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Film reviews

Novocaine Review

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When it comes to an unexpected hero to save the day, Novocaine delivers lots of spellbinding revelations. Jack Quaid successfully plays a nerdy introvert whose life is altered when his reality becomes his biggest nightmare. Novocaine is boggled up with emotions waiting to be unleashed.

This is a thriller where there are lots of laughs. Audiences can really rock thanks to the premium 4DX format at select cinema chains which includes moving seat and strobe effects. Novocaine is the right title for this format, because its main character has a disease which makes him unbreakable. 

In Novocaine, Quaid plays Nate who has a career in accounting and leads a relatively sheltered life due his disease. The layout of Nate’s life provides the writing on the wall at the start of the film. Due to Nate’s genetic disorder, CIPA which stands for “congenital insensitivity to pain, with analgesia,” puts him to the test.  He is in love with a girl named Sherry (played by Amber Midthunder). A heist takes place at his bank, and she is kidnapped. Nate decides to put himself at risk to save her. By doing so, he utilizes his condition which shields him from feeling pain in his body. 

As the film moves forward, Nate goes on a spree to get answers about Sherry’s kidnapping. His presentation is dorky and witty which makes the film so joyful. Quaid’s babyface seems to be easy to punch. However, he is going bananas trying to save Sherry. He does so with every fragment of his body. The heist features events ranging from car crashes to fights in restaurants to combat with tattoo machines, and a whole lot more. The film is relentless with a variety of high hazard jams. The fact that there are no feelings in the main character’s body makes Novocaine a daring ride. Nate continues to display his dominance while the submissives hold Sherry hostage.

There is a sense of exasperation which takes effect during the film. A lot of the scenes are predictable, but then there are moments that are lethal and unanticipated. The aspect that impressed me the most was in Quaid’s performance as a hero who comes out of his shell due to his disease. His unusual, yet creative superpower makes Novocaine shine. There is also a nerdy connection, his gaming buddy Roscoe (played by Jacob Batalon) who helps him with his troubles.

There is a rapid dynamic in this story that is out of this world. Quaid is monumental in his quirky yet realistic portrayal of Nate. Quaid, Midthunder, and Batalon have an intriguing dynamic as last-minute heroes. With Quaid as the leader and Midthunder and Batalon as his sidekicks—their performance is fueled with adrenaline. Novocaine is a thrill ride of chills and hysterical aftermaths.

For the full effect, Novocaine is a movie I would suggest seeing in 4DX. I saw it at the Regal City North in Chicago. During moments when Nate was in motion, my seat was also in motion.When he got wet, water splashed in my face. During every key perilous scene …4DX provided the ideal format to feel mesmerized. Three-and-a-half out of four stars for Novocaine.

Film reviews

The Parenting Review

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Parenting is a movie that I would refer to as a flick with many ensemble actors from many great TV series coming together in a house around Poltergeist sound effects. The twist here though, isthat they do not know how to handle it which is the cleverness of The Parenting. Directed by Craig Johnson, this time around his directing lifts the mood up. I say this because of his film The Skeleton Twins where features of his tended to have a stronger and sadder approach to a family dynamic. This one is where breaking the ice and dealing with a haunted house situation are the two conflicts he tangos with. 

The film centers around a gay couple, Rohan (played by Nik Dodani) and Josh (played by Brandon Flynn). Both have found success from starring in series on Netflix. Dodani was Zahid in Atypical, and Flynn was Justin Foley in 13 Reasons Why. Each series had a background of combating new relationships in many complicated scenarios. Here they are a couple having a weekend getaway at a vacation rental in hopes of having both of their families accepting their relationship. 

The parents of Rohan are played by Edie Falco and Brian Cox. Falco is one who has tons of success from the HBO series, The Sopranos, and Cox has just concluded Succession. Their roles of the parents have those lingering personality traits that raise eyebrows. Also, the parents of Josh are played by Lisa Kudrow and Dean Norris. They seem more like the stereotypical “normal” type of parents. Regardless, the dynamics of the families are written to inspire disaster at the finest level of sheercomedic joy.

As the family comes together in their home, there is already a lot of structure and disorganization abound—a lot of that because of Rohan and Josh having constant anxiety over how the trip with their parents will go. Also, the house has started to possess some strange moving parts. The film though is not scary, it is comedic. There are some moments of dark turns, but they actually make audiences think in the terms of how bad things can get.

As the visit continues to go awry, there is room for more to go downhill in an entertaining direction. Once the house has its “poltergeist” moments, more peril ensues. A creature runs around in unexpected angles of the home. One of the parents starts to become possessive and this is where the tension rises. When this individual becomes possessive, there is more that makes The Parenting feel like the happy family vibe is not so fulfilling. None of the characters take each other seriously, especially when they do not know how to handle all the falling apart moments of the vacation. 

The film takes the comedy approach and blends in darkness to create turmoil in order to build chemistry and uniqueness. Along the lines of its casting, all of the players have a diversity among personalities that blends well for this new brand of satire and dark comedy. In many moments it finds some breed of negativity, but it does not go overboard. It has a way of correlating the many unnerving factors to be one-of-a-kind.

There is chemistry that sets the funny focuses in motion way before the story gets rolling. Josh has issues with employment which makes Rohan appear to be the bread winner. At the same time, they keep trying to think of excuses or reasoning for their parents to look at them in a lighthearted perspective. When the bad cans of worms start to open at their vacation spot, more truths are revealed. The bad blood, the errors of the vacation, and the reading between all the lies thrive fluorescently. Once the tones of annoyance and aggravation find steepness, The Parenting is a title that defines itself. All the disasters paint a portrait of how maturity is in the form of arrested development.

The Parenting is faithful in its anxiousness for common ground to be found. It is broken by the more unfortunate episodes during the vacation. At the same time, it has a form of brilliance where the story and characters do not break. It is almost perfect yet not mesmerizing. Deep down lightness and darkness play to fuel the comedy of unexpectedness. Instead of finding the sadder components as Johnson did with The Skeleton Twins, it finds the ones of mind readers and egotistical characters. In a funny approach, those personalities are twisted by the reality of what is ahead. Three out of four stars for The Parenting.

Film reviews

Opus Review

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Mark Anthony Green takes his audiences to a world where an icon has secrets. Opus revolves around a daring subject matter that correlates to some of the conflicts with artists today, similar to the many controversies surrounding Sean Diddy. Opus is a fictional approach to these topics; however, it has that cult aspect tied into the film extremely well. The navigation of getting a story into a world darker than one anticipates is a daring journey in Opus. The dark personality is shown through the eyes of Alfred Moretti, and he is played by John Malkovich. The calm aura of Malkovich’s performance is what makes Opusmore anxiety-provoking than audiences realize.

The film begins with a journalist named Ariel Ecton (played by Ayo Edebiri). She gets assigned to cover Moretti. It is a big story because he has been off the face of the Earth for ages. This is a massive opportunity for Ariel; however, it is one that goes much deeper than she assumes. She travels with her colleague, Clara Armstrong (played by Juliette Lewis) and her superior, Stan Sullivan (played by Murray Bartlett).  When they arrive at Moretti’s home there is already a bizarre setup—one that looks to have orders and rituals that all have glaring red flags attached.With his home being off the beaten path, there are bound to be a lot of mixed signals in Opus.

The notion of a journalist trying to get the real portrait of who an artist is keeps going underground, as in the pattern keeps evolving to be questionable and loses a sense of normalcy in Opus. The result is plenty of strangeness to the core. Somehow it exceeds its surrealness in the characterization as Malkovich portraying an emperor artist with an egotistical nature. Edebiri captures the elements of what makes one iconic and the true answers are of a disturbing nature. It is like a world where an icon has a level of fame like Michael Jackson and then introduces his own version of Neverland Ranch. The difference here is that it is more like an Eyes Wide Shut type dynamic. 

Opus carries a massive weight, because it challenges a fictional scenario that is based off events going on today with artists–especially when it comes to extreme behavior. The portrait it paints leaves the audience curious as to how one would feel if they were on the same journey as these journalists. The curious and surprising thing is that the shock values will have more humorous factors over horrid factors.

With the performance of Edebiri, I felt she is the hero of this awkward premise. Especially as she is trying to get her feet wet while attempting to capture stories that grasp the world. Her performance leaves a track of the risks that come with writing about the truth. The truth of Moretti is one-of-a-kind. Opuskeeps the momentum high as it swerves in motions of uncertainty as the journalist tests the waters to get the real story in this film. It delivers its risk-taking attitude with many punches that are more to bear than anything.  Cheesy, but vibrant with intense excellence in the persona of Malkovich. Three out of four stars for Opus.