House of the Dragon (S2:E1 – A Son for a Son)

Set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, season 2 of House of the Dragon picks up days after the conclusion of Season 1. Westeros is on the verge of war as the already cloven royal family reals in the aftermath of Prince Luke’s death at the hand of his cousin Aemond. Unwilling to forego vengeance, will Queen Rhaenyra’s next actions set the whole of the country in dragon flames?

House of the Dragon (S2:E1 – A Son for a Son) Review

Season one of the series was already at a disadvantage when compared to the electrifying early seasons of GOT. However, it quickly found its own voice, distinguishing itself as a more deliberately paced affair far more interested in political intrigue than in being an epic adventure with global repercussions.

Episode 1 of this season continues the trend even though it also sets the groundwork for what look to be set pieces to rival the scope, if not the emotional connection of Game of Thrones. And that’s really where this episode suffers the most: a lack of emotional connection.

Unhelped by the two-year gap between seasons 1 & 2, A Son for a Son doesn’t possess the same connective tissue as even some of the weakest episodes of its older brother. Its characters seem to blend together with names that are even more similar and indistinguishable from one another than they are.

All in all, the somewhat slowly-paced episode 1 of season 2 of House of the Dragon is held together by good performances and promise.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Oh, Varys

• Game of Thrones had no shortage of strong women in leadership roles. However,  unlike Daenerys and Sansa, who went through hell only to gain power organically, or Cersei, who schemed and connived her way to power and ultimately ruin, the leading ladies of House of Dragon wield power much more like their male counterparts. Furthermore, the competence scale has significantly tipped in their direction.
  • With all of his flaws, even after losing his hand, Jaime Lannister’s character arc was both that of finding redemption and, once again, becoming competent. Season 2 of HOTD seems to be setting the stage to make the men more or less irrelevant.
  • It’s fairly subtle at this point, and I might be wrong about the show’s trajectory, but I doubt it.

House of the Dragon (S2:E2 – Rhaenrya the Cruel)

The drama continues as the consequences of Daemon’s impetuousness begin to bear poisoned fruit. The Red Keep is in turmoil, the king is furious, and war is inevitable.

House of the Dragon (S2:E2 – Rhaenrya the Cruel) Review

Rhaenrya the Cruel is another perfectly satisfactory entry into the series. The performances are consistently fantastic, and the dialogue is better than almost anything else out there right now. However, the show still hasn’t reached GOT’s intrigue or on-the-edge-of-your-seat thrillingness. Instead, it continues to give off a very soap opera-like vibe, though with infinitely better script, performances, and production value.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Floppy Wieners

• I’m all for the franchise’s complete omission of gratuitous nudity. It added nothing to the original series and served as little more than cheap titillation. However, while this series shows a marked reduction, they make a concerted effort to hide female nudity without the same consideration for the men. Don’t get me wrong, junk isn’t spinning in the wind in scene after scene, but they will show completely naked men (junk hidden) while giving half-ass-crack shots to women playing dancing whores. It’s not an accident.

Geography Schmeography

• One of the things that gave the original such a wonderful sense of scope was its clearly defined geography, as shown by clear racial and cultural divides. You know, like the totality of human existence was before cheap and easy mass transit was a thing. Heck, have you been to modern-day Japan or Norway? They’re filled with Japanese and Norwegians.

House of the Dragon (S2:E3-E8)

The post House of The Dragon (season 2) first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post Reverse The Curse first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post Gladiator II first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post The Bear (season 3) first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

Longlegs

FBI Agent Lee Harker investigates a series of gruesome deaths connected to a mysterious figure known as Longlegs. As the case unfolds, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.

Longlegs Review

Since their earliest days, horror movies have relied on a handful of essential ingredients to deliver their thrills and chills. From jump scares to disturbing imagery, the only thing that has changed is each film’s specific usage and the degree to which it relies on those ingredients. Over the last two decades, it seems as though the art of eliciting fear from audiences with subtlety and creativity has been largely lost, replaced by the current crop of genre filmmakers’ race to see who can be grosser and more explicit. Enter Longlegs.

With its minuscule budget and cast of unknowns, Nicolas Cage and Blair Underwood notwithstanding, Longlegs harkens back to the days when the cinematographer and score were more essential than gallons of dyed corn syrup and an FX budget to rival a small nation’s GDP. Despite the fact that the film is a little underdeveloped, with far too little Cage, and loses a bit of focus in the third act, by going back to the basics, Longlegs delivers a delicious ever-present tension as the audience sits on the edge of their seats waiting for the shoe to drop.

Its quintessential 70s horror chic cinematography, with long lingering shots framed ever-so-slightly off-center, and director Oz Perkins’s (son of Anthony Perkins – aka Norman Bates in Psycho) keen sense of timing are the film’s true stars. However, its classically understated vintage score and some surprising performances shine nearly as brightly.

Obviously, seeing Nicholas Cage as a demonic serial killer is Longleg’s big draw, and the only disappointing thing about his disturbing performance is its abbreviated nature. He’s one part creepy, three parts demonically terrifying, and all Nicolas Cage. That said, despite having a relatively underwhelming resume of which her turn as President Whitmore’s daughter in the critically panned Independence Day sequel,  Maika Monroe surprises as Agent Harker. With Cage only appearing briefly, the bulk of the film lies on Monroe’s shoulders, and she is more than up to the task.

Even though the outward trappings of her role as an FBI agent combined with the time period in which Longlegs is set, not to mention the film’s tone, understandably invokes parallels to Clarice Sterling and Silence of the Lambs, Monroe’s Harker is wholly its own creature. The actress beautifully portrays the socially awkward agent with a grounded sincerity and realism that precludes what could have easily been a caricature. As such, she is the perfect straight man to the film’s bizarre goings-on.

Unfortunately, Longlegs flounders a bit under the weight of its concept and what appears to have been very limited access to Nicolas Cage. As a result, everyone’s character development is fairly rushed, with Cage’s character suffering the most. It also suffers from a botched reveal of its twist in an unnecessary and redundant montage that’s overlong, overly expository, and completely robs the film’s final minutes of virtually all of its momentum.

In spite of this and a rushed two-dimensional relationship between Harker and a catalyst character, Longlegs dishes out a quick and fun fright night worth seeing.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Lady Cops

• Nitpickers might take umbrage with yet another “strong female” cop-like character leading a film. However, not only have there been female FBI field agents since the 70s, but Lee Harker is a socially awkward mess and not some unstoppable bad@$$ who was clearly written to be a man until studio interference. Her feminity actually adds a nice layer of vulnerability to the story.

The post Longlegs first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot

Inspired by a powerful true story, Sound of Hope tells the tale of a small-town pastor’s wife igniting a fire in the hearts of their rural church community in Possum Trot, East Texas. Theirs is a mission to embrace the unwanted children in the foster system, the damaged young souls who have been thrown away. Against all odds, this modest village in the middle of nowhere adopts 77 of the most broken children and proves that with God’s love and a lot of prayer, the battle for America’s most vulnerable can be won.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot – Review

Some people in this world have harrowing tales of courage and bravery, and some whose selflessness and trust in Christ glorify the Lord so profoundly that their stories inspire generations. Possum Trot’s people are truly God’s children, and their good works surely please Him greatly.

After the disappointment that was the mishandled Sight, Angel Studios has redeemed itself with another powerful movie about the soaring heights of human compassion. Sound of Hope succeeds not only in subject matter but on all cinematic fronts. Every actor gives a present and natural performance while delivering economic and organic dialogue filtered through the relatable experiences of the character’s extraordinary times.

The result is that Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is a grounded story that stays out of its own way. The filmmakers clearly understood the inherent power of this real-life drama, and they let it unfold like beautiful music, allowing it to envelope the listener with rousing peaks of optimism and the desperate isolation of fear and doubt only to soothe audience’s wounds with the depth of God’s love and the power of giving over to his will.

While it’s not without its flaws, for instance, the early narration is largely unneeded and a little heavy-handed, the flaws are nothing in comparison to what the filmmakers get right.

Sound of Hope will reaffirm your faith and move you to tears of sorrow and joy. More importantly, it will move some to action. Whereas Sound of Freedom taught us that God’s children are not for sale, Sound of Hope teaches that God’s love can change the world.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Zilch

• Woke free, and it feels so good.

The post Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is set in the 1860s during the Civil War. It follows various Western archetypes who journey to the American West to build new lives and find their fortune. However, the Apache tribe, already there, is unhappy about the settlers encroaching on their land. The movie introduces characters and locations that will no doubt be key to the four planned movies, exploring generations of settlers and Indigenous people struggling to survive in the American West.

Horizon: An American Saga Review

Horizon is filled with sweeping shots of the ever-stunning American West. Its vistas, both beautiful and harsh, serve as the film’s unsung hero because, short of that and the obvious care and thought that went into the set construction and costuming, there isn’t much else good to say about the film.

For even as beautiful as the scenery may be, the cinematography is a stylistic neuter. Meant to be a generationally spanning epic, scenes are framed like a movie of the week, with unnecessary close-ups and a multitude of quick cuts when panoramic wide shots and lingering single shots would have better told the story and given the film its intended scope.

Arguably, Horizon’s greatest weakness is its lack of cohesion. Instead of a contiguous narrative with subplots that build and support its central narrative, Horizon is a fractured series of disjointed vignettes with little time spent on developing their characters or individual elements. Its bizarre structure makes it virtually impossible to bond with characters or events and robs the story of all momentum and the audience of any sense of the passage of time. In one scene, a woman’s family is murdered, and in another, days, months, or years later (who can tell?), she’s falling in love with another man. In another, a young girl introduced in an earlier tragic scene is now in love with a random soldier who is going to war, and the film expects us to care… because.

Combined with an incredibly generic “Western” score and performances that are a grabbag of amateurish and barely passable (often thanks to some very unnatural dialogue), not to mention pacing that wished it could reach turtle speeds, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 never peaks in quality beyond that of a middling TV mini-series.

WOKE ELEMENTS

What Make The Red Man Red

• Every group of Indian-hating white men has one among them whose sole purpose is to remind them and the audience that not all tribes are the same.
  • Sam Worthington’s character continually and clunkily refers to the Indians as “Indigenous.”

The post Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

A Quiet Place: Day One

An angry and despondent cancer patient, Sam, who is spending her last days in hospice care, and a lonely law student, Eric, come together as the world as we know it ends. The unlikely duo must now navigate the deadly streets of New York City (nearly as deadly as in real life), avoiding unstoppable monsters while searching for a way out.

A Quiet Place: Day One Review

Prequels are not a new phenomenon. There have been numerous films set before the events of the books and plays upon which they are based, but the first-ever prequel to another film is 1948’s Another Part of the Forest, a prequel to 1941’s Little Foxes. The impetus for such films is understandable both monetarily and artistically. Studios get a built-in audience that makes the film’s commercial viability that much more likely, and fans get answers to burning questions only hinted at in their favorite programs.

Unfortunately, the modern prequel, arguably starting with Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999), has become a cinematic crutch used by creatively bankrupt movie studios looking for a quick and easy buck. Their proliferation, along with unwanted and botched sequels and spin-offs, have ruined beloved franchises and cost companies like Disney billions of dollars.

This brings us to today. Set a little over a year before the events of the John Krasinski/Emily Blunt original, A Quiet Place: Day One may be one of the most unnecessary prequels ever put on film. It adds nothing to the lore of the original two in any meaningful way, as virtually every significant event or discovery happens off-screen. Have you ever wondered how it was discovered that the aliens used sound to locate their prey? Too bad. It happens off-screen. Were you hoping to watch the American military engage in what we know will ultimately be a losing battle against the invaders? Off-screen. Had you hoped to learn of the origins of some of your favorite characters from the original two movies? You guessed it – off-screen.

Instead, A Quiet Place: Day One introduces fans to two original characters: Sam, a cancer patient at the end of her life whose sole motivation is to experience a single moment of reconnection to her past before she dies, and Eric, an English law student who is alone and afraid. The result is a familiar film with less compelling characters than the original and a story that is thereby harder to bond with emotionally.

Nothing is made any easier by the choice of lead characters. The originals benefitted from the family dynamic that was central to the plot. Audiences needed little dialogue and less setup to identify with and be invested in the stakes immediately. Conversely, in Day One, Sam is an understandably angry and jaded woman who spends the entirety of her introduction being aggressively offputting. While friendly and helpful, Eric isn’t heroic or particularly skilled, and his panic attacks that happen at just the wrong time are offputting, even if they are understandable.

The film does a commendable job of finding moments to help the audience bond with the two, but it’s too little, and the moments often feel too contrived to elevate the film from popcorn flick to genre-defining. What it did get right was its choice of performers. Both Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn are excellent. They manage to give far more nuanced performances than the script calls for, and it is the two of them, as well as Michael Sarnoski’s generally good pacing and excellent sense of continuity, that pulls this film together.

A Quiet Place: Day One might not be worthy of an official recommendation as Worth it, but it’s certainly not boring, at least not often, and offers sufficient thrills to justify purchasing an IMAX ticket and some popcorn.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Putting the Male In Damsel

• Eric’s character (a white male) is neither a coward nor incapable. His fear is proportional and understandable, but there are two moments when he begins to panic and needs Sam to be the rock that rescues him from his fear.
  • Conversely, Sam (a black female) is never out of control. That said, her particular circumstance lends itself to a nihilistic acceptance of her fate, making her behavior and general demeanor throughout the ensuing horrors more understandable.

The post A Quiet Place: Day One first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

The post Kinds of Kindness first appeared on Worth it or Woke.