Master Gardener plus Short Takes on other cinematic topics

Hot House Consternations

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)   rated R   111 min.

Here’s the trailer:

       (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

       activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: This story is driven by 3 main characters: (1) Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), a rich older woman, owner of the Gracewood Gardens estate where there’s a big annual auction for charity; she’s quite haughty and demanding; (2) Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton), the chief gardener of the estate (whether he’s actually gone through the rigorous training to literally be a master gardener* or not isn’t made clear [at least to me]), but he certainly has a thorough knowledge of botany as revealed by his constant voiceover throughout the film about various flowering plants which seems to be the spoken version of the meticulous notes he keeps in a journal, possibly as another strategy to distance himself from his former White Supremacist life, illustrated by the gruesome tattoos (including Nazi swastikas) all over his arms and upper body which he covers with long-sleeve-shirts and overalls; his law-enforcement handler, Oscar Neruda (Esai Morales), after working with him to bring about the deaths of 6 of Roth’s former associates, apparently got him the job with Mrs. Haverhill; (3) Maya Core (Quintessa Swindell), Norma’s grandniece who’s lost via death her grandmother (Norma’s sister), her mother, her African father, is now a drug addict with little future; Norma agrees to take her in (despite having little love nor respect for her) in order for Narvel to teach her gardening skills in order for Maya to inherit Gracewood Gardens, to keep it in the family.

*If you’d like to know more about master gardeners you can find quite a lot in this video (18:13 [ad interrupts at 9:41]); I actually know 2 master gardeners who went through that time-consuming-training, but I doubt they’d care to be involved in what Narvel Roth confronts here beyond his plants.

 As Maya arrives at the estate, she’s a bit flippant with Roth at first but takes her apprenticeship seriously even through Norma hasn’t bothered to talk to her yet; we also find Roth, who lives in a small house on the grounds, is regularly told to have dinner with Norma, followed by a night in her bed.  As time goes on, a friendship develops between Maya and Roth, but when she visits him one night, ready for sex, he refuses when she tries to take his shirt off; a further complication comes for Maya—who doesn’t live on the estate—when she’s assaulted by R.G. (Jared Bankens)—Robbie Gomez—her dealer, so Roth asks Neruda to put pressure on him, then (with Maya’s help) tracks down R.G. to further give notice to never hurt Maya again.  However, Norma saw Maya leaving Roth’s cabin, assumed an affair, demands they both leave, so they’re on the road staying at various motels.  Eventually, Maya sees Narvel’s tattoos, is repulsed by them, but he insists he’s a changed man.  He agrees to have the tats removed, they have sex; however, bad news comes in a phone call: R.G. and his buddy, Sissy (Matt Mercurio), have trashed Gracewood Gardens, so Maya and Roth return.  Norma gives Roth her father’s old Luger to take revenge on the thugs, but instead he retrieves a gun from under the floor of the cabin. ⇒Roth and Maya track down R.G. and Sissy, Roth giving her a chance to shoot them, yet she can’t do it so instead he uses a hammer to break the legs of them both.  Returning to Gracewood, Roth gives the Luger back to Norma, tells her the gardens can be restored for next year’s auction, he’s going to marry Maya, they’ll live in the cabin.  Norma says that’s “obscene,” tries to shoot Roth but fails because, he tells her, the Luger’s both unloaded and dysfunctional, so apparently he’s fully in charge now as he celebrates with Maya at the cabin.⇐

So What? While reviews aren’t outstanding (more on that below), I was glad to find it available for streaming after most of its theatrical run and intrigued to see the latest from Schrader, known for his impactful screenplays (he wrote this one, too; not one of his absolute best) in collaborations with Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver [1976], Raging Bull [1980], The Last Temptation of Christ [1988], Bringing Out the Dead [1999]) and other directors (like Old Boyfriends [Joan Tewkesbury, 1979], The Mosquito Coast [Peter Weir, 1986], City Hall [Harold Becker, 1996]) as well as his own writer-director works such as Blue Collar (1978), Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), First Reformed (2017 [Oscar nomination]; review in our June 21, 2018 posting) and The Card Counter (2021; review in our December 16, 2021 posting)—you can find further info on him if you like at this site and this one (scroll down here to lists of his favorite films where I find agreement with many of his choices), but what’s amazing to me is that he wasn’t nominated for a screenplay Oscar until First Reformed because I don’t understand how he could have been looked over before that, especially for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull (you can go to specific sites to see the nominees and winners for 1976 [I can’t argue with Network {Paddy Chayefsky, director Sidney Lumet} winning, but Rocky {Sylvester Stallone, director John G. Avildsen} nominated over Taxi Driver, good grief—but, then, that year Rocky took Best Picture, Avildsen Best Director so there’s no accounting for Oscar preferences at times] and 1980 [where I can’t even begin to understand how the actual nominees pushed out Raging Bull, I’ll say easily best film of the decade, but, at least, it was a contender for Best Picture]).

 So, with all of this Schrader hoopla, how does his latest film match up to so many past successes?  Well … it’s got its strong points regarding solid acting throughout, especially in those lead roles, along with marvelous cinematography, both of photogenic subjects such as the gardens and even the mundane locations of motel rooms; beyond that, you’d have to decide how intrigued you’d be by this tale of redemptions and retributions.  It’s ultimately conveying an uplifting message about how even those farthest from the lights of decency can make something better of themselves with determined effort (although you’ll have to weigh out your acceptance of the retribution aspects), but all-in-all, I can’t help thinking of a more light-hearted-version of Roth’s situation (because Schrader at times could use some alleviation from the consistent gloom he’s so good at conjuring up) in some lines of Ray Wylie Hubbard’s song (made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker on his 1973 Viva Terlingua album) "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother": “He drives a ’57 GMC pickup truck / Got a gun rack, ‘goat roper needs love too’ sticker.”  Schrader might be horrified by this connection, although it helped me have a better after-the-fact sense of what I thought of Master Gardener, an intentionally-somber-tale, mostly intriguing to watch although it never really erupts like it seems it’s intended to do.

Bottom Line Final Comments: Master Gardener had its domestic (U.S.-Canada) release on May 19, 2023 but didn’t make much of an impact at the box-office with a mere domestic gross of $656.7 thousand (worldwide $928.2 thousand), still hanging on at 15 venues somewhere, although your best bet to find it would be via streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and other platforms for a $6.99 rental.  You’ll get moderate encouragement to do so from the CCAL with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 70% while the Metacritic average score is 63%.  It’s mostly a grim couple of hours (you’d expect anything less from Schrader?), yet it does point toward salvation as it progresses, not a bad message in these increasingly frustrating/polarizing times worldwide.  That’s about all I can say at this point, so I’ll conclude with my usual tactic of a Musical Metaphor, even though Schrader might not care for this tune either, the Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers” (from their 1971 Sticky Fingers album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k64Cr BxCAtI, which takes us again into the realm of country & western themed/inspired-fare; however (despite being a bit tongue-in-check with this song too in contrast to Schrader’s deadly-serious-narrative), I do see some connections in these lyrics to the film’s characters (if you remember this is be understood metaphorically): “Well, when you’re sitting back in your rose pink Cadillac / Making bets on Kentucky Derby Day / I’ll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon / And another girl can take my pain away [how Roth sees Norma and himself] / Take me down, little Susie, take me down / I know you think you’re the queen of the underground [how Roth initially sees Maya, how she initially sees herself] / And you can send me dead flowers every morning / Send me dead flowers by the mail / Send me dead flowers to my wedding / And I won’t forget to put roses on your grave [Narvel’s final sentiments toward Norma].”  My musical selections this time, I easily admit, trend drastically away from the grim tone of Schrader's film, yet I see connections, oddball as they may be.

 One final word on Master Gardener comes from the press kit where this film is described as “a bold new take on Schrader’s ‘man in a room’ narratives [an informal trilogy of First Reformed, The Card Counter, and this one], where a lonely figure, wrestling with his past and hiding behind his day job, waits for something to change. [… Schrader says] ‘Gardening is a particularly rich metaphor, both positively and negatively’ [… the latter referring to a flashback where a White Supremacist says it’s their job to] ‘rip out the weeds.’ “  While you decide if this all makes sense or not, just know I was happy to keep maintaining COVID-consciousness again this week by choosing something interesting on streaming rather than exposing my 75-year-old-body in a theater (especially while I’m already dealing with a week’s worth of a nagging backache despite 2 visits to the chiropractor, ice packs, heating pad) where the only thing I’d probably be interested in is Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City (streaming relatively-soon, I hope).  The same situation carries through to my next posting where streaming has granted me easy access to Julia Louis-Dreyfus in You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener), even though I could find it on a big screen with a lot of driving, but now I won’t have to.

          

SHORT TAKES

            

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:   

(1) Variety's 10 best films of 2023 (so far); (2) Summer blockbusters may pile up; (3) Oscars will require additional exhibition runs for potential Best Picture nominees from 2024 films.

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list).  Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page.  We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us!  Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a perplexing mystery to us old farts).

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.

          

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

          

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 32,238 (as always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers); below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

Flamin’ Hot plus Short Takes on other cinematic topics

A Janitor Sweeps Up Big Success

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

Happy Summer, 2023

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

    Flamin' Hot (Eva Longoria)   rated PG-13   99 min.

Here’s the trailer:

       (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

       activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: (Note: Please don’t confuse Flamin’ Hot with the new Pixar/Disney animated feature, Elemental {Peter Soth}, [which I think I can wait for it to be on Disney+ streaming] even though the latter features a fire-being, Ember, trying to connect with a water-being, Wade.  I’m sure she’s “flamin’ hot” in more ways than one, is from a looked-down-upon-heritage in Element City [which connects to the Chicano-rejection in the movie actually being reviewed here], and offers another feel-good-ending, but for now we’re focused on fiery snacks.)  We see a good bit of the life of Richard Montañez (played by Jesse Garcia as an adult), born in the U.S. to Mexican parents (not clear for me if they were undocumented) who worked as field laborers in a southern CA vineyard, with his father, Vacho Montañez (Emilio Rivera), a tough disciplinarian toward his son.  In school, Richard is bullied by some White punks, but he turns the tables by bragging about how delicious his bean burrito lunch is, one of the thugs tries and likes it, soon Richard’s selling them to many classmates, bringing in a lot of cash, but when he tries to spend it he’s arrested due to the cops refusing to believe he could have that much money without stealing it; on another positive side of his public school years (which he didn’t finish, a later problem) he meets future wife Judy (Annie Gonzalez as an adult), with them as teens into gang lives of selling drugs (with some footage/ commentary on the 1960s Chicano movement), which they put behind them after she gets pregnant.

 With the arrival of a second child, Richard gets truly serious about finding a stable job which he does with the help of former-gang-friend Tony Romero (Bobby Soto), as a janitor at the Frito-Lay plant in Rancho Cucamonga, CA even though he gets caught in a lie on his resumé (high-school grad?) by floor manager Lonny Mason (Matt Walsh) who takes a chance on this young guy because he’s seen that Mexicans employed there put in good effort.  Richard works hard but gets regular distain from the Whites.  Then, despite some initial resistance from Black engineer maintenance leader Clarence C. Baker (Dennis Haysbert)—himself a victim of the plant’s rigid hierarchies even as he works diligently—Richard soon becomes his unofficial apprentice as he truly wants to understand the workings of the machines responsible for pouring out all of those big bags of corn-based-snacks.

 During the Ronald Reagan Presidency, though (1981-'88), economic hardships begin to hit low-paid-workers (the movie’s premise, but I do agree), Frito-Lay profits decline, there’s constant fear this plant will be shut.  In response, Roger Enrico (Tony Shalhoub), a CEO within PepsiCo (owns Frito-Lay), puts out what he considers to be an inspirational video for his workers, encouraging them to “think like a CEO.”  Richard takes this literally, is inspired by how his youngest son Steven (Brice Gonzalez) likes the taste of spicy corn (elotes), determines to find a peppery-coating for his factory’s chips in order to better market them to Hispanic customers, goes through extensive trial and error to finally find success.  Once again, Vacho dismisses his son’s idea, further pushing them apart even as it draws Judy closer to her husband.  Richard manages to find Enrico’s phone number, calls him, explains he’s just a janitor but has a useful idea, so the boss listens, tells Richard to send him some of the proposed product, likes it, invites Richard in to pitch his concept to company honchos which he successfully does when he gets excited, deviates from his script, speaks from the heart, so product production is ordered; ⇒however, sales are weak, experiment’s about to be cancelled when Richard’s kids make the argument there’s no advertising for the Flamin’ Hot line, so Richard recruits anyone he can to simply give away bags of the snacks to the community (promoting it with “Food that tastes like home.”) which does increase sales, then leads into a massive increase in production.

 Clarence finally gets the promotion he’s long desired and earned, but Richard’s still a janitor when Lonny tells him to go clean an upstairs area where he finds Enrico waiting, tells Richard he’s been promoted to Director of Multicultural Marketing which gets a big round of applause from his fellow workers.⇐  Pre-ending-credits-graphics note Richard retired years later (2019), still married to Judy.

So What? In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s G. Allen Johnson Longoria said: “I wasn’t interested in making a movie about Flamin’ Hot Cheetos […] The movie explores how opportunities are not distributed equally. And that was in the ’70s-’80s-’90s. Today there is still no infrastructure for opportunity (for minorities). We explore racism and classism in the film, but what you walk away with is this lesson in resilience taught to us by Richard, who faced all these things and approached it with dignity and grace.”  Clearly, she (born in Corpus Christie, TX to Mexican parents) wanted to make her dramatic narrative directorial debut (she helmed the documentary La Guerra Civil [2022] about 2 boxers whose bout divided Mexican and Mexican-American fans) with a story that gives a positive presentation to someone from her heritage who succeeded in life despite being dismissed—just as she says she was early in her career—as being incapable of making a notable mark in the world, so it’s about Richard triumphing over dismissal, racism, assumptions of his inadequacy.  You can also find her talking directly about what she intends as “A love letter to the Mexican-American community” in this video (6:27), beginning with a short report on the status of the DACA (“Dreamers”) program which would ideally provide a path to U.S. citizenship to young immigrants who were brought here illegally, then at about 2:00 it shifts into the focus on Flamin’ Hot.

 However, despite Longoria’s defense of the movie as being about a dedicated man’s desire to find accomplishments in the face of rejection (with her continued support of his interpretation of the “flaming’ hot” history), the veracity of Montañez being the one who actually came up with the concept of a chili-coating for Cheetos, Doritos, Fritos, and similar products has been challenged in recent news articles despite the movie being screened at the White House with support from President Biden for its depiction of a self-determined minority man’s eventual success despite the initial lack of support for his concept of broadening Frito-Lay’s snack appeal to a considerably wider market.  While the company praises Montañez for his successful ambition/valid contributions to expanding their reach to Hispanic buyers, they provide no support for his being the “flamin’ hot” originator.  (I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything yet from Kevin McCarthy, Marco Rubio, or Ted Cruz slamming Biden for supporting this movie, but I guess they’re all too busy trying to come up with defenses for Donald Trump's 37 indictments—plus “valid” consternation over “dangerous criminal” Hunter Biden.)

 You can get considerably more details on the invention-controversy from these articles in The New York Times and (Great Britain’s) The Guardian, which note possible discoveries of how to raise the temperature of these “corny” products from a company research team in the Midwest or a Frito-Lay group in Plano, TX (near Dallas).  Montañez acknowledges simultaneous research into this product may have happened without shared knowledge of what was going on in different locations, but he still sticks by his story as the accurate version, properly presented in Longoria’s movie according to the real Richard.  So, would you be positively moved in watching this story about a former drug dealer/gang member who did rise from janitor to corporate executive or would you dismiss the whole thing given the fairly-convincing-evidence provided by the corporation that actual timing of events doesn’t support what Richard (and Eva, who stands by his defense) presents as his main claim to fame: the ongoing success of these “hot in a good way” snacks?  I tend to connect with the former response as this man did work his way up from obscurity (with little support in his early years except from within his own family) to becoming an icon of respectability within a society that so often has little use for those of his background (except as minimum-wage [or worse] workers in cleaning/back-of-house-restaurant/landscaping/construction jobs, often taking on tasks that many non-Hispanic U.S. citizens seem to feel is beneath them, leaving these necessary occupations to the “wetbacks").

 Surprisingly, with all the current verbal/political hostility toward immigrants from anywhere south of the Rio Grande, especially from the governors of Texas and Florida, I’ve not been aware of anyone prominent in the news media degrading Flamin’ Hot and its origin-story-controversies as somehow supporting their anti-immigrant-rantings because it supposedly gives credit to people like these when none is due, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Ron DiSantis tries to convince Richard Montañez to get on a bus to Tijuana with the promise of an even better future there (although I think that with a current net worth of about $15 million Richard doesn't  need any “generous” offers from Mr. Disney-phobe).

Bottom Line Final Comments: The CCAL’s not exactly wild about this movie, with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 68%, the Metacritic average score at 58%, but if you’re not put off by the conflicting reports of how true the invention-facts are, can just appreciate the foundational concept of a man given little worth outside of his own (often denigrated) community who pushed himself against all odds to find success when it was likely going to be denied to him throughout his life, I think you’d find this story to be inspirational, heart-warming, and a joy to watch.  (Although with all the brouhaha about veracity here, I’m inclined to be a bit cautious with my rating because of a concern that when we see something that claims to be “inspired by a true story” we can too easily be focused on the assumed-“true”-aspect more so than the “inspired”-premise which can give more creative license to the filmmakers than we normally get much chance—or make the effort—to challenge [unless the events depicted clearly reject documented facts as seen in Quentin Tarantino’s recent works about Allied killings of the Nazi high command—Inglourious Basterds, 2009—revenge against slave-owners in the Old South—Django Unchained, 2012—the Tate-La Bianca murders by the Manson Family—Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, 2019—all of which were intended to be seen as alternative histories].)  If you do care to watch Flamin' Hot, you’ll need to be a subscriber to either Disney+ or their corporate-sibling, Hulu, where you won’t pay extra for this streaming (or if you want to try a 1-month-trial, the former will cost you $7.99, the latter also $7.99 for the most basic plans, or even bundle them for $9.99 monthly, which would offer lots of additional viewing during that exploratory period with plenty to watch while chomping on Flamin’ Hot Cheetos).

 Or, maybe you’d just be content with listening to my review-wrap-up Musical Metaphor, “It’s My Life,” by the Animals (1965 Best of the Animals album, written by non-Animals Roger Atkins and Carl D’Enrico) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_ccpYv6Bc which came to me when I heard it on the radio last weekend while driving to my local 7-Eleven to (once again) buy the daily newspapers that weren’t delivered that morning.  While in this movie Richard generally pushes down all the crap dished at him, keeping an upbeat disposition as he tries to make his life better, the song’s attitude is more harsh: “It’s a hard world to get a break in / All the good things have been taken / […] It’s my life, and I’ll do what I want / It’s my mind, and I’ll think like I want / Show me I’m wrong, hurt me sometime / But some day, I’ll treat you real fine”   “When I openly lie / And live on their money / Believe me, honey […] I ain’t no saint / No complaints / So girl, throw out / Any doubt.”  Yet, Montañez’s situation is as bad as what’s in this song even though that doesn’t keep him from wanting to move beyond his past life of petty crime and little education in order to provide for a better future for his wife and kids.  He’s not ashamed of his heritage, just aware of how it unfairly limits his person and potential in the minds of those who assume so little of him until he (actually or fictionally) provides a means of helping his fellow workers (because sagging sales were driving the feared reality of shutting down the Rancho Cucamonga plant) as well as proving his actual worth to himself and those closest to him.  Maybe he’s not the one who specifically spiced-up those snacks, but the concept of how a downgraded person finds a means to rise above limited expectations is marvelous to see, even if it may trend toward contested fiction than the specific facts within this individual case.

          

SHORT TAKES

            

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

Some options of cinematic topics which you might want to read about: (1) IMDb's 10 most anticipated movies of the summer (some have already opened); (2) Box-office disaster for 

The Flash; (3) Netflix will now post numbers of viewers and hours viewed in its weekly Top 10.

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list).  Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page.  We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us!  Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a perplexing mystery to us old farts).

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.

            

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

          

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 32,238 (as always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers); below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

Renfield plus Short Takes on various other cinematic topics

“Mount” Dracula’s Eruption of Blood

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

                Renfield (Chris McKay)   rated R    93 min.

Here’s the trailer:

       (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

       activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: We begin with Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) rushing into a 12-step program, desperate to end a “toxic relationship,” then it shifts to 90 years earlier with the screen ratio in the old 4x3 format, black & white footage, as Renfield first meets Count Dracula in Transylvania (this short segment uses the classic Bela Lugosi Dracula [Tod Browning, 1931] with superimposed contemporary actors), becomes the vampire’s familiar (a human under the monster’s control, acts as a constant helper), doesn’t age and commands superpowers (especially strength and agility) by eating bugs while his master needs regular doses of human blood to maintain his own undead, eternal existence.  Then we’re back to wide-screen, color format (though the whole movie's not as green as these photos imply) as Dracula’s been captured by a couple of clerics ready to destroy him, but when the beast tells Renfield that the Count is his only friend the servant intercedes, Dracula escapes but badly burned in the fierce fire that erupts.  In an attempt to move his master to a more hospitable environment while he recuperates, Renfield relocates them to New Orleans where Renfield suddenly realizes he’s tired of his enforced life, discovers the co-dependents therapy group, but: (a) doesn’t reveal the full nature of his situation, just says his “other” is too narcissistically-demanding, and (b) plans to bring the group members’ abusive others to Dracula for his meals, creating a win-win situation for everyone.  One of the victims is a drug dealer using stolen goods, but when Renfield follows him to a warehouse suddenly they’re confronted with angry criminals who want to recoup their wares, plus an assassin from the rival Lobo crime family (run by no-nonsense Bellafrancesca Lobo [Shohreh Aghdashloo] along with her not-so-sharp-son, Teddy [Ben Schwartz]).

 Everyone but Renfield is killed in a grossly-bloody-manner (in many confrontation scenes in this movie bodies are assaulted in such vicious manners that blood spews out like a volcano disgorging lava, so the sight of that might be one reason for serious consideration about watching all this gore), but as Teddy drives away from the scene he’s stopped at a sobriety checkpoint by police officer Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), who takes him into custody;  However, at the station house he’s released by corrupt cops who take payoffs from the Lobos, frustrating Rebecca who also gets trouble from her FBI agent/sister, Kate (Camille Chen), who’s fond of reminding Rebecca she doesn’t measure up to the high standards set by their deceased father/cop.  Dracula’s not pleased with the meal Renfield brings him, saying he needs pure people to further his recovery so Renfield goes to a local restaurant, looking for appropriate victims.  Rebecca shows up there too based on a crime-tip, then they’re both assaulted by Lobo gang members sent to kill her in reaction to arresting Teddy, so (insect-munching) empowered-Renfield (kind of like Popeye with his spinach) and Rebecca fight off the intended killers, killing all of them in the process, with observing-from-afar-Teddy escaping again.

 Mom Lobo wants Renfield dead for killing her goons so Teddy sets out to find him, ends up in Dracula’s lair (basement of the old Charity Hospital) while Renfield’s away, so they make an unholy alliance.  Meanwhile, Renfield takes the advice of the self-help-group: rents an apartment, dresses in colorful clothes, works with honest cops against the Lobos.  Dracula finds out about all this, comes to a group meeting, kills them all except Renfield.  The Count leaves, Rebecca shows up, sees all the dead bodies, arrests Renfield (despite admiration of him for saving her life during the restaurant massacre), but then they’re confronted by corrupt cops and more Lobo thugs, leading to another scene of erupting blood and deaths as our 2 protagonists escape, with Rebecca wounded.  Renfield saves her by pouring on a little of Dracula’s blood which has mysterious healing properties (why he has some in a jar I forget), so she’s once again sympathetic after he's explained the whole grim truth.

 Of course, even more corrupt cops and Lobo henchmen come to Renfield's apartment to kill them both which (naturally) results in the assaulters becoming the assaulted as Renfield and Rebecca escape again.  She tries to contact Kate, learns her sister’s captured by Dracula and Bellafrancesca, so Renfield and Rebecca stock up on weapons to assault the Lobo HQ, but when they arrive they find Dracula’s provided 6 gang members (including Teddy) with Renfield-like-powers so the battle’s even harder this time, yet our warriors prevail with their antagonists all dead.  ⇒However, Rebecca finds Kate’s been beaten to near-death with Dracula offering to heal her in return for Rebecca’s loyalty (as he’s now ready to impose himself on our entire planet, with all humans turned into followers or food); she tricks him, though, by using a remote to raise the window coverings of the room they’re in exposing him to deadly sunlight.  He fights back, but she uses cocaine (?) to ignite a magic circle, capturing him, allowing her and Renfield to beat him into little pieces which they mix with concrete, dump into the sewer system.  Renfield uses his stash of Dracula blood to heal Kate (who, along with Rebecca, arrests Bellafrancesca [the rest of her crime family deceased, I guess]), with Renfield somehow in possession of a lot of Dracula blood allowing him to use this magical elixir to revive all of his self-help-group-members as a part of the beginning of his renewed human life.⇐

So What? Through the chance-occurrence that last Saturday my wife, Nina, and I had tickets for the Berkeley (CA) Repertory Theatre’s production of the stage version of Let the Right One In (Jack Thorne, 2013), based—as are the Swedish (Tomas Alfredson, 2008) and U.S. (Let Me In, Matt Reeves, 2010) film versions of this story—on the book by John Ajvide Lindqvist (2004), I decided to declare the beginning of our weekend as “Vampire Saturday,” so we saw an afternoon matinee (very strange staging at times, somewhat fascinating at others [review by Lily Janiak]) about the vampire girl who falls in love with a local, bullied boy, has to protect both of them by allowing her brutal powers to manifest, then Saturday night we watched this latest twist on the long-celebrated-vampire lore that’s been featured on the big screen since Nosteratu (F.W. Marnau, 1922)—somewhat based on the famous Dracula book (Bram Stoker, 1897), although an unauthorized adaptation—on through Universal’s use of the Count with Lugosi (and John Carradine) in the 1930s-‘40s (beginning with the 1931 Browning movie), then Hammer Studios take on this deadly monster in the 1950s-‘70s (mostly Christopher Lee as the coffin-dweller), and occasional variations on the tale in the ensuing decades.

 Possibly the most unusual of the lot is Dracula 2000 (Patrick Lussier, 2000) where we learn that Dracula is actually Judas Iscariot, punished by God for his betrayal of Jesus (Although that becomes a matter of debate, in that without the suffering/death of the Savior of Mankind none of us would be free of the eternal bond of Original Sin and whatever transgressions we make on our own [at least according to the traditional Catholic interpretations of human existence I was long-ago brought up with—but now have little interest in]; therefore, wasn’t Judas actually an essential part of the Divine Plan?  Ponder that for a bit.) so he didn’t die by hanging himself but instead lived in misery as a vampire by God’s command for centuries until he’s finally killed (yes, that’s a spoiler, but, damn it, that movie’s been out for a couple of decades already; besides, it’s still interesting to watch because it too has a New Orleans setting with plot points that could legitimately be tied to the Stoker/ Marnau/Browning originals).  To some degree, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992) also explores a similar plot line to some of what we witness in Renfield  because that … Dracula largely follows the novel, except for an opening bit where Vlad (the Impaler [Coppola literally connects a possible Stoker inspiration in his cinematic-rendition of the Count]) Dracula finds his wife dead by suicide, thinking he was killed by enemies, so he rejects God, becoming a vampire in the process, until at the end as he’s about to be killed back in Transylvania (as in the book) he comes to redemption (yeah, I spoiled another one, but you really should have seen it by now, shouldn’t you?  It’s also got great special effects, mostly using early-20^th-century cinema tricks which look modern).

 Well, compared to the silent wonders of Nosferatu, the established presence of the Lugosi vampire (even with the technological limitations of cinema of that time), the constantly-death-defying-Lee rendition of Dracula, and the marvelous majesty of the Coppola version, this current telling of the tale with Renfield as the focus leaves a lot to be desired (just as it leaves behind most everything else from the Stoker tale including how Dracula was seemingly put to final rest way back when), although it does give more substance to the character of Renfield as he admits here he was originally attracted to the power Dracula offered him rather than just being an insane victim, eating insects and vermin not for superpowers but just as a not-fully-transformed-vampire subjugated to his master, so he understands he must suffer for his sins (as Dracula reminds him at one point [paraphrasing]: “Without me to protect you, you’ll have to pay for the crimes you’ve committed over the years.”), although this movie ends on such an uplifting note (as well as probable appreciation from the non-corrupt-cops for all the local hoods he’s cleansed from New Orleans) you don’t get the sense he’ll be facing any sort of retribution.  (Maybe without Dracula in his life, he reverts to being an ordinary human again,  just living out his years with Rebecca and his grateful self-help-group.  Who knows?)  

 But, do you want to watch this blood-fest that reminds me in its own sick way of the comedian Gallagher who used to end his act by smashing a watermelon with a sledge hammer, spewing fruit, seeds, and water all over the nearby-patrons (who often came in raincoats if they sat up front), be my guest.  There's comedy sprinkled throughout the running time, Cage is effective as a self-centered, power-driven creature of the night, good does emerge after all the blood dries, but this is not a tale for a large general audience.  (Nor for Nina, who called it quits before the last group-slaughter was done—she wasn’t terribly impressed with the play either [told me later she doesn’t care for vampires much, tried to endure the play as best she could], although I might sneak a chance to watch the Swedish Let the Right One In due to its many awards, but I don’t think she’ll be joining me if I do.)  Take that R rating seriously where kids are concerned, because at times this movie’s about as unpleasant to watch as a documentary about the bloody horrors of animal slaughterhouses.

(Finally, a photo that’s not mostly green; poor resolution, though.  Limited choices were available.)

Bottom Line Final Comments: Renfield opened in domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters on April 14, 2023, didn’t make much of an impact grossing only $17.2 million ($25.9 million globally) before exiting to stream on Peacock (free to Comcast subscribers due to the corporate NBC connection; otherwise $4.99 monthly or a limited-option $19.99 for a year, but if you’re really interested in this movie—for whatever odd reason—you can buy it for that same $19.99 at Amazon Prime Video, Applet TV+, Vudu, a few other platforms).  The critical community won’t be much help in making such decisions, though, as it’s veered into OCCU territory with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 58%, the Metacritic average score at 53%.  Had it not been for the Let the Right One In connection for me, I might have skipped it (as I did when it was in the theaters), but I generally enjoy seeing which direction Cage will take in heading over the top (in that respect, he’s marvelous here), I hadn’t found much else on streaming that attracted me (hence, just the one review this week), and I definitely wasn’t compelled to go to a moviehouse to see Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Steven Caple Jr.)—I saw 1 of those some years ago; that was certainly quite enough—despite how popular the silly thing seems to be ($61 million domestically in its debut weekend, about $80 million worldwide), but maybe The Flash (Andrés Muschietti)—opening June 16, 2023—and/or Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold)—opening June 30, 2023—will be enough to lure me back into a darkened auditorium with hopes that my neighbors are all vaccinated.

 In the meantime, as I wrap up comments on Renfield I’ll leave you with my usual Musical Metaphor on what it’s about, this time with an emphasis on how the title character yearns for/achieves release from his bondage to Dracula with the Who’s “I’m Free” (from their 1969 rock-opera-album, Tommy) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux1vBolJf5Q (can’t say for sure, but looks like their set at the original 1969 Woodstock Festival) where that physically-restricted-pinball-wizard finally breaks loose of his self-imposed-hindrances (“I’m free, I’m free / And freedom tastes of reality / I’m free, I’m free / And I’m waiting for you to follow me”) to find a new beginning, not as a pop-Messiah but as an ordinary, evolving human being, just as Renfield seems eager to put away fantasy aspects of his life.

              

SHORT TAKES

              

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:   

Some options for you to consider: (1) Golden Globe awards will continue but not the Hollywood Foreign Press Association; (2) IMDb's recommendations for the best movies/TV series to watch in June 2023; (3) Variety's recommendations for movies to watch in June 2023.

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