Paul McGuire Grimes, the creator of Paul’s Trip to the Movies, chatted with the children of the late actor, Christopher Reeve ahead of the documentary, Super/Man: the Christopher Reeve Story. Plus, he chats with the cast of House of Spoils out on Prime Video.

SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY (in theaters)

Christopher Reeve rose to fame after he played Clark Kent/Superman in Richard Donner’s 1978 film Superman. He became everyone’s superhero after playing one on screen. It was hard to remove the title from the actor based on his character. In May 1995, he was involved in a horse riding accident that caused severe spinal injury paralyzing him from the neck down. While he could have retreated from public life, he used his voice and platform for good bringing awareness to spinal cord injuries and paralysis.

-The documentary primarily takes place after Reeve’s accident. It does weave in his childhood, the fraught relationship with his parents, and his collegiate days attending Julliard.

-Reeve’s three children are the primary subjects featured here as they remind the audience of the impact their parents, both Christopher and mom Dana Reeve, had on the world.

-Whoopi Goldberg, Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, and Susan Sarandon are some of the celebrities and close friends who are also interviewed.

-Christopher Reeve wanted to change the world for people with disabilities. The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation has made massive strides using stem cell research in helping paralyzed people walk again.

-The documentary details the initial guilt and hallucinations Reeve had shortly after the accident with the “Why me?” conversations he was having.

-Christopher Reeve’s story is incredibly moving. From the friendship he had with Robin Williams to the beautiful love story with wife, Dana, you can just feel how impactful he was on so many people. I dare you not to cry as his resilience and heroism is truly inspiring.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 TICKET STUBS

HOUSE OF SPOILS (Prime Video)

Oscar winner Ariana DeBose trades in her dance shoes for kitchen knives in the new culinary nightmare film House of Spoils. Her character is only ever referred to as Chef, which makes sense if you know the restaurant industry. When the film opens, she works as a sous chef at a fine dining restaurant where the stakes are incredibly high.  When she decides to make the bold choice to leave her job, her boss refuses as he’s a bull and can’t have anyone going against him. She never caves and heads out to open her own kind of high end, destination dining experience at an abandoned farmhouse. Her new place is part house, part restaurant and needs a massive renovation job before it can open. Arian Moayed plays her business partner, Andres, who is quick to get the place up and running and have a tasting menu in place. It goes from bad to worse for Chef as there’s an infestation problem and the food is spoiled. As Chef digs into the place’s history, she learns of some malevolent forces at play. Barbie Ferreria also stars as Chef’s potential new sous chef at the restaurant.

–House of Spoils is the latest from Blumhouse Television which is another branch off their wildly successful production company.

-It’s not too long into the film when we see it live up to its name with Chef’s new pantry mysteriously growing moldy overnight, the garden rots, and creepy crawly bugs come out of the food during the tasting dinner.

-The ick factor is present, and we see pressure mounting for Chef to pull off a one-of a kind experience after the first taste test is botched. Chef’s anxiety is at the max as she tries to figure out the perfect menu, and the film follows her descent into madness due to the need for perfection.

-It starts off promising as the competitive restaurant scene is very familiar, but I quickly found that this sense of rotting and spoiling felt like a one-trick shock factor. 

-Directors Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy seem to rely on that a little too heavily to scare the audience when there’s more they keep hinting at. They seem hesitant to navigate who the former residents were, as there isn’t enough a big enough build by the time we get to the climax. Witchcraft comes into play with its history, but the film never commits to make it count.

-The story neglects to dig into the question of why chefs become susceptible to the pressures mounted on them.

-This descent into madness allows Ariana DeBose room to play into as we see her become the chef she hates as she becomes rude and demeaning to her employees. It’s great to watch her play a character that we haven’t seen from her before.

–House of Spoils can’t decide if it wants to be a campy witch story with spooky haunts or play into the drama and psyche of a head chef.

RATING: 2 out of 5 TICKET STUBS