Five Nights at Freddy's

Director: Emma Tammi
Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Matthew Lillard, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kat Conner Sterling, David Lind, Christian Stokes, Joseph Poliquin, Grant Feely, Lucas Grant, Michael P. Sullivan
Running Time: 109 min.
Rating: PG-13

★★★ (out of ★★★★)     

The most intriguing question to come out of director Emma Tammi's Five Nights at Freddy's is whether it's possible for an adaptation of a wildly popular video game franchise to take itself too seriously. By infusing a 'PG-13' rated, Goosebumps-style horror movie about killer animatronic animals with psychological trauma and abducted children, game creator Scott Cawthon's co-written script actually overdelivers in certain ways. But whether this was the route to take and how well the film manages to pull it all together makes for a more complicated conversation. 

Seemingly attempting to channel certain elements of heavier efforts like The Black Phone while leaning into childlike fears, it doesn't fully pick a side, but still proves enough of an anomaly to deliver a pretty fun time. Its biggest strengths and weaknesses rest entirely on a multi-layered backstory that might frustrate as many as it intrigues, though it's thoroughly watchable, leaving us with an experience a bit more agreeable than its detractors are giving it credit for. 

After assaulting a father he mistakes as a kidnapper, Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) gets fired as mall security and sent to career counselor Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard), who offers him a thankless night guard job at the now abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a Chuck E. Cheese-like family dining establishment in the 80's and 90's. Following some hesitancy, he eventually accepts the position when social services threaten to give custody of his young sister Abby (Piper Rubio) to their nasty estranged aunt Jane (Mary Stewart Masterson).   

With Mike responsible for keeping trespassers out of the dark, decrepit building, he falls asleep on the job, haunted by nightmares of the abduction of his younger brother Garrett (Lucas Grant) years ago, receiving cryptic clues from five mysterious children who witnessed the kidnapping. Meanwhile, the restaurant's animatronic mascots, Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Foxy and Bonnie seem to have minds of their own, displaying potentially violent tendencies. Clearly knowing more than she lets on about this place's history, local police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) attempts to show Mike the ropes. But as his visions draw him closer to the truth, Abby forges a bond with her new animal robot friends.

There's actually a fair amount to unpack plot-wise, as this isn't playing strictly in the horror realm, often more interested in deeply delving into its protagonist's emotional baggage. Mike's strained relationship with little sister Abby, her mysterious drawings, his custody battle and whatever Vanessa's hiding bare the hallmarks of an overstuffed screenplay, but it's focused enough to tie all these story threads together, even if reactions to the end result will vary.

While older fans will undoubtedly complain it's not gory or violent enough because of the 'PG-13' rating, the disturbing themes more than make up for it. This isn't scary so much as unnerving, with Mike's dream sequences standing out as the best directed sections, gaining in creepiness as he closes in on the truth about his brother and the run down restaurant. The production design, cinematography and overall retro aesthetic also goes a long way in creating an atmosphere that sells this grimy ex-eatery as a once fun destination decimated by the ravages of time. In a memorable moment, Mike watches a security training video that shows how Freddy's looked like in its prime, accurately recalling many similarly themed chains of the period. 

Since there's always something vaguely unsettling about even the cutest, cuddliest looking animal mascots (especially ones that sing and dance), it doesn't take much to get onboard with them as killing machines. Brought to life by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, their origin story is ridiculously detailed, with the movie holding it cards close to the vest before unloading everything in the third act, making inventive use of its grungy surroundings.  

As the disheveled, traumatized Mike, Hutcherson makes a suitable lead, but it's young Piper Rubio who steals this out from under him as Abby with a wisely precocious and engaging child performance that seems lifted from 80's Spielberg. The Vanessa character is slightly underwritten, but You's Elizabeth Lail definitely makes the best of it, hopefully inching her closer to the breakout role she's been due. In more nefarious turns, Mary Stuart Masterson hams it up as the cartoonishly evil aunt and Matthew Lillard Scream fans won't be disappointed by how much craziness he packs into his relatively brief but unhinged slice of screen time. 

That Blumhouse's latest is splitting critics and audiences down the middle isn't exactly a surprise given its polarizing content and sometimes off kilter tone. This never bores or signals the coming cinematic apocalypse many have claimed, guilty mostly of just not conforming to the tropes of your typical video game adaptation. It's also hard to take your eyes off of, especially when trying to reconcile the story's bizarre intentions. But despite its flaws, or partially because of them, Five Nights at Freddy's is a weirdly entertaining trip that will have the uninitiated scratching their heads while the game's fans clamor for more.                                   

He's All That

Director: Mark Waters
Starring: Addison Rae, Tanner Buchanan, Madison Pettis, Rachael Leigh Cook, Peyton Meyer, Isabella Crovetti, Myra Molloy, Annie Jacob, Kourtney Kardashian
Running Time: 91 min.
Rating: TV-MA

★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

The notion of whether it's a good idea to remake the 1999 romantic comedy She's All That is entirely beside the point. Setting aside the fact we've become numb to any reboot by now, the original is hardly an impeachable cinematic treasure to be passed down through the ages, its basic plot never to be tinkered or toyed with again. After all, it's essentially a remake in itself, having cribbed its basic framework from My Fair Lady and the many ugly duckling makeover plots before and since. Now with Mark Waters' Netflix release, He's All That, it's officially happening again, complete with a gender swap twist and some other elements thrown in to appeal to more modern audiences.

There's always a certain nostalgic appreciation that accompanies even the worst films if you were in the right place and time when it hit. As a serviceable rom-com with two likeable leads that went on to become somewhat of a parody of itself in pop culture, She's All That might conjure up those feelings for some. If anything, you could argue it's one of the better remake candidates, as there's pretty much nothing that can be done that would would either enhance or diminish its source material, which was always pretty malleable.

Having successfully directed genre favorites Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, Waters not only knows the territory, but would also seem to be the ideal choice to deliver what Netflix wants. And it's very clear what that is, with their big idea revolving around an influencer playing herself and using that to commentate on social media's shallowness. Of course, when the movie's simultaneously promoting and benefiting from this, it creates a complicated dichotomy that they navigate more gracefully than expected. While stopping just short of labeling it "self-aware," the approach isn't a terrible idea on paper. But by so blatantly relying on current technology for every facet of the plot, it does run the risk of eventually looking and feeling as dated as the original might to some now, assuming that even matters to fans down the road. What it may best be remembered for is culminating in a painless, hit-or-miss experience with a few bones thrown to fans of the original. 

Instagram influencer and high school senior Padgett Sawyer (TikTok star Addison Rae) appears on the surface to be living the high life, milking a lucrative corporate sponsorship and dating aspiring hip hop artist Jordan Van Draanen (Peyton Meyer). While Padgett's divorced mother Anna (She's All That's Rachael Leigh Cook) pulls down extra shifts as a nurse, encouraging her daughter to pursue a degree, everything comes undone when Jordan's hook-up with a backup dancer is captured on Padgett's live stream. 

Humiliated by her embarrassingly honest, over-the-top meltdown that goes viral, Padgett's suddenly bleeding followers and risks losing her sponsorship. In an attempt to reclaim her social status, she accepts a challenge from best friend Alden (Madison Pettis), to turn transform one of the school's least popular losers into prom king. She's handed anti-social outcast Cameron Kweller (Cobra Kai's Tanner Buchanan), who's so miserable that even his precocious younger sister Brin (Isabella Crovetti) and only friend Nisha (Annie Jacob) are losing patience. 

After initially rejecting her superficial attempts to take an interest in him, Padgett and Cameron gradually grow closer, realizing they share more in common than they could have thought. The problem is preventing him from finding out he's just a bet, as Padgett discovers there may be more to life than accumulating likes on social media.  

Taking the circumstances and blueprint of the original into account, there's a quick turnaround in Cameron's attitude and tolerance of Padgett. After what seems like relatively short time spent on establishing his unpleasantness on the lowest scale possible, he doesn't seem incredibly resistant to her advances, or even all that suspicious of the intentions. In a sense, this might be the most realistic aspect of R. Lee Fleming Jr.'s script if the goal was to present someone so terminally unpopular instantly taken when this girl's attention suddenly comes his way. But they make such a point hammering home his disgust for high school, social media, and anything resembling attention, that's kind of tough to buy. 

If everyone's bone of contention with the 1999 original was that the removal of a girl's glasses transformed her from ugly bookworm into the most popular, beautiful girl in school, this take is at least slightly more nuanced. In a deliberate attempt to avoid potential accusations of sexism and misogyny, they've swapped the genders and while the end results remain mostly unchanged, Buchanan's performance helps, putting the emphasis of Cameron's apathy toward the world on his personal grief and past trauma. It's a decent distinction, distracting from the fact that his moppy hair, flannel and social awkwardnessis are the new version of Rachael Leigh Cook's glasses, even if it just makes him more throwback than loser. 

Addison Rae isn't a professional actress, but apparently there are ways to work around that, with the film bending over backwards to exhaust most of them. She smiles and charms her way through this, pushing the limits of just how important a lead rom-com performance really is, as the rest of the cast picks up the slack, aside from a horrifying celebrity cameo that has this year's Razzie locked up. As for Cook, she appears as Padgett's mom, just so fans of the original can feel super old. That works, but she's given very little to do in what's arguably the film's most thankless role. But at least an entire younger generation gets to feel old also when they realize Aldin is played by the same Madison Pettis who appeared as The Rock's 8 year-old on screen daughter in The Game Plan. But if there's any positive to Freddie Prinze Jr. opting out, it's that fellow She's All That alum Matthew Lillard gets to take the spotlight with his brief, eccentrically crazed turn as Principal Bosch.

If acting is usually the last thing to go wrong with a film, someone forgot to tell Kourtney Kardashian, whose minutes-long stay as Padgett's passive-aggressive social media sponsor is neither passive nor aggressive, succeeding only in making Rae look like Sir Laurence Olivier in comparison. Even while acknowledging the practical desire to stunt cast a reality star in something like this, did it have to be someone you can see physically struggling to bring even the slightest sliver of believability or humanity to the dialogue?

Rae and Buchanan do share some nice scenes together when the ball gets fully rolling with the plot, but it's Peyton Meyer's performance as a self-absorbed viral hip hop egomaniac and Isabella Crovetti's scene-stealing turn as Cameron's caring sister that go above and beyond, with the latter especially adept at making the kind of honest, wry observations you'd hope a character with a front row seat to this silliness would.

Since this wouldn't be complete without somehow working in Sixpence None the Richer's ubiquitous "Kiss Me" song (or at least a cover of it) and a dance-off, we get both, even if the latter seems a bit too choreographed, failing to even capture the spontaneous spark and energy of the '99 film. There's nothing too objectionable about the angle they chose for approaching this material so much as how obvious the execution is. That Netflix has this down to a science by now might be a part of the problem since they've been dropping so many identically filmed and performed titles lately it's become hard for any to register as more than clickbait, even one with the seemingly built-in nostalgia factor of He's All That.   

Trouble with the Curve

Director: Robert Lorenz
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, Matthew Lillard, John Goodman, Robert Patrick, Scott Eastwood
Running Time: 111 min.
Rating: PG-13

★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

When aging baseball scout Gus Lobel says a player looks good "on paper" you better believe he knows what he's talking about. No one has more paperwork since he refuses to rely on computers or even statistics to his job. But considering he's played by Clint Eastwood, you probably could have guessed that already. He's old school, as is the film's approach to sports recruiting. Trouble with the Curve could easily be his anti-Moneyball, if not for the fact that for the first time since 1993's In The Line of Fire, he's acting in a film he didn't actually direct. Taking over the reigns with mixed results is his longtime assistant director and producer Robert Lorenz, who puts his mentor front and center. And yet despite appearing in every scene, it still doesn't really feel like Eastwood's film. This is light, popcorn entertainment with the actor's performance playing as kind of a Grumpy Old Men version of his bitter, ornery Gran Torino character, minus the racial and ethnic slurs. It does some things well, and a few more wrong, but it's not exactly the disaster many have made it out to be, suffering more for its theatrical release coinciding with the actor's infamous Republican convention speech last November. Of course, that was blown way out of proportion by the media, undeserving of being remembered as anything other than a tiny blip on his storied career. He's earned that much, even if this effort still doesn't quite add up to much more than the sum of its parts. But if interviews implying that this could be his final acting appearance hold true, we can at least be grateful it's no Welcome To Mooseport.

With his contract up in three months, legendary Atlanta Braves' scout Gus refuses to see the handwriting on the wall. Now in his twilight years and with rapidly deteriorating eyesight, management may not extend his contract despite his best friend and boss Pete (John Goodman) doing everything he can to convince them otherwise. But Gus has a major, "can't miss" prospect to check out in North Carolina, and much to his displeasure, Pete convinces his workaholic lawyer daughter Mickey (Amy Adams) to join him on the trip, which evolves into an extended therapy session for both. With Mickey distracted by a potential promotion to partner at work and still harboring resentment toward her dad for abandoning her as a child and Gus in full denial about his declining health, their few moments of bonding come from their shared love of baseball. While there, they run into the charismatic Johnny Flanagan (Justin Timberlake) a former player Gus recruited who's now a scout for the Red Sox angling for a job in the broadcast booth. While scouting the kid he takes a romantic interest in Mickey but Gus has bigger problems to worry about. If he screws this up, he's done for good.

It's difficult to watch this without memories of 2011's vastly superior Moneyball lingering in the background. What's compelling about the comparison is that while both films focus heavily on major league baseball scouting, they take completely opposite approaches. Eastwood's Gus may as well be one of the old, out-of-touch veterans who were mocked by Brad Pitt's Billy Beane in so many of that picture's most effective scenes. There was no point in management actually "scouting" anyone anymore, as the key to the A's success came from the sabermetric system of running player stats through a computer. Here, computers are viewed as creating a culture of laziness in baseball management, screwing teams up by recruiting the wrong players and costing wise, grizzled veterans like Gus their office jobs. This is exemplified with Matthew Lillard's sleazy Braves scout, a character who rather heavy-handedly represents the supposedly clueless new guard. In other words, a one-dimensional moron who knows nothing about baseball and lets his computer program do the work. That's a bit of a stretch, as is the assertion that an aging well traveled blind man is preferable. The truth probably lies somewhere in between in terms of statistics and experience and a narrative exploring would have been far more interesting than the one we get. Fair or not, that manipulation kept me from completely sympathizing with Gus when we're clearly meant to. Also odd is what a slog the action is considering there's more of an emphasis on actual scouting and recruiting at games as opposed to just analyzing statistics, a task Moneyball somehow found a way to make extremely exciting.

It all has kind of a lazy Sunday afternoon TV movie feel about it, only coming alive when Justin Timberlake arrives to share the screen with Amy Adams and Eastwood. He's ideal for the part of a cocky, but good-hearted former player who's career was cut short. He just nails it, making you wonder why he wasn't the protagonist since he certainly feels like one in scenes opposite Adams, with whom he has surprisingly great chemistry. Too bad the pacing of the relationship feels off, as it seems to take about an hour of screen time for those sparks to go anywhere, and by the time they do, we've checked out. Adams basically carries the whole movie bringing a considerable amount of depth her ice princess character and the usually hackneyed storyline of a father-hating daughter carrying emotional baggage. Without spoiling too much, when we're finally given an explanation for the rift between the two, it's in a flashback scene meant to pack a dramatic wallop, but instead had me howling with laughter. It plays like a bizarre cross between Equus and Dirty Harry. But that we even got a brief moment of bad-ass, old school Eastwood is reason enough to celebrate since the rest of the way through it does kind of feel like he's on autopilot, at times almost sending up his own image as an actor and icon.

For all it does wrong, this gets one really important thing right. There's this seemingly throwaway moment toward the middle of the picture with the obnoxious (and boy he's obnoxious) player Gus and Johnny are scouting that's strangely memorable, its full repercussions figuring into the conclusion in a surprising way. The way it returns, much like everything else in the third act, is probably a bit too convenient, but the underlying message of talent hiding anywhere isn't. Of course, a few more happy (if not completely earned) resolutions are also shoehorned into an ending that clumsily juggles personal and professional trials, before tying them up nicely with a bow. Ironically, the film is strongest when dealing with the personal drama and weaker in the professional department, namely everything involving Mickey's work problems back home, resulting in annoying, undramatic scenes with Adams' face buried in her phone, texting non-stop. The attempt join everything together at the end comes off as well as it can given the circumstances, even as Lorenz faces limitations imposed on him by an overstuffed script. Despite its predictability and the fact it has nothing particularly important to say, Trouble With The Curve is still a breezy watch, as there are far worse ways to kill two hours, especially for Eastwood fans who will probably feel obligated to see it. And they should. Just as long as they don't expect anything special.

The Descendants

Director: Alexander Payne
Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard, Robert Forster, Nick Krause, Amara Miller 
Running Time: 115 min.
Rating: R

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

It's rare to see a movie as informed by its setting as Alexander Payne's The Descendants. Watching, you get the impression the story couldn't have taken place at all if it didn't take place in Hawaii. The characters wouldn't feel what they feel, do what they do and the entire mood, atmosphere and pacing would seem off. The Hawaii we're presented with here isn't one we've been made aware of before, at least in movies. The opening voiceover even let's us know that much. It's more depressing than exotic, so unlike the vacation destination we've seen on postcards that it doesn't even register as the same place. If only Hawaiian locals only went to the beach all day, rode waves and had drinks with little umbrellas in them like we we've been told they do for years. This is the first time it hasn't been depicted as pure paradise and in doing so Payne fittingly humanizes this film's setting as much his characters, showing real flaws and imperfections that somehow lead to a greater appreciation of both.

While people who live in paradise still have problems, they're hopefully not as big as the ones plaguing real estate lawyer Matt King, played by George Clooney in a dialed down performance sure to net him another Oscar nomination. With his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) laying in a coma after a boating accident, the wealthy lawyer has been entrusted to a large, lucrative piece of land passed down from his ancestors. With the state and his family waiting on pins and needles he must decide as sole trustee whether the family should sell to cash in or hold on to the property. Coming off the bench as the "back-up parent" he has to deal with his two daughters. 10-year-old foul-mouthed Scottie (Amara Miller) is acting out at school and at home while her angry, rebellious 17-year-old sister Alex (Shailene Woodley) returns from boarding school, giving Matt the shocking news that their mom was cheating on him.

Moving at a methodical, appropriately laid-back pace for most of its running time the story really starts finding its rhythm when the big revelation about Elizabeth's infidelity arrives. That's the turning point. From then on the story takes some twists and turns with the land sale figuring into the personal story in a way that's unanticipated without feeling forced. What's interesting is that despite being on life support in a hospital bed the entire and never even being seen in flashback the narrative forces the viewer to form strong feelings about Elizabeth as we watch those closest to her react to the news of her betrayal. It wouldn't be off base to say that the more we learn about her the less we like, to the point I could honestly say I hated her. That's a strange declaration to make when the offender in question is already laying in a coma but that feeling seems to be exactly what Payne is going for since the characters struggle with that as well. Matt is in shock, plagued by the insatiable urge to track down the man she was cheating with, a sleazy island realtor named Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard, a long way from Scream). Or rather it's assumed he's sleazy from a single fact and it's kind of funny how it seems we know everything about him before the actual introduction, or want to believe we do.

The quest to find Speer turns the movie into a road trip with Matt, Scottie, Alex and her dim-witted boyfriend Sid (Nick Krause), who shoots off wildly inappropriate comments at the worst moments. They have to contend with Matt's grumpy father-in-law Scott (Robert Forster) who blames him for his daughter's accident just as he faces increasing pressure from cousin Hugh (Beau Bridges) and his extended family about the land sale.  Anticipation builds for the family's eventual encounter with Speer, a meeting that somehow surpasses expectations. That's when things really get crazy. And I haven't given anything away. It all could have easily played like a soap opera (which it kind of is) but there's a brutal honesty and truthfulness to the scenes that keep it from going into shallow territory. It's a thin line to walk but Payne never crosses it, nor do his actors.

Sad and weary-eyed, wearing old man khakis and flowery shirts, Clooney downplays the movie star charisma he's famous for, just as he did in last year's The American. As a parent completely defeated by life, he brings a depressed vulnerability and hangdog physical presence to Matt we're not used to seeing from the actor. If it's not his best performance, it's sure way up there and will easily net him another Oscar nomination. And if he wins I can't say I'd have a problem with it. For all the jokes about his popularity and "Mr. Hollywood" persona these past few years, he's been taking on more meaningful projects and pushing himself in different directions as an actor, refusing to ever take the quick payday when he very easily could.

If Clooney does win, he can probably give cut the statue at its waist and give half to Shailene Woodley, who rises to the near impossible task of making us not only understand Alex, but see how her actions could actually be justified under the circumstances. Saddled with the film's most emotional scenes, she slowly peels the layers away to reveal Alex is far from just the spoiled brat we'd assume from her initial introduction. Equally strong and vulnerable, she gives a beyond her years performance that never tells the audience what to think or feel and seems in perfect harmony with the script. That she's only been known until now for starring in ABC Family's The Secret Life of The American Teenager, of all things, stands as proof that undiscovered talent can come from anywhere at any time, and all it takes is one performance in the right project.

Lillard's cheating Brian Speer doesn't build up as much disdain as comatose Elizabeth, at least until we meet his wife. Then viewers will want to wring his neck. That's because she's played by Judy Greer. Unarguably the most underrated, instantly recognizable actress working today, she's finally freed here from the shackles of the "best friend" in romantic comedies as she steps up to the plate in a third act dramatic role that isn't necessarily any larger than those those, but ten times more complex. It's difficult to get into without spoilers but you can argue the story doesn't fully register until Greer arrives, going toe-to-toe with Clooney and turning what could have been a cliche of the scorned wife into the character I walked away caring what happened to most. Here's hoping this part helps break her through into the leading lady ranks where she's belonged for a long time.  I'd say I wished the entire movie were about her, but it in many ways it actually is. Or rather it's about how sometimes a life situation gets so bad you're left with no choice but to let go, rather than risk the anger completely consuming and destroying you.

It's becoming increasingly difficult going into a movie knowing it's a big awards contender and hearing about Oscars even before seeing the results on screen. While the problem should be that it puts more pressure on the film and sets unreasonable expectations I instead frustratingly find that the opposite is true. These movies almost seem to have an unfair advantage from the start since it's common knowledge that the best films are usually reserved for the final two months of the year. This makes it easier for the movie but a bigger challenge for the critic who has to throw out all that other information out the window strengths and weaknesses.

The Descendants isn't perfect, but it's close. Coming from someone who thinks voiceovers often get a bad rap, I still have done without Clooney's over-explanantory narration since it just doesn't point out anything we can't see for ourselves. Also, a noble attempt to develop the Sid character doesn't seem to register like it should. This is the first film to use exclusively authentic Hawaiian music in lieu of a traditional movie score and it makes a big difference in terms of conveying mood and atmosphere, even if there's this small part of me that wanted one huge music moment. For some reason it seemed like a classic Cat Stevens song would have fit in perfectly. It's just that kind of movie.

It's still unclear how it ranks against Payne's previous efforts like Sideways, Election and About Schmidt but it already feels weightier than those and more substantial. There's something about it's style and approach that stays with you even though the story, with a few surprise exceptions, is fairly universal and basic. Given it's been 7 years since his last film, it's a credit to how skilled he is at telling human, truthful stories that the wait felt even longer than that. In a way this is my favorite type of film: an intimate writer-driven piece interested in exploring real people dealing with actual problems. It sounds like a cliche, but in the right hands it can be the most satisfying form of entertainment because it tends to stick around after you've left the theater. It's easy to see what all the fuss is about since The Descendants is the kind of intelligent adult drama that's increasingly hard to come by.