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EBENEZER MOVIE REVIEW
As we get near Xmas two things are always certain to appear. One: memes showing Mariah Carey being unfrozen or the like. Two: SOMEONE will release some variation of an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ perennial classic A Christmas Carol. Despite the marketing claims for Ebenezer being “as you’ve never seen it before”, the new Ti West directed film actually hews pretty close to the original source material. Much to the chagrin of haters, who might have their reasoning based on abuse claims or just that they’re sick of seeing him in yet another silly hat mugging at the camera constantly with a new accent, Johnny Depp takes on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. I expect there’s no need to go into the plot here, assuming readers were not born under a rock, so we’ll skip past that and say something about the film’s raison d’être. Ti West is known primarily for his horror entries (The Innkeepers, House of the Devil, many others) so it was well expected that Ebenezer would be plumbing more of the spooky depths of the story and that bears out as accurate. Ti West’s ability to pull this off and whether or not Depp’s performance is overly cloying are certainly the two main topics of discussion in this review as Chris, Wright, Spider-Mike, and Kim break down the film. But you’ve got talent like Andrea Riseborough, Tramell Tillman, and Ian McKellen putting in great ghostly work here as well. You generally might be surprised that we were kinder (to some degree) towards this adaptation that no one was asking for than you might think. Somewhat.
DIRECTED BY: Ti West
STARRING: Johnny Depp, Arthur Conti, Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Tramell Tillman, Robert Strange, Sam Claflin, Daisy Ridley, Ian McKellen, Ellie Bamber, Nicholas Day, Charlie Murphy, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Freddie Lee-Grey, Michael Culkin, Rose Williams
YOUR REVIEWERS
Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Deliberations of Doom)
Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar and theater management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others).
Wright Sulek (The Other Boss, Trash in the Can, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, One Man’s Trash, Screener Squad)
Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox. As of 2024, Wright has now been inducted into the Austin Film Critics Association as well as co-owns the One of Us network with Chris Cox.
Michael Riojas (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews)
The man with the ever-changing nicknames. Born in Austin, Riojas was rocketed to Del Rio, Texas, a literal Smallville. In his youth, he was bitten by a radioactive… okay, look. Mike is not very good at this whole “talking about himself” thing. But he has been so obsessed with comics, video games, and anime since childhood- that if one has to choose between listening to Joe Quesada or Mike over any obscure Spider-Man trivia, they go to him (or, at least Martin Thomas once said so). He is also a big fan of “Ghostbusters” (he even owns his own jumpsuit and two, that’s right, TWO proton packs!), collects toys and video games, and will defend “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” if provoked. He lives in Austin with his beloved Dachshund-Maltese and trusted sidekick, Dean. He can also be heard on RageSelect. He can be found on Twitter and Instagram.
Kimberly Brown (Highly Suspect Reviews)
Kimberly wants to live in a world filled with blue telephone boxes, speedsters, and ice dragons but through an ironic twist of fate, she’s stuck in this reality where these wondrous things only exist on page or film. Kim’s perpetual desire to consume sci-fi and fantasy media as a teen led her to the study of illustration/design at university to better understand its creation. Currently an Austin transplant, when she’s not wearing her critic hat you can find her pretending to like hiking, fielding questions about her hair or maybe even enjoying a local brew at the nearest dive bar.
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