‘Speak No Evil’ a perfect movie for this time of year

By Matt Pascarella

Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 50 minutes

I’d wanted to see this one for a while, and it did not disappoint. When Louise, Ben and their daughter Agnes become friendly with Ciara, Paddy and their son Ant while on vacation, Paddy invites them to join them for a long weekend at Paddy and Ciara’s home. When Louise, Ben and Agnes arrive there, Paddy and Ciara show an unwelcoming side of themselves and Ant stresses to tell Agnes a secret but struggles.

“Speak No Evil” stars James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough and Kris Hitchen.

Mackenzie (Davis) and Ben (McNairy) Dalton are vacationing in Italy with their daughter Agnes (Lefler). They meet a British couple, Paddy (McAvoy) and Ciara (Franciosi) and their son, Ant (Hough) – who has trouble communicating. Initially, Paddy is very friendly and invites the Daltons to come for a long weekend at their home. They accept his invitation.

Paddy lives out in the middle of nowhere. It starts out pleasant enough but doesn’t take long for things to get strange.

When Ben is taking the trash out, Ant tries to communicate something to him, but Paddy stops him before he can finish.

There are things that the Daltons find off-putting – like a stain on their sheets. Louise doesn’t find them pleasant to be around; but they try to stick it out.

The two couples go out to dinner, leaving Agnes and Ant with a babysitter. Ant tries to communicate something to Agnes again.

McAvoy’s sharp behavior from friendly one minute and unsettling the next is a constant occurrence through most of the movie and I found it to be one of its creepiest aspects.

Eventually, Louise has had enough and decides they are leaving. They are almost free, but Agnes forgets her stuffed animal, so they have to turn around.

Paddy is offended that they left without saying goodbye and the two couples argue. The Daltons are pressured into staying.

Later, Ant slips Agnes a note, but when Ciara approaches, he hides it to avoid getting caught.

Agnes relays everything to her mother.

There are more uncomfortable moments that had me cringing, like the dance scene with Agnes and Ant.

After an unpleasant dinner, Louise wants to go. Ciara gives a stern warning against trying to leave.

Ant steals Paddy’s keys to show Agnes a secret room filled with not-so-surprising items. Ant reveals his secret.

Once Agnes tells her parents what she’s seen, they plan to leave.

On the creep-out scale, I’d give this close to a 10. It does start a little on the slow side, but quickly the viewer is made aware all things aren’t what they appear to be – or maybe they are. As the movie progressed, I found myself more and more on the edge of my seat. It’s very uncomfortable pretty much from the beginning; James McAvoy plays a skin-crawling individual who does some crazy things. As a heads up this movie has moderate language, mild sexual references and violence. One of, if not the scariest thing I found about this movie is its plausibility. Hollywood can exaggerate a bit, but I found Ben and Louise’s situation, at the very least moderately believable. There are so many tense and disturbing moments and it’s the perfect movie as All Hollow’s Eve approaches.

Now available to rent. <

Hulu’s ‘Croods: A New Age’ a great family movie

By Matt Pascarella

Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes

It has been many moons since the mission began. “The Croods: A New Age” is a bit of a continuation of the first one. On their search for a place to call home, the world’s first family, the Croods, discover a more advanced family, the Bettermans.

They struggle with getting along with people who think differently than they do in an environment that’s not like what they’re used to. This movie is a fun family film that has a lesson or two in it. Starring: Nicholas Cage, Catherine Keener, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke, Leslie Mann, Peter Dinklage, Kelly Marie Tran and Kailey Crawford.

After a long journey, Guy (Reynolds) discovers the Bettermans (Dinklage and Mann) who are more like him, than the Croods, who he has been traveling with, are. He contemplates staying with the Bettermans, despite his teenage romance with Eep (Stone). Grug (Cage) struggles with how different everything is and is not okay with staying in this new world. Along the way, they all discover they may not be as different as they appear at first glance.

When the Bettermans try to trick the Croods into thinking Guy should stay with their family instead, tensions mount and problems erupt. Will they clash and go their separate ways or find common ground?

I found this movie relatable. I don’t understand the lives of cave people, so let me rephrase that – I found the themes in this movie relatable. It was a feel-good movie. We all can be a little hesitant of change at first, and the differences we each have can make us more similar than we think.

This is a funny movie. At one point, when the Croods stay in the Betterman’s home, there is a window, which son Thunk (Duke) likes to watch. Grug yells at him saying in his day, they fought birds instead of watched them. They also feel they need to limit Thunk’s screen time, which is just a window, of varying sizes. Dawn (Tran) and Eep form a fast friendship. Eep shows Dawn a little rule-breaking may not be such a bad thing.

Overall, this movie is definitely worth watching. I liked the humor and the lessons shown through the interactions of these families. It’s a nice mix of adventure, comedy and romance. Like many animated movies, I thought this worked on a multi-level for both kids and adults. It does have a few scarier points that might be too much for younger children. While this is a sequel, I don’t think it’s necessary to see the first one to understand the second one. This awesomely voice-acted movie is a good one. Two peanut toes up!

Available on Hulu. <

Netflix’s ‘Over the Moon’ a heartwarming animated adventure

By Daniel Gray

"Over the Moon," an animated movie that was released on Netflix in October, follows the story of a young Chinese girl named Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) along with the ancient Chinese legend of a moon goddess named Chang'e (Phillipa Soo).

The movie is bright but has meaningful tones of loss from both Fei Fei's perspective and the moon goddess' that's heartwarming by the end.

First and foremost, the legend of the moon goddess is a very important part of the story, so here is the boiled-down version. There was a woman named Chang'e who loved a man named Houyi, however, one day Chang'e took a pill that granted her immortality, and she became a goddess while he stayed and died on Earth.

With that out of the way, let's continue with Fei Fei's story.

At a young age, Fei Fei lost her mother and the family suffered from the loss, though just a few years later, Fei Fei's father brought in another woman. Distraught, Fei Fei is sure that if her father believed in the moon goddess like he had when her mother was alive, he would not want to marry again.

Eventually, Fei Fei hatches the plan of forcing her father to believe that the moon goddess is real by flying to the moon herself in a rocket ship. She goes through many trial and errors before finally, she’s able to take off and almost crashes immediately.

Before she can get close to hitting the ground, the moon goddess herself rescues her and brings her up to the moon.

Once she reaches Chang'e, the goddess is annoyed when she finds out Fei Fei did not bring 'the gift' that will grant the goddess' wish of bringing Houyi back. Until she finds the gift, she cannot take a picture of Chang'e to prove that she is real.

After a small adventure, Fei Fei finds the gift and brings it to the goddess, but it is too late to rescue Houyi and he cannot be turned immortal. Chang'e falls into a depressive state that Fei Fei helps her get out of through her own grief and mourning over her mother.

The moon goddess helps bring her back home, but not before teaching Fei Fei that she can learn to move on from her sadness and look forward to a new family with the happiness it brings. 

This movie was heartwarming in every sense of the word. There were several points that had me on the verge of tears, especially when Fei Fei and the moon goddess were bonding with grief towards the end. The only issue taken with the movie is how it lacks the moon goddess' story and how it could have been expanded a bit better for western audiences.

The animation was beautifully done, and I found myself entranced by the visuals. It's a worthy watch and definitely something I would revisit over and over again. <

‘Bad Therapy’ should require movie malpractice insurance

By Daniel Gray

Special to the Windham Eagle

What happens when your therapist makes your life worse than how it started before sessions? Bad Therapy, released April 2020, is a thriller that follows a married couple Bob (Rob Corddry) and Susan (Alicia Silverstone) that have a few bumps that Susan feels that could be resolved with a marriage counselor. However, the one they find wants to ruin their marriage instead of strengthening it in this film available on Amazon.

 

They meet Judy Small (Michaela Watkins), a recently unsilenced therapist that had accidentally killed her last client due to unorthodox methods. In only a few sessions, Judy soon has the two turn on one another to sate her own compulsive desires.

Judy has Susan believe that she needs to 'even the score' between herself and Bob, since he had a small affair before they were married with an ex-girlfriend. Susan, however, does not believe this will benefit her marriage and starts to realize that Judy isn't the best fit for her and Bob. All the while, Judy is trying to edge Bob onto the conclusion that he needs to have an affair because he is a man with needs and that she can help with those needs.

Later on Susan says that she does not want to continue counseling with Judy since Judy doesn't seem to be listening and instead egging her to conclusions. When Susan goes out of town for the night, Judy drops by to seduce Bob for her own desires. She finds herself infatuated with the man and simply wants him to herself. 

After Susan finds out about Judy and Bob, she kicks him out of the house and Bob spends the night alone at a motel, going to Judy the following day and begging her to make things right with his wife. It's very clear that Bob loves Susan and only has eyes for her, which enrages Judy. Thus, making her drug him and plan to keep him captive as her lover.

In the end, Susan does come to rescue Bob from Judy, and Judy is taken into police custody. The two then are seen happier than ever when the credits roll.

This movie was very interesting, to say the least. There could have been a lot more with Judy's character to make this more of a thriller genre.

Instead, it seemed more like a cliché drama than anything. The acting was incredible, and the actors did an amazing job, but there are so many plots that are happening that seem to tangle the movie up. The movie itself is also just bland in the plot department.

 

If it had just focused more on the main plot of Judy as a malpracticing therapist and given more backstory as to what happened before Bob and Judy, I feel like the movie could have benefited greatly.

As a final stance, the 'bad' in Bad Therapy is my rating for this so-called 'thriller'. <