Matt Shiverdecker, Author at MendoWerks

What’s Past is Prologue With Kanye West in ‘jeen-yuhs’ (Review)

10Feb

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

What’s Past is Prologue With Kanye West in ‘jeen-yuhs’ (Review)

In recent years, the mention of Kanye West's name has become an automatic tune out for me. His ridiculous antics, including launching a failed Presidential campaign, might be comical if they weren't indicative of a man struggling with mental illness surrounded by people who enable his worst impulses. A new documentary film series from Netflix takes us back to the start. Filmmakers Clarence “Coodie” Simmons and Chike Ozah have taken 21 years worth of intimate footage and given us the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's all here, perhaps much to Kanye's chagrin. Right before Act 1 premiered at Sundance last month, he declared that he must have final cut. As recently as this Monday, Kanye posted online that he thought all the narration should be redone by Drake (in the film, it's us...

Woody Allen’s Long-Delayed ‘Rifkin’s Festival’ is Painfully Unfunny (Review)

31Jan

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Events, Film, Reviews

Woody Allen’s Long-Delayed ‘Rifkin’s Festival’ is Painfully Unfunny (Review)

Perhaps I'm a glutton for punishment. Despite it all, I've never been able to cut Woody Allen out of my cinephile life. Many have and I completely respect that, but I've had an entire shelf of his films in my movie collection for decades. He's made some of my all-time favorites and, even though there are incredibly diminishing returns, I still watch everything he releases. 'Rifkin's Festival,' his 49th feature film, might be the straw that broke the camel's back. I had not heard encouraging things, but when it recently snuck onto VOD with zero fanfare, I knew I had to rent it. After all, it stars Louis Garrel, one of my favorite actors from France. I was going to watch it just for him, if nothing else. And, so I clicked the rental button and sat down for what is at least a merc...

‘The Fallout’ Premieres on HBO Max (Review)

1Feb

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

‘The Fallout’ Premieres on HBO Max (Review)

Even with the pandemic shift to online learning in some locations, last year there were 34 school shootings in the United States. In Megan Park's directorial debut, a group of students struggle to cope after a fellow student guns down several of their classmates. While Fran Kranz's recent drama 'Mass' deals with parental grief several years after a school shooting, 'The Fallout' handles the immediate aftermath of survivor's guilt from the student perspective. Jenna Ortega gives a revelatory performance as Vada, a 16-year-old who just happens to be on a hall pass in the restroom when the tragic incident begins. Vada grabs Mia (Maddie Ziegler), another young student who happens to be in the restroom at the time, and they hide in one of the stalls, getting up to stand on the toilet ...

Sundance 2022: ‘Meet Me in the Bathroom’ (Review)

28Jan

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

Sundance 2022: ‘Meet Me in the Bathroom’ (Review)

The news first broke in late 2017 that Lizzy Goodman's Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock & Roll in NYC 2001-2011 would be adapted into a four-part docuseries by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, the directorial duo behind the LCD Soundsystem concert documentary 'Shut Up and Play the Hits.' The best-selling book named after a song by The Strokes chronicled the rise of New York City's music scene in the wake of 9/11. By the summer of 2001, I was three years out of college and had become Music Director and on-air DJ at the legendary WOXY-FM (aka "97X...BAM! The Future of Rock and Roll") in southwestern Ohio. Our listeners loved British bands and music from overseas, but this new batch of upstart bands from NYC were a hit on the air and The Strokes were actually our thir...

Sundance 2022: ‘Nothing Compares’ (Review)

25Jan

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

Sundance 2022: ‘Nothing Compares’ (Review)

In her documentary feature debut, Irish director Kathryn Ferguson pays tribute to an artist who changed her life. 'Nothing Compares' could have easily been a docuseries and gone into greater depth on the career of Sinead O' Connor, but it focuses mostly on the key years of 1987-1992 when O'Connor experienced an meteoric rise and fall. As O'Connor burst onto the international music scene in 1987 with her ferocious album "The Lion and the Cobra," it was clear that she was a force to be reckoned with. She had already recorded and scrapped the first attempt at making the record, starting over to get things right. The songs on it were the culmination of young life already fraught with internal struggles, doubts, and demons. O'Connor turned it into a surprise hit, with multiple cha...

How to Virtually Attend the Sundance Film Festival 2022

31Jan

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Events, Features, Film

How to Virtually Attend the Sundance Film Festival 2022

Despite a plan that included a full in-person event in Park City, Utah, this year, the Sundance Film Festival 2022 has made the push to go fully virtual in response to rising cases of the Omicron variant. The festival begins tomorrow and will run from January 20-30 online. How can you attend one of the biggest film festivals from the comfort of home? We've got a quick rundown of everything you need to know. Tickets: The full festival package has sold out, but there are still plenty of ways to take part in the action. Single Film Tickets for the Sundance Film Festival 2022 are being sold for $20 each. If you choose a Premiere screening to watch, you must stream it during the specified window of time (generally a three hour span). If you choose anything marked as Secon...

Daniel Craig Says Goodbye to Bond in ‘No Time to Die’ (Review)

17Jan

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

Daniel Craig Says Goodbye to Bond in ‘No Time to Die’ (Review)

Daniel Craig's final screen appearance as James Bond was delayed over and over again. Pre-production on the film began back in 2018 with Danny Boyle ('Slumdog Millionaire') hired for the director's chair. He left the project that fall over "creative differences" with the producers and MGM ended up going in a new direction with Cary Joji Fukunaga ('True Detective') taking over. Shooting ended up taking place in mid-2019 with a theatrical release scheduled for fall 2020. Then, of course, COVID-19 derailed things even further and caused an extra bit of havoc with this production wherein the incredible theme song from Billie Eilish actually got released and won a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media six months before the film ended up even coming out. After several shuff...