JUST MERCY Review

The third film from director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle) stars Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson in the true story of a Harvard-educated lawyer named Bryan Stevenson (based on a book written by the actual Stevenson) who goes to Alabama in the late eighties to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned including Foxx's Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence.

Every single word in that description would lead one to believe Just Mercy is an inevitably powerful film that is both timely and timeless as it touches on the indifference to inequality and justice in our society as its been fated to have been constructed; a world with a “justice deficient” as Stevenson would describe it, so why then...does everything about Just Mercy feel as formulaic as the old gospel hymns referenced within it? There's no taking away that this is a good movie, but there's no denying it goes down exactly as you expect it to also. That isn't to say the story isn't important or to criticize the story the film is telling, but more it is a recognition that Cretton and co-writer Andrew Lanham (The Shack) might have done more to execute this in a fashion not so routine; to find a way of conveying the story in unexpected ways rather than resting on the fact the true story is compelling enough on its own.

ANNABELLE COMES HOME Review

Annabelle Comes Home, the third film in this particular series and seventh in the ongoing “Conjuring universe” is either as good or mediocre as one might expect it to be depending on their level of expectation walking in. For someone such as myself, someone who hasn’t seen either of the previous Annabelle features due to the poor reputation of the first, but also enjoys an entertaining horror flick with a sly sense of humor Annabelle Comes Home turned out to be something of a bonkers, go-for-broke genre flick that ends up being a lot of fun due to the fact expectations dictated this would be no fun at all. Those going in expecting anything more might be slightly underwhelmed given the typical beats the slim outline of a story adheres to as well as a certain lack of grimness that typically permeates from this series. With such tempered expectations though, it’s not difficult to see why the trio of McKenna Grace, Madison Iseman, and Katie Sarife become so endearing to the point all the mini-teasers for every other upcoming “Conjuring universe” movie hardly countered the sympathy the audience builds for each of the three girls simple yet effective character arcs. As executed by Conjuring-verse writer and first-time feature director Gary Dauberman, Annabelle Comes Home might make you wonder what the budget on fog machines alone was, but it also genuinely escalates in a way that by the time the film reaches the aforementioned gonzo third act it feels earned and not simply like an obligation. Additionally, Dauberman does a fine job of imitating James Wan's (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring) sweeping sense of menace as the first-time filmmaker opts for more practical scares than CGI spirits. There is a glaring exception to this no CGI rule in the "Black Shuck" folktale from the British Isles, but otherwise Dauberman and his team use a combination of elaborate make-up, simple camera tricks, and some of the most intense sound design ever configured in order to not just create these creatures, but truly craft their presence. Furthermore, it is in both the attention to and appreciation of detail at the level executed here that Annabelle Comes Home turns out to be less a rote reel of horror cliches and more a fun twist on the "house of horrors" concept; the scares getting increasingly more elaborate the deeper one goes while feeling more a rush of excitement and adrenaline as opposed to actual terror by the time it comes to an end. 

Official Trailer for ANNABELLE COMES HOME

While I actually own 2017's Annabelle Creation and 2014's Annabelle can likely be found in a bargain bin somewhere around town I have failed to see either of these Conjuring spin-off movies yet have managed to see the other The Conjuring Universe films like The Nun (terrible) and The Curse of La Llorona (super average). With this summer's Annabelle Comes Home though, it seems Warner Bros. and producer/director James Wan are making it abundantly clear that these spin-offs are here to stay. I mean, The Nun made $365 million worldwide on a production budget of $22 million and La Llorona has already made over $120 million worldwide on a budget of only $9 million, so why would they? What separates this latest film from the rest of these spin-offs though, and even the previous Annabelle stand-alone films, is the fact Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as Ed and Lorraine Warren. The two are now bringing the titular doll home to lock it away forever as I'm assuming those Annabelle films I haven't seen feature some pretty terrible stuff that the Warren's don't want happening again. If this is the case though, you'd think they would have rented a storage unit or something to keep all the creepy shit in as the premise of Annabelle Comes Home revolves around the Warren's locking the doll in their artifacts room in their home, enlisting a priest's holy blessing, and then leaving their ten-year-old daughter, Judy (McKenna Grace), home alone with her babysitters who are all too curious and unleash the doll who inevitably sets her sights on a new target--Judy. As for the trailer itself, this looks like pretty standard fare as far as the Conjuring films are concerned, but I'll give the film the benefit of the doubt given it's the one where the Conjuring and Annabelle film finally converge undoubtedly allowing this universe to move forward as well as being the directorial debut of Conjuring-verse veteran Gary Dauberman (who, funnily enough, had nothing to do with either of The Conjuring films, but is one of the credited screenwriters on both chapter's of the new IT, so I'll give him that). Dauberman also wrote both Annabelle and Creation so maybe, as much as we like to believe story is the most important thing, when it comes to the horror genre it is more about the way in which these ghost stories are constructed and conveyed that matters a little more. That said, I'm anxious to see what Dauberman will do now that he has full control. Annabelle Comes Home also stars Madison Iseman, Emily Brobst, Katie Sarife, Steve Coulter, and opens on June 26th, 2019.

INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 Review

There is something to be said for a scary movie that can make you legitimately feel chills in the dead of summer. Granted, summer doesn't actually begin until June 21st, but as the third chapter in the Insidious saga somewhat oddly comes to us on the first weekend of June rather than in the midst of fall I was rather cautious as to if this release date was more a strategy to cover up the lack of quality with the excitement of summer or if it was simply time for Insidious to play with the boys of summer. Due to the fact director James Wan, who guided the first two films in the series to great success before taking on Furious 7, exited and both the scripting and directing duties were handed over to Wan's longtime collaborator, Leigh Whannell there was reason to be hesitant. It certainly seems Whannell has at least been paying attention and taking notes since the two first collaborated on Saw over a decade ago as Insidious: Chapter 3 is a sufficient if not significant piece of horror that does its job in terms of getting you to jump at the right time while adding depth to some of the more interesting characters in the previous two films. The downfalls aren't so much downfalls in that they make the movie any worse than it might have been, but more in the fact they simply allow the film to be adequate and exactly what one would expect without striving to be anything more. This makes for a rather pleasant viewing experience that fulfills expectations and plays into ones predictions for how things may go, but unlike Chapter 2 it doesn't delve narratively into new territory, but more recreates the first film with a new set of characters that just so happens to take place prior to the events that occurred in the Lambert household. Lin Shaye is your connective strand as psychic Elise Rainer tough she is hardly the central character. What is more disappointing than anything is that this third film doesn't take on the story that was hinted at in the end of Chapter 2 that might again deal with the red-faced demon from the original, but instead seems to be saving that for the fourth film inevitably making Chapter 3 feel like little more than a footnote.

INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 Review

Would it be farcical to say I found the second chapter of James Wan's Insidious films to be more frightening than his runaway summer hit, The Conjuring? Most people seem to have found that film to be the breakout horror flick they've been waiting for to rejuvenate the genre, but while it was a nice exercise in the standard set-ups of haunted house flicks Wan and his creative team have found a way to make a film that both legitimately continues the story from the first film while providing authentic scares that are hard to come by these days with Insidious: Chapter 2. It is important to know that I very much enjoyed the first film, but was somewhat disappointed in what direction it decided to go. I thought the first half was well staged and set up an interesting dynamic between Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne's husband and wife that had them going down a path they never saw their lives taking after their oldest son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), slips into a coma for no apparent reason. That these fears and unexpected turns were amplified by the fact there was clearly something creepy going on with their made for an eloquent yet horrific family haunting. The scares were blunt and startling, but they never took over the sense of care we developed for the family at least until the last half hour of the film when it went into overdrive and just piled on the people in mountains of make-up and gothic costumes to the point it was more humorous than scary. I didn't buy into the strangeness of "the further" as it seemed too great a tonal shift from the quieter, grey-hued family study I thought we were getting that would elicit fear from the presented scenario. With all of that in mind I went into this second chapter with none too high expectations, but a good amount of interest as at least the first film gave us a cliffhanger of an ending that we could hold out hope for something to justify the weirdness that the latter half of the first film introduced. For me, Chapter 2 did more than justify the need for explanation as it delivers both plenty of new elements while cleverly revealing reasoning for some of the questions left over from the first one. Not to mention being one of, if not the scariest theater experiences I've had in a long time.