Speak No Evil
I’m going to be short and sweet here because there is really only one reason to watch this movie and it’s for James McAvoy. I know, I’m just as shocked as you that James McAvoy delivers a great performance. I thought every other one he’s given was just a fluke 😜.
McAvoy invites friends he met on vacation (and our main characters) to visit him and his family at their house and things get weird.
Speak No Evil is a competently made thriller that manages to be enjoyable enough to watch, in spite of its predictability.
Joker: Folie à Deux
I was thrilled when I heard that Todd Phillips was following up the critical and box-office success that was the first Joker with a musical. What a swing!
And what a miss. I’m stunned that this movie feels as flat and boring as it does in spite of that swing.
There were choices in here that I liked, though, including the “twist” ending (I say twist relatively loosely here), but Todd Phillips seemingly lacks the juice when he doesn’t have movies to rip from directly.
Whether you loved the first one, or hated it, I really don’t think there’s much here for anyone, except for a brief appearance from Tim Dillon, who I love and who has absolutely trashed this movie on podcasts he’s been on. There was also a solid scene with Joaquin in a courtroom, but that was about it.
I have to say, this really disappointed me because I wanted to love this movie for being so subversive and so different and because I thought it would piss off a big portion of the audience that loved the first movie. The truth is that this movie isn’t even worth their disdain, because it’s just so criminally flat and boring. It’s not that it’s so bad – it’s just pathetic.
Megalopolis
You know who does have juice though? Even at 87 years old? Francis Ford Coppola! Now, is this the kinda juice everyone will want? Nope. But I’ll be damned if I’m not one of the Megalopolis truthers.
A whacky, genuinely funny, and incredibly pure vision from a director that at 87 takes more risks than pretty much all of his peers combined.
I think if you go into this expecting a pretty zany little ride and not a Godfather-esque masterpiece, you might just have as much fun with this as I did. Alcohol or other substances may help that too 😉.
Wolfs
Clooney and Pitt together as fixers forced to work together to clean up a mess and protect some powerful people.
It’s cliched as hell, but the movie star charisma made this a fun throwback to an era where we got tons of these kinds of movies every year.
The bigger thing with this movie that bugs me, though, was the abysmal theatrical release it had thanks to Apple. I’ve been a big fan of the way that Apple was working its film division into its streaming platform. It was giving full theatrical runs and lots of money to filmmakers like Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese, but it appears Wolfs was a turning point for the worst.
As reported by Variety, “Back in August, Apple gave a rose-and-thorn update to its rollout of “Wolfs.” The tech giant confirmed that it was pulling the wide theatrical release of the film, on which it had partnered with Sony as a distributor. Instead, “Wolfs” moved to a one-week limited theatrical engagement on Sept. 20, with its debut on the streamer Apple TV+ coming a week after on Sept. 27.”
This evidently pissed off writer and director Jon Watts who recently stated that he wouldn’t be doing the announced sequel with Apple and returned the money he was paid to develop the sequel because of how they handled this transition to streaming.
I must say, I respect the hell out of this move from Jon Watts and I hope more artists insist on this kind of thing for their movies.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Remember Beetlejuice? Well this movie does and is happy to bring you down memory lane for the follow-up all these years later.
It’s also bogged down by characters it didn’t need and clearly didn’t know what to do with.
Might work for you, but fell flat for me.
Blink Twice
Another predictable revenge thriller, but also one that lacks a core piece of what makes revenge thrillers so fun. When it’s revenge time, dial things up to 11 and let the characters and audience bask in that. Too much of the climax happens either offscreen or too fast for my liking.
Zoë Kravitz does fine in her directorial debut, but nothing on a technical, story, or performance level really wowed me.
Despite being a “thriller,” none of those who went to see this movie with me were excited about it.
So I can’t really recommend this one, but I suppose it would be fine if you really have nothing better to watch.
Conclave
Conclave was another movie I got to see at a little indie theatre in Austin called the Violet Crown. If you love movies like I do, I highly recommend seeking out small theatres like this when you travel. The charm, friendly staff, and the uniqueness from a place like this really goes a long way to making a theatre experience more memorable.
Conclave is a bit of a political thriller but the trailer goes to great lengths to sell it as a bit more action heavy than it really is. I wouldn’t consider it a slow burn by any stretch though. The pace is pretty fast and there are plenty of turns in this movie that keep you engaged and on your toes. Also, only because I’ve heard some questions about this in particular, but it definitely isn’t some incredibly philosophical or preachy movie some may expect either.
I really enjoyed this movie even though the ending stumbled a bit more for me. Once the main arc of the movie is resolved, there is one last twist that feels incredibly unnecessary and kind of took me out of the movie a little because of how random it felt.
Still, this movie is solid and worth it just to see Ralph Fiennes, who is spectacular as Cardinal Lawrence.
Adriana Wiszniewska