Movie Reviews: Charlie Says + The Boy + Love And Monsters + True Story
Charlie Says (2018)
The Manson girls are in jail isolated in the mid 1970s. A woman tries to rehab them. Matt Smith plays Manson in flashbacks and he raves and has a bad US accent. Manson won't let them read books or have money. They went through dumpsters for food. If you want to see how women could surrender themselves to someone so diabolical, this does not explain why. Manson does genial praise, flattering attention and terrifying rage. No moral reawakening happens. The Manson girls are little deserving of our pity. They followed his deluded ramblings. They abandoned their families and won't talk about the past. This is true story and the rehab woman is an advocate for their release. They're not reformed. This was mediocre. Merritt Weaver, Suki Waterhouse, Chance Crawford, Annabeth Gish and Grace Van Dien co-starred.
Best Lines:
“Give your panhandling money to him.”
“Live on other peoples garbage.”
“Crazy Manson girls.”
“Thrust and jab like you mean it.”
“Weird scene going on.”
“So much of what you've told me doesn't make logical sense.”
“We didn't have to do any of it.”
~
The Boy (2015)
David Morse and Rainn Wilson feature in this tale about a creepy kid. There is staring and long silences and anxiety and distress. This was bad and horrific.
~
Love And Monsters (2020)
Dylan O'Brien of 'Teen Wolf' stars in this dramedy. This has monumental damage and exposition and Joel (O'Brien) wants some. Earth was saved from an ELE by firing rockets at it but the chemical compounds from the rockets mutated cold blooded creatures into monsters.
This was kind of unneceesary and stupid but it was watchable. The whole monster thing is not distressing. Humanity lives underground and Joel misses his ex, not his dead parents. They're of no great consequence to him.
There is harmonious unity in the bunker where Joel is clueless. There are talk of chemical bombs. Joel is sufficiently contented but he turns utterly reckless when he has a chance to get some with the girlfriend he last saw 7 years ago. The monsters are openly, gleefully mendacious. Joel has naivety and wilful self-delusion. This was shambolic and a bit of a mess. Monsters are an inextricable part of life. There is incoherence and confrontations.
7 years ago there were huge conflagrations. This was contrived. Joel's choices lead to a continuing downward spiral. This was all seriousness as Joel knows Aimee his one time girlfriend is in another bunker 7 days walk away. So Joel causes major disruption and heads off to find her. Trouble is constant outside. One wonders why Joel's parents took a chandelier from their house as the end was unfolding.
Joel is selfish and obsessed with Aimee and is not overwhelmingly sad at leaving his bunker. This was rickety but a bit beguiling. Joel wanders the ruined country and sees a monster in a fridge and one in a swimming pool and meets a dog. Monsters cause increasing problems and this was not overly complicated. There is no constant change or uncertainty.
Joel meets 2 other survivors: a man (Michael Rooker!) and a little girl. The outside world no longer holds the significance that it once did. Rooker points out that Joel's plan has a huge potential for tragic backfire. People have found it hard just to survive in recent years. This has a lack of innovation.
The monsters have negative effects. This was slightly florid. Joel wonders about his old normality and now. There is shirtlessness and a giant snail. There is no loneliness, sadness, frustration, despair or maddening frustration. This was ghastly, ghastly and horrible in places. Joel waves a crossbow. Joel is the least threatening badass and he makes terrible decisions.
There is sap and no deep shadow of sadness. There is no valued status. Joel does not contribute. There is no torment, rage, isolation or dislocation. Joel is not desperate or lonely. The soundtrack is stupid. There is a robot. Joel has complacency. Terrible things happen. Joel is emotionally isolated and has apathy. Joel is supposed to be 24, he acts like he is 14. All the best bits were in the trailer.
There is no depth or breadth. There are horrors and monsters, no shortage of monsters. Monsters get disturbingly close. There is yelling and a yacht captain. Joel faces his worst moment when Aimee doesn't want him. It's a volatile time. Joel has fond recollections of Aimee. He took his colony for granted he realises when he learns his colony is no longer secure and in danger of being overrun.
There are lies and stupid people and harsher realities. Ruinous thieves menace Joel and they are a festering pit of evil. Their fuel is people! People are annoying idiots and some are eaten by a killer crab. Joel is derided. This was dispiriting and not intriguing. There is earnestness. There are ideological fissures. There is no frisson of danger and no intense engagement. There is falalism and fawning talk. There is no intergenerational transformation. Are the monsters intelligent?
There are fraught, dysfunctional narrative choices. Joel has reticence and an atipathy to circumstances. He's a mulish innocent with the personality of a wallflower. He's devoid of sentimentality. There are tawdry theatrics. There are adverse effects. This was of little consequence.
Relationship dynamics switch up. There is emotional damage and curiously apathetic people. This was all done with great seriousness. Joel urges people to leave their bunkers and go back to the surface. Joel's bunker mates move and take their cow with them as well as a newborn. Rooker is safe. This was not quietly devastating. Very bad decisions were made. This was okay and filmed in Australia.
Best Lines:
“Parents eaten by a swarm of termites.”
“Stuck in a survival bunker.”
“Ran out of bullets.”
“Done waiting for things to get better.”
“Everything is impossible.”
“Resealed the breech point.”
“Everything will try to kill you.”
“Food stealer.”
“Super encouraging speech.”
“My dad got killed, back when we lived in the subway station.”
“We all have stories like that.”
“Kicked off the top of the food chain.”
“Only heard horror stories.”
“Hot meal or a good night's sleep not both.”
“Human friends.”
“Sand gobbler.”
“Avoid under all cirumstances.”
“You howling in pain.”
“On a quest.”
“A robot and a dog.”
“Grand romantic gesture implied by your journey.”
“Eaten by mutated insects.”
“Sky jellies.”
“There's a but coming.”
“We have lost this war.”
“Multiple breeches.”
“Is everyone okay?”
“Not really.”
“Something bad is about to happen.”
“Food stealers!”
~
True Story (2015)
James Franco mumbles as an accused killer in this true story. He is accused of killing his family. This was not searing, jolting or furious. This has no social relevance. Journalist Michael Finkel is irrationally angry and bonds with the killer.
What led to such a tragic conclusion? People are unforgiving. He violated ostensible conformity. People say hard things. The nutter won't do specificity and does incredibly disturning 'art'. The killer is a game playing nutjob. Jonah Hill, Felicity Jones, Ethan Suplee, Gretchen Mol and Betty Gilpin of 'GLOW' costar. This was tiresome.
Best Lines:
“I'm not sure Christian Longo deserves to have his story heard.”
“Tried to get fired.”
“5 mouths to feed.”
“Couldn't buy new toys.”
“It's not easy to realte to someone accused to 4 murders.”
“Truth isn't believable.”
“Exceptionally dangerous man.”
