MOVIE REVIEW: The Vast of Night

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THE VAST OF NIGHT-- 5 STARS

There exists a wide range of adjectives between the pleasurable place of “thrill” and unpleasant extreme of “terrify” that one could apply to stimulating movie experiences. Just like the films themselves from indies to blockbusters, joys or jitters come in all shapes and sizes. For the festival darling The Vast of Night being streamed on Amazon Prime, the proverbial needle of its excitement amplification lands on a very nifty word: TINGLES.

LESSON #1: THE DEFINITION OF “TINGLES”-- Merriam-Webster defines both the verb and noun form of “tingle” as a “slight ringing, stinging, prickling, or thrilling sensation.” The keyword there is “slight.” Tingles sneak up on you. They don’t punch, stab, or explode. They merely poke and linger. Tingles occupy a tenuous yet inviting middle ground because they could apply to fascination or fear equally.

The high-minded and engrossing science fiction yarn of The Vast of Night is all about accomplishing perfectly pitched tingles. With its auditory menace, patient suspense, and mounting wonderment, its level of quickened heartbeat and tightened nerves are just right for its inventions and intentions. The laurels, nominations, and awards from the Independent Spirit Awards and Slamdance, Overlook, and Toronto International Film Festivals wave off any need for big names and wayward assumptions. 

Framed as a Twilight Zone-like episode of “Paradox Theater” by rookie writers James Montague and Crag W. Sanger, the opening monologue narrates our slow zoom from a swanky, sunny living room into the vintage 1950s television screen where the nighttime setting expands in dimension and fleshed-out color. In the fictional town of Cayuga, New Mexico, seemingly the whole town descends on the local fieldhouse for a high school basketball showdown. After a little tour of small-town personalities and pleasantries, a chipper duo peels away from the big game for their necessary place of employment.

One is Everett (Jake Horowtiz), the evening DJ for the local WOTW radio station (there’s a sly salute in those call letters). He’s a smooth-talking slinger of idioms and alliteration with a disarming line and a clever nickname for everyone he meets. Tagging along is the other, the young lady named Kay Crocker (Sierra McCormick) who is the late shift switchboard operator for the phone lines. She’s a spirited straight arrow high schooler with an ambitious interest in science. Their professions make them (for their era) two tech-savvy cats.

LESSON #2: BEING AN OBSERVANT PRESENCE-- Each of these emerging protagonists command a listening ear for a living. Despite his gift of gab and her darling dither, both notice things with patience and stable nerves. Those traits lead to solid inquiry skills far ahead of others who would resort to panic or frenzy instead. If you’re used to movies where the confused make dumb choices just to advance a dangerous plot towards the danger, you will enjoy the gumption of The Vast of Night.

When Kay hears a strong and odd sound over the switchboard that interrupts Everett’s radio broadcast, it throws the two for a loop. When Everett publicizes the captured noise fishing for any listeners with more insight, he receives an on-air callback from a man named Billy (Bruce Davis) with an ominous personal account from his time working at a nearby military complex. His description of what he saw and heard give Everett and Fay cryptic pause. The reverberations of who could know more and what could happen next constrict the mystery more.

LESSON #3: MAKING A JUMP-- Escalation turns the observational capacities of Lesson #1 into sterner words and more perilous actions. With the initial challenge of “if you’re going to do it, do it,” the crackerjack hometown heroes of Kay and Everett reach points where they can no longer care about getting in trouble. Risks have to be taken and both Horowtiz and McCormick sell the smarts and surprises.

LESSON #4: WHEN THOUGHTS TURN TO BELIEF-- Throughout what transpires in The Vast of Night, ask yourself what it would take the pragmatic to go from thought to belief. Right alongside the risks, the logical Everett and sensible Kay are pushed beyond listening to heavier thinking. The secrets and absurdities they hear and witness which become more powerful and apparent morph both into true belief.

Every woven celluloid inch of this canny and calculating mindboggler is varnished with staggering production value coming from a beguiling level of economical filmmaking. Each artist on this film outdid themselves to demonstrate how to do seemingly infinite with little. Filmed in a handful of small towns in East Texas and Oklahoma, the stylish and impeccable recreations of the period aesthetics, right down to the smallest props, from The Standoff at Sparrow Creek team of production designer Adam Dietrich, art director Jonathan Rudak, and property master Elliott Gilbert are functional and phenomenal. Any edges to hidden modernity underneath are seamless. When needed, the special effects of Chris A. Wilks and the captured sound work of designer Johnny Marshall and mixer Erik Duemig escalate the locations.

The surface is only the beginning to how remarkable The Vast of Night moves. Several long takes steered by debuting director Andrew Patterson and editor Junius Tully freeze our focus. Little breaks and transitions back to that wavy black-and-white TV resolution drop in to remind the frame of where this story is transpiring. Those holds relent only to have cinematographer M.I. Littin-Menz (Resistance) hurl us through Cayuga with smooth approaches and trailing tracking shots of varying rapidity through lamplit streets, yards, windows, and more. The last pusher of pace is a bold and entrancing score from first-timers Erick Alexander and Jared Bulmer. Let its noise lift the hairs and goosebumps just right.

Between the look, feel, and stunning execution of this narrative enigma, it all adds up, again, to tingles from a magnificent genuflection to so many genre inspirations. Those who think tingles are too faint and feeble compared to full-on shock and awe haven’t felt legitimately good and unforced tingles in a while. There’s something special to be said when less becomes so much more and telling the unknown outweighs showing it until the right moments.

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MOVIE REVIEW: End of Sentence

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END OF SENTENCE-- 4 STARS

LESSON #1: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM DECISIONS OF LOVE-- There is a kindly and uplifting pair of lines delivered around the halfway point of the mournful road movie End of Sentence that sensationally encompass the different romantic crossroads people encounter throughout their lives. A young single woman with much of her life ahead of her turns to an upper-middle-aged widower who has learned new misgivings about the wife he lost and says “You might go on rides with the rebels. It’s the kindhearted ones we spend our lives with.” 

Gosh, that is such a smooth and stirring way to express something profound. Rarely veering to hardest of hard or the ugliest of ugly, there is much more of that homely wisdom to be had in Elfar Adalsteins’ debut feature film. Identifying the “rebels” from the “kind-hearted” is relatively easy. The challenges become to what degree agitation within the malcontent can be healed and where strength can develop next to grace in the kindly. End of Sentence is available on VOD from Gravitas Ventures and it is a worthy dramatic experience.

The tender and considerate core of this film is Frank Fogle played by Oscar nominee John Hawkes. Towering with slightness, he is the embodiment of old school courtliness despite coming from a hard southern background. With calm courage, Frank is bringing his cancer-stricken wife Anna (Andrea Irvine, in a short yet poignant role) to an Alabama correctional facility to not merely visit her incarcerated son Sean (the co-headlining Logan Lerman), but to say goodbye. It is not an easy meeting, even with hugs.

LESSON #2: “DON’T LET THE PAST CONTROL YOU”-- Anna’s parting words to Sean couldn’t be simpler. A final embrace and a “be kind to yourself” add more to her plea for rehabilitated purity. Months later when Frank arrives to pick up the released Sean, the testy indignation Anna feared within her son becomes clear. Every gnarled posture from Sean being around the father he calls by his first name instead displays discomfort and conflicted history. The body language of one patient and one restless says it all.

Sean is dead set on a warehouse job out west in Oakland that starts in five days when Frank implores him to travel to Anna’s native Ireland to spread her ashes on a special lake from her youth. It’s a releasing request framed by “do this trip and you never have to see me again.” In an uncomfortable clash of modesty and brashness, they agree to this trip. Their rented car for two grows to three if you include the urn and four if you count the hateful distance shared by father and son.

A head-turner that lifts this car and sweetens the occupied air is the fetching Jewel, an attractive roamer played by Sara Bolger (The Tudors). She is intrigued by the Fogle pilgrimage and offers to help them through the country and piece together some of the unearthed mysteries of Anna’s past. Past loves echo past mistakes and possibly new ones. Jewel is the woman feeling dignified enough to drop that dynamite profundity mentioned early while stepping forward in a pub to sing a lovely take on The Pogues’ “Dirty Old Town” with the locals not long after. 

LESSON #3: WISHES VERSUS PROMISES-- Dying wishes are passed from the departed to the surviving as necessary new promises. Their details compel people, sometimes legally and more emotionally than anything, to overcome any hurdle towards their completion. The trouble becomes the old adage of making promises you can’t keep. There are spoken and unspoken wishes and promises being conquered in End of Sentence that go far beyond those of the late matriarch.

LESSON #4: SHOW RESPECT TO GET RESPECT-- The gulf between Sean and Frank is one of respect, among the other lessons above. The elder Frank urges earning respect with actions whereas the harder Sean refuses to grant respect to just about anyone he meets. Even with Sean’s ticking clock of impatience, this trip is a test for him to re-learn respect. Still, true to life and less movie convenience, no one is ever mended of that kind of flaw in a few days. What we watch play out from first-time feature screenwriter Michael Armbruster is merely a start. 

Karl Oskarsson’s camera loves these subjects and their quiet quest. His well-placed wide shots embrace and establish the Emerald Isle with off-the-beaten path locations selected by Rossa O’Neill. None of End of Sentence is a Guinness commercial or a chipper travelogue. Karl’s lenses are also drawn to the loosening nerves and released constriction that came with the proximity of characters and attitudes that did not want to be around each other. As their growth swells, so does the film. A meaningful beat of that rises as well from a choice soundtrack of Irish ballads, including the one serenaded by Bolger.

The two lead actors accomplish the ever-present anguish wonderfully and honestly. Logan Lerman displays a twitchy toughness against the soothing chivalry countered by John Hawkes. These are excellent changes of pace from both performers showing the width of their ranges. End of Sentence is a mellow addition to Hawkes’ sizable resume that has not been shy about trying evil too. Similarly, this also counts as new, unforced grit from the rapidly maturing Lerman who has had a plentiful span of playing earnest before this. If their ages were reversed, each could play the other’s part with equal power and character immersion.

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‘No Turning Back’ Lands in June

The award-winning drama sci-fi film ‘No Turning Back’, starring Joseph Wycoff, Caroline Muller, Grace Goulter, and Kelaan Schloffel-Armstrong will release via Random Media on-demand and on all digital platforms June 22, 2020. Directed by Danny Phillips, from the award-winning films ‘Life is for Living’ and ‘Presentment’, ‘No Turning Back’ follows avionics engineer Nick Wilkinson who […]

The post ‘No Turning Back’ Lands in June appeared first on Movie Marker.

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COLUMN: 5 Tips For Taking Family Film Photographs

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5 Tips For Taking Family Film Photographs

Pictures are a way to capture the moment into a frame. If it is for any special occasion or just randomly, people love to take photographs. Most of us love to take pictures of our family to cherish the moments in the future. Nowadays, we prefer to take pictures using our smartphones. But to get the best capture, it is ideal to use a DSLR camera. These cameras tend to cost a lot of money, so you can use the BecexTech promo code to get fantastic offers.

People can also avail extra discounts if they are students. When purchasing the cameras online, you will get the option to show your student ID. This will help you get a student discount.

What is family photography?

Family photography refers to taking pictures of members that tie your family, such as parents and children. Newborn photography also falls under this category. Taking candid pictures is the best as it depicts the raw emotions of everyone.

Tips to take family photographs

Some tips that will help beginners with family photography are discussed below.

1.     Try all the possible combinations.

First begin with gathering all your family members together and take a picture. This will help them get accustomed to the group and camera. After that, you can add or remove family members from the frame. This will help you get pictures with all the possible combinations. Usually, the first group picture is a warm-up, so make sure to take another one at the end.

2.     Make sure to involve everyone.

When you try to take pictures of children it is hard, as they don’t pay attention. Ask their parents to stand close to your camera. This will help the children to look your way, and you can take the shot at ease.

3.     Try fun activities

One of the most popular ways to make a photo session fun is asking everyone to jump. Or you can ask them to play a game and take pictures when they are having fun.

4.     Show growth and progress.

If any family comes to you annually to take a picture, then showcasing the growth and progress is a great idea. Ask everyone to stand next to each other, and the parents act as the point of comparison.

5.     Don’t divert attention to yourself.

Make sure you don’t divert their attention to yourself and ask them to indulge in themselves. Take a break and shoot pictures from a distance to capture pictures where they interact with each other and are relaxed. 

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MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Kicking the Seat" podcast talking the politics of "Election"

As a teacher (pants optional during this current work landscape), it was a pleasure to discuss Alexander Payne’s 1999 film Election with Ian Simmons on his Kicking the Seat YouTube channel. It was my second spin for his “Reelpolitik” series after a previous appearance discussing All the President’s Men. The setting and scope is far different and far more fictional here. Election is as much a teacher movie as it was a political one. Enjoy our video conversation on the movie and be sure to follow Ian Simmons on his YouTube channel this week!

PODCAST AUDIO VERSION:

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MOVIE REVIEW: The High Note

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THE HIGH NOTE-- 2 STARS

Matching what decades of movies and TV shows have characterized about personal assistants, cinematic commandments stipulate that Dakota Johnson’s character Maggie in The High Note must work for demanding and vain people and carry an clear-as-day inner ambition to seek her own fame. Those same narrative tendencies urge us to pooh-pooh the former and root for the latter. We are supposed to love that brand of “started from the bottom” underdog moxie. 

However, each time Maggie’s employers, the fictional world-renowned recording artist Grace Davis played by Blackish’s Tracee Ellis Ross and her manager Jack Robertson played by Ice Cube, summarily dismiss her to stay in her lane or fetch some inconsequential thing, The High Note gets better because the real talent is allowed to emerge. To love underdog moxie, or any moxie for that matter, you have to have it. The flimsy Dakota Johnson doesn’t. She, and the movie opening on VOD May 29th, would be better served by her getting out of the way just like her shunned and devalued Maggie.

You’ve seen this type working a gateway to a dream job. Maggie Sherwood is a fantasizer surrounded by those with more in superior clout. Daughter of a radio DJ (an extended cameo from Bill Pullman) she, with her beater classic car, fringe jacket, and old soul encyclopedic knowledge of the music industry, works as the tireless personal assistant to an 11-time Grammy-winning legend. Grace Davis is hitting middle age making easy money off of a live “greatest hits” album and its connected national tour. She is entertaining the prospect of a multi-year residency in Las Vegas, a bankable move brokered and pushed by the cranky Jack. 

LESSON #1: “WHEN THERE ARE NO SURPRISES, THEN WHO ARE YOU DOING IT FOR”-- That line is ever-present realization Grace seeks to avoid.  Naturally, she is at a creative crossroads and has the itch to do something new. Behind the scenes and after work hours, the ambitious Maggie has been taking a deep remixing dive into Grace’s catalogue of hits. She feels like she has producing ideas better than the usual and forgettable scheduling and shopping advice of her typical job duties. Maggie urges Grace towards a new album with new material, a business surprise Jack and the circling army of marketing suits are against.

LESSON #2: THE ROLE OF A MUSIC PRODUCER-- Pause for a second. Raise your hand if you know what a music producer does? According to this movie, you push a few buttons, slide a few levelers, tinker on a computer occasionally, nod to a beat when it suits you, and give some notes on an intercom while songs are being recorded. Instead of going off of The High Note, go look at the full job description instead and then marvel how Maggie could possibly hurdle all of the ladder rungs before her and do all of that. No one is buying the “seen enough to try” line, Miss Sherwood.

Press play. If only “urge” could be more “clamor.” Tracee Ellis Ross and Dakota Johnson are positioned in moments away from the mania and managers to have sincere conversations on music, legacies, arrogances, and aspirations meant to shift and forge each other’s confidences. Ross holds up her end. In those handful of scenes, she exudes the gravity of age and grace befitting her role. And when the lights are on and the crowd is loud, she’s even better. Johnson and her flatness cannot match that whatsoever. You follow her journey as the lead in The High Note and carry no rooting interest.

Where this movie finds its spark is where Maggie finds a coinkydink of a personal and professional one of her own. After a pick-up artist setup, the Sam Cooke-shining pipes of the unsigned David Cliff, played by white-hot emerging actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. of Waves and Luce, blow her synthesizers and her socks off. Maggie passes off her inexperienced chops and convinces the flirtatious David to let her improve and produce his original songs into a portfolio worthy of a new artist.

LESSON #3: THE SPINE OF A SONG-- The most passionate this film gets is when the microphones are hot and the lyrics provided by music supervisor Linda Cohen are sung. The warmest the cold bucket of water that is Maggie gets is when she speaks of the internal heart rhythms that create the “spine of a song” more than hooks or beats. Life has to come out in art and that’s the headiest truth this movie can muster.

Go from pause to stop this time. Kelvin Harrison Jr. steals this entire movie. If all you have seen of Kelvin (and you need to) is his outstanding dramatic acting over the last few years, come marvel at his never-before-seen musical ability, honed by a youth spent with the Marsalis jazz family. Goodness gracious, this young man is special! Here he is at a mere 25, slaying choice parts, playing instruments, belting out harmonies, flooring us all, and rivaling both his idols and contemporaries for sheer talent. If Kelvin keeps this up, we’re going to be saying “Will who?,” “Jamie who?,” and “Denzel who?” someday. He’s that damn good already.  

Kelvin Harrison Jr. joins Tracee Ellis Ross as the true flair and excitement you want to watch in The High Note, directed by Late Night’s Nisha Ganatra from a reclaimed 2018 Black List screenplay by debuting writer Flora Greeson. Every time they step forward, the movie shines. Instead, their wattage is filtered through milquetoast tropes of stepping stone laments, sell-out pushback, forced romances, career lies, and small-world bow-tying conveniences you’ve seen too many times and in better places. With that kind of talent, diverse examples at that, present in front of Maggie (yet behind Dakota in billing), there was a stage primed for performing and exploring true individual and industry challenges, not those little bumps delivered through the lead’s uninspiring presence. Once again, Maggie (and Dakota), get out of the way. Give us the real potential power.

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COLUMN: 7 Features of the Perfect Date Night Movie

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7 Features of the Perfect Date Night Movie

by Kevin Gardner

Date night had been entirely homebound for some time now. You've probably spent hours scrolling through your various streaming services looking for just the right date night movie. The perfect date night movie isn't always easy to find: here are seven features of the ideal date night movie.

A Lovely Gift

A date night movie is a gift to your partner, just like rose gold watches for women or tech presents for men. It will be a gift that you share, yes, but it should be as much about their tastes as it is about yours. This is, after all, an expression of your love for them. 

Familiarity

Keep in mind that there's no need to choose a new movie every time. Especially on date night, it's often more about spending time with your partner than paying attention to a new and exciting story. Familiarity is sometimes a good thing.

Characters

Whether it's an old, familiar movie or a new one, you probably want to make sure that the characters are likable. Watching a movie is not like spending time with friends, and this is a date after all. You wouldn't invite that coworker your partner hates to dinner and expect to have a nice evening. The same applies to characters in movies. You're going to be spending several hours with them, you want to enjoy their company.

Emotional Investment

Movies are also designed to make you feel something for the characters. Half the battle is making you like them, the other half is making you care about what happens to them. When you care about characters, you have emotional investment in their journey. This is important for a date night movie because you want to feel something, otherwise you'll just feel bored.

Tension

In a story, tension is another thing that keeps you from feeling bored. The unresolved anxiety of a horror movie, the edge-of-your-seat thrills of an action movie are the heart wrenching yearning of a romance are all different kinds of tension you might find in different genres of movie. Depending on your tastes and your date's preferences, you may have a preference for one kind of tension over another, but as a general rule, you probably want to lean towards romantic tension for a date night movie. 

Resonance

What really makes a movie stand out is the way it resonates with the audience. We feel a connection with the events on the screen because they reflect something that happened to us, or because we can feel what the characters feel. It isn't always an obvious one-to-one comparison. Plenty of people identify with Frodo Baggins's struggle even though they aren't hobbits on an epic quest. People all around the world identify with Lizzie Bennett even though they don't live in England in the Regency Era. The point is that this personal connection is especially important on date night because it generates catharsis, keeps your mind engaged and most importantly gets your emotions active and involved. Emotional engagement is key for date night. Everyone wants to be excited and interested in date night. 

Ending

Of course you can have too much of a good thing. Date night movies probably shouldn't be too long, and you probably don't want to watch a movie with an unsatisfying or frustrating ending. The end of a movie is what's going to influence the rest of your evening, after all. The swelling music and a romantic kiss is probably going to create a better date night impression than a sad ending and a death. Ideally, you want an ending that's going to leave you and your partner in a good mood, ready to get on with your romantic evening and enjoy the rest of your date. 

That said, of course all couples are unique and not everyone likes the same kind of movie. What is familiar and emotionally resonant for one couple will make another couple feel cold and uncomfortable. Find a movie that works for you!

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COLUMN: 10 Best Movies for Career Inspiration

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10 Best Movies for Career Inspiration

Pursuing career goals may be a daunting experience, especially when you get repeated disappointments in the process. During such times, one may need intriguing successful stories about careers for encouragement. In most cases, when people face challenges in their career paths, they usually turn to TED talks and motivational writings. However, you cannot overlook the power of films in inspiring career objectives; there are various storylines on career success in film form. A good fascinating success story may be what you need to churn ideas and push you to reach your career goals. Here are some movies to inspire you career-wise. 

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The Pursuit of Happyness is an iconic film popularly known as among the best inspiring movies in the film industry. In the video, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) struggles to make ends meet as a salesman while being a homeless and single father. However, he went on to find a breakthrough in a brokerage firm; their lives changed for the better. Whether you are a student planning your next move, ResumeThatWorks is a resume writing service to help you out. The difficulties the father faces in a quest to provide an exciting future to his son is a compelling plot of the film. The great lesson from this movie is to stay positive and keep the faith despite challenges; fortunes come with determination (Aishwarya Choudhury, n.d.).

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Legally Blonde is a lighthearted storyline about Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon). After breaking up with her boyfriend, the sorority lady decides to go to Harvard Law School in an attempt to win him back. In trying to win her boyfriend back, the lady discovers her passion for law, and eventually, she focuses on studying law. After all the challenges, she successfully becomes a lawyer. Although Legally Blonde is not a conventional film, it inspires us to focus our energy on our career; you can achieve your goals with handwork.

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The Devil Wears Prada is a film that entails a story on a journalism graduate, Anne Hathaway. She goes to New York and finds a job as a co-assistant editor to one of the city's top fashion magazines. Although her boss, Miranda Priestly, is very tyrannical and ruthless, the girl remains pretty and learns necessary career lessons. The film details our ambitions and what we need to do to impress our bosses, aside from achieving career goals. Noting should not derail your professional aspirations in the office, not even in the perils of bad bosses (Marian Schembari, 2012). She eventually grows in the company despite all the challenges from her superior.

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Chef is a film on a storyline surrounding the life of chef Carl Casper. The chef started as a big-time restaurant owner to a food truck business. The film entails a man who faced multiple hurdles in his career but never gave up on what his passion holds. While pursuing your professional purpose, challenges are inevitable, but they should fuel your appetite on what excites you. The film inspires us never to give up, hurdles will get in our careers, but we should continue pursuing our goals.

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La La Land is a musical comedy-drama (dramedy) movie about Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a jazz pianist and aspiring actress. After meeting in Los Angeles, the two stars become lovebirds after meeting in Los Angeles; while working hard to achieve success in their professional goals. However, they face several challenges on their way, both in their love life and on the professional side, but never give up in their dreams. The movie teaches us to focus on reaching our goals and thinking about what we are willing to sacrifice on the way.

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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an inspiring film tale that follows Walter Mitty, who is a negative assets manager. Just like any other person, Walter also dreams of big things and tours in his professional journey. Walter decided to embark on a global adventure when his job was under threat, which turned into an unbelievable epic experience. The film inspires us to take action on what we aspire to do. It teaches us to take courage and get out of our comfort zones. According to a Panda Scholar writing company, you only find happiness while embracing opportunities, parallel to your passion.

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Yes, Man is a fascinating film by comedy star Jim Carrey, who plays as a bank loan officer with a downgraded perception of life. However, he signs up for "Say Yes to everything," a self-help program that changed things quickly; his life transformed unexpectedly. The self-help-based film teaches us worthy lessons while entertaining with hilarious gags. The movie inspires us to avoid making excuses and take actions (by saying "Yes!") to things that excite us.  Remember, the first determinant of achieving your professional goals is to accept and take action on your passion. 

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The Wolf of Wall Street is among the best funny films with an extravagant and wild plot in the market. The movie, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, highlights the best and worst characteristics in people. The film tells a true story about Jordan Belfort, who owned penny stocks and righteousness, ending up in IPOs and life of corruption with greed. It teaches us essential guidelines for achieving career success. The main lesson in this film is to be careful about what you sacrifice your investment. Tolerance during hard times requires high perseverance.

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Nightcrawler is a film about a guy who is looking for a job but unable to find one. The movie is engaging, and it is suitable for people with great vision despite being brutal in some scenes. He finds an opportunity and opted to venture into crime journalism even though he doesn't find a job after witnessing a crime. The movie teaches you about determination; you can become anything you want with persuasion and drive. It inspires us to remain positive and focus on everything we want to become. 

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Moneyball is a movie about Oakland Athletics and team general manager Billy Beane. In the film, the team has been losing its essential players to other big clubs. In the course, the team is also losing a lot of revenues. However, without the star players and inadequate funds, Billy must create a team capable of winning matches. He eventually achieves an underdog team with little money. The film shows how to make innovative approaches and become an entrepreneur with very little investment. Entrepreneurship doesn't need a lot of money, innovation is essential.

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Everyone would want to achieve his/her professional goals at some point in life. However, challenges are never away from such paths. Many people choose to look for inspirational materials to churn vital ideas in their career adventure. There is a wide range of motivational stuff, and movies are undoubtedly among the inspirational sources. The above list provides some of the career inspiring films from where you can choose. I hope you'll find a breakthrough in your professional goals using inspiring movies. 

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EDITORIAL: Comedy Writing Tips From Professionals

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Comedy Writing Tips From Professionals

Humor is what saves us from boredom and negative thoughts. It is the reason why we watch comedies after a hard day. But what stands behind these funny stories and witty joke? (Spoiler: it is not just a fun thing). Specialists from writing-help.org, providing essay help and paper writing assistance online, know the answer. If you decide to write a comedy, check out their professional tips. 

How to write comedy: Brief Recommendations

1. Find inspiration and learn from the best

Before writing your paper, make a sort of research. Study films, TV-series, stories written by comedy writers, English stand-up shows, and even online student blogs that make you laugh. 

For instance, The Big Bang Theory is a good example. It is the embodiment of wit and kind jokes. During 12 seasons we watch the life story of geeks and their friends. The way these scientists and engineers adapt to real life is hilarious. If you dig deeper, the comedy tells about true friendship, eternal love, the significance of the academic world, and self-development. 

2. Find your characters

You can pick real people or invent fantastic creatures. For example, describe a crazy writer, a college teacher with the superpower, students who found themselves in unusual situations, ridiculous experts, etc.

3. Build a story

Write a good plot to catch and hold attention. Use dynamic storytelling and an engaging scenario. Writing-help.org service can help you with that. 

4. Choose a proper manner of writing 

Maybe, you have experience in writing an essay or any other college assignments. Still, a comedy is a very different text. Pay attention to dialogues and vocabulary. You can find cheap online comedy lessons to learn more about this genre. 

Your best instruments are:

• irony

• sarcasm

• combination of unusual things

• parody

• exaggerations

5. Cooperate and use professional assistance

You can find an expert writing company and order its consultation services. For instance, Writing-help.org provides custom essay help, as well as crafts texts for personal and business needs. Their experts have also written papers on comedy and humor. So you are free to buy ready-made essays on these topics. The orders are always delivered in time. 

Writing a comedy is not an easy assignment. The point is to find a balance between jokes and offensive words, originality and understandability. So, good luck with that.

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MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "You'll Probably Agree" podcast talking the future for movie theaters

(Image: Facebook.com)

Back in March, I joined Mike Crowley’s You’ll Probably Agree podcast with Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat and Pat McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com in listing and recommending movies to cope with the COVID-19 quarantine. Now, two months later, society is starting to loosen. Ian, and I return to YPA to look at the damage done to the movie theater business with a prognosticating curiosity towards their possible future. Enjoy this heady and rich conversation of our fears, wonders, and predictions for what could be the new normal or the broad future. Give Mike’s YouTube channel a new subscriber, his Facebook page a like, and his Twitter a follow!

You'll Probably Agree · The Future For Movie Theatres

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MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Kicking the Seat" YouTube channel talking "The Lovebirds"

Right in the same vein of Date Night and Game Night, one could do worse for a good COVID “Netflix and Chill” couch movie than The Lovebirds. Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat and I agree that this one has some wit, heart, and fun worth your time at the low price of 86 minutes. Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani flow with fresh chemistry for a zany “one wild night” movie. Enjoy our video conversation on the movie and be sure to follow Ian Simmons on his YouTube channel this week!

MY FULL REVIEW OF "EXTRACTION"

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MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Kicking the Seat" podcast talking "Scoob!"

COVID-19’s loss is our VOD gain with the new Scoob! from Warner Bros. I can’t say I was a huge Scooby Doo nut as a kid, but I have seen more enough in my years to know what is the essence of that lovable franchise. That gave me a little fandom leg up on Ian Simmons of the Kicking the Seat podcast, a guy who spent more time in Eternia with He-Man an on Cybertron with the Transformers than hanging out with snacks in the back of the Mystery Machine. We both weigh in on what worked and what didn’t while fighting the urge to say zoinks far more than necessary.

MY FULL REVIEW OF "SCOOB!"

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MOVIE REVIEW: The Lovebirds

(Image courtesy of Netflix)

THE LOVEBIRDS-- 3 STARS

There is nearly always a smirk of veiled anticipation when a plot setup meets a full-stop right after a descriptive peak with the zinger transition of “hi-jinks ensue.” Digging into the meaning and origin of that phrase apparently goes back centuries. In describing movies, using that classic adage is an attempt at “less being more” while completely winking at you that so much more could be said about what happens. The Lovebirds, premiering on Netflix on May 22, is the kind of place where you drop “hi-jinks ensue” and run with it.

Here’s the rub though. For “hi-jinks ensue” to work and live up to its promise, you need strong and effective events to come before and after when that phrase is planted. Have a weak setup and the absurdity of hi-jinks after can feel like a jolting improvement or tail-spinning crash. Have a great setup and the hi-jinks that follow can either evolve or devolve the auspicious start. This “one wild night” romp has about half of each measure in that balance.

LESSON #1: BODY LANGUAGE IS SEXY-- When we meet Issa Rae’s Leilani and Kumail Nanjiani’s Jibran, they are in the throes of initial attraction. They’re on a date they don’t want to end. The seductive pick-up conversations are hot and the embraces are hotter. Every back-and-forth line comes from a smooth voice and oozes with come-hither postures, proximity, and the edges of contact. After the first ten minutes of The Lovebirds you’re going to be auditioning your own “I Want to Kiss You Face” and having it judged. Just you wait. 

LESSON #2: PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE WORDS STIFLE PASSION-- Cut to four years later and the co-habitating New Oreleanians are at each other’s throats, nagging and shouting from rooms apart. Their words are filled with frustration and indignation, where any closeness looks distant or uncomfortable compared to earlier in their relationship. Somewhere, selfish pursuits from both of them have replaced adoration. They don’t speak up about what’s really bothering them and nitpick inconsequential BS instead. 

LESSON #3: WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO RATTLE A FAILING RELATIONSHIP?-- If the choices to answer this lesson’s question where on a Wheel of Fortune spinner, “murder” would be like the dreaded “Bankrupt” landing slot. In a flurry of events on the way to a social party moments after agreeing to break up, Jibran and Leilani land on that very dark wedge as unwilling witnesses and borderline participants to a crime. From a very different and far more jovial place than Queen & Slim, they come up with the “best bad idea.” They run. 

And, with that, hi-jinks ensue, and this review’s faucet of furtive flow ceases. The less you see coming the better. The Lovebirds puts this frazzled breakup on blast with a dippy concert of calamity. Much like Game Night a few years back, the pratfalls before our central couple can be ingeniously hilarious while others over-stretch the freedom of preposterousness we grant movies like these. Comedy in this realm is a fickle SOB and often depends on what level of insanity and perceived mistakes each viewer is willing to accept. 

What smooths the questionable parody of this caper comedy is the people delivering the jokes. Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani are a vivid pair of talents to combine. These motormouths turn on a dime. Issa has that enormous smile that mirrors vitriol and vigor. Kumail has those eyes and Eugene Levy-level eyebrows that can dance with dread or delight. Each take turns throughout this punchlined plot being the target of blame or the pure-dumb-luck savior for the duo. Their fascinating dynamics radiate high appeal.

LESSON #4: NO, WHAT WOULD IT REALLY TAKE TO RATTLE A FAILING RELATIONSHIP?-- Somewhere, Leilani and Jibran went from comfortable to miserable. It’s not that they can’t speak their minds. They do that incessantly to each other’s limits. It’s that they don’t speak from their hearts. No matter the madcap swerves and predicaments that tumble before these two, it’s all pushing against the wavering realization towards their connection and a romantic bond that hasn’t completely broken. The reactions of each significant other watching their partners being thrust into a situation of distress is an extreme test of that care level. 

Much of their banter, useless information monologues, and competitive cutdowns feel incredibly improvised. Credit editors Vince Filippone (xXx: Return of Xander Cage) and Robert Nassau (The Big Sick) for chopping together their chops with crisp pacing. If their jumpy jabbering isn’t ad-libbed, then kudos to the writing/story team of Hannibal actor Aaron Abrams, The Go-Getters’ Bredan Gall, and Blindspot creator Martin Gero. For example, any three cocktail napkin idea men that can take the clunker self-aware line of “help me come up with something believable” and then spin it for a laugh deserves a dollar in the tip jar. 

Beyond the dialogue, those writers and The Big Sick director Michael Showalter assembled a semi-crafty plot course that is far from predictable and does not entirely wear out its freshness or welcome in a tidy 86 minutes. Far less and far worse has been slapped together for date night couch watch. Granted, once someone sees The Lovebirds and the hijinks that ensue, someone will say it shouldn’t take this much, per se, but where’s the fun in less?

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Why Secretary (2002) totally spanks Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

It is a delicious irony that James Spader’s character in Steven Shainberg’s movie, Secretary, is called ‘Mr Grey’ just like the protagonist of the hugely popular Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, and that both films give an account of a BDSM relationship. Shainberg’s film, however, manages to be neither exploitative nor prudish, and even occasionally […]

The post Why Secretary (2002) totally spanks Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) appeared first on Movie Marker.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Scoob!

(Image courtesy of Warner Bros.)

SCOOB!-- 2 STARS

One of the classic catchphrases of the old Scooby Doo franchise is the vocalized signal, often from the eager mouth of their de facto leader Fred, of “looks like we’ve got another mystery on our hands.” The new CGI reboot Scoob! now on VOD platforms answers that rhetorical realization with both possible extremes. The movie doesn’t have one and the canyon-sized narrative hole because of it leaves us more perplexed than satisfied with a shoulder shrug and a chin rub of our own (emoji optional).

Since this new movie wants so badly to modernize the settings and character vernacular for a new generation, it’s fair to lay one of our own fad phrases as viewers and fans. This is a Scooby Doo movie, one that wants to kick-start a new franchise with a new shared Hanna-Barbera universe. So, Scoob!, you had one job. The name on the side of the van says “Mystery Machine.” The name of this curious clique’s entrepreneurial venture is “Mystery Incorporated.” Where is the mystery? Insert your “looking” GIF of choice.  

Moving to our present time of smartphones, laptops, and electric cars, the screenwriting team led by Matt Liebermann (The Addams Family, The Christmas Chronicles) crafts a very adorable origin story. A friendless teen Shaggy (Young Sheldon’s Iain Armitage) is listening to, what better for the now then, a motivational podcast between his ears through the sidewalks and sand of Venice Beach, California. When he helps the titular Great Dane stray pup out of a gyro-stealing pickle with a bike cop (Super Troopers nut Kevin Heffernan), they become new friends. 

LESSON #1: EVERYONE NEEDS A FRIEND-- Long have audiences loved the inseparable dynamic between Shaggy and Scooby. Seeing a take on their first introduction and flourishing bond for one another other is indelibly charming.  Their mannerisms, from every shiver of fear or bite of insatiable appetite, couldn’t be more symbiotic. Go ahead and get every tween a dog or a cat right now. The two really complete each other, but, as always, the more the merrier.

Soon after on a Halloween night jaunt, the two best buds come to meet a knight in shining armor, Wonder Woman, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the form of a costumed Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, and Velma Dinkley. The five of them squash a fiendish local thief messing with trick-or-treaters and a team is born. And just like that, in the first 15 or so minutes, Scoob! has already spent its reboot concept and signature spookiness. 

Fast-forwarding a decade to their adult selves voiced by Frank Welker (the original Fred now playing Scooby), Will Forte, Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried, and Gina Rodriguez, the quizzical quintet is trying to get sponsorship for their detective business (a bland cameo from Simon Cowell) only to stumble into a much larger plot. Oblivious to the general public, Dick Dastardly (professional movie villain Jason Isaacs) is reeking havoc in the skies and seeks to unite three artifacts to release the mythical Cerberus and “dogpocalypse” upon the world. Standing against Dick is the jet-set social media-obsessed celebrity superhero Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg) and his do-all-the-work squad of Dynomutt the Dog Wonder (Ken Jeong) and Dee Dee Sykes (Kiersey Clemons). 

LESSON #2: GET YOUR HERO MOMENT-- Dick Dastardly sees Scooby as some kind of ancestral key to unlocking his prophecy. To fight back, the Blue Falcon team switches out Scooby’s special collar for a supersuit of his own to fight back. Thrust into a globe-trotting adventure, things build for all the good guys to need a “hero moment” to validate their confidence and place of success. Staying all 2020 again, insert your “eyeroll” GIF of choice.

LESSON #3: FRIENDSHIP WILL SAVE THE DAY-- When it’s all said and done, there is a pushback to the adversarial burns in the movie that claim “friendship won’t save the day.” To stay hip again, we all know “teamwork makes the dream work.” Having friends is always a big help and the best of them will come to your aid with all the spirit and sacrifice they can muster.

The new computer-powered animated gait of this movie is a busy-bodied approach with fuller perspective than the side-to-side camera antics of the classics. Fitting its inflated comic book-like size, complete with sky energy beams, moping laments, and a zillion other tropes, Scoob! unfortunately becomes more about the battles and endless chases than any subtle games of quirks and clues. Warner Bros. throws a home improvement store’s worth of kitchen sinks at something that only needed a drinking fountain. Sure, we’ve all loved a dreamy Scooby Doo crossover/team-up in our chosen times, but this didn’t need a “go big or go home” injection of Hanna-Barbera extras. Ease into that with more of the tongue-in-cheek and less of the superfluous TNT.

Alas, it’s about the missing essence. Part of the fun of anything Scooby Doo is the low-tech, accidental intuition. Bells and whistles aren’t the same as kicks and can’t substitute for the good, old-fashioned simplicity of surprise. Mystery is the sorely needed trait for this appealing chance to start something fresh, young, and easy.

By having an earmarked villain with zero dramatic irony, all this entertainment exercise becomes, even with classic and archival sound effects sneaking in, is a predictable roller coaster with no wonderment. That couldn’t be farther from what made these Joe Ruby and Ken Spears characters some of the greatest TV creations of all-time. We’re now the ones asking “Where Are You?” instead of enjoying and being challenged by a kitschy cinematic puzzle to solve. It’s a shame because the content and the new origin had ripe and promising potential.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Capone

(Image: imdb.com)

CAPONE-- 3 STARS

For something like Capone, let’s talk about faculty, which can span natural aptitude all the way up to powers of the mind to function, act, or do. In any film, you have the faculties of the character conveyed through the faculties of the performer. Both have their strengths battling weaknesses and limits challenged by embellishments. That is precisely the dichotomous duel of Josh Trank’s new film with the enigmatic Tom Hardy in the title role of Alphonse Gabriel Capone.

That name brings forth a gusher of overplayed stereotypes and caricatures. If you think you’re going to see the decadence of the historical figure’s prime, you’ve come to the wrong movie. If you think you’re going to see another Ben Gazzara or Bob De Niro gallivanting as the king of his own court, you’ve come to the wrong movie. If anything, Josh Trank intentionally and subversively pushes back against the romanticized urban legend of “Scarface,” “Big Al,” “Big Boy,” “Snorky,” and “Public Enemy No. 1.” 

That’s ballsy if you can squeeze something out of it. Warts and all, what you get in Capone is the character and historical figure at his most lost and worst. The past pizzazz has parted. You also have an actor taking that lethargic material and hammering that reduced stature into the ground with all of what he does best through his own well-documented propensities. This film takes ominous creative license to chronicle Al Capone’s final year of prison release “retirement” life. 

LESSON #1: FAILING FACULTIES-- Read the encyclopedia entry of his decline and 1941 death. It’s the only research you need for this lesson. By the weathered age of 48, the only cocktail coursing through his veins is a bacterial and biological one made of one part syphilis, one part paresis, two parts stroke, and a highball glass filled with ice made of dementia. He is a nutty old man telling incomplete stories while still trying to look tough and dress sharp. What was gregarious manliness has been reduced to childlike feebleness.  

Rightly so, the mess is portrayed as a mess. Tom Hardy adds to his trophy case of odd voices and vast audio library of grunt variations. If you can handle Jeff Bridges talking through red-assed marbles as Rooster Cogburn or Nick Nolte just plain talking, you can handle the characterization of the fellow career-mumbler in Tom. But it’s more than wild vocal trickery. It’s the chosen skin Hardy puts those utterances within. Every wet cough, cigar drag, or shouted spouts of Italian threats spew from a permanent glower and ring a little glimmer of the menace that used to reside in that hulking shell before it was wrapped in a feces-soaked robe. 

Under the sun and next to the swamp, “Fonz” is surrounded by many presences at his mansion in Palm Island, Florida (filmed gorgeously in Covington, Louisiana). To his beleaguered wife Mae (Linda Cardelini), his heir son junior (Noel Fisher), and a herd of cluelessly playful grandkids, he’s a dithering embarrassment. To just about everyone else, Capone is a target for whatever residual riches are attainable. No less than his personal physician (Kyle MacLachlan), his former mentor (Matt Dillon), a smattering of surviving in-house lieutenants, and a host of wire-tapping federal agents in the neighboring trees poke and prod the fading felon for spilled secrets to his supposedly hidden millions.

No one will find this invisible treasure because Capone’s mind is a transitory and temperamental fever dream of grandiose visions. With high credit to costume designer Amy Westcott (Black Swan, The Wrestler) and production designer Stephen Altman (Ray, Gosford Park), much of Trank’s lush yet seedy film fleshes out the episodes of imagined former ambience and the mental scars cut from a life of cruel violence. Capone puts you in that cobwebbed head and all its unpleasantness, set to a sparse (too sparse, really) score from rapper El-P. It takes creative courage to emphasize all of this foreboding filth over the flashy flair normally associated with this mythic mobster. 

LESSON #2: INDIGNITY AS COMEUPPANCE-- For the title character, there is no blaze of glory or sunset ride. A sawed-off carrot replaces the Cuban cigar in his craw. No legacy awaits as his family avoids him and will soon change their cursed surname whenever he croaks. Short of his slowly sold-off mansion of shrinking amenities, there is barely a silver living for Al Capone’s final year. All that fills his ending existence is the disgusting debilitation of failing health and the mounting regret of lost memories. 

Considering the prominent figure, that is a wicked amount of indignity as punishment. Josh Trank (Fantastic Four, Chronicle), unfortunately, knows something about that himself during his own precarious career arc. This is a bold place to assert himself and hitches to the right star to paint this darkness. Tom Hardy sweats, seethes, and pants with a performance of pain that has to be seen to be believed. Once again, there’s no romanticism in this not-so-flippant take on Al Capone and that’s altogether fitting.

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GUEST PROFILE: Mike Horvath

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Meet Hungarian movie fan Mike Horvath. His hobby is transforming photos of himself into movie characters in Adobe Photoshop. He is also a musician, photo editor, and designer. Every Movie Has a Lesson would like to share a little collection of his work here on the page.

Mike’s hobby started a couple of years ago while attending a sound engineering course. The interesting assignments of sound designing, dubbing, mixing, and more had studies intersect with movies while working as a trainee at a radio station. He began to like the themes of films and took on those characters roles himself as a way to learn and practice photo editing. The resulting tinkering of customization has lead to his fun work. Take a look and you can follow his work on Twitter!

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