Heart Eyes

Heart Eyes

Based on how Heart Eyes begins, I assumed the masked killer known as “Heart Eyes” (or HE, for short) hated Valentine’s Day and was taking his anger out on anyone celebrating the holiday.  The people HE initially dispatches–an annoying couple and their engagement photographer–indicate as such.  Subsequent victims, all engaged in conspicuously lovey-dovey behavior before they were sliced and diced, also appear to prove my hypothesis.  However, as we follow the ill-timed courtship of the two lovebirds at the center of this story, I realized that the movie isn’t about homicidal anger, but love.  Serial killers just have a funny way of showing it.

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Captain America Brave New World

Captain America: Brave New World

From what we see at the outset of Captain America: Brave New World, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has made great strides since he accepted being Captain America four years ago.  His contacts in Wakanda have outfitted him with Vibranium wings, which emit a purple energy blast when he slams them on the ground.  He’s also become proficient wielding his shield, so much so that the speed and complexity of the ricochets boggle the mind.  I wished the movie had included one of those training montages that were mandatory in all superhero movies.  I really would have appreciated seeing how Sam learned how to fling it so that it caroms off of walls, people and everything in between until it circles back like a gleaming frisbee.  Where did he train?  How did he become so adept at playing the angles?  Did he start out by mastering billiards, or perhaps bowling?  Did an elderly Steve Rogers train Sam à la Mr Miagi just before he checked out permanently?  (No, Chris Evans is not in this movie.)

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Companion

Companion

Science fiction often tells us that robots want to be human.  The twist in Companion is that Iris (Sophie Thatcher), the robot at the center of this story, believed she was human right until her owner threatened to shut her off.  In an instant, she not only learns that she’s not alive, but that her boyfriend is a total creep.  Considering how humans behave towards her throughout the movie, it makes perfect sense that she embraces her robot existence in the end.  It certainly beats the vastly inferior alternative.

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Presence

Presence

Presence is an atypical ghost story, in that it’s a first-person narrative told exclusively from the perspective of the ghost.  As such, the movie camera doubles as the ghost’s “eyes”, zooming around the suburban home setting like a hyperactive drone.  That’s because the camera actually is a drone, operated by Academy Award-winning director Stephen Soderbergh.

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