Oh So Geeky

Gunfire echo throughout the English countryside as a helpless young man (later given the name Liam, played by Joey Bader) running for his life comes across Chester (Oliver Woolf) in the middle of a forest. He offers his hand and an escape to  safety. It's not exactly what Chester does but what he says - “Let me help you.” - that sets up the rollercoaster ride of Littermates . If you watch enough dystopian dramas or post-apocalyptic films, these four words could be the exact call a distressed character needs to be rescued, or the threat that will draw them into an even more deadly situation than merely surviving a zombie apocalypse or natural disaster. To be honest and fair, just by the looks of Liam, he could use a lot of help. Out of breath, shell-shocked, and unaware of his surroundings, Liam's also lost his motor functions and he has no memory of who he is. But Chester is there like a guardian angel arriving just in the nick of time; to clothe, bathe, and help his new f...

A picture of an abandoned room plastered in worn pastel yellow wallpaper took the internet by storm on 4chan in 2019. The internet myth went viral as millions of people came across the anonymous user's post on a paranormal board, and were collectively hit with a feeling of familiarity and surreality. Over the years, every other person's thoughts layered and confirmed the suspense what could this place mean? until it was reimagined on youtube with found footage films by director Kane Parsons. Individually, and collectively on reddits like r/creepypasta, the lore expanded further - turning the office walls and rooms into labyrinths filled with endless background noise, sterile florescent lights, and entities or monsters inhabiting the space. This post contains spoilers.

  Everything is figure-outable. And in times like these days where the world is on fire and minute-to-minute news feels like we're past the brink of losing it all, it's refreshing to watch a film jettisoning us to space in the hope of saving humanity and holding into our future. Its star and my forever bae Ryan Gosling spent six years bringing the mammoth novel by Andy Weir to life, and a lot of that love shines on screen from the incredible production design and score, to the essential element of the film - his character's friendship with an alien Rocky, whose own planet is also being slowly eaten away by alien bacteria called Astrophage.  I wish there was something more worth mentioning here about the astrophage, but contrary to the 500+page novel where every problem to be solved introduces another (and the problems are just biology, astrophysics, relativity, to say the least), the movie deals with the conflict of what Ryland and Rocky are working against a little too sub...

Set several months before songwriter Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) passes away of complications of pneumonia brought on by alcoholism, he spends a night out at the iconic restaurant Sardi's as his old songwriting partner Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) celebrates the premiere of Oklahoma! and goes on to have a legendary creative partnership with Oscar Hammerstein II.  Director Richard Linklater essentially composes a play to film, centering on a one-set location and tiny ensemble to steer Robert Kaplow's wondrous script. As a dialogue driven drama, there's a His Girl Friday pace to the tone of what is said. Think about anything else than what is being heard on screen, and you might miss the string of fast paced one quips Hawke hits out of the park or the painful ruminations as Hart misunderstands his essential part in theatre and fame's grand scheme. Simultaneously revered and forgotten by his contemporaries, the old world of Hart's success and congeniality slips away a...

The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been on a strange journey since it debuted fifty years ago. Linus O'Brien, son of musical creator Richard O'Brien, traces back the phenomenal musical to its heyday when his father first started working out the idea of transvestite scientist Frank-N-Furter with his cohorts and their run-in with straight-laced couple Brad and Janet.  When experiencing in person, or merely observing, the underground yet global reception of Rocky Horror Picture Show today, it's tough to believe that the theatrical production originally began with such humble beginnings - O'Brien putting his own feelings of gender and belonging to the page, assembling a ragtag group cast and crew who eventually hopped the pond over to the Roxy Theatre in L.A., and then becoming cemented as a film classic. And yet, as the LGBTQ+ community faces more and more challenges, the show never goes out of style, kept continually revived by midnight theatrical runs, fan clubs, and sh...

From The Belko Experiment and Gamer to the cultural phenomenon of The Hunger Games and Squid Games , criminals, tributes, and down-on-their-luck strangers have entered arenas in a fight to the death and earn a victory garnering freedom, wealth, a second chance at life. The types of arenas, violence, and contestants have changed over time, but the spectacle of survival, moral compromises, and engineered chaos reimagines the same question - what would some do to be the last one standing? Just when one might think the underlying genre had tackled the concept in every imaginable way, director and writer Ryan Bellgardt entered the domain in 2018 with The Jurassic Games , a sci-fi flick where ten death row inmates were thrown into a virtual reality gauntlet against prehistoric beasts in exchange for freedom. Now, he returns with a sequel, and like all sequels do, rewriting essential elements of the original film, with The Jurassic Games: Extinction – where domestic terrorists branded a...

“While the city never sleeps, it dreams of meet cutes and chance encounters, where coffee spills aren't accidents, but the universe playing matchmaker....” In Meet Cute in Manhattan , actor Jason (Terence Chen) finds himself in the middle of his own meet cute – when a run-in with an aspiring architect Nora (Kendall Leary) affords an opportunity to audition as a couple in love for a dating app commercial. As the whirlwind of their on screen chemistry goes viral, they are unexpectedly swept into forming a deeper connection, and maybe a happily ever after just like the one they are pretending to share. Fate, and the idea of it, is very much at the heart of their first encounter – what is coincidental, what is destiny, what is making imagination or one's biggest dreams come true. Their meet cute seems purely coincidental but brings a unique magic that changes everything where they have to decide what they truly want in life. Their inexplicable run-in leads Jason and Nora to pu...

Cinema often explores a veteran's life in hindsight from detailed accounts of wars that have been won – they supply much-needed perspective as historical events capture the public's interest. But more often than not, they also dive deep into the bloodthirsty brutality of combat, portraying soldiers in extremes as braggadocio heroes or ranting fiends. While films about the hardships of war are necessary to understanding the world at large, soldiers' trauma tells a commonly forgotten story. In his feature-film debut, veteran and director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes brings his experiences to the screen focusing on the ignored middle of what happens when a soldier comes home. With My Dead Friend Zoe , veteran of the war in Afghanistan Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green) struggles to pick up the pieces of her life. Tasked with attending VA therapy sessions led by Dr Cole (Morgan Freeman), she's accompanied by the passing of her friend and fellow veteran Zoe (Natalie Morales). In the be...

Little by little, companies have spent decades weaving artificial intelligence into our lives. Now, we essentially co-exist with AI influencing the way we shop and what we watch to how we protect our homes and complete day to day work. With the time it saves us and the challenges it minimizes, it’s easy to be sold on the idea that AI is designed to meet our every need – keep us on the right track above all else. Despite some of its best and most controversial intentions, artificial intelligence and how it can be used gets away from us - the more we feel safe with its friendly services and fulfilling our requests in an instant, the more we tend to slip away from our humanity. As is the case with Robert Rippberger’s film Renner , where a reclusive programming genius (Frankie Muniz) engineers a self-care AI to mastermind his grooming and etiquette. If you were to take one look at Renner's apartment, it's impossible to tell that anyone lives there – you could say that the AI, also ...

Director and writer Adam Elliot's latest film is both devastating and healing in equal measure. A young woman Grace Pudel struggles to overcome familial losses, separation from her twin brother, and troubled relationships. Her self-imposed isolation in a tiny flat pads the painful experiences she's had since her childhood and the snail collectibles she hoards. After losing all she's ever loved, Grace starts to move beyond the trials and tribulations she's ever known. In contrast to the film's child-like poster and style of animation, Memoir of A Snail is a fitting animated feature for adults, especially as we move into the new year. Outside of the film's R rating, the script does not shy from mature themes, offering a devastating recount of bullying, abuse, loss, and overwhelming grief Grace has faced over the years. At first, lighter moments of levity and silver linings are hard to find. However, as Graces narrates and recounts her life story, it becomes more ...

Nobody wants to hear from a bunch of twenty year olds who are trying to make history. They haven't gotten the experience, the grudges, the ego, the no-looking-back grit to cut throats and defend what they built. They want to create and see what comes out of it. Like who ever made history out of taking chances. Many of them aren't even aware they're making history - they're there cause they were called and it was a gig, like at least they got a call cause the phone wasn't ringing at all. Or they were plucked from a network of friends, or were known around town, or they landed a good audition. Now, they gotta make something out of whatever they're there to do. Saturday Night is filled to the brim with unknowns except what we do know - which is that Saturday Night Live still on television with one of its co-creators Lorne Michaels at the helm and at its home network fifty years after it first premiered.

Set during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, fiercely protective mother Margaret Bellum (Sarah Paulson) goes to extreme lengths to protect her children from paranoia and illness in recluse Oklahoma.  For me, the obvious main hook Hold Your Breath with is relating elements from the 2020 COVID lockdown through the dust bowl – the circumstances of survival to be careful what you breathe to avoid illness, or death, and Bellum taking extra precautions to survive. And, it also tries to branch out with sinister lore of a Grey Man who will make the characters do inexplicable things for breathing in too much of him (too much dust) and contrasts that with a lowly stranger ( The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach) who claims to be a healer. Haunted by her own past and watching more lives getting claimed around her, the desperation, the grey man, and the increasing unreliability of Paulson's point of view runs nicely side by side, morphing and transforming into one another until you can't really tell w...

  An athlete's mindset can be their greatest advantage or distraction. When scrutiny of the outer world - family, coaches, society - bears down on players for their performance, let alone their gender or identity, the moment to break under pressure is always simmering under the surface. Much of this is the heart of director D.W. Waterson's feature directorial debut Backspot. An ambitious cheerleader, Riley (Devery Jacobs), faces new adversity, an increased drive for perfection, and a demanding head coach (Evan Rachel Wood) when she and her girlfriend are selected for an all-star cheer squad. With a competition looming, Riley must navigate her drive alongside her crippling anxiety, as one wrong move could bring her crashing to the ground. The world of sports is not easy for women, no matter the field. Cheerleading is itself is not considered as gruesome with their squad smiling through choreography and poses. Backspot doesn't merely aim to dispel the lack of dedication...

“ In Sickness and In Hell.” Melting ice sculptures. Sibling rivalries. A mother’s cringe-worthy honeymoon advice. Plenty of mishaps can and will throw off a bride’s special day. Perhaps nothing more can cause such damage than when an ex-flame shows up out of nowhere and that ex just happens to be….Dave. Also known as Satan. The horror of tying the knot has never been so much fun than in director and writer combo Jono Mitchell and Madison Hatfield’s latest film Courtney Gets Possessed. When soon-to-be-newlywed Courtney (Lauren Bugioli) becomes possessed by Dave (Jonathon Pawlowski), her bridal party – including type A maid of honor Lexi (Aditi George), jealous sister Caitlin (Madison Hatfield), and groom’s disapproving sister Jasmine (Najah Bradley) – race to exorcise Dave out of the picture for good before he makes their beloved friend tie the cursed knot for all eternity. Following in the footsteps of famed classic The Exorcism and hit-comedy Bridesmaids , Mitchell and Hatfield ...

I've only been a Swiftie for a good six or seven years. I always kinda question my stance in the fandom, given that I'm not afraid to speak out against things that I disagree with and haven't been following her career since the beginning (which I guess earns some the 'real stan' badge or something on social media). But the depth of my admiration for her springing out is not something that I'm genuinely aware of until I pretty much become the resident Swiftie in close circles. With the 1989 re-recording on the way, and much of the publicity this year for the Eras Tour, Speak Now re-release, and the hubbub with the NFL, has been giving me overexposure vibes via 2015 right before she got cancelled. Going into this, and being a big lover of concert films in general, I was very much giving neutral energy just to keep my expectations at bay and mostly expecting to have a nice day out from my hellfire workplace. And, what in turn ended up happening was feeling like not...

Humans have only one ending. Ideas live forever. Contains slight spoilers

The muddled execution of Us didn't make me question what Jordan Peele could do next. He's only three films into his career, and doing all right for himself despite the divisiveness surrounding his last film. Still, with so little time to prepare my hype in these 'The Myans Were Wrong' times, Peele has regained stride from Get Out . 

For the past four years I’ve been playing a torturous one-sided game of 'Where in the world is Ryan Gosling?' Without hesitation or any expectations, The Gray Man answered that question. And the answer is pretty much everywhere - Bangkok, Hong Kong, Croatia, Berlin, Florida. Despite the impressive array of settings for the Russos' latest Netflix project, and the streaming service making me wait two years for this with barely any promo tours of my baes Ryan and Chris...the film itself is spectacularly bland. Fun? Yes. But bland. My long-awaited return of Gosling brings him to play a so-called violent prisoner picked up from the CIA to do their dirty work as Sierra Six aka American Bond. On a mission to kill another target, he realizes his time is up. A hotshot new director is hunting the agents in the shadows like Six ~for reasons~ and is forced to go on the run as a rogue assassin Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) guns him down.

Is Batman overrated? Aren't there more superheroes to make movies about? Isn't a big reason why some feel Batman is overrated is because he's gotten so many adaptations - almost as much, if not more, than Superman? It's hard to ignore these questions as another reboot releases this Spring and takes the world by storm. However, when its long-awaited hype promises to do something different with the Caped Crusade and delivers, it's almost impossible to not acknowledge how an iconic character can once again seem new. Director Matt Reeves had a very specific vision that made Warner Bros want to take another shot at the eternally brooding Bruce Wayne. It's that vision which makes going to the cinemas worthy again, especially after the past two years we've had. His universe is designed specifically for a cinematic experience with Michael Giacchino's unpredictable score, larger-than-life cinematography, and visceral production design. Set against the darkest d...

We’ve been looking towards the cosmos to understand ourselves since the beginning of time. For those who have venture closer than admiring space from afar, abductees or the families left behind try to make sense of what happened and why. It can be a tumultuous experience struggling to believe their own encounters and facing skeptics who question them. In writer/director Jefferson Moneo’s latest film, Aurora (Camilla Rowe) has been searching for answers since she was a young girl and witnessed her mother inexplicably disappearing into the night sky. Years later as an adult, she’s compelled to join a UFO cult The Cosmic Dawn seemingly finding the community she's needed until she discovers its leader Elyse (Antonia Zegers) is not who she seems to be. Aurora is the central anchor to take us through the effects of her life before joining the group, her indoctrination, and the escape attempt afterwards. Largely a model before turning to film, Camille Rowe only has a few credits under...