Posts Tagged ‘Howard McQuitter’
MOVIE CORNER: Bones and All
★★✩✩✩ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures 2022 Horror/Romance/Drama By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Howard McQuitter How do I describe Director Luca Guadagnino's film Bones and All? Icky. Unique but macabre. Achingly prosaic. Presents an anemic romance that seems to be not natural. The chemistry between the two lovers is mostly tepid. And cannibalism is the theme where the main characters deliberately prey on other humans for food. Yes, this horror-romance-drama will not be pleasing to your palate. A young woman, Maren (Taylor Russell), realizes she has a need for human flesh (not just blood like vampires). Her propensity for snacking on human flesh gets her in serious trouble at a slumber party when she bites off a girl's finger. Her father (Andre Holland, Moonlight , Passing ) is aware of her affliction and immediately leaves with her to an undisclosed place. Soon he abandons her. Maren is 18 years old and has to fend for herself. She wanders through back country roads, perhaps for miles on end. She stops in a convenience store to shoplift when she sets eyes on Lee (Timothée Chalamet), an outcast like her, also an "eater" of humans. But shortly before meeting him, she's spotted by a strange older man called Sully (Mark Rylance), who claims he can smell an "eater" like himself. Sully will become a nuisance later on in the film. He's a stalker, something she will come to realize. But with Lee, she goes to various states (Nebraska, Ohio, Minnesota, etc.) to find her mother she's never known. Looking for her mother is one of the few redeeming things in the movie. Think about a child with a father who abandons her and a mother who she's never seen. Lee has a sister and mother in Kentucky he doesn't visit much. But the two young people thrive on murdering and eating people. Lee leads by finding unsuspecting victims they both can chew on. At the end of the film I have had far too much for my mind, spirit, body and, last but not [...]
Movie Corner
Howard McQuitter II The Banshees of Inisherin ★★★★★ Searchlight Pictures 2022 Drama/Comedy By HOWARD MCQUITTER II The opening scene in The Banshees of Inisherin is an aerial view of the (fictional) title Irish island, a beautiful green expanse of ground and a deep cerulean sky. The year is 1923, just shortly after Ireland (except six of the most northern counties of Ireland that remain to this day with the United Kingdom) got its independence from England. From the beginning in The Banshees it seems that a once strong relationship between Colm (Brendan Gleeson) and Pádraic (Colin Farrell) has been severed by Colm. A hint from Siobhán, Pádraic's sister, showing light on what is to follow through the film replies, "Maybe he just don't like you no more." Colm's reason for severing the friendship with Pádraic is because he finds him to be dull. Colm sees Pádraic's friendship to be a hindrance to his writing music and playing the violin. The [...]
Movie Corner: Barbarian
20th Century Studios By HOWARD MCQUITTER II 20th Century Studios 2022Horror Barbarian is a very well-rounded horror film that, with its unpredictability and contradictions, is genuinely scary. For what seems like a normal house with normal trappings, below it is a house of horrors. Prepare to squirm in your seat when you see Barbarian. Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) is in Detroit (1980s) for a major convention. Finding hotel space full to capacity, discovers her Airbnb service has been double-booked at a “nice” house in a rundown neighborhood. It is night and pouring rain. Such a perfect setting for scares, a perfect place to be in the wrong places. She rings the doorbell to find another occupant is there. His name is is Keith (Bill Skarsgård, who played the murderous Pennywise the Clown) and he is as puzzled as she. He invites her to get out of the rain as everything seems to be “normal” inside the house. Understandably, Tess is wary of Keith; and Keith nervously tries to make her comfortable. He’s a perfect gentleman, offering her to sleep in his room while he sleeps on the couch. In the middle of the night, she awakes to find her door open. She moves from the bedroom to the darkened hallway while calling for Keith and getting no answer. Strange house, strange happenings, she walks slowly, not knowing where to go. What she finds going down to the basement is a marked contrast to the upstairs. What’s more, there are unbelievable discoveries below too frightening to elaborate on…no spoiler’s alert! Another piece to this scary adventure by director Zach Creggar (comes from a comedy background) is not scary in itself-- but a part of the story anyway. The owner of the house AJ (Justin Long) may have to sell the house because he faces sexual harassment allegations on his job as an actor and he is trying desperately to find lawyers to defend him. Cast: Georgina Campbell (Tess), Bill Skarsgård (Keith), Justin Long (AJ), Matthew [...]
Movie Corner: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Warner Bros. By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Warner Bros. 1962Black &White Drama/Horror Thriller The drama/ thriller feels so much like Alfred Hitchcock, but it is directed by Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen , Emperor of the North ). To this day, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? has aged quite well. The story of two sisters starts as children in vaudeville in the early 1900s before becoming movie stars in Hollywood’s pre-Golden and Golden Ages. As for Jane (Bette Davis), her movies are often riddled with being difficult to work with besides her heavy drinking which will carry into her years long after acting. Blanche (Joan Crawford) on the other hand, is much easier to get along with in general and is a better actress than her cranky sister. The camera moves fast forward several decades later where the two two sisters who never married live in Rudolph Valentino’s old mansion which looks more inviting from its façade than it does inside. By this time, Blanche is wheelchair bound and she depends partly on a very attentive maid Elvira Stitt (Maidie Norman), the only major African American in the movie, who makes two or three visits a week. But the majority of the time, Blanche is subjected to verbal and physical abuse by Jane. Jane feels she has complete control over her invalid sister. Elvira is suspicious of Jane and tries to encourage Blanche to get psychological help for her sister. Blanche is kept in an upstairs room with bars on the window. She has no connection to the outside except the telephone and Elvira. Jane, angry at Blanche, rips out the telephone, leaving the only other telephone on the first floor. When Jane runs out of liquor she uses Blanche’s checkbook. Jane drives a 1940s sedan in mint condition. The next door neighbors, Mrs. Bates (Anna Lee) and her daughter Liz Bates (Barbara Merrill, who is Bette Davis’ real-life daughter), are kept at bay by Jane when Mrs. Bates tries to be friendly to her. Jane puts an ad in the [...]
Movie Corner: Beast
★1/2 (one and a half stars) Universal Pictures 2022 Adventure/ Drama/Horror By HOWARD MCQUITTER II A pedestrian thriller about a demon lion, (CGI - computer-generated imagery), turned bad by the poachers. The lion becomes a danger to everyone who encounters it. All this takes place in South Africa where the lion strikes terror among the villagers. After his ex-wife dies, Doctor Nate Daniels (Idris Alba), an American, takes his two daughters, thirteen-year-old Norah (Leah Sava Jeffries) and eighteen-year-old Meredith (Iyana Halley), on a hunting expedition to the village where his ex-wife was raised. It is Nate's chance to see his old friend, wildlife biologist Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley). The next day, Nate and his two daughters go on a safari with Martin. They are shocked to see a village destroyed, along with bodies and injured villagers lying around. The daughters, who believe their dad had abandoned their sick mother, become upset because they feared he would abandon them. Dad, however, reasons he can restore their trust in him if he can protect his daughters from the rogue lion. However, Nate fighting the lion barehanded is not only inconceivable but is tomfoolery. Idris Alba (Beasts of No Nation , Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom , Thor , American Gangster , 28 Weeks Later , Sometimes in April ) usually is a sure thing on the big screen, but here he is uncharacteristically insipid and unremarkable. Beast is a farce that should have gone straight to video. Cast: Idris Alba (Dr. Nate Samuels), Leah Sava Jeffries (Norah Samuels) , Iyana Halley (Meredith Samuels), Sharlto Copley ( Martin Battles), Tafara Nyatsanza (Banji), Ronald Mkwanazi (Mutende), Thabo Rametsi (Jersey), Chris Gxalaba (Chipo), Mduduzi Mavimbela (Poacher Mizozi), Kazi Khuboni (Pilot), Chris Langa (Specs), Daniel Hadebe (Abduya). Director: Baltasar Kormákur Screenwriters: Ryan Engle, based on a story by Jaime Primak Sullivan Cinematography: Philippe [...]
Movie Corner – Vengeance
Vengeance Focus Features 2022 Mystery/Comedy/ Thriller/ Drama By HOWARD MCQUITTER II ★★★★☆ Well, simply hearing about the film Vengeance without seeing the trailer can easily give the impression the film is like a bum-rush, aimless action film like Bullet Train. However, Vengeance is just the opposite of Bullet Train's reckless adventures. First, Vengeanceis the directorial debut by B.J. Novak (Knocked Up , The Smurfs , Inglourious Basterds ). He is also the screenwriter and principal actor. (Novak is the actor and the writer from The Office.) As the story goes, Ben Manalowitz (BJ. Novak) is a journalist and podcaster in New York City, when one night he gets a frantic call that his “girlfriend" is dead from an overdose. He's puzzled on what "girlfriend" that could be, so he has to scroll through his cellphone to find out who she was. He flies to West Texas to meet Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook), the dead woman's brother, who believes his sister Abilene (Lio Tipton) was murdered. Ty invites Ben over for dinner to meet the rest of his eccentric but gracious family: Kansas City (Dove Cameron), Paris (Isabella Amara), Sharon (J. Smith-Cameron) and El Stupido (Eli Bickel). All show the New Yorker Southern hospitality. Vengeance, shrouded in what really happened to Abilene, presents its pockets of satirical, refreshing moments. Ben gets a big dose of West Texas culture making him wrestle with his own assumptions about that part of the country. In turn, the Shaws seem to be doubting their stereotypes about the man from the Big Apple. Although the movie is a whodunnit for sure, the underlying piece is dialogue between class and region of the country. "She never touched so much as an Advil," Ty contends. Ben sees the story about Abilene's death as a great chance for his podcast perhaps to go national. All along he records conversations from the Shaws and other locals sending them back to his editor Eloise (Issa Rae) in New York. [...]
