QuickTake: A Lot of Nothing (2022)

Director: Mo McRae. Starring: Cleopatra Coleman, Y'lan Noel, Shamier Anderson, Lex Scott Davis, Justin Hartley. Release: DVD and Blu-ray.

A successful black couple discover that their white neighbor is the cop who just shot a black kid, and they decide to do something about it. That’s about all you should know about the plot going into this film, except of course that the title is grossly misleading, because there’s a whole lot of something at play here.

Taking the pedestrian revenge setup for an emotional roller coaster ride, the film's true aim is to explore black identity in a systemically racist modern America. What does it mean to be a black person in America? Especially a successful black person. The couple is doing well for themselves, very well in fact, but every day they have to "play along" and casually shrug off deeply racist and insensitive comments from their coworkers, a situation that has hollowed out their identity, making way for the dramatic turn of events that follow.

Director Mo McRae bides his time before getting to that drama, though, opting instead to carefully construct a razor-sharp portrayal of the couple. The deceptively simple opening, for example, shows the couple's initial reaction to the killing of the black kid, presented as an extended, seemingly uninterrupted shot, which lays down the foundation of what’s to come. The opening explores the couple's different experiences of being black in corporate America, while picking at the their fragile bond, and also coming up with some hilarious moments that expose the impotence of social media outrage culture.

Later, when the story takes a violent turn, the anger, frustration and shame rise to the surface, and the film really sinks its teeth into some interesting themes. Layer upon layer of themes are woven into the story, as the couple deal with a violent decision, while simultaneously playing host to the man’s less successful brother and his new hippie, crystal-gripping, very pregnant girlfriend.

The conflicts are expanded, twisted, still using that simple original set-up, with one location and barely a handful of characters, before we end up in a stunning finale, full of unpleasant answers to impossible questions and some genuinely heartfelt final moments.

Sometimes A Lot of Nothing is labeled as a comedy. Other times it sounds merely like a black version of countless other revenge stories. Neither of those descriptions are true. This is something else entirely, and well worth checking out.

Quick Take: The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

Director: Alan Taylor. Starring: Alessandro Nivola, Vera Farmiga, Leslie Odom Jr, Michael Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll. Release: Theatrical and HBO Max.

Full disclosure: I never saw more than the first episode of The Sopranos. Hated every single character on the show and never went back for episode 2.

In theory that should not be a problem, since this is a prequel, the backstory to that popular HBO show. This is the story of the demise of Dickie Moltisanti, the favorite uncle of Anthony Sopranos, who would later take the lead in the aforementioned show. He's featured in this movie as well, of course, but this is Dickie's story more than anything else.

Let there be no doubt: The Many Saints of Newark looks the part. It oozed classic gangster movie when it comes to mood and imagery. It features an impressive and frequently mesmerizing turn by Alessandro Nivola as Dickie. And it's got a few memorable scenes here and there. Unfortunately the fractured narrative never comes together to match the gorgeous aesthetics.

The film often comes across like a collection of random scenes, edited down from something bigger. It never achieves that "movie feeling", and there's a distinct lack of urgency. Many Saints often relies on other films to fill in the gaps in the plot. What's the deal with the whole wife and mistress situation? Watch Goodfellas, and you'll know what's going on, Many Saints doesn't feel the need to elaborate. Obviously no gangster film does itself any favors by reminding you of Martin Scorsese's seminal 1990 masterpiece, the film all other films in this genre will be forever compared to from that point on.

Admittedly it probably helps to know the TV-show. At least then you'll know who the hell delivers that intermittent voice-over (another thing the film can't be bothered to explain properly). But even taking that into account, I don't get the sense that The Many Saints of Newark fills in some much needed backstory for fans of the show. Also, this isn't like Rogue One, whose ending literally cuts directly to the beginning of Star Wars. There's a long way from the end of this film to the beginning of the TV show. Probably at least a decade before the Tony in this film bares any resemblance to the one from the show.

All in all The Many Saints of Newark feels like a film in desperate need of a purpose. Something to justice its own existence. Honestly, you'd probably be better off just watching or rewatching the show. This film? Forget about it!

Review: The Fear Street Trilogy (2021)

Director: Leigh Janiak. Starring: Kiana Madeira, Benjamin Flores Jr., Olivia Scott Welch, Julia Rehwald, Fred Hechinger, Ashley Zukerman. Release: Netflix.

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: This is not a trilogy of films. It's a miniseries packaged as three feature films. That's a fun gimmick, but make no mistake, these films can't be watched separately as individual stories. They work as one 6 hour long story.

Fear Street: Part 1 - 1994 (2021)

Welcome to Shadyside, Ohio. Population: Rapidly declining! Yes, someone is murdering the young Shadyside citizens and Deena (Kiana Madeira) must find out who. It's all got something to do with an old curse and a witch called Sarah Fier.

Fear Street: Part 1 never rises above its I Know What You Screamed Last Friday the 13th roots. It also feels like a rushed production, sloppy and uncoordinated, and it looks like it was put together by an inexperienced, possibly first-time director. There’s a lack of basic filmmaking skills, like rhythm, a sense of spacial awareness, proper establishment of scenes and locations. Several moments fall flat because of bad timing. The story is often a bit of a mess, and the simple central premise is vague at best. Also, if this was supposed to be scary they really should have come up with more than one type of scare.

Still, the 90s soundtrack works, the film references are SO much less obnoxious than in Stranger Things, and the likeable young cast really put in a valiant effort to make you forget the flaws. They almost succeed.

Proposed drinking game: Drink every time a scene starts with a cool song setting up a potentially fantastic sequence, only for the film to abandon the song 20 seconds later.

Fear Street: Part 2 - 1978 (2021)

The second part of this horror trilogy picks up exactly where the first one left off, but then quickly moves on to the eponymous flashback and a fresh setting: The Camp Nightwing summer camp. No prizes for guessing what fate will meet those poor camp kids.

The summer camp setting gives off a fun vibe, but you'd be hard-pressed to find much originality in the bloody antics. Almost every kill is identical to the next, and once again the film operates with a limited set of scares. 1) A character suddenly appears behind another and 2) a dark figure passes in front of the camera, both accompanied by a music stab on the soundtrack.

Luckily Fear Street: Part 2 somehow feels a little less rushed and uncoordinated than the previous part, and the oft-mentioned, poorly explained Shadyside curse comes a bit more into focus here. Though it's still surprising how much the film struggles with such a simple concept we've literally seen hundreds of times before. Still, the horror moves along, the drama intensifies and the pieces start to fall into place. Admittedly, the whole thing ends up working rather well.

Proposed drinking game: Drink every time someone "investigates a sound"

Fear Street: Part 3 - 1666 (2021)

Once again picking up exactly where the previous film left off, we're transported back to 1666 to watch the creation of the curse.

Here lead actress Kiana Madeira is - rather confusingly - seen playing Sarah Fier, the very same women who stalks Madeira's other character Deena in 1994. They're not related, but they both get in trouble for having same-sex feelings. The two different characters they have those feelings for are also played by the same actress (Olivia Scott Welch). In fact several of the actors from Part 1 and 2 play different characters here. More screentime for Kiana Madeira is certainly appreciated - she's marvellous, the trilogy's MVP - but considering how much the trilogy already struggles with the multi-decade spanning story, it might have been better if Fear Street: Part 3 had kept things more simple and used some fresh faces for the 1666 cast.

Still, the story moves away from the overfamiliar teen horror genre to a more interesting Salem-like setting, where Sarah Fier's girl-on-girl antics lead to accusations of witchcraft and prosecution from religious fanatics. Part 3 occasionally still suffers from moments of directorial unsteadiness - odd cutting, errors in staging and other assorted rookie mistakes - but the story grows more powerful and charged, and the 1666 portion is by far the most effective part of the franchise.

The 1666 story leads us to Fear Street: Part 1 - 1994, part 2 (I swear it's not as confusing as it sounds) where Kiana Madeira is back as Deena who must bring an end to the witch and the curse, and save her beloved Shadyside. The last pieces of the puzzle falls into place and brings about a surprisingly satisfying finale that wraps up the trilogy (nay, miniseries) in an effective way.

Proposed drinking game: Drink every time someone says "burn the witch"

WRAP-UP

The Fear Street Trilogy would have benefited from a more skilled director with a more ambitious vision, and the whole thing would almost certainly have worked better if it had been presented as six to eight 45 minute episodes.

Still, the trilogy ends a whole lot stronger than it begins. Despite the faults and flaws all three Fear Street films are definitely watchable, and patience with production is rewarded by the end. Now, go find a safe place to hide, and if you hear a strange sound DO NOT go towards it.

Quick Take: Meander (2020)

Director. Mathieu Turi. Starring: Gaia Weiss. Release: VOD.

A woman wakes up in a tiny room, with no memory of how she got there. She must now make her way through a series of tight tunnels (think the air ducts of Die Hard). The problem is: The tunnels are full of deadly traps. Oh, and there's a deadline too! That's about all you should know about Meander before you see it, making a review a bit of challenge.

The thing is: This movie has tricks up its sleeve. Many tricks. And because of the simple nature of the setup, they will be hard, nay, impossible to predict, so saying more would ruin the film's wonderful surprises. I will say this, though: Meander is not Cube.

It sounds like this might be a ripoff of that 1997 Canadian science fiction movie, given the similarities in the setup, but these two movies are very different, albeit in the same genre. What's most striking about Meander is that it's a solo show. Gaia Weiss is alone. Her character Lisa has no one to talk to, no one to plan with, no one to calm her down. Because she’s alone, and because there’s a deadline, she’s got no time to stop and wonder why this is happening, leaving us, the audience, to ponder those questions. And let me also add: This actress is a freaking trooper. Holy crap.

The second striking thing about this movie is how claustrophobic it is. I remember people giving up on The Descent (2005), because they just couldn't deal with the characters of that film squeezing their way through ever narrower tunnels. If you're one on those who felt that way, you will not make it through Meander.

And finally word to the wise: Don't expect Meander to wrap everything up in a nice, neat little package. Too much is going on for that to be possible or satisfying. And that really IS all I can safely say about Meander, lest I ruin the "fun".

Just watch it. You'll thank me later.

Quick Take: Monsters of Man (2020)

Director: Mark Toia. Starring: Neal McDonough, Brett Tutor, Jose Rosete, David Haverty. Release: VOD.

A test of military robots in the jungles of Cambodia turns into a bloodbath, when everything goes haywire. The mission was intended to take out a band of local drugdealers, but a group of random doctors and a former SEAL soldier find themselves caught in the crossfire. Meanwhile a trio of techs monitoring the mission remotely are horrified when the operation escalates way past the original brief. The whole thing turns into a colossal shitshow as they start to lose control of the high tech military hardware.

What a strange duck this is. There are some interesting ideas in Monsters of Man. At its best the movie is both intriguing and engaging. Often, though, it slips into a territory occupied by low budget direct-to-video films or fan films made in a garage. Also, at 132 minutes this is at least 40 minutes too long. So much so that they start to play the end credits over the final scenes of the film!

Speaking of the credits, take a closer look at those for a bonus laugh. Director Mark Toia manages to credit himself about 18 times, and apparently it took two people to cast the sole well known name in the cast, Neal McDonough.

Still, the movie looks professional, especially the robots, it's surprising brutal at times, and the acting is serviceable, if you forgive a handful of cringeworthy moments. All in all, not the worst direct-to-video film you could stumble across.

Quick Take: The Tax Collector (2020)

Director: David Ayer. Starring: Bobby Soto, Shia LaBeouf, George Lopez, Cinthya Carmona, Jose Conejo Martin. Release: VOD.

Veteran filmmaker and apparently gangsta-wannabe David Ayer follows up on his contributions to Training Day and Harsh Times with this L.A.-based Latino gang story.

David (Bobby Soto) is in charge of collecting taxes from the local gangs on behalf of an incarcerated boss, with his trusty - possibly psychotic - enforcer Creeper (Shia LaBeouf) by his side. One day a rival shows up to challenge David's boss and he gets caught in the middle.

You wouldn't think if was possible for a man of David Ayer's talents to create a film as trivial as this. This film has absolutely nothing to say, and certainly no interesting way of saying it. It's a painfully predictable parade of every lackluster direct-to-video gangster film cliché you can think of, but at least it never feels authentic for a second.

Even the always watchable Shia LaBeouf doesn't get to do much with his intriguing, but underused character, despite sucking up all the attention in every scene he's in. "I got a .38 on each ankle, .38 on my right, .25 on my left, chopper in the trunk, lockin' my belt, I'm on it" he barks with a ferocious authority, and for a moment you think this film has a chance. Then Shia looks deep into the eyes of unlikable lead Bobby Soto and says, "I'll ride with you till the wheels fall off!" and then you suddenly remember David Ayer also wrote The Fast & The Furious.

Quick Take: The Rhythm Section (2020)

Director: Reed Morano. Starring: Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown. Release: VOD.

Coming across like Nikita by way of Jason Bourne, this franchise-killing revenge spy movie, has neither the ferocity, the narrative clarity, or the emotional impact of either of these movies or any of the countless other movies it so desperately wants to imitate.

Blake Lively stars as a woman destroyed by the loss of her family, who suddenly gets a chance for revenge when she receives information that the fatal plane crash that caused her loss was a deliberate act of terror. Unfortunately the character's trajectory from broken woman, to inexperience killer, to hardcore assassin will be painfully predictable to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the genre.

The central revenge plot never really works, and it doesn't take long before the film starts to overcomplicate its simple premise with an international spy story that somehow manages to be less thrilling than Red Sparrow and less believable than Johnny English. The kind of spy story where every twist or revelation comes with a shrug and an "okay then" from the viewer, because you have nothing invested in the lead character or her journey.

Still, a movie can get away with a lot as long as it's got moxie or star power. Unfortunately, despite her obvious talents the likeable Blake Lively just can't seem to breathe any life into the moody and unlikable character. "I've got nothing to lose," the would-be assassin says at one point. After watching this film, you'll know exactly how true that is.

Quick Take: Bloodshot (2020)

Director: Dave Wilson. Starring: Vin Diesel, Eiza González, Guy Pearce, Lamorne Morris, Talulah Riley. Release: VOD.

Vin Diesel returns, as lukewarm as ever, as desperate as ever, trying to start yet another franchise, but unable to bring anything new to the table. It least he's consistent.

Bloodshot is a super-soldier story, and we've seen it a million times before. The first 45 minutes are excruciatingly predictable, basically a stone cold rip-off of RoboCop. Then the film pulls out its ace and the story takes a dramatic turn. Unfortunately that makes the everything that came before more or less irrelevant and makes you feel a bit like a fool for watching so far. The film culminates in a ridiculous, fake-looking fight between some CGI doubles and then you'll really feel like a fool for not having bailed sooner.

It's hard to imagine this is the start of a long-running franchise. It's just too dull and dumb. Then again, I said the exact same thing about The Fast & The Furious. That was eight movies ago and counting. I'll grant Bloodshot one ting: It's a little less obnoxious that other similar Diesel film, but that still doesn't mean it's any good.