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As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.
TODAY’S CRITIC: Lafronda Stumn
Lafronda Stumn is a student at Madisonville Community College and intends to graduate with an Associate's degree in Associate of the Arts. She plans on earning a Bachelors Degree in Motion Picture Studies and English at Wright State University. Her favorite Directors are Scorsese, Spielberg, and Spike Lee, and her favorite actors are Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Halle Berry. Lafronda contacted this page looking for a place to get published and I enjoy giving people that very kind of opportunity. This is her fifth guest review for Every Movie Has a Lesson. Welcome back, Lafronda!
HER REVIEW:
It Chapter Two is the sequel to the very successful 2017 film version. That leaves all of the principal characters in the present era who were Mike (Isaiah Mustafa). The only black name summons all of his childhood friends from Derry, Maine to come back for some unfinished business from Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard). Bill (James McAvoy) is a successful screenwriter who is continuously told by his friends and wife that his endings are unsuccessful outcomes. Beverly (Jessica Chastain) is a successful designer who in an abusive marriage and leaves him for good to go back to Derry, Maine. Ben, once chubby, is now turned into a handsome Swan, an architect. Eddie a nervous nebbish, who leaves his high paying office job on hiatus. Richie (Bill Hader) a standup comic who is more of a fairy cat than Eddie. The only friends who don't join them is Stanley (Andy Bean) who commits suicide in his bathtub because he does not want to face his childhood nightmare. After early in the film (that takes place in 1989), we see Pennywise harassing homophobic bullies of a gay couple, and Pennywise murders one of the gay men.
They all meet at a Chinese restaurant in Derry, and they talk about old times and how much fun they had handing out together. The fun comes to an end when they start to open their fortune cookies. The cookies lead to a message about Stanley and his untimely demise. Beverly then remembers predicting Stanley's death, and Mike tells each of them that they have to find a memento from their past to come together to defeat Pennywise. All of them go their separate ways. Bill finds his old bicycle at an antique store (Stephen King appears in a cameo). A bully chases Bill from their past, who later torments Eddie. Ben and Bev get to know each other more, and Ben admits that he had a crush on her when they were younger. Pennywise follows Richie turns into a Statuesque Paul Bunyan, where Richie escapes, and Mike is being attacked by another past bully only to be rescued by his friends.
The scene at the restaurant, where spider and bugs reign supreme, Bev is caught in a bathroom stall as she attempts to save Ben from drowning in the next room. Stanley is converted into a large spider and tries to attack his former friends; there are three top scariest rooms for comic relief. Eddie also makes funny moments here and there to break the tension of the fear of their predicaments of Pennywise.
The film is humorous at times, and all the performances are the first-rate with Bill Hader and Mustafa being the standouts. The movie isn't as scary as I would expect from a Stephen King film. But the plot and story structure is well put together, and you feel the love they have for each other as friends. One of the main characters kisses one character only to veer back to another and doesn't explain the interaction previously with one of them. There no further mention of Bill and his wife. It miniseries back in the late '80s. You see much more of that interaction. In 2019 she was an afterthought not to mention by Bill later on in the movie.
Despite its flaws, the movie works at a great story arc with fine performances. It Chapter Two has a solid script with some touches of humor, here and there for me to recommend the film. The length was a non-issue. Maybe added another 15 minutes to flesh out a few of the characters significant others in the movie but overall, a well-earned time at the movies.
CONCLUSION
Thank you again, Lafronda! You are welcome anytime. Friends, if you see a movie that I don't see and want to be featured on my website, hit up my website's Facebook page and you can be my next GUEST CRITIC!
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