Drama

Exposed

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  • Title: Exposed
  • IMDb: link

A common reaction to watching 2016’s Exposed is “Um, what?” That’s also the correct reaction. Reuniting Knock Knock stars Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas in a film which only briefly has them both on camera together, Exposed is at least two (maybe three) separate convoluted tales smashed together in a confused and haphazard fashion by writer/director Gee Malik Linton.

While Linton, under the name Declan Dale, wanted a surreal tale involving themes of abuse and its effects on victims both immediate and over time, Lionsgate instead wanted a cop picture. What was delivered is a little bit of both, but not a good version of either. While the stories eventually connect at the end of the film, they don’t ever true fit together leaving audiences questioning what they did with the last 100 minutes of their lives. There are certainly better ways to spend your time.

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CODA

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: CODA
  • IMDb: link

The winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture of 2022, CODA stars Emilia Jones as the only hearing member of her deaf family (Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin, and Daniel Durant) whose reliance chafes on the high school senior who, despite loving them, wants a life outside the family. She finds this unexpectedly by following a cute boy (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) into choir where Ruby discovers she has a talent for singing that might lead to a future she could never have dreamed of.

In what I’d refer to as a Coyote Ugly ending, the plot falls a bit into cliché with Ruby running late to a life-changing audition without ever working out the logistics of the happy ending it promises. Despite this, the film is a moving experience highlighting the role of an unique individual whose circumstances make her feel like an outcast to the outside world but who, with the help of her teacher (Eugenio Derbez), begins to chase an impossible dream.

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Man on the Moon

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  • Title: Man on the Moon
  • IMDb: link

Director Milos Foreman‘s 1999 biopic of Andy Kaufman (played by Jim Carrey) is most notable for Carrey’s performance of the unusual celebrity that took himself too seriously but nothing else all that seriously at all. The film highlights the big moments of Kaufman’s career including his inter-gender wrestling, his reluctance to accept a role on Taxi, his chaotic appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and Fridays and the creation of his grating alter-ego Tony Clifton.

While Carrey is the backbone of the film, the script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski never really explores the reasoning behind Kaufman’s various antics or hold him responsible for those that fell flat in what is very much a celebration of the unique performer’s career.

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Fireheart

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  • Title: Fireheart
  • IMDb: link

Set in New York during the 1920s, L’Atelier Animation’s Fireheart stars Olivia Cooke as Georgia Nolan who has grown up dreaming of becoming a firefighter. When her father (Kenneth Branagh), retired firefighter turned tailor, is brought back by the department after the rest of the city’s firefighters go missing, Georgia sees her chance to live her dream in the gender-bending farce / coming of age story. Passing herself off as a male volunteer, Georgia discovers what being a firefighter is all about.

Relying on a host of goofy secondary characters including a narcoleptic cab driver, William Shatner as the city’s sleazy mayor, cute dog, and a villain with bizarre motives but seemingly endless supply of money and technology, along with a generic chasing your dreams kind of story, Fireheart is mostly forgettable fare with a nice message for young girls about breaking through the glass ceiling.

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The King’s Man

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  • Title: The King’s Man
  • IMDb: link

Removing all the humor, and most of the over-the-top action, from the franchise, writer/director Matthew Vaughn delivers the dreary prequel The King’s Man. Set during World War I, the film isn’t about the creation of the Kingsman but instead the story of the man (Ralph Fiennes) who would eventually put the group together and his turbulent relationship to his son (Harris Dickinson). As in the other films, there is, of course, a secret organization led by a Scottish madman behind the events of WWI whose reveal turns out to be as lame as the rest of the film. …

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