Week Ending 9/13/24
In quarantine
I’m back from TIFF and in the attic for ten days to make sure COVID didn’t hitch a ride courtesy of the festival cesspool. That means continued coverage and ample time to finish my JUSTIFIED rewatch (I forgot how overstuffed the last season was) so I can start CITY PRIMEVAL.
I was able to fit a couple new releases in below too. Nothing to write home about, but they were the most interesting choices since MUBI said they aren’t providing links for THE SUBSTANCE. FYC season is coming post-NYFF, though, so I’ll take a little calm before the storm.
What I Watched:
DEAD MONEY
(limited theaters & VOD)
The players at Jack’s (David Keith) poker game are degenerate gamblers through and through. They mock him for betting on MMA undercards. Mock each other when their mouths appear to be cashing checks their wallets can’t afford. And any snippet of dialogue that might be construed as a bet suddenly becomes one complete with numerous offshoots to sweeten pots popping out of nowhere. If there’s action to be had, they will all put skin in the game. Until there’s no more money left to play.
That’s the inevitable end to the opening scene of DEAD MONEY, written by Josh Wilcox and directed by Luc Walpoth. Amidst all the chaos of this illegal game, the one thing none of them can bet on is the fact that they’re all about to be robbed. Two hundred large when all is said and done. Big money, but not so big that these “friendly” players fear they might be losing limbs in the morning. Not even Andy (Emile Hirsch) seems too shaken despite needing the winnings he’d won, lost, and won again before the robbery. They take risks and live with the consequences.
Well, through a lucky break that soon spirals into a nightmare, Andy happens to find himself in possession of the cash Wendel (Jackie Earle Haley) and Lonnie (Rory Culkin) stole. Should he call LT (Peter Facinelli), Buck (Noah Segan), and the other guys to divvy the money back out and live to play again? Probably. But if he’s robbing the robbers and the assumption is that they can’t complain because it wasn’t theirs to begin with, why not just take it for himself? The reason is simple to us: desperate men do desperate things and there’s no guarantee Andy got away clean. To him, however, that cash has him feeling invincible.
And so the plot diverts. Andy goes on a heater to pay off debts and accrue more profits while his girlfriend Chloe (India Eisley) is scooped up as a hostage to get the stolen money back to those who originally stole it. The result is a violent yet humorous thriller wherein she’s playing her assailants in the hopes their greed gets them to kill each other and he’s hopping from game to game to add to his stack and, eventually, pay to get her back. Because the bad guys know he has the dough and they recognize just how great he’s winning. Why not let him keep going and gain a tidy profit on top?
Andy talks about math via voice-over, but this isn’t as much a poker movie as it is a darkly comic drama with poker in it. The suspense isn’t therefore built at the table, but by the guns being held to the temples of people off-screen. There’s a bit of intrigue once Andy gets to Faizel’s (Jimmy Jean-Louis) house due to an accusation of cheating, but even that’s low stakes since we know he must leave flush or the climax won’t have a chance to happen. Our worry is instead about who will still be alive by the time he confronts the thieves and tries to save Chloe. Then and only then must we wonder what happens next.
Hirsch is good in the lead role, but the character is somewhat cardboard by design since he needs to have his wits about him. Keith becomes a de facto second lead with a lot more uncertainty to conversely act via impulse. Eisley turns a damsel in distress role into an entertaining thorn sticking in the sides of those who took her and both Haley and Culkin earn laughs being dumb-as-rocks lackeys devoid of a single intelligent thought. For my money, though, it’s Facinelli who steals the show in a much smaller part by leaving the most indelible mark. He’s a purely comic relief wildcard who never stays off-screen long.
So, don’t go expecting DEAD MONEY to really care about poker beyond dropping terminology to make the hands that Wilcox and Walpoth need to progress the plot seem tenser than they are. The film actually works best when the players at the table aren’t using their cards because then they finally have things to say with an enjoyable enough sense of humor to keep things moving right when it feels like it’s about to grow stagnant. Do we care if Andy and Chloe survive? Not really. Nor do we care who ends up with the money. We stick with it to find out, but the ride transcends the results. It was fun enough for me.
- 6/10
THE 4:30 MOVIE
(in theaters)
It’s wild to me that Kevin Smith’s semi-autobiographical teen flick THE 4:30 MOVIE is rated R. If ever he was to go PG-13, this was the time. I’m not sure the wall-to-wall sexual innuendo warranted more than that anyway, but Smith probably didn’t care because his usual audience expects crassness. This just isn’t quite the sort of film they expect his crassness from. It pretends to be FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, but it’s way too earnestly wholesome to pull it off.
Set at a local multiplex, the film centers around junior Brian David (Austin Zajur) and his year-long search for the confidence to call sophomore Melody Barnegat (Siena Agudong). Even though it’s been that long since they’ve spoken, the two have a wonderfully jokey rapport on the phone to make their impending date a foregone conclusion. The only potential problem stems from the fact that Brian plans to spend the entire day at the theater with Burny (Nicholas Cirillo) and Belly (Reed Northrup) beforehand. The longer they’re together trying to evade Manager Mike’s (Ken Jeong) watchful eye, the greater the chance Brian’s date gets undone.
This is a friendship story first and foremost. The romantic implications of the date loom large, but less where it concerns Brian and Melody going steady than how Burny and Belly react. Because Burny is the “cool” guy. He’s the one who’s allowed to blow the other two off so he can hang out with a girl because that’s what’s expected of him. Having Brian suddenly attempt to fill that role makes Burny confrontational because he’s always been able to count on his friend being there when he returned. The dynamic is shifting towards a place where Burny must shoulder the weight of being the third wheel and he’s unable to cope.
What transpires is therefore the type of shenanigans that both risk this trio being banned from the theater for life and force them to really consider what it is they mean to each other. Fireworks are inevitable with key moments of clarity to try and fan the flames in the aftermath (from Sam Richardson’s wrestler Major Murder and Genesis Rodriguez’s “Hot Usher” rather than the usual Silent Bob monologue). A happy ending would thus be a product of Burny and Belly coming to Brian’s rescue, showing he’s allowed to take the spotlight too. Relationships shouldn’t be thought of as subtractive. It’s not Brian leaving the group, but Melody joining.
It’s very straightforward and very familiar. Beyond Smith’s penchant for lewdness coloring things, it’s definitely his most generic original yet. He tries his best to inject some intrigue via an all-star supporting cast of cameos (Kate Micucci, Method Man, Justin Long, Jeff Anderson, Harley Quinn Smith, Jason Mewes, Jason Lee, Diedrich Bader, Logic, and more), but the whole feels more like skits filling time. The fake trailers garner more attention than whatever feud if brewing between Brian and Mike and nostalgic moments like “emergency breakthrough calls” are so niche that they barely register. THE 4:30 MOVIE is a film for Smith first, audiences second.
I smiled more than I laughed, so its sweetly endearing nature does shine through the vulgarity that seems forced and inauthentic as a result. Zajur, Agudong, Cirillo, and Northrup are fun and doing their best, but you really sense the struggle in delivering Smith’s trademarked, loquacious dialogue naturally. It doesn’t matter how much you like Brian David, hearing him be shocked whenever anyone knows anything specific about cinema is exasperating. You could make a drinking game out of the number of times he says, “You know about so-and-so?” It’s the most condescending reaction to discovering a like-minded soul exists that I cannot believe Rodriguez didn’t punch him in the face when he did it three times in a row.
Kudos to Smith for trying something different, but it’s just too insipid to truly stand apart as a unique coming-of-age tale or a canonical Kevin Smith production. His heart is in the right place and everyone on-screen is having fun, but half of it consists of peripheral gags deserving of the cutting room floor. Smith knows it too since one such gag featuring Brian O’Halloran did get cut to become an outtake after the credits. He got to hang out with his friends while making a new film, though. That’s the ultimate dream. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
- 5/10
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 9/13/24 -
THE 4:30 MOVIE at Regal Elmwood & Transit
Thoughts are above.
AJAYANTE RANDAM MOSHANAM at Regal Elmwood
AM I RACIST? at Dipson Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Transit & Quaker
ARDAAS SARBAT DE BHALLE DI at Regal Elmwood & Transit
THE BUCKINGHAM MURDERS at Regal Elmwood
THE CRITIC at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
DAN DA DAN: FIRST ENCOUNTER (select times) at North Park Theater; Regal Elmwood, Galleria & Quaker
THE KILLER’S GAME at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
GOD’S NOT DEAD: IN GOD WE TRUST at Regal Elmwood, Transit & Quaker
MATHU VADALARA 2 at Regal Elmwood
SPEAK NO EVIL at Dipson Amherst, McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
USHER: RENDEZVOUS IN PARIS (select times) at AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Galleria, Transit & Quaker
Streaming from 9/13/24 -
BOY KILLS WORLD – Hulu on 9/13
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – Shudder on 9/13
“I simply wish it didn't feel so clinical due to our inability to invest in anything but the violence. Without an emotional connection, it becomes little more than an effects reel.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
OFFICER BLACK BELT – Netflix on 9/13
THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED – Hulu on 9/13
“Arnow structures the film as short vignettes stacked up. There's an idiosyncratic rhythm as a result that augments both the dry humor and threat of tedium. I do think Arnow does a good job keeping things fun, though.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
SECTOR 36 – Netflux on 9/13
UGLIES – Netflix on 9/13
CHILD STAR – Hulu on 9/17
HANDLING THE UNDEAD – Hulu on 9/17
“That's where the real unsettling nature comes in. Not just from the ways in which these corpses are reanimated as silent approximations of their former selves, but also in the sense that the audience knows what this scenario ultimately births.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
STOPPING THE STEAL – Max on 9/17
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
DEAD TEENAGERS (9/10)
“Now this is what I was anticipating from Quinn Armstrong's FRESH HELL trilogy after loving his previous project SURVIVAL SKILLS. It proves an ingenious thrill ride through the fourth walls of previously shattered fourth walls.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
KNEECAP (9/10)
“Yes, the history of KNEECAP is entertaining, but it's also important in the context of its power—intentional or not—to give voice to the voiceless.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
LAST SUMMER (9/10)
LOST IN THE SHUFFLE (9/10)
RALLY CAPS (9/10)
ROB PEACE (9/10)
ROBOT DREAMS (9/10)
BOOGER (9/13)
“Dauterman's message is relatable. Wanting to be numb rather than confront the pain should resonate with most audiences regardless of whether the genre device used proves too much to wrap their heads around.” – Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
THE CROW (9/13)
DEAD MONEY (9/13)
Thoughts are above.
HERE AFTER (9/13)
MOTHER, COUCH (9/13)
“[Larsson] wants us to fill in the blanks. How does this story relate to our life? Its power demands our participation.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
SUBSERVIENCE (9/13)
WINNER (9/13)