On this episode of The Nerd Corps Podcast, Raul and Brad discuss the newest release from Disney/Pixar, Luca (2021). They discuss what they liked and did not like about this coming of age animated film. They also describe some confusion over some of the stylistic choices of the film and its homages. Find out what they thought about Luca on this episode filled with pasta, sea monsters, and vespas!
On today’s episode of The Nerd Corps podcast, Raul and Brad kick off their Wes Anderson Month as they review Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Both of these nerds discuss the ins and outs of what they loved about the film along with some confusion over the film’s performance at the box office. The nerds look forward to viewing more films from Anderson as we celebrate the upcoming release of The French Dispatch (2021).
The newest installment from the DC Universe brings out one of its best films from the “horribly beautiful mind” of director James Gunn.
We have a new DC film in cinemas and on HBO Max and it is the highly anticipated Suicide Squad film from director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Super). The bad guys are back to save the world from other bad guys. We are introduced to some new faces and are greeted with the return of some familiar faces. Of course, we all remember the last Suicide Squad film and all that went down during that production. Not to get stuck in the past, but James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is the definitive film about the rag tag group of bad guys!
The Suicide Squad stars a huge ensemble cast of Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Peter Capaldi. We have new faces like Peacemaker (Cena), Bloodsport (Elba), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), King Shark (Stallone), and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian). While we have new faces we are also treated to some familiar ones from the prior Suicide Squad film like Kinnaman’s Rick Flag, Harley Quinn (Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Courtney), and Amanda Waller played by the incredible Viola Davis. This time the group is being sent to fight the villain Starro as it plans to terrorize a fictional Latin American country from the control of Peter Capaldi’s The Thinker.
James Gunn constructs one of the most entertaining and thematically interesting interpretations of comic book characters. I loved our new heroes but I especially liked the care and development they had like Polka-Dot Man and Ratcatcher 2. The film never stops being unapologetically a James Gunn film from the beginning. It is filled with incredible soundtrack choices, witty comedy, and some strong gorey visuals. Nearly everyone stands out with their performances with my personal favorites being David Dastmalchian and Viola Davis. Everything just works out so well to create an entertaining and weird film from the creative body of work of James Gunn. One would hope that Gunn will return for another installment after he gets done with his work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 but for now we have an HBO Max Peacemaker series to look forward to. Whatever we get after this, I am sure it will be just as good or better than this film. DC has found itself another gem in this movie!
Watch The Suicide Squad in cinemas or on HBO Max right now.
The Green Knight is exemplary in every way possible under the incredible direction of David Lowery as he creates one of if not the best film of this year.
It is safe to say that 2020 provided us some of our worst moments. It was a time that was met with a lot of sorrow, grief, and uncertainty about our lives. In the movie space, we saw many delays while some of our most anticipated films were moved to streaming services while theaters remained shut down. There was something else that we got in 2020 that really made us realize that 2021 was going to be worth the wait. I remember seeing that first trailer for David Lowery’s The Green Knight and I was amazed at what was shown. Immediately I was beyond excited to watch Dev Patel play Gawain and the visuals of the trailer propelled my excitement to the moon, but the summer came along and no news about the film came forward so we had to imagine that it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later on before the year ended, we received news that the film would release in July 2021. My anticipation for this film kept building and building for what I imagined would be a good Arthurian motion picture. Fast forward to the present, I went to my local movie theater (following COVID guidelines) to finally watch this movie and I was giddy with excitement to finally sit down and set my eyes on the film.
The film stars Dev Patel as Gawain the nephew of King Arthur as he sets on a quest to find and face The Green Knight that tests his courage to become a noble knight of the roundtable. The film is written, produced, edited, and directed by David Lowery (A Ghost Story, Pete’s Dragon, The Old Man & The Gun) based on the anonymous poem Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. The film also stars Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, and Ralph Ineson.
David Lowery’s The Green Knight meets all expectations and blows them out of the water. A concise and reflective film about the struggle between expectations and our quest to be who we want to be. David Lowery’s love and patience for the source material shows throughout the movie paired alongside its exquisite cinematography by Andrew Droz Palermo. Along with its beautiful and moving cinematography, it is Daniel Hart’s groundbreaking score that helps create the atmosphere of our very contemplative and somber film. Dev Patel works wonders as Sir Gawain and truly captures every scene he is in. Him along with the supporting cast like Alicia Vikander’s two characters excel in the acting department.
The Green Knight is special and so far the best film to be released this year. The film takes its epic story to create a very patient film that speaks beyond its structure. Whether it is its daunting scenes of doubt in Gawain or its various moments that challenges the nobility of what it means to be someone as important as a Knight. We constantly are looking at the film hoping to see what Gawain will do to redeem himself and become the man he is set to be. The Arthurian world of David Lowery’s film is magical and never disappoints you throughout this quest of Gawain as we patiently watch a masterclass in filmmaking and storytelling.
Watch The Green Knight in theaters right now.
The newest M. Night Shyamalan film crashes and burns with its interesting concept of the horrors of aging at a beach stuck in accelerated time.
M. Night is back with another film since his 2019 effort, Glass. This time he is back in theaters with his new thriller, Old. The film stars an ensemble cast of Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Kreips, Rufus Sewel, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Eliza Scanlen, Aaron Pierre, Embeth Davidtz, and Emun Elliott. There are quite some familiar faces in here and quite the range of actors within the film. One would think that this means that M. Night is about to lead us into a wild ride of a film especially after watching that trailer. You are not wrong if that is what you were hoping, but this wild ride is nothing to write home about.
The film looks at various families who leave on a tropical vacation, and while there are invited into a secluded beach where time seems to be accelerating throughout the day. This is a really interesting concept but its execution just lacks overall throughout the film. The presentation is interesting but the cinematography is so jarring that it makes it really hard to follow what is going on at times. While some performances are better than others overall it feels like direction is being met. Some performances feel very forced or just fall flat. The problems of this film really feel as if it falls on the script and direction. Of course, the film features another irresponsible portrayal of mental illness by M. Night that seems to be his norm by now that needs to stop already. It is really hard to pull something out of this that is not the thematic conversation being had by an interesting concept thought up by M. Night.
The film excels at bringing up these feelings of anxiety and panic because of situations that our characters are put in that are out of their control. We see many characters react certain ways towards each other or themselves. Our characters are stuck and just cannot move back because they are being forced to move forward without some solutions or comfort about their current situation. Of course, it feels all too reminiscent of our lives since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For that, I commend M. Night on having that conversation throughout the film that gave it its emotional backbone.
Old is playing theaters at the moment and has no VOD release date at the moment.
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