The Covid-19 PHZ-Sicks Movie Watch (4/24/20)
With the Covid-19 virus keeping everyone inside, sometimes its really hard to take your mind off what’s going on. Sometimes we need a way to escape and for me, outside of writing, movies are the way I escape.
As long as the virus is here, I will be doing a weekly blog of first watch movies I’ve seen as well as giving you my opinion on it. If you want to follow it in real time, follow the hashtag #covid19moviewatch on Twitter or follow my Twitter account.
Tammy and the T-Rex
Watch on Amazon Prime, Hulu, Showtime Anytime, Shudder & Sling TV
Plot: An evil scientist implants the brain of Michael, a murdered high school student, in an animatronic Tyrannosaurus. He escapes, wreaks vengeance on his high school tormentors and is reunited with his sweetheart Tammy. Together, the couple try to elude the mad scientist and the police and find a more appropriate vessel for Michael’s brain.
Directed by Stewart Raffill
Starring Denise Richards, Paul Walker, & George Pilgrim
Rating: 6/10
There is a good fucking ridiculous (word to RZA) and a bad fucking ridiculous and this is in the good category. The unrated version is the only version you need to watch. Watching a T-Rex make a call or a pick a body to put his brain in will put you in laughing fits.
Selah & the Spades
Watch on Amazon Prime
Plot: Paloma, the new girl at an esteemed prep school, is drawn into the daily aggressions of warring senior class factions. She joins the Spades and becomes friends with the Spades’ leader, an enigmatic and scheming cheerleader named Selah.
Directed by Tayarisha Poe
Starring Lovie Simone, Jharrel Jerome, & Celeste O’Connor
Rating: 7/10
As a black person, we need more movies like this. The plot is something we don’t see everyday when it comes from Hollywood. The cinematography and lighting of brown skin is beautiful. My only gripe with this film is I kind of wish it was longer to flesh out more about the structure of the gangs in school. I would not be mad if this was a television show.
Tabloid
Watch on Showtime
Plot: A documentary on a former Miss Wyoming who is charged with abducting and imprisoning a young Mormon Missionary.
Directed by Errol Morris
Rating: 7/10
In the world of Joe Exotic, Tabloid which came out a decade before fits perfectly in the too crazy to believe documentary. Errol Morris, as usual, weaves a captivating narrative about love, kidnapping, and sadness.
Knock Down the House
Watch on Netflix
Plot: In 2018, a young bartender in the Bronx, a coal miner’s daughter in West Virginia, a grieving mother in Nevada and a registered nurse in Missouri join a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. Without political experience or corporate money, these four women are attempting to do what many consider impossible.
Directed by Rachel Lears
Rating: 8/10
In today’s political climate, you can point at this documentary as the beginning of the new Progressive movement. It’s refreshing to see a bunch of amazing women making a change in this world and you can’t help but root when you watch it.
Circle
Watch on Netflix
Plot: In a massive, mysterious chamber, fifty strangers awaken to find themselves trapped with no memory of how they got there. Organized in an inward-facing circle and unable to move, they quickly learn that every two minutes, one of them must die… executed by a strange device in the center of the room.
Directed by Aaron Hann & Mario Miscione
Rating: 8/10
This is a film I’ve always wanted to watch and Covid gave me all the time in the world to watch. Helluva concept that works well as a movie but could work just as great as a play. There are a lot ways you can take this and the end of the movie shows this. This is a helluva “What would you do” movie and even at the end, I’m not sure how long I would last in a game like this.