is executed in a way, it is that it’s editing helps flow the story more. When we follow Shaun, the edits click when he puts his clothes on or doing something. How it’s cobbled together makes it more interesting and intense with how much the zoom snaps to something ordinary like a faucet handle. More so that there’s a lot of background details that sell just how bad the situation is. To the point that both characters don’t explicitly point that a couple is still kissing outside a pub. All the while they don’t notice that the couple are zombies. 

        One more thing that must be addressed is the overall character arc that Shaun goes through during the whole ordeal. We see him as a lackadaisical guy where he’s a slacker to a lot of people. His girlfriend’s friends don’t even think that he’s good enough for him. We feel for him since he doesn’t have the pushback to stand up for himself. Amid the outbreak is where we see him take control. Just his whole elaborate plan along with the editing perfectly lines up with Shaun’s thinking. With the ending of the film, it perfectly aligns with what he’s been needing in his life. 

3. Overall

        Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead is one of the best comedy/horror film ever made. 

The Life of Chuck Review

        Talk about a year where Stephen King has multiple adaptations on both television and film. The films were both hit and miss while the HBO show focusing on Pennywise has drawn acclaim by adding more to the mythology of the clown. I think a typical day for King is him extending his arm and opening his hand to get the residual checks of his works. His work is adaptable, given to the right hands where it’s one of the best horror films and the best dramas. The latter is mostly overshadowed by the scarier stuff, but when it lands it lands on the dot. The Life of Chuck is one of the most underrated films of the year and I’ll even say it’s one of the best King adaptations. 

1. Who is Chuck?

        I will say that it’s very rare for me to pick up the book and read in preparation for the film release. The story which is part of a few unpublished novellas by King is part of a collection called “If It Bleeds”. This specific novella is roughly 100 pages long and it’s probably the easiest read that I’ve done for the author. To be clear, I’m not going to do a compare and contrast, just judging the film on its own merits. Also this is the first film that I’ve seen of Mike Flanagan, but we’ll talk about him in a bit. 

        Much like the book, the film is broken into three acts. Albeit told in reverse, as we see the world ending and getting to see who exactly Chuck was when he was alive. It’s kind of interesting to have the film start in the end since we’re following this one character as the whole world is slowly falling apart. Natural disasters and everything, but what’s peculiar is that he and others are seeing ads that are honoring Chuck. I just love how Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character Marty is perplexed by the ads but is trying to ignore all the disasters happening. 

        I feel that in some way the first, well third act is like a suspenseful disaster movie where all the characters are just dreading the end. Like, we see what’s going on and it’s impactful when the internet and general electricity just goes out. To me it makes sense to have this is be in a non-sequential order since it would be a downer to have everything just end. As the third act continues, we do get a glimpse of Chuck breathing his last breaths as his cancer kills him. 

        The other acts are just as good and are a bit more upbeat than being a total downer. We see Tom Hiddleston portray Chuck in his adult self. I think out of all the three acts I like the middle one due to seeing Chuck making a difference. Through dancing as he matches the beat of the local busker who sees him and tries to drum up her gig. Overall I didn’t think I would ever see Hiddleston dance to the beat. More so that he brings in a stranger to dance with him and it just makes the scene better. 

        I might as well talk about what’s going on with the movie before talking about the last, well first act. Given everything that we know, Chuck is just a regular guy. There’s no ability or shining gift, like he’s just a bifocal wearing dapper kind of guy where he takes the initiative to dance. With no second thought, he just does it as he invites a woman who’s never met him to dance to complete the busker’s gig. To me, it’s about living his life to the fullest since he does it for the good time and that he changed the attitude of the woman. 

        The final act is where we see Chuck in his youth as we see him living with his grandparents. As well as where he found his gift of dance. I love the chemistry between the kid and his old folks. Especially when Chuck is with Mark Hamill when he gives him sage advice on how to look at life through a different lens. One mystery aspect that is included is that Chuck is forbidden to enter a section of the house. To the point where Hamill gets upset at him but comforts him when he unintentionally scares him. 

        The whole dancing moment is great as we see young Chuck learning how to dance and when it all leads to the school dance where he owns the floor. It’s all great especially when he gets a peptalk from his dance teacher to take the initiative. To me, it just shows how Chuck is unique as he does the dancing in honor of his grandmother and when we get a glimpse of the ads where he honors his grandfather as an accountant. He doesn’t do those things for the honor of anything but as tribute of his life experiences. 

        One more thing before I move on, I really like how we get glimpses of the images that happens in the first act. Like Marty, we see him as a middle school teacher but he appears in the school dance as he congratulates Chuck. More so that everything that Chuck sees appears in the beginning of the film. To the point that as we see the world ending, everything where Chuck is situated in the ICU is normal. Chuck’s world is ending and it’s really a unique way to show death without it being too on the nose that the entire world in general is gone as one significant person is gone.  

2. Mike Flanagan

        As I mentioned before, this is the first time that I’ve seen anything by Mike Flanagan. Nowadays, you can think of him as the next Frank Darabont or the late Rob Reiner. In a sense where he has adapted multiple Stephen King stories to film. He has a certain style when it comes to horror. Especially as he has contributed to Netflix’s shows such as The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher. Anyways, he doesn’t go for the typical scares but let’s the prelude play out before the horror stuff happens. 

        With this film, it’s interesting where the focus is on the character. It’s a character driven story where we learn a lot about the guy without seeing a typical day of him when he’s older. I think it was wise to show us his influences play in the end, to tie up the loose ends of why he danced with a stranger. I like that it’s a story where it feels passive since we see how it plays out backwards, but Chuck is active as he takes the initiative to be a better person. To the point where he gets a glimpse of his future, but decides to still live his life. 

3. Overall

        The Life of Chuck is a severely underrated film of this year, and it’s one of the best King films to come out. 

350th Review: Sinners

        350 films can do a lot for one guy. I distinctly remember just being cooped up in my apartment and deciding to just review my small movie collection. Anything to kill time for a seemingly forever pandemic that affected everybody. I just gotten my degree with a minor in film studies, so to me it made sense to use something where it can’t be applicable in the real world. As soon as I expanded my horizons and viewed more movies via streaming and joining my local film club, it cemented what I love doing. I’ll admit that my earlier stuff isn’t good but they're a part of my growth and why it’s such a sharp contrast with what I’m talking about in any film. With all that reminiscing, Sinners is my favorite film of the year. 

1. One Night By The Delta

        I remember back on Twitter when news broke that Ryan Coogler was going to shoot his next film. The initial idea was that it was going to be a gangster film with vampires peaked my interest with how he was going to execute it. He’s one of the few directors to have a hot streak and slowly becoming the next great auteur director. Just watching his films and seeing how far he’s come is really something to see. While I’ll talk about him later, this film is sort of like a culmination for him. 

        Just before I talk about the film, I find it odd that this year was the year of the twins. You may not notice it but take a dork like me to notice it and to see how everywhere this odd motif popped up just about in some movies. Like, Warner Bros. had their films like this one, Mickey 17, The Alto Knights and Superman have characters where there’s a copy of one character or one actor portraying multiple versions. To the point that Disney is guilty with films like Elio and Predator: Badlands. It was just a questionable studio mandate to have one actor/actress portray multiple characters. And have it be everywhere if you really pay attention.  

        I got that out of my chest so now we can talk about this film. As I mentioned earlier, the initial gist of the film was that it was a gangster film with vampires. When seeing the final product on the big screen, there’s so much where it’s a miracle that it’s like a well-oiled machine that everything just clicks. We start by seeing a young man covered in blood going to his father’s church. Interpsperse with brief seconds of flashbacks of what he’s seen and what we’ll slowly see in a matter of moments. Just seeing him cut and tattered got us hooked now to ask and inevitably find out what happened to him. 

        So the story is like this. We follow twins Smoke and Stack as they arrive in the Mississippi Delta to start their life anew. It’s established that they were in Chicago when they lived like mobsters. Michael B. Jordan plays both the brothers and it’s nearly flawless with how the footage and special effects make them share the screen. They concoct a plan to open a juke joint for the locals to dance and drink.

        Meanwhile, we see that Sammy is their cousin and going to be the performer for the joint. I like the first half of the film as we see the individual brothers split and get help to assemble their club. All of it has a point where we get introduced to the secondary characters like Delta Slim and Annie. The latter having history with one of the twins as they used to be lovers. Their introductions is good and all since they have that good chemistry with the twins and Sammy. 

        Might as well talk about Sammy. Even though Michael B. Jordan gets topped billing, the whole story centers on Sammy. Actor Miles Caton makes his film debut and he’s the best part in the film. It’s established that he has a penchant for singing the blues and playing it as he has his guitar that he treasures. He holds it in high regards since the twins gifted it to him by saying that it was a famous musician’s guitar. And you better believe that the music has to slap just as much with the amount of action that comes after. 

        It wouldn’t be a Ryan Coogler film without his regular composer Ludwig Göransson. The duo is sort of like Steven Spielberg and John Williams; each are like the peanut butter and jelly with the individual projects. Anyways, the music is the ultimate secret weapon that the film has. At first, I wasn’t expecting this film to have any musical bits. Albeit not a musical but have the music be the central focus and have it be diegetic where it enhances the story. The beginning of the film establishes that music can be transformative by bridging the past and future.  And of course bring in outside threats.

        I should at least talk about my favorite moment in the film, and possibly the best moment of the year in my opinion. We see the Juke Joint popping as the music and people dancing to the song. When it’s Sammy’s turn, that’s when the film immediately sells itself to me. We get echoes of Delta Slim and Smoke’s ex Annie talk about the blues and music. Sammy plays and then we see dancers from the future and past pop up and dance to the beat. It’s sort of weird but more dancers appear and the song keeps going and then the whole joint lights up in fire. Literally, Sammy is on fire as he’s singing and playing the guitar. 

        While all that is good, the villain of course wants to be a part of the camaraderie. We get an introduction to Remmick as he’s running away from the local Choctaw tribe. What makes it better is that when he arrives to a Klansmen’s shack, vultures are circling by. Remmick isn’t an evil person per say, but he’s the type that want’s to belong to a collective. When seeing the music pop in the joint, Remmick wants to be a part of it. Like, there’s a lot of backstory that we only hear and see tiny glimpses of what he was possibly like before he turned seemingly immortal. 

2. Ryan Coogler

        If you know me, Ryan Coogler is becoming my next favorite movie director. It was a decade ago that I saw his film Creed where I loved everything about it aside from being a Rocky sequel. Just his style and how he shoots his films gives him that edge of grounded ruggedness. I’ve already talked about his blockbuster Black Panther. And seen his other film that he produced Judas and the Black Messiah. I’ll admit that I still haven’t seen his debut Fruitvale Station, but I’m all for him to make more films that are pushing the envelope on race. 

        Anyways, how he handled this one is nearly flawless by making the whole film be a period piece of the 1930s. It’s very clear that he made the film to combat the Jim Crowe era that was pervasive during that time, by having the twins lift other civilians in the town up. To the point where I wasn’t even aware that there were Asians living by the Delta in Mississippi. Coogler went authentic with the setting, and made it work within the context of the story. 

        Now, part of the story feels like it’s been done before. That’s only because it was when back in the 90s, you had Robert Rodriguez direct From Dusk Til Dawn with George Clooney starring. Both films are somewhat identical, with having criminals dealing with vampires. Albeit the execution is the real sticking point of where the two films differ. Rodriguez had his film be an action flick that is paying tribute to the past grindhouse exploitation films of the past. Coogler’s is a tribute to the blaxploitation films of the past by having the authenticity of the real world give it that boost. Now, I’m not saying one is better than the other, objectively speaking this one is. I mean, how can you not love when one of the twins engages in a shootout against the Klan. 

        What I’m getting at is this is Coogler’s second R-Rating where he amps up the action and violence with blood squibs. When the action is about to go down, I love how the aspect ratio lifts and down to give us the violence in full screen. Part of it feels fun to imagine just how much the cast and crew go loco with the staged violence and how the special effects were used when the vampires met their end. Like, the final fight is great when we see the characters hold their own against the onslaught. 

3. Overall

        Even though I talked about what I liked about it, there’s so much that I didn’t want to repeat from others. Sinners is the best film of the year and one of Ryan Coogler’s best in his career. 

The Fabelmans Review

        If you know me or have been following my little hobby for a good while now, you’ll know that my all time favorite director is Steven Spielberg. His name needs no introduction since he’s the type of director that mostly makes exciting movies that appeal to just about anyone. For some, he had a direct impact on what kind of movies that we like. Ranging from adventures like Indiana Jones to something that is gripping like Saving Private Ryan. He’s a director where he can range from incredible to grounded with his storytelling. With his age, it seemed appropriate where he'd probably make a movie on his own life, with some creative liberties. 

1. Sammy Fabelman

        So yeah, you can say that I’m a huge lifer when it comes to the director. I’ve seen nearly all his movies and own a somewhat chunk of them in my collection. To me, he’s the director that is nearly consistent with his output and it’s rare that he has a massive misfire or disappointment. I think the reason why I like his movies is that it’s a mostly to the point with the overall story and character development. And when he makes his adventure films is when I’m all for the ride. You can say that all his movies are a ride, emotionally speaking since he has this style of making his characters interesting in a normal world. 

        When this movie was announced, I was for it since the trailers seemed to be a semi-autobiographical look into Steven’s life before he hit it big. Little did I realize that underneath the wonders of film is the tumultuous unraveling of his family. And that’s what the whole film is all about. Seeing Sammy’s life as his love of moviemaking grows, as he wrestles with his familial issues in his life. It wouldn’t be a Spielberg film without having a broken family as the anchor point in the story. 

        Granted, I can imagine that some people would be disappointed that the film doesn’t go over all of the stuff that Steven did. Creative differences and time constraints give us an overall great film where we see an artist forming and embracing with what he wants to do. And I love how the love of it grows when his parents take him to see Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. One section of the film plants the idea for Sammy where he wants to replicate the feeling that he saw. 

        We see that as we have a great montage of Sammy making his short movies with the help of his sisters. It’s all great and I love that John Williams has a playful piano motif going on when Sammy is making his shorts. I got to acknowledge that the actors who play Sammy, both Gabriel LaBelle and Mateo DeFord portray the young man and they did a great job as far as having the curiosity and the drive. LaBelle takes over for a good chunk of the film and it’s uncanny that he nearly looks like Spielberg in his youth. 

        Just the moments when we see LaBelle with the various cameras shooting his films is great since I really dig into the process of shooting and taping together the film. I think I’m interested in the actual process, since now the whole method can be done on a computer and it’s not as exciting that having strips of film and taping them together. In one way, the film is a loveletter to filmmaking and to movies since it’s a semi-biographical film, but what makes it work is that it’s a personal movie without rose-tinted glasses.

        Aside from Sammy, we also follow his parents during his growth. Michelle Williams and Paul Dano portray Sammy’s parents and they are great as well. Both are completely different as people. We have Mitzi who’s very artistic and a piano player and we have Burt who’s very technical with his work and with how he views life. It’s a very odd pairing but what makes it unique is that they both have different approaches to Sammy’s new interest. Mitzi is for Sammy’s artistic talent while Burt sees it as a hobby and not anything that can be tangible for a job. 

        It's the two perspectives that drive a wedge into the family and where Burt’s friend Bennie throws a monkey wrench at the family dynamic. Seth Rogen should be in more dramas and much like Adam Sandler, he doesn’t phone it in when he’s in something dramatic. Rogen’s character is the comedic relief and unintentionally sets in motion the family’s split. The one scene that I like is when Sammy is working on a film and notices the cheating when he’s splicing in film. The shots and the piano music is tragic since what turns out to be an interest is now something that’s awful. 

2. Art and Individuality

        As I mentioned earlier, this isn’t a film that celebrates the movies with rose-tinted glasses. That was a thing for a little while in this decade. You had films where it had a celebration of the movies during the pandemic. You had these film’s contemporaries such as Babylon and City of Lights that try to show how movies can be how it can bring people together and celebrate the movies. Those films didn’t quite capture the basic idea of what they were going for by being vague. What this film did was to make the whole idea be personal while also showing us the dangers of art. 

        What I mean by that is Sammy has a predicament with his new venture. He wrestles with the idea of making his own things and being told what to make despite not wanting to do it. It’s the central conflict since Sammy doesn’t want to do it but also try to understand his mother’s grief. This is where we see Mitzi’s grand uncle arrive to visit them. Boris is an interesting character since he used to work in movies, something that Sammy wants to do. 

        His brief time in the film is great since he acts weird in front of Sammy but provides sage advice for him. It’s odd that he was nominated for an Academy Award, despite only being in the movie for about 10 minutes. His whole speech and methodology to Sammy is that art and family can ruin a person. And Boris cites Mitzi as an example since she’s a great piano player, but didn’t do anything with it as she had a family. In a way, this movie is not so much about the celebration of movies but how art can damage. 

        With the earlier scene I mentioned when Sammy sees his mother and Bennie uncomfortably close to one another. It’s a thing where it’s interpreted as Sammy gets older, he makes films to have a coping mechanism as things with his family are falling apart. To the point where he puts down the camera and tries to live a somewhat normal life. And I love how he’s in high school that he makes his film for the Prom and nearly everyone enjoys it but him. He views everything as a filmmaking idea, including his personal life when he sees his parents announcing their divorce. 

        Lastly, I’ll talk about the last moments in the film since it does have a cameo from an acclaimed director. It’s one thing where I heard Spielberg talk about his encounter of an old director and having it played out on the big screen. After Sammy gets an interview, he’s invited to meet with one of the directors that works across from the interviewer. In one of his rare acting roles, David Lynch portrays John Ford. A director that Sammy admires, he’s gob smacked when Ford asks him to observe the paintings he has in his office. It’s all great since he shows that Sammy still has ways to go and barely scratched the surface with his endeavor. 

3. Overall

        The Fabelmans is one of the best films of the 2020s and the directors best.