Weekend Watch - April 2024 Recap

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week, we have come to the end of another month of movies and have a few to recap. As always this is a recap of the most universally acclaimed films of the month, categorized by their likelihood of making it onto this blog’s list of the Greatest Films of All Time. Those with the hardest road ahead of them will be classified as long shots, those with a strong chance will be classified as possible things, and those that are already instant classics will be classified as sure things (we don’t have any of those this month). April matches the Aprils of years past with a few possible contenders for end of the year awards that will most likely lose steam by the time we actually get there alongside a solid slate of creative B-movies that look like they’ll earn cult classic status for one reason or another. Let’s get into it.

Long Shots:

Monkey Man: Written, directed, edited, and acted by Dev Patel, the action thriller serves as one of the best “Long Shots” in a while. Offering action sequences inspired by other action greats and a story that is relatively topical, it won over audiences and critics, just not a high enough rate to turn it into an instant classic.

The First Omen: Horror films are always a tough sell, especially when they’re the sixth film in a franchise, but this one seems to have pleased audiences and critics in ways that so many horror films and sequels haven’t. It’s still not universally beloved, but the fact that it’s had anywhere close to positive reviews warrants a mention here.

Scoop: Netflix has been having success with dramas about the royal family, and though their dramatization of the BBC interview with Prince Andrew about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein might not reach the prestige and quality of The Crown, it’s still gained enough traction to be a slight improvement on some of their other biographical outings of late.

The Long Game: It’s a feel-good sports movie with Dennis Quaid about Mexican-American caddies making their own golf course in South Texas, of course it’ll do alright with critics and audiences. It won’t win awards, and it won’t change a whole lot in the grand scheme of cinema, but I bet your parents will watch this on-demand in a few months and ask you if you’ve seen it.

Sasquatch Sunset: The wordless adventure comedy about a family of sasquatches, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keogh seems to have a bit too much gross-out humor to have any kind of serious mainstream success, but it’s pleased enough audiences and critics that it’s status as a cult classic seems almost guaranteed at this point. It definitely won’t be the film that everyone loves, though, if its split audience ratings are any indication.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: Guy Ritchie’s latest foray into historical unsung heroes has seen a similar level of success to his film The Covenant from last year – audiences seem to really enjoy it, but critics don’t fully agree. It’s a solid action film, but as I said in my review, it lacks a bit of punch in the ending.

Abigail: The vampire/slasher/survival horror film about a group of criminals trapped in a house with a child vampire ballerina looks to have found its target audience despite giving the twist away in its trailers. Audiences have given this consistently positive reviews, and critics aren’t entirely down on it, so it’s got a shot at something close to cult status if it can stand the test of time.

Unsung Hero: I can’t tell if Christian cinema has finally figured out how to make better movies or all the Christian movies are getting reverse review bombed, but this film about the family that spawned the artists Rebecca St. James and For King & Country has been a hit with audiences so far. Critics still aren’t super high on it, but if you liked the Jeremy Camp film or the MercyMe film, you’ll probably like this one too.

Possible Things:

Civil War: Though Alex Garland’s latest is certainly no Ex Machina, it seems to be performing more consistently well with critics and audiences than Men or Annihilation, so we could be seeing a return to form from the acclaimed writer/director even as he’s announced his retirement from directing. The film about a group of journalists traveling across a war-torn America has received praise for the acting from lead Kirsten Dunst, for its sound design, and for its excellent use of tension throughout, making it a potential long-shot candidate for the awards it needs later on in the year to get fully over the hump.

Challengers: Luca Guadagnino continues to show with each film he puts out that he knows how to make people look hot in any situation and how to pull some phenomenal performances from them in the process. His tennis love triangle film looks to be his best mainstream success as well, and despite an early release date, it might have enough steam to make it through to some awards shows at the end of the year to bolster its already highly positive reviews.

Weekend Watch - March 2024 Recap

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week, we’ve reached the end of another month of films, and it’s time to look back at the month’s most acclaimed releases. As always, they’ll be categorized by likelihood of making the blog’s list of films – Long Shots, Possible Things, and Sure Things. March certainly wrapped the first quarter of 2024 up on a higher note than it started on, but the slate of films still doesn’t hold a candle to last year’s films and sorely missed the two films that were postponed from the last week of releases – Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 and Beyond the Spider-Verse. Regardless, there were still some solid films worth checking out, so let’s get into it.

Long Shots:

Cabrini: A surprise biopic hit about a nun who worked to improve the lives of people living in poverty in New York City in the late 19th century has seen lots of success with audiences since its release. It’s from the screenwriter of last year’s Sound of Freedom, so take that how you will, but audiences seem to have enjoyed it so far.

Arthur the King: The fact that this film has anything near positive reviews comes as a huge surprise to me, personally, considering the double negative of Mark Wahlberg and a dog movie, but it’s overcome the odds to please audiences fairly consistently. Critics haven’t been quite as on board, but it still bears mentioning.

Snack Shack: From the director of 2020’s cult classic Dinner in America comes a summer coming-of-age film, set at a pool snack shack in the summer of 1991. Co-leads Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle have been on quite a few rising star lists, and the film has gotten better than average reviews from both audiences and critics, so keep an eye out for it if you can find it.

One Life: This Holocaust film starring Anthony Hopkins definitely flew under the radar with the massive success of The Zone of Interest, but it tells yet another story that has yet to be seen and bears checking out. Between Hopkins’s leading role and the generally positive reviews from critics and audiences, it should be one worth watching.

The Beautiful Game: Netflix released a film about the “homeless world cup” this month, starring Micheal Ward and Bill Nighy, which piques my interest enough to check it out. Average audience and critic reviews have me thinking that it won’t do too much beyond this month, but it might surprise and become a sleeper like Nyad.

Possible Things:

Problemista: I feel like I’ve been seeing trailers for Julio Torres’s A24 film about an immigrant seeking a renewal on his work visa while working as an artist in NYC for almost a year now. The film that stars Torres and Tilda Swinton finally got a wide release in theaters this month to solid reviews from critics and audiences. With A24’s ever-widening slate of releases, I don’t know that it’ll be able to churn up the love necessary to pull the awards love it’ll need to stand the test of time, but I’m sure you’ll still find plenty to love about it.

Love Lies Bleeding: The lesbian crime thriller with Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian has mostly lived up to the hype by offering a strong crime film that tells a unique story that has pleased those who have gone to see it so far. It’s still an indie film, so making it “big” might or might not be in the cards, but it’s certainly worth checking out.

Frida: Animated documentaries have been becoming more and more the norm in the past couple of decades, and one from Amazon about the iconic artist Frida Kahlo feels like an inevitability now that it’s come out. Those who have seen it seem positive on it and its treatment of Kahlo and her work, so I can certainly recommend it if you’d like to check it out.

La Chimera: Quietly a festival darling across most of last year, this film failed to get any kind of wide release in the U.S. until just this weekend, but the Josh O’Connor-led film about archaeologists and the black market of historical artifacts still seems to be hitting the right notes with those who have seen it. If it’s showing in your area, give it some love because it certainly deserves its day in the sun.

Late Night with the Devil: I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, we’re getting a lot of love for David Dastmalchian as a leading man and a cool indie horror film, both of which are good things. On the other hand, the filmmakers used AI art in their production design, which steals both the work of actual online artists and jobs from potential production artists as well, which is a bad thing and something we can’t excuse at any level of filmmaking. Still, it has gotten solid reviews, so maybe it’s worth checking out for free at some point.

Sure Thing:

Dune: Part Two: As the best film of the year so far and one of the best sequels of all time, there’s no real question that this film will be sticking around ‘til the end of the year. Between the Stilgar memes, Denis interviews, and rave reviews from Steven Spielberg, it’s hard to deny what this film has already accomplished and most likely will continue to do. If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a guy on Twitter who’s watched it twenty times already to make up for that, but you probably should check it out.