This month I’m doing a speed run. I’ve got four movies and two documentaries for you. It’s a lot to cover so I am giving each two paragraphs only. I’ll have more content for you in July including some major reviews. For now though, I’m looking at four low budget horror movies: “Project Dorothy”, “Sting”, “I Saw the TV Glow” and “Arcadian”. Don’t worry, I’ll still have plenty of horrors to review in October! As strange bedfellows to those I’m looking at a pair of documentaries, namely “Brats” and “Jim Henson: Idea Man”. Let’s get started!
Sting
Sting is a tale of an alien Spider creature that is briefly befriended by a young girl (Called “Charlotte”, naturally), but then goes on a rampage in an apartment block, slaughtering the residents. It’s also about the relationship of that girl with her Step-Father who she both idolizes and resents. Jermaine Fowler, Ryan Corr and Alyla Browne star. The movie is the brainchild of writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner, the man behind cult classics Wyrmwood (2014) and Nekrotronic (2018). This is a simple horror movie that had a lot of promise… But doesn’t quite live up to that. Very much a case of: Close, but no cigar.
The movie begins with a clever little scene and leads into a stylish intro. Roach-Turner is pretty good at adding a little class to a generic horror, so no surprise here. The rest of Sting however plays through largely by the numbers, though competently and with some charm. It has an interesting concept that ultimately has no impact on the rest of the story, which devolves to a straight forward monster in a building affair. The cast is decent, the characters are reasonable and the monster doesn’t look terrible. But outside the intro nothing really stands out. This hits a strong 5.5/10. Not quite enough to be a recommendation, but if you have nothing better to watch and like horror, it’ll do.
Arcadian
I often say you can’t go too far wrong with Nicholas Cage these days. When he wants to he can bring it as an actor, but mostly he just seems to be doing things that are fun and many of his more B-Movie releases in recent years have become instant cult classics. This is an actor that is just having fun with his career in his later years and long may it continue. Here though he has a smaller role with his character Paul’s sons taking center stage. It works though and the two actors, Jarden Martell (As “Joseph”) and Maxwell Jenkins (As “Thomas”) do a solid job. Benjamin Brewer (Who directed Cage previously in 2016’s “The Truth”) helms the film. Mike Nilon provides the script. Nilon is mostly a producer (And has worked with Cage several times previously), this is only his second writing credit.
The film doesn’t waste much time with explanations. Indeed the creators of this seem to have quite deliberately left things a mystery. Mostly I think this was a good idea, but it does mean the movie just sort of throws things at you. The monsters are actually pretty cool, decently scary and original looking. The move well and seem to have a lot of lore behind them that the film barely touches on. That said, we’ve seen all this before. Arcadian is similar to any number of Monsters-Take-Over-The-World films and we know what to expect from them. The result is a film without any real originality but well made and relatively compelling. If you’ve never seen “The Quiet Place” or the horror/comedy “Love And Monsters” watch those instead. But if those movies are your thing, you’ll enjoy this too. This is a 6/10 and a recommendation.
Brats
Way back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s I was aware of the term “Brat Pack” and that it applied to a group of young actors that were making waves in Hollywood. It was never entirely clear who was in this pack, but I liked their movies and that was all there was to it for me. For those actors however this was a whole different matter. The term came from an article by David Blum, originally an interview with Emilio Estevez, but Blum changed the article to talk more broadly about that entire generation of actors. Those actors reacted badly to this label and in many ways have carried around resentment about the label throughout their careers. Now one of those actors, film maker Andrew McCarthy has decided to meet up with the rest of the gang to look back on that article and how it impacted them.
This is a mildly interesting documentary mixed with a chunk of 80’s nostalgia. Primarily this is a documentary about Andrew McCarthy and how he felt about the article that labelled him and many of his peers “Brats”. We see a bit of how others felt and a small amount of talk about the impact of the movies themselves. If you grew up watching these actors you will get something out of it, but ultimately the question of how they felt about being labelled as the “Brat Pack” didn’t need an entire documentary to cover and while their reactions are interesting they are about what you would have expected. Where they cover the movies it becomes a bit more interesting but that aspect is almost an afterthought. If you didn’t grow up in the 80’s this likely won’t be of interest to you. For me, an 80’s kid, it just about hits a 6/10.
I Saw The TV Glow
This is a small cast surreal horror from Jane Schoenbrun centered around “Owen” (Ian Foreman/Justice Smith) and his total obsession with a TV show which may be more than it seems. The focus on a single character with almost no personality and the very slow build makes this really drag until that halfway point, at which stage the message gets confused. It is a very obvious allegory and while it never names the topic, it wears it on its sleeve. Despite that, the creators clearly wanted to be artistic with it and for me the most interesting thing was to see the conflict between their desire to push a specific message and the artistic need of leaving things to the viewer to interpret.
That’s not to say all art has to be open to interpretation but the truth is if you want to deal with a really specific issue and the message is more important than being creative you should probably stick to drama. Genre entertainment works better with broader messages that can resonate with everyone no matter how they interpret it. From about half way through up until the ending this seemed more of an allegory for drug abuse and the impact of media on young minds. Only with the very on the nose ending was I certain my original read of the message was correct. At which point I realized the film may not be saying what the director thinks it is. While that is interesting, the film itself is not. Despite a little bit of style and flair this is a 4.5/10.
Project Dorothy
A very low budget B-Movie horror that attempts to make the most of it’s limited resources but is ultimately too bland and with too many plot holes to be any kind of cult classic. The movie is from relatively new director George Henry Horton and starts Tim DeZarn and Adam Burdon as a pair of thieves hiding out from police in an apparently abandoned warehouse after stealing a valuable piece of technology. The warehouse though houses a psychotic AI from the 1980’s that is looking for a way to escape her confines. The AI, named “Dorothy” is played by horror scream queen Daniel Harris (“Jamie” from Halloween IV and V), who takes top billing despite having the smallest role of the three.
Major plot holes surround the main premise, from not thinking there was an internet in the 1980’s, to not understanding how WiFi dongles work and of course the idea that an extremely dangerous AI would be cut off from the world by an easily broken padlock and no other security. This would be fine if this was a horror comedy, but unfortunately it takes itself a little too seriously. It’s also lacking in style, there’s no cool imagery or clever scenes that stand out here. The two main characters do a reasonable job, especially given how little they have to work with. The AI mostly chases after them with fork lift trucks and turns the lights on and off. There’s definitely been more terrifying and more interesting AI’s. Still, the movie isn’t boring, it is however below average. 4.5/10
Jim Henson: Idea Man
How doesn’t love the Muppets? Come to think of it, what 80’s kid doesn’t love The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth? Jim Henson is a cultural legend for sure, with a great positive influence on the world of entertainment. Despite dying relatively young at 53, he was a giant for two decades and his legacy still stands. Indeed the Muppet’s still occasionally make movies (2014’s “Most Wanted” being the most recent), Sesame Street is still running and Dark Crystal had a TV series relatively recently. A ill advised sequel to Labyrinth is apparently in the works too, without Henson or Bowie. None of these things would happen if there wasn’t still a lot of love for Jim’s work.
This documentary covers Jim’s entire career and gives a solid amount of time to each stage, providing something of interest not matter what era of Henson’s career is of most interest to you. The Focus though is on the man himself and the documentary has a real personal feel to it, through the interviews with all those close to the man and their thoughts, inter-cut with interviews with Jim from over the years. There is nothing ground breaking here, but it is a very moving tribute to a truly creative man. We see his struggles, his relationship with his wife and kids and how he impacted everyone he worked with. The documentary makes it hard not to feel a lot of affection for this driven, funny human being. This is a 7/10.
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