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POOLMAN MOVIE REVIEW
The Screener Squad has gathered in the One Of Us City Hall to go to the very bottom of the weekly agenda and discover that they have a review collecting dust and algae. Poolman is a “comedy” mystery film starring, produced by, written by ,and directed by one of our many cinematic Chrises, Chris Pine, in his debut in the director’s chair. There are several other famous faces in here that one might speculate showed up in this vanity project because Pine really is the most likable of the Chrises, and they all decided to do him a solid and be in this supposed film. This has earned quite a mixed bag of reactions from critics — and by mixed, we mean a mixed bag of “Bad”, “Awful”, “What is this?” The thing of most note is how many critics walked out of the premiere of Poolman at the 2023 Toronto Film Fest. Pine portrays Darren Barrenman, a pool cleaner residing in a Los Angeles apartment complex owned by parental figures Jack (Danny DeVito) and Diane (Annette Bening). Darren is a vocal advocate, reminiscent of Erin Brockovich, constantly advocating for local improvements, much to the chagrin of Counselor Stephen Toronkowski (Stephen Tobolowsky). Enter femme fatale June Del Rey (DeWanda Wise), who unveils a real estate and water scheme akin to “Chinatown,” implicating Toronkowski and prompting Darren to employ his amateur detective skills. With the help of his diverse group of friends and neighbors, Darren embarks on a mission to expose Toronkowski’s wrongdoing. And while critics, on the whole, have been less than enthusiastic, what’s the Squad’s take? T.C. and Dogget do their best to get through the agenda and not drown in their like of Pine and dislike of this movie.
DIRECTED BY: Chris Pine
STARRING: Chris Pine, Annette Bening, DeWanda Wise, Stephen Tobolowsky, Clancy Brown, John Ortiz, Ray Wise, Juliet Mills, Ariana DeBose, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Danny De Vito
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.
Danny Dogget (Screener Squad)
Hey persons, it’s your favorite canine Dogget! As many of you know, I don’t identify as a critic as much as a classy shock jock. That being said, I do my best to give all of you a well-balanced review filled with my true opinions and hopefully a few laughs. You can occasionally find me on other persons podcast like Mission Impodible (that’ll be 10 dollars Nathan). For the most part, you can find me doing reviews on Oneofus.net.
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