Review by Sean Boelman

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some productions implemented strict isolation and testing procedures to protect their cast and crew, and others found a way to film remotely. Life Upside Down is an example of the latter — coming out well after the ease of restrictions on production — and not a very impressive one at that. 

The movie follows a group of interconnected couples as they are each stuck at home during the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, uprooting their high-society lives. It’s the same type of pretentious rich people romantic comedy we have seen dozens of times before, except this time, it’s against the backdrop of the pandemic.

The idea of a COVID-era affair happening through screens is intriguing in concept, but in execution, it’s frustratingly uncinematic. Ultimately, a socially-distanced affair doesn’t feel too much different from texting someone other than one’s own partner. As a result, the only thing about this film that promises to offer any real insight feels frustratingly shallow.

Many viewers may be put off by the characters who, quite frankly, are pompous assholes. However, it’s clear that Miniucchi wanted to use this as part of her message — even the richest among us were affected by the devastation of the pandemic. Is it effective? Not particularly. It’s hard to care too much about someone living in a mansion as they lose their jobs and have to “hold on to their cash.” Still, one can’t fault the movie for lack of trying.

Miniucchi was able to assemble an A-list ensemble for the film, likely because they were all sitting at home with little else to do in their time. Bob Odenkirk, Radha Mitchell, and Danny Huston all do their best in their roles and infuse the movie with something that at least resembles humanity, but they shouldn’t have to be straining so hard when the film is attempting to capture such a communal experience.

Given that the film has such a talented ensemble, it really should be a lot funnier than it is. It’s not so much that the jokes are unfunny as it is that there aren’t many jokes to be found in the script. Instead, what we get is a bunch of rich people complaining and going “woe is me,” which grows rather tedious after a while.

Of course, as is the case with many movies that were shot remotely, the cinematography is very obviously poor-quality and DIY. You have to cut the film some slack given that it was shot in a time with such limited resources, but one has to wonder why a movie with such simplistic coverage took this long to reach audiences. 

Ultimately, it feels like Life Upside Down came out a year or two too late. Back then, more people might have enjoyed this as a guerilla-style showcase for some of the industry’s most talented actors. But at this point, it feels too shallow to force us to recall a time of our lives which is still too fresh in our memories.

Life Upside Down is now on VOD.

​Rating: 2/5

Review by Sean Boelman

History buffs are constantly on the lookout for new accounts of WWII, and Jean-Cristophe Klotz’s documentary Filmmakers for the Prosecution offers an interesting perspective of the war. Although less-than-stellar execution prevents the film from being as riveting as it should be, the story is interesting enough to speak for itself.

The documentary tells the story of two researchers who, under the instruction of filmmaker John Ford, must gather visual evidence of the Nazi war crimes to be used in the Nuremberg Trials. This is an amazing true story that would make for a thrilling biopic, but for now, we get to see it in behind-the-scenes documentary form. 

Clocking in at under an hour in total runtime, it’s nice to see a documentary that knows how much of a story there is to tell and doesn’t try to milk it out with repetition. Of course, the brief nature means that the movie’s life is predominantly as an educational title or as a bonus feature on a home video release of the restoration of Nuremberg: Its Lesson For Today, but it’s less damning had they tried to create a longer film out of material that simply isn’t there.

However, the movie is almost undermined by narration and voiceover work that is quite monotonous. This is not the type of documentary that needs to use an A-list celebrity as its narrator to be effective, but the narrator (as well as those reading the written archive materials) are so uninspired that they could almost lull you to sleep.

Still, there are some really fascinating elements to this story, and it’s exciting to see them unfold. For example, one portion of the documentary explores how the filmmakers were effectively racing against the clock to discover this footage before it was destroyed by the Nazis. Although the film fails to ask some of the obvious questions about censorship and preservation, it’s fascinating to think about nonetheless.

The main reason to recommend this movie is its extensive and impressive use of archive footage. Admittedly, much of the footage used in the documentary is the likes of which has been studied in history classes for decades, such as the propaganda films of Leni Riefenstahl. However, the portions that really shine are those unearthed by the Schulbergs during the completion of the “lost film.”

Otherwise, the movie very much has a public broadcasting or educational video feel to its entire production. The editing, while competent, is very basic, as is the framing of the modern-day interviews. As a result, the value of this film is not so much for entertainment, but for educational purposes.

Filmmakers for the Prosecution will likely have a long life as a movie used by high school history teachers to explore the documentation that existed of WWII. While hardcore history buffs and cinephiles will certainly find something of interest here, general audiences will likely feel rather ambivalent towards it. 

Filmmakers for the Prosecution is now playing in theaters.

Rating: 3/5

Review by Dan Skip Allen

Pamela, a love story documents the life and family of world-famous model and actress Pamela Anderson. She had a rough upbringing. Her father was an alcoholic. He was abusive to her mother, and they left him several times. This adversely affected her. She also had a couple of abusive sexual encounters with a babysitter. Still, she persevered and chose to go out in the world and explore and see what it had for her outside her small-town community in Canada. Little did she know what her life would entail. 

Pamela Anderson was just your average small-town girl in Canada when she was seen on the jumbotron of a Canadian football game. She was wearing a Labatt Blue shirt which sparked them to put her in ads and a calendar and become a Labatt Blue Girl. Then she got a call to be in Playboy from Marilyn Grabowski, and the rest is history. She became one of the biggest sex symbols in the history of Hollywood. ​

The film goes year by year, going through her life starting in 1989, using archival footage mostly captured by camcorders of Pam and Tommy's. The videotapes are the best tool to see how her whirlwind courtship with Tommy Lee started in Cancun, Mexico and how their life was torn apart when one of these tapes was stolen and sold to various publications and spurned the internet age of sex videos. This story was already made into a series on Hulu starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan as Pam & Tommy, but seeing it in documentary form is still fascinating.

Also, the film has a female narrator dictating Pamela's Diaries, which she wrote on dozens of legal pads. She wrote about everything that happened in her life, the good and the bad. It helped contextualize all the drama that happened to Pam & Tommy back then and how their relationship unraveled. The kids, Branden and Dylan, came into the picture at this point in her life. 

The film also has Pamela in the modern time, talking about living at home in Canada in her little town of Ladysmith, British Columbia, and her parents. She talks about her many boyfriends before and after Tommy Lee, giving birth to her sons Brandan and Dylan, her activism, and doing the Broadway play Chicago playing the iconic Roxie Hart.
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Ryan White, the filmmaker, used the talking heads of Pam and her two sons as a reference between all the other aspects of the film. The film effectively showed Pam's personal life at home and in the public eye, her work life filming Baywatch and Barbwire, and all the controversies that come along with the entertainment side of her life. This was a very candid look at this woman and her family, who has suffered a lot.

Documentaries are a good form of film because they can get to the heart of their subject matter, and Pamela, a love story does that impeccably well. Anderson is very candid in her opinions and how she puts all her dirty laundry out there for everyone to see. This was a terrific film about this woman who is more than just a sex symbol. This is a must-see documentary.

Pamela, a love story streams on Netflix beginning January 31.

Rating: 4/5

Review by Camden Ferrell

In 2016, the world was introduced to Rock Dog. A children’s animated movie that opened to less than positive acclaim and a disappointing box office run against its $60 million budget. But against all odds, nearly seven years later, the third installment in the franchise Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat is being released. Much like the first sequel, this is a cheap-looking children’s film that does absolutely little to engage the audience or distract it from all of its flaws.
 
Bodi, the titular dog, is back from touring, and he finds himself enjoying life and ignoring an offer to be a judge on a music competition show that is very much like The Voice. However, when a girl-group called K-9 admits they haven’t heard of Angus Scattergood (remember that character?), Bodi decides to join the show. Believing it is his responsibility to educate people about his favorite musician, Bodi goes through all of the trials and tribulations associated with reality television and trying to work with musicians different from himself.
 
If you’ve seen the other movies, you know what to expect from the writing of this one. It’s as basic as can be, and it does the bare minimum to speak to its presumably very young demographic. Written for an audience, that isn’t as privy to narrative shortcomings, this movie lacks subtlety or compelling characters or situations. There’s a subplot of a character trying to start this world’s equivalent of a race war after hate criming a wolf in the film’s opening moments, and that storyline comes and goes as it pleases. 

Like the second movie, this one also lacks the Oscar-winning voice cast of the original. Still led by Graham Hamilton as Bodi and Eddie Izzard as Scattergood, this voice cast is doing the best they can with the material. Not to say that their performances are good, but mostly that it could have been much worse in theory. Regardless, they fail to add anything of value to the movie and perform sufficiently enough to earn their paycheck.
 
The animation may be decent for straight to DVD films, but it’s still stiff and expressionless and doesn’t match the vocal performances very well. There are several moments where dialogue doesn’t line up, and it can take the viewer out of the overall experience. Despite how negatively I received this movie, extremely young children might find themselves learning valuable lessons from this movie. Bodi suffers a crisis of musical faith as he clashes with modern music and must come to terms with his own musical mortality. He quickly learns that he must adapt to modern culture and times or become a relic of a bygone era. In addition, it also tackles the toxic nature of modern television media and the personal struggles Bodi has as he engages in the hostile behavior he originally loathed.
 
If you liked the previous films, Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat will be something else you will enjoy. All other viewers need not apply. Arguably the best Rock Dog film, this is still a mess of a movie that furthers the mystery of the longevity of this franchise.
 
Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat now available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and on VOD January 4.
 
Rating: 2/5

Review by Sean Boelman

Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont’s first film, Girl, received several awards but was somewhat controversial due to its approach to its LGBTQIA+ themes. These themes take the backseat in his second movie, Close, a powerful and affecting melodrama that will leave very few viewers with a dry eye.

The film follows two thirteen-year-old boys whose close friendship suddenly falls apart when they begin to face bullying and peer pressure. This is a movie whose success fundamentally hinges on one pivotal moment, but it is staggeringly well-executed in a way that is thoroughly powerful.

People like to describe many films as devastating, but one would be hard pressed to find a movie as downright soul-crushing as Close. The argument could be made that the film is emotionally manipulative and aims for low-hanging fruit, but there is one moment that is so undeniably distressing that it will almost certainly leave viewers distraught.

Admittedly, the way in which the movie explores its queer themes leaves something to be desired. While it poses some fascinating questions about heteronormativity, it isn’t doesn’t really interrogate its supporting characters as deeply as it should. Although these themes aren’t necessarily the central aspect of the story, it’s frustrating to see them as an afterthought.

That being said, Dhont and his co-writer Angelo Tijssens’s character work for the protagonist is absolutely masterful. He does some things that are frustrating and unlikable, but the film manages to present them in a way that never puts you against him. It’s a very nuanced, introspective approach to this story that easily could have veered into melodrama.

Young actor Eden Dambrine does an extraordinary job in his leading role. This is his first performance ever, yet he brings so much emotion and tenderness to the character that it is awe-inspiring. Gustave de Waele is also very solid, but Dambrine is so fantastic that he acts circles around de Waele.
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The movie is also extraordinarily well-shot. Although the script is strong enough to speak for itself, beautiful cinematography by Frank van den Eeden and a lovely score by Valentin Hadjadj make it even more heartbreaking, and keep it from leaning too heavily into its occasionally histrionic leanings.

Lukas Dhont has managed to capture lightning in a bottle with his second feature, Close. Despite the several opportunities it had to go wrong, the tenderly-written script and strong execution allow it to be quite affecting.

Close hits theaters on January 27.

Rating: 4/5