2024 Films | Scott's Film Reviews-1,425 + Reviews posted so far!!!

Sting-2024

Director Kiah Roache-Turner

Starring Alyla Browne, Ryan Corr

Scott’s Review #1,436

Reviewed August 18, 2024

Grade: B-

Sting (2024) is a lightweight but suspenseful, late-night horror flick. It takes a bit to get going and at only a one hour and thirty minute running time that’s too long for it to take off and have a satisfying effect.

The set designs are the best part as the wintery Brooklyn, New York atmosphere pairs well with the dingy and stuffy walk-up apartment complex where the action occurs and a family lives.

The dusty rooms, creaking floors, and walls are well-done thanks to dim lighting and a secluded vibe. I bought that the family lives this way but felt cozy thanks to these trimmings.

As with seemingly most modern horror films the plot doesn’t make much sense nor is it plausible.

To compare Sting to other films it plays like Arachnophobia (1990) with a dash of Alien (1979) thrown in but is inferior to those films lacking either the campy humor or the wonderful special effects.

The film is not scary but at most thrilling.

Sting reintroduces a spider as the protagonist with marginal success. The spider starts innocently but grows into a sinister carnivore with human beings as its desired menu item.

Events surround twelve-year-old Charlotte (Alyla Browne) who obtains a pet spider who becomes her pride and joy and who she names Sting. Once she realizes that Sting plans to eat her entire family Charlotte goes into protector mode and must fight for their survival.

Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner, an Australian director unknown to me she uses mostly Australian actors.

Sting starts well with a scene involving an elderly tenant named Helga who begins to hear noises in the walls and assumes they are rats. She calls a local exterminator.

Helga has dementia and the audience quickly realizes she has already called an exterminator but has forgotten. The investigating exterminator is snatched by an unknown force and dragged into the wall canals of the old building.

Then Roache-Turner takes us back to four days prior.

This point immediately made me invested in the film especially when other characters are introduced and we learn the connection to Helga.

What’s going to happen in the next four days?

Unfortunately, Sting loses steam from this point introducing marginally interesting characters. Charlotte, her overworked stepfather, Ethan (Ryan Corr), her clueless and frazzled mother, Heather (Penelope Mitchell), and her creepy German Aunt Gunter (Robyn Nevin).

Stock characters like a boozy Spanish neighbor, the weird Asian kid upstairs, and the comical black exterminator are included.

Hey, at least diversity was added.

The only likable character is Ethan. He struggles to connect with the bratty Charlotte through graphic novels, and the demands put upon him by Heather’s family who do not like him for some reason.

The poor guy serves as the building superintendent, works a day job, attempts to do creative work by night, and is a surrogate father. Sounds like a hero to me.

The point of the family drama only adds filler to the already slow-paced film and has nothing to do with the main event of Sting eating the family.

Charlotte is quite unlikable and I rooted for Sting to turn on her and make her its next victim. She mostly pouts and broods and has a sense of entitlement. I’m not sure why Roache-Turner made the character this way and should have softened her.

Events do pick up towards the end when finally a character is killed and the others accosted and put into webs presumably to be dined on later.

Since Charlotte is the character we are supposed to root for and I hated her this was anticlimactic.

Predictably but also clever is how a perfect sequel setup occurs at the end. I’m not sure Sting is good enough to warrant a sequel but box office receipts will determine this.

Sting (2024) is entertaining and fun but little more. I’ve already started to forget about it.

The Bikeriders-2024

Director Jeff Nichols

Starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy

Scott’s Review #1,431

Reviewed July 1, 2024

Grade: A-

The Bikeriders (2024) immediately informs the audience of the time and place the film will be told. A dry and dusty midwestern, USA between 1965-1973 is the window explored and the defiance of the characters drawn.

This period is the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, assassinations, Woodstock, and many other historical moments. Dangerous, the culture and people were changing and very rebellious.

Director Jeff Nichols, who also wrote the screenplay based on ‘The Bikeriders’ by Danny Lyon wonderfully presents a time capsule of a group of bikers who forged their subculture away from the uncertainty of the rest of the world.

After a chance encounter at a local biker bar, strong-willed Kathy (Jodie Comer) is drawn to handsome and mysterious Benny (Austin Butler), the newest member of the Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals led by the enigmatic Johnny (Tom Hardy).

Much like the country around it, the club changes with time, transforming from a basic gathering place for local outsiders into an underworld of violence, forcing Benny to choose between Kathy and his loyalty to the club.

The strongest parts of The Bikeriders are the beginning and end with portions in the middle section making it drag and lowering a potential ‘A’ rating to an ‘A-‘.

But the other sections are so rich with characterization and events that they usurp the dull parts.

Nichols, who has also directed Take Shelter (2011), Mud (2012), and Loving (2016) likes to focus on the decade of the 1960s in America with conflicted characters. He likes to work with Michael Shannon who has a small yet pivotal role as a man who ponders life.

We meet Benny in a bar where he sips a drink. He is hastily told by two local thugs to remove his biker jacket. After a bloody fight in the parking lot, we realize how much the biker club means to him and what it symbolizes.

It’s a club where the vermin, weirdos, undesirables, and those cast aside by society find a place and are cared for by one another. That is until the years pass and things change by meaner and less loyal bikers.

The symbolism resonates with all because time never stands still and good things always come to an end.

The Bikeriders is told from the perspective of Kathy through a series of interviews with her friend, Danny (Mike Faist). He is the real-life author of the book the film is based on.

Comer is outstanding in the lead female role. She is strong and resilient, attracted to the dangerous lifestyle and the bikers, but only has eyes for Benny and will not be taken advantage of.

She chronicles specific events like fights, death, and rape, in painful yet thoughtful detail inviting the audience into her dark world.

Butler and Hardy are also terrific. Arguably co-leads, Butler’s Benny is childless, freer than Hardy’s Johnny, a family man. Johnny sees Benny as the next leader of the Vipers but Benny wants none of that.

Both men are tortured by comparisons to the club and life outside the club. During a long homoerotic scene, Johnny and Benny are dangerously close to kissing as Johnny discloses the reasons why Benny should lead the club.

The scene is smoldering as the unspoken connection can be felt in raw form. Nichols doesn’t dare to make the film into anything LGBTQ+ related but the nuances and subtleties exist.

Besides the acting, the gritty environment oozes with richness. The soiled biker bars, sticky floors laden with blood, beer, and vomit, emit from the silver screen.

You can almost smell the environment.

The bad teeth, foul language, and tacky midwestern accents, all portray the loneliness of these characters and how they cling to the club for dear life.

Nichols and the author Lyon depict a fresh look into the world of motorcyclists and the culture they lived and died in for a brief time. The Bikeriders (2024) presents violence mixed with brotherhood and loyalty which is fascinating to watch.