Smith's Verdict

By Tanner Smith

How did this happen? How did a prequel to a subpar horror film turn out to be so good? It’s as if the first “Halloween” movie to be released was “The Curse of Michael Myers” (the sixth, and arguably worst, of the franchise) and then it was followed up by John Carpenter’s “Halloween.”

That’s how impressive “Ouija: Origin of Evil” is.

This is the prequel to 2014’s “Ouija,” which was about a group of teens who play a Ouija board game to communicate with spirits, and of course, evil demonic forces take hold of their lives and slowly but surely kill them off. “Ouija” was overwhelmingly panned by critics, calling slow and nonsensical.

“Ouija: Origin of Evil,” its follow-up, was given the opposite reaction, with highly positive reviews from critics who noticed the significant amount of improvement over its predecessor.

Here’s how I think it happened. Director/co-writer Mike Flanagan (who had already impressed me with quality horror films such as “Oculus” and especially “Hush”) was focused on making a good movie as well as compromising with the studio system. What did the executives want to see?

They wanted to see kids playing the board game, like in the original film. Fair enough–so, Flanagan wrote in a scene in which one of the leads, a teenage girl, plays with her friends and introduces the audience to the rules of the game.

They wanted a jump-scare early into the proceedings. Ugh, fine–but Flanagan, who hates fakeout jump-scares as much as I do, used it for comedic effect.

And he had to tie up all loose ends from the original. How do you do that, when it seemed the ending twist of the original “Ouija” didn’t seem to make sense? Well…Flanagan found a way to fix that too.

And surely there were more studio notes like that, but Flanagan chose not to fight against them but to use them as a benefit. You know what? Freaking KUDOS to this guy!

So, now that Flanagan used the studio notes, what was he going to give us in “Ouija: Origin of Evil?” Story! Characters! Atmosphere! Caring! He thought of giving us all of that before throwing in the terror! By God, it’s A MOVIE!

Thus, what started as a deplorable work-for-hire turned into one of the most surprisingly good horror films of the decade.

By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, this is “The Edge of Seventeen”…not to be confused with the Stevie Nicks song…which is nowhere to be heard in this movie…weird.

This is a teenage coming-of-age comedy-drama about an awkward, depressed outsider named Nadine (played wonderfully by Hailee Steinfeld) in her senior year of high school. She’s resentful of her popular brother Darian (Blake Jenner from “Everybody Wants Some!!”), her mother (Kyra Sedgwick) doesn’t pay enough attention to her, she’s not comfortable in her own skin, and worse yet, her only friend (Haley Lu Richardson) is now in a relationship with Darian. There’s an awkward but sweet classmate named Erwin (Hayden Szeto, who I learned was *30* when he made this film!) who not-so-secretly admires her, and while she does give him attention, she has another boy on her mind–you know, the “dangerous” type. The film is basically about Nadine being comfortable with herself with help from those around her, including a teacher (Woody Harrelson) who tells it like it is.

A lot of this material is familiar, but a lot of us have gone through similar experiences in high-school and it’s important for as many writer-directors to draw from what they themselves have gone through.

There is a lot of heart and emotion in this film, thanks to writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig’s vision and the performances from her talented cast.

Nadine is easy to empathize with, even when she seems difficult to sympathize with, because she’s 100% real. When she’s a smartass, when she’s sad, when she’s self-loathing, when she’s a terror towards other people–I get it, because we’ve all been there and done that.

ALL of the characters seem real. They’re not as fleshed out as Nadine (obviously), but they aren’t portrayed as two-dimensional types either. The mom is clueless but she’s trying. The brother has self-esteem issues too. The best friend wants to venture away from familiar territory. The teacher has wisdom behind his wisecracks. And so on.

Oh, and there’s also Erwin. Was I the only one who bought his charm from the beginning? I didn’t know I was supposed to warm up to him the same way Nadine (and apparently the rest of the audience) did. Whatever–Erwin’s awesome, and I’m glad he got the girl.

One other thing I want to say to critics who aren’t reading my posts–stop comparing today’s “teen movies” to John Hughes teen movies. It’s cliched and doesn’t make sense anymore. Those movies were also good at blending comedy and drama with real teen problems. But this is a new era, with new problems, and new filmmaking techniques. Just call “The Edge of Seventeen” what it is–one of the smartest coming-of-age films in a decade full of smart coming-of-age films.

Kelly Fremon Craig’s upcoming film project is an adaptation of the Judy Blume novel, “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.” And I’m definitely curious to see how she handles that heavy material.

By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, one of my favorite directors Richard Linklater has made some great films this decade–“Before Midnight,” “Boyhood,” “Bernie,” “Last Flag Flying”…and “Everybody Wants Some!!”

What do you get when someone like Richard Linklater who specializes in conversation/interaction and philosophy in film decides to make his own “Porky’s”-style comedy about a bunch of young guys just looking to party, get wasted, and get laid? You get “Everybody Wants Some!!” (I’d say I’ll take this film over “Porky’s” any day, but then again, “Everybody Wants Some!!” is great and “Porky’s” is a piece of garbage…in my opinion.)

The film is basically about the days leading up to the first day of school in Texas in the fall of 1980, as freshman Jake moves into a house suited for his college-baseball teammates……that’s about it. They cruise chicks, they party, they practice baseball, they compete with each other, they do whatever they want to do.

It’d be a risk to make a film set in the ’80s which is about a bunch of loud, mostly-obnoxious jocks looking to ogle chicks and attempt to score with them. Attitudes have definitely changed (for the most part) since the time in which this film is set. But thanks to the inclusion of a self-aware character named Finnegan (Glen Powell), it’s given a little leeway as long as SOMEONE knows their behavior is mostly ridiculous.

But wait! Would anyone have really thought the way Finn does, even back in the day? Yes–it’s college, this guy’s been there and done that, he knows his stuff. (The reason none of the kids in Jonah Hill’s “mid90s” discussed their crude talk is because they’re dumb high-school kids, whereas the characters in “Everybody Wants Some!!” are dumb college kids.)

Another reason it works is because there is a genuine connection that develops between freshman Jake (our main character, played by Blake Jenner) and theatre-major Beverly (Zoey Deutch, Lea Thompson’s daughter–she looks like her!). Everyone else is using lame pickup lines (most of which work well for them); Jake’s just being himself. He’s intimidated by this person who’s just full of spirit and pluck, but he also wants to get to know her because of it. It’s really sweet.

And another reason the film works is that it’s also very funny, mostly due to the clever dialogue Linklater gives to Finn (my favorite character), who has his own BS philosophies about why everyone in this film does what they do. Why do they try so many cultural venues, like discotheques, punk rock concerts, redneck bars, and theatre parties? Because it’s a way of adapting…sort of…mostly, it’s about doing what they can to pick up chicks. You gotta laugh at this guy’s honesty.

And a main reason I love it is just because it reminds me of when I started college and fell in with a group of people who shared the same major as me and would become my close friends for a while. The misadventures, the conversations, even the music we listened to–the pop culture in “Everybody Wants Some!!” is different from when I experienced these things, but the feelings are still relevant.

By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films my most anticipated movie of 2016 wasn’t “Deadpool” or “Captain America: Civil War” or even “Rogue One.” Nope–it was a faux-documentary about the Apollo 11 mission…and how the CIA faked the moon landing!

“Operation Avalanche” was Canadian indie filmmaker Matt Johnson’s follow-up to his Slamdance hit “The Dirties,” also a faux-documentary with both comedy and thriller elements. (Kevin Smith even called it “the most important film you’ll see all year.”) I love “The Dirties”–I even wrote an analytical essay about “The Dirties” for journalism class (and I posted it on my blog–it’s better than the original 3-star review I wrote for it). I went from simply liking it to calling it one of my new favorite movies.

So, of course, when I heard his next film, “Operation Avalanche,” was screening at Sundance in January 2016, I was already interested. When I read that it was about faking the moon landing, I was excited to see it, especially if it was being presented in the same fake-doc style as “The Dirties.” Matt Johnson seemed to know exactly how to use the found-footage/faux-documentary approach to its absolute max.

It’d be a long time before I could catch it on DVD–it was worth the wait! (I even put it in my year-end top-10.)

And yes…that is exactly what the film is about. Set in the 1960s, and filmed with top-notch equipment for the time period, “Operation Avalanche” follows a team of CIA agents (led by writer/director Johnson and his friend from “The Dirties,” Owen Williams) as they infiltrate NASA headquarters by posing as a documentary film crew making a film about the upcoming Apollo mission. What do they learn after bugging the phones? That they can’t land on the moon. And that’s when Johnson gets an idea of his own…to make a film that illustrates walking on the moon and broadcast it as the real thing!

It’s so crazy it just might work…

OK, just for the record, I’m not one of those guys. I do believe we landed on the moon, and it was a major accomplishment not just for America for all of mankind. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to think about how it would’ve gone down if it were faked…

Look, it’s a movie. And it’s fun. And it’s interesting to see this interpretation, as far-fetched as it may be.

Matt Johnson definitely has a flair for the faux-documentary angle and for filmmaking overall. He made “The Dirties” look and feel exactly like a film that would be made by a bright (and deranged) high-schooler. He had loads of fun with fair use laws in his Vice mockumentary web series “Nirvanna the Band the Show,” showing he has guts. And with “Operation Avalanche,” which also served as his thesis film for grad school, he has fun with the time period–the resources, the tools, the wardrobe, the pop culture, the fact that it looks and feels like a top-secret documentary from the ’60s.

He’s one of my favorite filmmakers working today because of his drive and passion.

He’s also a good actor as well. Cocky, charismatic, and very naive (but credibly so). He plays the type of person who would be so gung-ho about breaking new ground in film creativity that he wouldn’t catch the obvious flaw, which is that if anyone even knew he organized the faking of the lunar landing, he’d be one of the most hated individuals alive…if his CIA superiors allow him to live much longer lest they sever all ties.

I haven’t even begun to cover two of the most important and interesting aspects of making this film. Let’s begin with…Kubrick.

The late famed director Stanley Kubrick is in this film. He had to be. There’s a theory that claims NASA used his special-effects knowhow from “2001: A Space Odyssey” to make the moon landing look as real as possible. How does this film cover that? Well, Johnson sneaks onto the set of “2001” to take notes on front-screen projection…and he also gets an autograph from Kubrick himself. And it’s not an actor playing Kubrick either–it’s the man himself!

No joke–Johnson and his crew took the few photographs (not video coverage) taken on the “2001” set and animated them with the actors on green-screen to inhabit them in the same universe. Thus, Johnson is able to walk on the actual set of one of the greatest game-changing movies of all time and interact with Stanley freaking Kubrick. (Eat your heart out, “Forrest Gump.”)

Not gutsy enough for you? How about this? All of the scenes set at NASA…were filmed at NASA! Johnson and co. shot on location, only getting permission because they claimed they were making a student documentary. (To get away with it, they brought in the same attorney that covered the fair-use laws for the anti-Disneyland film “Escape From Tomorrow.”)

I’m telling you–this guy’s got guts.

And I’ll be talking about “The Dirties” sooner or later…

By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, I love movies that start out well enough on the first viewing and then grow into more appreciation after a few more viewings. (About half of my decade-end top-20 choices are among those movies!) I liked “Miss Stevens” fine when I first saw it, I showed it to my fiancee and enjoyed it a second time, and recently I played it in the background on Netflix and…my attention kept getting drawn towards it.

So much for the film that started out “fine” at first.

“Miss Stevens” is an indie road-movie about a high-school teacher (Rachel Stevens, played by Lily Rabe of “American Horror Story” fame) who chaperones three students to a state drama competition. One is Billy (Timothee Chalamet, who acted in this film just one year before his career breakthrough), who has a behavioral disorder and a crush on the teacher; one is Margot (Lili Reinhart), the organized and somewhat stuck-up one of the trio; and the other is Sam (Anthony Quintal), the sweet, chill one of the bunch. This is one of those weekend-that-changed-everything movies, as the teacher and the students bond over the weekend and learn important lessons and become better people and–you get the idea.

Actually, it is sweet, the way they find ways to relate to one another, even when Billy’s attempts at flirting are borderline creepy (but you have to remember, he’s just a teenager–and Miss Stevens lets him down easy). Billy learns to control his anger and channel it into his acting performance for the competition. Margot learns some rules are OK to break. Sam works up the courage to ask one of the other competitors out on a date. And Miss Stevens, or Rachel, learns to follow her own advice, as she needs someone to help take care of her too.

A lot of the charm in this small but likable film comes from the actors. Lily Rabe won a Special Jury Award for her acting at SXSW, and it’s easy to see why–she’s caring but has her own problems, and she’s able to let us see both sides of the same person. It’s a wonderful balance she pulls off. And Timothee Chalamet is excellent as the most troubled of her students. I’m glad this guy’s career has taken off in a major way, with his accolades for “Call Me By Your Name” and whatnot, and is still giving him much to work with. Here, I genuinely believe him as a kid with so many issues built up inside of him that he’s able to unleash when in character during his competing representation of “Death of a Salesman.” (Eat your heart out, Dave Franco in “The Disaster Artist.”)

The film’s director is Julia Hart. Her next film, “Fast Color,” which was released earlier this year, is a gripping indie look at a superhero origin story. Her upcoming film, “Stargirl” (based on the novel of the same name), is coming to Disney Plus, so I’ll be interested in seeing that too.

“Miss Stevens” is still available on Netflix–check it out and see what you think…and then see it again.

By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, I may as well come out about it–I, L. Tanner Smith, am “happy-sad.”

I was upset when not a single song from “Sing Street” was nominated at the Oscars for Best Original Song! (And I applaud ScreenJunkies for their Honest Trailer for the Oscars of that year for acknowledging that mistake! “Didn’t ANYONE see Sing Street?”)

These are all good songs! And they’re all influenced by ’80s pop idols–Riddle of the Model is “modeled” (if you will) after Duran Duran, Beautiful Sea is inspired by The Cure, Drive It Like You Stole It has a Hall & Oates vibe to it, and so on. The Sing Street band’s softer material, such as Up and To Find You, seem like the only songs that were made with their own sound, showing that they’re playing from the heart.

By Tanner Smith

Continuing my series of Looking Back at 2010s Films, are you afraid of Patrick Stewart? You will be.

In the excellent survival thriller “Green Room,” he plays the head of a Neo-Nazi organization in his remote club in the Pacific Northwest. A punk band on their way out of performing for the club has just witnessed a murder in the green room, and so now Stewart and his skinhead army use artillery, attack dogs, whatever they can to make sure this band doesn’t leave this place alive.

Stewart pretty much plays the scum of the earth–racist, violent, and unapologetic for it. And he plays it the way you’d think Patrick Stewart would play it–calm, intelligent, and commanding. He’s a great villain in a story that is very tense and very gruesome.

Our heroes are a punk band called the Ain’t Rights–Pat (the late Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Reece (Joe Cole), and Tiger (Callum Turner). They siphon gas to continue on their tour, which is basically just them going wherever a club or dive will let them perform. Oh, and they don’t do social media. Why? Because apparently, if they have a social media presence, their fans, what little they have, won’t be in the moment. They only reluctantly grant an interview to a podcaster. These guys want to be “hardcore,” but the truth of the matter is they’re full of sh*t.

After their last gig falls through, they’re given another opportunity at an out-of-the-way rural beer hall in the middle of some woods in Oregon…where a bunch of head-banging white supremacists like to party.

Here’s what you do in this situation–you say “no” and turn around and end the tour and go home!

But no, they got this. They even perform a cover of “Nazi Punks F*** Off!” just to show they’re so cool. But it’s OK because the crowd are sheep who start banging their heads as soon as the band plays something else. Now all they have to do is leave. But oh shoot–Sam left her phone charger in the green room. Pat goes to get it. And there’s where he sees something he definitely wasn’t supposed to see.

Now, the band and a tough rebel named Amber (Imogen Poots) are held in the green room by the huge, intimidating Justin (Eric Edelstein) who has a big gun, while Gabe (Macon Blair) and leader Darcy (Stewart) try to figure out how to fix the situation…which they feel should end in the band’s deaths.

From that point, it’s one horrible situation after another, as the band find themselves in a real hardcore scenario they’re forced to fight their way out of. And let it tell you…it gets pretty graphic. When it comes to doing these gruesome acts of violence in the name of survival, it’s uncompromising. You see what a box-cutter can really do to a person, a character’s hand is barely dangling onto the rest of his arm after it’s been sliced repeatedly (and duct-taped together), and you even see the full-on effect of a shotgun blast at close range. This film is not for the squeamish. (The part with the box-cutter, I cover my eyes during subsequent viewings of the film.)

The film is so realistic in its brutal tone that things happen when you least expect them to. For instance, when the band takes a chance and leaves the green room with no plan of action, two of the members are disposed of fairly quickly, one after the other. They didn’t have a prayer. When you’re out of your element and you don’t know what to do and you’re just going by instinct alone, of course it’s not going to end well.

And that’s what leads me to an important thing about the film that some vloggers have paid attention to more than film critics–the right way to use bad decisions in horror movies. In “Scream,” when a character is attacked by a killer and runs upstairs because she can’t get through the front door, that’s the right move because she’s in fight-or-flight mode. In “Prometheus,” when the scientists on an alien planet remove their helmets and mess around with alien objects, that’s not the right move because they should know better. In “Green Room,” the characters aren’t thinking straight; they’re just going by blind luck. The action is not only moved forward by these actions; they’re used as a way to make us realize we probably wouldn’t fare any better if we were in their shoes. They’re desperate, in a world they didn’t make, and don’t know what to do–they just know they’re going to die for sure if they stay and do nothing. So it makes sense that they sneak around without a plan of action…and it also makes sense that two of them are killed off right then and there.

Jeremy Saulnier wrote and directed “Green Room” and also did “Blue Ruin”–when it comes to taut, atmospheric, tense thrillers, he seems like the guy to call. He also lets us care for the characters who are going through such terror.

All the actors playing the band members do really good work (though I could tell Joe Cole was trying to hide an accent–I looked him up, and surely enough, he’s English). This was one of Anton Yelchin’s final film roles before his tragic death, and he does great, sympathetic work as the pacifistic one who finds the best way to get through this war is play it like it’s a game (“like paintball,” he decides) because that will throw the armed men off a bit. It’s hard not to feel anything for him when he finally sheds a tear and declares the whole night a “nightmare.”

(And yeah, I’m waiting for that Yelchin-based documentary “Love, Antosha” too.)

And Patrick Stewart…even when he knows he’s got no other options in the end, he still maintains his calm presence. Any other actor, his character’s final moment wouldn’t be as memorable.