The Biggest Little Farm - Review

The Biggest Little Farm

In this documentary we see a young couple living in a Los Angeles who are newlyweds. John Chester is a camera man specializing in shooting footage on themes of the natural world internationally and Molly Chester is a gourmet Chef specializing in organic foods (so to speak). Then one day they heard about a woman who had a dog shelter where the county authorities have notified the owner of animal control violations and they are going to retrieve all the dogs where most likely all will be euthanize unless anyone who wants a pet are willing to provide them with a loving home.

John and Molly decide on an impulse they can adopt one dog and choose to do so with a dog they named “Todd”. Unfortunately, they realize early on their cute affectionate “Todd” suffers from severe separation anxiety resulting in him barking all day long when they were away.

When they receive an eviction notice, the only solution and choice (as they saw it) was to ditch their LA apartment and move to a rural area where they eventually bought 200 acres of land in Northern California which resulted in them having newer dreams. Converting this seemingly discarded harden farm into an adventure of renewal of both land and human spirit in the documented story “The Biggest Little Farm”. An eight year journey showcasing their personal endeavor to building one of the most diverse farms of its kind. And through their hard work, persistence, triumphs and rewards and heartaches and sadness, we see in the end a finished product of how humans, plants, animals can be a shining example of the coexistence and interdependence of all life.

REVIEW: On the surface, this film is executed with an abundance of detail and patience of how an idealistic couple chose a land totally depleted of nutrients and suffering from drought resulted in them turning it into an natural oasis and paradise; a Garden of Eden if you will. But the bigger message, the bigger reward from viewing this film is how this back breaking journey lead to the concept and belief of how a co-dependence way of farming created even greater more energized life. And with this way of farming you the theater viewer get to experience firsthand the cycles of farming, the recycling of farming and the regeneration of farming that slowly created more equilibrium in the balance of the nature on that farm. Not only to prosper financially but to completely flourish beyond any of their greatest expectations and imaginations.

Devoid of any political agenda the joy of watching the Chester’s' uncompromising faith in the Earth that resulted in success was something far more than a mere noble story of personal and moral redemption.  Instead it is a wonderful example of how their ideas to farming can really be a help to all into making a change in the world, spotlighting not only the benefits of hard work but also the importance of respect for all of earths wondrous creations on the ground, under the soil and in the skies.

Oddly, the films also shows how an off handed promise the Chester’s made the day they adopted their dog ‘Todd………..“Don’t worry we will never abandon you” turned their lives into something magical. It’s their promise to that dog that compelled them to move out of their comfortable apartment taking them on an entirely new direction in life; a much richer life than their respective conventional day to day professional journeys.

Beautiful shot from beginning to end from an array of angles the Chester’s commitment to a dog and a rundown farm makes this film an absolute must see in the theater film for 2019. It will stir you to think, hopefully remind you and even awaken you to the fact that our earth is not some random blue, brown and green marble floating in the vastness of the universe. Rather it’s a wondrous miracle of evolution; a living regenerative planet of thriving life that works in tandem like one ocean wave to the next wave.  Moving with constant change and yet always in constant balance……………a co-existence balance of movement, peace, harmony and tranquility.

4.00 Stars

Booksmart - Review

Booksmart

Kaitlyn Dever (Short Term 12) and Beanie Feldstein (Lady Bird) are “besties” who are in the last 24 hours of High School to more promising academic destinations from Ivy League schools to adventures abroad. They deserve it, after all they sacrificed a lot to become academic superstars by not going to tons of weekend parties and avoided socializing after school with other students for the exclusive propose of achieving their dreams of a promising career based on their intellectual achievements.

So the story’s picks up on the eve before graduation by following “Amy’ (Dever) and “Molly” (Feldstein) characters. Shockingly when they get invited to a big party the pair suddenly realize that they should have worked less and played more. Determined never to fall short in the eyes of their peers anymore, the 2 girls set out on a nighttime mission to cram four years of crazy fun into one night.

REVIEW: For me, “Booksmart’ tries to capture the nuance of “Ferris Bueller’s Day’s Off” by revolving the story around rather than one character it does the same around the two similar minded teenage girls, but only coming at the same central “Ferris” themes from “another angle”. Essentially, after years of being 100% conservative and studious in all manners of their lives, the two young girls now try valiantly to be like all of the other seemingly less academically inclined students by doing whatever they have been doing for past 4 years…………….(as Ferris) living life without guard rails, no restrictions, being deceptive, being impulsive, taking risk  and just being a jerk (here and there). So for the first 40 minutes of the 1:40 minute running time “Amy and Molly” are truly an entertaining bundle of breakneck intellectual energy to enjoy. They are super witty from beginning to the end of the film all the while exuding (both comically and dramatically speaking) some real angst about their last evening as high school students. They show genuine emotional honesty about having apprehensions of moving on separately to new places in the world meeting new people while trying to being cool for the first time.

But midway through the film in their slightly over played efforts to get to the “happening party”…… “Amy and “Molly fall under the hallucinogenic influences of a drug that was slipped to them by a friend to make them loosen up. The scene was meant to be smart and funny, but to me it fell terribly flat as they begin imagining themselves way too long as being something other than human. And It’s at this same point for me the film went from being imaginative, engaging and whip smart to more of an exercise of being redundant and one dimensional. And it stays there for a way too long 30 minutes.

In its effort to suddenly stop being funny to being more of a transcendent serious dramatic coming of age film, the two ladies and the entire cast cease to be as relevant and interesting as before and more muddled down in subplots of teenage deception, awkward first time sexual experiences and an unbelievable get out of jail card explanation. Also the use of Noble Prize Peace Winner Malala Yousafzai name “Malala” as some code for not refusing a friends request” seemed to be inappropriate and a bit misguided. It was especially in poor taste when you probably can imagine that 90% of the viewing audience don’t even know who she is as the noted Pakistani activist who was shot in the face for her wanting and other females to go to school for an education.

While these specific 30 minutes of the film had some of the air come out of its pace, it still manages to recover in the last 10 minutes to refocus on its basic story of these two best friends being symbiotically linked through thick and thin.

To Actress Olivia Wilde's credit her debut effort as the director accomplished an awful lot of real solid work by reinvigorating how we all see current and future high-school comedies. Particularly so with this current teenage generation that seems to have an obsessive entitled mindset for wanting credit for just being in the room. Wilde adroitly navigates this tricky terrain of smarts and naiveté by balancing it all with reality by taking full advantage of the film’s rare “R” rating. Not by relying exclusively on being solely vulgar, lazy or boorish, but keeping her camera crisply focused on a solid enough written word (overall) to guide her into making the words coming out of this young cast minds and mouths always feel contemporarily real (for the most part).

“Booksmart” is never mean spirted, toxic or morally preachy. Rather it is always looking for the sharper smarter approach and details in how these teens talk and interact with one another. And by doing so, Wilde has delivered not a great film but more of an authentic in the moment  solid look at this newer teen generation coming to a neighborhood near you very soon. A generation uniquely filled with their own brand of aspirations, own brand of dreams, own brand of relationships, own brand of fears and yes own brand of deceptions …………from “another angle”.

3.00 Stars

Brightburn - Review

Brightburn

Elisabeth Banks stars in a rare combo science fiction - horror film called “Brightburn”. And as much as this story suggest from its trailers it is the same previous story line of the Superman child who comes to earth reboot, it also is a story about a satanic child in the same manner of the 1968 Oscar nominated film “Rosemary’s Baby”, with a more cautionary tale for young couples unable to conceive a child …………”be very careful what you wish for in a baby”.  Wink – Wink.

Just like in all of the previous “Superman” films we see a loving Kansas couple who are awakened by a nighttime thunderous explosion in their back yard. And as they ventured out late at night to investigate the explosion, they discover a glowing red light and a long ditch of where an alien spaceship has crashed. And inside of that ship is an infant male child on board. With parental instincts already ranging they see this child as their own potential bundle of new joy; a true sign from God granting their wish come true. So, this decent loving couple who have been desperately trying to have a single child of their own decide instantly to make the lifelong faithful decision to not report the event to authorities, and lie to an entire quaint town by raising the seemingly harmless infant boy to be a good nature, respectful and productive member of society as they are. So far so good right?.............Eeeeeeh.

Now fast forward about 14 years and we see the child has reached puberty and in the same manner as the eventual “Superman’ we now see not someone named “Clark Kent” but “Brandon Breyer”. He is starting to feel strange within himself. So much so he eventually and shockingly reveals that he has amazing powers to fly, have human super strength, not bleed and an ability to see through walls. And what if at that point he too decides to use his superpowers for all of humanity?…………Well at this point you would be wrong Tootoo, as this is not that kind of “Superman” story in Kansas anymore Dorothy.

REVIEW: Typically, as a rule I tend to complain about how films are generally too long. But in the case of “Brightburn”, running 1:30 minutes, the opposite is true as the film’s plot and overall idea were initially brilliantly conceived. But in its haste to keep things moving quickly along more effort should have been given to showing young Brandon slowly and subtly evolving with real emotional struggles, with real displays of genuine self-loathing and conflict, with inner torment of his good vs his evil sinister side. For me, in the case of “Brightburn” it transitioned way too quickly in his embrace of his darker self with the same subtle delicacy of me getting up one random morning to impulsively decide to perform brain surgery with a jack hammer and a backhoe digger. And while this aspect was a bit bothersome for my critical eye, it truly took away from a potential new film story with great franchising possibilities.

But for me the single over annoying aspect of the film was not Elizabeth Banks (Tori Breyer) acting performance or her husband’s performance played by David Denman (Kyle Breyer). No they did fine enough. It was how their characters were written to be the single biggest married dopes suffering from “my child can do no wrong barren womb syndrome”  I have ever seen.

Not literally but metaphorically we see examples of the dopiness such as when at breakfast they see their Brandon bending the fork with his teeth…………”Look at our strong man”. When he crushes a young girls hand …..”Oh it’s just puberty, boys do crazy stuff when they like girls”…….When they witness with their very own eyes chickens on the farm totally freaking out at Brandon’s mere physical presence and a hour later they are all McNuggets butchered to death………..”Oh the wolves got in the hen house again” . And while this did not happen in the movie, at this point I was totally prepared to hear from these gullible parents a dismissive answer upon seeing him set the school on fire with flames coming out of his ass with the response …………….”Well, you know how our baby boy loves him some Taco Bell Bean Burritos with extra Hot sauce ”.

“Brightburn” actually has some really good technical horrifying thrilling moments intertwine in this collective family – Kansas community naïve fest. And I must admit I was somewhat kind of amused  watching Elisabeth Bank’s “Tori” over and over again just be in total denial about her strange son who she found in a freaking space ship and who is now speaking in an unheard language who now older just might now be different than the other human children……………….YOU THINK?

Finally, while it was not meant to be funny,  I got a really big laugh when “Tori” (the mother) finally figures out her son was the cause of all of the previous sinister events in town when Brandon with glowing red eye balls laser fries a convenient victim’s eyes out all the way through the back of their FREAKING SKULL……………..As if earlier him throwing his dad flush 10 feet across the kitchen wall was not enough, it took laser burn light coming out of your eyes ………….”OH, SO  NOW YOU BELIEVE?”

In the end and oddly so, there was something intriguing about ‘Brightburn’s premise, its story and it’s conclusion. They certainly left open the possibility for a sequel. But for now, not enough for any of you to see in a theater.  Rather to see for a lazy I got nothing to do weekend rental in the fall.

2.50 Stars

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum - Review

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

If you have seen John Wick and John Wick 2, then you will already know Actor Keanu Reeves first 2 film installments have little to do with anything profoundly intellectual.  No one is going to be reciting Ernest Hemingway or William Shakespeare at any point. Essentially, John Wick has a single arc where both the character and the  film itself from its 2014 beginning and remains today about a laconic retired global hit man who was living in secluded retirement after the death of his wife. And while he is clearly financially secured from his many successful kills at the behest of many global super wealthy clients, John has removed himself from a life of crime of killing folks better than anyone in the world. Well, that was until some idiotic arrogant Russian mafia’s son decided impulsively to steal John’s antique Green Ford Mustang and in the process of doing so he kills John’s only friend left in the world; a Beagle puppy given to him by his then dying wife.

To say John Wick was pissed off was an understatement as he proceeds to hand gun and shot gun vanquish in the span of two films enough men and women to constitute a military battalion. But in the process of going rogue on his own to exact revenge he also broke “some important rules” in regards to his employers of this secret elite society of wealth clientele operating in their own shadowy international assassin's guild called ‘The High Table”. So at the end of John Wick 2 we see for his misdeeds he has been labeled “excommunicado” now with a global price placed on his head for $14 million for all of the world's most ruthless hit men and women lining up and waiting their turn to attempt to kill him for the fee.

Which brings us up to “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum”; with Parabellum meaning “if you want peace then prepare for war”. John Wick chooses to ready himself to go to war.

REVIEW:  Keanu is great with some action sequences (and there are a ton of them) stunningly choreographed to feel and look real in the moment with a host and wide variety of uniquely new skilled assassins to make the dynamic of “killed or be killed” a lively 2 hours effort. And with essentially the same plot points intact of John Wick dispatching his adversaries with the combo flair of a flamenco and ballet dancer with a gun. John Wick basically holds up with its fasten your seat belt experience pace.

But just about the 1:30 minute mark the film starts and feels repetitious. For the first time in this franchise, intended or not, John Wick looked and felt like an old man. And after hearing the same “grunts, oof, ouch and ecch” sounds I heard before, the energetic and testosterone laden effort slows down.

Now there were two surpassing moments. One was Halle Berry who plays a friend of John Wick who owes him a favor. She held her own as a gun shooting, Kung Fu punching and mean ass attitude assassin. And also with her fighting prowess on effective full display we see that she has two loyal 4 lagged companion in the form of actual male brother Belgian Malinois, the same breed of dogs favored by the US Navy SEALs. Never thought I would see the day that I would witness two dogs fight and attack as well as any human in a film but these two highly trained dogs were a delightful addition to the story line. They were so effective dare I say I saw two dogs perform Kung Fu on bad guys or better yet perform ……………”Crouching Tiger Hidden Dog Fu”.

In the end, John Wick entertains but for only 1:30 minutes. The last 30 is…………….”OK already just kill the SOB so I can get home”

John Wick: the character may mean “the master of death”, the word “parabellum” in Lester Latin means “the last 30 minutes were way too long, slow and monotonous”.

3.25 Stars.