(L-R) Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott in Zachary Wigon’s SANCTUARY — PHOTO: Neon (Still image from trailers)..
Directed by Zachary Wigon — Screenplay by Micah Bloomberg.
Sanctuary is a dark comedy and psychosexual thriller from film critic-turned-director Zachary Wigon. Released in 2023, following an initial premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, the film follows Hal (played by Christopher Abbott), the insecure presumptive heir to his late father’s wealthy company, as well as Rebecca (played by Margaret Qualley), who Hal has hired to be his dominatrix. During one of their sessions, Hal intimates his decision to end their mutually beneficial relationship, as he is now supposed to take on bigger responsibilities as the figurehead of a major company. She is clearly offended by the development and is considering leaving. However, instead, she desires to launch into a go-for-broke attempt at blackmail.
(L-R) Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum in Zoë Kravitz’s BLINK TWICE — PHOTO: Amazon MGM Studios / Warners Bros. International (Still image from the trailers).
Directed by Zoë Kravitz — Screenplay by Zoë Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum.
When I saw the directorial feature debut from actress-turned-filmmaker Zoë Kravitz, Blink Twice, the other night, the very last thing on the movie theater screen prior to the film starting was a relatively long statement meant to function as a trigger warning for the audience to prepare them for the potentially distressing themes and violence discussed and depicted in the film. Before I had sat down to watch the film, I had noticed that said trigger warning had gone viral on social media for how rare it is for a new release to feature such a warning in addition to the MPA rating. It’s certainly a modern addition, which is befitting of this film, as it is a very modern #MeToo-psychological thriller that mixes elements from so many recent films, such as Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, and, perhaps even, Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion. Though I, ultimately, thought the film was a relatively good directorial debut, I only really feel that it is as good or better than the first of those three films, with it not really holding a candle to the remaining two.
Cailee Spaeny as the title character in Sofia Coppola’s PRISCILLA — PHOTO: A24 (Still image from trailers).
Directed by Sofia Coppola — Screenplay by Sofia Coppola.
Like I suspect many have and will, I found it difficult to watch this film without thinking about the Baz Luhrmann film, Elvis, which was released more than a year prior to this film’s release. Really, though they both feature Elvis and Priscilla, they couldn’t be more different. It’s not just that Elvis is a popular blockbuster from a major studio, while Priscillla was released with much less fanfare by an indie studio. To add to that, while Elvis follows the well-worn music biopic formula albeit with a distinctive kinetic and dizzying visual style, Priscilla is a much more muted film with wildly different aims and approaches to the story of one of the most famous couples in American history.
(L-R, top then bottom) DARK MATTER (Apple TV+), BABY REINDEER (Netflix), TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY (Max), and CONSTELLATION (Apple TV+).
All five shows were definite recommendations in the first (of three) ‘2024 TV Highlights Thus Far’ review articles. They were all shows that I expect to end up on plenty of top 10 lists at the end of the year. This second part is a little bit different. Although, yes, I expect one or two of these to have enough critical appreciation for them to land on plenty of top 10s, the vast majority of part 2’s series weren’t home runs. They are highlights because I found something about each and every one of these series to be really effective, but not all of these are series that I’d easily recommend to friends and family. In fact, some of these shows even disappointed me from time to time, but I think there is enough in every one of these shows to merit them being singled out and discussed. In this part, among other things, I’ll be discussing two Apple TV+ series both of which revolve around parallel universes and the existence of multiple different persons of the same character.
(L-R, 1st row, then 2nd row) SHOGUN (FX / Hulu), RIPLEY (Netflix), FALLOUT (Prime Video), MR. AND MRS. SMITH (Prime Video), and Presumed Innocent (Apple TV+).
You don’t really understand it when you’re a kid, but, boy, it really feels like time flies by as you get older. When you’re stressed or overworked or even just have more important things on your mind, it can be difficult to find the time to do what you want to do before it feels like you’re too late. This is, in part, why I started doing these review compilation posts sometimes containing bite-sized reviews about shows or films that I feel like I still need to talk about, even though I missed out on the moment right after the release. If you read my website frequently, then you know that I’ve recently posted two backlog/catch-up compilations for last year’s TV series. With that out of the way, I now want to focus on some of the shows of the past seven or eight months that I really want to give you my thoughts on. Today, I’ll focus on some of the shows that I think are the very best of the year thus far, including, but not limited to, a video game TV-adaptation and an incredibly stylish reimagining of an iconic Patricia Highsmith story.
Cailee Spaeny as Rain face-to-face with a Xenomorph in Fede Alvarez’s ALIEN: ROMULUS — PHOTO: Disney / 20th Century Studios.
Directed by Fede Alvarez — Screenplay by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues.
The Alien franchise can mean a lot of different things depending on the person you ask. For some, Alien, due to the original Ridley Scott 1979 classic, is Jaws (or a haunted house horror movie) set in space. Others think more fondly of James Cameron’s arguably equally iconic sequel, Aliens, which injected Scott’s blue-collar space-set horror flick with action adrenalin and a militaristic focus, while still keeping its key distrust of corporations at the heart of the film. I wonder if the subsequent divisive-to-middling sequels and spin-offs only further complicated the core audience’s understanding of what an Alien film is supposed to be. When Ridley Scott returned to shepherd the franchise and meld it with some of the ideas of his Blade Runner film in both Prometheusand Alien: Covenant, they, too, divided opinion. While some embraced Prometheus‘ ambitious ideas and a key performance, others rejected them wholesale, perhaps because it wasn’t enough of an Alien film or for its specific answers (or lack thereof) as a prequel film, though I acknowledge that some may feel that to be an oversimplification of people’s problems with it. In any case, Scott responded with Alien: Covenant, which continued the overarching narrative started in Prometheus, but also, at the same time, sometimes felt like an effort to compromise and satisfy those that felt Prometheus was too different. The naysayers weren’t won over by Alien: Covenant, which, I contend, is actually an extremely underappreciated film, and the film was a box office disappointment. Seven years later, we now have the first Alien film since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox titled Alien: Romulus, which is a solid and suspenseful horror throwback. However, truth be told, it is also maybe a little bit too safe of a film given the big choices and risks that directors like Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and David Fincher have taken over the years.
(Clockwise L-R) Natasha Lyonne in POKER FACE (Peacock / SkyShowtime), Harrison Ford and Lukita Maxwell in SHRINKING (Apple TV+), Carla Gugino in THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (Netflix), FOR ALL MANKIND (Apple TV+), and THE BEAR (Disney+ / FX).
Just like with the previous edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, the point of this post is to function as a review compilation, if you will, of some notable 2023 television series that I’ve either just caught up with or which I never found the time to write about when they were released way back when. For this post, I have specifically highlighted five of the past year’s best shows. For quite a few of these, I had initially intended to write extensive, long reviews, but time flew by and now I just feel the need to get my thoughts out there on some of my favorite shows from 2023.
Deadpool looking up at the Wolverine in Shawn Levy’s DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE — PHOTO: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Directed by Shawn Levy (Free Guy; The Adam Project) — Screenplay by Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells, and Shawn Levy.
Later this year, it’ll have been 7 years since Disney’s acquisition of Fox was announced. Included in the Fox acquisition were its assets including ‘their’ portion of Marvel characters, which had long been unable to be a part of Disney’s immensely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe of stories. I think a lot of fans out there will have, at that time, thought that years later they would have all been integrated into the Disney-Marvel-connected universe of live-action films, but, in actuality, it’s been quite slow. Certain characters have popped up in relatively insignificant ways, the classic X-Men theme song has played once or twice, and, sure, Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) did have some non-committal fun with the characters that Marvel fans have been desperate to have alongside the Avengers. Now, though, a significant part of that wait is over. Shawn Levy’s Deadpool and Wolverine is the first Marvel Studios film to be explicitly about a Marvel-Fox character and his integration into Marvel Studios. And, as if that wasn’t enough, it’s the one character that is the least audience-safe Disney character of them all: Deadpool, who is known for his R-rated violence and crude humor. Going into this film the big question for many fans was whether or not Disney, through Marvel Studios, would allow Deadpool to actually be the character that fans have come to know and love. The answer, which I can now give after having seen the much-anticipated film, is a resounding ‘yes.’
(L-R) The Changeling (Apple TV+); Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Apple TV+), The Crown (Netflix).
In this edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, the point of this post is to function as a review compilation, if you will, of some notable 2023 television series that I’ve either caught up with in the last few months or which I never found the time to write about when they were released way back when (i.e. my review notes backlog). For this post, I have specifically highlighted three shows from the past year that didn’t fully work for me, even though I liked a fair bit about them.
(L-R) Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, and Glen Powell in TWISTERS — PHOTO: Universal Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures (Still image from trailers).
Directed by Lee Isaac Chung — Screenplay by Mark L. Smith — Story by Joseph Kosinski.
Reportedly, one of the first (if not actually the first) films to be released on the DVD format was Jan De Bont’s disaster classic Twister. The Dutch cinematographer-turned-film director delivered a genuine hit about a fear of the uncontrollable power of Mother Nature, and, now twenty-eight years later, it finally has a sequel. Twisters is one of this year’s big summer movie releases, and it has somewhat of an unlikely filmmaker in the director’s chair. Twisters has been made by the award-winning and critically acclaimed director of the American Dream/immigration film titled Minari, Lee Isaac Chung. Though perhaps a surprising choice of filmmaker, rest assured that the end product more than lives up to the original and that he has done his best to infuse the film with a human story at the center so that it isn’t all about CGI tornados.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 