‘Phantom Thread’ (movie review) at Forces of Geek

“Whatever you do, do it carefully”.

Paul Thomas Anderson directs Daniel Day-Lewis in his final acting role in Phantom Thread opposite Vicky Krieps and Lesley Manville.

The film focuses on The House of Woodcock, a fashion house in England run by Reynolds Woodcock (Day-Lewis). Woodcock is a talented, depressed and genius designer of dresses and couture.

While taking breakfast one day he plays a flirty game with waitress Alma Elson (Krieps) and asks her out to dinner.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

Best of 2016: Part Two at FORCES OF GEEK

Clay N Ferno

FOG! Contributor
@ClayNFerno • leaguepodcast.com • do617.com

Best Movies: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Deadpool, Star Trek Beyond
Best TV Shows: Supergirl, The Crown, Mr. Selfridge, Divorce, Luke Cage
Best Video Game: Star Wars: Battlefront
Best Songs: Sad13 – Get a Yes, Whitney – No Woman
Best Albums: Whitney: Light Upon the Lake

[AND MORE at FORCES OF GEEK!]

FINDING NEIGHBORS (movie review) at FORCES OF GEEK

Produced by Judy Korin, Jennifer Day Young
Written and Directed by Ron Judkins
Starring Michael O’Keefe, Catherine Dent, Blake Bashoff,
Julie Mond, Sean Patrick Thomas, Mike Genovese

Do you ever feel stuck?

I’m sure some of us (speaking for myself of course) reaching middle age feel that way all the time. Even when stuff is going well, it’s never going anywhere it seems. Or, at least that’s how it is on the bad days.

When Sam Tucker (Michael O’Keefe — Caddyshack, Michael Clayton), a working cartoonist feels stuck he looks for his neighbors for some inspiration, support and a change of pace.

This independently released film was a great exploration into realistic characters and their lives intertwining. While dealing with somewhat mundane routines, Finding Neighbors never itself feels that way. This is a colorful portrait of Sam, his sensitivities as an aging man in a relationship and his relationship with his work and other people’s expectations of him.

Sam struggles with his ever straining relationship with his wife Mary (Catherine Dent, The Shield, Auto-Focus) and befriends his gay neighbor Jeff (Blake Bashoff, Lost) and gets intimate with the details of Jeff’s own ennui. Another neighbor Sherrie (Julie Mond, Exit Speed, General Hospital) plays the temptress next door whom Sam can see showering outdoors from his drawing studio window.

Will all of these complications make things better between Sam and Mary, and will Sam follow up his latest graphic novel with something — daresay anything? Mostly he’s stuck on his story and can’t get anywhere with it.

This is where Jeff comes in.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

BEST OF 2014 LIST - CLAY N. FERNO for FORCES OF GEEK!

CLAY N. FERNO
@claynferno | leaguepodcast.com

Best Movies: Guardians of The Galaxy, Chef, Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier, Edge of Tomorrow (Live Die Repeat), X-Men Days of Future Past, The LEGO Movie
Best TV Shows: True Detective, Arrow, Flash, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Newsroom, Orange is the New Black
Best Books (fiction):  Prince Lestat by Anne Rice  
Best Books (non-fiction): So Anyway by John Cleese 
Best Video Game: The Last of Us Remastered
Best Songs: ‘All About That Bass’ by Meghan Trainor, ‘Yellow Flicker Beat’ by Lorde 
Best Albums: ‘Sheezus’ by Lily Allen, ‘The Voyager’ by Jenny Lewis 
Best Music Video: ‘Crime’ by Real Estate (directed by Tom Scharpling) 
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: Death of Archie, Saga, Sex Criminals, The Flash, Leaving Megalopolis
Best Blu-ray/DVD Release: Guardians of the Galaxy iTunes HD, X-Men: Days of Future Past iTunes HD
Most overrated thing about 2014? Comic book convention coverage
Most underrated thing about 2014? Fargo (TV)
Thing that you were most excited about in 2014? The Flash (TV)
Thing that disappointed you most in 2014? Racism
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2015? Fresh vibes, the end of Mad Men, Avengers: Age of Ultron and please another Flash/Arrow crossover episode.

Clay N Ferno writes the columns Cosmic Treadmill and Triple Shot for Forces of Geek.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK.COM]

CHEF (review) at FORCES OF GEEK

Review by Clay N Ferno

Produced by Jon Favreau, Karen Gilchrist, Sergei Bespalov

Written and Directed by Jon Favreau

Starring Jon Favreau, Sofía Vergara, John Leguizamo, 

Scarlett Johansson, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, 

Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey, Jr.

Triple threat Jon Favreau (Swingers, Iron Man) writes, directs and stars in this delightful family friendly comedy about a chef that redefines himself through his cooking, and his relationship to his son after being torn apart by a popular food blogger.

Guest starring half of the cast of Iron Man 2 (Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey, Jr.), plus other on-screen heavyweights John Leguizamo,Dustin Hoffman and Oliver Platt, Chef is a story about how people touch other people’s hearts with their food.

When food blogger Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt) descends on Chef Carl Casper’s (Jon Favreau) restaurant, he’s expecting to be wowed like he was in Miami years ago when he saw the young chef in his element.

Now the years have gone by, Carl’s still a great chef with innovative ideas but is held back by ‘playing the hits’ at Riva’s (Hoffman) restaurant.

The food isn’t all that’s changed.  Carl has a young son Percy (young talent Emjay Anthony) with his ex-wife Inez, the gorgeous Sofía Vergara. Carl keeps Percy at arms-length as he struggles to keep his kitchen together and his pride, working for Riva at the expense of his creativity.

Riva’s hostess Molly (Johansson) and Carl spend time smoking behind the bar, as kitchen workers do, and hint at a flirty romance that you spend the whole movie wondering what will happen between the two. Chef parlays this into him simply making her a pesto instead of taking it further at one key scene in the movie before movie takes a shot at a redemption story.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

GODZILLA (REVIEW) - AT FORCES OF GEEK!

Review by Clay N Ferno

Produced by Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, 

Mary Parent, Brian Rogers

Screenplay by Max Borenstein

Story by David Callaham

Based on Godzilla by Toho

Directed by Gareth Edwards

Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, 

Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, 

Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Bryan Cranston

“Oh no, they say he’s got to go go go Godzilla!”

— Blue Öyster Cult

With fans screaming in anticipation for the kaiju as equally as for the return of Bryan Cranston since the end of Breaking Bad, 2014’s Godzilla delivers all of that and more.

Is it time to relegate the 1998 film to the archives and stop complaining about it like oh so much Burton’s Planet of the Apes?

The answer is yes!

Let Pacific Rim be your ersatz prequel for this summer giant monster movie that digs deep into the Toho Co. archives for meaning behind Godzilla’s motivations and where he ranks on the good monster vs. bad monster scale.

Is he better thank Neutral Good? You will need to get out and see Godzilla vs. M.U.T.O. to judge for yourself!

Bryan Cranston stars as Joe Brody, an American scientist living in Japan with his wife and young son Ford (CJ Adams). When testing seismic readings, he discovers an anomaly and heads to the nuclear power plant where he works with his wife, Sandra (Juliette Binoche).

An accident befalls the plant, with tragic loss of life, and then the scene jumps to ten years later.

Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has joined the Navy as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialist and has just returned to his wife Ellie (Elizabeth Olsen) and son Sam. A call from Japanese police confirm that his dad Joe has been arrested for trespassing.

On a recon mission, we discover that Joe’s suspicions about a resurgence of the same readings from that fateful day have occurred. It is not too long after we discover that our new monster, the first to appear in the film, M.U.T.O. (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) is feeding off of the radiation on in the plant to gain power. Many policemen in hardhats scurry as M.U.T.O. rips through high tension wires meant to contain the creature! And we’re off!

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

LEGO MOVIE: FUN FOR THE WHOLE FREAKING FAMILY - JIMSULLIVANINK.COM

My first for legendary Boston journalist Jim SullivanInk.com!

I received three texts from my girlfriend telling me that “Awesome,” the Tegan and Sara song from The LEGO Movie has been stuck in her head all day: “Everything Is Awesome!!!” And I streamed the song a few times today (Sara Quin told Billboard:“Whether you think it’s funny or annoying, there’s no denying that it’s a ridiculously hooky thing,”

So we went to the movie. The LEGO Movie itself is awesome, bricking together generations of builders, movie stars and imagination for a truly all ages movie to be enjoyed by all.

The prologue features god-like Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman, perhaps reviving his holy Evan Almighty role) facing down an evil and maniacal President Business/Lord Business (the always funny Will Ferrell). They speak of the prophecy, where one MasterBuilder will one day stop the evil tyrant from making permanent changes to the world of LEGO with his many tentacled Kragle gun.

Next we cut to everyman, our faithful builder Emmet Brickowkski (Chris Pratt, star of Parks and Recreation and the upcoming Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy). Emmet heads to work, where he follows President Builder’s instructions for his city of Bricksburg, singing (literally) all day, the theme song, “Everything Is Awesome!!!” before running into our strong female lead Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks). Wyldstyle’s snooping around triggers the alarms and our next big star is on the hunt for them, Badcop/Goodcop (Liam Neeson). Using the swivel head to switch from evil to nice is the typical LEGO touch, as soon as you start thinking of the bricks as people, the writers put in a clever reference to the toy parts that makes you giggle.

[READ MORE AT JIMSULLIVANINK.COM]

FORCES OF GEEK - BEST OF 2013 (part 4

I’m at the top of the list! Who Knew?

Here’s a teaser…

Clay N Ferno
Twitter • LeaguePodcast.com • DigBoston.com

Best Movies: Man of Steel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, This is The End, White House Down, Red 2
Best TV Shows: Mad Men, Arrow, Dracula, Boardwalk Empire, Walking Dead…

Want to read the rest?

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK!]