Rainn Wilson Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Paradise Records,’ starring Logic, Tramayne Hudson, Reed Northrup and Mary Elizabeth Kelly

June 10, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Paradise Records”

Directed by Logic

Culture Representation: Taking place in Bend, Oregon, the comedy film “Paradise Records” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A down-on-his luck owner of a music store struggles to keep his business open, as he gets unexpectedly entangled with gangsters and bank robbers.

Culture Audience: “Paradise Records” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of writer/director/star Logic and 1990s stoner comedies, but “Paradise Records” is vastly inferior to movies it might get compared to, such as “Clerks” or “Friday.”

Tramayne Hudson and Logic in “Paradise Records”

Filled with racist and homophobic dialogue, Paradise Records is a sewage dump of a comedy about a record store owner who needs money to save his failing business. Everything about this junkpile movie is obnoxious and dimwitted. Don’t be fooled by filmmaker Kevin Smith’s name being associated with this dreck because Smith is an editor and executive producer of “Paradise Records.” “Paradise Records” wants desperately to be a cult classic like Smith’s 1994 comedy film “Clerks,” but “Paradise Records” is the cinematic equivalent of a used diaper containing the unwanted waste of 1990s stoner comedies.

Written and directed by Logic (who’s best known as a music artist), “Paradise Records” (his feature-film directorial debut) had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. “Paradise Records” takes place in Bend, Oregon, where the movie was filmed on location. Predictably, some of Logic’s songs are part of the movie’s soundtrack, including “Bu Jam,” “Drink Too Much,” “Bad Motherfucker” and “Losing My Faith.”

In this putrid movie, Logic portrays Cooper, the owner of a record store called Paradise Records, which sells mostly vinyl records, even though this movie is supposed to take place in the mid-2020s. Cooper is $178,000 in debt and can’t get any more bank loans. The record store is on the verge of being evicted and going out of business.

Other people in Cooper’s emotionally stunted world are his employees who are in Cooper’s same age group of late 20s to mid-30s: T-Man (played by Traymane Hudson), Melanie (played by Mary Elizabeth Kelly), and Tables (played by Reed Northrup), who all have the personalities of slugs. Cooper also hangs out with his fellow stoner friends Sleydro (played by Tony Revolori) and Lil’ DimSome (played by Bobby Lee), who are stereotypical buffoons.

T-Man (whose real name is Tremaine) happens to be Cooper’s cousin, who has a semi-secret hobby of designing clothes that T-Man sews himself. Melanie and Tables are dating each other, but Cooper doesn’t approve of this relationship because he thinks Tables is too ugly for Melanie. Melanie’s response is to tell Cooper that everyone gets ugly when they’re old, so she might as well get accustomed to being with someone “ugly” before they both get old.

It’s mentioned way too many times in the movie that Cooper is biracial (his father is black, his mother is white), which is why he thinks he’s entitled to say the “n” word (the racial slur about black people) whenever he wants. Viewers will notice that Cooper embraces or announces his black racial identity only when it’s convenient for him. And expect to hear the “n” word a lot in “Paradise Records,” because Logic and the other “Paradise Records” filmmakers think that saying that word is automatically supposed to be funny.

It should come as no surprise that the movie depicts Cooper’s father JJ (played by Juicy J) as nothing but a negative stereotype of a black man: JJ is a drug user who calls himself a pimp and brags that he’s still able to get “good pussy” at his age. JJ isn’t in the movie for long, but if he were, the “Paradise Records” filmmakers probably would’ve invented more negative stereotypes for him, such as having a prison record and being a deadbeat dad to Cooper when Cooper was a kid.

Cooper’s racial identity isn’t his only identity where he has insecurity issues that he tries to hide by making derogatory comments about people who’ve been historically oppressed by hateful bigotry. Cooper won’t admit that he’s probably not heterosexual—even though he tells stories that he’s had consensual sexual encounters with other guys for fun. But then, he tries to distance himself from these encounters by making it sound like he didn’t initiate these encounters, thereby vilifying his male sex partners as predators.

Queer people who are mentioned or seen in “Paradise Records” are depicted as threats or punchlines to Cooper and his buddies. This insulting mockery is directed mostly at a loyal Paradise Records customer who is an African American drag queen. The customer’s drag queen name is Flawless and male name is Tajh (played by Tajh Jordan, also known as drag queen Flawless Shade), who says a lot of cringeworthy things that sound like they were written by someone who’s ignorant about drag queen culture.

People who are truly secure about their sexuality don’t need to degrade people of other sexualities. For this type of backwards and outdated filmmaking, the male protagonist (in this case, Cooper) tries to assert his sexual identity by being condescending and rude about queer people, but he thinks he can be excused because he’s been sexually intimate with guys. He just doesn’t want to thought of as one of those “queer people” if it puts him at a disadvantage or if he thinks it will lower other people’s opinions about him.

It’s the same attitude that Cooper has about racism against black people. Many people who don’t know Cooper assume that he’s white because of his physical appearance, and he rarely corrects this assumption unless it’s to get him out of a tough situation or it’s to give him an advantage. Cooper will usually tell people about the black part of his racial identity when he’s caught saying hate speech about black people, and an offended person is close to physically assaulting him over it.

As a filmmaker, it seems as if Logic (whose real name is Sir Robert Bryson Hall II) has very noticeable hangups about race and sexual identity because these prejudices are all over “Paradise Records” in tacky and mindless scenes. For example, the only people in “Paradise Records” who are objectified with nude scenes are black people in scenes where the audiences are supposed to be laughing at these black people. It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence, considering black people and queer people are the targets of the most derogatory language in “Paradise Records.”

In one scene, Cooper’s elderly uncle Tony (also played by Logic), who is white, shows up at the record store with a big-breasted, much-younger black girlfriend named Candelabra (played by Pauline Dorsey), who says she has an “old man” fetish. No one questions why Tony is with a woman who’s young enough to be his granddaughter, but Candelabra is depicted as the “kinky” one in the relationship. For no good reason at all, Candelabra’s blouse gets ripped away so her breasts are fully exposed. In another scene, Tajh runs out of a restroom with his naked behind exposed.

The movie makes an unconvincing attempt to present Cooper as a righteous human being. Cooper mentions more than once that he’s in debt because he continued to pay his employees’ salaries when the store had to be temporarily closed during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cooper lost his apartment home as a result, so he’s been living at the record store. Cooper also rejects an offer from a local businessman named Mike Hawk (played by Martin Starr) to buy Paradise Records because Cooper thinks Mike will fire all of the Paradise Records employees if Mike becomes the store’s new owner. But all that “do-gooder” posturing is empty when Cooper shows himself to be awful in so many ways, as described above.

Cooper crosses paths with two unnamed “wise guy” gangsters (played by Kevin Corrigan and David Krumholtz), who are looking for Tony because Tony owes them $5,000. Later in the movie, two armed and masked bank robbers cause mayhem. The bank robbers are knuckleheads named Daryl (played by Nolan North) and Bobby (played by Oliver Tree), who are so incompetent, it doesn’t take them long to say each other’s names out loud in front of witnesses while committing their crimes. A waitress named Celeste (played by Dana Milligan), from a local diner, gets pulled into some of this mess.

“Paradise Records” is stuck on an irritating repeat loop of three types of “gags” that are about (1) glorifying racist language, usually racial slurs against black people; (2) excusing and encouraging homophobia; and (3) getting stoned, usually on marijuana. None of it is close to being clever or funny. The people who think this type of idiotic bigotry is hilarious are usually the same types of people who have the privilege of not being in the minority groups who are frequent targets of the hateful bigotry that pollutes this movie.

Celebrity cameos cannot erase the stench of all the loathsome filmmaking in “Paradise Records.” Smith and Jason Mewes make a quick and awkwardly placed appearance as their Silent Bob and Jay characters, who were first seen in “Clerks.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt has the role of a crisis negotiator in “Paradise Records.” Ron Perlman depicts a police chief. Rainn Wilson is briefly in the movie as an unnamed creepy guy.

It’s hard not to notice a demographic pattern of which celebrities chose to be involved in this abomination, assuming that they read the terrible screenplay before agreeing to be part of this shameful project. No self-respecting black celebrity or self-respecting queer celebrity would want to be in “Paradise Records,” which has blatant disrespect for black people and queer people. In real life, less than 1% of the population of Bend is black/African American (according to the U.S. Census), so “Paradise Records” isn’t doing the black people in Bend any favors by depicting black people in Bend as habitual drug users or sexual “freaks.”

Apart from the poorly written screenplay and mediocre-to-bad acting, “Paradise Records” has no taste or creative style in the technical aspects of filmmaking. The cinematography is unremarkable. The film editing is erratic, with some pacing that drags, and some pacing that’s too rushed. The first half of “Paradise Records” is a compilation of stupid sketches. The second half is a sloppy amalgamation of run-ins with gangsters and bank robbers. All of it adds up to time-wasting garbage.

Review: ‘Hitpig!,’ starring the voices of Jason Sudeikis, Lilly Singh, Anitta, RuPaul, Hannah Gadsby, Flavor Flav and Rainn Wilson

November 3, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Hitpig!”

Directed by Cinzia Angelini and David Feiss

Culture Representation: The animated film “Hitpig!” features a cast of characters portraying humans and talking animals.

Culture Clash: A pig, who works as a bounty hunter of animals, is hired to track down and capture an elephant that has run away from doing an exploitative performance show in Las Vegas, and the pig becomes conflicted about completing the job when he finds the elephant and becomes friendly with the elephant.

Culture Audience: “Hitpig!” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s voice cast and derivative animated films.

Lobster (voiced by Charlie Adler), Lola (voiced by Hannah Gadsby), Letícia dos Anjos (voiced by Anitta), Hitpig (voiced by Jason Sudeikis), Polecat (voiced by RuPaul) and Super Rooster (voiced by Charlie Adler) in “Hitpig!” (Image courtesy of Viva Pictures)

“Hitpig!” (about a bounty hunter pig) is a messy and unimaginative animated film with absolutely no surprises and no clever comedy. This flaccid flop has too many shallow or annoying characters. The animation is mediocre-to-bad, with manic editing that still manages to be dull. Anyone who appreciates good animation will have a hard time staying interested in the sloppy and derivative “Hitpig!”

Directed by Cinzia Angelini and David Feiss, “Hitpig!” has a screenplay written by Berkeley Breathed, Dave Rosenbaum and Tyler Werrin. The movie is based partially on Breathed’s 2008 children’s book “Pete and Pickles,” about the unlikely friendship between a pig named Pete and a runaway circus elephant named Pickles. In “Hitpig!,” the male pig is named Hitpig (voiced by Jason Sudeikis), which is supposed to be a shortened version of Hit Pygmy Elephant, even though this animal is pig, not an elephant.

Does this make sense to you? Of course not. It’s an example of many unnecessarily moronic things about this movie. Hitpig is not a pig version of a hitman. Instead, Hitpig is a bounty hunter who captures wild animals that have usually escaped from people who want to imprison these animals.

It’s explained in the beginning of the movie that Hitpig worked with a human mentor named Big Bertha (played by Lorraine Ashbourne), and most of the animals they collected/captured were reptiles. Big Bertha had a passion for cooking and taught Hitpig how to make omelettes and other meals. Hitpig’s cooking skills are the flimsy basis of a poorly written subplot about his secret desire to quit being a bounty hunter to become a chef. Flavor Flav (best known as a former member of the rap group Public Enemy) has a voice cameo as an emcee for a chef talent contest.

Early on in “Hitpig!,” Big Bertha dies when she gets an assignment to capture a lizard, but the lizard turned out to be a crocodile that immediately ate Big Bertha. Years later, Hitpig is on his own as a bounty hunter. He uses a high-tech vehicle called a CatchVan (voiced by Shelby Young) that has its own computer voice. At the Perfectly Fine Nuclear Power Plant, a polecat named Polecat (voiced by RuPaul) escapes and has an unusual quirk: Because of living in a nuclear power plant, this polecat has a body that glows, and Polecat’s farts have nuclear power that can be used as weapons.

When Hitpig encounters Polecat and finds out about Polecat’s farts literally having nuclear-levels of toxicty, Hitpig says to Polecat: “Some guys cut the cheese. You destroy the cheese.” (Yes, it’s that kind of movie.)

Hitpig gets an assignment to find and capture a former circus elephant from India named Pickles (voiced by Lilly Singh), who is now owned by a greedy and corrupt show promoter named Leapin’ Lord of the Leotard (voiced by Rainn Wilson), who plans to use Pickles for an ongoing animal show residency in Las Vegas. Leapin’ Lord offers to pay a $1 million bounty to Hitpig if Hitpig can return Pickles to Leapin’ Lord in time for the debut performance of this Las Vegas show, which will take place in just a few days. It’s an offer that Hitpig can’t refuse.

Along the way, Hitpig meets a motley crew of characters, including an animal rights activist named Letícia dos Anjos (played by Anitta), who is also looking for Pickles, because Letícia wants to take Pickles back to India and set Pickles free in Pickles’ native country. Talking animals who get involved in these shenanigans include Polecat; a sassy koala named Koala (voiced by Hannah Gadsby); a lobster named Lobster (voiced by Charlie Adler); and a celebrity chicken named Super Rooster (also voiced by Adler). Leapin’ Lord also has a sidekick crocodile named Fluffy (voiced by Dennis Leonard), who doesn’t talk but makes other noises.

The race against time to find Pickles leads to a trip to outer space and more “madcap” hijinks that aren’t very funny or adventurous. It’s a jumbled and utterly predictable movie with unimpressive voice performances. Anitta in particular has a very flat delivery of her dialogue lines—an indication that she needs more acting lessons.

“Hitpig!” is not an agressively horrible movie, but it’s got an incredibly lazy story with no real effort into making these characters anything other than trite and generic. The onslaught of idiotic jokes don’t help. The movie’s weak comedy, just like the rest of “Hitpig!,” is easily forgotten because there’s nothing special about this utterly trite and muddled film.

Viva Pictures released “Hitpig!” in U.S. cinemas on November 1, 2024.

Review: ‘Ezra’ (2024), starring Bobby Cannavale, Rose Bryne, Vera Farmiga, Whoopi Goldberg, Rainn Wilson, Tony Goldwyn, William A. Fitzgerald and Robert De Niro

May 27, 2024

by Carla Hay

William A. Fitzgerald and Bobby Cannavale in “Ezra” (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street)

“Ezra” (2024)

Directed by Tony Goldwyn

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the United States, the dramatic film “Ezra” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people, Asians and Latin people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A divorced stand-up comedian, who has a volatile temper, illegally takes his 11-year-old autistic son on a cross-country road trip when the comedian gets a guest appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Culture Audience: “Ezra” will appeal primarily to people are fans of the movie’s headliners and stories about father-son bonding, even if some of the story is problematic.

Robert De Niro, Bobby Cannavale and William A. Fitzgerald in “Ezra” (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street)

Even though the name of the movie is “Ezra,” this uneven but well-acted drama is really about Ezra’s loudmouth and volatile father Max Brandel. This sometimes-frustrating film comes dangerously close to glorifying bad parenting but is saved by some realistic and heartfelt moments. Still, viewers with enough life experience will never feel like this movie is completely relatable, since so much of the movie looks contrived, even if some of the story was inspired by real people.

“Ezra” is directed by Tony Goldwyn, an actor who’s had numerous roles in film and TV but is best known for the role of Fitzgerald Grant III (a fictional U.S. president) on the TV drama series “Scandal,” which was on the air from 2012 to 2018. Goldwyn has directed several episodes in TV series (such as “Scandal” and “Dexter”), and the previous movies he directed have been about romances, such as 1999’s “A Walk on the Moon,” 2001’s “Someone Like You” and 2006’s “The Last Kiss.” Tony Spiridakis wrote the screenplay for “Ezra,” whose title character is a boy living with autism. Spiridakis’ son Dimitri is also living with autism. “Ezra” had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

The movie begins with a scene of comedian Max Brandel (played by Bobby Cannavale) doing a stand-up comedy performance somewhere in a New York City nightclub. In his perfomance, Max talks about having an underage autistic son and how this child wouldn’t speak for several years, and “when he finally started speaking, he wouldn’t shut up.” Max tells a few more jokes and gets a fairly good, but not overly impressive, response from the audience. People clap and do some cheering, but they aren’t giving Max a standing ovation.

Max has a few more upcoming gigs booked at this nightclub. The nightclub owner Robert “Bob” Segal (played by Geoffrey Owens) tells Max that a talent booker from “Jimmy Kimmel Live” is going to be in the audience at one of Max’s upcoming shows. Max’s manager Jayne (played by Whoopi Goldberg) is thrilled and tells Max not to do anything to mess up this big opportunity.

Max has a tarnished reputation and a damaged career, so getting a guest apperance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” will be a big career boost for Max. He used to be a hotshot comedy writer in late-night television until he was fired for punching his former boss Conan O’Brien. Max became a stand-up comedian after not being able to get a job as a TV writer because of this scandal. Max (who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey) is also financially broke and had to move in with his divorced father Stan (played by Robert De Niro), who also has a “loose cannon” temper.

Max is divorced from Ezra’s mother Jenna (played by Rose Byrne), and they share custody of 11-year-old Ezra (played by William A. Fitzgerald), who is a bright and inquisitive child. (Fitzgerald is on the autism specturm in real life.) Max still hasn’t gotten over the divorce from Jenna and keeps hoping that he and Jenna will get back together. Jenna has already moved on to someone else. She’s currently dating an attorney named Bruce (played by Goldwyn), who’s somewhat smug, but Bruce tries to stay out of the squabbles that Jenna and Max have over how Ezra should be raised.

Max and Jenna have very different parenting styles. Max sees nothing wrong with not having a strict routine for Ezra and exposing Max to entertainment meant for older teens and adults. For example, Max lets Ezra binge watch “Breaking Bad,” a TV series about a drug dealer, with a lot of violence and cursing. Max also sees nothing wrong with bringing Ezra to nightclubs and letting Ezra stay up late to watch Max perform. Jenna wants Ezra to have a more structured upbringing where he’s expected to follow rules that most kids his age would have.

At the public school where Ezra is a student, Ezra gets into trouble for disrupting a class by quoting some threatening curse-filled dialogue that he heard on “Breaking Bad.” Max and Jenna are called to have an urgent meeting with the school’s Principal Lee (played by Daphne Rubin-Vega) to decide what to do about Ezra, who has gotten into fights before at this school. These fights are not seen in the movie, but Max insists in the meeting with Principal Lee that Ezra was being bullied and fought back in self-defense in these previous fight incidents.

Principal Lee suggests that Ezra might be better off in a school for kids with special needs. Max hates the idea because he thinks Ezra needs to learn what it’s like to be in the “real world,” and he thinks Max does not belong in a school for kids with disabilities. Jenna is concerned for Ezra’s safety in this public school, so she is much more open to the idea of putting Ezra in a school where he is much less-likely to be bullied for being “different.”

During this family turmoil, Max is at home with Jenna, when he overhears Bruce sarcastically joking that Bruce can get rid of Max by putting a murder-for-hire hit on Max. Ezra doesn’t understand that Bruce is just joking, so Ezra panics and runs out in the street, where he is hit by a car.

It leads to an investigation over whether or not Ezra is suicidal. Ezra doesn’t tell anyone right away that he ran out in the street because of what he heard Bruce say. Max insists that Ezra is not suicidal. Jenna isn’t so sure and wants to wait and hear the diagnosis of a child psychiatrist who has examined Ezra.

A meeting that Max and Jenna have with a child psychiatrist named Dr. Kaplan (played by Alex Plank) goes very badly when the doctor prescribes Risperdal, also known Risperdone, to Ezra. Risperdal is prescribed to people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Max thinks this medication is too strong and inappropriate for Ezra. Max and Dr. Kaplan have a verbal argument, which turns into Max punching Dr. Kaplan.

Max gets arrested for this assault. Dr. Kaplan declines to press charges on the condition that Max has a restraining order against him. Under this restraining order, Max can’t see Ezra for three months. Bruce is Max’s attorney, which seems like a conflict of interest, but it can be presumed that Bruce only decided to take Max as a client because Jenna asked Bruce. Jenna probably asked Bruce to give Max a discount on Bruce’s usual legal fees.

Not surprisingly, Max hates being in this legal mess, but he doesn’t show much remorse for the fact that he created this mess. Max also thinks it’s unfair that he can’t see Ezra because Max doesn’t think he’s a danger to his child and can’t bear to go three months without seeing Ezra. When Max finds out that he’s been booked for a stand-up comedy appearance on the Los Angeles-based “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Max decides to illegally take Ezra on a cross-country road trip to Los Angeles so that Ezra can be on the set of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to watch Max perform.

During this road trip (which includes stops in Michigan and Nebraska), Ezra tells Max several times that Ezra wants to go home, but Max ignores those pleas. Max rudely and stubbornly treats a frantic Jenna as if she’s being an unreasonable shrew for worrying about Ezra in this kidnapping. And to be clear: It is literally a child abduction, since Max went to Jenna’s home at night, woke up a sleeping Ezra, and secretly took Ezra out of the home without permission. Max also dismisses Stan’s warning advice not to take Ezra on the road trip and to bring Ezra back to Jenna’s home.

If all of this sounds like awful and selfish parenting from Max, it is. And at times, it becomes very annoying when the movie tries to convince viewers that Max is a misunderstood parent who’s fighting back against the “system” that’s “robbing” Max of wanting to spend time with his child. The movie only succeeds if the intention is to show that flawed, self-absorbed and dysfunctional parents like Max exist and are very much in denial about the bad decisions that they make as parents.

Some of Max’s childhood is mentioned as a way to explain why he turned out the way that he is. When Max was a child, Stan used to have a successful career as a professional chef in top-rated restaurants in New York City. But time and time again, Stan would get fired because of something (usually violent) that he did when he lost his temper. Stan’s wife eventually left the family because she couldn’t take living with Stan anymore. Stan raised Max as a single parent, and they have not had contact with Max’s mother for decades.

For a while, when Max was still a boy, Stan and Max moved to a rural part of Nebraska because Stan couldn’t find work as a chef in the New York City area. But father and son eventually moved back to the New York/New Jersey area. Stan became an apartment building doorman, which is the job that he has when this story takes place. Stan seems to have mellowed with age, but he can still be feisty, and he gets into arguments with Max. Although they disagree on many things, Stan and Max are actually a lot more alike than they care to admit.

At first, Jenna doesn’t want to call the police about Max illegally taking Ezra because she thinks it would be traumatic for Ezra to see Max get arrested. But after four days of Max avoiding or deliberately cutting off her phone calls, Jenna takes Bruce’s advice and calls the police to report the kidnapping. Because most of the movie is about the road trip, a lot of screen time in “Ezra” is about Max revisiting friends from his past, because he needs safe places to stay to hide out from the law. Two of these friends are a former comedian named Nick (played by Rainn Wilson) and a former schoolmate named Grace (played by Vera Farmiga), who knows Max from when they went to the same high school.

“Ezra” has moments of messy melodrama that are kind of eye-rolling in how fake these moments look. But then, the movie also has quieter moments that are engaging and more authentic. The scenes where Max visits past friends stand out as among the strongest parts of the movie. Cannavale and Byrne also have realistic chemistry as parents who know each other very well. (Cannavale and Byrne are a couple and parents in real life.)

Ezra has the type of autism where he doesn’t like to be hugged. And so, there are some poignant scenes where Max and Jenna try to hug Ezra, and he recoils as if he’s in pain. He sometimes shouts at someone to not touch him, or he will coldly tell someone who wants to hug him, “You can go now.” These scenes show the heart-wrenching emotions parents must feel when they know showing affection to their child, such as giving a hug to their child, can make the child feel very uncomfortable or unsafe. Jenna can usually calm Ezra down by rubbing his ear while he rubs her ear.

Ezra is also afraid of using eating utensils that aren’t plastic. Max tries to get Ezra to change this way of thinking in a scene that’s a little hard to watch because of how Max loses his patience with Ezra. Max often fails to understand that he can’t force Ezra to have the same type of childhood learning process that Max had when Max was a kid.

Max doesn’t want Ezra to be coddled, but Max frequently loses sight of what’s in the best interest of Ezra. Nowhere is this more evident than in scenes where Max repeatedly describes Ezra as Max’s “mojo” good luck charm. A child should not be described as being a good luck object. A child’s worth should not defined by a parent forcing the child to have the responsibility of making a parent happy. Max uses this excuse as the reason why Ezra needs to go on this road trip with Max to “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Cannavale (who’s doing yet another role as a brash, fast-talking character) carries the movie with a certain amount of intensity but doesn’t go overboard into implausibility for his Max character, even though some of the situations are written and directed in an over-the-top way. (The movie’s mid-credits scene is ridiculous and out of place.) Max isn’t a bad person, but he can be very irritating, and his violent actions should not be excused.

Fitzgerald, De Niro and Byrne do fine jobs with their roles and are convincing as family members who are frequently at odds with each other. But this “Ezra” movie is really Max’s show, and everyone else is just living in it. How much viewers will enjoy this movie will depend how much they think what Max does is worth forgiving and how much they think he’ll learn from his terrible mistakes.

Bleecker Street will release “Ezra” in U.S. cinemas on May 31, 2024. A sneak preview of the movie was held in U.S. cinemas on May 20, 2024.

Review: ‘Don’t Look Back’ (2020), starring Kourtney Bell, Skyler Hart, Will Stout, Jeremy Holm, Jaqueline Fleming, Damon Lipari and Dean J. West

October 29, 2020

by Carla Hay

Kourtney Bell in “Don’t Look Back” (Photo courtesy of Kamikaze Dogfight/Gravitas Ventures)

“Don’t Look Back” (2020)

Directed by Jeffrey Reddick

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “Don’t Look Back” features a predominantly white cast (with some African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: Six witnesses to a homicide seem to be targeted by a vengeful killer because the witnesses stood by and didn’t do anything sooner to help the homicide victim.

Culture Audience: “Don’t Look Back” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching low-budget horror flicks with an unimaginative story, big plot holes and mediocre acting.

Dean J. West in “Don’t Look Back” (Photo courtesy of Kamikaze Dogfight/Gravitas Ventures)

The horror movie “Don’t Look Back” was written and directed by Jeffrey Reddick, the writer/creator of the “Final Destination” horror-movie series, which featured survivors of various traumas who are haunted and killed off, one by one, by mysterious forces. (Each “Final Destination” movie had a deadly trauma, including a plane crash, a multi-car accident, a building collapse, and a roller-coaster derailment.) Reddick brings a similar premise to the subpar “Don’t Look Back,” a story about witnesses to a murder who become the targets of supernatural terror and serial killings. Unfortunately, “Don’t Look Back” (formerly titled “Good Samaritan”) has too many predictable clichés and too many shoddily written scenes for it to be considered “so bad it’s good.” It’s just plain bad.

“Don’t Look Back” has this over-used horror stereotype: the protagonist is a young female with a “good girl” image. However, the “Don’t Look Back” filmmakers at least defied racial stereotypes in horror movies, by casting the lead character Caitlin Kramer (played by Kourtney Bell) as an African American woman. Usually in horror movies, when an African American woman is the lead character, the rest of the cast is predominantly African American too. (One of the few exceptions is 2019’s “Ma,” starring Octavia Spencer.)

Caitlin’s race is never mentioned in the movie, because it doesn’t need to be. Even though “Don’t Look Back” is not a typical horror movie in its racial casting for the main protagonist, it still doesn’t erase the movie’s biggest flaw: the very hackneyed screenplay. People who’ve seen enough horror movies will be able to easily predict exactly how this story is going to go. But the movie’s ending still manages to disappoint because it comes across as a bad parody instead of something that should be terrifying.

“Don’t Look Back,” which takes place in an unnamed city, begins on Caitlin’s birthday, which is on August 27. The number 27 is repeatedly brought up in the movie as a symbolic number. But ultimately, it’s an element of the plot that’s not very important in figuring out who’s going to be next target of the murderous rampage in the story.

Caitlin (who appears to be in her mid-20s) is spending a quiet birthday with her widowed father (played by Orlando Eric Street) at their house. It’s morning, and he’s just made her some birthday pancakes, when the doorbell rings. Caitlin answers the door, and two masked intruders with guns burst in the home, while one of the home invaders asks Caitlin’s father: “Where’s the money?”

Caitlin and her father barely have time to react before they’re both shot. Caitlin survives, but her father doesn’t. Caitlin’s hospitalization is never seen in the movie, but she mentions later in the story that she was “dead” for three minutes. And she starts to believe that her near-death experience has given her psychic abilities or at least the ability to see dead people.

After the home invasion, the movie flashes forward to an unspecified time, but it can be assumed that it’s at least a year later. Caitlin is in therapy. She’s feeling survivor’s guilt and she’s also experiencing nightmares. She’s still living in the same house where the murder happened. But this time, she has a loving and supporting live-in boyfriend named Josh Bowman (played by Skyler Hart), who suggests that they move to a new home. However, Caitlin is reluctant to move because the house has too many memories of her father that Caitlin doesn’t want to leave behind.

Caitlin is trying to get her life back on track, because in one of the movie’s early scenes, she mentions to Josh that she “asked the school for my job back,” which is an indication that she stopped working during her recovery. There isn’t much context to these movie’s characters. For example, it’s never explained how long Caitlin and Josh have been together or how they met, but it’s briefly mentioned that Josh is a rising star at his unnamed corporate business job.

One day, while Caitlin is jogging in a public leisure area called Bristol Park, she accidentally drops her thermos. A stranger walking near her kindly returns the thermos to her. They introduce themselves to each other—he says his name is Douglas (played by Dean J. West)—and Caitlin thanks him and is about to continue on her way. But within seconds, she sees another man (played by Eric Stratemeier) run up to Douglas and start viciously attacking and beating up Douglas.

Caitlin and other people who are witnessing this assault stand by in shock. One of the bystanders takes out his phone and begins video recording the attack. Before Douglas collapses, he manages to gasp out, “Help me.” Caitlin snaps out of her shock and grabs the bystander’s phone and calls 911 for help.

However, several hours later, it’s reported in the news that Douglas died from his injuries, and his murderer is still on the loose. The murder victim was Douglas Helton, a local philanthropist who was well-respected in the community. One of Douglas’ ongoing charity endeavors was building shelters for victims of domestic violence.

The murder becomes a high-profile story in the news, and the people who were the bystanders to Douglas’ murder get a lot of criticism from the media and the general public. Rainn Wilson has a cameo in the movie as a TV news host named George Reed, who verbally blasts these bystanders and tries to portray them as complicit in the murder of Douglas. Some people in the general public think that the bystanders should be arrested, even though technically the bystanders didn’t do anything illegal during this murder.

At first, the public only knows the identity of one of the bystanders: computer programmer Nathan Rome (played by Stephen Twardokus), the man who recorded the murder on his phone in a video that has gone viral. Nathan is interviewed on George’s news program to defend his actions of video recording the assault instead of calling for help. Nathan explains that he didn’t call for help because he didn’t know if he would be attacked too. It’s an excuse that doesn’t help Nathan look more sympathetic, and there’s further backlash from the public.

In addition to Caitlin and Nathan, the other bystanders (who are mostly in their mid-to-late 30s) are single mother Althea Minnis (played by Jaqueline Fleming); Tony Cusumano (played by Han Soto); Curt Miley (played by Damon Lipari); and hair stylist Maria Sanchez (played by Amanda Grace Benitez), who appears to be in her late 20s. The lead police investigator on the case is Detective Boyd (played by Jeremy Holm), who is written as a somewhat generic homicide cop.

Caitlin attends a candlelight vigil for murder victim Douglas. The vigil, which takes place at the site where the murder happened, was organized by Douglas’ brother Lucas (played by Will Stout), who is handing out flyers at the vigil for an upcoming memorial tribute to Douglas. Caitlin and Althea see each other at the vigil. They introduce themselves to each other and talk about how they’re dealing with the trauma of witnessing the murder and how the public is judging them for being bystanders.

As the two women are talking, Lucas happens to walk up to them to give them memorial flyers, and he asks Caitlin and Althea how they knew Douglas. The two women lie and tell Lucas that they used to work with Douglas. A guilt-ridden Caitlin and Althea go their separate ways and don’t show any interest in keeping in touch with each other.

But then, while Caitlin is looking mournfully at the scene of the crime, which is decorated with flowers and candles, she whispers, “Please forgive me.” And all the candles are suddenly extinguished. Cue the spooky music.

The rest of the movie shows Caitlin experiencing visions of a bloodied and menacing Douglas appearing to her at random times, either in her dreams or when she’s awake. Caitlin then takes it upon herself to play private investigator when some of the other bystanders start to die from gruesome deaths. Caitlin doesn’t think that these deaths are a coincidence. And every time something bad is about to happen, a crow appears nearby.

The first bystander to die is Nathan. And it’s one of the more ludicrous scenes in the movie. After Douglas has died, Caitlin and Josh are having a nighttime meal outside of a bistro. At a nearby table, two gay boyfriends are looking at Nathan’s bystander video on their phone and commenting out loud about the brutality of the attack video. One of the men mentions the coincidence that Nathan happens to live in an apartment that’s located right above the bistro.

Caitlin notices a crow standing on a nearby garbage can. Seconds later, Nathan falls out of an open window, right in front of Caitlin and Josh. This body plunge causes instant death to Nathan. Caitlin quickly looks up and briefly sees a shadowy figure in the apartment window from where Nathan fell. Even though the police later found a suicide note in the apartment, Caitlin is pretty sure that Nathan’s death was a murder, not a suicide.

She takes her suspicions to a skeptical Detective Boyd, who calls in Caitlin and the other bystanders to Douglas’ murder to meet at the police station for further questioning. While these witnesses are all waiting in a police conference room, Lucas happens to be at the police station too. When Lucas passes by the conference room (another “coincidence” that’s too convenient), he figures out that all the people in the room are the bystanders who witnessed Douglas’ murder. Lucas has a very angry response when he confronts them in the room, and he’s particularly incensed that Caitlin and Althea lied to him about who they really are.

Not long after that confrontation, Lucas holds a press conference, where he names and shames the bystanders. As a result, the bystanders get even more public scorn and backlash. For example, Althea, who’s a single mother to a teenage son, gets spit at in the face by a random woman while Althea and her son are walking down the street. Maria loses customers at the hair salon where she works. It’s eventually revealed in the movie that Maria is Curt’s mistress, and she was on a date with Curt on that fateful day in the park, so Curt’s wife finds out and leaves him. Predictably gory deaths soon follow.

There’s a minor subplot about how Caitlin and Josh are very different when it comes to spiritual issues. Caitlin is a religious Christian who goes to church on a regular basis. Josh is an atheist or non-religious. And on the rare occasion that Josh goes to church with Caitlin, it’s only because he wants to be polite and show her support. “Mad Men” alum Bryan Batt has a brief and inconsequential cameo as Reverend Farmer, the pastor for Caitlin’s church.

The differences between Caitlin and Josh when it comes to spiritual beliefs are in the movie to make sure that Josh, the person closest to Caitlin, is skeptical of her ghostly visions of Douglas. Caitlin becomes increasingly suspicious that an evil spirit is targeting her and the rest of the bystanders. But some people in the story start to think she’s becoming mentally unstable.

It doesn’t help that Caitlin happens to be at the crime scene every time one of her fellow bystanders dies. Guess who becomes a “person of interest” in these mysterious deaths? And when the murdered body count starts to pile up in a short period of time, it leads to a very formulaic showdown, because we all know which of the bystanders will be the last one standing. There are two surprise “twists” toward the end of film that are easily predicted and not very surprising at all. And because the crow is over-used in the movie to signal when something bad is going to happen, that obvious foreshadowing leaves no room for suspense whatsoever.

“Don’t Look Back” could have been a better film if it didn’t rip off other movies that have had similar concepts. Overall, Bell (as beleaguered heroine Caitlin) does an adequate performance, as do the most of the film’s other actors, but there’s not much more that can be elevated when the screenplay is of such low quality. “Don’t Look Back” is also directed in a substandard way that is not very terrifying. There are many other horror films that have set the bar very high for true originality and creativity, but “Don’t Look Back” prefers to stay in the low depths of horror clichés that are the equivalent of recycled garbage.

Kamikaze Dogfight and Gravitas Ventures released “Don’t Look Back” in select U.S. cinemas, digital and VOD on October 16, 2020.

Review: ‘Blackbird’ (2020), starring Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Mia Wasikowska, Sam Neill, Rainn Wilson, Lindsay Duncan, Bex Taylor-Klaus and Anson Boon

September 17, 2020

by Carla Hay

Rainn Wilson, Sam Neill, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Mia Wasikowska, Lindsay Duncan, Susan Sarandon and Anson Boon in “Blackbird” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

“Blackbird” (2020)

Directed by Roger Michell

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional city of Pontsmill, Connecticut, the dramatic film “Blackbird” features an all-white cast of characters representing the upper-middle class.

Culture Clash: Long-simmering resentments cause conflicts during a family gathering for a terminally ill woman who wants to die by euthanasia.

Culture Audience: “Blackbird” will appeal primarily to people who like well-acted dramas about family issues.

Kate Winslet and Mia Wasikowska in “Blackbird” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

Should people with a terminal disease decide when and how they want to die? It’s an ethical dilemma that has already been decided by Lily Walker, the matriarch of a well-to-do American family. Lily has multiple sclerosis and she wants her doctor husband Paul to give her a lethal dose of medication before her health further declines. The dramatic film “Blackbird” (directed by Roger Michell) is about the family gathering at Lily and Paul’s beach house in the final days that Lily has decided that she’s going to live.

“Blackbird” is a remake of the 2014 Danish film “Silent Heart,” which was written by Christian Torpe, who adapted the movie from his “Silent Heart” novel. Torpe also wrote the screenplay for “Blackbird,” which is a random title for the movie since there’s no blackbird or reference to a blackbird in the story. What’s more important is that it’s a solidly written, well-acted story that isn’t really Oscar-worthy, but it will tug at people’s heartstrings and trigger emotions because there are moments that might remind viewers of their own families.

In “Blackbird” (which takes place in the fictional city of Pontsmill, Connecticut), Lily (played by Susan Sarandon) has already come to terms with how she wants to die. Her attitude, while not exactly jubilant, is rather matter-of-fact and often jokingly sarcastic about her impending death. Lily’s husband Paul (played by Sam Neill) is trying to go about life as “normally” as possible while trying not to let it show too much how much of a heavy emotional burden he has to administer the lethal dose of medication that has been ordered specifically for the euthanasia.

Lily wants to die on her own terms because she’s losing the use of her muscles, while her medical diagnosis is that it will only be a matter of months when she will have to use a feeding tube to eat. The beginning of the movie shows members of Lily and Paul’s immediately family, as well as Lily’s longtime British best friend Liz (played by Lindsay Duncan), gathering at Lily and Paul’s home to say their goodbyes.

The family members who have gathered for this bittersweet reunion include Lily and Paul’s two daughters who are total opposites. Elder daughter Jennifer, or Jen (played by Kate Winslet), is a judgmental control freak who likes her life to be well-planned and orderly—and it bothers her if other people’s lives aren’t in order too. Younger daughter Anna (played by Mia Wasikowska) has a very messy life, including jumping around from job to job and being treated for bipolar disorder. It should come as no surprise that Jen and Anna don’t get along very well and have been estranged for years.

Trying not to get in the middle of this sibling feud are their respective love partners: Jen’s mild-mannered and nerdy husband Michael (played Rainn Wilson) and Anna’s on-again/off-again partner Chris (played by Bex Taylor-Klaus), who appears to be nonbinary. (Taylor-Klaus is nonbinary in real life.) Also at this family reunion is Jen and Michael’s teenage son Jonathan (played by Anson Boon), who’s going through that teenage phase where he’s easily embarrassed and irritated by things his parents say and do. Jonathan (who is about 16 or 17 years old) is a well-behaved, academically talented student, but he wants to be an actor, which is a career choice that he knows his parents won’t like.

The movie does not show how Lily and Paul told their loved ones the news about Lily’s planned euthanasia, but by the time the group has gathered at the house, they all know about it, except for Jonathan. Paul eventually takes Jonathan aside for a private talk to break the news to him. Jonathan is shocked, but he’s willing to accept whatever Lily wants because he loves and respects his grandmother. In fact, Lily is the first person in the family whom Jonathan tells that he wants to be an actor. She encourages him to pursue this goal.

But since this is a drama about a family reunion, it isn’t long before the family friction starts. Jen and Anna haven’t seen each other in some years. While they’re alone together, Jen expresses disappointment that Anna wasn’t at their father’s birthday and at Jonathan’s school recital, even though Jen sent several reminders. Anna said she was too busy and really wanted to be there. However, it’s pretty obvious to observant viewers from Anna’s tone of voice and body language that Anna has been avoiding family gatherings because she doesn’t want to be around Jen.

Jen isn’t shy about expressing her disapproval of Anna being unable to settle on a professional career. (It’s not really stated what Jen does with her life, which makes her morally superior attitude even more insufferable.) When she asks Anna how her dance program is going, Anna tells Jen that she’s dropped out of the program. Jen then scolds Anna for not completing the program, as well as Anna giving up on past attempts to train for jobs in yoga therapy, acupuncture and quilting. These were programs that their parents paid for, so Jen tries to make Anna feel guilty by implying that her parents are wasting their money on Anna.

Jen then proceeds to annoy Anna even more when she admonishes Anna for bringing Chris to this intimate and sensitive family reunion, because Jen had asked Anna not to invite Chris. Anna tells Jen that if Jen can bring her husband Michael to this reunion, then Anna can bring Chris. Anna angrily says to Jen, “Chris happens to my husband.” Jen replies, “Are you sure you’re even gay?”

Jen’s apparent homophobia isn’t the only reason why she doesn’t approve of Anna and Chris’ relationship. Anna and Chris (who are dating but don’t live together) have had a rocky romance, and Jen thinks Chris is a lower-class person who isn’t a good fit for their family. Unfortunately, as Jen is telling Anna about how Chris isn’t worthy of being part of their family, Chris walks into the room and overhears this part of the conversation, and then walks out of the room embarrassed.

And as if Jen couldn’t be more condescending and insulting, she tells Anna: “Can you give Mom this whole weekend and not have it revolve around you, Anna?” At this point, Anna has had enough of Jen’s lectures and explodes: “Can you quit being a fucking bitch?”

Of course, there are more arguments that take place, as is typical for movies about family reunions. Most of the conflicts revolve around Anna and Jen. Anna confides in Chris that she secretly plans to prevent Lily’s euthanasia by calling 911 to report a suicide attempt. Why? Because Anna doesn’t want Lily to die and she wants to spend more time with her mother to make up for time that they spent apart.

And since this is a movie about family reunions, it has the usual trope about secrets being revealed. One thing that’s not a secret is that Liz used to date Paul, before Paul ever met Lily. What is a secret, which Liz and Lily (who used to be free-spirited hippies) discuss while they walk on the beach together, is that back in the early ’70s, they made a drunken attempt to become lesbian lovers, but it didn’t work out. They have a laugh about it all these years later.

The family has gathered in November, close to Thanksgiving, but one of Lily’s last wishes is that they have their Christmas celebration early. She asks Paul to make the Christmas dinner and Michael to go outside and cut down a small tree that will be used for Christmas decorations. This family dinner, where Lily gives everyone a personal gift from her, is one of the best scenes in the movie. Sensitive viewers should have tissues on hand for this tearjerking moment.

With this high caliber of talent in the cast, it’s no surprise that the acting in the movie is top-notch. It’s a story that could easily be adapted into a play, since most of the action takes place inside the house. The beach setting (the movie was actually filmed in Chichester, England, not Connecticut) is lovely, but it’s not very essential to the story.

As good as the acting is in the movie, “Blackbird” doesn’t quite have what it takes to be a movie worthy of a lot of prestigious awards. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the movie, but so much of the “family reunion when someone is dying” aspect has been done before in a familiar manner in other movies, that there’s nothing extraordinary about the way that “Blackbird” tells this type of story. It’s not exactly like a formulaic “disease of the week TV movie,” but the character development is lacking in some ways.

The men in the movie are written as incomplete sketches who mostly react to what the strong-willed women in the family (Lily and Jen) want. Paul essentially admits that he’s just carrying out Lily’s demands, when he tells Liz in a private conversation that people who decide to die by euthanasia are rarely insane or depressed, but they are “deeply controlling.” Jonathan isn’t quite a man yet, but his personality is also fairly generic. He shows typical signs of teen rebellion to both of his parents, but he’s willing to please his beloved grandmother Lily.

The conflicts between Jen and Anna suck up a lot of the emotions in the story, which leaves little room for viewers to really get to know Paul and Michael and what they are feeling. Anna and Jen’s love/hate relationship with each other often leaves Chris feeling like a helpless outsider, since Chris has been dating Anna off and on for about three years, and the issues between Anna and Jen have been going on much longer than that. Lily’s unconditional acceptance of Chris goes a long way in how Jen eventually warms up to Chris. There’s a very good scene that Chris and Jen have together where they confront the awkward family tension that has existed between them.

“Blackbird” isn’t a perfect film, but it realistically raises issues that will make people think about what they would do if someone in their family chose euthanasia as a way to die. How much time would be enough time to prepare the family? What grudges can or can’t be resolved before the loved one dies? And what if someone in the family objects to the euthanasia and wants to stop it, even if it means getting family members into legal trouble? There are no easy answers to these questions, but “Blackbird” is a compelling look at how a fictional family deals with these very real and emotionally complicated dilemmas.

Screen Media Films, in association with Fathom Events, released “Blackbird” in select U.S. cinemas for two nights of previews on September 14 and September 15, 2020. The movie expands to more U.S. cinemas and is available on VOD on September 18, 2020.