Charlene Pistole

SPOILERS ALL THE WAY!!! This movie is a tangled mess of subplots that attempts a "nuanced" noir ending—but it doesn’t deliver. It opens with a clear homage to classic 1940s–50s noir, with Honey (Margaret Qualley) as the emotionally distant, hyper-sexualized PI—only this time, she’s queer and female. Her many female partners feel more like a way to prove how “desirable” she is than anything meaningful. The plot seems to revolve around a woman Honey was supposed to meet the day she died. But this victim turns out to be a throwaway character—just a setup to drag us into the story of a corrupt preacher (Chris Evans) who seduces insecure women and may be dealing drugs with a mysterious French woman. We're told the victim died in a car crash, which turns out to be a murder, but we never learn why she was killed. That thread just disappears. Instead, we’re thrown into several disjointed subplots: Hector, one of the preacher’s dealers, accidentally kills a man during a drug deal gone wrong. Honey gets romantically tangled with Falcone (Aubrey Plaza), a cop with unresolved daddy issues. Her niece disappears, never to be mentioned again. The preacher is killed by the French woman—one more body in the trail of unresolved drama. Meanwhile, Honey is pursued by a persistent male detective who won’t take “I like girls” for an answer—a tired, tone-deaf trope that adds nothing. The film builds toward a climax, but fizzles out with yet another of Honey’s hookups—this time with the French woman, finally named Cher (Abova). That’s it. The noir aesthetic is there, but the story lacks cohesion, the characters feel hollow, and the resolution falls flat. I get what they were going for—but it just didn’t work. They could have done so much more with this. Could have made it a series, and we could have gotten endings worth the 1 hr 29 min.

Festival of The Dead featured some decent acting, and it was clear the cast put effort into their roles. From what I understand, the film aimed to be an emotional, spiritual sequel to George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. But instead of capturing that eerie, reflective tone, it ended up feeling more like a high school drama with zombies. The plot had some clunky moments, and parts of the story came off as forced or cliché. Still, it wasn’t a painful watch, more of a background movie that’s fine to have on while doing something else.

***SPOILERS*** I had high hopes for G20, mostly because I really enjoy watching Viola Davis—her acting is phenomenal. Honestly, she’s the main reason this movie gets 3 stars from me. Anthony Starr playing the villain helped too. But overall, the storytelling fell flat. And no, it’s not because the President is a woman—it’s because no real president would bring their family on a potentially dangerous international trip. It felt like the writers added the tech-savvy daughter just to appeal to a younger audience, which ended up undermining President Sutton’s military background. She suddenly couldn’t handle herself without her daughter’s help? Then the ending went off the rails. The villain’s motive couldn’t just be greed or revenge—it had to tie back to a betrayal from within the U.S. government. And of course, it’s Sutton’s old friend and former political rival. It felt like a forced twist, trying too hard to make a statement. Anthony Starr alone would’ve been enough as the antagonist, especially with the backstory of being screwed over in the military. If it were up to me, I’d cut the family from the plot, drop the unnecessary double-cross ending, and just focus on a tighter story with a strong villain and focus on a strong female president.

♡♡♡ SPOILERS ♡♡♡ It's sooooo bad that it made it good. Like the horror flicks that became iconic for their overkill, or the ridiculous story plot. The two leads made this movie very entertaining & fun, while Heart Eyes killer did understand that these two weren't a couple, we saw, as the killer did, that throughout the movie, they were kind of going towards being a couple so the obsession of killing the two main leads made total sense. Just know this would NEVER play out in real life. Like the police station scene. No police station would be deserted, except for 3 cops in a big city just so the serial killer can come in and start killing them to reach their target... and people would NOT stand around a drive in movie theater, as someone who was wearing the mask of the Heart Eyes killer, with a machete in hand, just keep staring at the killer and not get the hell outta there...but it was entertaining from the time I watched it to the end. If your looking for a horror movie like Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or something by Rob Zombie. This isn't for you. This is for people who just want to be entertained by an unlikely story, over the top killing by a serial killer, (much like [Thanksgiving 2023] and two single people, who tried to convince this killer through the chase, "We aren't a couple. So back off!" If you can't handle crappy storylines and unlikely scenarios, don't waste your time watching this, because, you WILL be complaining about this movie. And honestly, just go to Wikipedia and look up the plot. It will save you time.

A lot of people seem to dislike *A Quiet Place: Day One* because they struggle with the storytelling, but I think it makes perfect sense, especially if you consider it as part of a larger story arc. It’s not always about having every answer handed to you right away, and sometimes movies can leave certain things open to interpretation. In today's world, audiences are used to instant conclusions, but this film offers something a bit more thoughtful. As for the cat, it’s rare, but some cats are born unable to meow. I like to think our protagonist's special cat has an almost otherworldly awareness of the creatures they’re up against. Regarding the lead woman, her dying wish is simply to see the place where she grew up and where her father once played piano. I think that’s something a lot of people can understand, even if they don’t immediately grasp her reasoning. And the young man who follows her? He’s just trying to survive in a world he that has no rules except be quiet. He's choosing to stick with someone who might offer him a sense of safety and hope. If this seems confusing, perhaps the film’s deeper themes just haven’t clicked for you yet.

Nope. It's like a knock off of Fall Out, the game series, not Amazons series, with some slight twists. The camera movements made me feel like I had drunk way too much. Especially the scene with Milla Jovovich. Oh and Andriod love scene, felt like Love Death & Robots, but not as interesting. Story line was extremely lacking probably due to a idea of making this a trilogy series....