Tag: Edi Patterson

Oscar Predictions: Nutcrackers

The wildly unpredictable career of David Gordon Green stays wildly unpredictable with Nutcrackers, a family dramedy that opened the Toronto Film Festival yesterday. Mr. Green first captured the admiration of critics with the 2000 indie George Washington. He eventually moved onto stoner comedies like Pineapple Express and Your Highness and then some well-regarded grounded dramas like Joe and Stronger. As of late, he’s made sequels to horror classics in the newest Halloween trilogy and The Exorcist: Believer.

His latest is another genre u-turn with Ben Stiller as a career man who travels to Ohio to care for his four orphaned nephews. It marks Stiller’s first headlining role since The Meyerowitz Stories in 2017. Linda Cardellini, Tim Heidecker, and Edi Patterson costar.

Last year, TIFF’s premiere picture The Boy and the Heron started an Oscar journey that culminated in a Best Animated Feature victory. Obviously Nutcrackers won’t be eligible for that race. However, its chances of making any others are about as realistic. The Metacritic score is a ho-hum 55 at press time. That’s not going to lead to awards chatter. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

Oscar Predictions: Thelma the Unicorn

Jared and Jerusha Hess, the married couple behind irreverent comedies Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, bring their sensibilities to the animated comedic musical Thelma the Unicorn. Based on a series of books by Aaron Blabey, the pic is out on Netflix this weekend. Voiceover work comes from Brittany Howard, Will Forte, Jemaine Clement, Edi Patterson, Fred Armisen, Zach Galifianakis, Napoleon himself Jon Heder, and Shondrella Avery.

Critical reaction is mostly complimentary though not lavish in acclaim. The Rotten Tomatoes score is 70%. I’m guessing Netflix won’t make this a priority in their Best Animated Feature campaign. Perhaps it can make the final five if the field is especially weak though I wouldn’t bank on it. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

Violent Night Review

Nearly everyone is a member of the Naughty List in Tommy Wirkola’s Violent Night and that includes Santa Claus (David Harbour) for a stretch. We meet a more tipsy than jolly St. Nick on Christmas Eve at an English pub. He’s lamenting kids these days on a short break from chimney diving.

By the time he makes it over to Connecticut, he stumbles into a home invasion of the über rich Lightstone family. That includes matriarch Gertrude (Beverly D’Angelo), wine swigging daughter Alva (Edi Patterson) and her wannabe action star beau (Cam Gigandet) and constantly v-logging son (Alexander Elliot). The Christmas vacation turned hostage situation is joined by “#1 son” Jason (Alex Hassell), estranged wife Linda (Alexis Louder), and adorable daughter Trudy (Leah Brady). Named after her ruthless grandmother, she doesn’t yet share the traits of her haughty elders.

While she believes in Santa, Trudy cannot imagine the vicious ex-warrior that he turns out to be until they team up. The bad guys are led by John Leguizamo. He goes by Mr. Scrooge and all his henchmen are given seasonal aliases like Frosty and Candy Cane. Krampus (Brendan Fletcher) is the most sadistic and the funniest. They’re searching for a massive gift: $300 million said to be on premise. When Santa is stranded by his reindeer, he becomes the evening’s John McClane. He says ho-ho-ho, there are machine guns, and we have plenty of makeshift weapons that inflict maximum pain. Trudy is kind of a mini Al Powell to keep the Die Hard references up. She communicates with our very real icon via walkie talkie in what no doubt is a Christmas movie stuffed with carnage.

Violent Night shouldn’t end up on any best of or worst of lists. Harbour lends demented spirit to Mr. Kringle, but the script dampens the overall experience. There’s a brutally humorous twist on Home Alone style pranks in one sequence. A lot of the mayhem unfortunately has a repetitive feel. A tightened runtime of 90 minutes would be a bonus. It clocks in at 112 minutes. You will believe this could’ve been superior though this anus kicking Santa occasionally delivers.

**1/2 (out of four)