SWALLOW (2019)

 

Written & Directed By: Carlo Mirabella-Davis 

Cinematography: Katelin Arizmendi

Editor: Joe Murphy 

Cast: Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, Zabryna Guevara, Laith Nakil, Denis O’Hare, Luna Velez, Babak Tafti, Nicole Kang

Hunter, a newly pregnant housewife, finds herself increasingly compelled to consume dangerous objects. As her husband and his family tighten their control over her life, she must confront the dark secret behind her new obsession.

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Will admit, it took me a while to finally watch this film as frankly, one was scared or nervous about the material from reading the reviews of this show, though can happily say it’s not as gory or fitting into the body hard genre of grotesque as much as one fear.

This is more of a character study that at first seems like it’s gonna be more of a body horror film. As it’s focus seems to be more clinical clean, cut and direct. Everything seems sharp and clear in focus.

Tell as the film goes along, we see that the main character has her doubts and problems and seems to repress them, which might be why she has this eating disorder as she keeps everything in so this is a way for her to act out by swallowing small and animate objects as she’s taking them and holding them. The only thing is that eventually they come out as well as leaving damage to her body.

Which can be an analogy for the character herself she’s holding all of this emotions, anger, and despair in and eventually they’re going to have to come out as they are doing damage to her body more to the inner workings and brain

That was throughout the film as she breaks down, so do the characters around her her clean, cut, rich, family, surely shows they’re worth an ugly side as they want her to be the perfect wife, even though they belittle her or never take her truly into consideration other than a show piece, which shows And her look which is more 1950s and 60s even though this is a modern day set

Her loving husband who seems to care and be sensitive to her needs in the beginning as the film goes long his mentality seems to deteriorate, and if he truly loves his wife, he never shows it as he feels like money can take care of every problem and he can’t be bothered to put in too much effort as it makes him look bad.

As he slowly reveals himself to be the villain in this film, though it seems more in his nature, as he is even ready to throw a fit over a tie being ironed. Austin Stowell is subtle in this role, he is mostly quiet,but you can feel his menace

Haley Bennett, truly show her skills as an actress and her star power throughout as she inhabit a character who can be confusing, but you can’t help but care about no matter what and who you truly want to save or hope in someway that she can save herself.

Definitely a movie that could be characterized by class and some might see as partly political also

The film is hard to watch as we see her constantly be betrayed by those around her, which stays a common theme as her problem gets worse. The only people who seem to be decent to her are more random characters.

This is a very chilling film, luckily not as hard to watch as one thought it would be. It’s still a hard film to sit through only because of the more emotional violence and a little bit of self-destructive nature physically.

No, this is definitely a psychological drama thriller. It’s sharp in its own ways, though not as cutting edge as the audience might hope. 

GRADE: B 

G20 (2025)

 

Directed By: Patricia Riggen 

Written By: Caitlin Parrish, Erica Weiss, Logan Miller & Noah Miller 

Story By: Logan Miller & Noah Miller 

Cinematography: Checco Varese 

Editor: Doc Crotzer and Emma B. Hickox 

Cast: Viola Davis, Anthony Anderson, Anthony Starr, Ramon Rodriguez, Marsai Martin, Douglas Hodge, Elizabeth Marvel, Christopher Farrar, Clark Gregg, Angela Sarafyn 

Terrorists take over the G20 summit with President Sutton, bringing her governing and military experience to defend her family, company, and the world.

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 I wish I could say that this film still apart or was better considering who stars in it, but this film is pretty basic and predictable for anyone who’s ever seen a movie before especially an action movie 

One of the main differences is that the hero of the film is female and a woman of color African-American to be exact and it feels a little revolutionary considering that the film takes place in South Africa 

This film you wonder if they were expecting a different outcome for the presidential election of 2024 as the main character or the first family in this film is African-American, who, along with other leaders are taken hostage and at some point, each of them managed to escape being captured and then come together to the end

The action sequences are nothing to write home about, but they are serviceable and Viola Davis still has all that muscle from the woman king so she’s got the guns to be an action hero, and we all have to take a paycheck now and then because she is definitely better than the material and even the film.

She has been in the suicide squad movies and across the DC universe as I’m on the Waller even though all of the films she’s been involved in her action films. She’s never personally done any action scenes herself in those films here shows she’s capable of it.

But this is a perfectly fine time. Keep your interest while you watch it, but forgettable once it’s over.

Think typical Jason Statham-type action films only with a lack of one-liners after a kill or action scene 

As this is a film, you don’t have to think or make sense as one of the qualities of films or films like these usually is that they have so many writers and you would think having so many would make the film a little bit more intricate or cleanup maybe some of the other writers mistakes but it seems like the case of too many cooks in the kitchen or maybe they oversimplify everything and try to explain even though they’re probably there to brush up on elements that the filmmakers are studio didn’t like about the last draft

There are no big surprises as you can tell exactly where the story is going you can tell the double crosses in advance could almost be a modern black film because all colors are good and bad, but you’ll notice that most of the villains are heroes people of color which is inspiring.

Grade: C- 

NATIVE SON (2019)

Directed By: Rashid Johnson 
Written By: Suzan Lori-Parks 
Based on the Novel By: Richard Wright 
Cinematography: Matthew Libatique 
Editor: Brad Turner 

Cast: Ashton Sanders, Kiki Layne, Margaret Qualley, Nick Robinson, Bill Camp, Elizabeth Marvel, David Alan Grier, Sanaa Lathan, Lamar Johnson 


A young African-American living in Chicago enters into a seductive new world of money and power after he is hired as a chauffeur for an affluent businessman.