'AMERICANA'.......RE-HEATED TARANTINO/COEN BROS. LEFTOVERS, BUT NOT WITHOUT ITS OWN CURIOUS CHARMS.......

 Americana (2023)

        We still well remember, and not with any great fondness, the sheer avalanche of 'Pulp Fiction' knockoffs that flooded film festivals, theaters and video stores throughout the second half of the 1990's and into the 2000's.....

        You know the drill......quirky hit-men, goons and assorted weirdos firing off snappy repartee filled with pop culture references.....until they all pull out guns and wipe each other out in a cloud of blood squibs. Feel free to yawn deeply......

        Writer-director Tony Tost draws deeply from that shallow well of tropes, also throwing in a liberal helping of subversive Coen Brothers dry humor.

         Normally, every instinct would lead us to hate this movie for its derivative origins....

         But we didn't. 

         In his feature film debut, Tost proves he has the unflinching eye of a visualist director, coupled with a firm grasp of character development. 

         Even more surprising, we found a warm, humanist streak of sentimentality that you'd never, ever catch sight of in the unforgiving universes of Quentin and the Coens.

         Tost fills his wide screen with the expansive landscapes of South Dakota...(actually New Mexico). Abused and fed up Mandy (pop singer Halsey, not bad at all) knocks out her petty crook boyfriend Dillon(Eric Dane) and takes off in his muscle car......but not with her strange young son Cal (Gavin Maddox Bergman), obsessed with Native American culture and convinced he's Sitting Bull reincarnated.  Rolling back the timeline a few days, we see Dillon had previously stolen a highly valued Lakota tribal 'ghost shirt' and stuffed it in the trunk of that muscle car, unbeknownst to Mandy. 

         Naturally there's a parallel storyline, involving gentle soft spoken Lefty Ledbetter (Paul Walter Hauser, one this film's MVPs). A lonely war veteran, Lefty repeatedly makes awkward marriage proposals to his first dates, including shy stuttering waitress Penny Jo (Sydney Sweeney, achingly sweet, a forever deer-in-the-headlights).

         Lefty and Penny Jo get wind of the stolen ghost shirt, so they follow Mandy, who as a last resort, has taken refuge with her estranged father Hiram (Christopher Kriesa). And here's where the film ups its voyage into Krazy Tarantino-land... with Hiram living like a quietly demented cult leader, surrounded by gun-toting minions and ruling over his enslaved wife and daughters like a 19th century frontier Patriarch,  dressing them up like the cast of 'Little House on the Prairie'. 

        And then a host of characters converge on Hiram's compound......Lakota tribal members who've heard from Cal about the stolen ghost shirt, Lefty and Penny Jo, and lethal thug Roy Lee Dean (Simon Rex) whom Dillan had enlisted in the theft and sale of that priceless Native artifact. 

        Bullets fly freely and very few cast members are left standing......

        What kept us constantly glued to this movie, as opposed to those dreary, unwatchable 1990's fake Tarantino copycats, was creator Tost's obvious care and affection for his characters. And his ability to slow the movie down to spend some quality time with them. (He's enormously aided by the expert playing of odd couple Hauser and Sweeney, who know to make a scene both heartbreaking and funny at the same time.)

       Okay, maybe all of it doesn't quite hold together the way it should, and sure, the tone's wildly uneven, but anybody who savors adventurous independent cinema will find plenty to enjoy here. And find it well worth a viewing. 

        BQ did. And we damn well look forward to whatever Tony Tost comes up with next.

        3 stars (***).

        

         

'THORNBIRD'......THE TOWN'S NEW GIRL KEEPS HER REAL NAME A DEEP, DARK SECRET......

  Thornbird by E. Kennedy (2026)

     You can't help but being swept up in the story of this New-Girl-In-School YA thriller. Because no new girl in school ever faced as many disturbing challenges as Ryan Shipley. The first of them being that her real name's actually Gabrielle Thorn, the daughter of infamous serial killer Gabriel Thorn. Currently awaiting execution 10 years after his crimes, Thorn murdered and buried his female victims in as yet undiscovered locations. Little Gabrielle survived the slaughter but her mother did not. Taken in and cared for by her grandmother until the aged woman's passing, Gabrielle (now Ryan) must now move back to her original home town. to live with her aunt and uncle and teen cousins Jasmine and Connor.

     Living in the the little town of Starling under a pseudonym proves a necessity for Ryan. The murders. the mystery of the victims' remains and and impending execution of her father have stirred up a bonfire of anger among to the residents and a renewed mass media/social media feeding frenzy.. There's no telling what chaos and harassment might erupt around Ryan if her identity was revealed.

     But even as she struggles to keep her deepest secret, Ryan still finds her life upended in multiple ways. Anonymous messages threaten to expose her real name. To her increasing worry, her new school's star quarterback/golden boy has quite taken to her, a boy whose late mother was Gabriel Thorn's final victim. And the FBI now presses her to search her darkest childhood memories for any clues that could lead to the bodies of the murdered women and at last closure for their grieving families.

     Holy teen angst.....and you thought YOU had it tough in high school......

Author E. Kennedy keeps this book moving at a breakneck, one-day-read pace and as the dread and suspense pile up on Ryan, all manner of stunning twists and surprises reveal themselves, some of them unspeakably horrific and heartbreaking. 'Thornbird' definitely goes on my list of 'Top YA Page-turners' for this year. and that should sum up this review as best I can.

       4 stars (****).

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP......SPECIAL "THE KING'S SPEECH" EDITION......

 The crowds listening to Trump's '250 National State Fair speech, desperate to stay awake and remember where they parked, leave as Trump rambles on......

And the madness continues on....

Happy relaxing safe weekend to all BQ visitors....even to Trumpanzees who walked out on his speech!   See you next week!

'CRACK IN THE WORLD'.....NUKE 'EM LOW! OR: LAVA MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU'RE SORRY.......

 Crack In The World (1965)

      Ahead of the curve, this one......

      It arrived 5 years before Hollywood fell in love with disaster movies that ran rampant through the twinned theaters of the 1970's. 

       A modest effort on a limited budget, though.....so don't look for a large all star cast here, except for aging 1940's leading man Dana Andrews, who at the time, was turning up in supporting roles in almost every other movie produced in '65.

      Considering its ambitious storyline of geology gone awry, this movie does manage to pack in a whole lot of action, spectacle and pseudo-science into one breathless adventure. You won't find too many Grade B double-feature movies treating you to the sight of Mother Earth belching out another moon to fly up and take its place next to the old moon. 

        This all starts with driven, obsessed scientist Dr. Sorenson (Andrews) planning a bold move from his vast underground headquarters somewhere in Africa. He wants to bring up, from deep in the earth's crust, that hot, hot, magma to serve as an inexhaustible power supply for the entire planet.

        (We're not sure how that would work exactly. Pumping that stuff into your car would probably melt the fuel line in a hurry.....) 

         Above ground, Doc convinced world leaders to fund a missile gantry to shoot a nuke straight down into the earth's crust to release the magma.  Sounds terrific, right? Like something that RFK Jr. would heavily endorse, based on his own scientific know-how.

        What could possible go wrong?  Heh, Heh, Heh, heh. heh...........

          We'll take 'a crack in the earth's crust' for $2000, Ken......

           You guess it....the arrogant Dr. S. is stunned to find out the crack he started will eventually circle the Earth and halve it like a walnut....and just like Trump's election, it's an extinction level event that'll leave all of us dead, or in dire need of a first aid kit as we go flying off into outer space, each of us cooked well done on the magma barbie.....

        But breathe easier, because Sorenson's stalwart staff geologist Dr. Ted Rampion (Kieron Moore), who thought the nuke plan was nuts to begin with, has figured out a remedy......drop another nuke into an active volcano and who knows.....maybe it'll seal up the crack or whatever. 

          Oh by the way, in between all the earthquakes and tsunamis that have been killing off thousands of hapless Third Worlders, Ted's still toting a heavy torch for Sorenson's lovely wife (and assistant) Maggie (Janette Scott). Poor Maggie's getting no love from her cold-hearted hubby who in addition to his single minded dedication to cracking and uncracking the earth, is rapidly dying from cancer.

         Let's not forget to give a shoutout to director Andrew Marton, who'd already forged a mighty reputation as a second unit director of epics like "Ben Hur", "The Longest Day", "55 Days at Peking", "Cleopatra" and "Fall of the Roman Empire".) This guy knows eye-popping spectacle inside and out and he's greatly aided by the equally unsung special effects master, production designer and sometime film director Eugene Lourie ("Gorgo", "The Giant Behemoth", "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms")

       The catastrophe special effects are about as good as you can get for for a 1965 low budgeter, but what's truly impressive here - Sorenson's underground HQ, quite an enormous actual set, a cave buttressed with V shaped girders. It reminded us right away of one of Ken Adam's villain lair sets from the early Bond films. 

        The wild 'n wacky science on display here seems inspired by 1961's "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" (where simultaneous U.S. and Russian nukes at the North and South Poles knocked the earth off its orbit).  And  you would think by now, given the amount of  radiation spawned giant bugs and dinosaurs, that movie scientists would think twice about flinging nukes around like 4rth of July firecrackers......

          But then again, that would spoil all the cheesy fun to be had watching films like this one. 

           1960's sci-fi completists won't want to miss it, which you can easily catch for free on Plex or Tubi.

            3 stars (***). 

      

        

            

               

'WHISPER CREEK'.....A FARM FAMILY BESIEGED BY MOTHER NATURE AND HUMAN VILLAINY.....ALL IN ONE NIGHT....

 Whisper Creek by Allison Brennan (2026)

     Out in the farmlands of Texas, torrential rain is coming down in sheets. Roads flooded out, fields turned to swampy mud......and worse than that, there's a trio of thugs on the loose, serving as minions for the malignant land-grabbing town bigwig who plans to buy out properties he covets... ....or else. So before this storm-tossed night's over, there's bodily harm coming down on the farm......

     Now that's what I call a 4 star recipe for a page turning thriller that combines warm family drama with Mother Nature and human villainy both on the rampage during one terrible stormy night. Fasten your pickup truck seat belts, it's going to be one bumpy perilous ride, courtesy of author Alison Brennan.

     Ellen McKenna, widowed after the tragic accidental death of her husband, struggles to keep her farm afloat, with all four of her children pitching in, even the youngest. But ongoing storms have already left the land flooded and it looks like the worst one yet is well on its way.. Jake, her oldest, discovers a neighbor grievously wounded by gunfire and the perpetrators, just like the storm are just getting started, with the threat of more violence yet to come.

     The increasing suspense and danger only escalate from this point on and like every great thriller should, 'Whisper Creek' had me putting off all manner of everyday things, so I could keep turning the pages. What helps put the book in that category is author Brennan bringing to life the entire McKenna family with all their hopes, dreams, quirks, flaws and good old fashioned Texan gumption. You can't help but care for this brood as you fear for them. And the book surely doesn't spare the McKennas not even a little bit, throwing one traumatic life-threatening moment after another at them.

     Superb heartfelt storytelling moving to a thrill-a-minute pace. No wonder I stopped everything I was doing to finish this book.

     4 stars (****).

'CHECKING YOU OUT'......BOOKS, BOOKSTORES, LIBRARIES, KITTENS, SECRET ROMANCING.....AND EVEN MORE KITTENS.....

  Checking You Out by Jennifer Chen (2026)

     Enormous loads of cuteness to unpack here. Two lead characters overwhelmingly cute. And both of them lovers of a wildly best selling and yes, cute fantasy novel series. Both equipped with loving, loyal and, dare I say, cute friends. If that isn't enough sheer cuteness for you, how about dozens and dozens of fluffy, mischievous, insanely adorable and.....you guessed it, cute kittens.

     One last thing to pile on top of this Mt. Everest of cuteness. Libraries! Bookstores galore! And books, books.....and oh yes, more books.

     Is there anything unpleasant lurking in this Garden of bookish, kitten-ish, Eden? Indeed, there is, with our male lead Dylan a survivor of merciless bullying during middle school through high school. So much so that he's hidden away his love of reading and now presenting himself as distinctly un-literary, and interested mainly in his prowess as a tennis player.

     Dylan's secret life makes it doubly hard for him as he's crushing hard on book-aholic LIzzie, lifelong lover of the same fantasy series that Dylan adores. but still too shy to admit to publicly. And despite his supposed interest only in tennis, Lizzie's beginning to fall just as hard for Dylan as they work together in an animal shelter, bottle feeding and caring for countless litters of captivating kittens that come flooding into the shelter..

     In no time at all, this 'You've Got Mail' storyline turns into 'You've Got Books' with Dylan and Lizzie exchanging anonymous messages tucked away in library books, with each of them, of course, not knowing that the wonderful sweet book lovers they're communicating with are.......each other..

     The simplicity of the writing here would lead me to believe this book is pitched more for tweens but I couldn't help but feel charmed by author Jennifer Chen's enthusiasm and deep empathy for her characters. (Though I really do wish she'd consulted a thesaurus for synonyms for "cute", whose overuse gets tiresome awfully fast

     The lure of books, libraries, bookstores, kittens and secret romance sucked me in right away, but I realize that some readers may feel like they're munching on a jumbo State Fair cone of YA cotton candy. But then again, what's wrong with a book that wants nothing more than to make you and all the characters in it feel good together? In this day and age,I say you can't have enough of them. So there's my 4 stars and I'm stickin' to 'em.

       4 stars (****).

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP.......SPECIAL "GREEN SLIME!" EDITION......

 Let us now gaze upon Trump's Big Beautiful Blue Reflecting Pool.....

New U.S. Park Service Poster now placed  in front of the Reflecting Pool......

And the madness rages on......

Everyone (except Trumpanzees) have a terrific weekend! See you all next week!