A Quiet Place Part II, Lisey's Story and Army of the Dead

      THE HORROR OF IT ALL    

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. If you are a Stephen King fan like me you will be happy to see some of my content will reflect my love for all king ventures, but I will now regularly be reviewing horror in all of its  the forms. I just saw the Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and it will not be making the cut. I felt it was such a departure in quality from the previous films. But I have some favorites below you might like.

A Quiet Place Part II - streaming for rent or at your local theaters is a welcome sight for all of us waiting for a perfect summer movie. This is it. What is great about this is that in the opening we see the beginning of the invasion and it sets the pace for this sequel, This takes place months after the first movie and the Abbott  family is struggling to survive without Lee. The creatures that we only saw at the end of part one are now everywhere and the family is running low on oxygen ( see first movie). We discover that sometimes there are things worse that the monsters we know. This is a fast paced and thrilling ride for the Abbotts as their world is now in an upheaval. Emily Blunt is as amazing in this as anything she does , but the stand out is Millicent Simmonds as Regan. This  young actress steals the movie.

Lisey's Story is a different kind horror streaming on Apple TV + is the story of Lisey Landon ( Julianne Moore) whose famous author husband Scott (Clive Owen) has died and vultures are circling around his unpublished works. She has been battling several of them for awhile while dealing with her two sisters played by Joan Allen and Jennifer Jason Leigh. That is perfect casting. But her dead husband is playing a scavenger hunt with her and darker secrets will be revealed.  In addition there is sinister relentless killer obsessed with Scott's work. There is some great acting and story building going on here and for all of you Stephen King fans this is allegedly his favorite book. This is going to be a building slow burn horror story.

Army of the Dead on Netflix  from Zac Snyder is visually stunning with the perfect place for a zombie outbreak- Las Vegas. A group of money hungry folks make a deal to enter the quarantine zone for a big heist when anything that can go wrong does. This is a caper/horror combo which I love. This has varied degrees of success in the horror genre but I really liked the scope of it all with some great actors such as Dave Bautista, Garret Dillahunt, Tig Notaro and Raul Castillo. This is a fun watch and the zombies are fast and smart.

Mare of Easttown, Cruella , Plan B and Girls5eva

 My Top Three This Week

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers.Next week will be all about Pride Month with lots of new content but until then I have a few things for you to enjoy. Friends : The Reunion on HBO Max is a emotional trip down memory lane and Pink -All I Know So Far documentary on Amazon will blow you away.

1) Mare of Easttown streaming on HBO Max has just released its final episode  of this fantastic limited series and I wanted to watch the entire series before I wrote about it. This is probably one of the most successful series that HBO has done and if you haven't watched this yet you should. The story begins with a discovery of a murder and renewed interest of  a missing girl cold case. Kate Winslet is magnificent as  Mare Sheehan who is struggling with her own demons as she tears the small Pennsylvania town and its people apart looking for a killer. This is such a great ensemble cast and everyone is a fully developed character. Speaking of the cast -Jean Smart as Mare's mother is a fully realized character and I cannot stress what a stellar cast this is with Julianne Nicholson, Guy Pearce, Angourie , Joe Tippett and Evan Peters.

2) Cruella -in theaters and streaming on Disney+ has the best character chemistry I have seen in a long time. Emma and Emma trade insults like playing cards and every scene with them sizzles. This is the origin story of Cruella  and it is a beautiful film full of color , wardrobe and cinematography . The story begins with a young girl , orphaned at an early age she learns to become a pickpocket with two young boys who take her in and she finds her dream of designing clothes for the Baroness ( Thompson) who gleefully steals all of her staff's designs. There begins the story and it so happens that the Baroness has some very vicious Dalmations. This is a very fun watch!!

3)  Plan B a Hulu Original movie from director Natalie Morales is the female Superbad.or Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Sunny ( Kuhoo Verma) a smart overachiever makes a dumb drunken mistake and hooks up with the wrong guy and her only answer is the Plan B pill but her local pharmacist refuses to give it to her, She enlists her best friend Lupe ( Victoria Morales) to go on a road trip to Grand Rapids to Planned Parenthood. While this may not seem like a comedy, it is hilarious and the perfect Friday Night Movie.

Bonus: Girls5eva streaming on Peacock is from the minds who brought us 30 Rock and  The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. This hiarious series stars Busy Phillips, Paula Pell, Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Ashley Park as Girls5eva a one hit wonder girl group who is reunited after they are sampled by a  hot rising singer. Did I mention they were hot in the 90s and this is 2021 and they are struggling to recapture the magic. This has so many famous guest stars and Fey does a cameo as Dolly Parton and Andrew Rannells is very funny as Phillips husband.

Hacks, Halston and The Woman in the Window

                                               My Top Three This Week

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. If you are a Stephen King fan like me you will be happy to know that in the coming year , remakes, new films, books and adaptations are looming on the horizon with Lisey's Story on Apple TV+  starring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen and I am very excited! But for now here is what I am liking.

1) Hacks streaming on HBO Max has one of the funniest people on the planet- Jean Smart. She is probably one of the most talented actresses out there and she is perfectly cast as Deborah Vance, a Las Vegas staple whose very lucrative career as a comedian has made her the must-see show on the strip. She finds out that the hotel where she headlines is looking for a younger vibe and reduces her performances to fewer nights a week. She reaches out to her agent to hire a young comedy writer Ava (a very talented  Hannah Einbinder) who just might be having some issues of her own. Their chemistry is immediate even if the don't realize it.This is on my much watch list.

2) Halston streaming on Netflix is another Ryan Murphy limited series  and I watched it all in one evening and you should too! Ewan McGregor embodies the tortured soul genius that is Roy Halston Frowick- the man who created the eponymous pill box hat for Jackie Kennedy. He rises to the top of his game, driven to succeed and he is smart enough to enlist a talent pool to push him to the top. Elsa Peretti was one such talent who went on to update Tiffany's brand with her beautiful jewelry (she sadly died on March 2021). His self destructive behavior came in the form of sex, Cocaine and Studio 54 as well as the man who many thought brought him to his demise-Victor Hugo (Gian Franco Rodriguez). The wonderfully talented actress Krysta Rodriguez brought the heart to Liza Minnelli  with her beautiful friendship with Halston. This is a compelling story of selling your soul to the highest bidder.

3) The Woman in the Window streaming on Netflix has all the hallmarks of  your favorite thrillers (Rear Window, Copycat and many others.) There is a division of people who loved this movie and the ones who didn't. I was so excited to see Amy Adams, Julianne Moore (in a small role) and Gary Odman in a movie together I might be a little less harsh. Amy Adams is Agoraphopic Dr. Anna Fox who never leaves her apartment and spends a great deal of time watching the Russells ( the neighbors across the way) until she witnesses what she believes is a murder. only after calling the authorities- No one believes her. Perhaps it is the copious amounts of wines with her medication that make her an unreliable witness. Or is there something more sinister going on?

The Mosquito Coast, Cruel Summer , Shadow and Bone and Promising Young Woman

 My Top Three This Week

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. Watching some final seasons of my favorites and while I am sad to say good-bye it is time to wrap up  the story and go out with a bang. Pose, Younger and Good Girls are all saying farewell and I have been in love with them all , but it is time to break up . I look forward to new relationships and new beginnings.

1)  The Mosquito Coast streaming on Apple TV+ is showing early promise. Starring Justin Theroux as Allie Fox - based on a best selling novel by his uncle Paul Theroux, this thriller is a fascinating story about a brilliant inventor and his family living off the grid. The Fox family is self sufficient and environment conscious , home schooling teenagers Dana and Charlie. But they are harboring a secret and a slip up costs them their safety and they must escape. Allie, Margot, Charlie and Dana are the perfect cast with Justin, Melissa George, Logan Polish and Gabriel Bateman. This might be Justin's best role since The Leftovers.

2) Cruel Summer on Hulu is a guilty pleasure and fun to watch. Told in 3 time frames, it can be a bit confusing but I am hoping the end result is worth it. Set in the early 90s a young  popular Kate goes missing while a previously shy bookworm Jeanette blooms and  seems to magically take Kate's friends and boyfriend. Her popularity evaporates quickly when Kate is found after being held prisoner and accuses Jeanette of hiding her kidnapping from the small Texas town where they live. Is Kate lying or is Jeanette covering up something darker and more dangerous.

3)  Shadow and Bone is so much better than I expected it to be.Streaming on Netflix this YA story is about a world where the youth is tested for gifts or powers and utilized for the good of the people. A young cartographer Alina Starkov is traveling to stay close with her best friend Mal who is a military and gets drafted to go on a dangerous mission to cross the "Fold" in a sailing vessel where many voyages have sailed and never returned. Alina offers herself to join the crew and they are attacked by winged monsters Volcra. It is at that moment that Alina discovers herself to be a "Sun Summoner" who can summon light. As a magical "Grisha" she just might have the power to heal her country. She will soon discover allies and enemies as she navigates her way in the world.

Bonus: Promising Young Woman available for rent is a very dark movie about revenge in tbe best possible way. No wonder it was up for awards. Carey Mulligan as Cassie makes a habit out of pretending to be wasted at bars and wait for the predators to pounce . And they do! She flips the script on them and this continues for a while as we discover a dark secret she carries from her college years. Then she reconnects with an old school mate who breaks down her walls and maybe we will see her happy but then she finds an even darker secret. Carey is fantastic in this role and some solid performances from Alison Brie and Bo Burnham and Laverne Cox.