Cocaine Bear (2023) - Movie Review

Elizabeth Banks’ last two directorial efforts (Pitch Perfect 2 and the latest Charlie’s Angels) were… alright. They had their strong feminist moments, and I’m thankful that the days of Movie 43 are far behind her at this point, but they weren’t necessarily the most memorable within their respective franchises. So when news hit that her next feature would be… well, a creature feature that looked destined to be a meme from the title alone, I wasn’t expecting much from it. But to be honest, this is the first time Banks has genuinely impressed me as a filmmaker, and the film itself is a whole lot of fun.

Long Shot (2019) - Movie Review

One of the oldest tropes in romantic comedy is the idea of mismatching someone conventionally attractive with someone unconventionally attractive. If you’ve seen any movie or any sitcom in the last handful of decades, you’ve seen this in action. It usually takes the form of a schlubby guy who is either going out with or is married to a beautiful woman, with the internal joke being the audience questioning how he got her.

Today’s film, the latest from my favourite film studio working right now Point Grey Pictures, is another in this grand tradition, and after narrowly dodging a bullet with their last film, I was honestly worried that this was going to be the point where the bottom fell out of this studio’s fantastic track record. I should really stop underestimating these guys because, while this is indeed a rom-com, its real ambitions are bigger. A lot bigger. Like, this is the kind of shit we need in circulation right now.