Category: Film Features

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “Manic” by Frank McLallen

Frank McLallen is a familiar face to Memphis music fans. He’s been in Ex-Cult, was a founding member of The Sheiks, backed Jack O, wailed with the Tennessee Screamers, and rocked with Model Zero. Now, he’s going solo.

McLallen’s solo album is called Extra Eyes, and he says getting to a place where he could make and release the music he wants has been a journey. “I got chewed up and spit out of a decade of a rock and roll career and lost myself for a few years,” he says. “There were only two ways this was gonna go, north or south … I got my shit together and tried to do this thing all over again. I fell in love with music again.”

McLallen recorded the songs that would become Extra Eyes at Memphis Magnetic, and the album is being released on the studio’s Red Curtain Records. “I’ve spent so much time collaborating with bands, where writing and direction were shaped by group dynamics,” McLallen says. “Being in a band is a wonderful experience, and I still love it, but I’ve enjoyed this whole trip of getting to know myself again. This project has allowed me to write and record ideas with no goal in mind other than to be completely honest in my expression.”

The music video for the lead single “Manic” was directed by Noah Miller, with art direction by Sarah Moseley. “It’s a Southern gothic daydream,” says McLallen. “We filmed it at my uncle’s property in North Mississippi, built before the Civil War. The place has a surreal element to it, and it’s so lush, so green out there in the springtime.” 

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Film Features Film/TV

Snow White

Rachel Zegler as Snow White. (Courtesy Disney)

Two of my favorite Disney remakes include 1998’s Parent Trap and 2004’s Freaky Friday, both starring Lindsay Lohan. I’m definitely showing my age here when I say I was shocked to even know they were remakes — in fact, I had no interest in watching the originals, because I was perfectly fine with the impression their remakes left on me. And while this may be controversial, I think that’s a mark of a good remake. Sometimes the source material may conceptually be timeless, and a few tweaks can bring the story to life for a new generation. But remakes can be tricky, especially when the legacy of the film is revered in popular culture – especially under the Disney moniker.

It’s no question that Disney can make good films, both animated and live action. Lately though, that’s not been the case. It seems as if recently Disney has tried to prove to us that they know how CGI works and they have to demonstrate this by using motion capture to give the “live acton” treatment to every animated feature they have in their catalog, regardless of whether anyone asked for it.

The latest film to become the subject of this experiment is Snow White. Directed by 500 Days of Summer’s Marc Webb, it’s a remake of the 1937 animated film Snow White and The Seven Dwarves, Disney’s first full-length animated feature which cemented itself in pop culture with its timeless iconography. 

The Dwarves (Courtesy Disney)

Aside from taking on a property with such a heavy legacy, the film had the odds stacked against it before it even hit theaters. The Rachel Zegler hate-train seems to have turned into a bandwagon (for reasons I’m still not sure of, but are at least partially the result of racism) and some people just don’t like Gal Gadot. Plus, we’re all tired of remakes that we didn’t ask for. 

I’ve never seen the original, so there’s no sense of nostalgia for me. The fact that this was my first impression of the story even excited me, as I wasn’t blinded by bias for a classic. I’m all for widening representation, especially for Disney princesses, and I’m glad Zegler is able to be that for a new generation of young people. I just wish the film didn’t seem like an extended interaction with Disneyland cast members. 

Snow White (Zegler), a princess whose upbringing and influence on her community is marked by her kindness, falls from the public eye when her mother dies and her father remarries. Her father goes out on a quest to save the kingdom from evil threats and does not return, leaving the Evil Queen (Gadot) to rule over the people. Under her reign, Snow White becomes a scullery maid. 

Obsessed with vanity, the Evil Queen asks her magic mirror daily “Who is the fairest one of all?” Usually, the mirror’s response is to her liking. But one day the mirror reveals that Snow White is now the fairest, which the queen takes a threat to her position. Enraged, she orders the Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to lure Snow White to the forest and kill her, bringing back her heart as proof.

While in the forest, the Huntsman is touched by Snow White’s compassion and warns her of the queen’s plans. As she flees, she finds a cottage where she rests until she is awakened by the home’s inhabitants, the seven dwarves.

Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. (Courtesy Disney)

Zegler’s acting is fine; nothing to write too strongly for or against. She definitely has the voice of a Disney Princess, yet the songs themselves aren’t memorable enough for a second listen. Gadot’s performance reminded me of something you’d see in a movie-within-a-movie, where we’re supposed to know she’s acting badly, like in Singing in the Rain when Jean Hagen massacres The Dueling Cavalier. 

There was a lot of time spent showing the mines where the very scary CGI dwarves worked which could have been better spent crafting more seamless story — how did Snow White go from a maids dress to her iconic princess garb? We don’t know! 

I could very well still be spoiled by the musical phenomenon known as Wicked, but I just don’t think Disney knew what they wanted to do with this film. This could’ve been a way for them to reintroduce a beloved classic for younger audiences, but I doubt the uncanny dwarves will be invited into anyone’s house via rewatch. 

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Film Features Film/TV

Common Side Effects

Common Side Effects, Adult Swim’s first foray into serialized thriller, wraps up its first season this Sunday.

The elevation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the office of secretary of health and human services is a symptom of a deep problem in the United States: We hate our healthcare system. 

There are a lot of reasons to hate the horrifying and deadly kludge that passes for a healthcare “system” in this country. Even the newly installed CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Andrew Witty, admitted in a New York Times op-ed published in the wake of his predecessor’s murder by vigilante Luigi Mangione that no sane person would design a healthcare system like this. And yet, there Witty is, turning the crank on the peasant grinder and collecting the coins that come out the other side. UnitedHealth’s $14 billion in profits, and Witty’s personal $23 million pay, is a powerful motivator for him and his comrades to keep things as messed up (and expensive) as possible. Looking at the United States of 2025, there’s only one possible conclusion: The for-profit healthcare model delivers profits, but it cannot deliver healthcare.

Instead of blaming those who are actually at fault — pharmaceutical companies, hospital conglomerates, and the entire concept of health insurance — many people have been led to reject the things that the people actually practicing medicine do well, like vaccines. Robert F. Kennedy sells snake oil and vaccine skepticism so the public doesn’t turn on the people who are getting rich by making them poorer and sicker. 

The hero of the new Adult Swim animated show Common Side Effects knows exactly where to place the blame. Marshall Cuso (voiced by veteran comedy writer Dave King) has the look of someone who entered mycology because of his fondness for psilocybin. His Hawaiian shirt is always unbuttoned, his beard is scruffy, and he probably sleeps in his bucket hat. But despite his appearance, he is a serious scholar of mushrooms who studied with Hildy (Sue Rose), a respected academic who has since retired. 

Marshall’s mushroom obsession leads him to the jungles of Peru in search of a legendary mushroom known as the Blue Angel. The mushroom is said to have healing properties, but when Marshall finally does find a circle of them, it turns out to be much more potent than anyone imagined. Just a few bites of the little blue mushrooms will cure everything from a rash to a gunshot wound. 

The spot where Marshall finds the mushrooms is remote, but it’s hardly untouched. Just a little way upstream is a pharmaceutical factory run by the Reutical corporation, which is polluting the ground and water. Fearing that he might have found the last of the endangered mushrooms, Marshall picks a few samples and makes plans to return home. But before he can, he is attacked by unknown forces and barely escapes the country with his life. 

Back in the United States, and in a state of maximum paranoia, he turns to his former lab partner and college friend Frances (Emily Pendergast). She’s a kind soul who has leveraged her biology degree into a healthcare job, and Marshall thinks maybe she could help him bring this miracle drug to the masses, curing practically all diseases overnight. But little does Marshall know that Frances works for Reutical as an executive assistant to CEO Rick Kruger (Mike Judge). 

Marshall finds himself trapped with no one to trust but his turtle Socrates, and possibly his half-brother Zane (Alan Resnick). Meanwhile, the mysterious armed men who first found him in Peru are hot on his trail. Their boss, Swiss financier Jonas Backstein, views the mushrooms as a threat to the entire pharmaceutical industrial complex, and wants them and Marshall destroyed.  

The way series creators Joseph Bennett and Steve Hely draw both their protagonist Marshall and antagonist Rick reveals a lot about what makes Common Side Effects such compelling viewing. No one is perfect, and no one is purely hero or villain. Marshall sees the world clearly, but he’s also a wild-eyed idealist and something of a self-sabotaging bumbler. He takes everything seriously and carefully calculates his next move to the point of overthinking. Rick is a man of wealth and power, but he has no intention of using his position for anything but self-enrichment. He can barely check into a hotel without Frances’ help. 

Meanwhile, Frances must care for her mother Sonia (Lin Shaye), a late-stage Alzheimer’s patient whose insurance is about to kick her out of the nursing home. Rick is afraid the company’s recent disappointing earnings report is going to cost him his job, and he needs a new breakthrough medicine to satisfy the board of directors. Frances finds herself caught between loyalty to her friend and the needs of her job. Meanwhile, Marshall’s reappearance in her life has rekindled an old flame, and her current boyfriend Nick (Ben Feldman) is an oblivious oaf. 

Bennett was also a producer of Scavengers Reign, the excellent sci-fi animation that was canceled by Netflix after only one season. The animation style of Common Side Effects is a similar combination of naturalistic environments and somewhat stylized character designs. Adult Swim is famous for the absurdist style of animated comedy the network pioneered, but this show, while often funny, is their first foray into serialized thriller. The laughs come from the character’s foibles, like Rick’s inexplicable addiction to playing farming simulator games on his phone while he should be working. Don’t let the animation fool you into thinking this show isn’t a serious work of art. Common Side Effects is one of the best shows on television. 

The Common Side Effects season finale airs on Adult Swim on Sunday at 11:30 p.m. The entire series is available for streaming on Max. 

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “Shirley” by Michael Cusack

Michael Cusack might only be 20 years old, but he writes like a man with much more hard-won experience. “Shirley,” his first single, is about a hard-headed woman who’s making his life harder. But upon closer listening, maybe Shirley’s got a point. As our narrator drags her to the liquor store again, she says “It’s you I married, not the alcohol.”

I dunno. Kinda on Shirley’s side on this one.

We don’t have all the facts, but we do have this great new country tune produced in a classic style by Mark Edgar Stuart. The producer also made this lyric video, which takes you on a drive through Cusack and Stuart’s native Arkansas countryside. Take a look:

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Opus

Ayo Edebiri as Ariel Ecton

In the hours after my viewing of Opus, I was finally able to categorize what the movie reminded me of. The three winners were Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and a four-part podcast series on Jonestown I recently listened to. I regret to report that my attempts to categorize the film were the result of me wondering, “What did I just watch?” (in the derogatory sense). 

Like Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Rocky Horror, the film features an overzealous main character living in a mysterious world beckoning you to lift the veil. In Opus’ case, this character is Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich), a singer characterized by his eccentricity and bravado, which has elevated him to be known as “the biggest pop star.” However, unlike a Frank-N-Furter or Willy Wonka, he is ultimately quite forgettable.

John Malkovich as Alfred Moretti

Moretti, known as the “Wizard of Wiggle”, mysteriously vanished from the mainstream 30 years ago. Then writer Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri) and her newsroom colleagues hear a rumor that Moretti will be releasing a new album. 

The speculation is confirmed when Moretti’s publicist posts a video online. Ariel, an early-career journalist, is invited to Moretti’s exclusive listening party along with her boss Stan Sullivan (Murray Bartlett), TV personality Clara Armstrong (Juliette Lewis), an influencer named Emily Katz (Stephanie Suganami), paparazzo Bianca Tyson (Melissa Chambers), and radio host Bill Lotto (Mark Sivertsen).

The proclaimed VIPs travel to Moretti’s compound, whose secluded gates are lined with fans anticipating Moretti’s return. On the ride there, Ariel finds out that Bill and Moretti hate each other, and the others are surprised he is attending. 

Upon arrival, the participants are asked to turn in their phones to maintain the “integrity” of the event and are subsequently greeted by apparent cult members called “Levelists.” Stan informs Ariel that she is to observe and take notes which he will use when writing the piece for their magazine.

Writers and influencers at Moretti’s bizarre party

Moretti makes his first appearance at a group dinner, where everyone is captivated and enamored with him. Almost everyone, anyway. Ariel is instantly suspicious. Stan gets a seat at Moretti’s table, Ariel is invited to sit with the Levelists. Her interviews with them are not enlightening.  

The VIPs learn that they have 24-hour concierges in the form of other Levelists. They return to their rooms for the night, where they listen to one of Moretti’s newest releases. Then, things take a dark turn. Bill’s massage appointment turns into a murder by the Levelists. 

Ariel wakes the next morning and is surprised her concierge Belle spent the entire night at her door. Belle even opts to join Ariel on her morning jog, which concludes with a conversation with Moretti on the cult’s beliefs. To further expand on their ideology, Moretti takes Ariel to a tent where a Levelist is shucking oysters for pearls, which they use to make necklaces. Later, Ariel’s shower is love-bombed by a team of Levelists there to give her a makeover. Ariel tries to learn more about the individuals, but her questions are brushed off. Her skepticism and shock are intensified as a Levelist shaves her pubic hair before joining the others for a performance from Moretti.

When Moretti performs a song for the VIPs, his performance intentionally singles each one of them out to make them feel “special.” Emily then starts coughing uncontrollably and is taken away. This, coupled with Bill’s disappearance, causes Ariel to raise questions, which are ignored. Her fears are further confirmed when she sneaks away from her concierge and finds a barn with dead animals — and, unbeknownst to her, Bill’s headless body. But Ariel has seen enough. It’s time to leave.

The rest of the film is rather anticlimactic, which is disappointing. The filmmakers seem to have forgotten that a thriller needs to be thrilling. Opus seems like the end result of a bunch of ideas that were never fleshed out — especially when it comes to the character of Moretti. It’s noted by the Levelists and other people in the film that he’s a big deal, but we don’t really see it for ourselves. Even films like Mean Girls do a better job of showing why being deemed special by these leader types can evoke a devoted following.

I really wanted to like the film; as an Edebiri fan, I was eager to see a Black woman at the center of a thriller. But even the plot twists seemed “meh.” Here’s hoping that this review doesn’t make me Moretti’s next target! 

Opus 
Now playing 
Multiple locations

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “A Spike Lee Joint” by Blvck Hippie

Blvck Hippie is no stranger to the pages of the Memphis Flyer. Two months ago, head hippie Josh Shaw was one of our 20<30 Class of 2025.

Now Josh and his brother, director Lawrence Shaw, are back on Music Video Monday with “A Spike Lee Joint.” Last fall, Lawrence scored his second Best Hometowner Music Video win in a row at Indie Memphis 2024.

The band is currently on tour in Europe, with shows in England and France coming up later this week. If you can’t make to the continent on short notice, then just watch this:

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Memphis Flyer Podcast March 13, 2025: It’s Legislatin’ Time in Tennessee!

Chris McCoy gives you the rundown on what’s going on in Nashville as the new legislative session gets rolling. Plus, Mickey 17!

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Film Features Film/TV

Mickey 17

“Every leap of civilization was built on the back of a disposable workforce.” 

That’s Niander Wallace, played by Jared Leto, in Blade Runner 2049. Wallace is the chairman of the successor to the Tyrell Corporation, a company which makes replicants for use on the offworld colonies. “More human than human” is their motto. 

Blade Runner and the novel it was based on, Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, was far from the first science-fiction story to address this idea. There are smatterings of it in everything from R.U.R., the Czech play which gave us the term “robot”, to the first modern sci-fi story Frankenstein. Would an artificial person be fully human? What counts as artificial? If the thought of treating an artificial human like a machine fills us with disgust, shouldn’t slavery also fill us with disgust? What about the more extreme forms of capitalist exploitation? 

The latest film by Bong Joon-ho, Mickey 17, explores the question of who counts as human with a little more humor than Blade Runner. (Granted, that’s not hard; I love both Blade Runner films, but it’s difficult to conceive of a more humorless story.) Based on the novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton (which had 10 fewer Mickeys), the film stars Robert Pattinson as a loser from the future. He and his friend Timo (Steven Yeun) try their hand at entrepreneurship with a candy shop. But to raise the necessary capital to make their macaron dreams a reality, they have to borrow money from the worst loan shark on Earth, the sadistic Darius Blank (Ian Hanmore). Unfortunately, the future’s macaron biz ain’t what it used to be, so Timo and Mickey end up on the run from Blank and his henchman Chainsaw Guy (Christian Patterson). As many poor people have throughout history, they sign up for a one-way trip to the colonies to escape persecution at home. 

The expedition is led by Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), a slimy politician who is also trying to renew his sagging fortunes. Marshall’s wife Yfla (Toni Collette) is a scheming Lady MacBeth type whose sickly sweet demeanor drops instantly when she thinks she’s being disrespected or disobeyed. In fact, everyone on this spaceship to Niflheim seems to be some flavor of toxic jerk, except for Nasha Barridge (Naomi Ackie), the head of security who is somehow both level-headed and completely horny for Mickey. This goes great, until Marshall bans all sexual activity on the ship. Sex is too calorie-intensive for this expedition, which has very narrow margins for error. Every slurp of gray nutrient goo counts! 

All the ship’s food and other consumables come from the recycler, a tank of glowing goo where all of the organic waste ends up. Which brings us to Mickey’s job. 

Recently, the Disney corporation tried to get a theme park-connected wrongful death lawsuit dismissed because the plaintiffs had clicked “accept” on the Disney+ terms of use, which indemnified the company against any wrongdoing. Something similar happened to Mickey. Desperate to leave Earth, he signed up as an Expendable without reading the fine print on the contract. Marshall’s expedition takes advantage of human printing technology. Banned on Earth, the tech allows Mickey’s memories to be saved on a hard drive that looks like a brick. Then, if his body dies, a copy of his body can be reprinted, and his new brain’s neurons imprinted with the saved personality. Voilà, instant immortality. 

But with an expendable, it’s not “if” he dies, but “when” he dies. Mickey gets the most dangerous assignments on the ship. Every time he doesn’t make it back, the science crew prints up a new copy of their boy and hosts a “lessons learned” meeting. You wanna know how long it takes to die in a hard radiation environment? Put Mickey in there and find out. Need a vaccine for a deadly virus? It’ll take a basketball team’s worth of dead Mickeys to refine the formula. Want to explore the frozen wastes of Niflheim, looking for edible alien life forms? Mickey’s your guy. 

It’s on one of those expeditions when the Expendables program goes wrong. Mickey falls down a crevice in the ice and becomes trapped in a cave. Timo comes to his rescue, but he doesn’t have enough rope. Besides, why try too hard to save a guy who has already died and been reborn 17 times? Plus, Mickey’s cries for help have attracted the attention of the natives. These creatures look like a cross between a woolly mammoth and a tardigrade and range in size from cute lapdog to tractor-trailer. Mickey hopes the swarm of cute-but-ferocious critters will eat him quickly so he doesn’t have to freeze to death. But instead, they plop him out onto the surface again. Mickey presumes they like their meals cold, so he runs blindly into the snowstorm. When he’s picked up by a passing transport, he returns to the colony base. But Timo reported Mickey dead, and they’ve printed out Mickey 18. This is a big problem because in the event of multiples, standard procedure calls for both copies to be destroyed and fed back into the recycler. 

Pattison’s Mickey 17 is a good-natured schlub, while Mickey 18 got all of his aggressive tendencies. Caught between the threatening alien Creepers and the unforgiving terms of their contract, two versions of the same guy have to cooperate to survive. Pattinson is electric in both roles. Meanwhile, Ackie plays it straight as the girlfriend who has to choose which version of Mickey she wants to be with.

Bong’s last film Parasite won Best Picture and is one of the best films of the century. But despite Ruffalo’s Trumpy performance as the leader, this isn’t a searing social satire. Even with a back half that gets bogged down in subplots inherited from the novel, Mickey 17 is original, darkly hilarious, and a lot of fun. 

Mickey 17
Now playing
Multiple theaters

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Music Video Monday: “Procedure” by GloRilla

Working is hard. Your boss is exploiting you. Health insurance? Fuggetaboutit. In the words of the anonymous Chinese philosopher, “Whole day I’m fucking busy only get few money.” What’s a girl to do?

From Bonnie and Clyde to Thelma and Louise to Machine Gun Kelley (the original one, a Memphian with a Thompson), the answer has been clear: Become an outlaw. Plan a heist. Take the money and run.

With “Procedure,” GloRilla dreams of pulling a Baby Driver with her friend, Atlanta rapper Latto. Director Benny Boom, a music video legend, was inspired by Set It Off — there’s even a cameo by the film’s star Vivica Fox.

Glo is hitting the road this month, with stops all over the east coast in March leading up to her appearance at Coachella in April. Just hand over the money, and no one gets hurt.

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Memphis Flyer Podcast March 6, 2025: Cloudland Canyon

Chris McCoy talks with Kip Uhlhorn and Alex Greene of Cloudland Canyon about their new live score to the short films of Stan Brakhage. Plus, Spring Arts Guide and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.