Film reviews

The Matrix Resurrections Review

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Eighteen years after The Matrix Revolutions (2003) blew us away, fans are brought back to the Matrix saga with The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth installment in the franchise. Director Lana Wachowski still has the visual and audio brilliance in the film’s technical elements. Audiences will feel the sound and the visuals, and they will be in tune with all the action throughout this rollercoaster of a film.

Keanu Reeves is once again Neo, and he is back with a mission and a vengeance. Carrie-Anne Moss is back as Trinity with lots of unanswered questions. The dark enemy, Agent Smith is back, but this time he is played by Jonathan Groff, the detective we know as Holden Ford from Netflix’s Mindhunter. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays a classy Morpheus, and Neil Patrick Harris is the two-faced Analyst.

The plot of The Matrix Resurrections focuses in the life and mind of Neo. He believes that the digital dystopian world of the Matrix is behind him. He tries to live a normal life and work a normal job, but with many unanswered questions from his past he must go back to the world he was a part of. With Smith being in the way, and Trinity being in danger, Neo must put together the pieces between past and present to establish the universe around him. The film’s cinematography leads to many fascinating and oblique angles with multiple slow-motion effects to the extreme. The task for Neo may be impossible, but the challenge of it all is where Matrix fans will be wowed.

I have been a fan of The Matrix films since the onset, and The Matrix Resurrections is another crazy ride. Some may feel the film is redundant, but Lana Wachowski’s directing brings us to a whole new level of intriguing visuals and a continued and structured storyline. The film blew my mind in many ways. It is in both theaters and on HBO MAX, but the IMAX experience is definitely the way to go. The world of Neo still lives, and it is not to be missed. Three and a half stars for The Matrix Resurrections.

Film reviews

Nightmare Alley

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Magic and illusions can be used for fun and joy, but sometimes they are used for darkness and deception. That is the case with director Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley.

Set in the 1940s, Nightmare Alleyintroduces us to Stan Carlisle, a carny played by Bradley Cooper, who joins a traveling carnival tour. Carlisle has the unique ability to control people with just a couple of words. He works for Clem Hoatley, played by Willem Dafoe, who oversees the operation, and also on the tour is Molly Cahill, played by Rooney Mara. Carlisle and Cahill team up to create their own show away from the carnival, but a psychiatrist, Dr. Lilith Ritter played by Cate Blanchett, enters the scene and complicates things.

Nightmare Alley brings us to a world of lies and deceit that is surreal and beguiling. Ritter is two-faced, and Carlisle is anxious to get wealthy. The use of manipulative power and illusions are taken to a masterful level. The film’s storyline does seem to drag a little at the beginning, but with close attention it all comes together to make the film even more enticing.

Nightmare Alley is brilliantly directed with a precise and fascinating plot. It is pure fantasy and treachery at its finest. The illusions will bring its viewers to a world well beyond predictability. Three and a half stars for Nightmare Alley.

Film reviews

The Tender Bar Review

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George Clooney is a man of many talents, including directing, and in The Tender Barhe directs a light-hearted memoir film that reminds us that life is not easy, but we need to find ways to overcome our struggles.

The Tender Bar is about a boy named J.R., played by Tye Sheridan, who is living in Long Island and trying to find people to fill the void of his often estranged, alcoholic father. His Uncle Charlie, played by Ben Affleck, owns a bar that J.R. spends much of his childhood around, and where he learns many valuable life lessons from his uncle and the bar’s colorful patrons. J.R.’s troubled but determined mom is played by Lily Rabe.

As he grows up J.R. has a goal to be a journalist and get into a good journalism school, but he faces many setbacks in his quest. He keeps pushing himself for success, though, and he realizes that his personal story of growing up without a father figure and being around his uncle’s bar is interesting, and writing the story can help him grow as a journalist and a person.

The Tender Bar is empathetic and encouraging on many levels. It is a film that will make many people think about the hard moments of their life, and how to keep moving forward and find joy despite the difficulties. It was not my favorite film directed by Clooney, and it can be slow at times, but Ben Affleck delivers a knockout performance as J.R.’s role model and the story itself is touching and brilliant. Three and a half stars for The Tender Bar.

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