Tag: Kathy Bates

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Now Playing Oct. 18-24: Smile! It’s a Creepshow!

Halloween is a couple of weeks away, and we’re in a horror movie mood. Here’s what’s happening on the big screen this weekend.

Smile 2

Parker Finn’s grinning breakout hit gets a sequel. A mysterious entity is stalking pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), possessing her friends, and causing murderous hallucinations. Say cheese!

Time Warp Drive-In: King of Horror

Saturday night at the Malco Summer Drive-In. October’s edition of the Time Warp Drive-In celebrates Stephen King. No writer has been adapted more than King, partially because he has a very liberal attitude towards licensing his stories, but mostly because he’s a really good writer!

Leading off the program is Creepshow. Directed by George Romero, creator of Night of the Living Dead, this 1982 anthology features five short stories, two of which were written by King. One of them, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” stars King in a rare, non-cameo acting role. Creepshow is a daringly unconventional film which deserves a revival.

The second King-related film on the Time Warp bill is Pet Semetary. Directed by Mary Lambert, a former music video director who had previously helped Madonna become a superstar, Pet Sematary is a classic chiller, featuring a great performance by Fred Gwynne, who was famous as Herman Munster.

And did I mention it has a theme song by The Ramones?

Memphian Kathy Bates recently got a big role in the revival of Matlock. She’s always been one of our great actors, and the role that proved it to the world was as the sinister fangirl in Misery. The sledgehammer scene still gives me the willies.

Terrifier 3

The top earning movie at the box office in the world right now is an independent slasher film. The creators of the Terrifier series, writer/director Damien Leone and producer Phil Falcone, opted not to sell their three-quel to a big studio, and it’s paid off handsomely. David Howard Thornton returns as Art The Clown, who is not one of those crying on the inside kind of clowns. He’s more of a stabby kind of clown. This time, he’s here to ruin Christmas, and not even decapitation can stop him.

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Now Playing in Memphis: From Book Clubs to Blackberries

Book Club: The Next Chapter

Silver foxes Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen head out on a bachelorette party trip to Europe in Book Club: The Next Chapter, a sequel to the 2018 sleeper hit comedy. Craig T. Nelson rand Don Johnson also reprise their roles as frigid husband and seasoned himbo with whom our heroines must negotiate new relationships. 

Before Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world in 2008, there was the Blackberry. Known to its army of corporate users as the “crackberry,” it demonstrated both the advantages and disadvantages of 24/7 connectivity long before the first Instagram post. Blackberry by indie filmmaker Matt Johnson tells the story of Research In Motion, the company who ruled the mobile world in the Bush era. Wary of another disingenuous hagiography of a tech oligarch? Don’t worry, this one’s a comedy!

Charlie Day, star of the TV comedy staple “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia,” makes his film-directing debut by biting the hand that feeds him. For Fool’s Paradise he enlisted Ken Jeong, John Malkovich, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody, Jason Sudeikis, Edie Falco, Jason Bateman, Common, and a whole bunch more, to satirize showbiz as it is practiced today. You can be excused if you get a strong Being There vibe from this one.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 represents the end of an era for Marvel and Disney. The main cast is retiring, and director James Gunn is moving to helm the rival DC movies. The Memphis Flyer‘s Sam Cicci says “Guardians Vol. 3 is the most creative Marvel film in years, a fitting end to Gunn’s time with Disney.” So far it’s pulled in $365 million worldwide, and shows no signs of stopping.

Judy Blume’s revolutionary young adult novel Are You There Go? It’s Me Margaret gets a worthy adaptation from director Kelly Fremon Craig and Simpsons producer James L. Brooks. Abby Ryder Fortson stars as Margaret, the confused middle-schooler who must navigate a move to the suburbs, puberty, and religious doubt all at once. Rachel McAdams and Memphian Kathy Bates give excellent support as Margaret’s mother and grandmother. Read my review, then watch the trailer.

Sam Raimi’s pioneering horror-comedy franchise continues its perfect record with new director Lee Cronin in Evil Dead Rise. This one’s definitely more scary than funny, but Cronin nails the franchise’s irreverent tone, and Alyssa Sullivan kills as a single mom possessed by demons who stalks a haunted apartment building. A must-see for horror fans, this one’s got legs.

South Korean director Hong Sang-soo and his frequent collaborator Kwan Hae-hyo are back together with Walk Up. Indie Memphis screens this affecting slice-of-life film, which premiered to laurels at the Toronto Film Festival, at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 17 at Studio on the Square.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

 What’s the beeping noise in the distance? It’s the sound of The Super Mario Bros. Movie collecting coins. You just saw Guardians, but you can’t get enough Chris Pratt? Good news! You can hear him phoning it in as Mario in this animated adaptation that has earned enough to build Princess Peach a very nice castle. 

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Film Features Film/TV

Now Playing in Memphis: Are You There God? It’s Me, Uma

Perpetually controversial and long thought unfilmable, Judy Blume’s 1970 novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. finally gets a big screen adaptation courtesy of writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig. Margaret (Ant-Man‘s Abby Ryder Fortson) is the daughter of an interfaith marriage who rejects both of her parents’ religions while negotiating impending puberty. Rachel McAdams plays Margaret’s mother Barbara, and Memphian Kathy Bates co-stars as Margaret’s conservative Christian grandmother.

London-based screenwriter Nida Manzoor makes her directorial debut with Polite Society. Ria (Bridgerton‘s Priya Kansara) is an aspiring stunt performer whose sister Lena (Umbrella Academy‘s Ritu Arya) is about to get married. But fiancée Salim (Akshaye Khanna) has a family secret, and it ain’t pretty. This one’s giving off strong droll-British-comedy vibes, and I’m here for it.

The full title of our next one says it all, really. Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World. Khris Davis from Judas and the Black Messiah stars as the beloved fighter and grilling enthusiast.

It’s the 10th anniversary of the Time Warp Drive-In, the classic movie collaboration between Black Lodge, filmmaker Mike McCarthy, and Malco Theater’s Summer Drive-In. To celebrate, they’re bringing back of their most popular programs. This month, it’s Quintessential Quintin: The Early Films of the Tarantino Universe. That means the wound-up neo-noir Reservoir Dogs, the Tarantino-penned Tony Scott classic True Romance, and, of course, the 1994 Palme D’Or winner, Pulp Fiction. Check out the original trailer, which looks just as radical today as it did back then. The films roll at sundown (7:45 p.m.) at the drive-in.

This week marks the 40th anniversary of two completely different films. The first is British music video director Adrian Lyne’s feature film breakthrough Flashdance. Jennifer Beals manages to be convincing as a welder in a steel mill who dreams of becoming a dancer. She’s moonlighting as a cabaret dancer when she meets a cute guy named Nick (Michael Nouri) who also happens to be her boss. It was a huge hit in 1983, but many more people saw the music videos that it spawned than sat through it in a theater. Flashdance will screen at the Malco Paradiso on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m.

Flashdance‘s competition that weekend was a little movie called Return of the Jedi. George Lucas’ original title was Revenge of the Jedi, before someone pointed out that seeking revenge was more of a Sith thing.

The new name was better suited to a film whose hero finally wins by negating the premise and refusing to fight any more Star Wars.

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Begin Your Holiday Backlash With Bad Santa 2

At first Christmas movies were all smiles. Lots of snowy landscapes, reindeer, and brightly wrapped presents for good little boys and girls, that’s all you needed to make a holiday movie and rake in those White Christmas bucks. Then after about 50 years of that, the Christmas backlash movie began to appear. Maybe it’s the twisted legacy of A Christmas Story, which is a fabulously positive holiday movie, but includes acknowledgements that the Yuletide can be a stressful time for all involved. Another early example of a holiday backlash movie is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, which is probably the best Thanksgiving themed film ever made.

Kathy Bates and Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa 2.

Terry Zwigoff’s 2004 Bad Santa is a standout holiday backlash movie because it dared to go full nilhilist. It revolved around Billy Bob Thornton’s scarily committed performance as Willie Stoke, a criminal deadbeat with a knack for safecracking and a taste for cheap booze and large women whose seasonal employment involves dressing up as Santa Claus. Nowadays, there are more holiday backlash movies (The Night Before and Office Christmas Party, for example) than actual holiday movies to backlash against, and if Bad Santa 2 is any indication, it might be time for a market correction.

As the English say, Bad Santa 2 does what it says on the tin. It’s pretty much just a straight remake of the original movie, a “let’s get the band back together” (except Zwigoff is out) done 10 years too late because nobody in Hollywood funds original ideas any more. That being said, it does, in fact, do what it says on the tin. Are you feeling grumpy about this impending season of darkness? Go watch Billy Bob Thornton and Kathy Bates—two extremely talented actors who don’t get to work as much as they should—lock horns as the worst mother and son pair since Caligula and Agrippina. Also back is Tony Cox as the treacherous elf Marcus, and Brett Kelly as Thurman Merman, the clueless little kid now grown up to a clueless young adult.

Brett Kelly and Billy Bob Thornton share deep dish pizza and a cig.

It may be difficult to impossible to shock us jaded filmgoers in this dark timeline, but Bad Santa 2’s writers Johnny Rosenthal and Shauna Cross gives it the old college try. About the time the novelty of seeing Santa Claus cuss at a midget starts wearing off, the film transitions into a low-impact heist comedy, and director Mark Waters executes both halves of the movie pretty well.

I always try to judge a movie first on what the filmmakers were apparently trying to achieve. On that level, the makers of Bad Santa 2 have clearly succeeded. But on the other hand, the thing they have succeeded at is making another Bad Santa movie. Maybe try to set the bar a bit higher next time.