99 movie review and rating

V/H/S/99 Review

Party like it’s 1999 and we’re all gonna die.

This is an advanced review out of the Toronto International Film Festival, where V/H/S/99 made its world premiere. It will premiere on Shudder on Oct. 20, 2022.

The de-evolution of the V/H/S franchise thrives throughout V/H/S/99 in that it's becoming more punk-rock by the entry. As the digital cleanliness of past collections trades for snowy ‘90s tracking fuzz, filmmakers unify visions by using copious practical effects that make for a creature-heavy edition of this seminal found-footage franchise. Expect your usual anthology mixed bag, but late ‘90s nostalgia goes far to bind chapters as everything from American Pie perviness to Nickelodeon game shows gets slathered in gushing mutilation. Monsters, mayhem, and attraction-based engagement make V/H/S/99 one of the steadier V/H/S titles to date, as long as you're into a headbanging rollercoaster that favors gratuitous midnighter entertainment over more self-serious horror thrills.

Maggie Levin's "Shredding" sends a Jackass Lite crew calling themselves R.A.C.K (first letter of each member's name) into a burned-and-abandoned arts collective known as The Colony Underground. Skater punks played by caricature teen rebels dare provoke the souls of deceased girl band Bitch Cat — trampled by fans during a fire — and are met with unrested spirits. Snotty burnouts chatter about inappropriate topics, but the payoff of Bitch Cat's emergence is where "Shredding" sings. Recreations of Bitch Cat's deaths with sex dolls and squishy Jello turn into a rave from the grave as R.A.C.K flees from Night of the Demons-looking zombie musicians, and the final shot — it's like Chuck E. Cheese but with more dismemberment. Levin might overuse trickery as R.A.C.K keeps punking their drummer, who fears their meddling will result in what rightfully happens. Still, it's raucous enough in its horror motions to deliver on punk-rock promises of bloodlust thanks to energetic original songs and a moshy score by artist Dresage (reunited after Levin’s Into The Dark: My Valentine).

Johannes Roberts ( Resident Evil: Welcome To Racoon City ) follows with sorority hazing tale "Suicide Bid," a torturous grab-bag of excruciating paranoias. Hopeful Beta Sigma Eta pledge Lily (Ally Ioannides) is lowered into a coffin and told by her prospective sisters she must spend the night underground if she wants admittance. Roberts does a tremendous job commanding claustrophobic tension as poor Lily falls victim to a horrible prank turned horrific lock-in. "Suicide Bid" uses confinement, arachnophobia, and aquaphobia to exceptional degrees but goes too far in the finale. There's ample spine-tingling terror as Barbie BSE meanies cackle while a freshman cowers below dirt clumps and rain-soaked mud, all before the gossipy curse of a pledge who died underground in the same graveyard becomes another chance to inject practical monster effects. Everything else in the segment works so well that it's hard to take the haunted maze effects seriously. It's still a winner, just a bit too ambitious when already frightening on all cylinders.

Next is Flying Lotus' "Ozzy's Dungeon," a riff on the popular children's obstacle course Legends of the Hidden Temple. Little Donna (Amelia Ann) hopes to be the next grand prize winner, which means a single granted wish from magical Ozzy backstage. Out struts an uncomfortably showy host (Steven Ogg) in a floral lavender suit, who downplays the severity of Ozzy's Dungeon when extreme violence occurs — and that's just the setup for Saw-like evolutions bred from a vengeful past contestant. If you've seen Kuso, you understand the obscurity Flying Lotus favors and why "Ozzy's Dungeon" will be either a love or hate chapter in V/H/S/99. There's a vibe of cable-television impurity that needs to be better sustained, and the whole experience lasts a bit too long for its gimmick. Satire is incendiary yet stretched thin as puppetry and melted faces become the norm. Sometimes less is more, and that's where I'll leave "Ozzy's Dungeon."

What's the best found-footage film?

Tyler MacIntyre redeems with "The Gawkers," which is the aforementioned American Pie takedown. Suburban cul-de-sac stoners with nicknames like Boner notice a smokeshow (Emily Sweet) across the street and begin peeping through binoculars – then cyber spyware — hoping to glimpse some skin. MacIntyre recalls David Bruckner's "Amateur Night" while taking shots at the creepiness of teen sex comedies once normalized by pop culture, while high school stooges lose control of their hormones with gore to spare. The journey is a gas, but MacIntyre's monster clinches "The Gawkers" with lessons learned through massacres and a mythological creature not seen enough in horror cinema.

MacIntyre also oversees the humorous wrap-around — stop-motion army men fight plushy kaijus and banter about the gloom of battle like an elementary school student's depiction of war. It’s the kind of juvenile time waster your little sibling or cousin would make you watch, proud of the strawberry jam blood and toy actors. There’s plenty to chuckle at (including Tales From The Stich ’s Raatma doll), like someone recorded snuff videos over cherished memories.

Joseph and Vanessa Winter carry momentum from their festival favorite Deadstream into "To Hell and Back," which is jam-packed with more of the same supernatural black humor and never-recycled demon costumes. Two documentarians (Archelaus Crisanto and Joseph Winter) anticipate Y2K by recording a cult's demonic vessel ritual — but they end up dragged into the underworld when the summoner’s target appears early and pulls them below. The best friends regain composure in a calcified mass of mountains ruled by unspeakable horrors, traversing unholy feeding grounds while wearing cardboard New Year's Eve hats. Shades of Astron-6 put on a lower-budget special effects showcase that resourcefully blends the Stranger Things Upside Down with Adam Green’s Digging Up the Marrow, as long as you're alright with jokier adventurers bumbling through Satan's backyard. The Winters spare no production design expenses by building everything from the rocky landscapes to cave-dwelling warriors, pushing the boundaries of where V/H/S tales can transport viewers.

V/H/S/99 is the biggest gamble in the V/H/S franchise yet because every segment shares bucket-of-slop characteristics. Some segments meander too long while others are weighed down by their ambitions, much like any anthology. Either you're all-in on homegrown bloody creature parades or all-out on home-video splatterfests that rarely rise above do-it-yourself scrappiness. Filmmakers seem to cheat off each other's assignments, but synchronicity accents the party-hardy horror festivities that scream for cheesy pizza and a fully-loaded bar. As a lover of midnight delinquency that tosses prosthetic body parts around and summons monster after monster straight out of a boardwalk horror maze? V/H/S/99 capitalizes on frenzied found-footage fun, howls with blitzkrieg chaos, and keeps exploding like a firecracker bundle that loves to watch you wince.

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99 Homes review – chillingly topical eviction drama

Michael Shannon is lip-smackingly good as a reptilian real-estate broker forcing hard-up homeowners on to the street

I t so happens that this film gets its release here just as high-risk, high-yield mortgage bonds are making a cheeky comeback in the US. The name has been changed from “sub-prime” to “non-prime”. There are higher safeguards, reportedly, although that new prefix weirdly makes it sound like fewer. So 99 Homes coincides with the financial world’s Windscale/Sellafield moment.

It first appeared at last year’s Venice film festival but it gripped me just as much on a second viewing – a piercing comment on the toxic-loan slump and the bailout bonanza that appears to underline Milton Friedman’s immortal words: socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the rest. Ramin Bahrani – who directed Goodbye Solo (2008) and Man Push Cart (2005) – has created a middle-class nightmare driven by the powerful engine of shame: the shame of losing your home and the shame of then having to work for the person who took it away.

Michael Shannon gives a lip-smackingly good performance as Rick Carver, a predatory real-estate broker in Florida; he is as dead-eyed as the local alligators which, as he admiringly comments, never sleep. Carver smokes an e-cigarette, and its sinister blue glow is never far from his lips: increasingly the sign of a smarmy screen villain.

He is the court-appointed agent for houses that have been repossessed by the bank, because the wretched debtors (for whom Carver has nothing but contempt) could not keep up with the payments on risky loans. Backed up by armed officers from the sheriff’s department, Carver supervises that unwatchably horrible moment when these people and their families are ordered out of their houses and their belongings piled up on the front lawn in front of the neighbours.

Carver enjoys a rich harvest of misery, taking a juicy cut from the eventual repo sale which, although a bargain, will be generally more than the loan sum. Everybody wins, apart from the poor homeowners whose rash borrowings created this carrion opportunity in the first place. Carver is armed because, at the moment of eviction, those devastated residents have a habit of brandishing their own guns, often turning their weapons on themselves in an ecstasy of self-hate and despair. The movie opens with Carver cruising gator-like through a grisly scene of carnage.

One of his victims is Dennis, played by Andrew Garfield , a hardworking carpenter and builder: he is a single dad who lives with his son Connor (Noah Lomax) and his mother Lynn (Laura Dern). Dennis falls behind with his debt repayments, and duly gets the treatment from Carver and has to move into a grim motel, sharing a room with his mother and boy. But then a twist of fate means that Carver himself needs a willing builder to work on a particularly horrible job.

Swallowing his pride and self-respect, Dennis offers to work for Carver and something in his mixture of desperation and willing competence compels Carver to like him. He winds up making poor Dennis his favourite employee and confidant: the dependable guy who can execute all the illegal scams he has going for bilking the bank for phoney repairs and fraudulent fees.

Garfield’s performance shows that Dennis, perhaps like a Vichy French official coming to work with the Nazi occupier, forces himself to like and even admire Carver, to throw himself into the whole horrible business, almost to brazen out his humiliation and cauterise his own despair.

Carver has his own compulsion to school Dennis (a little like Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke in the cop drama Training Day), driving him around the quietly desperate neighbourhoods, showing him how to spot the opportunities for profit in all the badly tended and tatty houses. He insists Dennis must “pop his cherry” by having to supervise an eviction himself, and really earn his money. There is something deeply horrible in way the habits of gentility persist: the evictees and evictors have a grimly insincere habit of addressing each other as “sir”.

Watching this movie for a second time, I wonder if writer-director Bahrani did not perhaps originally intend Laura Dern’s role to be that of a wife; interestingly, the script would not need to be changed much for this to make narrative sense and she seems in one scene to have a say in what happens to Connor that would be more likely to come from an outraged spouse. But the set-up, as it stands, has a tough plausibility. It’s a compelling and relevant picture, with terrific performances from Shannon and Garfield.

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• Trivia Krishna D.K. : The guy in the meeting room when the character Rahul is first introduced
• Goofs 99 is set in the year 1999 and early 2000. CNG auto-rickshaws were introduced in Delhi around 2001-2002. But the movie still shows the green three-wheelers (though not the CNG label on them).
• Connections References Qurbani (1980)
• Soundtracks Soch Mat Dobara Written by Amitabh Bhattacharya Composed by Roshan Machado Performed by Bonnie Chakraborty and Earl D'Souza Courtesy of Saregama HMV

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• May 16, 2009
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• Runtime 2 hours 15 minutes
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S-99 Movie Review

Pradip Bhat

I am Pradip Bhat, and I work as a senior content writer. My job is ...

Senior Content Writer

• Critic Review
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C AST & C REW

M ORE C AST & C REW

• Nandini Chindam
• Yatheesh Chindam
• Music Director:
• Vijay Kurakula
• Jagan Mohan Chindam
• Stunt Director:
• Wing Chan Anji
• Production Designer:
• Pranathi Chindam
• Supporting Actor:
• Allu Ramesh
• Chakrapani Ananda
• Dayanand Reddy
• Chatrapathi Shekar
• Swetha Varma
• Supporting Crew:

Following retirement from espionage, Agent S 99 lives a quiet and secluded life. However, a journalist, who has exposed the dirty trade of Taluk Dar Pasha, is in danger, forcing S 99 to come out of retirement and do all that he can to keep her safe. Will he succeed?

Star Performances

Jagan Mohan Chindam is the reason why this film works. Despite the not-so-impressive ambiance of the film, he somehow manages to make this film slightly watchable.

A former secret agent tries to lead a quiet life. However, one bad guy tries to harm an honest person doing his/her duty, and the secret agent is forced to return to action. Hmmm, where have we heard this before?

Oh wait, that’s the basic plotline of most of the movies done by Bruce Willis/Jason Statham in the latter part of their lives! On paper, the movie ‘S 99’ looks like a screenplay left out from their archives, adapted later into a Telugu film!

Going by the initial stills, there should be little to no expectations, especially regarding the visuals and the editing of the film. However, is the narrative good enough? Surprisingly, the answer is yes, but not very much. If you’re a fan of some over-the-top action spoofs, you can opt for this film. On that note, Jagan Mohan Chindam has done a decent job.

The acting performances in this film are far from bad. However, they’re not completely outstanding either, just sandwiched in the middle. This is why the movie ‘S 99’ packs some punch, even if just for basics. The runtime is also not very long, which means that the audience can enjoy the experience of some content.

However, that is it. In terms of technicality, the film is far from impressive. The effects are rudimentary, and even the action scenes are not nuanced in any way.

What's There?

• The entertainment quotient of the narrative
• Some performances, especially from Jagan Mohan Chindam

What's Not There?

• Not-so-great screenplay
• Rudimentary visual effects
• Action scenes that go over the top

‘S 99’ is not something out of the blue. A predictable plot, followed by effects that appear straight from the movies of the early 2000s. However, some acting performances, coupled with a few entertaining scenes, salvage the film to a large extent. If you want some mindless entertainment, you can give this film a try!          

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New Horror Movie With 99% Rotten Tomatoes Score Under Fire For AI Art Use, Directors Issue Statement

• Late Night With the Devil directors use AI art for brief interstitials, and they've justified this by saying it is part of the film's '70s aesthetic.
• Initial backlash on social media due to the AI-generated art sparked disappointment among viewers.
• Despite positive reviews and feedback, the inclusion of AI art in the film has led to potential boycotts.

Late Night With the Devil is under fire for using AI art, and its directors, Cameron and Colin Cairnes, issue a statement in response. Written and directed by the Australian siblings, the found footage horror film follows a fictional late-night talk show host who keeps the cameras rolling despite a Satanic incident during a live Halloween special in 1977. Late Night With the Devil stars David Dastmalchian as the talk show host alongside a supporting cast that includes Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Georgina Haig, and Josh Quong Tart.

After users took to social media to express their disappointment in Late Night With the Devil for using AI-generated art, its directors issued a statement (via Variety ) explaining why the technology was used in the film . The siblings say they " experimented with AI for three still images " which " appear as very brief interstitials in the film ." See their full statement, along with some of the social media reactions, below:

In conjunction with our amazing graphics and production design team, all of whom worked tirelessly to give this film the 70s aesthetic we had always imagined, we experimented with AI for three still images which we edited further and ultimately appear as very brief interstitials in the film. We feel incredibly fortunate to have had such a talented and passionate cast, crew and producing team go above and beyond to help bring this film to life. We can’t wait for everyone to see it for themselves this weekend.

A Letterboxd review from user based gizmo was the first to express disappointment in the film's use of AI art, writing, " Listen. There’s AI all over this in the cutaways and “we’ll be right back” network messages. For this reason I can’t enjoy the amazing performances and clever ending. It actually feels insulting when that skeleton message shows up repeatedly, like the filmmakers don’t give a sh*t and want to let you know that you’ll accept blatant AI in your 70s period piece. Don’t let this be the start of accepting this sh*t in your entertainment ."

On Twitter/X, ​​​ Summer Ray wrote, " My little heart broke watching Late Night With the Devil this evening, to see they utilised AI art ."

Is Late Night With The Devil Based On A True Story?

How has late night with the devil been received otherwise.

Before the controversy over its use of AI-generated art, which will potentially lead to boycotts, Late Night With the Devil was shaping up to be one of the most hyped horror films of the year so far . Reviews have been glowing, including one from Stephen King, resulting in Late Night With the Devil 's Rotten Tomatoes score reaching as high as 100%, though it has since dropped to 97% at the time of writing.

Late Night With the Devil premiered to much acclaim at last year's South by Southwest Film Festival, where audiences didn't even notice that the film used AI-generated art . As the directors mention, the images only appear briefly as title cards and are used three times throughout the film. However, once one knows that the images are AI-generated, it's impossible to unsee, as the pumpkins look especially uncanny.

Late Night With the Devil using AI-generated art is just the latest example of the disappointing trend. For instance, Marvel's Secret Invasion generated controversy for using AI for its opening credits . One of the many issues with AI-generated art is that, other than taking jobs away from human artists, generative AI programs like Midjourney unethically source elements from existing art on the Internet without giving proper credit to the original artist .

Late Night With the Devil releases in theaters on March 22, and will be available on Shudder on April 19.

Source: Variety

Late Night With the Devil

Late Night with the Devil is ahorror thriller starring David Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy. Delroy is a late-night talk show host in 1977 trying to keep his broadcast on the air. But when he tries to communicate with the devil through a young girl live on the air, things don't go according to plan.

Release Date

Distributor(s)

Main Genre Horror

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‘x-men 97’ is the best-reviewed marvel project of all time.

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Reviews are in and X-Men ’97, the retro flashback to the old animated series, revived for a new era, is stellar. The first two episodes debuted on Disney Plus on Wednesday, and it is currently the single best-reviewed Marvel movie or show…ever, with a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with a few dozen critic reviews in.

That places it atop the all-time list, even if it’s not “the MCU” in the traditional sense (it’s probably some alternate multiverse dimension or something, would be the explanation). Here is the top 10 list as it stands after the release of X-Men ’97.

• X-Men ’97 – 100%
• Ms. Marvel – 98%
• Black Panther - 96%
• Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD – 95%
• Avengers: Endgame – 94%
• Iron Man – 94%
• Spider-Man: No Way Home – 93%
• Thor Ragnarok – 93%
• Hawkeye/WandaVision/Daredevil/Guardians of the Galaxy/Spider-Man: Homecoming – 92%

With a 93% audience score right now, that is behind only Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Shang-Chi, Avengers, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But it’s still early and reviews are rolling in.

It is a tremendous achievement for a project that everyone hoped would be good, but on top of its pure nostalgic appeal, manages to have excellent (old school) animation and interesting new storylines. Also, somehow, an utterly badass Cyclops. It’s the “classic” X-Men we’ve missed on television for decades, and as the MCU spools up its own X-Men (first returning to FOX’s), it’s a classic cast that feels like returning home.

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The only strange bit of controversy attached to X-Men ’97 was the abrupt firing of its showrunner, Beau DeMayo, who will not promote the show, and will not return for a second season which will no doubt happen. Disney has not given a reason for his firing, but given the context, it seems serious. Right now there is only unconfirmed internet speculation. Whether the show can continue this level of quality led by someone other than DeMayo from here is unclear, but hopefully that will be the case. He wrote the first two episodes, I’m not sure if he possibly wrote all of them.

Whatever happens, it feels like we are in for at least an excellent season 1 here with new episodes airing every Wednesday, where there will be ten in total. This feels like the kind of thing Disney Plus was made for, not necessarily huge blockbuster, money-losing MCU live-action productions, and I wonder if this has worked this well, what else might get greenlit from here.

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Movie Review: ‘STEVE! (martin)’ looks at past, present in a lovely, intimate 2-part documentary

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Steve Martin in a scene from the documentary “Steve! (Martin) a Documentary in 2 Pieces.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows promotional art for the documentary “Steve! (Martin) a Documentary in 2 Pieces.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

FILE - Comedian Steve Martin left, appears with host Johnny Carson during an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” in Burbank Calif., July 19, 1980. Martin is the subject of a new documentary “Steve! (Martin) a Documentary in 2 Pieces.” (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon, File)

FILE - Steve Martin, from left, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short appear at the premiere of their film “Three Amigos!” in New York on Dec. 9, 1986. Martin is the subject of a new documentary “Steve! (Martin) a Documentary in 2 Pieces.” (AP Photo/Frankie Ziths, File)

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Steve Martin has never been one to follow any sort of playbook. It is fitting the first official documentary about his life is similarly unconventional: A freewheeling story told in two parts, one part focused on “Then” and one part focused on “Now” (kind of) with both parts debuting on Apple TV+ on Friday . Both documentarian and subject are trying, the best they can, to make sense of whatever “Steve Martin” is.

Directed by self-proclaimed superfan Morgan Neville (the Oscar-winner who has told the story of Fred Rogers and Anthony Bourdain), “STEVE! (martin)” never commits to one form. Like its subject, it allows itself to be a little looser, utilizing every technique available to help paint a truer picture of Martin, a man so enigmatic that his close friends don’t even seem to have a handle on him. He’d hardly be the first performer to save it all for the stage: Martin says that it was somewhat comforting to be able to put on a persona during shows. He was also able to continually reinvent himself. Who else could have walked away from stand-up just as they’d reached rock star status?

And so the medium becomes a kitchen sink: There is stock footage, animation, reenactment, home videos, movie clips, stand-up segments, talk show appearances, new interviews with famous friends (Martin and Jerry Seinfeld in conversation, for example), scripted voiceover and some fly-on-the-wall footage of him just spending time with Martin (Marty) Short bike riding, walking through town, playing cards and workshopping jokes for their show. It’s probably the only way to capture an artist who has taken the hyphenate to absurd levels: Magician/balloon artist/novelist/banjo player/screenwriter/essayist/art collector/joke teller/cartoonist/movie star/father/husband/friend. What am I missing?

For anyone who’s read Martin’s memoir “Born Standing Up,” “Then” might not be especially revelatory, but it’s all context and it remains interesting to hear Martin reflect candidly on a moment that now feels “like a blip.” While he might not have had a plan, he did possess a keen sense of when he’d hit a dead end, whether that be in magic, stand-up or even movies.

His life in movies is saved for “Now,” and you see someone still struggling with the agony of never really knowing if a thing would work. Everyone misses once in a while, but Martin had a brutal back-to-back of a wild success in “The Jerk” followed by an epic flop in “Pennies From Heaven” and that was just the start of his rollercoaster in Hollywood. He’s kind of moved on from that (and “Mixed Nuts”) but also kind of not. He said he had to do 40 movies to get five good ones. He’s being a little sarcastic, but hopefully he knows that a lot of people out there love far more than a measly five Steve Martin movies.

It is especially fascinating to get a glimpse into his complex relationship with critics and how he found an outlet in writing both fiction and non-fiction. Personally, I wish even more time had been spent on the movies and his writings, like “Shopgirl.” Everyone is bound to have a favorite that this doesn’t cover enough.

If you want to keep Steve Martin in your mind as that wild and crazy guy, or George Banks or Navin or Lucky Day (the list could go on), and don’t care about his relationship with his father, his decision to become a father late in life, reflections on his art collection, the memorabilia he kept over the years and the things he didn’t do that he wishes he did, these films might not be for you. There are no rules to being a fan. For some, biography can mean everything. For others, it matters little when there’s so much joy to be had without it.

Martin, who has been both an open book in some ways and also guarded in others, is really quite vulnerable here — especially in “Now.” Neville captures him looking at the script for “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and reflecting on his late friend and co-star John Candy. There was a great monologue, he said, in which Candy’s Del Griffith tells the story of his life. Martin recalled bawling off camera as Candy delivered it. And yet for whatever reason, it was chopped down to a line or two. He reads a bit of it and starts to cry.

There’s more, but if that sounds intriguing, you should really just watch it. Neville has said it doesn’t matter which order. And what does it add up to? On a certain level he’s still an enigma. It’s hard for mere mortals to comprehend a half century of otherworldly fame, but it’s also just nice to watch a familiar face reflect on how he has, at 78, finally found happiness. Besides, Steve Martin’s story is not even remotely finished. These are just two parts.

“STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 parts,” an Apple TV+ release streaming on Friday, is rated TV-MA. “Then” is 98 minutes. “Now” is 95 minutes. Together, they add up to three stars out of four.

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Talking ‘Dune’: Book and Movies

The times’s critic alissa wilkinson discusses frank herbert’s classic science fiction novel and denis villeneuve’s film adaptations..

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Frank Herbert’s epic novel “Dune” and its successors have been entrenched in the science fiction and fantasy canon for almost six decades, a rite of passage for proudly nerdy readers across the generations. But “Dune” is experiencing a broader cultural resurgence at the moment thanks to Denis Villeneuve’s recent film adaptations starring Timothée Chalamet . ( Part 2 is in theaters now.)

This week on the podcast, Gilbert Cruz talks to The Times’s critic Alissa Wilkinson, who covers movies, culture and religion, about Herbert’s novel, Villeneuve’s films and the enduring hold of Fremen lore on the audience’s imagination.

“There’s a couple things that I think are really unsettling in ‘Dune,’” Wilkinson says. “One is, the vision of Frank Herbert was, I believe, to basically write a book that questioned authoritarians and hero mythology genuinely, across the board. Any kind of a hero figure he is proposing will always have things and people come up alongside that hero figure that distort their influence. Even if they intend well, if they’re benevolent, there’s still all of this really awful stuff that comes along with it. So Paul is a messiah figure — we believe he wants good things for most of the book — and then he turns on a dime or it feels like he might be turning on a dime. You can never quite tell where anyone stands in this book. And I think that is unsettling, especially because so many of the other kinds of things that we watch — the superhero movies, “Star Wars,” whatever — there’s a clear-cut good and evil fight going on. Good and evil don’t really exist in ‘Dune.’”

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected] .

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, brawl in cell block 99.

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Have you ever wanted to watch Vince Vaughn beat up a car with his bare fists? Or scrape the flesh off of a man's skull? Or break several other men's heads open with a few powerful stomps? The grisly prison picture-action drama "Brawl in Cell Block 99" assumes that the answers are yes, yes and yes. 

You do not watch this film so much as gape at its' creators' flights of deranged inspiration. "Weird" does not begin to cover the depth of its tough-guy eccentricities. The writer and director is S. Craig Zahler, the mind behind the horror-western " Bone Tomahawk ." Working with cinematographer Benji Bakshi , he takes great pains to show you his actors' entire bodies during fight scenes. He also wrote the original R&B score, which is performed by the legendary Butch Tavares and the O'Jays. The movie makes a star of Vince Vaughn again by casting him as antihero Bradley Thomas, a skinhead drug dealer who must pummel and stomp two prisons' worth of inmates and guards in order to protect his kidnapped wife and daughter.

Like "Bone Tomahawk" before it, "Brawl in Cell Block 99" starts off slow. The script takes its time setting up Bradley as a generally sympathetic hot-head who is also mercurial enough to gradually become the film's real antagonist. After he's fired from his auto-repair gig and discovers his wife Lauren ( Jennifer Carpenter ) has been cheating on him, he dismantles her car. But he keeps it together long enough to show that he has a plan and has previously earned Lauren's trust (offscreen, sometime prior to the film's events). He tells Lauren that he will resume an old, well-paying job delivering drugs in order to bring more money home, swears that he wants to reinvigorate their marriage by having a baby with her, then accepts her apology and asks her if she will "abide" by his terms. He makes this request after destroying her cell phone and totaling her car, mind you; nevertheless, Lauren agrees to abide. Suffice it to say that Bradley eventually ends up in prison, where he is forced to keep his rage in check despite numerous dehumanizing factors.

Sporting a shaved head with a huge crucifix tattooed on the back, Vaughn looks like an editorial cartoon of urban crime come to life. He's a damn good boogeyman: an unrepentant rage-case with a knack for brutality. But he does everything purposefully, from race-baiting Mexican bodybuilders to breaking the bones of white and black prison guards alike. And the writing convinces you that he believes in family values as well as in the idea that you should never start a fight you aren't willing to finish.

The character is made nearly charming by his martyr-like willingness to silently suffer ungodly punishment, his hard-boiled quips, his wing chun-meets-boxing fighting skills, and most of all by Vaughn's performance, which is revealed mostly through the actor's stiff gait, arch posture, and furious punches (augmented by meat-slab sound effects). Zahler has given Vaughn one of his most satisfying dramatic roles to date, and the actor makes Bradley seem as evidently volatile as he is potentially heroic. 

"Brawl in Cell Block 99" is a grade-A piece of meathead cinema, the kind of exploitation movie whose deepest thoughts are  Am I more animal than human ? and  How far is a man willing to go to protect his loved ones ? These would be insufferably trite themes if Zahler wasn't so good at drawing viewers in with sensationally staged violence and carefully observed details: the long shadows cast by billiard balls, the rustle of curtains, the eerie stillness of a door before it's bashed in, the pauses Bradley takes between beatings.

That having been said: the real reason you will either love or hate "Brawl in Cell Block 99" is its hyper-stylized violence. These scenes are inventively shot and choreographed (by fight coordinator Drew Leary and Zahler) so that we can see the actors' bodies and faces. This could not have been an easy task, since Bakshi's camera always seems to be wherever Leary needs it to not be. Nevertheless, Zahler's presentation of his actors and stunt performers makes every bone-splintering, limb-destroying, flesh-rending practical special effect that much more effective. Zahler is on to something when he says—as he did at a recent post-screening Q&A—that he thinks of movie gore as a magic trick. 

"Brawl in Cell Block 99" isn't for the squeamish, nor for anyone who dislikes the idea of cheering on a guy who, in reality, wouldn't be as benign as his creators want us to think. But if you are willing to suspend your disbelief for 132 minutes, you may find yourself head-over-heels for this film's brand of gross, thoughtful pulp fiction.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)

132 minutes

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