Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of January 13, 2025
Wolf Man
Rated R for grisly images, bloody violent content and some language
Rotten Tomatoes Score:
In Theaters
From Blumhouse and writer/director Leigh Whannell (Upgrade, Invisible Man) comes this new take on the wolf man story which follows a young man (Christopher Abbott) who makes a trip home to remote Oregon to clean out his father’s house after the state declared his absence as likely death. Bringing his wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Mathilda Firth) along with him, the trip escalates into a nightmare quickly when their moving truck crashes while trying to avoid a strange creature in the road, and that creature scratches his arm before running away. They quickly find their way to his childhood home to barricade themselves in, but unfortunately his scratch becomes infected, and he begins to evolve (or devolve) into something else. For the last several years, Blumhouse has been pumping out some very decent b movie horror flicks, and this is no different. It is effectively scary at times, with a few jump scares, but mostly a slow burn suspense as you know what is coming, but you don’t know how it will be delivered. The acting is good enough, although I expected a little more from Garner, who blew me away in Ozark. I was also thrown off by her distracting mom jeans, which had me cringing pretty hard. But overall, I liked the interesting take on the classic horror story and the production is solid. Although the film was pretty simple, its attempt at horror worked and I found my heart rate elevating many times throughout. B-
Better Man
Rated R for nudity, drug use, pervasive language, sexual content and some violent content
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
In Theaters
Every year, I run out of time when trying to watch every single film that needs to be seen before I vote for awards and write my end of year favorites list. And thus, I always have films that would have or could have made my list or ballot but get left out. This year, I would count Better Man among these. The film is based on the life of mega pop-star Robbie Williams. Who is Robbie Williams you may ask? Good question. He is big everywhere except the U.S., and he is especially huge in the UK. And I mean huge. Look him up. In this brilliant film by writer/director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman, Rocketman), Robbie chose to have his character played by a chimpanzee since he considers himself to be not quite fully evolved as a human. It was also a smart way to have his voice give life to the character without having to have him act in the film. Honestly, audiences didn’t know how to take this, and thus they didn’t. It opened this last weekend and literally made about a million dollars. That’s it. But those who did watch it enjoyed it. I loved it so much I had to watch it again the next day, and now I can’t get the songs out of my head. Songs that probably every Brit knows by heart, but which I have never heard before last week. The film is an exciting musical adventure, and the chimp thing works incredibly well. When you get into the film, not only is it not distracting, but it turns into a powerful and moving picture that will be hard for you to shake. I fear that theaters might have dropped it like a hot potato due to its lack of performance, but I have no doubt that you’ll be able to watch at home in no time, which I highly encourage. This is really a special little film that most folks will find absolutely mesmerizing and eye-opening. A