Saturday, May 25, 2019

EXTREMELY WICKED, SOMETHING EVIL AND VILE (2019)



Directed By: Joe Berlinger 
Written By: Michael Werwie 
Based on the book “The Phantom Prince: My Life With Ted Bundy” By: Liz Kendell 
Cinematography: Brandon Trost 
Editor: John Schaeffer 

Cast: Zac Efron, Lily Collins, Angela Sarafyn, James Hetfield, Jeffrey Donovan, Terry Kinney, Haley Joel Osment, Kaya Scodelario, Dylan Baker, John Malkovich, Brian Geraghty, Jim Parsons, Grace Victoria Cox 

A courtroom frenzy ensues and sweeps 1970s America when a young single mother meets Ted Bundy.

JEFF OF THE CINEFILES & UNFINISHED BUSINESS: HALL OF FAME: FILE #0058: LILYA 4-EVER (2002)


Written & Directed By: Lukas Moodysson 
Cinematography By: Ulf Brantas 
Editor: Michael Leszcylowski, Oleg Morgunov & Bernhard Winkler 

Cast: Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogutjarskij, Lyubov Agapova, Elina Benenson, Liliya Sjinkarjova, Pavel Ponomatjov 


Sixteen-year-old Lilja and her only friend, the young boy Volodja, live in Estonia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej, who is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life.

BEAUTIFUL BOY (2018)



Directed By: Felix Van Groeningen 
Written By: Luke Davies & Felix Van Groeningen 
Based On The Books “Beautiful Boy” & “Tweak” By: David Sheff & Nick Sheff 
Cinematography By: Riben Impens 
Editor: Nico Leunen 

Cast: Steve Carell, Timothee Chalamet, Maura Tierney, Amy Aquino, Timothy Hutton, Amy Forsyth, Amy Ryan, Andre Royo, Kaitlyn Dever, Lisagay Hamilton 

Based on the best-selling pair of memoirs from father and son David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse, and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years.

I AM MICHAEL (2015)



Written & Directed By: Justin Kelly 
Based on an article By: Stacey Miller 
Based on the Magazine Article “My Ex-Gay Friend” By: Benoit Denizet Lewis 
Cinematography By: Christopher Blauvet 
Editor: Aaron I. Butler 


Cast: James Franco, Zachary Quinto, Emma Watson, Charlie Carver, Avan Jogia, Daryl Hannah, Lesley Ann Warren, Jefferson Mays, Ahna O’Reilly 

Based on the fascinating true-life story of Michael Glatze, a gay activist who becomes a Christian pastor after identifying as a heterosexual.

Sunday, May 12, 2019

RAMY (TELEVISON SERIES) SEASON 1


Please tell me you guys are watching this show. If not you Are truly missing out.








The Show is about a twenty something year old man who seems to be floating through life trying to still figure himself out. While still living at home with his parents and graduate student sister.
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His parents want him to grow up, get married and have kids. Like his friends and he is still looking for the right one. He and his family are muslim and it takes place mostly in that community in New Jersey. He also is mostly drug and alcohol free. But not celibate as mostly his partners tend to be white women.

There isn’t really any overreaching story as each episode seems like Just that an episode or random chapter in the lives of these characters which as the series goes on we are introduced and learn more about them.

It reminds one of shows like ATLANTA, MASTER OF NONE. Where the star of the show Is the central voice. But leaves room For other characters to prosper.

I believe I compare it to Atlanta is that the show is random and doesn’t always focus on the main character. It allows the audience to get to know supporting characters who’re sometimes the focus of episodes all on their own.

It also doesn’t paint the main character as a saint as while he might mean well and to be good but can also be the most messed up character through it all and might not make any sense to us.

Though it’s not as out there as ATLANTA can be. Though the contributing factor is that they both focus on characters of color as well as community and offer up three dimensional roles for some characters who could or would be easily written off as one thing on other shows.

Though the show marches to it’s own rhythms. Which is actually like jazz as it goes from the. Lies, to improv to more comedic and then drama. Making sad dramatic points while making you laugh.

While Atlanta comes off as a collective as well as Donald Glover being the voice behind the show. The same goes here. Though to a lesser degree as Donald Glover is infinitely more known and popular. Where as here most viewers are hearing Ramy Youseff maybe for the first time.

Yes, Caucasians are sometimes one dimensional here but then again we have seen a spectrum of them already which can’t necessarily be said of the culture and characters on the show.




I also probably compare the two because similarly Ramy has an episode called strawberries where we are thrust into the childhood of the characters and one particular incident that is both hilarious but also pack a certain punch.

The fact that he is friends with someone disabled also shows he is compassionate but also treats the friendship as normal and not necessarily the only thing he is about and even lets the disabled character be a bit of a jerk himself but alas a true friend.

This Show seems to be taken and charged by the star of the show and shows his views on life and host take on subjects that affect him and his family and community but never comes off as preachy.

As with trying to show his family in particular are Egyptian Muslims but everyone lumps them in as just every muslim.

As he is a practicing muslim and doesn’t drink or really do drugs but has plenty of sex with random women usually not of his faith.

The kind of misogyny that exists in the community. For instance in the way the parents never question their son when he goes out but for their daughter she is under strict rules and how her and her friends want to find a muslim man and might even want to have sex but muslim Men stay away from them unless it’s time to marry but have no problem having sex with non muslim women.

This hits home in the first episode where he goes in a date with a muslim Woman and is shocked when he is not not sexually forward but also kind of kinky. She takes it as an insult that because she is interested in certain things like that. She is expected to act in a certain way even from a so called free minded muslim.

Which kind of echoes in a later episode when his sister is interested in a guy and is about to get intimate and he treats her more as a fetish rather then just a willing female.

The strongest episode is STRAWBERRIES where the show mixes masturbation and the prejudice faced by him and his family after 9/11 including a dream about Osama Bin Laden.

Just as in one episode it focuses on his mother's Loneliness and her attempt to meet people and make more friends. Which includes a flirtation with a French man.

The show has no real villains as especially in the character of his uncle who is a misogynist and anti-Semitic to a degree and a blowhard but in the end reveals a decent and maybe even admirable side of himself.

What is also enjoyable about the show is dealing with Situations some typical and some special situational from not just another point of view but also seen from a different culture but thankfully not making the show only about that. So you learn while you experiencing the show. All about second generation immigrants trying to make their way in the American Dream and just be seen as normal.

It’s a show that is worth checking out. It stays low level which only enhances it’s strength.






Friday, May 10, 2019

ESCAPE ROOM (2019)



Directed By: Adam Robitel 
Written By: Bragi Schut & Maria Melnik 
Story By: Bragi Schut 
Cinematography: Marc Spicer 
Editor: Steve Mirkovich 


Cast: Taylor Russell, Jay Ellis, Tyler Labine, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Nik Dodani, Jessica Sutton 

Six strangers are given mysterious black boxes with tickets to an immersive escape room for a chance to win tons of money. Being locked in several rooms with extreme conditions, they discover the secrets behind the escape room and must fight to survive and to find a way out.

CAM (2018)


Directed By: Daniel Goldhaber 
Written By: Isa Mazzei 
Story By: Daniel Goldhaber, Isa Mazzei & Isabelle Link-Levy 
Cinematography: Katelin Arizmendi 
Editor: Daniel Garber 


Cast: Madeline Brewer, Melora Hardin, Michael Dempsey, Patch Darragh, Imani Hakim, Samantha Robinson, Flora Diaz, Queii Tann 


An erotic webcam performer finds her followers stolen by a doppelganger who hijacks her channel, pushes the sexual envelope farther, and otherwise seems determined to destroy her life. Call it identity theft of a possibly supernatural kind.

HELL FEST (2018)



Directed By: Gregory Plotkin 
Written By: Seth M. Sherwood, Blair Butler & Akela Cooper 
Story: Chris Sey & William Penick 
Cinematography: Jose David Montero 
Editor: David Egan & Gregory Plotkin 


Cast: Amy Forsyth, Tony Todd, Cynthia Mercado, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Reign Edwards, Christian James, Matt Mercurio, Roby Attal 


A masked serial killer turns a horror-themed amusement park into his own personal playground, terrorizing a group of friends while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show.

MANIAC (1980)



Directed By: William Lustig 
Written By: Joe Spinell & C.A. Rosenberg 
Story By: Joe Spinell 
Cinematography: Robert Lindsay 
Editor: Larry Marinelli 
Special Make-up & Effects By: Tom Savini 


Cast: Joe Spinell, Caroline Munroe, Tom Savini, Kelly Piper, Rita Monotone, Sharon Mitchell, Frank Pesce 


Frank Zito misses his mother, who was killed in a car accident years before. She was abusive to him, and made money selling her body, but Frank still misses her. He tries to keep her from leaving him, and reform her evil ways, by killing young women and putting their scalps on mannequins which he displays around his apartment. Photographer Anna D'Antoni takes a picture of him in the park, and he pursues and befriends her. Is she the one he has been looking for or just another mother wannabe?

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

THE MOVIE AUDIENCE AMENDMENTS ? (with Jeff Gallashaw*)

(ELECTRIC CINEMA IN LONDON)

 THE MOVIE AMENDMENTS

Now this is the first draft. This is open to additions. So feel free to suggest some or reply with your own or feel free to create your own.

This following list might give you insight into me. It might make you like me or hate me. As I know certain experiences re uncontrollable. This is what I hope for as a movie experience.

Friday, May 3, 2019

RIVER'S EDGE (2019)



Directed By: Isao Yukisada 
Written By: Misaki Setoyama 
Based on the Manga By: Kyoko Okazaki 
Cinematography: Kenji Maki 
Editor: Tsuyoshi Imai 


Cast: Fumi Nikiado, Ryu Yoshizawa, Aoi Morikawa, Shuhei Uesugi, Sumire 


Haruna is a high school student whose, school-mates, school and life is topsy turvy and often tragic. One of her classmates is the homosexual Ichiro. The boy is often bullied, derided and beaten. He has the scars to show for it. Haruna stands by Ichiro's side and comes to know Ichiro's secret. Then they discover a corpse by a river beside the tall grass.

BLOCKERS (2018)



Directed By: Kay Cannon 
Written By: Brian Kehoe & Jim Kehoe 
Cinematography: Russ T. Alsobrook 
Editor: Stacey Schroeder 


Cast: Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz, John Cena, Gideon Adlon, Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, Gary Cole, June Diane Raphael, Hannibal Buress, Sarayu Blue, Gina Gershon, Ramona Young, Miles Robbins

Three parents try to stop their daughters from losing their virginity on prom night.

JEFF OF THE CINEFILES & UNFINISHED BUSINESS: HALL OF FAME: FILE #0057: THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN (1982)



Written & Directed By: Boaz Davisson 
Cinematography: Adam Greenberg 
Editor: Bruria Davidson 


Cast: Lawrence Monoson, Steve Antin, Diane Franklin, Joe Rubbo, Kimmy Robertson, Louisa Moritz, Brian Peck 


The friendship of a group of young friends struggling with teen sex, drugs, and work is jeopardized by a romantic interest which may turn pals into bitter rivals.