Tag: New Mexico

EDDINGTON – Review

With last weekend’s “super” domination at the multiplex by one big blockbuster, some filmgoers may be looking for a break from the usual escapist Summer cinematic offerings. Well, that “indie upstart” A24 is always ready to provide a diversion that’s truly “off the beaten path”. And the setting for this flick is “way off” that trail, as an acclaimed, somewhat eccentric filmmaker guides us into a dusty desert town that’s fraught with old feuds and frustrations. Plus, the early 2020 “climate” not only brings everyone there to a “boiling point”, but it may provide the ‘spark” that could ignite the “tinderbox town” of EDDINGTON.


The village that has “seen better days” is in a remote part of New Mexico. The timeline of the tale is May 2020. In the opening scene, the town’s longtime sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) gets into a “dust-up” with two patrolmen from a nearby jurisdiction over his refusal to don a face mask. Yes, we’re in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Joe is called back to Eddington to deal with an angry unmasked derelict who tries to enter the pub owned and managed by the incumbent mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). After the situation is “handled,” the two men exchange words. Joe has a “beef” with Ted since he was a former “flame” of Joe’s emotionally fragile wife, Louise (Emma Stone). Due to the lockdown, her abrasive mother, Dawn (Deidre O’Connell) lives with them. The ladies spend their days clicking on conspiracy websites while Louise crafts her strange dolls. The next day, Joe and Ted “get into it “again at the local grocery store (yes, over masks). Joe makes an impulsive decision. He posts a cell phone video announcing that he’ll challenge Ted in the upcoming election. He enlists the help of his deputies, the dim “hothead” Guy (Luke Grimes) and the more laid-back, ambitious Michael (Micheal Ward). But a news event soon takes time away from the campaign. A small group of young people block off the dusty main street to protest the killing of George Floyd. Will these conflicts derail the plans for a huge data processing plant that will be built just a few miles away (which could energize the flagging economy)? And how will several “shadowy forces” influence the election and make the debates take a deadly turn?

For once, the marketing clues us into who is the real lead character of this film is. Despite the “star-studded” cast, the real focus is Phoenix as the surly, obstinate sheriff turned politico. He snarls and grumbles through most of his scenes, though Phoenix plays him as an angry teen with almost no impulse control. He doesn’t really know what kind of trouble he’s put himself in as Phoenix furrows his brow as Joe flails like a non-swimmer suddenly in the “deep end”. Still, he has great tenderness with his “Rabbit” AKA wife Louise, played with a jittery twitch by the compelling Stone. Louise appears to be in a fog that seems to dissolve as she plunges into the world of internet mysteries. It’s not until the campaign heats up that we see her speak out against becoming a pawn in the big battle to run the town. This all stems from her past history with Garcia, who is given a real “average Joe” likability by the engaging Pascal. He “plays for the people,” although he isn’t afraid to confront Joe by “getting in his face”. Pascal is also quite effective in the father/son dynamic with the snarky Matt Gomez Hidaka as his only child, Eric. O’Connell is quite a ‘force of nature’ as the domineering Mama Dawn, doing a more focused and less ruthless riff on her excellent work as the Penguin’s matriarch on the streaming smash. Grimes is a flighty lunkhead as Guy, while Ward simmers as the conflicted deputy Mike, who is often the only voice of sanity in the chaotic station house. Though he’s prominent in the poster, Austin Butler only has an extended cameo role (just a scene or two) as cult leader/ motivational speaker VJ Peak, whose “rap” bewilders Joe. Also of note are the main protest “rep” Sarah played by Amelie Hoeferle and Cameron Mann as the off-kilter Brian, who appears to have a sinister agenda that he’s slowly putting into motion.

Now the filmmakerr I mentioned in the opening is the quirky (to say the least) writer/director Ari Aster, who veers away from his comfort zone of disturbing horror cult faves like HERDITARY, MIDSOMMAR, and BEAU IS AFRAID to try his hand at an (somewhat) modern Western (Joe’s almost always in his white stetson). I would counter that label by floating that he’s crafted a dark, almost pitch black, social satire. But I’m reminded of a phrase from the world of stand-up comedy, when a joke about a tragedy falls flat: “Too soon?”. I’m not sure if five years is enough distance from the pandemic and the Floyd BLM protests, along with raving internet paranoia, and a “sidebar” about the taking of the land of indigenous peoples. Rather than evoking laughter, it brings up the memories of such a divisive time, becoming truly “squirmy” “cringe” humor. Perhaps if it were only about a small-town election, the satirical scalpel would be sharper to make a cleaner cut. Instead, Aster has an overstuffed “bag of topics” that help account for his 144-minute runtime. Part of the pacing problem may be the extended finale of mayhem that mixes elements of the Roadrunner cartoons and Russ Myers’ bloody excess, with a touch of Coen Brothers chaos of RAISING ARIZONA. It’s all too obvious and exhausting, although several current political jabs do hit the mark. But it’s drowned out by the explosions and caricatured carnage. All these desperate themes make a trek to EDDINGTON a most overwhelming and tiresome getaway. And strictly for fans of the star and director…

2 Out of 4

EDDINGTON is now playing in select theatres

LOVE LIES BLEEDING – Review

Ready for a cinematic “walk on the wild side”? Perhaps something in the film noir category, but not similar to something you’d run across on one of those nostalgia streaming channels. Maybe something set just before the turn of the century rather than the decade post-WWII. Sure, this new flick is a crime thriller involving multiple murders, but that’s just one aspect. Let’s see, there’s a big (truly huge) daughter/father conflict so it’s a family drama. And it’s certainly a romance ala’ girl meets girl. Oh, and one of them is seeking fame in the competitive world of female bodybuilding events. Now, that’s really different and certainly unique. Mix all those genres and subplots together and you get an insight into the provocative title, LOVE LIES BLEEDING.


Oh, the backdrop year is in the 20th century, way back in 1989. We first meet lonely Lou (Kristen Stewart) who runs a gym catering to weightlifters in a dusty New Mexico border town. After a night of unclogging toilets and dealing with a spacey clingy ex-girlfriend named Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov), she heads back to the dingy apartment she shares with her cat Happy Meal. Meanwhile, across the tracks, JJ (Dave Franco) is “hiring” a new waitress for the tavern at the gun range business he manages…in the back of his car. He tells the muscular statuesque brunette, Jackie (Katy O’Brian) that she can start tomorrow. She leaves the parking lot to sleep under the highway overpass. The next morning JJ introduces her to the gun range owner, his father-in-law, the surly Lou Sr. (Ed Harris). Eventually, Jackie heads over to Crater Gym where she encounters Lou. The two immediately form a connection and spend the night (at Lou’s pad, natch’). Jackie insists that she’ll soon be moving on to a big body-building event in Vegas as soon as she makes enough cash for the trip. A few nights later Lou and Jackie have a most awkward dinner date with Lou’s sister Beth (Jena Malone) and her abusive spouse, JJ! Lou is furious that he’s smacking around her sister. But he doesn’t stop and Beth ends up in a coma at the local hospital. After an uncomfortable reunion with Lou Sr. (they are estranged, to say the least) something…happens. And soon the lovers are nearly in panic mode. Can Lou stay ahead of the FBI agents who are pressuring her for info on her papa’s shady operations? And what about those “off-brand” muscle “enhancers” that Lou gave Jackie? Things are about to get much hotter in that sleepy desert burg…

Add another interesting character performance to the already impressive resume of Ms. Stewart. In the opening act, Lou is a take-no-crap (unless she’s clearing the commode) tough gal whose tough exterior masks her lonely solitary life and very dark past. That all changes when she spots Jackie her “warrior angel’ across the gym floor. Stewart shows us that a spark has been ignited in those “half-mast” eyes. Later on, she’s almost a whirling dervish as she scrambles to “clean and dispose’ all the while Stewart lets us see that Lou’s brain has shifted into “high gear”. The real breakout role may belong to her “ideal” Jackie played with great energy and flair by relative screen newcomer O’Brian, who was one of the few highlights of the last ANT-MAN epic. Jackie is “laser-focused on her sports goal, though she’s elated by the prospect of real love with Lou. But that is somewhat short-circuited by the “boosters’ that spiral her into a scary “roid’ rage’ while dropping her into a nightmare-like netherworld. And even as she’s posing in front of a mirror, there’s still a child-like vulnerability. The “third wheel” of this love “triangle is the manic white-hot mess that is Daisy who Baryshnikov plays as a distracted child who demands attention while engaging in passive-aggressive manipulation. She’s trouble, but is merely an annoying “jack-in-the-box’ compared to the sadistic cruelty of the two dudes hovering over them. Franco is a sniveling mullet-sporting bully as the weasily JJ, who needs the protection of the king of the “wolf pack”, Lou Sr, given a constant sneer by the bombastic Harris who resembles a heavy metal Satan with long curtains of hair framing his scowling pate. They’re “bad dude” and super-bad dude”.


The director and co-writer, with Weronika Tofilska, Rose Glass has crafted a low-rent, hard-scrabble fable that incorporates lust, love, longing, and brutal revenge while taking many unexpected and often “out there” twists and turns. She makes great use of a vibrant color scheme, switching from a warm “lit by headlights” glow in the wee hours to the shimmering, blazing crimson of a blood-soaked hellscape. It’s all punctuated with a grim “gallows humor” echoing the criminal eccentrics of Tarantino and the Coens mixed with more than a dash of the heroines of BOUND. The big “dividing point” for many viewers will be the sharp detour into “fantasy-land” in the big finale showdown, but after the lean, taut storytelling most will probably embrace and may even be thrilled by the audacity of it. Somehow Glass gets all the diverse elements to jell while making us truly invested in these two unlikely lovers, again played superbly by Stewart and O’Brian. The desert locales project a sense of sun-baked decay while the period is well represented (no cell phones, but lots of answering machines). More adventurous filmgoers will enjoy the “totally-jacked” trip taken when LOVE LIES BLEEDING.

3.5 Out of 4

LOVE LIES BLEEDING is now playing in select theatres

CineVegas Review: ‘Easier With Practice’

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For many, the act of finding and then retaining a meaningful relationship is easy. It comes naturally to these people, for some it occurs once and lasts forever and for many more it occurs over and over, with varying levels of success. Then you have that group of deserving individuals who just don’t have that ingrained knack for making the romantic bonds between two human beings work for them. The formula for getting from point A to point B with an intimate relationship eludes these people and they find themselves feeling like outsiders, even though they yearn for the same connection as everyone else on the inside.

‘Easier With Practice’ is a wonderful little film written and directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, based on a GQ article by Davy Rothbart. Brian Geraghty plays Davy Mitchell, a writer who works as a temp to pay the bills. Davy and his brother Sean (Kel O’Neill) set out on a book tour across the country together in Sean’s old POS station wagon to promote Davy’s book. During their journey from town to town, Sean spends his free time in the bars and picking up chicks while Davy, exhausted from the weeks of traveling and living off of PB&J sandwiches, spends most of his free time in hotel rooms, bored and lonely.

Davy is one of those individuals unable to make that romantic formula work. He struggles with this, seeing this come so easily to his brother, but at the same time frustrated with him for taking that gift for granted. During one of their stops, Davy receives a phone call on the hotel room phone from a mysterious woman. Davy believes this call to be a wrong number at first, but the woman aggressively forces her sexuality upon Davy, who finds himself strangely drawn to her advances. After a relatively “successful” first call, Davy and the woman named Nicole choose to continue their intimate phone relationship throughout the book tour.

The heart of ‘Easier With Practice’ lies within Davy’s longing for the type of relationship that has eluded him his whole life. Davy sees the the signals from interested parties but lacks the ability to move on them. Davy and Nicole maintain a healthy phone sex relationship, but it also develops into a more intimate and personal friendship as well. Davy’s life seems to be turning around for him, until he asks to meet Nicole and she refuses. She prefers this type of arrangement with Davy, and for a while Davy feels the same. With time, however, Davy feels this relationship could never truly be real unless they can physically be together, but is Davy truly ready to match a face and body to the voice he has come to hold so close?

‘Easier With Practice’ embraces that uncomfortable feeling of self-inflicted loneliness. The film perfectly captures Davy’s unrealized passion for a partner he has not yet met, building on his expectations, should the day he and Nicole meet ever occur. Davy attempts to keep his relationship with Nicole a secret, concerned that he feel ashamed of the fact, which only fuels his insistence on meeting her. Once home from his trip, Nicole stops calling and Davy truly realizes how much his virtual time with Nicole has affected him and his life as he shuts himself off from the world, hoping Nicole reconnects with him.

The entire film was shot on the new RED ONE digital technology and it shows. The atmosphere of the film is moody and slightly tarnished, but the camera manages to pick up on and elaborate an incredible amount of detail and the color palette is at once drab and alluring. ‘Easier With Practice’ leads the viewer down a slower, more methodical path of revelation that allows for Davy to reflect on the direction of his life. Slow and boring, however is not an appropriate way to describe the film.

As an audience, we really get to know Davy and we empathize with his heavy heart and longing. One of my favorite visual themes in the film is the use of isolation to convey Davy’s feeling of the same. The film was shot in New Mexico, a state with vast stretches of barren landscape, easy to isolate one’s self while at the same time surrounded by immense natural beauty. It’s a metaphor for Davy’s situation, isolated but still surrounded by so much beauty.

If the visual acuity and attention to the cinematic conveyance of feeling was great, the incorporation of indie music into the film’s landscape was down right brilliant. Kyle Patrick Alvarez is said to be quite the indie music enthusiast and it shows, having meticulously selected and placed an absolutely perfect soundtrack into his film. The songs were carefully chosen and used not just to fill silent space, but to accentuate a scene or emotion and further move the story along in a constructive fashion. The soundtrack to ‘Easier With Practice’ reads like a pop fans worst nightmare, featuring indie musicians and bands unknown to many like Emily Easterly, Source Victoria, Deer Tick and Grizzly Bear, not to mention the other 10 or more bands with licenced music featured on the theatrical playlist.

I have to admit, ‘Easier With Practice’ has a bit of an advantage from the start as it’s the type of indie film that I’m really enthusiastic about. With that said, the film still had to impress me and I can honestly say I am impressed, even more so after researching the making of the film and learning that Alvarez managed to put together such a great film in so little time and seemingly without a hitch. If there’s one movie that will premiere this year and deserve the attention of audiences on a massive scale, ‘Easier With Practice’ is definitely ranked highly amongst the candidates.

Reagan, Arnie… How ’bout Kilmer?

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Actor Val Kilmer is apparently toying with the idea of running for Governor of New Mexico in 2010 once Bill Richardson reaches his term limit. Kilmer is originally from Los Angeles, but has lived in New Mexico for the last twenty years.

“I’m just looking for ways to be contributive,” Kilmer told the Associated Press on Thursday. “And if that ends up being where I can make a substantial contribution, then I’ll run.”

Kilmer hasn’t made any decisions yet, but he has been out in public, making ambiguous comments regarding how serious the notion is, but he’s also apparently been listening the the people of New Mexico on a casual basis and made the following confident statement:

“What I do for a living is listen,” he said, making a bold prediction: “If I run, I’m going to be the next governor.”

[source: Hollywood Reporter]