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‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ leans into weirdness and queerness | movie review
In his fourth solo outing, Thor: Love and Thunder finds Thor and Valkyrie align with an unlikely new hero to take down a villain with a taste for revenge.

Thor: Love and Thunder makes up for what it lacks in structure and narrative in charming oddball energy, maximal laughs-per-minute, and a cast that is game for anything. Director Taika Waititi, returning after a very successful entry in Thor: Ragnorok, throws everything but the kitchen sink into the movie—for both better and worse. Sometimes the emotional beats are betrayed by the comedic tone and vice-versa, but when the movie gets it right—like in the riotous but stirring reveal of The Mighty Thor—it’s perfection.

Thor: Love and Thunder might be more of a Taika Waititi movie than it is a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. I mean, it’s colorful, gay, and has a running gag about screaming goats—it doesn’t get much more Waititi than that.

While the most recent movies in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have to do much heavy-lifting in setting up the rest of the series, Thor: Love and Thunder stands on its own—even with the cameos.

After all, the last time we saw Thor (Chris Hemsworth) was in Avengers: Endgame where he became one of the few main superhero holdovers from the original Avengers. Much time has passed and there is much to catch up on, which we see in a sleek and often-hilarious montage narrated by fan-favorite Korg (voiced by Waititi). Korg explains that Thor has been galavanting across the universe with the Guardians of the Galaxy “helping” various worlds with their problems. What the catch-up is meant to explain (other than how Thor dropped all his Endgame weight) is how Thor has become a bit more of a bohemian narcissist as he’s searched for meaning after helping defeat Thanos.

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Another thing Phase Four has had in common is the use of cameos to draw audiences in (I’m looking at your Spider-Man: No Way Home). And while the move can sometimes come off as cumbersome pandering, the Guardians’ (Chris Pratt, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Sean Gunn, Dave Bautista) appearance feels slight enough to not detract from the movie. Were they completely necessary? Probably not. But they were a welcome sight.

Eventually, following a distress message from Sif (Jamie Alexander reprising her role), Thor learns that Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale under heavy makeup) has been going from planet to planet murdering Gods. In the movie’s cold open, we see Gorr lose his daughter after he’s slighted by the God he worshipped spurring his journey of revenge. More importantly, Sif reveals that New Asgaard is next.

The Sif scene is the perfect example of Waititi maintaining his comedic tone while still delivering on narrative. Sif asks Thor to let her die following a battle with Gorr so that she can go to Valhalla. An apologetic Thor informs her that she actually needs to die in the battle to go to Valhalla, but quips in the movie’s funniest one-liner that maybe her missing arm made it to Valhalla.

Thor rushes back to the settlement of Asgardians where leader King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) is battling with the shadow creatures sent by Gorr. In yet another scene of Waititi’s ingenuity, we are treated to an epic battle, introduced to The Mighty Thor, and see a hilarious montage of how Thor and his one true love Jane Foster’s (Natalie Portman) relationship crumbled under the weight of both of their duties—Thor’s to the Avengers and Jane’s to her research.

We learn that Jane, who is suffering from cancer, was called to Thor’s destroyed hammer Mjölnir. When she got to the hammer, it repaired and gifted itself to Jane in an attempt to save her. Now, as The Mighty Thor, she vows to help Thor and Valkyrie defeat Gorr who kidnaps New Asgard’s children to a mysterious land called the shadow realm.

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Thor and Jane’s relationship acts as the emotional anchor for the movie through all its absurdness. However, as often as the tonal balance between humor, thrills, and drama works—it doesn’t.

The journey to the shadow realm takes our heroic quartet to Omnipotence City, a haven for the gods, where they hope to drum up support in their battle against Gorr. Specifically, they want to get the help of Zeus (Russell Crowe in a hilarious extended cameo). Unfortunately, Zeus is more interested in showing off with his lightning bolt for the other gods and, oh yeah, the orgy scheduled for later in the day.

The riortous scene is comedy gold (pun intended) where we get to see just how far Marvel is willing to let Waititi go (we go as far as seeing Chris Hemsworth’s golden buns). We’re also treated to Valkyrie queering it up—and bopping to Mary J. Blige’s “Family Affair”—a gold-splashed action scene, and, of course, screaming goats. It’s a highlight scene.

On the action side, a battle in the “shadow realm” is presented almost completely in black-and-white in one of the most thrilling creative decisions I’ve seen in a Marvel in quite some time. The scene is almost pure horror, but because of the tone up until that point it’s difficult to feel the stakes. While Bale is completely committed to the role of Gorr—and is often terrifying—you never truly feel he’s dangerous.

That’s why when the movie works best when it focuses on just the characters.

With Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, a history lesson on Korg’s people, and Chris Hemsworth’s peach, Love and Thunder is easily the queerest MCU movie yet.

Still, it was a low bar. In the first three phases of the MCU, it seemed that LGBTQ+ people did not exist despite romance and sexuality being front and center. I mean, one of the first few scenes of Iron Man was Tony Stark sleeping with a female reporter. Queer representation in the MCU has only now started to settle in with characters like Phastos in Eternals and now Thompson’s Valkyrie and Waititi Korg in the Thor franchise wearing their queerness unapologetically. The result? A more colorful movie, both literally and figuratively.

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The dimension that it adds to a character like Valkyrie helps elevate the movie to a more profound plane in the same way that Thor and Jane’s past gives us an emotional investment in their narrative. Instead of being heroes of perfection, they themselves have trauma that drives them forward—or hold them back. Waititi’s grasp of tone and narrative in those scenes is perfection—much like his underrated gem Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It’s when he has to dig back into the MCU formula that the movie loses its color.

It’s clear that the best way for the MCU to move forward is to give its directors full creative control over their movies from screenplay to direction.

Much of Thor: Love and Thunder feels like MCU mastermind Kevin Feige handing Taika Waititi a blank check and a script and saying, “go,” much like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness felt like it had Sam Raimi’s DNA in it. However, these two movies in addition to Chloé Zhao’s Eternals show that unless Marvel truly allows these directors to completely run away with their movies—story and all—it’s difficult to meld the two visions. Of those three movies, I think Love and Thunder might be the least successful because Waititi had the more difficult balancing act. He was making a comedy. All the while, Disney needed him to deliver a popcorn blockbuster and Marvel needed him to deliver on storylines familiar to comic readers. He mostly succeeds. It’s clunky, the pacing is off, but I can’t deny that I laughed nearly every second of screentime.

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More movies, less problems
Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter and Letterboxd. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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July 7, 2022
‘EO’ and the donkey that enchanted Cannes | movie review
Eo follows life through the eyes of the eponymous donkey as he experiences life and conflict in the human world

Eo doesn’t have a plot, little dialogue and, oh, the protagonist is a depressed donkey that wishes he was a horse, but this weird little movie is irresistible. Sure, its lead is a donkey, but it is as human as it gets. Constructed from our hero donkey’s journey away and back again, Eo meditates on loneliness, human nature, and empathy.

Full review coming soon.

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More movies, less problems
Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter and Letterboxd. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

💌 Sign up for our weekly email newsletter with movie recommendations available to stream.

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May 21, 2022
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ brings horror to the MCU | movie review
Doctor Strange has to go up against his fellow Avenger Wanda Maximoff in order to save a young girl and the fabric of the multiverse

Don’t worry, Sam Raimi fans. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness fully goes horror—jump scares, body horror, a smattering of diabolical kills and all. It’s a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie through and through but has Raimi’s creepy groovy campy deranged DNA all over it. It’s messy, uneven, and ridiculous but also may have made a play to be my favorite MCU movie of all time. Start the Elizabeth Olsen Oscar campaign.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is at its best when the powers that be allow the director’s DNA to weave its way into the tried and true formula. There was Taika Waititi’s slapstick-infused and witty Thor: Ragnarok, Chloé Zhao’s quiet existential musings in Eternals, and now the groovy creepy fun delights Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

When Raimi, best known for creating the cult classic Evil Dead horror franchise, was first tapped to direct many speculated that the movie may go full horror after all before the universe where that version of the movie existed was quashed. However, if the jump scares, body horror, and smattering of downright devilish and diabolical kills are any indication, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a horror movie through and through.

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Of course, though, it’s a Marvel movie first and begins with an action scene traversing through an ethereal low gravity universe where a different universe’s Doctor Strange is trying to reach The Book of Vishanti along with America Chavez (16-year-old newcomer Xochitl Gomez) while being pursued by a giant monster. Just as she is about to be caught, a portal to our universe suddenly opens giving her an escape. Of course, though, things are not that simple and a monster has followed her right in the middle of Christine Palmer’s (Rachel McAdams for the first time since appearing in the first Doctor Strange movie) wedding that a heartbroken Strange is attending. I mean, she is his ex-girlfriend.

After dispatching the monster, he and Wong (Benedict Wong) learn that Chavez has the one-of-a-kind ability to travel the multiverse. Though, she’s not exactly sure how she does it. Clearly, some force wants that power. Wong takes her to the Masters of the Mystic Arts fortress Kamar-Taj for safekeeping while Strange seeks out Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) for help.

However, in a surprisingly quick twist, we learn that Wanda herself is behind the attack in an effort to take America’s power and find a universe where she could be reunited with her sons who she lost in the Disney+ series WandaVision. She gives Strange until sunset to turn her in, which, of course, he does not do causing Wanda to take the fortress by force.

(L-R): Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, Benedict Wong as Wong, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange in Marvel Studios’ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in Marvel Studios’ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

What begins as a classic MCU action scene quickly turns into a clear announcement of Raimi as the creative force behind the movie as the horror elements he’s so known for start to creep in — whispered voices, tilting camera angles, quick-cut editing all reminiscent of The Evil Dead. That’s what’s most exciting about Multiverse of Madness. It’s not afraid to be scary. It stretches that PG-13 rating to its absolute limit.

America again escapes with Strange to the multiverse leading to perhaps one of the most thrilling, deranged, terrifying, and twisted sequences in Marvel Cinematic Universe history that feels more akin to Prime Video’s The Boys than your classic superhero movie. Combined with some stellar and applause-inducing cameos, it propels the movie into a confident and assured second half that brings new (and ridiculous) ideas — a feat for a franchise with 27 movies and six television series.

Speaking of television series, Elizabeth Olsen continues to be a standout as her storyline continues from her Emmy-nominated turn in WandaVision. It almost makes more sense to call the movie Wanda’s Multiverse of Madness because she dominates every frame that she’s in. She chews the scenery with her villainous turn as a mother trying to be reunited with her kids to incredible and terrifying results. You feel the weight and danger of her presence — even when she isn’t on screen. While Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, and Xochitl Gomez do great work, Elizabeth Olsen easily runs away with the entire movie. She’s even Oscar-worthy.

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Does the story have the same narrative implications as Spider-Man: No Way Home? No. It’s far from inconsequential, but the story does feel contained. That relative slightness is what allowed Raimi to chew into each action setpiece with his full might. Not a moment of the well-paced and lean 126-minute running time is wasted. The movie hits the gas from minute one and doesn’t let up until it crashes — in the best way possible.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is messy, uneven, ridiculous, and at times confusing — and that’s why I loved it. In all the chaos and depravity is a future where the MCU is more than just a formula. It shows that auteurs with a singular vision can have the vision realized while still fitting into the grander scheme of the franchise. Sam Raimi swings for the outer reaches of the multiverse to absurd results — however, he’s in full control. Every campy unhinged decision is done with a wink and a nudge to the audience. Mileage may vary by viewer. For this critic, it went the distance. Creepy, campy, groovy, devilish fun from beginning to end.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter and Letterboxd. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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May 3, 2022
Cold War gay romance ‘Firebird’ lacks spark | movie review
Firebird tells the true story of a hidden romance between a private in the Cold War-era Soviet military and a star fighter pilot

The best queer cinema lives in the silences and the subtext. In the looks and the touches. In the underlying messages. That’s because the lives of queer people are often lived in these spaces out in the world — in the present, but particularly the past. It is a defense mechanism for living in a society where safety is a privilege we aren’t often afforded. And it doesn’t get more dangerous than the Cold War-era Soviet Union.

That’s where the love story at the center of Firebird, the feature debut of Estonian director Peeter Rebane, takes place. The film, based on Sergey Fetisov’s memoir The Story of Roman, focuses on young private Sergey (Tom Prior, who also co-wrote the screenplay) and fighter pilot Roman (Oleg Zagorodnii) as they strike up a secret romance in the shadows of their Air Force base.

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Matters are complicated by the base’s second-in-command Major Zverev’s (Margus Prangel) all-seeing eye and his secretary Luisa’s (Diana Pozharskaya) budding interest in both Roman and Sergey. That’s where much of the movie’s dramatic tension lies, largely because the central romance feels too easy. Unlike the great period-set queer romances — Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Call Me By Your Name, Maurice — Firebird doesn’t focus on the smoldering tension between Sergey and Roman.

There are moments when Rebane understands the needs of the story. At times he focuses on those passing touches, quick glances, and underlying meanings that underline so much of the communication between queer people. The problem is Firebird is afraid of living in the silence of those moments and fills them with often clunky dialogue — “I search for something deeper, but I can’t quite grasp it.” In that way, the directing far surpasses the screenplay, which feels overwrought and overwritten.

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However, the biggest failure of the movie is its inability to give reason to root for the central couple. It gets so distracted by its plot — and desire to be a war thriller — that it forgets to make its characters characters. In the final text epilogue, it’s hinted that Sergey lived a much more complex and rousing life than what is portrayed. It’s as if Rebane and Prior wrote their screenplay by connecting various plot points rather than journeying their characters through them.

Sergey Fetisov has a story worth telling. One that I imagine is filled with emotional complexity and gives insight into the hardship of queer life in a specific time and place. The movie fails to mine any deeper than surface-level and opts for melodramatics rather than reality. The premise promises great love. But like any great love, it has to be earned. Unfortunately, Firebird doesn’t try to earn it.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter and Letterboxd. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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April 29, 2022
‘Crush’ is a typical high school rom-com — and that’s a good thing | movie review
Crush follows an awkward queer high schooler as she tries clear her name as the school vandal while navigating a new crush

In many ways, Crush is your typical high school coming-of-age romantic comedy that falls into all the genre trappings. An endearingly awkward lead, quirky side characters including a too-comfortable mom, a quick music-driven pace, melodramatic heart-to-hearts, and, of course, a third act public confession in front of the whole school — but that familiarity is a feature, not a bug. While Kirsten King and Casey Rackham‘s screenplay is often too adorkable and low stakes for its own good, it’s never less than charming — and queer kids deserve silly high school romantic comedies of their own. Rowan Blanchard and Auli’i Cravalho, best known as the voice of Moana, have enough charisma to power through the movie’s expected beats that it’s impossible not to fall for them.

Crush will be available exclusively on Hulu on April 29.

Paige (Rowan Blanchard) is your typical awkward high school junior with her dreams set on attending a summer program at The California Institute of the Arts. There’s just one problem: she has artist’s block. The prompt is to create a piece around her happiest moment. In the movie’s breezy intro, she considers the moment she came out to her mother (a delightful Megan Mullally), but that daydream is broken when her mother gifts her with glow-in-the-dark dental dams. Some parents are too supportive. The next she considers is when she told her straight best friend Dylan (Tyler Alvarez) she liked girls, but that option is kiboshed by his unremarkable reaction: “I like girls too.”

Then, she considers a moment she has completely gotten over: when she first formed her crush on school it-girl Gabby (Isabella Ferreira). Crush immediately drew me in with the way it treated its queer themes — as if there’s nothing to see here. This isn’t a coming out movie like many other queer high school rom-coms. In one scene, Coach Murray (scene-stealing Aasif Mandvi), the school’s track coach, hands out keys for the hotel rooms for an away meet and quips: “do not go in each other’s rooms, even though I know 60% of you are queer.” It’s refreshing that this isn’t where the movie derives its plot and tension.

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Instead, the story surrounds the mystery of “King Pun,” a graffiti artist and social media star who has anonymously been vandalizing the school with their punny artwork. The problem is the school’s principal (Michelle Buteau) is convinced that Paige is King Pun and is threatening her with suspension threatening her CalArts hopes. However, Paige is able to strike a deal. If she can find the real identity of the vandal before the semester’s end she can avoid suspension. The catch is she has to join the school’s track team — yeah, it’s a bit of sweaty plot manuevering — that Gabby is co-captain of with her twin AJ (Auli’i Cravalho). Of course, hijinks ensue including a montage of Paige embarrassing herself at practice, which leads Coach Murray to assign AJ as her trainer.

You could probably figure out the story from there.

Through all the cute crushing back and forth between the triangle of girls, we get bits of their internal life — AJ feels pressure from her father and living up to her sister’s success, Gabby feels like people use her because she’s popular, Paige has never been kissed. But Crush isn’t precious about these issues and keeps much of its exploration surface-level — to both its benefit and detriment. Do you yearn to learn more about the characters? Or course. Is it refreshing for a movie not to be distracted by deeper themes in service of its simpler story? Yes.

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Blanchard and, in particular, Cravalho are irresistibly charming as the romance leads while the rest of the cast — Alvarez and Mandi, in particular — provides the much-needed goofs and laughs. There are some hilarious one-liners like “trigger warning, there will be a gunshot to start but it’s fake” and “you look like a serial killer, change your eyes,” that catch you off guard in such a sweet movie.

There’s a sense that movies targeted at the LGBTQ+ community need to be about something whether our queerness or our trauma. For all its formulaic stereotypical corniness, Crush‘s normalization of its queer characters is what makes it a joy to watch. It doesn’t ignore it either, it just decenters it in the narrative allowing kids and teens to see that a queer life isn’t just darkness. They can have silly crushes too. And sometimes those crushes turn into something more. We need more movies like Crush.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter and Letterboxd. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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April 28, 2022
‘The Northman’ goes south | movie review

Years after witnessing his father’s murder, a Viking prince goes on a rampage across Scandinavia to avenge his death and save his mother.

The Northman looks and sounds like it cost $90 million to make. Robert Eggers is a master at his craft perfectly melding every element — particularly Jarin Blaschke’s cinematography — to create his Viking-era world. Where the movie goes south is in its narrative and characters. Beneath the twisting Scandinavian folklore is a simple and familiar revenge story that never gives us real reason to care. The movie lacks the emotional impact to become fully immersed. Still, Eggers is a masterful director and holds your attention even if the movie isn’t as narratively compelling as The Witch nor as visceral as The Lighthouse.

Full review coming soon.

April 25, 2022
2022 Oscars: And the Oscar for worst ceremony goes to…

In an effort to make the Oscars cool again, The Academy made the Oscars deeply uncool

Even before the 94th Academy Awards telecast, people were already predicting it to be one of the worst Oscar telecasts in history. Those people were wrong… it was the worst Oscars telecast in history.

As rumors that ABC would pull the plug on the ceremony amid sagging ratings, The Academy tasked telecast producer Will Packer with finding a way to get people interested in the Oscars again. The tactics? Inviting TikTokers to the ceremony, introducing fan-voted categories, and, most egregiously, cutting eight categories from the live telecast in an effort to reduce the show’s running time. Hilariously, the ceremony is one of the longest in the past two decades. All the changes made it feel like the Oscars, an award meant to honor movies, hated movies.

Here’s my breakdown of the best moments, the worst moments, and yes, that moment.

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Highlights

The Speeches

Wow! Who would have thought that the speeches are the best part of an awards show? Who could have come up with such a concept!?

The first speech of the night was from Best Supporting Actress winner Ariana DeBose who won for her portrayal of Anita in West Side Story, a role that made Rita Moreno the first Puerto Rican Oscar winner in history. At the end of her speech, she alluded to being the first openly LGBTQ+ person to win an acting Oscar saying, “I promise you this, there is a place for us.” It was particularly poignant considering Disney, the studio behind the movie, has been embroiled in controversy over Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Later in the night, Jessica Chastain similarly paid homage to the LGBTQ+ community in her speech after winning Best Actress for playing gay icon Tammy Faye in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

Best Supporting Actor winner Troy Kotsur became the first deaf male actor to win an Oscar and the second deaf actor overall after his CODA co-star Marlee Matlin won in 1987. His touching speech gave tribute to the deaf community and the importance of family while last year’s Best Supporting Actress winner Yuh-jung Youn looked on like a proud mom.

Not only do these speeches create moments and make statements, but it also allows the show to have structure. With fewer speeches, the telecast was instead inundated with filler bits and “tributes” that felt nothing more than set dressing for what we really want to see: people winning Oscars.

The Performances (for the most part)

Beyoncé opened the ceremony with a gorgeously composed performance of her nominated song “Be Alive” from King Richard with a group of dancers clad in tennis ball orange dresses live from a Compton tennis court. It felt like it fit naturally in the structure of the show, as did the performances of the other nominated songs (Van Morrison’s “Down to Joy” from Belfast was the only nominee not to be performed).

One performance, however, did not land with me. Read on.

Liza with a Z

It’s a tradition for the Oscars to invite a screen legend to present the Oscar for Best Picture and this year may have been the most legendary. Oscar-winner Liza Minnelli and Oscar nominee Lady “I don’t consider myself an ethical person” Gaga jointly presented in one of the most genuinely touching moments of the ceremony.

When Minnelli had trouble opening the envelope, Lady Gaga whispered “I got you,” to which she replied, “I know.” Queens supporting queens.

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Lowlights

We have to talk about Bruno

In a head-scratching decision, the telecast featured a performance of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto. The catch is it wasn’t nominated for Best Original Song. Another song from the movie was nominated. So why perform it? Because it was the most popular song from a movie in 2021. Including it felt strained and uncomfortable, especially with an inserted Megan Thee Stallion that replaced the song’s best part!

Three hosts. No jokes.

Can someone explain to me why Wanda Sykes or Regina Hall couldn’t just host alone? The writing at awards ceremonies is famously terrible, but this Oscars may have just set a new low with an uncomfortable thread about Regina Hall being single to a fully rude seat filler joke aimed at Kirsten Dunst. Sykes and Hall did the best they could with the material they were given. Amy Schumer, on the other hand, made me feel uncomfortable whenever she was on screen. A host is supposed to make you feel safe. Like a captain driving the ship. Instead, I was dreading their appearances.

Montage. Montage. Montage.

The Academy teased several tributes and cast reunions in an effort to pique interest in the ceremony. Those included a James Bond 60th Anniversary montage, a Pulp Fiction, White Men Can’t Jump, Juno, and The Godfather cast reunions. And one too many montages. The problem is that these packages felt, like the performance on “Bruno,” awkwardly muscled into a ceremony that already lacked focus.

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The downright absurd

No Runtime to Die

ABC mandated that the Oscars stay within their allotted three-hour time slot. The Academy’s solution? Cut eight categories from the main broadcast. The outcome? A ceremony longer than last year’s. What exactly was the point of cutting those categories if they were just going to fill the time with unnecessary bits, performances, and montages?

Twitter’s fan vote went to who?

In another attempt to pander to young people, The Academy instituted two fan-voted categories: Oscars Cheer Moment and Fan Favorite Movie. What they quickly learned is that Twitter is the pit of fan culture hell. Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Army of the Dead won both categories in a presentation that had me taking a bathroom break.

The Slap™️

No comment.

Final Thoughts

I love the Oscars. I loved the Oscars before I even fully formed my love for movies. Watching people being lauded for the craft, to receive validation that we so rarely get, was inspiring to me. This year’s ceremony was not the Oscars that comforted a shy closeted gay boy in New Jersey. Instead of seeing love and hope onstage, I saw greed. It broke my heart. I don’t know what the solution is. I just want my Oscars back.

? What did you think of this year’s ceremony? Let me know!

Have a great week. Go to therapy!
Karl

March 28, 2022
‘X’ is a Texas Boogie Nights Massacre | movie review
X follows a young group of aspiring filmmakers who travel to an isolated farm to film a porn. It doesn’t go well.

X is a detailed and well-studied recreation of 70s exploitation B-movies and the Golden Age of the slasher genre, right down to the film grain. However, director Ti West does more than homage. He adds his own darkly comedic tone to mine some real laughs in between the carnage as well as a surprisingly complex pair of villains — which is why a prequel film has already been shot. Nostalgic cinematography, a tense Carpenter-esque score, and deliciously camp performances — particularly from Brittany Snow, Mia Goth, and Martin Henderson — make X a gloriously bloody and entertaining throwback. Like Boogie Nights by way of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

X is now playing in theaters.

The most fascinating thing about X is how straightforward it is. There are no tricks, no twists, no sudden genre shifts or gotcha moments, but that’s exactly what director Ti West intends. He’s not looking to reinvent the slasher genre, he wants to celebrate every single gritty bloody detail right down to the film grain — although The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is clearly his biggest inspiration. But that’s not to say he doesn’t have some tricks up his sleeves.

The glorious The Cabin in the Woods, perhaps the most meta meta-horror movie that lovingly skewers the genre for its repetitive tropes, posits that the victims of slashers are being punished for their youth. Not just being young, but taking advantage of that youth. However, movies from the genre’s heyday in the 70s and 80s personify that punishment as an inhumane mysterious force — Michael Myers, Leatherface, Jason Voorhees. West subverts that trope and instead finds humanity in the antagonists. If anything, X’s villains are devastatingly human.

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But first, let’s go back to 1979. You know the setup. A group of six young people travels to an isolated part of Texas for a weekend of fun. Though, in a Boogie Nights-like twist the group isn’t just doing it for their own pleasure. They’re shooting an adult film to take advantage of the newly formed home video market. Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), in particular, is obsessed with being a star. Something her boyfriend and film’s producer Wayne (Martin Henderson) is convinced she’s destined for.

Maxine’s co-stars Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi aka musician Kid Cudi), on the other hand, are more seasoned porno actors. Rounding out the group are the film’s director RJ (Owen Campbell) and his girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), who are more conservative compared to their companions, especially Lorraine who didn’t even know what the project was.

In an effort to keep costs low the group is shooting the film in the farmhouse on the isolated property of elderly couple Howard (Stephen Ure) and his wife Pearl (Goth, playing double duty in impressive old age makeup). West makes it clear that something is amiss with his chilling bloody cold open, the foreboding music by composers Tyler Bates and Chelsea Wolfe, and classic horror shots framing the villains with menace. We don’t get a clear view of Wayne or Pearl’s faces for some time.

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After some brilliant slow-burn tension building where we begin to learn a bit more about our characters, hell breaks loose. Or should I say, Pearl breaks loose and X pivots to being a full-blown slasher with all the blood and gore you could hope for. Still, West finds depths in its narrative while maintaining its horror elements. Maxine and Pearl feel like parallel stories running in two different timelines. Pearl could’ve been Maxine in an earlier life and Maxine could become Pearl. X presupposes that the real horror here is time. It highlights the brilliance of casting Mia Goth in both roles and the decision to film a prequel in tandem.

As straightforward of an homage to 70s and 80s horror X is, it mines the thematic depths of youth, time, regret, sex, and the horror genre itself. Horror and porn are often lumped together as gratuitous and deviant as they deal with the taboo topics of sex and gore. West questions asks why that is the case with his narrative. Why do we find two people having sex on camera so alluring yet unacceptable (the same for violence)? The answer is the movie itself.

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March 17, 2022
‘Sissy’ directors and star Aisha Dee chat their new horror | Interview
Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes chat their new horror-comedy Sissy, which premiered at SXSW, along with star Aisha Dee

Sissy, which opened the Midnighter section at the 2022 South by Southwest Film Festival, stunned audiences (you can read my review here) and was acquired by Shudder for release this year. Directors Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes chatted with me about the movie’s origins, why it needed to be a horror, and balancing the tricky tone between scares and laughs. Star Aisha Dee, best known for her role on The Bold Type, talks about how she empathized with her character, how the pandemic helped her prepare for the role, and what zodiac sign she thinks she’d be.

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March 17, 2022
‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ is a bloody game of Among Us | SXSW review
Accusations fly between a group of friends after a stormy game night turns deadly in Bodies Bodies Bodies. Together they must find the killer among them.

Bodies Bodies Bodies is like a dark, bloody slasher version of Clue with a hint of Mean Girls and Lord of the Flies that takes place over a single night where accusations fly between a group of friends after a body is discovered on a stormy night — like a sick game of Among Us. Its perfectly constructed mystery is punctuated by its slasher-like horror filmmaking and a flurry of terrific performances — particularly a hilarious Rachel Sennott — that feel so lived-in yet representative of the privileged Gen Z TikTok elite as a whole. The delicate balancing of tones, storylines, and relationships culminates in a hilariously satisfying ending that will make you want to watch the movie over and over again.

Have you ever wondered how a real-life game of Among Us would play out? Or what the cult classic comedy Clue would be like as an actual horror movie? Well, Bodies Bodies Bodies may have answered that question and then some. Not that director Halina Reijn nor the screenwriters* intentionally took those properties as direct inspiration. It is unique in both narrative and execution even if you see shades of other movies in it — Scream and Mean Girls also come to mind. What it does have in common is it’s a complete blast, especially for genre fans. Though, it still even has a few tricks up its sleeves for them.

Of course, like any good slasher (or slasher send-up), Bodies Bodies Bodies takes place in a remote family mansion where Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) is bringing her new girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) to a hurricane party at her childhood friend David’s (Pete Davidson) parents’ house to brave a hurricane that is forecasted to hit that night. Immediately, there is tension within the group. It’s clear that past baggage is going to plague the night. David and his girlfriend Emma (Chase Sui Wonders) seem at odds for a variety of reasons but particularly because Alice (Rachel Sennott) brought her hot older boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace) along, causing David to feel threatened. Then there’s Jordan (Myha’la Herrold) who doesn’t seem all that happy that Sophie brought Bee uninvited.

And with incredible comic timing, the storm starts barrelling down.

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Armed with drinks, glow sticks, enough cocaine to make a drug lord jealous, and a sprawling mansion to use as a playground, the friends hunker down for the longest night of their lives. In an attempt to break the tensions, the group decides to play the game Bodies Bodies Bodies where one player is secretly chosen as the killer and “kills” one of the other players by tapping them on the shoulder in the dark. Then, the remaining players must figure out who did it — like a game of Clue. All is well until the lights go out and the friends split up. Bad choice. A body is discovered and a real-life version of the game is now afoot.

Throughout the night, more bodies are found, more people are killed, and suspects are cleared and uncleared. It’s like an entry in the Scream franchise that takes place in real-time over a single night.

What I love about Bodies Bodies Bodies is how natural the relationships and interactions feel. Like you’re getting a glimpse into the deep tanglings of this friend group, which color the accusations. In one of the best and funniest scenes, the friends use Gen Z buzzwords to levy suspicion onto each other and remove it from themselves. “Stop gaslighting me,” one character says. “He’s a libra moon,” says another.

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Eventually, the group begins to play oppression Olympics. “Accuse the black girl,” “I had PTSD from that,” “I was poor.” In reality, none of these kids are completely oppressed. When one claims she’s poorer than the others she’s immediately slapped with, “your parents are professors at a University!” to which she replies, “it’s public.” It’s the kind of tongue-in-cheek skewering of Gen Z wokeness that makes the movie a delight to watch outside of its horror elements.

However, the commentary doesn’t feel out-of-place. It feels so natural that the characters would use those defenses if they were accused of murder and their reactions, as ridiculous and hilarious as they are, never feel ingenuine. The way that the movie plays out is perfectly satisfying. Reijn paces the movie with precision so that not a single moment feels wasted and the momentum seemingly never stops.

Bodies Bodies Bodies feels like a perfect example of what the horror genre is going to look like after its renaissance in the early part of the 2010s. Like Get Out or Ready or Not, it uses the tried and true horror staples to build tension and suspense while using the world we live in to color it in complex shades that reflect back the horror of our society. But who am I kidding? More than anything, this is a bloody, hilarious, slasher of a good time. Everything else, icing on the cake. Or, I guess, a line of coke on the dresser.

* Kristen Roupenian, Sarah Delappe, Chloe Okuno, Joshua Sharp, Aaron Jackson

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March 14, 2022
A movie like ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ has never existed before | SXSW review
In Everything Everywhere All At Once, an unremarkable Chinese-American woman finds out that the fate of the multiverse lies in her (and her other versions) hands.

When I say a movie like Everything Everywhere All At Once has never existed, I mean that a movie like it has truly never existed. Though it spans countless genres, experiments with several mediums, and references dozens of films from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Ratatouille to Kill Bill to In the Mood For Love it feels so singular and assured. Director duo Daniels crafted a romp through the multiverse that is an assault on the mind as much as it is an assault on the senses. Absurd, hilarious, heartfelt, thrilling. It is one of the best movies of the year.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is playing at the 2022 South by Southwest Film Festival.

Everything Everywhere All At Once may be one of the most accurate movie titles in history. Filmmaking duo Daniels (Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert) throw everything, kitchen sink and all, into their action-thriller-comedy romp through their version of the multiverse — like the silly fever dream ideas of every person in existence brought to life in insanely colorful detail. The movie is so jam-packed that its cinematic references range from Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey to Pixar’s animated Ratatouille to Wong Kar-wai’s arthouse romance In the Mood For Love. And these aren’t just throwaway references. Each movie is woven inseparably into the plot.

That’s not to say it’s unfocused either. The movie’s story, for as complex as the lore gets, is relatively straightforward and it earns nearly every one of its digressions — yes, even the thread about humans with hot dogs for fingers and the universe where humans never evolved and are simply insentient rocks that communicate in subtitles. I’m telling you, this movie is one of a kind. But, as we know, bizarreness doesn’t necessarily make a good movie — though it certainly makes for an entertaining one. It’s how Daniels use the bizarreness to tell their story that makes it great.

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Evelyn is a Chinese-American immigrant who, along with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), owns a laundromat that she works hard to run, albeit robotically. After years on the grind she’s simply going through the motions, something that has distanced her from her husband and daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). It’s not even that she’s unhappy with her life — she’s simply not living it. She has one problem though: she hasn’t paid her taxes. That leads Evelyn, Waymond and her father Gong Gong (James Hong) to the IRS where inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdra (Jamie Lee Curtis) performs an audit of their business.

But like anyone trying to pay their taxes, things quickly go awry.

In a bit of a exposition dump that blessedly make the concept of the multiverse easy-to-follow, Waymond, or at least another version of Waymond from a different universe called the Alpha-verse, inhabits the body of… this universe’s Waymond (okay, maybe it’s not that easy to follow, but the Daniels find ways to guide you through it) and explains to Evelyn that every decision you make splits off a new universe and different version of you and your life. That means there are millions of versions of Evelyns and Waymonds. Alpha-verse Waymond explains that in his universe Evelyn created a technology that gives them the ability to jump across the multiverse into different versions of themselves.

He seeked out this universe’s Evelyn to recruit her to help defeat the evil inter-dimensional Jobu Tupaki, another version of Joy who wants to destroy the multiverse, by teaching her how to shift between different versions of herself to access their abilities. In perhaps the most impressive fight scene of the many impressive fight scenes in the movie, Evelyn shifts into a version of herself who broke up with Waymond before they could get married and instead became a martial arts master and subsequently a successful actress — yes, it’s as meta as it sounds — and fights a version of Deidre who is a pro-wrestler. Yes, Jamie Lee Curtis gets in on the action too.

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Like The Matrix where Evelyn is Neo and Waymond is Morpheus, she must try to master the ability to jump between versions and prevent Jobu Tupaki from taking over her universe. In the process we see movie star Evelyn (an homage to In the Mood for Love), sign spinner Evelyn, and hibachi chef Evelyn which features the movie’s funniest references to Ratatouille and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Underneath all the absurdity, though, is a well-realized exploration of the Asian and Asian-American experiences. Coming into the movie, I didn’t expect to be taken so emotionally by the movie’s deeper themes as the son of Asian immigrants. The experience of generational trauma takes form in Evelyn and Joy’s relationship — one strained by her mother’s desire to hold onto her vision of what Joy’s life should be, which is fueled by Evelyn’s father’s vision of what her life should be. The parent-child relationship has become a focus of movies lately. Perhaps because the millennial generation is now watching their boomer parents reach the later years of their lives. Daniels explore the tension of how one generation’s regrets, trauma, dreams bleed into the next but are often rejected because each generation is born into a different world.

To try to write about Everything Everywhere All At Once is like trying to explain the dream you had last night. The details are outlandish, maybe a little fuzzy, sometimes terrifying, but often connected to something in your subconscious. Some thought or insecurity or desire deep down that is suppressed deep in your psyche for one reason or another. On its face, Everything Everywhere is a wickedly entertaining, high-octane action romp that is destined for instant cult classic status. But it has more on its mind than hot dog hands, butt plugs and world-ending everything bagels — not just more. Everything.

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March 12, 2022
‘Jethica’ is a charming little ghost story | SXSW review
When Jessica’s stalker follows her to New Mexico, she and her friend Elena look for an otherworldy solution to get rid of him

Jethica feels like a ghost story told on a cool night next to a crackling campfire… or in the backseat of a car in an abandoned parking lot post-car sex, which is actually where Elena (Callie Hernandez) is recounting the story of how she killed someone to her hookup. As she speaks we start to see the story unfold before us with all the detail and witty tongue-in-cheek humor that any person telling a story would include. Because of that conceit, the movie is a lean 63 minutes of an interesting story well-told — and that’s what makes it great

Jethica is playing at the 2022 South by Southwest Film Festival

Full review coming soon.

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March 13, 2022
Patton Oswalt is Oscar-worthy in ‘I Love My Dad’ | SXSW review
An estranged father tries to reconnect with his son by catfishing him on Facebook in I Love My Dad

I Love My Dad takes the Mrs. Doubtfire conceit and updates it for the modern age as a father, desperate to reconnect with his son, catfishes him with a fake Facebook profile. Director-writer James Morosini creates a funny and entertaining self-portrait of his own life while also finding ingenious ways to present our digital life in the real world. Though the movie misses the opportunity to go deeper into the character’s psyches, it never losses your attention thanks to its witty screenplay and Patton Oswalt’s terrific performance.

I Love My Dad premiered at the 2022 South by Southwest Film Festival.

Like Mrs. Doubtfire with a modern twist, a hopelessly estranged father catfishes his son in an attempt to reconnect in I Love My Dad. If the premise of the movie sounds like a trove of cringy moments you would be correct. Writer-director James Morosini, who also stars in the movie, knows that and lets the movie thrive even when it gets “hide your face in your hands” awkward — and trust me, it gets awkward. But what could have easily been a raunchy gross-out comedy is instead empathetic towards both of its leads. It’s unsurprising then to learn that Morosini based the movie on his own life. The opening intertitle even quips, “the following actually happened, my dad told me to tell you it didn’t.”

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The eponymous dad Chuck (Patton Oswald) is not exactly the picture-perfect father. In the opening scene, he and his young son Franklin (played by Morosini as an adult) find a lost dog. While most parents would do the responsible thing and try to find the dog’s owner, Chuck gleefully tells Franklin they should take him in before quickly disposing of a missing poster with the dog’s picture that they come across. Years later, Chuck lives hours away and is estranged from his ex-wife (Amy Landecker) and Franklin.

Chuck tells his co-worker Jimmy (Get Out’s always terrific Lil Rel Howery) that Franklin has now cut him out completely, blocking him everywhere including Facebook, which was Chuck’s only connection with his son. Despite Jimmy’s protests — though it was vaguely his idea — Chuck creates a fake Facebook account under the name Becca (Claudia Sulewski), a waitress at a local diner, and friends Franklin — like an internet-age Mrs. Doubtfire. However, things quickly go array when Franklin messages “Becca” asking why she friended him when they don’t know each other.

Morosini ingeniously weaves the digital and physical together by having “Becca” appear next to Franklin like they’re actually having a face-to-face conversation as they’re talking over messenger. Instead of reading text on a screen, we actually get to see the character interact and convey emotion. But the movie takes it one step further.

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Just like in real-life texting conversations, sometimes messages get lost in translation, lose their context, or are conveyed differently. Like in some moments when a character uses sarcasm, it comes out as deadpan before they clarify with a “LOL,” which the actors act out. It makes I Love My Dad an immersive experience. In another scene, “Becca” speaks in near gibberish as Chuck, texting while driving (shaking my head) types with typos. It makes the movie feel so relevant and relatable — like Kimi earlier this year — even if it takes place in the past.

After some initial awkwardness, “Becca” quickly earns Franklin’s trust by connecting with his loneliness. Something that they discuss as they message more and more frequently. However, things take a turn when Franklin starts to form some very real feelings for the fake Becca. Although he initially tries to end contact, Chuck is quickly pulled back in as it’s the only way he’s been able to really connect with his son. Soon, though, they hit a point of no return when Franklin suggests he and Becca should meet up — with the help of Chuck. If you thought things were awkward before, they just got worst.

It took me a moment to understand Chuck as a character. The ending, without revealing spoilers, gives him a sort of redemption — whether it’s earned will be up to you. The movie is perhaps a little too sympathetic to him without giving us a deeper explanation for his behavior or real consequence. Perhaps that’s a function of Morosini’s closeness to the story, which in a way is a sweet homage to his imperfect father. Perhaps, an imperfect but charming movie is exactly what this story deserves.

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March 12, 2022
‘The Cow’ is empty calories | SXSW review
A couple heads out to a remote cabin for a romantic getaway, but only one of them returns. The Cow follows Winona Ryder’s Kath as she unravels the mystery.

The Cow starts and ends showing promise for Eli Horowitz as a director. However, the movie’s undercooked non-linear narrative and rough screenplay undercut any dramatic tension or character development needed for us to be engrossed by it. It’s especially unfortunate considering the movie’s intriguing premise and Winona Ryder’s starring role.

The Cow premiered at the 2022 South by Southwest Film Festival.

Things are not as they seem at the start of Eli Horowitz’s feature debut The Cow, which premiered at the 2022 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin. It’s clear, from the eerie score to the intermittent cuts to a mysterious shipping container tucked away in an overgrown field in the forest, that couple Kath (Winona Ryder) and Max’s (10 Cloverfield Lane’s John Gallagher Jr.) weekend getaway isn’t as straightforward as we’d imagine. That becomes abundantly clear when they arrive at the isolated cabin Max has booked and find another couple, Greta (Brianne Tju) and Al (It’s Owen Teague), there already. Realizing that the cabin has been double-booked, Greta invites Kath and Max to share the space for the night, to which Kath reluctantly agrees.

After a mostly innocent night of games and conversation, Kath turns in for the night. She doesn’t feel quite right in the group. It makes sense considering there’s an age difference between her and Max, who is in his 20s like Greta and Al. When she wakes the next morning, Greta and Max are gone. When she finds Al he reveals that he found the pair hooking up and that they ran off together. A confused and distraught Kath leaves the cabin behind — and the mystery of where Max went off to. Sometime later, though, she decides that she owes it to herself to find out what happened for him to run off so suddenly. With the help of the cabin’s owner (Dermot Mulroney), she slowly finds herself unraveling exactly what happened which is more sinister, as promised.

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The Cow has a lot of ideas it’s trying to grapple with while also maintaining its mystery. Greta and Al are admonished as typical young ultra-progressives who describe that they’re together, but “not in that capitalist consumerist cis-normative bullshit way.” At another point in a flashback, one of Kath’s friends chides to Max, “who knew it was so expensive to look like you don’t give a shit.” It’s that kind of ham-fisted commentary on “wokeness” that bogs down screenplay. If you removed those scenes and only included the mystery elements The Cow would make for a compelling-enough short film.

The final act of the movie shows the most promise for Eli Horowitz as a filmmaker as the pieces of the movie’s non-linear narrative finally form a clearer picture and moves it to a full-tilt genre movie, which I’m almost hesitant to say because the largely flat second act never gives you hints towards its conclusion. Perhaps that’s the movie’s problem. It doesn’t earn its admittedly interesting twist, and what is in place of a proper build is difficult to stomach.

I wish I had more positive things to say about The Cow if only because Winona Ryder deserves more starring roles. And while she does the best she can with the material she’s given, it all feels like empty calories.

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March 14, 2022
Andrea Riseborough gets her moment with ‘To Leslie’ | SXSW review
The titular Leslie in To Leslie finds herself deep in the throes of alcoholism after winning the lottery six years earlier.

To Leslie gets incredibly far on Andrea Riseborough’s watershed performance in the titular role. The movie’s depiction of alcoholism is raw and unflinching — until it isn’t. What begins as a deep exploration of regret, addiction, and reckoning with the past lightens to a familiar feel-good story of redemption that doesn’t feel completely earned. Still, To Leslie finds the winning numbers to get you to feel something.

To Leslie is playing at the 2022 South by Southwest Film Festival.

At last call on one of the many nights that Leslie (Andrea Riseborough) spends on a bender in the local bar the jukebox starts to play “Are You Sure” by Willie Nelson. He croons out the question, “are you sure that this is where you want to be?” We don’t get to know Leslie before she wins $160k in the lottery. We don’t even get to know her immediately after. We catch up with her six years later — broke, homeless, and fully in the throes of alcoholism. Screenwriter Ryan Binaco takes a risk to forego the opportunity for the audience to build empathy for the movie’s protagonist — but that might be the point. He challenges us to find something in Leslie. Something to care about.

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That’s a difficult task considering where we find her. Kicked out of the motel she’s been staying out for not paying rent, she seeks out her son James (Owen Teague, who appears in The Cow, which is also premiering at SXSW) who lives in a nearby city. When we meet James the juxtaposition with his mother is stark. He has it together. He has a job, an apartment, friends. Everything that Leslie doesn’t have. And while he’s happy to house his mother while she gets off her feet, he has one rule: no drinking.

To Leslie’s portrait of addiction feels so grounded. Early in the movie, James confronts Leslie after his roommate’s money goes missing. In one breath, she goes from denying the accusation to playing the guilt card (“I am sick”) to digging for sympathy (“I wanna be a good mama”) to anger when she realizes she’s not going to get her way. Riseborough, a chameleon in every role she’s in, is so good that she makes you almost believe each lie — it’s second nature to her at this point. However, what is even more heartbreaking is James’ retort: “I’m not even 20. I can’t even drink yet and I have to take care of my mother.” Teague, with his limited screen time, haunts the rest of the film with that line.

Eventually, she finds her way back to her hometown where she finds refuge behind a small motel run by Sweeney (Marc Maron) and Royal (Andre Royo). Though she’s initially run off the property, Sweeney sees something in her and offers her job cleaning rooms in exchange for a small salary and room and board. Well, if anything, he tricks her into taking a job by acting as if she applied for one. It’s like he knows that it has to be her idea for her to commit to it. As the story unfolds, we’ll learn exactly why Sweeney has taken such an interest in Leslie, and why he’s so adept at dealing with such a severe alcoholic. And as their relationship unfurls, Leslie gets her redemption.

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The differences between the first and second halves of To Leslie are stark. Where the first half feels like an intimate and sometimes brutal vision of addiction, the second takes on a feel-good underdog narrative. At times, it feels like the plot is too easy and devoid of conflict. As the first half is unflinching, the second flinches. Thanks to Riseborough and Maron’s charming performances and terrific chemistry it doesn’t completely lose your attention, but it never reaches the heights of its opening scenes.

Director Michael Morris’ talents are on clear display here, particularly in the well-calibrated performances. But the story left me yearning for more. There are so many threads that we could have followed. A deeper exploration of Leslie’s psyche and how winning the lottery drove her so deep into a hole, more background on Sweeney’s past, and Leslie’s relationship with relative Nancy (Oscar winner Allison Janney), who at some point took James under her wing and came to resent Leslie in the process. Despite its shortcomings, there’s something in To Leslie that got to me. Maybe it’s earnestness. It made me feel something. It made me feel something for Leslie, and that’s all it wants for its audience: empathy.

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March 13, 2022