Jason Thunder: Double Feature (2022)

Bong Joon Ho’s masterpiece, Parasite (2019) became one of the few international films to break into the American mainstream.

Overall, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is plagued by numerous flaws, both from a quality and from a diversity standpoint.  The film relies on gore and loud sounds to drown out its flat script, flatter dialogue, and one-dimensional characters. 

Stand and Deliver is an inspirational classic from 1988 starring Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante, and his class of rag tag students in East Los Angeles. It’s the story of how a new teacher shows a motley group of students in the inner city with backgrounds as gang members, dishwashers, and mechanics — the power of self-determination. He teaches the teenagers to believe in themselves through algebra and calculus.

Overall, 18 Presents feels more like a soap opera than a drama, and I feel bad for saying that since the concept is based off a tragic story (even though it’s loosely). I’m sure other people will find this film emotional for them, but as for me, it’s bland and forgettable.

Michael Shanks’ Together is a queasy, hilarious, and surprisingly heartfelt body-horror trip that fuses love and terror in the most literal sense. Starring real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie, this midnight gem twists Plato’s soulmate myth into a gory, darkly funny tale of codependency, cults, and chainsaws — equal parts romance and nightmare.

I have no idea how getting an abortion is still not a basic right at this point, but that means the fight is far from over. So, films like Happening are ever-relevant.