Overview: September 2020

Overview provides my readers with a brief overview of the articles or reviews that I have written, as well as additional bite-sized thoughts on films or shows about which I do not intend to write thorough reviews. In September 2020, among other things, I wrote about Netflix’s best original films of the month.

Published Reviews and Articles

• OVERVIEW: Overview: August 2020
• TRIBUTE: Wakanda Forever
• REVIEW: I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
• REVIEW: #Alive (2020)
• REVIEW: The Devil All The Time (2020)

It would make me very happy if you would support my blog by reading these reviews, lists, or articles in the near future.

What I Didn’t Write About

I watch a lot of films and shows each and every month, but I don’t write extensive, complete reviews about everything that I watch or rewatch. So, in this section of Overview, I have written a few brief additional thoughts on content about which I don’t intend to write full reviews now or in the future. However, I may have watched something this month that I do want to review in the future, in which case I will not make note of it here.

The Fanatic, dir. Fred Durst, 2019, Starring John Travolta and Devon Sawa:

Where do you begin with this one? The story in The Fanatic — a film about an obsessed fan’s violent outburst — has been done before multiple times. Tony Scott’s The Fan comes to mind, as does The King of Comedy and even Joker, all of which are much, much better films. But John Travolta’s over-the-top performance as ‘Moose’ — a horror movie fan with autism — gives Durst’s film a potentially offensive twist.

It’s an uncomfortably misjudged and offensive performance from John Travolta. I don’t know what he was thinking, or Fred Durst for that matter. Make no mistake, this is not just Travolta’s mistake. There are so many red flags here. On top of all of this, the film feels both oddly put together and unfinished, since the film, for example, ends abruptly. I mean, it doesn’t make any sense why Ana Golja’s character is the film’s narrator. Lastly, the Limp Bizkit ‘shout-out’ is absolutely cringeworthy. A huge misstep for Durst and Travolta.

Deep Blue Sea 3, dir. John Pogue, 2020, Starring Tania Raymonde, Emerson Brooks, and Nathaniel Buzolic:

I’ve seen more than my fair share of shark movies since my dad is absolutely obsessed with those kinds of flicks, and I think the best compliment I can pay this film is that it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, the film is completely predictable from start to finish, but I had some fun with this blatant B-movie. I thought the Little Happy island-location was particularly neat. Of course, perhaps it’s just because I watched it with very low expectations. In any case, while it’s nowhere near as entertaining as the original Deep Blue Sea, I’ve seen many shark flicks that are worse than this one. It’s a bad movie, but it is a perfectly watchable bad movie.

Enola Holmes, dir. Harry Bradbeer, 2020, Starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter: 

I actually strongly considered writing a full review of Enola Holmes, but I, ultimately, decided against it since it felt like it had been too long since I first saw the film. It felt like the moment had passed. But I actually thought that Enola Holmes was a fun flick that would’ve been fit for a theatrical release this summer were it not for the pandemic. It’s a coming-of-age film that is basically a blend of Fleabag and Sherlock Holmes, which, I guess, makes a lot of sense since Harry Bradbeer directed almost every episode of Fleabag. The film’s focus on suffragettes and its reliance on a soliloquy delivered straight into the camera made Enola Holmes feel a little bit modern, which was refreshing. Millie Bobby Brown is a lot of fun in the titular role, and, although he doesn’t get to do a lot, I enjoyed watching Cavill play Sherlock Holmes. However, I thought that Helena Bonham Carter was wasted and that it was a weird decision to basically abandon her subplot for the second half of the film. All in all, though, the film was a lot of fun. I’d certainly recommend it.

But that’s not all I watched this month. For a complete list of my Letterboxd diary for September 2020, click here.

– Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.