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Review by Adam Donato  For some, it’s the destination. For many, it’s the journey. For most, it’s the company you keep. Matt Johnson is one of the most exciting young filmmakers, but has yet to establish mainstream success. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is the Canadian filmmaker’s fourth feature and it’s a movie spinoff of the niche web series and television show. Johnson’s self-titled character is paired with his best friend Jay McCarrol as they set out to accomplish their lifelong goal: to perform a show at the Rivoli (a restaurant/bar/performance space). The show covers the insane plans cooked up by Matt and the pure friendship that he shares with Jay. Neon has done a great job as of late producing quality films, even winning Best Picture with Anora just a year ago. Johnson certainly has his fans and as the box office saw from Iron Lung, amazing things can be done when fans love a movie. The question then becomes if Johnson can land the plane by successfully transitioning his show into movie form. Sometimes bringing a story and characters back after so much time has passed can be depressing. Luckily, Nirvanna the Band the Show has always operated with its own sense of reality. Our two best friends are still doing the same old bit as always so it’s as if we’re just stepping into another episode of the show. While it remains in that comfortable place, the movie justifies its existence with great ambition. The first plan alone is far bigger than anything ever attempted on the show. A large element of the story is connecting these characters to their past selves. Time travel can sometimes be a patch that saves everything together or a rabbit hole that takes the train off the rails. Every episode of the show acts as some kind of movie/television parody, so having the movie be a Back to the Future spoof is appropriate and takes full advantage of the opportunity to deliver as emotional of a punch as possible for something as unabashedly goofy as this.  One of the more interesting aspects of Nirvanna the Band the Show is discerning how real what’s happening on screen is. How they are able to pull off some of these stunts is truly remarkable. If it is just movie magic, then the level of skill and practice necessary to pull off the illusion is downright impressive. It’s not like Borat where the point is to get the random people to say outlandish things, but more so the art of keeping the bit going. There’s a clear and present love for Canada that lives through all of Johnson’s work and this might be the most glowing example. Enough so that certain pranks/scenes would’ve ruined by recognizing the main characters. This just further highlights how impressive it is that they’re able to pull all of this off.
The true heart of this movie, and the show as well, is the true friendship between these two characters. It almost plays as a romance. Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol slip right back into their roles after a decade of absence. Their chemistry together is through the roof. It adds to the history of these characters if you’ve seen the show, but not entirely necessary. The character arcs the pair go through are hilariously poignant and the end of their journey is one of the most satisfying moments in recent memory. They’re not winning an Oscar or anything, but they’re up there with the best of comedic duos. The uninitiated may feel alienated, but fans of the show will be more than satisfying. The humor is silly and the characters are overtly goofy, but that’s all part of the charm. It’s clear Matt Johnson has done justice to what is clearly his baby. It will be extremely exciting to see his career progress forward from here and hopefully more people are encouraged to go check out his work. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is a hoot and a half. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is in theaters February 13th! Rating: 4/5
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Review by Adam Donato  Luc Besson made two classics back in the nineties and has failed to truly connect with audiences since then. It’s crazy the posters for his movies still flex his involvement. “From the director of The Fifth Element, The Professional, and Lucy” doesn’t hold that much weight anymore. Lucy getting grouped in there is so cute. His latest feature is a Dracula remake because lord knows there’s not enough of those. This is his second straight film with Caleb Landry Jones in the lead as the two just previously did DogMan together. Not to be confused with the recent animated Dog Man. The big get here is Christoph Waltz who plays a priest determined to track down the bloodlust monster. 2026 turned in a great showing for January. Now Dracula has to compete with the epic finale to The Strangers trilogy and Angel Studios’ latest film Solo Mio to start February off right. Can Besson’s Dracula stand above the extremely weak box office slate this weekend? The focus of this Dracula adaptation is on a tragic backstory and a hopeless romance. An eternal curse is put upon a prince after the death of his beloved wife. He spends the rest of the movie in pursuit of the reincarnation of his late wife. The movie being released a week before Valentine’s Day may not have been a coincidence. This angle seldom lands as even the human looking form of Dracula is more creepy in a gross way than he is Edward Cullen type dreamy.  The look of this film is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the film does commit to the two time periods it’s predominantly trying to portray with its production design and costumes. The special effects on the other end leave more to be desired. Dracula has a bunch of mini gargoyle henchmen that look good, but come across as goofy in an otherwise serious flick. There’s a beheading that is particularly unconvincing and lame. It’s not gross out scary, spookily creepy, or thrillingly action heavy. It’s trying to capture all these things along with the romance, but none of it really lands in the way the film wants it to.
Of the cast, Zoe Bleu is the standout of the bunch as she plays Elisabeta and Mina. Her character is the most interesting and she is given the most to do. Waltz is just a watered down Van Helsing and his scenes feel disconnected from the rest of the story. While he has a respect for the vampires, it’s not a personal endeavor for his character to overcome. It’s interesting to see him in two classic movie monster adaptations over the course of the last few months. Landry Jones is most known for his ability to play creepy characters. He’s at a disadvantage as there have been many iconic performances in the role and he doesn’t really do anything to stand out. Besson’s Dracula fails to bite into the audience's necks. A romance that fails to capture the heart. It’s difficult when there was just an amazing Nosferatu remake just over a year ago. Besson just isn’t that dude anymore. January delivered on the horror so fans may want to look backwards for their scare fix. While not terribly bad, Dracula just fails to leave an impression this time around. Dracula is in theaters February 6th! Rating: 2/5 Review by Adam Donato  It’s been almost a decade since the last time Gore Verbinski directed a movie. One could easily label the man as washed. The Cure for Wellness was a failure and The Lone Ranger was a disaster. Far back in the rearview mirror are his Pirates of the Caribbean, The Ring, and Rango successes. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is an original screenplay written by Matthew Robinson, most recently known for penning Love and Monsters. Sam Rockwell leads the way with a fun supporting cast in this zany science fiction action comedy. AI is inescapable in today’s society. Art is a reflection of the real world and so movies have turned their attention to AI as well. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die continues this trend as the entire plot is centered around the pursuit to destroy an all powerful, anti human artificial intelligence that will ruin the future. The film covers topics like an over reliance on technology and a desensitization towards tragic violence. The tone is kept light through dark humor on the subject. Those who feel over exposed to the discussion of AI will be weighed down by the film. That being said, the themes the film is trying to convey are justified and hard hitting.  It’s hard not to look at this film in the context of Gore Verbinski’s career and think that he would’ve loved to cast Johnny Depp in the lead role two decades ago. There’s shades of Jack Sparrow in Sam Rockwell’s Man from the Future. His character has travelled back in time dozens of times to find the right combination of diner patrons to join him on his mission to take down the AI. This Groundhog Day type scenario allows Rockwell to be curiously all knowing and eccentrically goofy since he can reset at any time. Rockwell’s performance is fun and charming as he ushers the audience through this adventure. The post Oscar career for Rockwell has certainly been an interesting one. A couple awards hopeful projects right after Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, but the last five years has been mostly The Bad Guys duology and the ultimate flop Argylle. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die definitely fits the fun vibe of the last two films, but is on the high end in terms of quality all around.
The team of destined heroes on the adventure is a fun group. Standouts would include Haley Lu Richardson, who was most notably one of the girls locked up in M. Night Shyamalan’s Split. She gets quite a meaty role here where she’s able to do a variety of things. Juno Temple has been most known lately for her successful television work with Ted Lasso and Fargo. A few characters on the team are given cutaway backstories to establish their reasoning for accepting the call to action. Temple’s story is equal parts heartbreaking, hilarious, and thematically heavy. Michael Pena and Zazie Beetz play a struggling couple and their story is mostly comedic. Peña in particular is underrated in the comedy department. It’s reminiscent of his role in Ant Man where his character is easily the funniest of the bunch in his brief time to shine. While Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die doesn’t quite reach the heights of Verbinski’s 2000’s work, it is still a fun time with things to say. He’s a welcome sight after a long hiatus from the director’s chair. Rockwell and friends make for a fun gang to embark upon this journey. Seldom do movies have quite this much personality. Not everything works, but it’s a fun experience and will give audiences something to think about. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is in theaters February 13th! Rating: 4/5 Review by Adam Donato  From the director of The Machinist comes a post apocalyptic father/daughter movie that looks just perfect for the SYFY channel. Director Brad Anderson has found himself directing streaming television series as of late, with a few small time movies on the side. The cast boasts recognizable names like Milla Jovovich and Luke Evans so there’s an amount of legitimacy here. The lead is a young actress named Billie Boullet, making her feature debut as her only other experience is a role in a Disney+ series. Worldbreaker is about a young girl whose father retreats them to the middle of the woods on an island to avoid the deadly creatures that plague their world. There’s a few little January releases for it to compete against at the box office, most notably Sam Raimi’s Send Help. This is a good time of the year for smaller movies to make an impression. The only question is, is it a good impression? The concept of the movie is a tired one at best. Society was perfect until mankind had to make things more difficult for themselves leading to the global infestation of monsters hell bent on destroying all humans. That combined with the father/child angle is very reminiscent of After Earth, which was an epic bomb. While the runtime is short at just over ninety minutes, the story really drags. A movie that appears to be an action/horror, mostly ends up being a boring drama. The ending provides a cliffhanger for what seems to be another installment, but there’s not enough here in the first place to incept a curiosity for more in the minds of audiences. Maybe make one good movie first and then make a sequel if there’s enough demand.  The biggest compliment to the film would be the setting and the special effects. The film was shot on an island in Northern Ireland and it is truly a beautiful location. For what appears to be a very low budget film, the soaring uses of special effects for the creatures looks good. It’s mostly masked by darkness, but a win is a win. The design looks like spiders with human torsos. Not the most original design, but cool nonetheless. There’s a couple shots where our leads get up close and personal with the infected and it’s some pretty gnarly stuff. The only problem is that there’s very little screen time for the creatures as we’re mostly just hanging out on the island.
Jovovich is in the movie a very small amount. She has a reputation for sci-fi slop like this so selling the movie with her face on the poster, only to have her removed from the plot after the first act will be disappointing to her fans. The dynamic between Evans and Boullet is cute enough, but what they’re given to work with is so standard and stock. Evans gets an opportunity to be softer than his usual action man blockbuster fare. Their relationship is just frankly not interesting enough to carry this movie. Worldbreaker provides nothing really new. The notable cast is not given anything to do and the majority of the experience is a slow one. Expect this movie to get lost in the sea of January dart throws and award season rereleases. Seek your post apocalyptic thrill from the likes of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple instead. Now that’s a movie that is surprisingly more of a hang out as well, but with actually interesting characters that explore truly interesting themes. Worldbreaker provides a simpler experience for movie fans. Worldbreaker is in theaters January 30th! Rating: 1/5 Review by Adam Donato  January horror continues its slate with Mother of Flies. It tells the story of a young woman with cancer who travels with her dad to the middle of the woods to seek the healing practices of a creepy witch. The making of this movie is certainly a family affair. Directors John Adams and Toby Poser are married. The third director is Zelda Adams who is their daughter. All three of them are the main stars of the film. They even have another daughter who is also in the movie. They’re also really the only people in the film. The Adams Family, which is a cute name for their production company, is also responsible for Hellbender, The Deeper You Dig, and Where the Devil Roams so this is not their first horror rodeo. The film will get a release on Shudder so will it be good enough to generate mainstream buzz? There’s something to be said about the charm of a low budget movie and the likability of a family owned operation. It even plays into the themes of the movie. The core of the story is the relationship between this father and daughter as they’re pushed to their limits in desperation for a cure. It’s the struggle of the trauma of their past and the lack of hope for their future. In horror movies, it’s important to care about the characters because that adds to the suspense of the scary sequences in the movie. Mother of Flies succeeds in this as by the end, audiences will be pretty endeared by the family bond expressed in the movie. The performances of the two are spot on, but how impressive is that when they’re actually father and daughter. They have good chemistry and have distinct personalities.  Mother of Flies is truly an exercise in gross out horror. From the maggots to the snakes, this one drags you through the mud. The sequence with the snake is one of the most scary in recent memory. It’s surprising how good it looks too. The use of an actual snake coupled with some light cgi goes a long way to selling this effect. It’s so interesting seeing how low budget films go about communicating these crazy ideas. The witch in the film is played by, ironically, the mother of the Adams Family. Her performance is very grounded and doesn’t slip into cartoonish villain territory.
It’s not a movie that can be watched by those with a weak stomach, but horror fans should be able to appreciate this little gem. Shudder does a great job of finding these underrated horror filmmakers and giving them a chance to work their magic on a dedicated target audience. It’s a shame this won’t get much run in a theater, but hopefully this is a success that can be built upon and the family can get their next movie in a wide release. Mother of Flies is a grueling horror feature with some heart that should be enjoyed by horror fans. Mother of Flies will be available to stream on Shudder on January 23rd. Rating: 3/5 |