Review: ‘Cocaine Bear’: High Concept, High Bear… High Art?

Inspired by the real-life urban legend of “Pablo Escobear”– a black bear who died after ingesting 30+ kilograms of cocaine discarded by notorious drug trafficker Andrew C. Thornton in 1985– Cocaine Bear proposes a profound and thought-provoking hypothetical: what would happen if a bear ate 30 kilograms of cocaine… and lived? Opening with an educational Wikipedia citation, the film informs the viewer that black bears are usually nonviolent, nonconfrontational creatures (probably out of some moral obligation to prevent a modern day “Jaws Effect”— Cocaine Bear Effect?) but contrasts their natural disposition with the mind-altering effects of crack cocaine to make the harrowing conclusion that a “Cocaine Bear” (i.e., a bear high on crack cocaine) would be an unstoppable beast, driven by an unadulterated lust for human blood, flesh, and of course… cocaine.

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Harrison Hall’s Top 10 Films of 2022

Perhaps it’s a little too early for me to speak so boldly on this topic, but 2022 was far-and-away the most formative year of my entire life so far, something that movies played no small part in. This was the year that I really discovered my taste in film, beyond the circle of stuff like Pulp Fiction or The Shining that everybody kind of likes anyways. A Sam Raimi binge fine-tuned my brain to horror films– a genre I had previously written off as not-my-thing, now one of my absolute favorites. I’ve begun to crack the pre-1980s bubble that had long eluded me, which opened my eyes to an entire new galaxy of movies. But what’s most relevant to anybody reading this article: 2022 is the year that I set up camp and became a movie theater goblin. I visited the movie theater 72 times in 2022, finishing the year having watched more than 60 2022 releases, a fair increase from having only seen 20 films in theaters the year before (granted, COVID was a much greater obstacle in the way of theatrical releases in 2021 than it is today).  I will disclaim that my viewing habits are strongly dominated by American films, as I only have reliable access to Regal/AMC theaters– i.e., not arthouse. As such, the international presence on this “best of the best” list is more than likely underrepresenting the fantastic movies that are produced overseas– I wouldn’t know, because I didn’t get the chance to see them. But with that aside, here are my favorite films of 2022.

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Review: ‘Violent Night’: Santa Slays

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the mansion,

Terrorists were swarming, demanding their ransoms.

Hostages taken, struck with despair.

Luckily for them… Saint Nicholas was there.

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Review: ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’: Unbound by the Strings of Expectation

For some godforsaken reason, pop culture is currently in the midst of a Pinocchio epidemic. Left and right, up and down, Pinocchio is everywhere. Disney dumped out their live-action remake of Pinocchio earlier this year, a drab, mostly beat-for-beat remake, apart from the addition of pop culture references and Disney+ advertising. Then, over from Russia, we have the infamous Pinocchio: A True Story, a very-fictional animated film starring Pauly Shore, which is almost certainly a front for a mafia money-laundering scheme. And, finally, in the world of gaming, we have Lies of P, a grim-and-gritty reimagining of Pinocchio as a magical steampunk Blade Runner, where Pinocchio himself resembles a cybernetically-enhanced Timothée Chalamet. It’s a little unfair to lump that last one in with the others, but regardless, Pinocchio has become an icon of unoriginality, a soulless husk puppeteered by corporate forces looking to make an easy profit off name-recognition. But just as it seemed that there was no integrity left, out has emerged Guillermo del Toro to grant the character life once again.

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Review: ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’ Brings Home the Bacon

Tacking the words “Holiday Special” onto the end of a beloved franchise is guaranteed to raise some eyebrows regarding a film’s artistic integrity, but, thankfully, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special has the mind of James Gunn working in its favor. It’s become abundantly clear over the past few years that Gunn is perhaps the most passionate filmmaker within the superhero movie circle, carrying a love for his misfit characters that makes all of his projects stand out amongst the never-ending output of superhero media in pop culture. So, when James Gunn wants to do an idea as inherently stupid as a Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, he’s earned enough goodwill to convince audiences that the story serves some kind of purpose beyond profit. Although, granted, the project certainly wouldn’t have been greenlit if “Christmas Tree Groot” merchandise didn’t sell itself.

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Review: ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ & The Burdens of a Dull Friendship

The Banshees of Inisherin opens by introducing us to the small island town of Inisherin. It is a quaint little place, with lush fields of greenery as far as the eye can see, and rainbows spread themselves across the small town’s perpetually overcast sky. Everything seems as-usual in this tight-knit community, until one otherwise uneventful weekday when Colm (Brendan Gleeson) doesn’t show up to meet his best friend Pádraic (Colin Farrell) for their ritual two o’clock trip to the pub. Pádraic goes looking for Colm, worried that something may be wrong with him, and upon finding him, Pádraic learns that Colm no longer wants to be his friend and demands the two immediately cease all contact. An abrupt, seemingly very simple, request from Colm quickly implodes on itself as the two men come to realize how inescapably intertwined their lives have become. As Pádraic insists on mending their friendship, Colm is drawn to increasingly desperate measures to ward off his presence, leading to rippling consequences for Inisherin as a whole.

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Review: ‘Black Adam’ vs. The Hierarchies of Power

Black Adam has had a very, very interesting production history. For those uninformed, the film is more or less Dwayne Johnson’s passion project, which he’s been cooking for nearly 15 years. He spent a long time trying to convince producers that the Black Adam character had enough depth to carry his own movie, and such skepticism seemed completely warranted. To explain Black Adam’s DC comic book origins briefly, he is the archnemesis of Shazam, and serves as his mirror image in every way, except Black Adam is EVIL. When Shazam already has a movie of his own, the redundancy of Black Adam is unavoidable. The MCU gets its fair share of criticisms about producing homogenized content, but they’re not out there doing anything as egregious as producing films for both HULK and RED HULK, which is the equivalent of what DC has done here. Walking into the theater for Black Adam, audiences have one question—simply put, why does a Black Adam movie even exist?

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