WBCA Podcasts

Words On Film

Today on "Words On Film", Dan Burke reviews "Joker: Folie à Deux", "A Different Man", "The Substance", "My Old Ass", and "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story". Mr. Burke also gives a spoken-word preview of movies subject to being released into theaters on October 11th, 2024.

Broadcast on:: 07 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

[MUSIC] >> Hello and welcome to Words on Film, the spoken word show dedicated to moving pictures. I'm Dan Burke, your host and movie critic. And you're listening to Words on Film on WBCALP Boston. I will be reviewing some of the newest movies out right now. For this show, I have two brand new movies to review for you. Another two that are semi new, but not exactly brand new in the sense that they were released in the theaters on October 4th, for example. But those are ones that I didn't get to until now. And I also have a limited mini series that I'm going to review for you as well. I don't have a ton of time to review all these things. And especially with the limited mini series being over eight hours, if you put all nine episodes together, I've got a lot to discuss right now. So I might as well get to it. Starting with the newest and presumably the most talked about and maybe even the most profitable movie of the week. We don't know how profitable it's going to be until next week, but I'm just saying this one is very promising. The first movie I'm going to be reviewing for you is another sequel. This one is the sequel to 2019's Joker that was directed by Todd Phillips and not only starred Joaquin Phoenix as the titular Joker, but also earned Joaquin Phoenix, his first Academy Award for best actor in a leading role. And the sequel to the movie is Joker Folly Adoo. And I do have to confess, I didn't take French in school, so I had to actually look up what Folly Adoo actually meant. And what it means is madness for two. So I actually really like the title of the movie Folly Adoo. It also is tying into this being the second of the Joker movies. But this movie Joker Folly Adoo has a very tough act to follow after the Academy Award winning original one. But Joaquin Phoenix is back as both the Joker and Arthur Fleck, who may or may not be the same person depending on your psychological point of view. Also Todd Phillips is back as director. And there are a couple of other people in this movie who are reprising their roles from the original, including, but not limited to Zazie Beets and Lee Gill, who are reprising their roles as Sophie Dumand and Gary Puddles, respectively. But on top of that, there are some other notable additions to the movie, including Lady Gaga, who plays a character by the name of Lee Quinzel. Who, as a lot of Batman fans can presume, eventually morphs into the antagonist Harley Quinn, after she begins a relationship with the Joker. But in this movie, Arthur Fleck is institutionalized at Arkham Asylum in Gotham City, awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. And while struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds that music has always been the excuse me, music that's always been inside him. So Joker, Fagliadu, is not only a crime drama, as well as a comic book film, albeit a very dark R-rated comic book film. It is also a jukebox musical. And the truth of the matter is, I thought it was very audacious for this film to become a musical, especially considering that the original Joker wasn't really a musical. There were some musical moments where there was a lot of dancing to already establish pre-recorded music. But in terms of the characters breaking into song, that didn't happen. And it kind of does happen here, although a lot of the musical numbers are in the minds of the characters here, particularly Joker and Lee Quinzel. And I did like that Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga had some very good chemistry together, I was a bit disappointed by Lady Gaga's characterization of Harley Quin. She was crazy, I guess, but not crazy enough. And that was particularly disappointing, because I'm used to the character of Harley Quin from Batman, the animated series, where Harley Quin, contrary to popular belief, actually made her debut. She was not originally a comic book character. And also, Margot Robbie continued on with Harley Quin being loony and also zestfully insane in the movie Suicide Squad and also Birds of Prey and the Suicide Squad. The latter film was excellent, the other two were lacking in a lot of areas. But in a year full of sequels where some are better than others, conveniently, Joker Fahlia do falls apart. I think it had the zanniness that you might have expected in some areas, but it was also lacking in needed zanniness in others. And I felt like maybe this is more of the fault of Todd Phillips than it is for Lady Gaga, but I felt like Lady Gaga could have been crazier in this film, instead she kind of plays it relatively straight, and also, it seemed like Todd Phillips was more focused on Lady Gaga singing than he was her acting. And Lady Gaga has proven that she is arguably a triple threat. Not only can she sing and dance, but as proven in the better than expected remake of a Star is born, she can act really well too and not just as herself, and I expected better from her in her role as the woman who had ultimately become Harley Quinn. And I also felt like the musical numbers were a little bit too staged, and they also felt a little bit out of place more like they were YouTube videos than they were part of the story. In addition to that, you would imagine that the trial in this movie would be the biggest part, and it most certainly is, but the trial in this film felt actually drier and also simultaneously more unrealistic than I most certainly would have expected, especially when there's a development where Arthur Fleck fires his well-meaning attorney, Marianne Stewart, who's played by Catherine Keener, and Catherine Keener's character is trying to get Arthur Fleck to be found not guilty by reason of insanity, and truth be told, she has a very good case. But then Arthur Fleck fires her and represents himself in court, and the reasoning behind the judge actually allowing Arthur Fleck to represent himself in court is completely bonkers. And you know a movie fails to be realistic, not to mention plausible, when supposedly very smart characters do really stupid things, and I felt like the judge in this movie was supposed to be smart, but there is no way that anybody who has any practice in law, let alone a law degree, would allow somebody who's arguably crazy to not only represent themselves in court, but also wear the joker makeup while they're representing themselves. I don't think that would happen, I think that would be automatically assumed to be making a mockery of the court, and also grounds for contempt of court. Not that Arthur Fleck really has that much to lose by getting a count of contempt in court. And this is coming from someone, by the way, who did not go to law school. But I know enough lawyers, and I know some things about the law, maybe arguably from watching movies, to know that this would never fly in a real court. And one of the great things about the original Joker film was how grounded it was in reality. It didn't need to have the Batman character in order to be realistically crazy, or at least it didn't have to follow the comic books to be realistically crazy. And here I felt like the parts of the trial that should have been interesting were surprisingly dry. And I would imagine that a case in court that involved tax evasion would be more gripping than the trial that I see here. But also the judge in this film almost seemed to fall for that sort of law and order cliche, where the judge would allow anything to basically go. And that's where the movie really falls apart and becomes automatically inferior to the original. And I've seen a lot of sequels this year. I think a lot of people have. Some of them have been excellent. And I actually wish that I had gotten a list together of the sequels that I loved versus the sequels that I either didn't like or hated. I didn't hate Joker Folly Adoo, but it did fall short for me, which is why I give Joker Folly Adoo my rating of a strikeout. It was wise for Joaquin Phoenix to come back as the Joker, and without him the movie most certainly would not have worked. And I did think the movie started out really good in the beginning where you see Arthur Fleck getting adjusted to his life awaiting trial in Arkham Asylum. Unfortunately, the movie really lost its footing in the trial scene as well as with Lady Gaga not being crazy enough. But the ending of the film is most certainly going to disappoint a lot of people. I suppose you could say it's subversive, but it doesn't leave the cinematic universe here on a very good note and that is profoundly disappointing. Welcome back to Words on Film, the spoken word show dedicated to moving pictures. I am your host and movie critic Dan Burke. The next movie I'm going to be reviewing for you is A Different Man. This is the latest film starring Sebastian Stan, but it won't be the last time you hear about Sebastian Stan for the remainder of this year. He has another film coming out, which hasn't come out in the greater Nashville area yet, but my anticipation is that it will within the month where he portrays Donald Trump. That movie is called The Apprentice. This movie, A Different Man, is where he portrays someone who is far less controversial, at least by the time the movie starts. A different man premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year on January 21st, and hit theaters nationwide, at least in some sort of limited release on September 20th. But as I said, it came out in the greater Nashville area on Friday, October 4th, 2024. And I got a chance to see it and I'm going to review it for you right now. And in this movie, Sebastian Stan plays a man by the name of Edward, who is physically deformed in the face. And it's not exactly clear how he got this physical deformity, but it doesn't really merit an explanation. But after undergoing facial reconstructive surgery, Edward becomes fixated on an actor in a stage production based on his former life. And this actor in the film is a man by the name of Oswald, who's played by a man who actually does have facial deformities in real life, unlike Sebastian Stan's character. His facial deformities are not makeup. He's played by a very charming actor by the name of Adam Pearson, who I think was a major standout in this film. But when we're first introduced to Edward, he's played by Sebastian Stan and he is very unrecognizable with his facial deformities. And this part alone could make a different man a strong candidate for best makeup and hair styling at this year's coming Oscars, but I don't know exactly for sure. But Edward is an actor who lives in Manhattan, and he has a neighbor who moves in while he's already situated, a very pretty Polish immigrant by the name of Ingrid, who's played by, and I hope I'm pronouncing this name right, Renate Ransve. And even though Edward's appearance is very unorthodox and startling for many, Ingrid begins to not only like Edward, but also be very inspired by Edward, so much though, so much so that she writes an off-Broadway play based on the character of Edward. But while this friendship is blossoming, and there's no guarantee that this is going to be a romantic relationship, Sebastian Stan's character undergoes very experimental surgery that can make his face a lot more conventional, that's a nice way of putting it, than what he has now. And the facial reconstructive surgery actually works and gives Sebastian Stan's character the face that we all know of Sebastian Stan, or at least we can presume what Sebastian Stan's face actually looks like. And you think his life would be better, but it's the decisions that Edward makes after this facial reconstructive surgery that sabotages his life and his happiness in a lot of very unexpected ways. And I really loved the fact that this movie took you places with what was, who was at first, a very likable character who ultimately makes some behavioral decisions that results in him pretty much abandoning his life, telling everyone he knows, including the doctors who were responsible for his facial reconstructive surgery that Edward is dead, and creating a new life as a man by the name of Guy, who ultimately takes his good looks and becomes a successful real estate agent while also keeping close tabs on the playwright Ingrid, who is developing this play based on his previous life. And then Adam Pearson comes into the picture as the character Oswald, who is one of the people who auditions to play Edward in this off-Broadway play. Then Oswald begins to be the life of the party, he's very outgoing, and he has a lot of very notable character features that more than compensates for the way he looks, and a lot of people are drawn to him as a result. And that makes the more introverted Edward jealous in a lot of ways, and that creates a different man from a movie of triumph into one of tragedy. And there are various places where I feel like, especially in the third act, a different man could have ended and it would have been a noteworthy film. It does go on a little bit too long with a couple of scenes that are questionable in their realism. Of course, the idea of somebody who has the kind of physical deformities that the character Edward does actually getting the surgery that he needs in order to become a great looking guy like Sebastian Stan, that's not particularly realistic at least in the medical sense right now, but it could be later. But there was a lot I enjoyed about a different man. Of course, Sebastian Stan acts very well before and after his transformation from physical deformities, I really liked Renate Reinswe, and I might be pronouncing that name wrong, but she's a beauty and she's also very enigmatic and also very attractive in a lot of other ways besides her looks as Ingrid. And Adam Pearson I think was the standout actor in this role, and I hope that the Academy pays attention. So even though the movie went on for a few more scenes than I think it ultimately could have and should have, I do give a different man by rating of a marginal knockout because I think about five six of this film really worked, especially when Sebastian Stan's character gets his new face and you would imagine that his life would be simpler, but he also finds that he has some challenges in that he now can blend in. But blending in isn't always a great thing, particularly if you are known for standing out even in a negative way. So a different man is certainly a very original film. It's very well directed by Aaron Schimberg who also wrote the story and the screenplay here. It was reportedly shot in 22 days and it really is a good piece of filmmaking. I just do think that a couple of the last scenes could have been cut from this film and it would have been even better, but as a different man stands it is certainly a film that stands out. [music] The next movie I'm going to be reviewing for you is The Substance, and this is another independent film, presumably about not being comfortable in one skin despite not having any particular deformities, but it is also about, like a different man, the meaning of beauty. The substance is a film that was released at first at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19th and was released into theaters nationwide in both the United States and the United Kingdom on September 20th, 2024. It will be released in France on November 6th, 2024, and the reason I mention that is not only because it is on my info sheet right here, but also because the director, Cora-Lee Fargiat, directed this film and she is a native of France, but the majority of people who are in this film are American and the movie takes place in LA, in the section of LA we all see in the movies. And the movie is about a fading celebrity whose name is Elizabeth Sparkle, and I don't know if an A-list celebrity would actually be named Elizabeth Sparkle, but I guess it's there, at least in a symbolic sense, and she is played by Demi Moore, who looks probably as good as she's ever looked, at least since St. Elmo's Fire, but this fading celebrity takes a black market drug, which is a cell replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself. And it's unclear exactly what kind of celebrity Demi Moore actually plays in this film, whether it's supposed to be somebody who's like herself or whether it's a fitness guru, very similar to Jillian Michaels, but when we first meet Elizabeth Sparkle, she already has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which automatically means she is an established star. And she's also making a good name and a living for herself by being in an exercise show, but her pig-headed manager, and presumably the executive at the television station by the name of Harvey, who's played by Dennis Quaid, is looking for somebody younger and more beautiful than Demi Moore. And even though Demi Moore is 60 and she has looks that women half her age, or even three quarters of her age, wish that they had, Demi Moore is, or at least her character, is very insecure and not willing to deal with the fact that based on the fact that she is an older woman in Hollywood, her career is fading. So she learns about this substance that's actually called the substance after she miraculously survives a very cataclysmic car crash. And she learns that when she takes the substance, she is put in a coma for a week while a younger version of herself pretty much morphs out of her body. And the way this younger version of herself morphs out of her body is bloody disgusting. And I do mean that literally. And this kind of effect in the film is actually very reminiscent of David Cronenberg. But the comparisons to David Cronenberg and the favorable comparisons don't stop there. But anyway, in this movie, Demi Moore's younger self is named Sue, and she's played by Margaret Qualley. Now, Demi Moore could have had her younger self be played by rumor Willis, who is Demi Moore's real life daughter, who has a fair amount of acting under her belt. Similarly, Elizabeth Sparkle could have been played by Andy McDowell, who is Margaret Qualley's real life mother. But there is a lot of nudity in the scenes where the two of them are together. And I'm not exactly sure if this is the kind of movie that a mother and daughter would want to make together, because it is sick and it is twisted, especially when you learn the rules of the substance, where each person who is affected by the substance, the one who injects it, the older one and the younger one, has to stay awake for seven days. And then at the end of that seventh day, essentially by the literal minutes the seven days are up has to go into a coma while the other one takes their place and lives for another week. But when those rules aren't followed, there are morbid and very ghastly consequences. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it. And there are also some other scenes, very much like a different man where a lot of great makeup is used, and I would be absolutely shocked, probably even more than a different man if the substance is also not nominated for best makeup and hairstyling. But this movie serves as not only a dark comedy as well as a body horror film, but it also serves as a really good satire about how obsessed Hollywood is with youth and beauty. But it also serves as a cautionary tale, especially when if you take a step back from the film, you realize that Demi Moore looks amazing for anyone, let alone someone her age. And she probably could have just let her career fade naturally rather than resorting to this extreme measure that ultimately costs her more than she was willing to buy. You also see that Margaret Qualley's character also faces some negative consequences as well. But Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley act incredibly well in this film, and I also really liked the camera angles of Demi Moore's character's exercise show versus Margaret Qualley's character's exercise show. The way that the cameras are positioned and what they shoot, it's not accidental. And it also shows that the TV industry is more interested in ratings by any means necessary than it is from the content of the show, that they're showing to the main audience. And not what people get out of it. Of course, that is probably no surprise to anyone who is even remotely familiar with the TV industry. And Dennis Quaid plays the kind of manager you love to hate. And Dennis Quaid plays a slimy scumbag so well. I'm not saying that Dennis Quaid is a slimy scumbag. He may be a nice guy, I don't exactly know. But in this film, he plays skeezy amazingly well. And interestingly enough, the character of Harvey, who is probably and presumably named after Harvey Weinstein, and that's not entirely coincidence, was originally going to be played by Ray Liotta, but Ray Liotta died before pre-production even began on this film. He had been given the part, but then he died and Dennis Quaid took it instead. But Ray Liotta is actually given special thanks at the end of this film. But the substance is a film that is particularly original. There are, of course, some comparisons that can be made favorably to movies by Werner Herzog and David Cronenberg, amongst other very subversive and electrifying directors. But Corley Fargit also gives this kind of movie a feminist slant that I think a story like this would most certainly need. It is not for the faint of heart, and it's not for the faint of stomach either. But the substance gets my rating of a 100% certified, very enthusiastic knockout because the acting in this film is amazing. It is grotesque in terms of its science fiction elements as well as its horror elements, not to mention that the cinematography in this film in just about every instance is absolutely amazing. And it's one of those films that is original, but also has qualities that can be compared to Faust, where somebody makes a deal with the presumed devil and the consequences of selling their soul are ghastly. And the substance, I think, makes that point brilliantly in this film, not to mention, also giving you that lesson of "you don't know what you got until it's gone." [music] Welcome back to Words on Film, the spoken word showed dedicated to moving pictures, I am your host and movie critic Dan Burke. The next movie I'm going to be reviewing for you is "My old ass" and this is the latest film co-starring Aubrey Plaza, and even though she's given second billing in this film, she's actually only in the film for about maybe 5 or 10 minutes of its one hour 29 minute running time. And that's not entirely a spoiler for you, but considering that Aubrey Plaza is listed second in the stars of this film, and she's also featured prominently on the poster, you would presume that Aubrey Plaza would be getting more screen time. I'm not necessarily saying that I'm disappointed by it, actually there is a lot to this coming of age comedy, and it's listed on IMDB as a comedy, but it also has some dramatic elements to it as well, but it is certainly a film that is original in a lot of sense, and it's also a film that rests on the shoulders of the star of the film whose character's name is Ellie, and she's played by an actress with whom I'm not entirely familiar, but she did very well in this film. Her name is Maisie Stella, and Maisie Stella plays an 18 year old who lives with her family on a cranberry farm in Muscoco Lakes, Ontario in Canada, and it takes a little while to have you realize that this movie takes place in Canada, but you can tell from some of the accents in the film, even though this movie has a lot of American actors in it, including Aubrey Plaza. But Maisie Stella has been in a few other movies and TV shows, in terms of actually movies, this is her cinematic debut. She'd previously been on the TV show Nashville, which was actually filmed here in Nashville, and she has also been in some music videos, but this is her cinematic debut, and it's not very usual that a person who's had no prior acting experience in movies would have the lead role, but Maisie Stella shows that she is up for the challenge, and she absolutely succeeds. And in this movie, Elliot's that character is a free spirit who is on her way to college in Toronto, and while she's spending the summer in Muscoco Lakes in Ontario, she has a mushroom trip with her friends that brings her face to face with her 39 year old self, who's credited as older Elliot, and older Elliot is, as implied previously, played by Aubrey Plaza. So when Elliot's old ass quote unquote, uh, delivers warnings to her younger self, Elliot realizes she has to rethink everything about her family, life, and love. And in this film, Maisie Parks plays an 18 year old in real life, or rather, when this movie was being filmed, she was around 20. So it's not too much of an age gap, not compared to 21 year olds who play 16 year olds, which happens a lot more than you think. In fact, it probably 25 to 26 year olds play 18 year olds in films all the time. So it actually is more the exception that somebody would play this close to their age than the rule, especially when it comes to women. But Elliot is somebody who is desperate to get out of her hometown, even though Muscoco Lakes Ontario is absolutely beautiful and reminds me a lot of where I grew up in Maine, maybe not as scenic, but I also had that feeling when I was growing up in rural Maine that I really want to get out of here and show me somebody who is in their late teens who doesn't feel like that. And I will probably say they should put an ad out on Craigslist because there are a lot of teens and maybe even parents of teens who want to learn from that teen. So Elliot is both struggling with this shift in her life where she's going from this rural area that's that scenic, but in 18 years of living there, it's a bit monotonous and she's going to the big city and she's also learning a little bit more about herself as well as her wants and also kind of figuring out her needs in life as well. And when Maisie Stella is sharing a scene with Aubrey Plaza, whether it's the two of them together in one scene or if it's Aubrey Plaza speaking to Maisie Stella over the phone, she begins to learn a little bit more about herself and her life. And also the character of Elliot is a lesbian or so she thinks, but she begins to have a romantic relationship with a guy by the name of Chad who's played in this film by Percy Hines White. And interestingly enough, the older Elliot is telling the younger Elliot to steer clear of Chad and of course her being 18 and full of raging hormones. That is much easier said than done, but she's also really questioning her sexuality and it's kind of the opposite way where in a lot of other teen films that somebody who presumes their straight, but then they ultimately find their gay, this is the opposite way. And actually it is kind of a refreshing change of pace and it shows you how far we've come in terms of acceptance of people's sexualities and also acceptance of our own sexualities. Granted, we still have a long way to go, but we've still come a very long way, at least in the western world. So my old ass is a film that I would imagine if it were made 20 years ago, Aubrey Plaza would be playing the younger Elliot and I could honestly see Janine Garafolo playing the older Elliot because even though Janine Garafolo and Aubrey Plaza don't look exactly alike, they do have that same kind of deadpan humor. The only caveat I think is that Aubrey Plaza's 5'6" and Janine Garafolo's 5'1", so there is that difference in height there, but that's really about it. But considering that, I think if this movie were to be made where Aubrey Plaza is a 39-year-old trying to figure it out with an older Janine Garafolo who plays her older self, that would be an interesting film too, and I would probably implore Meghan Park, the director or writer of this film, to maybe make that as well. I would also think that Meghan Park might be interested in making a companion piece to this film, not a sequel, but one where it shows Aubrey Plaza as the older Elliot and her life in addition to the parts where this movie and Aubrey Plaza's character's life intersect. I think that would be an interesting film, but my old ass is a movie that gets my rating of a knockout. I think the funny parts are hilarious and also the dramatic parts are very poignant as well. And Maisie Stella is in every scene in this film and she does a bang-up job playing the protagonist in this film, and you're with her for the ride even if you can't relate to the struggles through which she's going. I think there are elements of her character's life in this film, especially with her being out of high school and going to college in a bigger city to which a lot of people can most certainly relate. And this is probably one of the most refreshing films about coming of age since Adventureland. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Welcome back to Words on Film, the spoken word show dedicated to moving pictures. I am your host and movie critic Dan Burke. The next limited series I'm going to be reviewing is Monsters, the Lyle and Eric Menendez story. This premiered on Netflix on September 19th, 2024, and I'm getting to it now because I made sure not to review this limited series until I actually saw all of it. And seeing this limited mini series is like watching an eight hour film, it really is. And this is the second season of the American biographical crime, drama, anthology television series Monster, which was created by Brian Murphy and Ian Brennan exclusively for Netflix. And it's been almost exactly two years since they came out with Dommar, Monster, the Jeffrey Dommar story, which I made an exception for reviewing on this show because a lot of people ask me do I review TV series and honestly the answer to that is no because when it comes to series, some seasons are better than others and also watching an entire season of a series is like watching a movie that's six to 13 hours long. There is no way with my schedule I can do that for all the TV series that are out there and there are so so many of them. I mean there are a lot of movies out there too, but it's much easier for me to watch movies than it is to watch TV series. But limited series like the second season of this biographical crime, drama, anthology, television series I make an exception with, especially when the cinematic quality of these series are quite high. I will say however that the story of Lyle and Eric Menendez is not nearly as strong as the depiction of Jeffrey Dommar and his life and crimes from two years ago but it still has some noteworthy performances as well as some very ambitious types of filmmaking. So for those of you who don't know, Lyle and Eric Menendez are still alive and in prison and they're in prison for killing their parents in cold blood. Why exactly they killed their parents? No one really knows except for them. But a lot of people have said that they did it for greed. They claim that they did it because their parents were emotionally and physically and they claim sexually abusive. I'm really not one to claim whether or not Lyle and Eric Menendez are telling the truth. I certainly would not want to be one of those people who call somebody a liar who claims they're being sexually abused. When it comes to sexual abuse pretty much the person who did the sexual abuse is guilty until proven innocent. In a court of law in America they're innocent as a proven guilty but in the minds of everyone else it's the exact opposite but this movie certainly challenged me and there are some scenes in this film that are very hard to watch. Not to mention whole episodes. In fact of this nine episode miniseries the one that is probably the hardest to watch is episode 5 which is The Hurt Man. And this movie in terms of its acting as well as cinematography is very ambitious and I think actually I don't know exactly if it's the best episode of the series but it certainly is the most ambitious. But it will test your patience as it is a 45 minute episode that's filmed in one sequence as the camera is slowly zooming in on the head of Eric Menendez who in this film is played by Cooper Koch. And he is having an interview with his lawyer Leslie Abramson who is played in this film by Ari Greiner and he is detailing explicitly the sexual abuse he is alleged to suffer under the hands of his father Jose Menendez who's played in this film by Javier Bardem. I could go into the history of the Menendez family but I don't honestly have a lot of time for that. But I mentioned the actors who played Eric and Jose Menendez. There's also the matriarch of the family Mary Louise Kitty Menendez who's played by Chloe Sevene who is curiously cast in this role. I can't exactly see Chloe Sevene as a desperate housewife but she does what she can with this role and she's very good in it. And there's also Lyle Menendez the older brother who's played by Nicholas Alexander Chavez and he plays Lyle Menendez the same way that Mikey Day portrayed Donald Trump Jr. on various episodes of Saturday Night Live. I don't know if it's exactly true to Lyle Menendez's actual character but it is probably the way that a lot of people think Lyle Menendez's character really is. But the biggest stand up performance in this series is that of Nathan Lane who plays the role of Dominic Dunn who is a prominent journalist known for his key interest in high profile criminal cases especially since Dominic Dunn's daughter Dominique Dunn who was an actress who appeared in a movie like Poltergeist was actually killed by her boyfriend and what's really eerie about this is that Dominic Dunn was killed on November 4th 1982 the day before Dominic Dunn was murdered this is true on November 3rd 1982 I was born so the coincidence there is absolutely stunning but aside from that Nathan Lane has moments in this film where he gives the equivalent of monologues. It's not exactly a monologue where he breaks the fourth wall but he does I think probably put a crack in the fourth wall as he is detailing his views and opinions of the Menendez brothers and whether or not they should be exonerated for their crimes and I could give you my opinion about the Menendez brothers but I don't have a lot of time for that but this movie does or rather this mini series I'm so used to saying movie does hook you in the sense that there are compelling characters of course true crime is a very juicy topic and even though it's especially hot now with the biggest podcast being true crime podcasts it is most certainly a subject that will never lose its juiciness particularly in this instance and I wish I could talk more about this equivalent to eight and a half hour miniseries but I will say that the miniseries isn't quite as good as the Jeffrey Dahmer story I think that the acting in the Jeffrey Dahmer story was better I think there was more of a focus on the victims of Jeffrey Dahmer than there is in this series and I think there could have been an additional episode that better characterized Jose and Kenny Menendez and give them a little bit more background of how they grew up and how they ultimately became the family they were especially in the case of Jose Menendez but monsters the Lyle and Eric Menendez story gets my rating of a check out because it is most certainly compelling and there are some great acting performances in this film especially by Javier Bardem, Ari Grainer and Nathan Lane but the movie does tend to delve into stereotypes and also presumptions of the Lyle and Eric Menendez that I think we've seen in other TV films before and we've even seen on shows like Saturday Night Live sometimes it felt a bit lamp-punish some of the instances here and it shouldn't feel lamp-punish granted the Lyle and Eric Menendez core case was indeed a very unusual one but I did feel like there were some characters in this film when there should have been better characters but I don't know if this film will change your opinion about Lyle and Eric Menendez and whether or not they should be released from prison or even if they should have been given the death penalty but it is compelling for its acting and some of its storytelling but I think that sometimes when it delved into caricatures that's where it lost its footing unlike the first season of "About Jeff and Don" Welcome back to words on film the spoken word show dedicated to moving pictures I am your host movie critic Dan Burke and now that I've reviewed all the movies that I have to review for this show it's now time for me to get into my final segment which is what's coming up next this is a spoken word preview of movies that are subject to being released in theaters on October 11th 2024 and there are a handful of films that are going to be released the week of October 6th through October 11th 2024 but I don't have a ton of time to get to those other films I'm going to instead give you details about movies that are probably going to be released in a theater near you that Friday and the movie that comes up first on my list is a movie that's called Terrifier 3 and this is a movie I can tell you I won't be seeing because I haven't seen the first two Terrifier movies and I have an unofficial rule that I oftentimes follow where I don't see sequels until I see the original and not only have I not seen the original Terrifier I hadn't even heard of it but this movie is about a creature by the name of Art the Clown who is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as it peacefully drifts off to sleep on Christmas Eve so it is a bit risky to release this film in October but then again a lot of Christmas themed movies music and books come out in October that's generally a safe time to release Christmas themed stories like this so maybe it's not as out of place as I think but the stars of this movie include Lauren Lavera Art the Clown is played by David Howard Thornton Antonella Rose and Elliot Fulman amongst other people so I'm telling you right now definitively that I will not see this film but if you are interested in seeing it's subject to being released in theaters on October 11th so you can most certainly see it for yourself another movie that is subject to being released in theaters on October 11th which will most certainly be released in the theater near you is a movie that's called Saturday Night and this one I'm very excited to see it was playing at the National excuse me at the Nashville Film Festival and I was actually planning on seeing it but the screening was completely booked so ultimately I couldn't but this movie takes place not only in New York and it's not only about the premiere episode of Saturday Night Live but it takes place on October 11th 1975 and it's set to be released on 49 years to the day that Saturday Night Live premiered and this is SNL's 50th season and it's also confirmed to be the last season where Lauren Michaels will be executive producer because he's retiring at the end of this season now there has been talk about Saturday Night Live being canceled as a result of Lauren Michaels retiring I don't think that's gonna happen but it's gonna be very interesting to see how SNL is going to rebound after Lauren Michaels departs because not only did he create Saturday Night Live but he also brought Saturday Night Live back from the brink of being canceled so he's been producer for 45 of its 50 seasons and most of its great seasons were because of Lauren Michaels the other seasons that were great that didn't have Lauren Michaels were largely kept afloat from Eddie Murphy but that's another story for another time but this movie is not about the first season of Saturday Night Live it's about the very first episode and it has a cast of relative unknowns similar to the first season of Saturday Night Live who became big stars afterwards but they are relative unknowns playing big names. Lauren Michaels is portrayed here by Gabriel Lebel, Chevy Chase is played by Corey Michael Smith, Ella Hunt plays Gilda Radner, Dylan O'Brien plays Dan Ackroyd, Emily Farron plays Lorraine Newman, Matt Wood plays John Belushi Lamourne Morris plays Garrett Morris and if you're curious the two are not related and Kim Matula plays Jane Curtain so this is a very ambitious film it's timing couldn't be better in terms of it being released I suppose it could have been shelved and released a year from now you know 50 years to the day of SNL's premiere episode but regardless I'm still very excited to see it I will see it and I will let you know what I think on a future show another movie that is subject to being released in theaters nationwide on October 11th that has already been pre-screened for some critics but not me is a film that's called The Apprentice and the timing for this film couldn't be better or couldn't be worse depending on your political view but this is a movie about how a young Donald Trump started his real estate business in the 1970s and 80s New York with the helping hand of infamous lawyer Roy Cohen so this is definitely going to get some feathers ruffling because this is a Hollywood film about one of the most popular presidents of our lifetime and you can definitely say a lot about Donald Trump but one thing that is undisputed is the fact that most of Hollywood hates him with the exception of a few outliers like Scott Baio or Kanye West but in this film Donald Trump is portrayed by Sebastian Stan I'm not exactly sure if that's great casting based on the way he looks but actually Sebastian Stan kind of looks like Donald Trump Jr so maybe it is good casting but Sebastian Stan is most certainly an excellent actor and Roy Cohen is portrayed here by Jeremy Strong. Now to give you an idea Roy Cohen is a real or was a real person he's dead now but he was previously portrayed by Al Pacino in an HBO mini series and Jeremy Strong coming after Al Pacino that's a tough act to follow but Jeremy Strong has proven from his work in a lot of movies and TV shows that he is most certainly up to the task excuse me. So the apprentice is a film that I will see and I will let you know what I think on a future show. That just about does it for this episode of Words on Film. Words on Film is the spoken word show dedicated to moving pictures and I am your hosted movie critic Dan Burke reminding you that the views and opinions expressed on words on film about movies or other topics are solely those of your hosted movie critic Dan Burke. They do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of any employees or volunteers who are working at WBCA or the station as a whole until I watch a whole bunch of brand new movies this is Dan Burke saying I'll see you at the movies (upbeat music)