Directed by Erskine Forde and written by Eliza Hayes Maher (Deadly DILF) and Tiffany Yarde, this is the story of Caribbean cousins Fabienne Larke (Mishael Morgan) and Mirlande Holder (Andrea Lewis) who have decided to start a clothing company together. Fabienne is also a lawyer for a company that is trying to break a strike led by Zayn (Daniel Malik), a fiery union leader. What she doesn’t know is that she was only picked for this role because she’s a woman of color with a mother who was a factory worker. Can the cousins start their business and make it work when they are so unalike now — Fabienne being shy and devoted to work and Mirlande being live on social all the time and floating through her existence — or will things fail?
A lot of this movie is expected but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t entertaining. Actually, the fighting between the cousins felt authentic. I also liked that the movie didn’t go down the everyday route of having Fabienne and Zayn fall in love. There are some good messages about family, sticking with what you believe in and giving to others, as the cousins eventually create a company that gives clothing to young people who can’t afford interview clothes. Another fun Tubi movie!
Directed and written by Jean-Marc Minéo, a former six-time kung fu champion of France, Europe and finally the world champion, Last Resort reminds me of the films released by Cannon-like labels after it went out of business, 1990s direct to video efforts that were all about action, that got the story out of the way as soon as possible. This is not a bad thing.
Michael Reed (Jon Foo) nearly died in Syria and ever since can’t get himself off the couch. This former soldier has pushed his wife Kim (Julaluck Ismalone) away and she’s taken their daughter Anna (Angelina Ismalone) to the bank and then out of his life. They’re taken hostage by Islamic terrorists led by an American named Cooper (Clayton Norcross) who are really after a bioterror weapon in one of the safety deposit boxes. He didn’t count on Michael — who he knows, it turns out that Michael wasn’t an ordinary soldier — who starts killing his men one-by-one, as this movie echoes so much of Die Hard but yet, doesn’t every action movie made after it do the same? For example, there’s one cop who looks out for our hero when no one else believes in him.
There’s enough fighting and guns in this — including a sniper ending that I wish I’d seen in a crowded theater — to satisfy most action fans. Sure, it’s a by the numbers shoot ’em up run and gun film, but we don’t get that many of those any more. I can look past the awkward line readings if I’m going to get stuff that moves this fast and looks this good.
George Lucas was trying to keep Star Wars on peoples’ minds by producing a holiday variety TV special. As the filmmakers ask, what could possibly go wrong?
Everything.
Directors Jeremy Koon (Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made) and Steve Kozak have assembled the people who were there when it was made, the folks who watched it when it was first on TV and those who have been influenced by it. You’ll hear from writer Bruce Villanch, director Steve Binder, superfans like Paul Scheer and Taran Killam, and those who have been close to the Forece like Seth Green and Donny Osmond. Donny Osmond? Yes.
I watched the special live when it aired — the only time it ever played — on November 17, 1978. Even at six years of age, I wondered why Harvey Korman, Bea Arthur, Diahann Carroll, Starship and Art Carney were in a special that should have been about the Rebellion fighting the Empire.
What cultural force can unite Bob Mackie — who designed the dresses — and Weird Al, Kevin Smith, Mick Garris and the Wookies?
This film does a great job of explaining why this happened without just making fun of it. It would have been so easy to just laugh at it, but I love that this takes a balanced — yet still fun — look at something many have heard of and few have seen.
You can watch this movie on demand, on blu ray and DVD and in select theaters. For more information, visit the official site.
Brooke Konrad (Agnes Albright) and Tanner Behlma (Andrew Bailes) are photographers who love to explore abandoned houses. It’s based on the feelings that director and writer John Pata had when he was inside a destroyed house.
During one of their exploratory photo sessions, they’re trapped by bad weather in an industrial structure where an unhoused man (Jeremy Holm) is also hiding out. He resembles Brooke’s deceased father, which starts to unlock past memories as that man committed suicide in front of her.
To make things even worse — can they get worse? — the entire building is filled with black mold that has hallucinogenic side effects. Which means by the end, no one knows what is real, what is memory and what is a strange homeless man raving about everyone being against him.
This is shot in some real abandoned structures and if I didn’t think so at the beginning of this movie, I am completely never going in a house or industrial space that’s been abandoned like the ones in this movie. They’re terrifying already and now that I have to worry about black mold making me crazy — well, more insane — I’m going to think about this all of the time.
The three leads are all really good in this and it feels pretty real, even when the mania overtakes them all.
After committing an impulsive, vicious crime while searching for his missing daughter, Tom (Luke Bracey) goes on the run from law enforcement. He’s trapped in his truck, trying desperately to reach his daughter Ruby (Martha Kate Morgan), dealing with calls from his ex Terri (Alex Malone), having hostage negotiators call and most frightening, talking to The Associate (Toby Jones), a man who asks him how far he’ll go to save his child.
Directed by John Curran, who wrote this with Jesse Heffring and Christopher Lee Pelletier, this film asks a lot of Bracey who more than overdelivers. He’s the only character on screen for so much of this and we’re trapped inside the same space that he is.
Shot on a virtual set, we never really see much of what exists outside the inside of the truck. And that’s perfect. When so many movies give everything away, this is one that remains ambiguous, even at times frustratingly so. Yet I see any limitations as positives, as this feels like an experiment and a director and lead trying to do something different. A man is falling to pieces and he can’t stop driving, trying to fix things that can’t be fixed. Now that’s a movie.
A film with a perfectly fitting title, writer/director/star Wendy McColm’s Fuzzy Head is a surreal genre-film meditation on lifelong trauma that began with childhood abuse.
Insomniac Marla (McColm) may or may not be interacting with others, viewers may or may not be witnessing actual events or imagined ones from her life, and the nonlinear framework of the film makes things even less clear as the young woman tries to piece together whether she murdered her mother, who once made her walk on broken glass as a childhood punishment. But if things were clear to us, we couldn’t sympathize with Marla’s plight as much as we do — and hers is the type of character, thanks to McColm’s work behind the camera and in front of it, that we ultimately want to see come out of everything okay.
McColm is great in the role, with her character going through the wringer, and her supporting cast — particularly Alicia Witt as Marla’s mother — is solid throughout. If you enjoy symbolism and dream interpretation in your cinematic choices, Fuzzy Head should keep you busy. There’s more than a little David Lynch influence at play here, along with influences from other filmmakers, but McColm’s film is its own unique work, boasting plenty of oddness and intriguing visuals.
Fuzzy Head is a heavy, heady, often uncanny character study with thriller elements that should leave viewers with plenty to chew on long after the ending credits roll.
Fuzzy Head, from Gravitas Ventures, is currently available as a streaming release.
Everyone always wants to be a rock star when they grow up. But after watching this TMZ special, which is on Tubi, no part of me is interested in the life that Taylor Swift has. She has to arrive at her shows inside a black curtained box so that no one stalks her or tries to get her before she’s on stage. She can’t go anywhere without being recognized. I understand, people trade their ability to be normal for all that money but when you can’t go anywhere, is it worth it?
This also shows how Dave Chapelle was attacked onstage and what happened next, as well as a stalker breaking into Sandra Bullock’s house and her calling the police from a panic room. None of these moments will ever happen to normal people, so when we go on and on about celebrities, maybe we should think for a bit about how rough it really can be.
Mrs. Jess Claus (Golden Brooks) is sick of waiting for her husband Nick Claus (Jason Mimms) to stop working and cancel their annual vacation. So to put the spark back in her marriage, she goes to Miami on her own and gets back together with her best friend from college ,Tamira (Schelle Purcell). As you can probably read there, she’s Mrs. Claus. He’s Santa Claus. And she’s having a hot girl weekend in Miami to see if she can find the naughty outside of her nice — and not there — marriage.
Directed by Patricia Cuffie-Jones, who also made Tubi Original Immortal City Records and co-wrote this with Barbara Zagrodnik (Tubi Originals Five Star Murder and Blood, Sweat and Cheer), your willingness to enjoy this may depend on the idea of wanting to see Santa’s wife put her eggnog down and get her groove back.
Mrs. Claus has the magical powers to see people’s naughty or nice history as well as drop holiday beats inside their brains. One imagines that Mr. Claus can do the same and is currently not all that happy that his wife is dancing with other men. One of those men is Andy (Danny Pardo), an older man who she bonds with and then breaks his heart. That ends up nearly destroying her friend’s charity event.
Santa and his wife even have a son, Kris (De’Variyay Harris), who gets in the middle of all of this. But finally, Mr. Claus has enough and flies down to Miami to set things right.
Anyways — you never thought you’d see Santa strip down, but here we are. Enjoy.
In his latest movie, which he directed — and wrote with Marques Houston — Stokes introduces us to Kelsey Manning (Alisa Holiday), a woman who learns that her husband is living three lives. Instead of just putting up with his cheating or moving on, she connects with the other wives and they all plan revenge.
It all starts with Trevor (Daniel J. Johnson), her husband, being strung-up half-naked out a window. “I bet you wonder how we all got here, right?” She asks. Yes, we are wondering.
Life was good once. Trevor was the love of her life, “until he wasn’t” as she reminds herself.
Our next wife is Olivia (Erica Pinkett), who also thinks that she’s the only woman in Trevor’s life. They even have fancy black and white photos of themselves together in the bedroom.
The film cuts back to the night of the surprise party, as Kelsey leads a blindfolded Trevor into a hotel room where he’s confronted by Olivia and Naomi (Jadah Blue), the other wife. But before we meet her, we’re at a conference meeting where he announces that his company, Turnstr, has reached a million subscribers and is going public. Then he sleeps with an intern named Kat.
This movie is filled with flashbacks as now we go back two months to meeting some of Olivia’s friends at a wine place. He meets her friend Tracy’s man, Steve, who is having a party to celebrate her. This wine bar just lets you grab bottles and pour your own, so I have no idea how you pay.
There’s a flashback to Trevor meeting Olivia, so we’re…I don’t know how many flashbacks deep we are. But we’re back at another wine bar, then we’re back at Trevor getting hung out the window. And then we flashback another two months to another date with Trevor and Naomi, who wonders why she’s never met his family. She asks if it’s because she’s a socialite and not someone who works for a living. He’s also using a British accent when he’s around her.
I can barely keep up with my wife much less three wives. How is that even possible for this guy? How much energy does he have? I’m exhausted and I’m just watching the movie and not living it. Also, now Trevor has a British accent with Kelsey. Did he always have a British accent? Am I losing my mind?
Now there’s a two years ago flashback!
This movie is the Inception of Tubi Originals!
Now everything starts falling to pieces for Trevor, as he makes a breakfast meeting and a lunch one for the same day with two different women. In the same city. Are area codes even a thing these days?
We fast forward to all of the girls holding the ropes that have Trevor swinging above the pavement.
And then, if you can believe it, another flashback. Trevor seems to want to start planting seeds and having kids with these women and I have no clue how much energy this bigamist has. Maybe he just says these things to make them happy. I don’t know. He does have an amazing kitchen. Several kitchens. How does he know where to sleep? How does he do taxes for three residences? Am I going too deep into the reality of this?
When it comes to Kelsey, he tells her a totally different story about why he can’t have kids. Now he’s not using the British accent, in case you’re keeping track. He tells a story about his father dying from a drug overdose, but is that story true? How does he keep track of all of these lies?
It gets worse. Kelsey stopped using birth control hoping to have a kid with Trevor and when she told him she was pregnant, he made her have an abortion, which destroyed any chance for her to have children after. And now, as she confides in the other wives, he’s hanging from a window crying.
Then the ladies start to fight, as Naomi thinks that she’s the woman that Trevor picked. She doesn’t want to go to jail for murder, but. the other two girls have a plan. Well, Olivia has the plan and she’s the one that wants revenge. Trevor was the dream guy for all of them but he wasn’t real. And he was married to all three of them.
I’ve lost track of the flashbacks.
This movie isn’t even halfway over.
The big reveal is that Trevor has life insurance in all of the names of his wives and plans on cashing in. That’s when the girls come together to lure him to the hotel we started this movie in.
I will say that this is the most involved Chris Stokes movie yet and I was with it for the whole trip. There’s even some special effects at the end of this that are way past anything Stokes has done in his movies before, making this look like the most polished movie he’s done yet.
Originally called Little Bone Lodge, this was directed by Matthias Hoene (Cockneys vs. Zombies) and written by Neil Linpow, who plays Jack in the movie.
Mama (Joely Richardson, daughter of director Tony Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave, granddaughter of Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, niece of Lynn Redgrave and sister of Natasha Richardson; she certainly has some star power for a Tubi original) is been caring for the paralyzed Pa (Roger Ajogbe) with the help of Maisy (Sadie Sovernal, Saltburn) in a home far off the beaten path.
One night, a rainy night of course, a knock on the door brings Matty (Harry Cadby) and his injured brother Jack (Linpow) into their hidden world. Jack has a pipe impaled into his body and is near death and Mama wants to throw them back into the darkness. Maisy begs for them to stay and Mama has the medical abilities to save him. But what’s the story with the cash and dead person in their car? And what secrets does this family have?
Jack and Matty have some secrets of their own. There’s McCallister (Cameron Jack) after them for some reason. And that worries Jack so much that he’s pulled a gun on Mama. Bad idea.
This ends up being way creepier and also so much better than I expected when I saw the name on Tubi. Stick with it, as this has some really good acting and plenty of tense moments. All is never as it seems. I mean, why does Pa need so much medication?
B&S About Movies 