In this jam-packed edition of “Crossing the Streams”, we have the badass women of Netflix. We trip into edgy films disguised as kids films. We delve into the dark side of Disney…plus, we have a couple of fun double features to watch in Prime time. So, let’s jump right in.
Netflix- Most people know Kristen Bell from her raunchy comedies or from The Good Place, and if you ask certain teenagers, she the voice of Anna from Frozen. But she will always be Veronica Mars to me. A great show that slowly went downhill in its initial three season run. However Bell was undeniable as the teen sleuth, think Nancy Drew with a stun gun and an attack dog. It’s worth seeking out. Or you can check out the 2014 film Veronica Mars which shows a grown-up Veronica reluctantly heading back to her home town to prove her ex-boyfriend didn’t commit murder. You don’t need to have watched the show to get everything, but it will surely help. And if you enjoy it check out the show, at least the first season which is some great TV.
Next up is the woman who is well on her way to becoming a legend on film: Emma Stone and her brilliant performance as a kidnaped CEO believed to be alien in Bugonia. The film starts off kinda goofy which is par for the course in a Yorgos Lanthimos film, but like his other films another layer peels back to revel something darker as the film shifts into a battle of wills between Stone and her captor played by the always awesome Jesse Plemons. Not one of Lanthimos best but still worth seeing Stone and Plemons go one-on-one.
Lastly we have the film that was panned as a straight up horror film at the time but has grown into cult status. Jennifer’s Body written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama is a fun dark comedy about popularity, friendship and young female empowerment. Much in the same way no one could get past the good looks of Megan Fox to see that she turns in an impressive performance, that is almost out done by her mousy friend in the film played by Amanda Seyfried. If you never have seen it, check it out, if it’s been awhile, give it a second chance.
HBO Max- There are films over the years that have been passed off as family films but don’t succeed and then there are others that slipped through the cracks and were straight up traumatizing. HBO Max, the-one-to-watch-for-HBO-Max has some of these titles beginning with 1978’s Watership Down. Set with a reasonably wholesome premise: a colony of rabbits must look for a new home when there current one is targeted by developers. Unfortunately what follows is bloody rabbit battles, fights for survival and power and a psychic bunny who has tripped out visions. I still have yet to show this one to my kids who are all teenagers now, but I think it’s about that time. After years of Disney and Pixar, they are ready for this rough and tumble animated film.
Speaking of bunnies, Dust Bunny is a recent release that fits this category of fun family film has a young girl (Sophie Sloan) who hires her hit man neighbor ( Mads Mikkelsen) to take out the monster under her bed. But what actually follows is a zany, yet dark adventure about what happens when the crime world crosses paths with the monster world.
When I saw the trailer for The Florida Project years ago, I thought, hey, this looks like a sweet coming of age movie about a young mother (Bria Vinaite) trying to raise her daughter (Brooklynn Prince) with the help of the grumpy motel manager (Willem Dafoe). Turns out it is more about the lives of the people on the dark edges of “The Happiest Place on Earth”. The film is sad, then gets sadder, then the ending comes along and crushes you. I still consider it one of the best last five minutes of a film ever.
Disney+/Hulu- Finally, after years of waiting I finally get to see a slightly cleaner version of Blood In Blood Out: Bound by Honor. Which I’ve only been able to see on fuzzy DVD. The story follows three Chicanos, as they go from teens to young men in the years 1972 to 1984. In that time, one becomes a drug addict, another a cop and the last one a con. As their lives continue to intersect in the slums of East Los Angeles they see the differences between the truths they each hold on to for survival. I always call this film the Mexican Godfather. And with the directors cut being released here, it still feels as epic as ever.
I am always intrigued when a director takes a Horror sub-genre and twists it just enough to make it more interesting than some of the more common “paint-by-numbers” spooky flicks. In Good Boy, director Ben Leonburg takes the haunted house troupe and his real life dog Indy and made a really good horror film. All from the perspective of the dog. Now this is not a silly POV shaky-cam version we get, it’s a legit, interesting, very well shot and brilliantly acted film that apparently took 3 years to make, since you can’t get a non-acting dog to do what you wrote. If you’ve seen all kinds of horror, you haven’t seen anything quite like this.
Amazon Prime- It feels like something that has gone by the wayside is the double feature. When I became aware of it is when I used to go the the local Drive-in and see the family film and then fall asleep in the back of my parents pick-up truck where they laid out a mattress for me and my brothers as they watched the second feature which was usually a grown-up movie. Then when home video was big, I remember going to friends houses and watching a double feature of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers followed by Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.
If you are looking for a fun movie night with friends or family, I have a a duo of double features for the quiet Saturday nights. First up is a double dose of John Gallagher Jr. who is always Jim Harper from the show The Newsroom to me. The first film is Short Term 12, starring Gallagher and Brie Larson as workers at a troubled youth facility who are also navigating an unsteady relationship. It is filled with powerful performances by the leads as well as by a young Kaitlyn Dever and LaKeith Stanfield. This also an early film by director Destin Daniel Cretton. The upcoming director of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
The second of this double feature steps in the creepy thriller territory of 10 Cloverfield Lane where we get a three hander with Gallagher, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and John Goodman as survivors of a potential apocalypse. Or are they? The tension here is phenomenal and the filmmaking is very impressive as it is the feature debut of Dan Trachtenberg, the savior of the Predator franchise. This film also has one of the best trailers:
The second double feature, features the King of Horror. The master storyteller, Stephen King (or “Uncle Steve” to us Constant Readers). His 1986 & 1987 one-two punch of Maximum Overdrive and Creepshow 2. Neither film has aged very well, but they are still a helluva lotta fun to watch. In King’s directorial debut, which apparently he was coked out of his mind during, you get self-driving 18-wheelers, deadly electric knives, “Lisa Simpson”(Yeardly Smith) screaming for her new husband Curtis! There is a killer video game that takes out Giancarlo Esposito, a ATM calls King an “asshole” in his cameo, and of course you got Emilio Estevez as his bad-ass self. On the sequel to the classic Creepshow based on stories by King, Creepshow 2 features four teens stranded on a raft, as a man-eating sludge swims around them, a dime-store wooden Indian takes bloody revenge and a hitch-hiker who just wants to thank a rich adulterous woman for giving him a ride. Again and again and again.
That’s a lot to watch for sure. And you’re bound to love some of them, so get to streamin’. We’ll see you next time. Go watch a movie!
