Morning Reel

"Coraline" is full of spunk but not for your average child, it's too edgy for it. It's a stop motion film that goes for a quasi-horror spooky film that's centered with the idea of unification as a family and the struggle of identity. It's a film that is filled colors, moods and themes established due to cinematography. Let's not forget the production design because the artists who made this film d...

Michael Haneke wrote and directed "The Piano Teacher" with precision and brutal honesty. It's about a woman who is living through being a total lie. She takes life to other people and sadly to herself but there are reasons for it. It's a film about control. Do we have the control? How easy is it for one to slip? I loved the film for the complexity of the characters that carry this film through the...

in 1975, arthouse queen Chantal Akerman wrote & directed "Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles", a film about a widower turned into a prostitute to make ends-meet. That's it. That's the plot but there's so much that goes into this 201 minute minimalistic film that you'd never thought you'd encounter. 201 minutes, yes 201 minutes. The whole Avengers series is much longer than tha...

Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot" is the perfect comedy film and it came out in 1959 that stars Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. This trio can make life together and how many lives have they uplift and brought laughter to our faces. I love this comedy film. It teaches about life even if you have to dress up as a chick to do so. I praise the film for its elements such as writing, actin...

May the fourth be with you. Today I reveiw the best "Star Wars" prequel film, "Episode III - Revenge of the Sith". It's probably the most balanced film of them all that gives us thoughts of life & death, coping and moving forward with loss, and should they written better dialog? I do have some issues with this film but regardless of that, it has action to back up during the ominous scenes of t...

DJ C-Minus joins me on this review on Brett Morgen's "Moonage Daydream", an artistic collage of David Bowie's musical career to where it begins at the beginning of his "Ziggy" era. We go a little deep into the film, discussing aspects of the documentary film that's shown by a deep catalog of archival footage that looks great. The film celebrates intimate moments of Bowie, making us feel like we're...

David Gordon Green released 2008's "Pineapple Express" and since then has become a cult following to all stoners and would-be stoners and it's thanks to Cheech & Chong's infliuence of their comedy and association to the vibrant plant known as marijuana. The stoner comedy film "Pineapple Express" brought laughs especially with it's slapstick humor and how they tie the stigma's the plant's "dang...

"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is a great starter film for everyone to get into the franchise. The legacy has made it to the big screen in animation and they got it for the most part. I praise the film for Jack Black as Bowser, the best Bowser character you can get for $100 million. I also like how it brings nostalgia, making you want to dust off your SNES and start playing in front of your 50 inch...

"Sound of Metal" teaches us a lesson. Sometimes we gotta accept what we have and move forward, especially to live a fufilling life. Ruben in the film was like, "F that, I want my hearing back". You pay the price for the things you want and sometimes it doesn't turn out right. Ruben learned the hard way but in the end he did get peace and for the way the film was written to get the ending we see, i...

"Everything Everywhere All At Once" is the perfect film as much as it's not my favorite film, it deserves most of the Oscars (and you'll hear why). Overall it's gerat, action-packed, drama goes all over the place and this film in general does go all over the place and as the film goes, the message of it is just in your face and it remains there for the duration of it and I personally love it. It's...

Spike Lee directed "He Got Game" in 1998 and although it didn't meet the budget as far as sales go, he taught us things that money can't buy and that's being a man. In this film, being a man is everything, even more than basketball and it's funny because basketball is life for Jake and Jesus Shuttlesworth. The very thing separated these two characters and could it bring them together? And how. I d...

"The Banshees of Inisherin" is a great written and directed film by Martin McDonagh, who takes black comedy to the ficitonal place called Inisherin fille with a unique cast of characters whom are very interactive. Some of the cast add great purpose to the push of the film's plot and they bring the two main characters together even though one of 'em doesn't wanna do jack. The film is so simple but...

"Cocaine Bear" is Elizabeth Banks' best film to date. She was able to show us a thriller, a comedy and a crime film all in and hour 30 mins. That's a little hard to do even if it leans towars the comedy side of things. It's a pretty solid script, cheesy for the most part. But seeing the bear high on cocaine is sort of like watching a National Geographic program. I'll say this, it's not the best fi...

"If Beale Street Could Talk" is great film that deals with injustice and how to get through it out. The tale is embodied by Tish & Fonny, who are beyond in love, separated by bars due to a crime Fonny was wrongfully convicted of. Tish is carrying Fonny's baby and with support of her family, they try to turn things around. But like life, there are challenges that one must get by with no guarran...

"Love & Basketball" shows the life of two people who are not only in love with each other but in love with basketball. The ticket to freedom, success and being wanted for them is basketball but they later realize what they have is far much greater. This films deals with the ups and downs of trying to be a success especially dealing with family and peers. I talk about why I like this film due t...

"Elvis" is a wild ride. It definitely complimented the craziness of Elvis through it's elaborate editing, sound design, to the sloppiness of the screenplay itself along with casrting choices. I enjoyed the film for it's beauty of cinematography, production design, and honestly, it's screen direction because it is tough to show a concert being done even it's all filmmaking. Enjoy. #elvis #morningre...

Steven Spielberg has done it with this film called "The Fabelmans" which is roughly his autobiography. Everyhting he cherishes about filmmaking and being vulnerable is right here. I briefly talk about why this film is a masterclass in filmmaking, I give credit to the casting and the actors who played these great and realistic characters, and I also briefly bring up how the plot of the film plays t...

Danny DeVito directed Matilda , who gave us a lot to think about and a lot to be grateful of. It's visually striking, the dialog is very snappy and a bit dark at times, especially with Principal Trunchbull, she's a riot. Matilda is a smart girl, almost too smart for your own good and a lot of power of the film comes from that understanding. We all want to belong, believe it or not. I briefly talk...

This film review was a request by orlyb2012 Thank you orlyb2012 ! Waking Life is Richard Linklater's love letter to his whole filmography: the meaning of life. Is there magic in the world? Are we actually alive? Linklater various films explore those themes, of existentialism, reality, in a lot of his films and he doesn't really go deep on them but in this film in particular, he goes BALLS DEEP and...

Alfonso Cuaron started his studio film career with A Little Princess in which I enjoyed especially with the cinematography and great acting from the cast that you wouldn't expect to see. You can tell that Cuaron has a knack for visuals and it shows in the dream sequences that the set has created that looks very inviting, fluid, and imaginative, which is the subtext of the film, belieivng in realit...

New Year's Eve is a Garry Marshall directed film and somehting happened to where stories don't go no where but somehow captivate the heart. Not mine, that's for sure. Here's a film where an ensemble cast could have done better if the treatment was better for them in the first place. FInd out why I gave this film TWO tokes in terms of story selection, writing in general and the cheesiness of it. En...

Aftersun is a brave film written & directed by Charlotte Wells that focuses on the dynamic between single parents and their children especially when dealing with depression coming from the parent. It's a simple in its plot but complex as to what the characters go through in an emotional and physiological level. I love it for the writing, the acting and stage direction Wells was able to success...

A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first TV special of the Peanuts gang and it's great for kids and adults to watch. The short is still reltable to today's time especially how it mentions commercialism and greed, especially from a child's perspective. I loved the humor, seeing Charlie Brown as a play director is great and Snoopy steals the cel throughout. Watch it on Apple +, sadly it's not broadcas...

Elf is directed by Jon Favreau and he did a great job guiding a cast to cheer and jubulation. It's a well balanced film that I would consider a modern Christmas film and at this point it is a classic. Listen to me talking about the team between James Caan and Will Ferrell, how develop from each other, how music embodies Christmas, and how to relates to certain people who think they got it all but...

Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a Christmas gift provided by John Hughes to us. Now, in this review, I don't go in-depth to the how this franchise stood the test of time. I simply talk about how I like the first film aginst its adventurous sequels but they are great to watch and enjoy for all kinds of people to see and it's great to see this film due to its constant culture it con...