HEART OF THE BEAST Composer Jared Michael Fry Reveals The Score’s Spiritual Journey

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HEART OF THE BEAST is doing very well it’s 3rd week out! The film has grossed a worldwide total of $131.4 million!

After a harrowing plane crash, Special Forces officer James Belmont (Brad Pitt) and his combat dog, Odin, find themselves stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness. Together, they are forced into a brutal fight for survival against the elements. From acclaimed filmmaker David Ayer, HEART OF THE BEAST is an intense adventure thriller that explores the unbreakable bond between a man and his best friend as they face their greatest battle yet.
 
The Paramount Pictures film starring Pitt, J.K. Simmons and Anna Lamb is in theaters now

In his review, Jim Batts says the film is “a journey full of terror and surprising tenderness. It’s this love and devotion that propels and powers the HEART OF THE BEAST.”

Composer Jared Michael Fry’s score for HEART OF THE BEAST, the third for director David Ayer, truly conveys both the danger and vastness of the external forces the protagonist faces while reaching into his most intimate emotional life.
 
Stream: https://orcd.co/heartofthebeast

In my recent interview with Fry, we discussed his authentic, culturally specific score. Combined with the vocalizations of the award-winning Alaskan Inuit group Pamyua, the musicians anchor the film with just the tone of their voices and their language, evoking an earthy sound. The composer found himself “reinventing the wheel” for a compelling, emotional score for THE HEART OF THE BEAST.

Michelle WAMG: Hey Jared, how are you? 

Composer Jared Michael Fry: I’m good. Thank you very much. Nice to be here to chat about some music 

Michelle WAMG: I loved the film. I’m a huge David Ayer fan, so when I saw the two of you were working on a third film together, I was super excited.

Composer Jared Michael Fry: That’s awesome.

Michelle WAMG: I want to ask you first, how were you brought onto the project? Did he say, I got another film. Let’s do it.

Composer Jared Michael Fry: A little bit like that. David is awesome. So, since The Beekeeper, The Working Man, this one’s way different. We’ve just been working together. It’s a good team. It’s a crew. I feel very fortunate.

I mean, the same music editor, the same sound effects team, so really like having worked with David Ayer now a third time, I’m really like, you know, kind of meeting the crew if you will, you know and I know, I know things aren’t always going to be the same like that, but it has been a really cool team and everyone was up for the challenge and we did it. David, I mean, he’s phenomenal. I love what he did on this one. Really opened his heart, I’m so blessed by that. I know a lot of directors have their guy and I’m more than happy to be David Ayer’s guy.

Michelle WAMG: Especially after he and Brad Pitt had already done Fury together. So, when I saw that they were doing another film and especially the subject matter, war veterans, especially combat veterans, Brad Pitt playing James and the service dog Odin, and both of them suffering from PTSD.

Your cues, especially “The Letter” at the very end, and “The Final Mission” were so impactful, so emotional. When you were starting to work on the film, what type of orchestra did you have in your mind that I have got to have these certain pieces of these instruments to really bring across the emotions of the film? 

Composer Jared Michael Fry: I think even before that, “The Letter” was one of the first suites or themes that I was writing before I even had a picture. And literally that cue, “The Letter”, I wrote that piece of music, we put it up against that and it was working. Obviously picture changes and we conform and what not.

Early on writing, at the piano, we’re just writing the themes, that chord progression. It’s very simple, but when I read the script and I’m absorbing it and I’m just trying to feel when I read the story, and just to convey that, that’s what came out. I think strings were a shoe in, and there’s a lot of strings in “The Letter”, it’s mostly arranged for strings.

Some woodwinds that were included just based off the early stages, the characters in the wilderness, we’re trying some things out. It’s kind of a spiritual story, the thoughts are brewing about, are we going to bring in the Inuit culture into this story and what not? All those sorts of things were developing, but to get to that stage in the story the journey is at its end.

You’ve got this very American hero, a military veteran, but he’s in Alaska and he’s encountering something and the influences of another culture are kind of coming in. I think in a way that’s sort of like James kind of coming up against his next “battle”. I think it felt good to, to keep it kind of more of that kind of cinematic American sound. 

The writing of it was rooted early on the piano, just playing those chords and that theme and that launched quite a bit of the score. “The Letter” certainly was an early piece to hit, to catapult the rest of it.

Michelle WAMG: Can you talk about what you were thinking about when trying to include not only the orchestrations, but those amazing vocals you included?

Composer Jared Michael Fry: We recorded the London voices along with the strings in London at Air Studios and the idea behind that choir was, you look at the landscape, try to match the cinematic depth of what you’re seeing and just getting the voices in a hall like that. We wanted that grandness. The story and the challenge of this score was capturing so huge, but then being extremely intimate at the same time. Hopefully we achieved something, so with the vocals, we had the larger group and then kind of broke them down into kind of a smaller group within that group.

We had some of the vocalists singing more like world vowels, instead of your tame “ahs” and “oohs,” it was “azzz!,” really shouting just to enhance the drama and almost lament some of the drama on screen. I have to talk about Pamyua, the group that I reached out to in Alaska and their group is Inuit soul, but they’re just so connected to the culture that I had from the group, Philip Blanchett. He actually wrote some lyrics too, and their language, their poetry is connected to this story and it was a perfect marriage of the story that we were telling. It was so fitting for this story. And it just works. To bring them in and their culture in so many early discussions, we’re talking about the wilderness as a character, his encounter with death when he goes down in the crash, there was a lot of discussion about is he actually even alive? Is it an underworld journey? That inner kind of story happening inside James that they just have the Inuit culture that Pamyua brought, just studying it and dissecting it and just diving in. There’s just language for the connectedness of you and the awareness of the nature around you. It plays on that big, beautiful, but also threatening and dangerous.

Michelle WAMG: It wasn’t filmed in Alaska, but still these big scenes and then just them playing in the wilderness where he’s letting Odin be a dog and he’s throwing and he’s playing catch with him and the music’s building and it’s just perfect. It’s such a nice blend, the earthy tones and the vocalizations of the Inuit group were just spot on.

Composer Jared Michael Fry: When they’re on many of their journeys, there’s a piece that comes back and I borrowed from a lot of different cultures actually in the instrumentation because I just wanted to add that they’re always connected, like that sound, that music when I wrote their love theme, it has an A section and a B section. It’s in the score, at the beginning when they’re flying, then it’s also on the album, the track “Heart of the Beast” at the end of the album in its full nature that unfortunately is not in the picture, but we recorded it and it was so good.

That B section, I turned that melody into chords and those are the chords that kind of accompany their journey, so it’s always had that connection of their love story, or that bond that they have. Just by bringing all that in and being able to write with them, what a joy. I’m glad it’s got something that has worked and is inspiring. 

Michelle WAMG: There were two cues, these soulful piano solos. One of the track listings, “Because You Gave Everything” and then “From Here, Forward” and the film’s credits list Nathan Williamson as piano soloist. There’s all this epic music and what you would expect from this type of adventure of him and the dog and then there’s two beautiful piano solos. When did you decide to go with this? 

Composer Jared Michael Fry: I gotta be honest. I actually fought against putting piano in the score. That came down from the producers, from Brad Pitt himself and David Ayer in the end, that intimate piano sound at the very end. As an audience member myself, along with my thoughts and feelings about the score, and my intention for what I think is David’s vision and getting across the story. But it’s interesting, now that the film’s out, I’ve seen it still multiple times, see the response and actually see it for what it is myself, I’m a believer. It was a great decision by the filmmakers to have that intimate piano there.

We actually recorded the score and then we had a pickup session. I didn’t go to London a second time. I’m blown away by Nathan, because in one day he recorded about three pieces and that’s phenomenal. It was such heart with beautiful performances.

Michelle WAMG: The violin (Eloisa-Fleur Thom) and cello (Ian Burdge) soloists were exquisite.

Composer Jared Michael Fry: I think it brought us all to tears when they were recording those solos at the end of the day. I’m just so grateful for the London Contemporary Orchestra and the leader conductor of that, Hugh Tieppo-Brunt, and Ed Farmer who also conducted the last day, but Hugh listened to the music before we got involved and he handpicked these players that were going to perform. They just crushed it.

Every time we get to record live, I’m always blown away by just the human artistry and emotion that comes through because I mock up these demos that over the course of my career have been the final product sometimes, but it is so much better to collaborate with professionals at that level. They’re just so wonderful and when you hear them play and, and then you’re able to convey, “okay, no, but here, just hold back, just to give us a little bit more.” They jump on every bit of that.

Michelle WAMG:  Composing for The Working Man and The Beekeeper, very different movies from this. Do you find yourself working on projects like the Jason Statham films, and then you’re presented with a project such as Heart Of The Beast, that’s totally different, where you’ve got to totally shift gears?

Composer Jared Michael Fry: Yes. I had no idea where to go. I had no starting point for this. Out of the many films that I’ve done, I’ve done quite a bit of horror, quite a bit of action. I love it. We all have heart. We all feel things. That’s why we do what we do. Even in the Statham movies, The Beekeeper and Working Man, you’re always looking for the heart. This one just wears its heart on its sleeves a little bit more.

Every project with David is a completely different sound palette, if you will, but when you’re doing action and when it’s Jason Statham, you kind of know this scene needs this, right? To be successful, to be entertaining, to drive it forward. Whereas this one, all those tropes are completely thrown out the window. And we certainly went through a discovery process with this movie quite a bit. At one point, it was a much more adventurous score and much more adventurous story.

It takes hearing, constant collaboration along with revising and talking and dissecting, so it took some time to get to this story when we started stripping back, and the word is restraint, when that became a big theme in the story and letting the picture, the edit, just everything speak for themselves. Our focus was that deeper story underneath it all and playing to that. Things started clicking and I’m glad we found it.

Win Passes To The St. Louis Advance Screening Of CLAYFACE

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DC Studios’ “Clayface” is a horror thriller from director James Watkins, starring Tom Rhys Harries in the title role of the cult favorite villain from Gotham’s rogues gallery.

Matt Hagen’s meteoric rise from Gotham street kid to Hollywood leading man is tragically cut short when a local crime boss’s actions leave him horribly disfigured. Abandoned by his team and with nothing left, Matt seeks out a cutting edge treatment that miraculously returns him to his former self… but also unexpectedly affects his grip on reality, spiraling him down a destructive path of all-consuming revenge.

The film also stars Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan, as well as Nancy Carroll and Joshua James.

The screening is at 7PM on Tuesday, October 20th (Doors open at 6PM) at Alamo Drafthouse – City Foundry.

Please arrive early as seating is not guaranteed.

GET YOUR PASSES HERE – http://wbtickets.com/mBoOL39217

James Watkins directs from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, story by Flanagan, based on characters from DC. The film is produced by Matt Reeves, Lynn Harris, James Gunn and Peter Safran, with Michael E. Uslan, Chantal Nong Vo, Lars P. Winther, Rafi Crohn and Paul Ritchie executive producing.

Watkins’ creative team includes director of photography Rob Hardy, production designer James Price, editor Jon Harris and costume designer Keith Madden. Music is by Volker Bertelmann.

DC Studios Presents a 6th & Idaho Production, a James Watkins Film, “Clayface.” The film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and released only in theaters in North America on October 23, 2026, and internationally beginning 21 October 2026.

Watch The Trailer For THE EXORCIST: MARTYRS

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Blumhouse Atomic Monster, the home of horror, offered fans plenty of First Looks, surprises and giveaways at its packed BlumFest New York Comic-Con session Friday. Hosted by Matthew Patrick aka MatPat, the founder and former host of YouTube’s “Theory” channels and a leading voice in internet horror fandom, the session kicked off with Blumhouse Atomic Monster CEO and Founder Jason Blum reflecting on the success of this year’s Obsession and Backrooms, thanking fans for supporting the theatrical experience in 2026.

Director Mike Flanagan, along with Academy Award®-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (Backrooms) unveiled the trailer for The Exorcist: Martyrs.

Thirteen years ago, New York City detective Julie Miller (Johansson) ended the terror reign of satanic serial killer Father Sunday. The case made her a hero, and she has thrown herself into her work ever since. Now a new killer scrawls her name in an altar boy’s blood on the walls of a church crypt, dragging her back into the darkness she believed she had buried with him.

Aided by former prison chaplain Father William (Academy Award® nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor), who heard Father Sunday’s final confession, and sharp rookie detective Gina Restrepo (Sasha Calle, The Rip), Detective Miller will discover a filament linking a lineage of serial killers, from H.H. Holmes to the Zodiac, that could corrupt everything, and everyone, she loves with an evil that goes well beyond the mortal.

The top-flight cast includes Academy Award® nominee Diane Lane as Mary, Detective Miller’s mother, who has moved in with her to help raise her grandson Max (Jacobi Jupe, Hamnet); Actor Award winner Scoot McNairy (Argo) as paroled convict Clay Silver; Emmy winner Gil Bellows (Carrie) as Peter Nicks, a former acolyte of Father Sunday; Emmy and Tony winning screen legend Laurence Fishburne as revered priest Father Nichol; and acclaimed star of The Odyssey, Emmy and Special Tony Award winner John Leguizamo, in the most menacing role of his career as Father Sunday.

Watch this interview with IGN about the new trailer and how Flanagan’s film ties to EXORCIST 3.

The film is produced by Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, Morgan Creek Entertainment and Flanagan, who will also write and direct via his Red Room Pictures banner. Alexandra Magistro will also executive produce for Red Room Pictures. David Robinson produces and Topher Merrill and John Baden executive produce for Morgan Creek Entertainment. Also set to produce are Trevor Macy, Karl Frankenfield and Roy Lee. Jason Blum and Ryan Turek serve as producer and executive producer for Blumhouse Atomic Monster.

THE EXORCIST: MARTYRS opens in theaters March 12.

https://www.universalpictures.com/movies/the-exorcist-martyrs

Win Passes To The St. Louis Advance Screening Of TENZING

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WIN TICKETS TO SEE TENZING ON THE BIG SCREEN! 

Inspired by the extraordinary true story of the historic first summit of Mount Everest, TENZING brings one of the greatest adventures in history to life.

In select theaters Oct 9 and streaming Oct 16 on Apple TV https://apple.co/_Tenzing

We Are Movie Geeks is giving 5 lucky winners a pair of tickets each to see TENZING at Marcus Ronnie’s Cinema on Wednesday, October 14 at 7:00 PM!

FOR PASSES, EMAIL: michelle@wearemoviegeeks.com

Rated PG.

THE SOCIAL RECKONING – Review

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To the surprise of very few moviegoers, it’s sequel time at the ole’ multiplex. Ah, but this film is fairly unique, since it’s based on actual events. That’s happened with biographies, going back to THE JOLSON STORY and JOLSON SINGS AGAIN (almost the best sequel title after BREAKIN’ 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO), but this is closer to THE GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL and DAY OF THE GUN, in that it’s a “follow-up”, a “what happened later” exploration. And while those movies spanned ten years, there are sixteen years between these two. And the principals are still in the news. None of the cast members of the 2010 film return, but its Oscar-winning screenwriter is back, and sitting in the director’s chair. After THE SOCIAL NETWORK comes THE SOCIAL RECKONING.

The film’s main story is structured almost as a novel, but one that has us “flipping back the pages”. The prologue is the kind of uncomfortable police interaction so common on streaming video websites, as two officers encounter an angry, possibly inebriated young woman (Portia Doubleday) waiting for a tow service for her stalled vehicle along a dark, rain-soaked highway. Next chapter: It’s 2029, and we meet a data engineer named Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), who doesn’t get a chance to ask a question or voice her concerns (on several index cards) during a big tri-monthly staff meeting. On the way back to her desk, she brings her inquiry up to a supervisor, who quickly dismisses her. Around the same time, East Coast reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) arrives at the West Coast offices of the Wall Street Journal, where Bureau chief Kris (Betty Gilpin) tells him that he’ll be covering the high-tech world (but the guy can’t use a map app to get him there on time). Later, Jeff and his aides send out some email “feelers’ about Facebook “worries”. The “bait” is taken by Frances, who meets with Jeff in a public park. She is alarmed about how the site’s algorithms direct users to several radical “outrage’ groups in order to increase their site usage (some folks stay on for over nine hours a day). Jeff needs this explained, and he still begs her for more evidence, but the young woman is jittery and hesitant. It’s the first of many clandestine meetings. The timeline shifts to 2021 during the preparations for testimony before a Senate subcommittee. In a huge, brightly lit, sterile room, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) is being coached by a media consultant named Maya (Wunmi Mosaku). She’s also brought in a former investor, now critic, Charlie Garrigan (Bill Burr), to throw a few “curveballs” at the stoic, prickly billionaire. The film continues to skip and backtrack during those years to highlight Jeff’s research, Frances becoming bolder, and the often volatile policies at the home of the popular website, before everything collides on a fateful January day prior to a major congressional hearing.

Well, I should begin with the casting choice that has been at the forefront of the film’s media blitz. When Jesse Eisenberg declined to return after scoring an Oscar nom for his last turn as Zuckerberg (and passing on a huge paycheck), Strong stepped up, since he’s played versions of real people before (his Roy Cohn in THE APPRENTICE is superb). In his take, the older Mark is a mix of socially awkward, stiff-postured, prickly, and defiant, with a “my way or the highway” bluster and superiority (he has no time for lessers). And yeah, we get that “Data’s other brother” vibe (something for the Trekkers). Sure, Strong’s doing a bit of parody, but he draws us in, becoming the focus of any scene. The other casting “coup” may be the big-screen return of 2025 Oscar winner Madison, playing someone with little in common with her ANORA. However, Frances wins us over, despite her many quirks (those “warmers”) and impatience (I flashed to Jimmy Fallon on SNL as IT guy, “Moooove!”). Aside from the fear-based reluctance, Frances feels a loyalty to the company, much like to a person who had good intentions but has wildly strayed from them. This makes her burst out of her paranoia bonds more powerful as she “puts herself out there”. There’s also a nice chemistry, but not romantic, between her and White as the “tech fumbler”, who is also playing “catch up”. Still, there’s that reporter’s dogged determination to get the story, which propels him and endears us to him, even as he pushes Frances and his pair of overworked interns. Kudos to stand-up comic, now film actor, Burr, who is a great verbal sparring partner for Strong. Plus, there are great supporting turns by Mosaku as the very patient (she’s tested) “media coach, Gilpin as the demanding, but still compassionate editor, Billy Magnussen as the sneering FB “tech-bro”, and Doubleday as the product of online “radicalization”.

That writer-turned-director is Oscar-winner Aaron Sorkin, who doesn’t quite have the same visual flair as David Fincher, but crafts the scenes around his “rat-a-tat,” sometimes “too smart,” dialogue. Iconic Golden Age filmmaker Frank Capra is referenced here, though many of the Frances and Jeff exchanges remind us of Howard Hawks and his newspaper classic comedy HIS GIRL FRIDAY (again, minus the “lovey-dubby”). But, like Capra and Hawks, Sorkin has passion in many scenes that recreate events that were watched with horror on our “devices”. And there are several plot contrivances (Frances has dinner next to a family discussing online bullies), along with a final scene “call back” that will induce a “c’mon” jolt, but it’s refreshing to see a talent using his art to comment and perhaps “sway” , much like many of the films of Oliver Stone. This helps to make the wild “re-imaginings” more palatable. Sorkin does try for some visuals that highlight character, like the warm, cozy wood and brick apartment of Sarah and the frigid, cool blues and wide expanses of Mark’s “workspace” (some could be the HQ of a Bond mastermind). Plus, Sorkin conveys the rainy Northwest in constant Fall mode, while making Puerto Rico a non-stop party (Canada stands in for both). But the main delight of the film is that whip-cracking script, often peppered with almost too many “factoids” (it’s his “calling card”), and the solid acting ensemble that make THE SOCIAL RECKONING worthy of a theatre night rather than a download.

3 Out of 4

THE SOCIAL RECKONING is now playing in theatres

REYKJAVIK 112 – TV Series Review

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Regular readers have seen my frequent complaints about European crime series that stretched five or six episodes worth of material over 8 hourlong shows to fill out a season. So, here’s a tip of whatever sort of cap they  most frequently wear in Iceland for the producers of”Reykjavik 112” for cramming eight hours worth of material into six briskly paced, fat-free episodes.

We open with a couple having a semi-anonymous one-night stand, from which the ungentlemanly gent bolts quickly the next morning. Both are surprised later that day to discover that the guy, Holdar (Kolbetnn Arnbjorns), is the new lead homicide detective in their city, and the woman, Freyja (Vivian Olafsdottir), is a shrink who is about to become central to solving the latest, and extraordinarily gruesome, murder. A woman was killed in her home and displayed in a most hideous manner while her 3-year-old daughter was hiding under the bed. Freyja’s job will be to coax the traumatized child out of her terrified silence to provide whatever information she can to identify the killer.

(For those curious about the title, 112 is the Icelandic equivalent of our 911. I’m sure you don’t need help with the Reykjavik part.)

Over the course of the season, a few more murders occur, making it clear that the perpetrator has a deranged agenda, and is meticulous, leaving no incriminating evidence at the scenes. We also rotate among a number of suspects – many of whom are eminently dislikable regardless of their guilt. Among those easy to detest is a struggling journalist, Rakel (Anna Gunndis Guo), whose methods of gaining information she shouldn’t have, and publishing some that imperil the process of ending the crime spree, include some truly slimy tactics.

Performances are solid all around. But the major credit goes to the four writers (including the author of the source novel, DNA  – Yrsa Sigurdardottir) for squeezing so many intriguing character sidebars and suspects into such a tight package. None of the personae are one-dimensional. Like most European procedurals, there isn’t as much punching or shooting as we usually find in our own primetime series, but the proceedings roll along briskly among all the moving parts, eventually fitting them into a complete picture that is not only comprehensible, but will offer some surprises for most viewers.

If they can keep the surviving cast and writers together, I certainly hope this will run for several more seasons. A number of the relationships introduced here are interesting enough to explore further, along with whatever new crimes may challenge our police protagonists.

Icelandic crime drama REYKJAVIK 112 premieres October 6, 2026 in the U.S. and Canada on MHz Choice.

3 1/2 Out Of 4 Stars

https://watch.mhzchoice.com/reykjavik-112

STRANGLEHOLD – Review

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Even if you don’t know Clark Duke by name, you’ve seen him in a bunch of sidekick and supporting roles, mostly in TV and movie comedies. Kinda short and pudgy; big horn-rimmed glasses; and a nice guy with a touch of nerdiness describes his default setting. He’s always been a plus for any production. He might be best-known for 19 episodes of “The Office”; minor parts in the KICK ASS and HOT TUB TIME MACHINE movies. Others may know him from a featured role throughout the dramedy series, “Greek”.

Like many successful actors, Clark has started directing and writing, using his Arkansas roots as the basis for his first two feature-length films. The first was a crime drama titled ARKANSAS; this one, STRANGLEHOLD, is a chaotic, gory comedy set in a rural Arkansas strip club. His brother Chandler is credited as a co-writer, besides filling a significant supporting role. Even their mom, Angela, contributes a brief, yet memorable, appearance. Perhaps spending most of his career in supporting roles motivated Clark to give so many of these minor characters their moments in the metaphorical sun.

Our heroine is one of the strippers, Bailey (Ashley Benson), living small in a trailer park, struggling financially to raise an infant with her lazy, hard-drinking husband, Tim (Jake Lacy). As you might expect, she performs for a grabby bunch of rednecks, making the workplace even more of a hassle than similar venues in more genteel locations. Her lot is further worsened by two factors – she’s not as free-wheeling on exposing her naughty bits as her more successful colleagues. When bras stay on, dollar bills are less likely to be tossed onto the stage. The more aggravating problem is that the club’s manager, Junior (Justin Long), is a much bigger jerk than he needs to be – denigrating and short-changing his employees whenever he can find an excuse. Casting Long was a fun choice by Duke, since this assholian hick is quite a stretch from the awkward nice-guy roles that have shaped most of his career.

The tale unfolds shortly before Christmas. Tim gets fired from his job as a big box-store greeter for just being stupidly combative about following their rules. The baby needs an expensive medicine, and ain’t nobody gonna help the couple stay afloat. Tim’s a gun nut with some military training – no surprise there – so Ashley decides they should rob the club on a night when it’s hosting a private party for high rollers of the less-than-legal persuasion. That’s when the cash in the safe should be unusually bountiful.

Their heist attempt is when the chaos kicks in, lasting for more than half of the film’s running time. You’re better off not knowing too many details. I can say that the patrons are mostly crime bosses using the club to launder their cash, under the guidance of its owner, Roger (Ron Perlman). There are a whole lotta gun-totin’, conspiracy theorizin’ rednecks adding mayhem and casualties to the proceedings. Things get very messy. And very funny.

The Duke boys (Clark and Chandler, not the ones from Hazzard County) deliver a product that manages to satirize the prideful ignorance of the rubes in the cast – particularly how they blame everyone else for their disappointments and failures – with empathy for those stuck in the underclasses with no real hope for reaching the American Dream that was sold to them from childhood on. The title is apt for both the micro and macro levels of its content. The dialog and physical comedy blend well, steering clear of the extremes of pure slapstick or tedious polemics. And Clark shows some fine directing chops in keeping so many moving parts coherent beneath the chaos.

There’s less nudity than one might expect from the premise of featuring such racy premises, but plenty of bloody action to provide the lowbrow kicks most viewers will be seeking.

2 out of 4 stars.

STRANGLEHOLD is available on Digital Platforms and Video On Demand now.

VERITY – Review

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So, after book-based movies in 2024 and 2026, which author now has a second film adaptation this year? If this were the 1980s or 1990s, you’d guess that it was Tom Clancy, John Grisham, or the amazingly prolific Stephen King (there’s a new limited-series version of “Carrie” streaming in a couple of weeks). Well, the “cinema scribe” of the moment appears to be Colleen Hoover. It started with IT ENDS WITH US two years ago (though the lawsuits and legal battles occupied the gossip websites into this year). Next in 2025 was REGRETTING YOU (well, I regretted seeing it). Only a few months ago, theatres got REMINDERS OF HIM (what’s with the double R’s). Now, with the final few months of 2026, we get another page-turner (or, for some, a “stomach-turner”) turned into a flick full of very true, really, “big-time” movie stars, with one Oscar-winner in the title role of the mysterious VERITY.

In the opening moments, we get a whirlwind montage that tells us of the popularity of the best-selling author of very dark romance-thrillers, Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway). Look, she’s sitting down with Gayle King, and she’s scarfing down chicken wings with Sean Evans. And then we meet another writer at the other end of the spectrum. Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) is at a tiny bookstore, reading from her new short story collection to a trio of distracted listeners. She dashes out into the street and gets a call from her agent, imploring her to “wear something nice” to the meeting they have at a big NYC publishing house. On the way, she has a “meet weird” with a sullen, handsome stranger. When Lowen arrives for the “sit-down”, she’s surprised to see that man again. He’s Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett), the husband of Verity. After signing an NDA, Lowen is told that Verity has been in an accident and cannot finish her new trilogy, so a ghostwriter is needed. After some prodding from her agent (who “ups” her “price”), and since she’s moving out of the apartment she shared with her recently deceased mother, Lowen accepts the offer. She will stay in the Crawford home in order to go through notes and outlines and get the first new novel organized. Jeremy greets her at the mansion tucked away in the snowy forests of Vermont. Lowen also meets his adorable six-year-old son, Crew (Brady Wagner), along with his catatonic mother, Verity. She cannot speak or move and is assisted by her somber nurse, Anna (Irina Dvorovenko). Lowen learns about the recent passing of Crew’s twin sister, Harper, from the still-grieving Jeremy (this may have contributed to Verity’s state). In going through V’s office, Lowen finds another manuscript, a biography, that hints at sinister machinations. Lowen is drawn into the couple’s web of deceit as she deals with her growing attraction to Jeremy. And then there’s the possibility that Verity may not be as helpless or as hopeless as they think…

Though she’s not playing the title character, Johnson carries the film as the main focus, Lowen (mmm, this character names…). She shows us the humiliation of an artist who’s just not connecting in that intro in the almost empty bookstore. And this is compounded by her recent loss, so Johnson conveys this with a hesitant delivery and stiff body language. The energy level rises a bit as Lowen embarks on her new mission in the woods, and her interest in her host. The almost ageless Hartnett projects a smouldering intensity, only relieved by his affection for lil’ Crew (again, the names…). His Jeremy seems like the lonely royal in an almost empty castle, recalling his past tragedies. And now we should talk about that title role, played by the ever-stunning Hathaway. In the flashback “media blitz,” she’s cool and calm, dutifully reciting her patter and platitudes. Happily, Hathaway gets to “cut loose” in the flashback that covers her steamy, passionate romance with Jeremy, which then shifts into her darker demeanor when it appears that Verity is far from the “picture-perfect” matriarch. And even though she’s giving us the present-day frozen stare, Hathaway draws us into Verity’s despair. Wagner is adorably shy, while Dvorovenko is subtly shady and sullen as the not-so-nice nurse.

So, this is actually from the talented filmmaker (and writer/actor) Michael Showalter, the same filmmaker who helmed gems like THE BIG SICK and THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE, amongst many others? Well, he’s in an uphill battle with a convoluted, lackluster story source that would test anyone. It has the promise of being a creepy modern noir with a touch or two of MISERY, but that is squelched by some truly turgid dialogue, ludicrous staging (the first meeting of Lowen and Jeremy is so absurd that I thought it was a daydream), and glacier-slow pacing (like a turtle swimming in molasses). The hackneyed plot trudged on and on, with some silly erotic fantasies (right out of so many “skinamax” 2 AM fodder) failing to enliven this “trudge”. It’s a low bar, but this is the worst of the Hoover movies, since they’ve wasted so many gifted talents, mainly Showalter and the luminous Hathaway (a shame we couldn’t get a good “throwdown” with her and Johnson in a nightmare sequence). The locations are splendid, especially this lakeside estate built around boulders (maybe this is near the home of THE ROSES). And kudos for the costuming (oh, that red dress on Verity), but that’s about all I’ll remember from this overwrought and often ridiculous fluff. A sudsy, glossy soap opera mystery can be campy fun, but verily, VERITY is so very, very far from that; it’s an irritating ordeal.

1 Out of 4

VERITY opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, October 2, 2026

THE NICE ONES – Review

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You know the old cautionary saying “you gotta look out for the quiet ones”. The horror flick, THE NICE ONES changes that to beware of the “suddenly nice” ones. It’s another variation on an attractive group of young revelers gathering in an isolated house when bad things start to happen. Genre veterans have seen a plethora of such gorefests, but there are usually one or two novelties in how they show the inevitable. That’s what keeps us coming back for the next one.

As Kate (Joelle Rae) and Dale (Emrhys {not a typo; I double-checked} Cooper) are driving to the aforesaid abode, she notices strange lights in the sky. Kate has been recently released from an institution for the clinically confused, and Dale had been her therapist before they started making mattress music. They’re meeting a handful of his old friends – most of whom don’t like Kate, and the feeling is mutual – except for Shelly (Ayvianna Snow), who is more amiable. When Kate tells them about the mysteriously moving lights suggestive of UFOs, they assume she’s having a schizophrenic relapse and dismiss her concerns. Most aggravating is Dale, who remains particularly condescending towards his partner, even as her fears start becoming a key part of their shared reality.

One by one, others start seeing those lights which cause major personality changes. Suddenly each affected person morphs into in a state of trancelike bliss, droning on about happiness to come, albeit by killing the rest to speed them along their path. The usual bloodbath ensues in its full glory of gory.

The rest of the details don’t matter. It’s all by the book.  No sex or nudity; mild drug use, and less mild drinking. This one will probably get an R rating simply on the blood and guts component. No expense was spared on those effects. For me, the downside is that they never explain the source of the lights… or perhaps I just missed it. Writer/director Peter Stylianou leaves things open-ended, probably hoping to set up a franchise like the SMILE series. The premise could easily support a string of sequels, with or without any of the same cast, as new players fall prey to the same lights in their skies. Time (and gross revenues) will tell. This could enjoy a long home-market life – Especially re-emerging every October.    

THE NICE ONES is available On Demand on September 29.

FUNNY MONEY: THE DANE COOK STORY – Review

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Looks like 2026 is shaping up to be a great year for documentaries. Now, don’t groan. They aren’t the cinematic version of “eating your vegetables” or “homework”. No, they’re going to be a big part of end-of-the-year top ten lists, not to mention “awards talk”. And this just might be the year that one or two of them crack the Oscar Best Picture list (it can now have as many as ten contenders). YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING got lots of energized “buzz” at a recent film festival, plus I’ll be praising BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL when it gets a wide release. One of the most popular “doc genres” is the chronicling of a “true crime”, though I really enjoy the bios of “show folk” (really “jazzed” for upcoming ones of Martin Mull, Norm McDonald, and Maria Bamford). Well, this new “non-fiction flick” actually combines the two (“You got celeb in my crime…you got crime in my celeb”). And like that beloved candy, there’s much to savor in FUNNY MONEY: THE DANE COOK STORY. Let’s unwrap this tasty treat…


As the title states, this is the story of stand-up comedy superstar Dane Cook. The opening, like much of what follows, is the funny fella’ talking to us (the camera, really). We get lots of biographical info with faded photos and scratchy 8mm home movies, segueing into blurry home video. Even though he was a child of divorce, Cook made the best of it, with the help and support of his “best pal” and idol, his half-brother Daryl. Always a fan of comedy, Dane entered the world of the open-mike in 1990, during the big stand-up “resurgence” via cable TV, videotapes, CDS, and a slot at nearly every bar with a spotlight and a brick wall. As his star was rising, things weren’t going well for “bro Daryl” in his job as a prison guard. During an altercation, he was sliced with a metal can “shiv” and almost bled out. Dane facilitated a career change, putting him on the “payroll” as head of his security team. Then Daryl became his business manager, just as Dane broke into movies, put a recording on the top of the Billboard chart, and filled arenas and stadiums (a second show was added to MSG). When Dane decided he now needed the services of a big talent agency, Daryl tried to talk him out of it. Then, the unthinkable happened. Dane went to apply for a bank loan in order to purchase a plush estate (no more rentals), and the rep “lowered the boom”. Only “crumbs” were left in the accounts that Daryl had set up for him. Dane was getting “fleeced” by his beloved “bro”. This leads to a cross-country chase for him, as Dane, with his “financial forensics team,” makes some shocking and often absurd discoveries about this “crime spree”.

Separately, this show biz “rise-to-fame” fable and the true tale of greed and deception would be compelling enough, but in this expert blending by documentary vet Bret Harvey (with writing collaborator Pollyanna Hardwick-Brown), the result hits on all emotional cylinders. Though I was unfamiliar with the body of Dane’s work, I found the story of his childhood (lotsa’ “hard knocks,” for sure) and his career ambitions very enlightening, especially the story of him grabbing an absent comic’s “slot”. Then there’s the endearing bond he has with his older stepbrother (Dane still taps into those old emotions). We get “talking head” interviews with childhood buddies of both men, along with their sister. And then there’s Erika, Daryl’s ex-wife (his second missus), who also spins quite a tale. She’s “tough to read” as we wonder if she’s a “co-mastermind” or a very, very naive “dupe”. But her “side” is needed since we never hear from Daryl himself, other than old videos and a haunting final phone message. Yes, it’s heartbreaking, but often quite hilarious, even with the zany scheming of the guilty (you may never think of spaghetti sauce and Bagel Bites in the same way again). Still, much like Dane, we’re left wondering about the “crime”. It’s one thing to “skim”, but he tries to take it all. Perhaps due to his years at the mic, Cook is quite an engrossing storyteller as he pulls us into his astounding career highlights (he passed on auditioning for SNL, but later hosted), then guides us into a dark quagmire of lies and larceny. Still, somehow he can find the laughter bursting through the tears. Kudos to him and filmmaker Harvey for taking us on the wild, wacky, and heartbreaking ride of FUNNY MONEY: THE DANE COOK STORY.

3 Out of 4

FUNNY MONEY: THE DANE COOK STORY is now streaming as a Video On Demand via all major outlets and apps