Ne Zha II, in Cinema Daily US

NE ZHA II smashed global box office records, but it doesn't live up to the hype. Ultimately, the Chinese animated hit loses its human perspective, undermined by weak characterization, hhard to follow cosmic-scale battles, and shticky English voiceovers. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Primitive War, from Fathom Events

Somehow, Robert McNamara left this part out of the shameful book he wrote to disavow his responsibility for presiding over the Vietnam War. Of course, it is fictional, because living dinosaurs were never discovered in-country. However, it aptly represents the bad decision-making imposed from above on junior officers, NCO’s, and their squads and platoons, by politicians and senior officers. Fortunately, Vulture Squad has a talent for improvising and an aversion to buck-passing. Consequently, when they discover a top-secret Soviet operation unleashed dinosaurs in Vietnam, they take decisive counter-measures in director-screenwriter Luke Sparke’s Primitive War, which is now playing in theaters, via Fathom Events.

Col. Amadeus Jericho allowed Sgt. Baker to hand pick the “Dirty Dozen”-worthy members of his Vulture Squad, because he knew Baker could get the job done. Thanks to their latest rescue operation, there will be two less missing POW’s. Obviously, their next mission will be dicey, considering Jericho’s caginess regarding the on-the-ground circumstances. Baker’s men are supposed to extract any surviving Green Berets and report any unusual observations. Presumably, the dinosaurs will qualify.

It turns out this is all the Soviets’ fault, particularly Dr. Borodin, the mad scientist whose experiment opened a wormhole, which all the really dangerous dinosaurs stepped through (as well as some of the herbivores, like stegosauruses and brontosauruses). Baker even captures a motivated informant, paleontologist Sophia Atalar, who was recruited by Borodin to study the dinosaurs. Despite his orders, Baker realizes Vulture Squad must stop Borodin’s research by any means necessary. However, to reach the hidden Soviet base, Baker and his men must evade a squad of raptors and a pair of very upset tyrannosaur parents.

It is important to note some of the worst dinosaur effects come in early scenes, so resist snap judgements. As the film progresses, the quality of the dinosaur renderings improves dramatically. In fact, some of the later scenes are shockingly cool. In all likelihood, if Primitive War had released a year before Jurassic Park, it would still be considered legendary.

Regardless, the depictions of warfighting are always viscerally gritty and realistic. There is nothing cartoony about Vulture’s Squad’s recon and rescue business. If anything, depicting the battles and wartime conditions took priority over the dinosaur apocalypse. Yet, the mordantly sly, cynical, and foul-mouthed dialogue rings even truer than the scrupulously realistic blood and muck.

The ensemble cast couldn’t get much grittier either, starting with Ryan Kwanten as steely Sgt. Baker. Arguably, this is his best film work in years. The rest of the squad also looks and acts credibly battle-tested. Sparke does not exactly over-indulge in backstories or character-building, but Carlos Sanson, Nick Wechsler, and Aaron Glenane have sufficient screen presence to differentiate and distinguish their characters.

Ron Howard’s Eden

In the 1930's, the Germans had a nasty habit of fighting with their neighbors. That was even true of the small colony on Floreana Island in the Galapagos. Would-be philosopher Friedrich Ritter and his partner Dore Strauch only had six neighbors, but they fought with all of them. The feuding took a scandalous turn that stoked decades of controversy in the German press and spawned three films. One was a French TV movie adapting a Georges Simenon novel transparently based on the case. The second was the classy “true-crime” documentary” The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden. This is the third. Director-producer Ron Howard recruited a famous cast, but like previous filmmakers, he shows strangely little interest in the Germany the Floreanans had expatriated themselves from in Eden, which opens Friday in theaters.

Strauch believes Ritter will save the world with his manifesto, but to contemporary ears, it sounds like a warmed-over fusion of Nietzsche and Rousseau, at least before he goes a little crazy. Heinz and Margaret Wittmer are the next to arrive. The couple seems to have an inkling of how bad things will get in Germany. They also believe their ailing son Harry will benefit from the tropical climate. The Rittmer’s instinctively look down on their square, middle-class neighbors, but they grudgingly start to respect the Wittmers for doggedly scraping out a home for themselves.

Unfortunately, “Baroness” Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn lands several months later, along with her two himbo lovers. She has grandiose plans to build a beach resort, but she is ill-prepared for the conditions she finds. As the self-dubbed Baroness’s supplies dwindle, she and her men set their eyes on the Wittmers’ supplies, making them a direct existential threat to the family. Yet, Ritter probably hates her even more, because of the way the Baroness needles his vanity.

Screenwriter Noah Pink offers explanations for the deaths on Floreana, but in real-life (if such a thing still exists), the truth has yet to be established beyond a shadow of a doubt. That is a large part of the story’s appeal. Regardless, despite its ultimate uncertainty, The Galapagos Affair is a much better film, in part due to a more sophisticated vibe (suggesting comparisons to Michael Bradford’s White Mischief). In contrast, Howard aims more for the overheated tone of an old school primetime soap opera. Frankly, he and Pink frequently neglect the mystery/thriller elements, focusing instead of the island’s festering jealousies, sexual power games, and [not-so]-micro aggressions. Consequently, it is often grabby, but in a lurid kind of way.

Jude Law is certainly fun to watch shamelessly chewing the scenery as the arrogant and wildly self-important Ritter. Daniel Bruhl anchors the film, portraying Heinz Wittmer with dignity and intensity that it maybe does not fully deserve. To her credit, Sydney Sweeney so thoroughly transforms herself into the hardscrabble Margaret Wittmer, a perpetually offended wokester could watch the entire film without getting “triggered”—at least not by Sweeney and her “good jeans.”

Dragon Heart: Adventures Beyond This World

Admittedly, these two teens are about to die, but don’t think of it as a downer. This way, the lucky cousins will learn their purposes in life—short though they were. Yet, unlike Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come, they might be able to return to their interrupted earthly lives, so they apply their epiphanies with their memories intact—maybe, just maybe. Unfortunately, their journey of self-discovery entails more than just one trip to Hell. They must visit several in Isamu Imakake’s Happy Science-produced Dragon Heart, which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

Blame the kappa, who lured Tomomi Sato and her visiting cousin, Ryusuke Tagawa into treacherous currents. Apparently, that was that, but Ameno Hiwashino Mikoto, the god of the local Shinto shrine invites them to explore the spirit realm. Much to their surprise, the tour quickly takes on Divine Comedy parallels.

First, they materialize in a violent gangster world, where the damned constantly murder each other. From there, they fall into a bizarre Lynchian hospital, which dispenses a distinctly sinister variety of care, very much in the surreal tradition of Inoperable or Fractured. It is a nightmarish place, yet it is also where they witness the redemption and rescue of a tormented soul. That plants a seed with Sato and Tagawa, giving them a notion this might be something they want to do.

However, it will take some doing before they can start saving souls. To get to that point, they must escape from a snake queen and find the hidden enclave of Shambhala to start their advanced spiritual training.

Dragon Heart is the latest anime feature based on the teachings of the Happy Science movement. In terms of the level of proselytization, this film falls somewhere between The Mystical Laws and The Laws of the Universe: The Age of Elohim. There are times when the spiritual content feels very heavy-handed. Yet, the uninitiated would be hard-pressed to explain the film’s foundational doctrines, beyond generalities like believe on God and recognize the soul is man’s true form rather than the body. Indeed, for pagans, the film seems to freely mix Shinto, Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian symbolism, cafeteria-style.

Regardless, the level of animation remains surprisingly high. Imakake worked on several major anime properties prior to helming Happy Science’s animated features (including Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, and Lupin III), so the level of animation is always professional grade. In fact, many of fantastical landscapes are really quite visually striking.

Countdown, Season 1-B, on Prime Video

Everyone loves to get the old gang together, except maybe a Federal multi-agency counter-terrorism task force, because it means they must have detected signs an unknown party or parties is planning something horrific. At least Special Agent Nathan Blythe’s team already developed a strong working rapport, except maybe the ones who had a romantic relationship. Regardless, the task force must play catch-up to prevent the assassination of California’s governor (and possibly also the President) in season one’s second-half storyline of creator-showrunner Eric Haas’s Countdown, which starts/continues tomorrow on Prime Video.

Viewers who followed Countdown’s initial dirty-bomb plot master-minded by Volchek, the evil Belarusian know the episode that wrapped up all the loose ends concluded with the start of a new case. Secret Service Agent Ryan Fitzgerald was stuck processing low level threat reports from the “muzzle pile,” basically the Secret Service’s equivalent of the slush pile, because he is relentlessly annoying. However, one call to the tip-line was suspicious enough to follow-up. Agent Fitzgerald found a dead body and a cryptic manifesto that apparently mentions the governor a lot and the President a little.

That is obviously more than enough to put Blythe’s task force back in business. The combination of manifestos and threats against elected officials can move even the most incalcitrant bureaucracies. When rugged Det. Mark Meachum and the team search the crime scene and find a subterranean firing range below the rented summer cabin, with the governor’s photo as the target, it gets everyone’s attention, especially the governor’s.

Weirdly, Gov. George Shelby looks and acts like a prickly cross between Gavin Newsom and Greg Abbott. Ther is something about Shelby to rub every viewer the wrong way. Yet, in a way, it is refreshing to see a major streaming series present a recurring character using a wheelchair, who is tough and ambitious, rather than simply serving as a cheap source of inspiration.

Nevertheless, the pacing of season 1-B lags behind that of 1-A. It also lacks similarly apocalyptic stakes—no disrespect to Shelby. Plus, the task force does not seem to really be up to speed yet. Throughout 1A, the always managed to keep just one step behind Volchek. However, their unknown manifesto writer completely runs circles around the team throughout the final three episodes, without reaching anything close to a conclusion.

Still, the chemistry continues to click amongst the cast. Jensen Ackles shows even greater star-power as hard-charging Meachum. The good news is Meachum fully recovered in episode ten and his death wish was cured along with his tumor. He is even starting to make career plans—gasp—despite getting dumped by DEA agent Amber Oliveras after his recovery. To add an insulting irony, she subsequently took up with his surgeon, her friend from the “old neighborhood,” Dr. Julio Beltran.

Frankly, it doesn’t really make much sense to have a DEA agent on this task force, whereas the previous case involved drug cartels smuggling radioactive material across the border, on behalf of the terrorist. Yet, her will-they-or-won’t-they chemistry with Meacham will not be denied.

DC Horror Presents…

While Marvel gets more credit for integrating traditional monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein into its 1970s superhero universe, DC always had its own horror chops. After all, they had the Creature Commandos and the long-running House of Mystery was “hosted” by Cain, who sort of has a place in the DC universe. Periodically, the major heroes battle the supernatural, but they never like it, not one little bit. Unfortunately, many of them must face the dark side in the anthology DC Horror Presents…(the ellipsis makes it scarier), which goes on-sale today.

Frankly, it kinds of seems like cheating to contribute a story focusing on super-villains, like Dollhouse and Dollmaker. Nevertheless, David Dastmalchian & Leah Kilpatrick do exactly that in “Love You to Pieces.” However, they certainly capture the spirit of vintage horror comics while artist Cat Staggs cranks up the gore well above what EC Comics could ever hope to get away with.

The next story is even darker, while fully embracing the challenge of placing iconic characters in a new horror context. The Boulet Brothers rise to the challenge, forcing venerable Wonder Woman to confront a supernatural force that hits very close to home. This encounter will leave a permanent mark on Diana’s psyche, in which ever universe and timeline it might take place. Butch Mapa’s art and Kristian Rossi’s colors also really pop off the page.

LaToya Morgan’s “Living Doll” takes an approach similar to “Love You to Pieces,” this time focusing on Scarface. However, his presumed victims’ Batman and Wonder Woman Halloween costumes lend it further DC-ness. In this case, artists Tom Derenick and Walt Barna really lean into the gore, in a fan friendly way, of course.

Yet, Aarons Sagers’ “Superstitious Lot,” stands out as the clear highlight of what was originally issue #2. It might seem like another super-villain spotlight, but hopefully this story serves as a backdoor pilot for Tennyson Stacks, a.k.a. Dr. Spooky, the Carl Kolchak-looking paranormal investigator summoned by Oswald Cobblepot, loved and feared as The Penguin, who has been haunted past reason. It seems that all those henchmen he betrayed have come back for vengeance. In addition to the fresh new character and the clever concept, Sagers also delivers a sly cameo for you-know-who.

Francesco Francavilla finally fully embraces the bat in “The Chthonian Dawn,” also delivering the most striking art of the four-issue run. It starts as one kind of horror, but suddenly turns into a more Twilight Zone-worthy “oh the horror, oh the horror” tale. Plus, the guest-starring role for Abby Arcane aptly fits the story’s themes.

Frustratingly, Patrick Horvath’s “The Brooding Public” starts with a truly horrifying concept, but it is poorly served by patchy storytelling. To compound the problems, the cartoony art conflicts with the grim apocalyptic themes. However, it is nice to see an underutilized character like Adam Strange get a feature spot. If this story could be smoothed out and tightened up, it could make a worthy companion to the short film, DC Showcase: Adam Strange.

Arguably, Catwoman counts as both superhero and super-villain. Regardless, she finds herself the victim of a sinister O. Henry-from-Hell curse in Patton Oswalt & Jordan Blum’s “The Diamond Steals Back.” At times, the story is surprisingly poignant, but it ends with a deliciously macabre punchline, which probably represents Oswalt’s funniest work in years.

Tales from the Void, Season One

Maybe the word “void” is a fitting way to refer to a creepypasta subreddit. Evidently, that is how the community sees itself, since all the stories adapted for this anthology series came from r/NoSleep short fiction horror community. Some contributors parlayed their stories into book deals and a handful have even been optioned. Of course, many have been largely ignored. Perhaps fittingly, and certainly not unexpectedly, the quality varies greatly throughout the 6-episode first season of creator Francesco Loschiavo’s Tales from the Void, based on r.NoSleep stories, which releases tomorrow on BluRay.

Shrewdly, the opening episode, “Into the Unknown” is the best of the six (and the only one provided for review when the series debuted on Screambox). The darned thing just shows up one day in the parking lot of a large, somewhat isolated apartment building. It is like a giant square, non-reflective black flat-screen TV that hovers in the air. It also appears invisible to cameras and film, as Harris discovers. He is the only one exhibiting intellectual curiosity about it, but plenty of his neighbors are obsessed.

Harris’s friend Anton has the night-watch, while Bill (who seems to hold some kind of building captain position) and his hired goons guard it by day. Increasingly paranoid, Bill fears the Square must be some kind of government experiment and/or a threat of unknown origin. He is determined to protect the building, especially Harris, from the Square, no matters how much it hurts.

Throughout it all, director Joe Lynch maintains a moody atmosphere and skillfully builds the mounting paranoia.  The adaptation of Matthew Dymerski’s tale lacks the black humor and snappy attitude of many of Lynch’s film, particularly Mayhem and Everly, but it creates a sense of a self-contained community, under extreme stress.

Conveniently, the second episode, also happens to be second best in quality too. “Fixed Frequency” harkens back to 1980s teen horror, following three punky kids who prank their neighbors, by hacking their baby-monitors. Juan does not think it is very funny to terrify young mothers, but he plays along with Kurt and Cedric, because of peer pressure. Then, at their last house of the night, they hear an ominous bogeyman voice talking back to them through their walkie. It seems like he is exactly what they pretended to be—and he is coming for them next.

Helmed by Loschiavo, “Fixed Frequency” perfectly hits the right nostalgic notes. If anything, it feels a little truncated, but that suggests how effective the set-up is. Of all the first season episodes, this one could most easily be fixed-up into a feature length treatment.

Unfortunately, “Starlight,” also helmed by Loschiavo, is by far the most predictable. It follows Whit Barnett, a would-be influencer, who is as abrasive as he is pathetic. Yet, he has been selected for a mysterious new game show, which, of course, is exactly what we think it is. Oh, that crazy dark web.

Scary Movies XIII: Noise

It is a lot easier to close your eyes than to close your ears. Ironically, in this case, Joo-young’s hearing aid finally represents an advantage. She has so much underdog cred (working a blue-collar factory job, with her hearing impairment), Joo-young looks like a natural “final girl” candidate. Regardless, finding her semi-estranged sister will be her primary goal in Kim Soo-jin’s Noise, which screens tonight as part of Scary Movies XIII.

Joo-young briefly lived with Joo-hee, but she tired of her sibling’s erratic behavior, so she moved out—right before things really got weird. According to the cops, Joo-hee has been missing for weeks. Yet, as soon as Joo-young moves back in, the crazy neighbor below complains of the constant noise coming from their empty apartment. This noise-rage taps into reportedly common Korean complaints, stemming from high population density and cheap concrete construction. Such inter-building noise is less of an issue here in New York. That’s why we love our “pre-war” buildings.

Indeed, the brutalist apartment complex is rife with weird, disconcerting noises. Even Joo-young can hear them when her hearing aid is turned on. Joo-hee’s boyfriend, Ki-hoon, does not have that option, but he doesn’t understand the degree of the audio distortion he will have to contend with when he offers to help Joo-young find her sister.

Rather cleverly, the FSLC paired Noise with the similarly audio-themed Rabbit Trap for their press screenings, but the public screenings fell on different days. Maybe that is just as well, because the two films together constitute an exhausting sensory overload. However, that also means both sound teams did some incredibly potent work.

Kim also cleverly capitalizes on Joo-young’s reliance on voice recognition apps and her on-and-off hearing aid to cleverly build suspense. Yet, despite a vibe and style clearly inspired by classic J-horror and K-horror, screenwriter Lee Je-hui maintains a coyness whether the film is supernatural horror, or a devious murder mystery of human origins and design. Either way, there are some deeply unnerving moments, thanks in large measure to the sinister sound.

Chainsaw Day: Chain Reactions

Roger Ebert famously gave The Texas Chainsaw Massacre only two out of four stars. Yet, he conceded the quality of the performances and productions values might surprise viewers, “not, however, that you’d necessarily enjoy seeing it.” Ebert was hardly alone. At the time, Tobe Hooper’s career-making film was decidedly divisive amongst critics. Unfortunately, viewers really do not get a sense of that diversity of opinion in Alexandre O. Philippe’s Chainsaw Reactions, which has a special nationwide “Texas Chainsaw Day” screening this Monday, along with the 1974 film it documents.

Fifty years and change later, everyone involved with Philippe’s doc takes it as a given that Hooper’s film is a classic. Again, he uses an approach like that of Lynch/Oz, essentially presenting extended critical analysis from five experts/critics/fans, while showing evocative clips from the film. Fortunately, these five waxers-poetic repeat themselves far less than the cast of Lynch/Oz did. However, the lineup of Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Australian film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama will not appeal to all fans equally, to put it diplomatically.

Still, listening to Miike and King discuss anything horror related will be an opportunity few fans would want to pass up. Miike’s perspective is particularly notable, explaining Texas Chainsaw’s reception in Japan and tracing its influence on some of his more extreme films, like Ichi the Killer. King also has some worthy contributions, but he never mentions Hooper’s Salem’s Lot, which remains one of the best King adaptations of all time.

Annoyingly, many of the fab-ish five still reflect the same general perspective, especially when trying to score polemical points with respects to the alleged rising level of violence permeating American society. However, the film would have benefited from the more nuanced analysis of Joseph Lanza writing in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Film that Terrified a Rattled Nation, which situates the film within the context of late-1960s and early-1970s violence, definitely including the New Left-adjacent Manson Family Murders, which go unmentioned in Reactions.

Scary Movies XIII: Rabbit Trap

Daphne Davenport was on pace to become another Laurie Anderson or Naim June Paik. She describes her concrete-adjacent electronic-distorted found music as “influential” rather than popular. Unfortunately, true fame will probably elude her, because she is a character in a horror film. She hoped to discover some inspiring natural sounds with her recording engineer husband Darcy, but they also find a sinister wild child in director-screenwriter Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap, produced by SpectreVision, which screens tonight as part of Scary Movies XIII.

Daphne is the “artiste” and Darcy is her enabler. He spends hours doing the legwork, roaming the Welsh moors, making field recordings of squishy-squashy natural noises, which she samples into her industrial soundscapes. It is a reclusive life, but apparently, they needed to get away from the London scene. They are also clearly carrying a lot of baggage that they never discuss, but it comes to a boil when the kid shows up.

Even the Da-Da’s notice how cagily their visitor remains nameless. However, the wild child brims with knowledge regarding the local animals and flora. The strange youngster even seems to have a special connection to the rabbits, especially the dead ones. Indeed, the nature child should remind Nat Kind Cole fans that “Nature Boy” is actually an extremely creepy song. Yet, despite this squirreliness, Daphne forges an unhealthy attachment to “the child,” which encourages not-so-subtle attempts to undermine her marriage.

Soon, Darcy starts freaking out over their little stalker’s behavior. He also passes out and loses time after ill-advisedly walking into a fairy circle. Admittedly, the little weirdo warned him not to do it, but he did so anyway, losing time and consciousness as a result.

In some ways, Rabbit Trap is like an Enys Men, flavored with an extract of Blow Out, which makes it ten times more grounded. The folk horror runs heavy in these parts. The atmosphere is thick and it has amazingly clear audio fidelity. The grungy 1970s period details are also highly evocative. Frankly, this is a world you wouldn’t want to visit, but it definitely sounds massively eerie.

Witchboard, Chuck Russell’s Reboot

It used to be a garden variety Ouija board that picked up a bad passenger, but for the reboot, it has been upgraded to a very rare and very evil antique. That will not be a trade-up for those who handle it. At least the food is better this time around, because the setting moved from California to New Orleans. However, a young woman still falls under the sway of a creepy forerunner to the magic 8-ball in Chuck Russell’s Witchboard, which opens today in theaters.

Emily, her fiancé Christian, and their friends were out foraging for mushrooms when she stumbled across the evil board. They weren’t for recreational purposes. They are for the opening of Christian’s hipster restaurant. Apparently, everyone was so busy planning for the premiere, they missed the news of the museum heist that made off with a notorious witchcraft relic.

The board still basically works the same way. It just has more bells and whistles. Ominously, Emily grows increasingly obsessed with the board’s divining powers, after it leads her to her misplaced engagement ring. Indeed, the recovering Emily has an addictive personality that makes her acutely susceptible to the board’s malevolent influence.

Nobody really thinks about why the board was there in the first place. Anne Ricey-looking Alexander Babtiste, a wealthy expert in the dark arts, commissioned the theft, but was double-crossed by the hoodlum now decomposing in the forest. Ill-advisedly, Christian’s torch-carrying but well-meaning ex, Brooke, refers Christian to Babtiste for occult guidance. Clearly, he does not have Emily’s best interests at heart.

Russell and co-screenwriter Greg McKay’s screenplay wildly departs from the 1986 original, but Babtiste’s shadowy conspiracy to resurrect a notorious 17^th Century witch is the best thing going for the film, admittedly in a wacky and outlandish kind of way. There are times when the film ventures quite deeply into the tall weeds of left field (to compound metaphors).

Went Up the Hill: A Ghost Story

When you reach a certain age, nursery rhymes start sounding creepy. Jack and Jill are definitely old enough, so maybe the irony of their names should have been their first warning. He journeyed to New Zealand’s least populous South Island to mourn his long-estranged mother, but maybe she isn’t really gone, at least not completely in Samuel Van Grinsven’s Went Up the Hill, which opens today in theaters.

The late Elizabeth’s grieving wife Jill is surprised to see Jack at her wake, while Jack is surprised that she is surprised, because Jill called him, asking him to come—or so he thought. Nevertheless, Jill immediately agrees he should be there and runs interference with Elizabeth’s inhospitable sister Helen. Jack never really knew the mother who gave him for adoption at a very young age. Yet, he and Jill quickly bond in their radically different forms of grief.

Jack yearns for answers from his mother, which Jill helps facilitate when Elizabeth’s spirit (call it whatever you prefer) takes possession of her body. The supernatural communication works both ways, allowing Jill to talk to Elizabeth when she possesses her son, in turn. The process just requires both son and wife to be asleep, allowing Elizabeth to jump from one body to another. Initially, the ghostly encounters are consoling, but viewers soon start to suspect the deceased profoundly mistreated both Jack and Jill.

Went Up the Hill is an unusually elegant and austere ghost story—so much so, some critics argue it isn’t really horror. Yet, Van Grinsven’s film is far scarier than supposed horror movies like Get Out or Bodies Bodies Bodies. Those films have their merits, but they aren’t really scary. In contrast, there are moments in Hill that will chill you to the bone and make your hair stand on end. In terms of tone and potency, it compares favorably (but does not surpass) Assayas’s Personal Shopper.

Butterfly, in The Epoch Times

The action is super-charged, but the parenting is difficult for the black op mercs in Prime's BUTTERFLY. The fight scenes are terrific and so is the lead, Daniel Dae Kim. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

The Glassworker, in Cinema Daly US

THE GLASSWORKER is an elegantly hand-animated, slightly fantastical coming-of-age film that takes clear inspiration from Japanese anime and Pakisstan's own tragic history. It expresses its grown-up anti-war themes in complex and sophisticated ways. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Mononoke the Movie: Chap. II—The Ashes of Rage, on Netflix

It is a term rich with anime and folkloric significance. “Mononoke” are vengeful spirits, not unlike yokai. Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke” was not really a mononoke, but rather a human foundling who had a rapport with spirit creatures. The mononoke of the Mononoke anime and manga franchise are definitely mononoke. In fact, they are about as mononoke as they get. It is the “Medicine Seller’s” calling to exorcise them. Think of him as a medicine man, in that he holds shaman-like powers and peddles medicinal cures. He cuts an odd figure, but even the most secretive and powerful players in the Edo court will not turn him away when an enraged spirit terrorizes their Lord’s harem chambers in Kenji Nakamura & Kiyotaka Suzuki’s Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II—The Ashes of Rage, produced by Toei Animation, which premieres today on Netflix.

Thanks to the Medicine Seller, the Lord Tenshi’s concubines already survived one incredibly put-out mononoke in the previous film (which was a continuation from the 2007 anime series). Unfortunately, just when you thought it was safe to go back to harem’s super-restricted Ooku, another mononoke strikes. Obviously, the Medicine Seller needs to investigate, but his all-access pass is no longer valid, because it was issued by the former Ooku manager—now deceased.

Tensions were rising in the Ooku, even before the new mononoke peril emerged. The unseen Tenshi’s favorite, Fuki Tokita is showing signs of pregnancy, which should be a good thing, because an heir is needed. However, Tokita hails from “common stock,” even though we would probably consider her family middle to upper-middle class, from out contemporary perspective. Regardless, the prospect of debasing the Imperial lineage with common stock and allowing a less than pristinely noble family that kind of influence has the elite power-brokers alarmed.

Botan Otomo is perfectly placed to take action. She was selected to serve as the new Ooku manager because of her family’s power and prestige. As Tokita’s longtime rival, she openly resents Fuki’s inappropriately close relationship with Tenshi. However, she also feels loyalty to her Imperial lord and his prospective heir, whoever it might be. Instead, it is the angry mononoke of a wronged concubine who terrorizes the Ooku halls. Yet, before the Medicine Seller can dispel it, he must learn the reason for its grudge—much like Christian exorcists need a demon’s name to take dominion over it.

Without question, Nakamura’s Mononoke films represent an energizing respite from overly slick (and consequently soulless) 3D computer generated animation. While digital techniques were employed, the Mononoke features have an eye-popping, mind-blowing baroque style that resemble a fusion of Edo-era ukiyo-e woodcuts with Peter Max headshop posters. Each frame is an absolute explosion of color. Frankly, it is a good thing Ashes of Rage is a relative shorty, because extended exposure to the utterly distinctive animation could induce sensory overload. Yet, it is always wildly cool to behold.

The Rainmaker, on USA

After the great stress and expense of law school, incoming associate expect to take their place as newly minted masters of the universe. Unfortunately, Rudy Baylor couldn’t quite cross the finish line into the promised land, because he was unwilling to pay the final costs of admission: his dignity and his personal integrity. Instead, he talked back to the bullying senior partner. At least Baylor will see Leo F. Drummond again, as opposing counsel, in showrunner Michael Seitzman’s The Rainmaker, based on John Grisham’s novel, which premieres Friday on USA.

Reportedly, Grisham considered Francis Ford Coppola’s 1997 movie to be the best film adaptation of his books, so the pressure is on for co-creators Seitzman and Jason Richman. It is hard to remember, but back then, getting cast as Baylor was career-making coup for Matt Damon, so British thesp Milo Callaghan can only hope for a similar boost. As a promising start, he sounds passingly accentless as the working-class Charleston kid on the verge of making good.

However, Drummond tries to use Baylor as a punching bag during new associates’ orientation at tony Tinley Britt. Baylor talks back, which gets him fired. The only firm left that will touch him expects their lawyers to cover their salary by drumming up personal injury business. Jocelyn “Bruiser” Stone and her luckless paralegal Deck Shifflet (a six-time bar exam flunker) might lack prestige, but they are colorful.

Baylor also has a line on a potential money-maker. Dot Black wanted to sue the hospital whose malpractice allegedly killed her son, but Baylor could not previously advise her, because the corporate medical group was a Tinley Britt client. Now, he would happily give his former (briefly) firm a black eye. However, things will get complicated, because his girlfriend Sarah Plankmore happens to be a junior Tinley Britt associate, who was just assigned to the hospital account.

As Baylor’s relationship frays, he risks the wrath of his neighbor’s abusive husband, who (rightly) suspects the trainee-attorney has eyes for his wife. Baylor also has the increasingly risky task of finding Melvin Pritcher, a former nurse fired by the hospital under suspicious circumstances, who will likely be news to fans of the book and movie.

Ironically, Seitzman & Richman’s departures from the source novel will make the series more “Grisham-esque” for viewers who only know the author from movies like The Firm and The Pelican Brief. Based on the first five episodes provided for review, they give the story a decidedly more thrillerish tone.

Indeed, Dan Fogler is massively creepy as Pritcher. His character might be new and different, but his performance works. Of course, John Slattery is back on familiar ground playing the arrogant and devious Drummond, but he still chews the scenery with relish.

Weirdly, Lana Parrilla can now proudly lay claim to playing the same role as Mickey Rourke, that of “Bruiser” Stone. Obviously, Seitzman & Richman did a bit of gender-swapping and backstory fudging. In their defense, it is a lot of fun to watch Parrilla sashay through her scenes, snarling at all the dumb men around her. Frankly, her portrayal of the cynical, hard-drinking, sexual confident Bruiser would not be out of place in a Bravo reality series.

Checkpoint Zoo: Putin’s War on Animals

It was like Dunkirk for animals. There were 5,000 beasts, of nearly every variety, at the Ferman Ecopark, all of whom had to be evacuated after Putin’s invasion. Nobody was prepared to pack up their own lives and flee, but transporting the zoo’s entire population would even more challenging. Yet, finding a place to take them all would be even trickier. The resulting rescue mission was a logistical nightmare and a humanitarian imperative the surviving ecopark employees revisit in Joshua Zeman’s documentary, Checkpoint Zoo, which opens this Friday in theaters.

Initially, Oleksandr Feldman thought the ecopark’s location outside Kharkiv, near the Russian border, was a perfect location. That was before Putin launched his war. Conceived as a combination wildlife shelter, zoo, animal rehabilitation center (both wild and domestic), and therapy animal clinic, the ecopark was home for wide variety of species. Unfortunately, it landed right in the middle of no man’s land during the Battle of Kharkiv, just beyond the final Ukrainian government checkpoint (hence the title), where it endured artillery barrages from both side that fell short.

It was several days before staffers could return to feed and water the animals, but some habitats remained too dangerous to reach. The animals grew hungrier, which made the predators dangerous.

Anyone with an ounce of compassion for God’s creatures will be deeply disturbed and angered by animal suffering documented in Checkpoint. The sight of the emaciated and trembling moose is especially shocking. However, it is important to remember there is only one man to blame for their condition: Vladimir Putin.

Indeed, the film makes this point several times, even when the starving and terrified big cats lash out at their frustrated care-givers. Of course, the Russians did their best to make a bad situation worse, launching mortars at the ecopark whenever their drones spotted multiple vehicles at the Feldman facilities. Zeman and the sound design team also viscerally convey a sense of how the sounds of war terrify and disorient the animals, because of their heightened auditory senses.

Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical, on Apple TV+

The Peanuts comic-strip premiered in 1950, but Charlie Brown and the gang have always been Gen X’ers at heart. Think about it: they stay outside all day long and they never have any adult supervision. That is why they love camp, except maybe Sally. She is like the Gen-Z’er of Peanuts, who would rather stay home watching TV. Just for the record, this is not Camp Remote from Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown. This is Cloverhill Ranch, where everyone feels welcome, even a blockhead like Charlie Brown. He is excited to introduce Sally to the camp’s activities, but it turns out this might be the last hurrah in Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical, directed by Eric Wiese, which premiers this Friday on Apple TV+.

Of course, the Peanuts kids can sing. They had their own hit Off-Broadway musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Group singing also happens to be a very camp thing to do. Frankly, Charlie Brown enjoys everything about Cloverhill, which seems very un-Charlie Brown, but the recent Apple TV+ specials have cut Chuck a lot of breaks. It is sort of nice, because we all love the character, but it still feels sort of wrong, because it breaks with the tradition established by Charles Schulz.

Regardless, Cloverhill is his happy place, but Charlie Brown cannot help noticing there have been fewer and fewer campers every year. Yet, he initially focuses on convincing Sally to be less of a miserable Gen Z wet blanket, while Snoopy and Woodstock commence a treasure hunt using the map they accidentally unearthed. Unfortunately, just as he starts to make progress with Sally, the invisible adults announce this will be Cloverhill’s final season. How can the Peanuts gang save the camp? This is a musical, so that should be your first clue.

In fact, this happens to be a pretty solid musical. It isn’t quite Good Man, but it features two pleasingly melodic and memorable tuns penned by Ben Folds. “When We were Light” is a standout that measures up to anything you can currently hear on Broadway, while “Look Up, Charlie Brown” has a really nice musical theater dramatic arc. However, Foods’ best Peanuts tune remains the title song to Snoopy Presents: It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown, which should have won an Emmy (or even a Grammy).

RIFF ’25: Dream!

Santa Claus must prefer his St. Nick alter ego to an exclusionary extent, because he obviously overlooks children in countries that do not share the Christian tradition—or does he? A little Thai girl named Lek will learn the answer to that question, but it will take her nearly two and a half hours of screentime, as she journeys through eight provinces of Thailand in director-cinematographer Paul Spurrier’s Dream!, which screens today at the 2025 Rhode Island Film Festival.

After the tragic death of her first love, Lek’s mother found herself an unmarried mother, so she accepted Nin’s marriage proposal. In retrospect, that was a mistake, because the old abuse drunkard insists on drinking away any money she makes. When he raises his fist towards Lek, her mother dies protecting her. Wisely, escapes under the cover of night, carrying the only Christmas present she ever received: a one-legged hand-me-down doll, given to her by her school teacher.

For a vividly colorful movie-musical that takes clear audio and visual inspiration from Rogers-and-Hammerstein classics, Dream! veers into some surprisingly dark territory. As orphans go, Lek is especially piteous and vulnerable—and she isn’t even truly an orphan. Maybe she would be better off if she were. Nevertheless, as she treks through the strikingly scenic Thai countryside, her honesty teaches much needed lessons to many of the people she encounters.

For a while, the grotesquely entitled Namwaan “adopts” Lek as her first “friend,” but the younger girl shrewdly recognizes the spoiled princess really wants another servant. She later joins forces with a modern medicine man, until she discovers the truth of his snake oil scam.

In fact, Dream! is an incredible earnest musical fable deeply concerned with virtue and morality. However, the constant one-darned-thing-after-another rained down on poor little Lek starts to feel punishing, both for viewers and for her. Indeed, most audiences will emotionally invest in her, quickly and deeply. We and her just need more respite from the cruel travails of the world. The two-hour twenty-minute-plus running time will also challenge younger viewers.

Nevertheless, older patrons who share a nostalgia for the grand old movie-musical will appreciate the films bigness, starting with its throwback widescreen CinemaScope aspect-ratio. Mickey Wongsathapornpat’s score also sounds huge, in a show-stopper kind of way, but it could have used more intimate ballads for variety. However, the natural grandeur of the Thai landscape is often stunningly cinematic.

Ironically, genre film fans will recognize several cast-members, especially Vithaya Pansingarm, from A Prayer Before Dawn and Mechanic: Resurrection (among many others), who is both frighteningly nasty and sadly pathetic as abusive Nin. Many might also remember Sahajak Boonthanakit co-starring with Pansingarm in Mayhem! and Only God Forgives. This time around he plays a relatively good guy, Namwaan’s father, who appreciates Lek’s heartfelt decency, but maybe lacks the conviction to do something about it.

True War Stories, with Proceeds Going to Military Charities

Civilians often (rather insensitively) request war stories from veterans, but those who lived to tell them can be hesitant to do so, because they aren’t sure if they will truly be understood or appreciated. However, a fellow veteran comics writer like Khai Krumbhaar can relate to their experiences. She and Alex de Campi edited True War Stories, a graphic anthology of wartime experiences now available in tradepaper, the proceeds from which go to military charities, including the USO.

For the most part, the contributors wanted to tell stories that were meaningful to them, for personal and even idiosyncratic reasons, but they are not necessarily historical turning points. For instance, probably the two best tales are Krumbhaar’s “Rebels of Macadamia” and Matt Moores’ “Man Overboard,” because they illustrate the hyper-reality of war, but with a slyly dark sense of humor. Frankly, they remind me of the [maybe not-so] slightly off-color anecdotes I heard from my late Naval aviator father.

Fittingly, the Navy is represented in “Man Overboard,” which turns out to be the most ribald yarn of the lot—and dad would be so proud. Peter Krause’s art also nicely suits the characters’ hardnosed and rowdy attitudes.

Krumbhaar’s “Rebels of Macadamia” is the sort of story that shows how war warps the margins of reality, in comical and even macabre ways. It captures a hidden war within the war, waged by Krumbhaar and her army colleagues against the rats in one of Saddam former palaces. The winners would enjoy the white chocolate macadamia cookies they both coveted.

They stakes are considerably higher in Robert Kent’s “My Vietnam Story,” which is well-served by Dave Acosta’s gritty and powerful art. If you thought Krypto was heroic in Superman, wait to you see Maverick, a German shepherd service dog, who foils a potentially calamitous Viet Cong attack. “War stories” do not get much more “war” than this one.

Several contributions illustrate the dividends paid by rigorous and repetitive military training, such as Ian Eishen’s “Joint Team,” methodically chronicling the Navy SEALs tracking a kidnapped Filipino girl, running reconnaissance missions, and carefully planning the rescue operation to be conducted by the Filipino SEAL team, due to the diplomatic rules of engagement at that time. Likewise, Juan Vaca’s “OK” depicts the extraordinary discipline of Marine snipers, notably including the discipline sometimes required to hold fire.

There are three incredibly moving stories. Jerrod Alberich’s “Best Day, Worst Day” depicts the bonds of camaraderie and the fear of losing a brother after a surprise attack. It also gives some good PR to the WWE, who were at Camp Victory, Iraq to stage a performance (or whatever term they prefer) at the time of the mortar shelling.

Truthfully, active-duty Army officer Stephen Cady’s “Brothers” would (and should) make a terrific movie. After a harrowing deployment, seen in extensive flashbacks, Lt. Cady finds himself temporarily quartered on Bagram Air Force base as he awaits transit back to the States. In a twist of fate, the Marine half-brother he barely knows is also stationed there, so he somewhat reluctantly agrees to meet for their mother’s sake. That reunion stretches into seven of the most emotionally resonant pages of sequential graphic story-telling you will ever read in your life.