 Focus Features, 2020. "Kajillionaire" is the sort of quirky dramedy you'd expect to find coming out of a film festival...it did in fact have its premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival back in January. There are some delicious performances, and Evan Rachel Wood is simply a powerhouse, but the film ekes by without ever really making an impact.
 Netflix, 2020. Millie Bobby Brown owes a great deal to Netflix, and vice versa. As the break-out star of the hit "Stranger Things," the sixteen-year-old actress is now branching out into feature films...and as the young, adventurous "Enola Holmes," she might have just landed smack-dab in the middle of what could be a very popular movie franchise-in-the-making for the streaming service that helped catapult her career.
 Screen Gems, 2020. A terminally ill mother (Susan Sarandon) unites her family together for one last weekend before her planned (illegal) assisted suicide. That's not exactly your "feel good" plot of the year and maybe on its surface, too much of a downer to want to tackle in the year that is 2020. But in "Blackbird," there is a tremendous ensemble doing what they can, trapped in a story that feels dead on arrival.
 It's a horror film, no doubt. The worst, most effective form of horror, in that it doesn't feature bogeymen or faceless, raging killers. The monsters in "Antebellum" are real. Disappointingly for a film tackling such important, timely issues such as racial inequality and injustice, its gimmicks undercut its efforts, leaving the viewers to pick up the messy, disconnected pieces where they fall. By the end, you realize the puzzle wasn't even worth putting together, and that the filmmakers - while well-intentioned - don't seem to know the most effective way to handle the material.
 Netflix, 2020. There is lots of buzz surrounding the new Netflix documentary, "The Social Dilemma," but there are actually several additional documentaries - four in particular - worth seeking out on streaming...all of which are currently available or will be available in the coming week.
Here's our reviews of all of them, and when/where you can locate them:  Photo Credit: Jason Betke. "The Celiac Project." 2020. Celiac Disease - you may be surprised to find out - is not an "allergy" or a "sensitivity" to gluten. It is, in fact, an auto-immune disease, in which the body attacks the protein "gluten" (found in wheat, barley and rye) once it enters the digestive system.
The beauty of the new documentary "The Celiac Project," is that it is not a chalkboard lecture. Instead, filmmaker Michael Frolichstein dives into his own Celiac diagnosis, and the diagnosis of one of his young nephews, giving the audience a personalized Celiac story that is far more effective than what someone can ascertain about the Disease from a blog post or textbook.  Tri-Star/Sony, 2020. "The Broken Hearts Gallery" is sticking to its guns and will be hitting theaters - not streaming - when it is released on September 11th. Because of that, this Selena Gomez-produced romantic-comedy is really one of the first comedic films aimed at this audience to hit the big-screen all year...and despite thinking that it was a contrived, mostly unfunny mess of a movie...I have a feeling that the target-aged audience might strongly disagree with my assessment.
 IFC Films, 2020. The title "Rent-A-Pal" may suggest that what you're about to watch is some sort of screwball, buddy-comedy. That couldn't be further from the truth. Instead, what you'll find is a surprisingly gripping psychological thriller, one that is definitely worth watching but somehow feels like it doesn't live up to its fullest potential.
 Netflix, 2020. Charlie Kaufman may very well be better and smarter than us, but man is it annoying when he rubs our faces in his self-proclaimed brilliance. In adapting the 2016 novel by Ian Reed, his "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" is inaccessible, gloriously bland and shamefully pretentious at only a level that Kaufman could ever possibly reach.
 Disney+, 2020. Disney's live-action re-make, "Mulan," was supposed to hit theaters back in March...but, you know.
After several delays, it became increasingly apparent that "Mulan" was never make it to the big-screen at all. Instead, putting it on the Disney+ streaming service seemed like a gamble that Disney was ultimately willing to take. For the hefty cost of $29.99, you can finally watch this new version of "Mulan," if you also happen to be a Disney+ subscriber...or you can wait until December when it will supposedly be available on the service for free. Side-stepping whether or not this version of "Mulan" is worth $30, I do think that this film would have looked dazzling on the big-screen, even though it still holds its own at home. |
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tom santilli movie reviews
Tom Santilli is a professional film critic, TV personality, host and
the Executive Producer of Movie Show Plus.
He also is the film critic for WXYZ Channel 7 Action News in Detroit,
and appeared weekly on FOX-2 in Detroit from 2016-2020.
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TOM'S GRADING SCALE:
B- and above: Thumbs Up
C+ or below: Thumbs Down