Dinner Party: Movie Review

A powerful and cathartic watch.

As all good indies do to take advantage of a minimal budget, Dinner Party occurs in just one location. A group of adults, all high school friends and their new significant others, have gotten back together for a dinner party. On the radio and TV, pundits are discussing a polarizing sexual assault case that has swept the nation. Little do they know, the friends are about to find themselves in their own sexual assault case played out at the dinner table.		2021 Directed by: Chris Naoki Lee Screenplay by: Chris Naoki Lee, Daniel Webster Starring: Chris Naoki Lee, Kara Wang, Daniel Webster, Imani Hakim and Charles Hittinger

The Mulligan: Movie Review

Religious wholesomeness for a simple story of redemption.

The Mulligan is a redemption drama. The story of an asshole businessman who has neglected his wife and son all in the pursuit of money and can’t handle it when his amateur golf game sucks. There’s a pervasive religious theme that eventually reveals the movie to be a religious moral about how finding god will make you a better person. Viewers be ware that it definitely gets preachy at times.		2022 Directed by: Michael O. Sajbel Screenplay by: Randall Eldridge, Rick Eldridge, Roland Eldridge Starring: Eric Close, Pat Boone

Beat: Movie Review

Stressful, depressing and disorienting.

Beat is an Australian drama about music, life and death. It’s a stressful and depressing watch for a movie that continually chooses negativity and abuse instead of hopefulness. One might think that a movie that opens with a homeless man getting abused on the street for trying to play music and a young woman on death’s door needing a heart transplant would get better with life improving for these characters, but that’s not the case.		2022 Directed by: Jye Currie Screenplay by: Jye Currie Starring: Alexandra Jensen, Rachael Carpani, Sebastian Szeszeran, and Alexis Lane

Royalteen: Movie Review

An interesting mix of past mistakes, bad decisions and the Crown Prince of Norway.

The Netflix Norwegian Royalteen quickly separates itself from that poster and the title. What might seem like a silly romance of a teen girl falling in love with royalty, is actually a very dramatic tale of a teenage girl who made mistakes and is trying to start her life over. Lena (Ines Hoysaeter Assersson) is new to Olso after running away from a life lived in excess.		2022 Directed by: Per-Olav Sorensen, Emilie Beck Screenplay by: Ester Schartum-Hansen Starring: Ines Hoysaeter Assersson, Mathias Storhoi

Look Both Ways: Movie Review

A split life rom-com that’s cute and nice and a little bland.

It has been 24 years since Sliding Doors and it’s about time for another split life rom-com. Life can take two different directions for Natalie (Lili Reinhart) in Look Both Ways as she takes a pregnancy test on the night of her college graduation. In one, she’s pregnant and her and would-be dad Gabe are moving back home to live with her parents in Austin; in the other, she’s not pregnant and moving to LA with her best friend Cara.		2022 Directed by: Wanuri Kahiu Screenplay by: April Prosser Starring: Lili Reinhart, Danny Ramirez, David Corenswet, and Aisha Dee

13: The Musical: Movie Review

Singing and middle school drama.

It’s fair to say that Netflix is still looking for its answer to Disney’s High School Musical; something young, fun and that people will come back to for a sing-along time and time again. 13: The Musical is the middle school version with a whole cast full of kids who are really great singers. It does however fall short on the fun part and I don’t think people will be coming back for more very often.		2022 Directed by: Tamra Davis Screenplay by: Robert Horn Musical by Jason Robert Brown and Dan Elish Starring: Eli Golden, Debra Messing

My Favorite Girlfriend: Movie Review

Unpleasant rom-com with undiagnosed mental disorder.

A romantic comedy that’s light on the comedy, and the romance for that matter too. My Favorite Girlfriend is a light drama about a man who falls for a girl with dissociative identity disorder – multiple personalities. Writer and director Amanda Raymond has a degree in clinical psychology, so it’s fair to assume that the presentation of her multiple personalities is reasonably accurate, but the film still leaves a bad taste.		Year Directed by: Amanda Raymond Screenplay by: Amanda Raymond Starring: Tyler Johnson, Bonnie Piesse

Rogue Agent: Movie Review

A slow-burn thriller and fascinating true story.

Rogue Agent is an unnerving and stressful but ultimately fascinating story of a man who identifies himself as an MI5 agent undercover as a car salesman, but is actually a con-man pretending to be an MI5 agent undercover as a car salesman. Correct that, a luxury car salesman. There are multiple subtle things like that which turn this from a slow-burn thriller into a fascinating tale of the human psyche and the manipulation of different people.		2022 Directed by: Declan Lawn, Adam Patterson Screenplay by: Michael Bronner, Declan Lawn, Adam Patterson Starring: Gemma Arterton, James Norton

Darlings: Movie Review

Dark, twisted and insane, but also powerful and clever.

Darlings is Hamza’s pet name for his wife, Badru. But Hamza doesn’t like his wife, he likes controlling his wife. Darlings is a Bollywood dark comedy drama about domestic violence and the women who don’t go quietly into the night. I often find Bollywood films have tonal whiplash from the mashup of genres, but this balances the dark comedy undertones of such a serious subject as well as can be expected.		2022 Directed by: Jasmeet K Reen Screenplay by: Parveez Sheikh, Jasmeet K Reen Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vijay Verma, Shefali Shah, and Roshan Mathew

Wedding Season: Movie Review

A sweet, funny and charming rom-com.

Wedding Season is a surprising delight. With a tired fake dating premise, it becomes a genuinely funny and very charming romantic comedy. Asha (Pallavi Sharda) and Ravi (Suraj Sharma) are two well-written characters, both rebelling against their parents and their cultural upbringing, but doing so with empathy and humour and warmth. And that’s exactly what shines through in the movie.		2022 Directed by: Tom Dey Screenplay by: Shiwani Srivastava Starring: Pallavi Sharva, Suraj Sharma

Don't Blame Karma!: Movie Review

Predictable rom-com but cute, enjoyable and nicely produced.

Don’t Blame Karma! Is a silly Mexican rom-com. The basic premise includes Sara believing that her younger sister Lucy has put a curse on her so she has nothing but bad luck. And she really does believe this. The plot follows a more typical romantic comedy storyline, occasionally funny, occasionally romantic and if you ignore how stupid Sara is it’s enjoyable.		2022 Directed by: Elisa Miller Screenplay by: Fernanda Eguiarte, Marcelo Tobar, and Laura Norton Starring: Aislinn Derbez, Renata Notni, and Gil Cerezo