Weekend Movie Recap

Science fiction, comedy, and Canadians comin’ atcha!

After four consecutive weeks talking about Onslaught, I’m sure everyone is ready for a change of pace. Good news! I watched three radically different films that received a wide release over the weekend, and now you get to hear about them.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die by Gore Verbinski

There was no way I wasn’t going to see a movie starring Sam Rockwell and directed by Gore Verbinski, but I really didn’t know what to expect. I had avoided reading anything about the movie or watching any interviews with the cast to go in as fresh as possible, and I could not be happier that I did. This is one of the most unique, imaginative, and hilarious science fiction films I’ve seen in years. The basic premise is that a disheveled man (played by Sam Rockwell) enters a diner at night while claiming to be from the future where artificial intelligence has killed off half of the human population, and he needs to recruit a team composed of patrons at this particular diner to go on a mission to prevent that future from happening. It’s not the most original premise on its face, but it’s the execution that makes it so much fun. The film is full of biting satire that covers everything from society’s dependence on smartphones to its apathetic response to school shootings, and it tackles these topics with a mixture of humor and genuine terror that I haven’t really experienced before. It’s equal parts Philip K. Dick, Terry Gilliam, and Harlan Ellison filtered through Verbinski’s distinct style. It’s my favorite movie of the year thus far, and it’ll be tough for any other film to top it.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie directed by Matt Johnson

Let me start by saying that it’s weird that two time travel comedies with ridiculously long titles both came out in cinemas on the same weekend. What were the odds of that? With that being said, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie are radically different films. This film is the brainchild of Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol that was first spawned back in 2007 as a comedy web series about two friends (fictionalized versions of themselves) starting a band with the goal of one day playing at a concert venue in Toronto called the Rivoli. Each episode is about the two concocting a ridiculous plan to achieve this goal that fails spectacularly. The thing that makes it so funny is that these sketches are always carried out in public places amongst people who are not in on the joke. Think of it as something like Borat, but the actors are the butt of the joke instead of the unsuspecting populace. I found this big screen continuation of their show pretty hilarious. I spent most of the runtime trying to figure out how they pulled it off from both a technical standpoint as well as a legal one. Their guerrilla style filmmaking leads them to such acts as skydiving off of the CN Tower in Toronto and sneaking into an actual news broadcast of a shooting outside of Drake’s mansion. They also splice in real footage of their younger selves from 2008 and stitch it together with scenes shot in 2025 to make it appear that their older selves are having conversations with their younger selves in a way that looks and feels real. It’s pure madness. All of this is done in service of a plot involving the two accidentally traveling back in time to 2008 and screwing up the future. I promise you’ll never see anything like it on the big screen.

Honey Bunch directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli

This is a fascinating little mystery film currently streaming on Shudder. It ostensibly follows a woman named Diana (played by Grace Glowicki) who is being taken by her husband Homer (played by Ben Petrie) to a facility for treatment for a traumatic brain injury she suffered in an accident. While there, she begins experiencing strange visions while her husband and those at the facility begin acting strangely. Is it all just related to her condition, or is something sinister at foot? I won’t spoil the mystery for you, but you can be certain that anything streaming on Shudder is going to have a little bit of horror in store for you. I quite liked this film. There are some cliches involved to be sure, but the film is elevated by excellent performances by the cast. Not only do the two leads do a fantastic job, but there are great supporting performances courtesy of Jason Isaacs and Kate Dickie as well. I recommend it for anyone looking for a slow burn mystery.