Tag Archives: Riley Keough

2012 Films, Adam Rodriguez, Channing Tatum, Comedy, Drama, Gregory Jacobs, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash, Matt Bomer, Matthew McConaughey, Riley Keough, Steven Soderbergh

Magic Mike-2012

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Magic Mike-2012

Director Steven Soderbergh

Starring Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey

Scott’s Review #1,302

Reviewed September 28, 2022

Grade: B

In 2012, Channing Tatum was a major Hollywood star. He was cast in starring roles focused on his looks but parts that also allowed him to showcase sensitivity and even some acting chops.

Magic Mike (2012) takes Tatum’s beefcake body and makes a likable hero out of his title character. He is not just brawn but possesses intelligence and a worldly quality that is sometimes lacking in comedic roles.

Unfortunately, the screenplay isn’t developed well and we get just a glimpse of what Tatum, the good actor, could do. Fortunately, two years later he would play his best role to date in Foxcatcher (2014).

Magic Mike teeters a tad too soft for my liking and gives the stripper world a glossy, lightweight haze. Given the subject matter and the director, Steven Soderbergh, the film could have gone much darker as Boogie Nights did with the porn industry in the late 1990s.

Still, Tatum is a star and boogies and shakes his muscular body enough to warrant the price of admission. Matthew McConaughey is also appealing and shockingly plays against type as an older and wiser former stripper, now the manager of club Xquisite.

By day, Mike (Tatum) works as a struggling employee of odd jobs-handyman, car detailing, or designing furniture. But when the sun goes down and the hot spotlight comes on Mike is the star attraction in an all-male revue.

Mike mentors a nineteen-year-old named the Kid (Alex Pettyfer) and teaches him the tricks of the trade. However, Mike’s blossoming romance with the Kid’s sister Joanna (Olivia Munn) is threatened when the drama begins.

Most viewers are not going to see a film like Magic Mike for the dramatic bits or any other measure of story. We’re not discussing The Conversation (1974), Chinatown (1974), or other heady and smartly written dialogue.

That’s a relief because the plot is banal. Who cares if Mike and the Kid are at odds or if Mike and Joanna break up, make up, or launch a mission to the moon?

No, the recipe of the day is flesh and there is plenty of it. Nobody goes full monty or anything but between Tatum, McConaughey, Matt Bomer, and Joe Manganiello, who plays a character aptly named Big Dick Richie, the audience will be left aflutter and quite satisfied.

Soderbergh, an impressive director, knows this and the best sequences occur on the stage. There is music, lights, and razzle-dazzle, as the troupe dance and strips with gusto. With each tie or vest shed amid a shimmering dance routine, pulsating energy makes the sequences appealing.

As showy as these numbers are, and there are plenty of them, I longed for some down-and-dirty drug use or ‘gay for pay’ situations but Soderbergh doesn’t dare copy Boogie Nights with any seriousness.

He intends to entertain and he does.

I wanted more darkness and more investment in the characters. We know little about the supporting characters except for McConaughey’s Dallas, who sadly will never leave the industry.

In the end, I was okay with the stories being secondary. This one has plenty of buff dudes taking their shirts off, and more, for the camera.

And who doesn’t like that?

Magic Mike (2012) was followed by the disastrous and stupid Magic Mike XL (2015) which makes the former seem like a masterpiece.

2021 Films, Colman Domingo, Comedy, Dark Comedy, Drama, Independent, Independent Comedy, Independent Drama, Jason Mitchell, Riley Keough

Zola-2021

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Zola-2021

Director-Janicza Bravo

Starring Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Colman Domingo

Scott’s Review #1,290

Reviewed August 16, 2022

Grade: A-

I’ve said this before when speaking about cinema but it bears repeating. I treasure the independent film genre and the creativity it allows. Usually, it’s a small group or sometimes even only one person with a vision and the ability to bring it to the big screen.

Budgets are almost always tight but that’s a good thing. Remember how 1978’s Halloween was made on a shoestring budget and took over the world?

Zola (2021) is a wonderful example of the freedom allowed in independent filmmaking.

The film is not for everyone and I think it knows this. Marketed as a black comedy it’s a mixture of drama and comedy and a dark story sometimes difficult to watch. Comic moments are contained within but sometimes it’s unclear whether we are supposed to laugh or cringe.

I was enthralled by the film not only for the story but for instances of visual magnificence like the dazzling opening shot of lead character Zola (Taylour Paige) in multiple forms of bubbles and sparkles surrounded by quick editing shots.

She boldly asks the audience “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me and this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.”

From the moment the first line is uttered we know we are in for something sassy, salty, and dangerous.

Gorgeous and technically superior cinematography mixed with sex, drugs, and foul language would resurface throughout the film.

The story is loosely based on a viral Twitter thread from 2015 by Aziah “Zola” King and the resulting Rolling Stone article “Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted” by David Kushner.

Eventually, portions of the tale would prove to be embellished.

Zola (Paige) is a Detroit waitress who strikes up a new friendship with a customer, Stefani (Riley Keough), who convinces her to join a road trip weekend of dancing and partying in Florida.

What at first seems like a fun trip quickly turns into a deadly journey involving a pimp, Stefani’s clueless boyfriend, some Tampa gangsters, and other unexpected adventures.

Director, Janicza Bravo, a New York University graduate, is someone to watch out for. Zola is her first full-length feature and reminds me quite a bit of Tangerine (2015) and American Honey (2016), two superior independent films.

At other times, the film contains a sprinkling of the underappreciated 2019 film Hustlers starring Jennifer Lopez.

Bravo is not afraid to delve into the down and dirty lives of characters that most people would quickly dismiss or avoid altogether. Stories about strippers, prostitutes, and pimps can be a tough sell. The sex work industry is not always pretty.

Zola contains the raunchiest scene I have ever seen. As Zola and Stefani sit on the toilet going to the bathroom the camera pans from overhead, revealing not only their naked bums but also the waste excreted into the toilet.

The setting of Florida where much of the action takes place hits home to me, remembering several boozy vacations in various parts of the state. A somber gloominess enshrouds the characters as they traverse an otherwise bright and sunny landscape.

I love the detail and mixture of pretty and poisonous but was left knowing very little about the personal lives of the characters. I wanted to know how Zola and Stefani ended up where they did.

Considering the subject matter, Bravo thankfully doesn’t make the film violent or abusive. Instead, she peppers the dark comedy and over-the-top turns with her characters, especially the pimp (Domingo) and Stefani.

When Zola (2021) ends, there is an unsettling feeling of uncertainty and a lack of conclusion that I wish were different. Still, the creativity and the ability to create desperate characters willing to do anything to make some cash is fascinating.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Film, Best Director-Janicza Bravo, Best Female Lead-Taylour Paige (won), Best Supporting Male-Colman Domingo, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing

2016 Films, Drama, Independent, Independent Drama, Riley Keough

American Honey-2016

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American Honey-2016

Director-Andrea Arnold

Starring-Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf

Scott’s Review #622

Reviewed March 6, 2017

Grade: A-

American Honey is an unconventional coming-of-age drama that deserves kudos for not only being shot on a shoe-string budget, but also for having something of substance to tell.

The film is mostly shot outdoors throughout the scouring summer months in heat-drenched Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas, as the film follows a group of rebellious, lonely teenagers as they attempt to sell magazines as part of a shady con organization.

Their female leader uses cult-like rallying techniques to achieve loyalty.

The film is shot mainly by hand-held cameras and only uses natural light, which is an admirable feat in film.

The film’s central character is an eighteen-year-old girl named Star, played by novice actress, Sasha Lane.

Saddled with a deadbeat boyfriend with two young kids that she is forced to care for, she takes food from dumpsters to survive.

One day, she is approached by a charismatic, handsome bad boy, Jake (Shia LaBeouf). Jake, along with a group of teenagers, offers her a job in Kansas.

Hesitant, but realizing her dead-end existence, she accepts the mysterious job and travels with other unsavory characters across the bible-states, where they prey on wealthy, religious types willing to lend a hand, under the guise of selling them magazines.

The main story envelopes Star, her romantic feelings for Jake, and the quandaries that she faces on the road. She drinks, smokes, curses, and is sexually active, yet also savvy and wise beyond her years.

The audience wonders if she will continue this lifestyle and worries when she comes into contact with older men- all rather well-mannered and some affluent.

Will they pay her for her magazines or some other form of entertainment? How will Star handle propositions and scrapes in and out of precarious situations? Star grows up throughout the film. Star is also a kind and confident character.

At two hours and forty-three minutes long, American Honey is extremely lengthy, especially given the fact that the film is an independent feature and also seems not to contain many concrete plot points nor much of a conclusion.

It seems to just go on and on and on.

Despite this, the film never bored me and I was quite enraptured with the antics of the story’s characters, finding myself quite fond of the surprising love story shrouded amongst the hip hop and rap soundtrack.

Star and Jake (thanks in large part to the talents of Lane and LaBeouf) have true chemistry and likability as a couple.

The mystery surrounding Star is we know nothing about her parents or family or how she came to this existence at such a young age. At one point, she does mention her mother dying of a meth overdose, but it is unclear whether she makes this story up for the benefit of a magazine sale or if it is the truth.

Star is rebellious, but very intelligent and capable, all the while exhibiting kindness to strange children and her “colleagues”.

Interesting to note about American Honey are two key aspects: the film uses almost all non-actors- most of the kids were scouted and offered roles at local malls or various hangouts by director Andrea Arnold, so the film has a rawness and energy that is powerful given that the film is largely improvised.

Also, the film is almost entirely shot using a basic hand-held camera or cellphone eliciting a shaky, documentary-style feel. Instead of these characteristics giving American Honey an amateurish feel, it gave the film an authentic quality.

The left of the center approach of featuring male frontal nudity and same-sex relations gives the film much credo as an alternative film- the teens also swear and use drugs quite a bit, which could turn some off.

Receiving a heap of 2016 Independent Film award nominations (but winning none), my reason for watching the film, American Honey breathes some fresh air into the world of independent cinema, where sometimes too many big-name stars appear in the indies to garner some credibility.

Watching a film of novices or individuals with no acting aspirations simply create a good story is worth something in itself. And kudos to Arnold for spinning such a fresh tale.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Feature, Best Director-Andrea Arnold, Best Female Lead-Sasha Lane, Best Supporting Male-Shia LaBeouf, Best Supporting Female-Riley Keough, Best Cinematography

2015 Films, Action, Australian, Charlize Theron, George Miller, International, Riley Keough, Tom Hardy, Zoë Kravitz

Mad Max: Fury Road-2015

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Mad Max: Fury Road-2015

Director George Miller

Starring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron

Scott’s Review #287

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Reviewed November 20, 2015

Grade: C-

Having almost nothing to do with the original (and far superior) 1979 version of Mad Max, the 2015 Mad Max, sub-titled Fury Road (presumably for the endless car chases across the desert), looks great from a visual perspective.

The charisma of Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron is appealing, the story is non-existent and the film grows tedious after the initial admiration I first felt for the camera work and the dream-like vision the film possesses.

Initially, and admittedly, I was quite impressed with the film- a dreamlike, glossy look makes it a fantasy that one can escape into.

However, after some time, I began growing tired of the visuals, viewing it as a somewhat video game, instead of noticing the lack of story, which glared.

Sure, the thinly laid plot-line involved a rebel, Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy), escaping the War Boys, where he has been kept as a blood donor against his will, joined by Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and a group of young, beautiful females escaping a life of breeding.

The group joins forces to allude, Immortan Joe, who chases them throughout the barren desert as they strive to reach safety in the beautiful “Green Place”, a land of prosperity that Furiosa remembers from childhood.

But this synopsis is similar to countless other action or adventure tales that have come and gone without distinction.

Again, compared to the original, I was expecting more from Mad Max: Fury Road and did not receive it.

The story fails because there is no rooting value. Since the film is a fantasy, per se, I did not find much investment in the characters getting to the “Green Place”.

The sweltering heat of the post-apocalyptic desert gives the film a roasting, tense look, and the action is almost non-stop.

Cartoon-like characters come and go, writhing on tops of cars or simply looking sinister with sneers and evil smirks, adding little to the story. Who are they? What is their purpose other than to look menacing?

I did admire the character of Furiosa. With a buzz-cut and a bad-ass swagger, the character is no-nonsense and in control throughout the film.

Certainly an inspirational female character, she adds zest to the film, which, on the surface, seems male-dominated. A female who can inspire and impress in this day and age is reasoning enough to mention.

Inexplicably, the reviews for Mad Max: Fury Road were positive and I do not get that. My overall perspective disagrees with these findings. I do not mean to imply that the film is “run of the mill” in an overall critique. It’s not.

There are fits and starts of creativity, as the glossy look of the film is admittedly a treat and a spectacle, but, alas, without a compelling story, this only goes so far before it begins to wear thin as an overall production.

Little chemistry or much dialogue between Hardy and Theron exists. Both are top-notch talents in their own right. Rather, grunts and facial expressions run rampant between the pair.

If the film was going for any sexual connection between the two, especially given the hot, steamy desert atmosphere, this intention fell flat as I noticed none.

To admire visually, the latest Mad Max (2015) may be worth a glimmer, but as a film that contains the entire package, this one is not worth its salt.

Oscar Nominations: 6 wins-Best Picture, Best Director-George Miller, Best Sound Editing (won), Best Sound Mixing (won), Best Production Design (won), Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Hairstyling (won), Best Costume Design (won), Best Film Editing (won), Best Visual Effects