Josh Bell
In this week’s low-profile VOD releases, Kelsey Grammer goes on a walkabout, Amy Madigan and Loretta Devine chew Southern scenery, and both lesbian influencers and stoner best friends make everyone around them amusingly uncomfortable.
Bull Street (VOD July 17): Chances are that Amy Madigan’s Oscar win is responsible for movies like this one crawling out of obscurity, but she probably would have been better served if it had stayed on the shelf. In writer-director Lynn Dow’s treacly small-town melodrama, Madigan and Loretta Devine seem to be competing for who can give the hammiest performance as an irascible old Southern lady. Devine wins, mainly because she has a more substantial role, as the ailing grandmother to pragmatic South Carolina lawyer LouEster Gibbs (Malynda Hale), who has to fight to save her childhood home after the death of her estranged father. LouEster is up against the half-sister she never knew, who’s also a lawyer and is determined to claim all of the valuable family land for herself. It’s a showdown between down-home solidarity and big-city ruthlessness, with no room for subtlety. The overwrought courtroom drama is legally dubious at best, the commentary on race and class is clumsy, and the interpersonal conflicts are slathered in an oppressive score. Grade: C-
The Rebrand (VOD July 21): Annoying influencers have become an easy target for horror movies, and director/co-writer Kaye Adelaide doesn’t have anything particularly new to say about the perils of content creation. But this found-footage horror comedy is still pretty entertaining, thanks primarily to the deeply unsettling performance from co-writer Nancy Webb as half of a lesbian influencer couple looking to pivot following a scandal. It’s never entirely clear what Blair (Andi E McQueen) and Thistle (Webb) did to offend their viewers, but they’ve hired heavily pregnant videographer Nicole (Naomi Silver-Vézina) to make an all-access documentary that they believe will restore their image. Part of the problem is that it’s hard to imagine these extremely off-putting people ever amassing an adoring fan base, but The Rebrand nevertheless succeeds by following a dependable horror formula, trapping Nicole at the couple’s remote compound while their behavior becomes increasingly psychotic. The found-footage format is shaky, and the ending fizzles, but Webb’s intense performance is enough to mark her as a potential indie horror icon. Grade: B
Cruel Hands (VOD and select theaters July 24): Although Maria (Mavournee Hazel) and her son Dai (Diesel La Torraca) are being pursued by her dangerous, violent husband Jason (Josh McConville), this Australian thriller relies more on mood than suspense, mostly for the better. Director Al Kalyk enhances the woozy vibe by shooting on 16mm film, like a gritty piece of 1970s Ozploitation. After fleeing their home in the middle of the night, Maria and Dai take refuge in a remote cottage owned by Maria’s aunt, but their situation is clearly unsustainable, and not just because of the massive encroaching wildfire. Kalyk and his co-writer brother Matthew present Maria with constant challenges, not the least of which is a headstrong son who either doesn’t understand or won’t accept the gravity of their situation. McConville is quietly terrifying as the brutal, relentless Jason, and Kalyk effectively conveys the threat he represents as he gets closer to finding Maria and Dai. The other threats aren’t quite as compelling, but the movie remains powerful as it heads toward inevitable tragedy. Grade: B
Lars Shrike Walks the Night (VOD July 24): Most of the walking that Lars Shrike (Kelsey Grammer) does is during the day, but writer-director Gary Walkow doesn’t let details like that get in the way of a cool-sounding title. The title is the most compelling part of this glum, tedious metafictional meditation, which is a pseudo-sequel to Walkow’s 1987 debut feature The Trouble With Dick. That movie took a comedic approach to its portrayal of sci-fi author Richard Kendred (played here by David Clennon), but this one is ploddingly serious, with the amnesiac Lars wandering through the desert, delivering ponderous narration about the nature of his existence. Is he an escapee from an intergalactic prison, as he initially believes? Is he the product of Kendred’s imagination? Or is he just a mentally disturbed drifter? Walkow provides no satisfying answers, and no intriguing ambiguity either. The title of Kendred’s book invokes the work ofPhilip K. Dick, but neither Walkow nor Grammer are remotely equipped to pull off a Phildickian head trip. Grade: C
Sour Party (VOD July 24): Maybe slacker best friends Gwen (Samantha Westervelt) and James (Amanda Drexton) aren’t quite in the female stoner-buddy pantheon alongside the stars of One of Them Days orNever Goin’ Back, but they come fairly close. Written and directed by Drexton and her husband Michael, Sour Party sticks to the stoner basics, sending a pair of amiable weirdos on a low-stakes but surprisingly eventful quest over the course of a single day. In this case, it’s an attempt to scrounge together enough money to buy a gift for Gwen’s sister’s baby shower, even though her family repeatedly tells her that she doesn’t need to bring one. Gwen’s pride says otherwise, so she and James drive around Los Angeles hitting up their oddball acquaintances for cash, while working out some lingering issues in their friendship. Sour Party is best when it sticks to bizarre, deadpan humor, and a third-act turn toward more serious introspection falls flat. At least that’s only a short detour from the pair’s hilarious, unhinged antics. Grade: B+
