JoeMama's Movie Reviews

Verity Starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett, Ismael Cruz Cordova Directed by Michael Showalter It's very interesting in one week two movies come out: "Verity" and "Digger," where one debuted at number one with an impressive worldwide gross, and the other barely made a dent, all due to preconceived notions. "Digger" was lambasted by critics because they found the satirical work too pretentious, while audiences went in droves to see the new Colleen Hoover-adapted movie "Verity." Personally, they got things mixed up - "Digger" wasn't pretentious, but "Verity" literally bled pretentiousness from the first scene on, culminating in such a convoluted ending it felt like Hoover herself was patting herself on the back for such a unique twist that, indeed, isn't unique at all. Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) is a successful novelist best known for her series where the main character is the villain, giving a ...

Digger Starring Tom Cruise, John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Huller Directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu Satire is extremely hard to pull off successfully, essentially being the figurative tight rope walker. Coined by Nathan Poe in 2005, Poe's Law states that "without a clear indicator of intent, a parodic or sarcastic expression of extreme views is easily mistaken for a sincere expression of those views," and thus is the issue: satire is hard to perform and convey because it relies on a delicate gap between reality and absurdity. Stray too far one way or another, and it comes off either as just lazy comedy or actually siding with what they're making the satire about, and thus becoming more pretentious than it was originally meant. While Oscar-winning director Alexandro G. Inarritu managed to produce some great work in the past, "Digger" is his most divisive - and least successful - of his career, due to the fact that the movie is a satirist look at greed, globa...

The Invite Starring Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton Directed by Olivia Wilde You have to have a whole lot of trust in your actors to place them in one small, isolated setting throughout the entirety of the film and still be able to make fireworks. It's been done before, but also failed as well, and for third-time director Olivia Wilde, casting herself and three of the best actors in the business together definitely produced the fireworks desired. No explosive set pieces, no wild out-of-the-box performances, just four actors doing what they do best with the best material they've been given in decades. Joe (Seth Rogen) is a washed up musician teaching at a small school while his wife Angela (Olivia Wilde) stays at home and tends to their twelve-year-old daughter. They live in a luxurious apartment that belonged to Joe's parents and the two are clearly at odds - he comes home to find out she's planning a get-together with their upstairs neighbors, an...

  The Influencer Project Starring Chiara King, Mike Nybroe, Luca Storm, Alexandr Willaume Directed by Mike Nybroe I'm very glad I'm not a teenager in today's world, where popularity is determined by how many friends and views you get on online platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Where you feel like your self worth comes from complete strangers, and nameless trolls online can severely damage your mental state. Where if you get less than one thousand followers you're seen as a failure, and your whole world revolves around what you film with your phone as opposed to seeing the world for what it is. Chiara King is a real-life "influencer" who's been gifted with trips, gifts, and cash due to her high following, but it also has a dark side as well - in real life, she endured a stalker, and now "The Influencer Project" looks at a fictionalized version of those events with King playing a fictionalized version of herself. While this could be the chance t...

Primetime Starring Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Matthew Maher Directed by Lance Oppenheim In the 2000s I remember watching "To Catch a Predator" every week, in a time before true crime became all the rage. The series centered on NBC journalist Chris Hansen who, while working with Perverted-Justice, would lure unsuspecting men to a home in hopes of hooking up with a minor (girl or boy) and expose them for the world before having them arrested. It was a massive hit and shined the light on the true darkness that exists in the world, coming from the most ordinary people. The show was abruptly canceled after a major scandal, and Hansen faded into obscurity, but now documentary director Lance Oppenheim takes the dramatic route in "Primetime," and while the premise seems to not make sense, the result is something truly unforgettable - and possibly one of the scariest horror movies of the year. NBC journalist Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) is relishing ...

Ice Cream Man Starring Ari Millen, Charlie Zeltzer, Shiloh O'Reilly, Kiori Mirza Waldman Directed by Eli Roth Everyone knows about the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin: a piper who was hired by a town to lead all the rats away returns when he's refused payment and uses his instrument to lure all the children out of the town. It's existed since the Middle Ages and serves as a cautionary tale about vengeance. Horror auteur Eli Roth, fresh off his successful "Thanksgiving," delivers his own modern-day telling of the story, but this time it's an ice cream man who arrives in town after being wronged not to lure the children away, but turn them into psychotic killers. While this is on-bar for Roth, the film itself is surprisingly boring, long, and filled with terrible performances from an extremely thinly written script - not to mention the egregious use of AI. Jared (Charlie Zeltzer) is a kid who's constantly picked on and has very few friends, and after a b...