Hello all!
I've got some reviews of two films releasing this Friday, April 25th - but thought I'd also take this opportunity to highlight two other films that are already out there but I haven't yet found the time to cover. Hopefully there's something here for everyone, so let's get right to it:
First up is NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH, starring Jack Quaid (NOVOCAINE, THE COMPANION, "The Boys"), Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("The Boys," "The Walking Dead"), and Malin Ackerman (WATCHMEN, SLAYERS), directed by Duncan Skiles (THE CLOVEHITCH KILLER) and written by Sean Farley. The film features troubled young man Simon McNally (Quaid), who is trying to find his feet after spending a decade in a facility for mental health treatment, and his paranoid ex-security guard neighbor Ed Deerman. The two form an unlikely partnership when Simon believes he's seen a woman kidnapped but is deemed an unreliable witness by police due to his history and behavior. The two men take it upon themselves to investigate the crime and rescue the woman, revealing a deeper web of villainy in their quiet town.
Quaid and Morgan have great chemistry, and Quaid, specifically, does some great work in this film. Whereas the majority of his characters have been able to rely and charm and humor, Simon is stripped of these tools due to the abuse he received at a young age, so the tricks that Quaid would normally utilize to endear himself to audiences are out of reach. Quaid does a great job of humanizing McNally as a character that is misunderstood even to himself. There is still a good deal of levity in the film, however, and it tells an inspiring story of emboldening others with belief to give them the agency and courage to believe in themselves. The film releases this Friday, April 25th.
Next is RENNER, starring Frankie Muniz ("Malcom in the Middle"), Violet Beane ("The Flash"), and Marcia Gay Harden (MYSTIC RIVER, POLLOCK), directed by Robert Rippberger. The film follows the titular Renner (Muniz) as he works at the forefront of AI, perfecting a personal assistant interface that coaches him towards assertiveness and confidence. The coaching leads him to finally approach his attractive neighbor (Beane) and a romance soon forms, though it seems that this threatens the interface, Salenus (Harden). I mostly chose to view this film out of curiosity but was left enchanted by the performances and production value. It's a hell of a ride.
I chatted to director Robert Rippberger about crafting this original vision and working with Muniz, though while I tried to avoid spoilers, he lets a few of his own slip. If you'd like to go in blind, skip the interview for now and come back to watch it, or you can click here to see it right now.
RENNER is available now from all rent and purchase streaming sources.
Next is MOB COPS, starring David Arquette (SCREAM), Kevin Connolly (ENTOURAGE), Jeremy Luke (DON JON), and Bo Dietl (The United States Department of Homeland Security - no, really), as well as actor and director Danny A Abeckaser (THE ENGINEER, THE PERFECT GAMBLE). The film, based on a true story, follows two NYPD detectives who find themselves employed by the mafia, hence the name, falling down a rabbithole of evidence tampering, witness intimidation, deliveries, and eventually murder.
This is one of the worst films I've ever seen. To call the film "inexpensive" is too liberal a use of such a euphemism. Arquette shambles through the whole film looking like Peter Stormare, Luke is wearing a pillow underneath his shirt to simulate the girth of the real-life counterpart he plays in the film, and every exterior shot looks like it was shot on the main street of Disney's California Adventure. The lighting, the minimalist sets, the fuck-laden dialogue, and the clipshow in the third act all communicate to the viewer that the filmmakers were dead set on telling this story no matter how little money they could drum up to do so. It'd be admirable if it weren't so horrid, and the film's climax (which, again, is based on a true story) makes no fucking sense. To give you an idea to where my mind kept wandering after the first external night street shot of the film, here's Kids Incorporated's version of "Every Breath You Take" -
MOB COPS releases this Friday, April 25th but I beg you not to see it.
Finally, we have YOUNG WERTHER, starring Douglas Booth ("The Sandman"), Allison Pill (SCOTT PILGRIM vs THE WORLD), and Patrick J Adams ("Suits") and directed by José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço who also adapted the novella by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe for the screen. The film follows Werther (Booth) as he meets the woman of his dreams (Pill), undaunted by her impending engagement to a talented young lawyer (Adams). I interviewed stars Douglas Booth and Patrick J Adams for another outlet but recently discovered that I had sat on my interview with the director, who couldn't have been more pleasant. As I continue on this entertainment quest I find that I prefer speaking to writers and directors more and more, as they have far more insight into story and production than some of the other names that come across my desk. Check out our interview below:
YOUNG WERTHER is available everywhere you rent or purchase streaming titles.
Hopefully you've found something in here that can catch your interest - not MOB COPS - and I'll talk to you again soon. Take care.
-McEric, aka Eric McClanahan-
