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Director: Scott Derrickson
Screenwriter: Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill, Joe Hill (short story The Black Phone)
Starring: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies, James Ransom, Miguel Cazarez Mora, E. Roger Mitchell, Troy Rudeseal
Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes

Synopsis: After being abducted by a child killer and locked in a soundproof basement, a 13-year-old boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer’s previous victims.

We got the whole Movie Trailer Review gang back together to discuss the latest from director Scott Derrickson, The Black Phone. Blumhouse has been on a bit of a slide with some really questionable films as of late. Their last series of Welcome to the Blumhouse films on Amazon Prime Video were absolutely atrocious. And who could forget what happened when we all got together last time to discuss the travesty that was the Firestarter remake. So coming into The Black Phone, one couldn’t blame audiences if they were a little apprehensive. Thankfully, The Black Phone 

A lot of things work for this movie. First, Scott Derrickson really knows how to capture horror elements in this film. It’s a trend across all of his films but it really stands out in this one. The camera angles, sound editing, framing and everything comes together to really draw the audience into the situations in this film. It also helps that the cast is outstanding. Ethan Hawke has been on a tear lately with the characters and range he’s been portraying in movies this year. He’s perfectly cast as “The Grabber”. He does a lot of “eye acting” that pairs very well with the various masks he wears. But it’s not just him. This film has a really solid cast of young actors with Mason Thomas and Madeleine McGraw that pair off extremely well with the adults in this film.

The Black Phone has a mix of Stranger Things with your typical Horror Thriller that works very well for it. It can be dumb at times and even predictable but it’s done in a way that feels like it pays off in the end so the audiences will enjoy it.

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We’re back after a little bit of a break to talk about the last two episodes of the Flash. We get the guy that always makes Flash episodes better, Thawne. And this time what’s better than one Thawne? Two Thawnes. I don’t care if Thawne has lost his memory and found love, he’s never to be trusted. Never. On sight. ON SIGHT. There are two more episodes left and we know that Thawne is going to be part of that. So that’s going to be fun. It’s a little sad that they seemed to close the door on Diggle becoming a Green Lantern but with CW being sold, we get it. 

Oh and we have to talk about the “other” Flash, Ezra Miller. What a dumpster fire that is. WB is in a tough spot to have a star that at the center of your multiverse plan being what seems like, a groomer. Can’t be good. 

Kriss and Dpalm record the Mailbag at the end of every month. If you want to send in your own questions and thoughts, email us: Mailbag@MTRNetwork.Net

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Director: Baz Luhrmann
Screenwriter: Baz Luhrmannn, Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce
Starring: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Runtime: 2 hour 39 minutes

Synopsis: From his childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi to his rise to stardom starting in Memphis, Tennessee and his conquering of Las Vegas, Nevada, Elvis Presley becomes the first rock ‘n roll star and changes the world with his music.

Ro is joined by Kriss and she talks about what worked and what didn’t for the latest from Baz Luhrmann. This film is a mixed bag in terms of what it brings for telling the story of Elvis. It’s interesting what parts and roads they do go down and which ones they avoid all together. The cast is really the standout with Austin Butler nailing the role of Elvis. This film is more about Tom Hank’s Tom Parker and he does a great job in his role as well. The cast lives up to expectations, unfortunately the story just doesn’t. 

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Director: Angus MacLane
Screenwriter: Angus MacLane, Matthew Aldrich, Jason Headley
Starring: Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, James Brolinn, Uzo Aduba
Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

Synopsis: While spending years attempting to return home, marooned Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear encounters an army of ruthless robots commanded by Zurg who are attempting to steal his fuel source.

Kriss and Ro review the latest from Pixar, Lightyear, a new movie in the Toy Story world of films. While the film doesn’t break new ground, it’s one of those films where it’s good and entertaining enough for the whole family.  fBecause it’s from Pixar, its competition is really itself. Coming off of Toy Story 4, this might not be up to that level but it’s also more aimed at building up a new generation of fans in this world. There’s a lot here to like and it’s also sets up nicely for continuing the adventures of the Space Rangers in future movies.

Listen as Ro & Kriss discuss what worked for Lightyear.

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We wrap up our Avengers part of our Hickman series with the 9-issue Secret Wars event that sees Hickman rebuild the Marvel Universe first in Doom’s vision then from Reed’s. Secret Wars is one of those events where you don’t have to read all the related non-Hickman written issues to understand the story but you want to. It’s a good cap to the end of the story Hickman has been telling not only from Avengers but all the way back to SHIELD. Also, just like in Time Runs Out you start to see where he lays the seeds for what he later does in X-Men. 

There is one more episode we’re doing in this Hickman series and it will be to cover Hickman’s run on X-Men and the new dynamic he created for mutants in the Marvel Universe. But before that we’re going to head over to the DC world to talk about Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing. 

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Director: Colin Trevorrow
Screenwriter: Colin Trevorrow, Emily Carmichael, Derek Connolly
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie
Runtime: 2 hour 26 minutes

Synopsis: Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live–and hunt–alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures in a new Era.

The 1993 Jurassic Park was a classic. It revolutionize the blend of CGI and practical effects. It had a story based in science that . Unfortunately after the success of that movie, the franchise had been nothing more than expensive tech demos. That’s especially true of the Jurassic World trilogy of films with each one getting progressively worse. These films are ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous with things that make absolutely no sense. Like how did large dinosaurs repopulate the entire world after a handful escaped an auction in the last film? Look, we get it. Sometimes ridiculous nonsense films are enjoyable (Hi Fast & Furious series). But it’s really hard to turn your brain off for a ridiculous film that doesn’t think it’s ridiculous. Director Colin Trevorrow is no doubt trying to make a serious film with a coherent storyline which makes the ridiculousness of this film not a feature but clearly a bug. 

Look, if folks just want to see some dinosaurs then that’s fine. You could cut out the few and far between horror-like scenes and put them on Youtube and get your fix. When the film does that, it works. The problem is, it’s full of humans your don’t care about in a story that doesn’t make any sense. That’s par for the course at this point. What makes Jurassic World Dominion even more egregious is the blatant and heavy handed nostalgia scenes it goes for. There are times when this film will have a character from the original Jurassic Park say or do something exactly like they did it in that movie but it doesn’t land because it’s such a hollow attempt.

Jurassic World Dominion is the Matrix Resurrections of Jurassic Park films. This is a series that should die and not be brought back.

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Stephanie Williams is a comic book historian and pop culture critic who has written for SYFYFANGRRLS, The A.V. Club, Nerdist, Den of Geek, and Rotten Tomatoes. Stephanie is also a comic creator with three ongoing webcomics, Parenthood Activate!, But What If Though?, and Living Heroes. She made her Marvel debut with a short story featuring Monica Rambeau in Marvel’s Voices: Legacy. She recently made her DC Comics debut in Wonder Woman Black and Gold #2 and is co-writing the Nubia and the Amazons miniseries.

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Halo Season 1 was not good. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. This isn’t coming from the perspective of a Halo stan/fan. Objectively, this show was a mess. It had no idea what story it wanted to tell and whenever it got a decent idea of a good story, it would then shuffle off to something no one cared about. Episodes 8 & 9 weren’t bad, but coming off of that terrible episode 7 there was really no where to go but up anyway. The the real problem with episodes 8 & 9 are that they should have been episodes 4 & 5 and been the focus of the story the whole time. Instead because they weren’t, so much gets crammed into them that they are illogical and the key points don’t hit how they should. This show has some good action scenes and there are some good ones in 8 & 9 but it seems like overall the show is allergic to the thing it does best. Considering there’s no follow up on Kwan and what they were trying to do in episode 7, one has to wonder why that was even a storyline to waste time on in season 1. But the entire first season of this show is full of that kind of confusing nonsense. 

We also need to talk about how this show does a terrible job with female characters. It seems to fall into that old trope of “Oh look, this female character has emotion so let’s show her being irrational and compromised.” It was bad enough when they did it with Kai-125 but then they turn around and did it with Makee in the last 2 episodes. Makee goes from unflinching coldness when killing a whole ship of people to being a frail, scared woman holding a gun cause she fell in love with John and got some dick after 1 day? Come on. It’s insulting. 

Halo is getting a second season but it doesn’t deserve it. The writing and execution of season 1 was a huge disappointment. Rewarding this show with a second season is just going to reenforce all the things it did wrong. 

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Director: Chloe Okuno
Screenwriter: Zachary Ford, Chloe Okuno
Starring: Maika Monroe, Karl Glusman, Madalina Anea, Chloe Okuno, Burn Gorman, Gabriela Butuc, Tudor Petrut
Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes

SXSW Synopsis: set in the midst of a citywide panic over an active serial killer, a young woman moves into a new apartment with her partner and is tormented by the feeling that she is being stalked by an unseen watcher in an adjacent building. (This review was originally part of MTR’s 2022 festival coverage.)

**

Watcher, director Chloe Okuno’s feature debut, follows Julia (Maika Monroe) and Francis (Karl Glusman), a young couple just arrived in Bucharest, Romania for Francis’ new job. Julia doesn’t speak Romanian or know the country. Almost immediately, she finds herself adrift in the city with an increasingly unavailable husband. She spends most days listening to language lessons and otherwise wandering around at loose ends. Francis does little to help his wife adjust. He’s quick to speak in Romanian, cutting her out of conversations by often failing to translate. He makes no attempt to orient her in the city or their new lives. The first night in their home, she notices the silhouette of a man standing at a window in the building across from theirs. He appears to be looking at her. Days later, in an attempt to convince herself she’s imagining things, Julia waves when she sees him. The man raises a hand and waves back. 

If this setup has a decidedly Hitchcockian feel, have no fear you’re not imagining it. The hints of voyeurism and Rear Window vibes echo thematically throughout the film. There’s even a very meta moment early on where Julia can’t shake the feeling of being stalked inside a theater while watching Stanley Donen’s Charade. Okuno plays with visual perspectives with overhead shots, shots from below, and three-quarter angles to build an ever growing specter of doubt in what Julia’s actually experiencing. Her approach invites the audience to transfer their own anxieties and fears onto the main character. It’s not unique but unlike its predecessor films in the genre (think Hereditary or Repulsion), Okuno uses Julia’s seeming aimlessness to credibly make room for doubt without completely leaving the character as an empty cipher. In Monroe’s capable hands, Julia’s got depth in her distressed gaze.  Her growing listlessness and lack of focus aid in distorting time and recollection. 

Paranoia is self-replenishing. Once something trips that switch, it’s like a constant itch at the base of your skull; a twitch between your shoulder blades. If the feeling lingers long  enough, you can find yourself practically jumping at shadows, flinching away from people, and avoiding places where you can’t put your back to a wall. Thread that paranoia into a story centering a woman convinced she’s being watched (and possibly followed) who can’t get anyone to take her seriously and you’ve got the perfect nightmare fuel. 

As Julia’s sense of being followed increases, Francis begins to fully discount her unsettled feelings, casting her further adrift. It doesn’t help that there’s an actual serial killer, called the Spider, preying on women in the city. Pretty soon, she’s sleeping poorly and coming off as a blurry eyed hysteric to the people around her. So when her only friend, Irina (Madalina Anea), goes missing from the building; no one’s willing to take her seriously. Whenever she tries to articulate what she’s feeling, it comes out sounding hesitant and unconvincing. To others, the situation begins to look more and more like an unhinged American woman targeting a solitary local man. Monroe’s performance convincingly pushes you into questioning her reliability as a narrator. As incidents and inexplicable encounters keep happening even Julia begins to doubt herself. But if you, like me, automatically say, “oh no” whenever you see Burn Gorman’s name on a cast list; then you know, Julia should definitely trust her gut. 

Watcher exists in a chilly landscape that vacillates between grey-washed outdoor scenes, warmly lit – but almost always emotion-grinding – indoor settings and night sequences with a startling clarity and mix of the two color wheels. Its soundscape a perfect balance of silence and the everyday noises we take for granted. Shoes dropping on the floor, keys jangling, or sounds heard through a shared apartment wall. There’s an irony to the fact her character winds up in potentially life-threatening peril because she’s a bit of a voyeur herself. Only hers is driven by the wistfulness and curiosity of  a stranger in a strange land. Julia accidentally put herself on radar by noticing something no one else has. And her decision to say something rather than simply close her curtains is dangerous. She unwittingly enters a life-shattering game of cat and mouse.  

The term gaslighting gets thrown around with ease these days. Its meaning, diluted. But Okuno’s giving a master’s class in what exactly being gaslit means. Whether Julia’s actually just suffering from a combination of loneliness and despair or her fears are founded; the slowly building tension thrives in this meticulously designed environment. And against this backdrop of perfectly arranged furniture, stylishly coiffed people, and polite dinner parties Watcher also exposes the subtle erosion and self-delusion that’s part and parcel to gaslighting someone. Francis’ inability to understand what’s happening with his wife turns into bitter exhaustion and demands that she snap out of it. There’s a component to gaslighting that requires the other party to ignore things they know about the subject in order to push them to see things their way. As her husband, Francis should know better than anyone that Julia isn’t just deteriorating because of some life changes. But he convinces himself it can’t be anything else to excuse being so absent. It has to be her fault. This juxtaposition between Julia’s increasing discomfort and Francis’ step-removed rationality creates a space where fear takes on many layers made of isolation, disorientation, dismissal, and emotional abandonment. The relationship between the watched and the wachter is a delicate, albeit brutal, dance. It leaves room for nothing else. And once seen, neither party can go back.

Watcher is a slow burn. But it’s a character-driven narrative with both a captivating premise and lead. Maika Monroe (It Follows) brings an almost tangible vulnerability to what could easily be a clichéd paper-thin character. Her emotional collapse is believable and skillfully drawn out. And herein lies the beauty in this twisted story. There’s absolutely nothing existential about the mounting dread in the third act as it leads to a starkly poetic climax. 

Watcher opens (limited) in theaters June 3, 2022 and streaming VOD June 21, 2022.

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Kriss and Dpalm discuss the last two episodes of the Flash. This season has felt disjointed. The way that things are unfolding don’t make a lot of sense. The show goes from caring about Iris disappearing in episode 15 to opening with a fun D&D game. Then there’s the fact that nobody checked on Caitlyn until the very end of episode 16. And when Barry does, he basically turns her into a villain. It’s all just really weird.

We also discuss some random news and trailers that have come out over the last 2 week.s 

Kriss and Dpalm record the Mailbag at the end of every month. If you want to send in your own questions and thoughts, email us: Mailbag@MTRNetwork.Net

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