Justin Long Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Coyotes’ (2025), starring Justin Long, Kate Bosworth, Mila Harris, Katherine McNamara, Brittany Allen, Keir O’Donnell and Norbert Leo Butz

October 13, 2025

by Carla Hay

Mila Harris in “Coyotes” (Photo courtesy of Aura Entertainment)

“Coyotes” (2025)

Directed by Colin Minihan

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles, the horror film “Coyotes” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Several people encounter deadly coyotes that are running loose in the city.

Culture Audience: “Coyotes” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and “creature feature” movies that are tacky, mindless and boring.

Justin Long in “Coyotes” (Photo courtesy of Aura Entertainment)

“Coyotes” is a deliberately campy horror comedy movie about killer coyotes on the loose in Los Angeles. However, this sloppily made flop fails to be amusing, scary or interesting, with repetitive scenes of people making incredibly idiotic decisions. And even though “Coyotes” is only 91 minutes long, it feels like longer because this garbage movie is so dull.

Directed by Colin Minihan, “Coyotes” was written by Tad Daggerhart and Nick Simon. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 edition of Fantastic Fest. “Coyotes” takes place in Los Angeles but was actually filmed in Colombia. In reality, coyotes usually don’t attack humans unless they feel threatened, but since this is a fictional horror movie about killer coyotes, that fact can be overlooked. The movie throws in a not-very-believable “reveal” toward the end to explain why these particular coyotes have been targeting people.

“Coyotes” begins by showing a vain and vapid social media influencer named Kat (played by Katherine McNamara), who is walking her pet Chihuahua named Gigi on a seemingly deserted Los Angeles street. Kat has just come from a nightclub or a party and is yapping on her phone with a friend about how irrisistible Kat thinks she is. “I swear, it’s not intentional, but people just follow my vibe,” Kat says in a phony humble brag. “I’m just magnetic.”

It starts raining when Kat decides to take selfie photos on the street. Gigi goes into some bushes when Kat feels strong tugging on the dog’s leash. She also hears strange rustling in the bushes and the sound of Gigi crying out in pain. Kat doesn’t notice that a coyote is in the background in one of her selfie photos.

You can easily predict the rest: Kat goes into the bushes and sees that Gigi was killed by a coyote. A coyote leaps out and mauls Kat, who stumbles into the street and gets hit by a car. (The driver barely stops before driving away.) Two coyotes then come out of the bushes and look at Kat’s mangled body like fresh prey.

This scene (which is partially shown in the “Coyotes” trailer) is very cliché. However, it’s actually one of the better scenes in the movie because McNamara plays the role with good comedic timing. Unfortunately, she’s in the movie for less than 10 minutes. After Kat dies, the movie has a montage of clips explaining that recent wildfires in the area have driven coyotes closer to highly populated areas of the city.

The rest of “Coyotes” (which has small number of people in its cast) is about other people who encounter the coyotes in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. The three-person family at the center of this deadly coyote story consists of workaholic writer Scott (played by Justin Long); his homemaker wife Liv (played by Kate Bosworth); and their moody daughter Chloe (played by Mila Harris), who’s about 15 or 16 years old. When Scott first sees the coyotes, even after hearing that they kill people, he acts like they’re just friendly stray dogs. Scott changes his mind when he sees how vicious these coyotes can be.

Other characters in the movie are completely hollow and written as empty-headed shells. Devon (played by Keir O’Donnell) is a fanatical exterminator who was hired by Scott to get rid of a rat infestation in the family home the day before the coyotes show up near the home and go on a rampage. Trip (played by Norbert Leo Butz) is the cocaine-snorting slob who lives next door to the family. Julie (played by Brittany Allen) is a sex worker hired by Trip to spend the night at his place. Tony (played by Kevin Glynn) is Scott’s goofy Irish friend. Sheila (played by Norma Nivia) is a famous actress who is Tony’s nagging wife.

News reports mention that Kat was one of a growing number of people in the area who’ve been recently killed by coyotes. Because coyotes tend to hunt at night, you would think there would be a temporary curfew in the city. You would think that fire department officials (which usually handle wild animal control issues) would be making efforts to find and capture these homicidal coyotes. But no, not in this stupid movie.

On the night before the big rampage, a severe rainstorm hits the area and causes a power outage and several trees to fall down. The day after the storm, Tony comes over to Scott’s house to help Scott remove fallen trees from the family’s front yard. Meanwhile, Trip is distraught because his cat Lucy has gone missing. (Liv found Lucy’s collar, which is not a good indication that Lucy is still alive.)

“Coyotes” has too many plot holes and annoyingly moronic actions to make this an enjoyable movie to watch. The terror scenes are dragged out by making not-believable-at all excuses that certain characters in the movie just happen to have cell phones with dead batteries at the same time. These batteries can’t be recharged because of the power outage. (Apparently, no one in this movie has battery chargers that don’t need electricity.)

Certain people get severely mauled and bitten by coyotes, but their injuries suddenly disappear in later scenes that take place on the same night. (That’s how you know who will be the survivors by the end of the movie.) There are no science-fiction elements in “Coyotes,” so there’s no excuse for these quickly disappearing wounds.

When a family member needs immediately medical care, no effort is made to get medical help for that person. When a phone call for help is finally made, the person making the call decides to contact Devon the exterminator, not emergency services. The same family member who gets a serious wound from a coyote bite worries aloud that the wound will leave a scar, like a “vampire bite.” A family member makes this garbage comment in response: “That’d be cool.”

The movie is also annoying for how it makes Scott a walking contradiction. In the beginning of the movie, he’s so compassionate and concerned about animals, he asks exterminator Devon if there’s a way to trap the house-invading rats and let the rats loose in the wild instead of killing the rats. And yet, later in the movie, Scott shows that he’s not really thinking about getting himself and his family members to safety when they’re in peril. Liv isn’t much better and is also a horribly irresponsible parent, but she’s more likely to take effective action, compared to foolish and incompetent Scott.

The visual effects are what you might expect for a low-budget trashy flick, but it still takes you out of the movie to see the obviously fake coyotes, which look and act more like wolves in the movie. In one absolutely ridiculous scene, a fully grown adult coyote sneaks into the family’s house by going through a dog door that’s small enough to only fit the family’s Yorkshire Terrier named Charlie. The filmmakers of “Coyotes” obviously don’t care about insulting viewers’ intelligence.

Certain people in the story have access to loaded guns, but the movie is mostly pathetic in how it depicts gun action. “Coyotes” tries to be a bit “artsy,” by having occasional freeze frames that look like comic book panels. This visual style looks somewhat random until it’s explained in one of the very last scenes in the movie that Scott is a longtime comic book collector.

The acting in “Coyotes” is nothing special and is mediocre at best. The dialogue is mostly awful or forgettable. Allen has the most entertaining character in the movie and does sufficiently well in the role, but the rest of the characters are just lackluster stereotypes. Long and Bosworth (who are a married couple in real life) have played these types of characters (dorky neurotic for Long, strong-willed love interest for Bosworth) many times before, so there’s nothing new to see here.

“Coyotes” is the type of terribly made “killer animals on the loose” film where even after someone knows that these animals are on a rampage and are close by, that person leaves a front door of the house open, and a killer animal goes into the house. Yes, that really happens in “Coyotes.” And the person who left the door open gets exactly what’s coming. Viewers who’ve been warned about “Coyotes” being time-wasting junk will also get exactly what they deserve if they still want to watch this irritating and monotonous dreck.

Aura Entertainment released “Coyotes” in select U.S. cinemas on October 3, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on October 21, 2025.

Review: ‘Weapons’ (2025), starring Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan

August 5, 2025

by Carla Hay

Julia Garner and Josh Brolin in “Weapons” (Photo by Quantrell Colbert/Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Weapons” (2025)

Directed by Zach Cregger

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional U.S. city of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, the horror film “Weapons” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asians and African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After 17 third-grade students with the same teacher suddenly walk out of their homes at the same time at 2:17 a.m. and disappear, the community is gripped with fear, suspicion and anger over finding the missing children and punishing whoever is responsible.

Culture Audience: “Weapons” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Zach Cregger, and well-made horror movies that pack a big punch.

Cary Christopher in “Weapons” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

One of the creepiest horror stories you can see in any given year, “Weapons” is a standout original film about the mystery of several children who disappeared on the same night. The movie has an unforgettable showdown that’s disturbing and darkly hilarious. Although some parts of “Weapons” can occasionally drag with slow pacing, the movie is an above-average blend of supernatural scares, psychological thrills and bloody gore for viewers who can tolerate seeing this type of film.

Written and directed by Zach Cregger, “Weapons” takes place in the fictional U.S. city of Maybrook, Pennsylvania. The main clue that Maybrook is in Pennsylvania is the police department’s phone number has the area code 814. (“Weapons” was actually filmed in Atlanta.) Maybrook is a suburban middle-class community that has a small police force.

The movie is narrated intermittently by an unnamed girl (voiced by Scarlett Sher), who is an observer of how a traumatic event affected the community. The narrator explains that in the early-morning hours of 2:17 a.m., 17 third graders at Maybrook Elementary School walked and ran out of their homes and then disappeared. Security camera footage showed that the children (ages 8 and 9) had their arms outstretched as they left their homes. None of the security camera footage showed the children being kidnapped or abducted by anyone.

Later that day, an investigation discovered that all 17 of the students had the same teacher: Justine Gandy (played by Julia Garner), a new Maybrook Elementary School employee, who showed up for work and saw that all but one of her students was absent. The only student who was in the class was Alex Lilly (played by Cary Christopher), who says he doesn’t know what happened to his missing classmates. Alex also says he doesn’t know why he was the only one of his classmates who didn’t go missing.

Extensive searches of Maybrook’s outdoor areas are done with police and several volunteers. The search does not reveal any clues. Conspiracy theories and mistrust spread like wildfire in the community. Eventually, a $50,000 reward is offered to anyone who has information that will directly lead to the safe return of the children.

At a town hall meeting, several angry members of the community confront Maybrook Elementary School principal Marcus Miller (played by Benedict Wong) and Justine, who is soft-spoken but can get angry and defensive when pushed too far. The people in the audience demand an explanation for why the only kids who are missing had Justine as a teacher. Marcus and Justine, who are fully cooperating with the investigation, vehemently deny that they or the school had anything to do with the disappearances.

One of the angriest people at this town hall meeting is Archer Graff (played by Josh Brolin), whose son Matthew Graff (played by Luke Speakman) is one of the missing kids. Archer outright accuses Justine of either beng responsible for the disappearances or knowing who’s responsible. Archer owns a small construction company and eventually becomes a vigilante investigator on his own when he feels that law enforcement isn’t doing enough. Fans of Cregger’s 2022 horror movie “Barbarian” will be pleased to see “Barbarian” co-star Justin Long in a cameo in “Weapons,” in which Long portrays Gary, a parent of one of the missing children.

Parts of the movie don’t ring true. Something as bizarre as 17 children inexplicably going missing at the same time in the same city would be big news all over the world. There would be a media circus that’s not depicted in this movie. The FBI would also probably get involved, but in the movie, the only person who’s seen as being in charge of the investigation is a Maybrook police captain named Ed (played by Toby Huss), who has no answers or updates when Archer has a tension-filled meeting with him.

The majority of “Weapons” is told in six chapters, with each chapter seen from the perspective of a different character, who are all connected to the disapparances in some way. Without giving away too many details, here is what is eventually revealed about each of these six characters:

Justine becomes a despised outcast in the community and is eventually placed on a paid leave of absence from the school. She begins abusing alcohol to cope with the stress. She is under strict orders not to contact Alex, as long as the children remain missing. Justine also has a troubled past that Archer finds out about and makes him even more suspicious of Justine.
Archer becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Matthew and the other missing kids. He crosses boundaries that make a few of the parents uncomfortable. Archer uses his layout knowledge of the Maybrook neighorbhoods during his investigation. And he gets into an inevitable direct confrontation with Justine.
Paul Morgan (played by Alden Ehrenreich) is an ex-boyfriend of Justine’s who is a patrol cop and not a detective on the case, but his father-in-law is police captain Ed. Paul is a recovering alcoholic and is married to a woman named Donna (played by June Diane Raphael), who wants to start a family with Paul. Justine contacts Paul for some emotional comfort during this difficult time.
James (played by Austin Abrams) is a young homeless man who is addicted to meth and possibly other drugs, which he smokes and injects. James steals to get money for his addictions. He has a more than one encounter with Paul. James also plays a very pivotal role in the movie’s story.
Marcus does his best to shield Justine from disciplinary action and the wrath of people who think she’s responsible for the mysterious disappearances. However, Justine defies some of Marcus’ orders, so he has no choice but to put her on a forced leave of absence. Not much else is revealed about Marcus except that he has a husband named Terry (played by Clayton Farris), and they seem to be a happy couple.
Alex has kept mostly to himself after the disappearances were discovered. His unnamed parents (played by Whitmer Thomas and Callie Schuttera) have become recluses during the period of time that the children have gone missing. When Alex sees Justine, he tries to avoid talking to her. Alex’s aunt Gladys (played by Amy Madigan), an elderly woman who says she’s the older sister of Alex’s mother, shows up to help take care of Alex.

“Weapons” layers these chapters in a way where each chapter ends on a cliffhanger, until the movie’s last scenes, where all the characters’ stories come together for more revelations. It’s a great narrative structure for the movie because it keeps the suspense going throughout the story. Sensitive viewers be warned: “Weapons” has a finale that is not for people who get easily nauseated by bloody violence on screen.

The “Weapons” musical score (written Cregger, Ryan Holladay and Hays Holladay) is particularly effective in enhancing the moods for each scene. There are touches of twisted comedy, even in the most horrifying moments. It’s the movie’s way of diffusing some of the most unnerving situations shown in the film. These comedic touches are calibrated with the right tone so as not to look completely out of place.

The cast members’ performances (especially from Garner, Abrams and Madigan) are believable for their characters—even though the movie’s “mass disappearance” plot is not based on something that happened in real life. However, real-life horrors—such as not knowing what happened to missing children, experiencing illegal police brutality, and descending into an alcohol-fueled depression—are all explored in the movie in impactful ways. “Weapons” is an intentionally unsettling film that taps into many people’s worst fears but leaves enough hope about human resilience when attacked by evil.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Weapons” in U.S. cinemas on August 8, 2025.

Review: ‘Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,’ starring Matilda Fleming, Maria Dizzia, Ben Shenkman, Francesca Scorsese, Elsie Fisher, Lev Cameron, Sawyer Spielberg, Gregg Turkington and Michael Cera

December 14, 2024

by Carla Hay

Pictured clockwise, from left: Leo Chan, John Trischetti Jr., Brittany Hughes, Maria Dizzia, Sean Carr, Tony Savino, Mary Reistetter, JoJo Cincinnati, Laura Robards, Ben Shenkman, Francesca Scorsese, Jordan Barringer and Matilda Fleming in “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point”

Directed by Tyler Taormina

Culture Representation: Taking place on an early 2000s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, a fictional city on New York’s Long Island, the comedy/drama film “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Asians and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Various people of different generations gather for a Christmas Eve dinner party at a family home, where there is some adult bickering and teenage rebellion.

Culture Audience: “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching Christmas holiday movies that don’t have a real plot.

Pictured clockwise, from left: Matilda Fleming, Francesca Scorsese, Leo Hervey and Ava Francesca Renne in “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is a movie that doesn’t have a point with a story that’s aimless drivel. It’s nothing but a dull compilation of mindless drama and unfunny comedy scenes with forgettable characters during a Christmas Eve night on New York’s Long Island. By the end of this time-wasting film, you probably won’t be able to describe anything that’s consistently compelling about the movie.

Directed by Tyler Taormina, “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” was co-written by Taormina and Eric Berger. The movie had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, which might be why some people might be fooled into thinking this is a good film. The reality is that the Cannes Film Festival has had plenty of bad movies. “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is one of them.

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” (which takes place in in the early 2000s, in the fictional Long Island city of Miller’s Point) begins by showing a family of four driving to the home of the children’s grandmother for a large family gathering. (“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” was filmed on location in Suffolk County, Long Island.) In the car are spouses Lenny (played by Ben Shenkman) and Kathleen (played by Maria Dizzia) and their two children: teenage Emily (played by Matilda Fleming) and pre-teen Andrew, nicknamed Andy (played by Justin Long), who’s about 10 or 11 years old. Emily is about 15 or 16 years old.

Lenny is a mostly attentive father who seems to get along with everyone, but he has a tendency to be bossy and preachy. Kathleen is a neurotic worrier. Emily is a teenage rebellion stage and often gets into arguments with Kathleen. Andy doesn’t have much of a personality and is barely seen in the movie.

The Christmas Eve family gathering is being held at the home of Kathleen’s widowed mother Antonia (played by Mary Reistetter), who doesn’t say much in the movie either. Kathleen’s siblings are also at this Christmas Eve dinner party: gossipy Elyse (played by Maria Carucci), macho Uncle Ray (played by Tony Savino), outspoken Matthew (played by John Trischetti Jr.) and “average guy” Uncle Ronald (played by Steve Alleva), who thinks he’s the most talented cook in the family. Ray likes to brag that he’s an aspiring author. No one cares.

One of the biggest problems with “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is that it’s overstuffed with characters where almost nothing is told about these characters. Too many characters come and go in the story, with no effort to let these characters stay long enough for viewers to get to know them. Some people seated at the main dinner table are never identified by how they know Antonia and her family. About 80% of “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” consists of very boring conversations that go nowhere. The movie goes from one scenario to the next with no real purpose.

You won’t learn much about the family at the center of the story. Ronald wants to put Antonia in a nursing home, while Ray is vehemently against the idea. Ray offers to have Antonia live with him, while his siblings are skeptical that Ray is capable of taking care of their mother. There’s also some family disagreement over whether or not Antonia’s house should be sold after she dies.

Meanwhile, Emily sneaks out of the house to drive around with some of her friends, including Michelle (played by Francesca Scorsese) and Sasha (played by Ava Francesca Renne), while an unwelcome pest named Craig Salwen (played by Leo Hervey) tags along. The highlight of their excursion is being able to illegally buy alcoholic drinks at a liquor store. Michelle, who is slightly older (about 19 or 20) than the teens she hangs out with, has a brief flirtation with a retail worker named Lynn (played by Elsie Fisher), who is in the movie for less than 10 minutes.

There are other scenes that are completely useless, such as an early scene of adolescents playing a video game in a room. A kid named Plati (played by Keon Mosley) suddenly goes into a dark storage room in the house and emerges from the room holding an iguana. And then, the movie abruptly cuts to another scene. This bizarre scene with the iguana is not mentioned or referenced in the movie again.

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” occasionally shows two law enforcement officers on patrol: Officer Gibson (played by Michael Cera, one of the producers of “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point”) and Sergeant Brooks (played by Gregg Turkington), who are both weirdos. They like to flash their squad car headlights whenever they think anyone is speeding, even if these two cops don’t necessarily pull anyone over for speeding. These two cops who don’t say much until a strange and very unamusing part of the movie where they both talk in deadpan voices about acting on sexual feelings for a co-worker.

The acting performances in “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” are mediocre to awful, with no character in the movie having a personality that could be considered interesting. “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is so slow-paced and inert, it’s like watching a snow plow stuck in a rut. Instead of shoveling snow, “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” is like a snow plow that just shovels a lot of crap.

IFC Films released “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” in select U.S. cinemas on November 8, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on December 3, 2024. AMC+ premiered “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” on December 6, 2024.

Review: ‘Dear David’ (2023), starring Augustus Prew, Andrea Bang, René Escobar Jr., Cameron Nicoll and Justin Long

November 20, 2023

by Carla Hay

Augustus Prew and Cameron Nicoll in “Dear David” (Photo by Stephanie Montani/Lionsgate)

“Dear David” (2023)

Directed by John McPhail

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City in 2017 (and briefly in 1996), the horror film “Dear David” (based on a real Internet story that went viral) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latin people, and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A comic artist who works for BuzzFeed believes that he is being haunted by a ghost named David, and he chronicles his experiences in messages on Twitter.

Culture Audience: “Dear David” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching mindless and incoherent horror movies with annoying characters.

Jarrett Siddall in “Dear David” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Dear David” is what happens when misguided filmmakers think a social media fad story can be made into a movie that a lot of people weren’t asking for in the first place. This pointless horror flick is boring, jumbled, and a complete waste of time. “Dear David” is based on true events from 2017, when a BuzzFeed comic artist named Adam Ellis went on Twitter to detail his supposed encounters with a murderous ghost named David. BuzzFeed Studios is one of the production companies behind this forgettable flop movie.

Directed by John McPhail and written by Mike Van Waes, “Dear David” is the first feature film for Van Waes. The “Dear David” screenplay is the weakest link in this terrible movie, but it’s certainly not the only reason why “Dear David” is a complete failure on every level. What viewers will see are monotonous and repetitive scenes of protagonist Adam Ellis (played by Augustus Prew) having nightmarish visions that he’s not sure are real or part of his imagination.

The beginning of this movie shows this introductory statement: “In 2017, Adam Ellis began documenting a series of strange encounters that were happening in his apartment, He posted them on Twitter, and these ‘Dear David’ posts became a viral sensation. The following is based on those true events.”

If you believe that “on Twitter” and “true events” are automatically synonymous, then perhaps you’d like to think that Twitter owner Elon Musk can buy the Brooklyn Bridge too. Hauntings that were fabricated to make people famous have been around much longer than social media existed. You only need to look at the proliferation of paranormal-themed TV shows and Web series to see that plenty of people are trying find fame and fortune from “investigating” hauntings.

And so, the motives of Adam Ellis are obviously suspect from the start. In real life, Ellis has been open about his mental health issues, which might or might not have played a role in his ghostly sightings. The fact that BuzzFeed cashed in on an employee’s admittedly shaky mental health by making this awful movie makes “Dear David” even more repulsive.

“Dear David” begins in New York City in 1996, a year when the Internet was fairly new to the world. A reclusive loner boy named David Johnson (played by Cameron Nicoll), who’s 10 years old, spends a lot of time using the Internet on a computer in the basement of his family home. David’s mother is worried about his Internet activities. David’s father has the opposite opinion: He thinks that the Internet is a sensation that will take over the world.

An early scene in the movie shows David getting cyberbullied in a chat room by an anonymous person, who sends David a message calling David a “loser.” David writes back, “Why are you so mean?” The harasser answers, “Why don’t you kill yourself?”

The movie then fast-forwards to 2017. At BuzzFeed headquarters in New York City, Adam is a comic artist who’s not doing very well on the job. He’s distracted by Internet harassers who insult his work. Adam’s annoying boss Bryce (played by Justin Long, in a quick cameo) hints that Adam could be fired if Adam doesn’t get a larger audience for Adam’s work. Bryce says that Adam has “relatable” content, but Adam’s audience reach is “kind of lame.”

Adam has two writer co-workers whose desks are right next to his. Evelyn (played by Andrea Bang) is Adam’s closest friend at work and one of the few people he trusts will be supportive of him when things in his life get weird. Norris (played by Tricia Black) is phony and very competitive. Norris is the type of person who tries too hard to impress the boss while making passive-aggressive digs at her co-workers.

“Dear David” spends quite a bit of time on Adam’s relationship with his boyfriend Kyle Sanchez (played by René Escobar Jr.), who is loving and loyal but getting impatient and feels somewhat hurt that Adam is not ready to introduce Kyle to Adam’s mother. (The movie never says what happened to Adam’s father.) There’s also some other drama about how Adam hasn’t come out as gay to everyone in his life.

Who is the ghost that’s causing the terror in the movie? Two unlucky teens named Kevin (played by Seth Murchison) and James (played by Ethan Hwang) find out when they use false identities to go on the Internet to play pranks on people. An example of the pranks is Kevin and James pretending to be attractive young women looking for dates with men, and when they get men to be interested, Kevin and James reveal that they are really underage boys and shame the men for being perverts.

One day, someone on the Internet named David falls for one of their pranks. David doesn’t think it’s funny and tells Kevin and James that they are both going to die. During their contentious online conversation, David warns Kevin and James that when people first talk to David online, they can only ask David two questions.

It should come as no surprise that one of the teens breaks this rule and asks more than two questions. One of the questions Kevin asks is: “How am I going to die?” David answers, “Alone, afraid, and wetting your bed.” You can easily guess what happens to Kevin in this dreadfully predictable movie.

Adam also encounters David online, but David torments Adam much longer than David’s usual victims. After doing some research, Adam is convinced that the David who’s been contacting him on the Internet and who’s attacking him in these haunting visions is the ghost of a boy named David, who had a tragic story. Take a wild guess which David that is. The ghost who is haunting Adam appears to be an adult version of David (played by Jarrett Siddall), who doesn’t look very menacing and looks more like psychiatric facility patient who needs to brush his teeth.

“Dear David” could’ve had so many interesting things to say about cyberbullying and ghost hauntings, but the movie doesn’t know what to do with these narratives and just makes everything a mess. The acting performances are subpar for the movie’s characters, who are hollow, irritating or both. The overall direction for “Dear David” is sloppy and unfocused. Because the foundation of “Dear David” is a weak and gimmicky Internet story that briefly went viral, that foundation sinks quickly into a cesspool of cinematic muck where stupid horror movies are quickly forgotten.

Lionsgate released “Dear David” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on October 13, 2023.

Review: ‘Clerks III,’ starring Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Trevor Fehrman, Austin Zajur, Jason Mewes, Rosario Dawson and Kevin Smith

September 16, 2022

by Carla Hay

“Clerks III”

Directed by Kevin Smith

Culture Representation: Taking place in Leonardo, New Jersey, the comedy film “Clerks III” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Asians and Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: The misfits and eccentrics of the “Clerks” movies have returned—and this time, they’re making a biographical movie about the guy who’s the biggest screwup in the group.

Culture Audience: “Clerks III” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the previous “Clerks” movies and filmmaker Kevin Smith, because those are the viewers who are most likely to understand a lot of the jokes in “Clerks III.”

Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith in “Clerks III” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Clerks III” is best enjoyed by people who’ve seen or know about the first two “Clerks” movies. “Clerks III” relies heavily on jokes from previous “Clerks” movies. Therefore, some of the comedy is too repetitive. However, the movie’s zany attitude should please fans of a comedy film that can easily laugh at itself.

Kevin Smith wrote and directed 1994’s “Clerks” (still the best in the series), 2006’s “Clerks II” and 2022’s “Clerks III.” He plays on-again/off-again drug dealer Silent Bob in all three movies, which feature Silent Bob and his buffoonish partner in crime Jay (played by Jason Mewes, who is a longtime, close friend of Smith in real life). All three movies (which take place in Leonardo, New Jersey) revolve around eccentric and goofy clerks who work at small, quick-service stores in an outdoor shopping strip mall.

The two main clerks who are at the center of each movie are best friends Dante Hicks (played by Brian O’Halloran) and Randal Graves (played by Jeff Anderson), who are a stereotypical comedy “odd couple.” Dante is the more serious and “responsible” one of this duo. Randal is the one who’s more impulsive and more likely to make a mess of things. The biggest thing that Dante and Randal have in common is their passion for pop culture, especially anything that would attract a typical Comic-Con attendee.

In the first “Clerks” movie, Dante worked at the convenience store Quick Stop Groceries, which was next door to RST Video, where Randal worked. In “Clerks II,” Dante was the owner of Quick Stop, but Randal accidentally burned down the store after leaving a percolating pot of coffee unattended. The fire also destroyed RST Video, so Dante and Randal took jobs at a fast food restaurant called Mooby’s, where they worked with a teenager named Elias Grover (played by Trevor Fehrman) and Mooby’s manager Rebecca “Becky” Scott (played by Rosario Dawson).

In “Clerks III,” Dante and Randal are still bachelors working at low-paying jobs. Dante is once again the owner and operator of Quick Stop, which is right next door to RST Video, which now has a makeshift sign advertising that it now sells THC products. (In 2021, selling and using marijuana recreationally became legal in New Jersey.) Elias (with Fehrman reprising his role), who is a frequent customer of Quick Stop, has grown up to be a religious fanatic who can’t decide if he wants to be a devout Christian or a devout Satanist.

Becky died in 2006, at the age of 33. Dante, who was romantically involved with Becky in “Clerks II,” is still grieving over her death. Dante sees visions of Becky (with Dawson reprising her role) intermittently throughout “Clerks III,” where Becky imparts words of wisdom to Dante when he’s feeling down. Dante, who is now in his 50s, is battling with having a mid-life crisis, because he feels like he should have accomplished more with his life by now.

In addition to all of these returning characters, “Clerks III” introduces the new character Blockchain Coltrane (played by Austin Zajur), who is Elias’ mostly mute sidekick. Randal quips about Blockchain Coltrane: “It looks like Elias has got his own Silent Bob.” Elias is fixated on the idea of selling kites with the image of Jesus Christ on the kites. Elias thinks that that these kites will be a hit with the public. Dante is very skeptical and reluctant to sell any of these kites in the store.

There are some nods to the first “Clerks” movie in “Clerks III,” such as the opening scene where Dante arrives at Quick Stop to start work for the day, and he scrapes gum off of the front-door lock. (This “gum on a lock” plot device is a significant catalyst for the story in “Clerks.”) In “Clerks III,” there’s also an early scene where Dante, Randal and about six other men play hockey on the roof of Quick Stop, instead of working during the store’s opening hours, as confused and impatient customers line up to get into the store. It’s a reference to a similar scene in the first “Clerks” movie where Randal and Dante goofed off on the store roof instead of working.

The slacker characters of the first “Clerks” movie might be much older now, but it doesn’t mean that they’re much wiser. A lot of the comedy is about all the doltish things that the guys say and do. Any women in the movie mainly serve as foils for some of these shenanigans.

And you know what that means: Becky isn’t the only ex-girlfriend of Dante’s who shows up in “Clerks III.” Dante’s former fiancée Emma Bunting (played by Jennifer Schwalbach Smith), who was in “Clerks II,” makes an appearance. Veronica “Ronnie” Loughran (played by Marilyn Ghigliotti) from the first “Clerks” movie also has a small supporting role in “Clerks III.” Past grudges affect what happens between these characters. Viewers should really know the backstories of these characters in order to understand lot of the jokes.

The main story in “Clerks III” is that Randal has a heart attack, which leads him to rethink his life and what kind of legacy he wants to leave. He comes up with the idea of doing a movie about his life, which he will write and direct and star in, as himself. Randal thinks he’s qualfiied to direct his first movie because he’s watched a lot of movies. Silent Bob, who is hired to be the cinematographer of Randal’s movie, breaks his silence in a hilarious meta monologue referencing the first “Clerks” movie and why it was filmed in black and white.

Of course, Randal being Randal, all sorts of mishaps and mayhem occur during this movie shoot, which Randal wants to film mainly at Quick Stop. Dante starts to feel alienated by Randal acting like an egotistical director. Dante also feels like he’s being sidelined in the movie’s script. And all of the other characters get involved with their own agendas.

“Clerks III” has very much a vibe of, “The gang’s all back together, and let’s put a lot of famous people in this movie too.” There are numerous celebrity cameos in “Clerks III,” including Ben Affleck, Amy Sedaris, Justin Long, Danny Trejo, Fred Armisen, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Michelle Buteau and Anthony Michael Hall. No one does a terrible acting performance in the movie, but no one is particularly outstanding either.

One of the charms of the first “Clerks” movie is that it was obviously made by people who had no idea that the film would become a cult classic and launch the career of Smith. “Clerks III” has a little too much self-awareness for its own good. There’s a lot of fan servicing in “Clerks III” that won’t sit very well with people who have no knowledge of the first two “Clerks” movies. However, if people have enough knowledge of pop culture, they should gets some laughs out of “Clerks III,” which sometimes overloads on mentioning trendy things from the early 2020s that that will inevitably become very outdated.

What saves “Clerks III” from being an annoying rehash of the first two “Clerks” movies is the way the movie ends. Some people might be expecting this ending, because it’s an ending that Smith has talked about before in interviews. Other viewers might be caught off guard by the movie’s final scenes. This ending gives “Clerks III” an emotional substance that viewers will remember much more than the movie’s many trash-talking, throwaway jokes.

Lionsgate and Fathom Events are releasing “Clerks III” in select U.S. cinemas for a limited engagement from September 13 to September 18, 2022.

Review: ‘Barbarian’ (2022), starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long

September 7, 2022

by Carla Hay

Georgina Campbell in “Barbarian” (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)

“Barbarian” (2022)

Directed by Zach Cregger

Culture Representation: Taking place in Detroit and briefly in Los Angeles, the horror film “Barbarian” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Murder and mayhem ensue when a woman, who’s in Detroit for a job interview, finds out that her Airbnb-type rental house has been double-booked with a male guest, who is also staying at the house.

Culture Audience: “Barbarian” will appeal primarily to people interested in watching suspenseful slasher films that mixes formulaic plot developments wth a few surprises.

Justin Long in “Barbarian” (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)

“Barbarian” falters with uneven pacing and some gaps in logic, but this slasher flick delivers the type of suspenseful mystery, jump scares and interesting characters that a horror movie should. The acting performances are better than the screenplay. If not for the performances and some clever surprises, “Barbarian” would be a very run-of-the-mill horror movie.

Written and directed by Zach Cregger, “Barbarian” is somewhat of a departure for Cregger, who is also known as an actor who does a lot of work in comedy. (He was one of the original cast members of “The Whitest Kids U’ Know,” the comedy sketch series that was on the IFC network from 2007 to 2011, after launching for a short stint on the Fuse network.) Cregger’s feature-film debut as a writer/director was the forgettable 2009 sex comedy “Miss March,” in which he co-starred with Trevor Moore, one of the other cast members of “The Whitest Kids ‘U Know.”

“Barbarian” begins with the arrival of aspiring filmmaker Tess Marshall (played by Georgina Campbell), who has traveled to Detroit, because she has a job interview to be an assistant to a semi-famous documentary filmmaker. Tess is staying at a one-bedroom house (at the address 476 Barbary) that she rented through Airbnb. And because this is a horror movie, she arrives at night when it’s raining outside.

To her surprise, Tess finds out that there’s another guest who’s already at the house, and his rental time is for the same time that she’s been booked. His name is Keith Toshko (played by Bill Skarsgård), who has arrived from Brooklyn, New York. Keith tells Tess that he booked his reservation through Home Away, an online service that’s similar to Airbnb. Keith also says that he’s part of an artist collective called the Lion Tamers Collective, and he’s in Detroit to look for living space for the group.

After Tess and Keith see that they both have confirmations for the same booking, Tess offers to leave, since Keith arrived at the house first. Tess starts to call around to find a hotel room to book, but the first place she calls doesn’t have any vacancies. Keith says that there’s a big convention happening in Detroit, so she probably won’t have much luck finding a hotel room. The movie never says where Tess lives, but it’s far enough were she had to rent a car for this trip.

There are several moments in “Barbarian” when people make less-than-smart decisions—the types of decisions where viewers might say to themselves, “I would never do that.” The first of those moments in “Barbarian” happens when Tess takes Keith’s word for it that she won’t find a hotel room, and she gives up too easily in her search to find a hotel. This is the type of questionable decision that horror movies rely on, in order to put characters in danger.

Tess then offers to sleep in her car for the night, but Keith insists that she stay in the house because the neighborhood is too dangerous for her to be sleeping in her car at night. At this point, even though Keith is friendly and polite, viewers will be wondering if Keith really is a good guy, or if he has sinister intentions for Tess. This question is answered at a certain point in the movie, but “Barbarian” does a very good job of keeping viewers guessing about what’s going to happen.

Tess then makes the fateful decision to spend the night at the house. Keith tells Tess that she can have the bedroom, while he sleeps on the couch. Because Keith is a complete stranger to Tess, as a precaution, Tess uses her phone to secretly take a photo of Keith’s driver’s license when she see his wallet on a table in the bedroom.

There’s tension in the house, but not just because of fear. After a while, there’s sexual tension, because it becomes obvious that Keith is attracted to Tess. And when Tess begins to feel more comfortable around Keith, the attraction becomes mutual. Their first night together in the house has some scares for Tess when she wakes up in the middle of the night to find out that her bedroom door, which she had closed behind her, is open.

The terror in the house doesn’t happen right away. Tess begins to trust Keith enough that she accepts his offer to share the house with him for the rest of their stay in Detroit. When Tess goes outside the house for the first time when it’s daylight, she sees that the house is the only well-kept house on a residential street that looks like a bombed-out war zone. All of the other houses on the street look like condemned, unhabitable buildings.

The street is also eerily quiet, except for a harrowing incident when a homeless-looking man on the street—Tess later finds out his name is Andre (played by Jaymes Butler)—runs after her and yells at her not to stay in the house. Tess is so frightened by this stranger, she runs into the house and locks herself inside. When she calls 911 to report the incident, the operator says that there are no police units available to go to that street.

Tess gets another big red flag when she goes to her job interview with the documentary filmmaker Catherine James (played by Kate Nichols), who asks Tess where she’s staying while Tess is in Detroit. When Tess mentions the neighborhood and that she’s staying at an Airbnb house rental, Catherine’s immediate reaction is surprise that this neighborhood has a house that meets Airbnb rental standards. Catherine is also very concenred that Tess is staying in that neighborhood, which has a bad reputation for crime, so Catherine urges Tess to be careful.

And something horrible does happen in that house. Luckily for viewers, it’s not revealed in the “Barbarian” trailer or other marketing materials. The movie avoids the pitfall of not giving away its best moments or the movie’s chief villain in the trailer. However, it’s enough to say (as shown in the “Barbarian” trailer) that there’s a long and sinister tunnel underneath the house. And lurking in that tunnel is someone identified in the movie’s credits as The Mother (played by Matthew Patrick Davis), who will definitely make viewers squirm.

Meanwhile, about halfway through the movie, “Barbarian” introduces another character who has a connection to this house. He’s a famous actor named AJ Gilbride (played by Justin Long), who lives in Los Angles. AJ is successful enough to be a steadily working actor who gets starring roles, but he’s not mega-rich. He owns some rental properties, including the house in Detroit where Tess and Keith are staying.

AJ is first seen in the story as he gets bad news from his agents: An actress named Melisa (voiced by Kate Bosworth), whom he is co-starred with in a TV pilot called “Chip Off the Old Block,” is accusing him of rape. Melisa is suing AJ because of this alleged sexual assault. AJ might also face criminal charges. AJ, who vehemently proclaims his innocence, tells anyone who’ll listen that the sex he had with Melisa was consensual.

Because of the scandal, the TV network for “Chip Off the Old Block” has decided that if the network picks up “Chip Off the Old Block” as a series, AJ will no longer be a part of the show. AJ says that he plans to countersue Melisa for defamation. His attorney advises AJ not to contact Melisa or talk to the media while the case is pending.

AJ gets more bad news when he visits his business manager, who tells AJ that AJ doesn’t have enough money to cover the cost of AJ’s legal fees. The business manager advises AJ to sell some of AJ’s property. The business manager also tells AJ that he no longer wants to work with AJ.

A desperate and despondent AJ goes to Detroit to see what he can do about selling the house that he owns at 476 Barbary. AJ has neglected the property so much, he wasn’t even aware that the property’s management company had been renting out the house to visitors for temporary stays. He’s in for a shock when he finds out what’s been going on at that house.

“Barbarian” has a flashback to the 1980s, when this Detroit neighborhood was safe, clean and well-maintained. A middle-aged man named Frank (played by Richard Brake) is seen going to a home supply store and telling a helpful sales clerk that he needs plastic sheets for a “home birth.” Viewers see that Frank is actually a bachelor, but he lets the sales clerk assume that he has a pregnant wife who will soon give birth. Frank doesn’t talk much, and there’s something “off” about him, because he acts like someone who has dark secrets.

Frank is then seen arriving unannounced at a house where a woman is home alone. He’s wearing a repairman’s uniform, and he politely tells the lady of the house that he’s from the utility company, and he needs to do an inspection. The woman lets him inside the house without hesitation. Frank then goes in the bathroom alone and unlocks the bathroom window.

After just a few minutes in the house, Frank thanks the woman resident, and he leaves the house. It’s at this point you know that Frank is going to break into the house later through that unlocked bathroom window. Who is Frank and what kind of criminal is he? Those answers are eventually revealed in the movie. This flashback scene also foreshadows that the neighborhood will go downhill when a male neighbor tells Frank that his family is moving soon because the neighborhood is “going to hell.”

“Barbarian” makes a few references to “white flight” in Detroit (when white residents moved out of certain Detroit neighborhoods because more black people were moving in) and the #MeToo movement. But these social issues don’t overwhelm the story, which remains mostly focused on the horror. “Barbarian” is an overall commentary on decay and neglect in communities, particularly in urban areas.

The characters in “Barbarian” are believable as people, even if some of their actions are illogical. For example, after Tess sees some disturbing things in the house, she stays in the house much longer than most people would. It’s very hard to believe that she can’t figure out other options on where to stay besides this creepy house.

“Barbarian” also brings up some questions that are never answered. There’s a part of the movie that shows there have been some missing people with a connection to the street where the house is. Wouldn’t any loved ones and friends be looking for these missing people? And who’s been maintaining the upkeep of the house? There’s no mention of housekeepers for this place. It’s the only house on the street that’s very neat and orderly on the outside of the building, even though the house’s front lawn looks run-down and messy.

A showdown scene near the end of “Barbarian” also doesn’t make sense on a physics level. However, the mystery of the house is plausible, as long as viewers believe the movie’s depiction that the cops in Detroit avoid this neighborhood as much as possible. “Barbarian” is also a cautionary tale about the dangers of renting a vacation home from strangers, particularly for women traveling alone. Tess obviously didn’t do enough research about the neighborhood and house where she’d be staying.

“Barbarian” writer/director Cregger (who has a cameo in the movie as a Detroit friend of AJ’s) could have paced the movie a little better, since the suspense-filled tension stops in areas where the tension should have been better-maintained. However, the movie has a talented cast, and the film delivers plenty of terrifying and ominous moments that should satisfy most horror fans. “Barbarian” is the type of horror movie where viewers shouldn’t overthink some of the details and should enjoy the terror ride for what it is.

20th Century Studios will release “Barbarian” in U.S. cinemas on September 9, 2022.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘Safe Spaces’ (now titled ‘After Class’)

May 4, 2019

by Carla Hay

“Safe Spaces”

Directed by Daniel Schechter

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 29, 2019.

UPDATE: “Safe Spaces” was retitled “After Class” after the movie was screened at multiple film festivals.

The dramedy “Safe Spaces” almost feels like it could have been two movies because so much is going on with the lead character, Josh Cohn, a 38-year-old adjunct professor in New York City who’s going through turmoil in his professional and personal lives. Justin Long is Josh in the movie, one of several films in which Long plays a single guy who’s unlucky in love. On the professional front, Josh’s job might be in jeopardy because of inappropriate sexual comments that he made in one of his classes. On the personal front, Josh’s beloved maternal grandmother (played by Lynn Cohen) is dying in a hospital, and he has to take shifts with bickering family members who are keeping vigil over her in her final days.

“Safe Spaces” (written and directed by Daniel Schechter) starts out showing the professional problem first. Josh teaches a creative writing class, and during a session with his students, he encourages a female student to share a personal story that might help her become a better writer. “Embarrass yourselves,” he tells the class. “Write what hurts.” When she confesses that an embarrassing sexual situation recently happened to her, Josh eggs her on to tell him and the class in detail what happened. She is very reluctant, but Josh insists that she tell, so she eventually reveals that when she was recently on a date with a guy, he asked if he could ejaculate on her rear end. (It’s described in much cruder terms in the movie.)

Instead of being mortified that he pressured someone to share this very explicit sexual information in a public setting, Josh is elated that she opened up in a candid way. That’s a red flag right there that Josh, especially in this #MeToo era, is socially clueless and has some serious issues with professional boundaries. Not surprisingly, a complaint is filed against him by one of the female students in his class—not the student who told the story, but another student who felt that Josh was being sexually intimidating and that he created a hostile environment in the class.

It turns out the student with the complaint was sexually assaulted in her past. She felt triggered by Josh’s behavior, and she no longer feels safe in his class because she thinks that he might pressure her and other female students to reveal sexual secrets too. Meanwhile, Josh is indignant because he feels that he didn’t do anything wrong. He thinks that because everyone in the class is an adult, they should have been able to handle that raw talk. His bosses recommend that he make an apology anyway, but he refuses. Several of his students then boycott his class to show solidarity to the student who complained. Josh’s job as an adjunct professor barely pays enough to cover his bills, so he’s feeling the financial pressure of possibly losing his job.

Meanwhile, Josh’s dysfunctional family is also giving him a lot of stress. His younger sister Jackie (played by Kate Berlant) is a flaky, pill-popping podcaster who unexpectedly shows up and crashes at his place because she needs a place to live. His married older brother David (played by Michael Godere) is still angry with Josh because Josh had a fling with the nanny (played by Megan Pickarski) hired to take care of David’s daughters (played by Kaitlyn and Emily Schechter), and the nanny left the job because the fling ended. David is the only person in the family to call out Josh for his pattern of irresponsible and selfish behavior. Meanwhile, Josh has begun dating a much-younger Eastern-European woman named Caterina (played by Sylvia Morigi), who likes to use dominatrix-type sexual techniques and who’s reluctant to fully commit to Josh.

Josh’s mother Diane (played by Fran Drescher) is still bitter over her divorce from Josh’s father Jeff (played by Richard Schiff), who left her for a younger woman named Sherry, who is now his current wife. Jeff has started a new life with Sherry (played by Dana Eskelson) and their bratty underage son Ben (played by Tyler Wladis), both of whom can’t stand Josh and his siblings. When Jeff was married to Diane, he was close to his mother-in-law, but since his current wife despises his first family, he’s torn about whether or not to visit his former mother-in-law before she dies. Josh and Jeff already have a lot of tension in their relationship, so the financially strapped Josh feels embarrassed when he has to ask Jeff for money to help pay his rent.

The “family problems” part of the movie is supposed to make Josh look more sympathetic, but it’s hard to feel much sympathy for a 38-year-old professor (in other words, he should know better) who uses his position of power to browbeat a student into revealing a sexual secret to the entire class. It’s inappropriate and aggressive, regardless of the gender of the student. What makes it worse is that Josh thinks the person who complained doesn’t deserve an apology. Even if he doesn’t think what he did was wrong, someone was seriously offended by his behavior, so it’s very problematic that he refuses to acknowledge that his actions hurt someone emotionally. It’s also a symptom of an arrogant sense of entitlement that comes from people who abuse their privileges.

The #MeToo movement has created a lot of resentment from people (mostly men) who used to get away with a lot of this type of behavior, and they’re quick to call people “uptight” or “too politically correct” if anyone objects to inappropriate sexual comments. This resentment is exemplified by two young male students who offer to mount a campaign on campus to defend Josh, who declines their help because he thinks it will make the situation worse.

In another conversation between Josh and another young male student, there’s an underlying “we hate politically correct culture” tone when the student complains that a story he wrote about a Jewish summer camp probably has to be changed because all of the people are white in his current draft of the story. Josh agrees, and then half-heartedly gives suggestions on who in the story could be of a different race. The dialogue in this part of the movie is written in such a cynical manner, they just might as well have come right out said, “This is what we have to go through now as white males. We have to force diversity in our work, or else we might be accused of being racist or sexist.”

What’s kind of dumb about this scene is that Josh doesn’t actually read the student’s story to see if the writing is any good. He just instantly reacts to the student’s paranoia that so-called politically correct vultures are out to get him. It’s obviously a reflection of how Josh feels about the complaint made against him in his job.

As if to further drive the point home that Josh is a symbol for “white men under siege in the #MeToo era,” the two supervisors overseeing Josh’s misconduct case are a white woman (played by Becky Ann Baker) and a man of Indian heritage (played by Samrat Chakrabarti). The white supervisor is more sympathetic to Josh than the non-white supervisor. These are not-so-subtle buttons that writer/director Schechter is pushing about how white men often see themselves when they’re accused of misconduct and how they’re judged if they offend women or people or color.

There’s an uncomfortable scene when Josh and his sister Jackie are out at a diner with their nieces, and they see the student who made the complaint, sitting at a nearby table. Jackie forces a confrontation, which makes things worse for Josh. The student naturally makes another complaint to the school, and Josh comes even closer to losing his job. He has another chance to make things right with the student. Will he do it?

Tensions in the family also come to a head when they are told that Josh’s grandmother has only a few days to live. Josh and his siblings put their squabbles aside to band together, go to their father Jeff’s home, and try to convince him to go with them to the hospital to say goodbye to their grandmother. Jeff’s wife Sherry, who’s portrayed as cold-hearted and jealous, gives Jeff an extreme ultimatum: If you go to the hospital with your children, our marriage is over. Will he do it?

“Safe Spaces” isn’t a bad movie (the best scenes are the ones with Josh’s grandmother), and the lead character Josh isn’t a bad person. He just isn’t interesting enough to care about for most of this film. If you like the type of Woody Allen-inspired movies that are filled with neurotic, privileged New Yorkers who create their own problems and seem to be addicted to personal chaos, then “Safe Spaces” is the movie for you.

UPDATE: Gravitas Ventures, which changed the name of this movie from “Safe Spaces” to “After Class,” will release the movie in select U.S. theaters and on home video on December 6, 2019.