The Killing of a Sacred Deer

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, and Alicia Silverstone

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Written by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  A cardiologist (Colin Farrell) befriends the teenage son (Barry Keoghan) of a man who died on his operating table only to discover that the young kid has some malevolent intentions.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - Catfight

Catfight (2016)
Starring Sandra Oh, Anne Heche, Alicia Silverstone, Amy Hill, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Ariel Kavoussi, and Giullian Yao Gioiello
Directed by Onur Tukel
**This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Catfight is almost so bad, it's good.  "Almost" being the operative word there, though.  Sandra Oh and Anne Heche at least hold our attention as rival college students who reunite as adults at a ritzy party where Veronica (Oh) brags about her rich husband to Ashley (Heche), a struggling artist acting as a waitress to make ends meet, but the two actresses can't overcome the rather tacky writing and lukewarm direction brought to the screen by Onur Tukel.

At that aforementioned party, Ashley gets so fed up with the haughty Veronica that she initiates a nasty catfight that ends up putting Veronica into a coma for two years.  Upon waking up, Veronica's life has completely turned upside down.  Needless to say, Veronica finds herself questioning her beliefs prior to the coma while also trying to remember exactly what landed her in the hospital in the first place.  Rather than spoil what comes next, let's just say that the rivalry between Veronica and Ashley hasn't come to a conclusion yet and their distaste for one another rears its ugly head for years to come.

Catfight unfortunately is just poorly pieced together and is perhaps trying to be more politically charged than it has any right to be.  Characters are one-note and oftentimes unbelievable -- the less said about poor Alicia Silverstone as Ashely's lesbian lover the better given the fact that her character never once is given any shred of reality in which to inhabit.  The film ends up being very repetitive by the time its conclusion rolls around and although I was moderately engaged that was really only because it was so laughably corny at times.  I've never seen so many poorly filmed punches in my life in a ninety-minute span as I saw in Catfight -- a decent fight coordinator coupled with a director who knew how to shoot fisticuffs would've helped many a scene here.  Once again, this almost reaches levels of absurdist fun, but in the end, it never gets to that point.

The RyMickey Rating:  C 

Movie Review - Butter

Butter (2012)

Starring Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrell, Olivia Wilde, Alicia Silverstone, Rob Corddry, Yara Shahidi, and Hugh Jackman

Directed by Jim Field Smith

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

For some reason or another, Butter got trashed by the critics upon its very limited release earlier this year.  While it's a skewering of sorts of Midwestern conservatives, it's only a mild roasting and from this conservative's perspective, there are times when we deserve some slight jabs aimed our way.  I think maybe some felt Butter didn't go far enough, but I thought it was a surprisingly amusing comedy with some decent performances and a pleasant enough script that never overstays its welcome at any point.

In Iowa, butter carving is a huge pastime, taking a coveted prime spot at the State Fair.  For the past fifteen years, Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) has been the champ, creating such memorable carvings as the holocaust-themed Schindler's List sculpture in 1995 or this past year's epic The Last Supper.  However, the governing board of the butter carving contest has told Bob that the time has come for him to relinquish his crown and allow someone else to have an opportunity to succeed.  While Bob agrees, his wife Laura (Jennifer Garner) is disgusted with the notion, afraid that she is going to lose the high profile awareness that comes with her gig as the wife of the best butter carver in Iowa.  Laura sets out at becoming an expert carver herself and all would seem to be going according to her plan until ten year-old Destiny (Yara Shahidi) decides to enter the competition.  A young African-American girl living with her new foster parents (Alicia Silverstone and Rob Corddry), Destiny discovers that she is fantastically adept at carving the yellow dairy product and sets up quite a showdown between herself and Laura.

There are some nice performances peppered throughout.  Jennifer Garner was over-the-top, but the role required that level of insanity to a certain degree, and I think she has proven with this and a few other roles that she's a nice comedienne.  Ty Burrell is actually nicely subdued and I found it a welcome change of pace for the sometimes frantic (though very funny) character he plays on Modern Family.  Yara Shahidi was great despite the fact that the screenwriter wanted to make her "wiser beyond her years."  Oftentimes that can prove excruciatingly annoying, but Shahidi was able to reel it in a bit and at least act like a kid.

Surprisingly, the best role in the whole flick comes from Rob Corddry and no one is more shocked than me to be saying that.  Corddry plays Destiny's foster dad Ethan and there's something incredibly natural when he's onscreen with young Shahidi.  His character never talks down to this kid who's been shipped from foster home to foster home because he knows she's been through a lot in her short life.  He recognizes that she's young, but he treats her with respect and kindness.  Considering other things I've seen Corddry in, I was shocked that he had this simple, down-to-earth, "dad" character in him...so big kudos to him.

Butter isn't some fantastic film, but I had a heckuva good time with it.  Granted, there are some faults -- Hugh Jackman pops in more than halfway through in a role he likely did as a favor for someone and Olivia Wilde plays an Asian stripper who, while quite funny, felt a tiny bit out of place -- but overall, this is well worth the ninety minutes it'll take you to watch it via Netflix's streaming.

The RyMickey Rating:  B