Review: ‘The Human Factor’
Dror Moreh’s Documentary Examines The Mideast Peace Process During The Clinton Administration

By
Khalil Johnson
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One of the most complicated things of the 20th and 21st centuries is the peace process between Israel and Palestine. This has been going on for the last 30 years and has its share of successes, but plenty of failures along the way. Even to this date, there are still substantial hurdles in regard to maintaining peace in the region based on religion, xenophobia, politics, and a wide range of other issues. Every incoming American president says, “I will solve the crisis in the Middle East,” and every single one of them leaves office frustrated on how little change was made during their tenure. Academy Award-nominated Israeli documentary filmmaker Dror Moreh (The Gatekeepers) examined the many attempts at the peace process by the Clinton Administration in his latest film The Human Factor.

Right off the top, what makes The Human Factor so fascinating is that it spends its time not going through historical anecdotes, but instead interviewing members of the State Department who were a part of the peace process during the Clinton Administration. Not only gives you a history lesson on what has transpired during that time, but it also gives you a rarely seen behind-the-scenes access as to how the sausage was made (or not made in the example of the Middle East peace process). Heads of State like Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, and Benjamin Netanyahu, unfortunately, were not interviewed for the documentary, speaking with “the grunts” who were in the weeds proved to be more effective and almost gives the user a seat at the table, as well as they, revisit how they worked and all the “external factors” and “missed opportunities” that impacted the peace process that is still being worked on today.

And man there are setbacks. From Israel’s “civil war” that ended with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination by an Israeli right-wing nationalist, to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s demand to be taken more seriously by both American and Israeli negotiators, to Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggressive approach to negotiations (as his first meeting with Clinton had Clinton asking his advisors “does he know who the superpower is?”), to even the Monica Lewinski scandal: the peace process has always been a tricky process. This is why the title of the film, The Human Factor is an important missing part of the peace process. Originally the film was titled “The Negotiators,” but after more than 40 hours of interviews with State Department negotiators, they advised that that the respect of each side as a human being has been missing throughout the process. In effect, the “human factor” is what has been missing all these years.

The Human Factor is by no means giving voice to both sides of the argument. State Department interviewee Aaron David Miller describes the United States as “Israel’s Lawyer” in his criticism of some of America’s policies when it comes to the Middle East is a good example of how one-sided the peace process has been. In addition, no members representing the Palestinian side of the argument (former negotiators, etc) are interview subjects in The Human Factor. As a result, we don’t really get to explore both sides of this situation, but that doesn’t seem to be what Moreh wanted to convey in the documentary by design.

That said, The Human Factor has the right amount of history, pathos, and visuals (using Clinton Library archives supplemented by CGI) to be fully engaging in how everything has transpired during the years where peace seemed to be so close, and seemingly slipped through everyone’s fingers at the last moment. The montage at the end of The Human Factor showcases subsequent administrations (Bush II, Obama, Trump) attempts to secure peace intertwined with visuals of violence between Israel and Palestine to show that peace is still a long way away as long as the human factor is missing.

The Human Factor is available in select theaters.

The Human Factor

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‘Detective Pikachu’ Sequel Unlikely According To Star Justice Smith

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May 7, 2021

Released in summer 2019, Detective Pikachu could rightfully be said to be among the best video game movies ever made. And it’s a damn Pokemon movie, of all things. Somehow the cutesy, but somehow compelling and fun buddy comedy worked on just about every level, going on to make $433M worldwide. That had fans of the popular games curious about what a sequel could hold.

Well, according to star Justice Smith, there might not be a sequel at all. He tells Inverse…

“I would love to participate in Detective Pikachu 2. I don’t know if it’s going to happen. I think we have to just kind of bury our hopes. I don’t think it’s going to happen. I really hope so though. Honestly, I’m such a huge fan, who knows, who knows? I hope so.”

Legendary Pictures had started talking sequel even before the first movie opened, which makes it hard to believe they wouldn’t follow up now. But if Smith hasn’t heard anything two years later, then perhaps we’ve heard the last of Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu with his deerstalker hat. That’s kinda sad, actually.

Review: ‘The Water Man’
David Oyelowo Brings Heart And Soul To His Directorial Debut

By
Khalil Johnson
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Actor David Oyelowo already is somewhat of a treasure. The Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Image Award-nominated actor (who rarely phones it in) now can add director as his ever-growing list of superpowers in his directorial debut The Water Man: a simple coming of age/fantasy/adventure/drama centering on a young man and his family as they deal with their terminally ill mother.

The Boone family recently has moved into a new mountainous town for a calm and simpler life. Young son Gunner (Lonnie Chavis of This Is Us fame) is somewhat reclusive. He’s young, but incredibly talented as he is constantly drawing his own personal graphic novel about a cop investigating his own murder. While he spends most of his free time drawing his story, there are substantial issues in his family that he’s now old enough to be aware of. His mother Mary (Rosario Dawson) is terminally ill with leukemia. While his father Amos (David Oyelowo pulling double duty as director and actor) being a Navy vet, puts on a tough front, he ends up alienating himself from his sensitive son. Both Amos and Gunner don’t know how to really deal with Mary’s condition, and can’t communicate with each other at the same time.

Because Gunner loves living in the world of fantasy, he starts hearing about the legend of “the water man,” an urban legend in the new town about a miner who found a way to cheat death after a devastating flood who lives somewhere in the woods. The urban legend is mostly told to scare young kids, but instead, it gives Gunner hope. If the water man can keep himself alive and immortal, why can’t he save Gunner’s mother? After learning a great deal from local expert Jim (Alfred Molina) and listening to young girl Jo (Amiah Miller) say that she has seen the water man deep in the mountainous woods, he sets himself out on a quest to try and find the legend so that he can save his mother.

While it appears that Jo is just trying to con Gunner for some cash, she agrees to go into the woods with him in search for the urban legend. Taking his father’s samurai sword and getting food and supplies for the general store, Gunner and Jo head into the woods. While the two aren’t necessarily friends (having just met each other), they strike a deal to look out for each other as they go off on this adventure, and soon enough, the two of them become friends.

Oh, Gunner just happened to not tell his father or mother about his little adventure. After he doesn’t come home after a day, his parents are desperately worrisome and start engaging the town and the local sheriff (Maria Bello) for help in finding their son. This causes them to do some soul searching themselves. Mary wonders if she should have helped prepare her son for the eventuality of her passing away and Amos realizes he needs to have a better connection with his son. But first, he has to find him and save him and Jo from the wilderness.

One thing that makes The Water Man very interesting is that the film operates in a strange grey area in regard to the storytelling. Is the water man real? Or is he a figment of a young man’s hope and imagination? In a similar way to Pan’s Labyrinth, you spend most of the film wondering those two questions until you receive a definitive answer. By that point, it’s not a matter of if the water man is real or not, it’s the journey that Gunner, Joe, and the rest of the Boon family has gone through that makes The Water Man worthwhile.

This being David Oyelowo’s first directorial film, it’s rather impressive. One key thing that happens throughout the film is the use of good old school animation to display certain narrative aspects of the film. Keeping in line with the idea that Gunner is a graphic artist, some fantastical components of The Water Man are broken down into beautifully animated sequences. Speaking of beautiful, the cinematography is incredibly beautiful. Being that the whole film takes place in a mountainous area, the scenery is incredibly beautiful and it’s quite surprising by the lack of CGI in the film. Towards the end of the film, there is a small amount of CGI used to display certain fantastical aspects of the film, but it doesn’t feel “cheap” either.

In addition to being a great-looking film, The Water Man also is able to deliver some outstanding performances from the cast. If anyone’s been crying their eyes out for the past 6 years watching This Is Us is already aware of what Lonnie Chavis can do acting-wise as Young Randall. Oyelowo is able to pull a great performance out of Chavis for The Water Man as well as this is pretty much his film. The same goes for Amiah Miller as Jo. Fans will remember her as the mute Nova in 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, but in The Water Man, she actually gets to talk and emote. As the film progresses, you learn more about Joe and her tragic story as well and she also delivers a great performance. While Rosario Dawson spends most of her time bedridden, she also delivers. And as stated before, Oyelowo rarely phones it in, especially when he is directing himself.

The Water Man has a great deal of heart, soul, and incredible performances, especially from its young leads. While there is a little bit of formulaic drama attached to it, the film’s a unique film that blends plenty of genres into a meditation on family and the trauma of sickness, and the hope of trying to resolve it.

The Water Man is currently available on VOD.

The Water Man

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Review: ‘Above Suspicion’
Emilia Clarke Can't Rise Above This Drab, Kentucky Fried Portrait Of Adultery And Murder

By
Travis Hopson
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I hated Above Suspicion in the first two minutes. The first line of dialog, actually. It’s rare that I start a review with something like that, because it sure as shit colors the rest of this, don’t it? But then it’s also rare for a movie to hit me with two of my pet peeves right off the bat: a character narrating to us from beyond the grave, and speaking to us in a ridiculously rural accent as shaky as the many excuses given for the film’s years-long delay. The simple fact is it isn’t very good, and Lionsgate wasn’t doing much to make sure people knew it was coming out.

Shot way back in 2016 and completed a year later, Above Suspicion might have seen some benefit if released at that time, when star Emilia Clarke was still riding dragons on HBO every week. But now, after helping tank the Star Wars and Terminator franchises, she doesn’t exactly help the film feel like anything other than C-level dreck, despite an interesting story of an illicit affair between an ambitious FBI agent and his informant on a big case. The whole thing is drab crap, and what makes the whole thing worse is that talented folks came together, after the Joe Sharkey non-fiction book was optioned some two decades ago, to make said crap a reality.

Clarke, whose Kentucky Fried accent comes and goes like the wind, plays Susan Smith, a drug-addicted floozy living in a cramped double-wide with her two kids, her abusive ex-husband (Johnny Knoxville, as if drawn to these roles like a magnet), his girlfriend, and more. She’s desperate for a way out of this place, where the only ways to earn a living are through selling drugs or being a snitch for the law; she chooses both. That obviously complicated double-life is especially knotty because Susan has fallen in love with her handsome FBI handler, Mark Putnam (Jack Huston, too dull to register), who she sees as her dream ticket out out of there. Married and with a newborn, Mark tries to resist Susan’s overt attempts to seduce him (the ol’ foot in the groin under the table trick always works!!!), but when she helps him break a big case, he gives in and two start getting it on.

There’s enough disappointment to go around here. It’s genuinely hard to believe the script is by Mississippi Burning writer Chris Gerolmo, but then this is also his first big-screen feature since then. Behind the camera is Philip Noyce, a veteran who has directed some impressive, money-making stuff in the past. I’ll love him forever for stuff like Dead Calm and Blind Fury, while his Jack Ryan movies with Harrison Ford were legit blockbusters. He also directed Angelina Jolie in a whole series of films, most-recently Salt. Above Suspicion has no business being so bland under his guidance, but there it just is. Even the cinematography is like someone shot it from inside of a coffin it’s so damn bleak and grey. Clearly, that’s what they’re going for, to capture the hopelessness within this poor community, but without characters we’re given a reason to care about it’s all pretty meaningless.

On the one hand, it’s easy to feel for Clarke being stuck with a role like this, because Susan is impossible to sympthaize with. Actually, I don’t know if we have someone to root for out of this scummy group. We’re given plenty of close-ups of Susan’s attractive face, only to see it twisted into a manipulative sneer, or brutally bashed-in by men and women alike. They want us to feel something for her that just isn’t there. As Susan cruelly befriends Mark’s wife Kathy (played by Blow the Man Down breakout Sophia Lowe), she shows that her desperation is dangerous right from the start. Mark is no peach, either, for his wanton disregard for all of the women in his life, trampling upon them to further his career. Supporting players are one-dimensional in their self-serving awfulness.

On the other hand, Clarke doesn’t make the best of this bad situation, either. This is one of those “rite of passage” roles that certain actresses take on the way up, to show their range playing somone far out of their cultural comfort zone. Usually the material is better than this, though. Beyond her lack of grip on the accent (it only comes out during narration), Clarke can’t sell the yearning that should be radiating from Susan at all times. Because that is what Above Suspicion needs us to feel most. Without it, this might as well be a reenactment from a true crime series on Oxygen.

‘Guardians Of The Galaxy 3’ Might Be The Last We See Of Dave Bautista As Drax

By

Travis Hopson

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May 7, 2021

When Dave Bautista was cast as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy, he was probably the least-known of everyone, unless you were a WWE fan. He managed to take Drax, the quietest member of an offbeat team that included a taking raccoon and a talking tree, and make him extremely popular. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 coming in 2023, and James Gunn already saying it will be his last, what does the future hold for Drax?

Bautista doesn’t know. He told Digital Spy that everything is pretty much up in the air past the next film, but at one point James Gunn wanted to do a Drax and Mantis spinoff…

“I don’t know what the script of the third film is, to be honest with you,” Bautista said. “There was a script years ago that obviously is going to have to change because the whole direction of the Marvel universe has changed.”

“There were talks for a while about a Drax and Mantis film”, he added, saying there’s been no followup since then.

A Drax and Mantis project would’ve been a fun look at the odd couple, but I don’t know how it would’ve worked unless they did it in a series, which Bautista recently told Joblo he would never do for Marvel.

That means, unless we see him pop up in other movies as he’ll do in Thor: Love & Thunder, we could be seeing Bautista as Drax for the last time…

“I don’t think they’re very interested, or it doesn’t fit into the way they have things mapped out. But other than that, no. I mean, as far as my obligations, I’ve got Guardians 3, and that’s probably going to be the end of Drax.”

That’s Goddamned depressing, if you ask me. But then, Bautista may have burned a bridge or two at Marvel with his impassioned defense of Gunn a few years ago. He was pretty public about his willingness to leave, and maybe that’s what they’re allowing him to do. It’s not like he’ll be hurting for work, and there’s always the possibility of a jump to DC to play Bane.

Giveaway: Win A Ticket To See ‘Wrath Of Man’ At Any AMC Theater

By

Travis Hopson

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May 6, 2021

We’re happy to offer our readers the chance to win a ticket to see Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham’s Wrath of Man at any AMC Theater of their choosing! The revenge thriller opens nationwide tomorrow, May 7th.

SYNOPSIS: WRATH OF MAN is a revenge-based action thriller from acclaimed and innovative director Guy Ritchie (Aladdin, Sherlock Holmes, Snatch). This contemporary movie tells the story of the cold and mysterious ‘H’ as he goes to work at a cash truck company that moves hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles every week.

H’s objective is unique and unanticipated but is only revealed incrementally, utilizing a suspenseful and carefully constructed nonlinear narrative to lay bare his true intentions. Shifting across timelines and various character’s perspectives, WRATH OF MAN builds to a thrilling, tragic, and inevitably bloody catharsis.

To enter, simply send an email to punchdrunktrav@gmail.com with your name and favorite Jason Statham or Guy Ritchie movie. Please put “Wrath of Man Contest” in the subject line! Five winners will be selected and notified by email. Good luck!

In A Big Move For The Streamer, Paramount+ To Debut One Original Movie Every Week In 2022

By

John Nolan

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May 6, 2021

It’s like they say, go big or go home. In the ever more crowded streaming service space it’s becoming harder and harder to stand out from the crowd. It used to be that all you needed was a good original program, but times have changed. COVID provided a jump start to the idea that theatrical movies could premier on streaming services as a viable outlet. Now all the big guys are doing just that. HBOMax made headlines when they announced that their entire slate for 2021 would be debuting day and date with theaters on their service. It’s gone really well for them so far, with no real duds to pick from what’s been released It seems that Paramount+ has noticed and taken a shine to the idea. The newest of the major streaming services (if you don’t count it’s last incarnation as CBS All Access) has made it’s first big splash in the marketplace today announcing that next year they will have one new, original, movie every week.

To give us a taste of what’s to come they’ve also announced that the upcoming big budget sci-fi film Infinite from Antoine Fuqua and starring Mark Whalberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor, will skip theaters totally and hit Paramount+ in June. It’s hard to say how the choice to skip theaters will pan out, folks are starting to get back in line and realizing that there’s more to theater going then just sticky floors and bland popcorn. Honestly, I don’t see a good reason to skip the theaters, HBOMax’s day/date idea seems the best of both worlds.

It’s not all brand new content though, let’s be real Paramount has one of the largest film libraries out there, and it’s not Netflix where, for every 1 great movie there’s 10 fillers. They plan on really showcasing this fact with their ‘Mountain of Movies’ campaign this summer during which they’ll add 1,000 additional movies to their service, almost doubling what they currently offer.

I hate to say it….but it sounds like I have another service to work into the monthly budget.

‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Teaser Takes Us Back To The Rainbow Room And Eleven’s Origin

By

Travis Hopson

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May 6, 2021

It’s been about a decade since we last saw Stranger Things, right? No? Oh, it just feels like it has been that long since Hopper was…killed? Captured by Russians? Something, right? Geezus. Well, it might be a good idea to rewatch that season because Netflix is back and teasing the new one again, and this time it looks like the focus will be on Eleven, or kids just like her?

At least, that’s what’s implied here in this brief footage from the Hawkins National Laboratory’s Rainbow Room, which fans much smarter than me will remember is the place we first met Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) way back in season one.

We then hear the voice of Matthew Modine’s character, “Papa”, saying to a bunch of playing children…

“Today, I have something very special planned for you. Eleven, are you listening?”

I can’t tell whether this is an origin for Eleven or if we’re about to meet the other children who grew up with her? My guess is it’ll be a little bit of both. And what, if anything, does the newly-cast Robert Englund, Freddy Krueger himself, have to do with it?

Stranger Things returns for season four…oh wait, Netflix still ain’t tellin’. Surely that will change soon.

‘A Quiet Place Part II’ Final Trailer: The Long-Delayed Horror Sequel Finally Arrives This Month

By

Travis Hopson

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May 6, 2021

The Abbotts aren't out of the woods yet. A QUIET PLACE PART III set for July 2027

I’ll believe things have begun to return to normal when I’m sitting down in a theater watching A Quiet Place 2. Straight up. This is one of the films most impacted by the pandemic, with the anticipated horror sequel delayed just two weeks after its world premiere in March 2020. So it’s been more than a year-long wait to see the continued story of the remaining Abbott clan, who are still trying to survive a world overrun by monsters that prey on the slightest noise.

Paramount is eager for you to get back into theaters, as well, and have dropped the final trailer for the film. Emily Blunt, Noah Jupe, and Millicent Simmonds are back as the Abbotts, who now have a newborn in tow as they mourn the loss of their patriarch, played by John Krasinski in the first movie. Djimon Hounsou and Cillian Murphy play new characters, who perhaps can be trusted? Perhaps not?

Krasinski both returns to direct and writes the script for A Quiet Place 2, which finally opens on May 28th.

Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

Review: ‘Here Today’
Billy Crystal And Tiffany Haddish Make An Unlikely Pair In A Kindhearted Comedy About Dementia

By
Travis Hopson
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Movies about dementia are flying at us pretty fast lately, but if you go into Here Today expecting it to be a sobering drama like The Father, you’ll come away disappointed. Written and directed by Billy Crystal, his first film behind the camera since HBO’s *61 a couple of decades ago, the film is a mix of lighthearted comedy about an unlikely friendship, but also about an aging comedy writer who is fighting a losing battle with memory loss. It’s the kind of well-intentioned, easygoing film that feels like it should be from another era, like Crystal’s heyday in the ’80s and ’90s, but paired up with Tiffany Haddish there’s enough solid chemistry to look past its many issues.

Crystal wrote himself the part he knows best, of course, that of a legendary comedy writer, Charlie Berns, on a psuedo-SNL sketch show. The writers room is filled with youngsters pitching awful sketches, but Charlie is the encouraging sort who alway offers to give solid advice. You can imagine Crystal at his typewriter (much like the one Charlie uses) figuring this is how it should be on television right now, with guys like him mentoring the upstars rather than being pushed out of the business as so many veteran comics have. Charlie’s a good guy, but his memory is slipping, slowly but surely. He’s kept it hidden from his children (loyal son played by Penn Badgley, estranged daughter played by Laura Benanti) and the guys at work.

Probably the only movie that will ever have a meet-cute of Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish, Here Today has Charlie’s life upended by street singer Emma, with their initial lunch, she bought a date with him for $22 at auction, ending in a shellfish allergy and trip to the hospital. From there, it looks as if this will be one of those stalker comedies where the unwanted person keeps hanging around, refusing to get the hint. But no, Emma and Charlie hit it off swimmingly, with their many cultural and generational differences drawing them together. She’s a livewire of energy (who has no idea Charlie is famous), and he gets a friend who isn’t just another colleague.

It’s all a little too…perfect? There’s something about how easily Emma fits into Charlie’s life that had me wondering if she were a figment of his decaying mental state. Romantic energy mingles in there pretty awkwardly, too, with Emma often talking about how she would break the “old man” if they ever did the horizontal hula. I’m not going to lie to you; Emma is a combination of some pretty terrible stereotypes and tropes. We know precious little about her, and she mainly functions to enlighten Charlie.

However, when Charlie’s dementia starts to become a problem too big to ignore, we see that Emma is more than just colorful outfits and a feisty attitude. She enjoys being part of his life, going out on “dates” to the wax museum and generally keeping him active. It’s clear what she’s doing for Charlie; it’s not so clear what he is doing for her. That’s a question Charlie’s daughter keeps raising, as if speaking for the rest of us who are wondering the same thing. To say the least, Emma is an underwritten character, but then, all of the characters are except for Charlie.

Crystal is particularly inspired when covering the behind-the-scenes stuff at the comedy show, where the upstart writers are openly discussing Charlie’s value. It feels like it should be in a different movie, though, where Crystal can put the focus on it that he clearly wants to. When put together with Charlie’s relationship to Emma, it just doesn’t gel as it should.

Here Today is co-written by Alan Zweibel, as an expansion of the latter’s short “The Prize”. You can see a bit of straining to flesh out the story into a full-length feature, with an excessive amount of time spent on Charlie’s guilt, seen through exhaustive flashbacks, over the death of his wife (Louisa Krause). Crystal performs his role with the charm and wit we’ve always been accustomed to from him; in that he absolutely hasn’t lost a step. If you love Billy Crystal you’ll love him in this. Haddish has the tougher role because Emma is so thinly-drawn, but her brash style makes for a nice complement to Crystal’s deadpan. A couple of fun cameos by Sharon Stone and Kevin Kline, as actors in a screwball comedy Charlie wrote years earlier, had me wanting to see more of that one. Is there a #ReleaseTheCrystalCut out there somewhere?

Genuinely affecting moments that highlight life’s unexpected twists, turns, joys, and pains are what Here today has to offer. It’s a kindhearted, imperfect film that would’ve been significantly less without Crystal and Haddish keeping our attention.

Here Today opens in theaters on May 7th.