Review: ‘Marked Men: Rule and Shaw,’ starring Chase Stokes, Sydney Taylor, Alexander Ludwig, Ella Balinska and Natalie Alyn Lind

January 23, 2025

by Carla Hay

Chase Stokes and Sydney Taylor in “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” (Photo courtesy of Voltage Pictures and Fathom Events)

“Marked Men: Rule + Shaw”

Directed by Nick Cassaevetes

Culture Representation: Taking place in Denver, the dramatic film “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asian people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A romance-seeking college student and a commitment-phobic tattoo artist, who have been friends since childhood, test the meaning of their relationship when they become lovers.

Culture Audience: “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and predictable and often-unrealistic romance movies that don’t do anything clever or imagnative.

Daisy Jelley and Chase Stokes in “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” (Photo courtesy of Voltage Pictures and Fathom Events)

“Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” sounds more like a title for a buddy action movie than what this movie really is: a messy soap opera. This cliché-plagued drama about a bad boy/good girl romance is mainly for people who like cheesy young adult novels or are fans of the “After” movie series. The cast members are good-looking, but some of the acting and dialogue are too horrible to take.

Directed by Nick Cassavetes and written by Sharon Soboil, “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” is based on Jay Crownover’s 2012 novel “Rule,” which is the first in Crownover’s “Marked Men” book series. The movie takes place in Denver but was really filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria, with American cast members. Everything about “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” looks like it belongs on TV and isn’t worth the -price of a movie ticket.

In “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw,” Rule Archer (played by Chase Stokes) is a brooding “bad boy” tattoo artist from a middle-class background. Shaw Landon (played by Sydney Taylor) is a sexually inexperienced “good girl” pre-med college student whose divorced mother Eleanor Landon (played by Nancy De Mayo) is a wealthy businesswoman. Rule and Shaw, who are in their early-to-mid 20s, have been close platonic friends since their childhoods. When they were younger, Rule gave Shaw the nickname Casper, because he says that Shaw reminds him of a friendly ghost.

In the most cliché of clichés in a romance story, the “good girl” is secretly in love with the emotionally unavailable “bad boy.” She thinks she can open his heart and change his mind about being in a committed relationship with her if he just lets her love him. In real life, relationships with these dynamics rarely end up well, but the “happily ever after” ending is usually peddled in fictional romance stories.

Rule isn’t really a terrible person. He likes to party, he sometimes drinks too much, and he has one-night stands with many women. Some of these women want him to be their boyfriend, but Rule is up front in telling his sex partners that he’s not looking for a relationship with them. Rule can sometimes be abrupt and rude, but he’s very loyal to his friends and his family.

Why is Rule so resistant to falling in love? Three years earlier, his identical twin brother Remy was killed in a car accident where the car went through a railway and plunged down a steep area. Remy had been driving the car to give Rule a ride home because Rule was too drunk to drive. Rule has survivor’s guilt because he thinks Remy would still be alive if Rule didn’t need that car ride.

Things are not going well in Rule’s family. His mother Madelyn Archer (played by Tonya Cornelisse) has alcoholism. His father Dale Archer (played by Paul Johansson) is in denial and doesn’t know what to do about this problem. Rule’s older brother Rome Archer (played by Alexander Ludwig), who is a military veteran, is stuck in the middle when Rule gets angry and their parents for not having Madelyn get professional help for her alcoholism.

At the home of Madelyn and Dale, an argument erupts during a family dinner where Rule Rome and Shaw are also at the table. Madelyn is so drunk, she’s barely coherent. Rule gets thrown out of the house for insulting her. And Shaw is conveniently there to give Rule a car ride and comfort him, like a loyal confidante. However, it’s later revealed that Rule is so emotionally aloof from Shaw, he won’t let her go inside his home.

Shaw has her own family problems. She has emotional scars from her parents’ divorce. Shaw is not contact with her father, and she has a tension-filled relationship with her mother. It doesn’t help that Eleanor is extremely materialistic, crass and selfish. Shaw tries to avoid Eleanor, but Eleanor is pushy and meddling in Shaw’s life.

Rule and Shaw have something else in common besides troubled relationships with their parents. Shaw and Rule have best friends who are also their roommates and co-workers. Rule’s roommate is cocky and smirking Nash Donovan (played by Matthew Noszka), who works with Rule at a place called Marked Tattoo, which is owned and managed by fun-loving Cora (played by Natalie Alyn Lynd), who treats her mostly male employees like rowdy younger brothers.

Shaw’s roommate is cocky and smirking Ayden Cross (played by Ella Balinska) works with Shaw at a candle-filled bar, where they are servers required to wear skimpy outfits that look more appropriate for a wannabe Playboy nightclub. Ayden (who’s a “love ’em and leave ’em” type) is obsessed with talking about people’s sex lives, including her own. And that’s why Ayden is not that surprised when Shaw confesses that Shaw has a crush on Rule and is interested in dating him.

And here comes another romance story cliché: the love triangle. Early on in the movie, Shaw reveals to Ayden that for the past three weeks, she’s been “on a break” from her most recent boyfriend Gabe Davenport (played by Michael Bradway), because Shaw thinks Gabe has been too controlling and possessive. Shaw, who is still a virgin at this point, says that Gabe was also pressuring her to have sex with him.

Shaw’s money-hungry mother Eleanor wants Shaw and Gabe to get married because Gabe comes from “the richest family in the state” and is the heir to a $500 million fortune. Gabe is taking this “relationship hiatus” from Shaw very hard and wants to get back together with her. You can easily guess what will happen when Gabe, Shaw and Rule are all in the same room together at the bar where Shaw works.

Speaking of the production design for this movie, a lot of it looks too fake. It never rings true that Shaw and Rule are working at somewhat grungy places. The bar where Shaw works doesn’t look like a real bar. It looks like a movie set. Even more unbelievable is the way Marked Tattoo looks: It’s as pristine as a trendy beauty salon. And the only customers Rule is seen tattooing are women who look like scantily clad models.

At one point in the movie, Rule tells Shaw that she’s too nice of a girl to be working at the bar and she should do things that are expected of college student. It’s kind of ironic because “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” never actually show Shaw doing any of the demanding school work that a pre-med college student would be doing. Apparently, she’s too busy giving car rides to Rule and being at his beck and call. And apparently, Rule hasn’t figured out tha Shaw probably wants to work at this bar because she knows that’s where Rule likes to spend a lot of his time.

A movie like “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” is selling a glammed-up version of what “edgy” young people are supposed to look and act like. There are no ordinary-looking people and no diversity of body sizes in the movie’s principal cast. Everyone in the principal cast is either thin or muscled-toned. And that’s not necessarily bad if viewers want to have escapism from reality.

What’s bad is the constant deluge of cringeworthy conversations that pollute so much the movie. The central characters of Rule and Shaw just talk a lot of mush, although Stokes and Taylor seem to be doing their best to convince viewers that Rule and Shaw are supposed to be a great couple. But really, if Rule weren’t so handsome, who would want to put up with his mopey and self-absorbed personality?

Other characters sort of come in and out of the story but don’t make much of a lasting impression. Two of Rule’s friends from Master Tattoo are (1) Jasper Brown (played by Adam Abbou), who likes to do graffiti art in his spare time, and (2) singer/musician Jet Teller (played by Evan Mock), who develops a mutual attraction to Ayden. Loren (played by Hannah Kepple) is another server and co-worker friend of Ayden and Shaw. Sierra (played by Daisy Jelley) is a seductress from Rule’s past who shows up randomly and wants sex from him.

Most of the time, the purpose of the movie’s young-adult supporting characters is just to look cool or cute. Ayden has the sassiest and most believable lines in the movie, so Balinska seems to be having the most fun in her performance. The parents in the movie are the ones giving the worst performances, with De Mayo the worst of the worst because she makes the already repulsive Eleanor even more of a caricature with affected over-acting.

For a movie like “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” to work better, it needed to be rawer and more authentic. The movie’s cursing and nudty are the equivalent of kids telling dirty jokes that they think make them look naughty. That doesn’t mean “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” needed to be borderline pornographic. But the romance at the center of the story needed more believable heat—not a bunch of scenes of pouting pretty people fighting and having makeups and breakups that look like these adults are still mentally in high school.

In a featurette played at the end of the “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” screenings in theaters, Stokes compares the “Marked Men” series to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s a bit of stretch, considering no one should expect a “Marked Men” movie franchise to have blockbuster mainstream audiences flocking to movie theaters. The best that a “Marked Men” movie series can hope for is to get the same types of niche audiences who enjoy the “After” series and other romance stories about good girls who are addicted to frustrating and fickle bad boys.

Voltage Pictures and Fathom Events released “Marked Men: Rule + Shaw” in U.S. cinemas for a limited engagement on January 22 and January 23, 2025.

Review: ‘Skincare,’ starring Elizabeth Banks

September 15, 2024

by Carla Hay

Elizabeth Banks and Lewis Pullman in “Skincare” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

“Skincare”

Directed by Elizabeth Banks

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles, the comedy/drama film “Skincare” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An esthetician’s life spirals out of control after she is targeted by a mysterious harasser who seems to want to put her out of business.

Culture Audience: “Skincare” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of star Elizabeth Banks and dark satires about blind ambition.

Luis Gerardo Méndez in “Skincare” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

“Skincare” is more of a dark comedy about ambition than a mystery thriller about harassment. Elizabeth Banks carries this uneven but interesting movie with her performance as an increasingly unhinged esthetician. “Skincare” is best appreciated if viewers don’t have expectations that it’s a horror movie.

Directed by Austin Peters, “Skincare” was co-written by Peters, Sam Freilich and Deering Regans. It might have been better off as short film, because the plot is very simple, and the middle section of the film tends to drag with repetition. The movie, which takes place and was filmed in Los Angeles, has some biting commentary on the fickleness of celebrity worship culture, but it doesn’t bite hard enough. “Skincare” is loosely based on the real-life case of Los Angeles-area aesthetician Dawn DaLuise, who was accused in 2014 of a murder-for-hire plot against a rival.

“Skincare” begins by showing esthetician Hope Goldman (played by Banks) in a TV studio dressing room, as she’s about to get ready for a interview that will be recorded for a talk show called “The Brett & Kylie Show,” hosted by sleazy Brett Wright (played by Nathan Fillion) and perky Kylie Curson (played by Julie Chang). Hope is doing her own makeup, which is the first sign that she’s probably an image-obsessed control freak. It’s likely she refused to have the show’s makeup artist do Hope’s makeup because Hope wants to prove she’s the best skincare expert.

Hope is the owner of Hope Goldman Skincare, which has some celebrity clients, including a starlet named Jessica (played by Ella Balinska), whom Hope considers to be one of her most important customers. Hope is doing this TV interview mainly to promote a new Hope Goldman Skincare product line that’s she launching in the near future. Hope brags that her high-end products are made in Italy. In the interview, she says: “I took everything I learned from 20 years in this business and bottled it.”

Hope (who is a bachelorette with no children) might appear to be successful and living out her dreams, but behind the scenes, her life is kind of a mess. She’s overdue on her rent at the small boutique-styled space that she uses for her skincare business. And her new skincare product business has been costing her money that she can’t afford. As she explains to her landlord Jeff (played by John Billingsley), when he mildly scolds her for not paying her overdue rent: Hope’s chief investor has suddenly disappeared, and she’s had to pay for the expenses that the investor was supposed to cover, but she promises Jeff she will pay the rent in the coming days.

Hope has only one employee who is shown in the movie. Her name is Marine (played Michaela Jaé Rodriguez), who has various duties, including being a receptionist, administrative assistant and public relations manager. It’s one of the noticeable flaws in “Skincare” that Hope’s employee situation looks unrealistic. Anyone launching this type of skincare business on such a wide scale would have more than one employee. Marine is competent, hard-working and very loyal to Hope. Marine also seems to be the closest thing that loner Hope has to being a friend.

One day, Hope finds out that another esthetician has opened a business across the street from her business. Jeff is also the landlord for that retail space. Hope’s new rival is Angel Vergara (played by Luis Gerardo Méndez), the ambitious owner of Shimmer by Angel, which has a flashier and trendier aesthetic than Hope Goldman Skincare. At first, Hope is cordial to Angel because she thinks that they have different clientele. But their competition becomes bitter when Angel tells her not to park in the space that’s reserved for his customers, and Jessica ends up becoming Angel’s customer.

Hope complains to Jeff about Angel and asks Jeff to evict him, but Jeff’s business-minded response is that he doesn’t evict tenants who pay their rent on time. To make matters worse for Hope, someone hacked into Hope’s email database and sent an embarrassing message from her email address to her nearly 5,000 email contacts. The messages had a rambling confession saying that Hope is lonely, horny, and financially broke. Some the recipients of this message are Hope’s clients, who cancel appointments with her because they now think that she’s mentally ill.

Hope is convinced that Angel is responsible for the hacking, even though she has no proof. She is also getting harassing phone calls where the caller breathes heavily and then hangs up. Hope thinks Angel is also the cause of this phone harassment because he’s the only person she can think of who would have a motive to sabotage her business. It sets her on a path to stop the harassment by any means necessary.

The fake email message goes viral and damages Hope’s reputation. As a result, her prerecorded interview on “The Brett & Kylie Show” gets cancelled. And what a coincidence: “The Brett & Kylie Show” replaces Hope’s interview with an interview that the show did with Angel. A tire on Hope’s car is later slashed.

While all of this turmoil is going on, Hope meets Jordan Weaver (played by Lewis Pullman), a 26-year-old who has recently moved to Los Angeles. Jordan is having a casual fling with elderly and affluent Colleen (played by Wendie Malick), one of Hope’s customers. Colleen, who is old enough to be Jordan’s grandmother, is the one who introduces Jordan to Hope. Jordan says he’s an aspiring actor, but in the meantime, he’s a “life coach” who teaches martial arts and spiritual healing.

Jordan and Hope eventually become friendly with each other, in the way that people become close when they think they can use each other for personal benefits. Angel’s business starts to experience even more success as Hope’s business goes on a steep decline, which enrages Hope and fuels her jealous quest to get revenge before her skincare product line officially launches. There’s a shady character named Armen (played by Erik Palladino) who comes into the picture and has a pivotal role in the story.

The plot of “Skincare” goes off into some tangents that could have been explored better but are just left to dangle without any meaningful follow-up. For example, there’s a scene where Brett (who is married but tells Hope that he’s on the brink of divorce) makes sexual advances on Hope after the “Brett & Kylie Show” cancelled her interview to be televised. Brett hints that he could put her back on his TV show if she gives him what he wants sexually.

Hope handles this sexual harassment in an astute way, but there’s really no purpose to this scene except to show that Brett is corrupt, and Hope has ways to get out of this type of tricky situation. It also seems odd that the movie makes it look like “The Brett & Kylie Show” is the only possible TV show that would be interested in interviewing Hope, before her scandal happened. Brett ends up being a character who is barely in the movie, which gives the impression that perhaps there were more scenes in the film that didn’t make the final cut.

This sexual harassment scene seems to be part of the movie’s larger commentary on the shallowness of transactional “quid pro quo” relationships, particularly in a celebrity-oriented city such as Los Angeles. A recurring “joke” in the movie is that Hope offers free samples of her skincare products as a way to ingratiate herself to people whom she thinks can do her favors later on. Hope also chases fame for herself just as much as some of the celebrities whom she wants as clients.

“Skincare” might leave some viewers confused about the intended tone of the film. The movie starts off looking like a drama but then it becomes more darkly comical as it goes along. Some of the characters seem more like caricatures the more time that they spend on screen. Thanks to Banks’ “go for broke” performance, “Skincare” blurs the lines between victims and villains, which will make some viewers more uncomfortable than others.

IFC Films released “Skincare” in U.S. cinemas on August 16, 2024.

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