Quick Movie Reviews: The High Note, Project Power, Spree

 The High Note: The High Note's goal was to be a low stakes, upbeat dramedy about a fading music star (Tracee Ellis Ross) who clashes with her manager (Ice Cube) and label about her next career move, her loyal assistant (Dakota Johnson) who aspires to be a producer and how both of these women end up proving their doubters wrong. Through its likeable cast (in addition to the aforementioned trio of magnetic stars, Kelvin Harrison Jr. also does good work as Johnson's love interest/first serious client as a producer) and the easy warmth of its script, it pulls that mission off without a hitch. Watching a movie where nice people get what they want both personally and professionally with minimal resistance makes The High Note a nice piece of fantasy optimism porn that is especially comforting at this point in time.   

Grade: B

Project Power: The Netflix blockbuster machine has churned out another hit. Project Power uses its excellent premise (a mysterious organization begins pedaling a pill in New Orleans called Power that gives its users an unknown superhuman ability for 5 minutes or kills them immediately), stylized, energetic direction from Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost (Nerve, Paranormal Activity 3/4) and charismatic cast (Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback, Rodrigo Santoro) to deliver an adrenaline-fueled take on the superhero genre. There are some slight hiccups in the earlygoing when writer Mattison Tomlin-who co-wrote the upcoming Batman film with director Matt Reeves- attempts to slip in some social commentary about how the government views poor, predominantly minority people in cities as lab rats for secret operations that have a high risk of harming people while also failing to elaborate on the motivations of the powerful group pushing Power, but the film is so slick, well-acted and entertaining that those somewhat awkwardly placed dramatic missteps don't hinder the party much. Following its early success on the platform and open ending, a sequel seems very possible and considering the many possibilities that this team could explore in the future with this concept, expanding on this universe could prove to be a great idea.       

Grade: B+

Spree: For the bulk of its runtime, darkly comic thriller Spree feels like a cheap, shallow watch. It's pretty much just a real time stream of a social media fame-seeking rideshare driver (Joe Keery) that starts killing his passengers who all happen to fit on-the-nose online stereotypes (alt-right fanatic, a "Karen", coked-up influencers) to try and amass the following he so deeply wants. Pair that cycle of picking people up/killing them/dumping their bodies/responding to comments from the viewers with a sensory-numbing shooting style that almost solely uses YouTube/Instagram Live interfaces and Spree becomes monotonous really fast. Then the final 10 minutes happen and the true point of the film comes barreling into focus with alarming force. It's a disturbingly accurate commentary on not only how desensitized people are to violence (there's frequent comments questioning the authenticity of what is occurring or calling Keery's character names for not killing people in more graphic fashion), but how the online era has created this disturbing subculture of romanticizing serial killers and given survivors of violent crime the opportunity to shamelessly turn their traumatic experience into fame if they see fit. Clearly commentaries on the vapid, egomaniacal nature of social media become very popular in recent years, but this is the first time I've seen this particular set of internet-driven societal issues addressed with such brutal honesty and potency on screen.  While the ride to get there isn't without its bumps, Spree has something meaningful to say about a quietly nasty part of the world we we live in today and is the type of film that could end up greatly benefiting from a rewatch.

Grade: B 

Movie Review: The Tax Collector

 

Cue up the shitty Bon Jovi song and that rambling Matthew McConaughey voiceover from the Lincoln commercial because David Ayer has come home!!! After venturing out of his established artistic realm to helm a WWII film (Fury) and a couple of profitable yet widely maligned blockbusters (Suicide Squad, Bright), the veteran writer/director has returned to the LA criminal underworld that granted him those opportunities to tackle bigger projects. With The Tax Collector, Ayer demonstrates that he had no problem getting back into his gritty grove despite his extended absence from this corner of cinema.  

There shouldn't be any confusion about what type of movie The Tax Collector is. Ayer has made a name for himself telling stories about morally conflicted criminals that try to keep their professional lives separate from their personal and learn in the most brutal way imaginable that this dream of a double life can't be sustained forever. Here, that criminal with a conscience is David Cuevas (Bobby Soto in a meditative yet explosive breakout performance)-the crown prince of a respected LA crime family who spends his days collecting money from the other gangs that operate on his family's turf with his best friend/top enforcer (the always committed Shia LaBeouf) before returning home to live a blissful domestic life with his wife (Cinthya Carmona) and kids at night. This comfortable, delicate dance between worlds is suddenly interrupted when a powerful former rival (Jose Martin) of his family returns from Mexico and offers to form a partnership-which David declines and quickly leads to a vicious war that threatens to upend his entire existence.

What makes Ayer's take on a straightforward crime story like this effective is the unflinching way he goes about telling it. Everything he does here from the dialogue to how these characters react when the shit hits the fan is predicated on being as naturalistic as possible, which opens the door for a streamlined exploration of the consequences that come with embracing this lifestyle. Underneath the money, power and false sense of security that comes with it is a promise that the vicious cycle of violence that you've thrived off for so long will eventually come for your head. Unspeakable acts of brutality will be committed against you and your family and when the reign of terror ends, you'll either be in the ground or left with a level of trauma that can never be shaken. While this approach results in a unapologetically grisly film that isn't always easy to watch, this emphasis on the visceral pain that a life of crime comes with is what makes Ayer's work in this genre space so uniquely raw and compelling.

Is The Tax Collector on the level of Training Day, End of Watch or even Sabotage? Not quite. The script could've done a better job with developing David's relationships, the acting ensemble behind Soto and LaBeouf isn't notably great and despite a clever final scene reveal, the ending is a bit too rushed. Still, it was reassuring to see that Ayer can still seamlessly churn out this type of movie after a pretty long lay off and I'm pretty confident that his next project will end up being better. 

Grade: B

Jamie Foxx Ranked

Welcome to the latest edition of "Ranked", where I rank a franchise or the filmography of an actor/director and hand out related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the work of Jamie Foxx-whose new movie "Project Power" hits Netflix on Friday.

Jamie Foxx's Filmography Ranked:

19.Stealth (C-)

18.Any Given Sunday (C-)

17.The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (C)

16.Held Up (C+)

15.Rio (C+)

14.Robin Hood (B-)

13.Sleepless (B-)

12.Collateral (B-)

11.White House Down (B) 

10.The Kingdom (B+)

9.Horrible Bosses 2 (B+)

8.Jarhead (B+)

7.Ray (B+)

6.Law Abiding Citizen (B+)

5.Due Date (A-)

4.Horrible Bosses (A)

3.Just Mercy (A)

2.Baby Driver (A)

1.Django Unchained (A+)

Top Dog: Django Unchained (2012)

Django Unchained represents Quentin Tarantino at his vintage best. The witty dialogue flows with ease, every single character no matter big or small makes an impression, the bloodshed has a real narrative impact and he's able to strike a delicate tonal balance that refuses to gloss over the heinousness of slavery while making a brutally effective darkly comedic western that exists within the framework of this vile time in human history.    

Lowlight: Stealth (2005)

Defending blockbusters that have become punchlines is something I've developed a habit of doing. I don't know if it's some kind of weird subconscious empathy situation because these movie tend to get ripped on harder than just about anything else that's released or if I just have a higher threshold for loud dumb shit than most (it's probably the latter), but I usually end up having higher opinions on movies  that falls into this ultraspecific category (i.e Suicide Squad, Gods of Egypt, the 2017 version of The Mummy) than most people. However, this doesn't mean there are numerous instances where even I can't find some degree of enjoyment in these films. Enter Stealth- an easily forgotten sci-fi action extravaganza about an AI-controlled stealth bomber that slowly begins to wreak havoc on the trio of elite fighter pilots (Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel, Foxx) that were brought in to show the roboplane the specifics of the job. Between the overly serious tone established by notorious hack director Rob Cohen (xXx, The Hurrican Heist) and a group of confused actors that treat the production like it's a Shakespearian take on Top Gun with a technological twist, Stealth achieves a level of head-scratching idiocy that is more irritating than fun.           

Most Overrated: Collateral (2004):

Collateral should be a great movie. It's got a pair of terrific lead performances from Foxx and Tom Cruise and a great premise (a hitman kidnaps a LA cab driver to take him around the city to perform executions) that feels like the perfect vehicle to build crippling tension. The problem is that Michael Mann drains much of the life out of these valuable assets by bogging down the proceedings with glacial pacing the eliminates much of the suspense and excitement that a film like this should have.  

Most Underrated: Due Date (2010)

Remember when Todd Phillips still made silly comedies and Zach Galifanakis was a star on the rise? Between the release of the beloved smash hit The Hangover and their greatly inferior sequels, this duo reconvened for a very funny road movie that featured Galifanakis and Robert Downey Jr. as a pair of strangers that end up embarking on an unexpected cross country drive together from Atlanta to Los Angeles. While it's not a revelatory piece of comedy filmmaking by any stretch, it features plenty of highly amusing detours/one-liners and the antagonistic chemistry between the eccentric Galinfinakis and bitter Downey Jr. is great.

Top Carry Job: Any Given Sunday (1999)

Any Given Sunday is a shit football movie that is far too long and features a number of terrible performances including most notably from Al Pacino as the ornery future Hall of Fame coach whose lost his way after 30 years on the job and a horrifically miscast Cameron Diaz as the team's meddling hardass owner. About the only redeeming quality of the film is Foxx's performance as "Steamin" Wille Beamen-a third string quarterback who takes over as starter due to injuries and leads the struggling Miami Sharks on an improbable, season-saving winning streak. While the criticism that his character's attitude change happens too quickly is valid, Foxx does an amazing job of embodying the reckless, premature arrogance that has derailed the careers of many promising young athletes. Having even a little slab of believability in a football movie that feels like it was constructed by people with no knowledge or understanding of the game prevented Any Given Sunday from falling further down the garbage chute.      

Most Underrated Performance: Baby Driver (2017)

With the possible exception of his amazing turn as the falsely accused death row inmate Walter McMillan in last year's Just Mercy, his work in Baby Driver is the best acting Foxx has done since his Oscar-winning turn in Ray. The diabolical intensity Foxx brings to the part of career criminal Bats goes a long way in making him one of the most reprehensible, psychotic and memorable villains to grace the screen in recent memory.

Movie Review: An American Pickle

A dramedy about a European immigrant who falls into a vat of pickles shortly after arriving in the United States and ends up being perfectly preserved for 100 years before waking up in 2019 Brooklyn and moving in with his great grandson feels like a premier entry from a stoned pitch brainstorm session. Since Seth Rogen has attained serious pull in the industry, this highdea actually got made. An American Pickle's daringly original premise leads to a finished product that is both endearingly unique and unbelievably scattershot.

Making something that traverses multiple genres simultaneously requires a deft touch to pull off.  Despite Rogen's strong commitment to his dual roles, An American Pickle lacks that. Cinematographer turned director Brandon Trost and writer Simon Rich (Man Seeking Woman, Miracle Workers) have assembled a film with such a lack of rhythm that it almost feels like a rushed student film. The pacing and tone shifts in just about every scene as the film attempts to piece together about 6 subplots surrounding these two family members from different generations attempts to bond and establish careers over its sub 90 minute runtime. 

There's musings on everything from what means it to be Jewish to the pressure younger generations feel to make family members from past generations proud of their accomplishments to the culture shock that comes when a person who's been away from the world for 100 years re-enters a society with much different societal norms than the one they unintentionally departed. It's like watching the start of a dozen different promising movies get thrown into the same anthology because the people who made wanted to get all of their ideas onto the screen, regardless of whether or not they were ready to be shot. While there are some genuinely funny and heartfelt moments that stem from this busy storytelling approach, the unwillingness to really lean into the absurdity or sentimentality that its premise teases, and underlying awkwardness in the way its packaged numbs a good deal of its potential impact.

An American Pickle garners the rare distinction of being an admirable mess. It may have serious artistic flaws that prevent it from resonating on a meaningful level as a comedy or drama, but its pure originality and strong effort from its star to sell this multigenerational family narrative was enough to make it compelling even at its most overstuffed and convoluted. Even when it isn't fully realized is, ambition is hell of an asset that can prop up a project and develop a level of respect for the filmmakers for trying to make a project that stood out as different. Creativity is a rare gift and while An American Pickle put up a mixed bag of a performance, there's enough potential on display here to believe that Rich and Trost have the raw gifts that could be refined into something exceptional somewhere down the line if they just take the time to fine tune their craft.    

Grade: B-        

Album Review: Taylor Swift-folklore

Whether it's a product of these particularly turbulent times or just purely coincidental, 2020 has seen many musical acts make drastic changes to their sound. Hayley Williams went full art pop/rock in her first project away from Paramore, Lil Baby entered the world of political/social hip hop with the poignant protest anthem "The Bigger Picture" and Machine Gun Kelly is about to drop a pop punk record. Taylor Swift is the latest artist to join this club with her surprise new record folklore-which sees her ditching the bubbly synthpop that's become her signature of late for a downtempo indie cocktail that draws from a wide variety of styles including folk, chamber pop and dream pop.

It's pretty much impossible to begin exploring folklore without taking some time to process the sound change. Sunny, upbeat melodies have been a common thread in Swift's music from her country origins to the mainstream pop success she's enjoyed over the past decade and to have them disappear on a whim is very unexpected-especially on her eighth LP. However, whatever shock existed over this new direction quickly morphed into admiration for the abundance of merits that came from it.

What's most striking about folklore is how deeply it embodies its title. From the lush production predominantly provided by The National guitarist Aaron Nessler to the soft, delicate vocals to the narrative-driven lyrics that are mostly told from a third person perspective, the record boasts a whimsical quality that makes it feels like a vintage collection of short stories. Despite its subdued, sometimes dreary content, the eagerness and joy that Swift displays in crafting these tales is deeply embedded in the roots of this record.

She approaches these (mostly) fictional tales with the same level of passion and detail she gained from detailing her own plights with love, heartbreak, etc. Each track is treated as an opportunity to concisely explore the head and heart of a new person, which allows her to deploy some haunting melodies/vocal textures that she's never gotten the chance to utilize in the past while still playing to her strengths as a pop songwriter who knows their way around a catchy melody. Swift has been an international superstar for long enough that she could afford to play it safe with her established sound until she's done with music, so the fact that she chose to follow her heart and make an unapologetically ambitious record that utilizes a dramatically different style that could've alienated her massive fanbase speaks volumes about her both fearlessness and belief in her gifts as an artist.
       
On top of Swift's seamless acclimation to a new sound, she was also able to eliminate the nagging consistency problem that plagued all of the prior records of hers that I'd heard (1989, Reputation, Lover). Every time it appeared she was settling into a groove on her past efforts, a few annoying tracks or dull, phoned-in ballads would come in and crush whatever momentum she'd built up. On folklore, those nagging issues have mostly been worked out. While there's still some instances of tracks missing the mark ("my tears ricochet", "epiphany", the Bon Iver-assisted "exile"), the consistently bittersweet atmosphere and overall tightness of the songwriting prevent these missteps from having the same crippling effect of her past ones. Having a clear, focused vision for a record is what separates great talents from good ones and it was awesome to see Swift finally put it all together here.

folklore is the work of a fully liberated artist. None of the industry pressure or outside interference that tends to come with being a global star were present in the creation of this record and that uninhabited creative freedom allowed Swift's biggest creative swing to-date to turn into a booming home run over the center field wall. Whenever she returns to releasing an album in a more traditional fashion (singles, announcement of a release date well in advance, etc.), we can only hope the level of freedom and confidence in her artistry that she displays here will remain in tact. 

Grade: B+
Standout Tracks:
1.seven
2.august
3.cardigan

Update on The 2020 NFL Preview Series

NFL previews are usually the focal point of this site during this time of year. However, given the fluid situation surrounding the NFL's return to the field during the pandemic, I'm going to have to amend how I go about constructing this series in 2020. While I'm still intending to do something a little bit down the line once teams return to practice and the player opt-out deadline passes, whatever ends up materializing won't be as extensive as usual. It just feels like a silly and foolishly optimistic exercise to do a series of in-depth pieces when the season could go belly up at any given time. I'll keep all of you posted when whatever condensed preview/prediction series alternative I come up with is about to start. Thank you for reading and I hope all of you are holding up as well as you possibly can during these awful times. 

Chris Maitland    

Terminator Ranked

Welcome to the latest edition of "Ranked", where I rank a franchise or the filmography of an actor/director and hand out related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the "Terminator" series.

Terminator Franchise Ranked:
6.Terminator Genysis (B-)
5.Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (B)
4.Terminator Salvation (B)
3.Terminator: Dark Fate (B+)
2.The Terminator (A-)
1.Terminator 2: Judgement Day (A+)

Top Dog: Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
Not only did Terminator 2: Judgement Day deliver massive breakthroughs in the visual effects/action department, it permanently raised the bar for sequels across the industry. James Cameron did an absolutely stellar job of advancing the mythology and adding emotional layers to the iconic characters (Sarah Connor, John Connor, T-800) that considerably upped the stakes of their showdown with the latest Skynet creation (Robert Patrick in an awesome performance as the shape-shifting T-9000) that's been sent back in time to kill John Connor. Nearly 30 years later, the film holds up as a genre-defining masterpiece with a legacy that hasn't been rivaled by any sci-fi action film outside of The Matrix since.   

Lowlight: Terminator Genysis (2015)
Terminator Genysis marks an instance where good intentions didn't nesscairly lead to a great movie. While the action sequences are handled pretty well and Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to the fold after sitting out Salvation was more than welcome, clumsy writing and poor central performances from Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney prevent its interesting ideas for retooling the origins of Skynet from paying off fully. 

Most Underrated: Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Dark Fate is nostalgic fan service done right. Franchise staples (Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton-making her first appearance as Sarah Connor since Judgement Day) crush the new takes on their classic characters , the new heroes (Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes) are charismatic badasses and the story brings back the emotional undercurrent that was missing from the post-Judgement sequels. Top it off with couple of crucial, cleverly-constructed middle fingers to the whiniest portion of the fanbase that treat every new entry like a personal attack and you have a damn fine Terminator movie.

Most Overrated: N/A
What's impressed me the most about the Terminator franchise is that's avoided the complete bottoming out that a lot of other decades-spanning series have experienced. Sure the post-Judgement entries outside of Dark Fate have varying degrees of issues, but there isn't a Rise of Skywalker, Covenant or A Good Day to Die Hard in the bunch that completely disgraced the integrity of the brand. Even in their lowest moments, these films still managed to be relatively compelling products that got more shit than they deserved. Since the franchise is very likely to be put on pause for now after the underwhelming box office of Dark Fate last fall, that pretty clean track record should remain in place for at least the next 5-10 years.

Casting a Prospective Reboot:
As I mentioned above, it's unlikely that the Terminator franchise will be continuing anytime soon. However, I'm going to overlook that educated guess and pretend for a second that a new, completely overhauled reboot just got greenlit. Here's who I'd cast for this hypothetical movie.

Sarah Connor: Charlize Theron:
Getting an opportunity to play one of the most iconic badasses in cinematic history would be another insane entry on Theron's stacked action star resume.

John Connor: Jaeden Martell:
While this casting choice would make John Connor quite a bit older than he was in Judgement Day, Martell is a dynamic talent that would be able to expertly navigate all of the layers that comes with Connor's reluctant heroism.

T-800: Dave Bautista
Cool, deadpan characters with expert comedic timing have become Bautista's specialty as an actor, so why not give him a chance to apply that skill set to a character that's known for those things?

New Skynet Minion: Keanu Reeves
Reeves is long overdue to be on the other side of the protagonist/antagonist coin and his signature stoic demeanor makes him an ideal candidate to portray a robot assassin. Plus the opportunity to see him and Theron finally square off in an action movie would be epic.