Month: October 2021

‘Ron’s Gone Wrong’ serves up laughs and social media warnings

Jeff Mitchell

“Ron’s Gone Wrong” (2021) – “I was watching ‘Her’ by Spike Jonze, and I thought, ‘I need to make a version of this movie for my 3-year-old who’s getting lost in the iPad,’” co-director/co-writer Sarah Smith says in an Oct. 15, 2021 interview with Cinemark. Smith, along with co-directors Jean-Philippe Vine and Octavio E. Rodriguez, made a film, and thankfully, they did not feature toddlers as their lead and supporting characters. Whew!  Instead, their movie is a middle-school animated adventure, and our hero is Barney Pudowski (Jack Dylan Grazer). He’s…

Movie of the Week: ‘The Howling’

Jeff Mitchell

“The Howling” (1981) – If you haven’t guessed, “The Howling” is a werewolf movie, but 45 minutes into Joe Dante’s (“Piranha” (1978), “Gremlins” (1984)) 91-minute picture, you wouldn’t know it. He spends nearly half of his film’s runtime establishing his leads, supporting characters, and the setting, but it’s all worth the wait. Early in the movie’s first act, L.A. television reporter Karen White (Dee Wallace) plays the bait and helps police catch her own stalker, but the harrowing experience left her with a brief case of amnesia.  A TV doctor,…

‘Mass’ bravely dives into deep, emotional places in one confined space

Jeff Mitchell

“Mass” – Here’s my best advice to approach “Mass”, writer/director Fran Kranz’s first film.  Don’t watch the trailer. This gripping, conversational drama is almost entirely set in one location.  The four main characters confront a painful, deeply personal topic, one that has haunted them for years, but don’t ask a friend, sibling, your local movie critic, or the Internet the key matter that Jay (Jason Isaacs), Gail (Martha Plimpton), Linda (Ann Dowd), and Richard (Reed Birney) debate.  During an Oct. 10 interview with Collider, Kranz says, “Look, it has been…