"Nimrods" - 21st Century Road Trip

Analog Dogs are a fledgling band in Kansas City. After one too many pranks upon his brother, lead singer and guitarist Tommy (Mason Thames) becomes the victim of one when he is informed that Analog Dogs are to open for Green Day in Los Angeles at New Year's Eve! Excited, hungry and eager to capitalise on his big break, Tommy steals his brother's taxi and embarks on a mad dash road trip to get there, accompanied by idiot guitarist Fred (Kylr Coffman) and nervous, buttoned up work-in-progress punk drummer Chad (Ryan Foust) to get there!

(Credit: The Hollywood Reporter)
A delightfully old school punk road trip movie and celebration of the poor, dirty heartlands of America. I know Green Day in passing, it's my partner who's the big fan, but the film worked for both of us (they pointed out little Easter Eggs like the name of the taxi company). Very similar to "Detroit Rock City" (only funny), it has the hallmarks you'd want and expect from a road trip movie (weirdo locals like a creepy motel owner played by Fred Armisen and an amusing drunk mechanic played by Sean Gunn; an incredibly funny drug trip, bust-ups and meet ups) and is generally an amusing, light hearted and old-school fare. It manages to make some excellent, wry little examinations of current day America: with its shots of abandoned industry now home to a spontaneous punk festival; the gang stopping at snowy, slush-ground diners rather than sunny, brightly lit cities; and an affection for dive bars and the regular folks in America. It's a sweetly clever, punk celebration of life on the road, being broke, having friends and living for a moment: because moments are all we have.
It's deliciously, refreshingly old school and funny to boot, it goes without saying that the soundtrack's pretty good too (excellent use of "Wake Me Up When September Ends"). Kudos, Green Day! Kudos!
Stars of the show are Kylr Coffman as the dim but lovable green haired layabout, and the buttoned-up Ryan Foust as the drummer.
Favourite gag was the long, background taxi passenger.

"Black Phone 2" - Review

Four years after defeating serial killer "The Grabber" (Ethan Hawke), his only known survivor Finney (Mason Thames) is struggling to keep his life together, self-medicating with marijuana and engaging in reckless violence to avoid the trauma. His gifted younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) receives visions of horror at a youth camp, and needs to confront it. Finney accompanies her there, alongside their friend Ernesto (Miguel Mora), and the pair are forced to confront the past head on...

(Photo credit: Bloody Disgusting. Hell yeah, they're still going! Good job!)
I appreciate Scott Derrickson (writer and director of "Hellraiser: Inferno") and Todd in the Shadows patron C Robert Cargill as filmmakers, despite not being big on "auteur theory" as film is a collaborative medium, as the pair often make genuinely unusual and interesting movies when they work together, blending things and taking a few swings. We never needed a sequel to "The Black Phone", but it made all of the money, so here we are. This one kind of works, I like it. Rather than focusing on the very marketable, obvious spooky mask-sporting killer (an excellent Ethan Hawke), the sequel decided to turn its lense to that story's more interesting element of psychics, and make that a story about how we deal with trauma, how we dwell upon it and the lingering effects it has on the psyche and the community. They have fun with the psychic stuff, and some solid imagery throughout to compliment it (I appreciated the scratchy Super 8 films of the dreams and premonitions, looking like a snuff film and reminiscent of earlier work "Sinister" in many ways), which blends with the backdrop of snow and blizzards and the 1981 aesthetic to create a moody little piece. It's never truly terrifying (or "Sinister" if you will... I will not apologise) and the jump scares early on seem perfunctory and actually a tad annoying, but when doing its own thing (here a riff on "Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" with sprinklings of "Akira"! Fuck yes) and preferring to be thoughtful and interesting rather than spooky, it works. Its look at these characters and how they react to the news, spedning time in their heads.
The score is fucking phenomenal, worth the admission alone.
And it's lovely seeing Arianna Rivas in something non-"Working Man" this year, you go girl.
I like it. It's an unecessary film transformed into an intriguing one. It loses steam when Demian Bechir begins explaining the plan, but recovers at the end with ice-skate battles and psychic children detonating phoneboxes.