bad press movie review

‘Bad Press’ Review: An Essential Look at the Battle for Freedom of Press | Sundance 2023

Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler look at the Muscogee/Creek Nation journalists' fight for freedom of press.

As a sucker for underdog stories and stories about the triumph of journalism, Bad Press is right up my alley. Directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler , Bad Press follows the reporters and journalists of the Mvskoke Media in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, who just want to offer the people of the Muscogee/Creek Nation access to the news about their community. This is made nearly impossible when in 2015 the Free Press Act is repealed and the independent editorial board is dissolved giving the council control over the paper.

Bad Press reveals the essential nature of the free press and what happens when it is stifled by politicians and officials who would rather control the narrative than let the truth see the light of day. At the core of Bad Press is the simple desire to show the truth to the people of the Muscogee Nation. To not only celebrate the community as the council wants, but also to reveal its problematic underbelly to keep people informed about their nation. Landsberry-Baker and Peeler dive deep into the group of reporters who are adamant about getting their freedom of press back, among them is Angel Ellis, a reporter who is determined to see the wrong righted.

While there are several documentaries at Sundance that feel larger than life, focusing on celebrities or global issues, Bad Press feels intentionally intimate and yet covers a topic that is vital to our society. It's not just a story about the free press but also about corruption and the intrinsic necessity and value of grassroots journalism. In a time when critics of news and journalism like to view journalism under the blanket of the oh-so-hated "media," Bad Press illustrates where a community would be without freedom of press. The only defense against corruption and abuse of power is the voice of the people.

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The documentary follows the arduous journey that the reporters face, spanning years, while getting threats launched against them by council people who are threatened by the return of the free press. We witness the community take two steps forward and one step back, fighting tooth and nail for a right that many of us take for granted. Officials who support them get elected only to do very little in order to help the journalists get their power back. Tribal newspapers face censorship from tribal officials, an issue that impacts not only the Muscogee Nation but Indigenous journalists all across the country.

We follow the intrepid reporters and journalists as they face personal threats to their safety and their professional careers as they fight for one of the most essential rights. This isn't just an issue that affects Muscogee Nation, it's a microcosm of what can happen without freedom of the press. It reminds us how valuable the news can be and what the landscape of truth can look like when it is gone. We follow Angel and her fellow journalists as they must struggle through year after year, celebrating their wins and mourning their losses. There's no glossy sheen, no dramatic score. Bad Press brings us into the trenches of their push and pull with local politics, and it is made all the better for it.

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‘Bad Press’ Review

2023 santa fe international film festival: let the sunshine in.

Bad Press , the new documentary from directors Rebecca Landsberry-Baker (Muscogee-Creek) and Joe Peeler, isn’t yet 10 minutes along when a grim statistic flashes up on the screen: Just five of the 574 federally recognized tribes in the US have laws protecting freedom of the press.

The Muscogee-Creek tribe is among them, but that designation came at a chilling, bitter price whose high-stakes bargain is the province of Press . Viewers learn the tribe passed a free press law in 2015, then murdered it three years later amid sexual harassment, graft and other allegations against the very politicians who decided tribal -citizens shouldn’t know what they were up to.

Let’s brawl, then, came the decision from the handful of journalists who remained at Mvskoke Media, the company comprising the independent newspaper, television/digital and radio stations serving the tribe. Viewers watch much of the skirmish through the eyes of mother, cigarette aficionado and f-bomb hurling reporter Angel Ellis (Muscogee-Creek), who describes the conflict in her job thusly: “I’m reporting on stories that maybe don’t show my tribe in the best light. But do you want a friend who will lie to you and leave you walking out the door with a booger hangin’ out your nose...Or do you want a friend that will stop you and say, ‘Hey, check your face?’”

Narratively, this film is more Citizenfour than Page One: Inside the New York Times in the way it follows a chronological, stasis-tension-release arc. Denisse Ojeda’s off-center electronic score accentuates the story’s peril; interviews with tribal citizens remind us for whom the journalists work. And the parallels to larger political riptides dragging America out to sea these days are many: On losing a primary election race for Principal Chief, one of the transparency-phobic political bosses files fraud allegations and demands a recount.

The film closes on Election Night—as voters decide whether to enshrine press freedoms into the tribal constitution—with familiar scenes: pizza boxes, Mountain Dew cans and a managing editor lying on the newsroom floor, head in hands. But we can’t imagine covering an election in which our jobs are on the ballot. In the end, the Muscogee-Creek people stood up for journalism and democracy. We’re left, though, with a disquieting question: Would American voters do the same?

+Spotlights an under-covered story; rock-solid direction

-Works too hard to connect the story to U.S. events

Directed by Landsberry-Baker and Peeler

Santa Fe International Film Festival, NR, 98 min.

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Bad Press (2023): ‘Sundance’ Review – A truly heroic tale of common people fighting against an oppressive regime

The Sundance-bound documentary, directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, chronicles the journey of Oklahoma-based media company Mvskoke Media, from being repealed from free journalism by an oppressive government to emerging as a constitutionally protected organization by the citizens, with the fundamental right of being free press. Angel Ellis, a Mvskoke Media journalist (and current director), leads the fight.

The documentary’s best aspect is that the director duo presents it in a very cinematic style, which makes the proceedings very engaging. This was especially difficult because every scene we see is real footage, most of which was shot when Mvskoke Media was banned and under the leadership of the same government they were fighting against.

The narrative focuses on the good people to highlight the wrongdoings of people like Tiger III and James Floyd. Another councilman, Mark Randolph, becomes the driving force behind the “free press” bill and does everything he can to support Ellis. David Hill, the current Muscogee Creek chief, is a working-class man who supports press freedom.

While the documentary’s main focus is the “free press,” the all-important election to crown a new chief becomes an interconnected supporting arc. As the fate of Mvskoke Media depends on the election to a huge extent, given the election potentially becomes a three-way race between Tiger III, Hill, and Steve Bruner, the third horse with corruption allegations but also a free press supporter.

It all comes down to the moment where the people, as they should, make the decisions, and that’s when we start to see how personally important this is to Ellis. Ellis was sacked from Mvskoke Media in 2011 after writing an article about the company’s then-chief, George Tiger, who interestingly spent 2020 in prison on a bribery charge. This information had already been made public.

The world right now is filled with fascism, corruption, and so many evil people on top of regimes who shamelessly endorse all the wrongs and takes pleasure in exploiting “the people.” That is why people like Angel Ellis are true Superheroes, which we both need and deserve. I’m not sure if I should mention it here, but when I was writing this, I went to the Mvskoke Media website to express my gratitude for learning about what occurred and the inspiration I had from seeing it play out. I hope “Bad Press” accomplishes the same thing and reaches more people worldwide.

Bad Press was screened at the Sundance Film Festival 2023

Bad press links: imdb, trending right now.

Rohitavra is an aspiring writer, who currently works as a Government employee, to get by. He hopes that one day he'll make the big leap. But for now, movies, music, and books are what keep him alive.

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When the Muscogee Nation suddenly begins censoring its free press, a rogue reporter fights to expose her government's corruption in a historic battle that will have ramifications for all of ... Read all When the Muscogee Nation suddenly begins censoring its free press, a rogue reporter fights to expose her government's corruption in a historic battle that will have ramifications for all of Indian country. When the Muscogee Nation suddenly begins censoring its free press, a rogue reporter fights to expose her government's corruption in a historic battle that will have ramifications for all of Indian country.

• Rebecca Landsberry-Baker
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• 12 wins & 6 nominations

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By Calan Panchoo | January 25, 2023

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW! “Do you want a friend who will lie to you?” This ordinary question, posed as a statement, underlines the extraordinary war at the heart of  Bad Press , written and directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler. And like so many modern wars, cold as they are, this one focuses on society’s ramifications of transparency of information, or the lack thereof. It is an unassuming documentary that makes excellent use of editing to deliver a compelling narrative experience.

The film revolves around Angel Ellis, a reporter living in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, a town about as small as one can imagine. For years she has worked for Mvskoke Media, the voice of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. But when the town’s Free Press Act is dissolved, the necessary transparency for functioning journalism is all but destroyed. We then follow the ensuing fallout throughout the community, particularly the subject’s fight to redeem journalistic integrity, as well as those in power using the lack of it to their advantage.

Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler take great care in dissecting the matter at hand. They elevate the movie beyond the small-town trappings of its story. A lesser documentary would jump at easy talking points, such as racism, but the strength of  Bad Press  is how little interest it has in connecting trite dots. Of course, the notions of race are considered, but only just, and these threads are held up against the greater tapestry of deception by the Muskogee elders themselves. The film draws important distinctions, not about the color of the people’s skin, but about the honesty of their character.

Angel in Archives appears in Bad Press by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Tyler Graim

“… when the town’s Free Press Act is dissolved, the necessary transparency for functioning journalism is all but destroyed .”

As a film, all these ideas are raised with a skillful eye. When the Freedom of Press Act is revoked, rather than indulging in a cascade of shots of heartbroken people, the viewer is shown a verdant field filled with cows. In the foreground are three rusted and broken-down cars. They’re talismans of the erosion of moral obligation amidst the tribe, but also a visual indicator that the issue of corruption is commonplace and has been for generations. There is a flow to the documentary that gives the viewer an informed perspective without sacrificing emotional truth.

The only issue not considered, and one that is necessary for any documentary of this type, is the question of how these situations are allowed to repeat themselves. For example, at one point in  Bad Press , a lady in her mid-forties says that she has registered to vote for the very first time. Against the backdrop of corrupt elected officials, ideas like these are critical, but the film leaves something unsaid. This is especially egregious when the filmmakers are trying to elucidate on how easily people can be deceived into everyday action that encourages political breakdown.

Still,  Bad Press  is a resounding documentary because of its quietness. It considers all the topics of the day — misinformation, government overreach, election scandals, and the list goes on. The filmmakers do so by showing that even the smallest, quietest town matters and that moral decay is always allowed to fester in the little places first.

Bad Press  screened at the 2023  Sundance Film Festival .

Bad Press (2023)

Directed and Written: Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler

Starring: Angel Ellis, etc.

Movie score: 8/10

"…gives the viewer an informed perspective without sacrificing emotional truth."

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Directed by Joe Peeler , Rebecca Landsberry-Baker

When the Muscogee Nation suddenly begins censoring its free press, a rogue reporter fights to expose her government's corruption in a historic battle that will have ramifications for all of Indian country.

Directors Directors

Joe Peeler Rebecca Landsberry-Baker

Producers Producers

Joe Peeler Conrad Beilharz Rebecca Landsberry-Baker Tyler Graim Garrett F. Baker

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Tyler Graim

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Brenda J. Robinson William Potter Mary Garis Will Hugon David Doran Justin Nearing

Composer Composer

Denisse Ojeda

Documentary

Releases by Date

22 jan 2023, releases by country.

98 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by gabriellemcosta

the people deserve a free press and Angel deserves as many cubano sandwiches as she wants!!!!

Review by Sabrina ★★★★

Lucian Tiger is a weirdo and freak

Review by Sergio Muñoz Esquer ★★★½

SUNDANCE 2023 Bad Press  sigue a aquellos que luchan por reformas que garanticen la libertad de prensa en naciones nativas donde no la hay. Aunque el documental a veces batalla en contarse, es bastante interesante ver la problemática en estas comunidades.

Review by Ryan ★★★★★ 5

Garrett and Becca are the homies, but this ruled on the big screen. During the Q&A, Becca mentioned the importance of indigenous people telling these stories. Scorsese stand down!

Review by Marya E. Gates ★★★★

Although the documentary's focus is solely on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, its themes echo the various battles fought between the press and governments throughout time. The Mvskoke Media story is a living embodiment of “The press was to serve the governed, not the governors," Justice Hugo Black's opinion on the 1971 Supreme Court decision in New York Times Co. v. United States. That a Freedom of the Press codification for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation could be as big of a landmark decision that would affect other Native American tribes is a driving force for Angel, who just wants journalists to be able to do their job reporting the news, good or bad.

[Read my full capsule review at RogerEbert.com ]

Review by GB9K ★★★★★ 1

I wasn’t gonna watch this for the second day in a row but then I saw our new widescreen DCP and it looked and sounded so good I had to just sit there and watch it again. Thank you Bricktown Harkins Cinema you are better than every AMC. Also we won best doc feature at deadCenter which was tight.

Review by Ryan ★★★★★

I’m biased because I know a couple of the filmmakers, Becca and Garrett, but this is a thrilling, searing (and often funny!) doc about the fight for a free press in the Muscogee Creek Nation in Oklahoma

Review by Jacob Oller ★★★★

Is there anyone in this country looked down upon and misunderstood more than Indigenous people and journalists? It’s not a hypothetical—the answer is yes: Indigenous journalists. Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler’s engrossing documentary Bad Press clearly lays out the plights faced by an Indigenous news team and, in its hyperfocus on Mvskoke Media and the Muscogee Nation, finds hard, broad truths about both the relationship between the people and the reporters that serve them and the ease with which those being reported upon manipulate that relationship.

Of the 574 self-governing tribes operating alongside (or, more often, in conflict with) the U.S., none of their constitutions ensured a free press. So if there’s someone reporting on, say, an embezzling chief, there’s…

Review by Rori ★★★★

GOOD JOB! Got to talk to the cinematographer one on one for a bit after a screening and he sure was Cool. Good Job.

Review by TerryVanish ★★★½

Jarrad is so cool. In the face of a possible miscarriage of democracy and freedom he’s cookin up sick beats in the lab. Nothin but respect.

Review by alastair ★★★★½

They said there’s a 3 hour cut and I want to see it. I would like to see more about the politics of the tribe too beyond free press but also that wasn’t the point of the movie

Review by bhavika ★★★★

you can’t tell me that brunner wouldn’t fit right in Parks and Rec

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EXCLUSIVE: Theatrical audiences around the country (and into Canada) are about to get the chance to see Bad Press , the breakout Sundance documentary that enjoys a 100 percent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

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“Imagine you lived in a world where your only reliable news source became government propaganda overnight. That’s exactly what happened to the citizens of the Muscogee Nation, the fourth largest Native American tribe, in 2018,” notes a synopsis of the film. “Out of 574 federally-recognized tribes, the Muscogee Nation was one of only five to establish a free and independent press – until the tribe’s legislative branch abruptly repealed the landmark Free Press Act in advance of an election. The tribe’s hard-hitting news outlet, Mvskoke Media, would now be subject to direct editorial oversight by the tribal government.”

The synopsis continues, “One defiant journalist refuses to accept this flagrant act of oppression. As brave as she is blunt, veracious muckraker Angel Ellis charges headfirst into battle against the corrupt faction of the Muscogee National Council. Angel and her allies rally for press freedoms by inciting a voter-supported constitutional amendment, just in time for the start of a new election cycle.”

In its review, Collider wrote, “ Bad Press  reveals the essential nature of the free press and what happens when it is stifled by politicians and officials who would rather control the narrative than let the truth see the light of day… It reminds us how valuable the news can be and what the landscape of truth can look like when it is gone.”

Bad Press won a Special Jury Prize for Freedom of Expression at the Sundance Film Festival, where the documentary premiered. It earned best documentary awards at the Dallas International Film Festival, RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., and deadCenter Film Festival in Oklahoma City, Okla. Landsberry-Baker and Peeler were named best directors at the Nevada City Film Festival and their film also won the One in a Million Award at the Sun Valley Film Festival in Idaho.

Watch the trailer for Bad Press above.

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DC/DOX Film Festival 2023

• United States |
• DC Premiere

Rebecca Landsberry-Baker , Joe Peeler

Conrad Beilharz, Garrett Baker, Tyler Graim

Cinematographer

Tyler Graim

Imagine you lived in a world where your only reliable news source became government propaganda overnight. That’s exactly what happened to the citizens of the Muscogee Nation in 2018. Out of almost six hundred federally-recognized Native American tribes, the Muscogee Nation was one of only five to establish a free and independent press – until the tribe’s legislative branch abruptly repealed the landmark Free Press Act in advance of an election. The tribe’s hard-hitting news outlet, Mvskoke Media, would now be subject to direct editorial oversight by the tribal government.

One defiant journalist refuses to accept this flagrant act of oppression. As brave as she is blunt, veracious muckraker Angel Ellis charges headfirst into battle against the corrupt faction of the Muscogee National Council. Angel and her allies rally for press freedoms by inciting a voter-supported constitutional amendment, just in time for the start of a new election cycle. An enthralling, edge-of-your-seat nail-biter that unfurls with the energy and suspense of a political thriller, Bad Press is a timely and unprecedented story about the battle for freedom of the press and against state-censored media.

Rebecca Landsberry-Baker

Co-director, bad press.

Rebecca Landsberry-Baker is an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the executive director of the Native American Journalists Association. She is a recipient of the 2018 NCAIED “Native American 40 Under 40” award and was selected to the Harvard Shorenstein News Leaders Fall 2022 cohort. Landsberry-Baker made her directorial debut with the documentary feature film, Bad Press , which was supported by the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation JustFilms, NBC, and the Gotham. Bad Press premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and received the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression.

Joe Peeler is a Sundance award-winning director and editor whose work has appeared on NETFLIX, HBO, FX, ESPN, Hulu, and CBS. Joe began his career apprenticing under legendary director Peter Bogdanovich, and from there edited Lucy Walker’s Academy Awards Shortlist documentary short The Lion’s Mouth Opens ; multiple episodes of the Netflix original series Flint Town ; and Margaret Brown’s SXSW premiere documentary short The Black Belt . Most recently, Joe co-directed Bad Press , which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression.

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‘Bad Press’ Movie Review

Bad Press is totally up my alley since I have a soft spot for tales about the triumph of the underdog and tales about the triumph of journalism. The documentary Bad Press was directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler and took place at the Mvskoke Media in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.

The film follows the reporters and journalists at the Mvskoke Media, who want to provide the people of the Muscogee/Creek Nation with access to the news about their community. Unfortunately, this was rendered practically impossible when in 2015 the Free Press Act was repealed, and the independent editorial board was dissolved giving the council power over the paper.

The documentary Bad Press sheds light on the fundamental aspects of a free press as well as what transpires when that Press is blocked by politicians and authorities who would rather control the narrative than allow the truth to be exposed to the public. The intention of Bad Press is straightforward: to inform the people of the Muscogee Nation about the reality of the situation. To not just celebrate the community as the council desires, but also to show its troubled underbelly to keep people aware of their nation, the purpose of this project is to not only celebrate the community.

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In their investigation, Landsberry-Baker and Peeler go deeply into the group of reporters who are adamant about regaining their freedom of the Press. Among this group of reporters is Angel Ellis, a reporter who is determined to see that the injustice is rectified.

Although some documentaries at Sundance have a larger-than-life feel due to their focus on celebrities or international issues, Bad Press has a purposefully intimate feel while still covering a topic that is extremely important to our society. It is not only a narrative about freedom of the press but also about corruption and the inherent worth and necessity of grassroots journalism.

Bad Press was written when critics of news and journalism preferred to view journalism beneath the cloak of the oh-so-hated “media.” It shows where a community would be without the freedom of the Press. The voice of the people is the only defence that can be taken against abuses of power and unscrupulous officials.

The difficult trip that the reporters go through is chronicled in the film, which spans several years and takes place. At the same time, they are being harassed and intimidated by members of the council who are concerned about re-establishing a free press. So we watch as the community struggles tooth and claw for a right that many of us tend to take for granted, and we see it take two strides forward and then one step back.

Those officials who campaign on their behalf win elections, but once in office, they do very little to assist journalists in regaining their influence. Tribal publications endure censorship from tribal officials, a problem that concerns the Muscogee Nation and Indigenous journalists throughout the country.

As they struggle for one of the most fundamental rights, we follow some of the most courageous reporters and journalists as they confront personal dangers to themselves and risks to their professional careers. This is not just a problem that affects the Muscogee Nation; rather, it is a miniature version of the problems that might arise when there is no freedom of the Press.

It serves as a reminder of how important the news can be and how the reality landscape may change when it is unavailable. We follow Angel and the other journalists she works with as they face each new year’s challenges, celebrating their victories and lamenting their defeats. There is no shiny finish, and there is no dramatic score. Instead, we are thrust into the muck and mire of their tug-of-war with the local political establishment, and the show is all the better for our participation.

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There are two heroes in the frustrating military actioner “Land of Bad,” and one of them’s more convincing than the other. During a hostage extraction mission gone bad, both heroes fight the kind of terrorists who behead a hostage in an establishing scene and then later philosophize about the real difference between us and them (it’s a doozy).

“Land of Bad” is most compelling when it sticks to hero #1, the capable but inexperienced Air Force Sergeant J.J. “Playboy” Kinney ( Liam Hemsworth ). Hemsworth’s a believable man of action, thanks in no small part to strong action choreography and filmmaking. His co-star, Russell Crowe , is no slouch either, even though it is harder to appreciate his performance given his irritating role as hero #2. Crowe plays Captain Eddie “Reaper” Grimm, the socially awkward, but professionally adept drone pilot who tries to guide Kinney away from terrorists and missiles, and then eventually towards rescue.

Crowe’s most endearing when he’s staring wide-eyed at mood-lit banks of computer monitors, relaying and extrapolating information with his supportive wing-lady, Staff Sergeant Nia Branson ( Chika Ikogwe ). Grimm’s a lot less charming when he’s mostly explicitly making the movie’s big bathetic point, all about the military’s failure to support capable, dedicated professionals like Grimm, who has to fight up-hill to be taken seriously. “Land of Bad” may sell itself as a post-“ Black Hawk Down ” rescue mission thriller, but it’s too often a baggy dramatized lecture about what’s really wrong with the American military and modern warfare.

As Kinney’s handler, Grimm guides Hemsworth’s overwhelmed, but capable soldier while he shoots, climbs, and wades through enemy territory in search of a high priority hostage. The prisoner in question is a CIA spy who’s been gathering intelligence on a dangerous Russian arms dealer. None of that matters once Kinney’s team engages with their bloodthirsty enemies, who, according to some introductory on-screen narration, are among “the most violent extremist groups in Southern Asia.”

The makers of “Land of Bad” mostly reduce their movie’s antagonists to generic obstacles for Kinney, except for a few key scenes that strain to establish why they’re actually the worst. These bad guys (briefly) revel in their psychopathy, torturing and executing their prisoners in a “ Saw ”-looking cave prison. “I look a man in the eye and I make my choice intimate,” one torture-prone terrorist boasts, moments after Kinney insists, “That’s not the conversation we should be having right now.”

So when is the right time? Maybe not in “Land of Bad,” where hero #1 rarely slows down long enough to explain himself while hero #2 should probably follow suit. Grimm’s a neurotic mess, an energy-drink fueled loner who takes great umbrage with snotty (and notably younger) Colonel Virgil Packett, played by Daniel MacPherson . Some pains are taken to humanize Grimm, mostly during for-the-cheap-seats comedic asides about how ignoble, but also down-to-earth he is.

Grimm’s particular about his work chair. He makes a big to do about Keurig-style coffee pods and is painfully sincere when he tells Branson that a wedding is, “probably the greatest social ritual that humanity has.” Grimm’s also the only one who can bring Kinney back safe, a rote characterization that’s mainly unbearable given how plodding and plentiful Grimm’s scenes are. Why is there so much of hero #2 in this movie, or really, why do we have to know so much about him in order for his rapport with hero #1 to matter?

Grimm accidentally puts his finger on why most of his scenes are so irritating, both as a dramatic break and defense of Kinney’s grisly and sometimes thrilling scenes. Speaking about his fourth wife, he tells Branson the old joke about how you can tell if someone’s a vegan. “They will tell you,” he laughs to himself.

Any “Land of Bad” scene where characters show you why they’re the best at what they do is usually enticing, at least compared when they desperately try to make you see pulpy cyphers as flesh-and-blood people. Director William Eubank already proved his technical finesse and solid understanding in earlier features, like the Kristen Stewart-led 2020 disaster adventure “ Underwater .” So it’s not surprising to see that “Land of Bad”’s action scenes are eerily poised and even beautiful because they're dynamically lit and paced, and generally full-throated in their sensationalism. An airborne missile strike that takes out and ignites a hillside of militants (and their truck!) serves as a strong showcase for what Eubank’s latest has to offer. 

In its faint defense, “Land of Bad” delivers simple pleasures, like when Milo Ventimiglia , who’s also in this movie, shanks a terrorist in the neck with a broken dinner plate. Eubank and his collaborators might have delivered a better movie if they’d just made a high-toned programmer. As it is, “Land of Bad” is a pandering drama with some action movie thrills.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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Land of Bad (2024)

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Review: The simians sizzle, but story fizzles in new 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'

The issue of humans and simians in existential conflict arises again in a new “Planet of the Apes,” this time with a coming-of-age sci-fi adventure that’s a piece of visually stunning world-building more thoughtful than coherent.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters now ) is a sequel to the stellar “Apes” trilogy led by Andy Serkis’ iconic chimpanzee leader Caesar, set in a landscape where people have gone feral while super-smart apes rule thanks to a man-made virus. Director Wes Ball ( “Maze Runner” ) is a proven commodity in the post-apocalyptic space, and “Kingdom” aims to bring big ideas into a sprawling blockbuster atmosphere, though that gambit winds up weighed down by its own ambitions. 

The new “Apes” is set “many generations later” after the death of Caesar, a kind and compassionate sort who believed humans and apes could one day live together. His specter looms large over “Kingdom,” which centers on a naive young chimp named Noa (played via performance capture by Owen Teague) and an Earth where nature has reclaimed the land. Noa and his friends, Anaya (Travis Jeffery) and Soona (Lydia Peckham), ready for a big day in their lives among the Eagle Clan – so called because of the birds they raise. But the peaceful existence in their village is disrupted by a brutal attack from a horde of masked apes, who burn Noa’s home and leave him for dead.

Noa wakes, battered and vowing to save his friends and family who’ve been taken, and he first falls in with Raka (Peter Macon), a wise orangutan who lives by Caesar’s idealistic beliefs. They meet a young human named Mae (Freya Allan), who’s at first distrustful of her new allies until they save her from the same big bad apes that torched Noa’s village.

The trio learns these villains are goons for the tyrannical bonobo Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). Ruling a coastal kingdom of apes, Proximus has taken Caesar’s name yet twists his words to force his prisoners to crack a large vault and plumb the mysterious human treasures within. He’s both a fan of mankind and a symbol of our innate cruelty in ape form.

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Just like the previous films, the main draw is the apes themselves, computer-generated simian wonders who immerse audiences into their world. They look better than ever, with Noa’s tearful eyes delivering so much fragility and emotion in a close-up after a tragic scene, and the performance-capture wizardry, a signature aspect of these new "Apes" movies, feels more groundbreaking than ever.

At the same time, none of the major players in "Kingdom" reach the same level of acting or personality as Serkis’ Caesar. That is an extremely high bar, though, and there are some pretty great apes: Teague's Noa grows on you because of his plight while Macon makes Raka a scene-stealing hoot with a kind soul. Allan, a regular on Netflix’s “The Witcher,” also shines in a meaty role as a human who’s more complicated than she appears.

The early “Apes” movies from the ‘60s and '70s were defined by genre innovation and shock endings, and the Caesar movies were simply a great tale well told. “Kingdom” is less confident in its storytelling: It explores themes of legacy and species coexistence with a metaphor-laden plot that feels too long at 2½ hours, and it begs for more exposition at the beginning before overdoing it later on. The movie ultimately does satisfy by its end, even as it emphasizes philosophy and message over logical narrative choices.

“Kingdom” checks most of the boxes for longtime “Apes” fans, and newbies don’t need to any prior homework as a standalone story that mostly explains itself. And as humans, you do commiserate with the onscreen apes themselves, because everything felt a little better back when Caesar was around.

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‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Review: Hail, Caesar

The latest installment in an excellent series finds mythology turning into power.

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‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The director wes ball narrates a sequence from his film..

I’m Wes Ball, director of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” This is a little sequence in the very beginning of the movie after our trio of apes here, Noa, Soona and Anaya, have just had a little adventure and they’re on their way back to their village, where we get to meet the life of Eagle Clan and where Noa and his family reside, this little isolated existence. And we get to see the way the apes live in this world with their eagles. And and how this ritual of collecting their egg, which they’re going to raise as companions, which is part of the way the Eagle Clan kind of works in their culture. And the goal was really just to set up a world that was wonderful, that was ultimately going to be forever changed when the course of events leads to Noa’s village being attacked for the most part, everything you see here was actually shot with the actors. We shoot it twice, we shoot it once with the actors and all of their little performance things and the camera movement and everything. So we are shooting a regular movie. It just happens to be that these guys are wearing these kind of strange suits along with the cameras and the dots on their face that captures all the performance. And then I have to go in and then re- duplicate those shots without the apes, which is where I choose. Whatever performance I choose now gets dropped into the scene itself. So this isn’t something where we just kind of animate the characters after the fact. We’re actually on location and they’re there in their digital costumes, essentially, acting out everything you see on camera, with the exception of, say, background action, there’s a group of apes in the background playing what we called monkey ball, and just we did that all on stage. So that’s kind of the beauty of the power of this process, is that we can populate this whole scene with hundreds of apes. But we only needed a handful of apes on set. This is Dar, Noa’s mother, who’s a fantastic character, played by Sara Wiseman, who did a great job. “I knew you would climb well.” “He waits.” And this character of Noa here, you kind start to see this relationship that he has with his father, which is an interesting kind of relationship that I imagine a lot of people could relate to. They don’t know quite how to communicate with each other, but there’s obviously still love there. It’s an interesting process where I can take all these different little elements and layer them all together and stack them into this — what you see is the end result here, this little idyllic community.

By Alissa Wilkinson

For a series with a goofy premise — what if talking apes overthrew humanity — the “Planet of the Apes” universe is uncommonly thoughtful, even insightful. If science fiction situates us in a universe that’s just different enough to slip daring questions past our mental barriers, then the “Apes” movies are among the best examples. That very premise, launched with talking actors in ape costumes in the 1968 film, has given storytellers a lot to chew on, contemplating racism, authoritarianism, police brutality and, in later installments, the upending of human society by a brutal, fast-moving virus. (Oops.)

Those later virus-ridden installments, a trilogy released between 2011 and 2017, are among the series’ best, and well worth revisiting. The newest film, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” picks up exactly where that trilogy left off: with the death of Caesar, the ultrasmart chimpanzee who has led the apes away from what’s left of humanity and into a paradise. (The scene was a direct quotation of the story of Moses leading the Israelites to the Promised Land, but dying before he could set foot there.) The apes honor his memory and vow to keep his teachings, especially the first dictum — “ape not kill ape.” Caesar preached a gospel of peacefulness, loyalty, generosity, nonaggression and care for the earth; unlike the humans, they intend to live in harmony.

The teachings of peaceful prophets, however, tend to be twisted by power-seekers, and apparently this isn’t just a human problem. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” directed by Wes Ball from a screenplay by Josh Friedman, leaps forward almost immediately by “many generations” (years matter less in this post-human world), and the inevitable has happened. The apes have fractured into tribes, while Caesar has passed from historical figure to mythic one, a figure venerated by some and forgotten by most.

That there even was a Caesar is unknown to Noa (Owen Teague), a young chimpanzee whose father, Koro (Neil Sandilands) is leader of his clan and an avid breeder of birds. That clan has its own laws, mostly having to do with how to treat birds’ nests, and that’s all that Noa and his friends Anaya (Travis Jeffery) and Soona (Lydia Peckham) have known.

But then one day tragedy strikes, in the form of an attack on the clan by the soldiers of Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), the leader of a clan of coastal apes. Noa finds himself alone, searching for his clan, who have been carted away. On his journey Noa meets a human (Freya Allen) who, like the other humans, doesn’t speak.

At this point in the evolution of the virus, mutations have rendered any surviving humanity speechless and dull-witted, living in roving bands and running from predators; to the apes it’s as preposterous to imagine a talking human as a talking ape is to us. But he also meets Raka (Peter Macon), who believes himself to be the last of the faithful followers of Caesar’s peaceful teachings, even wearing Caesar’s diamond-shaped symbol around his neck. (Eagle-eyed viewers will recall that the symbol echoes the shape of the window in the room in which Caesar was raised as a baby.) Noa learns from Raka. And when he finds what he’s looking for, he realizes he has an important job to do.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is not quite as transporting as the previous trilogy, perhaps because the apes now act so much like humans that the fruitful dissonance in our minds has mostly been mitigated. It’s simpler to imagine the apes as just stand-in humans when they’re all talking, and thus easier to just imagine you’re watching, say, “The Lion King” or something.

But there’s still a tremendous amount to mull over here, like Proximus Caesar, who borrows the idea of Caesar to prop up his own version of leadership. The real Caesar was undoubtedly strong and brave, but Proximus Caesar has mutated this into swagger and shows of force, an aggression designed to keep his apes in line. He is not brutal, exactly; He is simply insistently powerful and more than a bit of a fascist. Every morning, he greets his subjects by proclaiming that it is a “wonderful day,” and that he is Caesar’s rightful heir, and that they must all work together as one to build their civilization ever stronger.

Visual cues indicate that Proximus Caesar’s kingdom is modeled partly on the Roman Empire, with its colonizing influence and its intention to sweep the riches of the ancient human world — its history, its labor, its technology — into its own coffers. By telling his version of Caesar’s legacy, Proximus Caesar makes the apes believe they are part of some mighty, unstoppable force of history.

But of course, history has a habit of repeating itself, whether it’s ancient Rome or Egypt, and in Proximus Caesar’s proclamations one detects a bit of Ozymandias : Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair! “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is set in the future, but like a lot of science fiction — “Dune,” for instance, or “Battlestar Galactica,” or Walter Miller’s “A Canticle for Leibowitz” — there’s a knowing sense that all this has happened before, and all this will happen again.

That’s what makes “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” powerful, in the end. It probes how the act of co-opting idealisms and converting them to dogmas has occurred many times over. What’s more, it points directly at the immense danger of romanticizing the past, imagining that if we could only reclaim and reframe and resurrect history, our present problems would be solved. Golden ages were rarely actually golden, but history is littered with leaders who tried to make people believe they were anyhow. It’s a great way to make people do their bidding.

There are some hints near the end of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” of what might be next for the franchise, should it be fated to continue. But the uneasy fun of the series is we already know what happens, eventually; it was right there in the first movie, and the warning it poses remains bleak.

At the start of the 1968 film, the star Charlton Heston explains, “I can’t help thinking somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man.” You might have expected, from a movie like this, that “better” species would be these apes. But it turns out we might have to keep looking.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Rated PG-13, for scenes of peril and woe and a couple of funny, mild swear words. Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes. In theaters.

Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. More about Alissa Wilkinson

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Chris Pine’s ‘Poolman’ Got ‘F—ing Panned’ So Much That He Thought ‘Maybe I Did Make a Pile of S—‘; But He Refuses to Accept That: ‘I Love This Film’

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Chris Pine earned some of the worst reviews of his career for “ Poolman ,” a Los Angeles-set comedy mystery in the vein of “Chinatown” that Pine directed, co-wrote and starred in. The movie is Pine’s feature directorial debut, but it got eviscerated by critics when it premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Variety critic Owen Gleiberman called it an “absurdist disaster,” for instance.

Making the press rounds to support the “Poolman” theatrical release, Pine stopped by the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast and refused to believe that he made a complete dud of a movie.

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“When the film came out at Toronto and just got fucking panned…I tried to make a joyful film,” Pine continued. “With so much joy behind it, to then be met with a fusillade of not-so-joyous stuff…the cognitive dissonance there was quite something. It’s ultimately been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. It’s forced me to double down on joy and really double down on what I love most about my job, which you kind of forget, it’s fundamentally about play. You become children for hours a day and make believe. There’s an impish quality that I don’t want to lose.”

Pine said that he has been talking to his therapist about how he wishes he could be impervious to negative reviews, but he stressed: “I fully own the deep hurt of that process.”

“In the reframing of it…one of my favorite quotes is in Latin and it’s ‘vigor grows from the wound,'” Pine said. “In everything that feels like a setback, yes there is the hurt of the cut, but as the scar tissue forms and the healing process happens you do benefit from a growth in resilience.”

“Poolman” stars Pine opposite Annette Bening, DeWanda Wise, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Danny DeVito and more. The director stars as an optimistic Los Angeles native whose career as a pool cleaner unravels when he stumbles upon a water heist. Gleiberman wrote in Variety review : “The actor plays a dud of a Dude in a movie he directed that’s all whimsical non-jokes and wispy warped dialogue that goes nowhere.”

“Poolman” opens in theaters May 10 from Vertical Entertainment. Watch Pine’s full appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast in the video below

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New Horror Movie With 21% RT Score Nearly Triples Budget At The Box Office In Just 10 Days

• Tarot has grossed a cumulative $20 million worldwide in its second weekend.
• This has more than tripled the horror movie's $8 million budget.
• Despite a 21% Rotten Tomatoes score, Tarot is likely already turning a profit.

Tarot has accomplished a huge box office feat despite a cavalcade of negative reviews. The new horror movie, which stars Harriet Slater, Avantika, and Jacob Batalon , is based on the 1992 Nicholas Adams novel Horrorscope and follows a group of college students who play with a cursed deck of tarot cards that dooms them to die in twisted ways based on the cards that were pulled in their readings. The movie has earned a thoroughly Rotten 21% score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, a number that is based on 43 different critics' reviews.

Per Variety , the Tarot release is projected to earn an additional $3.4 million at the domestic box office by the end of its second weekend in theaters. Combined with its second-weekend international grosses, this will bring its cumulative global box office total to $20 million . Considering the fact that the movie only cost $8 million to make, this nearly triples the horror title's production budget in just 10 days.

Why Are Tarots Reviews So Bad?

Critics call out tarot for its lazy storytelling.

Despite the box office milestone, Tarot ’s poor reviews tell a starkly different story. With a 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, Tarot can easily be considered a critical flop . Though audiences are seeing the movie, their perception has not been fantastic either, giving the film only a 57% approval rating.

Critics are knocking Tarot for its weak characters, who lack personality and connection in the horror film. As Matthew Jackson of The AV Club wrote, Tarot “ ends up feeling flimsy, empty, and again, very, very frustrating .” Others called the storytelling weak and found it to be a lazy genre film that lacked depth and cultural value. While there were a couple critics who liked Tarot , those were few and far between against the highly-critical overall reception.

Is Tarot A Box Office Hit?

The horror movie may have hit its break-even point.

At the time of writing, Tarot is the sixth highest-grossing English-language horror movie of the year worldwide.

Because theaters keep half of ticket sales, a movie's break-even point is usually at least twice its production budget. Despite those negative Tarot reviews , the movie has already surpassed $16 million at the box office, which was most likely its break-even point. In fact, at the time of writing, it is the sixth highest-grossing English-language horror movie of the year worldwide. Below, see how the movie's budget and box office compares to the current Top 5 English-language horror titles of 2024 so far:

One issue with the break-even point rule of thumb is the fact that it doesn't include marketing costs for the movies in question. This means that some of the titles with a positive balance may not have yet made their money back, depending on how much was spent promoting them. However, Tarot came with quite low marketing costs , as there wasn't a huge promotional push for the title, with horror-hungry audiences seeming to have found the movie relatively organically.

While it seems unlikely that the movie has yet earned a significant profit, it may already be in the black. If it can push this gross even higher in the coming weeks, it's possible that it will be considered a proper box office hit and that a sequel will be greenlit before long. The Tarot ending is not necessarily open-ended, but it does leave room for more stories to be told at different points in the timeline of the movie's universe, whether or not the stars who played the surviving characters return to the project.

Will Tarot Help 2024 Horror Turn Around?

2024 horror has had a rough start.

As evidenced in the top five horror films of 2024 so far, the year has been off to a rocky start with horror. As per the estimated budgets, two out of the top five highest grossing horror movies of 2024 have actually lost money rather than gained money. Abigail , for instance, which has an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, has vastly underperformed expectations thus far. It was originally predicted to open to $12–$15 million and top the box office during its opening weekend. Instead, it brought home $10.2 million and lost out to A24’s Civil War .

Tarot may just be a note of hope in a depressing start for the year in horror. If Tarot continues on its current box office path, it will easily clear the marker needed to profit. Tarot is also only $3.2 million behind the box office gross for Immaculate , so it also has a shot at making it into the top 5 grossing horror films of the year so far. Hopefully, Tarot ’s success can be the start of a turn around for the lukewarm 2024 horror box office thus far.

Source: Variety

Tarot (2024)

Director Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg

Release Date May 3, 2024

Studio(s) Ground Control, Alloy Entertainment, Screen Gems

Distributor(s) Sony Pictures Releasing

Writers Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg

Cast Avantika Vandanapu, Wolfgang Novogratz, Larsen Thompson, Humberly Gonzlez, Harriet Slater, Jacob Batalon, Adain Bradley, Olwen Four

Rating PG-13

Runtime 92 minutes

Genres Mystery, Thriller, Horror

Main Genre Horror

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Chris pine says ‘poolman’ was the “best thing to ever happen to me” despite negative reviews.

Pine said the bad reviews became "a real come-to-Jesus moment for me, in terms of seeing how resilient I am."

By Zoe G Phillips

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Chris Pine said this week the development and release of his directorial debut Poolman was “the best thing to ever happen to me” despite the movie’s nearly universal bad reviews.

“It’s forced me to double down on joy,” Pine told host Josh Horowitz on Thursday’s episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “As an actor…fundamentally it’s about play, right? What we do is essentially become children for hours a day and make believe,” he said, adding: “There’s an impish quality to it that I don’t ever want to lose.”

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Pine said this week the bad reviews became “a real come-to-Jesus moment for me, in terms of seeing how resilient I am.”

He added that we wasn’t “totally surprised” by the critiques, saying he hadn’t set out to “make some sort of niche film,” but said it was hard to reconcile having made a project “with so much joy behind it, to then be met with this fuselage of not-so-joyous stuff.”

“The cognitive dissonance there was quite something,” he continued, going on to reference a favorite Latin phrase that translates to “Vigor grows from the wound.”

“I love that idea,” he said. “Yes, there’s the hurt of the cut, there’s the hurt of the moment, but as the scar tissue forms, as the healing process happens, you do benefit from the growth and resilience in sitting in your being of what you’re trying to say.”

Pine says this lesson helped remind him that his contentment with the project was ultimately up to only himself. “After the reviews in Toronto I was like, maybe I did just make a pile of shit,” he recalled. “So I went back and watched it, and I was like, I fucking love this film.”

Poolman will now hit theaters Friday.

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Mother of the Bride review – Brooke Shields leads middling Netflix mush

More background fluff from the streamer, this time from Mean Girls director Mark Waters with a splashy Thailand location

D espite experience mostly insisting caution, certain markers still allow one to naively daydream that a new Netflix comedy might be worth more than a background half-watch while ironing. A big name, an experienced writer, a genuine studio-trained director, some substantive source material, anything to allow us to glide on the brief hope that we’re not in hammy, Hallmark-adjacent territory.

This thinking sometimes works – 2019’s Let It Snow was based on a solid YA novel, 2021’s Moxie had Amy Poehler in front of and behind the camera, this year’s Players benefited from the considerable charm of star Gina Rodriguez – but it too often makes precious little difference. For Mother’s Day in the US, the streamer has Mother of the Bride, a breezy comedy that arrives from director Mark Waters, whose indie days included The House of Yes and whose studio days included Mean Girls, Freaky Friday and Bad Santa 2, enough to give one a brief moment of optimism. But after the tudum has been and gone, it’s clear that we’re being spoon-fed more of the same unremarkable competence, sugar with no salt, calories with no nutrition.

The clue was less in who was behind the camera and more in who was behind the laptop, the script written by Robin Bernheim, a Hallmark and Lifetime alum whose Netflix work includes The Princess Switch movies. The writing is as pat and perfunctory as one would expect from such a résumé, rooted in sitcom cliche (hands on hips when angry – check), never able to sneak its way out of the easily expected.

The mother of the title is of the doting, borderline obsessive kind, fixated on her daughter’s future and terrified of what might happen if it doesn’t fall in line with what she’s planned out in her head. Mother Lana is played by Brooke Shields, extending her relationship with the streamer after leading a ho-hum Christmas movie back in 2021, and daughter Emma is the iCarly star Miranda Cosgrove.

When Emma announces her surprise engagement, Lana is horrified, but the full horror arrives when she heads to Phuket for the wedding and meets the father of the groom, her college ex Will (a mostly shirtless Benjamin Bratt), a guy who left her out of the blue never to return. Despite being an extremely accomplished career woman who manages an entire laboratory (this might be the first ever romcom to use the phrase “tumorigenic mechanisms”), she of course turns into a stuttering buffoon in front of both her ex and a handsome doctor, played by a mostly shirtless Chad Michael Murray, also at the resort (she really does say the perennial line “I’ve got underwear older than him”).

It’s partly an older-than-usual love triangle comedy, partly a mother-daughter story about an overly attached empty nester and partly a study of men keeping their abs into their 50s (Wilson Cruz as Bratt’s brother is also with a six-pack and without a shirt), a combination that should tick enough boxes for some. Shields and Bratt are at least pros relative to the material, which allows them to makes the most of Bernheim’s relentlessly trite dialogue, their potentially more poignant what-if dynamic often vaguely threatening to move us.

Cosgrove is a little trapped in her overemphatic Nickelodeon mode (a scene of her using a laptop will surely make meme-lovers happy), but she’s also lumped with the script’s eye-rolling attempt to stay relevant, playing an influencer whose sponcon wedding is being used as a way to boost followers. Lessons about family and forgiveness are ultimately far less persuasive than the scenery, the boost of an on-location shoot that might not quite rival 2022’s extremely adjacent Clooney/Roberts confection Ticket to Paradise (one set piece is litigiously similar), but it adds a gloss that’s otherwise missing from the point-and-shoot workmanship of it all.

It’s a slight cut above just how very bad these things can get , but not enough to edge it toward something that would deserve your full attention. So errand away, Mother of the Bride will be just fine playing in the background.

Mother of the Bride is out now on Netflix

• Comedy films

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