The Lovebirds (2020)

I remember before the Coronavirus Pandemic shut everything down like movie theaters, there were some amazing looking and funny trailers that were playing on the big screen. As we know, there were countless films that fell victim to the Coronavirus and were forced to find new homes online and one of those films is The Lovebirds which was released this past Friday on Netflix. The film stars Kumail Nanjiani (Life As We Know It) as Jibran and Issa Rae (BoJack Horseman) as Leilani, a couple who is having a little bit of a rough patch. All of that is put to the test when they get carjacked and witness a murder and then try to solve it because now they have to avoid being caught by the killer before it's too late as they run around New Orleans. The film also stars Paul Sparks (Thoroughbreds) as Moustache, Anna Camp (The Most Hated Woman In America) as Edie, Nicholas X. Parsons (Power Of The Air) as Bicycle,  Kyle Bornheimer (Onward) as Brett, Barry Rothbart (The Wolf Of Wall Street) as Mr. Hipster,  Catherine Cohen (The Special Without Brett Davis) as Mrs. Hipster, Andrene Ward-Hammond (The Fright Night Files) as Detective Martin, Mahdi Cocci (Watchmen) as Keith,  Betsy Borrego (Cloak & Dagger) as Reya, and the film was directed by the amazing Michael Showalter (Wet Hot American Summer).

I know the film has been getting a lot of flack from various critics that I have seen, but to be honest, it's really not that bad of a film. The question going into it was obviously whether the film was as funny as the trailer suggested and that is what might be the problem for most people because it definitely was not. It had some moments sprinkled throughout the film, but when you actually see all of the scenes from the trailer actually play out, you'll notice it's not as funny as the trailer made them out to be. Now the film like I said was not terrible at all as it had it's moments where it kept me entertained for the whole duration of the film. I thought Kumail and Issa made a great team in the film, but the whole film rested on their shoulders and not all of their jokes were funny all the time. A lot of the jokes in the film were those that have been used over and over again like how many times have we seen the interrogation room scene where they are not in deep trouble, but they just keep spilling their guts. I'm not saying originality was the problem, but it was the overuse of the typical comedy themes in the writing which was the overall problem and it's too bad because I am a huge fan of Michael Showalter. The film has a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 6 out of 10 on IMDB which sounds about right because it's a middle of the road kind of film. That is why I am going to give the film an B- for a final grade.

Thoroughbreds (2017)

Spoiler Alert: The article contains a picture and some information that could prove to be a spoiler so proceed with caution.When someone says that a film is like Heathers meets American Psycho then why would I not want to watch said film. Heathers is one of the best dark comedy films surrounding high school themed films ever made and American Psycho introduced us to a different type of killer. So for today's film, I have decided that it was time to check out 2017's Thoroughbreds which was advertised as one of Anton Yelchin's (Green Room) last films. The movie stars Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) as Lily, a normal upper class suburban kid who once again befriends someone she hasn't talked to in years. That friend would be Amanda (Olivia Cooke), another upper class girl with a lot of issues that not many people understand and she doesn't have a lot of friends, but Lily and her get close. Lily has a problem on her hands and that problem is that her step dad (Paul Sparks) is a bit of an A-hole and she wants him dead. So, Amanda suggests that they ask the very troubled Tim (Yelchin) to do the job for them, but will he do it and if he does will he be successful? The film also stars Francie Swift (Two Weeks Notice) as Cynthia, Kaili Vernoff (Crisis In Six Scenes) as Karen, Jackson Damon (Manchester By The Sea) as Phil, and the film was written and directed by Cory Finley (Bad Education).

This film was definitely a slow burn as it builds and builds with some tension, but overall I have to say that I kind of enjoyed the film. Olivia Cooke does an awesome job playing someone who is just so disconnected from themselves that they don't feel emotions any longer and that can be dangerous. They struggle with friendships because they don't feel the usual emotions that come with forming bonds and Lily learns to take full advantage of it because it will benefit her in the long run. I am not so sure I can see a total connection with the films I mentioned above other than the fact that it deals with death and teenagers. I guess the American Psycho connection could be that they identified Amanda with Patrick Bateman and even then she's not as charismatic as he was. Anton's part was a little interesting as he plays a small time drug dealer who once went to jail for having sex with an underage girl and he only deals drugs for teenagers. He's kind of going nowhere, but I think he re-evaluates his life choices after dealing with those two. The acting is very good especially from Paul Sparks who has minimal dialogue in the film, but his actions speak louder than his words and when he does speak he makes it count. The overall tone of the film is dark and brooding which allows for some good cinematography and I definitely feel that the film is worth one watch as it i a dark tale. So with that being said, I am going to give the film an B for a final grade.