zackerman24 Reviews

Emergency (2022)

A Solid Concept and Commentary That Needs a Better Edit

[5/10 · 23 January 2022]

At its core, Emergency has an incredibly interesting and important story to tell. However, it fails to deliver a truly engrossing or cinematic experience. Scenes run long and there is a stark lack of music throughout most of the film. It results in a viewing experience that feels like "I'm just watching things happen" rather than watching a specific, artistic creation.

Still, I think there is a strong base to the movie's story, the actors' chemistry, and the characters' relationships. I simply wish there was more personality to the filming. A movie like this would have been much more engaging with a Jordan Peele-like take, honing in on the horror or suspense of the situation. Or perhaps, a stronger lean into the comedy. The actual result is a movie that fails to be very funny when it means to be, and also fails to deliver much suspense when needed.

When You Finish Saving the World (2022)

A Well-Told First Half, But Missing An Entire Second Act

[6/10 · 23 January 2022]

Caught this at this year's virtual Sundance Film Festival. Like any A24, the production value is good and the performances are great. Julianne and Finn both do an incredible job of playing infuriatingly cringe characters in a way that doesn't feel completely absurd, but is definitely uncomfortable.

You do get invested in what will ultimately happen to their storylines, but ultimately, it's kind of exactly what you'd expect, and you can see if coming from 10 minutes in. The real question is, how do two people that have grown so far apart actually start to do the work to come back together and open up to each other's love? However, the movie shies away from that. It's really just the first part of their story arc - how they grow so far apart that they're forced to come back together, tails between their legs. That is the most emotional part of the me - you're DYING to see them come to each other in some honest way. But then, it's over. I think it's much easier to show two people stray from each other and go "off the rails" in their own way, but it's hard to explore the journey back. I wish this movie had chosen to tell more of the difficult part of the story, because that's where the true emotion lies.

The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

A sweet, funny, and heart-warming movie that knows exactly what it wants to be

[9/10 · 17 September 2020]

Within the first 5-10 minutes, you will know exactly whether this is a movie for you or not. The opening scene perfectly encapsulates the fun and heart-warming tone of the whole film. The movie centers around Zak, a young man with Down's Syndrome, whose dream is to attend a wrestling camp in North Carolina with his favorite wrestler - he escapes from his home and ends up crossing paths with Shia LaBeouf's on-the-run character, Tyler. Tyler decides to look out for him along the way and a sweet journey ensues, meanwhile Tyler is being chased for his past actions and Zak is being chased by the kind woman who oversaw the home he escaped from.

PBF's success is in its direction and cast. The pacing of the movie never stalls, and the tone is balanced nicely - while it handles some serious elements, there's an overarching comfort to it, akin to a bedtime story. Though that may not be everyone's cup of tea, this movie is downright enjoyable; the mix of humor, relationships, tragedy, and local culture is so well crafted.

With the cast, there is a sense that all the main roles were cast perfectly. It also doesn't hurt that the filmmakers met Zak in real life at a summer camp and decided to write the movie around him. But regardless, the rapport between Zak and Shia is what really elevates the movie - humor is so often about timing and these two seem to have really figured it out.

While this movie pulls out some of the usual cliches and tropes, its impact is undeniable. And frankly, if the filmmakers at least execute on those tropes well, does it even matter? The movie radiates the enjoyment of a group of people knowing exactly what type of movie they wanted to make and following through on it excellently. The lighter tone of the movie is also what allows for some of those cliches to be more easily accepted by the audience. Though some may find my rating high, for me, this movie is a bright spot among a sea of bland movies with familiar/repetitive characters and storylines. And to make a film about a character with Down's Syndrome that is so much more than just about a character with Down's Syndrome is an honorable feat.

Feels Good Man (2020)

Captivating Story With A Darker Conclusion Than The Filmmakers Let On

[7/10 · 10 September 2020]

Feels Good Man, the directorial debut of Arthur Jones, centers around the cultural transformation and appropriation of an innocent cartoon character: Pepe the Frog. The film follows Pepe's creator, Matt Furie, as he tries to comes to terms with all that is happening to his creation and eventually fights back to regain control of what was once his; meanwhile, we are also treated to a full unravelling of how Pepe was meme'd into internet infamy among fringe, alt-right groups, discovering just how powerful a tool the Internet can be and how hard it can be to turn back what's been done. The film's pacing is very good, the story is captivating, and the people brought in to break it all down are very interesting; however, while being well worth the watch, I think it falls short in its overall takeaway and message.

The film does a great job of bringing in a diversity of interviewees to help detail both the personal story of Matt & Pepe, as well as the digital journey that transformed Pepe into a profound hate symbol. Insight into Matt's life is drawn primarily from discussion with his wife and housemates, as well as from getting to see him interact with his daughter. It all draws a very quaint portrait of a guy who seems nice and, to be honest, pretty average, which makes Pepe's journey all the more startling while also helping to explain Matt's initial reluctance to act and rather just lay back. For deconstructing the underbelly of the web, we're introduced to a 4chan lifer (or a NEET - this guy's reality may in fact have been the scariest part of the film), my first-ever sighting of a memetist, an occultist scholar / magic librarian (can we talk about how this guy used the force to pull a book off of a shelf???), and the director of the Network Contagion Research Institute at Princeton - all these just to name a few. While the story itself is captivating at parts, what really pushes the movie towards success is the people you meet; the most interesting part of the film may in fact be when Matt meets up with a 20ish person group in San Fran composed of people who have devoted themselves to deconstructing and understanding these sort of internet phenomena; the sheer fact that these groups exist was quite eye-opening, and the juxtaposition of their deep concern and worry for what has happened to Pepe versus Matt's laidback nature was both hilarious and a little tragic. All these people understand something that Matt is seemingly still fully unaware of: he has completely lost control of his beloved character, and frankly, there is almost no turning back. This is not to say that every interviewee lends value - the two female cartoonists / writers seemed to contribute very little and felt more like a "We've already recorded the interviews so let's just use them" situation.

The film should also be given enormous credit for its efforts in trying to trace the origins and gradual transformation of Pepe. I think we all know how difficult it can be to find any "starting points" or sources of actual truth online, but the crew seem to have done very well in their research; likely helped, and perhaps influenced, by their interviews with members of these Internet hordes. Another short note is that the animation throughout is very solid and felt like a strong tool to complement the film's narrative. It wasn't overdone and tied nicely to the scenes where it was used.

With regards to the film's overall goals and purpose, Matt Furie's story is interesting and he is a generally likeable guy, but the real meat of this film is its examination of internet culture and how it can basically turn anything on its head and morph it for its own use or gain, without almost any repercussion. The way in which we see an innocent frog cartoon slowly become a symbol of hate and bigotry is enthralling, but also terrifying as we realize that it all happened through the efforts of people sitting right at home and operating under the anonymity given to them by the Internet and its platforms (e.g. 4chan). Once they took hold, there was really no going back. Sure, Matt's been able to win lawsuits with public figures that have appropriated the character, such as Alex Jones, but almost nothing can be done to the thousands (or millions) of people still using it for their hateful purposes online. While the film tries to end on a positive note by displaying how Pepe went from an alt-right symbol in the US to a symbol of freedom in the Hong Kong protests, it feels like a lackluster solution and rose-colored view, frustratingly trying to give the viewer a hopeful message while denying the harsher truth and reality that it itself has painted. While it's great to see that Pepe can still be a symbol of hope and positivity, the true conclusion is much more ambiguous, demonstrating how we can project almost any emotion onto a character or piece of media, meme-ing it into "this" or "that". Everything comes with a dark side or at least the potential of evil - while we can hope that good is the stronger force, it doesn't really make it any easier to put a stop to the bad.