This week on Part-Time Characters we delve into the old movie shelf and pick up some classic movies to talk about. Yup! It is time for our third Retro Reviews episode! Bridget talks about a sci-fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Jenny watched the strangest movie ever made, Fantastic Planet, Sam watched one of the most praised musicals, Sound of Music, and I (Maria) watched the great Mifune in Yojimbo.
Go on…Retro Reviews 3: Yojimbo, Sound of Music & More
This week on Part-Time Characters we face our biggest fears, whether it’s watching a horror movie from our childhood or talking face to face with Jerry-Garry-Larry. The gang gets together to discuss the remake of IT, adapted from Stephen King’s novel. We bring in a special guest to review the film and compare it to the classic TV movie from 1990 starring the one and only Tim Curry.
I didn’t have enough time this week to do a formal review of Good Time, but our most recent episode of Cinemaholics sums up my thoughts pretty well. We also tackled Death Note, the Netflix Original Movie based on the anime series. It started out as a mini review, but Will Ashton and I went on for so long talking about it, the review hit feature length. We also talked about Leap! and Brigsby Bear.
This episode debuted our first ever “On Tap” segment. I interviewed Kayleigh Donaldson of Pajiba, and we unpacked the massive Handbook for Mortals controversy surrounding a YA book that supposedly cheated its way to the New York Times Bestseller List, perhaps to shore up a movie deal. It’s a fascinating conversation, and you can learn more about the story Kayleigh worked on about it here.
Logan Lucky was directed by Steven Soderbergh, the man behind the Ocean’s 11 films and Magic Mike. It features hilarious characters, farfetched schemes, and a leisurely pace that will take some by surprise, but like its band of robbers, it’s a film that’s easy to underestimate.
It’s no secret that Hollywood has shown little interest in bringing stories about the American South to mainstream audiences over the last decade or two, to the point where Pixar’s Cars 3 was their chief cultural representation in Summer 2017 until Logan Lucky came along, a heist film with the trappings of a tentpole that also happens to be based on an original screenplay, albeit by someone who appears to be invented, with the pseudonym “Rebecca Blunt” as their credit.
Put simply, Logan Lucky is indeed another movie about an outlandishly competent crew pulling off an impossible crime from Soderbergh, but it’s also a deconstruction of his own work, to the point where the film actually references the Ocean’s 11 movies by branding this film’s crew as “Ocean’s 7-11.” It’s one of many jokes that hits home in a film that takes aim at subverting your expectations for a fast and clean crime romp.
The big plan is to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway during a high-profile Nascar race, conveniently where one of the characters recently lost his job and is now looking for a way to improve his sympathetic financial situation. The titular Logan siblings consist of Clyde (played by Adam Driver), an Iraq War vet who lost his arm and is now a bartender, Mellie (played by Riley Keough), a quietly dignified hairdresser, and Jimmy (played by Channing Tatum), a divorced and out-of-work dad sharing custody with his ex-wife and high school sweetheart (Katie Holmes) from when he was the quarterback until a leg injury ruined his chances of going to the NFL.
There are many other interesting and vibrant characters along the way, of course, including a high-energy Daniel Craig as Joe Bang, the demolitions expert the Logans need to break out of jail on the day of the race. For what is at times a pretty slow-paced film, the development of the heist in question is actually a bit rushed, specifically with how this major set piece is placed in the second act of the movie instead of the third. It’s an odd structural decision that does well to make Logan Lucky stand out in a frankly overcrowded genre.
Most importantly, Logan Lucky manages to be about more than hi-jinks and funny moments. There’s a wealth of heart and authenticity in this screenplay and how it treats its location, characters, and subject matter. It’s not condescending, but it’s also not pandering, and best of all, it’s pretty entertaining for a movie where most of what’s happening is impossible to believe. It’s only major flaws are in how some long stretches of the film feel quite a bit too long and meandering, which is sure to make many in the audience wonder why more of the film wasn’t cut for a leaner experience. But what we do get from Logan Lucky is plenty to chew on, regardless.
On this latest episode of Cinemaholics, I sat down with Maveryke Hines to review Annabelle: Creation, the new horror film out of “The Conjuring universe.” We also had a great conversation about our favorite horror films and started things off with a trailer breakdown of mother!, the upcoming Darren Aronofsky film.
Our conversation is spoiler-free up until the 40 minute mark, but after that is fair game. And I want to take a moment to mention a few podcasts we plugged this week that we encourage you to check out if you’re a fan of Cinemaholics.
Many of you already know and love Part-Time Characters since it’s hosted on this website. But we also mentioned The Legendarium Podcast, a fantastic resources for fans of fantasy books and the occasional movie review. I recently guested on their show to talk about The Dark Tower, and it was definitely time well spent.
There’s also Down the Hall, a great “take back movie night” podcast with recommendations for streaming releases from Chet and Rodney, plus celebrity interviews. Be sure to check them out.
Annabelle: Creation is the prequel to a prequel of an ongoing franchise of interconnected paranormal movies. David F. Sandberg, whose directorial debut was the impressive Lights Out, takes what should have been a shameless cash grab and turns it into a horror film worthy of the Conjuring brand.
Go on…‘Annabelle: Creation’ Is The Horror Prequel We Wanted Years Ago
“Stephen King is obviously one of the most prolific writers of all time,” said Will Ashton on the latest episode of Cinemaholics, where we reviewed The Dark Tower and discussed at length why and how this movie confounds us. The show opened with a quick aside about our favorite Stephen King film adaptations, and as some of you might have predicted, I had some not-so-popular opinions to express about The Shining.
We covered a few extra movies in a shorter episode this week (our originally recorded episode with extended cast was unfortunately lost to the audio oblivion), including Lady Macbeth and Detroit. We’ve talked about both movies in previous episodes, but now we’ve all seen both and were able to share notes on two of the most impressive films in 2017. And Will capped the episode off with a mini review for Girls Trip, setting off a great discussion about summer comedies.