New month means new movies for the weekend! Well, at least some of them were brand new, while others were old but new to me. It was an oddball mix this weekend, but I was pretty pleased with all of them. Let’s review!
First up was Yes, God, Yes which stars Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer. In it, she plays a fairly reserved Catholic student who has recently started dabbling into her sexuality. Which in this film, is highly denounced by the Catholic church. Sure, I’ve never attended Catholic school, but it seems that they spend a great deal of time telling the students to abstain from sex in any form. Feeling like she needs to figure things out, she heads to her school’s camp. Too bad that the camp only makes things more unclear! She finally gets the advice she’s looking for in a random woman at a bar, and that advice is that you don’t have to have your life figured out. Do what makes you happy, and just try to be a good person. I particularly enjoyed the conversation they had about their prior fears of what was going to send them to hell. Aside from that, this movie, while a comedy, didn’t have me laughing all that much, although Wolfgang Novogratz’s cheese factor was so intense that I found myself laughing whenever he came into a scene.
Next, I watched an extremely indie film, but one of which stars two Hannibal alumni, Aaron Abrams and Lara Jean Chorostecki (aka, Zeller and Freddie Lounds!)! Nose to Tail follows a crumdgen of a man who owns a fancy restaurant. He’s gruff and unapologetic, and he’s also four months late on his rent. Given until the end of the month to come up with the funds, he berates all of his staff in providing excellent service to some secretive VIP members that evening. While the plans are laid, his head chef quits and joins a competitor, a food truck parked across the street is giving him competition, and most of his vendors are pulling out on providing their product. Despite being a complete ass to his front of house, Chloe, who is also his part-time lover, she still manages to help him out tremendously throughout the day and evening. By the end though, his VIP investors fall through and it’s clear he’s going to lose his business. You see him contemplate a bottle of pills before walking out into the night. A little slow, and very indie, this was alright. Definitely not for everyone.
Onto the old! Now, when I said that these were old but new to me, I may have been mistaken. My dad convinced me with rave reviews that I should watch Switchback…the thing is, I think I already did! Much of the details of the movie I definitely didn’t remember, but I did recall who the serial killer was. Despite knowing who the killer was, it was almost like watching it new since I didn’t recall much of the context events that took place. Dennis Quaid plays a lone FBI agent looking for the killer because he has kidnapped his son. With the help of a local police department he makes some headway. Meanwhile, an affable man named Bob picks up a hitchhiker named Dixon (played by the swoon-worthy Jared Leto. Seriously, this guy DOESN’T AGE.). They have quite a wild ride through the snow-covered mountains and then things turn serious. There is a ton of action that goes on throughout the entirety of the film. Could it have without some of the scenes? Sure. It ultimately lead to a thrilling conclusion, and I definitely enjoyed it. Give it a watch if you’ve got Prime!
I next decided to watch a buddy road trip comedy starring Jason Mantzoukas and Toni Revolori, called The Long Dumb Road. Which, being big fans of both, I was pretty excited to see what this concept produced. It was goofy, for one thing. It follows Nat and his journey from Texas to LA to start art school. Along the way he encounters some car troubles, so a charismatic, and also slightly unhinged mechanic helps him in exchange for a ride. That ride goes a lot further than the 45 minutes he initially requested. During that time the duo get held at gunpoint, insult some women, and make an awkward pit-stop at a former flame’s house. Even though most of the film really wasn’t that funny, they both played their parts so well! I could literally watch Jason Mantzoukas read a dictionary. This film wasn’t very long, but it was a little dumb, so I’d say you can skip it.
Obviously I try and get as much Hannibal-adjacent content I can manage into my life, so why not watch a movie with Laurence Fishburne and Nicholas Cage?! That means I watched Running with the Devil, which follows two executives sent to check in on why their cocaine shipments are being tampered with. Remember how I said Nicholas Cage was in this? Then this story line makes perfect sense and he was obviously amazing. Fishburne can play oddballs, too, so really these gentlemen both shined like diamonds in the action film. I like a good action film! And the pair of them have come off some pretty good ones, so even the stumbles that this movie presented were somewhat overshadowed by their pure screen presence. Both have certainly done better, but it was definitely not a waste of time. I’d say give it a gamble if you’re in the mood to get in the cage with Nicholas Cage (and friends).