Tag: USA-spectrumondemand (Page 25)

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361. The One and Only Ivan, 2020

	
Better than any movie starring a talking CGI gorilla has any right to be, The One and Only Ivan isn't so much a family adventure so much as it's a light character study that younger viewers should also enjoy. The film still runs into a number of the same problems you might expect—haphazard plotting, celebrity voice acting that adds nothing to the characters—but it's still remarkably thoughtful and has the maturity to explore much sadder territory. As much as movies originally released on Disney+ can at times feel like products churned out from an assembly line, this one feels far more sincere, with a real message behind it.Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family
Actor: Angelina Jolie, Ariana Greenblatt, Betsy Graver, Brooklynn Prince, Bryan Cranston, Chaka Khan, Danny DeVito, Davina Sitaram, Dean Phillippi Sr., Eleanor Matsuura, Hannah Bourne, Helen Mirren, Indira Varma, Jacqueline Ramnarine, Jeremy Oliver, Kevin Mathurin, Kriss Dillon, Max Dowler, Mike White, Owain Arthur, Phillipa Soo, Ramón Rodríguez, Roberto Vivancos, Ron Funches, Sam Rockwell
Director:  Thea Sharrock
Rating: PG

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362. Squealer, 2023

A first feature by stuntman-turned-director Andy Armstrong, Squealer is supposedly based on real events that shook Canada in the 1990s. Robert Pickton or the Pig Farmer Killer was perhaps the inspiration for the eponymous Squealer in the 2023 film; the physical resemblance is uncanny. Extraordinarily cruel serial killers make good gore material and we love to see it, but the problem is that the audience today wants something new and fresher. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a classic, but it's hard to make a film as misogynistic and hit the same charge as it used to. In Squealer, it is only female bodies that are shown dismembered, cut open, sliced, and diced; for men, all this happens off screen. This is only one example of how the film reiterates some of its onerous tropes, without really updating them. It's not exactly good taste to hammer bits of comedy in the dialogue too, as it feels disconcerting amidst the rivers of blood and cruelty.

Genre: Action, Horror, Thriller

Actor: Danielle Burgio, Graham Greene, Holly Kaplan, Katherine Moennig, Ramona DuBarry, Rebecca Knox, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Sydney Carvill, Theo Rossi, Tyrese Gibson, Wes Chatham

Director: Andy Armstrong

Rating: R

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363. Special Ops: Lioness, 2023

If Special Ops: Lioness seems like one of the many muscly, male-targeted shows out there but, you know, girlified, that could be because it’s created by Taylor Sheridan, the mastermind behind such hypermasculine epics as Yellowstone, Tulsa King, and Mayor of Kingstown. Lioness could have been a chance for Sheridan to prove his versatility by showing us the female side of things for once; he could’ve explored the unique and complex situation female members of the military go through, and maybe jump into that rich discourse of intersectionality, but the show never really digs far beyond its spy thriller surface. Filled with soapy cliches, I’m-not-like-other-women takes, and what could only be product placements for the US Marines, Lioness doesn’t really seem like anything other than generic fare.

Genre: Action, Drama

Actor: Austin Hebert, Dave Annable, James Jordan, Jill Wagner, Jonah Wharton, LaMonica Garrett, Laysla De Oliveira, Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman, Stephanie Nur, Zoe Saldana

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364. Six Schizophrenic Brothers, 2024

Even in a bloated genre like true crime, Six Schizophrenic Brothers manages to be shocking because of its horrifying premise. It’s about a family that had to deal not just with the titular illness, but with multiple and chronic cases of abuse, rape, incest, and murder. And perhaps the most amazing part of it all is that director Lee Phillips was able to gather many of the siblings and have them tell the story themselves. So it’s a baffling shame that Phillips also had to lean on cheesy visual and sound effects to sensationalize an already appalling story. Whenever someone reveals a hard truth, glass shatters and fans are flamed. Whenever one of the ill siblings is introduced, they’re accompanied by sinister sounds and backgrounds. Then there are the questions he asks them, which are more exploitative than insightful. It’s true that the documentary, like watching a fire, is an engrossing experience that’s difficult to look away from. But in this case, the terror comes both from the story and the awful editing choices.

Genre: Documentary

Rating: TV-14

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365. Lisa Frankenstein, 2024

	
Written by Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body) and directed by Zelda Williams (daughter of the late Robin Williams), Lisa Frankenstein is a playful, funny, and stylish take on ‘80s horror and coming-of-age romcoms. Unfortunately, those traits alone are not enough to give the film the weight it needs to stand the test of time. There’s a clumsiness to the direction that, ironically enough, makes the film seem like parts lousily stitched together, instead of a coherent whole. There are pauses that are too long, transitions that feel off, and questions left unanswered. Why does it feel natural for Lisa to kill people? Was she close to her mom? What does her relationship with The Creature indicate, apart from the trite and obvious “outcasts must stick together”? Lisa Frankenstein doesn’t have to answer all these to be a good film, but when things are shallowly rendered, they become hard to ignore. It prioritizes pulpy gimmicks and visual gags that are admittedly fun to watch, but leaves behind equally important matters that flesh out Lisa as a person.Genre: Comedy, Horror, Romance
Actor: Ashton Leigh, Bryce Romero, Carla Gugino, Charlie Talbert, Cole Sprouse, Donna DuPlantier, Geraldine Singer, Henry Eikenberry, Jenna Davis, Jennifer Pierce Mathus, Joe Chrest, Joey Harris, Joshua Montes, Kathryn Newton, Liza Soberano, Luke Sexton, Paola Andino, Ray Gaspard, Ritchie Montgomery, Shane Partlow, Summer Selby, Sylvia Grace Crim, Trina LaFargue, Walker Babington, Wendy Miklovic
Director:  Zelda Williams
Rating: PG-13

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366. Coup!, 2024

	
In Coup!, the servants of a wealthy, faux-progressive family in 1918 attempt to take over after realizing that the Spanish influenza has granted them leverage over their helpless masters. It’s a dark comedy that shares many similarities with the 2019 hit Parasite. Like the latter, Coup! is largely a film about class warfare, liberal hypocrisy, the devaluation of labor, and survival. It also showcases the endlessly entertaining Sarsgaard and Magnussen, who can make you feel vindicated in one second and squirmish in another. But there’s a missing ingredient in Coup! that makes it feel less like a satire than an imitation of it. Maybe it’s the lack of dedication to the darkness of its tone or the vague, frustrating way it resolves the tension between employees and employers. Perhaps it’s both. Either way, there are some delicious and thought-provoking morsels to be found in Coup!, but nothing filling or hearty to make it memorable enough.Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Actor: Ali Wills, Billy Magnussen, Callum Vinson, Faran Tahir, Fisher Stevens, John Posey, Julia Ford Collier, Kristine Nielsen, Peter Sarsgaard, Sarah Gadon, Skye P. Marshall
Director: Austin Stark, Joseph Schuman
Rating: NR

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367. Charlie Hustle & the Matter of Pete Rose, 2024

Fans will love diving into this four-part documentary about former Major League Baseball player Pete Ross, especially since Rose dictates how the series goes. Director Mark Monroe gives Rose plenty of space to wax poetic about his dismissal from the MLB after a major gambling scandal and offers very few opposing voices to make this doc truly objective. It also has no business being this long; much of the documentary consists of a standard lookback into his career and recycled accounts of the scandal, which could be condensed into a half-hour. Rose is most interesting as his present, 83-year-old self: a fascinating if entitled character who believes deep down he’s done nothing wrong.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Al Michaels, Chad Lowe, Lesley Visser, Marty Brennaman, Pete Rose, Pete Rose Jr.

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368. American Sports Story, 2024

	
American Sports Story takes a pretty straightforward approach to telling Aaron Hernandez’s complicated life. The athlete grew up in a troubled household and struggled to mask his sexuality, and though he was granted a top football scholarship and eventually played in the big leagues, he still had that trauma—both psychological and physical—to bear. By the time the show reaches the fateful night in Hernandez’s life that made him a household name, we’d have seen just how messed up his circumstances were. Like most streaming series, this runs too long than necessary at 10 episodes, but it is a humanizing portrait of a mystifying man, as well as a showcase of great talent—Rivera turns in an especially nuanced performance. But apart from these, the show adds nothing new to the already long and heavy conversations that have been had about Hernandez’s life. There are multiple documentaries out there, as well as podcasts, articles, and video essays. You can watch this to see how well the actors dramatize real life, but don’t expect to glean anything new.Genre: Drama
Actor: Ean Castellanos, Jaylen Barron, Josh Rivera, Lindsay Mendez, Tammy Blanchard
Rating: TV-MA

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369. Widow Clicquot, 2024

	
For the longest time, when a woman loses their husband, they lose everything, as the name, assets, and estate used to be held by and passed on by men exclusively. It was outstanding when Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin was able to keep the estate due to the brilliance of her innovative champagne making techniques, and more so when the champagne house she built lasts past two centuries, so it was a bit of a letdown to see the Widow Clicquot falter in telling this incredible story. The costumes, sets, and score worked well to craft the emotional turbulence Clicquot goes through, and Madame herself is excellently portrayed by Haley Bennett, but her invention and the actual history is mostly brushed aside by the awkward, stilted romances Clicquot supposedly shares with her husband when alive, and her wine merchant when he died. Widow Clicquot deserves better.Genre: Drama
Actor: Anson Boon, Ben Miles, Chris Larkin, Haley Bennett, Ian Conningham, Leo Suter, Natasha O'Keeffe, Paul Rhys, Sam Riley, Tom Sturridge
Director: Thomas Napper
Rating: R

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370. The Convert, 2024

	
While best known for his American action thrillers in the early 2000s, writer-director Lee Tamahori returned to his roots in 2016 with the critically acclaimed Māori-centric 1950s historical drama Mahana. Tamahori continues to explore his people’s stories with The Convert. Set right before Britain colonized New Zealand, the film explores the dynamics between the white settlers and the differing Māori tribes, with much more accuracy and sympathy than older films towards the indigenous community, culture, and characters. It’s shot quite beautifully, with stunning landscapes and decent fight scenes, and the performances, especially that of Guy Pearce, make the film watchable. That being said, the film still mostly stems from the white Thomas Munro, whose perspective mostly comes about by passive observation rather than active participation in the story.Genre: Action, Drama
Actor: Aidee Walker, Antonio Te Maioha, Dean O'Gorman, Duane Evans Jr., Guy Pearce, Jack Barry, Jacqueline McKenzie, Jared Turner, Lawrence Makoare, Mark Mitchinson, Mark Sole, Matthew Chamberlain, Renee Lyons, Stephen Lovatt, Tania Nolan, Te Kohe Tuhaka, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Will Wallace
Director: Lee Tamahori

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371. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, 2023

Painfully intimate and told with very, very little dialogue, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt resembles the experience of flipping through a photo book and pausing to admire every page. Which is to say that this is a film that requires not only one's complete attention but—like many other arthouse dramas—a willingness to sit with the mundane until it reveals something more profound. The nearly silent nature of its storytelling can be a little awkward, given how lifelike the rest of the movie is, but one should hopefully get used to the idea that this is an attempt to represent something closer to memory than reality. Whether or not the experience sticks or strikes an emotional chord, it's all beautifully put together, with lush cinematography, impeccably detailed sound design, and thoughtful sequencing of one image after another.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Charleen McClure, Chris Chalk, Kaylee Nicole Johnson, Moses Ingram, Reginald Helms Jr., Sheila Atim, Zainab Jah

Director: Raven Jackson

Rating: PG

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372. Three Women, 2024

	
Based on the bestselling book of the same name, Three Women is a ten-part series that tells the story of everyday small-town women facing their own problems with intimacy and sensuality. There’s Lina (Betty Gilpin) from Indiana, a sexually frustrated housewife whose conservative husband and friends shame her for her desires. There’s Sloane (DeWanda Wise) from Massachusettes, a successful restauranteur judged for her appetite for threesomes. Then there’s young Maggie (Gabrielle Creevy) from North Dakota, who had an affair with her English teacher in high school. Gia—and in effect, the show itself—tries her best to tie a thread between these three stories, but they’re ultimately too uneven to resemble a decent whole. What could’ve been a neat anthology or a seamless multi-part story is a fractured tale with parts that shine way more than the others. In particular, it’s Lina’s story that stands out from the others. Gilpin is convincing and vulnerable as her character, and you feel an immediate protectiveness over her. The showrunners would’ve done well to either use her story as a standalone or flesh out the others with the same direction and depth to make Three Women work. As it stands, it feels too overstuffed and uneven to sit through.Genre: Drama
Actor: Betty Gilpin, Blair Underwood, DeWanda Wise, Gabrielle Creevy, Shailene Woodley
Rating: TV-MA

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373. The Beekeeper, 2024

	
With phone scams becoming more elaborate, it’s easy to understand and empathize with the wrath Jason Statham as The Beekeeper has when his elderly friend gets drained out of her entire life savings. It’s thrilling to see him punch his way into the scammers’ headquarters and burn the whole place to the ground. And when director David Ayer uses his extra hour to dial up the low stakes tech scheme into a nationwide scandal that implicates the entire U.S. government, it’s ludicrous, sure, but it’s somehow wildly entertaining. That being said, your mileage of the film highly depends on your tolerance for randomly dropped bee facts and silly bee puns, but The Beekeeper isn’t a terrible choice to watch.Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Actor: Adam Basil, Arian Nik, Bharat Mistri, Bobby Naderi, Dan Li, David Witts, Derek Siow, Don Gilet, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Enzo Cilenti, Georgia Goodman, Jason Statham, Jay Rincon, Jemma Redgrave, Jeremy Irons, Jonathan Cohen, Josh Hutcherson, Kevin Golding, Kojo Attah, Li Dan, Martin Gordon, Megan Le, Michael Epp, Minnie Driver, Peter Brooke, Phil Hodges, Phylicia Rashād, Rebecca Hazlewood, Reza Diako, Rocci Williams, Sophia Feliciano, Sunny Dhillon, Taylor James, Valentina Novakovic
Director: David Ayer
Rating: R

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374. Sexy Beast, 2024

The 2000s film Sexy Beast, is already a niche entry in the crime comedy genre, so if you’re going to make a prequel about it, it better be good. This 2024 series unfortunately is not it. Whereas the film’s performances were explosive and dynamic, the show’s were derivative and cartoonish. Fans of the original will be disappointed, but the experience isn’t better for those unfamiliar with the film. You go in blank and leave just as empty, without knowing anything or caring for anyone new.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Emun Elliott, James McArdle

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375. Rain Dogs, 2023

Whether or not its intentionally messy, erratically paced style resonates with you, there's something undeniably special about having a show like Rain Dogs in our current television landscape. Almost aggressively opposed to the idea of comfort viewing and easily marketable drama, the series deals with characters who are at rock bottom for all eight episodes. There's a particular restlessness to its storytelling that keeps it thoroughly unpredictable, and allows Daisy May Cooper and Jack Farthing to play razor-sharp, open-hearted roles without any pretension whatsoever. But Rain Dogs' unique personality also means it can be especially challenging to latch on to its story—especially when the momentum is rarely carried over from one episode to the next. We become trapped in the show's central toxic friendship to the point of overemphasis. And that's a rare, valuable thing, but it can also be much too frustrating.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Daisy May Cooper, Fleur Tashjian, Jack Farthing, Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo

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