14 October 2024

LGBTQ Double Review Video – Desert Hearts & When We Rise

 

We're back on The Jay Days YouTube Channel with @jaylan_salah! This video review is a 2 for 1 special request aired in honor of International Lesbian Day. Jaylan and I chat about the 1985 lesbian drama Desert Hearts as well as the 2017 AIDS miniseries When We Rise.



I'm so grateful for review requests asking for our film and television opinions, and it's superb to be a rainbow ally directing more viewers to diverse, touching, and informative LGBTQI programming you may have missed. Thank you for this special platform, Jaylan!


You can keep track of my audio/visual guest appearances with our Podcast and Video labels or view more Jay Days Reviews:

Jack Irish

Bound

The Convert


Stay tuned for more!


11 October 2024

Lone Screenplay Nominee Guest Podcast!

 


It was such a pleasure to be invited by Matthew to chat on The Lone Screenplay Nominee podcast! We talked about Stand By Me and why Adapted Screenplay was it's only Oscar nomination. Follow @TLSNpodcast for our episode.



I hope you enjoy our chat. Thank you Matthew!


You can also ready my Stand By Me review at InSessionFilm.com and hear my Women InSession chat with @jaylan_salah on River Phoenix. Stay tuned for more guest podcasts and video appearances! Here are a few more recent collaborations:


Jack Irish Video Review

Bedtime Stories Guest Podcast

House of Dark Shadows Guest Podcast



05 October 2024

Guy Pearce Re-Watch: Hidden Gems

 

Hidden Gems of the Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch! 💎



Those who follow my Twitter account @ThereforeReview know that I have spent these pandemic years perusing through a Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch. I retreated to this happy place because Pearce can always be depended upon to turn in a great performance in often exceptional films. 

This countdown's order is more arbitrary, as it's worth seeking all of these hidden gems for their film quality and variety of Pearce performances. Though capable of breaking the internet from time to time, Guy Pearce is not the marquee actor cast to put butts in the cinema seats. Fortunately, he is the go-to actor for quiet gravitas as seen in the unique pieces here. 


Please click through to previously written reviews and videos at I Think, Therefore I Review, InSession Film or with the Women InSession Podcast and Keith Loves Movies for more in depth analysis along with these quick commentaries and countdowns.




9. The Hard Word Crooked lawyers and corrupt cops facilitate heists carried out by conveniently release jailbird brothers in crime in this 2002 Australian who's who including Joel Edgerton (It Comes at Night) and Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under). It's tough to tell if this is about the crime or the comedy with turnabout circumstances, zany personalities, and backward Butcher Talk code suggesting humor while the dramatic prison visitations are very well done. Reflections on each side of the dividing glass accent the confrontations over who's screwing whom, and the camera accents the cleverness and crime realizations in the second half. Pearce is at times unrecognizable thanks to a bad fake nose that doesn't really move with his expressions. However his smart brother Dale slips into each disguise as needed. Though thematically uneven and not as taut as it should be with convoluted betrayals and unnecessary bad guys, literal runs with the loot and quirky characterizations keep this a bemusing late night heist. 


8. Dating the Enemy – The dated fashions, peppy ear worms, Valentine's Day cliches, and corny humor of this 1996 Australian body swap comedy starring Claudia Karvan and Guy Pearce takes me back to simpler times. Certainly part of me wishes there was more depth to the battle of the sexes explorations beyond his not being able to understand pantyhose and her zipper mishaps – women's locker room secrets and sleeping with your disappointing male best friend were ripe for more humor and sophistication. Likewise I also think our opposites attract exes should have switched back thanks to the unexplained wishes and moon magic and not because they had fulfilling sex while in each other's bodies. Learning what the other person wants and needs in a relationship and knowing how to give of yourself mind and body should have happened after they swapped back. Compared to American sex comedies the discourse is tame, played for all audiences without nudity or raunchy, shallow titillation. Our man realizes it sucks to be a woman not taken seriously who can't eat pizza every day while she has to do both their jobs. Fun performances anchor the preposterous mystic versus science of it all with walks, postures, and mannerisms reflecting the mind inside the wrong body voiceovers. The audience is along for the romantic ride, and I miss this kind of lighthearted, fanciful, charming little picture.


7. 33 Postcards – This 2011 international production also featuring social worker Claudia Karvan chronicles soon to be paroled inmate Pearce and his secret sponsorship of an orphaned Chinese teenager. Though naive and isolated from the real world for her age, young Lin Zhu (The Demon Hunter) runs away from her traveling choir to find her sponsor, getting in over her head in the Sydney chop shop scene. Some viewers may be bothered by the dated musical moments, dual languages, cultural mix ups, and slightly amateur English but our Mei Mei has a certain fearlessness – unafraid to ask for help whether people are friendly with the map or potentially taking advantage of her. Her positive outlook rubs off on others as the initial pen pal awkwardness gives way to making up for time served and loners realizing they don't have to be alone. Despite writing fanciful postcards filled with beachy Down Under fun, Pearce's inmate is actually pale, pasty, shaky, and squirrely small. He remains hunched with his hands in his pockets, fearful of re-entering the outside world after his ten year sentence. Immigration visas, bad relations, and parole red tape interfere as our would be father and daughter try to take care of each other, and tense prisoner harassment escalates to shower perils, shank chases, and children in danger. You know today a Hollywood version would be dark, scandalous, and cliché; however the youthful, personal moments here make for a simple, endearing little picture about finding your own family and making your own music. 


6. Hateship Loveship – Jennifer Jason Leigh (Possessor), Christine Lahti (Chicago Hope), and Nick Nolte (Cape Fear) are underutilized in this disjointed 2013 drama based on Alice Munro's short story. The slow paced plain and realistic bare mirroring the too old to be putting on makeup for the first time wallflower Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) may be boring and naive for some viewers. Fortunately, attention to detail in character clothing, cigarettes, and shabby motels sets off the misunderstandings as Guy Pearce becomes the erroneous, not so put together object of our shy housekeeper's affection thanks to a sneaky letter writing campaign by his daughter Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and her snotty friend who doesn't get the comeuppance she deserves. Well timed country music lyrics accent the foolishness and elbow grease as the down and out, who's taking advantage of whom realizations come to light. Wigg is subdued in a strong dramatic turn – humbly anchoring the broken people and second chances. Today's audience may balk at her runaway devotion, but Joanna makes the best of the fix despite her sheltered honesty, his flaws, fatal pasts, and drug abuse. Pearce is grizzled, shaggy, and sickly, having served for his mistakes but continuing to use, steal, and lie. People can't change immediately, but this late bloomer starting over romance could be the positive healing they need. Our hard working gal has her own money and takes action to achieve what she wants in this lovely little piece for fans of the cast.




5. In Her Skin Lovely landscapes, dancing, and original songs contrast dark skies, empty trams, and every parent's worst fear in this 2009 Australian true story starring Miranda Otto (Lord of the Rings), Guy Pearce, and Sam Neill (Dead Calm). A daughter hasn't returned home, and the number of days since the disappearance anchors episodic acts focusing on the parents, killer, and victim. Blas̩ officials see these cases everyday, but emotions are high for the family facing this awful new experience with frantic phone calls, television pleas, sobs, and swoons. Sensuality, nudity, love, and sex are also shown in different dynamics Рthe young bloom, ugly body dysmorphia, tenderness between couples, and brutally suggestive strangulation. Panning camera work, demented voiceovers, fantasy-esque flashbacks, and windswept distortions are spooky and slightly off kilter, getting viewers inside our killer's state of mind alongside disturbing letters, violent artwork, bullying, and a devious sense of empowerment with Electra undertones from the award-worthy Ruth Bradley (Humans). Today it's difficult for us to believe no one noticed or provided mental health intervention, but the performances carry the uncomfortable grief and realistically stilted shock in this intriguing psychological drama.


4. First Snow – Subdued psychic J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) warns sleazy salesman Guy Pearce he's on borrowed time in this 2006 parable waxing on fate versus destiny and self- fulfilling prophecy. Eerie, intense palm readings provide sports scores, highway warnings, and the titular ticking clock. Threatening phone calls, EKG check ups, amateur investigations, and screwed over business deals pepper angel on the shoulder girlfriend Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) versus paroled Shea Whigham (Kong: Skull Island) coming back to haunt our smooth talker. Dialogue and sounds often bleed into the next scene, and moments are intercut with flash forwards or past memories, visually mirroring the predestined plots. Low on the highway angles, rear view mirrors, up close windshields, choice zooms, and headlights match the rushed, coming and going, hitting the pavement metaphors while answering machine harassment, mail box threats, and gunshots build intensity. This is a bright picture with desert vistas, whiteouts, and spotlights, and our Jimmy often hides behind his sunglasses. He's said to have the gift of bullshit – smoking, slicking his hair, and mocking the ill-fated prediction before getting in over his head thanks to past mistakes, current paranoia, and increasing, gun toting isolation. Jimmy's appearance doesn't change, but this is a great character arc from Pearce, and his countenance is altered. His smile and wink become genuine as he mends fences, pays his bar tab, and faces his fate. However, putting things right becomes dangerous, escalating even as we know the full circle outcome of this taut character study.


3. Lorne – It's quite unsettling as the grizzled Guy Pearce sits across the campfire and looks directly into the camera for this 2016 fifteen minute, one man short from director Jesse Leaman (Mad Martha). He asks questions of us, his apparent visitor, for he's used to being alone, sullen, and with his rifle at the ready. His shabby hat and raspy breath indicate the cold desolate while gunshots punctuate the wilderness, and it's clear our forlorn, titular woodsman has been alone too long. Overhead angles show how small he is in the vastness, yet up close shots of Lorne's hands, face, mucky teeth, and dirty nails are uncomfortably intimate. Lorne's paranoid by our stare, wondering what his reflection looks like after this year of on edge isolation, and we don't want to go further into the dark forest with him. He curses and shouts into the void, apprehensive but prepared in the bush with tools and supplies – ready to die over something meaningful but not get killed in the wilds for nothing. He wonders if he's dead already, but the camera glances at his rifle as he talks about his father admiring its craftsmanship more than the dangers. Lorne misses his family and imagines they are there with tearful, introspective regret – realizing that there is only one thing left to do. Although I would have liked to have seen the rest of this story in full form, for fans of taut short films, this is a must see show reel of what Guy Pearce can do with nothing but the emotion on his face.


2. Spinning ManForeboding flashes, yellow tape, and photos of the deceased open this 2018 thriller starring Professor Pearce, detective Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye), and wife Minnie Driver (Phantom of the Opera). The professors debate hypothetical opportunities with young students, but working out while the cheerleaders look leads to crushes, stolen glances, and unspoken flirtations as the camera lingers on a girl's smile longer than it should. Professor Pearce is cool about his alibi, yet other times he protests the police questioning for no reason. Paralleling police mirrors or the man made small and isolated in the frame visuals accent interrogations while careful editing matches the police interplay and family arguments. Classroom philosophizing and literal versus figurative plays on words build suspicion, for it's easy to talk one's way out of anything if the truth is subjective. Suspect lipstick and circumstantial evidence lead to awkward family trips, narcissistic blaming, and maybe maybe not memories. No one says what they actually mean and guilty perceptions create duality – for hiding suspect behavior may be as innocent as putting up missing posters for a child's pet you know to be dead or as bad as rationalizing a scandal that puts an entire university in jeopardy. This is a character drama rather than a tense a minute thriller with fine performances providing mature introspection as the lies come full circle.


1. Breathe In This 2013 drama from writer and director Drake Doremus (Equals) about a would be romance between teacher Guy Pearce and student Felicity Jones (reunited with Pearce for the newly acclaimed The Brutalist) is not played as some steamy, tawdry affair. Superb classical piano and cello music, natural lighting, and intimate camera angles are vivid and authentic – taking time for the telling notes, lingering looks, and increasing contradictory lies that do not go unnoticed. We should hate cookie jar collecting, controlling wife Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) as she quotes the negative logistics of her husband leaving a secure position for a city symphony chair. She always drives, often speaks for him, belittles his music as a loud hobby, and tells him no in front of others as if he's a teenager like their daughter. However, if Megan didn't smile, deflect, and hold fast to their seemingly idyllic home with scrapbooks and keeping up with the Jones barbecues; Keith's romanticizing of the struggling musician's life wouldn't buy their daughter a car. Young Sophie's Electra issues, on the other hand, are clear. She's brought her own copy of Jane Eyre and carries sheet music yet doesn't play now that her favorite uncle and musical mentor died. Her exchange semester in New York was a spur of the moment decision, and she immediately relates to Keith's despair in song. He drinks and smokes behind his wife's back, sitting on the empty swing set wondering what he has missed in life. Pearce's silent and still demeanor invokes a compelling melancholy– hiding a look of constant anywhere but here contemplation behind his glasses. The lid on the piano is closed no matter the emotional intimacy or sacrifices unsaid, and the painful glances are excellent alongside the shattered cookie jars and reckless teen angst. Nothing physical happens, but juvenile runaway plans lead to deception, cruelty, and consequences. Photo shoot bookends reveal how easy it is to feign happiness, and the superb performances carry the realistic relationships and bittersweet reflections. It's a pity this was released several months before Iron Man 3, for this is so little seen in comparison yet remains the better film.




30 September 2024

Recent Religious Horrors

 

Recent Religious Horror

by Kristin Battestella


This trio of 2020s frights takes on evil in several forms. However, some results are better than others are – ranging from decent to frustrating and downright bad viewing experiences.


Pretty Good


The First Omen – Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spiderwoman), Bill Nighy (Underworld), and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) provide supporting gravitas in this 2024 prequel to The Omen co-written by debut director Arkasha Stevenson (Vessels). Tolling bells, scaffolding perils, and shattered glass begat shadowed confessions and whispers of unnatural conceptions. Black hoods, bound rituals, pregnancy, blood, and pleas to not be touched again make for a chilling start before the sunny arrival of our friendly American nun at the 1971 Roman orphanage. The old corridors look shabby with an amber, aged patina, and we wonder what goes on in this villa filled with women. These nuns smoke and giggle about the milkman, however union protests and youth counterculture that distrust church authority worry the Cardinal. Our novice recounts being a problem child herself, punished and subdued as a ward of the church for what was said to be an overactive imagination. She's reluctant to sneak out and hit the neon disco but soon gets into the dancing and sweaty kisses before regrets, kneeling, and prayers. Lookalike women, sisterhood suggestions, lesbian taboos, and repeated creepy hair fanning out upon the pillows foreshadow more while an excommunicated priest warns of evil things happening. Immolation, delirious weirdness, and monstrous nasty provide what we think we see in the dark fears amid eerie frescoes, hidden rooms, and disturbing offspring. Pregnancy is not a beautiful experience but gory with medical tools and horrible visions of demon hands and orifices. Backward chants and altars treat the Cesarean as ceremony – escalating to claws, growls, retching, convulsions, and baby cries. The elders claim this abomination is a miracle to save the church, however viewers will know what's what re mother and jackal before the ninety minute mark, and this didn't need to be two hours. Pointless arty shots and short cryptic scenes are disjointed while silly jump scares negate the more natural simmering horror mood. Swelling music calls attention to itself, heralding the spooky when the chorales should only be heard as diegetic and innate to the ritual vows. The revelations are overdone with repeated mark of the beast questions and Antichrist goals that don't make much sense when the sixth month, sixth hour, sixth day approaching should have driven the plot. Though very atmospheric and overall entertaining thanks to sudden, disturbing horrors; the last half hour drags on with fiery slow motion and but wait there's more too many endings. Instead of leading up to the picture of Gregory Peck and fin, this overstays its welcome by eking out room for The First Exorcism 2: Boogaloo.


Frustrating


The Harbinger Native American seer Irene Bedard (Smoke Signals) educates writer/director/producer/star Will Klipstine (The Evolution of Andrew Andrews) on saving his damned daughter in this devilish 2022 tale. Hangings, mysterious death relics, and burning in hell declarations lead to our on the go family refusing the psychologist's concerns. Sunny flashbacks of happier times are oddly intercut with a cliché driving montage and an ominous gas station stop before an annoying neighbor gives the newcomers the bigoted scoop on the nearby cursed reservation. Our daughter kills a frog and pushes children out of the tree house, but the something evil afoot parental arguments are too on the nose – forcing the sinister amid disjointed scenes that don't happen organically. Viewers wonder what's on purpose, deflection, or padding as more caricature neighbors come and go. Little miss creepy is unwelcome at the reservation, but our seer both says there is no hope for such evil yet there is something they can do. Although not stereotypically portrayed, there also simply aren't enough Native American motifs. Mystical explanations devolve into magical gobbledygook about quests, blessed daggers, and sacred stones. Repetitive scenes with redundant exposition get preposterous as everyone tells but no one actually does anything. Our father finally admits the devil has his daughter's soul, and his having been a single parent would have been much more interesting. The best moments here are between dad and daughter with her asking if he remembers what she was really like and his carrying her to bed as always. One scene with our wife going to confession and the priest kicking her out goes nowhere thanks to demonic reflections, spooky whispers, dreams, and sepia speakeasy specters negating the too few and far between emotional family moments. Continued happy flashbacks don't create emotion, just delay the current inaction as our passive family makes no progress. The Mrs. hardly interacts with her daughter unless it's to be whooshed around the kitchen, complaining her husband needs to do more rather than being proactive herself. Likewise, our seer tells of colonial curses and sacrifices in the town crypt but she's not actively involved in any ritual to prevent the collecting of souls. Dead animals accumulate and demons attack the bed as more deaths and comeuppance are given after the fact. Police investigations again fall back on flashbacks – repeating the deals with the devil and harbinger exposition twice more with who's actually in on appeasing the devil. Their faith in God and any Catholicism are a non-factor but convenient cemetery maps and prohibition tunnels provide action contrivances, convenient angels, and gangster ghosts. The horn and hoof red devil begats back and forth flying daggers stabbing people like it's “Who's on First” – the effects aren't terrible but the finale descends into unnecessary twists and obvious self-sacrifice. Diablo ex machina reincarnation and more historical exposition thrown at the screen become terribly frustrating, silly, and overlong. Though watchable if you accept this is a flawed production that had potential, this should have been a taut, streamlined ninety minutes.


Skip It


The Exorcism of God – I want to appreciate the Mexican setting, Spanish flavor, and Catholic mood of this 2021 parable, but my gosh if this isn't pieces of every other exorcism movie put together. I laughed in the first five minutes over the Exorcist knockoffs and ridiculously sexual opening exorcism – predicting it was a prologue that would to jump to a new many years later focus. Even priests named Michael and Peter are derivative of the maligned The Seventh Day, and it was very easy to zone out and half pay attention when not chuckling at the demon special effects. The earnest performances are so earnest they don't know they are in a horror movie. Sometimes that is good, most of the time it isn't. Every set piece scare is also for the audience – negating any of the priestly conflicts with repeated, increasingly hammy sexual possession shocks. This setting deserved a much better script, and Saban should really stick to Power Rangers instead of trying to make horror movies. How could a studio/distributor release forty-five films in 2022? Even if that was somehow pandemic backlog, terrible movies like this result in such littered streaming. More important than the assembly line industry, however, is the downright offensive, trying to be shocking, scandalous possession and sex ploys toward church abuse victims. A priest claiming a demon made him molest young women in his care is your plot? Who thought rape jokes were a good idea?



25 September 2024

More Jack Irish at Keith Loves Movies!

 

Our television moonlighting at Keith Loves Movies continues with more Jack Irish




After the original Television Film Trilogy, Jack Irish continued with three episodic seasons. Read our reviews of each series: 


Blind Faith

Last Rite

Hell Bent




Huge thanks to Keith Loves Movies for having our television retrospectives - also including Mare of Easttown! You can also see us talking about Jack Irish on The Jay Days Youtube Channel, and stay tuned for more in the Great Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch



24 September 2024

Fall Mini DVD Haul! 🛒

 

Why wait for a massive haul pile? Kristin Battestella aka Kbatz chats CDs, DVDs, TV sets, books & more in this latest mini September Haul!



Thank you for watching!


Follow @ThereforeReview on Twitter for more or read our reviews at InSessionFilm and Keith Loves Movies!  You can keep up to date with our DVD Hauls & Therefore Review Videos on our YouTube Playlist, and stay tuned for more Audio/Visual appearances!


Read More: 

Ella Fitzgerald 

The Bee Gees

The Golden Girls



17 September 2024

My DVD Snapcase Collection! 📀

 

Infamous for not alphabetizing her physical media collection, Kristin Battestella shares her budding DVD Snapcase collection – from early video release memories and classic films to horror movies and sentimental favorites.



Thank you for watching!


Follow @ThereforeReview on Twitter or read our reviews at InSessionFilm! You can also hear more with the Women InSession Podcast and follow our television retrospectives at Keith Loves Movies


Peruse our Therefore Review Vidoe Critiques Playlist or follow our Podcast and Video labels for forthcoming media appearances! 


Read more: 

The Exorcist

Blade Runner  

L.A.Confidential 

Soldier 

The Searchers 


16 September 2024

Bedtime Stories Guest Podcast!

 

It's time for another guest podcast appearance. This time, I had a riot with Bubba Wheat's Time to Rewind as we lampooned Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories!



You can read more about Bedtime Stories as part of my Great Guy Pearce Re-Watch Bads & stay tuned for more guest appearances!




Interesting in collaborating? Message me on Twitter @ThereforeReview! Revisit More Videos and Podcasts:


House of Dark Shadows

The Convert

Mare of Easttown



10 September 2024

Guy Pearce Re-Watch: Supporting Grace

 

Supporting Grace in the Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch!



Those who follow my Twitter account @ThereforeReview know that I have spent these pandemic years perusing through a Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch. I retreated to this happy place because Pearce can always be depended upon to turn in a great performance in often exceptional films. 


After his self-imposed sabbatical from Hollywood in the early aughts, Guy Pearce re-emerged in a little bit of everything, adding gravitas to award winning films and independent surprises alike. Be it ten minutes or unforgettable villains, Pearce knows how to gracefully lend his cinematic support in all genres.


Please click through to previously written reviews and videos at I Think, Therefore I Review, InSession Film or with the Women InSession Podcast and Keith Loves Movies for more in depth analysis along with these quick commentaries and countdowns.




New Video Bonus: The Convert


10. Two Brothers – This 2004 French film provides adorable cubs, intense tiger action, beautiful Cambodia locales, and picturesque ruins with the help of real wildlife, clever special effects, and up close animatronics. DVD Behind the scenes features and conservation documentaries compliment the period picture, and billed below the titular tigers Pearce is a rugged trophy hunter learning the error of his ways thanks to nibbling kittens, innocent children, and colonial corruption robbing the country of its history. Though labeled as a family film, the story here is very upsetting for audiences of any age with tiger mating, animal shootings, circus abuse, violence, and cub anguish as our brothers are repeatedly separated from those they love. The lessons win out for a happy ending, but viewers must know this is a tough watch despite the cuddly big cats.


9. Genius – This 2016 slice of life about Colin Firth's (Kingsman: The Secret Service) editor Max Perkins to Jude Law's (The Talented Mr. Ripley) writer Thomas Wolfe adapted by John Logan (Penny Dreadful) should be fascinating literary discourse. Instead the tormented artistry is a slow, dry yarn under-utilizing Nicole Kidman (Dead Calm) and Laura Linney (The Truman Show). I'm not a fan of either author but Dominic West (The Affair) has one scene as Ernest Hemingway – as does Vanessa Kirby (The Frankenstein Chronicles) as Zelda Fitzgerald – with precious few minutes more for Pearce as the bitter late stage F. Scott Fitzgerald. That's the biopic I needed.


8. The Hurt Locker – When naysayers on Twitter say Guy Pearce hasn't done anything since Memento, sometimes I like to be a little mean and recommend this 2009 Katherine Bigelow (Near Dark) Best Picture winner just to mess with them. Pearce's opening gravitas immediately establishes the devastating shock, action awe, and Iraq War pain to come for Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Anthony Mackie (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). 


7. Lawless – I should like this 2012 prohibition epic from director John Hillcoat and screenwriter Nick Cave more than I do thanks to their previous glory that is The Proposition. This has period style, sweet cars, and suave gangster Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) to match real life bootlegging brothers Tom Hardy (Venom) and Shia LaBeouf (Nymphomaniac). However, the moonshiners, crooks, and corrupt officials are all just shit men going on and on in believing their own self-perceived invincible hype. Why did Jessica Chastain (Crimson Peak) and Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre) sign on to play such used, abused, and objectified women? Of course, Pearce hams it up as the no-eyebrowed and over perfumed villainous Chicago dandy out to get our brothers in the film's best, most brutal moments.


6. Swinging Safari – Director Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert) provides a zany look at growing up in seventies Australia in this nostalgic 2018 ode with everything from a beached whale stinking up the summer to kids with cameras setting each other on fire for their Death Eaters Super 8 magnum opus. Great retro colors, bell bottom styles, and period gadgets accent the perilous pets, pool mishaps, and mangled fruit substituting for Evil Knievel gore amid vignette freeze frames, slow motion, and distorted in-camera narrations. Our youths are left to such danger at play thanks to bored parents Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue (Bio-Dome), Radha Mitchell (Olympus Has Fallen), and Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck) – who decide to get down with a key party gone awry and therein is the problem. This is two films in one mashing a serious Wonder Years coming of age with an adult comedy that doesn't have enough of the titular scandal. Too much is happening and the charm becomes disjointed despite numerous entertaining moments worthy of a more complete picture. 


5. The King's Speech – This 2010 Best Picture winner about George VI's overcoming his stuttering problems is a charming period piece thanks to the lauded cast including Best Actor Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter (A Room with a View), Geoffrey Rush (Elizabeth), and Guy Pearce “kinging” with aplomb as Edward VIII. Of course, the vocal exercises come across so feel good because the story excises any probable Nazi implications to the abdication. Here tuxedo wearing, champagne popping, piloting his own plane Pearce abandons the throne solely for love. Certainly I'd love to see a more accurate portrayal of the dirty dynamics between the subsequent Duke and Duchess of Windsor warts and all, but the endearing focus here builds to a superb radio speech accented by divine Beethoven crescendos.




4. The Last Vermeer – Scene stealing Guy Pearce's artist Han van Meegeren is second to Claes Bang (Dracula) in this 2019 historical drama struggling with a framework that doesn't completely tell its most interesting tale. Brief flashbacks of nude portraits, juicy parties getting in bed with the regime, and photos hidden in the floorboards suggest we've come in too late here in the post-war aftermath. Questions on Dutch versus Jewish identity and what double agent wives had to do to survive while upset about it husbands were in the Dutch resistance are uneven and heavy handed amid public firing squads and Allied Command versus reinstated Dutch Ministry intrigue. Vicky Krieps (Old) is underutilized as the female assistant who solves the case but get no credit, and the pace lags when Pearce is off-screen. Accused as a third rate artist but first rate opportunist, Han is small, impish, and ornery – humorous with his drunken house arrest witticisms, sexy assistant, and sassy wife innuendo. However, van Meegeren is also angry and duplicitous with careful smoking mannerisms and expertly crafted double talk. The chastising art community underestimated him, and he is at once for the people in besting the Nazis yet smug in this delicately orchestrated scheme peppered with priceless artwork, laundering implications, and whispers of espionage. The finale rushes over montaged chemical tests and loose legalese, and whether the charismatic Han was a hero or a collaborator is left unclear despite Pearce's compelling performance.


3. Animal Kingdom – Mustachioed good cop Pearce tries to protect Oscar nominated Jackie Weaver's grandson from their family's ruthless den of crime in this 2010 drama written and directed by David Michôd (The Rover). Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline) and Joel Edgerton (Loving) punctuate their “grubby business” with drugs, murders, police corruption, and creepy family favoritism. Our sweet talking, manipulative matriarch thinks it's all a boys will be boys happy family while the innocent are caught in the crossfire. Rather than a cool crime heist or slick, polished thriller; the realistic filming is bitter with shabby styles, claustrophobic interiors, and mournful scoring to match the bleak consequences and brutal existence. Dramatic builds and abusive, incestuous implications lay the queen bee, bullying pecking order before shock shootings, car accidents, raids, arrests, witness intimidation, and bodies in the backyard. Edgy egos and power trips provide no recourse from this inescapable web as groomed youth must decide to pay the price or lay down a new law thanks to the raw, hard hitting performances here.


2. Rules of Engagement – The sensitive subject matter of this 2000 William Friedkin (The Exorcist) military courtroom drama starring Tommy Lee Jones (Stormy Monday) and Samuel L. Jackson (Kong: Skull Island) would be handled differently today. The well done opening siege action and latter legalese divide the picture in two halves. I'd also rather we had not seen the mission in question once the gunfire occurs nor known the fate of the videotape evidence – thus putting an intriguing uncertainty on what actually happened. However, viewers are never meant to doubt that Jackson was in the right doing what he had to do and that Jones will defend him with every crusty underdog gotcha. Time is taken for their banter and backstory alongside the fine supporting ensemble. Rather than being the purely villainous, nondescript prosecutor; Pearce holds his own as our opposing major, saying he will try the case on good evidence only and respecting the defending colonels. His Biggs also seems slightly fey, overcompensating with the macho talk and courtroom showmanship. Friedkin's winking zooms and stylish lighting accentuate Pearce's eyes when he realizes what's what. Five o'clock hour shadows add to the tension on the witness stand, and we must pay attention as jurors take note when testimonies conflict. Despite knowing the outcome, this is easy to re-watch for the action, intrigue, and characterizations. “Sixteen fucking minutes.”


1. The Count of Monte Cristo Although this 2002 swashbuckling Dumas adaptation differs from the novel; the cinematic relationships and fine ensemble layer the tall ships, Napoleon intrigue, chess pieces, and betrayals. Burned letters and treasonous kickbacks mean the idealistic, niave Dantes is wrongfully imprisoned – counting the stones in his dungeon walls, vowing revenge, and secretly digging three inches a week. Courtly, austere mansions versus charming prison montages echo the classim and poverty as cave-ins and daring escapes lead to treasure maps, pirates, allies, and murder. Carefully orchestrated vengeance escalates to feigned kidnappings, ingratiating rescues, and duels while brief flashbacks punctuate the well paced adventure amid just turnabouts, pistols, arrests, and ruin. Balconies allow for dominate downward angles while windows and swaths of light invoke hope. Candlelit patinas, period costumes, lovely set design, and dirty attention to detail match the Malta locales, scenic waters, horses, and hot air balloons. The epic score accentuates spectaclular parties, revealed secrets, lost love recognized, and a dashing sword fight that surpasses the written finale. Despite the story's underlying goodness, we root for Mondego to get his due at times more than we cheer for our hero. Instead of the offered Dantes, Guy Pearce chose to play the childhood friend turned villainous love to hate Mondego – creating memorable deceit, rotten teeth sleazy, and despicable envy. I suspect this delicious performance is why there is a certain audience that will always hate Guy Pearce, and understandably so.