Damien Chazelle, director of such great films as Whiplash and La La Land, has a new film out wide in theaters right now entitled Babylon, and there have been plenty of pundits who believe that Babylon will receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

I, on the other hand, absolutely hated it.

I have not come out of a theater angry after watching a movie in a long time, but I was angry after spending time with this mess of a film. After fifteen minutes, I was ready to be done with Babylon, and I knew that I had another 2 hours and 45 minutes to go. I considered just leaving, but I have a rule about writing a review about a movie that I have left.

I hated this movie so much. Within five minutes of the movie, one of the actors is show getting literally shit on by an elephant. No joke… and I don’t care if that is a spoiler. He was shit on. By an elephant.

Set at the beginning in the later 1920s, the story of Babylon was all over the place following several different characters. The main ones were Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) a huge star in the movies and the eventual loss of his status in Hollywood as he got older and silent pictures left. Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) was an aspiring actress who claimed to be a star despite not yet being in any film. Margot Robbie’s story turned out to be a story taken from Singing in the Rain as they quite literally showed scenes in the third act from Singing in the Rain for anyone who did not catch the similarities. Then there was Manny (Diego Calva) who just seemed to be in the right place at the right time for his career, starting off as an assistant to Jack Conrad and winding up as a studio exec.

There were others that were tossed in for reasons, but not sure why.

I will say that I did like Brad Pitt’s arc and the character of Jack Conrad was the least ridiculous of the bunch. I thought his storyline worked fairly well for most of his time on screen. Margot Robbie’s Nellie was all over the place. She was the most inconsistent of the three ‘main’ characters. She had a gambling problem which was mentioned early in the movie, but was never important until the third act when they needed it to be important.

The film was chaotic, messy and filled with decadence and debauchery… and not in the good way.

If this movie receives an Oscar nomination, I will be very unhappy because this would be an example of something that I have noticed over the years. There are critics and pundits who have favorite directors that they like whatever they do no matter how bad it is. Directors such as Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, among others seem to get a pass. Damien Chazelle has been placed in that group. There is no way that Babylon was done by another no name director that anyone would be pushing it for an Oscar.

If I haven’t said it yet, I hated this movie. Brad Pitt was good.

1 star

I am very torn about this one.

The new film from director Darren Aronofsky is entitled The Whale and it was at times, a triumph, and at other times, an insult.

Charlie (Brendan Fraser) was a morbidly obese English teacher who was carrying on his classes through Zoom. Charlie had suffered through some terrible personal tragedies that led to his weigh gain and his numerous health issues. His friend and nurse Liz (Hong Chau) was not only a protector and a helper, but also an enabler for Charlie’s deadly eating habit. Despite Liz’s insistence, Charlie refused to go to the hospital and be treated for his health issues that seemed prepared to kill him.

During this week, Charlie attempted to reconnect with his estranged daughter, the daughter he left when she was eight year old, Ellie (Sadie Sink). Ellie was a borderline sociopath and only kept coming to Charlie for the money he was going to give her. Or was there more that she was trying to do?

A local, young missionary Thomas (Ty Simpkins) was going door-to-door to preach for the local religious group and he came across Charlie in a state of pain. Thomas was convinced that God had brought him to Charlie to help him, though there was more to the young man than what he let on.

There is no doubt that the standout section of this movie is the remarkable performances, lead by Brendan Fraser himself. Fraser exceeded just the prosthetics and delivered one of the best individual performances of the year. He brought such an emotion and a power to Charlie that he was able to elevate the character above some of the cruelty that the film heaped upon him.

Brendan Fraser is supported with several really great performances in a film that is basically set in Charlie’s living room. Hong Chau is amazing as Liz, the nurse who tried to get Charlie to get help before it is too late. She was exceptional in every scene she was in. Plus, there was an unbelievable performance from Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink as Charlie’s daughter.

Of course, while I believe that all of the supporting performances were outstanding, there is not a single character among them that is not a rotten, horrible person that projects their own issues onto Charlie. Charlie, on the other hand, feels like a character that is positive and intelligent, but who is crushed beneath the hatred of the film toward him. There are so many attempts in the film to make him out to be disgusting that it avoided who he was as a character.

This was the reason I felt so uncertain about what I was watching. As a person who is fat and who has been extremely fat, there felt to me like there was a concerted effort to fat shame Charlie and to go out of the way to be cruel to him. Instead of dealing with his overeating as a symptom of his depression over the loss of his boyfriend to suicide, the film feels as if his eating is something to blame Charlie for and to make him gross. I could relate to Charlie in a lot of ways, but the film did not want people to relate to him so they went out of the way to show Charlie as a monster.

There was also a definite homophobic nature to several scenes in the movie and, while it is never specifically called out, it absolutely exists. There was a particularly gross scene between Charlie and Thomas that brings this to the light and is never dealt with properly.

There was a scene with a pizza delivery guy (Sathya Sridharan) that made me angry when it happened. It was a chance for the film to show some empathy toward Charlie, but it failed drastically to do so. There is a serious lack of empathy for Charlie. I am struggling to come up with an example of it, even among the characters that were supposed to be his friends.

So I am torn. While I found much of this movie to be cruel and gross, the actors take that grossness and cruelty and act the heck out of it. I had a general icky feeling coming out of The whale for the subject matter and the manner in which they address Charlie simply because of his disability, but I was impressed with the skill the actors displayed in having their characters be so horrible. It has several five star performances, but the overall rating or The whale is…

2.75 stars

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

As a professional wrestling fan, that was a sound that we all know. It was the call of “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. But even as a lifelong wrestling fan, I had no idea about some of the twists and turns that happened in the life of the man known as the “limousine-riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheeling-dealing, son of a gun.”

The new documentary of the life of Ric Flair dropped today on Peacock and it was as sensational as it was shocking. Set around interviews from Tom Rinaldi, Ric Flair talked about the ups and downs he had over the years as one of the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots.

We weren’t in the doc more than a few minutes and my jaw dropped. When Rinaldi asked Flair was his birth name was, I was expecting him to say “Richard Fliehr” but instead he said “Fred Phillips.” My jaw dropped open. He said he did not know that until three years ago. Turned out that Ric Flair started life in an orphanage and that he may have been stolen from the hospital as a baby as a black market baby. Unbelievable.

Then the doc went through every major event in the life of Ric Flair, from the plane crash he survived that led to him sustaining a broken back, to being struck by lightning, to the death of his son Reid, to his near death experience from drinking.

And of course, they focused on his career in the world of professional wrestling, from his time under Verne Gagne in the AWA to his days as NWA and WCW Champion and his time in the WWE.

One of the main themes of the documentary was how the real life Richard Fliehr had disappeared inside the character of Ric Flair and how even Ric himself was unsure of who Richard Fliehr was.

It detailed a lot about the lack of confidence issues he dealt with later in his life around the profession that he had been thriving in for decades. It is fascinating to see Ric Flair speaking as if he had no confidence in himself while everyone interviewed spoke of him as the greatest of all time.

They interviewed multiple individuals about Flair, not just contemporaries of his, but other big time names. We heard from Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Charlotte Flair, Booker T, Eric Bischoff, JJ Dillion, Hulk Hogan, Lex Lugar, Sting, Dave Bautista, as well as Mike Tyson, Stephen A. Smith and Post Malone.

Some of the most emotional moments of the doc came when discussing the overdose death of Reid Fliehr, Ric’s youngest son. They spoke to the entire Fliehr family and the heartbreak was clear. When Ashley “Charlotte” Fliehr spoke about her brother, whom she had broken into the wrestling business with and she said she felt guilty at times because she was living Reid’s dream, it was heartbreaking.

The loss of Reid was a triggering factor in Ric Flair’s near death from drinking. Somehow Flair survived the bout, despite being given a 15% chance of survival, but he continues to drink. I’m not sure what kind of a picture that paints of Ric Flair, but it was a moment that I found disturbing.

There did feel like the early days as NWA/WCW champion was brushed through quicker than I would have liked, though I understand that you are looking at a long career for a great performer and something had to be brushed through. They mention it, but it just did not feel as if they focused enough about it.

Ric Flair is mor than just a character. He is more than just a persona. He is a legend and, no matter what you may think of him, Woooooo! Becoming Ric Flair is a powerful and intriguing look at a man and his identity.

4.4 stars

Whitney Houston had one of the greatest voices music has ever heard. Her tragic death was a tremendous loss for everybody. We now have a new biopic telling her story. Well, sort of.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody tells the story of Whitney Houston (Naomi Ackie) and her rise to superstardom, accomplishing feats on the Billboard music charts that were not accomplished by The Beatles or Elvis Presley.

The music in this biopic is stunning. Whitney Houston’s voice was unbelievable and she consistently drove the narrative of her talent with performances that was completely awe-inspiring. Hearing the songs was worth the entire film.

However, the biopic part of the movie was a tad lacking. It was a basic timeline of her life, touching upon both the good and the bad without diving into anything too deeply. Houston’s whole tumultuous marriage and relationship with Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders) did not feel as if it was given the weight it should have been. Because of the lack of depth in any of the problems the singer faced downgraded the end result and made it more difficult to understand what happened to the singer.

As I watched the film, I enjoyed it enough. It is hard not to enjoy a film with such a powerhouse singer involved, but I do not feel as if I know Whitney Houston any better than I did before I watched it and I would not consider myself a large fan of her.

Naomi Ackie is amazing in the role of Whitney. She becomes the singer and it was hard, at times, to tell when they were using actual sounds of Whitney Houston. Reportedly, the film used Whitney’s voice about 95% of the time (according to IMDB) but Ackie is flawless with her performances.

When they allowed her to get into the role, she absolutely nailed it. A scene late in the film with Bobby Brown and Whitney’s best friend Robyn (Nafessa Williams) showed what Ackie was capable of doing. There was just not enough of that kind of moment.

Stanley Tucci was great in a supporting role as Whitney’s long time friend/producer/agent Clive Davis. Their relationship was fascinating and received more time than many of the other ones. Tamara Tunie was also really great as Whitney’s mother Cissy Houston. Her screen time was limited, but Tunie did a lot with what she was given.

In this movie, I was shown what a powerhouse of a singer Whitney Houston was, but I wanted to see what a powerhouse of a person she was and there was just not enough scenes like that in I Wanna Dance with Somebody. If you are a fan of Whitney Houston, this biopic is for you. If you are a fan of amazing music and singing, you can’t go wrong. If you don’t mind a basic, paint-by-numbers biopic, then this is also one for you. I would have liked some more.

3 stars

I’m not sure there has ever been a more independent of an independent film than Aftersun. It is everything that you might expect from an independent film, including the lack of a general plot.

Calum (Paul Mescal) and his 11-year old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) were together on summer vacation in Turkey. Calum and Sophie’s mom were separated. Calum was having plenty personal issues, but he clearly loved his daughter. They spent time together.

Honestly, I am not exactly sure what I watched. There was not a lot of throughline to the story and there was not a ton of character development either. We got some examples of Calum struggling, but we did not find out why. There was also scenes interspersed in the story of an adult Sophie and a weird dance club with a strobe light making it tough to tell what was happening. It looked as if Calum was there and was very out of it and the relationship with Sophie seemed to be on the rocks, but, as I said, the scenes were tough to wath.

I believe the film was meant to be shown as memories, as we see Sophie later reflecting back upon the Turkey trip. Perhaps the disjointed feeling was intended as a way to illustrate memory. Either way it was diffiuclt to follow.

When the scenes were more straight forward, I thought Frankie Corio did a great job as the young Sophie. She and Paul Mescal were magic together as their performances kept me engaged in a movie that I did not feel was telling me much of a story or that I was fully understanding what was going on.

I have to say that final section of strobe-lit dance club made me feel very uncomfortable as my imagination played with what I was trying to see. It just made me feel odd.

I am sure that critics love this movie, but I had a tough time with it. There just seemed to be too much independent movie about it for my tastes.

2.75 stars

It takes a special kind of person to be a Marine. I know that there was never a point in my life that I could have done it so when I see movies like The Inspection that highlights what these people go through, it only elevates the respect that I have for them.

The Inspection was written and directed by Elegance Bratton, who based a lot of the story on his own real-life experiences.

Ellis French (Jeremy Pope) was a young, gay black man who was having plenty of challenges in his life, including an estrangement with his mother Inez (Gabrielle Union). French decided to get his life on track by joining the Marines. However, his sexual orientation was revealed and this led to a series of homophobic responses from his platoon mates and the drill sergeants. In particular, drill sergeant Leland Laws (Bokeem Woodbine) would make the situation even worse for French. Laws’ goal was to make a Marine and he did it in some of the worst ways imaginable.

Watching this, you could not help but to feel for these people for what they were being put through to be a Marine. I understand that the Marines are looking for the best and can’t just let anyone join, but the process of systematically breaking down individuals until they can not handle it any longer is a difficult process to watch.

However, French faced plenty of problems, but it seemed as the film went along, he was not being broken down, but instead he was becoming stronger. He had several really good scenes with others in the platoon and with the men in charge. Jeremy Pope was outstanding through the whole movie. You absolutely see the way that French grew as an individual with each passing cruelty.

There was another intriguing character here named Ismail (Eman Esfandi), who had to face his own issues with prejudice toward his religion and the stereotypes of the Middle Eastern people. The scenes between French and Ismail were very strong and worked to show the connection the Marines build with one another.

Then there is Gabrielle Union, who played Inez and her own reactions to her son were just tragic. Union made the audience hope that there might be a chance that French and she could reunite and yet the pain was too deeply set. The third act scene between these two was a powerful and painful moment.

The Inspection was a really strong film with some very difficult moments to watch. There were wonderful performances and a concise story that dove into characters and their wills to overcome.

3.85 stars

I avoided this movie for a long time. When it was in theaters at the end of August, I did not find myself interested in seeing it. It then came to Vudu, and I could not bring myself to rent it. Finally, it came to Netflix and it was free, so I finally decided to give it a view. I was right in the first place.

According to IMDB, “After the death of her mother and having no other known relatives, Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) takes a DNA test…and discovers a long-lost cousin she never knew she had. Invited by her newfound family to a lavish wedding in the English countryside, she’s at first seduced by the sexy aristocrat host but is soon thrust into a nightmare of survival as she uncovers twisted secrets in her family’s history and the unsettling intentions behind their sinful generosity.“

The first half of the film was nothing but jump scares strung together, none of which were anything of substance outside of just tying to elicit a response from the audience. There are movies that use the jump scare effectively, but this one was nothing but the cheap scare technique.

The acting was fine, but there was nothing that was going to elevate this movie above the script and some of the dialogue was truly awful. My favorite of the film was Sean Pertwee, who played the butler Renfield. Pertwee also played Alfred Pennyworth of the Gotham TV show. I guess his specialty is service acting. Of course, he was nothing here but a lackey, but it was nice seeing him once again. I always liked his Alfred.

The film really pulled the rug out from the story that it seemed to be telling in the first two-thirds of the movie. You knew something weird was going on, but it was a real flip when the truth came out. Understand, it is not that it was a surprising shock. It was obvious as could be as to the truth that was going on, but it did not take any time to build up the twist. It just through it into the story and let things fall where they may. It was preposterous.

The setting did a decent job of setting a mood for the film, but it felt as if all it would take was a single line and this could have been a solid satire.

I did like Nathalie Emmanuel as our main protagonist, though she was stupid through much of the film. She looked great on screen and I expect that she could do more with a better story. The former Game of Thrones actress could have a really good career (she’d be great as a young Storm in MCU), but when she moves ahead into better projects, hopefully she will be able to put this one behind her.

The Invitation became my 178 movie reviewed this year, setting a new record for a single year. It’s a shame that the record breaker couldn’t have been a better movie.

1.5 stars