Category Archives: Film Review

Celebrate Labor Day With These 14 Films!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I have no idea what this day is supposed to celebrate but I hope everyone has a good one.

There doesn’t seem to be any agreed upon way to celebrate Labor Day.  A few people have the day off and they’re the reason why I decided to hold off on going up to Lake Texoma until this upcoming, holiday-free weekend.  Personally, I think the best way to celebrate any holiday is with a film festival so here are my suggestions for your Labor Day viewing:

  1. Red Menace (1949) — In this wonderfully atmospheric film noir, a former GI named Bill Jones (Robert Rockwell) finds himself seduced by the Communist Party.  After he witnesses the head of the party murder a man who questions the wisdom of Marx, Jones and his lover go on the run.
  2. Big Jim McClain (1951) — John Wayne takes on the commies!  And you better believe that no one is more determined to keep America and its workers safe from communist influence than the Duke!  This film features some lovely Hawaiian scenery and enough over-the-top propaganda to make any American proud.
  3. I Was A Communist For The FBI (1951) — Based (I imagine very loosely) on a true story, I Was A Communist For The FBI is about an agent who spent nine years undercover as a communist.  As a result, he lost his friends and almost his family but he also serves his country.  Featuring a scene where a strike turns violent, there’s nothing subtle about this film but, as with Big Jim McClain, that’s a large part of what makes the movie so watchable.
  4. On The Waterfront (1954) — Marlon Brando won his first Oscar for this film about union corruption.
  5. Dr. No (1962) — In his very first film outing, James Bond shows what a good job a true professional can do.
  6. The Godfather (1972) — “It’s strictly business.”
  7. Blue Collar (1978) — In this gritty film from Paul Schrader, three auto-workers (played by Yaphet Kotto, Harvey Keitel, and Richard Pryor) discover that their union is even more corrupt than management.  Consider this film to be an antidote to Norma Rae.
  8. F.I.S.T. (1978) — After the success of Rocky, Sylvester Stallone played a thinly-disguised version of Jimmy Hoffa in this epic historical film.  The film is poorly paced and doesn’t quite work but it’s interesting to see Stallone, post-Rocky, playing a character who isn’t necessarily all-that heroic.
  9. Convoy (1979) — The film celebrate the independent trucker, the hard-working driver who doesn’t want to be tied down by either the unions or the law.  Convoy is infamous for being an out-of-control production and yes, it is a bit self-indulgent.  But who cares?  When that convoy forms, you have to heartless not to cheer a little.
  10. Alien (1979) — One of the best films about how much it sucks to have to work for a living, Alien follows a group of blue-collar workers whose lives are deliberately put in danger by a big, faceless corporation.
  11. Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989) — A labor strike leaves a Brooklyn neighborhood reeling.  This film is not for the faint-hearted.
  12. Hoffa (1991) — Jack Nicholson stars as Jimmy Hoffa in this uneven but watchable film.  This movie is unabashedly pro-Hoffa and therefore, it provides an interesting contrast to films like F.I.S.T. and Blue Collar.
  13. Office Space (1999) — And don’t forget to sing along to the copier scene!
  14. The Irishman (2019) — Despite all the criticism that it received when it was first released, The Irishman is one of Martin Scorsese’s finest films.  It takes a while to get used to the de-aging but Al Pacino’s performance as Jimmy Hoffa was brilliant.  This film is one of the best looks at how the American labor movement lost its way.

Megalopolis Trailer, Dir. Francis Ford Coppola Review by Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

ALERT! They took down their whiny trailer because all those bad reviews from Christmas Past were FAKE! Francis listen, I get it- everyone likes attention or whatever, but you playing the I’m so Put-Upon card is really really really ANNOYING! Cut it out! Paisan, you’ve had a great career and made BANK- BE HAPPY.

Welcome all, I’m going to review the “Megalopolis” trailer and just so you know – this was directed by a GENIUS. Really, that’s in the trailer and not just for a little while; they give a middle-finger to anyone who didn’t like a Coppola film for a solid 44 seconds! If you don’t think this movie is genius, too bad moron- it’s awesome, you’re a filthy plebe!

From what I can glean from the trailer, Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) is tired of New York decadence; so, he wants to make a new city that’s way fancier and weirder. I’ve played Sim City before; so, maybe it’s got like a lot of happy faces when the plumbing works and sad faces if there’s not enough power? Without question, that was a fun game and if you didn’t enjoy it – you are part of the great unwashed!

This trailer has A LOT of scowling. Cesar Catilina scowls A LOT in the trailer and no one can scowl like Adam Driver. He was born to scowl!!!! Cesar appears to be a magical city planner who wants to make a better city that is vaguely or overtly communist- it is difficult to discern. If it’s anything like real communism, Francis will like it a lot theoretically without any consequences.

I have the distinct impression that this movie is more like a painting; it is visually stunning but with no plot. If you don’t like the film, remember you’re a petite bourgeois rube who brushes his teeth with his fingers. This film seems like “The Darjeeling Limited”- really pretty and Jason Schwatzman was in that film too and it revolved around finding good … tea??? I originally wrote it as “The Darjeeling UNLIMITED” now that would’ve been a film- Think of all the tea we could’ve watched them drink! Remember kids, you only rent Darjeeling Tea!!!

If you want a film where if you say you liked it, you’re 12% more sophisticated- “Megalopolis” is for you! For me, after this trailer, I think I’m going watch something with Dwayne “THE ROCK” Johnson in it. Maybe he’ll do a “Rampage 2”?

In conclusion, this film is GENIUS and the director is a GENIUS and if you don’t think so, I’m going to register you as a pederast and put garbage on your lawn!

Film Review: Alien Romulus (dir. by Fede Alvarez)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

Lately, I don’t trust myself much when it comes to writing movie reviews. I once raved about Batman Begins when it first came out, only to have a friend/co-worker read it, check the movie out based on my thoughts. He returned with a look of disgust on his face…”That was terrible! Grumble grumble Batman, I could barely understand him.”, he said.

I dance around it, when I can. I’m almost Fifty, at an age and a point in my life where I’m easily amused by almost anything, particularly in a world where everything’s in a doomscroll. Sitting in a darkened room, watching a story play out just feels good, even if the story isn’t great. Add to this the notion that everyone will have a film of the week screen captured and spoiled by Saturday Morning (if not already), and sometimes there doesn’t feel like a need to write about these things. You don’t need me, but I’m happy to be here. I’m not helping anyone in making a decision on whether they should see a film, I’m simply cataloging my experience. That’s the beauty of it. No two experiences are similar, and it’s a joy to read how others felt about a movie while discovering my own viewpoints through my writing. This is all still fun to do, I’m finding.

So what does any of this have to do with Fede Alvarez’s Alien Romulus? Not much. I just needed to get thoughts on the page so I could rev up to writing about the film. I also wanted to warn you that I could be high on the euphoria of going to the movies. My take might not be yours, but I’m also playing Devil’s Advocate in trying to weigh what I thought they could have improved on.

Living as miners on a world where sunlight is rare, life is hard for Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny, Priscilla, Pacific Rim: Uprising) and her brother, Andy (David Jonsson, HBO’s Industry). When her friends discover a discarded ship called Romulus near an asteroid field, they decide to loot it for the tools they need for an extended hypersleep to a better destination. This becomes a problem when they discover they’re not alone on the ship they targeted. Can they escape these threats before meeting their end?

I was really impressed by Alien Romulus in a number of ways. One, I argued that the last trailer gave away too much information on the plot. I was terribly incorrect. For all that was shown, it barely touched the surface of the entire story. I found that pretty refreshing in this day and age where movie trailers rarely leave anything out. Two, there are a number of practical effects used in this film, from the animatronic, jumpy facehuggers that get more up close and personal than one would ever want to the classic Xenomorph scaling walls and dripping acid. I felt like it learned a bit or two from Alien Covenant (of which I’m not a fan) and considerably toned down the CGI where it could. The results are damn good, given this is the 9th go around in the Alien Franchise (if you want to include the two Alien vs. Predator films). Alvarez really gets the atmosphere right. Hallways are creepy and dimly lit, feeling much like Creative Assembly did with Alien Isolation (which of course built theirs from the original Alien). The space station, flight sequences and the asteroid belt are all on par what with we saw with Prometheus. The film even manages to travel in some new directions with both Xenomorph development and by the end will have you wanting to rewatch the series again. Is it all perfect? No, but I can’t say anything like that about Alien Resurrection.

From an acting standpoint, this movie clearly belongs to both Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson. They easily carry the film with their performances. With the exception of Isabela Merced (Dora the Explorer), I can’t say much about the other characters. I can at least say her character and performance here was far better than what she did in Madame Web earlier this year. Those three are only ones that are given any true character development through the course of the film. This isn’t to say that we don’t get good performances from Archie Renaux (Tyler), Aileen Wu (Navarro), and Spike Fearn (Bjorn). They just weren’t as memorable to me. We know the others want to move on to better things, but we never really get to know them well enough to root for or against them.

For the horror aspect, let’s face it. After so many movies, it’s a little difficult to be afraid of the Xenomorph. And yet, more with the facehuggers than with the human sized aliens, Alien Romulus does find a way to make the monsters creepy and amazingly quick. I had a few moments where I did my usual “watch the corners”, and avoided looking at the screen directly. There aren’t too many jumpscares, though they are there.

If Romulus suffers from any problems, it’s that the cast was too small for all of the elements thrown at them. I understand that it’s more of a personal story, so you’re not having a group of decimated Marines like in James Cameron’s Aliens or even a number of dead prisoners such as you had with David Fincher’s Alien3, but it was easier to get a feel of how dangerous the Xenomorphs when people were hunted left and right in different ways. The death sequences in Romulus all felt interesting, but there just weren’t enough of them for my taste. Another problem I had with the film was that it tried too hard in the last act to pay homages to other films in the series. Some of them worked well (particularly one introducing some to weapons) , and others kind of didn’t. At one point, you’re finding that the movie pulls lines and or whole sequences from the other films, which doesn’t make sense in some situations given where Romulus sits in the Alien timeline.

Imagine watching a fight in space between two Green Lanterns and one says to the other “Do you bleed?” as a reference to Batman v. Superman. Sure, it might be nice to hear, but who bleeds in space? It’s somewhat similar with Romulus in that fashion. Is that all Nostalgia is now, just re-spitting lines from older films that were more effective back then? Sitting in the front row on the sides (my favorite area), I want to say there were at least 4 walkouts during my showing, with one person coming back with drinks.

Musically, Benjamin Wallfisch does a good job here. He doesn’t try to recreate Jerry Goldsmith’s score the way Jed Kurzel did with Alien Covenant, though there are some wild heavy beats that could work better in a trance song. The sound in the film is also pretty nice, with the skittering and screeching bounding off the walls perfectly in the Regal RPX setup.

Overall, I really enjoyed Alien Romulus. While there are some elements I would have fixed (particularly with characterization and moving away from trying to reference the other films), I feel It’s a solid entry in the series, especially when I compare it to Alien Covenant or Alien Resurrection.

The Films of 2024: The Long Game (dir by Julio Quintana)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Long Game is a sports film and, like most sports film, it’s a crowd-pleaser despite being predictable.

The film opens in South Texas in the 50s.  World War II vet JB Pena (Jay Hernandez) has been hired as the new superintendent of the school district.  Haunted by his experiences in the war, Pena now works out his emotions by hitting golf balls.  Despite being sponsored by his former commanding officer, retired golf pro Frank Mitchell (Dennis Quaid), Pena is turned down for membership in the wealthy Del Rio Country Club.  It’s suggested that he might fit in better at the all-Mexican country club a few towns away.

Pena discovers that five caddies at the country club have built their own golf course.  (He discovers this when one of them hits a golf ball through his car window while Pena is driving.)  Pena also discovers that the caddies are all students at the local high school.  Pena decides to recruit the caddies into the high school’s first ever golf team.  Under the guidance of both JB Pena and Frank Mitchell, the Mavericks make it to the Texas High School Golf championship and …. wouldn’t you know it! — they find themselves playing at the same country club that previously refused to allow Pena to join.

Sports films are interesting.  Critics and audiences tend to make a big deal about wanting to be surprised by movies.  We complain about the lack of originality that is present in most modern-day films.  But we make an exception when it comes to sports films because we understand that, at their best, sports film appeal to some very basic but very important emotions.  We go into sports film with the understanding that the underdogs are going to win, despite all of the obstacles that have been put in their way.  We go into sports films with the understanding that the team’s best player is going to be a troubled soul who has to be talked into competing.  We go into sports films knowing that the coach is going to start out pushing one method, just to realize the error of his ways.  We go into sports films knowing that there’s going to be a wise mentor.  (In fact, The Long Game gives us two, with both Dennis Quaid and Cheech Marin offering up advice.)  Sports film tend to be very predictable but you know what?  It doesn’t matter.  Everybody appreciates a story about underdogs proving that they can go the distance and compete with the best.  Everybody loves a story where the contender that no one took seriously comes from behind and wins.  There’s a reason why the Rocky films didn’t end with the first one.  After our heroes prove they’ve got the heart of a champion, we then like to see them win.  These stories are totally predictable but damn if they don’t bring a tear to my eye every time.

The Long Game certainly inspired a few tears.  It’s a well-made sports film, one that features heartfelt performances from Jay Hernandez, Dennis Quaid, and all of the young actors playing the members of the Mavericks.  It’s predictable but it’s also well-made and there’s an aching sincerity the whole thing that is just impossible to resist.  (It also helps that the film itself is wonderful to look at, with the cinematography truly capturing the beauty of my home state.)  The film is based on a true story.  I imagine that a few liberties were taken, as they always are with a film like this.  But still, when the film ended with grainy images of the real-life golfers, it was impossible not to be moved by their story and proud of their accomplishments.

Go Mavericks!

The Films of 2024: The Bikeriders (dir by Jeff Nichols)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Taking place in the late 60s and the early 70s, The Bikeriders tells the story of The Vandals Motorcycle Club.

The Vandals were founded by Johnny (Tom Hardy), a truck driver who got the idea for starting his own motorcycle gang after catching a late night broadcast of The Wild One.  Under Johnny’s strong leadership, the Vandals quickly grow and soon, branches are opening up across the country.  Of the many members of the Vandals, the most charismatic is Benny (Austin Butler), a quiet and enigmatic man who loves his motorcycle and who seems to have the worst luck when it comes to crashing and getting caught by the police.  If Johnny epitomizes the leadership needed to successfully start a motorcycle club in the first place, Benny epitomizes the coolness of being a rebel and doing your own thing.  Everyone in the club wants to be like Benny, even if the majority of them have more in common with the simple-minded Cockroach (Emory Cohen) or the eccentric Zipco (Michael Shannon).  The fatalistic Johnny knows that he can’t remain in charge forever and he views Benny as his heir apparent.  However, Benny’s feelings about the whole thing are far more difficult to decipher.  As the Vandals themselves grow increasingly more violent and hostile and as lowbrow criminals like The Kid (Toby Wallace) step up to challenge Johnny’s power, both Benny and Johnny are forced to confront the reality of what The Vandals have become.

Watching The Bikeriders is a frustrating experience, especially for those of us who have enjoy director Jeff Nichols’s other films.  It’s a good movie but it never quite becomes the great movie that it so obviously wants to be.  On the plus side, both Austin Butler and Tom Hardy give excellent performance as Benny and Johnny.  Both characters serve as archetypes for a uniquely American style of masculinity and Hardy and Butler bring them to life as both symbols and as human beings.  Tom Hardy, especially, captures the tragic dignity of a man who knows that his fate has already been set.  Wisely, Butler and Hardy both underplay their characters.  Neither Johnny nor Benny are the types to normally show their emotions, which makes their rare moments of vulnerability all the more powerful. If nothing else, The Bikeriders serves as a reminder that both Butler and Hardy are legitimate movie stars, along with being excellent actors.

Unfortunately, the film suffers due to an awkward framing device, in which Benny’s wife, Kathy (Jodie Comer), is interviewed by photographer and writer Danny Lyon (Mike Faist).  Kathy serves as the audience surrogate.  We learn about the Vandals through her eyes and she’s the one explains to us all of the ins-and-outs of Vandal culture.  Unfortunately, Kathy is a bit of an underwritten character and her relationship with Benny never feels convincing.  Unlike Hardy and Butler, Jodie Comer never lets you forget that she’s a performer giving a performance.  Much like Meryl Streep in The Laundromat and Don’t Look Up, Comer gives the type of bad and mannered performance that could really only come from an otherwise good actress.  Whenever the viewer starts to get emotionally involved with the story, director Jeff Nichols cuts back to Lyon staring reverently at Kathy while Kathy prattles on in dialogue that tries so hard to sound authentic that it ultimately makes the whole thing feel artificial.

Just as he did in Take Shelter and Mud, Nichols attempts to capture the unique mythology of the Midwest in The Bikeriders.  Occasionally, he succeeds.  The scene where Benny outruns the cops, just to discover that his motorcycle has run out of gas, serves as evidence of just how good a director Jeff Nichols can be.  But, in the end, The Bikeriders is never quite as strong, moving, or insightful about outlaw culture as it wants to be.  It’s a good film but it’s hard not to feel that it could have been so much more.

The Films of 2024: Roadkill (dir by Warren Fast)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Below, you’ll find the trailer for a film called Roadkill.  Before watching, please be aware that the trailer pretty much spoils all of the film’s plot twists.

On a humid stretch of road that winds through the Florida bayous, a long-haired man with a beard (played by Ryan Knudson) hitchhikes and deals with traumatic flashbacks to his past.  He’s given a ride by a young woman (Caitlin Carmichael) who is driving a red Nova.  At first, most viewers will probably assume that the Driver is in danger from the Hitchhiker.  However, it soon turns out that the Driver has some issues of her own.

And yes, this is the type of film where the two main characters do not actually have names.

As far as violent, low-budget road movies are concerned, Roadkill is …. well, it’s okay.  It’s a film that wears its influences — films like Freeway, First Blood, and No Country For Old Men — on its sleeve and the plots twists are never quite as surprising as the film seems to think that they are.  At the same time, the film does a good job of capturing the atmosphere of the Florida backroads and both Ryan Knudson and Caitlin Carmichael do a good-enough job of bringing their characters to life.  There’s even a few shots of that red Nova driving down the highway at night that are downright good.  The film’s pace is occasionally a bit too deliberate and there’s a chase scene where it’s obvious that neither one of the cars involved are going above the speed limit.  But the final 30 minutes are nicely executed and the film’s ending does stick with you.  Roadkill is the epitome of the flawed film that doesn’t quite work but which still has enough effective moments to remain watchable.

Horror fans will be happy to see Danielle Harris, even if her role is a small one.  Harris plays Allison, a cheerful waitress at a diner.  (A few years ago, Harris probably would have been playing The Driver.)  Harris is likable, even if the role is a bit of a throw-away part.  At least she gets to wear a cute uniform.  Still, watching the film, you can’t help but wonder how a diner sitting in the most isolated spot of the Florida bayous manages to stay in business or why Allison is still working at the diner even after it becomes obvious that the diner’s owner is no longer going to be able to pay her salary.

I guess the main lesson of Roadkill is that you really shouldn’t hitchhike.  But, to be honest, that’s a lesson that everyone should already know.  You should not need a movie to know better than to accept rides from strangers.  I think the more important lesson is the one that becomes obvious during the final 30 minutes, which is that it’s better to wear shorts than jeans in the bayou.  The bayou can be a dangerous place, though we all know that they worst bayou is bayouself.  Thank you, I’ll be here all week and every week afterwards.

You can view Roadkill on Tubi and YouTube.  To quote the poet Bluto, it don’t cost nothing.

Nope, Short Film Review by Case Wright, Dir. Ryan Godoy

Posted on by casewright

This short film clocks in at 1 minute and 10 seconds- TOTAL! When something is this brief, I have to give it a chance. Today, we are used to the comedy shorts on Youtube, but they’re jokes. They are not stories with a protagonist and a quest. This is not to diminish the talent of Youtubers because I try to do it myself and it is HARD!!! The ones who post a less than one minute joke or jokes that land are today’s Comedic greats – really!

I watched this with an open mind because if you can create a story with a beginning, middle, and end in under two minutes- you are a certified genius. This film was a “could’ve been” because unlike the director’s career, the film did NOT have an ending. This review is difficult for me because Ryan had talent, but couldn’t deliver.

The short had a regular guy who sees a drawer open in his home on its own; so he left the house. He leaves his house and the front door opens on its own power; so, he retreats to his car. In the car, his glovebox opens on its own and the film ends. I laughed a few times, but it is obvious that the film lacked an ending. Typically, this means that the creator was using this short for pitch meetings to get funding for a full-length story. “Nope” is a cautionary tale for creators because what you are proving to a prospective producer is that you likely do NOT have the creative talent to finish a story. Why would anyone want to invest in someone who can’t complete their own story? Why would you risk that the creator would follow through on a bigger budget?

If it is warranted, I relish excoriating a craptastic filmmaker, but I do NOT enjoy watching self-destruction. “Nope” is a great lesson on how not to succeed in film or any other profession.

Skipped, Short Film Review by Case Wright, Dir & Written by Faisal Hashmi

Posted on by casewright

Hello Beautiful and Intelligent readers, how do I know you’re so smart and beautiful? You’re reading my stuff!!! You know what’s not good- This short film. Like chlamydia at a Senor Frogs in Cancun, this short will stick with you in the worst way! He writes in his bio that he’s an “award-winning independent filmmaker”, but who is in charge of these awards?! Is it like a certificate of participation? Did they owe Faisal Hashmi money? Did Faisal Hashmi see them commit a brutal crime? Sadly, he kept making “films” after this waste of his iPhone memory, on the bright side, his career didn’t take off because- ya know, he sucks at this!

There are a many ways that this short doesn’t even deserve to be used to clean the bathroom floor at Port Authority on a Friday night, but the two that stick out the most to me are that –

  1. The film makes no sense.
  2. It’s boring!

But Case come on, you always say these sci-fi things don’t make sense, well most of the time I’m right! However, to really pull this piece of trash apart like it deserves, I have to go over the terrible story! It’s like Faisal Hashmi is out to hurt me in every way! Did he give me COVID? Where were you Faisal, December 2020??

The story- an office worker has a boring job, but every time he sneezes he blacks out and all of his work is done; purportedly, he travels in time like my Aunt does after Natural Light and Ambien. This is where the story doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t remember the time he lost. He just moves forward. Let’s just skip over the fact that this sort of time travel is impossible without Ambien. Of course, he abuses this “gift” and eventually becomes old. This is not how special relativity works, but I guess looking things up on Wikipedia is TOO MUNDANE for Faisal!

This brings me to my second issue with this film: it’s boring. I understand that being good at anything is hard, right Faisal? Faisal Hashmi, you’re probably terrible at a lot of things- Film is really just the only one we have a digital record of to prove it. Maybe you also suck at volleyball, buying groceries, or tying your shoes? I can’t speak for those other things, but you’re rebuttably presumed to be awful at those things too, but I’ll just stick to this 4 minute and 26 second slice of hell!

Every plot point was so predictable and obvious, it felt as if a short film became a flip book crap version of “Goodnight, Moon”. I hate you Faisal! You, Marcin Dubinek, and Alex Magana are a cabal of terrible art! You create the unholy trinity of film. I even tagged the horror box for this post because that’s what your film is, but not intentionally! Faisal, stop what you’re doing! Try real estate or work for Ticketmaster!

I did provide a link to this unholy thing, if you feel like slowing your life down and embracing death’s touch.

Something Boring This Way Comes!!!!

You should check out my twitter “x” for my other tweets and work (@casewrites).

Retro Television Review: The Chadwick Family (dir by David Lowell Rich)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay.  Today’s film is 1974’s The Chadwick Family!  It  can be viewed on YouTube.

Who are the Chadwicks?

They’re a family living in San Francisco.  They claim to be an average middle class family but, as has apparently been typical of television since its very first broadcast day, they live in a way that can only be explained by having a good deal of wealth.

Consider this: Patriarch Ned Chadwick (Fred MacMurray) is a prominent newspaper columnist who writes so well that a mere column from him can settle a potential labor strike.  A national magazine has noticed the power of Ned’s words and they’ve offered him a job.  They want to turn him into a national figure.  The only catch is that he and his wife (Kathleen Maguire) would have to leave their beloved San Francisco and move to Chicago.  There’s no ocean in Chicago, as Ned puts it.  Sure, it would mean more money but who needs money when you’re a fabulously wealthy couple pretending to be middle class?

Moving would also mean leaving behind their children, all of whom have dramas of their own to deal with.  Tim (Stephen Nathan) is a college student, struggling to make the grade.  Lisa (Jane Actman) is engaged to Lee (Frank Michael Liu) and, for some reason, decides that it would be a good idea to tell her future mother-in-law that her desire for a long engagement is “bad chop suey.”  (Lee’s family is Chinese.)  Eileen (Lara Parker) is pregnant and her husband worries this will sabotage their support for “zero population growth.”  And Joan (Darleen Carr) is having to deal with the fact that her charismatic and fun-loving husband, Duffy (a young Barry Bostwick), is seriously ill and might even die before he can finish teaching Ned how to play the bagpipes.  Like all middle class people, Duffy owns his own airplane.

This is one of those movies that was obviously meant to serve as a pilot for a weekly television series and it’s easy to imagine Ned handing out wisdom to his kids on a weekly basis as they tried to navigate their way through the 70s.  Fred MacMurray gives off a nice grandfatherly vibe as Ned, so much so that it’s hard to believe that he’s the same actor who brought to life memorable heels in Double Indemnity, The Caine Mutiny, and The Apartment.  Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is not as memorable as MacMurray, largely because their roles are underwritten and their characters never feel like more than caricatures.  Barry Bostwick acts up a storm as Duffy but the fact that he’s listed as being a “special guest star” in the opening credits pretty much gives away his fate from the start.  As for Lisa, I usually like any character who shares my name but how much sympathy can you have for someone dumb enough to use a phrase like “bad chop suey” while speaking to her Chinese future in-laws.  Indeed, it was kind of weird how everyone in the family seemed to be totally comfortable with making jokes about Lee being Chinese and speaking with an accent.  One has to wonder how Lee felt about that.

Anyway, as far as I know, The Chadwick Family has no further adventures but their sole outing will live forever thanks to YouTube.

Documentary Review: Brats (dir by Andrew McCarthy)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The documentary Brats opens with actor and travel writer Andrew McCarthy in New York City.

He’s obsessing over his film career, which featured him starring in several classic 80s films, like Pretty In Pink, Class, and Less Than Zero.  If you love those films as much as I do, you’ll be happy to know that, physically, McCarthy has aged well.  If he was adorably cute during his teen idol days, Andrew McCarthy now looks like a distinguished and handsome creative writing teacher.  McCarthy talks about how he was briefly a star and now, he has a busy career as a writer.  To be honest, it seems like everything should be going pretty well for Andrew McCarthy.

The only problem is that Andrew McCarthy has spent the last 30 years obsessed with an article that he feels led to him being labeled as one of the “Brat Pack,” along with Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Demi Moore, and Ally Sheedy.  Interestingly enough, McCarthy is only mentioned once in the article, when Nelson dismissively describes him as playing every role “with the same intensity.”  Still, McCarthy feels that the article led to him being unfairly labeled “a brat,” and it also led to his film career fizzling.

Over the course of the documentary, McCarthy travels to California and tracks down some of his co-stars (with both Ringwald and Nelson being notable for their absence) and he also talks to the author of the article.  He talks about what it means to be identified with the Brat Pack and how the label still haunts him.

Seriously, this is one of the most depressing documentaries I’ve ever seen.

It’s not just that McCarthy, who really does seem like he should be enjoying his second act as a successful and respected travel writer, is still obsessed with an article that came out 30 years ago.  It’s also the fact that, judging from the scenes in which he drops in on Estevez, Lowe, Moore, and Sheedy, it doesn’t appear that anyone has wanted to talk to McCarthy since they all did St. Elmo’s Fire.  Emilio Estevez, especially, seems to be uncomfortable with having McCarthy in his kitchen.  As for the others, Ally Sheedy is polite, Demi Moore comes across as if she’s visiting from another planet, and Rob Lowe is once again the most likable and laid back person in the room.  Everyone that McCarthy interviews has dealt with the Brat Pack legacy in their own different way.  The thing they all have in common is that they’ve all dealt with it better than McCarthy.

The saddest part of the film is that Molly Ringwald never returns Andrew McCarthy’s call.  Seriously, the main reason I watched this documentary was because I wanted to see Andie and Blane reunited.  Instead, I had to settle for Blane and Duckie having an awkward conversation.  It’s nice to see that McCarthy and Jon Cryer are apparently now on friendly terms (which apparently they weren’t during the filming of Pretty in Pink), but seriously, Molly is the one that most viewers will probably want to see reunited with Andrew.  That it doesn’t happen is kind of heart-breaking.

I hope someone gives Andrew McCarthy a good hug and tells him that we’re all Team Blane.  He deserves it.