Alan Rapp

The Truth

/ / Home Video
  • Title: La vérité (The Truth)
  • IMDb: link

The Truth movie reviewMothers and daughters. La vérité, or The Truth, is your basic wacky family tale involving Lumir (Juliette Binoche), her English-speaking husband (Ethan Hawke), and their daughter (Manon Clavel) visiting her famous mother (Catherine Deneuve) who has just released an autobiography and is now working on an avant-garde sci-fi film (which coincidentally also deals with the relationship between a mother and daughter).

The cast elevates what is otherwise a rather straightforward film from Hirokazu Koreeda about the little moments between family members, the struggles of an actor, familial disapproval, the burdens of living with a self-absorbed celebrity, and the scars of memory. Deneuve is obviously enjoying herself as the over-the-top Fabienne Dangeville and the supporting cast forced to put up with her is solid. So too is the unexpected relationship with her co-star Clémentine Grenier which, along with the publication of a book that plays fast and loose with the truth, forces both confrontation and reconciliation between mother and daughter.

…

The TruthRead More »

The Truth Read More »

Promising Young Woman

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Promising Young Woman
  • IMDb: link

Promising Young Woman movie reviewReferring to Promising Young Woman as revenge porn may be apt, but it’s also doing writer/director Emerald Fennell‘s devilish film a disservice. Mixing revenge, genuine dramatic underpinnings, and a dark sense of humor, the story twists and turns to squealish delight. Once promising medical student Cassie (Carey Mulligan) now lives with her parents and serves coffee at a small café. And in her spare time she targets men who take advantage of women in compromising positions.

Fennell is careful early on not to show us too much of Cassie’s tactics after she’s sprung her trap, allowing our imaginations to fill in the blanks about what this woman is up to as well about the reasons driving her behavior. The later is hinted at as the script drops breadcrumbs before confirming the events which led to Cassie leaving school. Cassie’s more general attacks become focused as she targets those connected to medical school (Adam Brody, Alison Brie, Connie Britton, and Alfred Molina). However, her plans are complicated by her first relationship in years and a boyfriend (Bo Burnham) who causes her to question the dark turns her life has taken.

…

Promising Young WomanRead More »

Promising Young Woman Read More »

The Flight Attendant – In Case of Emergency

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Flight Attendant – In Case of Emergency
  • IMDb: link

The Flight Attendant - In Case of Emergency television review

The opening episode of The Flight Attendant introduces us to stewardess Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) who works and plays hard. After a fun night out in Thailand, Cassie wakes up next to a dead body of a passenger (Michiel Huisman) from their flight to Bangkok and spends the rest of the episode frantic while attempting to cover her tracks and jumping another flight back to the United States before the body can be discovered. Only able to remember fragments of the night, Cassie’s freak-out isn’t helped by the arrival of the FBI to talk with all members of the flight crew.

…

The Flight Attendant – In Case of EmergencyRead More »

The Flight Attendant – In Case of Emergency Read More »

Dungeons & Dragons: At the Spine of the World #2

/ / Comics

Dungeons & Dragons: At the Spine of the World #2 comic reviewRuna, Saarvin, Patience, Amos, and Belvyre continue their trek across the icy Icewind Dale in a second issue that offers quite a bit of bickering among the group prior to them taking shelter in a cave and then getting a good look at the Zombie Frost Giants following them.

The giants are fun, as is the back and forth between our unlikely group that is balanced by the quick friendship forged between Runa and Saarvin. I also quite enjoyed some of the reaction shots we get in this issue from artist Martin Coccolo as events play out.

…

Dungeons & Dragons: At the Spine of the World #2Read More »

Dungeons & Dragons: At the Spine of the World #2 Read More »

Sound of Metal

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Sound of Metal
  • IMDb: link

Sound of Metal movie reviewRiz Ahmed stars as one-half of a heavy metal band whose life is turned upside down when the drummer starts to lose his hearing. A recovering heroin addict, Ruben (Ahmed) agrees to go to an insular community for deaf recovering addicts to appease girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) while still refusing to come to terms with what has happened to him.

The film from co-writer/director Darius Marder is one on personal struggle, loss, acceptance, and transformation as Ruben struggles both in finding a new life and his refusal to let go of what he had prior to his hearing loss. Even discounting the imparement, Ruben practices selective hearing in what doctors and others tell him both about the state of his hearing and about the limited help he might receive from expensive cochlear implants.

Although much of it takes place with a couple of montages, we do witness Ruben’s role from outsider to productive member of the deaf community over the course of the film. But despite the help Joe (Paul Raci) and others give to Ruben, the drummer can’t let go of returning to life on the road with Lou.

…

Sound of MetalRead More »

Sound of Metal Read More »