Underwater

 Underwater (2020)

Starring Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher, Jr., Mamoudou Athie, and T.J. Miller

Directed by William Eubank

Written by Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)

Starring Chloë Grace Moretz, John Gallagher Jr., Sasha Lane, Forrest Goodluck, Owen Campbell, and Jennifer Ehle

Directed by Desiree Akhavan

Written by Desiree Akhavan and Cecilia Frugiuele

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Peppermint

Peppermint (2018)

Starring Jennifer Garner, John Gallagher Jr., John Ortiz, Annie Ilonzeh, and Juan Pablo Raba

Directed by Pierre Morel

Written by Chad St. John

Summary (in 500 words or less):  When her husband and daughter are killed in a violent gang-related event, Riley North (Jennifer Garner) takes matters into her own hands after a corrupt justice system lets her family's murderers off the hook for their horrific crime.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

The Belko Experiment

The Belko Experiment (2017)

Starring John Gallagher, Jr., Tony Goldwyn, Adria Arjona, John C. McGinley, Melonie Diaz, Owain Yeoman, Sean Gunn, Brent Sexton, Josh Brener, David Dastmalchian, David Del Rio, Gregg Henry, and Michael Rooker

Directed by Greg McLean

Written by James Gunn

***This film is currently streaming via HBO***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  When they are locked inside the Belko Corporation's high-rise building, the trapped workers are forced to take part in a horrible social experiment where they must kill each other in order to survive.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - 10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Starring John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and John Gallagher, Jr.

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg

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

Taking place within the same world of its predecessor Cloverfield released eight years prior, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a different beast altogether -- a horror film where monsters take a backseat to the frightening nature of humans.  Distraught over what she sees as a falling out with her fiancé, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), leaves her apartment in New Orleans for somewhere, anywhere.  Her departure is halted, however, when her car is blindsided by a truck causing her to spin out of control and crash.  When she awakens, Michelle is in what appears to be some concrete bunker, the captive of Howard (John Goodman), an ex-Navy officer who claims that above ground chaos is reigning in the form of some apocalyptic event.  Howard is seemingly a bit nutty, but after a few scary events, Michelle and her fellow bunker mate Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.) grow to believe that what Howard spouts is actually real, and instead of being a "captive" as she initially thought, Howard's the only thing keeping her alive.  However, there's still hints of distrust amongst the trio because human nature is a fickle and funny thing.

Director Dan Trachtenberg creates a claustrophobic environment enhancing the uneasiness that's already present in both the script (co-written by Academy Award-winner Damien Chazelle) and the characters portrayed by the trio of actors, all of whom hold their own against one another as their allegiances shift scene by scene attempting to figure out who they can trust.  While taking place in the same time period as Cloverfield (presumably, this occurs on the same day as the event in New York City), this 2016 film doesn't really connect with that initial film until its final minutes which does do a little bit to enhance and add to the "Cloverfield" mythology.  (Although, admittedly, these final minutes are actually the least successful aspect of the film.  Despite being well lensed, they stand in too much of a stark contrast to the eighty minutes that came prior.)

Although I think this is an unpopular opinion, 10 Cloverfield Lane is slightly less successful than its predecessor.  It doesn't quite ratchet up the tension in the same way Cloverfield does despite the fact that overall it's a better acted, better produced, and better directed film.  It's a worthy flick and an intriguing addition to what producer J.J. Abrams says is going to be an ever-expanding "Cloverfield" film saga, but it's surprisingly not quite as edge-of-your-seat thrilling as Cloverfield.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Hush

Hush (2016)

Starring Kate Siegel, John Gallagher, Jr., Michael Trucco, and Samantha Sloyan

Directed by Mike Flanagan

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

A surprisingly effective low budget horror movie, Hush introduces us to Maddie (Kate Siegel), a deaf author who lives in a secluded house in the woods.  With this being a thriller, that isolation will ultimately do Maddie harm when a masked man (John Gallagher, Jr.) stalks the young woman and creates a hellish night from which she may not escape alive.

A simple story told in taut fashion, director and co-writer Mike Flanagan and co-writer and star Kate Siegel have created a film that certainly kept me on the edge of my seat.  Sure, there are some moments of ludicrousness (Why is she going upstairs?  Why doesn't she just stay locked in the room?), but Hush overall is an enjoyable watch, filled with those jittery moments that we long for in horror films.  Siegel more than holds her own and John Gallagher, Jr., is deviously horrific as Maddie's unnamed assailant -- together they make what is essentially a two-handed piece immensely watchable.

Yes, this review is short and to the point, but don't let it's brevity fool you -- Hush is worth a watch if thrillers are your cup of tea.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Short Term 12

Short Term 12 (2013)

Starring Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, and Keith Stanfield

Directed by Destin Cretton

I'm not sure there's a movie created that doesn't want us to connect with its characters.  I'm not saying we have to like the personalities that a film presents, but the goal of a filmmaker and screenwriter is to get us to feel something about the people onscreen whether that be a good or bad attachment.  Destin Cretton's Short Term 12 had me empathizing with what I saw more than any other movie I've seen (thus far) from 2013 and it's that type of emotional rawness I've been waiting to see this year.

Grace (Brie Larson) is the lead supervisor at a temporary shelter (a "Short Term" facility) for troubled foster teens.  She's quiet and private, yet darn good at what she does, garnering much respect from both the kids and coworkers she helps.  However, while Grace desperately tries to get "her kids" to open up to her, she has an incredibly difficult time following that guidance herself, particularly to her long-term boyfriend and co-worker Mason (Delawarean John Gallagher Jr in an understated, yet important role).  Grace isn't without her share of baggage (of both the old festering and new panicky kinds), yet she pushes everything unhealthily inward.

I'll leave the summary segment of this review at that as Short Term 12 is better to just see unfold in the natural and simplistic, though never "easy," way its story is unveiled.  Along the way, we meet two foster kids in particular who resonate with both Grace and the audience -- eighteen year-old Marcus (Keith Stanfield) who is on his way out of Short Term 12 and the younger Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever) who is just beginning her stint there.  Both Marcus and Jayden shape Grace's life in ways she likely never would have dreamed possible, yet in a manner that never rings false or condescendingly sentimental.  Writer-director Destin Cretton could've easily taken any one of his characters down the cheap path of maudlinness, but that never happens for a second.

Cretton also gets amazing performances from his cast.  Brie Larson is fantastic as Grace, perfectly balancing the somewhat tricky aspects of a character that asks her to console others despite the fact that she can't do the same for herself.  Her Grace has a quiet strength that makes it all the more difficult to watch as we long for her to reconcile with her past and come to peace with whatever demons may have crossed her path.  We want to console her...and that's not a bad thing at all.

Adding to the across-the-board acting superlatives, both Keith Stanfield and Kaitlyn Dever give bravura performances.  Stanfield's Marcus is quiet (much like Grace), but it's moreso out of defeat than anything else.  He's been at Short Term 12 for a not-so-short term and his sense of worth has been deflated exponentially.  Stanfield so easily could've taken this his character in an overly harsh or overly sympathetic direction, but he finds the happy medium and embodies what I think may be one of the best characters we've seen onscreen this year.  Young Ms. Dever takes the the opposite approach with her Jayden who's not afraid to get rambunctious, yet eschews that bellowing personality at times in order to show that she's really just a young girl unable to cope with what the adults around her have put her through.  Both get scenes that had me this close to tears simply because in the short time I'd been given to get to know these characters, empathy had taken root.

And that empathy is what makes Short Term 12 the winner that it is.  This film could've easily turned into an ABC Afterschool Special if it so desired, but Dustin Cretton instead creates an authentic atmosphere with characters who never once feel "forced" into any action they're undertaking onscreen.  Dialog never rings false, so much so that I sometimes found myself marveling at the sheer simplicity of what Cretton wrote -- how did the most basic of words convey so much emotion?  Because of this naturalness, we in the audience immediately become intimately involved with the film...and it's really a beautiful thing.

The RyMickey Rating:  A