Oh So Geeky

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...

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.