Day 277: Deathgasm (2017)

There are films that come along that get so much buzz from the underground that you just have to watch especially if they get coverage from your favorite metal music magazine. That was definitely the case for today’s film which combines heavy metal and horror in 2015’s Deathgasm. For Brodie (Milo Cawthorne), life has been a little tough especially since he has to move in with his over christian Uncle and his obnoxious family. Life in the new town isn’t any easier considering he is one of few metalheads in the town until he meets Zakk (James Blake), a fellow metalhead with bigger balls than him. That will all be put to the test though while they found a music sheet that just happens to summon a demon by the name of the Blind One. Now they’ll have to fight off all the demons before it’s too late. The film also stars Kimberley Crossman (Strangers In A Strange Land) as Medina, Sam Berkley (Jake) as Dion, Daniel Cresswell (3 Mile Limit) as Giles, Delaney Tabron (Spartacus: War Of The Damned) as Shanna, Stephen Ure (The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug) as Rikki Daggers, Kate Elliott (30 Days Of Night) as Abigail, and the film was written and directed by Jason Lei Howden (The Avengers). To read the rest of the review, please click here to go to Moshpits & Movies.

Day 23: Charlie Bartlett (2007)

For today’s film, I decided to review a film that starred Robert Downey Jr. who made a resurgence in his career in the 2000’s and Anton Yelchin who starred in a film I loved called Alpha Dog. The film I chose for today is called Charlie Bartlett and Yelchin plays the title character. Charlie is a kid who is just looking to fit in, but unfortunately he doesn’t know how to do it the right way as he has found himself getting kicked out of numerous schools. His clueless mother (Hope Davis) decides to enroll Charlie into Western Summit High, where Charlie will become the school’s psychiatrist in order to gain popularity. The only problem is that there are consequences for every action and Charlie has to try and use his new found popularity to do the right things. The film also stars Kat Dennings (Thor: Dark World) as Susan, Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) as Principal Gardner, Tyler Hilton (Walk The Line) as Murphy, Mark Rendall (30 Days Of Night) as Kip, Dylan Taylor (Tideland) as Len Arbuckle, Megan Park (The Secret Life Of The American Teenager) as Whitney, Jake Epstein (Degrassi: The Next Generation) as Dustin, Derek McGrath (Carrie) as Superintendent Sedgwick, Jonathan Malen (Mean Girls) as Jordan, and the film was directed by Jon Poll (Captain America 1990).

You can look at this film in several different ways, is it social commentary on how obsessive our society has been on abusing prescription pain killers? Or is it commentary on how kids will do anything to become popular? Well, if it’s the second one, then that is something that has been happening for ages and even in film. Every generation has their films on what it’s like to be a teenager like what Fast Times At Ridgemont High did for the 80’s. I highly doubt that it was the first one just because the pills are a minor part of the whole film and only serve as a catalyst to get the film going. Although, there is this one line in the film that I thought was superb and exactly how society should look at teens and prescription drugs. It reads like, “Bringing psychiatric drugs and teenagers together is like opening a lemonade stand in the desert.” I thought that was a brilliant piece of writing from the writers. Everything about this film was good from the writing to the director and it’s sort of a coming of age story, but only in the fact that Charlie comes to realize who he really is and what his place is in society. Kat Dennings of course looks fantastic in the film and she does an amazing job playing a teenager with so much angst. Listen check out the film for yourself, it’s playing on one of the premium channels. I am going to give the film an B+ for a final grade.