JoeMama's Movie Reviews

Primate Starring Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Troy Kotsur, Victoria Wyant Directed by Johannes Roberts January is notorious in cinema for having movies that studios want to dump with little fanfare because hardly anyone goes to the movies after a busy holiday season and the chilling cold, but there's times where a movie comes in January that blows everyone away. A movie so good, so innovative, so unique and so fascinating that people can't help but talk about it for months to come. "Primate"...isn't one of them. However, it's more fun that I was expecting, and blew away my low expectations - but that's not saying much. Lucy (Johnny Sequovah) returns to her Hawaiian home to visit her father, successful writer Adam (Troy Kotsur) and younger sister Erin (Gia Hunter), and brings along some friends including her best friend Kate (Victoria Wyant). She also wants to visit the other member of her family - Ben, a chimpanzee, who's been with the family fo...

Hamnet Starring Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn Directed by Chloe Zhao Chloe Zhao is one of cinema's most powerful directors when she's given the right material, and even does amicable work when they're not so pleasing. "Songs My Brothers Taught Me" and "The Rider" helped emerge her as a director who excels at making characters come to life in vivid reality when it's confined to a few people, and uses the landscape to create a natural feel. She continued this with "Nomadland" which earned her an Oscar for Best Director (along with Best Picture and Best Actress for Frances McDormand) that crafted McDormand's character as a believable, relatable character set against the idyllic backdrop of the American Southwest. Then she directed the MCU film "Eternals" and tried to bring her style to a big-budget spectacle, and sadly it missed the mark because she had to introduce ten new Marvel characters to an audience ...

Anaconda Starring Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton Directed by Tom Gormican In 1997, "Anaconda" hit theaters and had a respectable box office of over $136 million worldwide, and spawned numerous film and made-for-TV sequels, but no one really thought there'd be another on the big screen - until now. However, unlike many other movies that remake or redo the original, "Anaconda" does something different: it centers on four friends who want to remake the classic movie themselves, on a tight shoe-string budget, and also find the passion they once had for movies. It's a rousing tale filled with laugh-out-loud hilarity, and it helps that the source material isn't an obsessed-about IP that'd have fans of the original complaining. It's fun, light, has a great cast, and while it doesn't reinvent the wheel, it provides a decent ride. For his birthday, Doug McCallister (Jack Black) is surprised by his childhood friend Griff Griffen (Pa...

Song Sung Blue Starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson Directed by Craig Brewer I feel like a broken record (get it?) when I talk about musical biopics, because I've done so twice already this year with "A Better Man" and "Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere." No other genre either hits it out of the park or fumbles as badly as the musical biopic, as it either leans too heavily on the melodrama of a hero's rise to fame with the usual suspects (drugs, alcohol, promiscuity) or glosses over pretty much everything and focuses on the music with some dramatic parts sprinkled between. Very few times do they hit that sweet center where it perfectly balances music and life, without the generic pitfalls that so many musicians seem to go through. "Song Sung Blue" is one such film - a biopic about a Wisconsin Neil Diamond interpreter band that was a statewide hit even if no one else outside the state knew of them. Mike Sardina (Hu...

The Housemaid Starring Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Indiana Elle Directed by Paul Feig We all wear masks that disguise who we really are, and that's no different for the wealthy and elite. They live in lavish mansions, drive fancy cars, and wear the best designer dresses, and from the outside looking in it seems they have it all - but once the facade drops, you realize that things aren't always what they seem to be. Conversely, people who are desperate to pull themselves out of the depths they find themselves in will oftentimes consent to living in negative spaces as opposed to going back to where they came from, having to don their own mask of happiness while underneath they're emotionally crushed. Thus is the story of "The Housemaid," a movie that teetered on the edge of melodrama but offered exemplary performances and a pulled back story that never allowed itself to become ripe for parody. Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) is desperately loo...

Avatar: Fire and Ash Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin Directed by James Cameron I'm not one for roller coasters, but I get the appeal. Embarking on a fast-paced, dizzying ride for a few minutes is something that would be enjoyable to thrill-seekers of the like, but once its done there's not a lot to remember about it. The "Avatar" movies are the film equivalent: all spectacle, no substance. Yet that spectacle is rather...spectacular. The first movie revolutionized filmmaking and remains the highest grossing movie of all time, and the long-gestating sequel added to the narrative and is the third highest grossing movie of all time. Now, James Cameron returns to the well with "Avatar: Fire and Ash," and basically it's "The Way of Water" only with...well...fire. Not long after Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his new clan defended the water nation of the Metkayina - and losing his son in the process - the family is ...