Morning Reel

"Good Will Hunting" - 156

"Good Will Hunting" is a 1998 Oscar Award-winning drama film written by Ben Affleck & Matt Damon and directed by visionary Gus Van Sant. It stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, Minnie Driver, and many more in this film about a guy who is a genius in academics but has little direction in life due to the trauma he went through when he was a foster kid growing up. He meets someone who matches not his intellect but his energy. Will Hunting is the guy and Skylar is the woman. He also meets with Robin William's character named "Sean" who is a psychologist and they work together to sort of figure out his life or else he goes to prison for years after assaulting a police officer. The film is filled with lessons about life, adolescence, love, and growing up. A lot of quotables and iconic scenes that we still talk about to this day. I love the film for Van Sant's vision of displaying relationships of not only men and but men and women. This story is simple but layered due to how all these people communicate and their perspectives of life. Everyone seems to own but not Will. Will has a gift and is afraid to do something with it. We see the story line explain that concept of failure or not amounting to anything. We all have people in our lives that help shape us but it's really up to ourselves to prevail even if we know will fail. I dig the film for the dialog written by both Affleck and Damon, these characters pop with life and their own type of wisdom. It's not so much of a rom-com that story line does work with the growth of Will Hunting. He is loved by his peers, but to be loved and cared about from a stranger is as strange and we see what it does to us when we have been through it, when we have been denied that by the very people who were suppose to do that off general principle. Van Sant is a master of handling stories that have to do with growing up and not only does he show us the characters that embrace the screen but he also uses the shots of the environment as well as a character. Four out of four tokes

"Scream 07" -155

"Scream 7" is a film where it takes Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z to kill the overpowered killers that are out to get them. A fun film to watch overall. You get to see OG cast members of the original franchise reprise themselves in creative ways. Seeing Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox play their iconic roles are still spot on. The screenplay is wack and some of the dialog is just so silly to take serious. I don't mind some one-liners, but man! The film takes you to the similar formula that we've seen in the first couple of "Scream" films, except our OG characters are now older and much wiser. But that knowledge doesn't do their kin any good as we can already imagine and it's a bit of fun to see how these teen characters get themselves into trouble & danger whether it was intentional or not. It's a very interesting take of how different groups of generations can take on evil ESPECIALLY when you have AI technology being implemented in the overall story line. I wish that could have been better but it did a good enough job to sort of keep you guessing as to who are the killers in THIS film. The AI take on it does leave you confused but at that point, you just stop caring and enjoy the violence and tension. And man, how surprised we get during the third act. Two and a half out of four tokes

"When Harry Met Sally..." on a Micro-dose - 154

"When Harry Met Sally..." is one of the best rom-coms ever made written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. This type of film did set the standard for other filmmakers to take note and make their versions of two people falling for each other such as the works of Éric Rohmer and Richard Linklater just to name a few. It's a very quotable film from beginning to end that highlights the crazy and the dull of the people's ways of handling friendships. Can men and women be JUST friends? Especially when sex is there on the table, figuratively. The film tackles that with Billy Crystal playing Harry and Meg Ryan playing Sally, who are ambitious, filled with goals but they're stuck. They also have needs, a void to be filled by human contact and who would have know that these two would court each other for years to come. "When Harry Met Sally..." is filled with great dialog that I don't mind hearing 'till the end of time, people just talking about the anxieties of dating and self-love. Reiner's cinematographer captured these two and various scenes that doesn't make the film look boring, there's always something nice to look at. We see them, we see New York in it's '80S glories, and we see how Reiner makes us fall in love with all that. Can two people love each other let alone be friends? These two characters demonstrate the human experience. Sometimes we gotta bash our brains to realize who we want in our little lives but it seems it's never too late. I dig the film for the way it ends. It's powerful, corny, BUT powerful. The film gives us the encouragement to break boundaries on the human connection and falling in love again, and again, and again. Four out of four tokes

"One Battle After Another" is the Film of 2025 - 153

Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" is a wild and wacky film. PTA wrote and directed the film and much like his other films, it's a smash hit that mixes action, neo-noir and even black comedy. It's about life or death, saving the future by saving the daughter of a famous revolutionary leader of the French 75. It's literally the military vs the main behind the underground revolutionary force but you don't even know who would it be. I love how Leo DiCaprio embodied Pat, especially as a stoner but a bad ass bomber and is very active in the French 75. What's crazy about this film is how it relates to events that happening in modern-day society. A lot of Anderson's films play on the historic side of things. Events where he develops a story towards that highlights reality. I love how realistic this film is in everything it tosses. As funny as it may sound, but there are underground elite societies that grouped based off certain doctrines that we normal people may find ridiculous. But as ridiculous as it may seem, it's very real and very scary because these certain groups really disregard human lives. And this film does play on the disregard of people's existences. I love the film for the use of its cinematography and space. The way Anderson will use a wide shot to play out a comedic scene. The driving shots are incredible, especially how it utilizes the physical environment it's in like the POV of a car driving, we are the vehicle and we are literally driving up and down trails, chasing people and expecting we are gonna get a confrontation we want but Anderson being Anderson, we get something even better. The third act is very nerve-wracking. Especially how the lack of certain technologies would put us at a deep disadvantage but it's people that leads to where we need to go. We are the best technology. I love how the actors really use space to show off the strengths of their characters. There is almost no time to stop the action in this film. It's literally one battle after another and it's all happening just to save one human being. How heartbreaking it is to go to lengths to just save ONE PERSON. The trials and tribulations that each of us face no matter what kind of lives we live in. There is a right and there is a wrong and we gotta fight for what's right and dismantle the wrongs. it's difficult but this film shows how strong unification can be. It shows that everyday person is more dangerous than an army when united. There are underground elite forces out there but best believe there are underground revolutionary groups out fighting the good fight, one battle after another. Four out of four tokes

"Casino" - 152 ft. E-Zone, XG, and Chiclets

I am joined by E-Zone, XG, and Chiclets on this review of "Casino" directed by Martin Scorsese. This film is great and will stand the test of time. I like that the film sheds light on how casinos operate and get its' fill. We put man there and see what can come of it. I describe that Las Vegas itself is a character and it's inherently evil, I'd say. The major characters, besides the mobsters, CAN be decent people. It's just the environment that they get molded into. Sam Rothstein and Nicky Santoro ended up being different people as to how they first appeared from the beginning of the film. It's carefully strategic to write a film where a stand up business man is given the keys to a Las Vegas casino and decides to gamble his life's journey with a woman named Ginger. Sam Rothstein is that man and also gambled his life with allowing a well-known & erratic gangster named Nicky Santoro have freedom and pull to do whatever he wants and he gets away with it. It's a recipe for disaster. Like any other famous civilization, good things come to an end and it can end sooner than you know it with a toxic combination. This film about handling what you can possibly handle, knowing very well who you're dealing with, to play the game strategically but also playing it safe, especially when you're dealing corruption, vices, and your own identity. It's harder than it's said, right? To make it, is to sort of gamble yourself. Some bets are good and some bets you know are not worth taking. But sometimes, what seems to be impossible, isn't so. We talk about all kinds of scenes and breaking them down to where we find what we learn from this film. I dig the film personally for its cinematography, the acting from the major characters Lester played by James Woods, the energy of the editing as well as the sound design that goes along with it. Scorsese made sure we are constantly pulling the lever to see if we score and we won at every pull. He won at every pull. It's almost that same effect when one is gambling. This film isn't perfect but it's really up there. Most of the aspects of the film push the notion of the perfect film and it relates to the common man. It's very hard to do that and Scorsese did a great job doing that. He gave us a different perspective of the same stuff he's been visually preaching since "Mean Streets" (which I have yet to review at the date of this description). Four out of four tokes. E-Zone http://flavorsbyezone.com XG http://instagram.com/xgmarksthespot Chiclets https://www.instagram.com/chiclets_los.angeles/