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JERRY & MARGE GO LARGE MOVIE REVIEW
In light of recent events, it might be somewhat impossible to imagine a person who is in a position of privilege using their wealth and power not for the good of themselves but for the good of an entire community – to not use the wealth they have to get wealthier or to crush those less fortunate, but to improve a community and the lives of those around them. Some people just have so much more humanity than others, and two such people are Jerry and Marge Selbee who find a joy in retirement that doesn’t just reignite the passion they have for one another, but literally reinvigorates their entire hometown of Evart, Michigan, population 1900. Jerry (Bryan Cranston) reluctantly retires after working 42 years as a production line manager. Feeling a loss of purpose, Jerry isn’t such there’s anything left for him in his Golden Years, but fate has other things in mind. In 2003, Jerry read the fine print on the Massachusetts Windfall lotto ticket, and being a complete math whiz, quickly realized that the lottery had a mathematical flaw that would guarantee winnings if he bought enough tickets. Jerry tests his theory at a small gas station run by Bill (Rainn Wilson), winning nearly $16,000. He admits this to Marge (Annette Bening) and his best friend Steve (Larry Wilmore), and Jerry and Marge began to spend weekends together buying thousands of lotto scratchers and winning hundreds of thousands of dollars. As their winnings start to accumulate, they set up a corporation and invite friends and family members in Evart to join. But every tale needs a villain. Harvard student Tyler (Uly Schlesinger) also discovers the loophole, though he proves himself to be a much more typical spoiled, rich, white guy. Frank, Melina, Bradly, and T.C. take turns scratching every surface of this small little heist film and decide who’s going to run the numbers on lotto tickets so the Squad can win a few million bucks.
DIRECTED BY: David Frankel
STARRING: Bryan Cranston, Annette Bening, Rainn Wilson, Larry Wilmore, Jake McDorman, Uly Schlesinger, Michael McKean, Anna Camp, Ann Harada, Devyn McDowell, Cheech Manohar, Tori Kelly
YOUR REVIEWERS
T.C. De Witt (Screener Squad)
T.C. De Witt is a multi-awarded writer/director originally from Wisconsin and now based in Los Angeles. His life has been devoted to the arts since he was a child. He’s been a stage performer, playwright, stand-up comic, film and television actor, radio DJ, podcaster published author, recorded musician, and comic writer/illustrator. He is now a professional screenwriter and has been thriving for the past decade, regularly offering his talents to production studios in LA, Chicago, Milwaukee, and internationally in Sydney and Poland. He’s provided content for Amazon Prime, Netflix, and several YouTube partners. His films have screened internationally, and his stageplays have been performed across the country. In the last ten years, he has directed 57 films, 23 episodes of his series The One Minute Rewatch, 300+ episodes of podcasts, and his multi-award-winning short film Screen: Righter screened at the Festival de Cannes in 2016. He has released two feature films, The Princess Knight and A Christmas Sunset. He thrives on collaboration and the thrill of sharing stories in all forms.
Frank Calvillo (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)
Born and raised in South Texas, Frank currently lives in Austin and has been in love with movies ever since his father showed him some Three Stooges shorts when he was five years old. Today he loves all kinds of film, regardless of era, country, budget or genre. He believes every film has an audience and is at least one person’s favorite movie. After writing for Sight & Sound and Slackerwood, he now writes for Cinapse where his increasingly random taste in all flavors of cinema (from Rashomon to Mars Attacks!) continues to thrive. His ultimate goal is to write a script for his boyhood crush, Michelle Pfeiffer.
Melina Eames (Screener Squad)
Melina first discovered that she carried the nerd gene at the tender age of four following her exposure to a little film called A New Hope. In the twenty-some years that followed, Melina continued to grow into her geek identity through the discovery of Batman, Mst3k, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and The Mandalorian. But perhaps her most significant discovery came at the age of fourteen when a night of YouTube mining led her to the review site of Spill.com. Melina became a devoted follower whose fandom did not end with the site’s demise. By then, it had worked its dark magic and left her with a love and appreciation for film criticism that she has yet to shrug.
Bradly Martin (Screener Squad, Eye on the Prize, Breakfast Pub)
Bradly Martin was born in the united states and grew up on a healthy diet of sports, films, and books. A rather shy lad who kept to himself, Bradly soon discovered the best way to know a person was to know what people liked. Throughout the years Bradly became a fan of many things and a fanatic of none. From Doctor Dre, to Doctor Strange and the who’s who of Whos. From Playstation to the Dreamcast and Marvel to DC. From LeBron James to James Bond and Lord of the Rings to Lord Palmerston (or Pitt the Elder if you agree with Wade Boggs) and is a huge fan of dad jokes and randomly obscure Simpsons references. Armed with a vast knowledge of comics, films, and pop culture. Bradly traveled the world making friends and sharing takes. As a young man Bradly married the love of his life young and grew older every year with each new child brought into the brood. If trends continue, Scientists predict that .2% of Canada (where Bradly and family reside) will be populated by Bradly’s children by the year 2029. You can hear him leading and listening to his favorite critics on the Screener Squad and Eye on the prize and maybe even provide some comments of his own.
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