The Kissing Booth 2 Review

Kissing Booth 2

Dir: Vince Marcello

Starring: Joey King, Jacob Elordi, Joel Courtney, Taylor Zakhar Perez, Meganne Young, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Molly Ringwald

Film has painted the high school drama in many ever-changing strokes of emotions. While the stories today may not echo the same world settled in the visions of John Hughes, the underlying conflicts for young people are still present and far more complicated. Experiencing the many facets of love, making choices both confident and vulnerable, and finding the person you want to be past those fleeting moments inside the safety of the high school halls are still valuable lessons to explore.

“The Kissing Booth” is back to explore more of these teenage issues with a heavy scope of sappiness and slapstick. However, for Elle (Joey King), who just had the best summer of her life with her new beau Noah (Jacob Elordi), high school senior year is complicated by having to prepare for college, balance a changing relationship with her best friend Lee (Joel Courtney) and his new girlfriend Rachel (Meganne Young), and handle the strains of long-distance love while Noah goes to school across the country at Harvard. 

It doesn’t take long for the drama of these feelings to take hold. As the strain on the relationships in Elle’s life take hold, with a girl named Chloe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) garnering much of Noah’s attention in college and a new boy at school named Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez) strumming his way into a partnership with Elle for a dance competition, everything gets complicated and confusing, both for the characters in the film and the viewers at home.

There is so much going on in “The Kissing Booth 2” that even with a 2 hour and 10-minute running time, it still feels overstuffed with rambling premises. We have evolving character development from the first film, new characters to meet and insert into the storyline, side stories to explore with supplemental characters, a video game-dance competition, a Halloween school dance where tempers flare, and a heated Thanksgiving dinner where all the held back words are unleashed. We move from happy, quickly edited montages of fun and silliness to sad, long cuts of characters gazing into the sadness of their counterpart’s social media on cellphones, back and forth, over and over. 

With so much being packed into the narrative suitcase, it’s strange that the movie still feels so empty. The safety-net storytelling, where characters fall but not too hard or complications arise but nothing a perfectly timed pop song can’t resolve, becomes overwhelmingly contrived and extremely predictably. 

Character growth is so important for sequels, especially in matters of youth where growth happens at exponential speed. The characters here rarely have those moments of maturity, forced or otherwise, that happens in films like this. The harshest reality that exists in this film boils down to Elle having to decide where to go to college. Does her allegiance align with her boyfriend or her best friend? This question is proposed early then completely disappears, only to arrive at the tail end of the film for a resolve that can only be described as a “cop-out”.

Still, there is a charm and sweetness achieved with “The Kissing Booth 2”, one that is often preferred for many movie watchers perhaps especially during this time in our world. Joey King and Joel Courtney accomplish impressive chemistry as best friends throughout the film, with Mr. Courtney going full throttle with the slapstick elements in a scene that finds him rushing across school campus to protect his best friend from embarrassment. It’s funny and cute, one of those scenes that always seems fitting in a school daze comedy. Joey King has an abundance of charm, her performance is a major highlight of the movie. The rare appearance from parental figure Molly Ringwald, playing Lee and Noah’s mom, floods nostalgia into the film from the 80’s films that laid the groundwork for the teen drama. 

“The Kissing Booth 2” will definitely appeal to some viewers looking for an easy and safe escape into a teen universe that is rarely threatening and often more concerned with sweet and silly sentiments of youthful exuberance. However, the lack of exploration into the real complications and struggles faced by young people keeps this film from being much more than a fleeting moment in the hallways of teen movies. 

Monte’s Rating

2.00 out of 5.00

The Rental Review

The Rental

Dir: Dave Franco

Starring: Alison Brie, Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand, Jeremy Allen White, and Toby Huss

How many different ways can you start a horror movie? How about this one? A group of young people traveling to a remote location to commit some innocent bad behavior; after some drugs and meaningless sex, a masked killer shows up to ruin the good times. This has happened in countless horror films, “Evil Dead”, “Friday the 13^th”, “Cabin in the Woods” are just a few that have done this device successfully. 

Actor, now director, Dave Franco takes his swing into the horror realm with “The Rental”. Gone are the teens and inserted are a group of mature young people in committed relationships, though they still partake in the occasional party drug and innocuous sexual outing. The result offers an unusual spin on the far too common genre setup that, here, is more adult drama than an actual horror film. 

Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Michelle (Alison Brie) are taking a much-needed trip with Josh (Jeremy Allen White) and Mina (Sheila Vand) to a secluded rental property that sits atop a bluff near the ocean. The group quickly finds comfort in the large house, using the hot tub and going on daily hikes. But there is tension between the couples, especially between Charlie and Mina who work closely with one another. Things get worse when a small camera is found in a showerhead, and a menacing figure looms just outside of view.

Dave Franco, who co-wrote the script with Joe Swanberg, spend great attention on the group dynamics early in the film. We are introduced to the individual couples, then learn about their intertwined relationships, their impulses and irritations, and finally how they cope with stressful situations. It’s a good setup that gets you connected to the individuals and helps establish a group dynamic that becomes compromised the moment danger arrives, which it does in numerous forms more than just a masked killer. 

The problem comes when the film tries to shift gears and turn from an adult relationship drama and into a straightforward horror film. So much time is spent setting up the group and a specific situation they are all raveled up in, that when the horror finally makes an appearance, the pieces established for the story, the ones that have played the main role, are abandoned for an easy compromise. 

Still, there are moments when Mr. Franco displays that he understands how a horror film is supposed to work. Keeping his monster just beyond sight most of the film and using the setup of spy cameras to initiate the intensity that will ultimately destroy the group. When the genre characteristics intrude into the relationship conflicts, the film has a heightened sense of unease. Unfortunately, many of these moments are played just to remind you that there is a mysterious figure looming close instead of introducing a sense of chaos into the storyline.  

Dave Franco shows promise with his directorial debut. “The Rental” may harbor more drama than horror in the end, but even with a familiar story structure, the actors are given time to make the characters convincing. And once the stalking killer arrives, the time spent in the isolated rental home assists in creating tension, it just happens too late to really make the impact it was trying for.

Monte’s Rating

2.50 out of 5.00

Confessions with Theresa – Part 2

Confessions with Theresa - Part 2

By: Theresa Dillon

“I’ve got another confession to make!” – Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters, Best of You

I, Theresa Dillon, am a 35-year-old woman who still enjoys middle grade fiction. 

I will gladly pick up the latest Brandon Mull book to read over any Oprah Book Club picks (and she has great ones). 

Why can’t I just grow up? Maybe because a part of me honestly doesn’t want to. And why should I? I already have so many responsibilities as adult, the adventures and innocent growing pains are refreshing to read – and watch.

My latest middle grade obsession is the Netflix series “The Babysitters Club.” 

I was obsessed with those books (at the deemed-appropriate age of 11). I had every single book in the series. I watched the original TV series from the 90s on the Disney Channel. I saw the “The Babysitters Club” movie the first weekend it came out and bought the soundtrack during our family trip to Best Buy (I also miss those days).

Author and producer, Ann M. Martin.

When I had to pack up my room before college, I was torn about giving all my BSC books away. But I chose to keep a few of my all-time favs for future reading and gave the rest away so another girl (or boy) could get the same satisfaction I did with every page I read.

And now those same girls and boys, can watch this latest revival of “The Babysitters Club.”

It is probably one of my favorite series of the year. Not only did Netflix stay true to the characters and story arcs of the series but they masterfully introduced today’s tech and culturally landscape and made the BSC an even stronger anthem of girl power.

As author and series producer, Ann M. Martin said in a recent People interview, “It’s incredible to be talking about the series in 2020 and I’m proud that the series reflects the different landscape, 34 years later. A lot has changed. I love that they made Dawn [Schafer’s] father gay and that they introduced a transgender babysitting charge. As someone who is gay, I know how much positive representation matters, especially to kids.”

And that’s not all, The Babysitters Club was always known to touch on tough topics such as divorce, health, death and diversity. One of the most poignant episodes features character Claudia Kishi coming to terms with her family’s history as Japanese Americans. 

I wish I had a daughter I could share this with right now. Instead, I’ve resorted to telling all my mother-daughter friends that “The Babysitters Club” is a must watch. One day, I may be lucky to share this great series. Until then, I watch it for my 11-year-old self.

The Painted Bird Review

The Painted Bird

Dir: Václav Marhoul

Starring: Petr Kotlár, Nina Sunevic, Alla Sokolova, Stanislav Bilyi, Ostap Dziadek

“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.” – William T. Sherman

There is no glory in Václav Marhoul’s new film, “The Painted Bird”. A young boy, who is never named, is brutalized by countless people and witnesses the absolute cruelty of war, the evil spirit of humanity, and the bludgeoning emotional toil of living in fear of losing his life. There is no relief, no calm, no peace, just unrelenting, torturous inhumaneness for nearly 3 hours. 

The film, which received numerous walkouts throughout its festival run in 2019, is based on a 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosinski. The title of the film is taken from a moment in the film, where the young boy we follow through the atrocities found in different villages, with an array of different people either meant to help and sometimes just established to torture, meets the company of a professional bird catcher who teaches him a lesson that will be unflinchingly reiterated throughout the film. The bird catcher captures and paints a bird, releasing it back to find the flock. But upon its return, the other birds see it as an intruder and proceed to attack it until it falls to earth. 

The young boy is left alone on a journey across a war ravaged world. When a sense of hope lingers into his life it is almost immediately snuffed out, like when a priest (Harvey Keital) entrusts the boy to a seemingly devoted churchgoer (Julian Sands) who turns out to be the living epitome of a monster. Another moment the young boy finds refuge on a farm. A young man working the fields helps the young boy but stares lustfully at the owner’s wife (Udo Kier). Enraged, the owner proceeds to take his eyes out with a spoon. Or, in the opening of the film when the young boy flees in panic, clutching a furry pet in his arms, only to be tackled and beat by a group and then forced to watch his pet burned alive. It’s distressing and disturbing over and over. 

This is the focus of the film, showing the atrocities of conflict-stricken worlds and the extent of societal collapse, examining the human condition under, many times, the unbearable cruelty of warfare. Intense moments involving war violence, child abuse, and animal cruelty are often observed, sometimes in complete view and other times framed just out of focus or with enough ambiguity that your mind must connect the dots. 

Comparisons to director Elem Klimov’s “Come and See” are easy for the unflinching nature of violence, but there is also beautiful monochrome photography that echo shades of Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Ivan’s Childhood”, there is no doubt that “The Painted Bird” is a beautifully composed tragedy. It’s a lens so pristine in composition it makes the awful subject matter somehow entrancing, in a way making it hard to look away even when the emotion portrayed warrants retreat. 

As the film proceeds, with cameos abundant and artistic rendering saturated in every gritty frame, something begins to lose its grasp on the viewer. In films about wars of the past, there is a sense of understanding that is often trying to be examined, questions proposed amidst bullets, blood, and brutality that try to grasp some kind of answer about humanity or produce a sense of capturing a moment in time for you to feel how the world was and how it moved past that moment. “The Painted Bird” is often strictly sensory, albeit an elegantly composed painting from start to finish, but it rarely examines the deeper meaning of its viciousness or offers a sense of how life existed underneath the torment of hatred and malice.

“The Painted Bird” is a complicated, many times raw and aggressively beautiful, and ultimately a challenging experience for any film viewer. While it may not offer the glory of intriguing questions or the examination of profound answers, it does understand clearly that war is hell. 

Monte’s Rating

3.00 out of 5.00

Relic Review

Relic

Dir: Natalie Erika James

Starring: Emily Mortimer, Robyn Nevin, and Bella Heathcote

My mother, a career nurse, spent the majority of her life working with patients dealing with dementia and memory loss, many of them taken care of in assisted living facilities. She loved her job and working with the clients on a prolonged daily basis but hated how dementia would steal the people she fondly cared for. She would share stories with me, many of them about the trauma of watching someone lose grasp of their memory. The ones I recall concerned how a lifetime of memories would be scattered around on sticky notes, on the bathroom mirror, on the bedside lampshade, or in a book that remained at their side in bed. Remembering a loved one when they can no longer remember is devastating. 

Director and writer Natalie Erika James, along with Christian White who shares writing credit, use the topic of dementia and memory loss to craft a disturbing genre film that functions as a metaphor for the terrible and terrifying loss that accompanies severe dementia in the film “Relic”. 

Kay (Emily Mortimer) receives a phone call concerning the unknown whereabouts of her mother Edna (Robyn Nevin), an elderly woman who lives in a small town in a large house by herself. Kay and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) immediately travel together, once they arrive they encounter a home that feels lost amongst boxes, dust, rotting plants, and a peculiar black substance that stains the walls. But Edna is missing, nowhere to be found. They ask neighbors, contact the police, and even search the nearby forest to find her. Then one day, without announcement, Edna returns, leisurely making tea in her kitchen. But something is wrong, she has violent mood swings, talks to herself, and is reluctant to share where she disappeared to. Kay and Sam begin to notice strange bruises on Edna and the house walls begin to creak and bang as if something is trying to get out.

Director Natalie Erika James has crafted something very unique and emotional, taking the physical structure of a horror film to examine dementia and craft chilling metaphors for the traumatic experience of losing the essence of a loved one, of watching a person you once knew change into something you don’t remember them as. The depth of character development throughout the film is excellent. The film revolves around Kay, played reservedly by Emily Mortimor, as she delves into the process of understanding her mother and the extent of memory loss she is experiencing. It’s heartbreaking at times to watch the little things, such as flipping through old photographs, finding notes with messages written on them strewed around the house, and cleaning messes left unattended for long stretches of time. With every discovery about the extent of her mother’s ailing health, Kay’s journey becomes the real horror of the film.

Bella Heathcote and Robyn Nevin have some of the best scenes of the entire film. Their relationship as grandmother and granddaughter is played to great effect, with Ms. Heathcote’s character Sam constantly supporting the independence and freedom of her grandmother. When their relationship shifts, after an angry encounter involving a gifted piece of jewelry that Edna doesn’t remember giving, the pain and sadness in Sam’s eyes and the realization that her grandmother isn’t the same person brings reality back into the framing of the horror film being built. This foundation of reality assists the film in shifting through the supernatural tonal narrative diversions that take full grasp in the third act, which turns into a complete horror show that highlights the metaphors being explored and the experiential qualities being analyzed through the vessel of a familiar-looking monster stalking someone down a hallway. 

Once the horror takes over completely, the narrative becomes less about subtle analysis and instead goes for complete extravagance. It’s never bad that this happens but it sometimes feels unnecessary, especially when the subdued narrative design does such an excellent job of creatively establishing the metaphor, monster, and emotional terror of the situation.

Director Natalie Erika James has created a very good first feature, one that will put her on the radar for future projects. “Relic” is a great conversation horror piece for adults, one that displays why the genre of horror can be so fluid in how it tackles subject matter both simple and difficult, using monsters and scares to portray an understanding of real-life trauma.

Monte’s Rating

4.00 out of 5.00