Avengers: Endgame Review

Avengers: Endgame

Director:Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Starring:Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Brie Larson, Don Cheadle, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Tessa Thompson, Paul Rudd, and Josh Brolin

How do you say goodbye? It’s not a question we often think about in our everyday lives, but in cinema it’s a theme that is often explored, sometimes with intense emotion and depth of character. Remember Andy saying goodbye to his toys in “Toy Story 3”, the cowboy riding into the sunset in “Shane”, or the Paris scene in “Casablanca”; saying goodbye is hard, emotional, and sometimes complicated.

Almost one year ago, comic book movie fans were left stunned as 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe converged and ended with a question mark for the fates of their favorite superheroes in “Avengers: Infinity War”. It was a cinematic event, one of those pop culture happenings that people will recount in the future when asked when and where they watched the movie. 

Now, the culmination of a film world, which took 11 years and spawned 22 films, prepares for a goodbye of sorts with “Avengers: Endgame”, an epic cinematic event that does it best to wrap up one long story with charming humor, an emotional heart, and cheer-worthy heroics. 

The Avengers have been wounded. With one snap of his titanic fingers, Thanos (Josh Brolin) destroyed half of all humanity. Very soon after this catastrophic event, Captain America (Chris Evans), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) are left scrambling for answers and on a quest to find Thanos to exact some revenge. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) are stranded in the depths of space, left starving and running out of air. The how and why of everything else after this introduction will be left spoiler-free. 

The term “fan service” is often thrown around in conversations concerning influential films in pop culture. For those who may be worried about Marvel not committing towards giving fans everything they want with “Avengers: Endgame”, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. “Endgame” delivers 11 years’ worth of fan service throughout the course of the massive 3-hour long runtime, paying homage to the characters and films that have led towards this monumental culmination of heroics. 

The first hour of the film is near perfect. Examining the relationships between our heroes but also the limited grasp they have with the normal world around them, that world where they can establish a sense of normalcy, and the joys associated, beyond the powers that have come to define them. It’s opportunity for these actors to shine, to display the complicated emotions their characters have with themes of duty, servitude, and selflessness. 

Robert Downey Jr., who has emotionally morphed throughout the journey as Ironman, and Chris Evans, who brings more insight than expected into a character who remains the steadfast compass of honorability for the Avengers, each shine bright in this early portion of the film. These two characters carry the heart of the story, and have throughout the course of these films. “Ironman”, with Downey’s foundation-setting performance, is still one of the best films of the entire franchise. One of the highlights of “Endgame” is watching Downey portray Tony Stark. 

The second hour of the film is where much of the fan service takes over, unfortunately in some negative ways. “Endgame” develops a dense maze of plot devices, some that don’t always make the most sense, spanning over the course of the 11-year history of these stories. It’s overly convoluted, often silly in both humorous and puzzling ways, but its focus is clearly set on the fans that have taken into this journey for so many years. If so much passion and heart weren’t dedicated throughout the entire film, with character development specifically, this centerpiece narrative would unravel the first act completely; it’s a compliment to the skill from directors Anthony and Joe Russo that they have weaved this immense story so well. 

Chris Hemsworth, who’s Thor has changed from a humdrum Shakespearean prototype into a witty and arrogant college jock of sorts, and Mark Ruffalo, who has always supplied a charm to the portrayal of the big green Hulk, are provided some scene stealing moments during this middle piece. These two characters compose most of the humor for “Endgame”. These Marvel films have established the value of having humor within the narrative, it helps when watching a grown man turn into a massive angry monster or listening to someone call themselves the “god of thunder”. 

The finale returns to form, mostly accomplishing the challenging feat of tying everything back together, offering some of the brightest moments for our heroes to do what they do best, and giving fans exactly what they have waited for…a fitting goodbye to 11-years of humor, heart, and heroics that have come to define the Avengers and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Where do we go from here? I’m sure Marvel already has the next 11-years planned. 

Monte’s Rating

3.75 out of 5.00

The Curse of La Llorona Review

The Curse of La Llorona

Dir: Michael Chaves

Starring: Linda Cardellini, Sean Patrick Thomas, Tony Amendola, Roman Christou, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen, and Raymond Cruz

Who remembers bed time stories? Tales about knights fighting dragons, magic lamps that provide three wishes, and adventures into magical kingdoms with giant people. Within all these fables are happy endings, romantic moments, but also hints of dangerous creatures, evil witches, and spooky boogeymen. 

For some children, the naughty and disrespectful kind, these bed time stories can serve as a warning, a cautionary tale for young people to make better decisions, to obey their elders, or to abide by the rules. These monsters are created and exist in different shapes and forms familiar to the environment, their legend grows greater with each story told and eventually folklore is born; the Irish banshee, the Native American wendigo, and the Greek sirens are a few legends that have morphed or transformed into new scary stories to tell before bed.

“The Curse of La Llorona” is the newest scary movie to hit movie theaters, produced by the team who brought “The Conjuring” franchise to life and directed by newcomer Michael Chaves; it brings a figure of Mexican folklore to life in the ghost of the Weeping Woman. 

Anna (Linda Cardellini) is a social worker who is investigating possible child endangerment with a family that she has worked with in the past. Anna finds two children locked behind a door while a troubled mother warns her about an evil spirit that is trying to take her children. Anna ignores the warning and is soon brought into a supernatural realm where the spirit known as La Llorona is trying to claim Anna’s two children as her own.

“The Curse of La Llorona” has an interesting design working to its advantage; the image of a weeping woman in a white dress is a strong visual presence that is eerie when moving through dark shadowy corridors or lingering in dark corners. And, in an early scene involving a young boy disobeying his mother’s orders to stay in the car, the weeping woman is played to high effect with a really affecting jump scare. 

It’s unfortunate that this design element doesn’t prevail throughout the film as numerous scenes of the ghostly figure screaming loudly at her victims ruins the entire practical effect. This happens so early, and then so often, that it’s hard to return back to a basic scare element. It also doesn’t help that most of the scares are easily telegraphed, which wouldn’t be a problem if aspects of tension or apprehension were introduced into the concepts. 

Aspects of cultural spirituality and the connection to religious foundations are introduced to provide some substance to the mythology, but the attention would have been better suited for the characters within the story. Unfortunately, Anna’s motivations are so narrow within her composition that it’s difficult to find the emotional connection to her family. That’s a major problem when the entity stalking you is trying to steal your children.   

“The Curse of La Llorona” begins with promise and offers some really intriguing designs on a ghostly apparition. Unfortunately, the emphasis on trying to do so much with the concept of a simplistic scary figure, adding effects that don’t really offer the payoff of much simpler designs, undercuts the combination of fear and fun that this film is trying to induce. 

Monte’s Rating

2.00 out of 5.00

2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Sunday, April 14th

2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Sunday, April 14^th

Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2019 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.

By Emery Snyder - @leeroy711

TO TOKYO – Directed by Caspar Seale Jones

This is a metaphorical horror story about anxiety and paranoia in the same vein as some Lynch films. It actually reminded me visually of The Polish Brothers' NORTHFORK a bit. Lights, shadows, score and sound design all work together to create a hallucinatory depth of conscience. 

I would also add that I always appreciate a horror story that begins with the main character already afraid of the lurking figure. There are no expendables here to cast aside to get the tale started. We begin with the overwhelming feeling of dread that Florence Kosky's Al has seemingly been dealing with for some time already.

EXCURSION – Directed by Martin Grof

This is a very clever time travel plot that twists and turns in between present day and Soviet Moscow in the late 80's. Unfortunately, every aspect of the production value is distractingly bad, including the performances. 

I think the concept for this film would actually work very well for a long running Anime series or even possibly a Sci-Fi channel show. 

I'LL TAKE YOUR DEAD – Directed by Chad Archibald

William is a farmer that moonlights chopping up and disposing of dead bodies for gang members. As a result, his farm house is just riddled with ghosts. Then, when one of the bodies turns out to be a lot less dead than the others, he has to figure out what to do with her, attempting to keep himself on one side of the murderer line while still protecting his daughter. 

This is a well paced and excited film with an original concept. I was specifically impressed with the performance of Ava Preston, his 12 year old daughter. I just found the supernatural element around the whole thing a bit out of place. From a technical aspect, the ghosts were well done, with good makeup and startling jump-scares. But looking at the entire narrative, I can't really say that the story benefited at all from this realm. I'll probably still check it out again when it shows up streaming somewhere. 

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2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Saturday, Saturday 13th

2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Saturday, April 13^th

Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2019 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.

By Emery Snyder - @leeroy711

RAISING BUCHANAN – Directed by Bruce Dellis

This is a very well scripted and well edited quirky little adorable comedy about three money struggling women, a ventriloquists mafia and one presidential corpse. The lead, Amanda Melby gave a very endearing performance. Bits of heartfelt drama never cross over into the sappy zone. And supporting performances by M. Emmet Walsh and Rene Auberjonois were quite outstanding.

This film has a great soul and I hope it makes some more noise in the coming months. I'd like to see it get legs.

HAIL SATAN? – Directed by Penny Lane

I would typically point out that this is a one-sided documentary that never really gives its opposing viewpoint a microphone. But historically, the other side's over-representation in this country is kind of the whole point of this film.

I'm kind of a news junkie and my politics sway pretty far to the left, specifically when considering First Amendment issues and the separation of Church and State. If that's you, you may not see anything here that sheds any new light to these things. The various court cases explored here were fairly well covered in mainstream media. 

That being said, if you're not all that familiar with this type of activism, this is a well made and informative doc that may interest you.

SOUTHERN PRIDE – Directed by Malcolm Ingram

What would it be like living as a member of the LGBTQ community in Southern Mississippi in the era of MAGA? This quiet little doc gives us a glimpse of a world that a certain segment of this country's population would rather just ignore. 

Through trails and tribulations, we follow two bar owners in neighboring towns working towards organizing Mississippi's first ever PRIDE festival.  Not everything is beautiful and triumphant, this is a 'warts-and-all' look but I feel like the overall takeaway was rather simple. These are some people that I most of us would probably enjoy spending time with. I appreciated this film. The more exposure these communities get, the more empathy and compassion we will all feel.

THE TOMORROW MAN – Directed by Noble Jones

With only one day left to the festivals, I can only hope that this ends up as my least favorite of the lot. A "doomsday prepper" (Lithgow) falls for a lonely hoarder (Danner). Together, they validate and enable each other. This film seemed far more interested in playing the two respective disorders for laughs than ever taking a critical look at any part of them. At least the audience I saw it with thought this was a comedy. Their roots in paranoia and obsessive compulsion and the fact that they come with vastly different stigmas and how harmful these disorders can be to loved ones mostly ended up on the cutting room floor here. 

I don't really have time to flesh this out here and I'm not usually in the habit of hate-writing reviews so I'll just stop here. I was not a fan. 

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2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Friday, April 12th

2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Friday, April 12^th

Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2019 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.

By Emery Snyder - @leeroy711

MY SOUL TO KEEP – Directed by Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad

This film will challenge any preconceived notions you once had about displaying registered trademarks on screen. At least it did for me. Apparently the filmmakers were cleared to display Apple, OXI CLEAN, The Transformers & G.I. JOE throughout the entire film. But when Sam's character wants to support his favorite team, he wears a "DERTROIT BEISBOLCATS" shirt, complete with a picture of a tiger chewing on a baseball bat... Honestly, all of this kind of distracted my brain from following what was a fairly generic "Boogie-Man" film. 

That's not to say that this piece didn't have its own merits. There was a lot of good shadowplay dancing around the house that served for a better-than-expected final showdown. The whole thing was shot rather well actually. It was a very good use of the space that the filmmakers had. But all-in-all, a bit too much clumsy exposition that slowed down the beginning had me checking my clock. As good as the final act was, it was already a bridge too far.

IN FABRIC – Directed by Peter Strickland

This is just another one of your typical, run-of-the-mill horror comedies about a hyper-sexual Gypsy-cursed dress that murders those who dawn it. We've all seen it a thousand times. So what makes this one special? This film really comes together and shines in its second half. What you thought was just off-kilter and disturbing in the first half, turns into a romp of comedic characters repeatedly one-upping the weirdness factor. 

I don't think this needed to run a full two hours, it could have used a trim. And I think that its length is ultimately going to work against it upon release. But I was glad I stuck with it. I found it to exist somewhere in between Dario Argento and Nicolas Winding Refn in its look and pacing. If that perks your interest, keep your eye out for this.

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2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Wednesday, April 10th

2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Wednesday, April 10^th

Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2019 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.

By Emery Snyder - @leeroy711

ASSASSINAUT – Directed by Drew Bolduc

The most common problem I've found with low budget sci-fi is that it seems that the filmmakers tend to focus so much on concept and world building, they forget to develop interesting characters. This film suffers a bit from that problem as well. It's not unforgivable, I just think that it would have benefited from an outsider taking a 'once-over' on the screenplay. 

This film also suffers from some pretty rough performances from its child actors. This is something that can often be easily overlooked, especially when we're talking about a festival film with a shoestring budget. In this case, it was a bit more glaring because the four main characters are all children. Again, I tend to grade festival films on an entirely different curve, and I've seen far worse. But it was a bit distracting and it would have been less so if the dialogue was more organic. 

These points aside, there were some definite positives about this film. First of all, Vito Trigo's performance was a lot of fun to watch. Virtually all of the film's charisma comes form him. And I was surprised how well made the Cronenbergian and Troma-esque body gore practical effects were. 

THEY'RE INSIDE – Directed by John-Paul Panelli

This is the film that has disturbed me the most at IHSFFF.... so far. It wasn't the violence or gore on display, although it has plenty of both. It was this film's multiple depictions of abusive relationships that I found hard to watch. Karli Hall's performance is to credit for the weight of these scenes in particular.

The whole construct of this found-footage is over the top and far-fetched. And I'm not sure that the narrative does a sufficient job in giving the antagonists any sort of motivation. But we are treated to some creepy and unnerving imagery from its mostly static and voyeuristic camerawork. I could see myself rewatching this one, on at least an academic level.

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2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – ONE CUT OF THE DEAD

2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – ONE CUT OF THE DEAD

Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2019 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.

By Emery Snyder @leeroy711

Director: Shin'ichirô Ueda
Starring: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama & Harumi Shuhama

A self-professed "fast, cheap and average" commercial director gets a job directing a live, one-shot zombie film. Things go horribly wrong during the shoot but his dedication to his art shines through. "DON'T STOP SHOOTING"... 

I'm not really sure how much I should say about this film. I was very appreciative of the fact that I went into this knowing very little. The trailer, mercifully gives you very little information and is at least a little bit misleading. In my opinion, this is typically the best way to come into a film. (Yes, I realize the weird dichotomy of a film reviewer telling to watch a film blind.) This is even more true of this one. 

This conundrum of course gives me very little to write about. But I emphatically loved this movie so I have so much to say about it. But if the zombie angle doesn't sound appealing to you, go for the fact that it is a uproarious comedic romp of a dark humor. If a meta 'inside film-making' flick doesn't float your boat, see it for it's heart warming father/daughter story. And if the gimmick and technical mastery of a 40 minute long uncut shot doesn't get you to sit for this, well there's just no pleasing you...

And I think it's this last aspect mentioned that will get me to rewatch this one many times in the coming years. Again, without giving too much away, the long shot is only the beginning of the ingenuity and genius necessary to pull this off in such a widely successful way. I'm not entirely sure how they had enough capacity left over to fit in the amount of gags. 

Luckily, this isn't one of those doomed to be lost in the folds films. AMC's Shudder announced yesterday that they have acquired all of the rights to this film. It will be available to stream later this year. 

ACTION!!!

Emery’s Rating

4.75 out of 5 Stars

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2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Monday, April 8th

2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Monday, April 8^th

Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2019 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.

By Emery Snyder - @leeroy711

JAN PALACH – Directed by Robert Sedlácek

Jan Palach was a Czech college student who killed himself in protest against the Soviet occupation of his country. This film is the retelling of his last few months. Like a lot of these types of films, the audience would have benefited from a more familiar knowledge of the time and place of this story. This is not the film's fault. I'm sure Czech history books fill in a lot of the gaps that an American audience has to check in Wikipedia. 

Palach was a philosophy student. I found this a critical angle to explain his motivations. The film does a good job of highlighting the irreconcilable ideological differences between the philosophies of equality found in socialism and the inherent bigotry of nationalism. And how oppression often turns every day activities into acts of defiance. 

I also found the film's overall tone interesting and maybe even a bit off-putting. I think you're supposed to be aware of how his story ends and you know what the film is leading towards. But I never felt that there was a sense of dread leading towards its inevitability. The dramatic effect was constantly undercut, giving the movie a far more clinical feel than one would typically expect from this subject matter.

SECRET INGREDIENT – Directed by Gjorce Stavreski

This is a Macedonian comedy about a young man who finds a stash of cannabis and feeds it to his terminally ill father, unbeknownst to him. Hilarity ensues, along with a lot of heart and some good old fashion gangster crime drama. 

It was actually really nice to see a film that takes place in a country that apparently is still a decade or so behind the U.S. as far as healthcare and drug culture is concerned. The narcotics police in this film exist somewhere in between D.A.R.E and REEFER MADNESS. Although it seems that the rest of the country's youth takes this attitude with the appropriate grain of salt. It did make me wonder however, in some of the film's slightly homophobic jokes, if it was a reflection of the popular Macedonian culture or if the filmmaker was simply making fun of some of the old-school backwards thinking... I felt pretty much the same way about most of the audience's reaction to those jokes. 

All in all, this was a very well made and successful film and well worth its running time. The story manages to turn on a dime, pivoting away from its comedy of errors and directly into a beautifully heartfelt father and son drama, and then back again.  

SURVIVAL OF THE FILM FREAKS – Directed by Bill Fulkerson & Kyle Kuchta

There is no shortage of documentaries that celebrate horror films. I've probably watch four of them this year. Some of them get pretty redundant. Ever since Rodney Ascher's ROOM 237 changed the rules about fair use, it seems like everyone has the ability to make an engrossing doc about movies, complete with clips from every corner of cinefilia. As long as you have a unique angle, I'll probably be into it.

So of course, the question is: which of these films are actually worth watching. I would asses that this one is in fact worth your time. It wanders a bit at the beginning but it seems to find its footing as it starts to explore the genre's relationship with the history of home video. Beginning with VHS, the evolution of various formats and platforms have changed, constantly opening up new avenues for niche filmmakers to find their audiences. This type of thing is right up my alley. 

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