Walden

2023 Uncork’d Entertainment

Rated: Unrated

Length: 1 hr 42min

Horror ~ Mystery ~ Thriller

Starring: Emile Hirsch, Shane West and Kelli Garner.

“I’m the ghost of the courtroom…….recording every truth, every lie, every murder.”

This is the movie synopsis from the Official Walden Movie Website:

People collect sweaters, Walden Dean collects the testaments of justice, he is a stenographer and being the ghost of the courtroom, his mind is agonizingly crammed witnessing the torrent of injustice, until now. Discovering he has a terminal illness sends him into a rage that has been simmering deep within him for years and now he is about to take justice into his own hands, in the most gruesome ways imaginable. But there is a more gruesome piece of business Walden will need to deal with, a pedophile serial killer right on his small town’s own doorstep.

Emile Hirsch stars as Walden Dean, the mild mannered, very polite, very straight laced, very geeky, bow tie wearing fourth generation stenographer in a small southern town. He is practically married to his job and his stenography machine. He cleans it religiously and takes it with him wherever he goes. In the beginning he is a teetotaling Church man who prays religiously. During the course of the movie he transforms into a ruthless, crafty and clever drunken vigilante murderer with no remorse for those who have spread their evil while destroying innocent lives. He literally starts drinking whiskey by the bottle while he pops pain pills and gets worked up about his next vigilante execution.

Kelli Garner stars as Emily Duperon, the sixth generation southern woman who just moved back to her hometown to get away from the big city. She meets Walden at a stenography contest and takes an interest in the quiet “sevant” stenographer. After her repeated flirtatious advances they become romantically and physically involved. Briefly before Walden turns into the drunken vigilante. I liked Kelli in this and thought that Walden and Emily’s relationship was something the movie should have explored more. Writing this I thought, geez, they were meant for each other. Look at their names, Walden and Emily…..the lovely stenography couple.

Shane West and Tania Raymonde star as the two detectives that start investigating the murders that start to happen around town. David Keith as the “Bad, very bad man Judge Boyle. Luke Davis plays the mentally disabled grown man with the IQ of a ten year old General George. There are quite a few stories going on here and is sometimes a little hard to follow.

There is the mystery of the missing Mexican boys, all approximately the same age. Brought to light by the disappearance and eventual discovery of the murdered body of Cal Pepper. General George becomes a suspect because he is friends with all the neighborhood children, having the IQ of a ten year old.

There is the relationship between Walden and Emily, the estranged relationship with his widowed Father, the troubled relationship Walden had with his promiscuous Mother, the strange and intimate relationship with the Judge, and his close friendship with General George.

In the end you see that a lot of these things are intertwined and make sense as it comes to a conclusion. There are some questions if you start looking too deep. Like why are there so many crimes in such a sleepy looking little southern town. Why is it that a court stenographer geek suddenly flips and becomes his drunken, murderous alter ego yet still prays for his victims. Why is it that he seems to leave no evidence and the Police never get any clues from the crime scenes. It’s like everything is a mystery, and even that is a mystery.

It is quirky, a little dark, a little bizarre but yet, homey and pleasant in a small southern town sort of way. Would you like some ice tea with that? Yes I would. I’ve watched it twice and I like it. It is different but sometimes different is good. I think the ending lands itself to a sequel although I haven’t seen any news of one.

Worth a watch.

Two Thumbs Up!

Emily The Criminal

2022 Roadside Attractions

Rated: R

Length: 1hr 37 min

Crime ~ Drama ~ Mystery ~ Thriller

Directed by: John Patton Ford

Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Megalyn Echikunwoke, and Gina Gershon.

“Motherf**kers will just keep taking from you and taking from you until you make the God damn rules yourself. That’s what this is about.”

Aubrey Plaza stars as Emily Benetto, an independent contractor living in Los Angeles delivering for a catering company. She is renting a room in a couple’s house and struggling financially with tens of thousands in student debt. She is trying to lift herself up and find a better job, but is encumbered with an assault conviction and a criminal record thanks to an abusive ex-boyfriend, and is having no luck. Her co-worker Javier turns her on to a side gig where she can make $200 an hour.

Desperate she calls the number and the next day goes to the address they gave her. She meets Youcef (Theo Rossi), who explains that it’s a credit card fraud ring who uses people to perpetrate the fraud purchase in exchange for a hefty fee. Emily hesitates but then, being desperate for some hope of financially getting out of the hole she’s in, agrees and goes to a big box store where she purchases a $2,000 Big Screen Tv with the fake credit card. She then exchanges the tv with the fraud group and gets an envelope with $200 cash inside.

Seems easy enough and Emily digs in deeper for more. Going after bigger and more profitable fraud purchases. Eventually Youcef takes a liking to her, and her eagerness to learn, and sets her up so she can operate on her own. He makes her promise not to visit any one store more than once a week, and if she makes more than $5,000 he gets a cut. She starts having success on her own and gets braver as the money rolls in. But it also exposes her to the unsavory characters in the criminal world and her life gets more dangerous.

Emily’s downward spiral into the criminal world, or her success at achieving financial independence depending on how you look at it, happens at a rapid pace. Emily gets more brazen and ruthless the more dangerous the journey becomes until she is forced to be the victim or the aggressor. After liking Aubrey Plaza last night in Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre , I wanted to see more of her and saw she was in this. I am glad I watched it, thought she did an excellent job of portraying Emily and she is now one of my new favorites.

There is an Emily The Criminal TV series in the works being executive produced by Aubrey but she will not star in it.

I thought it was good and definitely recommend it.

Two Thumbs Up!

Marlowe

2022 Open Road Films

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 49min

Crime ~ Mystery ~ Thriller

Directed by: Neil Jordan

Starring: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, and Jessica Lange.

“Los Angeles, a city of angels, more like the city of dirty little secrets. People pay me to look into the activities of it’s finest citizens. I’m a private detective. The name is Phillip Marlowe.”

Liam Neeson stars as Phillip Marlowe, a Private Investigator in Los Angeles, California in October 1939. A woman named Clare Cavendish (Diane Kruger) hires Marlowe to find out what happened to her ex-lover Nico Peterson. Jessica Lange plays Dorothy Quincannon, a Hollywood actress, an Oil baron Heiress and Clare’s mother. Marlowe quickly discovers that Peterson is allegedly dead after falling down drunk in front of a passing car.

Marlowe then visits Claire Cavendish to tell her the news of his demise but she swears she just saw him in Tijuana. Frustrated at Claire not being forthcoming with the information he leaves to follow more leads. And one lead leads to another and another. The further we go into the movie the murkier the story and plot seem to get. It’s hard to figure out what is really going on in this movie.

This film is loosely based on the Raymond Chandler character Philip Marlowe and The Black-Eyed Blonde, a 2014 Novel by John Banville. Humphrey Bogart starred as Phillip Marlowe in the 1946 movie The Big Sleep and there have been a lot of tv shows and movies with the Phillip Marlowe character thru the decades. I also discovered this is Liam Neeson’s 100th film.

I liked the old black and white Film noir movies. The slang and the wiseguy cracks. Marlowe seems to imitate those old movies on the surface but lacks any depth. It’s nice to see Liam Neeson attempting a different role than the hardcore vigilante roles we are used to seeing him in. But the dialogue fell flat for me. It was pretty slow watching.

I’d have to say I don’t really recommend this one.

There are way better Liam Neeson Movies, definitely not his best.

One thumb up, the other down……way down.