I have always been a fan of the Sherlock Holmes mythos. I loved the Benedict Cumberbatch series, the Robert Downey Jr. movies and the characters are iconic. I enjoy the universe.

So hearing that the universe would be expanding to include Sherlock Holmes’ sister, Enola, I was excited.

When Enola wakes up one day to find her mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) gone, she begins to investigate the reasons behind the disappearance. Her older brothers show up after being gone for years and try to force the young and wild child into a finishing school, but Enola had plans of her own, which was to find her mother.

Along the way, Enola finds herself wrapped up with another event happening in the world. A young Lord named Viscount Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) was looking to escape from his own personal situation, which included being pursued by a bowler-hat wearing killer (Burn Gorman). Together, Enola and Viscount try to survive long enough to unravel the mystery.

Turned out that this movie is based on a series of books written in 2006 by Nancy Springer and that she created the Enola Holmes character. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not have another sibling officially for Sherlock than Mycroft. A sister was introduced in the Cumberbatch TV series, but that came after the books.

Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things fame is the lead role here and she is a wonderful choice for Enola. She is able to show her charm, confidence and strength in this role as the exceptional sister. The movie smartly leans on that charm as well, having her be the focus of the film and having her talk the audience though the film with her fourth-wall-breaking narration.

The movie was fully enjoyable and a breath of fresh air. It had a brisk pace and, even being over 2 hours, never once felt its length. The story is cleverly written and weaves the Sherlock Holmes universe into this narrative beautifully.

That would include the strong performances as Henry Cavill as Sherlock and Sam Claflin as Mycroft. Both actors were able to bring to life their versions of these iconic characters without just copying the blueprint that has come before them. Cavill, in particular, really brings Sherlock Holmes into the film in just the right manner, fitting what this film required of Sherlock without losing what makes the character amazing to begin with. I did wonder about the absence of John Watson and how that character would fit into the life of Henry Cavill’s Sherlock, but that is a minor gripe that could be easily addressed at a future time.

Still, Millie Bobby Brown is the star here, bringing another level to her career. This Netflix film is great entertainment for the whole family and can provide young girls a real role model to look up to who is smart, funny and extremely capable.

4.1 stars 

One of the small independent films that showed up this weekend on Vudu was called Alone, and, at the time, Vudu said it had 100% on the Tomatometer. That is an impressive feat, so, despite the uninspiring title, it caught my interest.

It was an enjoyably intense and anxiety-filled thriller worth the time and the rental fee.

Jessica (Jules Willcox), trying to escape a tragedy in her personal life, took off in her car. Along the way, she had a series of encounters with a man (Marc Menchaca), who at first looked to be following her on the road, but turned out to be considerably more sinister than that.

The film shows Jessica’s desperation to survive, first from the confines of the man’s prison and then in the wilds of the forest of the Pacific Northwest. It builds suspense throughout the movie and it had me rooting for Jessica.

However, it did place her in situations that made me want to scream at her. She seemed like a smart woman, but she kept putting herself in the way of danger when I could see other choices. That always frustrates me at times, but, fortunately, Alone does not go too far with the poor choices. They had her do things that was somewhat understandable, that someone traumatized might make.

Marc Menchaca was extremely creepy and menacing as the man. We never got a reason why he was doing what he was doing, but we did get a glimpse behind the curtain into his real life, which was fascinating. The film played with some themes, but never dove deeply into any of them. It stuck with the basic cat-and-mouse survival game. The film works in that vein, but it may have missed a chance to elevate the story to a higher plane.

When researching this after the fact, it was weird to see how many movies in 2020 that had been titled “Alone.” I found three for sure and that goes to show how this movie’s title was a missed for sure.

3.4 stars 

Found this film on Vudu yesterday and I was excited to see it. I had found this interesting when seeing the trailers before the global pandemic and the content seems to be right in line with the current issues facing the nation.

Unfortunately, despite a premise filled with potential and intrigue, Antebellum failed to cash in on it and left me feeling underwhelmed.

The film, which boasts a prospective twist in the movie, truly spoiled that for anyone who had seen that aforementioned trailer. It was a major spoiler for what could have been a truly mind blowing moment.

Successful author Veronica Henley (Janelle Monáe) finds herself in a nightmarish reality, showing what life was like on plantations for slaves. This world seems to be more than what it appears, however.

Seriously, one of the main issues this film faces is the set up and execution of the film’s main framing device. It makes no sense and does not even give the audience an idea of what is happening or how it may be happening. When the entire second half of the film depends on it, you can’t just cast it off as unimportant. There has to be some kind of clear message about the situation you are in.

Janelle Monáe is excellent here though. She certainly throws herself into the role, despite the fact that I believe much of the script let her down. There were some imagery that showed the horrors of slavery but the overall narrative just did not come together as the film may had hoped.

In the end, Antebellum is an exercise of good ideas versus poor execution. The performances in the film are solid to outstanding, but the overall concept is just not pulled together to make the story comprehensible. The final act is just ridiculous and not worthy of the set up.

2.5 stars 

I did not know anything about this movie until I happened to see it on a casual glance at Netflix. There was Tom Holland starring in this unfamiliar movie. So I was excited to watch it and on the first opportunity, I did.

I have to say, I found it disappointing.

There are a group of characters in this movie, with Tom Holland’s Arvin Russell being the main protagonist, probably. There are a series of characters, all unlikable and rotten, who the film follows. Robert Pattinson plays a scumbag preacher taking advantage of the young and impressionable girls of the area. A husband and wife (Jason Clarke, Riley Keough) who are serial killers, picking up hitchhikers and killing them. There is a sheriff (Sebastian Stan) who is crooked and in the pocket of a local criminal.

Arvin has a terribly dark past with his father and mother and ends up with other family members. Arvin is shown to be vicious at times, but, perhaps, deep down a good person. At least, he can justify the behavior he showed.

The worst part of the film, for me, was the voice over that told this story. The entire time, I kept picturing the Dukes of Hazzard with Waylon Jennings telling us what those Duke Boys were up to. It was distracting and felt tonally off key. There were a couple of times when I nearly laughed because of the narrating and I do not expect that laughter was the intended purpose.

The cast was very good. Tom Holland was great here. I never thought of him as Peter Parker, and, for me, that is a major bonus. Sebastian Stan was solid too, as I did not even recognize him until later. Bill Skarsgård was creepy as overtly religious father to young Arvin (Michael Banks Repeta).

Robert Pattinson was a bit too much over the top for me. His performance of the slimy preacher felt a little forced and too unrealistic for me.

The story is very dark and violent. While that alone is not a bad thing, this story feels so disjointed that, when it does eventually come together, it felt forced. It jumps all over the place and the narration does not bring it together effectively.

I did enjoy the performances and some of the characters were darkly effective, but The Devil All the Time has enough other drawbacks to make it a mixed bag.

2.8 stars 

Mental health challenges can be a difficult subject to delve into in a coming of age movie. However, the latest YA novel film adaptation does a very good job of doing just that.

Words on Bathroom Walls is the story of high school senior Adam (Charlie Plummer), who after a violent incident in chemistry class, is diagnosed with schizophrenia and the illness plays havoc with his life. Expelled from his school, Adam winds up at a Catholic school with the understanding that he would remain on his medication.

While at the school, he comes in contact with the school valedictorian Maya (Taylor Russell) and they form a connection. Maya, outspoken and intelligent, has a secret of her own. Adam keeps his schizophrenia under wraps to the best of his ability, but, when the medication starts to cause side effects that were affecting his life, Adam stopped taking them.

During the film, Adam’s “voices” were being shown through delusions of three, in particular, people only Adam could see. The Bodyguard (Lobo Sebastian), Joaquin (Devon Bostick) and Rebecca (AnnaSophia Robb) are only seen by Adam, but they seem to be trying to give him support in the only way they can. There is also a disembodied voice that only Adam can hear and tended toward the darker mindset.

I thought this was a very effective way to show these voices in Adam’s head without stigmatizing them and showing Adam as someone who is not human. Many times, mental illness is shown as evil or uncontrolled and it makes the characters unrelatable. Adam is very much relatable and you feel for his struggles. As he continues to sink deeper into his mental illness, you worry desperately that the movie is setting up the stage for something tragic to happen.

The film does an excellent job of showing that there is not a “cure” for this kind of mental illness and that it is not just going to go away magically at the end of the film.

There are some excellent performances here. Charlie Plummer is exceptional as Adam. He carries this movie with his understated and challenging work. Taylor Russell is another young actress who I think has a bright future as a star in this business. She commands her screen time and plays brilliantly off of Plummer. These two characters have a massive role to play and their chemistry exceeds the expectation.

Another performance that was very wonderful here was Walton Goggins, who plays the recent step father of Adam. Goggins has several layers to play and his work is subtle and really provides an excellent pay off. Andy Garcia is here too is a cool supporting role as Father Patrick, who bonds with Adam inside the confessional.

There are some powerful moments in Words on Bathroom Walls that brought a tear to my eyes. You form a connection with these characters and you want there to be a chance that they make it out of the darkness. Mental illness has such a stigma in our world that this film does a magnificent job of showing that we should look a little deeper before we judge the people afflicted.

4 stars 

A few years ago, there was a Netflix movie called The Babysitter, and it was enjoyable and unexpected. I found out that the new film, The Babysitter: Killer Queen was a direct sequel to that film and I was looking forward to watching it.

This film is nowhere near as fun or enjoyable as the original.

The sequel takes a huge step backwards with the story and with the humor. I will say that there were some ideas and some concepts that were interesting, but they were buried under too much junk to really take them seriously.

Our hero Cole (Judah Lewis), two years after surviving the Satanic blood cult that had tried to kill him, had been having plenty of problems, starting with people thinking he was crazy. He had told everybody about the shocking events of that night with his babysitter Bee (Samara Weaving) and nobody believed him. They thought he had had a psychotic break, and the people in Cole’s life, such as his dad (Ken Marino) and his mom (Leslie Bibb), were hoping to get him back on the right track. They were preparing to have him taken to a psychiatrist resort of some sort, but he discovered that.

With this knowledge, Cole decided to join the girl Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind) who was there with him that night two years ago. They went to a trip to the lake with a bunch of other kids for a wild party.

Unfortunately for Cole, that night’s darkness was not finished with him yet. He teams up with new girl Phoebe (Jenna Ortega) to try and survive the night.

There are parts of this that I really enjoyed. I thought Phoebe and her story was interesting, and Jenna Ortega was stunning. I found her to be completely compelling and I believe she has future star written all over her.

However, the humor of this horror/comedy falls flat way too many times. The whole storyline with Ken Marino and Chris Wylde (Melanie’s father) was some of the worst, most tone-deaf aspects of this movie. It made me dislike both characters a lot and thus brought the emotional impact at the end down considerably.

The campy tone of the movie went just too far and hurt what could have been a much more engaging film. There were so many ridiculous moments and situations that I spent more time rolling my eyes than anything else.

I do believe that there could have been a funny and thrilling horror flick somewhere in here. I thought the ending was decent, if not predictable. The returning demons from the original film had their moments and could have been more effective with the tone just a little bit more serious.

I was disappointed with the film, considering how much I liked the first one. Still, keep an eye on Jenna Ortega, because she could be something special.

2.4 stars 

When a horror movie can take a silly concept and make it terrifying, then it certainly has done its job. Z works on all levels as a horror movie despite a couple of moments when the film nearly went off the rails into ridiculousness.

Josh Parsons (Jett Klyne) is a sad and lonely 8-year old boy despite having both parents with him. His mother Elizabeth (Keegan Connor Tracy) and father Kevin (Sean Rogerson) do not seem shaken when Josh starts communicating with an imaginary friend named Z.

“He’ll grow out of it” is the general idea, however, Elizabeth starts realizing slowly that there appears to be more to this imaginary friend than Josh’s imagination.

Josh’s behaviors become more mean and violent. Elizabeth starts seeing things around the house. When Josh draws a creepy picture of Z on his bedroom wall, things begin to escalate even more.

Eventually, Elizabeth discovers a surprising twist that connects Z to her own past, and she begins to understand the level of insidiousness at work here.

Z is a solid horror film that has a short run time and is paced well. There are some general horror tropes that exist here and the film does not try to subvert these at all. Still they work pretty effectively in the film. It is a good example of how a film’s use of tropes can work if it is smartly done.

As I said earlier, the film teetered between creepiness and ridiculousness and there were a couple of scenes where the movie was in danger of falling off the cliff and into the abyss of stupidity. Fortunately, the film was able to maintain itself and not drop into parody.

The one time when we got a real glimpse of Z, however, was a fail. The quick glimpse was not an effective use of special effects and made the monster look ineffectual. It was considerably creepier when the film only used the drawing on the wall as its imagery of Z and they should have left it at that. Luckily, this was the sole spot where Z made his actual presence known and the unknown was much more scary than the actual shot.

The performances were all really good though Keegan Connor Tracy may take her third act performance a bit over the top. The young kid does a sufficiently creepy job of portraying this weird kid. The arrival of Dr. Seager (Stephen McHattie) hinted at a different way to look at the movie, but that was not explored enough to truly give it analysis. It has some intriguing themes though that work with this picture.

It is a quick watch and, produced by Shudder, it has that scary vibe to it. It avoided the potential crash it was heading for and turned out to be an enjoyable addition to the horror films of 2020.

3.75 stars