Not that Rob Thomas

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'Sew Torn' unspools a delicious thriller plot

1 week ago | notthatrobthomas.substack.com | Rob Thomas

If the Coen Brothers had spent a summer working behind the counter at Joann Fabrics when they were teenagers, the result might be “Sew Torn.”In writer-director Freddy MacDonald’s stylish and witty debut, a resourceful seamstress finds that her sewing box may be her superpower in outwitting gangsters and attempting to steal a suitcase full of cash. With its unconventional narrative structure, clever action staging and black humor, “Sew Torn” threads the needle between thriller and comedy.
‘Fight or Flight' proves the Hartnett-assiance is real

1 week ago | notthatrobthomas.substack.com | Rob Thomas

I’m old enough to remember when Josh Hartnett was the handsome young dude of the early ‘00s, an actor that Hollywood was trying to foist upon us in movies like “Pearl Harbor” and “30 Days and 30 Nights” despite being bland as dishwater. But a couple of decades and a little seasoning have made Hartnett no less handsome, but a good deal more interesting.
Blu-ray review: Taking a deep dive with 'Last Breath'

2 weeks ago | notthatrobthomas.substack.com | Rob Thomas

If it feels like I just wrote about “Last Breath,” I did. The movie whooshed through theaters at the end of February, was on VOD a few weeks later, and started streaming this week on Peacock as well as being available to buy on DVD/Blu-ray. Whoosh!Now that it’s widely available to watch at home, I do hope people catch up with it. It’s a sturdy, old-fashioned based-on-a-true-story adventure that prizes authenticity over dazzle, with strong performances and a tight 93-minute running time.
A24 released a movie for kids, and it’s wild

3 weeks ago | notthatrobthomas.substack.com | Rob Thomas

One of the great things about being a kid in the 1980s is that you never knew when an ostensibly family-friendly movie was going to scar you for life. Filmmakers of that era, perhaps still carrying the wounds from the ending of “Old Yeller,” often didn’t feel the need to sugarcoat or soften the emotional highs and lows of their family-friendly movies. As a result, just say the name “Artax” to a Gen-Xer and watch the tears well up in their eyes.
'On Swift Horses' is a slowpoke drama

3 weeks ago | notthatrobthomas.substack.com | Rob Thomas

Get yourself somebody who looks at you the way the characters in “On Swift Horses” look at a matchbook. In Daniel Minahan’s 1950s-set drama, every time a character encounters a book of matches advertising a hotel or a bar, the cardboard sleeve serves as a tiny reminder of a world they desperately wish to enter, filling them with longing.
'Cheech & Chong's Last Movie' isn't the usual puff piece

3 weeks ago | notthatrobthomas.substack.com | Rob Thomas

One of the most iconic images in ‘70s movie comedy, along with Cleavon Little on a horse and Steve Martin in a bathrobe, is Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, side by side in a car, smoking a joint the size of a Catholic prayer candle. The new documentary “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie” updates that picture, only now Marin and Chong are old men driving through the desert, and the spliff has been traded for a baggie of (now probably legal) gummies. How times have changed.
'The Wedding Banquet' has some surprises on the menu

4 weeks ago | notthatrobthomas.substack.com | Rob Thomas

I will tell you I went in elbows up, as they say in Canadian hockey, to the remake of “The Wedding Banquet.” How dare someone try to remake Ang Lee’s delightful and sublime 1993 film, especially as (at least judging by the trailer) a broad crowd-pleasing comedy starring Bowen Yang? What’s next, a sitcom version of “Eat Drink Man Woman” on Hulu?
'Middletown' shows the meaning of 'civic courage'

1 month ago | notthatrobthomas.substack.com | Rob Thomas

“Civic courage.” It’s a phrase defined by teacher Fred Isseks as “acting as if you live in a real democracy.” In other words, understanding that the system is rigged by powerful interests, but still showing up to do the work of an informed and engaged citizen anyway – voting, organizing, speaking out, asking uncomfortable questions. Boy, could we use a lot more civic courage right now. And the ‘90s teens at Middletown High School, with their clunky camcorders, can show the way.
'Anytime Anywhere' recycles an Italian movie classic

1 month ago | notthatrobthomas.substack.com | Rob Thomas

The Wisconsin Film Festival programs both brand-new movies and restorations of older classics. So it’s fitting that “Anywhere Anytime” is sort of a combination of both. The new film from Iranian-born director Milad Tangshir speaks very much to the world we’re living in, following an undocumented immigrant from Senegal named Issa (Ibrahima Sandou) as he tries to make a living in Turin, Italy.
The naked truth about 'Starship Troopers'

1 month ago | notthatrobthomas.substack.com | Rob Thomas

For me, the scene in Paul Verhoeven’s “Starship Troopers” that encapsulates its sly, demented essence is, surprisingly, not a battle scene. It’s the scene where a group of infantrymen share why they enlisted in the military to achieve the status of “citizen” in their fascist society known as the Federation. One wants to have a baby, another wants to go into politics, another wants to leave his home planet. Being a “citizen” willing to kill and die for the government unlocks those perks.