By Studio and or Graphic Artist - [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65211700
Freshman Year - (2020)
This film is called
Freshman Year in Australia, which is strange, because the word "Freshman" isn't a thing here - and I don't think the original title would have caused much of a stir. Anyway, here we have Alex Malmquist (Cooper Raiff) - a university student who is struggling away from home. He frequently calls his mother, has no friends and talks to his stuffed animals. He meets Maggie Hill (Dylan Gelula), who just wants to have no-strings-attached sex with him, much to his consternation. In a first attempt he's unable to, but they end up keeping each other company during a drunken night where they bond, and then eventually have sex - but next morning she wants nothing to do with him, and this sends Alex reeling, desperately trying to reconnect. The film kind of criticizes both characters for either being too loose, or too uptight - but both have some depth and the film has a kind of realism to it that's nice. I wasn't sure about the ending though.
7/10
By Studio and or Graphic Artist - [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65211700
The Girl on the Bridge - (2020)
Documentary about a survivor of numerous suicide attempts advocating for the mentally ill and suicidal and creating a web series about a friend she could not save. I was constantly worried through this as pressure comes to bear on Jazz Thornton, who has apparently survived 14 suicide attempts. She once ignored a message from a close friend (thinking, "here we go again") and it turned out this friend was about to take her own life. Thornton goes to schools to lecture about suicide, talks on radio shows and counsels families who have lost a loved one - she lives through the ups and downs and stresses of the work she does, but has somehow quelled the demons that used to haunt her. I'd still keep a close eye on her though.
6.5/10
By John Chrin - IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52867194
Operation Avanlanche - (2016)
I was disappointed in this film which follows a handful of CIA agents who discover NASA can't possibly land men on the moon by 1969 so assist them in faking the landing. First of all, the agents are played by what seem to me to be immature 16 year-olds. I know they're meant to be green, but these hopeless kids (who act like they're still in school) were annoying and even if this is meant to be farcical, I couldn't buy it. Secondly, the first moon landing is faked and everything is dismantled, burned and some people killed or driven away. What about the other moon landings? They had to have been faked as well. This film was so dumb it gave me a headache. I like the found-footage genre, and the way Stanley Kubrick is spliced into the film is clever - but the screenplay needed a lot more work. I understand it's meant to be a comedy, so realism is expected to be more elastic - and one scene where a suited up astronaut on the moon is brawling with a CIA guy made me laugh out loud - but I still disliked this film.
4/10
By IMP Awards / 2021 Movie Poster Gallery / Willy's Wonderland Poster, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66474492
Willy's Wonderland - (2021)
Despite the poor ratings this has been getting, I had to take a look. Nicolas Cage channeling crazy through facial expressions and body language (he never speaks in this film) was something I felt was just a little too restrictive, even for him. In one scene he plays a pinball machine while dancing, and it was a moment where I was far too aware that this was Cage doing a crazy dance because he's Cage and has the reputation. It lacked any semblance of the kind of crazy that comes naturally from him - it was Cage impersonating himself to a degree. There's a lot of that in this film, which is easily summed up as a slasher with killer robots who have adopted the souls of serial killers ala
Child's Play. Cage is a badass who dispatched them with ease, as other kids meet their slasher fate. This movie offers nothing more than that - Cage locked in a novelty restaurant killing robots. It's fun, but so
anemic - all of the other performers have zero screen presence or character.
6/10