S4 E01 - Splitsville

Feature Film(s) reviewed this episode:

• Dial M For Murder - Kanopy
• Honey Don’t - Website

Main Review:

• Splitsville - Website

Additional Links

• Geek on Film - ⁠⁠Website⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Store⁠⁠
• Robbie (The Geek) Holmes - ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Letterboxd

New podcast theme song provided by: Sam Cone

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Welcome to Geekon Film with your host, Robbie Holmes. Hey there, folks. Welcome to episode one of season four of Geekon Film. I'm so excited to be back. The dust is starting to settle here in Phoenix after our move, and uh I've had a lot of cool experiences already. Uh I have a few films already queued up for today. I have another podcast I'm expecting to record right after that, and then probably one pretty quickly after that. Uh just because I haven't been recording doesn't mean I haven't really been watching. Uh yes, I didn't watch as much, but I do feel like I've got a lot of things to get off my chest. So let's start. Uh today I uh was able to go. There's a meetup uh here in in Phoenix in Tempe, where at the library during the summer they were showing films. I was lucky enough to go over and catch the second to last summer film, um, and that was Dial M for Murder. So yeah, we were uh in the in the uh conference room inside of the library. Uh it was a spirited group of people, probably about 15 folks. And uh it was really great. It was such a cool experience to sit down with my local community and watch a movie. So Dial M for Murder, the amazing film from 1954 that was written by Frederick Knott and directed by Alfred uh Alfred Hitchcock. Uh the summary of the film by our friends at IMDB is a London Playboy plots the perfect murder of his rich and unfaithful wife. Uh my review was four stars with a heart, and I said, What a blast! This movie is so crisp and sharp. There's so much symmetry uh from the setup uh and explanation at the end in the last 20 minutes. Uh, I really love this movie. Uh, it's so propulsive, and the pattern of the dialogue is fantastic. The setup of the film is that there's Tony and Margot Wendyce, and that's Ray Millard Miland and Grace Kelly. And uh Margot has been having a secret love affair with Mark Halliday, who is played by Robert Cummings. And then there is Chief Inspector Hubbard, who's played by John Williams, and the uh Patsy, the person who's supposed to kill his wife, uh, is played by Anthony Dawson. That's Charles Swan. Uh, this is a movie that we see uh so crisply uh the dialogue between especially Tony and Mark and the back and forth. Uh it, you know, I think that uh Grace Kelly is absolutely stunning. And in this movie, she does not have a ton to do. She is uh often behind the eight ball and doesn't realize that she's been caught and is trying desperately to hold on. Whereas Tony seems like he's got it all figured out, even though he uh cannot plan the perfect murder. Uh, because uh, as Mark says, uh, her lover, uh, who is a writer, that there's always humanity that happens, right? That you can plan as much as you want, but there's always people involved. In the end, we see how this all unfolds, but there's a I mentioned symmetry in the in my review, and the beginning of the movie, there's watching it all uh get set up, watching Tony pull all these strings together, and then at the end, Mark comes to Tony and describing how he could try to save Marg, and he describes almost everything that happened in the beginning of the movie as something that could be an explanation for what was going on. And uh Tony is constantly saying, like, well, it's not plausible, you know. Uh it's a very clever conceit, and I really just love the movie. Um, and I love seeing this with a group of people and having a chance to connect with the local Cinephiles. Thank you so much to the Tempe Library and for hosting things like this. So, second film for me uh was a uh was the movie Honey Don't. Uh so a uh new release uh written by Trisha Cook and Ethan Cohen and directed by Ethan Cohen. The summary of this film is a dark comedy about a small town private investigator, Honey O'Donohue, who delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church. Uh I gave this movie two and a half stars and I said lots of great acting and style, but the film never gels or feels and it feels abrupt and fractured to me. I would say this is a movie full of vignettes and really great scenes that I don't know ever became a fully fledged story. And I will a hundred percent enjoy watching this film in pieces when it comes to streaming. The main characters of this movie, the um Honey Don't, uh, is named after Honey O'Donohue, who is played by Margaret Qually. Uh, we also have uh MJ Falcone played by Aubrey Plaza. Chris Evans plays Reverend Drew Devlin. Uh, there's also a real femme fatale in uh Lyra Abova, uh, who plays Cher. Let's see, any other important folks? I think that's probably good. Chris Evans is a pastor in a or a priest in a uh small congregation who is leveraging his position to have sex with as many of his constituents as possible, and he plays a great sleazebag. Uh, this movie is absolutely okay and leans into the sexuality of a lot of their characters. There's a lot of people in underwear, lots of sex scenes, lots of, and it's fun. I think they, you know, Chris Evans is shining in this movie. He is probably the best part of it. I know that there's been some complaints about Margaret Qually in this movie. I think she's tasked with being sort of a uh rat-a-tat-tat um sort of protagonist of a Neo Noir, and she's great. I I no complaints for me in any way, shape, or form. I just think that Chris Evans is on fire. I think the character's also written better and has so much to do as a sort of sleazy reverend. It's really fun. Uh, his scenes are great, but overall, the movie just doesn't mesh. And I feel like that's the biggest problem I had is even at the end, the way it unfolds near the ending, you you have a final moment where you're like, well, like I I mean, are we gonna is this gonna give us anything as an audience? And it really wasn't. It was it was two characters getting a chance to flirt one last time, and it really doesn't close a loop or for us. It doesn't, you know, and I and not everything has to be locked off or has to be uh full circle, but I think the reality is this movie just never really gives us the audience much to go on. There's a really quick left turn that happens in one of the characters. Uh the violence is very violent, uh, and that has not been the tone of the movie up to that point. So it's uh it's not great, but uh I I enjoyed so much what was happening here, and I think you will too. So not maybe not run out to a theater and see this. I think it's already mostly out of theaters anyway. But um, when this comes on streaming, there's a lot to be had in this film. All right, we're gonna go to our main review today. Uh, and for that, we're gonna be talking about Splitzville. Uh, Splitzville is written by uh Michael Angel Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin, and is directed by Michael Angelo Covino. Uh our friends at IMDB have the summary as when Ashley asks for a divorce, the good-natured Carrie runs to his friends, Julie and Paul, for support and their secret uh to happiness in an open marriage. That is until Carrie crosses the line and throws all their relationships into chaos. My review over on Letterboxd is two and a half stars. Uh, I said this movie is really has a really great premise and a bunch of really good actors who I can't blame for not liking this movie. I think in the end, what I was trying to say is that it didn't all create a good final movie. None of the characters are really on an arc. Uh, they seem to make uh any fulfilling change or uh any real uh uniqueness except for the fact that we're more accepting, I guess. Uh I made the joke to my wife after this film. Uh we had a date night when we went and saw this, uh, that I think that Dakota Johnson might be the queen of two and a half star films. Nothing about her as an actress. I I actually have lifelong tickets and will have have bought my stock and will watch anything she's in. I find her charming. I think that the the issues, the films that uh she's a part of uh don't always give her character the right uh things to do or have uh, but I think she's great in the movies that she's a part of. So it's an interesting problem to solve. Uh let's jump into the characters real quick. So the four main characters are uh Julie played by Dakota Johnson, uh Ashley played by Adria Arjona, uh Kerry played by Kyle Marvin, and Paul played by Michael Angelo Cavino. So written and directed by the two main actors, written by the two main male actors in this film. Um they've done movies before together. Uh I think it's uh obvious that they have amazing chemistry. So Ashley and Carrie are together, uh, and uh on a vacation, uh Ashley admits that she uh does not want to be with Carrie any longer, uh, that she's been cheating on him, and he runs away, uh, almost like a child who doesn't want to hear this, and runs to Paul and Julie's house, uh, a long way away. And during that initial conversation, Paul and Julie are acting like the coolest couple on planet Earth. And the reason that they say their relationship works is that they have an open marriage, and whatever happens, happens, and uh the reality then unfolds where Julie, who's played by Dakota Johnson, is comforting Carrie, uh Kyle Marvin's character, and they end up having sex. And the next day, Carrie, who is Paul's best friend, admits that he had he and Julie had sex the night before, and then absolute chaos ensues. Uh, it is funny, but not uh for me, it it pushes the envelope. Like, you know, uh there's a violent fight between the two of them that goes on for a really long time, and it leads to some really amazing uh imagery for the two of them, like falling out of a window on the second floor to the ground floor. Um, but I think there were points where I think it would have been more impactful to stop the fight. At one point, they destroy a fish tank in Paul's son's room, and the fish are all over the floor, and they have to save the fish. And I thought there was a really funny moment and beat there, but it didn't end there. It continued from that point forward. And I think that is uh maybe just my uh comedic sense and and the way that I feel about this movie is that I'm not on this exact same wavelength as Kyle and Michael. Um, I think this is a good film. I I didn't I didn't not enjoy myself. I just think the the last half of this movie is there's a lot of table setting and untable setting, and it just doesn't feel like a fully fledged movie. It felt like it almost could have been multiple episodes of a television show. And I think uh I wish it had come together better for me. I don't like to do main reviews of films I didn't love, but I do I love this premise, and I really I am a huge fan of Dakota Johnson, um, no matter how many two and a half star films she makes. And AJ R. Tone is great. And the the like I said, the premise really got me. I was really excited by it, but I'm excited to continue reviewing films. Uh that being said, I think this movie is now about to hit streaming. You should probably watch it. I think uh there's a lot to be liked, especially in the first 20 minutes of this movie. I think it really hits the ground running. And uh I hope that uh I didn't dissuade you from seeing it. Uh, thank you so much for uh sticking around. Uh you may have noticed we have some new theme music. Um super thankful to Sam who created that for me, and I'll have a link off to it in the show notes. Uh I will be seeing you next time. There's now a TikTok account, uh Geekon Film. I am very excited to be a part of that and to do more there. I think my instant reactions and I'll be having more of those types of video recording over there. I am looking forward to doing more with the podcast. I am really interested in connecting into what's going on here in Phoenix. Um, I would love to go to more film events. Uh last night I actually went to a film discussion group uh called the Real Deal Film Society and had a fantastic time. We discussed Princess Monoke, and that led to a million other things. Uh, it was so much fun. I don't know that I've had a better and more lively discussion with random people I had not had no previous experience with, but we're all on the same page of we love this movie. So uh yeah, if there's something going on here in Phoenix, please reach out to me. I'm Robbie the Geek everywhere online. The podcast is geekonfilmcom or geekonfilm.com or geekonfilm. Uh couldn't couldn't secure the same handle everywhere. Uh and I'm looking forward to more episodes. Uh up next will probably be highest to lowest, uh, the new spikely Denzel Washington joint. Uh I will see you soon. Thank you so much. Have a great day. This has been a keep on film production.