Monday, November 28, 2022

Smile (2022)



Released September 30th in the US.
Filmed entirely in New Jersey.
The story: Rose is a psychiatrist working in a hospital's emergency mental facility.
She cares very deeply about helping her patients, so much so that she would do it without pay.
Rose also comes from a background of mental illness herself.
When urgent care patient Leslie arrives terrified after being the only witness to the suicide of her college professor, Rose tries hard to calm her and get her to talk.
Leslie explains that she has been seeing people...
People that she may or may not know.
People who are alive or dead.
The "people" are all "disguised" as someone but Leslie believes they are all the same...
The one common denominator between all these "people", is that they make themselves visible to only her with evil, grimacing smiles on their faces.
What does Leslie believes will come of this?
She believes it will all be the very death of her.
Only after Leslie kills herself while the short time she is in Rose's care does she believe her.
But Rose has no idea how any of it could even be possible and what's worse is everyone she talks to about the incident just assumes Leslie was crazy.
The more horrifying things get for Rose, the more everyone around her believes she's just losing her mind as well.
Stars Dora Kiss, Meghan Brown Pratt, Sosie Bacon, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn, Ura Yoana Sanchez, Jack Sochet, Jessie T Usher, Gillian Zinser, Nick Arapoglou, Kyle Gallner, Perry Strong, Rob Morgan, Judy Reyes, Matthew Lamb, Jared Johnston, Vanessa Cozart
Directed by Parker Finn
Rated R
MYSTERY/THRILLER/HORROR

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)



Released July 26th in the US.
Filmed in California and England.
The story: It is 1969, Los Angeles.
Rick Dalton has been the star of a Western TV series since the 50s.
Along for that ride has been his stunt double/friend Cliff Booth.
Since the show's end, Rick has been struggling to find roles that he and Cliff can both pursue.
But times are changing and what is available to them isn't what they are used to.
While Rick struggles to stay in the business, he also struggles to keep his buddy Cliff working as well.
One day, Rick and Dalton realize the director of the hit film 'Rosemarys Baby' Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate are Rick's neighbors. But they do not meet.
On another evening, when the Manson family is on their way to the Polanski residence looking for the occupants that no longer live there, they instead happen onto Rick's home, where Cliff, Rick's new wife, and Rick are.
Stars Leonardo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Mike Moh, Rafal Zawierucha, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, Margaret Qualley, Lorenza Izzo 
Directed by (& story written) Quentin Tarantino
Rated R
DRAMA

Monday, November 14, 2022

Hotel for Dogs (2009)



Released January 19th in the US.
Filmed in California.
The story: 16-year-old Andi and 11-year-old Bruce are siblings having to go through the foster system due to losing their parents unexpectedly.
They have a dog named Friday which they have to hide from their current foster parents, so to make money to feed him, they do many things they get in trouble for.
The only adult that looks out for their best interest and gets them out of trouble is their social worker Bernie, who advises them that if they get in trouble again, he won't be able to place them together.
Right after Andi and Bruce get Friday out of the pound they witness a robbery.
When the cops show up and tell them to stop, even though they did nothing wrong, they take off running.
Friday runs into an abandoned hotel, and Andi and Bruce follow him.
Inside, they find two homeless dogs that Friday takes a liking to right away.
Andi and Bruce decide to let Friday stay there with the other dogs for the night.
The next day, Andi goes to the local pet store for food for the dogs, even though she doesn't have much cash.
Andi gets to talking to Dave the sales rep and tells him that her family takes in many homeless dogs and that she needs food for them.
Dave gets the bright idea that seeing how Andi's family takes in dogs, they can take in three more that he has at the pet store.
Plus he will help with food.
Soon Andi, Bruce, Dave, and Heather, another sales rep begin getting the hotel dog ready, so it can be "the place" for as many homeless dogs that need homes.
Stars Emma Roberts, Jake T Austin, Don Cheadle, Johnny Simmons, Kyla Pratt, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Dillion, Ajay Naidu, Robinne Lee, Yvette Nicole Brown, Troy Gentile, Eric Edelstein
Directed by Thor Freudenthal
Rated PG
DRAMA/COMEDY/ADVENTURE

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Killer Sally - Valentines Day/The Death of Mr. California/The People vs. Sally McNeil (2022)



Made for Netflix as a three-part mini-series, airing on instant streaming November 2nd in the US.
Filming location(s) unknown.
The story: In 1987, Sally was a single mother of two. She was also a Sergeant in the Marine Corps.
She took up bodybuilding as means of protection and soon, by the advice and permission of the Marine Corps, begin competing.
On Valentines Day of that same year, Sally won 4th place in her very first bodybuilding competition.
A friend of hers had shown her photograph to another Marine Corp/bodybuilder named  Ray Mc Neil, who said he wanted to meet Sally.
Shortly after the meeting, the two hit it off. After dating for just two months, the couple got married.
They quickly began bodybuilding together and then competing together as well.
For the couple and everyone around them, it seemed they were only on the up and up.
Ray was ready to begin professional bodybuilding by 1991, so he quit the Marine Corps with all his ambitions now on bodybuilding.
Sally was becoming a budding bodybuilder and alongside Ray, it didn't seem she would do anything other than go further.
While Ray began working toward his dream with Sally's full support, times became tough on the small family, trying to keep a steady income and food on the table.
All the while, Ray had big potential and he was completely dedicated to his dreams.
But Ray was insecure, and that didn't change no matter the better and bigger he got.
Steroids were definitely involved in Ray's life, and then, after seeing what they did for Ray, Sally's as well.
All the while though, Ray's needs were of the top most importance.
The happy couple began disagreeing and having arguments that became violent behind closed doors because Ray felt he was the most important thing in both of their lives.
Ray would never be able to see Sally as his equal when it came to bodybuilding, no matter what she did.
Sally was approached to do wrestling videos for 50 dollars an hour and went on to do more wrestling for more money.
Ray wasn't too bothered by Sally's wrestling because they were always in need of cash.
After a while, Sally began making her own wrestling videos.
In 93, Sally was now out of the Marine Corps and placed 5th in her next bodybuilding competition, but she was making way more money wrestling.
That same year, Ray qualified for Mr. Olympia and that's exactly what he wanted.
But he only placed 15th and he was pissed.
No one knew how pissed he really was. No one except Sally.
Ray went from a kind, gentle man to an overly, aggressively angry person, which was not who most people who knew him understood.
Everyone who knew and liked Ray never knew he was taking his aggression out on his wife.
Sally always gave him the benefit of the doubt when Ray continuously apologized after battering her.
He was also beating her children.
In 1995, Ray and Sally had been married for 8 years but things never got better they only got worse.
When Ray was training is when he would be the most violent with Sally.
She finally decided to make plans to leave before, she believed, Ray killed her.
Valentine's Day of that same year, it was a fun day for Sally and her children.
Later in the day, Sally was waiting around for Ray, but he didn't show up so she was getting ready to go look for him when he came home.
The situation caused a bad argument that escalated.
It escalated so much that Sally believed she was going to die, so she did the only thing she could think of.
Sally shot Ray.
Stars Sally McNeil, Peggy Hook, John McNeil, Shantina McNeil, Shannon Brown, Dan Goldstein, DJ Jeffers, Debrosha McCants , William Rafael, Lenda Murray, Wayne DeMillia, Melanie Jeffers, Hugh Malay, Lee Penman, Bill Wick, Diane Dimond, Rachel Louise Snyder, Nancy Kaser Boyd
Directed by Nanette Burstein 
Rated TVMA
DOCUMENTARY/HISTORY/TV

"I was so broken, I didn't know I was broken."