Retro Review: Miss Freelance (2019)

Our retro review today is Miss Freelance (2019): A young woman named Carly hires out to strangers in New York City. Matthew Kyle Levine created this
All images courtesy of Timothy J Cox

Our retro review today is Miss Freelance (2019): A young woman named Carly hires out to strangers in New York City. Matthew Kyle Levine created this tale as writer and brought it to the screen as director. It follows the daily grind of Carly (Maddy Murphy) who fulfills the “dreams” of men in the city.

synopsis

Carly rents herself out. We are privy to her daily life and her interactions with various clients. The young woman clearly has issues with the source of her revenue. When she is not working, she listens to radio comedies. (Or is watching old television shows, it is not clear which one plays while we study her restful moments.)

Discussion

Carly’s life is one of deceit. She pretends to be different things to each client. She appears to be struggling with her occupation. The comedies she listens to or is watching, seem to be a sort of therapy.

Each “appointment” is different. We may not be privy to all her clients, but there are enough to make her entire life seem unreal. At one point she is confronted by her boyfriend. (Lover, partner, et al) played by Timothy J. Cox. By this time we are not sure if he actually is a real-life relationship or another client.

All images courtesy of Timothy J Cox

Carly is a complex character who appears to be uncomfortable with her choice of career.

behind the scenes

Levine has performed the unenviable task of being a good “all-rounder.” As well as writing and directing, he also worked as cinematographer and editor. Alex Scarlatos shared the duties on both the latter. Cox, as usual, exceeds himself and kudos to Zach Abraham as Randy.

Horse of a different colour

It would be easy to dismiss Miss Freelance as being all about hookers, or call girls. Sex, however, plays a very small part in this short story. Carly is indeed a horse of a different colour. She takes on the mantle of whatever fantasy/need that her clientele require. While the toll it takes is not good, she is soldiering on regardless. At the end of this just over 19 minute tale, we are left wondering what she will do next.

Suffice to say, Murphy knocks this one out of the proverbial park as Carly.

Trailer

Check out the trailer. The film itself is about a touchy subject for some and a reality that most refuse to acknowledge. There is no nudity, no full frontal’s here. The language is just under PG-13 and there is no violence. This one that makes you think. I have watched it repeatedly and it loses nothing.

Mickey Hardaway (2023) Self Fulfilling Tragedy

All images courtesy of Marcellus Cox. MIckey Hardaway
Mickey Hardaway

Mickey Hardaway (2023) can be seen as a self fulfilling tragedy. Marcellus Cox, writer and director of the film, gives us a doomed and very flawed hero. Shot in black and white, except for a very short section, the movie feels bleak.

As does the subject matter.

Synopsis

Mickey, played brilliantly by Rashad Hunter, is an artist. A tortured soul who is his own worst enemy. The only person who presents a larger threat to the talented young man is his father; Randall Hardaway. David Chattam plays the bitter and angry paternal head of the family as a resentful, nasty bit of work.

In Act I of the film, Randall shows just how abusive and cruel he can be. Mickey’s mother is no real help as she has been “beaten” into submission. Mickey’s only real supporter is Mr Sweeney (Dennis L.A. White), his art teacher.

His only other supporter is his girlfriend Grace (Ashley Parchment) but their relationship starts falling apart. Mickey hires on as a cartoonist. The prestigious publication, headed by Nathan Hammerson, then becomes another problem in Mickey’s life.

There is an old saying, “Self fulfilling prophecy.” In Mickey’s case, it should be “self fulfilling tragedy.” Like may talented artists, Hardaway feels the world is against him. Everyone, or so it seems to Mickey, puts him down and takes advantage of him.

His expectations of the world are unrealistic and he pays the price. While it is no real surprise that he distrusts everyone, his father saw to that, it is annoying that he feels he needs special attention.

Mickey’s art, which he clearly loves, comes second to his continual complaining about how life is shorting him. Hardaway even resents his shrink; Dr Harden (Stephen Cofield Jr.) for not prolonging their scheduled sessions.

Dr Harden

As outsiders looking in, we know that this is going to end badly for the young artist.

The players

All the actors in this film exceed expectations. All have solid bona fides and add much to the story. Young Mr Hunter knocks this one out of the park. Keep a watch on this one, he will go far. Another one that impressed us was Ms Parchment. Pretty, yet deep, she manages to speak volumes without uttering a single word. (A trait she has in common with Chattam and Hunter.)

Once again, all the main players in the film added an admirable bit of gravitas to the tale. Cox gets the most out of his actors and it shows in each and every frame.

The signposts

Cox choses to start the film during an event. One that makes no sense at first, but as the story plays out, everything becomes clear. Even without the shocking first moments of the film, there are signposts literally shouting a foregone conclusion.

We will offer no spoilers here. Suffice to say that from the first reel, Mickey felt doomed and Cox has, in this film, taken us through each little step. We know that this is a tragedy waiting to happen.

behind the scenes

Cinematography by Jamil Gooding, who also edited the film, is spot on. Gooding makes the most of small spaces. Each frame is tight and this helps to put us in Mickey’s shoes as he feels the world closing in. The use of colour in the film, when Mickey starts his relationship with Grace, is a splendid metaphor about love and how the young artist sees his life with this young woman.

It’s a wrap

While this tale was not altogether Shakespearean in scope, it came pretty close. We enjoyed the heck out of this one. Cox’s film earns a full 5 stars out of 5. Mickey Hardaway is streaming right now on Tubi. Check out the trailer and then head on over and watch the film.

Doll It Up (2018) Love With Plastic is Fantastic – Not

All images courtesy of Timothy J Cox

Doll It Up could have been called “Living Doll,” or “Love With Plastic is Fantastic – Not.” Written and directed by Yalan Hu, this is a short tale, around 7 minutes, of love and pain…and latex, it is funny. There is also some drama, but really only when one looks closely at the whole relationship vibe that Gunther exudes.

Twice.

Synopsis

Gunther (played to hilarious perfection by Timothy J Cox) is attempting to celebrate his three year anniversary with Natalie. While he eats, Gunther expresses his dissatisfaction with their relationship. After dinner ends, the “couple” engage in the bedroom. It is an unsatisfactory end to their evening, or at the very least, to Gunther’s.

He decides to find a new wife and discards Natalie like yesterday’s plastic grocery bag. Sadly, his ex seemingly has no intention of leaving Gunther. His new wife, also proves to be less than he had imagined.

Imagination

It is clear that Gunther has what can be termed as an overactive imagination. Or, conversely, someone with a few screws loose. Once his new mail-order wife arrives, he is insulted when the postman makes lewd remarks about his package.

This is a brilliantly imagined world where a number of men have issues with real women and relationships. Hu seems to be making a humorous point here. In this world we live in, sex has become a tenuous thing. What with gender issues becoming the norm and people turning to a more insular lifestyle, starting a relationship with a real man/woman is darned difficult.

Having a plastic/latex doll as a wife/girlfriend may just be the answer to marital bliss.

However.

It would take more than imagination to make this work. Perhaps, just perhaps, mind you, having a few screws loose would help to embrace this cold girlfriend/lover/wife.

All images courtesy of Timothy J Cox

If we look at Hu’s story here she seems to be saying most, if not all, men prefer a silent partner when it comes to sex.

Those Eyes

Not too unlike the late ’80s comedy Weekend at Bernies (A brilliant film where two guys struggle to make everyone believe that their dead boss is alive. Each shot of the dead man’s face appears to be showing a different expression.) Just as each shot of the doll’s face shows changes in their eyes. Those dolls, have really expressive eyes.

When Gunther is telling off his doll/wife her eyes look annoyed or disapproving. Her head is also slanted to left, ever so slightly. This gives us the impression that Natalie is listening to her “husband’s” unkind words.

After Gunther gets his doll divorce, his new mail order bride also has these, knowing eyes. Eyes that seem to promise so much.

comedy

The comedy in this short film is spot on. The moments where Natalie returns attempting to wreak havoc and destroy Gunther’s new relationship are excellent. This is funny.

Of course the comedy would not work if any of the crew let the side down. Thankfully, this did not happen in Doll It Up. Bailey Liu as cinematographer did an admirable job of keeping the shots tight where they needed to be.Yue Zhao as editor pieced everything together masterfully.

In fact, all of the “behind the scenes folks” did their bit to make the comedic pacing work.

Wrapping this doll up

Doll It Up is a 4.5 star short film. Hu and company deliver some brilliant stuff here. In terms of sexual content, there are two low key sex scenes. No nudity and the dialogue does not contain any “adult” language.

Hu has delivered the goods here and the film is worth checking out. Doll It Up is streaming on Vimeo.

As i Believe the World to Be: Review

All images courtesy of Timothy J Cox.

Spooky Madison (AKA Spencer “Spooky” Madison wrote and directed As i Believe the world to Be. It was specifically for a winter film festival. I have seen a few offerings for this Cincinnati film fest and this one is dark. It also raises some questions.

A lot of questions.

synopsis

Elnora (Bailey Kathryn) is seemingly created from the pencil of Piper. The writer is forming a storyline and has a protagonist with a dark core. In the slowly crafted tale, Elnora has a task to complete but gets distracted.

Jacob (Played by Timothy J Cox) is displeased with Elnora as she has not completed the job he gave her. She has been distracted by her target’s girlfriend.

Elnora

Biblical

I may be completely off the track about this one. As i Believe the World to Be is a film full of imagery and what feel like biblical references. Elnora, is a very dark person. She appears to be an enforcer for Jacob, or at the very least, an enforcer/assassin for hire.

But what is she? Is she a fallen angel? Or something worse.

She and the other fallen angel both bear scars on their faces. Something that could be the mark of Cain. She clearly is not human. Gia even brings this up. Elnora kills for a living and the mark on her face could well be that aforementioned mark of Cain.

Discussion

As i Believe the World to Be places Elnora in the role of Bogeyman. When she enters the bar to take the thief out, other women, apart from Gia (Agia Smith), look rather perturbed, almost hostile in fact. When Elnora goes to the bar and gets a shot the barmaid’s hand shakes.

*Side note: The profile of Billy (Anthony Dain) is a spitting image of Robert Downy Jr when he was younger. Quite startling actually. Also kudos to this actor who rocks it in the small role he has as Jacob’s employee. While Cox himself never needs any help knocking a role out of the park, Dain fits in perfectly and enhances the scene.

Questions

This short film is one of those that I can watch over and over. There are so many questions. Why can’t Jacob just fire the thief he hired? Why does Elnora have that scar on her face? Who is the other fallen angel? And just what are the two young women?

There is a hint of a dark supernatural chaotic theme going on here. As mentioned in the tagline, Elnora seeks out chaos.

conclusion

As i Believe the World to Be is a solid 3.5 film. It just missed getting 4 stars. Some of the dialogue was lost in the overall din of background noise. (Just inside the bar.) This was a cracker. Cinematographer Nick Huskey met the challenge of filming in tight places admirably.

The editing by Vincent E. Tricaso was spot on and Spooky Madison managed to make a mechanical pencil interesting. But most importantly, Madison placed a bit of humour into all of that pathos. A hard thing to do by any standard.

The Trailer

Watch the trailer and then head on over to YouTube and watch the film. You will not regret it.

Role Play (2024): Deja Vu All Over Again

Role Play (2024): Been There, Done That.

Role Play (2024): is deja vu all over again on Amazon Prime. (Thanks to the late, great Yogi Berra for that deja vu jewel.) It is not necessarily Amazon’s fault per se, but. The film, not unlike Ghosted, and several other older movies, features a couple, or in Ghosted the start of becoming a couple, offers what is becoming a cliche or more technically a trope by now.

who is in it?

Kaley Cuoco is Emma Brackett, an assassin for hire. She is married to David Oyelowo, a former journalist photographer. Seth W Owen, All Nighter, scribes a tale of an odd couple who have their lives turned upside down when Brackett gets her name put on a hit list. (Nod to John Wick here.)

This couple, again not unlike previous cookie cut0uts of this formula, feature a strong partner and a “weaker” one. In Ghosted, the female protagonist was not only a woman who could do practically anything, who is paired up with a real Wilbur Milquetoast.

Connie Nielsen (Wonder Woman, Gladiator) seems a bit wasted in the film. Her role could have been larger. Backstory is only briefly mentioned and while Nielsen, as usual, dominates any scene she is in, was not much more than a 2D character.

Perhaps the best thing in this luke warm feature is the presence of Bill Nighy. His cameo is not overly long, but like everything else this actor works on, he is memorable. Nighy almost steals Role Play with one gesture as he leaves the hotel bar.

Cuoco and Nighy

Rated R?

Somewhat remarkably, Role Play is rated R. Watching the movie, it is hard to understand why. As a rule sex is the big no-no. Violence usually will not affect the rating very much, depending on the amounts of gore available to the viewer onscreen.

Broken down, there is no sex, nudity, some mild cursing and the violence is darn near bloodless. One can only assume the R rating was because of Cuoco’s character murdering people for hire.

This is not John Wick. The Keanu Reeves vehicle has an R because of “Language, drug use/bloody violence.” It also had an astronomical body count. There is almost a negligible death rate in Role Play. The movie also features one really drawn out fight between Brackett and her guard.

One.

All Things being equal

Role Play looks good. Director Thomas Vincent crosses those t’s and dots the i’s. But all things being equal, the film belongs on a straight to streamer format. As a paying customer, I would have felt a tad ripped off if I’d seen it at the cinema.

The movie is billed as a comedy/action/romance. To an extent I agree with these labels. However the comedy is not “slap your thigh” guffaw type of laughs. Some chuckles? Surely. Romance is there, but the action is doled out carefully, stingily for whatever reason

The Verdict and the trailer

The verdict on the “deja vu all over again” AKA rehashed odd couple story, is another 3.5 stars out of 5. It delivers. It entertains and looks good while doing so. But it most definitely is nothing to write home about. The two child actors are very good though: Lucia Aliu and Regan Bryan-Gudgeon are two actors to keep an eye on.

Check the Role Play trailer and it if looks like your cup of tea, head over to Amazon Prime and check it out.