Review – The Lost City

The Lost City (2022)

PG-13 ‧ Action/Adventure/Comedy ‧ 1 hour 52 Minutes

Story by Seth Gordon, Written by  Oren Uziel; Dana Fox; Adam Nee; Aaron Nee

Directed by ‎Aaron Nee, Adam Nee

THE CAST

Sandra Bullock; Channing Tatum; Daniel Radcliffe; Da’Vine Joy Randolph; Brad Pitt; Oscar Nuñez

THE STORY

(In their own words) Reclusive author Loretta Sage writes about exotic places in her popular adventure novels that feature a handsome cover model named Alan. While on tour promoting her new book with Alan, Loretta gets kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who hopes she can lead him to an ancient city’s lost treasure from her latest story. Determined to prove he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, Alan sets off to rescue her.

Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum star in Paramount Pictures’ “THE LOST CITY.”

THE REVIEW

Let me get straight to it with film because it’s been a while since I’ve been this excited about a comedy. The Lost City is easily the best comedy I’ve seen this year and I honestly can’t imagine enjoying another film this year as much as I did this one. It ls laugh out loud funny, perfectly paced, wonderfully acted, and had the audience I watched the film with absolutely rolling from beginning to end. 

Sandra Bullock returns to this genre that she absolutely owns in The Lost City playing romance novel author Loretta Sage. While I wouldn’t have really considered Channing Tatum as a good pairing for her, this movie showed me that these two need to work together a lot more. The comedic timing and chemistry between these two was flawless.  I don’t think there is another current leading actress who performs physical comedy as well as Sandra Bullock does; from her awkwardness of sitting on a stool to rolling out of a hammock, she finds a way to bring laughter to such simple movements. Her reactions to her circumstances or Channing Tatum’s butt are never too far keeping her grounded in the real world, but stretched just far enough to milk the scene for all the comedy she can. 

Daniel Radcliffe shines as the villain of the film, billionaire Abigail Fairfax. While Radcliffe’s charm makes you instantly disarmed, that only feeds into making his villainous acts a little unexpected and therefore impressive. He’s a wonderful comedic villain, which I wasn’t expecting, and really wants me to see him as a bad guy in a more serious film. 

The Lost CIty is an adventure that I don’t want to spoil. Is some of the plot a little predictable? Yes. Do they take quite a lot of liberties in dealing with plane flight times? Yes. But those minor elements are easily dismissed when you are presented with such a wonderful, well-crafted, fun adventure.  And there are enough unexpected surprises in the film to make up for anything. Also, when predictable moments happen, the comedy that they create out of the situation is superb.

Sandra Bullock and Daniel Radcliffe star in Paramount Pictures’ “THE LOST CITY.”

THE BEST

Three BEST things about the film

  1. Very funny. Extremely. I was shocked at how much I laughed at this film. Probably the funniest comedy of the year. 
  2. Lots of unexpected turns that are also memorable. 
  3. Wonderful chemistry between leads. 

THE WORST

The three WORST things about the Film

  1. Minor issue with ending. 
  2. Some predictable moments.
  3. Lacks logic to timeline of events.

THE LESSON

Don’t be afraid of opening the door and seeing what’s next.

THE FINAL WORD

Easily the funniest film of the year and I find it hard to imagine anyone with a heart and soul not liking this film. 

THE VERDICT
My 3L system gives me the choice to Love It, Like It, or Lose It. 

The Lost City gets a Love It. 

THE TRAILER

THE REVIEWER

ABOUT SILAS

When he’s not reviewing films or interviewing people for the Black & A Half podcast, Silas Lindenstein can be found in the greater metro Seattle, WA working as a real estate agent helping people buy and sell homes, or performing stand up comedy to fellow nerds. He has a wife and three children and desperately wants to learn to make the perfect homemade pizza.

Review – X (2022)

X  (2022)
R ‧ Horror • 1 Hour 45 Minutes

Written by Ti West
Directed by ‎Ti West

THE CAST

Mia Goth; Jenna Ortega; Martin Henderson; Brittany Snow; Scott Mescudi. 

THE STORY

(In their own words) In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast soon find themselves in a desperate fight for their lives.

THE REVIEW

Horror is not my “go to” genre. It’s one that I’ve really tried to enjoy, but mostly I get too scared to watch alone, and reviewing movies can mean watching a lot of movies by myself. So, if it weren’t for a friend offering to attend the press screening for X with me, I wouldn’t have gone, though I was intrigued. 

I was mainly intrigued since the film is being distributed by A24 Films and over the last year, I’ve come to find that A24 Films tends to release surprisingly good films.  So I had a hunch I might enjoy it. And I did, I actually really enjoyed the film, though there is a lot to digest from it. 

The basic part of the plot is a group of young filmmakers are setting out to shoot an adult film. The director, Wayne,  wants it to be a huge financial success like Debbie Does Dallas. The cinematographer, RJ, wants it to be a more artistic film than most pornos. He wants it to be a high quality film and raise the genre up as a whole, that’s his mission and reason for doing the film, aside from just paying the bills.  Which is fitting because my impression of the film was that it was really raising the bar on horror films. It was shot with much more finesse than most horror films. Its acting is solid throughout, the writing is really good, the film moves in different directions than you suspect, and manages to captivate you as a viewer, not to just see what the next brutal killing will be, but you want to know how the story will end.   

This is also the second film this year I’ve seen Jenna Ortega in, and I have to say she is turning in some wonderful performances recently. I think she’s showing that she is going to be a force in cinema really soon. She’s not alone in a solid acting performance, but she is the character that gets to experience a major change during the story. She’s the only one that makes a choice to change her life and it’s compelling to watch. The entire cast does a very fine acting job. It’s one of the best ensemble pieces of the year so far. 

The film is tense. There is a huge amount of build up for the true action gets started. It lays a lot of groundwork in the beginning of the film, but in a really good way. The first hour of the film is used really well to set up how this thing will finish. Just excellent pacing throughout. 

There are also a couple of really cool editing choices. Superfast back and forth jump cut edits of different locations  and of what is happening. They are nearly jarring to the point of looking like a mistake when it first happens, until you realize they are making a deliberate choice. 

This is really a first rate film, not just an excellent horror. The sum of the parts of this make it a really good film. But don’t be fooled, it is a horror. There’s some graphic slashing scenes that aren’t for the faint of heart, it’s a horror. A really good one.  

DSC_2846.NEF

THE BEST
Three BEST things about the film

  1. Unexpected twists. 
  2. I like that it’s not just a slasher horror. It was actually very cinematic and had some heart to it. 
  3. Well developed characters. 

THE WORST

The WORST things about the Film

  1. Some ridiculous choices by characters to advance the plot. 
  2. Too convenient for many parts.

THE LESSON

Ask permission from homeowners before you shoot a film in their property.

THE FINAL WORD

A surprisingly elevated horror film, bringing an artistic eye to a genre where you don’t expect it. 

THE VERDICT
My 3L system gives me the choice to Love It, Like It, or Lose It. 

X gets a Like It 

THE TRAILER

THE REVIEWER

ABOUT SILAS

When he’s not reviewing films or interviewing people for the Black & A Half podcast, Silas Lindenstein can be found in the greater metro Seattle, WA working as a real estate agent helping people buy and sell homes, or performing stand up comedy to fellow nerds. He has a wife and three children and desperately wants to learn to make the perfect homemade pizza.

Review – Alice (2022)

Alice (2022)
R ‧ Drama/Thriller ‧ 1h 38m


Written by Krystin Ver Linden

Directed by ‎Krystin Ver Linden

THE CAST

 Keke Palmer; Jonny Lee Miller; Common; Gaius Charles; Alicia Witt

THE STORY

(In their own words) Alice, an enslaved person yearning for freedom on a Georgia plantation, escapes through the woods and stumbles through time into the year 1973. After she meets a disillusioned political activist, she confronts the lies that kept her enslaved.

THE REVIEW

The biggest thing about Alice that I couldn’t shake were the words from the trailer, ‘Inspired by true events”. I had to research this after seeing the film. Turns out,  In 1960 a Black woman was found to be still held in slavery in the south.  There are so many incredible injustices that have happened to Black Americans over the last couple hundred years, even after I think I’ve heard all the stories there are to tell, I find an all new story. 

Alice is a powerful and emotional film. Opening up on the slave Alice, played by Keke Palmer working on a southern plantation, on what appears to be the early 1800s, it seems like we are going to have a typical story of a slave owner and his mistreatment of the slaves. But there are early hints of something wrong, something mysterious. One of the slave hand speaks of his father meeting a man who could make fire from his hands (a lighter). These little mysterious things pop in letting us know something is off. 

The master of the plantation is obsessed with Alice. After she secretly marries her boyfriend, the master becomes very upset and tells her husband he is going to send him away for
“breeding” purposes. And later, the master then forces himself upon Alice. Here is where you will get a lot of complaints. You will hear criticisms of torture porn or something like that. Because there are way too many movies of Black people in slavery and they often have rape scenes. It’s almost a trope at this point. But it’s really hard to tell a story involving that time and make it seem realistic without showing the horrors of what was happening. If a filmmaker doesn’t show the extreme ugliness of what was happening they can get accused of glossing it over and making it not seem so bad. It’s really a catch 22 for filmmakers dealing with this era. 

At this point, after a series of events involving her husband, Alice escapes the plantation, and makes her way onto a 1970’s modern interstate highway, where she faints upon almost getting run over by a semi truck driven by Frank, played by musician/actor Common. Frank takes her to a hospital and it is at this point that we realize she is not a time traveler, she isn’t crazy, she was being held in an unbelievable situation. She is caught between wanting to help her family she left behind and worried about not being believed by local police and sent to an insane asylum.  This is also the deep south in 1973, the police aren’t likely to be very helpful to her anyway.

The film has some really great moments. Keke Palmer’s performance is a masterpiece. Her acting is raw and emotionally open. Following her through each discovery is incredible. The pacing of the film is really nice, the story is compelling throughout, and it really does a wonderful job mixing the thrill and mystery in the beginning of the film, without giving away too much of what is going on. 

It’s an unnerving story, and it really does its job of compelling you to tell other people about it. While the specifics of the story are made up, the fact that the basic event of the film is true is both mind boggling and profoundly gut wrenching.  First time director Krystin Ver Linden did an exemplary job of crafting the film with the right tones, for in some ways this is two films in one. One is the world of slavery that Alice starts in before she finds the rabbit hole to freedom. Both worlds were distinctly different but clearly in the same universe. That’s what takes a lot of skill. 

This film made me tell all my neighbors about it and what the film is based on. What else can you ask from a film? It takes a really good film to make you talk about it and the source material, and this pulled that off. I urge you to take a look at this Sundance premiering film as it opens up nationwide. 

THE BEST


Three BEST things about the film

  1. The story is really engaging. 
  2. Acting performances are solid throughout. 
  3. Writing of the story and dialogue  is excellent. 
  4. Finally a twist on the traditional “slave” stories. 

THE WORST

The WORST things about the Film

  1. The time on the “outside” happens too fast. She should learn the history a lot slower. But I don’t know how to solve that and keep the pacing going. 
  2. It’s hard to keep watching the violence on Slaves movie after movie, but like mentioned before, how do you show the horrors without the horrors.

THE LESSONS

Doing the right thing is never wrong.

Just because a story is unbelievable doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

THE FINAL WORD

A compelling and thought provoking film that you’ll want to tell others about. 

THE VERDICT
My 3L system gives me the choice to Love It, Like It, or Lose It. 

Alice gets a Love It from me. 

THE TRAILER

ABOUT SILAS

When he’s not reviewing films or interviewing people for the Black & A Half podcast, Silas Lindenstein can be found in the greater metro Seattle, WA working as a real estate agent helping people buy and sell homes, or performing stand up comedy to fellow nerds. He has a wife and three children and desperately wants to learn to make the perfect homemade pizza.

Episode #196: Welcome Back

Samantha Rund RETURNS and talks to Silas about comfort television, current television thoughts, and review writing.

Review – The Adam Project

Reviewed by Silas Lindenstein

The Adam Project (2022)
PG-13 • Scifi/Adventure • 1 Hour 43 Minutes

Written by Jonathan Tropper; T.S. Nowlin; Jennifer Flackett; Mark Levin

Directed by ‎Shawn Levy

THE CAST

Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Walker Scobell, Zoe Saldaña, Catherine Keener

THE STORY

(In their own words) After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future.   

The Adam Project (L to R) Walker Scobell as Young Adam and Ryan Reynolds as Big Adam. Cr. Doane Gregory/Netflix © 2022

THE REVIEW

I’m a sucker for any sort of time travel based film. Add in a nice size portion of snarky Ryan Reynolds, and I’m grabbing my popcorn ready for a good time.

And that’s what The Adam Project provides. It’s a good time. It has a weird plot relationship with time and how your action in time will affect the future….but you have to let that go…we don’t really know how that could all work. Let it go and just enjoy the story.

For me the best part of the film was Walker Scobell playing young Adam to the older  Ryan Reynolds version of the character. Walker did a great job of picking up the ticks and speaking patterns of Ryan Reynolds and incorporating them into his character, making him extremely believable as a young Ryan Reynolds. 

The underlying drama of the film is young Adam and his mother(Jennifer Garner)  dealing with the grief over the somewhat recent loss of Adam’s father. There’s a particular stand out scene between Garner and Reynolds as they talk about losing someone and how that affected each of them. It’s a wonderfully played scene, honest, raw, and a nice dramatic break from the rest of the film.

The rest of the film is lot of fun laser shooting, and hand to hand combat, and space ships, and trying to figure out how to deal with this time travel mess they’ve gotten themselves into. 

It’s a fun movie, nothing more, nothing less. Luckily it stars some pretty great talent that helped elevate it from more than it is. Don’t think too hard during this. Just enjoy.  

THE BEST


BEST things about the film

  1. Fun Time Travel Story
  2. Very Funny
  3. Some touching moments
  4. The kid actor does a great imitation of Ryan Reynolds, really seeming like a young version. 
The Adam Project (L to R) Zoe Saldana as Laura and Ryan Reynolds as Big Adam. Cr. Doane Gregory/Netflix © 2021

THE WORST

The three WORST things about the Film

  1. Kind of predictable.
  2. Nothing super memorable about the movie.
  3. Villain is really lacks depth.

THE LESSON

Misdirected anger hurts the wrong people.

REWATCHABLE?

Yes

THE FINAL WORD

A light hearted scifi time travel adventure that is not a bad way to spend a Friday night enjoying. 

THE VERDICT
My 3L system gives me the choice to Love It, Like It, or Lose It. 

I give The Adam Project a Like It

THE TRAILER

Review – Turning Red

Review by Silas Lindenstein

Turning Red  (2022)
PG ‧ Animated Coming Of Age Comedy ‧ 1 hour 40 Minutes


Written by Julia Cho and Domee Shi 

Directed by ‎Domee Shi 

THE CAST

Voices of Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Hyein Park, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho and James Hong

THE STORY

(In their own words) Set in Toronto between 2002 and 2003, Turning Red centers around Meilin “Mei” Lee, a confident 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian who is torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. However, one morning, after she has a nightmare, she is horrified to discover that she has turned into a giant red panda, later learning that her ancestors have a shared history with the species. Whenever she gets too excited or stressed, she “poofs” into the red panda time and time again.

THE REVIEW

Let me say first of all that I did like the film. I actually think it’s a rather important film. It touches on changes teen girls have in real life that is addressed in a natural and non-ick factor way that a lot of other material treats it. That normalization is important for not just girls, but everyone. This is probably also the most diverse cast of any previous films.  It’s not even set in the USA. There’s a lot of cool stuff about this film.  My big problem is that I wish I liked it more. 

The film seems to do nearly everything right about a film. It has a compelling story, the voice acting is great, it’s funny, etc. but I feel like I didn’t relate to the character enough. Then I worry that that is just built in misogyny not enjoying something fully because it was a story that wasn’t about me. Or maybe my expectations for Pixar films are just too high? This film was originally supposed to be released in theaters, but the Pandemic has been used as the reason it is not and instead releasing it for free on Disney+. Disney is releasing other big films in theaters, so either Disney doesn’t trust parents will bring their kids to the theater or they simply don’t have faith in the film that it will draw. 

The film is fun. It’s a celebration of a girl ready to start her path toward adulthood. It’s about changes in a person that start to draw attention from your peers and how you deal with it in a healthy way.

It’s really hard not to enjoy a film about a girl suddenly becoming a Panda when she experiences too much emotion. It’s like a cute Incredible Hulk. And learning to control emotions is a recurring theme in a lot of art. The dangers of emotion can never be overexploited, but finally we are looking at it from a different point of view.

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THE BEST
Three BEST things about the film

  1. Wonderful representation.
  2. Great original mythology.
  3. Very funny.

THE WORST

The WORST things about the Film

  1. Unclear consequences, like how do they know it would be bad to stay the Panda. 
  2. Animosity between the grandma and mother seems unnecessary.

THE LESSON

  1. Don’t hold back for anyone. 
  1. We’ve all got a messy loud inner beast but we never let it out. 

THE FINAL WORD

A fun story about change that is refreshingly different and captured through the lens of a teenage girl. 

THE VERDICT
My 3L system gives me the choice to Love It, Like It, or Lose It. 

I give Turning Red a Like It. 

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THE TRAILER

Available On Disney+ Streaming March 11th

ABOUT SILAS

When he’s not reviewing films or interviewing people for the Black & A Half podcast, Silas Lindenstein can be found in the greater metro Seattle, WA working as a real estate agent helping people buy and sell homes, or performing stand up comedy to fellow nerds. He has a wife and three children and desperately wants to learn to make the perfect homemade pizza.

Review – The Batman

Review by Silas Lindenstein

The Batman  (2022)
PG-13 ‧ Action/Adventure ‧ 2h 56m
Written by Matt Reeves, Peter Craig

Directed by ‎Matt Reeves

THE CAST

Robert Pattinson as Batman

Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle (Catwoman)

Paul Dano as Riddler

Colin Farrell as Penguin

Jeffrey Wright as James Gordeon

Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennywise

THE STORY

(In their own words) When the Riddler, a sadistic serial killer, begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman is forced to investigate the city’s hidden corruption and question his family’s involvement.

THE REVIEW

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of Batman films and a lot of portrayal of Batman in live action films. I really didn’t think there was any new way I could see Batman presented.  I am so excited that I was wrong.

The newest incarnation brings us Robert Pattinson donning the role of Gotham’s caped crusader in the Matt Reeve’s directed film The Batman. The film doesn’t take much time in introducing what this film is about and how the tone will be set. There has been a murder and the police are at a loss. So Detective Gordon (Jeffery Wright) brings in the vigilante Batman to take a look, because he seems to spot things others don’t. This is the first Batman film to acknowledge Batman as a great detective, the comics always referred to him as the world’s greatest detective but it has always been lost on the screen adaptations. This was wonderful to see him working the clues of the case. 

The setting is year two of Batman. So it’s a young Batman, one gaining experience and learning his place in Gotham. Initial reaction of Pattinson being cast in the role was generally mixed. Pattinson’s performance will definitely create some great discussion as he completely owns the characters and breathes fresh life into the character. This may well be the greatest Batman we’ve seen yet. He is steady, nuanced, and is able to deliver the most emotion we’ve seen from a Batman while wearing a mask. 

In this version, we see Bruce Wayne as Batman for most of the film. The few times he isn’t in costume, he does a fine job showing us how lonely Bruce Wayne is. Most films discuss how Batman is a loner, but then he’s constantly surrounded by people, this is a lonely Bruce and lonely Batman. 

The other stand out element of the film was how genuinely thrilling the story is. I literally found myself moving forward during the movie because I was enthralled trying to figure out the mystery they presented with the murders. I felt thrilled the entire story. Not because of surprises or twists, but because the story was engaging. That has never happened to me during a Batman film before.  

Let’s also not forget the rest of the cast. It is a stellar performance from top to bottom.  Paul Dano’s Riddler is possibly the creepiest Batman foe we have seen yet. The makeup artistry to change Colin Farrell into The Penguin must be remembered for award season next year. 

The tone, the style, the story, Matt Reeves gets it all right for this film. I feel confident that critics and audiences alike will be raving about this film. It’s the perfect blend of artistry and entertainment. 

THE BEST

BEST things about the film

  1. Batman was finally treated as an incredible detective for the first time in cinema.
  2. The story is actually thrilling. 
  3. The Riddler is a wonderfully menacing villain.
  4. Batman’s tone was hit perfectly. He’s always talked about being a loner but never is. This Batman is lonely.

THE WORST

WORST things about the Film

  1. It does start feeling a little long near the end. 
  2. Not my favorite Bruce Wayne.

THE LESSON

Vengeance is two sided.

THE FINAL WORD

This is the Batman I didn’t know I needed to see. A gritty Batman that all fans must see. 

THE VERDICT
My 3L system gives me the choice to Love It, Like It, or Lose It. 

The Batman gets a Love It.

THE TRAILER

ABOUT SILAS

When he’s not reviewing films or interviewing people for the Black & A Half podcast, Silas Lindenstein can be found in the greater metro Seattle, WA working as a real estate agent helping people buy and sell homes, or performing stand up comedy to fellow nerds. He has a wife and three children and desperately wants to learn to make the perfect homemade pizza.