2024 Catch Up Capsules Part 8: AARON RODGERS ENIGMA, SIX TRIPLE EIGHT, JAZZMAN'S BLUES, PREY

AARON RODGERS ENIGMA
Epicly over long haigiographic  biography of narcissistic  quarterback Aaron Rodgers was designed to stroke the ego of the man in the center of the tale and cement the (PR created) legend of the man when he came back from a potential career ending injury and took the NY Jets to the Super Bowl... except that the fates had other ideas and Rodgers' plans went into the crapper.  Wickedly disconnected from reality the film presents Rodgers as a great guy and teammate- which runs counter to all the stories coming out of the Green Bay and the Jets locker room. This probably hurt his reputation more than helped it with the few people who have bothered to watch it.

SIX TRIPLE EIGHT
Tyler Perry's SIX TRIPLE EIGHT was being talked up as a lost Oscar contender in some corners. Some pundits on line were talking about how the film was not getting the push by Netflix for the year end awards. Had there not been a minor controversy I would not have noticed the film existed.  The film is the story of the all female unit of the army that delivered the mail in the closing days of the Second World War. To be honest this is probably Tyler Perry's least film.  Playing like run of the mill filler TV movie, the film doesn't feel like the man who has made more solid films or a man I thought was on his way to a Best Director Oscar. The problem with the film is that the writing is not much more than soap opera. It hits bullet points but it never creates characters or real situations. It's a great story that needs to be retold better.

JAZZMAN'S BLUES
Tyler Perry's 2022 film was off my radar until his recent SIX TRIPLE EIGHT. This film about a forbidden romance across the decades was the first screenplay that Perry had written. It was intended to star Diana Ross who never entertained the possibility. Decades after writing it Perry finally filmed it and the result is one of his best films. A solid drama that is unlike any of the films he is best known for, it s a film that shows how good Perry can be as a filmmaker. A compelling story well acted, the film grabs our attention and drags us along. Sure the set up isn't the best, but once the flashback starts the film takes off. Recommended.

PREY
The latest in the Predator franchise (until the one later this year) is a historical drama about a native American woman taking on the menace from space. For the most part the film is a kick ass thriller that soars thanks to it being more than just woman versus predator, and instead being a much more complex tale of like at the time the story is set. It is probably one of the best films in the franchise. That said the film is also a dire warning about the whole whole series, in that it reveals that there is not a hell of a lot to the creatures from space. They hunt...and that's about it. Watching the film I realized that they are less well written than most serial killers in films. Yea they are cool but there has to be more to them then the hunt right? Apparently not.

Dead Before They Wake (2025) hits Home Video January 7

Nathan Shepka​ returns, this time sharing the directing duties with Andy Crane, in the story of a bouncer named Alex who is hired to track down a young girl who is on the run from a human trafficking ring.

Shepka has rapidly become one of my directors to watch. He has been turning out a series of low budget action thrillers over the last few years that counter the low budgets with great scripts, fantastic casts and characters that you care about. Why the hell hasn't he gotten on the fast track to Hollywood?

This time out Shepka has made another small gem of a film.  It's a film that feels real and raw. You can feel the world that the film takes place in. You feel the that everyone actually lives in these places and does the things that we see. We even buy one of the people who have played Dr Who, Sylvester McCoy, shows up as the attorney who hires Alex.

Huge praise and many bonus points to Shepka for having McCoy in the film. It's a small but pivotal role that shows how grossly under used McCoy is. McCoy disappears into his role and shows none of the lightness that he was known for in his best role. If there is a justice this film will get McCoy more meaty roles.

One of the things I love about Shepka is the way he shoots his action sequences. Instead of doing big elaborate fights, Shepka keeps them small and confined. Fights are in the realm or real, for example look at the knife fight in the kitchen. It's not two super warriors fighting but two guys  trying very hard not to get cut up.  The battle is much more realistic and there is a sense that anything can happen. No one is safe. It builds tension.

I really liked this film a great deal. It's a film I want to see again when I can really curl up on the couch and watch it  and not have to write it up. 

Recommended.

The Diamond King (2025) Palm Springs FIlm Festival 2025

 

Picasso doesn't have a World Series ring. Matisse doesn't have a World Series ring - Dick Perez who has a World Series ring

Director Marq Evans returns with a look at artist Dick Perez. Perez is the official artist for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he is tasked with doing the portraits of every person inducted into the Hall. However, he's also painted a well-loved series of baseball cards (the title of the film comes from it), done extensive work for the Philadelphia Phillies (hence his having a World Series ring) and he's made the history of baseball come alive for generations through his work. 

Buckle in boys and girls this is a far-reaching film. 

Nominally this is the story of Perez and his life and art, but at the same time the film is also several other things. It’s a look at the game of baseball over the years, it’s a look at memorabilia collecting (Perez’s art is on sport cards) and collectors, it’s a look at the immigrant experience (Perez came to America as a child and he became a fan of the game because it was a way of connecting to the kids around him) and it's a look at the history of art and how it influences how we see the world. And since this is a Marq Evans film there is even more going on. 

Evans is one of the great filmmakers who make seemingly simple films that have unexpected facets to them. Evans seems to hate his films being about one thing and pulls as much into them as he can fit. He is never content to just tell you about a subject but about all the things that touch that subject, so you get a better understanding of it.

That said the most important facet of any Marq Evans film is always the film's subject, in this case it's Dick Perez. Perez is a cool guy. He is very aware of everything connected to his work.  He is so aware that he is a brutally honest critic of his own work. He hates one piece he did for the Philadelphia Phillies that he says is the worst thing he has done and that he wants cremated with him.  He is a man who loves baseball, and it is so much fun listening to him talk about the game from an artist's perspective. It's an even bigger blast since he not only discusses his own art and the game but the history of painting which results in some unexpected revelations of their intersections as he reveals the inspiration of his work in the work of the great masters. You will not look at any art in the same way again.

The film is helped by the on-screen narration by John Ortiz, who acts as a welcoming figure like the guy selling programs as you enter a stadium.  Where most documentaries have moved away from on screen narrators, in favor of a voice of god, Evans leans into the on-screen presence as a way of making the film not a lecture but a story told between good friends on a sunny afternoon in a ballpark. Two minutes into the film Ortiz is our best buddy and we'll go anywhere with him. We want to sit and drink beers and have hot dogs with him. As a result of Ortiz's boisterous love of the game and the joy he feels in discussing it has become infectious and we fall deeper in love with Perez's art and the game of baseball. Ortiz needs to do more narration he is that good.

While the film is completely and utterly a film that stands on its own pedestal, the best way that I can explain how good the film is to say, lazily, that this great little film feels as though it’s a kind of adjacent to Ken Burns Baseball series since we get so much history mixed into Perez’s tale that it speaks volumes about not just art and baseball but the people who enjoy both. 

This film is so good that I suspect that this will end up on endless repeat on the MLB channel for years to come.

What an absolute delight. 

Highly recommended for any baseball or art fan.

The film World Premieres January 5,6,7 at the Palm Springs Film Festival. Tickets and information on the screenings can be found here. The film will be playing additional festival dates before being released sometime this year.

An interview with director Marq Evans will appear this weekend.

THE DAMNED (2024) Hits Theaters On Jan. 3

At a remote fishing station in the northern oceans, a small community is struggling to survive. It is lead by a woman named Eva. She is a recent widow and he feelings are compounded by the uncertainty of the future of the people she is living with. When a ship wrecks not far off, they are forced to consider how to handle the situation since extra mouths mean they certainly will not survive. What follow their choice is the film and it's a tense spiral into danger.

Let me say this at the top - when you see THE DAMNED, and you will be seeing it,  try to do so when you can see it on a big screen. Shot in bleak and menacing places the film is a wide screen delight with the images adding equal weight to everything that happens. The images were made for the big screen and should be seen that way.

This is one of the bet films playing at Tribeca. It's an unexpected historical thriller full of suspense and dread. You know with a title like THE DAMNED this is not going to go well, and it doesn't. The fear comes from waiting to see who comes out the other end.

I had a blast watching this film. I was sucked in from the first frame and stayed glued to the screen until the credits rolled. I didn't really have any idea how this was going to go. 

This is  just great filmmaking. Yes it looks amazing, but at the same time the entire cast sells it, while at the same time director Thordur Palsson moves things along at just the right pace. Its slow enough so that we feel we are back 150 years, but spryly enough that we never lose interest. Indeed we are held in the film's vice grip as we wait to get to the film's end.

Since the film is just premiering I won't say any more other than get a ticket and go.

From Ground Zero (2024) opens Friday

Oscar short listed documentary is the collection of short films set in Gaza. The films show what life is like in the contested area at the present time.

This is a very good, and very up to the minute look at the situation in Gaza since the Israelis started leveling the  area in the wake of the October 7 attacks. It’s a heart breaking look at what life has become for the Palestinian population in the area. If you want to know what life is like right now this is the film for you since what you see here is not what you are going to see on American news services.

I like this film a great deal. At the same time the film is a bit of sensory overload. This is a film that makes clear what is going on and it overwhelms you, more so if you are seeing several of the other recent films on similar subjects.

Recommended – but bring tissues.

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

There is a reason most people don’t really know Agatha Christie’s Hallowe'en Party. It’s not one of her best books. Reading it you never feel that it was a finished story, but more like a draft she was fighting with. I think the only adaptions were the David Suchet complete run of Hercule Poirot stories on film and the most recent big screen Kenneth Branaugh  film A HAUNTING IN VENICE.

To be honest I never heard of the novel until the Branaugh version. I read it in anticipation of the feature and I didn’t like it much. Still the trailers for the  film looked spooky and the thought of a Poirot “horror” story was promising.

The film is set in Venice just after the Second World War Poirot (Branaugh) is a broken man, given up on cases and is just hiding in a villa. When his friend Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey who will make you forget she’s a comedy queen) comes to see him she insists he go with her to a Halloween Party and séance. Poirot is certain it will all be fakery, Oliver is not so certain. As the children’s party ends and the adult séance take places, weird things begin to happen. “Ghosts" appear and even the great detective is rocked to his very core by things he can’t explain.

An adult horror thriller was not what I expected from an Agatha Christie film, but some how Branaugh made something wonderfully unique. While there are several murders along the way, this is less a murder mystery and more an exploration to the psychic damage experienced by those who survived war. There may not (or there may) be ghosts but the trauma suffered makes them feel real.

This is a dark and oppressive film. It’s a film that crushes your soul just by watching it. I was half way into the film and I did not want to be in the head space that the film was putting me in. This is a true horror film, where the monsters are us. In its way it maybe one of the best horror films of the last decade.

The problem is that while Branaugh and his crew have made a bleak dark boogeyman of a film, the central mystery isn’t very good. Poirot fumbles his way through things and jumps to conclusions more than he does in most of Christies other mysteries.  For me, the film, like the book, is not a satisfying mystery. It’s not fatal to the film, but it makes what is a great thriller just good over all.

Weak mystery aside, this film kicks ass and will make your knuckles go white.

Recommended

The Best of 2024 Part 2: The Best of the Best (in no particular order)

AMERICAN STAR - Ian McShane gives a performance for the ages as a hit man on assignment  whose life and job go sideways when his target is delayed.  This should be in the Oscar Mix except that it was released in January.

DREAM CREEP - squirm inducing short film about a man trying to rescue his girlfriend from a nightmare and the horrible terrible thing he has to do to save her

ONE LIFE- Truly great film with the best Anthony Hopkins performance in years is a celebration is a man who did the right thing.

MARS EXPRESS -animated science fiction action tale is about what it means to be human and what do you do when some humans decide you aren’t 

WORLD ACCORDING TO ALLEE WILLIS- portrait of a woman who created some of the greatest songs of the last half century

EXHUMA – Frightening Korean folk horror film that will rattle your cage and have you wanting more.

FILM ABOUT THE BLACK KEYS- portrait of two guys who just want to make music

WE CAN BE HEROES – The story of a camp where kids can be kids and those on the fringe can find a family.

YOUNG HEARTS – wonderful romance of two boys in love

SHOUTING AT THE SEA – two friends meet after years and magic happens

PARVOLOUS – a chilling horror film about family

STEPPENWOLF – Dystopian tale of a mother looking for her missing child set after the fall that is profoundly wrong in all the right ways

KILLERS -  A portmanteau film about killers that is so good in the best parts you forgive the weaker bits (which would be fine on their own but suffer in this package)

INHERITANCE- this real-life BOYHOOD set in Appalachia is going to break your heart

KINGDOM: RETURN OF THE GENERAL- I know this a part in the middle of a series but this action masterpiece stands on its own and kicks ass as a huge scale action epic with heart.

OPERATION UNDEAD – a zombie war film that is a damning tale about the cost of war,

SEPTEMBER 5 – the behind the scenes story of ABC sports coverage of the 1972 Olympic terror attack is a great thriller and an eye opening look at how we get news

PATTAYA HEAT – a great thriller

HONGFU HOTEL – a magnificent look at family and the past. It has haunted me since I saw it

LOOK BACK – The course of two friends bound by comics reduced me to a sobbing mess

TIM BURTON – One of the best documentaries on a filmmaker and their work I’ve ever seen. They showed only the first episode at Tribeca but it was so good I saw it multiple times.

LIVING LARGE the animated tale of a fat kid that gets being fat right

WITCHES a look at how society sees women and witches via film...and so much more

RUTHLESS BLADE – this animated short is one of the greatest  martial arts film ever made - I'd love more except the nature of the story requires it to be short.

S/HE IS STILL HER/E – a look at Genesis P Oridge that is a wonderful look at life as an artist

CHECK POINT ZOO – the story of the zoo on the border between Ukranian and Russian forces will move you

SOCIAL MEDIA MONSTER – This film about an internet troll rocked not only my world but the world of everyone who has seen it. It’s can’t look away warning about the crazy people who are out there. I have been talking about it nonstop since I saw it (it's on You Tube) See it an you'll be talking about it for weeks

ABIGAIL is the story of a kidnapping that goes wrong...really wrong. Such bloody fun

DIDI – one of the best films about growing up ever made

SOUTHPAW THE LEGACY OF JIM ABBOT- glorious portrait of a man who has changed the lives of everyone he’s met

FLAVORS OF IRAQ – the animated tale of one man’s relationship with the country of his family says so much about the world today

GALLAGHER – warts and all look at man who was made famous smashing watermelons but had so much more to him

NO OTHER LAND – the crushing story of Israel’s attempts to drive out the Palestinians

SOUND TRACK FOR A COUP D'TATE – film as Jazz

THE OPERA! - a rethink of the Orpheus myth that shouldn’t work but does by crossing genre boundaries into new territory.

The DANCING THROUGH LIFE sequence in Wicked is one of the greatest dance numbers ever put on film

SHEPHERDS low key tale of man who becomes a shepherd and the peace he finds

HELL BOY: THE CROOKED MAN -one of the best horror films of 2024 is a low budget comics tale that does what it does perfectly.

 THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES TALE - the classic characters in a moving feature that expands their characters

FLOW – one of the greatest animated films ever made

KENSUKE'S KINGDOM – grossly under seen tale of a boy and his dog on an island and what he finds there.

SING SING - the life of a theater group in Sing Sing prison will move you to tears thanks to a great cast headed by Colman Domingo

I'M STILL HERE The true story of a family before and after their patriarch is spirited away by political forces

LATE GAME one of the great sports films of the last decade is a spot on film about a guy going to a midnight hockey league for the first time in years.

BETTER MAN- the Robbie Williams bio is one of a kind and brazen. Unafraid to have the lead be unlikable it transcends expectations to be adult, funny and deeply moving. Pieces will live in my heart forever.