HONEY BOY QUICKIE

I never thought I would actually have this come out of my mouth in my life, but Honey Boy is a REVELATION in the truest sense.

It’s kind of hard to appreciate the film on the same level I did if you aren’t familiar with the background and struggles of the main actor Shia Lebouf’s background. His strange father that I often heard about in a joking matter on talk shows, but never really knew the extent of the psychological and physical abuse.

Honey Boy is not only a fantastic character study and a great highlight of Shia Lebeouf’s fantastic acting ability--yet another performance ignored by the Oscars bafflingly—-but it also is kind of a film about overcoming your demons and forgiving people that have wronged you which is something they often don’t make films about. Forgiveness is rarely something explored in Hollywood movies and whenever it is I always give bonus points (I haven’t forgotten you Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood).

While I can’t say this is an enjoyable film, especially if you grew up with addict parents who were both emotionally and psychologically abusive, none of that stuff feels fake or melodramatic. You can tell that Shia has poured his mental anguish into every page of this screenplay and never does this movie even feel preachy or appealing to Oscar-bait sensibilities. It’s just a great film, plain and simple.

DOCTOR SLEEP

Doctor Sleep was easily the biggest surprise of the year and the one movie that I keep going back to. It’s also... a big flop and kind of underseen outside of horror supernerds? I have to give this film an extra grape job sticker for not only being a great adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, but also a sequel to the original Kubrick film and somehow managing to honor both author’s intent without shitting on either property. That’s something not only incredibly difficult to pull off but something only a damn fine director can get away with.

I’ve seen most of the director Mike Flanagan’s work and have really enjoyed it. He made a good adaptation of Gerald’s Game which literally is spent mostly in a woman’s head and somehow still works. When he was announced to make an adaptation of Dr. Sleep I was cautiously optimistic---and also there is just some inherent baggage with making a sequel to a horror classic that is beloved by all except for a single person, the author of the original book, Stephen King. He is infamously known for hating Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining while literally everyone else on Earth loves it. It’s a seemingly strange stance for him to take, but I understand where he is coming from being someone who has also read the novel it’s based on. As an adaptation of his work, it is flawed. Jack Nicholson seems crazy from the beginning and in King’s novel it is a slow transition into madness.

But Doctor Sleep is it’s own thing...minus the last 30 minutes. I guess if I had an objection to Doctor Sleep in any capacity it would be the last 30 minutes, not because it’s bad—-I think it’s really good actually---but it relies too much on the audience's familiarity with the original film adaptation that makes me sad that Flanagan didn't continue doing his own thing.

I do think the ending is great and does appeal to fans of the original movie without feeling too fan service—-LOOKING A T YOU ROGUE ONE—-and doing interesting things with the original film it’s referencing.

Everyone in this film gives great performances. Ewan McGregor is fantastic in this movie and has an amazing character arc and realistically portrays the life of an alcoholic who has undergone some serious childhood trauma. There’s also actors recast as the original characters, but they aren’t doing cheap imitations but rather capturing the cadence of the characters. It's honestly kind of amazing and completely shouldn’t work but somehow manages to work.

I’m going to say something rather cliche here and say this film is UNDERRATED. Not in the classic sense of the word, because as we know Rottentomatoes is the determining factor of whether or not a film has merit—--RIGHT? RIGHT!?

I’m more of a Metacritic fan myself because it tabulates every review into a numeric score (who actually has the time for such things) and gives you a more well-rounded interpretation of the reviews. And if you were to go on Metacritic, you would have seen that Doctor Sleep has a 55/100 average which is kind of...bad.

But I think what the bulk of the negative reviews fail to realize is that this film is not trying to be a direct sequel to the shining...while also kind of being one? I don’t know. It’s hard to not sound like a hypocrite talking about this movie, but this film feels like its own and also not (but it still works somehow) and also kind of like a Superhero movie in the way that the final act concludes.

The film mainly works because both the protagonist and antagonist are fucking fantastic. Rose The Hat is a compelling villain which has completely understandable motivations even if you might disagree with her morally.

The cinematography, the direction, the special effects are actually kind of incredible and innovative and there are more than a few scenes that I was lost in and were seared into my brain, whether it be for their visual beauty or the tension of two people just talking to each other.

Good stuff.