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Six friends Haley (Haley Bishop), Jemma (Jemma Moore), Emma (Emma Louise Webb), Radina (Radina Drandova), Caroline (Caroline Ward) and Teddy (Edward Linard) hire a medium Seylan (Seylan Baxter) to hold a séance via Zoom during lockdown.
All was fun and games, until it wasn’t. Seylan had given strict instructions to obey and not make fun of the spirits but there’s always one, who simply can’t or won’t follow the rules and that was Jemma.
Due to Jemma’s careless, selfish actions, an evil entity invades their homes and is not leaving anytime soon, until he does what he sets out to do.
Wow… I normally go accordance with movie length (57 minutes) and already made up my mind, before giving this movie a go, that it was going to be crap. Movies that are generally less than 1.5 hours, are rubbish.
But not this one, it turned out to be quite the gem. Here's an interesting fact, this movie was entirely developed and filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is an interesting and unique concept. I have read the synopsis and thought it would be similar to the movie ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – 2008’ and how wrong was I. A nurse ‘Jess’ (Baize Buzan), smuggles a baby ‘Tom’ (Judah Abner Paul – Tom age 8; Joshua Paul – Tom age 12; Dominic Rescigno – Tom in his 20s and Jeremy Sklar – Tom in his 30s – 104) out of the hospital, after discovering that the baby ages four years every hour.
With little time to live, Jess wants to show Tom what life is all about before the authorities have a hold on him. An interesting conversation starter with friends and family. What would you do, if you know someone that has only one day to live? Where would you take this person, what life experiences would you try to squeeze in?
Pretty hard trying to cram life’s best experiences as a child to an old person… where would you start? What if it was you in this position? How would you live it as a child, teenager, adult till your last breath?
I underestimated this movie, I believe it is an interesting watch, if you want something different for a change. Acting was pretty good too!
People are watching helplessly and fleeing aimlessly for survival, as flying meteors come crashing down on Earth, causing extreme chaos.
The government have notified only selective people who they believe are worth rescueing, those who are skills of value to offer, which the Garrity family were lucky enough to be selected.
Oliver (Azhy Robertson) is a lonely boy due to being different from everyone else and unable to talk but communicates through his technology device.
It is through Oliver’s much needed device, a sinister creature named ‘Larry’ comes through, communicating to Oliver and wanting to make friends with him. Larry preys upon lonely children, promises to be their friend forever and anyone who steps in his way, will die.
Nolan (Mamoudou Athie) is struggling to regain his memory after surviving a horrific car accident but not so lucky for his wife. He has no recollection or connection of his daughter Ava (Amanda Christine), nor the work he used to do, where he was recognised and rewarded with awards of recognition.
Nolan tries his best to return to his former self and with the help and guidance of his friend Gary (Tosin Morohunfola), Nolan undergoes an experimental treatment that may help to regain his memory.
Biography of one of the most successful female singers of her time… Helen Reddy. Unfolds the story from rags to riches. Takes place in 1966, Helen Reddy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) heads from Australia to New York, with her three-year-old daughter Traci (Scout Bowman), having won a recording contract, only to be reneged.
Ian (Samuel Bottomley), Duncan (Lewis Gribben) and DJ Beatroot (Viraj Juneja) are no-hopers and their teacher Mr Carlyle (Jonathan Aris), has given them a chance of feeling one’s worth or purpose in life, by giving them a mission to complete the Duke of Edinburgh Award trek across the highlands.
This story was inspired by actual events that took place in 2002. A heavily pregnant American novelist Naomi (Genesis Rodriguez) and her husband Matt (Vincent Piazza) were traveling in a rental car to Norway to attend a small book tour.
Caught in bad weather, the couple decided to pull to the side of the road until the weather settles down a bit, only to wake up buried under snow and caught in a blizzard. With very little food and water and a baby on the way, tells the harrowing story of their struggles they encountered and what they had to do just to survive for over the next three weeks – something they weren’t prepared for.
Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is running late getting her son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman) to school and getting to work on time. Frustrated and stuck in traffic, Rachel loses her patience with a driver (Russell Crowe) in front of her, when the lights turn green.
Rather than give him a “courtesy tap”, she angrily blares her horn at him and then overtakes the driver, clearly showing him that she is not impressed… wrong move! This sets the driver’s inner psychotic rage, where you figure that he too is having a bad day, and what Rachel did, just tipped him over.
Paul (Thomas Jane), his wife Wendy (Anne Heche) and their ten-year-old daughter Taylor (Kk & Sadie Heim) takes a family vacation at a serene RV park. While Paul was prepping to go fishing with his daughter, he was distracted by another camper, a beautiful lady named Miranda (Aleksei Archer), got talking with her for a while and during this time, his daughter goes missing.
You learn that the couple have marital problems already, where Wendy blames Paul for their missing child. Having the local Sheriff (Jason Patric) involved, the two stop at nothing, and do their own investigations to find their missing daughter, who disappeared without a trace.
Soldier Marshall Bennett (Michael Roark) returns home after he had sustained injuries from an IED explosion in combat with Afghanistan. Advised by the doctors, upon being discharged from hospital, that he has a long road to recovery with a broken back and leg, Bennett had other plans.
He had found out that his father is behind with mortgage repayments and that his wife is overworked. In order to support his family and save the family farm, as a former motocross champion bike rider, Bennett defies all odds, and with the help from his buddy Cyrus (Ali Afshar), helps him with the impossible comeback.
Without spoiling this movie… too much… let me tell you that the director / writers used the same basis as the first movie ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – 1989’.
But instead of returning with important historian figures to pass their history test, the duo’s children Bill’s (Alex Winter) daughter Thea (Samara Weaving) and Ted’s (Keanu Reeves) daughter Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) goes on a time travel to save their fathers and help them to fulfill their rock ‘n’ roll destiny.
Desperate need of attention / popular as a social media influencer and for his video to go viral, Kurt Kunkle (Joe Keery) tries too hard and goes to extreme measures just to be as popular or outdo the popular ones who are already famous.
Decking out his car with cameras, not wanting to miss an opportunity, Kurt decides to do rideshare called ‘Spree’, but his plan for his passengers are with a “no mercy” attitude. Yet Kurt just doesn’t seem to have what it takes.
This is a piece of history that needed to be told. I had no idea that this had happened.
This true story is based on the Third Battalion of the all-black Twenty-fourth United States Infantry Regiment who became involved in the deadly riot, on 23 August 1917, known as ‘Houston Riot of 1917’. The black soldiers and black locals were constantly being racially discriminated and harassed by the Houston Police Officers.
But enough was enough, when push comes to shove, all hell broke loose, that led to a resistance by ‘The 24th infantry against the police force. A bloody outcome and very sad. A very powerful movie with stellar performances by all. A must watch piece of history.
Pearl (Larsen Thompson), a gifted 15-year-old student, had a promising future ahead of her but all was taken away in ‘a blink of an eye’ when her stepfather murdered her mother Helen (Sarah Carter).
Helen had left instructions in her Will, that her daughter goes to live with her ex-lover… Pearl’s biological father Jack (Anthony LaPaglia), whom she was told by her mother, that he is dead.
The two are awkwardly put together against their will, where they both learn to deal with mutual loss, trying to make sense of their new life and take on responsibilities just to move on in life. The plot felt authentic and to my surprise, I have found out that the story indeed was real and close to the director Bobby Roth.
Character development for Helen and Jack was great but I just couldn’t feel connected with Pearl, she played her part satisfactory level.
Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie), a former Miss Juneteenth pageant winner, lives in a small town in Texas and is a hard-working single mother… sort of, she has a deadbeat, part-time husband Ronnie (Kendrick Sampson) who is good for nothing, comes and goes when he pleases and sponges off her like a leech. Turquoise is trying to live her life through her 15-year-old Kai (Alexis Chikaeze), to correct her wrongs and past regrets just to give her daughter the opportunity she missed out.
Winning the Miss Juneteenth pageant gives you free scholarship that leads you to opportunities in securing a successful but promising career / life.
Unfortunately, Turquoise messed up and made many bad life choices but is so determined that Kai won’t mess up and will live the dream she had always wanted for herself. Turquoise continuously encounters many roadblocks and struggles, but she is one determined, strong-minded woman, who is capable of re-evaluating and assess the situation and figures out another way to ensure that nothing will get in their way this time.
I had the misconception that it was about pageant, but it was deceiving, underrated with stellar performance by Nicole Beharie. You could actually feel her pain and frustrations, trying to get out of the rut-hole, repeated for many generations and trying to break-free out of the loophole, by daring to do something different. But you can also understand why Kai is so rebellious, it is not the life she wants and evidently shows and tells her mother repeatedly.
A very touching mother / daughter story and lessons to learn from. Definitely recommend this movie. I shall leave you with a quote, by Roger Crawford, that best sums up this movie “Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.”
