REVIEW: Cruella [2021]

There’s lots more bad things coming. I promise. First thing’s first when making a prequel to Dodie Smith‘s One Hundred and One Dalmatians that focuses villain Cruella de Vil as its antihero: ensure that audiences know she doesn’t hate dogs. Better yet, screenwriters Dana Fox and Tony McNamara go one further by making Estella (Emma Stone‘s proto-Cruella’s schizophrenic “good” persona) a lover of dogs. She saves one from the streets (Buddy) and adopts it as her best friend. She subsequently enlists another dog’s services (Wink) upon teaming up with the…

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REVIEW: Prevenge [2017]

“Listen, Mommy. That’s how I was made.” Television actresses retain a sense of job security film actresses don’t when pregnant. Productions can work around this natural life choice with wardrobe, blocking, and script alterations. You can’t simply be cut loose once your casting has become an integral piece of the overall work. In Hollywood, however, combating close-minded prejudices, insurance issues, and blatant sexism is the norm. Alice Lowe found this out first-hand, her attempts at securing jobs with her pregnant belly proving a futile exercise. Refusing to relent she decided…

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REVIEW: Four Lions [2010]

“I can’t even get them to stir their tea without smashing a window” Is it too soon to mock Jihadist extremists by not only showing them as idiotic adults with frat house sensibilities, but also as scared men talking the talk before realizing their want of life overshadows any dreams of heaven? Well, British writers Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, and Christopher Morris don’t think so. Their film—also directed by Morris—Four Lions, is a look into the activities of four Islamic Brits trying hard to join Allah’s mission of destroying the…

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