Film Gate Reviews: June 2022

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Cute and annoying.

Another one of Netflix’s ‘An American girl must travel to a foreign country to find herself and fall in love.’ This time it’s Italy. Lina (Susanna Skaggs) is one of your super smart teen girls who know more about school than boys, the type of character that can exist outside of movies, but not this one; Lina is just way too pretentious. She also takes her mother’s dying wish too literally.		2022 Directed by: Brandon Camp Screenplay by: Brandon Camp Starring: Susanna Skaggs, Owen McDonnell

Balanced approach to young love.

Cha Cha Real Smooth is filmmaker Cooper Raiff’s sophomore effort following Shithouse’s poignancy and vulnerability of a young guy starting college. Here, Raiff plays Andrew a young man just graduated from college who falls in love fast and hard, and each time it’s funny and sweet as Andrew consistently seems to be one good decision away from turning his life around.		2022 Directed by: Cooper Raiff Screenplay by: Cooper Raiff Starring: Cooper Raiff, Dakota Johnson

A slow moving thriller with a great setting.

The Good Neighbor is an indie thriller set in Latvia. The characters included a couple of Americans and Brits, but they’re not just vacationing in Riga. The foreign angle is handled well since they’re all here long-term and they’re not treated as foreigners. David (Luke Kleintank) is an American journalist looking to uproot his life after a painful break-up; Grant (Bruce Davison) is a former colleague working for a European news centre and can hook David up with a job.		2021 Directed by: Stephan Rick Screenplay by: Ross Partridge Silja Clemens, Stephan Rick Starring: Luke Kleintank, Jonathan Rhys Meyers

An interesting film about nothing.

You know the old saying: Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should? I never would have thought that a crime drama and a musical would make a good pairing, and I still don’t. Two criminals singing their way through a heist is as bizarre as it sounds. But at the same time, it is interesting. The music is really good and you keep thinking maybe something is going to happen eventually.		2021 Directed by: Malachi Smyth Screenplay by: Malachie Smyth Starring: Will Poulter, Johnny Flynn, Naomi Ackie, Lydia Wilson, Lucian Msamati

A chaotic gay rom-com about social media and celebrity obsession.

If you’re going to go with a fake boyfriend plot, then you’re going to have to do something different, and My Fake Boyfriend definitely does. First it’s the social media editing on speed, then it’s the very natural inclusivity and fluidity of sexuality and relationships, and then it tackles society’s celebrity obsession and how fake relationships with fake people can have real effects – even positive ones.		2022 Directed by: Rose Troche Screenplay by: Luke Albright, Greg Boaldin, Joe Wanjai Ross Starring: Keiynan Lonsdale, Dylan Sprouse, Sarah Hyland, Samer Salem

Fun, funny, clever and insane.

With that title and a premise involving Nicolas Cage playing a version of himself caught up in the trajectory of his own career who meets a Nic Cage super fan and they agree to write a movie together and end up in a real life action plot, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is exactly as fun and insane as it sounds, and possibly funnier than you would imagine.		2022 Directed by: Tom Gormican Screenplay by: Tom Gormican Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal

An indie thriller with a great Canadian setting.

A small Canadian thriller from the coasts of Prince Edward Island. A Small Fortune is set in the small fishing town of Skinner’s Pond with few people and fewer jobs. Kevin (Stephen Oates) and wife Sam (Liane Balaban) are expecting a baby; she’s begging him to head out west to find work to bring in money, but he’s content harvesting Irish moss each day bringing in not enough money to live off of. Enter a washed-up bag of money, and a criminal on its trail.		2021 Directed by: Adam Perry Screenplay by: Adam Perry Starring: Liane Balaban, Stephen Oates, Andrea Bang, and Matt Cooke