Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less than a New York Minute! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the horror flick “Smile 2,” the Michael Keaton drama “Goodrich” and the political satire “Rumours.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Smile 2,” a new horror film now playing in theatres, strange happenings plague pop star Skye Riley on the eve of her world tour. As people around her die, their faces twisted into a horrifying “happy face” rictus, she digs deep to confront her dark past so she can get control and move forward.
CAST: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo, Dylan Gelula, Ray Nicholson, Kyle Gallner. Written and directed by Parker Finn.
REVIEW: Even if you’re not a fan of sequels, “Smile 2,“ the follow up to 2022’s “Smile,“ should turn your frown upside down.
The story of a metaphysical being that clings to a host – in this case a popstar named Skye Riley, played by a terrific Naomi Scott – asks some questions – What is real and what is not? Does a vomit leave DNA behind?– and delivers some truly creepy and inventive psychological thrills.
“Smile 2” specializes in jump scares, but director Parker Finn also stages several memorable scenes of psychological terror. A face that suddenly evokes Skye’s car accident is an unexpectedly cool image, but it’s a sequence of her persecution through her home that brings true horror. Staged somewhere between a mass zombie attack and a Broadway dance number, it’s one of the film’s best scenes.
Added to that are some very funny moments – mostly courtesy of Dylan Gelula as Gemma– that provide breaks from the mounting tension.
As Skye’s BFF Gemma, Gelula brings relatable, charm, while Ray Nicholson, as the pop singer’s deceased boyfriend does a very credible impression of his famous father Jack’s “Shining“ era.
Scott, however, Is the film’s MVP. On screen for 99% of the runtime, she sells the terror of someone who can’t be sure what is real and what is not.
The extreme ending may suffer by comparison to the recently released “The Substance,” but caps the movie with a sequence that’ll keep the gore hounds happy.
“Smile 2” is the rare sequel that outdoes the original, and actually made me curious about where the franchise—and if it makes bank this weekend, it will become a franchise—will go next.
SYNOPSIS: In “Strange Darling,” a new crime movie now playing in theatres, nothing is what it seems when a one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
CAST: Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr. Directed by JT Mollner.
REVIEW: There’s a scene in “Strange Darling” that sees two old hippies doing a puzzle, keeping score for each of the pieces they put in place. It’s a cute and playful scene, but it’s also an apt analogy for the watching of the film. The movie is a puzzle of a sort, a jumble of six chapters, presented out of order, that doles out information like the pieces of a puzzle. Viewers are urged to keep score as they piece together what is going on as the full picture slowly takes shape.
Clever and subversive, writer/director J.T. Mollner’s cat-and-mouse game is an expertly made exercise in nihilism. (POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD) What begins as a standard serial killer flick—a scared woman on the run from a gun toting stalker—soon widens and deepens to become something else.
Here’s where it becomes spoilerific, so read ahead with caution. I’ll be as careful as possible in making my points about this ingenious cat-and-mouse story, but before you read on, know I think that this movie is best seen with little to no prior knowledge of the plot.
Still curious? Read on.
“Strange Darling” is a Gordian knot, a film that plays our expectations like a drum as Mollner introduces subversive twists and turns that question gender roles.
As the chapters—with names like “Can You Help Me Please? and “Do You Like to Party?”—build up a head of steam and seem about ready to blow apart, Mollner often hits the release valve. Instead of deflating the situations, however, he creates tension with some humour and clever editing.
You’ll wonder what’s real, and what’s not, and it’s hard to know until things get… well, very real. Then, the violence, which had mostly been implied, becomes visceral. Even then, it’s the high voltage charge from principal players Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner that keeps the film interesting, not the violence. Both hand in career best work and keep stride with the film’s exhilarating pace.
“Strange Darling” feels like a throwback. Shot on 35mm, by cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi, it has a grindhouse feel, as though it’s visually paying tribute to the aesthetic of the b-crime movies of the 1970s. It begins with a voiceover that sounds borrowed from a 1960s Quinn Martin Production, the broken timeline feels very 1990’s, as do the chapter title cards and Miramax logo, but Mollner’s treatment of the film’s central themes is anything but old fashioned.
